Training Log Archive: ebuckleyIn the 30 days ending Nov 30, 2009:
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Monday Nov 30, 2009 #
Note
(rest day)
Worst injury from the weekend is a nasty blister on my heel. Legs don't feel too terrible either, but an off day is still cleary indicated.
Sunday Nov 29, 2009 #
Terrain (Grass) 20:00 [2]
shoes: Reebok spikes
Warmup.
Terrain race (Grass) 21:15 [3] 5.0 km (4:15 / km)
ahr:160 max:164 shoes: Reebok spikes
Final Bubba XC at Bellefontaine Park. Not much drama as the small field was even smaller than usual and contained none of the guys that I usually battle with. Just as well since my legs were trash from yesterday. Ran it as Tempo which was fast enough to win overall. Wore my 305 which indicated that the distance was an honest 5K this week, which seems right given my effort and the state of my legs. Anna showed up and won the women's race (finishing 2nd overall), but had to fight for it.
FatTire (Grass) 35:00 [3]
shoes: Bike:Redline Mono
Put CX tires on the Redline and did some practice laps between the races. Did some hot laps so I could compare times with the races. Not sure how much was the bike being the wrong tool for the job, my faltering legs, or my general lack of cyclocross skill, but one thing is clrear: if I had entered the singlespeed race today, I would have had my ass handed to me.
Saturday Nov 28, 2009 #
Event: SLOC 3 hr Turkey O'
Terrain (Grass) 15:00 [2]
shoes: Jalas Black
Warmup.
Orienteering (Woods) 2:59:10 [4] *** 17.0 km (10:32 / km) +810m 8:31 / km
33c shoes: Jalas Black
SLOC 3-Hour at Babler (1:15). Brutal course set by Rick Armstrong. Technically straightfoward and reasonably open woods so there was no excuse for not hammering. Went down three times in the last hour - fatigue was definitely a factor although I did finish well. I was the only person to sweep. Death match now 4-2; but it's sure not over. David will almost certainly score a point next weekend (Yvonne and I are currently no match for the Alpine shop team), so it will come down to Pere Marquette, the Possum Trot, and the Late Night Drunken Christmas O.
Map with my route.
Map with my route.
Friday Nov 27, 2009 #
Running (Road) 38:00 [2]
shoes: 2140 White
Sunrise jog round the hood. Frosty - literally; first sub freezing workout of the season I believe. Clear, 30F, no wind. Perfect running weather. Felt great and I would have loved to go further, but I'd better leave something in the tank for 3 hours at Babler tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll only have to work 8 hours today and can get out on the bike a bit this afternoon.
FatTire (Trail) 1:25:00 [2]
shoes: Bike:Redline Mono
At the other end of the day, really nice sunset ride at CC Lake.
Thursday Nov 26, 2009 #
Terrain (Trail) 52:00 [2]
weight:174lbs shoes: Icebugs
Electric Duck without the loop around the lake. Powerline is still a mess, so it was definitely a good day for Gortex shoes. Found that it's darn near impossible to keep up a high cadence on ground this soft. Didn't worry about it too much.
Pre-Turkey G is a tad alarming. It's not going to be easy knocking 10 pounds off that during the winter.
Pre-Turkey G is a tad alarming. It's not going to be easy knocking 10 pounds off that during the winter.
Wednesday Nov 25, 2009 #
Running (Road) 1:01:00 [2]
shoes: 2140 White
Easy morning jog round the hood.
Tae Kwon Do (Technique) 30:00 [3]
Family class with Yaya. No black belts today, so I was ranking student and got to demonstrate that I don't have the whole sequence of warmup exercises memorized yet. But, I lead the class around to them all, just in a slightly different order. Having the front right spot was a good motivator and I got a pretty good workout.
Running (Road) 29:00 [4]
shoes: 2140 White
A good enough workout that my legs were a little soft by the end. That didn't stop me from following through with my plan. 8 times up Rivervalley Ct (roughly 100m at 8%) in 30 seconds with 90s recovery back down. Legs were OK after the first couple.
Tuesday Nov 24, 2009 #
Running (Road) 46:00 [2]
shoes: 2140 White
Easy morning jog round the hood.
Tae Kwon Do (Technique) 30:00 [3]
Family class with Yaya.
Monday Nov 23, 2009 #
Running (Road) 30:00 [2]
shoes: 2140 White
Easy jog round the hood.
FatTire (Trail) 1:22:00 [2]
shoes: Bike:Redline Mono
Finally back on the bike! It's been so rainy this fall, the trails have been a mess. Figured three days of dry might be as good as it gets, so I went over to CC Lake to see the new section. It's now extended all the way around to make something of a loop (although you still have to ride the road for about 200m). Fun stuff.
Powerline was goopy in the usual spots and a few others as well.
Powerline was goopy in the usual spots and a few others as well.
