Training Log Archive: Ari-o

Well all of Memorial Day weekend can't be beautiful. Today was the rainy, cool day. Long walk earlier, and then a short run in the rain.

Lake with Leah and Jeremy. Early enough the sun wasn't too bad, and then into the lake!

Relaxing weekend mostly, lots of sitting/reading/napping. Some nephew chasing.

Up to Maine a bit later than planned, although it was warm and sunny up there so the mid-dinner run was fine (basically eat a little, run, eat the rest).

Run with Elena and Dan around Fresh Pond. Warm still; humidity blew out later. Did not sleep well; no afternoon bike ride; nap instead.

Ran fast, and navigated reasonably well … after going the wrong direction to the first control. Without that I would have been a couple of places higher. You can tell in the results who cheated to 1 and punched through the uncrossable fence. With SI-air, the control really should be further away. Went high to 7 which I thought might be slower but didn't seem to lose any time.

But I did finish one second ahead of Brendan and Giovanni, so that's something.

Alex I am going to get the Goat from Keegan this week to bring it up next Saturday.

It's warm, I'm tired, where's park-o?

Oh, I can go to Fresh Pond.

Jog over from dropping off my Blue Bike I rode home from work.

Saw a friend running, ran home with him after chatting for a while.

They were doing a "track workout" there, since the Harvard Track is closed.

Also relocating: CSU, Fenspeed. There are too many track workouts in Boston.

Long - Splits

So, the hiking trail in Hawaii, and perhaps the world, is the Kalalau Trail. 11 miles along the Na Pali coastal cliffs, with waterfalls, beaches and stunning tropical scenery. Generally done as a backpacking trip. Permits open 90 days ahead of time and sell out quickly.

We were not on top of our shit 90 days ahead of time. You can hike the first two miles and then two more up a stream to a waterfall, but for that you need either a parking space ($50ish, and hard to get unless you are kama aina in which case it's free) or shuttle ride ($40 per person). A bit of a racket, but apparently they put the money to good use.

But sometimes camping permits come up as people cancel. There are websites which will crawl and alert you (for a fee), I didn't want to build my own scraper, but a couple of weeks ago I clicked the site, saw two slots for our last day, our flight wasn't until 17:25 and CLICK CLICK CLICK we had our passes. Only $135—$35 per person per night plus $40 for two days of parking (you have to buy two days). I hope they put this to good use. (Try to sneak in without a permit and you can get a summons which requires you to show up in person, and Hawaii is far away!)

Original plan: wake up at like 0430, hit the trail for sunrise, try to do the whole thing. After yesterday, that seemed a bit much, so we aimed for the waterfall about 7 miles in. The 800' waterfall. It was stunning. 100% worth the trip and money. I could have spent an hour looking up at the falls. Past there is "Crawler's Ledge" and way more exposed and apparently just as spectacular and the consensus was "yeah, we will come back and hike the whole trail again, maybe over more time, maybe carrying less" (burying the lede here is that we're expecting in October so I carried a pack with about 5l of water and Elena carried a nothing).

We didn't get a super-early start but hit the trail around 9. The footing was good-to-decent although in a lot of places there is a 500' drop off, it's hilly and, oh, yeah, it's a hilly trail. We made decent time to the waterfall, but then realized we'd have to hoof it back to make our flight. Elena has been slowing down when her thoughts get the best of her, so I made her "talk story" most of the way back and we made it back a bit slower than I would have liked but with enough time.

And by enough, I mean we had to pack up our stuff and do a final clean of the condo, get gas, and get to the airport. Returned the car, onto the bus, too late to check bags, line for pre-check which we played the "the door closes in 13 minutes can we sneak by" game and we had 8 minutes, so plenty of time.

Then our bags got jammed in TSA. Elena went to the gate. I waited for the bags. They got it sorted out. We made the plane by 1 minute. But left on time.

So a bit more stress than necessary! But after several rainy/cloudy days, this was 100% worthwhile. And since we didn't actually hike the whole trail, now we have to go back to Kauai.

A day finally dawned with something other than gray skies and cloud cover. I let Elena do some work (mistake) and then went off to drive up Waimea Canyon. We stopped for one view, it was beautiful, we figured we'd see more later, but our hiking trail for the day was described as spectacular, with lookouts 700m above the ocean overlooking the Na Pali coast.

The fog rolled in soon after. We had fleeting glimpses of said coast, but mostly a nice walk in the woods. We were a bit disappointed, though, with the weather, especially since the forecast had been "mostly sunny" today. Yes, we know there are supposed to be windward and mauka showers every day, but the canyon isn't even that windward. We should have started earlier. Elena struggle-bussed up the last climb and decided she wanted to take surfing lessons (but not here, the surf is not Goldilocks this week, too low on the north side and too high on the south).

Someone did have to get the car.

Off to Kauai for … more rain, clouds and high surf. So we found some waterfalls, sat and read and did this weird relaxation thing I guess I've heard about. Elena didn't get the message for this trail and did it in sandals so there was a good deal of slipping on mud but we made it.

