Training Log Archive: Ari-o

Easy run around Boston after work. BEAUTIFUL DAY. Can we have this all summer pretty please?

Deck at Copley. Felt pretty okay, actually. I was with a not-the-fastest group today and didn't fall behind, although by the end of the deck my form was beginning to go on my push ups. I need to make sure I am doing at least two decks a week, though.

Ran to NP, with a mile on a Hubway to make up some time, and then to work. With a pack. Felt pretty okay. Still, not good with running with a big pack; it slipslides around too much.

Up in Maine, wound up walking to and around beaches with friends. Not enough intensity to qualify as training, although we did walk 7 miles. Good times.

Lots of riding bikes this week—109 miles in three days! And my back doesn't hurt, which is very good (after a car-Ari incident last year it took a while before I could get on the road bike, much less ride in comfort).

Oh, and this happened. I was climbing Mass Ave in Lexington when a Buick came by. The driver honked, and then as I was getting to an intersection cut right in front of me! I yelled and went in to adrenaline/sprint mode, chasing her about a mile up and then down a hill. (Ben, who I was riding with, came along for the "interval.") I got to a light where she was stopped and let her have it. Her response? "I didn't think you were going that fast." Flattering, hon, but you still almost put me in to the asphalt. Next time I should say she hit me and call the police. But then we just left and went back and rode more bikes.

My metabolism was way up this weekend and after this ride I was so bonked that I ate an omelette/fritatta/whatever with:

6 eggs
1 c ricotta
1 bunch chard
1 onion
1 head broccoli
6ish oz cheddar

AND I ATE THE WHOLE THING. Yum.

Easy run at lunch time. Went west along the river on the Boston side and it was beautiful. Felt slow but happy. Then turned and almost got blown off the Harvard Bridge, and then ran in to the wind to the Longfellow. But I ran fast because there were people behind me and I didn't want to get passed. IOW, realize it's a race. Then I ordered a burrito on the Longfellow, and ate lunch. That was good times.

Rode bikes with Melissa. Went to McLean, then out through Lincoln. Then back in to a gnarly headwind. Cold!

Long story, I wanted to check out whether the Minuteman Rail Trail is closed. It is. So, yeah, 22 mile bike ride before a Park-O, what could go wrong with that (oh, and then a 6 mile ride to the park-o).

When I put directions in to Google for 02139 to 02130 it said "17 minutes. In current traffic, 45 minutes." That's why I ride bikes. The BU bridge was completely gridlocked, but I swooshed over it and through Brookline and around the Pond and didn't get lost and then oh hills and then to ParkO. Good times. Jello legs.

What could go wrong with biking 30 miles before Park-o? Oh, legs not working, perhaps. Yeah, that. Took a "warm up / pee break" up the hill and could barely run up the paved road. And I was informed that because Ali was in town from the flatlands, we were going to have a hill repeat workout. Oh, happy day.

So, yeah. My legs were shot for Park O today. I ran okay for a derb, but made some mistakes, some of which were totally not my fault. Here goes:

