Training Log Archive: Ari-o

Liking this long-road-long-trail weekend thing. Went out with some NPers to check out some of the trails at Wachusett for the NP Summit in June. (I've never actually been to Wachusett!) The trails are hard. New England rocks and roots, some sections reminiscent of Sisters. So, good pre-sisters training, too.

We had a sketched out map and a phone, and got a bit lost until we found a map box that had maps in it. Then I folded the map and thumbed our way along. Got to the finish of the loop, took the wrong trail down (not my fault; I acquiesced to something someone else was insisting) and then back up a trail we had missed the first time. Then we came running down some dirt roads, a respite from the rocky rooty trails.

Sisters should be fun. Not running 19 miles the day before!

C • wachusett 6

Also:

WHY THE EFF IS THERE A NO ROLLERSKIING RULE ON WACHUSETT? My tax dollars go to pave a nice road and I'm not allowed to use it? It would be an excellent hill climb! Phooey on the DCR.

(Or, we should write our state reps and get something done about it.)

C • Rollerskiing 3

It got hot today. We started running early at 8 a.m. and thanks goodness it was cloudy because otherwise it was warm. In the 60s, so we were able to clip along nicely, but not as nice as last weekend. But this is mostly about pounding pavement, so I guess I did okay? Started with a liter of an ice cube, finished with a few ounces of water. Didn't pee much, so refilled for part 2.

Then a group run with the Janji people. It was warmer. Out to JP and back, 7 miles, which was more than enough. Lots of stoplights on the way out, lots of water, ate a goo, and survived. Legs feel okay! Body feels okay, but doesn't want to run a marathon in the 70s. One nasty hill on the side of Mission Hill which was evil. No get-up-and-go to try to run the last mile fast. Too hot.

And now it's 80 and sunny, and I'm home, this is excellent.

Warm run, tired from a long day and long week. Legs felt better as the run progressed.

Totally turned off the alarm for NP this morning. Probably the right decision.

Dam run to River Street. Not quite 7 miles. Really nice evening, got out a bit late but ran easy and still clocked some 7:15 miles. If my L1* is 7:15, I'm doing okay.

* Need to get my HRM to sync!

Late April is hit-and-miss for fast stadium times, but this morning was cool enough that I decided to go for it. It stopped raining during the workout (too bad, as I got warm) so I spotted a water bottle at section 25. The goal was to run down the big steps. Two reasons: 1) it seems to be faster and 2) it's good Sisters training.

I went fast, too. I felt good for the first third of the stadium, on about a 20-minute stadium pace. That wasn't about to last but I came through the turn on about a 23 minute pace, well under my PR. I had to run with my water bottle a bit to drink and cool down, and stopped putting time on people like Bojan and even got passed by Smooth. But that was okay, race your own race. I found some push near the end and a PR was within reach. I was able to sprint up the last couple of sections (the last especially) with full lactate tunnel vision and hit the wall at 23:22, a 45-second PR.

After whittling 9 seconds off in two years, I took 48 seconds off in five months. Progression (all times here):

6/6/12 32:00
7/25/12 29:32 -2:28
7/31/13 28:32 -1:00
10/30/13 27:00 -1:32
4/30/14 25:35 -1:25
10/29/14 24:19 -1:14
11/30/16 24:10 -0:09
4/27/17 23:22 -0:48

Finally quit raining for O, but the course was a little bit … wet.

I went out pretty conservatively and made some small mistakes, but some good route choices as well. The most fun was going to 12, where we had to ford a knee-deep lake (my feet were already drenched) and then to find out there was an out-of-the-way but dry passage not far away. But it was marked as crossable (well, not even as water) so go for it. Felt like real O.

Goal was to win the last split, so I punched and sprinted and won it. And the race.

Sprint - Splits

Run in the rain over to the track for track.

Strides with Alex. Then she went home and no one else was there. There was a prescribed workout, but I didn't have my phone, so I made up my own. 5x800. Interstitials, too.

ran the first interval in 2:50, and felt pretty good running it, but pretty blah after. The next one was slower, 2:56. From that point I just didn't want to fall below 3. The next two were 2:55 and 2:53 and I was only running a final one if that one was below 3, which it was. Final split was 2:52. So okay.

Rain run over to Whole Paycheck.