Training Log Archive: Ari-o

After a slow morning I decided to take a trail run over to to Jackson. And it was so darned nice, I'd forgotten how nice, that I kept going to Webster, and back. Great run, with quite a bit of tricky footing and some scrambles. Good times.

Ran down from Mizpah. Not really that fast, pretty much just bad for my knees.

Decided to hit Route 49 to rollerski. Most anything else seemed way too busy on a holiday weekend. The Kanc was out, as were hill repeats up Kinsman. Such is life. Route 49 is great for an uphill double pole, and while I was a bit close to being real hungry I had a good ski. Then down at close to 4 minute miles to the car!

Taking some food and beverages up to Mizpah. Saw Ben on the trail and slowed down for a bit. 40 pounds in the pack is not a whole ton of fun; packboards are better!

5 hills with grassy hills in between. 235 feet per hill trip over a mile. Didn't feel great but ran decently fast (not enough sleep, to much beer and not enough water) up and down. I also feel like I've been fighting off a low-grade cold all week. Yum.

Right shin felt janky during and left calf afterwards.

Evening run along the Charles. Winds had died down so it was decent. Ran 30-30-60-60-30-30 with 30 second recoveries along the path at about 6 minute pace during the pickups and 7:30-7:45 during the recoveries which felt pretty good.

"Fire Drill" day today where they ring a cowbell and you do push ups. Maybe 30 push ups? 40 sections. My legs were SO DEAD from a combination of the Pemi Loop and then rollerskiing. Probably mostly the Pemi, but still some muscles I've neglected on the skis. Felt like I was wearing lead shoes.

I was at work at 6 and planning to leave early and then HELLO it's 4:45 and I'm still at work. But I haven't rollerskied in far too long (uhm, I'll blame two 50ks in the last three weekends for that) and nothing was going to stop me now. It's too late in the year to play the game of taking the train out to Littleton, and also a little wet/leafy for that, but I can always go out and play on the good ol' bike path.

So I did. Got home, presto change-o and skied down and jumped on to a train to Alewife. Maybe 17 minutes door to door, not bad. Then DPing out, since my arms need work. And it actually wasn't bad! The new wheels help (thanks, Ed, they track fine) and not too much traffic. I got to Mal's and decided to go a bit further, since it wasn't pitch black yet. And then found that Lexington repaved about 250m of path, but the worst of the roots, so it's a great glide up. Then there's a "hill" after that so I went up to the "top" and turned, put on a headlamp and rear lights, and set off for home.

It wasn't super dark except in the trees to Arlington, so it wasn't HSDR (holy shit dark rollerskiing) conditions where you can't move your head for fear of missing a branch or pebble. (It makes you keep your head position good, but it's horrible because you think you might die at any second, more than regular rollerskiing even!) Mostly DP, but some skating when I felt like it. Got passed by a cyclist who commented on my double pole positively, even though I felt like I was sitting back (although he might have just been commenting on the fact that I was rollerskiing, it's not like when I went running in Minnesota this summer with a friend and we critiqued every rollerskier we passed).

I got to the end of the path and passed some people in NP #GrassrootsGear and circled back to show them the bottom of my tagged rollerskis (they were, uh, confused) and then checked my phone: 83 bus in three minutes! I wasn't out long enough that my transfer had expired, so free trip home. Only 20 minutes to Central, then a quick ski down Magazine Street to home.

This should be doable until daylight time runs out, especially if I'm resourceful and bring my skis to work (I can take the Red Line from here). I could Hubway to Alewife, but that is sketchy with poles, skis and boots. And maybe some time I'll borrow a T pass for Comm Ave hill repeats.