Training Log Archive: cmorse

Tired, don't really feel like running this AM. But a zero yesterday and crap weather tomorrow, so out the door I go. Going to shoot for 50 minutes with some fartlek pickups on the rail trail.

Needed to be done by 6, so started early. Got 2 miles in before meeting up with Mark, Bruce & Tony for 3 full hills. A pretty brisk pace today - not much chit-chat on the uphill side of things.

rather than shower at work, I went down to the Y, did 20 minutes of sauna, then showered there. A bit later arrival at work, but no need to waste time showering. Right to the important things, like logging onto AP... :-)

Finishing up March just about on target. Yesterday put me over 400 running miles for 2011, and I'm just shy of 200 miles for March.

Happy Hills tomorrow, will try to get out for some trails on Wed AM, and perhaps repeat the 5 miles on rail trail Thur AM should put everything well over target. Legs are tired this AM, but otherwise feel good. Almost 60 miles last week, quite substantial for me, not sure whether to back off this week or try and keep it consistent leading into Traprock in less than 3 weeks now.

First loop, light & dry - not carrying any aid, rely on refill at 10 miles. Felt good, but not running with the fast guys either - Merkt, Fargo.... Over 20 for this weeks training.

C • Fargo 2

After a brief respite to refuel etc. headed back out for a second loop with Dave M, Deb and not too far back Brad. More leisurely pace, Deb looking for about 1:55. I opted to skip the dogleg to 3rd aid station and headed in from Lake Louise.

Mix of rail trail & single track w/ Mark & Bruce. Ran to Steeles Crossing, then up for a Rose Farm loop, back to notch, Shenipsit Trail up along cliffs from Freja, then a loop at Valley Falls before headed back to Rt 30. Felt like a pretty steady & brisk pace, opted against going another 5 since we'd been pushing pretty hard. Quality over quantity. And home by 9am with a full day ahead.

C • It's 6:30am and you already ran 4 hrs? 6

Snuck out for a mid-day run. Forgot what its like to run under cool, bright, mid-day conditions. Nice brisk run, plenty of rocks & roots to watch out for, a few soggy patches to run through.

Woke up early for a longer run, but then couldn't decide where to go since it had supposedly snowed 3-4 inches overnight. So didn't hit the trail until 5:30 and of course there was virtually no snow, could have gone pretty much anywhere. Oh well, a tad under 5 miles from Church St to Manchester and back. They did a nice job with a new parking area etc on the Manchester end. Had full lights, but didn't use them as the light reflecting off clouds was more than adequate to see by. Quite a pleasant run, maybe I'll make this a regular weekly run.

No issues from the hamstring tendon at all.

Easy 5k treadmill (10kph), with 5x250m (16kph) intervals to work on turnover. Slight incline. Hamstring tendon feels fine today..

Hamstring tendon behind right knee was tight all day yesterday, thought about skipping the hills this AM, but went anyway. Felt fine when running, but could feel it a bit on the third so stopped there. The usual suspects - Bruce, Tony & Mark.

Marking the tendon thing as an injury, but very minor and hopefully clears up in short order.

A group of about 10 for the weekly Traprock training run - 4 weeks to race day. Original plan was to run two loops but decided not to push it and scaled back to just a single loop. Felt fine, but 20 seemed too much after yesterday.

Mileage starting to pick up, just shy of 350 for the year, 140 for March so far.

Early trail run with Bruce, Mark, Scott & John. About 46F at the start, but temp dropped around dawn. Bit chilly toward the end. I cut out a bit short of the others as I somehow got the notion to run a 5k race after doing a long slow training run just to see how stupid an idea that might be.

The 5k was less than a mile from the long run meeting place so got a bit chilled waiting almost an hour before race time. Changed shoes & shirts, had some hammer gel & topped up electrolytes. Warmed up for about 15 minutes beforehand and actually felt good on the line. A crowd of about 225 and a lot of young high school XC types. Going to be fast.

{edit} - apparently the total of 225 included the shorter kids races, looks like 172 official finishers in the 5K

Course starts & finishes on road, but goes onto trails @ Porter & Howard reservoirs within 100m. Very fast start, felt like I was in a slipstream behind all the younger runners. The course was extremely runnable, but had it's share of muddy sections, small rocks & tree roots which apparently slowed many runners, but I opened it up and passed many folks on the first benign little knoll. Felt good so pushed to open a gap in chasers. Dave Merkt a couple spots in front of me, but I felt unlikely to close on him so didn't push super hard, just hard enough to keep a cushion on chasers.

About 300m from the finish a spectator yelled 'he's gaining on you' as I went by and noted Aaron Flamino' closing hard. Found another gear and left everything on the final 100m of road to stay 2 sec in front of him. Amazing myself I managed to finish in 7th place and first master!

