Training Log Archive: PG

Warm-ups, pretty minimal.

Sprint #1 at the Water Gap. Another good effort, ran hard all the way.

Sprint #2, another good effort. Now just need to learn to keep the pace up on longer courses. Routes/comments.

Overall a really fine event. Good courses, arrangements, vibes, weather, fun. Can't ask for anything more. Credit to Sandy for the idea and the execution, plus setting the two sprints, plus running the e-punching, plus hanging most of the day 1 controls and all of the day 2 ones; to Tom Overbaugh for running the start operation for both sprints; to Jim Eagleton for lots of general help, to Alexei Azaraov for the day 1 courses, to Ann and Charlie Leonard for check-in/registration, and to various Team/DVOA members for help in picking up controls and cleaning up.

C • 3

Sprint 1 - Splits

sprint 2 - Splits

Event: Memorial Day Weekend US Team Fundraiser
 

Sandy's Team fundraiser at the Delaware Water Gap. Red course. Good effort throughout, legs felt good, even up the last hill to the finish. Certainly was well rested after taking most of the week off (just needed an easy week...).

Red - Splits

First time out this week -- combination of sore feet and lousy weather just seemed to make a few days off a good idea....

Usual Thursday evening group at the track. This time the schedule was 1200 (4:39), 1600 (6:17), 1600 (4:19), 1200 (4:41) with a slow 400 jog in between. A little slower than last week on purpose. Heartrate was just about as high (and higher on the last lap when I went a bit quicker), but the breathing was under control and it didn't feel as much a struggle.

Before , between, after.

Ottawa A Meet. Routes/comments. A good effort over almost 2 hours, felt reasonably frisky right to the end.

An unintended workout late in the afternoon -- left my putter on the 14th tee during an afternoon round with Gord Hunter and Lise and Gail, so had to run back and get it. Fortunately it was a relatively flat, relatively short par 4. Now properly warmed up (it was a cool and drizzly afternoon), I just lipped out a 30-footer for a bird. Would have been nice..... The rest of the round was a mix of very good fun and mostly bad golf.

C • putter? 1

Event: Ottawa Interclub A Meet and Sprint Champs
 

Ottawa Sprint Champs, sprint #1. Real nice course, mix of park and forest. Finished 3rd, best was Hans Fransson in just over 13 minutes. Good hard run.

Sprint #2, another good course. A little more forest, a little slow at times, and I was feeling a bit tired, perhaps due to the first sprint, perhaps due to the hot dog, chips and soda taken in at "halftime." A little bit of sloppiness, maybe 15-30 seconds total, but still working hard. Best was Hans again, about 14 and a half. I snuck into second, nipping several others by just a few seconds. A 77 point day! Just have to choose the right events.

C • 1

Warm-up, not much the second time.

With the group at the Eaglebrook track. 1600 in 6:07 (3 minutes rest), 800 in 2:58 (2 min rest), 800 in 2:59 (2 min rest), 600 in 2:13 (90 sec rest), 600 in 2:12 (90 sec rest), 600 in 2:12 (90 sec rest), 600 in 2:13 (lots of rest....). Just a little harder than I wanted to work, heartrate at 166-167 each time, would have been happier a couple of beats lower.

Beautiful evening, good company, had the track all to ourselves as usual.

Before and after

Shutebury-Wyola loop, not feeling too zippy, especially on the 4-mile grind up the Shutesbury hill. Payback for having good legs yesterday.

Average heartrate yesterday was 156, max was 172, bioth lower than the two other times I've run the course this spring. I think that's supposed to be good.

Warm-up.

5K XC race in Northampton. Interesting evening. I wasn't looking forward to a hard effort, so I decided to back off just a little. When you sign in, you put down your predicted time, and I put down 21:40, figuring I would shoot for 10-15 seconds slower per mile than my best. And I'd try to keep my heart rate a little lower in the process.

What transpired was a focus the whole time on running relaxed as opposed to feeling like I was pushing to go faster. Certainly less painful. Heartrate was several beats lower (both average and max) than the other two times I've run this race this year. And the time was just as good (20:50, vs. 20:52 and 21:01 previously). Maybe it was just one of the evenings the legs were good.

