Training Log Archive: levitin

Overlook Trail Race, North Medford Club. A really warm morning of a warm day, about 87° and humid. I saw Peter Gagarin there at the start and the finish. I wore my O shoes, which gave me a better grip on the wet, exposed rock and on the grapefruit-sized river stones than my Salomon trail shoes would have.

I guess this was a B-race, if that much. The hills really took it out of me, and I walked quite a bit. Some of the views I guess were pretty, but I was concentrating on my footing.

To/from Daniel's soccer game, but this time contouring around Moreland Hill a bit. Saved a couple of contours, perhaps.

Warmup/cooldown before the race. Had the pleasant side effect that I learned where the last serious hill was, which came in helpful later.

CMS Wachusett Reservoir 5K race #1. The woods were quite pleasant. The trails were pine needles; the occasional root, but not too high; and some stretches with small stones (for the MDC vehicles to drive on, perhaps). Would be a great first trail race for a trail newbie, but none of the Sunday gang raced. There was a good turnout for a low-key club race, about 30+ runners.

After the first 50m, no one passed me, and I managed to reel in 3 runners. I counted I was in 12th place if the lead woman was leading the whole race. (Turns out after that two juniors sped off the front and were not visible when I counted places after the lead woman.) So instead of moving up from 12-11-10-9 I was actually moving up from 14-13-12-11.

One high school XC girl I had a good feeling I would pass. The last guy in front of me, a tall fellow, had an unusual stride, and I noticed he was not running the tangents in the woods. I was trying to stay in contact with him, but I don't think 20m back constitutes "in contact." As we entered the last loop, perhaps 0.75M, I planned to use the last major uphill to pass him. As it turned out, I passed him shortly after a turn, where I cut more sharply than he, on the flat prior to the long uphill. I tried to make the pass decisive so that he would not be tempted to chase up the hill.

Race segments: Start to the last-chance power drive: 23:34, HRave 166, HR at end 177; last-chance power drive to the end, 0:55, HRave 180, HR at end 180. (I do trust these readings, since it really felt like redlining.)

A fine race, a fine day for racing, even in spite of the misty weather.

First time on a new loop, Phillips Sq over the top of Moreland Hill via High Ridge, then down Moreland St to Salisbury. High Ridge was steep enough that I had to break into walking 3 times, though my HR was only 158, 160.

This loop has some bad curves where visibility from cars isn't great. Running clockwise, the killer steep parts are early, with milder downhills later, but I can run on the outside of the loop. CCW would make more sense training-wise, but then I'd be on the inside of the loop where I'd get squeezed more, or I suppose I could run WITH traffic on the outside of the loop CCW.

Finally gmap-pedometer woke up and responded. I measured the steep part from Flagg & High Ridge to the top of Moreland Hill. 60m gained over about 580m run ==> 10% grade. No wonder this is such a dicey place to drive after it snows. I don't feel bad that a 10% grade beat me down on the first try.