Training Log Archive: Ari-o

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!