Training Log Archive: PG

Back to Mt. Tom again to re-re-run the Day 1 course from day 1 of the Western Mass 3 Day a little over two months ago. I like repeating routes. Tells you how you're doing, for better or worse. And I prefer knowing.

Splits the first time, late April (from road to NE end, back to road, to SW end, back to road, to NE end, back to road, total):

6:10, 6:00, 11:05, 8:41, 5:46, 5:37= 43:18.

12 days ago:
5:34, 5:20, 9:56, 8:03, 5:31, 5:27 = 39:51

This time:
5:39, 5:08, 9:23, 7:48, 5:17, 4:45 = 38:03

So better. Which is good.

Felt sluggish to start, didn't warm up much, but after the first couple of hills they seemed to get easier. Just trying to run the ups steady, no hurry on the downs.

Until I got to the last up, 6 lines, moderate slope, and my mind flipped back to something i was reading this morning, a Swiss friend's report on the Dolomites 5-Day, especially the phrase -- "Der Aufstieg zum letzten Posten und der lange Zieleinlauf forderten noch die letzten Reserven." -- basically, the climb to the last post and the long run up to the finish required the last of my energy. Kurt won the day in H65. That's how you do it, when it's up and then up some more, you just grit your teeth and do it. And many times over there it is up and then up a whole lot more.

So anyway, that popped into my mind at the start of the last up, you get your motivation where you can, and my little legs just cranked right up the hill, imagining a finish banner at the top. Felt good.

And as the saying goes, the will to win is no good unless you've already had the will to train.

45 down, 5 to go. On schedule.

C • H65 2

C • Repeating routes 6

Charlie called up yesterday suggesting a trip to the Forest Park 5K XC race this evening. I wasn't sure. It's not like I have a training plan laid out week by week, but I've been trying to at least plan the quality workouts, and doing the race just didn't seem to fit, after Sunday's race at Loon and the track tomorrow.

But I said maybe I'd change my mind.

And today I was thinking about it more seriously. But then I looked at the weather map and storms were moving in and just going to Mt. Tom for a steady woods run seemed to make more sense.

The race is in 45 minutes, and right now it's pouring here and looks like it's pouring there. On the other hand, O' is still an outdoor sport, and if you practice when it's really crappy out, then you'll compete better when it's really crappy out. Like yesterday at JWOC. A day when HTFU training really pays off.

And our kids must have done some, because they did well, second day in a row.

Maybe I should have gone.

C • Forest Park 4

Training - Splits

You might say I was lucky, or you might say I was smart, who knows. Really though, there ought to be more lotteries just like this one, where the ticket is free and you're 99% sure to win.

I'm referring of course to the Michael Jackson memorial service lottery, where I got the good news yesterday that I had won, meaning that I hadn't won, so I didn't have to go. So instead I was free to head north for a round with Mike Fritz, this time in Hanover, NH. The company was great, my behavior was great, my golf was directionally challenged to a significant extent, my ample supply of balls at the start somewhat depleted by the time the thunder and lightning rolled in. And the 81 strokes would have been a very satisfying number if there hadn't been three holes left to play when the horn blew and the count stopped. But, as I said, my behavior was excellent, and that's much more important. And not just the external appearances but also the inner enjoyment -- a nice outing not even marred by some truly horrendous shots.

There was little point in waiting the hour or two for the storm to blow through, also little interest on my part for the planned run on one of the nearby O' maps in the midst of the storm, so I went with plan B and headed home, thinking that by Brattleboro the weather might be better. And it certainly was.

So, time for 20-25 minutes of heavy breathing, up Mt. Wantastiquet, 23:50, better than late April (25:10), but still bogus because a stop at the steepest point, 19 minutes in, for a minute of recovery, just didn't have the willpower and hadn't made the commitment to run the whole way. But still better than April (and that had 3 stops). But not as good as the 22:30 of 3 or 4 years ago.

And then very easy coming down, 17:22, still some tender places from Sunday. Things were very wet in places so extra care was taken.

Gail asked when I got home if this was the easy day I had planned. And I think it was -- no fast running, so although the legs might be a little sluggish tomorrow, the soreness should be disappearing.

From yesterday, partway up the last steep pitch....



As compared to 3 weeks ago, I have certainly gotten slower....

