Training Log Archive: cmorse

Event: NEOC - Mt. Tom
 

Gorgeous day at Mt Tom - many thanks to Phil and Co. for putting it on. Ran the 11 of 18 score-O with Hayden - I did most of the decision making, pointed out to him what we needed to do, then set about coaching him along the execution of each leg. Did pretty well, slow going up the mountain and a minor bobble on #4 where I misinterpreted which stream we were following down to marsh, and thus we crossed the marsh further N than I thought we did. Stopped off to see some dinosaur trackways along the CT River on the way home.



Some more photos at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmorse01/sets/7215762...

Afternoon ride with the boys from 189 in East Granby down to Antonio's in Simsbury and back. Lots of crap blown out of the trees onto trail (moved a pretty sizable tree blocking the trail near the airport). Tough headwind around Imperial. Nice day to be out, would have like to go farther but Hayden got tired pretty quickly...

Been thinking about selling the slipstream and getting a lighter bent, most likely a short wheel base, for a couple months now. But I really, really like the slipstream - just not so keen on it being so heavy. And ultimately I'd really like to do some long distance touring - so this would be the ideal bike for me for that purpose. So now I'm thinking that perhaps I'll see if I can't lighten it up a bit - particularly the seat which I'm not 100% wild about, and maybe some lighter wheels - rather than selling it and regretting it down the road. Of course it would be great if I could afford two 'bents (touring plus a go fast bike) - but not bloody likely..

I was thinking how little I've ridden the bike this year (hitch mount fell off old van, new van doesn't have a hitch mount yet) and was looking at my yearly totals. I'm currently on target to match my highest volume in 10 years of logging on attackpoint. So with a little effort, maybe I can surpass that mark. We'll see...

Met up w/ Ron, Mike & JT for a run at Gay City. Another cold soggy - 43F to start, heavy rain lightened up to just steady rain during the run.

Outer loop CCW from main entrance, down into Blackledge and back up - will measure real distance later.. Current distance is just a guess based upon perceived pace.

Got home from work, still wearing wet tights and shoes (didn't make sense to shower and change only to get wet again finishing up the watering). Had to retrieve the van from the shop where it was having brake service today, so opted to run up and pick it up just before dark rather than have to pack the kids up to do a multi-car shuttle.

Legs pretty sore running on pavement - they felt just fine running in the woods 5 hours ago...

odd bruise on the top of my L foot - noticed it after showering yesterday, but it wasn't there in the evening. Mysteriously reappeared tonight after showering again. Foot doesn't hurt, no known trauma to the foot but assume its due to the running.

Event: Manchester Road Race
 

Fine day for a road race. Went in to work early, then headed to Bolton Notch, caught the race shuttle to downtown and then killed about an hour and a half before race time. Ran into many friends. Lined up in the 30-35 block which put me maybe 6-7 seconds off the actual start line - which is certainly far better than the back of the pack - the back end doesn't even cross the start line for 8-9 minutes. I think there were 14,000 registered runners, but loads of other people just jump in.

Stayed on the right side so actually had good open road right from the start except for dodging the folks who were jumping in from the side. Running with the camera in hand in burst mode - I'd occasionally point it ahead or behind me while running and squeeze off a bunch of shots - don't know if any will come out - but what the heck. I was taking photos of folks before (and after) the race and didn't have anyone to hand if off to, so took photos on the run as well.

Hit the first mile in 6:08 (6:39 last year) a little concerned was going out too fast but was concentrating on turnover and trying to keep some clear road in front of me - avoiding the weavers. Felt just fine.

2nd mile (the hill) in 7:18 (7:24) - Hit the upper part of the hill in 7:18, legs feeling the climb but not terrible. Missed getting a shot of safety man.

3rd mile in 6:25 (6:20) - trying to keep the turnover high and not stride too long, feeling pretty good but around 3-3.5 miles I often feel it the most on this course. I think I pushed pretty hard here last year.

