Wednesday Oct 31 |
 | Road Run 35:36 [2] 4.1 mi (8:41 / mi) | |
| |
| Short UMass loop, a slow jog after dark to do something. Lots of work to do before I can head down to the US champs. |
Tuesday Oct 30 |
| grass 27:34 [3] 3.6 mi (7:38 / mi) | |
| |
| 4 laps around UMass fields. A good run, pushing pretty hard by the end, but without feeling too much strain in my legs. 7:13, 7:02, 6:47, 6:32. |
| grass 8:07 [2] 0.9 mi (9:00 / mi) | |
| |
| Cooldown lap, very easy. |
Monday Oct 29 |
| Track 12:55 [5] 2.0 mi (6:27 / mi) | |
| weight:141lbs |
| After a long day of work where I couldn't (or just didn't) get away during daylight for a run, I found myself at Smith, after lifting, deciding whether to do the elliptical or the indoor track. Strange, the machines were mobbed, even all the treadmills, but the gorgeous indoor track (blue surface, like running on water) was totally empty; I'd guess the TV attached to every machine has something to do with it. Anyway, it was no contest, I needed to start getting serious about training, so I planned to do 4 800's with 2-3 minute rests between, after a good sub-8:00 mile warm-up. But the first 800 was awful: I felt very stiff, and out of shape. I almost bagged it, but I'm glad I didn't since by the last two my legs had loosened up and the splits were OK. But hard work. I have a long way to go. 3:21, 3:16, 3:10, 3:08. |
| Track 16:30 [3] 2.0 mi (8:15 / mi) | |
| |
| A 7:57 mile before; about an 8:30 mile after. |
Sunday Oct 28 |
| Orienteering 1:00:00 [2] 4.0 mi (14:59 / mi) | |
| |
| Mt. Tom, streamered Orange course, added a control to make a brown course, pondered various map corrections. About an hour of jogging, an hour of standing around (which I didn't log). |
Saturday Oct 27 |
| |
| Event: WCOC DuO #3, Huntington
|
| Orienteering 24:33 [4] 1.94 km (12:39 / km) | |
| |
| Sprint at Huntington, a 40 pointer, put on by Joe. Not well attended, probably from the rain. (So I got lots of points!). Lost time on first and last control, maybe 4 minutes. On the first, I went to the center of the circle below the monster cliff, but the flag was up the hillside behind me. Just never looked there. Figured "top of the reentrant" was below the cliff, and began poking around boulders looking for it, then staring at the map to see what could be up. Then, Alexi caught up to me, and I saw the flag. Lost over a minute. I was behind Alexi for a few legs, ahead of him for a couple (when he missed 5), fell behind again at 7 (because I went higher instead of just following the stream), got ahead again going to 8 (I went straighter, he went more right), lost him going to 10 where I boomed. Mistook the stone wall after the control for the stone wall before the control and went too far south, checking out some rock features there. Didn't click until I saw the fence, 100 meters too far south. Lost 2 and a half minutes.
Unfortunate that with only a few runners doing the sprint, I didn't get the course to myself. |
| Orienteering 1:59:21 [3] 9.3 km (12:50 / km) | |
| |
| Joe's score-o with 20 flags, 10 for the bike-o and 10 for the foot-o, but I did it all on foot. I got them all before the course closed, barely. Steady rain, and my feet were sloshing around in my shoes, and a blister was forming on my left big toe. Felt OK for about 40 minutes, then it was clear I was getting dehydrated and by about 60-70 minutes, I was in bonk mode, with almost no running; even felt dizzy a couple times. Run was very clean until I mysteriously, and inexcusably, drifted off the trail going to B7, a little knoll right off the trail. I drifted farther than I thought, ended up cutting back to the trail through laurel, and then went the wrong way on the trail, checking out a knoll that couldn't be right. Finally turned around and went right to it, but somehow, it appears I lost at least 6-8 minutes on this. Only other mistake to speak of was, again, an easy bike-o control B9, where I crossed the trail without seeing it and climbed the knoll north of the one I wanted. Wasted 2-3 minutes before figuring it out.