Sunday Nov 22, 2009 #
Terrain (Grass) 37:00 [2]
shoes: Reebok spikes
Warmup/down.
Terrain race (Grass) 13:35 [4]
ahr:171 max:179 shoes: Reebok spikes
Bubba XC at Mount Pleasant Winery. As the venue was a winery, I managed to convince Kate to come along. Too bad I had no legs. She managed to get some good photos which I'll post soon. Ran well on the downhills, but just couldn't get it moving going up. A very fun duel with Tony Rigdon ended badly for me when he surged big time on the final climb. Third overall, first M40+.
Saturday Nov 21, 2009 #
Running (Road) 28:00 [2]
shoes: 2140 White
Easy morning jog round the hood.
Gym (Climbing) 15:00 [3]
Took Yaya to Faust Park where they have replaced the climbing rock with one considerably more technical. Still easy enough to get up if you use the more obvious handholds (this is, after all, a playground for kids under 12), but by avoiding those, it's a decent bouldering stone.
Mapping (Woods) 3:15:00 [1] ***
After dropping Yaya with Kate, I met Andrew Karandjef at Forest Park for some mapping. Andrew's been coming to O meets for about a year with above average success and is interested in the more technical aspects, so I invited him to join me in turning the ISOM map into ISSOM for the A-meet next year. He's got a good eye, noticiing details many new mappers wouldn't consider like, "that rockpile isn't a meter high, but it's pretty wide and obvious, maybe we should map it." Need to hold onto this boy. Also, he's running Boston and has a place to stay right downtown. Sweet.
Orienteering race (Park/Night) 56:30 [3] **
20c shoes: Icebugs
The Big Shark Tri team decided to put on a score-O at Forest Park as part of their year-end picnic. And I didn't even have to do anything to put it on (except deliver controls to Theresa Eppert, who set courses)! Fun little event, although finding those tiny stakes with the Tikka headlamp was pretty tough. Since I was the only person there (besides Theresa) who had ever orienteered before, it wasn't really much of a race, but I ran it reasonably hard anyway.
First run in the IceBugs. I like 'em a lot. Wierd running through puddles an not feeling my feet get wet.
First run in the IceBugs. I like 'em a lot. Wierd running through puddles an not feeling my feet get wet.
Friday Nov 20, 2009 #
Running (Road) 51:00 [2]
weight:174lbs shoes: 2140 White
Just to clarify earlier comments. I didn't say the 7:10's felt easy, I said they felt slow. Because I thought I was going slow, I pushed a bit figuring I just needed to get used to running again. Anyway, this morning's run felt easy, and it was: 7:45 pace.
Thursday Nov 19, 2009 #
Tae Kwon Do (Technique) 40:00 [3]
No forms today, so more time on the floor with lots of jumping. Good thing, because I have too much work this evening to go out for a run. Deadline for moving all December changes to UAT is tomorrow, so hopefully things will lighten up next week.
Wednesday Nov 18, 2009 #
Running (Road) 37:00 [2]
shoes: 2140 White
Finally got out the door, despite the fact that it's still cold an rainy. Legs felt OK, but it seemed like I was going really slow. Funny how running three hours at 7-minute-miles changes your perception. I got on the HS track to check my pace and I was running 7:10's! Better not do that every day or I'll have no legs for the workouts that matter.
Tae Kwon Do (Technique) 30:00 [3]
Family class with Yaya.
Tuesday Nov 17, 2009 #
Tae Kwon Do (Technique) 30:00 [2]
(rest day)
Another day of cold rain and lots of work, so family class with Yaya will have to do it.
Note
Got my confirmation of entry to Boston today. That was closer than I would have liked it. They stopped accepting applications 2 days after I submitted mine. That's kind of sad, really. Boston used to be a real runners event. If you couldn't run, you didn't get in. If you could, you did. Now they're jamming the field with charity "runners" and a lot of qualifed runners are shut out. Granted, none of those folks will be in wave 1, so it doesn't affect me, but it would have been nice if one of the world majors had stayed a selective affair. Don't get me wrong, I think running for charity is great. I'm doing it myself. And, I have no quarrel with those who want to do a marathon just to do it and don't care about time. I just think that this one event could have stayed a bit truer to it's roots.
Monday Nov 16, 2009 #
Note
(rest day)
Probably about time to get back to regular training, but with cold rain falling all day, it can wait another day.
Sunday Nov 15, 2009 #
Terrain (Grass) 35:00 [2]
shoes: Reebok spikes
Warnup (15 min) and down.
Terrain race (Grass) 14:50 [4]
ahr:171 max:178 shoes: Reebok spikes
Bubba XC at St. Vincent park. Really cool course. Lots of turns, big sand trap, steps, and even a little singletrack. Wish I had legs to ride, but still too early for a 1-hour effort, so I contented myself with running it pretty hard. Couldn't quite get to full effort; normally I'd max out the HR at this distance. Too bad, might have got another overall win if I had. Ended up second by about 15 seconds. 1st M40+.
