Training Log Archive: Ari-o

Ran down the NiMiBriTri early to go bug Colin over at Great Glen. Had a pretty good time going down the first couple miles, then let loose on the aqueduct road.

Got to the car and wanted to go see the bikes I saw racing the day before, still racing. Wandered over to the tent where people finished and started, found a BikeReg guy, said "hey do you know Colin" and then went and found Colin sitting eating turkey slices and talking about not sleeping and riding bikes. In his element. Talked there for a while before he got to go out and ride bikes again and I ran down to the car.

So, I wanted to go hiking/running, but didn't want to climb back up a mountain (and trash my knees more coming down). I realized there's a trail north of Randolph to something called the Ice Gulch, which is a steep, narrow valley with lots of jumbly rocks. So I went there and parked and started running to the trail. 200m down the road I give a wave to someone and she says "Ari" and it's someone I know. (Who lives on that road; where I think I know three people, but one is out west and one is in Europe and I thought she was in Europe, too.) Anyway, chitchat there and then keep running, think I miss the trail, but run back 100m, then back again, then find the trail.

More climbing than I'd expected but really nice running. Once I was on the trail I saw one (1) moose and zero (0) people. Their loss (the people, not the moose). The trail is really quite nice, and the Ice Gulch is wicked cool. You drop in to it and scramble over and under lots and lots of rocks. And yes, even in August there's still lots of ice with cool thermals coming up. Some bugs, too, so it's hard to linger. Then down to a waterfall, and a run out.

GPS got very confused in a steep valley running east-west; maybe picked up satellites a couple of times. Nice 37 minute mile in there on the scramblies.

Randolph Hill: new pavement, gradual V2 hill, no cars. The plan was to rollerski until I ran out of water. Three trips up the hill was enough to do this. Then I drove to Stearns, filled water, and jumped in the Ravine Pool.

Lovely morning climb up to Monroe and back. Beats working for a living.

"Hey, Ari, do you want to pack?"

"Does the Pope shit in the woods?"

I refused to pack up much refuse, but did take a box of glass I threw at truck at the summit. It had cleared out but there weren't too many goofers there, so it was pretty nice. Some comments from goofers as to the size of my pack up; I'd rectify that shortly.

Then it was time to pack down. I could have taken 60 or 70 and been a help to the croo, but it is probably my only pack of the season, and I was feeling like 100, so I strapped on a 50 pound box of onions and a few more boxes and off I doddered. I packed down in under an hour, and the best part was that I didn't crump. Not a once did I set that baby down: 100 pounds on my back for close to an hour. I felt strong and alive. I am not old!

Running down the Ammy. Decently fast, but still never too comfortable on those rocks up top. Lots of people out on the trails today, too; every parking lot was spilling on to the roads. Drove around to Storehouse and got some lemonade for the Croo (powdered; they'd run out) and went to Carter.

Up the Nineteen Mile Brook Trail (NiMiBriTri) with about 30 pounds on my back. I made it to the lake and went for a swim. Not a bad trail to have to go up at a leisurely-but-fast pace.

Taking it easy at NP today after three medium-hard days and some playing in the Whites this weekend (so, who knows what that might entail!). But I ran hard through the gladiator section and embraced the dumb (burpies)

Dumb core.

Left home at 7:15 for a trip to Lakes. I'm hiking in the dark, I might as well miss traffic. Still lots of cars on the road. The hike was great. Cool, dark, a little rain. I had about 20 pounds on my back but no issue scampering right up the Ammy and then eating food in the hut and going right to sleep.

I was going to ride bikes during a long lunch. I came home, started to change, then it was hailing. So there went that. Oh, well. A deck instead.

We put a chicken in the oven, then ran, then ate chicken. This is life at 10 Lawrence.

Woohoo PR for 50 sections, and under 40 to boot! It was cloudy today, thank goodness, so I didn't overheat in the sun (but I had my bottle of ice water with me the whole time and it did wonders; at one point I lent it out to someone who was suffering. Hit the halfway mark at 19:00 and was feeling pretty good, but had a couple of "stop and try to cool off a little bit" moments on the way back. I had 2:33 to complete the last three sections and ran them in under 2 minutes, then went and hung out with a couple of other "go hard on the uphills" types who came in right after. (There are a lot of people who run down the stairs as fast as they can and then fast-hike up the stairs, which is probably a fine cardio workout, and overall faster, but you don't get the springy leg strength you do keeping your body upright, sprinting/bounding up the steps, and recovering going down. Then there are a couple of guys who go hardhardhard up and down; I'm hoping to do this when the weather cools off some.)

96 pulls on the rollerboard. Why 96? Because something got effed up with the board at 96 and it started binding and it was too dark to fix it.

70 pulls on the rollerboard before my hands got blisterdy.

Evening run because I wasn't on top of my game enough to run or bike in the morning. Came across Storrow at the Longfellow and decided to run the 5k time trial from Community Boating to River Street. Ran it in just over 20 minutes going at pretty even 6:45s and felt pretty good, then went and got all the food.