C • Glasses? 2

Same short loop as Saturday, after dinner just before dark, just wanted to stretch out the legs. Quite a few sore places after yesterday.

Plus one more sore place that seemed to both come and go today. I was walking up the stairs this morning to brush my teeth before heading off to get a tooth repaired, when my right shin muscle did something strange, and then started to hurt, and then hurt some more. To the point that I couldn't put any weight on that leg without a good bit of pain. No obvious cause. But very disconcerting.

Hobbled off to the dentist, spent most of the hour and a quarter trying to get my leg comfortable, as opposed to my usual freaking out about the drill. Got home, still hurt, And then an hour or two later, something just eased up -- must have been a spasm or a nerve getting pinched -- and it suddenly hurt less and within a few minutes hurt hardly at all.

And after an hour on the golf course and a bike ride, not at all. Very strange.

Think I need a couple more easy days.

Easy warm-up.

Loon Mountain race. Distance was advertised mostly as 5.7 miles, occasionally as 6.1, G-maps says 5.2 (though a little should be added for some very steep terrain). Who knows, and basically who cares. You care about time and place, whereas pace was pretty irrelevant. That's not to say they didn't have miles marked, but I wouldn't put much faith in their accuracy. (And I say that even if things were measured and marked with a good GPS system, because even with that you can still get bad numbers if the course we actually run isn't exactly the course as measured. In this case, I reached mile marker 1 in 8 minutes flat, perfectly reasonable except for the fact that the much of the first mile was definitely uphill.)

Whatever. The course goes up, down a little, up a bunch more, down a little, up a bunch more, down a little, up a whole lot more to the top of the main gondola, down a bunch, up a whole lot more very steeply, down a bunch and one last little kicker up right at the end. Finishes about 1800' higher than the start, overall climb is about 2900'.

I had a good race, certainly better based on relative times than Northfield, 3 weeks ago, which had many of the same runners. For example, Rick Scott, an old local friend and better (and a decade younger) runner, got me by about 3 minutes at Northfield and by just 18 seconds today. A case where a close loss is absolutely a moral victory.

Lots of steep hills as I said, but very good footing, either sand/gravel service road or nicely grassed ski trail. The pitch was always changing, had to keep changing gears. I walked a lot more than some, but I was usually moving just as fast. And on the last pitch (about 800' vertical, very steep ski trail), where everyone was walking, I was passing folks, not getting passed. Nice.

Splits in case I ever run it again: 31:00 to top of lower lift, 46:30 to top of main gondola, 50:30 down to bottom of last climb, 62:20 to top of last climb, 65:39 finish. And for the "mile markers" -- 8:00, 10:32, 12:30, 14:30, missed mile 5. I wasn't getting tired, things just got steeper.

First 60+ by a couple of minutes, won a coupon for a pair of tights. Best time overall was 48:xx.

Results.

Ran back down from the finish with Rick Scott. Mellow pace, good conversation, very pleasant.

C • Nice! 2

So does it make any sense to drive not quite 3 hours each way to run a race that takes just over an hour?

If you know me, clearly you already know the answer, given that last year I went to Sweden for a long weekend to orienteer for 48 minutes, and that was absolutely worth it. As was today. The only downside -- making sure I got up by 4:30 so I could be out of the house by 5, ideally without waking up Gail. I managed to get up before the alarm went off, but it seems I managed to wake her up anyway.

Underway just as it was getting light, for a bit I was having rogaine flashbacks, the times just at dawn after a long night, the quality of the early morning light, fields of dew-soaked long grass.

The drive up was easy, no traffic, fun to be back up in the mountains. Signed up, ran into Tony Federer, also a couple local friends, also my yoga teacher.

The race was fine, perfect day, not warm, and it sure helps when the legs feel good.

A pleasant easy run down with Rick. Then in to get a little food and drink, ran into Tony again. Had a long chat. He's been running some amazing times at the Mt. Washington race, I was trying to figure out what his secret was, but mainly I was just enjoying the company. He's a neat guy.

And then checked in with Lisa from Inov-8 (I think she's the boss of the USA operation), there displaying their shoes again. And yes, she'd gotten my message asking her to bring an extra pair of size 11 212s for when I wear out the ones I'm using now (though they are showing no wear yet). And talked to her a bunch more about orienteering and their various shoes and their new O' shoes coming out next spring.

