Training Log Archive: ebuckley

Hit some of the more intersting climbs around Ithaca. Started with Elm St. up west hill. The road was melting badly, so I decided to go up Sand Bank on south hill rather than Blakeslee. The fact that I didn't bring my 26-tooth cog may have also influenced that decision. Then I did some smaller climbs on east hill including Cascadilla, Plantations, Pleasant Grove, and Renwick. Finished with the big grind back up Cliff Street to my parent's house (which isn't that interesting, but it's a good high-speed climb in contast with all the steep stuff).

Any thought that the return to the G-values of my youth had been accompanied by a return to that level of fitness was dispelled by this ride. I used to ride these hills in 42x21/23. On both Elm and Sand Bank I was running out of gear in the 39x23. Still a fun ride, but sobering.

Event: Hudson Valley Sprints
 

Warmup.

HVO Sprint 35A. Struggled with reading the rock features a bit. No huge booms, but lots of 15-30 second errors which added up to a pretty slow time.

HVO Sprint 35B. Made about the same number and type of mistakes, but this was arguably a more technical course, so I guess it was an improvement. Certainly was quite a bit higher up the standings.

HVO Sprint 45. Actually ran this one pretty well. Good pace and flow. Spoiled by a catastrophic boom on #8 (probably around 8 minutes).

All in all, it was great training. Much more like the control picking sections of middle distance courses than what one normally thinks of as sprint. Just the sort of super-technical practice that you can't get in St. Louis. Courses were excellent - nice job by Mr. Fredrickson.

Spent the day doing family sort of things. Also drank a fair bit of wine. Went for an easy jog to loosen up after Baby-O went to sleep.

Finished up the drive to Ithaca.

1600@6:10, 1200@4:30, 800@2:55, 400@73, 200@31 600R. Was a little off on the first, running 6:06. Everything else was within a second.

Track workouts are the only part of my training that I don't design myself. There are just too many people who know way more about it than me. My training plan (from Lawrence & Scheid) had this workout with the 400@80 and 200@35. Then I was poking around Fleet Feet's sight and saw that their track workout for this week was exactly the same, except for the faster reps at the end. It's been a while since I've done true speedwork, so I decided to give it a go. Tied up a bit on the 200, but otherwise it was fun.

Now I have a 14-hour car ride back to NY to help me loosen up.

C • Just out of curiousity, have y... 3

Dropped my car off at the U-Haul place to have a hitch installed and then ran back to work. Head was in a particularly good spot today. Not sure if that's a result of the low humidity, last night's online G conversation (quite inspiring!), or the fact that my legs feel fine 2 days after a 22 mile trail run. All those things help, but my guess is that the real reason is that, although today's workout isn't any different from what I've been doing, I am now in buildup which means I'm training for something, rather than just training.

Solid tempo effort at CC Lake with Doug up front.

Easy lunchtime run with Jeff.

I've been thinking about concrete goals for my weight during the buildup period. Three options present themselves: 1) quit fighting it and go back to 182, 2) keep it where it is, and 3) see just how far this train goes. The last option does present some amusing scenarios. For example, what would the shock value be of showing up to North Americans lighter than either Spike or Nadim? They've traditionally had me by 20 pounds, but I've noticed both of them sliding up just a bit and they may be within reach. Of course, they might go to some lengths to prevent the embarassment of being undercut by a guy who's raced clydsedale class and in the process get faster and whip my ass - so maybe that's not such a good idea. Then again, they might whip my ass anyway.

C • I would say it depends on whet... 14