Training Log Archive: Ari-o

It was the best of O, it was the worst of O. Yesterday was really good O. I figured out maybe this would carry in to today. But I wasn't thinking clearly, and I certainly wasn't used to the map scale. So I overran 1, but just by a little bit. Cleanly in to 2 and then poor route choices to 3; I should have used the cliffs rather than the vague trails.

Then to 4 I made one of my Big Mistakes. I'm capitalizing, because I can. I got caught left and wound up one big road above where I should have been. Or maybe I was just thinking about Frank Lloyd Wright's design too much. In any case, I cut back to 4, and then went from the worst of O to the best of O. I ran straight to 5 through 8, no mistakes, good route choices, and won all the splits.

I did okay to 9 and 10, well to 11 and 12, and then made another Big Mistake to 13, and I don't even know what it was, but I wound up well beyond and ran in to a catching feature (well, I looked up and said "I shouldn't be seeing you, big cliff") and turned back to find the control. I should have gone left, oh well.

Park-O - Splits

Hmm, it's almost like I ran a marathon last weekend. Oh, I did. On trails. My legs were still stretching out today on the stairs, so I took things easy. Lots and lots of people. Cool temperatures, but I only did one stadium (not 50 sections) and stayed over on the shady side of the street. Beautiful morning!

Ride with Alex up to the Fells. I was a little late getting out of work but we made it work. So many bikes on Hampshire/Beacon; kind of hard to ride. I kind of felt bad taking Alex that way and not, say, Broadway/Oxford, but she said "this was so much nicer than Route 99." Wait, that was her plan? Holy jesus.

Fun partner memory O with Alex. I think I am sort of picking up orienteering. A few highlights:

1. I orienteered pretty well to my first couple of controls.
2. At one point I overshot a trail and lost contact with the map. "Try to get there without the map," said an Alex. So I did. I went on a trail in the right direction, and where it bent, went bashing through the woods, came to a boulder and said "beep." Well, more, I jumped up and down and yelled "BOOM!" because I'd blindly navigated straight to the control. Alex—for perhaps the first time ever—was speechless.
3. I realized I didn't have my bike keys, and both our bikes were locked with my U lock, so I kind of skittered a bit on the last couple of controls.
4. On the last control I was navigating, I had to lead us on a bearing down a "sort of double hill" (Alex: "you mean, a saddle?" yeah that) and forgot both my attack point and feature. But I navigated us in to the correct reentant, anyway. Bring on woods where I am sure to get lost this weekend.

And then I averted the crisis I had created: my keys were in our (unstolen) bags! Well, my bag to be specific. We left them by a rootstock.

I also navigated better than Alex on the memory O. Well, she insisted on going right at Curtis and Powderhouse, and had to navigate a long block. I instead went left, took the first right, went through the school and right to Davis. Plus, if she'd done that she could have gone across Mass Ave, taken the Yerxa underpass and wound up going that way. I was in a bit of a rush or I would have shown the way. Oh, well, by her track it appears she got home.

Wanted to go out for 5-6 miles at a 7:00 pace. But my legs were still good and properly trashed. So I made do with 4 miles at 8s. And then went home and made and ate all the pizza.

So this past weekend I ran ~25 miles and climbed and descended ~2000m. It's almost as if I ran a marathon up and down a mountain. Oh, wait.

Taking a well-deserved rest day today, and probably hitting the hay before 10. Yum.

Seven Sisters! After getting deposited in Amherst for the evening, I got a ride down to Seven Sisters. What a great race. I got a bib, sorted out my stuff, left my bags in a field, and went towards the start. I didn't know what to expect from the course except that it would be "hard and rocky." I have a pretty special definition of "hard." Hard is Tucks, the Ammy, anything in the Great Gulf. Rocky is anything on the ridge (particularly Lakes to Madison), or the Galehead-Greenleaf sections, or the top of the OBP. I wasn't expecting anything that hard. I'd heard there was some hand-over-hand climbing. Except for pack trails, nearly everything in the whites has that. So I was ready to run, slightly stiff legs and all.

I was in the second wave, and I was fine with that, especially since my legs were tired. Nothing to prove out of the second wave. There were a few people with grassroots gear, and several hut kids and OH, and CSU people: worlds collide! The waves started two minutes apart (it had been advertised as 5, but given the general dysfunctionality of their website—guys, it's really not that hard to use Wordpress—I was not surprised) and I planted myself near the front of the second wave. The runners there didn't look that fast, but this is the first year of seeding for their waves (I think) so things were mixed up.

