Training Log Archive: bishop22

Event: West Point A-meet
 

West Point A Meet - Middle - Red.

Not a good race - had to stop to tie a total of 4 shoelaces at a about 25 seconds a pop. Need the map to identify all of my errors, but did not have a chance to run hard until the last couple of controls.

Jog to the start.

West Point A Meet - Sprint - Blue/Red

Not really my idea of a Sprint course. The navigation seemed to be quite appropriate for a Middle distance race. It was all over on the first control. I was not really mentally ready for the 1:5 map, so I guess I ended up running right past the flag (it was leaning against a small boulder. I drifted left to try to make contours match, then saw Ethan (started a minute back) and sort of merged with him and we punched - C2. Damn. So, it was back to C1 then C2 - lost about 3 minutes.

More errors later, when I have a map.

Middle Red - Splits

Sprint R/B - Splits

4:18/8:41
1:40,43,42,42,43
3:49,48

Hadn't been in the water since 3/8, and only once a week for a month before that, so this was tough going. Too many strokes per length, for sure.

Easy run around Dryer Rd park after the track meet at Canandaigua. You need 71 points to win a high school dual meet. In the 800 and up, we outscored Canandaigua, 32-0, plus distance guys ran the 400 and 4 x 400 for another 11-3 advantage. And an XC guy won the 400 hurdles as part of an 8-1 edge there. That meant that field events and sprints scoring just 21 of a possible 86 points was still enough to win.

On the way to Dryer, a nasty thunderstorm moved through. But it was moving so quickly that I had to wait in the lot for less than 10 minutes before it was all clear. Just ran random trails around the park (no map).

I was actually afraid of the track today. I rationalized that I haven't been there in a couple of weeks and didn't want to strain anything ahead of West Point. But I did manage to do some 7-minute pace tempo pickups while doing the UR Ped Bridge loop (counter-clockwise).
West side mile(-ish): 7:02
East side old measured mile: 6:56
Ford Bridge to XRX2 (old 8:30 duration for an "easy" run): 8:01 (probably quite close to 7 min pace)

Very short window to run during w/dn and stretching, after timing the workout in the rain. So, I just ran on the track, with the first mile in 8:01, then the next 2 at marathon-ish pace.

The guys did 1200T, 800I, 400R times 2.

Plank-Beacon loop - record slow as I started out with a 9:24 mile (2:32 first 1/4). Had to sneak this in while Chris took the boys to Mass (I hit the Vigil with Chris last night) before we head to EA for Brunch, then it is off to Game 6!

So, the Garmin lost signal several times while I ran last week's Red course at Webster Park. I've uploaded the larger segments, but 82:58 was the total time - slowness partly due to heavy legs from yesterday's hills, plus lack of food/hydration with yesterday's travels, and the ridiculous miss of the trail from C8 to C9. I wound up switching from the "shortest-distance" route to the "least-blood-loss" route. I was despairing during one section of prickers when I came across deer bones and figured if a deer couldn't get out of that area, what chance did I have?

Makes up the balance of time and estimated distance.

Ran over to Lincoln Park via the newer entrance for a short trip thru and back via the old gate.

Garmin reported 4.38, but I think this mileage (4.645) is more accurate. Garmin had 1.21 at the park entrance, but Gmap said 1.25 - same for the trip home on the roads. If Garmin does poorly on straight roads, I'm guessing it's worse on trails.

Just enough time after work and before Mass to squeeze in a Duck Pond loop. During the last mile (7:02), I did 3 x 200 steps with a jog to the next 1/4 mile mark, then ran the whole last 1/4.

Meant to run at 1pm while dropping the car off for an oil change, but it was too cold and windy to deal with the inconveniences and lack of enough clothing, so I walked/jogged to BK and back to eat, instead.

C • Mass 2

Chose to catch some of the track meet - the Webster Invite at Penfield, because of construction? Thought I could also sneak in a run, but played hurdle crew instead. No time after work, since it was off to the Sabres game. How about that Ryan Miller?!?

