Training Log Archive: Ari-o

Warm up, cool down

Crazy day staying crazy. I had to drop my car at MIT with my sister to bring my tires to Melrose, so I ran from there. Got to the other side of the river and wanted to do 2x10 minute intervals at my reach goal marathon pace.

Marathon goals (edited, thanks Cristina):
Reach 6:40 - 2:55
A 6:50 - 2:59
B 7:00 - 3:03

The intervals went well: negative splits, L3 but not L4, and legs felt pretty good. Right about where I was before I PRed the half last fall. As long as the weather holds, I should be in good shape.

Now, Billygoat, and then just a whole lot of taperfesting.

C • Marathon goals 3

Interstitials, strides, drills, etc.

Track! Legs still feeling Sisters, so I was going to play it by ear.

Workout was 8-8-6-6-6-6-4-4-4-2-2

We ran the 800s in 2:50, the 600s in 2:06-->2:03 and then my Sisters legs said no more on the first 400. Plus I don't really need that right now with two weeks to the marathon, so I cut it short there before things blew up. Not quite as fast as last week, but with dirtier legs.

Legs sore, but good sore.

Still pretty happy with yesterday's race, and it should bode well for a marathon in a couple of weeks (and not that much longer of running even with 2.5x the mileage).

Looking at the Stravas, I definitely need to get better at going downhill. I'll give myself a degree of difficulty with the wetness, and my shoes were pretty on-point, but I still lost time on the downs to most of the people. Tapering a bit more would have helped, stronger would have helped, but still lots of fun.

Lots of work for the next two weeks … forced taper.

Walked up to the registration table at Sisters. "You look ready to go!"

"Yes," I said, "ready to go pee."

And that's just what I did.

Let's look back at the past few years Sisters times from AP. (Also, I'm not crazy, Park-O used to be on Thursdays.)

2018: 2:26:45
2017: 2:27:40 day before the Billygoat
2016 (no race because marathon-mageddon, but a 3-ish hour group run later in the month)
2015: 2:32:01 (warm day)
2014: 2:31:30 (day after trail running at Harriman)

So this year was a 3 minute PR. Considering the conditions, that's not bad at all!

My rider bailed so I sailed out the Pike and parked in the usual parking clusterfuck. Said hi to Team Giggles and NP people and then lined up for the start. It had been advertised as 70 and sunny earlier this week, but the short range models kept low levels cool, and we got what seems to be kind of typical Sisters weather: cool and cloudy with the ridge in the fog.

Go and we were off. My legs felt not great up the first climb. Strava will sometimes show me previous efforts (although apparently not all of them anymore without paying, but at least the PR). Apparently I was 25s behind 2015 up this climb. I settled in a bit after that, got passed by Kelsey and then ran for a while with the second place woman. She seemed tentative and asked me if I'd done this before. It was her first time. At one point she ran away: bye!

The trail was kind of sloppy in places but really not too bad. I got passed by a couple of people down the long hill and ran in to the finish right in front of someone. Up to the food table: "ooh candy!" I was the first one to take candy. Stuffed some in my face and started bleeding sugar in to my mouth. Twizzlers, Swedish Fish, etc. This was not too bad.

Most of my times on the way out were in my top three best, and I PRed on the way out, but only by 10s over last year. But I felt good at the turn, and pushed up the hill, passing a couple of guys along the way, and got some water at the road. Some muddy sections what with 600 footsteps, but still nothing too bad. Then there are a couple of "easy" miles from the Summit House to the last water stop (ha, easy) and the the climbs up Hitchcock. Which are brutal. But I had a secret weapon. As I slow-hiked up the first pitch, I grabbed a double-caffeine gel out of my pocket, squeezed it out, and washed it down. Rocket fuel.

I did not feel pain the rest of the race. Caught someone on the hills (I think) and dropped him pretty quickly, and then kept on running where I could to the top, and down. My grade-adjusted pace went up, peaking at a 2:09 (an 11:23 mile up a 45˚ slope, so that may be an estimate). The finish downhill was sketchy as usual, but I made it in to the finish in one piece, not too muddy, and in pretty good spirits. And then ate pizza.

Sisters is such a great race. Super low-key. Amazing feed. Super-duper hard: as much climbing as running up Mount Adams from Appalachia or Washington from Pinkham and down again, and over about the same distance. Just not all at once. And maybe with worse footing. I <3 sisters.

Then we got ice cream.

C • 3-minute PR 2

After finishing, I grabbed a cowbell and hiked up the first hill to cheer!