1—lollygagged along the cliff before finding the control. Dumb.
2—Dean said that all the controls were "in the circle." Technically, this was in the circle. Maybe leaning over the line. Apparently it confused everyone, but I should have been clued in by the guy running out of the woods. It certainly wasn't in the reentrant.
3—Hill. Spiked. But I friggin' waddled up the hill. Legs ≠ fresh.
4—I'll give this a half-spike. Took the trail down and had to look for just a second to find it.
5—I DON'T WANT TO YELL SO I WILL ONLY YELL ON THIS LINE. I spiked this one. Dead on. I took a bearing (!) and followed it and ran right to where the control should be and there it was. I was very proud of myself. And it was marked "6" and I was downtrodden. Here it was. Intersection of two trails. And somehow I had the wrong control. I saw one up the hill, and ran to it. But it was 1. Then I went back and looked at the map good and hard. And came to the conclusion that this was the wrong control, and I punched it and ran to
6—and spiked it. And it was marked 5. This whole charade cost me >2 minutes according to Strava.
7—Took a pretty good route across the road, ran up the reentrant, found the hill. And then found two more unmapped hills.
8—I remembered this rock from last year. I didn't remember the other three rocks. As I was picking my way towards the control I ran in to a NOT AT ALL FRIENDLY LOOKING RACCOON. I took a wide arc and punched. There was no control info as to whether it was at the top or bottom of the rock/cliff, or the direction, which would have been nice.
9—Took a little finding. There are a bunch of unmapped features back here.
10—Back across the road, I almost spiked this but had to run around looking for it a little.
11—And back up the hill to spike the top control again.
12—Last year, I shat the bed on this course. I got very, very lost across the street, and then got very, very lost in the green on the hill. This year I navigated much, much better, although my legs were jelly. I ran through the green and popped out of the reentrant and right to the control. Score one for the good guys.
13—And took the right route to this one, too. Well, the left route.
14—And this one.
15—And back up the hill. My legs felt a little less bad now.
16—Roundabouted this control just a little.
17—But spiked this.
18—And back to the summit! And, what the hell, let's take a picture of the skyline at sunset.
19—And then let's poop the bed trying to find this control, which was pretty ambiguously placed. And then run to the finish.

So, all in all, a decent race. I felt that I did large-scale nagivation well, small-scale navigation okay, raccoon-related navigation not well, and playing-by-the-rules-and-trying-to-find-the-right-misnumbered-control not well at all. Next time I'll just punch and go. And not bike 30 miles right before.

C • splits 2

Control pick up with Alex and Anna. Talked about West Point and Moreau. And things. Probably no, probably yes. Any my legs were finally feeling better. Of course, I ran the race and bonked because all I had to eat between biking and running were a few cookies. Then we went back and I had more cookies, and threw some at Ian. And then I biked to eat dinner.

Good NP this morning. Ran the stadium in 30 even, which I think is a PR. Then quickly off to work.

Didn't time anything, but after work I was hungry and tired. Ran the river to Whole Foods, then ran home. Hopefully to bed early enough to hit up NP tomorrow morning. Extra early, actually. Gah.

So I was in Gardner for work. And I've been feeling slow. So instead of recovering after the BG, I went to trail run. I certainly wasn't fast. But it was beautiful out. I thought about going back after 3ish miles but took a turn on a cut around a muddy trail and went 8. So, yeah. Tired. Chafe. Fun.

C • Gardner trails 2

Event: The 35th annual Billygoat Run
 

Ran back and forth to warm up for the BG.

Billygoat! This is my second goat and it went about as well as the first, in that I played too much orienteering, made some big stupids, and had tons of fun. Beautiful weather for the drive out, and nice and cool; not too much sweating even with the pants.

1- Race started off and there was a long run to 1. Did I look at my map and map something out? No. I ran after Alex. And Alex ran away from everybody else. But she knows what she's doing. Of course, I let her drop me because I wanted to keep contact with the map, and wound up going over a hill (stupid) to 1, and probably lost a lot of time. At one point I started following the line to 18, too. Gack. Ubergack.

2- It was another long run to 2, but I ran it much better. I was with some people I was probably faster than (I orienteered way too much, and did not follow enough, which is partly from going out slow/stupid and I should have stayed with Alex) and led the way across the big valley and stream and a couple of trails. I found the last trail and ran a bit up it to the stream to attack, and then picked my way around the hilltop towards the control and was certainly helped by the presence of other people.

3- This was pretty easy. I was on the trail at the right point and found the control easily, again with others.

4- This was a group run to the control, as was 5.

6- I thought about skipping 6, but it was early in the race and my legs felt ducky. I navigated well to the top of the hill and passed a bunch of people, and then found the rock and control easily.

7- Wanting to stay ahead of the crowd, I then burned some matches, traversing a bit south to find the trail and then trail running to the control. Not a bad plan! I caught a guy and we "found" the control together without much fuss.

8- For 8, I did the trail running thing. I went down to the trails and felt pretty good, turning in a respectable time even with a longer route. I saw people cutting through the woods at points and gained on them, too, which was good. I saw some groups running out from the control, but was well behind them.

