Training Log Archive: PG

Event: WCOC Wooster Mtn Meet
 

WCOC meet on part of a new map that Rick DeWitt is making just south of Danbury, CT. Drove down with Phil, nice trip.

My orienteering was OK except for botching the first one, a little cliff, I just didn't seem to be reading the hillside right. After that no problems finding the controls, but getting there was often rather slow, combination of some rocks and deadfall in places and my old legs. But only a couple of falls and no damage. Map and terrain were real nice, though the contrast between the contours and the printed course was not so much, made it hard at times to pick out the course.

What one might consider a flaw in course design, legs 7-8 and 8-9 pretty much going over the same terrain, was in fact a stroke of genius, as the woods NE of 8 were the nicest of the day. If 10 had been right back next to 8 I wouldn't have minded at all.

Kilometer time was 10:10. Multiply this by the 42.2 km at Valley Forge and you get 7 hours 9 minutes. The time limit at VF is 7 hours. I need to pick it up.

My routes.

C • Just avoiding the deadfall ... 8

A brief warm-up.

Red - Splits

Sometimes the smallest things are so nice.

Was down in Manchester (CT) to get myself properly registered and seeded for Thursday's race, and to check out the course, and to play a nice round at the Manchester CC, surprisingly fine course, and then the idea was to go for a run in the nearby woods, a place that I think George and Clint refer to as Coup Sawmill, why I don't know, it's just to the west of Gay City, and I think WCOC even has a basemap of the area, and I heard the woods were really nice and I wanted to have a look. Except I had no map. I looked at stuff on-line, so I knew where a good starting point might be, but I wasn't organized enough to actually print out a useful map.

Mid-afternoon, found the trailhead, and there's parking for about a dozen cars, and it's almost full, looks like mostly mountain bikers, and lo and behold there is an info board and it has a map posted with a bunch of trails marked, and then lo and behold again, there is a little circular tube that says "Maps," and then lo and behold a third time and there are actually maps in it. I am in seventh heaven.

A very nice run. Good trails, beautiful woods. It may tire me out for tomorrow's O' but who cares. Good Valley Forge training.

Map. Started at the Line St. parking, Took the yellow trail, then blue and a bit of yellow to summit, then white to the north end, then back via white, grey, yellow/red, and yellow. No AOWN events, except I guess for taking a pee, which is very AOWN....

C • It is nice up in that area ... 4

Warm-up, cold and windy, each lap quicker.

I used to do a various forms of this workout over the years, but not for a while, my favorite was 4 x 1600 with 200 in between and then a final 800, for a nice round 8K. Two requirements, a short recovery run at no more than 8-minute pace, and the total distance a round number to make the math more fun.

I wasn't up to trying the above, so I went with 4 x 1000 with a 200 rest and then a final 200, making 5K. Goal was to do the 1000s in 4:10 (my current 5K pace, might have shot for a touch faster if it hadn't been so windy), and the 200s in 60 seconds, and the final 200 in 45.

Splits -- 4:09.3, 57.1, 4:09.6, 1:03.0, 4:09.2, 1:01.3, 4:07.2, 58.5, 43.0

Just fine, though I certainly didn't have very much in reserve.

Another old workout that I used to hear favorable things said about, though I never did it myself, was the race 10K, and then right afterwards go run 10 miles. This was more geared to ultra training, the theory being that the 10K took care of any glycogen you might have stored up and left you quite depleted, and then the 10 miles felt like you were well into the ultra blues, but, and here was the good part, you didn't first have to run 20+ miles to get there. So you could get good ultra training without having to spend all day doing it.

Since I'm only training for a marathon, no need to go overboard, but I thought it would be interesting to run more after a hard track workout than the usual couple of slow laps. So I chugged my way off to the top of the Eaglebrook ski slopes and found out, surprise, the legs did feel like shit. Even though coming back down was not so bad.

Drove home feeling quite pleased with myself....

Route.

C • Damn, you guys are actually... 5

Sometimes there is a method to the madness, the madness in this case being posting that I intended to do a "long" run this week -- it is a bit sad that 90 minutes is a "long" run, though to be accurate I perhaps ought to be calling it a "very long" run....

Anyway, I got a call from Phil this morning that he'd seen the plan, that a long run would suit him too, and how about today, since the weather was nice and rain was forecast for tomorrow. I'd been planning some rogaine practice, but after a bit of hemming and hawing we settled on meeting at 2:30 at the Notch, which would leave me time to do both. And a good long time on my feet today.

Did what turned out to be a very nice route, on the Robert Frost trail over past Rattlesnake Knob, then mountain bike trails to Batchelor Road, and then more bike trails climbing back up to the Notch. Lots of ups and downs but no bad climbs, and we both felt OK coming up the last hills. I suppose it helped that the pace was mellow.

Getting quite dark, especially in the hemlocks, windy and a bit of rain at the end, glad we didn't start any later. And very glad to have company.

The Valley Forge marathon is going to be a bit of a struggle. But I think it is going to be one of those events that will be enjoyed greatly, not while you're doing it but afterwards in the memory bank.

C • Valley Forge 27

A combination of going up South Sugarloaf and my flat in-town loop, the point being to stay out for over an hour and knock off one of the four planned efforts for the week (not that I can't do more than 4 if I feel like it, but that's a minimum). Route. Relaxed pace, just right, but quads were still complaining by the end. Just have to keep at it.

Yesterday's race route and results.