Training Log Archive: PG

Event: 3 Sprints (Sat) and Middle Dst/Route Choice Team Training (Sun)
 

First of Randy's three sprints at Norristown (PA) State Hospital, part of the Team/DVOA training weekend. Really cool area and courses.

Lucky you could see which way someone ahead of you went for the first 30-40 seconds, because it took about that long to find the start triangle and get tuned into the scale. Good hard effort, things went by very quickly, so always had to concentrate to plan ahead. Missed maybe 5-10 seconds (overran #4, was still looking at my route to 5 and didn't realize I'd run right past the control).

Mix of snow and bare ground. Snow felt just fine since that's what I've been running in for the last month and a half.

Sprint #2. Another good run, missed about 10 seconds (also at #4), but ran well, even up the slope on the long leg at the end.

Sprint #3. Another really good effort, A really interesting course, lots of choices, lots of traps. I think I had the best routes but of course you're never sure. Routes/comments later Sunday evening.

Goal on sprints was to be within 20% of the best time. Just made it, 19.7% back on the first, 16.8% on the second, 19.8% on the third, all won by our AttackPoint maestro Kenny.

5-10 minutes warm-up in the snow before each sprint, to get the heart up to at least the 140s. Should have done a little more, and more vigorously, as the first couple of minutes of each race were hard until I settled into a rhythm.

Curly (1) - Splits

Larry (2) - Splits

Moe (3) - Splits

Foot trails on Greenfield ridge. Thought the conditions would be better (i.e. easier running) than they were, but there had been very little traffic in the last couple of days. Still very soft and not much traction. Legs were pretty tired by the end.

Day off tomorrow and then the sprint triple-header on Saturday. Ought to be trashed by the end of that!

Snowmobile trails in Montague, packed, but still really soft, so pretty slow going. Took a while to get motivated. Cold, windy, passed a flock of robins that didn't look like were all that excited about the current conditions either.

C • 2

Foot trails on Greenfield ridge. Had about 6 inches of new snow and still snowing. Heavy going in the hardwood sections. In the hemlocks only a couple of inches made it to the ground, but the rest seemed to be waiting on the low branches to get me. The result was lots of ducking and weaving while slipping and sliding(all good O' training!). Good steady effort, and really beautiful out. Amazing contrast between the trails and the quarter mile on the road at the beginning and end to get to the trail (cars, slop, noise...). Most anyone else here thinks it's nuts to run on the trails in any season, let alone winter. What's really nuts is to run on the main roads, or even more nuts, on a treadmill.

C • 2

Foot trails on Greenfield ridge, pretty well packed by now and real good running. Legs a little tight from yesterday, but not really bad at all and not too tired. Only problem was at one point I was cruising down a little hill, south slope, a few rocks showing through, paying attention to my footing, and I got whacked on the top of the head by a branch from a pitch pine. Left an inch-long gash. Short as I am, there are times it would pay to be a couple inches shorter. Alternatively, I could just pay more attention.

Amherst 10 Mile race, 70:19, just about a minute faster than last year (best on the course was 62:27 in 1988, ran 63:57 in 1998 at age 53 when I was still running well, but this was a lot better than the 77:50 a couple of years ago when my running had gone to the dogs). A good hard effort all the way, the last long hill really hurt and I was losing it, but still hung in ok. It helped having Maddy right behind me, got her by about 20 yards at the end. Would have been really nice to break 70, but the legs weren't quite up to it. Still nice to come close.

Splits: 6:52 (down then up), 6:32 (down), 7:25 (up), 7:29 (up/down/up), 7:06 (up/flat), 6:57 (flat/down), 6:43 (down/flat), 6:58 (flat/down), 7:03 (flat/up), 7:13 (up/up/down).

Had a flashback near the 7 mile mark -- 25 years ago there was a guy there holding a sign -- USA 4, Finland 2 -- the score of the gold medal hockey game going on at the same time in Lake Placid, and a couple of days after beating the Russians 4-3 in a memorable game. I imagine a number of AttackPoint folks were not even born then....

End of another good month of runnig. Hadn't missed a day (until I took yesterday off on purpose) in over 5 weeks. Nice to have something to show for it!

Warm-up and cool-down.