Training Log Archive: AliC

Billygoat @ Moreau - 4th place overall!

A really good race, ran fast, and pretty clean - two smallish mistakes (8, 17), maybe one not-seen and thus not-executed faster route (3). Otherwise, some pretty fast sailing through gorgeous and interesting woods! And of course, some mass-start fun running around others. Many thanks to EMPO for a fantastic event.

#1 - Obviously can't be skipped because of #2 really nearby, so up up sidehilling, following masses of folks, but somehow then everyone goes this way, that way and I'm on my own, slugging uphill for a bit. Then speedy guys are sailing in from my left (Will, Boris, Sergei) and link up with them into #1
#2 - Nearby, following the mini-train, the guys are running fast...
#3 - Some scattering of directions, I liked the stream-marsh route, went for it, and then hey, alone. Boo. Maybe should have played the follow for longer, but eh, I didn't see the route they were taking (um, there was a trail, upon later inspection) so didn't want to chance being dropped without a plan.
#4 - Caught by Eric K, Nick D. either right before or after 3, running with or slightly behind to 4
#5 - Eep, choice!! Pondered, decided right, Eric had gone that way, but nope, he was already disappeared. And Jeff and Nick were heading left, ah, I'll head left too... turned out probably to be a good choice, you could really cruise, staing below the steap to the left, then easy with the big marsh at the end. But Jeff fell off to the left at some point...
#6 - Caught by Giacomo some point in this leg, then we were a mini-group of Nick-Giacomo-Ali until 10
#7 - Some descending cliff issues, otherwise easy
#8 - Whoops! Nick shot off for the low approach and Giacomo and I followed, we all botched it, way too low, but I corrected first which gave me good time to eat my gel, take some water and still be first off.
#9 - Led to this one, used the trail
#10 - Also led, just left of the line. Then at the control, paused, unfolded my map, both checking for obvious better skips and making it clear that I intended to skip 11, then left. But boo, neither Giacomo or Nick followed, I was hoping for company...
#12 - Alone, but executed well, straight east, counting marshes then on trail to another marsh and in.
#13 - Compass- marshes -compass - marsh, alone.
#14 - Eric caught me on this leg, decided to try to stick with him, then we caught Boris right close to the control.
#15 - Trying to keep contact with both Eric + Boris and the map...
#16 - Tumble down the hillside, the guys just descended faster, one backwards-in twist ankle crunch = painful. But I could go a similar speed on the trail, so still kept contact.
#17 - Well, keeping up with the guys obviously took a toll on my brain, instead of reading 16 -> 17, I tried to read a nearly-parallel nearby little segment from #2->#1. And nothing made sense... so totally lost the guys while trying to figure out where the parking lot was around #1...
#18 - And back on my own, as I'd be for the rest of the race. Trail to little valley to trail and in.
#19 - 2nd tumble down. Not as fierce a descent on my own, but good on the compass, straight to the hill right before the control.
#20 - Perhaps a bit hesitant, aimed off a bit tot he west to hit trail if I didn't run smack into the field, did end up bouncing off the trail.
#21 - Straight to it, and choice, which way around the pond? I decided left...
#22 - Left was probably right, but I should have used trails more, I was more just on the lake bank, not as fast.
#23 - Trails, saw Boris running anti-parallel at some point.
#24 - Around right side of ditch-stream
#25 - Ouch last uphill!
#26 - And in, seeing some folks just heading out for that last little loop

Didn't really know I was in 4th when I finished, was super psyched to hear!
1453/2000

C • Thanks 8

Up.

Moreau is awesome, so volunteered to pick up a few controls when asked. Did 4-right-hand-5-12-3. Nice to be able to stop at the viewpoint at the top for an actually look around. Such a gorgeous day!!

1457/2000

Down.

Billygoat - Splits

Event: Billygoat XXXIV and 2nd Annual Speedy Goat fund raiser
 

Putting out controls, didn't like carrying many, so did two rounds.

And the super-cool early-kids speedygoat relay (Ed + Ali)... (i.e. try to test out the software...)

Tagged off, and realized I didn't have my compass. Ah well, sans-compass training. Which did require a bit extra thought to leave controls in the right direction.

