Training Log Archive: Ari-o

Plan: run stairs until my knee had any feels. Made it about 8 sections, then went in to a sidestep one way, sidestep the other way, stride and then sprint. Did that the rest of the way around. A slow tour, but better for my knee, maybe?

Goal for the month: a deck of cards workout, every day. 208 sit ups, 208 push ups. Did this October 2013 and felt great. Hopefully I can stay on the train.

Slow deck to dust off the old core thing.

Quick, late run around the neighborhood. Slow.

My sister was going for a 15 mile run for her marathon training at 9s and that seemed like fun, and a good test for my knee. The whole family was out on the Chesterville Esker, and we were were all passing each other. After 7 miles my knee had some feels and I peeled off.

And then I switched over and went on the rollers! Lovely, lovely ski out the other way, a little wind on the way back. DP out, and skating back. The knee still had feels during skating, but seems to feel better after it since it's stretchy and strengthy.

Then I jumped in the lake, then we went back to camp and I jumped in another lake. That was good.

Acadia! No car day! Rollerski!

Got up around 11 on Friday evening (Lincoln had a hotel room for work, very convenient!), and set off at 8 to roll Acadia. A couple of false starts finding the Park Road and once I did: bliss. 25 miles of new pavement which isn't plowed in winter and has no truck traffic so no cracks, no traffic, and perfect run-outs the whole way. Swooping downhills, transition-y uphills, two lanes wide. Like a bike path but more than twice the width.

There was a bus every 20 minutes or so, but that was no issue. The drivers had been informed of other users. If this was made the case more often, it would be great. But it probably won't be because America.

Chatted with lots of impressed cyclists one of whom was friends with one of my Lakes croo members. Small world! A ranger told me that rollerskis were only allowed until 10 and I smiled and said "yessum" and resolved that I had not heard her. But I didn't get any guff from staff the rest of the way. I was ready to pull out "according to Maine statute, rollerskis are afforded the same protections as bikes" (they are, Maine has a progressive rollerski legislation).

Top speed according to Strava of 26 mph, which was not a problem. I did fall once on an uphill, but sort of kissed the ground, and the pavement is so smooth I came up unscathed (new wheels were kind of pointy getting broken in). Jess caught me around mile 15, and did carriage roads while I skied towards Cadillac.

Cadillac was awesome. 6% grade, bonking, several stops for M&Ms I had in my drink belt. Views were fantastic; I stopped for those too. Jess took my phone halfway up and, in exchange for M&Ms, took pictures. Got to the top, took some victory laps of the summit, and to get t 26.2 miles :)

Now, how do you get Acadia (and LL Bean) to allow/sponsor a USST time trial of Acadia? Hmm.

I was able to lash/bungee my rollerskis behind my drink belt, but knees, shoes, and skis made for a slow hike down Cadillac to the bus back to town.

NP for hills. Just two full hills, but lots of stretching between each to keep my knee feeling okay.

Friend in town, got out for a quick run after work before dinner.

1x Deck

Knee feels MUCH better. No pain today, even going up and down stairs. Lots of stretching. Feeling better and better about not running another 12 miles on it last weekend, because I think that would have done a lot more harm than good.

Note to self, there's tapering, and there's not running for a week and trying a 50k.

Warm up for Pisgah. Drove out with a friend from NP, she's wicked fast. I told her to stay with Kehr during the race.

Gosh what a great day for Pisgah. Just not a great day for me. In the span of one week I have broken my rollerskis, gotten a cold, and broken myself. Ugh.

Left Boston for an easy drive out. Some minor gastro stuff dealt with before the start, but felt pretty good. Went out hard-but-not-as-hard-as-last-year and still ran the first five miles sub-7:30. Running with a guy in red from Waterbury, and I let him go ahead up the first climbs since my strategy was to go out slowly and run a steady race and feel good at the end and not bonky.

Mile 8 climb was tough as usual, and I worked on going fast and easy down the hills after it. Fast-hiked the uphills, but was jogging on the flats. The 7s were gone, but I was staying in the 9s range on the flats, and 10-11 on the uphills. At some point I rolled my ankle a little but had the usual spring in my other leg to keep it from going over and it seemed fine.

But I did something to my knee. Same IT thing as this past June. I thought maybe it was just tightness but it got worse and worse and worse and by the mile 17 feed station I was having a lot of trouble more than running up hills. I talked to them for a while and stretched it but it was pretty clear stretching wasn't going to help. That is off in the middle of the woods, and they said they could cart me out in an hour and a half, but it was only 2.5 miles to the next feed and a short walk to the road from there, so I decided to do that.

This worked. I walked slowly (>20 min miles) and walked down some hills backwards. It was a lovely day, dry, cool, just beautiful, and tempered only by the fact that I wasn't going to get a full 4:30 of running in (I was on pace for that, 15 minutes faster than last year, until my knee went out). I was bummed, but tried to keep some levity in to the feed. Got a ride back from the parking lot to the finish. Wish I could have run the whole damn thing.