4th mile in 6:30 (6:54?) -

4:42 (4:50) to the finish line. exactly one minute quicker than last year for a new Manchester PR. Only a minute more to get a sub-30 seeding card. That would be pretty cool, though it would only buy me a second or two off gun time - so just kind of a soft target.

I guess its time to get some work done so I can go home and have some turkey...

C • Nice run 2

lots of easy jogging around before the race since I got there 90 minutes early. At least 20 minutes of jogging, probably more...

Updated my race entry - preliminary results show my net time at 30:58 so it appears I did in fact break 31 minutes. Woohoo!!

Another one of my goals going in today was to take a few more scalps - last year I finished 448th, so my goal was to shoot for a top 400 finish. Nabbed that one too finishing in 378th place, 59th in my age class.

Double bonus!!

probably won't bother going out today - save it for tomorrow...

I've recently been reading some stuff about running efficiency and particularly stride frequency (aka turnover). It has been noted that most elite runners have a stride rate of just about 180 footfalls per minute, which mirrors the reputed optimum cycling cadence of 90 rpm.

I've also been amazed by the apparent leg turnover of runners of shorter stature (Peter Gagarin and Deb Livingston come to mind) that I've run with.

So yesterday while running at Valley Falls I tried to measure my stride rate on the rail trail sections - but it was kind of a pain in the butt counting while checking the watch. So this AM it occurs to me that an easier way to assess this would be to run with a metronome. So a quick search on iTunes finds a couple of metronome apps for the ipod touch, download a likely looking free app, set it to 2/4 time, 180bpm (vivace) with a rimshot on the downbeat and hihat on the upbeat. Then set out to do a brief 20 minute run on the dirt road to see if I could keep the tempo - left foot on the rimshot, right foot on the hihat.

Settled right into a nice groove, thought the ticking in my head would be annoying but it really wasn't and found that 180 bpm felt just fine - not too fast nor too slow and I really didn't have to think about it much and my footfalls landed just about right. I did find when I'd crest a small hill that I seemed to speed up slightly so I lengthened my stride slightly to accommodate, but that was about it.

An interesting experiment and worth repeating on longer runs to see how consistent the stride frequency is. I suspect that it slows as I fatigue, but perhaps by running with the metronome in my ear, I can train myself to maintain the steady cadence over the longer runs and thus hopefully improve my overall speed. Won't help my orienteering worth a damn, but hey, I've gotta work on something...

C • 180 bpm 3

Its been a while since I've done a cold soggy..... Met up with Ron at Valley Falls and ran the blue/yellow trail - around the east side of the park is very nice, I hadn't been up the part of it before, then across to the rail trail then up to Box Mtn, then back. Steady rain, low 40's nice run... Should have worn the contacts...

Event: UNO Club Championships -- Beaver Brook
 

Wandered up to NH for the UNO club champs today. Gorgeous day to be out running in the woods. Felt great running - strong on trails and open woods, but found myself hesitating quite a bit to double check my navigation on more technical legs - I'm out of practice. Almost all controls were clean except 12 & 13 - the first one I must have come out on the trail slightly south of where I thought I was - though I thought the cliffs I passed were the ones mapped - but must have slipped by the control as I hit the trail to the south - came straight back and got it. #13 looked tricky - easy to miss so I carefully made my way along the slope with the idea that if it started to feel 'wrong' - I would quickly bail down to the big marsh beyond and come back uphill since there was a good attackpoint from that side - but I missed it and then hunted a bit too long before relocating - coming back up the hill to get it cleanly. As I say, the rest of the course felt relatively clean, perhaps not particularly fast - but a fine time in the woods. But at nearly 90 minutes doesn't seem likely to be in contention for club champeen... But no one back on Red when I left so I'll have to wait for official results to post...

Red - Splits

easy AM run down the road, then the LoDFP loop in Shafran (ccw), then home again. Not terribly energetic, but a shift in meds might have had something to do with that.

