Training Log Archive: Ari-o

Figured I should at least run a trail before 7S. Did the easier loops at Blue Hills (woods looked so nice!), only a few wet spots (one deep one I went in right near the end trying to rockhop) and pushed the downhills. Ready? More than 1000' of climb in 10 miles today. So, maybe a third of what 7S promises.

A couple of notes.

1) I can park down on Unquity and just jump right on to yellow next time.
2) I think the yellow KOM is gettable: 2 minutes faster than my PR over 4 miles.

Later run across the Longfellow to check on busing operations. Then down Commonwealth with the microclimate magnolias out (north side in bloom, south side bare). Lots of people on the Common, so many in the public garden I ran around the bridge, then lots by Fenway after the game.

Long day head, what better way than to go to NP after a poor night's sleep? Well, it went okay. Did bonus stairs every time, ran every step (no two-stepping, quick feet), and generally went reasonably hard. With 237 steps and four flights, I was close enough to 1000 that I went down 54 to make sure I hit the round number.

Bike ride to NP.

Pretty okay day of orienteering today, legs definitely fresher. Made a couple of mistakes, notably both times crossing the road but beat Alex by 5 seconds.

Park-O - Splits

Dropped off car for tire changeover (and as it turns out, broken springs, so all the money) and ran home 8s in to the wind. Felt okay for the first time on pavement since the marathon.

It's April 22. It's a week after the marathon. There's still skiing. The word was to ski Prospect early, so I picked up Alex at 5:45 for the drive out and we were skiing before 8:30.

Rather than fussing with wax/klister, we just skated, not wanting to waste the good snow. They were finishing up grooming and the skiing was superb. Mid-winter conditions, full coverage except for a bit up the mountain, and deep, deep snow. The first hour was otherworldly. We skied around and around, with Alex's knee bothering her a bit, and then on to the beaver pond where several laps were so much fun. All smiles.

Then back on to the trails and up the mountain, which was still quite good, although coming down was a bit death cookie-y until we found our way to turn on the sides of the trail. Back around to the beaver pond, with me thinking I'd be good with 16 or 17 miles, not the marathon I'd hoped, but it was getting slow fast.

We got to the ungroomed portion of the Mountain Trail and I decided to follow another guy up (he quickly turned back, it turns out) while Alex didn't want to torture her knee too much more. Once over the mountain and back in I was at 21 miles, and starving, but I wasn't stopping at 21 miles. I ate a sandwich and skied 5.2 miles further, ready to call it a day. I decided it wasn't worth switching to AT gear to slide down in slush; it wasn't corny but slow slush. I'll save that for next weekend, maybe.

April 22. The guy at the shop said "who else is grooming with a big machine?" I said: well, some folks out west (Bachelor, definitely), probably someone up in the UP, maybe the Birkie Trail? But that's about it. They should groom tomorrow. Most likely, this is the last nordic ski of the season. It wasn't too shabby!

C • Craftsbury 2

Bike ride out to Winchester and Lexington. Hit all the lights, biked with a commuter up MVP taking pulls which was nice (it was windy, all week would have been a tailwind after the marathon), then up the hills, around to the bike path, and on to the bike path. Now with the wind held down some faster times in to Arlington.

In to the Stroller Slalom, a woman was walking her small dog ahead of me on a retractable lease. I gave warning, went to pass, slowed down, and dog darted right in front of me. I slammed on the brakes and missed it by a couple of feet. I said something and she was incredulous that I'd almost run in front of me. I let her know that it would have been traumatic for me to have hit her dog, and she really should be more careful.

She told me I didn't own the bike path.

I tried to deescalate. I didn't say "that's right, it's a bike path, not let your dog run in front of people path" even though it was the truth. I said "please keep your dog under control so that someone doesn't hit it" and she gave me lip again and I biked away.

But seriously, if you know your dog is going to jump in front of anything that moves, maybe keep the leash shorter when you're on the bike path?

C • I hate 2

Park-O on the last day of DOMS. Running hurt, but at least I could run. Didn't run fast, and within about 3 controls my feet were wet from the Danehy runoff. But on the other hand, I mostly ran cleanly, made some good route choices (although I should have gone below the hill around the track) and have no lasting marathon injuries, yet.