Stopped at the Penfield Rd lot for Ellison Park. Did the loop in the southeast, including the quarry overlook, then out to the roads and returned via Rich's Dugway, then down to the field where I lost my key and back.

Yes, the marathon was very inspiring, but, no I did not make time to run before we had to make the trip home (pausing in Utica to watch the Sabres playoff game, since I had not been organized enough to set up TiVo, since the game was actually supposed to be on Vs).

Ran after leaving Chris & Chelsea to shop at the Galleria. Went over to Charlestown, around the Beacon Hill monument, then on the Freedom Trail for a bit into Boston, but it was too crowded to stay on, so I looped along the wharfs and headed into South Boston: completely different than when I used to run there for occasional Sunday long runs. The Big Dig changed the landscape and there has been a ton of development, so there are shiny new buildings. Left South Boston on line for the Pru, back to the river and across the Longfellow and back. Lots of marathoners walking around in their shiny new jackets.

The route. I expected the pace to be slower because there were some tough stretches into the wind, but I guess the crowd-induced adrenalin made up for that.

Event: ROC - Webster Park Icebreaker [2011 Series #1]
 

After Chelsea's race, I made it out for a run in the chilly, windy weather. The wind was coming off the Ocean, so I decided to do a very rare clockwise bridge circuit - the Science Museum loop - and I started it out with some protection from buildings, rather than along the river, like this.

There was a detour at the Science Museum and when I was waiting to cross back to the river side, a guy went by me. That's what I was hoping for - a target. The measured portions of the path consistently reported us to be in the 7:05-7:10 range (it was with the wind). He slowed just a bit after the Harvard Bridge, and I wanted to maintain the pace, so I did up to the Storrow ped bridge.

Finished my run at Steinbrenner Stadium, where the MIT Spring Invite was underway. I had caught a couple of events earlier and this time I tracked down Coach Taylor, to say hi. We were talking about Boston and my failure to register on time, and an official who was there mentioned to Halston that he has some exemptions available if alumni are ever in that predicament. Oh well.

C • There's a... 3

Event: US Interscholastic & US Intercollegiate Championships
 

Event: Boston Marathon
 

Used the lunch hour to try to download and print all of the tax forms that I need - new twist this year is Chelsea having to file in Massachusetts. I don't have a spreadsheet for that, yet.

Went from work to home to pack, then Chris and I went to Albany for the night, en route to Boston for Chelsea's crew weekend.

Running around during and after the JV track meet at Thomas. Ran out of time and had to get to Applebee's for the start of the Sabres playoff game (1-0 win!).

The Schroeder star of the meet was Zach! Well, not really - it was the 8th grader that ran 12.2 in the 100 without blocks, then high jumped 5'8" (despite standing only 5'5"!), but he is a Varsity triple jumper (possibly the best 8th grader in the country), so I don't know if he counts.

Zach ran the 1600, and I wanted to make sure he had a goal going into the race. After his 11:18 3200 on Tuesday, I was pretty sure he should be under 5:20, but I didn't have VDOT tables on me (it turns out 11:17 maps to 5:16), so we decided he should try to keep it just under 80 per lap, to break 5:20. He ended up running 75, 83, 75, 72 for a 5:05! Totally surprised me. He came back with a 2:21 in the 800, then anchored our 4x800 relay and caught Thomas for 2nd place, from way back.

C • It appears 4

Since I had already missed two days in a row, after I wasn't able to get out at lunchtime, time was getting short. I tried to leave work early, to run before golf, but stuff kept coming up. After golf, I had to get a run done but it was cold and wet, so Chris agreed to go to the Y with me, and I jumped on the treadmill.

1/2 mi w/up @ 7.0mph
up 0.1 mph every 0.1 mi. to 9.4 mph (did 8.2 for 0.2 by mistake), so last mile was 6:40.
1/4 mi recovery @ 6.6mph and less
Then ran at 6.6mph and upped the incline 0.5% every 30 sec, all the way from 1.5% to 9.5%
1/4 mi w/dn with a couple of strides

Increasing the speed slowly made me more uncomfortable from an aerobic standpoint, as expected. I could have kept increasing a bit longer, but it was getting tough. Increasing the incline, OTOH, did not bother me aerobically - I did not really get winded; however, I did get really heavy legs. I think at the end my heart rate was just about as high as during the speed increase though.