And then eventually they had awards and I collected mine and headed home, the sun out, the air fresh, the radio tuned to a station playing classic oldies, the vibes excellent.

Reminded me of a French 5 Day maybe 15 years ago, so wonderfully civilized. One day Gail had a very early start, I was a couple of hours later. Parked, she was off, I walked the at most 400 meters to the center of town, bought the morning paper, a coffee, a pastry, spent a very pleasant hour before eventually heading off to run my course. And then the last day, just outside another small village, I'd already run, chase start, first off, more importantly first in, and then sitting on the grassy hillside eating lunch (bread, cheese, paté) with the steady stream of classic oldies only occasionally interrupted by some announcement dealing with the elite classes.

So I was in a very good mood. And also reminded of a line that Gail said a week and a half ago, looking at the new me, not sure whether it was good or bad, sure at that point only that I looked different and it would take some getting used to, and then saying, with a very nice smile, this would give her a chance to fall in love with me all over again.

Did I say life has never been better?

Short ride up to Montague, a little more energetically than I had intended. Brisk NW breeze. Route.

So I entered the lottery for a ticket to the memorial ceremony on Tuesday. Would be just my luck to win.... :-)

C • Good luck! 1

South Sugarloaf and back with Dave. Legs felt very tired, just one of those days.

16:02 over, 9:33 up, 7:17 down, 14:58 back.

F/M ratio today was 7:1, 8:1 if you count the instructor. And the instructor, I've slowly come to realize, is also a trail/mountain runner. Lots of good karma.

Warm-up. My sense was the feet felt light but the legs a little heavy, a residue of yesterday's battle with the ferns.

Had hoped to see Charlie here, that had been the plan, but then his shoulder acted up and he had to bail.

Holyoke 5K XC, around the reservoirs. Ran this 3 weeks ago, 21:04. Goal was to beat the age-64 record, 20:48. Had the new shoes and three more weeks of good training both going for me, but I assumed I had blown any chances by overdoing it yesterday -- the legs were sore this morning, though I must say that they felt much less sore this afternoon. (Does the new, younger, clean-shaven look mean I also heal faster?)

There are no marked miles, but I remembered my time at three points on the course from 2 weeks earlier, so I had some idea how things were going. First point was very early, 1:54 (vs. 1:58 last time), felt like I was moving fast enough, but the usual uncertainty, was the pace too fast.

Next point was 11:04 last time. Working hard. Figured I needed to be there by no worse than 10:55, and if I was 11 or more I'd back off. Got there in 10:44, 20 seconds better, wow, but also more uncertainty, did I have another 10 minutes in me.

Next point was 16:25 last time. Wanted to be no worse than 16:05, hopefully 16:00, got there 15:58, excellent. Now just needed to hang on. Which I did, 20:33 at the finish, 31 seconds better. Truly excellent. Three age records done, one more to go for. And another good hard workout.

Really wasted, took a good two minutes for my breathing to calm down. But that's the point of the exercise, relearning how to push yourself even when you're tired. And it is, at least for me, an all-consuming mental exercise as well as physical, not even remotely boring. If it's boring, you're not really trying. At least that's the way I see it.

A couple of nice post-race encounters. One with Don, director of the Northampton XC series, now back as a good friend and a pleasure to talk to. His verdict on the new face was that I look 50, and then a few seconds later he said, No, make that 42. :-)

And the other, I saw a face that looked familiar, don't know how I remembered the name, Vic Goulet, hadn't seen him for 20 years, he used to run trail races, came orienteering a couple of times, now about 70. I said hello, we chatted, he said he'd met someone who knew me while he was trekking in Nepal last year, turned out to be Jeff Watson and Paula Whipple from Oregon, they'd had an O' patch on their pack and that's how the subject came up. And Vic is going to see them again next week, he's heading out to Mt. Rainier. I said, they put on one of the best, if not the actual best, US Champs I've ever been to, out in Bend.

As the saying goes, it's a small world.

Results.

Thinking of going to Loon Mountain on Sunday.

Spent about 3 hours today looking at Swedish maps. All looks very difficult. Have to remind myself I've done it before, just been a while, just have to work on getting the right combination of fear and confidence.

C • 3 hours 2