1421/2000

And our anchor leg, spectated by Nate O. (also spectating the far more interesting-sounding frogophagy by a gartersnake...)

This time with compass, was glad to find that the way to #6 really led you straight to it, I was least happy setting that control.

1428/2000

Checking out one control I didn't love when I ran it without a compass, seemed fine though!

Upon strong recommendation, went to go check out the scenery along the cliff on the west side of the island- was pretty cool!! A dam and exposed rock and cliffs and water, and just pretty.

Speedy Goat A - Splits

Speedy Goat B - Splits

Snuck-in run, around Emily Dickinson loop, 2 x 2 min pick ups on the trail along river then 3 x 1.5 min up biggish hill on north side of bike trail. And then detour to print maps at the local print shop, where things did not want to print from .eps, strange. Or they could print, but only a square smidge of the map. Luckily also had done .xps -> .pdf which behaved better.

Then I had a hair cut (!). Got way told off for not taking care of my hair properly. Apparently 5 years is not the normal gap between professional hair cuts... Also, apparently cheap conditioner 'waxes' your hair???

Should anyone be perusing Nature today, this article was just published by my group (less technical overview here). It's actually really cool stuff- for almost ever, it's been assumed that stars form at masses as determined by an "initial mass function". This is simply a distribution function describing the probability that a star forms at a certain mass. It's probably a log-normal function (woo Central Limit Theorem), with a cutoff at both high and low masses. Until this work, all observational signs have pointed to the distribution being fairly constant, in dense and less dense star-forming regions, in different types of galaxies, etc.

But my group's work shows that the amount of mass in big (predominantly) old galaxies is too large for the amount of light that their stars produce. So there must be more low-mass stars, which inherently have lower luminosity-to-mass ratios. Lots more, at least times 3. So theorists, please go revise your simulations, the universe is different than we thought....

C • must be more low mass stars 9

Core, although something in my knee started hurting doing SJJs so I quite them partway through...

And hammies! Been too long...

To/from "The Laundry Club", Emily Dickinson loop, quickest version to try to beat the wash cycle (failed). Then ended up leaving my clothes forever in the dryer after making tabouleh anyways, ah well, Amherst doesn't seem to have clothing thieves...

Warm up with Alex, and first part with Phil too. Chilly, chilly, not so happy about leg-attire choice (shorts)!

Noho 5k #2

Took the overall win!! Not too many speedy guys today, so I led from start to finish. According to those in charge, this makes only the 3rd time a woman has won the race, the other two were Sarah Hahn, 10ish years ago. So cool! Although do have to admit it was a small field today in the coldish drizzle...

A bit, but not much better than 3 weeks ago (6 seconds faster, and 6 seconds of my PR), and I was in my 212's today. To be honest, was hoping for a bit better. But I probably need to do some more serious running training before that happens.

Also, very nice to have the cheering pretty much from wherever possible by Phil and Ed and also others who just thought it was cool to see a gal leading the race!

Miles:
5.45
5.41
6.16
35

C • Nice! First place is first ... 4

Warm down with Kelsey, who maybe will come show up for some of the WeMA 5 day, if it fits in with trail running plans. And James (from astro dept) and Phil, who were apparently chatting about the fine structure constant...

Joggeroo around some trails with other giggle, chit-chattering.

Super-secret fun times on Earl's Trails (yeah new map!). Those some fun woods to run through!!! Oh, there might be some climb, but hey, it's just the other side of Norwottuck, what were you expecting?

1413/2000

After a brief post-mortem with PG, whisked away by Alex for a scurry to a eve talk given by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Earth Day keynote speech at UMass. His voice was *terrible* to listen to, think maybe he was sick. But a solidly environmental viewpoint, while being aware of the business side. Very much a fan that the government's role is to protect the commons through financial incentives/disincentives. This is way outside what I know much about, but hearing his one viewpoint, sounds like a reasonable idea... continuing as-is is just not going to work, well if we want a planet that remains healthy to live on.

Also, freaked out about mercury levels in all freshwater fish in the US. I guess women intended to some day have a baby should steer pretty clear or eat fish rarely? Panic. Furthermore, West Virginia hilltop removal coal extraction sounds absolutely terrible.