Training Log Archive: Ari-o

Ooooooooh they repaved the esker road. I saw it earlier bringing my bike to the shop (finally) and my parents were biking on it. Confirmed, 11.5 miles of black powder.

Lacks hills, but well shaded, low traffic, and goes between a bunch of lakes so really nice. Not sure why it is being repaved—there are other roads around which could use it more—but if they're going to pave something, this is a good choice.

Out chasing sunlight, 64m out double poling, 59m back skating. Which is reasonably fast, but then again slower than skiing (at least on fast snow) and also skiing is so much fun. But good rollerskiing sort of edges into fun territory.

Nice for a cruise, and I can do more hill specific stuff on roads more locally.

Out this morning early to go run up a mountain. It's rare that I will find a 4000 footer where I can make a loop where it's mostly new trails, but I found one where it was the case, up the Carter-Moriah Trail and then down Stony Brook.

5 a.m. wake up, which is no longer sunlit, 5:30 departure, 7:00 arrival, 7:10 trail time, lots of people trying to figure out car spotting (the trailheads for this loop are 1.5 miles apart). First couple of miles were pretty mellow and runnable, and then a steep hikey mile. 1:14 up to the summit. Might be fun to just do an out and back some day which would probably be 2:15 RT.

Then a lovely, cool, breezy run along the ridge down south, and a right onto the Stony Brook trail which was kind of stony up top, and a little brooky, but after the first mile, not bad. Then a couple very runnable miles (one on an old road, one relocated off said old road because of development) and then down the road and across a bridge back to the car.

The old road probably would have gone on to a town road which would have been even faster :)

Morning run to look at things.

Down to Mass for a couple of days, socially distance staying at my parents' house (because, uh, central air).

Waited for the storms to pass (barely any) before a real windy run to the pond and then the Arbs. Running with the mask on, which was fine for the first mile until it got sweaty wet and then hard to breathe through with my mouth open. We probably should have a discussion about how aerosol spread in the outdoors requires proximity, poor ventilation and time, none of which are present when running past someone, but people like to solve the problems we thought we had three months ago.

Anyway, it wasn't very busy and no trees fell on me.

Warm run. Down to the dam and then up to Hathaway and into the town farm. Nice run around some of the other trails in there to get back, stayed more on the old roads which had some blowdowns but I managed.

Legs felt super tired at first, then got better. The nice thing I guess is that my legs always feel better after the first climb.

The clouds rolled in for the last couple of miles. Great timing.

Event: Peoples Forest
 

So July, how did that work out?

Sort of okay. Some things were good, some things weren't quite achieved.

√ 50 hours logged. Barely.
√ 200 miles of running. 210! Without really trying. Everything is 9 miles, so as long as I run.
√ 12km D+. Made it on the last day. Which puts me on pace for (shuffles papers) 99778m for the year. I should be well ahead of pace at the end of this month.
- More bounding, again. I really should do more ski-specific.
- 2000 push up and sit ups. I was going okay until I went water skiing and got my shoulder pulled out.
√ Some sort of long trail run (20 miles or more). 36 for 36!
- Ride a century, 'Merica-style. Still need to fix bike.
√ Finish the camp trail. Pretty much. Just need to cut a step-over or two.
√ Get an old ax handle and some rope and put a pull-up bar on the porch. So I got the ax handle and the pull up bar is going up this weekend.

This is better than maybe I'd thought, given that it was a quite warm and muggy month and that makes it harder to be motivated to go do big, hard, sweaty things. I didn't rollerski that much, and got to 50 hours, but barely, and only with a 12 hour day around Baxter, but that was great. Also meant some rest the week after.

So August. Here's hoping it's a bit cooler and drier. It can happen! I have faith! (This is not true.)

* 50 hours logged. With a stretch for 60? I need to be more better about going before/after work. I'm on pace for 484, having never really cracked 400 before. Covid!
* 200 miles of running. This seems like a good goal to keep. New routes through the woods give a bit more variety than the lake again and again. Also the sun rising a bit later and setting a bit earlier means shade at more normal hours (and easier dark sleep time). I'm now at 1205 miles for the year. The earliest I've hit 1205 previously was October 13. I've never made it to 1400, but this year have a chance at 2000.
* 60 minutes around the lake, from top of the camp road.
* 12km D+. This seems fine, and will get me to the mountains.
* Three proper bounding sessions. Maybe over on the Kent's Hill ski slope if it's brushed out.
* 2000 push up and sit ups. I was going okay until I went water skiing and got my shoulder pulled out. Will try this again.
* A long trail run with mountains. Presi Traverse?
* Fix my bike. Then maybe go on a long bike ride.
* 250 pull ups
* 100 miles of rollerskiing, which would be a big increase from this month. I did just order a pair of (used) Marwe classic skis, so I won't be on my worn out ratchet, and actually have classic skis (although the combis were fine). I also need to get a better file for sharpening pole tips.

This is a long list.

Beautiful day out. Breezy and dry. I probably should have gotten my act together for a Presi Traverse or something but it is the weekend so it's busy over there. Saturday morning, why not a rollerski?

Down Route 17 there was a bit of debris on the shoulder, I navigated around that but then something got caught in my wheel and holy moly I nearly found a ditch, but saved it. Then some jello legs for the next mile recomposing myself. Might start just parking at the bottom.

Not trying to go hard today, but go a bit longer than recent days. Legs were tired, shoulder hurts a little. And in the sun it was quite warm, so I was stopping to guzzle water every 5k or so. This all was fine, but I ran out right around the end, with a slow slog up the final climb.

Hiking with the family, carried the nephew for the second half. He's 20 pounds now! My sister has a hand-me-down baby carrier that works fine, but it might be worth investing in a fancier one. Also product idea, a hat attachment with a little mirror so you can see the baby in the carrier.

This area has nice trails, pretty runnable/boundable, some blueberries (we made a stop on the way down of course) and the woods are amazingly nice and open and it would be fun to do O in. Hasn't been mapped. World of O has … two maps in Maine.

Goaded Lincoln and Jess into running up Bigelow with me. They didn't need much goading. After airplane, there wasn't a ton of time for it, and two of us who should know better left our headlamps in our various forms of transportation, so we only had about 2h30 until dark.

Pretty good pound up; the staircase up the trail there is really quite superb but hard. 1450 feet per mile is about as steep as trails get in New England, it doesn't seem technical, but it's just up. It was gorgeous at the summit with the low sun, one other person up for sunset but staying at the campsite. We ran down, and mostly got down without incident; one slip I had with a bit of a scrape on my wrist, but no real harm done.

66 minutes from B21 to Readfield, not bad.