A fun course. Not sure why I had such a bad day physically. |
| Trail Run 8:00 [2] 0.7 mi (11:25 / mi) | |
| |
| Easy jogging before the sprint. |
| |
|
Sprint - Splits |
Thursday Oct 25 |
| Road Run 38:51 [3] 4.8 mi (8:06 / mi) | |
| |
| UMass loop with trail cut-off. Stiff starting out; never loosened up. That's how road runs are. |
Wednesday Oct 24 |
| Trail Run 1:09:01 [3] 7.5 mi (9:12 / mi) | |
| weight:141lbs |
| With Peter on Toby. The route that heads towards the gate but turns right on the Frost (up a steep hill) and then loops back. Trail was wet, but the rain held off and the temp was a nice 55; colors were at or near their peak. An acceptable pace, fast enough to feel it was doing some good. 17:18,17:07, 19:35, 14:59. |
Tuesday Oct 23 |
| machines (elliptical) 20:00 [3] | |
| |
| After stretching and lifting. It was late: cut it short from boredom and hunger. |
Monday Oct 22 |
| Trail Run 1:15:40 [2] 7.6 mi (9:57 / mi) | |
| |
| Work be damned, I had to get out and enjoy the Indian Summer: 78 degrees, low humidity. I drove to Amethyst Brook but went south on the Frost, something I hadn't done in over 10 years, covering the Harkness Brook and Amherst Woods sections, across route 9 to Station Road and back. Really nice woods trails, mostly flat, and more interesting than I remembered. (At one point, the trail runs on a narrow ridge above the Harkness Brook ravine which must have been over 20 meters at it's deepest). Lots of twists and turns, but the trail was well marked except where there were jogs on the roads in suburban developments. All but one was a left turn, so it was easy to remember. Pace was beyond relaxed going out, relaxed coming back. Slowed by the scores of wood planks over marshy areas, sometimes with rotted wood, but it was often dry enough to just go around them. |
| |
| C • "beyond relaxed" is even sl... 5 |
| Note | |
| |
| AOWN. When showering after the 4 map event on Saturday, I pulled a tick off my calf. When showering after my run today, I pulled a tick off my left side, waist high, who had been feasting on my blood for some 48 hours. He was reluctant to leave. (I had noticed some soreness in my side yesterday and today, but I just assumed it was a normal scrape from orienteering.) |
| |
| C • 48 hour tick 4 |
Sunday Oct 21 |
| Note | |
| |
| Combined a long dog walk with streamering a yellow course at Mt Tom. All slow walking, no loggable time. |
| cycling 32:28 [3] | |
| |
| Short spin through Florence, decent pace. Temp in the 70's. |
Saturday Oct 20 |
| |
| Event: WCOC Four Map
|
| Orienteering 29:50 [4] 3 km (9:57 / km) | |
| |
| WCOC 4 maps event in Kent. Fun event put on by Peter Goodwin. Made for a full day (and evening) of good o-training, and even included a sumptious meal at Peter's house before the night-o. Only downside was the (very!) poor quality of the printed maps, which called for a lot of interpretation and guesswork; and the overly reduced (and inconsistent) scale that ranged from 1:11,500 to 1:12:500, all advertised as 1:10,000. My orienteering for the three day maps was pretty good, with only one mistake over a minute (not surprisingly, the first control of the first map).
