Training Log Archive: Ari-o

Not high expectations about stairs today with my knee still in recovery, but I dreamt about the stadium (the dream was weird) so I figured I'd give it a go.

Started off and the knee felt good, so I ran the big steps up and down. 10 sections in the knee had a few feels, but wasn't really bad, so kept going, HR around 160 so getting in to L4. Hit the middle on definite PR pace, HR in the high 160s to 170, dropped a t-shirt at 17, water bottle at 3, HR 172-174. It was warm—50—but not hot. I realized that I thought my PR was 23:22 but couldn't quite remember. Finished hard on the last section having positive split a bit but still 23:06. Which is a PR.

Tom Stark ran a 17:21. That's 1831m of climb and descent per hour, or 0.5m/s. I won't be seeing that any time soon.

Progression:

6/6/12 32:00
7/25/12 29:32 -2:28
7/31/13 28:32 -1:00
10/30/13 27:00 -1:32
4/30/14 25:35 -1:25
10/29/14 24:19 -1:14
11/30/16 24:10 -0:09
4/27/17 23:22 -0:48
11/29/17 23:06 -0:16

Ski after class and getting some work done. 30s, dry, really nice. Headed out thinking of going to Hartwell but got there and said the hell with it, off to Bedford. Light came out in Lexington and was turned up in Arlington, but I'm a couple generations of light in to the future and dark rollerskiing on the bike path, while not exactly fun, is totally doable.

Felt pretty good, did some speeds, and knee feels mostly fine. Now, hoping for a bit of snow in WYS/BZN for this weekend …

Running, and some walking, between burpiees. Yes, November Project.

30 Burpies * 3.

Year five of #np_NYC

7:00: Leave 121st and Morningside
7:09: D train, right on schedule, to 34th at 7:23
7:29: Q train
7:47: Prospect Park

Not bad! Cold morning, but warming up in a warm jacket helped. ITB felt okay, better once warmed up.

Great race in NYC! Got enough sleep, got bibs in the AM with plenty of time, then a good warm up. My sister and myself had to worm our way to the start line, and did so, mostly, and the one major complaint was that the start was unseeded, so there were walkers on the start line on a narrow road. Come on guys, don't do this. We hopped in about 6 rows back, gun went off, and we ran smack in to the back of a walker.

Races need to take care of this before someone gets hurt.

Anyway, I went out pretty fast, going sub-6 for the first mile, but ITB conspired and I didn't push as hard as maybe I should have. Didn't help that I left my HRM in Boson so I couldn't quite tell how hard I was pushing and how hard I had left to push. So, fine, 6:20s or so; didn't make sub-30 minutes but there was a big hill and I'm injured, finished 20th of ~1000 men and not much more injured.

Then Jeremy and I waited for my sister. (He procrastinated and the race filled, learning a lesson; still, early-reg is $25 and you get a nice hat with a big pompom.) First woman came in at 32, second about 30 seconds later, and then I see a short person in my sister's singlet—holy shit my sister is third! So she finished, out of screaming range (but we were both pretty speechless) and they took her picture and gave her a pie which is too bad because she is GF and so basically I get more pie.

Great race, warm place to warm up at the end, well run mostly, 5m, so worth doing (like, not a 5k), beautiful course, and an easy subway ride. We got on the train with a pair of brother NESCAC CCers (or recently-graduated) who were 2-3, or as someone said "half the pies in the race are on this Q train."

Now, to eat all the food.

NP, mostly to see friends, and it was great. We started finding people and going at a conversational pace, which was excellent for my knee. Had some feels, but no pain. Conversational was fine, although apparently I ran (hiked?) someone in to the ground.

Then they told us for the last 5 minutes we were going all out. And I went all-out, up, anyway, and my legs felt okay! L1 for the first, then some nice L3. Wound up with 36 sections, so that's okay.

Oh, orienteering.

Should I have run this race? Probably not. IT band wasn't up for it.

Did I want to miss the Traverse? Certainly not! So I showed up (30 minutes to the start, door to door), got ready, and ran.

First control following was rough going through some greenbriar, but the second and third were better. The third Violeta and I overran; the vegetation on these maps is useless. Then it was off to Control 4. I had a route and was determined to race it well: it's a small race this year and I had a chance to finish well. I knew the downhill well, too, and was ready to move on it, hoping my leg would allow it. First couple miles had been nicely near threshold, and I was feeling good.

So up to the pass, down the trail, left off a bend to the right, contour to the control. But, no control. And no other people. Looked around, tried to make the map make sense, and I had taken the wrong trail and gone fast enough I hadn't noticed what didn't make sense.

There went 10 minutes. And my IT band hurt.

