Training Log Archive: Ari-o

Up in Maine, wound up walking to and around beaches with friends. Not enough intensity to qualify as training, although we did walk 7 miles. Good times.

Lots of riding bikes this week—109 miles in three days! And my back doesn't hurt, which is very good (after a car-Ari incident last year it took a while before I could get on the road bike, much less ride in comfort).

Oh, and this happened. I was climbing Mass Ave in Lexington when a Buick came by. The driver honked, and then as I was getting to an intersection cut right in front of me! I yelled and went in to adrenaline/sprint mode, chasing her about a mile up and then down a hill. (Ben, who I was riding with, came along for the "interval.") I got to a light where she was stopped and let her have it. Her response? "I didn't think you were going that fast." Flattering, hon, but you still almost put me in to the asphalt. Next time I should say she hit me and call the police. But then we just left and went back and rode more bikes.

My metabolism was way up this weekend and after this ride I was so bonked that I ate an omelette/fritatta/whatever with:

6 eggs
1 c ricotta
1 bunch chard
1 onion
1 head broccoli
6ish oz cheddar

AND I ATE THE WHOLE THING. Yum.

Easy run at lunch time. Went west along the river on the Boston side and it was beautiful. Felt slow but happy. Then turned and almost got blown off the Harvard Bridge, and then ran in to the wind to the Longfellow. But I ran fast because there were people behind me and I didn't want to get passed. IOW, realize it's a race. Then I ordered a burrito on the Longfellow, and ate lunch. That was good times.

Rode bikes with Melissa. Went to McLean, then out through Lincoln. Then back in to a gnarly headwind. Cold!

Long story, I wanted to check out whether the Minuteman Rail Trail is closed. It is. So, yeah, 22 mile bike ride before a Park-O, what could go wrong with that (oh, and then a 6 mile ride to the park-o).

When I put directions in to Google for 02139 to 02130 it said "17 minutes. In current traffic, 45 minutes." That's why I ride bikes. The BU bridge was completely gridlocked, but I swooshed over it and through Brookline and around the Pond and didn't get lost and then oh hills and then to ParkO. Good times. Jello legs.

What could go wrong with biking 30 miles before Park-o? Oh, legs not working, perhaps. Yeah, that. Took a "warm up / pee break" up the hill and could barely run up the paved road. And I was informed that because Ali was in town from the flatlands, we were going to have a hill repeat workout. Oh, happy day.

So, yeah. My legs were shot for Park O today. I ran okay for a derb, but made some mistakes, some of which were totally not my fault. Here goes:

1—lollygagged along the cliff before finding the control. Dumb.
2—Dean said that all the controls were "in the circle." Technically, this was in the circle. Maybe leaning over the line. Apparently it confused everyone, but I should have been clued in by the guy running out of the woods. It certainly wasn't in the reentrant.
3—Hill. Spiked. But I friggin' waddled up the hill. Legs ≠ fresh.
4—I'll give this a half-spike. Took the trail down and had to look for just a second to find it.
5—I DON'T WANT TO YELL SO I WILL ONLY YELL ON THIS LINE. I spiked this one. Dead on. I took a bearing (!) and followed it and ran right to where the control should be and there it was. I was very proud of myself. And it was marked "6" and I was downtrodden. Here it was. Intersection of two trails. And somehow I had the wrong control. I saw one up the hill, and ran to it. But it was 1. Then I went back and looked at the map good and hard. And came to the conclusion that this was the wrong control, and I punched it and ran to
6—and spiked it. And it was marked 5. This whole charade cost me >2 minutes according to Strava.
7—Took a pretty good route across the road, ran up the reentrant, found the hill. And then found two more unmapped hills.
8—I remembered this rock from last year. I didn't remember the other three rocks. As I was picking my way towards the control I ran in to a NOT AT ALL FRIENDLY LOOKING RACCOON. I took a wide arc and punched. There was no control info as to whether it was at the top or bottom of the rock/cliff, or the direction, which would have been nice.
9—Took a little finding. There are a bunch of unmapped features back here.
10—Back across the road, I almost spiked this but had to run around looking for it a little.
11—And back up the hill to spike the top control again.
12—Last year, I shat the bed on this course. I got very, very lost across the street, and then got very, very lost in the green on the hill. This year I navigated much, much better, although my legs were jelly. I ran through the green and popped out of the reentrant and right to the control. Score one for the good guys.
13—And took the right route to this one, too. Well, the left route.
14—And this one.
15—And back up the hill. My legs felt a little less bad now.
16—Roundabouted this control just a little.
17—But spiked this.
18—And back to the summit! And, what the hell, let's take a picture of the skyline at sunset.
19—And then let's poop the bed trying to find this control, which was pretty ambiguously placed. And then run to the finish.

So, all in all, a decent race. I felt that I did large-scale nagivation well, small-scale navigation okay, raccoon-related navigation not well, and playing-by-the-rules-and-trying-to-find-the-right-misnumbered-control not well at all. Next time I'll just punch and go. And not bike 30 miles right before.

C • splits 2

Control pick up with Alex and Anna. Talked about West Point and Moreau. And things. Probably no, probably yes. Any my legs were finally feeling better. Of course, I ran the race and bonked because all I had to eat between biking and running were a few cookies. Then we went back and I had more cookies, and threw some at Ian. And then I biked to eat dinner.

Good NP this morning. Ran the stadium in 30 even, which I think is a PR. Then quickly off to work.

Didn't time anything, but after work I was hungry and tired. Ran the river to Whole Foods, then ran home. Hopefully to bed early enough to hit up NP tomorrow morning. Extra early, actually. Gah.

So I was in Gardner for work. And I've been feeling slow. So instead of recovering after the BG, I went to trail run. I certainly wasn't fast. But it was beautiful out. I thought about going back after 3ish miles but took a turn on a cut around a muddy trail and went 8. So, yeah. Tired. Chafe. Fun.

C • Gardner trails 2