Training Log Archive: Ari-o

I'm going to miss most of my monthly goals this month.

On the other hand, I've never had consecutive 44 hour training months until this year. September will be my 4th in a row.

Chesterville roll.

5 mi no poles
5 mi dp
5k skate back to the car

then to a meeting, but jumped in the lake (twice!) which is still very refreshing (cold) but definitely felt great. May be the last time of the season, alas.

Trail run day with a mellow run up Cabot in NH.

The color was spectacular.

Short, morning lake run. Nice morning, colors are great!

Afternoon roll sesh after I had been roped in to pulling the docks in (oh that is why my back hurts).

Went to the nearby road, but then also went up and down the hill on the "main" road but that road is not very busy. Pavement is fine, and a nice hill. Fartlek on the Hathaway hills.

Drive to Maine. Finish work. Run around lake. Jump in lake.

The lake is definitely chillier, but very refreshing, and then the air once out was quite nice.

Run was fine.

Down to the Blue Hills after a late, dumb meeting. Traffic showed 53 minutes of traffic at 5:15 or so, but by the time I left at 5:54, it was dissipating: 24 minutes!

Ran the white loop-ish, but skipped the first bit to go over the hill. Looped back up over a MTB trail, then down to the white loop. And did a loop of the little southern jog. Felt good jogging in the dark, still thinking about the 100m on the 100 MW, probably in a couple of weeks.

Run to TJs, later, which was actually nice, a bit cooler and way fewer people. Ran some 30s pickups along the river where it was deserted.

Evening run around the river. Lots of people. Lots of mask up and down.

So, orienteering was fun. Especially when I remembered how to orienteer.

I got out of Dodge a bit later than planned, then hit a wall of traffic into Danbury. Bad enough I put the car in park and sent some texts. Which meant by the time I was off of 84 I was looking for any pullout to use the restroom.

I had plenty of time for the course, especially if I remembered how to orienteer. First a quick warm up to use the restroom again. Nice, cool, breezy day. And then off. Orienteering!

First skips, 1, 5 and 16 were the obvious ones, I decided 16. So off to 1. In some deep, not-dry mud, and then up some benches up to the control. Cool, I remember how to orienteer. So then off to 2. Ran the spur and found a control, but not really in the right place. Oh, wait, this is 3. Should I go to 2 or use my skip? Actually, 2 is a decent skip, lots of contours between 2 and 3. Fine, use my skip. Not a great skip.

Back to the trail and whee down to the road and off to 4, navigating pretty well. Then down the herd path to 5 around the pond, also orienteering well. Actually, maybe getting cocky.

So 6. I was following stone walls and at some point followed the wrong one the wrong direction. Somehow north instead of west. And I got to a road. But there was no road on the map. I tried to make things line up and there was nowhere that I could be. This went on for a while until finally I realized there was the little yellow stripe along the map. Wait. That's the road? I don't really agree with the mapmaker, who either has it as a clear area with small areas of large trail, which kind of just look like cliffs. It makes sense, but I think would make a lot more sense as an indistinct trail. The narrow strip of yellow kind of looks like a contour line, especially where it runs parallel to the contour lines.

So once I figured that out, I yelled words at no one in particular, and went running off to the actual control. That was easy enough. Then to 7. Here the issue was not realizing how bad the slash thorns were (impassable). I tried several times, and finally gave up running the stream bed when it was impassable, and then finally went around.

So I found 7. Then off to 8. Well, I forgot how to take compass bearings. I first went west, then east, when I was supposed to be going south. I stopped for a second and said "okay, back to basics, following a bearing, read the terrain." And got to 8.

I think that was finally what I needed to remember how to orienteer. I'd already made 16m of mistakes. I made 31s the rest of the way (per AP).

9. Spike.
10. Contour a bit high, then due south on a bearing, spike.
11. Spike
12, 13, 14, spikes, or close to it. 12 I think I took a decent route to avoid some climb, 13 I found the control sort of matching the description, 14, nicely done.
15-17, lagging, thirsty and not too fast, but navigated well.
18. Now I was tired and thirsty, and a long climb to the finish.

So, maybe if I orienteer a bit more?

DIY Goat - Splits

Easy taper run on a gorgeous, cool day in Maine on the KH trails. With poles, fartleking up the hills a bit.

