Training Log Archive: Ari-o

So.

I signed up for the 33k skate marathon, figuring I'd get in to Boston mid-afternoon, go to sleep around 7 (winter is so much easier for jet lag because you don't have to try to sleep in sunlight), leave Boston around 4:30, and drive north to Craftsbury, basically recovering half of the jet lag.

And it worked! Bed at 7:30, wake up at 4:15, out the door at 4:45 and … my car didn't start. I'd tried to start the car the day before and it worked, but then didn't. Well, shit. One car came by in the next 30 minutes. I was about to pack it in when my neighbor poked his head out the door. Had I woken him up? No, he was headed to the airport. He gave me a jump, and I drove north, with a chance to make the start.

3:22 to Craftsbury, including a stop for gas.

I got to the Center at 8:53, put on boots and race suit, ran to get my bib, ran back and was at the start as the horn sounded. At 8:59. I yelled at Ed and pointed at the clock. He said it was under starters' orders. I was started by about 9:01 chasing down the field as Amy slightly heckled me.

I passed four guys looping the field, got in the woods, and then there was no way in hell I was about to ski 33k with a liter of water in my bladder. So I pulled off the trail in to 4" of powder and rectified that situation. Then passed those guys again.

I was well in to L3 passing people, but had no one to pace off of, so I felt like I was going faster than I was. Sometimes I'd catch a group and hang on, and sometimes I'd have to wait for a moment to pass or remind myself I should be going faster. Finished in 2:00, but with 3 or 4 minutes of late/pee time at the start, and another few minutes, probably, of not having anyone to ski/draft off of.

But I had what I wanted, a long L3 effort three weeks before the Birkie.

On the list this week: getting a new car battery.

Two little skis to at least get close to the 1:1 ratio, which might be able to be overriden if you make it to a marathon. Which I did.

Fun skiing through the powder on some of the race trails, so perfect for tele turns. Then later down the first part of the Highland Connector, which was in perfect shape. A bit too tired to do a big long ski, and I did ski 70k last week.

Not only is all running in Venezia orienteering, it's all ski orienteering minus the skiing. You basically have a narrow maze. You then have to figure out your routes based on the widths of the trails (roads) and make route choices and then run. Just walking around Venice is armchair ski-o, and I took full advantage, navigating with a map (or on the sparse street signs). And still got lost!

On this run, I had some extra fun with the route choices because of acqua alta; a couple of times I got to a flooded street and had to take another route choice.

Not a great week of training, but a good time in Venice. Not a ton of training, but a lot of walking, close to 10 miles a day.

Finally go to go "orienteering" but really orienteering! Venice is amazing for it. I should have a) packed a compass (would have been very useful) and b) a better map, the b&w print I had was fine, but telling roads and water apart was confusing at times.

I went between a number of controls, running where I could, slowing down when it was narrow and congested. There really should be a good map of Venice made for visiting orienteers. I'd buy that in a second! It's much easier than Google Maps (for a bunch of reasons, including readability) and other maps they have here (don't show plazas and road widths well, and often have road names rather than more important information, which muddies the whole thing up). But it was so much fun! Rain tomorrow, so I may go for a map free run and just use the signs to get from point a to b. They have signs pointing towards about 8 major locations in the city on some buildings, they're pretty useless but a decent way to at least figure out if you're sort of going in the right direction.

Should have gotten this together earlier, but glad I got out at least once!

Well Venezia has been busy, lots of walking, but no training yet. But I did get an O map printed this morning, which has made navigation so much easier (Google Maps is pretty hopeless) and I am planning a run/orienteering adventure tomorrow morning. I have to run off the gelato somehow.