Training Log Archive: Ari-o

Well if AP thinks this is a trail run, who am I to argue.

Went out to Greylock because it's within the arbitrary boundaries which covid can not cross. We can't go to New Hampshire, but we can eat indoors in a restaurant in Massachusetts. Because science! Anyway, seemed like a good idea. Instead of running the half, new trails, a loop on the west side, which is apparently a glacial cirque? Okay then.

Mel almost got pulled over going 85; she pulled right to the right and the cop who had pulled out behind us went right by. Maybe to give us a scare? We stopped for an overpriced Egg McMuffin on the Pike ($4.25!) but worth it. Got out to the trailhead and the sun wasn't up above the ridge. Woods were so open, would be great O (but big hills) and the trail was somewhat wet. Mel's legs have been giving her trouble, so this turned into more of a hike than planned, although we went up the Hopper at a pretty good clip.

Then onto familiar terrain and across the closed-to-traffic road. I had some moderate FOMO over not bringing my rollerskis. I am mostly okay with it because I don't know how the logistics would work with rollerskiing: it would be a long walk down. But so inviting!

Then down Dynamite and back up to the AT. The AT was snowy and icy in places; Mel was going slower and without the hill my hands were getting cold, so I ran ahead a couple of times to get warm(er). The summit was a bit more crowded and then we headed down Thunderbolt/AT north. This was familiar! We turned off onto the AT again and were not moving too fast, but it was warmer and the sun was coming through the trees (beautiful cloudless day all day) and then went over Mount Prospect and down.

This last trail was a mess: loose oak leaves over ledges. Curse words were said. Spills were taken, mostly controlled. Finally, a rockhop of Money Brook and a walk out. One of us on two useful legs, the other limping on what might be her last long run/hike of the season. So we need some snow.

Greylock is nice; there would be some great long loop/figure 8 hikes over it too.

But then barbecue was procured in Sturbridge on the way home!

Bike path rollerski. Didn't want to drive far (or really deal with cars), and from Chucktown, Arlington is an 18 minute drive and avoids stroller slalom. Procrastinated and got a late start so brought a headlamp, but actually timed it kind of perfectly: it wasn't too busy after the first 30m (when I was mostly double poling) but I only needed the headlamp for the last 10m. It was also a bit wet even but dried out during the ski. The last 10m with a headlamp were surprisingly fine, so I might do a bit of headlamp rolling this week if I can't get my rear out the door early a couple of days. But I would like real snow or even fake snow (might be another week or so for that, alas).

Up to Willowdale to find new trails. I thought maybe we could find the route of the Stonecat, but not all the trails are on the state's map (they are all on Strava, it turns out). So we only covered a corner of the park.

We ran some flat things, went in some loops, without sun and a compass had very little idea where we were, but then found some super nice flowy singletrack bike trail which we ran a few times. This also had hills. We should have gone in but decided on one more lap.

Well, on the very end of the very last downhill, Mel took a spill, right in front of me. She hit her head on a branch, not very hard, but enough to draw blood. She didn't lose consciousness, and giving me medical advice (brain doctor) and we walked the rest of the way out. No sutures/staples needed, and she's on the mend, but we learned she should probably keep her blood sugar up and if we are tired we should go in.

Stonecat seems like it would be fun.

Rain, then lots of food. Late, short, heavy, slow run.

Run to Cambridge to get O stuff.

Mel wanted to go orienteering, but then had a big lunch, so it was walking orienteering. We found some features! She seems to get the map reading part, we're working on the compass.

Evening jog after a stupid, stupid long call that I was not happy about. It's easier to run a straight line over Bunker Hill than Breed's Hill, but I could do a figure 8 of sorts.

I am over 99km D+ for the year, and just shy of 1900 miles.

If nothing else, covid has given me good training miles.

Out to not Traverse Blue Hills on Traverse Day, but do some trail stuff (I forgot my maps, but the woods look very inviting!). Starting with hiking because Mel's friends did not get the message that this was running, but that was fine; I walked us up some hills at least.

Then a pretty mellow trail run, cool and dry, felt like November, and a heck of a lot drier than a year ago. But no controls in the woods! The woods looked so nice, I will go find my maps.

Mel wanted skis, so we went out to Bikeway Source to see Dr. Li. She wound up with a nice "first year high school racer" setup, on a Pilot setup because a) she has tiny feet and those were the boots that fit best and b) he was willing to let it go for way cheaper. If she gets into racing (she says she won't but maybe I'll take her to World Championships some day and see) maybe she'll upgrade but for now pilots are fine.

Anyway, I needed to go to my house to get my rollerskis and was going to meet her there. 60˚ and cloudy, not a bad day to ski! But how to get to the Bikeway, since I didn't really want to ski through Cambridge streets? Drive and have to get my car later? Ride a bike share? Oh, wait, the Red Line! Train in 7 minutes. So I skied down and took the Red Line, like in the old days!

It was fine, a dozen or so on my car and most got off at Harvard. And then I got off at Alewife and skied out. Lots of DPing through Stroller Slalom and out through Arlington, then some nice skiing on up to Bedford. One point where a dinkus on a bike yelled at a car making a U-turn in Arlington, which I would have been pissed about except we were crossing against the light and the driver wasn't driving at all dangerously. Anyway, a lovely ski, but I want to real ski.

Kind of a fartlek around Chas, around the monument some, then over Bunker Hill, up and down some stairs, and then a lap of the track. 5:59 400, which felt harder than it should but I just ran into it. Had to run home to jump back on a conference. This week has been not great for training. Next week should be better.

C • Training week 3

Run around the river. Cold! This is a nice run because it doesn't cross any roads. Ran out one of the piers and back.

Fitting in a run home from having been conscripted to haul furniture up a flight of stairs. But it might be an office I can use every so often.