And then I jumped in the lake, because it was over 50.

After work scamper up Abraham. Got stuck in a queuing theory nightmare where Route 2 was down to one lane and the light cycle at the bridge was not optimized for the volume; it was almost at the exponential growth stage (lots of wasted cycle time, etc). I thought back to grad school, they tried to teach us this!

Anyway, I started later than planned, but churned through the first couple of miles at 12 minute miles, the first mile or so has been moved around a bit to avoid some wet sections, and I decided to run the parallel-ish road on the way down in the dark instead. Abraham is 2.5 miles of pretty easy climbing and then 1.3 miles at a 27% average grade (1600' per mile on the steepest mile). So that was fun. I was huffing and puffing at L3 most of the way, stopped around treeline to put on my gloves and windbreaker, which was needed; it was probably in the 30s on top and blowing hard.

A couple of quick snapshots of the sunset and then down. Felt pretty good with the headlamp once in the woods, turned in a 16m mile on a gradual down with some tricky footing, and then hit the road for the jog into the car.

News on the radio was not so great. But the run was good!

More "well … shit" for this year.

Pisgah would have been this Sunday. In recent years, Pisgah has been warm verging on hot.

Forecast for Sunday: low of 35, high of 59.

(I guess I could go run 50k on Sunday, but I think I am going to go do my own Goat.)

Earlier trip out tonight, on a cool, cloudy evening with some sun/smoke sun on the horizon. Lovely day for a roll, DP out, skate back, out to the bridge and back.

I started just behind an older gentleman on a bicycle (as I was putting on the skis he came by and said "out to enjoy the new tah!") and eventually caught him, and he was so excited to see a rollerskier. Not because he's a skier, but because he wanted to take pictures to post on his Facebook page.

On the way out were were both yelled at from a minivan (ant this guy was wearing a Harley Davidson sweatshirt, so, yeah) and on the way back, once I'd dropped him (he wasn't doing so hot up the hills, and I was skating) a dog ran out. But some nice light and some color coming in.

I'm now testing my blinky light to see how long it runs on a charge. Up to 155 minutes. Hopefully it dies before bedtime.

Finally did this run! KH trail to 17, down the lake, and then down to Hathaway and up through the KLT trails and finishing before sunset. A bit shy of 12, but not by much. With some hills.

On the hill up from Hathaway to the KLT trails I got chased by some shaggy dogs. I think they just wanted to come on a run with me. I should have just kept running and had their owner chase after. Harder to blame them here than in the city; it's a dead end road and they don't see a lot of people.

Got out for my rollerski way later than planned. Turned around at 5 mi or 30m, whichever came first (5 mi did). On the esker, DP out, skate back; focusing on good soccer kicks skating and it seemed to help me go fast to beat sunset, all sub-5s coming back.

Super hazy from the smoke but that's up high; AQI of 5 or something.

Felt good, need to do better on timing to get more rolling in. Basically no traffic, though.

Event: 124th Boston Marathon Cancelled!
 

Angsty run, finishing at the farm for veggies, then running down the hill with a bag of veggies to slow my pace.

Not a bad day for running.

Hiking up to see Jess. She was coming down on her FKT attempt and I thought was well behind time, and we went nearly aa mile up, slowly, looking for her.

But then a blur of Jess came by and I started running after her and then realized there was no need to try to break my ankles, too, so walked the rest of the way down.

She made it in 4:48 … 10m better than the previous FKT.

Which is insane.

Out for an afternoon walk. Some uphill, some jogging. Trails near Gorham with not much traffic.

Saying 30m?

Made a new friend recently and will report more if things keep going well but she suggested a Wildcat-Carter-Moriah traverse and it's hard for me to say no to that.

Met in Gorham, spotted car up at Pinkham (so busy!) and then up Wildcat. Which is … steep. 1600'/mile, about the steepest in the Whites. That was slow and steep, but I had a good influence to keep me from going too fast and drinking too much water. Easier over the top, ran along with a thru-hiker for a while (seemed like a lifer thru-hiker, which are an odd breed) and then down to get water at Carter Lake, since Cata is closed. Except right before the lake I saw a nice little stream of cold water which seemed better than lake water and we filtered a ton and I drank a ton and I was very well hydrated: this was good! It was also the only water on the trail.