9- I lost a little time here finding the control, but it was a short leg.

10- This was a longer leg and I took the upper trail, which entailed a bit of trail missing to find my way up, but really wasn't too bad. I attacked it well.

11- I took the road. I'm probably the only one who did this. This would have been defensible if I'd used the time to pick the right skip. Because, hey, I could go run 7 minute miles, have a couple minutes with my map, make progress towards the control, and figure out the rest of the race! Too bad my brain wasn't up to it. Because if I'd chosen 22 (the right skip, as it saved a lot of distance and a lot of annoying navigation) I would have saved the time I lost on this leg. But, I decided to skip 16 or 17 or 18, because why wait longer, right? Wrong. The other issue was that I thought I'd just sprint up the hill once I left the road. It's just a 75m climb? Well, I was reduced to a crawl by the top. So, a C+ for the idea, and a C- for the execution. Middling!

12- Led some people, took the high road, middling again!

13- I loved the location of this control. Climbing up in to an open mountain reminded me of many places on the AT down south. The Holyoke Range is great. But my legs were tired, I couldn't put time on the old guys.

14- This control too. Just really good woods running. The best part was that although the control was hidden no one took down the flagging which pointed me right to it.

15- I found a group here, too. Didn't spike it though.

16- I did spike 16, and then decided to skip 17. It was a defensible skip, as long as you ignore 22, which I should have skipped. There was a trail and a good attack, although I muffed up the last attack and didn't run right up to it.

19- This was a long run, and I ran pretty much the same route as to 1, but in reverse. I should have gone down the hill, and around, but the people I was following were going across, and I played the game here and followed. I mostly lost track of my location, but we found the control pretty well.

20- Then it was through the start. Oh, look, people have finished. And then I was way too high in the reentrant (I think the control may have been a bit low) but I found it and had someone to follow to 21.

21- The terrain here was very hard. Or I was very oxygen deprived. Yeah, that.

22- This would have been a great skip. The navigation to 23 from 21 was easy. 22 was easy to find, too, and I had gone low out of 21 so I just found a trail and wailed on it as best I could (not very fast) to find the control.

23- The navigation here wasn't that bad, thanks to the course setters for not being evil. I mostly took the trail, though. Running straight would have been me wandering in circles.

24- And here I did the decent thing and ran to the trail, then up the trail, and then through narrow green, rather than a straight line, which certainly was faster than the other dude who'd punched with me.

And then it was the finish. And cookies. Lots of cookies.

Anyway, I was tired, I did okay results-wise, and my legs don't work that well. Success!

Went to run a trail loop after the race. Wasn't that fast, because I was wicked tired. Legs worked though, which is a good!

So I was all ready to go to November Project this morning—even awoke before my alarm—and this happened:

1. I found out that 10 minutes from where and when I was walking home last night, there was a maniac shooting a cop.
2. There was crazy all night long.
3. NP was canceled.
4. I wasn't going outside.

We made food, and ate food, and I did some gardening, and finally did a "deck" later on. 208 push ups, 208 sit ups. And now I can go outside and play.

First Park-O at Danehy. One major goof when I ran from 2 to 5 because, hey, I saw a control! No other issues but that cost some seconds. Then had to hop on a bike and ride through Cambridge. And we're now on lockdown!

Oh god so bad this week. Work, other evening things, managed to carve out half an hour for a short run today, and didn't even feel that good. And got caught at a bunch of lights which are never red. There were happy things chalked on to the path along the river. But still. Bleh.

The Midnight Marathon is, as they say in France, les merde. You get on a train with 700 bicyclists. You bike from Southborough to Hopkinton, and then wee wee wee all the way in to Boston. The night before the marathon.

Much more organization on the train this year than last, and more police presence in Southborough (Transit Police, Southborough Police, and Staties, although the only other town with popo was Brookline, which kept blocking off intersections for us!). Slow to the start because SO MANY BIKES. Yay flashing lights (unless you are an epileptic, sorry). A pit stop at the start, yay port-a-johns, and then downhill basically all the way to Newton.

