Training Log Archive: Rosstopher

Sprint on Thompson Island. very fun.

Doing some chasing intervals with Alex. We went out backwards on the sprint course starting at 6. I gave Alex a bit of a headstart on each leg and then I'd sprint to try to get to the control first. Really fun, sooooo hot though.

C • Nice swim leg! 2

Meant to go up to the Fells and do some course vetting. Got distracted at home cleaning and then running errands. Then it was off to Lori's for dinner featuring special guests Becky and Rob. We had fun mispronouncing gazpacho and I learned a new game (which I just lost) and then frozen yogurt from Berry Line. Awesome.

To work. Did not wake up early enough to do terrain intervals.

From work up to Sommerville to go to an excellent bbq with friends.

After the evening's festivities Dan and I played a few rounds of Tetris Attack. even with several levels of handicap I'm just not good enough to beat him. Got home quite late, but it was worth to get a chance to hang out.

Biking to work. Cool morning.

doesn't matter what my plan is, I'll always manage to leave the lab about 5 minutes later than would be ideal. rushing to get to Fresh Pond in time for the CSU race.

tonight was one loop of the pond, a 2.5 mile race. I haven't ever run these races and so I didn't know where the course went. I asked and was told "just follow the pavement" and something about "turn at the building". Right from the start I was running in the lead by myself, dodging other people and their dogs. I was moving okay, but my calves felt a little sore, nothing to slow me down but I think that I've done a lot of high impact running this week. I managed to get back to the finish line at 12:33, at which point it was clarified that I had skipped a loop of the route that goes out on the peninsula a little bit. So, like any orienteering race, I turned around and went back to run that little bit.

My official time was 17:32 but I was only running for 17:07 of that. Next time I will be better informed.

A cooldown lap of the pond with Terry, Andy, Jon, and one other (didn't catch the name). Am really glad that I started running with the running section. Thanks, Brendan, for pushing me to come to the track sessions.

Biking home from the pond. It's too hot, so as soon as I got home I shaved my head. I was going to try to keep it longish this summer, but it needed to go.

C • way to go :) 3

a little cooler this morning

biking over to park street to meet CSU crowd for a street-o. so many stop lights.

Lori put together a fun street-o using ( I can only presume) the streets of downtown Boston and a pamphlet from the freedom trail :) g-map of my route. Dave and Barb started immediately from Park Street but Lori, SGB, Ian and I dropped a few things at SGB's office before heading out. We had declared that we should "just start from here" which lead to momentary confusion because Lori and SGB interpreted that to mean, since we were on the line to 5, go to 5 then continue the course and after the finish go to 1-2-3-4. Ian and I took it to mean, just go to control 1 and do the course forward and then finish back at the office. I kept thinking that SGB was going to catch up to me... but really he was already 5 controls ahead!

The map was missing roads, but the building footprints were pretty good. My compass ended up being useless in the urban setting. I did make one rather larger error, I left the bunker hill monument at 90 degrees the wrong way and didn't realize what I'd done until I got to the bottom of the hill.

Really fun, and super sweaty I was pretty tired when I got done, and my legs were feeling the last couple of days. I managed to stay even with Ian on his bike up until 9... then he was gone, gone, gone.

Afterward, good Vietnamese food and great fortune cookies. I figure that Ian, Lori and SGB might also post this, but one of the fortunes read "Alas! The onion you are eating might be someone else's waterlily"

Also, SGB almost snarfed when we mentioned -- in the context of choosing dueling weapons and time -- porridge at sunset.

C • Alternative reditions of Lori's map... 5

Biking home. Very full. Too many one way roads.

Biking to work. Not back to a good schedule yet, still sleeping in too late.

Heading from work to the track, with a stop at the bike shop for a new tube, so I could quickly replace the one with a slow leak. Stopped to change the tube and had the bad luck to bend the valve stem as I put it on, so I had to change it again. Sigh. Therefore I was quite late arriving at the track.

The plan was 3 x (1200, 400, 400) 200 rest between each. I missed the warm up, drills, and first 1200. I jumped in and did the rest of the workout with the crew. Not sure what pace I should have been aiming for, but I felt good just sitting behind Mark and trying to mimic his form. He usually pulls away at the end of whatever interval we're running, he speeds up a lot on the last 200 each time. SGB was feeling zippier than I was at the end of the workout, and he did a better job chasing Mark on the last couple.

72
72
3:57
72
69 (Mark was pushing harder on this one)
3:55
73
72

And skipped the cooldown to maximize the light for the ride home. Threatened to rain the whole time, but just sprinkled a little bit off and on. It's delightfully cool right now.

Biking in to work. I was going to run in, but then slept in too late and biking is just a faster way to go.

Wasn't feeling super motivated to do hills... somehow I've come to dread these. But managed to get myself out the door. I had been reading an entry from last summer where I had done 4 reps each under 2 minutes. That got me thinking that I haven't really broken under 2 minutes for this climb in awhile. I decided that I needed to concentrate a little harder on pushing the whole way up the hill.

So I set out to do 5x each under 2 minutes, being very diligent to push hard. I took a lot of rest between each. It was hard, but rewarding, and I managed to get all 5 in. Next week we'll bump it up a bit more.

I could feel my legs a little bit from yesterday, which was quite hilly as well.

1:50
1:55
1:57
1:55
1:57

Pumped up the slowly leaking tire, and biked home. Got home late enough that I didn't feel like sorting through the mess of uniforms, or do laundry, or anything equally productive.