So, then, up Carter Dome which is also hard and some of us were lagging but have other good qualities but we had plenty of time for a 5:30 reservation at Saalt/Libby's which was a motivating factor. The last few pitches were warm and sunny but it was a perfect day out, and we finally got to stretch our legs out on the last bit down to Gorham. Mile for mile this is not much easier than the Presi.

We made it down and were sipping beer and eating our appetizers 15 minutes later at the best outdoor garden eating I've seen.

In Boston, Friday morning. Went for a run to Summit. Was too late to see some NP people who apparently have been socially-distanced gathering there, but ran over the hill a few times like the old days.

Run around JP, down to Franklin Park and around the newly-paved Circuit Trail.

I may have to go take a rollerski there some time! Nice mile out-and-back, and with the paths you could make a 2ish mile loop. Hills, but gentle ones.

Not a bad run. Muggy but cloudy enough not to be blazing hot. And not too crowded so only so much buff time. Getting ready for ski season kind of.

Morning yog around the block which was quite nice indeed.

Surprisingly non-DOMSy today, but still went out for a rollerski. Just the first 6.5 miles out and back on the Chesterville Road which had more traffic than usual, it seemed, or people were driving like dinks more (mostly that two people passed me on blind corners—leaving enough room—but forcing cars coming the other direction damn near off the road).

But otherwise, a nice DP out, and mostly skating coming back, thinking about technique, and not going too hard.

Woo Presie Traverse!

I was thinking of doing this given perfect weather, and my brother in law was heading to the Whites anyway, and we figured out logistics. Actually, first we were going to caravan to NH and then I was going to get a ride to the HiC and then hike back north (which … would have been difficult going up and down Madison and Adams on tired legs). Then he'd go meet a friend coming down Bondcliff and get a late lunch, and I'd drive home when done to minimize logistics on the back end.

After some quick thinking, I realized it would be easier just to drop me at Appalachia, I'd hike south, and just wait at the Highland Center for him. So we left at 6, and I was on the trail at 7:38.

Perfect day; 50s at the base, 40s on the summit, 70 in the valley at the end. I charged up the VW, getting to the hut in 1:15: 6 minutes off my PR but for my PR I was done at the hut. I saw six people on the trail, which was the hardest part to pass on the whole route, and then dozens milling about the hut. Felt a little bloated, but hydrated, and not overheated.

I dropped my pack and "ran" up Madison, which is still just a jumble of rocks. Half an hour up and back and which I still don't know how Jordan Field did 5 minutes down (or really anything on his 3:42 traverse). Filled water at the hut, then up to Adams. Kind of a slog, but every mountain gets a little easier after Madison.

The early fog cleared off Madison before I got there, off Adams (busy, but early enough not that many day hikers were up yet) when I was on Madison, and off everything by the time I was coming off of Adams. A lovely, breezy, cool but not cold day, but I had the rollerski gloves on most of the way. 2:09 to Adams (an Adams challenge, with Madison thrown in), and decent time over to Jefferson (very busy, quickly on and off). There was another runner slowly gaining on me who I could see behind me every so often, and he caught up with me on the climb up Clay. The trails in between the mountains and huts were busy but not insane.

We then ran together over Clay and most of the way up the rock pile; he dropped me right around the cog tracks. The summit itself was a madhouse (as opposed to Madison, which was a Madhaüs). I ran by the people waiting to take pictures with the summit sign, then through someones' picture, and down the rocks without breaking stride. The guy ahead of me had stopped for something and caught me on the Crawford Path, and past the Gulfside where I know every rock and tree (the trees are easy; there are none) we blasted down to the hut, strength in numbers.

Hut was more water, and then food in the front pockets! I ate two stroopwafels, a lara bar and a packet of shot blocks up and over Monroe, Little Monroe and down the flowy (or what counts for flowy after the morning) trails. Legs getting tired by this point and it was warmer in the sun; I had the buff up over my ears for sun control for quite a ways. Didn't make great time down the hills and the six hour traverse ship had long since sailed, but I was rolling down for a 6:30 time. 18s down from Washington, basically, including the climbs. Everything is dry, which is nice.