Saturday Nov 14, 2009 #
Running (Road) 25:00 [2]
(rest day) shoes: 2140 White
Easy jog round the hood. Whatever went wrong with my knee is still wrong. Noticable mostly on downhills (which will suck for the XC race tomorrow). I'll try to take it easy.
Friday Nov 13, 2009 #
Note
(rest day)
Camping with Yaya at Babler. Went for a short night walk in the woods. Amazingly, it was her suggestion. She noted that the woods were pretty spooky (Babler's really do look like something from a B-movie, with all the hanging vines), but she forged on. I wonder how many 6-year-olds have actually gone off-trail at night. We did it all the time when I was a kid, but it seems most parents wouldn't go for that today.
Thursday Nov 12, 2009 #
Tae Kwon Do (Technique) 30:00 [2]
(rest day)
Family class with Yaya. Took it easy as it's been a couple weeks, but that didn't stop me from landing wierd and doing something nasty to my knee. I don't think it's anything serious, but it put a quick end to the jump kicks. Was presented with my Red Belt. It will take another year to turn that to Black.
Wednesday Nov 11, 2009 #
Note
(rest day)
Very fine day and I decided that spending some quality deck time with the family would do more good than an easy recovery run.
Tuesday Nov 10, 2009 #
Running (Road) 25:00 [2]
(rest day) shoes: 2140 White
Easy jog round the hood.
Monday Nov 9, 2009 #
Note
(rest day)
Did some yardwork and walked a few errands, but nothing strenuous. Another two weeks before real training starts again.
Sunday Nov 8, 2009 #
Event: SLOC - Meramec State Park
Terrain (Grass) 25:00 [2]
shoes: Reebok spikes
Warmup (15 min) and down.
I'm usually pretty good about respecting recovery times, but some days you just have to go for it. As noted yesterday, was planning to run the Bubba as tempo and then jog/walk the orienteering. Didn't quite work out that way.
I'm usually pretty good about respecting recovery times, but some days you just have to go for it. As noted yesterday, was planning to run the Bubba as tempo and then jog/walk the orienteering. Didn't quite work out that way.
Terrain race (Grass) 12:36 [5]
shoes: Reebok spikes
Bubba XC. Andy didn't show up this week so suddenly this was an opportunity to win a running race outright (which hasn't happened in a couple years). Ran the first lap with the leaders trying to see what was in the legs. Got the feeling I was having less trouble than the others so I tried a surge through the start/finish and got a gap of about 10 seconds. It didn't get much bigger than that and I was definitely coming apart at the end but, there it is, an overall win. I don't think that's going to happen too many more times in my life, so recovery can wait.
Orienteering race (Woods) 1:23:37 [3] *** 8.2 km (10:12 / km) +195m 9:07 / km
12c shoes: Jalas Black
Then out to Meramec for the SLOC meet. Bill and Rob wanted me to run Red so we'd have 4 on AP. I'm not quite sure why having an AttackPoint ranking event was so important but I'd already trashed my legs, so I was game. Actually felt OK as the course was darn near flat by Meramec standards. Two big grunts, which I walked, but everything else was pretty easy to get over. Nav was a bit on the easy side and, since I wasn't exactly moving at warp speed, I was pretty accurate. It all added up to a pretty respectable run and another win on the day. Some days your body surprises you, but I can say for sure that I'm not surprised at how bad my legs feel right now. Those pups are whupped.
Orienteering (Woods) 25:00 [2] **
2c shoes: Jalas Black
Yaya had been trailing along all day and generally running around while I raced. I asked her if she wanted to do the Yellow course and wasn't at all disappointed when she suggested we just get a few controls. We hit the cave, becuase it's really cool and another rockface and came in.
Saturday Nov 7, 2009 #
Terrain (Mix) 47:00 [2]
shoes: 2140 White
Grass and gravel path at a reasonable training pace. Easy, for sure, but definitely running. The extra day and softer surface had my legs working without much complaint. Still not ready to race tomorrow, but perhaps we'll be able to at least run the XC as tempo again. No chance of hammering the hills at Meramec, so that will just be an easy day in the woods. Weather looks good, so I'll bring Yaya.
Friday Nov 6, 2009 #
Running (Road) 36:00 [2]
(rest day) shoes: 2140 White
A jog-like activity round the hood. Calves are still very sore.
Thursday Nov 5, 2009 #
Running (Road) 30:00 [1]
(rest day) shoes: 2140 White
Easy walk. Legs are getting better so this will be the last walk I log.