So the rest was mostly walking, some running, and mostly good navigating. I thought about just walking it in a couple times but after a frontal passage and temperature dropping 10˚ it was much more pleasant. I passed some folks, walked down a lot of hills, and then had to sprint for the finish. Less than an hour behind Vilpuu, which was not bad given my mistakes and my not being able to run.

One day I'll figure this sport out and not be broken.

Traverse - Splits

The boys have been skiing something for a while called "The Boys Loop" which, it turns out, is just heading down to Vaughn Hill, which is great. The boys needed a little guidance on which side of the road to be on but got better after being gently reminded that it was the right side. Came up with a couple of new rhymes:

"wheels on the grass, you've saved your ass"
"wheels where you'd put a ferrule, smushed like a squirrel" (we saw a recently-smushed squirrel)

Anyway, someone lost a tip along 110, and was able to shove a new one on (New invention Ed: handwarmers which you can crack and use to warm up poles/glue for tips mid-ski). There's an extension in to a cemetery with decent pavement, the boys played tag while I ate shit on the warm up (fell on my bottom, which is fine but will have a nice bruise).

Then the rest of the roll across Vaughn Hill and out the rest of the loop, including Depot Extension. I got a little bonky near the end.

Here's the 100k potential loop (I'd have to scout about 15 of it). This could happen!

No time today (and a little too hungover to roll this morning) so with a little more than an hour free I went down to ski along the river. It's not bad! The path is repaved and with a headwind I can get V2 intervals "uphill" in to the wind. And it's a 7 minute ski from my house, I could do this again …

Nice roll out along the bike path again before class. Leg feeling much better. Lots of calf stretching.

Oh I remembered that stretching the eff out of my calf helps the ITB issue. Will continue doing that, and try to rollerski some this week in lieu of any running with the hope of running the Highlander on Sunday successfully.

Signed up for Traverse. Now, to nurse the ITB …

Out for a quick warm-up with Kryz … it's cold. Most of the ponds are frozen. More good O terrain.

Upton trail race. I had a credit from last spring so the total entry was under $20. How could I not run it! Sure, my IT band was unhappy, but when has that ever stopped me from being stupid.

Felt good for the first mile or so. Patrick Caron was way off the front, but he's really good. Then about two miles in, big downhill, start feeling the ITB. It was basically fine on uphills, but I couldn't push anything flat or down. So this led to a fartlek workout: pushing the uphills, because I was rested and could, and jogging the downhills and flats, because anything more felt pretty ugly. So I'd spike my HR in to L3 on the hills, and then have it collapse right down. Running in the cold felt great though.

Second lap I fell in with people who were going about the same pace overall. I'd charge by them on the uphills and then explain they should let me know on singletrack downhills because I could barely run down. I also knew there was about 100m of climb in the second to last mile (two lap race), so when we got there, I charged up those hills, and then pushed hard enough on the down I didn't see anyone. Too bad I couldn't gain those minutes on the flats, though.

ITB hurts, but not too bad. Lots of rolling this week. Both with foam and on skis. Goal is leg recovery for the Traverse on Sunday. If I can orienteer as well as last week, it will be fun!

Days colder than 24˚ in Boston on 11/11 or earlier since 1872 (period of record):

1878: 1
1879: 3
2017: 1

And in 2017, it was the day of the NENSA coaching clinic, so we stood in the cold and wind for three hours doing rollerski drills.

I had all the layers. We survived.

Up to Portland to pick up my AT skis, then to Bradbury for a run with Jess. (Woo, day off!) It was quite cold, getting late, and my IT band is still unhappy. Bradbury is gorgeous, though, and would make for some fun O terrain.

With it getting dark early, I decided maybe it would be fun to ski out to South Acton or Littleton and take the train home. So I tried out out. Train to Alewife, out the bike path. Bike path is wicked nice, and repaved west of Lexington! But getting through Concord is a mess. Route 62 is unfun, as are the other roads through Concord and West Concord. If they could build the Reformatory trail (currently programmed for 2022, because bikes don't matter) it would make it much nicer/safer. The last few miles to South Action were fine, but it's not worth it even to maximize daylight. I'll either drive to Littleton or ski the bike path (22 miles rt).

Got bonky near the end, called it quits at South Acton. Train to Waltham, card reader broken on the 70, so no bus fare, but a 20 minute headway and a long ride.

Well, the ITB is regressing. Started hurting quickly today. Made it through 13 sections and had to call it quits. No bueno.

Longfellow run. Nice evening, a few short pick ups. Then the ITB started to hurt again and I pushed through it because I wanted to go spend the money at Whole Paycheck and was hungry.

