Training Log Archive: Ari-o

Event: Billygoat 2017
 

Last five weeks (run and O only: mi, m of climb)

37 1036
51 1240
62 2500
51 1254
33 2152

avg 47 1636

Same five weeks before previous marathons:
37 891
35 360
34 1346

So far so good. Not injured. A couple days of rest this week as a taper in to a 50k (I'm an idiot) and then a real taper week hoping for cool weather two weeks fro today!

Run along the roads at the Billygoat venues to wake up the legs and the various things in the legs that hurt from yesterday. And to "clear and check" in the woods.

Billygoat! So what if my everything hurts from yesterday. It's the Billygoat!

Started out with the pack, hit the road, ran with the pack to 1. Looking at the map after, it looks like 1 would have been a excellent skip: there's a trail straight to 2, and you would have saved 70m of climb or so. Probably would have been a 4 or 5 minute gain.

Anyway, stayed with the pack to 2, 3 and 4, nice running in the woods, and then decided to run the trail towards 5. I saw towards and not to, because the trail didn't go to 5; it went to some cliffs near 5. Alex and Ian did too. It was a 4-5 minute mistake. Whoops. I saw Izzy and others climbing up the cliffs I was climbing down. Oh, well.

6 went very well. I took the trail and attacked off a stone wall and the line of rocks around the hill. This terrain and the mapping is excellent: everything was right where it should have been. Apparently I didn't forget how to orienteer this winter. Just how to run.

Followed to 7, icky stuff to 8, running with Ian and Evalin. I went through the woods to 9, which was fine running but slower than the trails, and made a good route to 10, spiking the control: it's nice when the terrain looks just like you think it will in the map in your head.

11 I was stupid on and went up way more than necessary, 12 and 13 were quick, and then I went to skip 14 (other obvious skips were 4 and 10, but a lot of people skipped 14). It was the right skip, but I did it stupidly, going north and doing a lot of extra climb, when there was a good trail route to the south. I navigated cleanly, but made a poor macro route choice.

Took the trail th 16, grabbed cookies (apparently I was the first one) and then Ernst and Ted caught me in to 17 and 18. We ran together for the next few controls (well, we walked up the reentrant to 20, overshooting 21 a bit low, and slogged up to the 22 fork on the hill (the right choice, it seems). Then a great run down to 23, where I decided I didn't want to risk a steep, rocky downhill and ran the trail, losing a few seconds (apparently the downhill was nice) but keeping my sanity. I navigated 24 better, and had legs to run to the trail and then on to 25 and not even have a sprint for the finish.

19th, so I should be on the controls next year. I skipped my own control! Two big mistakes (4-5, 14-15) would have gained me 10 minutes or so, and fresh legs may have been another 10. Not bad after Sisters.

Billygoat - Splits

I'm running the Billygoat tomorrow. My legs should be fine, right?

They parked us way in the back of the bunker so the warm up was a run down to the start and then up the first hill. Pretty wet, kind of warm, but at least cloudy and breezy.

Sisters!

My last two Sisters were done with degrees of difficulty. 2014 the day after the marathon relay at Bear Mountain, 2015 in 75˚ temperatures.

Today the fun was … sloppy! Rained a lot overnight. Cloudy and warming up for the race, but as long as the sun stayed in I'd be okay. Downhills were somewhat difficult for my non-downhill legs, and I chose the mud shoes (Salomons) which weren't as good on the rocks but a heck of a lot better in the mud.

Started midpack in the elite wave as we lined up the hill. A bit under 500 starters this year: close to a 20% attrition rate, but still the largest field ever, and excellent race direction from Team Giggles's Amy Rusiecki. I felt okay on the way out, but pussyfooted some downhills, and saved a little gas, and pretty quickly got passed by Kelsey, Leah and Kehr. Kelsey and Kehr being mainstays of the trail running community and Leah coming from November Project running her first ever trail race. (Pronouncement after the race, coming in second: "That was awesome! This is my sport!" Now we have to get her orienteering. Alex invited her to the Billygoat tomorrow, which would have been a trial by fire. I, at least, had run some park-Os before Moreau.)

Wound up running with a couple of folks up towards the porch, where I took a nice long swig of water before heading down. Saw Colin getting ready to heckle (ah, CXers) and did my best to run down the long trail to the turnaround. Filled up with water (they were not doing a good job of selling the Tailwind, which looked like water; I would have taken it had I known) and then turned to go back up.

Almost immediately I saw an Alex. Less than a minute behind. She had gained on me. Of course, she was just coming off of Alex terrain: a long downhill. I was going uphill with a few other guys and my legs seemed a little fresher so I had some get-up-and-go to push and led across the porch (dropped a couple of them, I think). Colin—world-class heckler that he is—said "I have good news for you! There's no one for three minutes ahead; you can only lose places." Helpful, sort of. And excellent heckling. I told him Cary was probably ahead of me.

I traded off running with a couple of other guys: one in white and one in blue. (One of them, per Strava, and I traded the lead multiple times throughout the race and were never more than 40s apart.) A guy in orange who was flying down the downhills came by and I'd catch him back on the uphills, but his downhilling was too much and he was away by the end of the race. But we passed someone dying (and almost another) so I didn't lose any places. Thanks Collin!

I figured that this guy was probably a proxy for Alex. There was a guy right behind me but I actually don't mind the last downhill (not too muddy, and the traprock drains well) so I ran it well, and had a nice run to the finish. Then I looked for Alex, because if she wasn't in for a minute, I'd won! And I beat Cary, too. Not a great race, but given the conditions, it was still a 4 minute PR, and it's not my kind of course (but I love it anyway). Then I ate a ton of Big-Y pizza.

1:10-1:17 splits, not bad for Sisters. And adverse conditions. Maybe one year I'll be rested and it will be cool and dry. But still one of my favorite races.

C • don't mind the last downhill 2

Planned today to have a shakeout run and then wound up working all evening. So, yeah, a beautiful day wasted. On the other hand, resting my legs for Sisters is probably not a terrible idea.

I wasn't going to go to NP but then it was a day where we were remembering someone who passed away this weekend so (long story short) I brought my hockey skates and slowly did some sections. I ran down some fast, but went up slow, full extension, getting my legs stretched out.

Fresh Pond O. Fun little course, and a little woods bashing. Mostly orienteered well, but not well enough to beat Ethan. 2 I stayed high which I think should be faster but I must have spent some time looking for the control. I think I should have gone high to 3, so that accounted for some error. Mostly a clean run the rest of the way; almost caught the guy in front of me near the end. Then pizza!

Sprint - Splits

Inters between track and a bit of warm up cool down.

Interesting day at the track. It went from 55 and humid to 65 and humid around 5, so it was quite warm. We were doing 800-1000-1200-600-600-400-400-200-200-200. I started out with an 800 and felt terrible. Somehow brought it in just under 3:00, but I lost the other guys to run with and my legs felt heavy and slow. Ran the 1000 in 3:47 but felt a little better for the 1200 in 4:28. We really hit the jackpot as it started to mix out the humid air right at the end of the workout. It may have been that, or maybe something else, but the shorter runs felt better. 600s at 2:11 each, 400s at 1:22 and 1:19, and feeling the 200s at 36-35-34. Still lots of sweat; let's home it's not this warm for any of my upcoming races!

Run to Market Basket. Legs felt heavy and tired. Copped out and hubway home with the groceries.