Park-O - Splits

DOMS.

But actually, things are going pretty well. Not sick. Not injured, although I won't really know until the DOMS goes down and I can assess whether there is injury masked my it. Hoping to Park-O tomorrow (probably not fast) and ski this weekend.

Yes, ski. Ski!

Boston!

Good taper and then … not so good weather. Sunday was raw and snowing with a headwind. Monday was the same weather, except instead of light snow it was torrential downpours. By the way, it's the middle of April. (Tuesday? 45 and dry with a tailwind.)

Downtown, then out to Hopkinton on a not-too-warm bus. I found my way to the charity building (#protip: raise $1000 for a charity and you get a bougie building to hang out in, with plenty of bathrooms, food, drinks, etc) and stayed there until 20 minutes before the start. Bringing throwaway shoes (old shoes with holes in the bottom) was a smart idea, although my feet were still wet by the start. Found my corral, got inside with time to spare, but didn't use the bathroom right at the start (but had 15 minutes before).

Started out without pushing too hard. But under 7 minutes, and was pushing enough to stay warm without pushing my legs. After a couple of miles I spotted a fellow NPer who I met in Chicago last year, and ran for a couple of miles with him, but the urge to go got more and more, so I peeled off to a restroom. Probably a good choice, but I should have gone pre-race. Turns out that when it's pouring rain and your body doesn't sweat, it keeps putting liquid in your bladder. Good to know. Tossed my long sleeve shirt here, too. It was wet and heavy, and I was warm. It really wasn't that cold. The rain and wind were worse. Although I maybe should have worn a thin ibex shirt under the singlet, but that may have gotten wet. The Darn Tough socks repurposed as arm warmers, however, were great.

Rain came in spurts, at times it was light, at times it was downpouring. Feet were soaked the whole way through, but calluses held up. HR mostly low L3, working to stay warm and not go too hard. Lots of cheers through Mile 18 from November Project, and felt pretty good up the hills. Hill miles 7:07-7:27.

Then as usual my legs were pretty well shot on the downhills. I maintained 7s but not faster. I was able to push a bit down Boylston Street but couldn't muster a real kick. Finished in 3:02:17, which probably requals me for next year, but who knows. I think that the BAA should allow anyone who lives in Massachusetts and runs a BQ time in the Boston Marathon to enter without worrying about the cutoff. They already do this for 10-year streakers. It would maybe affect 100 people. As a friend from out-of-state points out: you all pay taxes there!

The only issue with the race was, once again, bag pickup. It wasn't as long a walk, but the lines at the tents were intense. I was the 2000th (or so) finisher, and the lines were already long, with 5000 more in Wave 1 behind me. We were huddled for warmth as the rain poured down, yet 3/4 of the booths (and the volunteers there) were empty and the red bib booths beyond chaotic. I spotted my bag in the pile and yelled to a volunteer "the bag with the yellow backpack" and he grabbed it for me.

I have thoughts about this, but I think that this would be optimized by sorting the bags at first by the last number in a runners' bib. So instead of delivering your bag based on wave, you'd go to the number corresponding with the last number of your bib. They could have signs like "00008" to guide people.

C • Wins 1

Running around with NP/Janji kids. I was on the 3 mile run and we went out last, I started chatting with Eric, and the realized we were running towards Andrew instead of Ink Block. I stopped our group and then led the way the right way, so we were adding a bit. Then we realized everyone else on the longer runs was lost and following us.

From there I said let's not do an out-and-back so we looped back to South Station and long FP Channel. Saw Terry on the way to bibs, where I went next!

Went over to the MIT track to run 4x800s, at the Yasso pace, so 3:00.

4x800s, nice morning on the track.

Garmin/Strava is doing a weird thing with my HR; I think I looked at it early on when Strava says it was 180 and it certainly wasn't.

Anyway, 3:04, 3:01, 3:02, 2:59, starting from a different corner each time. First two finished on curves, second two on straightaways. HR was relaxed, nice L3 156, although I pushed it to 160+ at the end of the last interval to go sub-3 on that one.