I got a call from my BiL around this point saying he was done hiking, and headed to lunch in NoCo, so could he pick me up around 2:15? Well, indeed! Timing worked perfectly, enough for me to stretch on the lawn. Then off to the Moat (his friend had finished the 48, so celebratory) for a beer and just enough time I was getting hungry. I got a cup of chili, and then his friend and I decided to go off-menu: could we have burgers with pulled pork (in my case) or brisket (in his) on top? Sure, why not! Apparently we were the talk of the kitchen; I left a nice tip.

A couple of notes …

1) I'm down to needing 230m/day to reach 100k by EOY. Started the year at 275. 125m below two years ago (when I did make 100k) and last year (when I didn't, you know, because marathons).

2) The Scarpa Spin Ultras seemed way too high volume in the upper at the start, but I think they just needed to be broken in. Once tightened later, they were fine, and my feet are in pretty good shape.

3) 100MW? Still undecided. Would wait a couple more weeks for cool weather. If I can maintain 3 mph (or close to it) on the Presi …

C • Water from huts 4

1400 miles in a year of running (/foot-o/hiking/trails … i.e. foot training) = complete!

A bit of back-and-forthing, pushing a bit hard on the straight up.

Fells on the way to Maine, meeting a friend, taking it nice and easy. Warm but drying out, lovely day in the woods and not even too crowded.

I still like the Blue Hills better.

Also traffic is back, although the day before the long weekend makes sense. I will not be driving home on Monday evening when it will be real bad.

Back down to the Blue Hills, mostly because it's not crowded; I saw half a dozen groups of people. Ran out the border trail, picked up the white trail, ran around that, saw a 10 point buck just chilling by the side of the trail, didn't flinch as I slowed down for a peek.

Then ran over to the start of the yellow trail, and it was getting real dark after a gorgeous sunset through the woods, and I did my best not to eat shit down the hills and made it to the car at dusk.

Humid morning out to the Blue Hills before the rain. Ran for about an hour on not-enough sleep (stayed up late yelling at election results, still woke up early). Ran up Blue Hill, got a little lost getting there, ran down, ran up it again, ran down, saw a trail runner with behaved dog, then had a dog being walked run after me while being yelled at by its owners not to.

Guys, your dog wants to run. It's also supposed to be on a leash (I've now checked and yes Blue Hills has a leash rule).

Woods look very open and very dry; wondering if there hasn't been much die-off this year. Maybe would be fun to rerun an old Traverse one of these days. Figuring the Traverse this year will probably be DIY.

Speaking of traverse, I broke in the Spin Ultras, which have more padding, in case I go full dumb and do the 100. Or a Presi next week (or this weekend).

The month is out. What happened?

- 50 hours logged. Made it 49. Hot weather at the start of the month didn't help, with 1:30 rollerskis leaving me parched.
- 200 miles of running. Only 180. So, not great, but reasonable.
√ 60 minutes around the lake, from top of the camp road. 58:25!
- 12km D+. Missed this by about 100m, so, fine. Way ahead of past years on the way to 100km.
- Three proper bounding sessions. One, and not that proper
√ 2000 push up and sit ups. Once it got cooler this became much easier. Added in crunches.
√ A long trail run with mountains. Pemi Loop!
√ Fix my bike. Got fixed at the shop. One nice 40 miler.
- 250 pull ups. Forgot about this one, only got the bar up late.
√ 100 miles of rollerskiing. 109, thanks to Chesterville!

August was okay. The start of the month was quite warm, and with nothing to train for, I was trying to keep my get up and go from having got up and went. It finally cooled off the last week and was easier.

So the month upcoming …

* 50 hours logged. This should be easier with cooler weather. Have to shift more to mornings given daylight
* 200 miles of running. I'll try for this again, thinking about 2000 by year's end. I'm at 1380, and my chart tops out at 1400 from past years.
* 60 minutes around the lake. Do it again, shoot for a new PR.
* 12km D+. Seems about right.
* Three proper bounding sessions. Need to do better.
* 2250 push up and sit ups. That's 75/day.
* A long trail run with mountains.†
* Ride bikes. Not a specific goal.
* 250 pull ups. Now the bar is up. These are hard!
* 100 miles of rollerskiing. Should be attainable again.
* DIYgoat

† … so … I have gotten the idea of thru-running the 100 Mile Wilderness. Maybe going for the unsupported FKT, which is 1d9h, which seems attainable (it's a 21 minute mile). I felt quite good after the Pemi Loop, and would just have to keep it up for another day, but with a lot less elevation. It's also been quite dry, and for that trail, not having huge mud holes would be a great benefit. Plus I have some more downtime from work so can take a few days. I'd wait for good weather, charge up my headlamp batteries, and just go, and figure out a ride home.

