Training Log Archive: Ari-o

Up super early to go to Market Basket and Russo's. Then I'd brain farted and forgotten two things at MB, so I ran back there. It wasn't that crazy. Nice run along the river, good day, but I slept poorly last night so didn't have the oomph to go further.

Now everything is shut down for weeks. I'll be at home, it seems, maybe going to run in the Blue Hills or Fells. At least it's light until 7 and there will be absolutely zero traffic. Or anything to do.

If they tell us to shelter in place I'll see if I can sneak off somewhere like Maine.

Realizing it's the first year since 2014 I haven't been training for a spring marathon, so this is … weird. (In 2014 I didn't start until after Boston, but still.) That's basically my entire log.

I'm guessing that 7S and the Billygoat are probably on life support. 7S we could run on our own, maybe, but the tight quarters of that trail won't help. Billygoat (and other O) seem like the most socially-distant sport (especially if we had SI-air punching), but mass starts seem less prudent. I would guess West Point, which I might have finally been able to put on a calendar this year, will be canceled, because West Point.

Probably a lot of roads, trails and O on your own this spring. And riding bikes. And rollerskiing once May comes around. Time to start building the base.

Drove up to Jackson to ski the Hall Trail with Lincoln and Jess, all at a safe distance. We didn't do the race in the morning, so the trail was beat up in places. 5k climb to start, chatty pace, some thin spots, and we went around Maple on the crust. Lovely, slow, and hard at times. I broke the ski longer than you drive rule, but this week, I think rules can be broken.

Probably last skiing this year. Oh well, it would have been nice to socially distance and work from home up to Craftsbury for a few days if it was like last year. Oh, look, Craftsbury is closed.

At the beginning of the week, I had a plan. Long Tuesday, stairs Wednesday, speeds Thursday, run to and from hills Friday, ski Saturday, long run Sunday (or maybe New Bedford). I think the plan was something like a 60 mile week.

Now?

Hard to be motivated to run as much with everything going down. But Blue Bikes points were motivated! So I went out and got 35 bike points (worth $3.50, also I'm in 3rd place overall by a lot right now so that's worth $50) in about an hour and ran four miles. Kind of fun I guess?

Wow.

Boston is cooked, I'm pretty sure.

Not sure I have the motivation to go out and do all the specific training for it.

This is all very weird.

Jog to and from NP

37-18, 37-18, 37-32. Hard after 16 and then World Championships.

Someone saw my old NNHS tights and said "do you XC ski." Well, yes. "Oh I skied in college." Where? "Macalester."

So then we talked about things. 10 years after me. We're everywhere!

Run to get some Hubway points.

Heh, when I was looking at how many km of skiing I needed to do to equal previous years, I was looking at miles. Not about to ski 200km over two weekends (especially when I *only* skied 70k last weekend).

COVID-19 is making things interesting here.

First, I had two meetings canceled tonight, so I go to Worlds. Of course, one got pushed to next Tuesday when I am supposed to go to Mpls for actual Tuesday Night Worlds, so who knows.

Then this weekend, I have the Jackson Hall Trail race on Saturday and then an event up there Saturday night. I was going to maybe drive back south on Saturday evening and then run New Bedford on Sunday, but it done got canceled! So, I guess I'll stay up there and maybe find somewhere for a long run.

I wonder if they'll cancel the OOB 13.1 the next weekend.

Planned to wake up early and go for a long run. Was thinking about 20, but got started a little later than planned. Ran out along the river to Walnut Street, then up to Comm, and then home via Kenmore. Even splits (8s); mile 14 down Beacon a bit faster. Felt decent. Not perfect, but decent. Just 10 shy of a few weeks from now …

I wasn't planning to go to Worlds but then my evening meetings got canceled, so why not. Got to Worlds 8 minutes before the start, traffic wasn't bad. Conditions were better than expected. Sure, it was 60, but the snow was reasonable aside from a couple of slushy bits, and we actually had the full horseshoe. Surprisingly not bad given the garbage winter we've had.

Costume race, and I sang O Canada (in French!) for Robert to start. Then we skied. No one seemed to want to go fast; Rob had waxed his skis so everyone let him go ahead. I didn't want to tangle with people, so I got out front and no one came with. Five laps, so an actual 5k, and I started gaining on Rob. By the 4th lap I was gaining up on him, and still not going too hard, and by the first hill of the fifth lap I was on his tail. Can't let the old man win. So I rode in the rest of the way and after we lapped some of recreational racers won a sprint.

With 16 miles on my legs this morning I was not planning to go hard at all.

A few cool down laps before dinner and awards. I won my age group but was maybe 4th overall? I should wax my skis, or ski faster.

By the time I got home and dealt with bread dough and sweet potatoes, it was late, so just a short run.