Training Log Archive: cmorse

early evening - passing thunderstorm winding down - still raining, but sun coming in at low angle - some harsh contrast through wet glasses. Ran the loop CCW as hard as I could, trying to come in under 20 minutes. Just missed. Although legs felt stiff on roads, once I hit the trail it was like I had a new pair of legs - just felt really, really good to fly on the trail, even though there was a fair amount of dodging puddles and low-hanging branches wet with the rain.

road to and from trailhead - 4:15 down, 5:48 on cooldown

- Splits

AM Run to far end of lake. mid 70's, very muggy, large force of FDF's on the assault. Legs felt sluggish, rest ok...

afternoon ride w/ Hayden

Ellen's cousin visiting from Miami, so didn't get to Wickham Park w/ Hayden this evening. Long day, quads a little sore, but not too bad.

On the drive home from Vermont - tired & tight - goal was to finish the circuit on dead legs, stretch goal was to do it under an hour. One of two not bad... Time for a shower and a nap

Event: Vermont 100
 

Pacing Mark Buongiorno at Vermont 100. Distance/time round up a bit to include a bunch of running back and forth at a couple handler stations and loosening up.

Saw Mark, Bruce and Scott off at 4am in a light rain which didn't last much longer (it had been showering all night). Then hung around a while then into Woodstock to supply myself for the day. Bouncing around between handler stations assisting the day crew for all three.

Joined Mark at Camp 10 Bear mile 70 a bit after 5 along with a couple guys he had been running with since mile 20 or so - Andy from London and Jerome. The 4 of us (they did not have pacers) would stick together until the very end when we split up a bit as Mark powered on.

Had been a sunny, warm afternoon, but cooled down nicely for a gorgeous evening. Felt I did ok in my first stint pacing - solid powerwalking on the hills, kept them running short 5-7 minute 'pulls' when the terrain was suitable - not fast enough to wear them down, but hopefully a little faster than they might have done otherwise. I'm pretty sure Mark could have been pushed a little harder (the original pre-race plan), but he wanted to keep the group together as long as possible and so I was trying to gauge all three of them. Mostly walking past Bills (88.6) but at a very solid clip - probably 16min/mile even on the steeper hills - Mark was setting the pace here, good attitude but definitely wanting it to be over. Andy and Jerome on occassion had to run uphill to catch the two of us powerwalking. In the last 5 miles I switched to slow jogging (no faster than they were walking) just to use different muscles as my walking muscles (glutes in particular) were definitely complaining - but these guys had 70 extra miles under their belt so I kept quiet on that account.

I think I probably skimped on keeping myself fed at aid stations since I was focused on getting Mark fueled, bottles filled etc - but I was carrying extra stuff but got tired of it late in the game - would have liked to sample the tables a bit more - but the goal was to get Mark in and out quickly.

At mile 99 Mark felt like finishing it and thought he could run the rest and everyone concurred he and I should go ahead - Mark took off like a shot and rocked that last mile in about 5 minutes (I had trouble staying with him) to finish in 21:07 about 10 minutes over the original planned goal.

At the finish I stayed and hung out with Bruce's wife Amy to await his first 100 finish which he did at 22:55. Then a quick 90 minute power nap and headed south at first light with the intent to stop in and see folks at the Soapstone Assault (9am start) and perhaps participate (not compete) if the body was willing...

Wickham Park Series w/ Hayden - jogged a loop of the kids course to warm up - 800m. Hayden then ran 4:45 for the first 800, 5:20 for the 2nd 800 to finish in 10:05 with a pretty decent kick for an uphill finish. Only the two of us, so rather than me running the 2.6m, we went out for a slow jog along some of the other paths and some terrain running. Gorgeous night to be out.

6am - early AM run w/ Mark & Scott. Did a 25 minute out/back toward Rockville, then joined by Scott's pacer and out toward Bolton Notch. I had to work so around 45 minutes in I let them go and then did a brisk 800 (measured 1/4 miles on trail - 84 & 86 seconds respectively), then casually ran back to the car and off to work. Felt really good to run for a change, its been a pretty bleak couple of weeks on the exercise front. Hope to change that.

Long week at work (still) feels like I haven't been running in a really long time. Not even a legitimate walk....

late AM hike w/ Hayden, probably a mile or so of bushwacking along the Willi River, then uphill where we rejoined the trail. Nice AM though Hayden tires readily still...

ride out to the lake and back w/ Hayden - in the rain...

late afternoon walk w/ Jackson, in between thunderstorms. Wet, with quite a few FDF's, though none actually biting. Distance and time are estimated.

Early AM run on Hopkins w/ Bruce, Mark and Scott. Got there late so met them coming back up the hill on their first repeat - hence I did 2.5 repeats of the hill down to Ellington and back up. Muggy and struggling on the steeper sections, but got out the door at least..