Originally, the end of this month was going to be the 100k at the Birkie Trail, which I guess I could still do but I'd have to drive out and, that sounds not so great. (I mean, it sounds great, but a lot of driving.) Everything else is canceled. Pisgah is canceled, and it's a pretty socially distanced race. I'll try to get down to Boston at some point to then go to Connecticut to run the Billygoat DIY, too.

Low lake loop, to get back in time for a meeting. It was a lovely evening out for it! Finished down to and then in the lake, which is still reasonably warm, and was only a couple of minutes late for the call.

Start up to the loop, and cool down and around the field.

Decided to go out for a Lake Loop PR today. Wind was dying off with the evening, cool (60s) and dry, and so I took it easy up to the road and then went for it. Still some headwind going north and west, but downhill, running 6s for that and then along the lake on the other side, with one 7+ mile uphill thrown in. Was feeling good and on pace for a PR, but still had to push up the Dam Hill before pouring it on the Home Stretch (new Strava segment). 58:25 is nearly a 2 minute PR!

Now, 7:13/mi … can I get that under 7? That would take another couple of minutes. Wrist HRM even seemed to start working after a wonky first mile … barely qualifies as L3, but then again my legs aren't perfectly fresh.

Event: Billygoat / DIY Goat, Mountain Lakes
 

Forecast today for rain and more raining, overspreading during the morning. Didn't get as early a start as hoped (a nap is planned!) but was rolling by 8 sharp with just some clouds and a bright sky to the east. Figured I'd go out Chesterville until it started raining, then turn back.

I started lightly raining around 3 miles in, but really just nuisance rain. It got heavier around the 8 mile single lane bridge (sounds like it might be finished this week) and I took a left, I'd come this far, why not go a little further. (18 miles would put me over the top for my monthly rollerski goal.) Hit the end of good pavement, but it was older but fine pavement for half a mile to 156, and then new pavement on Knowlton Corners, with hills!

Oh and rain. By now the rain was covering the road, but with new pavement it was fine. I was thoroughly wet, but it was warm enough that I was quite comfortable at an L1 ski, and also didn't have to drink water because I wasn't sweating. Success! (It was 54˚, so Alex would have had hypothermia.) Climbed the second hill to get to 13.1, and also, hill.

Turned around (there's a bit more good pavement, but the rain was getting to me) and whee downhills and then the rest of the way was a bit of a slog but it was cool and rainy and there wasn't much traffic an the wheels were sticking to the pavement. Just out for a nice easy "ski" and it wasn't even Type 2 fun.

Elevation doing weird things (pressure falls? out and back don't match), slightly corrected per Strava lookup. I have now skied 172 miles, which is almost 2x more than I've ever skied before September 1.

Felt better today, maybe because it was beautiful and I went out for a late afternoon trail run, up to Little Bigelow, which I haven't hiked since the AT. It was about 8.5 miles on trail (actually 8; the trail mileage was long) and then 4 on a dirt road back to the car which is barely faster to drive than run). A bit longer up than hoped with some slow drivers, but I was on trail by 5, with a poor woman in the parking lot with a flat and no lug wrench.

Saw a few hikers on the trail—it's thru-hiker season—and then a lovely view from Little Bigelow of the sun behind bigger Bigelow. Nice and cool and breezy, feeling much better than yesterday. Ran about 16s down the ridge which wasn't super easy running, but felt pretty good, then hung a right onto the Safford Brook trail (I've been there) and down to the road, taking the old trail, which is a well-cleared road/sled trail, the last quarter mile at a full run.

Then four miles of the undulating dirt road. Not pushing the pace, but running the same pace as yesterday, only without feeling awful. Back to the car before dark, which is coming earlier. The woman had gotten professional help, or at least a guy with a thick Maine accent and a powered lug wrench for her car. No cell service, so she probably had to have the other people who were finishing when I started drive to cell land and make a call.

Made it back at full throttle in 1:25. I exercised supreme self control: I only ate half the bag of goldfish.