Training Log Archive: Rosstopher

C • Happy Scooper 6

To work. After a slower morning than planned. Still, feeling like it's going to be a good day.

From work to the Harvard track to join CSU running section for tonight's workout. Calves were starting to feel a little sore as I biked over. Arrived in time for drills and strides. Big crowd for the summer workouts, very cool to see so many.

Mark and Tyler were both present and I decided that I was not going to try to run with them tonight. Much too fast, as they were aiming for 2:30 800's (and actually ran much faster than that).
I ran in a group with Terry, Andy, and Kevin and I led most of the intervals which I hope wasn't annoying to the rest of them.

workout was 4x800, 2x600, 2x400, magic800 each with 200 recovery.

times 2:35, 2:30, 2:37, 2:36, 1:55, 1:53, 72, 71, 2:40

A magic 800 is push the straights, relax on the curves, and don't check your watch. Meant to give the feeling of pushing your legs harder but not kill yourself.

My calves were super tight when the intervals started... an interesting sensation was knowing that I was running with good form if it hurt, as that meant I was using the right muscles. Got looser as the workout progressed and I felt pretty darn good after I finished the last 400.

C • Solid Workout man 1

I skipped the cooldown to get home and spend a few minutes with Sam before she turned into a pumpkin. Alex was heading back to Newton at the same time, so I rode with her for the company. Riding along the river is way nicer than cutting through Allston and Brighton. Also, Alex is pro. I was following along behind not really experiencing anything that would show how good of a cyclist she is and then she accelerated into a turn coming off the rotary of death and it was just amazing to witness the gap in abilities :) a tiny burst of activity that was inconsequential to her but substantial indeed to me.

to work. the spokes on my rear wheel seem to loosen themselves frequently. Am I doing something wrong with my (well, to be honest, dad's) spoke wrench? I find myself tightening the loose ones more than I expect to.

Rushing over to the MIT track. 5k time trial.... I ran and played pretty hard over the weekend, not sure if Monday evening is really the best time for this. That being said, I can't think of a day this week where I will be better prepared and plus I like the support and companionship of running with CSU.

some warm up some drills, didn't have my garmin on for a lot of this stuff. the warmup actually worked wonders, managed to get all the molasses out of my system before starting (8:31 or so for actual gun time, Sam had predicted it wouldn't be until 8:45).

5 k time trial. ran with the CSU crowd, Ian, Brendan, Clem, Giovanni, Katia and Dasha as our official timer.

very nervous before starting, and feeling tight and slow until doing stretching and strides... then I felt pretty good actually.

I was aiming for 16:00. I feel like I have the fitness. I will need to work on my pacing. It's hard to go by feel because a 77 second lap in practice feels just like a 70 second lap when the adrenaline of racing is coursing through the system.

As seems to be my wont, I started much too fast 32 second 200 split, and 70 second 400 split. dropped off quickly, and was working very hard to keep my splits even near 80 seconds. I finished, and after dry heaving a few times over on the grass, I just wanted to go and try again.

C • Awesome! 8

Home again home again, jiggity-jig. As I was raised to say. Sam was still up when I got home, reading Pride and Prejudice (so that she can have a fuller appreciation of "...and Zombies" when she reads that next.)

we were nearly out of milk but had lots of chocolate milk leftover from one of the dessert queen's creations. I had a large bowl of cheerios with golden raisins in chocolate milk before bed. very sweet.

5K - Splits

Event: US Team Official 5K time trial (the first of two trials in 2010)
 

Oh man, the luxury of sleeping in! Sent Boris and Kat off on their wild adventures west and Jeff drove us out to Nobscot. Two NEOC local meets in one weekend, both excellently run both with Epunching and preprinted maps and fun courses. The Boston crowd is getting spoiled rotten :)

first ran the red course. woods very very open. Running felt great. For today, I had a homework assignment to complete. Namely I needed to orienteer at Nobscot with enough control and poise as to be able to read another map from a much more technical area at the same time. I had printed out a 1:10 map from Trondheim for this purpose and had slipped it into the back side of my map case.

I quickly found it difficult to continually flip over the map, refind my location, read the next section (either in Nobscot or Norway) and then flip over again. Mentally draining. Also, when reading the Norway map I found myself fighting the urge to change my direction so that my compass bearing would match up with the Norwegian course. I knew I was going to do two courses, so I stopped the serious homework after a bit and tried to focus more on running cleanly, telling myself I would read more when I went out on Green.

I had visited most of the controls on Green before, but Orange was only 2.6 and the course went backward. I had more trouble than I should have had, though.

this time I packed the second map in it's own map case, that I could fold and thumb along on without flipping anything over. This was still really hard and I think focusing on reading another map while orienteering was inadvertently giving me too much incentive to lose contact with the map. I was only taking quick looks at either map, but felt like I wasn't able to keep up with the Nobscot course navigation. I guess the point of this exercise is to slow down enough so that I can do both... but I dislike slowing down :) Sorry, Boris. Maybe this exercise could be just as effective with non-orienteering running?

Up early to get over to Estabrook to deliver epunching stuff to Wendy and Ian. Helped set out two loops worth of the easy nearby controls. Epunching is great, but would be vastly improved if there was a nice type of stand that was easier to carry.

Not a great race, but pretty good in spots. Lost some sizable time in areas where I had trouble understanding the map. I knew that there were going to be iffy sections, but hadn't been careful enough. Maybe a little tired too. Boris had a good run... I'm spending a lot of this spring as a grasshopper :)

RouteGadget with GPS.

Afterward, ice cream in Lexington and dinner and games in Newton. The crew had cleverly kidnapped Ed for the day which was a nice touch as it meant we got to have him for dinner and games and forced Alex to come over and pick him up later.