The first map was "Club Getaway", a tiny map, made tinier by being reduced from 1:7,500 to 1:12,500. Contours, it turns out, were 10 feet rather than 5 meters, which explains why the hillside was much less steep than it looked. Missed the first control, a 4 meter boulder (!), by drifting way left and had to come back down the hillside and do it again. Lost at least 3 minutes. Then settled in and ran well with only one other mistake, under a minute. This was pretty much a sprint. |
| Orienteering 33:06 [4] 3.5 km (9:27 / km) | |
| |
| Second map was Pond Mt. This was my best run of the day: I still had good energy, and lost no more than a minute: 30 seconds on a too roundabout route choice to 1, and (maybe) 20 seconds on a bad line to the trail on the run-in. |
| Orienteering 38:01 [3] 3.3 km (11:31 / km) | |
| |
| Third map was Macedonia/Skiff Mt. Energy was really lacking, and I walked a lot, but no problems navigating except for taking an absurd roundabout route to the go control, which probably cost a minute. |
| Orienteering 1:19:01 [2] 3.2 km (24:42 / km) | |
| |
| Fourth map was also Macedonia/Skiff Mt., the same map as map 3, Macedonia/Skiff Mt., but this time at night. (The "four maps" was false advertising!) The abundance of delicious food was too good to pass up, so I went out a full stomach, but I probably would have gone slowly in any case. Those doing the long course had now dwindled to three - Glen, George, and I - plus Peter going out on his own course and map. The course was challenging, not really any easier than the day course on this map. And reading the map, which was hard enough by day, was even harder at night. Most legs went smoothly enough (at a walk), but I had big trouble on two controls, both times being bailed out by Peter who (conveniently) started behind me and twice showed up just when I needed him. The trouble? Three times I crossed a major trail without seeing it. And some stone walls were either not on my map, or I just couldn't see them. Glen DNF'ed and George wasn't back when I left, leaving me to wonder if I will be the only one to complete the four "long" courses: last man standing! |
| |
| C • Hardly last 4 |
| |
|
Club Getaway, long - Splits |
| |
|
Pond Mt., Long - Splits |
| |
|
Macedonia, Long - Splits |
| |
|
Skiff Mt, night-o long - Splits |
Thursday Oct 18 |
| grass 28:55 [3] 3.6 mi (8:01 / mi) | |
| weight:139lbs |
| Four laps around UMass field. Got my heartrate up without bothering my hip, which was the plan. 7:40, 7:22, 7:04, 6:47. |
| grass 7:43 [2] 0.9 mi (8:34 / mi) | |
| |
| "Cool down" lap after. |
Wednesday Oct 17 |
| Trail Run 1:09:52 [3] 8.0 mi (8:44 / mi) | |
| |
| With Peter, Frost to Depot and back. More than 2 minutes faster than we did this two weeks ago, which was the plan when we set out (sub-70). I didn't have the legs today, so I let Peter set the pace and I just tried to stay with him; he gradually pulled ahead over the last mile or two and finished 20-30 seconds before me. One of those days where you say both: "good training" and "glad that's over". 8:41, 9:33, 7:00, 11:01 (36:17), 10:47, 6:41, 8:48, 7:19 (33:35). |
Tuesday Oct 16 |
| machines (elliptical) 30:00 [3] | |
| |
| After lots of lifting. Was going to run, but it was dark out ... |
| |
| C • Want to run tomorrow? 5 |
Monday Oct 15 |
| Trail Run 1:01:52 [3] 6.0 mi (10:17 / mi) | |
| weight:140lbs |
| From Amethyst, the Robert Frost trail over Mt. Orient to the stone wall and back. Relaxed pace - so relaxed that I caught a toe twice on a root and went splat; soft landings though. Lots of new logging on the north side of Orient, but the trail was OK. Pretty dark by the time I got back at 6:15. Feeling s.a.d. |
Sunday Oct 14 |
| |
| Event: NEOC Wells State Park
|
| Orienteering race 51:46 [4] 4 km (12:56 / km) | |
| |
| NEOC meet at Wells State Park, green course. A lot of in your face vegetation. I was being a bit sloppy, with two minute mistakes on 9 and 11; then, heading to the penultimate control, I took a big stick in my right eye. Wham. Thought I might be carrying my eye back in my hand, but it was still there when I felt for it. And I could still see, sort of. Lost four minutes on the next easy control. Felt a bit better by the time I finished. Hurts like hell now. I may be wearing a patch to work tomorrow. |
| Orienteering 46:00 [3] 3 km (15:20 / km) | |
| |
| Felt like heading home, but I had a date to do the orange with Adam who had just finished yellow in second place (because - again - some old guy ran yellow to steal the glory). I let Adam do most of the navigating, and just tried to keep up. I had to show him where we were on the map once, and correct a couple of errant compass bearings; but not bad. We were first on orange. |