My legs were very tight, there might be something about not running all week and then trying to pour 50k on to them that was stupid. But who knows. At least I've been through this before, and I know what makes it feel better. Having said that, I need to spend a lot more time on flexibility and leg strength. There's a gym at work, which I may go use. But a total bummer to lose a week of beautiful fall weather. Goal: get out and DP the bike path at least twice (on classic skis I guess since skaters are in the mail from Finland via Minnesota), rollerboard or real core every day, and lots of stretching. I can do it!

Ildi, who I carpooled with, was motoring through, having run the 6 mile loop before I hobbled in to the end of it. But the car I got a ride in was faster than her last four miles! She finished in 4:17, which was most impressive, since it was a) her first 50k and b) third trail race, and first of any real distance. The RD came over after the race and informed her that she had beaten the course record by 14 minutes! Then we recruited more people to NP and went home.

Finally feeling better, after a week of being sick and not sleeping enough because of some major extracurriculars that kept me up working on a powerpoint every night until midnight. If there's a much nicer path along the Charles in 2025 that doesn't have a highway looming above it in Allston, it is entirely my fault. I also might save the state $50 million. I am not even kidding about this.

Anyway, I needed to get goos for Pisgah. After a very unproductive day loafing around (much needed) I went on a jog to EMS to buy them. Out of chocolate, but I coped. Felt pretty good having not run in a week!

I got home and banged the screw out of the bracket of my rollerski and … the whole wood shaft is cracked. I guess they've given up the ghost.

Then I woke up with a cold. Not a productive weekend.

I had the plans out to a T. I'd park on Liberty Square, go down by the train station, through Littleton, up through Harvard (mostly through a school parking lot) avoiding the nasty Slough pavement, around the second 495 crossing, back up avoiding more nasty pavement, and put in about 20 miles on those hills. (I was not up for the classic ski with CSU in the morning. Need to catch up on some sleep.)

Things were going fine. About 3 miles in, just past Littleton, my ski bottomed out. That's weird, maybe I'm not far enough forward on my skis. Then it did it again. And again. I stopped and took off my ski and one of the pins that hold the metal wheel bracket on to the shaft was gone. Somehow sheared off in the middle of the shaft. After 12 years it might be time for a new set of rollerskis? Or maybe Ed has a replacement.

So I stood there despondent, although glad I'd be looking at only a 2.5 mile walk back to the car when a mail truck rolled by. I told the guy where I was parked when he offered a ride. "Well, I'm not really going that way, but hop in." I got in the back and sat with a stack of boxes and had a nice ride back to the car. Bummed, but not injured (on one of the bigger downhills in that area, it would have been very problematic) and without a long walk in my ski boots.

But karma is such a thing. Last time out that way, I helped a guy pump up a tire. This was direct payback. Life is like that sometimes.

I was pretty beat when I got home, and tired, and hungry, so I ate, then had a post eating crash (sleep depravation much?) and then decided to do a deck of cards workout. Slowly and deliberately with decent form.

It ended with 80 pushups in a row. My wrists and arms were not happy with this. But I need to do more core.

Ran the first two sets of hills with Kyle. Kyle is three weeks of coming in second in Leadville. Let's just say that what might be "conversational" speed for him is gasping speed for me.

But it meant I ran them pretty hard, so that's good. Then I had to leave to go to work.

Quick run to see how bad the traffic was. Carried my bus dispatch radio along with, for fun. No traffic was moving. None.

I set my alarm for 5:50 and went to sleep.

I woke up thinking it was awful bright to be before 5:50, when it should still be dark. I looked at my phone. It said "ALARM" and "6:41" but it made no sound. The alarm was on. But it wasn't making any sound, and unless I slept through an hour of alarm, it hadn't been making any sounds.

Maybe I'd turned down the phone volume over the weekend? But the whole point of an alarm is to make noise. I know they like to be sleek and all and tie all the notifications together, but really if an alarm is set the phone should say "it looks like the volume is down, and this alarm won't make noise" so you can say "oh shit" and change it.

Also, I don't remember turning the volume down. Maybe I did? Ugh.

Anyway, I left at 6:50 and ran some stairs and took a picture. It may have been for the best, it was hot and humid, and my knees, hips and ankles all felt tired from the weekend. This hot weather is not good for my training calendar.

Great run in the Whites, especially the first 2/3. Hit the road relatively early from Maine with sister's BF to hike Carrigain. He'd hike the short way up, I'd run in the long way. Got dropped at Nancy Pond Trailhead and started chugging uphill.

First couple of miles were good running but it got steeper with some reroute (and proto-switchbacks!). A couple of groups of people, but quite quiet. Up by Nancy Cascades (beautiful!) and then all of the sudden it flattened out for the run to Nancy and Norcross ponds (both gorgeous, and at 3000 feet!). Also, it was cool that high up.

I found the herd path for Mount Nancy and hacked my way up. Easy to follow, but steep and rough. Quite a site at the top, and since it's not an official trail, you could conceivably camp there. Then down, and by the beaver dam at the head of the pond (beaver dam on a granite outcrop, impressive!) and then one of the best running hills in the Whites. Three miles of well-graded, soft underfoot, no rocks, no roots, just tearing down. I was running an 8 minute mile until I saw a spring and realized it was probably the best water I'd get (yes, I have treatment) so I stopped to fill. Stopped some to take pictures, crossed a couple of rivers (everything is low) and still ran 11s or so for four miles.

