Training Log Archive: Ari-o

Weather—40s and sunny—looks very good next Sunday. Might taper this week and go for the half in Lowell.

Beautiful day up here in Maine today. Cold overnight, but blue sky sunny, last of the foliage, and I was not about to let it go to waste. Decided to run the AMC side of the Grafton Loop, which I actually helped build in 2001, only 17 years ago. That's half my lifetime! Only 1:10 from camp, too, which is very nice.

Since I was running point-to-point, I figured I'd thumb back down. Turns out that they just repaved Route 26, and I definitely thought about rollerskiing. That would require spotting gear in the woods, scouting the road—some of which gets steep—and circling back; not perfect. (However, next summer, skiing up Route 26 and hiking back down, with spotted cars, might make a fantastic day. Two options, even, of the Grafton Loop Trail.)

Anyway, ran down the road to the trailhead from the parking, and then on the snowmachine trails for a bit before turning in to the woods. The trail was great: not eroded, lots of climb but not that much of it super-steep, mostly dry, and great views. I went up and down and up and down and then wound up on Sunday River Whitecap, which has an open summit and the views of the foliate in the valleys and the mountains beyond was superb. (My original idea was to think about Adams Challenging today, turns out that would have been pretty snowy/icy). Then way down, back in to the maples, nice fast miles, and then up Old Speck. Around 3600' the snow appeared. (YAY SNOW!) Summit at mile 13, having seen two people all day. There was a lot of climb, but it wasn't all at once and frequently not too steep, so it was really quite a nice way to get 1700m.

The trail down Old Speck was way more eroded, of course, plus wetter and, as I quickly found out, icy in places. Since I was the last person down the trail for the day, I was pretty careful on the icy bits, which weren't too bad but slowed me down some. Caught up and passed some people, and made it down to the lot in just under 5 hours. Changed clothes and stuck my thumb out. Not a lot of traffic, but some hikers—some of whom were from LA and of course knew November Project—gave me a ride back to the car. The rollerski would have been fast … and scary.

Up in Maine, cool and rainy in the morning. Slept way in (after a midnight drive from my department "retreat" where everyone was just getting started drinking at midnight) in a cold cabin and warm sleeping bag. Mmm. Then some camp closing errands and it dried out enough for a run (but not a cold, rainy, wet leaf ski).

Great run around the lake, PR on the loop, nice push up the Dam Hill, and a short shower on the west side which made for a great rainbow across the lake! Fastest by about 90s, plus a PR up the hill to Elvin's.

Race day at NP. Legs still feeling tired, so I just ran the ups hard.

Gotta add the vert!

Deck-run-deck today?

Deck 1: 19:45.

C • Deck-a-day 2

Poured rain, so second deck with no run in between.

No deck today; wasn't home until after 9. Two tomorrow. Wednesdays are hard with extra meetings.

Stadium and my legs were not feeling it. Rather than the Raceman workout, since I wasn't feeling any speed, I just did a bunch of sections. Really not very many, though; I was really dogging. Not sure why. Maybe still a little tired from having a cold?

So apparently when you have to wake up at 5:30 to get to Lowell for jury duty, it kind of messes up your day. I should have anticipated that it might end early and brought rollerskis, because Lowell isn't far from Littleton. Alas, when we got out early, I biked back to the train, then biked back from Wedgemere to save cash money.

Then did nothing all afternoon (well, some work). Thought about biking. Then did warm core. Looks like one more warm day tomorrow. Survived the sweat tonight.

Running with Lincoln and Jess on some trails. Got some work done, but alas no big vert, but they have some fun trails along the ocean, well, tidal Kennebec. Whirpools!

Got home late, but a fast deck as the Red Sox slammed the Yankees.