Wednesday Nov 4, 2009 #
Note
(rest day)
Before the soreness wears off and I start thinking that it was less effort than it was, a few notes about NY:
The first half was darn near perfect. If I can do that consistently, I'll break 3 for sure one of these times.
It would be helpful to have a better sense of the pace. I was checking my HR every couple minutes which worked, but I'd rather be able to hold the pace by feel. More marathon pace runs were in order (I only did one for this whole cycle). I think 2-3 per month in the three months leading in is reasonable.
There is clearly some psychology at work here as well. I need to train down to a 2:57 pace so I'm not so freaked about being right on the edge of failure the whole way. I'm pretty sure that's doable, though I'm not getting any younger; sooner or later there will be no more speed to be had.
Multiple long (6-hour +) races in the months leading up are a really bad idea. Not only do they cut into training because of recovery time, but they make it really hard to keep a leash on the G. I think my original goal of 170 at the start line (training weight of 165) was right and I was just too lazy to make it happen.
In exchange for the 5 pounds around the middle, I'll add a couple ounces to each shoe. No injury, but my feet hurt to the point of distraction near the end in the racing flats. An 8-ounce trainer probably would have been perfect.
The first half was darn near perfect. If I can do that consistently, I'll break 3 for sure one of these times.
It would be helpful to have a better sense of the pace. I was checking my HR every couple minutes which worked, but I'd rather be able to hold the pace by feel. More marathon pace runs were in order (I only did one for this whole cycle). I think 2-3 per month in the three months leading in is reasonable.
There is clearly some psychology at work here as well. I need to train down to a 2:57 pace so I'm not so freaked about being right on the edge of failure the whole way. I'm pretty sure that's doable, though I'm not getting any younger; sooner or later there will be no more speed to be had.
Multiple long (6-hour +) races in the months leading up are a really bad idea. Not only do they cut into training because of recovery time, but they make it really hard to keep a leash on the G. I think my original goal of 170 at the start line (training weight of 165) was right and I was just too lazy to make it happen.
In exchange for the 5 pounds around the middle, I'll add a couple ounces to each shoe. No injury, but my feet hurt to the point of distraction near the end in the racing flats. An 8-ounce trainer probably would have been perfect.
Tuesday Nov 3, 2009 #
Running (Road) 50:00 [1]
(rest day) shoes: 2140 White
More walking around Norwalk.
Monday Nov 2, 2009 #
Running (Road) 40:00 [1]
(rest day) shoes: 2140 White
Walking around Norwalk, CT.
Sunday Nov 1, 2009 #
Event: New York Marathon
Running (Road) 10:00 [2]
What has to pass as a warmup in a mob-start event like this. Mostly jogging in place on the starting grid. Wound up with a much better start position than I had anticipated.
Running race (Road) 3:08:41 [5] 26.22 mi (7:12 / mi)
ahr:153 max:168 shoes: Grid A2
NY Marathon. I don't think this even qualifies as a near miss. Start congestions wasn't a problem. Only lost a minute in the first mile and had clear running after that. Really felt like this might be the day as I was clicking off 6:50-7:00 minute miles while keeping the HR right around 155. Disaster struck at mile 12 when I took a banana from a spectator. Not sure why, but it set off a bomb in my gut. Was doubled over with cramps for the next couple mies and finally stopped for a potty break. By then any hope of breaking 3 hours was gone. Felt fine after that but had a hard time staying motivated to push for the second half. Let the HR drop to around 150 and just enjoyed the rest of the run. A very good experience despite the slow time. Really nice running weather. The second half of the course was harder than I expected; breaking three here would have probably been beyond me even without the banana fiasco.
On a positive note, the first half went really well. Probably the best first half I've ever turned in. No overextending and staying very close to pace. If I do that on a more favorable course, breaking 3 looks very realistic. There's always another day.
FWIW 1674 overall, 194 in M45-49. 42475 finishers. Full report.
On a positive note, the first half went really well. Probably the best first half I've ever turned in. No overextending and staying very close to pace. If I do that on a more favorable course, breaking 3 looks very realistic. There's always another day.
FWIW 1674 overall, 194 in M45-49. 42475 finishers. Full report.
Running (Road) 1:12:00 [1]
shoes: Grid A2
I had planned on walking for an hour after the finish and it turned out I had little choice. One of the problems of having a low bib number is that you have to walk almost 2 miles to get your stuff (they line the trucks up in reverse bib order - that probably makes sense as the 6-hour crowd is going to be in no mood to add distance at the end). Changed clothes and then left the park and started walking south along Central Park West. By the time I got to 72nd street my legs were feeling a bit looser, but my feet were really starting to hurt (racing flats may not have been a very good call on this one), so I hopped on the C train, which was jammed with runners who had got on at 81st. Transferred to the 7 to get to Grand Central and found an empty seat. Promptly fell asleep and woke up in Queens. No biggie, I had plenty of time to catch the train back to Connecticut.