Climb added to the entry is just the climb during the climbing session - the usual 1% incline for the rest of the run was not included.

Consecutive days off. I got out of work just in time to get to the track meet, and it was too cold to be willing to change into running stuff after the meet and do the needful.

The meet was most excellent, though. Both the boys and girls meets came down to the last event - the 4 x 800m relay - and the distance squad came through for wins over our cross-town rivals from Webster Thomas. I'll have a write-up on the blog tomorrow.

Couldn't get out at lunch time, due to a problem with a vendor at work. That really sucked, because, despite the wind, it seemed to be a fantastic day to get away from the office for an hour - well into the 70s after all of the nasty days.

HVO Meet from the Lake Welch Beach parking area. It was the end of the Jr Training Camp that Zach and Luke attended.

Chose the Red course, so that Chris and the kids wouldn't have to wait too long, but this even ended up being too long. I banged my shins up early on the mountain laurel and then my lower legs took a whipping from the blueberries or whatever those bushes are. I was in shorts and this was the first orienteering event that I've done, where I was sorry that I don't own gaiters. Never found C7, which was at the end of a long 3m cliff, with another long cliff next to it. By then I was walking thru the blueberries as well as the mountain laurel, so not sure why I couldn't get things to line up. I must have been very close because C8 ended up being only a little right (and higher) than I expected.

Flicked off one tick during the race and Chris and I found 5 more when I got back. I had thought it was too early to worry about them, but obviously not.

HVO soaked me for the $10 non-member entry fee (plus another 25 cents for a map bag - probably a good "green" idea, but an annoyance when you don't know the policy) vs. the $3 it would cost an HVO member to run here. Guy did say that parents of the juniors were supposed to be $5, but I didn't identify myself that way. I really don't like the HVO "paper" punch cards - they didn't have safety pins, so I couldn't pin the card to my shirt (where it would have dissolved anyway) and stapled it inside the map bag, but it turned out I stapled it via the part that they rip off at the start line (a remote start so you could plan your course on the way there, but I just chatted with Zach instead), so it was loose in the bag instead, adding several seconds to each punch. They also did not provide pre-printed maps, so I was at my own peril in trying to interpret what I thought they circled - it didn't help that a) the guy next to me had a master map with a slightly different center for one control, and b) several clues did not specify which cliff or boulder was the correct feature.

All-in-all, makes me more pleased with how our meets are run these days (and with more improvements in the works!).

C • Paper punch cards? 12

C • 2011CCOF junior training camp without the camping... 4

C • Fees 2

Interesting run from the Knecht Cup in Cherry Hill, NJ, where Chelsea was rowing. I ran west along the race course, then continued west into Camden. Didn't seem so bad at first, then it looked a little more sketchy, but I saw a "9th St" and wanted to see if 1st St would be near the river or something, so I continued on. Between 3rd and 4th I came upon a couple of guys and as I approached I could hear one saying "F'n kill the SOB". I was hoping that wasn't about me!

I turned around (there was no 1st St, of course, the road ended at abandoned factories and stuff), and crossed the street. I didn't catch what the guy said when I went by again, but it was something about "white boy". A few blocks later a guy commented that I was "jogging around like it was Cherry Hill".

Probably won't be repeating that route!

Chelsea rowed well. She had gotten bumped to the second boat with the return of two rowers (I think one injury and one had been missing weight), but they were only about 15 seconds behind the first boat, despite the fact that 4 from Chelsea's 8 had raced in a 4 in the morning.

C • scary 4

Event: 2011 NorthEast Junior Training Camp
 

Had planned on squeezing in a run at Blue Mountain, while dropping Zach and Luke off for the O-Camp, but Janet arrived early, so Chris and I decided to try to beat some of the NYC Friday PM traffic instead. Fail, but still managed to meet Chelsea at Wegman's in Cherry Hill, where the team went for dinner...