Plan for Boston: try to stay near 150 until Lower Falls.

Went for a run, chilly, but wanted to see if there was a line at Free Cone Day in Harvard. There was quite a line, and I was late, so I ran home. Then my dad said there were only 10 people in line in the Seaport. Next year.

Short pick ups along the river, and an L3 sprint to make a traffic light.

Quick run around the river. Haven't been doing many 3.5s recently. #Taperfest

Janji run. Garmin would not wake up; had to power cycle it at the mural we ran to under 93, so grabbed someone else's track for the full workout. Lindsay and I said we'd seen the map enough to know where to go (they didn't print maps today) and this was mostly true, although at first we tried to run people through traffic at Sullivan Square. But then we remembered a jog back and forth to Inman, for the right distance.

Felt mostly fine out running 7:30s or a bit better. Hey, last year I ran a 50k 8 days before my spring marathon and PRed!

I proceeded to run 5.6 miles the next 6 days. I should probably try that this week.

Feeling super sluggish at NP. Perhaps it was the cold, or the cold legs from Wednesday. After 35 minutes called it.

Dry clothes, but still got very cold on the way home, as it was in the 20s. Could have used a few more layers.

After deciding intervals in 35˚ rain was probably bad for my health, I did stairs in 40˚ fog. Workout was a half VM, or a vertical 800, 57 sections. I went hard but not sprint hard, big steps down mostly, keeping in L3 most of the way with a couple of short recoveries. Felt good, finished 50 sections in about 37 minutes which is close to a PR, then finished 57 in under 42, so one minute per half stadium under the VM pace.

Off to November Project! We were supposed to wear orange, so I ran around looking for orange clothing (orange NP wifebeater not found, but lots of other orange clothes) and was running late, so I ran.

20 minutes out of bed, I can manage a 7 minute mile and my heart rate would not go above 140, or it was way too early to push it any harder. L3 comes later in the day, I guess, but if I can run that pace at L2 maybe I can run the marathon at L2?

(A little running around once there slowed it down)

Some very silly NP indeed, and NP I am going to feel in the morning.

And then 7 minutes of burpies, but I was chatting with (/being chatted at by) Diana and lost count, but not too many.

Ran home, the first bit with Maya Fe, who kept me company as there was no one going to Cambridge. I could have taken the T but have to get my miles in!

Hey Alex do you like skiing? Do you want to go to Dublin on Monday afternoon? You do? Great!

And so the adventure begins.

Took longer than planned at school and wound up sprinting down Magazine to catch the 91, barely, over to Sullivan. Ran across traffic, jumped in the Alexmobile, and we were off to 93 at 2:02, and rolled in to Dublin 1:35 later. I'd forgotten my gloves.

This was good. Except the gloves.

The skiing was pretty good, too, for April. Not 10" of snow on the Birkie Trail good, but we can't all be so lucky.

We found a groomer track and followed it. Some of the trails had been groomed and were better. There were definitely some bare spots, including one we had to jump, and some of the trails were grass. But enough continuous cover to be very nice. Pretty fast, too, especially once the sun went a bit lower.

After 45 minutes Alex announced she was skiing intervals and that I shouldn't because marathon. So I grabbed a drink of water and then followed her down the trail over the bit of grass to jump. I planted my poles, jumped, and stuck my skis enough on the grass that the skis stopped. I didn't. I faceplanted in to the snow/ice, bopped my noggin, and started bleeding out my lip. Luckily there was a lot of snow to stanch the bleeding and after spitting some blood on the trail I got up and carried on.

Of course, now my fingers were a bit bruised and my hands were cold, so some no poles with socks on to get the hands warm (yes, extra socks, no gloves) and found Alex to explain my predicament.

She wasn't doing intervals because she couldn't get her HR up, or something, and so we skied around for a while longer and retired after 2 blissful hours of skiing (except, of course, for the falling part) and headed back, talking of more afternoon adventures to come. #gradschoollife #adulting

Quick run on a nice afternoon, until some guy blew by a pedestrian and I almost slammed in to the side of his car (my hands certainly did).