Once again I was tagged to lead the Chipmunk Chase kids fun run. 2 laps of a paved 1km fitness trail at an easy pace. Nice day, lots of fun for the kids. Top of the hill on the first lap we scattered a herd of about 20 turkeys who were rummaging about in the leaves. I saw no sign of impaling spikes however, so I allowed my young charges to proceed with caution.

I've tried to deny it for years... and I've avoided the inevitable with quite a bit of success up until now...

But Hayden has become fascinated with whacking little white balls and so my folks (the rest of my family all has the disease) secured me a set of left handed ball whackers (they call them 'clubs' right?).

It must be a sign that I'm getting old so I might as well put 'rogaine practice' into my log and get it over with...

Spent about 10 minutes whacking balls out into the swamp behind the house - then ran out of balls. Hayden and Jackson volunteered to go scour the woods for the ones that didn't quite make it into the murky depths.

Life moves on... Peter seems to enjoy himself at it when he's unable to run, so perhaps its not a bad thing to have options....

C • whacking balls 3

afternoon run over at Howard/Porter Reservoirs in Manchester. Been wanting to run there for a while now and finally found an excuse and hooked up with Strider Ron Starrett for a nice explore. Very nice woods, would make a cool sprint venue but I'm not sure about access issues.

Time and distance are a guess as my GPS batteries died partway...

Now its time to round up the family and head to my folks for an early Thanksgiving dinner this evening since I'm working (and running Manchester) next week...

Nice morning for a brisk walk to the hardware store from the greenhouses

quick run in the mist - no time for more as I'm working on some coding for the new striders web site features. Took the new camera with me - rides nicely in the Ultimate Directions vest pocket with minimal bounce. Got a bit damp in the mist so I'll need to figure out a means of carrying it in wet weather that is not too cumbersome.

back to coding...

C • Try a zip lock baggie. 3

Just finished updating the Shenipsit Striders website. Now with a Google Calendar of area races and events and a Facebook page for more member interaction.

C • updated website 2

Bonus - double run today (both short). Jackson wanted to go for a bike ride so we went over to Vernon and rode on the rail trail while I ran with him. Just before dusk - gorgeous sunset.

afternoon ride w/ J&H from Rt 20 in Granby north into Mass on the new section of trail. Very nice... chilly though, should have worn gloves.

Jacksons first rail trail ride. After 3+ years trying to get him to learn to ride a bike (and failing) - he up and decided he would start riding on Sunday (without my help) - not really riding terribly straight, but he's riding and enjoying it. 15k on his 4th day on a bike can't be all that bad.... Gonna be a while before I trust him on the road with traffic though...

hauled another half ton of pellets from the garage to the basement. I might get it all moved before snow flies!!

worked this AM, got home, had some lunch then went for a nice hike with the family. Temps pushing 70 - not bad for November...

Event: Stone Cat 50M (and marathon)
 

Gorgeous day to run the Stonecat 50 with Mark and Bruce. Felt really good and having a fun time but had to visit the woods on numerous occasions. The latter two excursions between miles 20 & 25 however had me crapping blood, so I decided to play it safe and just do the bonus 1.2 mile loop around the school and call it a day with a marathon. Very nice of the race folks to award me a 26.2 finishers jacket since I had to give up my quest for the red 50 mile jacket. Oh well, these things happen...

Ran with Charlie Leonard from CNYO on a couple occassions - mostly because I would be running ahead, then he'd pass me while I was occupied in the woods and I'd catch him back up again. Chatted with Anne for quite a while around the finish since I had many hours to just hang out in the sun and eat/drink.

Mark set a PR finishing the 50 in 7:57 and Bruce rolled in exactly an hour later at 8:57. Would have been nice to go the distance myself, but today was not the day.

short afternoon ride out to lake and back. Clean bill of health from the cardiologist this morning...

Family goecaching hike along the willimantic river in Coventry/Mansfield