Training Log Archive: PG

Down to Holyoke for the %K around the reservoirs. Did a lap of the course to warm up. Very windy, otherwise beautiful evening.

Strange start to the race -- felt really tired after a couple hundred yards, breathing way harder than I wanted to. But eventually things calmed down. Got around the course pretty well, just not quite fast enough, missed the age-69 record by about a dozen seconds.

And they were doing results on an age-graded basis. Second overall in that, also by just a few seconds. Though a friend of mine in his early 60s who can still run 18+ for 5K would have won very easily. If he had shown up…. :-)

Good effort, anyway. And then hung around afterwards with Steve and his friends at the Elks, had a beer. Life is OK.

Just a little bit of slow running afterwards.

Event: Cemetery Hill Training 1
 

Around the Sugarloafs. Legs were tired (but not sore) from yesterday, but livened up after a couple of miles, or maybe I was just trying harder, or maybe I just had the wind behind me.

Down to Northampton for the Tuesday evening 5K XC race, weekly from April to September, now in its 28th year. All directed by the same family. Remarkable.

Warm-up was a full tour of the course, about right, though I should have added in a few faster bits too. Got done about 10 minutes before the start. Legs seemed OK. Plan for the race was "comfortably hard," predicted time was 23:55.

Better than I expected overall, though not so much in the first mile, already felt winded after the first downhill, and more so the first uphill although I was trying to take it easy. 7:33. Second mile, much more down than up, definitely felt better, decent pace but not hard. 7:19. And then last mile uphill, decided I should have a go at the age-69 record of 23:28, and that meant doing mile 3 in 7:50 or better, so I put out as real good effort, passed several folks. 7:44. And then the last tenth, 40, moving as quick as I could at the end to hold someone off.

So very satisfying. And sucking wind afterwards for long enough to know I had put out an honest effort. A faster time would require more effort in the first two miles. But this was more than good enough for now.

And won three coupons for a race entry, so if anyone is in town and wants one, just speak up.

And then a long break for socializing, and again busting my diet, this time with a couple of tasty chocolate chip cookies, then off for a final jog as it was getting dark. Ran into Phil, so had company for most of it.

Tomorrow he's putting on the first of several Wednesday beginner's events at Cemetery Hill, see if we can recruit a little new blood. Good for him. Gail and I will go over to help out, also Amy and Steve R.

Short run around town. I'd meant to go up South Sugarloaf, but it was clear quite immediately that that would not be fun. A bit warm. Looked like people might have been suffering at Boston (or at least a few friends whose times I checked online all faded badly in the second half).

And pulled out the clubs for the first time since last fall. Hit a few balls, then played 6 holes. Took just one hole to get my first par, just two holes to get my first birdie. It's an easy game…. :-)

Charlie's loop at McLeans on the way home. Had thoughts of a fast run, including a bunch of short hard efforts, until I stepped out of the car and the legs again felt like crap.

Started off anyway. Got up the first little hill, breathing too hard, stopped at the top for a moment to reevaluate things. Out with plan A. Out with plan B too, which was to turn around and head right back to the car. Onward with plan C, take the loop in the reverse direction, at a mellow pace, so all the hills would be in different places and the newness would make it less unpleasant.

After a mile or two the legs loosened up, and the pace increased a bit, and I'd gotten up all the hills so far without any distress. And so plan D, run the rest hard and see what happens. So a good effort for the last 20 minutes, the last mile certainly more up than down, and the legs held up pretty well. So close to what I had hoped for originally and a good rescue of the workout.

And the usual treat of a Snickers after a post-Litchfield run… :-)

And another good week of training.

Event: WCOC Sessions Woods Meet
 

Somewhat recovered from yesterday. Took a while yesterday evening before I could start refueling, but then drank and ate a bunch, plus a 3 am snack, plus a good breakfast.

And so off to the WCOC meet at Sessions. Wouldn't have gone except that Gail wanted to go. Wasn't sure what I would do, if anything. A little bit of walking felt OK. but a very little bit of running felt like already too much.

Western Mass rules -- note that those three words describe both a method of meet organization and a complete sentence about the state of the world. Regarding the former, 18 controls, get them all or get some subset (5, or 9, or 12, or 15). Nine seemed like more than enough challenge. So off I went for what I assumed would be mostly a walk.

And there was certainly a good bit of walking. But I also discovered that just sort of shuffling along seemed quite tolerable, so I shuffled a fair bit unless things went uphill too much or the woods were uninviting. The legs still felt dead, but way better than the really really dead that I was expecting.

Got my nine controls done, 48-34-32-30-31-35-33-38-41, and I must have miscounted because I then headed off to 42 instead of back to the finish. And at some point around then I looked at my watch, and thought about how I was doing (much better than expected), and decided I might as well shuffle around to a few more, and maybe even all of them.

So then 37-36-44-46-43-40 and pretty close to the finish, but there were still two left. I certainly had as much energy as I had when I started, more if anything, so might as well. So off to get 47 and 45 and then in.

Can't imagine that was the optimum route.

Only screw-up was on the way from 45 to the finish. Ended up on the main E/W trail instead of the one going by 48. Not pretty.

Nice day, fun outing, credits to Charlie and Bill for hosting.

And now, still feeling rather beat, time for a nap.

Bleh. Felt a little tired to start. Started to feel beat about 8. Started to walk about 12. Would have probably been useful to have some fluids, was down about 6 pounds at the end. And then GI distress afterwards. As I said, bleh.

At some point I am going to be really hungry. But not yet.