Then it was time to climb Carrigain. The first two thirds of the trail up the back side are well-graded and constant but rather steep. The last third is a rock scramble with the steepness of the Ammy. Great fun. I counted off a couple times my HR at 160 the whole way up (really need to use the HRM I have). Topped out and went up the tower for great views; I haven't been there in 14 years! I need to get back sooner.

Then it was time to chase down Jeremy. The issue was that the chasing was down the Signal Ridge Trail. It's fine for the first mile along the ridge, but then it drops off the ridge and is steep and has lots of loose rock. Not conducive to running fast. Also, lots of people to pass. Right when I got to the bottom where it levels out at the Carrigain Notch Trail (which I have to run) I caught Jeremy, and my legs were pretty shot so we hiked out.

Then we went for a very refreshing swim in the Saco. It's nice to know where all the swimming holes are!

Rollerski today in Maine. Started with my parents on bikes, and my mom said "how long are we going" and I said "oh, hour and a half" and she said "uh, no."

So then I skied on my own. I was going to ski back to camp but it was getting hot and the folks rolled by and I said "canoe over and pick me up at Fayette Store." So I got to the store, did an out and back, then got a coke, and then was picked up at the store. Very nice. Good pavement the whole way, not much traffic even on Route 17. Needs a bit more hillage, though.

My sister and dad showed up in the canoe, and I hopped in for the paddle back. Then spent half an hour in the lake until the 78˚ water bled off so much heat that I was chattering. The sun helped that quickly once out of the water. #thermodynamics!

We were going to my uncle's lake house for the afternoon. I could have squeezed in with the family for a 90 minute car ride, but decided I'd have more fun if I biked. The plan was to meet at 2, and I estimated that the 100k-or-so ride would take about four hours, given the hills and me not being all that fast at cycling.

I set off up the hill and was better at shifting (not dropping the chain) but my front brake was joggling back to a slight rub which may have slowed me, as well as maybe the headwind I seemed to have the whole way (all the same direction, so, yeah. Easy cruise down 219 and then in to lesser-known territory. The road to Buckfield was fine, with a super squirrely downhill where the pavement was less-than-stellar.

Up through Buckfield and the long climb. Again lousy pavement on the rolling hills after, but good road down in to Paris and Norway (where there is an Ari's Pizza and Subs; I didn't stop). I took the back road to Bridgton which was shadier, less trafficked and much hillier. Kind of bonky here. Slogged through Bridgton and to my uncle's house. 100k, didn't unclip once.

I totally beat the rest of the family, as they got a late start (not that surprising). There was water to be skied, so I tied off the strap of my bib shorts and went waterskiing in them, which was only slightly weird.

Then drove home. Much easier. Even got stopped at a sobriety checkpoint (first time ever!). Had had one small glass of wine with a big dinner a few hours before. I got a nod and wave from the officer. Decided it wasn't worth arguing constitutionality with him.

Also, not sure if this is a bug, but AP allowed me to put in 40 hours of training in one day (typo!) and last time I checked there were only 24 hours in a day. Unless I guess you were on a treadmill flying eastbound across the date line?

Hills at NP, and then the handoff from Deniz and Evan to Chris and Chris.

Hills felt pretty good. I went easy on the downs (well, easy-ish) and hard on the ups. Even beat Ildi up one of the hills. Knee felt a little squirmy but is okay.

Fun weekend upcoming!

Saturday: going from one part of Maine to another to visit aunt and uncle. It happens to be 65 miles. I could spend 1:30 in a car, or 4:00 on a bike. I'm going to do the second one.

Sunday: rollerski!

Monday: Heading over to New Hampshire to avoid coast/beach traffic and get a trail run in. The thinking right now is the Nancy Pond-Stillwater Jct-Carrigain loop, 16 miles or so, hopefully in about 4 hours. Lots of climb, lots of run, lots of fun! And then maybe ski up Crawford or something? I can dream.

Partner training, which was fun, because it was racing, but not the raceman race just the ups, so longer intervals up and down, and then longer rest. My partner was a smidge slower than me, which meant slightly longer rest, but he was still pretty fast. Ran 26 sections as follows:

5 in 3:10
5 in 3:10
5 in 3:19
6 in 3:54
5 in 3:06

And I may not have always stopped my watch just right at the end. Going hard. If I could keep that speed it would be close to a 20 minute stadium. Plus it was hot. So that's good?

Went to intervals in Fenway because I had evening commitments (of course it's the coolest afternoon of the week, but still). With NP people, and they do a weird thing which is to hang out and not jog in between laps. This took some getting used to, by which I mean full or partial laps to try to get the timing right. Not sure it's the best way to do intervals, but it was today.

4-8-12-12-8-4: 78-170-260-260-170-70

Didn't time it well (getting this off of Strava) and apparently that track is long so we were stopping slightly short. Also my legs felt very heavy at the start from the weekend, hmm, I wonder why.