Training Log Archive: Ari-o

How to recover from a brutal 50k?

Dance all night (until 11, when Lawn on D closes)
Go to a bar and dance some more.
Throw in some beers.
Sleep 4.5 hours. Plus an hour in the car.
Hike Moosilauke with your 71-year-old dad who is climbing Katahdin next week and your mom tells you you need to tell him to train more.

Lovely day up Moosilauke. I've only ever done the Dartmouth Ski Team Time Trial up Gorge Brook, so this was a little slower. Starva told me: 50, 48, 2:02. Well okay then.

Great day, cool enough going up, breezy at the summit, nice views, warm coming down, but down. Got a little antsy with some stops on the way down (it was buggy if you stopped and it wasn't breezy) but we made it, then stopped for food on the way back. Legs felt okay: right leg a bit stiff so the pace was mostly good, especially considering the race.

Fuuuck.

I've run 5 (I think) 50ks, with the approximate times:

Pisgah: 4:45
Pinelands: 4:23
Pisgah: 5:00
Bear Mtn: 5:07
Wachusett: 6:30

And I'm not getting slower. This is a hard, hard course.

Got a ride out, started pretty far back (huge field for a first year race) and burned some matches on the runout. The first 10 miles around and about Wachusett varied between nice forest roads and technical trail. The technical trail was … technical. Which I knew. I took my time on the downhills, and would catch up to people pretty quickly on any ups. Weather mostly cool, trail not too wet, great views from the top, and well-organized (for the most part).

Then we went on to the Midstate Trail. I was expecting a New England hiking trail, and got exactly that, maybe a bit harder than expected. Some nice running, some scrambles, some stuff in between. We went by some rock climbing walls and then up the wall (hand-over-hand) along a precipice and down to Route 31.

Then it was time for 10ish miles in Leominster State Forest. I expected a mix of forest roads and mountain bike trail. Got that, but the mountain bike trails were not buffed out like at Uxbridge, but what Colin referred to as gnar (he was out biking and we passed within about 50 feet of each other, they gave up so as not to deal with the trail racers, apparently). During this time my—in Alex's words—give-a-damn was seriously lacking, but so was everyone else's, and mostly even more than mine! So I ran through some small packs here and probably picked up four or five places.

Got back to the road, drank a lot of water, poured a lot of water on myself, stuffed some ice in my shirt, and kept going. Worrying more about heat more. Started out with a long slog with another guy who I pretty quickly dropped. Saw people on this stretch going out on the 50k: they'd made 14 miles in 5:30. Stood under the drippy stone for a while, passed a guy, and then got to a stream I'd forgotten about. In went the head! Water all over shoulders. Felt great! Even ran a bit!

Give-a-damn was quickly fading, though, and a lot of walking happened, but again, some walking happened past other people. Came in to the last mile with a guy breathing down my neck, but most of the last mile was an uphill, and I had a couple of matches to burn, and burned them. Put a lot of time (well, out of visual range) on him and then stumbled down the trail towards the finish. He came flying by on the downhill, so I had to sprint, and lost the sprint (gained a lot on him) and the timing mat will tell the results.

6:30.

That's a really hard 50k. Winning time was over 5. Lead woman in 7. The 50 miler, which went up over Wachusett again, no one was below 9. Even on a nice (if a bit warm) day. This is a hard course.

Cheered people, took the chairlift to the summit to cheer some more (ate a hamburger on the lift!), saw an old roommate crushing the 50 miler, then went down and home. Legs work, sort of. Last of these ultras for a month, at least …

Today is the day. The world comes to Boston. 4143 tribes, one stadium. Probably 2000 people. Many of them for the first time. Not a lot of finishers.

I took it easy (don't get injured) around and about the stadium with the race tomorrow. Still might feel it. We'll see …

This was an Ari sort of day.

Woke up, train in to city, half day at work, train to airport, checked bus stop sign (long story) and off to Boston.

Plane delayed half an hour so I have to move to get to get to Park-O. But I did. On to a Massport shuttle, run to get to the Blue Line, quick change to the Orange Line, run to the event. Plenty of time, although no O pants, so I went woods bashing in khakis. Which worked well enough.

Of course then I had to orienteer. Went out with Ian, Evalyn and Izzy. Made a mistake to the first control, wound up running with them for the next few. The courses split apart and I overran a control (a trail marked is very faint) and lost some more time running down a hill. I will point out orienteers should do November Project, because I had no trouble going up.

Led the group in after the next bit of forking, then ate food, then back to the airport to pick up the bus stop sign I'd left to get to O, then home. To sleep.

Run to the train for NP

For NP today, we did lots of core. Because National Running Day, I guess?

Took a few days off. One hot run on Friday, which wasn't even that hot, then just needed some time Saturday and Sunday to not run or anything (also, it was 90˚, also moving cities for the summer) which I can say is tapering for the 50k this weekend at Wachusett.

Because what's wrong with doing three races >= 26.2 miles in 4 weeks?

Plan for this week is decidedly crazy:

Thursday fly ORD-BOS, train straight to Park-O (hopefully I make it in time!)
Friday NP Summit stadium stairs. It will not be crazy at all.
Saturday 50k at Wa-wa-wachusett. Course looks brutal for the first 10m (up and over and back up and over Wachusett) and then mellower for the rest of the race mostly on the Midstate Trail. (The 50m comes back for a second jaunt over Wachusett. No thank you.) Oh and then the November Project party. Right.
Sunday: My dad is hiking Katahdin in a couple of weeks so we are going to take a day trip up Moosilauke or Franconia. This will be interesting. I'm hoping I can keep up!

Gotta figure out a 50m to run later this summer. Voyageur?

Run after work, with the heat having broken. Wicked breezy off the water, went to see the waves. Not a swimming day!