We went out and there was a bit of a hole shot on to a single track. I was in second for the climb. Within about 300m we caught the back of the first wave. The first climb wasn't too bad, some scree but I was able to run most of it and pass a lot of the first wave, then settle in to some wave 1 runners. I crested the top and there were some rolling hills before the first tricky downhill.

As usually, I gave back time on downhills. But gained on ups. I'd brought a water bottle along with gatorade—good idea—and took some swigs. The sun had hidden and it was cool and breezy, great running weather. A second decent climb, some mud, and then a bunch of rolls, some rather technical. This was where I began to trade off with a woman (first wave) who took me on every downhill, and who I passed on every up. We developed a rapport: she'd pass me on the downhill and say "see you on the uphill" and I'd pass her on the up and retort "see you in a minute" or something similar. After several iterations, it became more of just a giggle when we'd see each other again, and again, and again.

The last climb is up to the Summit House and terrific views—to Springfield, Hartford and beyond! I had a goo here, and then dropped my water bottle and goo packed for the run down to the turnaround. I chatted with a guy who knew Colin (he had a run reg shirt on) and he called when we'd see the returners coming back up. In third place was a woman (she'd finish fifth); it was a great female (low center of gravity) race.

I saw Alex during the run down, probably too far ahead to catch. And Deniz (NP). At the bottom I had a goo and two glasses of gatorade, and then threw the detritus in a well-placed garbage can. And then I began the uphill portion of the race. On the way up I saw two November Project people, and I was able to give both of them bear hugs, which was beyond awesome. The best part was that though it cost me some time, it was so great that I ran faster after each one.

I passed the woman I'd been hopscotching on the hill, and didn't see her again. And I started reeling in several others, including Giovanni, who'd passed me on the downhill from two minutes behind. (I stayed near him for a while.) I grabbed my goo and bottle at the summit again and kept up the pace.

I felt really quite good, all things considered (I'd run near even splits: I'm an uphill runner). I had enough liquid, and I had enough energy (I finished with a goo to spare). I mostly passed people the rest of the way on uphills, and mostly held them off on the downs. I dropped Giovanni as he was hurting on some uphills, and put some time on him. I'd catch others and if they were in the first wave didn't really care. On the little downhills, I'd pussyfoot the technical stuff and then let loose in to the flats of the saddle, using momentum. I felt strong.

Despite that, I was doing a lot of fast hiking. But that's okay! I ran the flats, and fast-hiked the not-so-flats. I got some more time on people on the last couple uphills, and came in to the last down. Here a couple of reckless guys passed me, but they were wave 1ers, and there was no way they'd put two minutes on me in half a mile (Alex was nowhere to be seen; she finished four minutes ahead of me, we think, the results were messy). I sprinted the flats to the end in case Giovanni was 1:50 behind me, but he'd dropped a lot. Then I wandered around for a while, barely walking, and ate all the food.

49thish, maybe 47thish, felt good at the end, even splits.

I thought about the trail for a bit and how it relates to various parts of the Whites. I decided that it's akin to the section of trail between Lakes and Mizpah. There are some scrambly sections, a bunch of rolls, and a few places where you can let loose and run. It's certainly easier than Lakes to Madison (all rock) or Greenleaf to Galehead (rock, water, cliffs, etc). Maybe also similar to, say, the Franconia Ridge Loop or Zealand to South Twin.

Then we went for ice cream, then we went to Newton to exchange Katia and Giovanni at Alex's house. The walk for hunger was going on so this caused some traffic. Alex had to go to Russo's and I said me too! So we went and bought all the vegetables (and cheese) and then chased down the 70 bus (this time we won once we passed it) and I got on with a backpack, and seven bags of groceries and stuff. (The driver? unfazed.)

By the time we got to Cambridge I had consolidated to four bags. What started with a dark morning Hubway ride ended with a Sunday afternoon ride on the 70 bus. With 25 miles of trail running in 24 hours in between.

So, this happened. About Wednesday I got a message from NP: do you want to come to Harvard Stadium at 4:30 on Saturday morning asking if I wanted to go to New York to run two legs of a marathon relay trail race?

Does the pope shit in the woods?

Logistically, it was going to be interesting, since I was running Seven Sisters the next day. But I could get a ride to Hartford, stay with a friend in Amherst (via bus/train to Springfield) and get a ride home with Alex. The bus/train failed schedulewise (people had to pee by the side of the road) so I got a ride to Springfield, but that was okay. Logistics: conquered.