Elena made a comment about my r leg which was most bloodied from the trip wire.

Then I showed here where I have Billygoat marks on my torso, arm, nose and forehead.

Orienteering … a full body contact sport!

Absolutely deluging rain this morning, but rain in Hawaii is 70˚ so might as well go for a run. Grabbed the bus up to Manoa falls trail, got told by the driver to wash our shoes off because we're not allowed on the bus with dirty feet (not a problem) and then ran up the road to the river (well, trail). Water just pouring down it, ankle-deep in places. Not too busy today, made my way up to the falls which were … running pretty well.

Took some photos through the rain, then I could have gone back down and waited for the bus but … instead went up the other trail to make a loop. Had to be back for 11:00 check-out, and now with timed keys and elevators you can't fudge that. Streams just pouring across the trail, wet, but fun. Took a wrong turn at the top and went to a lookout and looked out at fog, then down along some nice, beautiful forested and runnable trails to the valley. Luckily the last two streams were bridged, then ran down roads by Punahoe (no one famous went there) to the hotel, time to spare (but not that much).

This rain is normal but not normal. Yes Hawaii is wet, but May is dry season and Honolulu (at the airport, anyway) only sees 0.7" of monthly rainfall. It's at close to 5" so far this month with more to come, already the second-wettest May on record. This is because of a winter-like Kona low spinning up nearby and sucking moisture over the islands, so instead of winds from the east, they're from the south. Anyway, the waterfalls are up and it looks to clear out later this weekend.

Elena and a colleague wanted to go for a hike, and I suggested the same hike because I could vouch for its efficacy in the time between now and the airport (then our flight was delayed an hour, alas). It had stopped raining, so the falls were down (but still quite nice) but also the trail wasn't a river. Easy walk up and back and down in plenty of time to catch the bus back.

Asked a friend where I should hike/run on the island and he suggested this. It was quite nice, run up a mile, then up up through trees and eventually some views, which would have been more views if it wasn't cloudy, which it was. Good timing, the last 15 minutes of the bus ride was rainy but the hike mostly dry (from the sky, anyway). Got warm despite the clouds, didn't really need the sunblock (the worst part is that I bought a big one forgetting TSA would take it away).

Just enough time for this. There's a better route probably going under the bridge and then around and over and back along the river, but this was fine. Was in the meeting on time.

Meeting ended at 1630 and people were meeting for beers at 1700. I wanted to stretch my legs and was pretty sure that wouldn't happen after a beer. So I changed quick, ran 3 miles, which is about all that my orienteering legs would handle, and then wasn't too sweaty for outdoor beers (the first went down quickly).

Event: 2024 Billygoat
 

Jog to bathrooms after losing my dibbler for a few minutes (someone found it in the grass). Phew.

So Billygoat. Legs a bit tired from lifting earlier but that was mostly washed out. Main goal was to make my flight. I should probably get a Livelox to put myself on the map. But anyway:

1. Followed everyone to this control across the ski trails. Pretty glad it was dry out; the trails were nicely runnable.
2. This would have been a decent skip, but no one noticed. Talked to Alex about going low to 3. Followed the pack to 2.
3. Alex and others got ahead, but I managed to keep them in sight. Low/left seemed the right choice, the big reentrant after 3 going high would have been ungood.
4-9. We decided to skip 6 (17 may have been better) but 7 was downhill and Alex got away. I managed to find the control based on where others were coming from (and a bit of map reading) and then ran 8 and 9 well, both times going high on a traverse and then ripping down the ski trails which was a good strategy. Caught back up with Alex. Chris followed me, but he'd already skipped.
10. Alex led us on a bash where I kept her in sight down the hill and we caught up with Nils.
11-12. Followed here, mind not working well with the map but keeping tabs.
13. This would have been a good skip if it was just me, didn't save time, but just run down the trail and don't get lost. Luckily Alex did the navigating. Caught up with Nils and Feet who had not found said control.
14. I ran right with Nils which didn't make much of a difference.
15. Then down through the woods following Alex, should have gone out to the ski trail.
16. Alex took a long break to tie her shoe at the food station. I ate food and drank and followed someone else out (Cat Dealer?), but Nils and Chris were out ahead by now. Nav fine to the control
17. Would have been a good skip, the other guy was skipping. Marked the trail where to go into 19. Trudged up to 17 keeping the walls at basically 45˚ handrails. Alex caught up. I think her 500+ hours is getting her in shape. I was lagging a bit here, not really sprinting the road.
18-19. Down to this control which was easy, and then along the road. Pretty sure I'd make my flight now. Up to 19 at the road mark (well, one of them).
20. Alex said something on the way and as I was saying "say again" I tripped over the ankle-height wire she was telling me about. Did a full somersault, luckily a soft landing. Hoped my shins weren't too skinned. Tried not to think about it. (They weren't, but they did not feel happy.)
21-22. Now just following Alex. Providing too much commentary to take my mind of shins.
23. Annoyed Alex enough that I dropped back and made sure we were on the right stream crossing. The cold water felt good.
24. Stream crossings. Clean shoes at least.
25. Found this fine.
26. I think this would have been more fun a bit further up the hill to give more route choice. One cliff to the left (Orienteerer's left) would have given a bit more of a low-or-high choice. I guess some people went higher. I wouldn't have minded a bit more fun on the hill there near the end, but I was also ready to be done.