But it reminded me of marathons where I would say to myself over and over, "Relax," and similar feelings in O' races, where the phrase was "Don't thrash." Always seemed to make a positive difference.

Splits: 6:42, 6:39, 6:52, 37. Third mile (uphill) is excellent.

C • 3

Warm-down with Rich Clark (ran 19:40), therefore slightly more energetic than usual.

Added routes/comments from Sunday's courses at Ansonia.

WCOC local meet at Ansonia. Better than yesterday, much more planning ahead, knowing where I wanted to be going almost all the time. Still about 3 small mistakes, maybe 2 or 3 minutes lost. Ran a little better, just tried to keep up a steady pace.

Special "Middle" course at Ansonia, supposed to be 4.5 km. First 2/3 good technical O', last 1/3 trails (White course in reverse). Really dragging physically, plus one hard fall, tore the clasp on my heart monitor (the watch part). At least I didn't get attacked by the hawk!

But I did manage to leave my maps (and splits for the Red course) at the meet site. Hopefully I'll get them back, but for now no routes/comments to post.

Today was a fundraiser for the Team. Fine courses by Sergei with help from Greg and Boris. Thanks, WCOC, for making it happen.

Event: WCOC Spring O Weekend
 

Warm-up

WCOC sprint at Osbornedale. Felt really sluggish, no zip at all. A bit on the warm/humid side, which may have contributed. Routes/comments for both the sprint and the red course.

Red course at Osbornedale, legs had even less energy. And the willpower wasn't great either! But the post-race socializing was excellent!

Sprint - Splits

Red - Splits

Up to Lake Wyola and back, moderate effort. Felt easy going up because, as I discovered coming back, I'd had a nice tailwind, so coming back down seemed harder.

Cool-down

5 x 1000 at the Eaglebrook track (3:53, 3:50, 3:51, 3:52, 3:52), with 2 minutes slow jog/walk for recovery. Legs felt a little sluggish. Cool and very windy.

Before and after.

Warm-up

5K XC race in Springfield's Forest Park. Good hard effort, pulse was 170+ for the last 10 minutes. Best time last year was 22:13, best time ever 19:20 in 1983. Course is 45 seconds to a minute slower than the Northmapton course. Good training for sprints!

Ran the course again, easy pace, in the opposite direction than the race goes just for a change of scenery.

Ol Deerfield / River Road loop. Put in a good effort, was about a minute and a half better than my best time last year. Legs seem to be a little stronger, although I haven't gone up in the hills yet.

Bull Hill - Greene Swamp loop on Mt. Toby (trails all the way -- the USGS map is missing a bunch of them, and the ones it has are wrong in places). Decent pace. This used to be a medium length run, now it's a long one. But it was more than the hour I had been oginally hoping to do. Need to get ready to run Nipmuck in 4 weeks. Lost my over-50 course record last year, need to see if I can get the over-60 one. Should be doable, but the legs are getting older and if it's a hot day....

C • 3

Strange day. I had on my mental calendar to go do the Mt. Monadnock Trail Race, but the forecast last night was for heavy rain and I didn't really figure I'd end up going. Got up early just in case and it was just sprinkling, the heavy rain was further east, so I headed off, figuring I'd probably get a little wet, but no big deal.

By the time I got to the State Park at the base of the mountain it was still just raining lightly, but it was cold, 40 degrees, and blowing pretty hard, and the upper half of the mountain was in the clouds. I went to sign in and heard the radio cracking from someone up top talking about the snow coming down, well maybe coming sideways was more accurate.

But they seem to be going on with the race (which was up via a bit of the White Dot trail, then the Cascade Link to the top of the NE ridge, then the Pommelly trail to the top, back the same way). I was pretty sure I didn't want to die of exposure up there, so on went an extra shirt, a pair of wind pants, and some gloves I had grabbed at the last monent, plus I dug out a rain shirt from my golf bag in the trunk and wrapped it around my waist. And I was still psychologically ready to turn back if conditions were really bad. (I was reminded of a day many years ago when several of us set off to do (run, not hike) a traverse of the Presidentials in New Hampshire's White Mountains, and it had been a similar day, and at some point I just announced it was crazy and I was going down and everyone came along and we found out later that someone had died up there that day. And that was in July.)

