Training Log Archive: iansmith

Jess and I took a three day weekend and went up to Acadia. She has been there many times while in college and afterward, but this was my first. Saturday was largely a travel day, though we went on one excursion to see the sunset, built a fire at our campground at the Seawall, and had dinner at a hole-in-the-wall at South Harbor.

On Sunday, we set out to climb 470m Cadillac Mountain, the highest in Acadia, via the scenic South Ridge trail. I was interested in the ladder trail up the east face, but Jess wisely advocated the south ridge route. It was magnificent, with some impressive vistas of the park below. (Pics to come later).

The glory of the summit of Cadillac was somewhat diminished by the road to the top - just as we tasted victory, an SUV full of tourists drove past us. Disappointing. During lunch at the summit, we made friends with Seymour the Seagull - who enjoyed some of my goldfish. We were feeling strong, so we elected to climb nearby 380m Pemetic, about a kilometer to the southwest. We descended Cadillac via the steep and difficult west ridge trail - 300 m descent in 1.3 km; for reasons unclear, my trail map listed the west ridge trail as moderate and the south ridge as strenuous.

After a break at Bubble Pond, the low point between Cadillac and Pemetic, we marched up the Pemetic north ridge in about an hour to behold a glorious vista. The summit of Pemetic, uncluttered by trees and legions of motorized tourists, offered a welcome solitude, and a great view of Cadillac. Pemetic is a steeper and more compact mountain than Cadillac. We descended the south ridge of Pemetic, visited the summit of 213m Triad mt, and hiked about 3 miles to our car. We took lots of breaks; I estimate the entire route could be completed in 3-4 hours. The Bubble mountains and Sargeant mountain looked impressive; we will hike them next time.

That evening, we showered, ate a dinner of hanger steak and pasta in Bar Harbor, had ice cream, and enjoyed a fire in our campground.

Morning commute. I took Wednesday and Thursday off to rest my legs. While my right leg can clearly endure workouts like that on Monday and Tuesday, it is not fully healed yet. I haven't quite decided how best to deal with this - taking a full hiatus from all training is probably best, but perhaps I can get away with alternating rest days with active days. I won't make any concrete plans yet, as my first priority is the restoration of my bone.

Wore bike attire (bike shorts, wicking top) and pushed hard.
The adventures of Sparky and Topher

I decided to take a break from work to get some training in, though I shortened my workout from yesterday. I switched to the "random hill" program from my typical manual program, and the variety was refreshing. I also was much more aggressive, with an average stroke rating of 164. I continued The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.

The usual treadmill mile, with a cadence of around 170 (I think). I rotated between toe and mid-foot striking. Halfway through the workout, after a bout of toe striking, I felt some pain in the middle of my right foot. The pain disappeared after I switched to mid-foot for a time, and did not return when I switched back to toe striking. Perhaps it was a muscular aberration? I will take a rest day tomorrow to give my body a chance to rest.

3x24 (x2) elbow-to-knee crunches, alternating sides. After I stretched, I recovered with a burrito and chocolate milk.

Bon voyage, Ross and Sam! May Sweden great you with happiness and cookies.

C • Unlikely! 3

I'm considering not logging this any more; it is much less productive training than a twenty minute easy run, e.g. Given 150-200 days of bike commuting, that's 50-70 hours of "training" that is wholly undeserved. I logged it initially to keep track of the use of my bike and because I'm obsessed with data and statistics. However, given that the only meaningful training I do is orienteering, running, strength training, bowling and a vague "cross training" set, I can more accurately calculate my true level of training by using the first three categories. Kayaking, swimming, biking, and hiking are all fun, but of secondary importance.

C • Another option 5

I considered not training today because I have work to do, but since I have taken a few unplanned rest days in the past month, I committed to an hour session. I brought a paper on speeding up k-means, and read it through a leisurely elliptical session. My experience running yesterday highlighted the importance of specificity of training; I was surprised how little my elliptical and bike workouts seemed to have improved my conditioning. It is true that running is more arduous than either biking or elliptical - when I run, my heart rate almost immediately jumps to above 140 except at the most trivial paces, but it is also clear that I need to do running training to get stronger. Cross training now is helping my metabolic, respiratory, and organizational systems and strengthening stabilizer muscles (which I desperately need to avoid further injury).

C • Specficity 1

After the elliptical warmup, I hopped onto the treadmill for a full mile at 5 mph, 1' grade. I tried to keep my cadence very high - around 180, and rotated gaits among mid-foot and toe striking.

A token strength training session. Three cycles of:
- 10 baby lunges (split squats), each side, bodyweight
- 20 tuckups
- 20 calf raises with both legs simultaneously
I finished with 75 seconds of plank to add some variety.