Finished, respectably but probably could have stuck with Nils with a bit more fitness and maybe just getting through 16 faster, but happy with the amount and quality of orienteering I did after last year's debacle. Enjoyed this map much more than last year. Made the flight with time to spare.

C • Chatter 1

Billygoat - Splits

Another errand with a high point ride.

Errand in Boston, and on the way back I spotted a high point ride so took that.

Extra special fun time for the Billygoat is that I thought it was on Saturday, so scheduled a midday flight Sunday to DC. Our GSA airfare is $33 and changeable, but has to be changed via the travel agent, which costs $40. So yay for the government negotiating a ridiculous airfare, but boo on the government for making us go through a travel agent to make changes.

Anyway, I now have a 1730 flight out, which should be just enough time to finish the Billygoat, grab a t-shirt, make the 1:45 drive home, and grab whatever bag I've pre-packed to head to the airport. Extra fun is that I need to park not on my street because of street sweeping, although that might just be driving to East Cambridge, ditching the car, and grabbing a Hubway to the Blue Line.

Previous Goat times:

2023: 2:41 (very green)
2022: 1:55 (fast course, second leg of SISTERSGOAT)
2019: 2:22 (Burnt Mountain, which is my O-nemesis)
2018: 1:40
2017: 1:55 (second leg of SISTERSGOAT)
2016: 1:40 (recovery from Boston still)
2014: 2:07 (ran this well)
2013: 2:07
2012: 2:30 (first goat)

So basically I need to run a 2:45 goat or faster, so unless they put out a very hard course and I orienteer very poorly (or, really, don't follow enough) I should be able to make this plan work. And even then there's some float in the plan (1h home to airport, 1h at the airport; both of these are probably more like 35m minimum).

Ah the fun we have!

C • Sigh 2

Back to some track. Did not have high hopes for this given that I had mini-DOMS from Broad Street, basically instead of my whole leg hurting, little bits and pieces did. And I need to do yoga.

Workout was 4x(400-200) which seemed just about right. First 400 was nothing to write home about, but those got faster (90-85-86-80) and the 200s also trended faster (37-35-33-33).

Then jogged towards work with Emily. Even with social hour, showered and at my desk by 0900.

Lifted heavy things and put them down, a short session but good to be back in the heavy things area.

Legs were tired with the heavy pack going home.

Was hoping to have a morning stadium but I drank way too much water the evening before and didn't sleep well with several trips up, so took the sleep option instead. Then it rained and then it stopped raining so I got a few clicks in.

Oof slow morning this morning and I was happy to go at everyone else's pace. Then we got to the end of the running and walked from there.

So down to Philly for a wedding. Is this good training for a race? Nope! Especially when the ceremony starts at 1800 and the meal is served at like 2100. The wedding was lots of fun, at the Ben Franklin institute with the ceremony in the Planetarium! Race was a good excuse to only have one adult beverage.

At about 1600 I realized that my indigestion / lack of appetite might be cured by Tums, and I don't think I was wrong. This made life more enjoyable. If I had figured this out a few days earlier that would have been nice.

Ate way too much, so that by the time I was awake this morning I was well-fed for the race. Took the train to the start with Elena's cousins, found our corrals, I went for a short jog to a short(er) portolet line, and was glad I had. Hydrated and fed, at least.

This was a fun race but my pre-race preparation (noro/flu/whatever + late dinner wedding the night before) was not conducive to a good time. I realized this about half a mile in and eased up and figured I could use a nice marathon threshold workout with one pause to tie my shoe. Held reasonably even miles and definitely felt some hurt. My legs could have definitely done more.

I should try not to get these plagues in the future. (Ha.)

Finished, never really rained (50˚ and drizzly at worst), looked for Elena for a couple minutes, then took the train to the hotel for a nice shower. Waiting in the cold/rain to try to meet without cell phones (her battery died) seemed way too difficult.

Made it in plenty of time to see family and eat brunch.

Event: Merrimac River 10 mile trail Race
 

Feeling better … sort of. Enough to take a lap of the neighborhood with Elena, but really not much more. Good timing for Broad Street … not.

Stomach bug, ugh.

Monday evening at City Hall I start to not feel well (and not just because the City Council seems to care more about parked cars than safety). Run out of the building and pass out on the steps while sitting down. Friends there get me a bag/box, which was useful, eventually after this doesn't stop Elena comes and takes me to Mount Auburn because the whole "passing out and vomiting for hours" seems more than I want to handle at home.

Dehydrated, labs come back fine, they can't find a good vein to give me an IV, I eventually fall asleep (she does too … on the floor). We go home around 0400 on Tuesday, I have since had about 40oz of Gatorade and water and slept a lot. At first thought it was food poisoning, but probably noro. Second time in a year … probably from a nephew.

Ick.

C • Stomach bug 6