Training Log Archive: Ari-o

So in October I did 31-32 pullups a day. What should my challenge be for November?

Went on run to North Station to see the carnage of people going up to Hallowe'en in Salem but it was disappointingly orderly. Ran across the dam, around Paul Revere Park a bit, then back up Main Street. Just shy of Lafayette Square I tripped over a crack in the sidewalk and ate shit on the concrete. Fell on big areas so nothing broken (toe may be unhappy for a few days) then limped to the grocery store. Boo.

C • dude 1

Ooh, Randolph Ramble! I wanted to run this last year but had conflicts, but was super excited to this year. The weather was … perfect, for a Coös County trail race. It had snowed about a foot on Friday and then melted a lot by Sunday so it was wet leaves at the base but a lot snowier up top.

They were selling demo Salomon shoes for $25 in my size, so I bought two pairs and ran in one (big grippy bottoms seemed about right for this; spikes would have helped). I went moderately hard up the uphill but stayed with JP who was slipping more; I probably could have gone faster here but did have the HR > 160 so I was working. Up top, the running alternated between treacherous and amazing. Treacherous where it was slidey slush and mud, amazing where it was packed snow (or fresh snow on the side of the trail) and you could lay out.

Starting down off Mount Crescent I went slower since my right ankle wasn't feeling great (I should probably be taping it for every race) and then, right after I'd landed a beautiful move off some rocks, I turned it a bit on something easy. This led to some slow times down the steeps and a bunch of people passing, and then standing in a cold stream for a few seconds to numb it up. Once I got to the last mile on a sled trail, though, it felt better and I had energy to push, so I reeled someone in.

This race is wicked hard and even funner than it is hard.

C • funner than it is hard 2

Went out to scout the potential for a woodsy cut-through for the end of my trail race next weekend. The woods are nice and open, but the footing pretty sketchy. Of course, it was pretty wet, too. But it's only 0.25 miles and half-ish of the route is already flagged (sort of) so it wouldn't be terrible. I'll just have to find some surveyor's tape. Next Saturday will be fun: wake up at sunrise, run the course, marking where necessary, then run the course again if I can find enough volunteers.

Raining for NP today. Nice. Hubwayed over and trudged up the hill with a bag of clothes, computer, notes, etc. Ran just little back hills, going hard on the steep block and easy the rest. Legs have felt the last couple of days. Then gave my bag to Harry and ran to Brighton.

Another trip up the bike path to Lexington. Didn't get going quite as early as I'd wanted but skidded on my ski boots right on to a train. DP to Mal's, no poles to the turn, then V2A (mostly) back downhill. IOW, 6-somethings to the turn, 4-something down.

Also, it was in the low 30s. That's cold!

They're finally doing something to Arlington Square. Final coat of pavement is down. Should be less shit-showy soon.

PR Day. I didn't quite make it: 8 seconds off. Legs may have still been a bit tired from Saturday, but felt good. Perfect weather if a bit warm (35˚) and I tried Tom's fast-hike the stairs. I lost some concentration part way through and didn't run bigs after the entrances, and my tempo hiking slowed somewhat. Went hard for the last two sections, but didn't quite crack the PR although I'd been on pace for ~24.

HRM showed 159 average including ramp-up, 160 after the halfway point, peaking to 172 by the end, so I guess I was going pretty hard. Also my peak HR is low.

Fun line-o street-o by Alex. Certainly helped to know the local area, up to and including light cycles. So I knew which street I could cross diagonally when. Put some time on Ethan with that and kept it. Ran mid-7s with no mistakes.

Found a little time to run at lunch. Quick loop around the river between classes and calls. Legs still felt a little heavy from Sunday.

I wanted to rollerski and it was beautiful and I wound up working on a project all day (the soft six page limit became 20, plus 25 pages of appendix, whoops, but I'd already blogged half of it so it was just a lot of words and some GIS) so I didn't get going until after 4. I somehow didn't catch much of the real bad Red Line issues and skied to Lexington and back up the hill. V2 in to the wind on the way out, various on the way back. I hadn't skied in dark in a couple years and am a couple iterations of headlamps later and, wow, the new light is pretty great. I can totally ski the bike path in the dark with it.

Ski to and from the train. Pearl Street pavement is nice!