Dropped a 6:50 mile at one point which felt great. I should go find a track and run around it some day.

Stopped to take pictures a couple of times since I had my phone, then ran over Bunker Hill and was back just in time for my meeting.

Already in JP so down to the Blue Hills. Ran Blue Hills East which was good since it is closed M-Th for the next couple of weeks for archery hunting (no shotgun hunt this year, and nothing in Blue Hills West). Didn't have a map with me so just sort of ran by feel, wound up by Chickatawbut, and then turned back on Skyline but that was too rocky so I went down the hill and took the lowland trails back to the car with a little joggle at the end. Really nice evening, saw three other parties.

The Bouncing Brook-Wompatuck Path could probably be groomed with 6" of snow. I had no idea there were so many named paths on the BH trail map! The usual O map does not have those.

Looks like no Traverse this year.

Fells run with Mel, cool and cloudy but dry trails, and crowded.

Asked one biker to please not bike on the skyline trail, he said something like "you make a nice park ranger" in a very patronizing way and I kind of let him have it. It was clear he knew what he was doing. Otherwise a nice run.

Scouting a loop near my uncle's house, returning along the lake by linking a series of dirt roads which don't quite connect, but following the power line between them.

Waiting for a washer to be delivered + rain when I could have rollerskied meant this was going to be a fat run but then I got going further and did some telephone pole sprints.

Nice to be running in chilly weather again even if my stomach was feeling a bit weird. Dark the whole way, no cars.

I am assuming there is no Blue Hills Traverse this year, even with BYOM. Sad. Might have to break out an old map and run one anyway.

Afternoon hike on Veterans Day with Mel and Jess. Chocorua, because close, and on the way home for Mel, and on the way back for Jess to give me a ride. In the afternoon, because the weather was worse (but we both had morning calls). I may have been up Chocorua once before many years ago, but it's sort of no man's land for me, but quite nice. Not crowded today, either.

First couple miles were runnable and nice up the trail, then it got steeper, with nice views off of some ledges. Foggy and windy on top, as expected, and the rain started right on our way down. Slowed up by some slick ledges for a while, but the last couple miles were nice running. I stepped in a stream with a mile to go, so didn't care.

Total fat run. Very warm.

Run in the dark, but with poles and bounding! Bounding feels almost good, I remember now. Especially after. Five trips up the steep bit of the shorter hill here. Hadn't done a great job of eating enough earlier in the day but made it through with some late-arriving cheez-its.

Will need to do more bounding, it felt good, but I have done so little intensity. Of course, it's not like there is anything to train for.

Hard to decide if this was loggable … it was a lovely day and we went for a walk and it was definitely walking pace and some of it had some routefinding and … I'll take it I guess.

Added a mile going down a nice road which would have probably led back but which had some pretty menacing no trespassing signs and a camera. Lots of stuff out back in the woods which was straight out of horror films. And a half mile of crossing a logged area which wasn't great, but otherwise a nice loop. Not really worth running, alas.

Northern Presis day, with Mel, quite a bit with Lincoln, and seeing Jess in passing. We got there early and headed up Watson, which is steep (1600 feet per mile for a mile) and then the summit of Madison was very windy and built character. Down to the hut where we found Lincoln, and we skipped Adams because the Gulfside is nice (after a side trip to Star Lake), I forgot to restart my watch which again shows that I should never stop my watch because I am way too ADD. Then on to Jefferson, where at the summit we found out the election race had been called. Celebrations were had.

Then down Randolph which was snowy for a while on top and tedious, but nice further down. Saw exactly no one on Randolph, and maybe two dozen people the rest of the day. Nice and quiet up there! Still and all the Northern Presis are never easy, never fast, and never disappoint.

Afternoon/evening run before sunset. Warm, but not hot, with the sun going down. Had I gotten out earlier I would have run the figure 8, this was still a nice over and back. 32m up Pleasant, pushing pretty well. First mile of descent was a bit leafy and wet but the second mile perfect running trail, then a couple on roads, then up the other side. Got dark for the descent which was slow with the leaves. Caught a party navigating by cell phone light right at the end.

Easy rollerski on the nearby road. 2.5 miles out to the end of good pavement on Hio Ridge, can't make the turn down to the lake off of it at 25 mph. Then down that hill to the lake, which would be way sketchier if it wasn't brand new pavement. But it is! So a nice roll along Moose Pond, with some rolls, and then a mile-long, 80m climb. Hadn't taken water and it was way warmer, but after a couple of weeks it's good to get my ski legs under me.

Destress run. Cold!

Low Pemi Loop. Mel wanted to do this, weather looked good, extra hour of sleep, so we started around 8.

First 7 miles or so were great, running uphill, but then her knee went twang. Responsible adults would have said "hmm, maybe we should reassess and turn back" but then it got a bit better and we said "onwards!"

Onwards included a couple of rough river crossings, one which required taking our shoes off. The water was cold (there was snow on the Shoal Pond Trail). Then up the Shoal Pond Trail and her knee did not get better, but we had made our bed, and got to sleep in it. Decided not to split up (she could have hiked out the Zool trail) and struggle-bused down the Thoreau Falls Trail, which was lovely (even during a dry spell, Shoal Pond is wet). Her struggle busing was lifting her left leg over every log, mine was keeping warm given the pace. So I did a couple of sprints back and forth to keep warm.

Saw one guy on the TFT who confirmed the Thoreau Falls Bridge had been removed but said it was an easy rock hop. And it was … for me. I did it three times while Mel scouted (we have to work on her rock hopping skills) and eventually waded the river. At least it was reasonably good trail the rest of the way out, and between us we had two dry feet (mine). Weather held, and the first rain drops fell as we got to the parking lot. Snowing on the Kanc as we came home.