So I really wasn't prepared to race. But the horn sounded, and the 30 or 40 of us who had showed up took off, with about half the field disappearing off in front of me pretty quickly, and the the other half disappearing behind. Had one fellow in sight in front but when we made the left turn on the Pommelly trail on the top of the ridge all of a sudden he was far enough ahead to be out of sight, and I was feeling rather alone. Couldn't see very far, the wind was howling, bits of snow, and the course is just a jumble of granite, anything from big slabs to small chunks, winding in and out of the stunted everygreens. All wet, all slippery. And suddenly I hear a loud yell, "Help, I'm lost," from not very far away, and I yell back, and another "Help, I'm lost," and I yell again and it sounds like he's no more than 30 or 40 yards away but the wind is blowing so hard he can't hear me. So I yell some more and pretty soon he spots me and then joins me and mumbles something about going around in circles. And I'm thinking, this is not a good place to be lost.

The course at this point is mostly out in the open, marked by rock cairns, though at times they are hard to see. Pretty soon people start coming the other way, already heading down. How far to the top, I ask, and the standard reply from the standard clueless trail runner is either "I don't know" or "You're almost there."

And we pass a couple of guys who are running faster, but not leading, and that's a bit curious, but it seems that the organizers decided it was too dangerous to go to the top, so they turned everyone around about a half-mile short of the top, except they missed the first four guys, one of whom was warning us that it wasn't real pleasant up there. And so when this big cairn suddenly appeared out the fog and this guy in full winter gear told us to turn around and head back, I was quite happy to oblige. And needless to say, my "lost" buddy assured everyone behind us that they were "almost there."

The way down was no more pleasant than the way up. Slippery rocks, couldn't see real well, the main thought was just, Don't do anything stupid. I still crashed once and my buddy about 5 times, but no serious damage.

But never did a race feel less like a race. I was glad to be done, but couldn't have cared less where I finished, which is an unusual statement for me....

C • 2

Among those showing up at the race was an O' friend from the past, Dave McGraw. He used to be mainly a XC skier, teaching in NH in the winter and in Australia in the summer, but he made his way to a number of O' meets, especially Billygoats. Last meet was the 1998 US Champs when he blew out one of his arches. We talked about old times for quite a while after the race. Nowadays he has a job doing GIS mapping (all at a computer, not out in the field) for the Society for the Preservation of New Hampshire Forests.

Had been meaning to get new tires for the car, the current set has been 65K miles, and a flat on I-91 accelarated the process. Didn't really enjoy changing it while trucks were zooming by, fortunately it was on the right side so I didn't feel quite so exposed, but it would have been a lot nicer if there had been no guardrail and I could have pulled over farther. In any case, left the car and biked home from Northampton, flat and very slight trailwind, rather nice.

800 (3:07), 800 (3:05), 1600 (6:17), 800 (3:04), and 800 (3:02), 90 seconds rest (walking not running) after the 800s, 120 after the 1600. The rest made it seem easy since I'm used to keeping running on the recovery parts. Nice evening, good company.

Before and after. After included a couple of strides and some easy running on the hillside above the track.

The hour loop in Greenfield. Felt sluggish to start, but gradually got better and ran 12 minutes hard before easing up towards the end. After I got home I managed to do the hour nap without any difficulty.

C • 1

Northampton 5K XC race. Nine seconds slower than last week, either still tired from West Point, or a little heavy, or both, though not for lack of trying. Got passed by Maddy at about halfway and she was pulling away but I closed back up on the last uphill and outkicked her at the end. Actually I wasn't so much racing her as trying to hit my predicted time on the number. Missed by one second, but that was still the closest (usually you have to hit it on the number) and got for three free entries to future races, plus 1 more for first over 60. The entry fee is only 3 bucks so it's not that big a deal, but free is still free. Gave two to Maddy to entice her to show up more often, as it's good to have close competition.
Splits: 6:43, 6:40, 7:01, 37.

Before and after.

Along the river and then back via the Book Mill. A little more energetically than planned though obviously not very long. Felt mostly ok from the weekend.

Day 2. Felt like I had decent energy and put out a decent effort, pleased with 9 min/km. Felt good on the gradual ups, but I still can't handle it when it gets just a little steeper. Don't imagine that will ever change....

Red Y - Splits