I wanted to go on a trail run. Alex wanted to go on a trail run before her 50 miler in two weeks. With the weather (20˚, 100 mph winds) the Pemi Loop was out. But I came up with the idea of a low Pemi loop around Thoreau Falls and Shoal Pond trails, a lot of running I'd never done before. Should be mostly runnable, low enough to not be too icy. And the option to come back via Zeacliff and the Bonds or Thirteen Falls if the weather cooperated.

Of course, it was snowing before we got to the trailhead. Mostly light snow during the run, some accumulation higher up. Trails were damp but not soaked (except Shoal Pond Trail, which is kind of a stream/swamp in places). 10-11s up to Thoreau Falls Trail and then a super-sketchy bridge across, although Alex and I decided we weighted as much as one person so we didn't have to obey the weight limit. Hopefully this bridge will be replaced when it fails (soon); otherwise the Thoreau Falls trail would be impassable from both ends during any wet weather. It was beautiful and snowy along TFT, with some trickier sections away from the river.

Then we got to Thoreau Falls. It was gorgeous: the river running, snow in the air and hanging on the trees. We had seen one person in the first mile or so and otherwise had the first footprints. Of course, we had to cross whatever branch of the Pemi that is (the northeastnortheast or something). This proved difficult with Alex taking a leap to what we hoped was grippy granite on the other side. It was, and we made it up to the Ethan Pond Trail.

No footprints there, either, and a couple inches of snow accumulated on the bridge. Then a jaunt to Shoal Pond where the trail became … wet. Our feet got wet and we were both warming up having layered up, and I was eating a sandwich, but the trail got a bit better down towards Stillwater. Then it was a 9-mile hop skip and jump back to the car.

A little sorer but no worse for wear. Total of two other people out there, and we were likely the only people on any of these trails today, and possibly all weekend. A very respectable 12.5 MPG (miles per goofer).

Raining most of the day, working all day, but had to go to the Institute to grab something. That means I get to log a run from Building 7 to 5 to 1 (and the way there and back, too). Cool air is great!

This was great. Waking up at 3:45? Actually not that bad. Running in the fog from the hill to the stadium, running the stadium, then running hills? Amazing. This is totally not a cult, at all. (It's such a cult.)

My knee hurt a bit and I was glad to have water; it was about 60 but wet wet humid fog. Ran down the hill and did the stadiums mostly striding with some sprinting. Bright headlamp didn't hurt. Ran out a lot slower than in, but felt good on the hills. Oh, and 50 burpies. Done by about 6:15, basically a half marathon with elevation and core.

I'll be tired this afternoon.

A little knee pain but still making it around the stadium.

Janky route choice to the Esplanade from Henry Street, along the Grand Junction and some weird paths. River would have worked just as well.

Fun O on the esplanade. A couple controls were either misplaced (did someone do it by bike in the dark) or in/near construction areas, but it was a good time. My knee hurt a little and I wasn't going too fast, but mostly in the right area. Of course, I wasn't exactly in the woods.

Running back picking up controls (blue Xes) with Alex, then a 60 Smoot run across the bridge.

After a walk part way across the bridge (I'd sprinted by the walkers) we jogged back to pizza. Then debate.

Crazy couple of days w/o logging but … light at the end of the tunnel. Also, I've gotten over my pull up deficit, 31 per day all month. Now up to sets of 8-12. Might have to up it next month! Or play on the rollerboard. Or go to the gym, or some such sorcery.

Lincoln and Jess were in town and wanted to go for a run, so we did—slowly—around the Charles. Lovely morning for a run and I think they found it novel to run in the city. I went about as fast as I could, which was not very fast!

Friday, 7:20 a.m.

Tom: Do you want to go do an adventure this weekend?
Ari: Does the pope shit in the woods?
Tom: I've been thinking about doing the whole of the Davis Path for a while.
Ari: Me too!
Tom: Want to leave at 3 or 7?
Ari: I have class until 5, how about 6:30?

Drove up, crashed at Fourth Iron (25˚ and clear, no need for a tent; turns out sleeping in my 20˚ bag on my 0˚ bag on a pad is top notch) for a pre-dawn start. Woke up at 5, hit the trail by 5:40, sunrise off of Mount Crawford. The Davis Path is long but beautiful, remote, and never boring. Up each of the side mountains, nice views. No other hikers for the first 12 miles past Isolation.