| |
| C • because - again - some old ... 7 |
| |
|
Green - Splits |
Saturday Oct 13 |
| Orienteering 1:30:00 [2] 5.0 mi (17:59 / mi) | |
| |
| Mt Tom, nice fall day. Finished designing and streamering my advanced courses, mostly jogging when I wasn't checking the accuracy of the map. Coursesetting is fun. I can't wait to try running some legs at speed, trying different routes. |
Friday Oct 12 |
| Road Run (hills) 40:59 [3] 4.5 mi (9:07 / mi) | |
| weight:140lbs |
| Getting too dark for trails, so I did a road loop from UMass with 3 repeats on the Amity Hill. First was kind of slow, then OK. I could tell fall is back: my hands froze. 3:52, 3:40, 3:35. |
Thursday Oct 11 |
| machines (elliptical h13) 40:00 [3] | |
| |
| Smith, after dark. Didn't feel like running outside. |
Wednesday Oct 10 |
| Trail Run 51:40 [4] 6.0 mi (8:36 / mi) | |
| |
| Met Peter at Mill R. to run the Frost to Atkins and back. Strange run. He was complaining about some headache or something, and fell behind on the long hill, so I said I'd wait for him at Flat Hill Road. But I wasn't paying attention and missed a turn. (I've only done this run a gazillion times, but I was in the zone ...) By the time I got back to the Frost Peter was way ahead wondering where the hell... I met him coming back up from the reservoir, feeling zippier, and we ran pretty hard to the end. So I never made it to Atkins, which is too bad because it would have been a really good time for this run. I felt good all the way: last split in 6:53. Maybe it was the 16 oz of Rao's Tanzanian coffee I had a half hour before the run? |
Tuesday Oct 9 |
| machines 30:00 [3] | |
| rhr:41 slept:4.5 weight:141lbs |
| Elliptical, after some lifting. Quad sore from Sunday. |
Monday Oct 8 |
| Orienteering 1:30:00 [1] | |
| |
| Streamering most of the advanced controls for my upcoming Mt Tom meet. The courses start at Lake Bray and use both sides of the road. The technically and physically more demanding section north of the road comes first. The second half is mostly downhill and should be pretty fast. As it stands now, the red course is about 6 k, which seems plenty given the climb (about 250 m) and the lack of trailrunning. |
Sunday Oct 7 |
| |
| Event: Hudson Highlander 2007
|
| Orienteering 5:34:23 [3] 25 km (13:23 / km) | |
| slept:4.0 weight:139lbs |
| Highlander XII, my seventh. Hogencamp, trail run on Rockhouse, Pole Brook, and Sebago. It was hot - high 70's, moderate humidity - too hot for me to do well in a race of this length. Physically, this was as bad as it gets. I pulled something in my left quadraceps on the first map, and could barely keep up a slow jog on the trail run. Then, at the beginning of the third map, the cramping started and never abated. I usually have problems with cramping in the Highlander, but this was by far the worst: both hamstrings and my left foot. I couldn't run much on Pole Brook, or at all on Sebago. The last two controls, I couldn't even walk in the woods; had to kind of drag my left leg because I couldn't bend it at the knee; ended up flat on the ground a couple times when it went into full spasm. But I was happy with the orienteering: just a couple small misses. I had company for most of Hogencamp, including Pavlina and Bernie. On my own for all of Polebrook. Saw some people on Sebago, including Mike Lyons for a couple of legs, but I was just doing my own routes. Nobody was moving as slow as I was. |
| |
|
HH XII - Splits |
Thursday Oct 4 |
| grass 27:35 [3] 3.6 mi (7:40 / mi) | |
| slept:5.0 |
| Four laps around the outside of the UMass athletic fields as a modest tempo run. I figured this was the safest way to do a run that would get my HR up for an extended period. The game I play - every lap has to be faster than the previous, even if only by 1 second - is a great motivator for me; I feel like a total failure if I mess it up. 7:04, 6:56, 6:50, 6:44. |
| Road Run 10:00 [2] 1.0 mi (10:00 / mi) | |
| |
| Jog before to loosen up. Real creaky to start. |
Wednesday Oct 3 |
| dirt 30:31 [2] 3.3 mi (9:15 / mi) | |
| slept:6.0 weight:140lbs |
| From Smith gym after lifting. Easy jog. It was dark and I was tired. |
Tuesday Oct 2 |
| Trail Run 1:12:14 [3] 8.0 mi (9:02 / mi) | |
| slept:5.0 weight:141lbs |
| With Peter, Frost to Depot Road and back. Modest conversational pace until I foolishly raised the ante by passing him with 10 minutes to go and then, after he passed back, I had to run hard to the finish. Hip didn't like that. Unusual sighting: the Vermonter. Beat it to the crossing point by about 10 seconds. 26:08, 22:58, 23:07. |
Monday Oct 1 |
| machines (elliptical) 20:00 [3] | |
| |
| Plus lots of stretching and lifting. |