Some 9.5 hours of driving today, thanks to the delays.

C • GSP = fail? 3

RH3 from Lyell Ave. A very unreasonable and angry innkeeper called ro-po on one of his customers. Sad.

Forgot to record my injured eye. I got poked during one of the races on the weekend. Noticed some soreness on Monday, but didn't really think about it until Chris asked if there was something wrong with my eye that night, and we saw some significant redness below and right of the pupil.

It seems to be improving, albeit slowly.

Easy run after the team's workout. They did the 5 x 700m thing today, and did it nicely, for the most part. I ran on the bike path to Gravel and back via Regina / Daventry / etc.

Legs were quite heavy, presumably from yesterday and the weekend.

C • pace 2

Legs still felt quite sore from the weekend, so felt it was wise to not do the Strength intervals this week. Unable to get out at lunch, so went to Mendon Ponds after work. Didn't want to completely wuss out, so I decided "terrain surges" were the order of the day. Parked at the second entrance and ran 15 min easy, then did 5 x 3 min surges, stepping off the trails to do so, with an easy 3 min, mostly on trails in between. Then did one last 3 min surge on trails to make it an even 6.

12 min w/dn back to the car included removing shoes and socks to walk thru the underwater muck to get to the gap between the ponds. At the gap there was another long puddle, but without as much muck, so I left the shoes on and kept one dry with a step-hop-step x 2 combo.

C • sore 3

Easy run after the guys did their workout (4x200R, 4x1000T, 4x200R, with 3 200s for some and 900s and 800s for some).

Short loop, past the old house on Joylene.

Not counting the sprints I had to do to visit the 3 groups and time 200s.

Flying Pig - Middle Distance at Hueston Woods

Saved my worst performance for the last day (and my birthday). Overran the first control and completely blew the second control, by being distracted when deciding how to leave the trail. Not sure how I wound up where I did, but it was not even close. I only found the control when I decided to bail toward the road and figured out that the steep banks I had been thru were not the even steeper banks that I came across, that were what I saw on the map.

Blowing the second control that badly really takes the wind out of the sails, and the legs were already heavy from yesterday.

The only highlight was that Sergey Velichko popped out onto the road behind me after C12 and I held him off for awhile down the trail, but he gapped me and put a minute on me from there to the finish, even though I was running fairly well, I thought, and only had very small bobbles near a couple of controls.

Miminal w/up - mostly back from Luke's start and off to my own start.

C • Happy Birthday. 1

Sunday Red - Splits

US Ultralong Champs at the Flying Pig (Hueston Woods)

After a poor miss on C1, I mostly settled down for at least a reasonable performance, until I ran out of gas on the last few controls. My continued cold certainly limited by aerobic capacity, but much of the issue was hitting the woods after a winter of roads and treadmills. To be ready for West Point, I will have to get into the woods - at least there is, theoretically, time to do so.

Luke developed blisters after 3 controls and was unable to run, which is his strength, so he was out for over an hour. I should have checked his feet after wearing the O shoes yesterday.

After the race had a long coughing fit that was near puke level several times.

The jog to the start - Clem caught me so I picked it up a bit to chat.

Saturday UL Red - Splits

Event: OCIN Flying Pig XV & US ULtralong Champs
 

Flying Pig XV - Red Middle

2011 - a new year, same issues. Not ready for running in the woods after a winter of roads and treadmills, so I wasn't as quick as needed (and the lingering cold did not help my aerobic capacity). But I was moving fast enough to almost be competitive in M45. Instead, pulled a bonehead move leaving C9 and lost over 4 minutes. Unacceptable in a Middle, especially on a short, should be all-trails, leg.

Still ended up 6th of 15 in M45 and only 5th was realistic, given the solid competition.

Luke was leading Yellow overall through 7 (of 12 controls), but he did not read the clue for C9 carefully (FOOT of earthbank) and did not see the flag, so spent 16 minutes on that leg. Quite good overall for his A-Meet debut on Yellow.

Short w/up, but did also do some dynamic stuff to prepare for the woods running.

Friday Red - Splits