So my day began with a 4:15 Hubway ride to Harvard stadium. Then a drive down to New York via a stop for breakfast at Denny's, then a free entry in to this marathon. Brogan had some deal with the people at the race, so that was a thing. I was paired with a guy, Kyle, who—it turns out—was 4th last year at Leadville. Well okay then!

Got there around 9, got ready for the 11 o'clock start. They spent a lot of time telling us about the chip exchange, but precious little about the course. So I was anchoring, and the teams went out. I went for a short run to recon the course. It was wet. Definitely a Raptor day.

Then went out on the first leg. See leg. Walked around between the exchange, drank a lot of liquid, but peed yellow. Grabbed a water bottle filled with drink for the ascent. Won race. See second leg.

Got a ride to Springfield via a missed bus connection. Met Ali for dinner and crash. Got a ride to the Seven Sisters. Ran that (see log). Got a ride home with Alex to Russos, then chased down the 70 bus and took that home with seventeen bags splayed out across the floor of the bus. Greatest success.

Quick run out the course to scout and warm up. Lots of water.

So we were waiting for everyone to come in. At 45:00, a guy Ian came in, not my guy. His partner went out and we marveled at how fast he'd run the course. Then Kyle came in. As I was grabbing the chip off his ankle he said "Did someone else come in? (yes) I think he cut the course." So I took off in second, but really in first. I saw several people who had also missed the cutoff, so something was wrong.

I was running alone to the first feed at the top of a hill. Not a huge climb or steep, runnable with some wet and muddy sections. A couple little climbs and then a gradual downhill which I didn't run very fast. Near the end of this I realized someone was behind me. He passed me on a technical downhill, after I led around a sharp right turn that was decently signed (I knew it was coming; I'd looked at the map) and down to the Hudson, before I took back the lead on a very muddy and then wet climb to the finish.

As I went in I saw several more teams which had missed the cutoff. Guys, part of trail running is to read the fucking map, and follow signs. Part of organizing a trail run, however, is to sign the course well (the signs were sort of confusing) and to have volunteers at confusing intersections, like, say, a downhill in to a sharp turn. So things went wrong.

I finshed with wet shoes. I stripped my socks and walked around in thick, dry socks to dry the shoes and keep my legs feeling ducky.

Kyle is a fucking beast, apparently. The whole fourth at Leadville. He reeled in everyone who had cut the course, and came in several minutes ahead of, well, anyone, right when I thought he would. I had been thirsty and decided to grab a disposable water bottle and fill it with feed. This was a good idea. I went out strong and steady, and drank most of it on the run up to the feed station (which only had water). I threw the mostly-empty bottle at them and, hydrated, attacked the next two little bumps.

Then, it was a nice run down, and I went faster this time. I wanted to keep a lot of time between whoever was chasing me down, and to not kill myself for the race tomorrow. (Also, to be able to go slowly and easily down the technical-y downhill so as to minimize ankle risks. Kyle has mostly run out west and referred to it as "very technical." Ha!) And this worked! I looked back where I'd been caught the lap before. No one (well, a bunch of marathoners and 50 milers). I looked back on the next chance: no one. I went in to the very muddy uphill thinking easy and steady.

I ran through the much and the wet rocks, passing a lot of slower people doing longer distances. I got to the finishing field and kicked—but not too hard—in to the finish.

Seven seconds later the next team (also November Project, we swept the podium) came in. So I almost got chased down. Had he passed me with a ways to go, I would have probably outsprinted him since my legs were relatively fresh. Had he timed it right, he possibly could have taken me depending on chip timing. The next team in was a minute behind. 3:22 for a trail marathon with 5000 feet of climb. Of course, we only did halves.

But we (mostly Kyle: he put 5 minutes on the field and I held them off) won.

Then we waited for Brogan to come in (6'6' and 220 is not a trail running build) and we put him on a chair and carried him across the finish, Jewish-wedding style. I told him he might get that again in a few weeks. He said his fiancee is "not really that Jewish." I told him that if there's one excitable uncle, he'll be up on a chair. Then I ate a lot of food, stood on top of a podium, and got a sweet bag of stuff. It was meant for four people (most teams were four people) so we gave away the large $100 North Face shells, and some other stuff. Not bad for a free entry!

C • Congrats!!! Amazing that y... 2

Five times up the November Project. I did not really feel great this morning, pretty humid and I was underfueled, so I lost a sprint at the top of the last one (but won an earlier one up the grass).