Training Log Archive: PG

Event: UNO Camping Weekend
 

UNO Camping weekend at Pawtuckaway. Warm day, sweating like crazy. Orienteering was good, running ok, not fast, but paced myself pretty good and still moving ok at the end.

Only real problem was in the thick or stony areas, just really slow down. I guess that's just a fact of life these days.

JJ's World's Hardest Night O'. To cover the last things first, he asked me afterwards if it was the hardest night orienteering I had ever done, and I said, Yes and No. Yes, it was the hardest Night-O' course I've run, but No, it wasn't the hardest orienteering I'd done at night -- that's been a few times during rogaines, when you are orienteering by guess and by feel. Here there was a surplus of info. Made it very hard to go quickly, but no so hard to find your way.

Beautiful evening, rain didn't materialize as forecast. Mass start of about 30 of us, and though I had been planning on just walking, when some folks took off quickly, I followed right along. Was keeping up to Joe/Ernst/Pavlina/Ross (and others?) through #5, but missed 6 by a couple of minutes. Had company (walking) for the next couple of controls, and after that I was on my own, just walking, for the last 75 minutes or so.

Never totally lost, just a couple times I wasn't sure. Just moving very slowly in the complicated areas, stopping to look at the map innumerable times, and each time it took a while for my eyes to focus on the detail. But pleased to make it around, as I'm no great fan of the dark.

Heard an occasional creature crashing around, but the best was the owls, including a couple of barred owls hooting like crazy up near #10.

Thanks, JJ, for setting it up.

World's Hardest Night-O: Blue - Splits

Blue day 1 - Splits

At the Eaglebrook track. 1200, 1200, 1600, 1200, 1200, with the 1200s on a 6-minute cycle (i.e., about 1:20 rest) and the 1600 on an 8-minute cycle (about 1:45 rest).

4:45.9, 4:41.7, 6:12.6, 4:37.5, 4:35.8. Nice pacing, fastest at the end, working harder on the last two 1200s, but in control.

Beautiful early evening. Legs felt pretty good

Before and after. Had a nice chat with Martula. He has lost about 8 pounds, following my lead he says, and is feeling and running better.

Up in Greenfield, so I ran my "13 hills" loop. Not pushing the pace. Felt a little weak the first half, then progressively better, last few hills felt good. So two good efforts not too long after Sunday's long one.

Total climb -- 1060'. That's based on my new altimeter watch.

Not sure if I like it, well, actually, I like it, I'm just not sure if I really like it (as in, I really like my Casio Accelator watch, it's pretty much perfect, except it needs an altimeter). My gut feeling is that it overstates the accumulated climb, counting in the little fluctuations in pressure that it treats as changes in altitude. Maybe I should take it to the track and see what sort of climb I get for a run there.

On the other hand, it is entertaining, though in that respect it's not in the same league as one of the original Casio digital watches, which Fred had back in the late 70s. That one had a little game on it -- a stream of digits got fed out of the left edge of the screen and you had to keep wiping them out by manipulating a couple of keys. Finish a level, and on the next level they came a little faster. Very primitive.

But after Fred had had it a while, and obviously played the game quite a bit, and I'd had my share of playing, well, one day we went north for a long run on Vermont's Long Trail, and at some point out came the watch, and we're taking turns playing this thing as we're running along the pretty rocky trail, and before long we had both PR'd! And we were quite pleased with ourselves, figuring we were doing just awesome O' practice (that didn't even involve little white balls) -- working on split vision, one eye working on running through the rocks, the other concentrating on the game.

I wonder if they sell that thing on EBay?

C • admiration 8

Up the Healdville Trail to the top of Okemo. Was going up there ("there" being Lulow, not the top of Okemo) for a round with Mike Fritz, so went a little early. Legs were a little tired, but quite surprised myself by running the lion's share of the climb.

It's a nice trail, has the advantage of being a little lower (start 1500", top 3400') than the high peaks, so relatively less of it is up in the land of the balsam firs, meaning rocks, roots, and mud, and more of it, maybe 3/4, is nice runnable trail, if you don't mind the climb.

Up in 42+ minutes, just the same as the other time I did it 5 years. A pleasant surprise.

Limited views from the fire tower, as most of the higher peaks were in the clouds. But nice day for running, about 60.

Back down, taking it a bit careful, as I hadn't seen a soul and if I crashed it might have been a while before anyone found me.

Wapack Trail Race. I wasn't going to go based on how I was feeling earlier in the week, but my legs felt better by Thursday and Phil more or less talked me into it, even offering to chauffeur me over to New Ipswich, NH, and back. Gail, on the other hand, when she found out last night that I was planning on going, well, she kept her comments rather succinct -- "You idiot!"

And, of course, I had to get my weekly training up over an hour.

We had a plan B of course, which was to not go, but that would only be implemented if when we woke up in the morning the weather was both hard rain and winds up in the 30-40 mph range. Don't want to take any unnecessary risks!

So at 6 am it was only raining moderately, with winds a modest 10 mph. No need even to check with Phil, who arrived at 7:10, just 10 minutes late (he's getting better, he says), and we motored over to the start, where it was raining hard and somewhat more windy, not that we would have gone with plan B at this point anyway, once you're at the start, you start.

The course is out and back along the Wapack ridge, not so much longer than Mt. Toby last Sunday but hillier and definitely rougher, lots of rocks and roots and for today at least, mud and water.

I'd run the race three times:
1992 -- 2:49 (low 60s, sunny, dry, good race)
1994 -- 2:46 (low 60s, sunny, dry, good race)
2000 -- 3:46 (upper 70s, very humid, bonked big-time)
Course record is 2:21. So I was thinking something in the 3:15-3:20 range would be excellent, especially because the plan wasn't to make a really hard effort (as last week's was).

I hit the halfway point in 1:34, just about right -- the return trip has been on the order of 10 minutes slower -- running steadily but not pushing it and certainly not charging the downhills because of the wet and quite slippery conditions. Felt pretty good coming back too, climbing well, and hung in there well with the pace (1:39) despite the fact that my legs felt pretty trashed -- hamstrings, quads, but only minimally the calves, which was a very good sign -- in the last half hour or so. Ended up in 8th out of about 60, quite pleased, best was 2:46, weak field.

Chauffeured back home, we didn't even stop for Phil's usual mega bag of chips (to keep his sodium levels right, he says). Is he getting on a health kick? Next thing I know he'll be telling me he's no longer eating a quart of ice cream every night....

C • Kytäjä Golf 6