I sprinted the hills in Newton and laid waste to some roadies (but, hey, I biked or ran these hills every day in high school) and then went in to the finish, with only one guy (not me!) sliding on the Cleveland Circle trolley tracks. Then I was cold and went home.

BUT WAIT! What did I see? People playing Tetris on the Green Building at MIT? Oh, yes indeed. 1:30? Who cares! Off to play some building tetris (awesometastic is I believe the word for that) and then home to go to sleep.

Oh and scouting mission: totally rollerskiable. A couple minor issues which are avoidable, no Hills of Death. Definitely doing the early-train-to-Southborough-on-a-Saturday-and-rollerski-back this summer. For reals.

Quick pre-Midnight Marathon run around the river. Stretch out the legs.

Ran to Bug Light. Last time I did that it was 40˚ and raining with a stiff wind. Today it was a day after that kind of temperatures (but a year later) so I didn't come back chilled. I went to the grocery and bough food. Yum.

I'm bad. I was going to run hills, but a) I had a lot of nachos the night before so that didn't go well for the 6:30 start and b) my friend who was going to give me a ride over slept through his alarms. So I went back to bed. Then later it was sleeting and I really didn't want to run in the sleet. So I got fat and slow.

Ooh what a nice day for a short run. Trying to squeeze it in between other things. 45 and breezy and dry. Yum.

Ran the stadium from the start. Had a minor knee problem a few sections in, stretched, was okay. Then got to section 10 (27 in) and my knee said NO MORE and I hobbled up to the top of the stadium for punishment (and to get my shirt, it was 45˚, you expect me to be wearing a shirt?)

Punishment: 10 push ups for every section not run. 100 push ups! Strength! Not being weak anymore. (Okay, still weak, but not *as* weak.)

Day of running and biking around, but no specific workouts. Luckily I got to have a meeting outside, it was a very nice day. And then a sea breeze, which I adore. Plus: I got my taxes done. No more of that hanging over my head.

Ride to NP (with a run on either end) and then to work. Nothing too fast, other than riding a 45 pound bike up and down Boston and not getting killed by the 57 bus.

Felt pretty good doing a Deck today (208 pushups, 208 situps). I still went in to deficit doing the push ups, but never by more than 15, and was able to finish up pretty quickly at the end without totally losing all form. The grass was a bit wet and I got all grass/mud/goosepoopy smelling, but that's what showers and washing machines are for. Then I skipped out and was in the shower by 7:38. Strength!

Running to/from November Project. Well, more to the point, to and from Hubway. Rode 6 miles as well.

I've been bad this week, falling in to a trap of 45 minute runs with nothing specific for anything. I guess hills are a thing. But planning to make that change this week, with fun things like hills! And other fun things, like Park-O, begin soon. Oh and there is the Billygoat soon. Gotta shape up.

Super tired today. Was going to run and then that didn't happen. Won't entirely blame the GF :)

Gah another broken shoelace. NP was pretty decent. I felt a little slow and crampy, but so it goes at 6:30. Had some good runs and only did 3 1/2 so I could go to work (some folks did 5 apparently, which would be 7 miles of hills and 1500 feet of climb which is a lot for 6:30 when I'm not really training for anything). I thought I ran the last one fast but Strava said 3:24 which is fastish but not that fast.

Work all day. Did some hubwaying around to events though.

Went for a run to get shoe laces. Super weird shoe store in Central, had a box of rando laes. So I have orange and red laces! Huzzah. Did some pull ups at Magazine Beach. It was chilly for shorts and a T shirt. Good times.

Nice run with Melissa after work. Wicked windy so we went with the wind along the Charles. I thought we'd be faster—the fastest mile we laid down was 6:45—but still not too bad for a random run. Then we went to Stars and got food. Stars/Shaws is hiring "qualified" applicants, which I think involves the ability to breathe. Did some Hubwaying around town too. So glad it's back!

Resting today since I pushed myself stupidly yesterday.

But watching Ali G talk about orienteering is just perfect for a day off. Or about any day. See 3:20 in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLN3RWfNMsg