Busier up over Boott Spur with the last of the ice melting off the rocks and signs; the trail was mostly fine except for a few places (the last pitch down to Lakes was the worst in the shade, quite icy). We got to the Crawford Path and neither of us had any interest in heading for the summit. I convinced Tom the Crawford Path was a better run down and a much easier hitch, so we did that. By Lakes, run to Franklin, around Ike, down to Mizpah for snacks (gummy bears!) and to see the beautiful new croo room, then down to Crawford, where we immediately got a hitch from a libertarian Queeb.

Legs felt good the whole way, and we didn't push hard too much by >2k of climb and 23 miles is nothing really to sneeze at. As usual, 3 mph for a White Mountain trail run is about par for the course. (I've realized that the FKTs for various trails are generally in the 3.5-5 mph range.)

PR hills day. My legs didn't feel great, but it was cool and dry and breezy, a good day for running for me. I ran a PR for PR days, but have still run faster during hill indian sprints. Could have gone faster on the first three hills, maxed out around HR=170 so that was good. Didn't drop the hills as fast as I could have, either. Still a nice day.

Some hill bounding to cool down, because that's a thing.

Raceman. It never gets easier. It shouldn't be so hard. But you have to go hard.

Run around MIT track, then along the river to Whole Paycheck, where they didn't have the thing I wanted.

Fun run with Alex and Jess in Concord. Alex seemed to know where to go and Jess and I sort of followed along; she kept us in the right places somehow. Lots of woods back there, and we certainly didn't cover all the trails.

Nice ski today. Small group, me Frank and a junior. Went pretty hard up the no poles hill (need to replace my tips) and then pretty easy the rest of the way. Horse farm hill sucks, I'll be using Borroughs right from now on. Then did a loop over Picnic back to Middle, and did the Depot extension. Nice skiing.

Hills, stairs, more hills. Felt a bit sluggish in the legs because of NW the other night, I think, but pretty fast nonetheless. Not too fast on the downs because knees. Being old, man.

37:00 stadium? Well, they called it "backpack day" so I brought a backpack with a brick (and some laundry to fill it out). Probably 25#, so enough that I wasn't running the stairs but instead striding them. Just made a stadium before time was called.

Took the train out to Night Weasels, which is a four mile ride from the station. Almost got right hooked by a driver turning in to an apartment building, which they have in Westborough. Not a bad ride otherwise.

Night Weasels pre-ride! On a MTB because I don't have a cross bike. Makes it harder, especially when its dry and fast. Also, my bike only sort of works.

Cross is fun. Might be funner with the right equipment (cross bike, pedals with working clips, etc.). Will I throw money at that some day? Maybe! For now, go out, tool around, beat the fat guys, get lapped, drink beer. Think about throwing money at bikes.

Bike back to the train, including the up and down ramps at Westborough. Trains on time the whole way, why does everyone always B&M about the B&A?

Midday it had gotten sunny and maybe dry enough for a rollerski. After some problem setting (huzzah!) I went for an hour or a bit more. Up to the top of the "hill" which made for some decent V2 work, although it was a bit damp and slick so there was some DP and some careful stepping in places. No wonder trains slip on slick leaves ground up, dicey. Where it was dry it was fine.

Plan for week:

Monday: AM rollerski, probably bike path
Tuesday: Maybe a run between classes?
Wednesday: Maybe stadium in the morning, then NIGHT WEASELS. Because I race cross, every two years.
Thursday: TBD
Friday: NP

Next weekend … I have some time. We may have a hurricane on Sunday, but Saturday looks like it might be really nice, actually, and the hurricane might scare off some tourists. Pemi Loop? Anyone? Anyone? Alex? Bueller?

Doing some workings, but then got around to a late run when it wasn't going to dry out enough for rollerskiing Mem Drive. Nice 60-60-120-120-60-60 pickups (60 rest) along the river. Felt pretty good with two sub-7 interval miles including the slow bits.

Rolling in Littleton. It was pouring on the way out but the rain let up by the time I got to the venue, and it was mostly misty during the ski. The rain slowed the course down quite a bit, as did classic skiing (maybe better in the rain, anyway). Stayed with the masters and then split off when they went to ski neighborhoods, I went back via my new favorite route, Borroughs, better crossing of 111, then up Middle Road to Picnic, and down to the start from there. You could also do this as a loop down Middle, down Depot, and up Liberty Square. It basically lops off the nonsense up the road with crap pavement so bad you can't really get your hills in. Picnic is sweet.

I may start a Google map with road segments codified by skiability.