Temperature just fell through 60˚ and doesn't look to go above for a while.

Forecast for Craftsbury:
39-22
43-26
45-20
26-14
30-19

I will now repeat the mantra "I will not drive an obscene distance to ski manmade snow."

C • Snowmaking 2

11:11
1 mile
110 feet of elevaftion

A very binary training session!

Quick warm-up with Alex.

So Alex texted me at about 10 last night if I wanted to go to Baldwin Hill today. I was at a school event (formal, i.e., free drinks) and said sure, extra hour and all. Free Red Line home, bed, woke up about 7:30 (new time) only a little hungover. Email at 8:15 from Alex, I responded yes I want to go. Email at 8:30 from Alex to be at Barb's in 20 minutes.

Well, that escalated quickly. Luckily Barb lives a 4 minute walk away.

Alex also said we were doing Orange and then Red, and that Orange was easy. Orange was not easy. I navigated and ran the first five controls well, attempting to chase Alex, and then from 5 to 6 went a bit too far south (the lots of extra water features today didn't help). Linear features my foot! I made a huge parallel error, looked around for a while somewhere that looked very similar to where I was, went the wrong way, then finally realized my mistake. 8 minutes. And I lost the race to Alex by … 8 minutes.

The rest of the race was fine. And I got to see a lot more of the terrain than I bargained for.

After the orange experience, I was determined to run well on red. (Also, the colors. Ugh.)

Started out with very little cool-down, a couple of minutes after Alex. Ran well to 1, spiked.
Ran low to 2, good route choice, very runnable. Spike.
3, spike.
4, up the hill, maintain contact, spike.
5, using the parallel features from earlier, spike. And I saw Alex running back to the control (she'd gone to 11).
6 I took a weird route through green, and punched just ahead of Alex (navigated the circle well).
7 went low, then came back, using the map well (hill, reentrant, rocks, big rock).
With Alex to 8, mostly, she was using a compass, I was using terrain. We both wound up north a bit and I ran in just ahead of her. (Me: "ugh." Alex: "Make a plan, and follow it."
9 was tough terrain and she led in to the last bit, lots of extra lakes today.
10 I ran well, handrailing off the stone wall to the corner, then using the rocks to lead me to the control. Spike.
11 was a long leg but manageable. Mentioned to Alex that this was the battle of the micro route choices (I want to see her strava track for flyby). I took the stone wall to the end of the bendy part, avoiding most green, then went east. No Alex. Spike. Alex on the way out.
12 Make a plan and follow it. Down the stone wall, cross the stream. Oh, a rocky hill, map contact. Oh, an Alex. And somewhere, a control.
13 Definitely worth dropping down and running along the wall. Super easy attack to the big rock.
14 cross the stream and run the trail. Hesitation to the control (wrong rock)
Bash to finish.

No big mistakes. Only really little mistakes. Contact. Flow. Fun. This is what I want every orienteering session to feel like.

(Oh, I beat Alex by 4 minutes and Vilppu by 1, Alex beat my overall time but we tied on number of races won.)

The Strava flyby of this is amazing.

And after 8 miles of O and one on trails, my IT band only hurts a little.

Orange - Splits

Red - Splits

Rolling over to the 57 for the trip to Littleton via Newton.

Nice ski with Frank and four juniors. Up Oak Hill, down to Harvard, then some discussion of where to go that I missed but I was hoping it was Bare Hill and not Fruitlands and it was. No chip seal! During that discussion someone came to a hard stop at a stop sign because they saw rollerskiers out of the corner of their eye. We laughed at them but they appeared to be laughing too.

So then the cruise down 110, the climb up Bare Hill, and the rest of the way in was nice. That's a real hill up Bare Hill! A few drills, but mostly cruising speed, which was mostly high L1.

30 burpies, 30 box jumps

Ran the front hills pretty hard. Knee mostly felt good, so put in 5 miles. Negative splits: 3:43, 3:35, 3:30, 3:25.

Rest of the hills were more recovery-y, although I did push up the short hills some. Legs felt good enough for a fourth front hill after three full others. Happy with this.

Out to ski the bike path again. Skied down to Central, straight on to a train, and a nice if warm day for skiing out in Arlington. Arlington needs to sweep the path, though; the dry leaves were treacherous, I can't imagine it wet. Lexington was better. Only had time to climb to the top of the hill in Lexington, then back, right on to a train. 1:50 door to door of which 1:12 was skiing (not even including 4 or 5 minutes from my house to and from Central); not bad!

Went to run stairs, hard up, easy down, and felt good, but my knee started having feels after 20 sections.

10 sections, slowly, some sidewise.