I guess 15 mile warmups aren't such a bad thing...

Run @ Case with Ryan & Kristina. First run on bare earth in a long, long time. Wet and muddy, but what a joy to run on. Unfortunately, just before the summit of Case, Kristina pulled something in her groin and could not continue, so Ryan helped walk her out to Spring St. while I ran back to Glastonbury to get my car and drive around to shuttle them back. Thus my return trip was probably 40% off trail - cutting tangents on the trail and taking a few overland routes to save some distance and time. Very brisk pace on the return run. Felt great...

GPS didn't acquire until 5:15 into the run...

Started solo, ran a bit with Bruce, Mark & Tony but skipped pavement & ice at bottom. Then off to work. Could have gone further, felt really good, no residuals from the weekend. Looking like back to back long runs this weekend. This bumps me over 300 miles for the year...

Feel pretty fine today. Tired from lack of sleep & some general fatigue, but otherwise not bad at all considering lack of long training.

Thoughts from Snowgaine-

temp management - started each day with extra light fleece shed within 30 minutes. otherwise comfortable all day, no need to go into dry clothes, hat or gloves. Started Saturday with nylon pants, but waist is blown and even pinning to shirt they were sagging too much. Stuffed into pack as emergency in case of not being able to travel. Regular tights were fine, even with lots off falling down, in and occasional partial brook submersions. 'ski boots good and warm, o shoes (worn with snowshoes for 2 hrs Sat) led to cold toes at end, but they were soaked from streams etc too.

fuel - perpeteum 6 scoops per 4 hour bottle worked well. Me like. hammer gel too thick @ 32F. poles precluded hand bottle so didn't have Nuun during race - no cramping, but not as high exertion/sweat level either. carried clif bars, didn't eat them on course. Perhaps just carry one for backup?

eyewear - opted against contacts, glasses good except for final push Saturday - high exertion rate, face too hot causing fogging. Keep exertion rate lower. Also found lower exertion level of skiing versus snowshoe beneficial / made decent pace without overexerting. Practice slower, lower intensity running as long runs ramp up in duration.

C • distance 1

57 minute penalty assessed - started at 9:57. Would only see one team all day today (the eventual winners) around control #66. Other than that, skied all day, had a good route planned out, had to cut #45 & #65 in the far SW corner to stay on schedule but otherwise pretty clean route. Very glad we planned our route today to give us a straight shot back on snowmobile roads as we really needed to hustle to finish with 5 minutes to spare. Had we been skiing backcountry at the end it would have been bad, very bad...

Rough route - actual distance higher due to perambulations not shown in gmaps point to point route.

#62 - starting an hour after everyone else, we had a nicely tracked trail heading NE from the HH. Once we got across the stream (bridge out) we struck out eastward to control, following snowshoe & ski tracks of earlier teams.

#57 - pretty much due S following a snowshoe only track. Didn't ski directly on their path due to snowshoe tendency to wander around more whereas skiing is easier in a straightline. No problems

#33 - Out to road and across to Alice's Alley ski trail - alas, no more fresh tracks. But a nice ski nonetheless and much easier skiing here than backcountry as I could just concentrate on stride rather than negotiating small hills, deadfall, marshes etc... Turned in one reentrant too early windng up on the N edge of circle before reading the fine squiggle in the contours and correcting up and over spur - maybe 2 min lost.

#36 - back out to ski trail and continuing S, crossing stream, up hill then following forest boundary to control - no sign of anyone out here and 3-4" of fresh powder obscured most of previous days tracks.

#76 - S along marsh (some snowshoe tracks faintly evident) to Tucker Rd (snowmobile) and a fast pace on road to forest boundary, 600m in to control, and back out to Tucker Rd.

#31 - continue on road to easy control

#34 - ditto, with second half skiing on snowy shoulder of major paved road.

#66 - a long, but fast ski retracing our route on Tucker Rd to Alice's Alley, turning S on untracked ski trail. A series of pretty hairy steeps (down) and tricky stream crossing, then back up the other side and striking out W along top of large reentrant - supposedly a trail up here, but none we could locate. Partway in we passed the eventual winners coming our way - so from there in it was easy to follow their tracks.

#54 - back out the way we came in, however the other team was turning N, so we were back to untracked, and often difficult to follow ski trail. But read the contours well and right in.

#73 - many teams had been to #54, just not from our direction, so exiting we had a good trail to follow S. When we got to stream, the other tracks seemed to wander along the stream quite a bit and we presumed they were coming the other way and looking for a crossing point, so we bailed on their tracks and headed out to paved road. skied the shoulder for a bit, then cut in at forest corner in untracked snow, found a decent stream crossing point and hit control cleanly.

#44 - left control W (no tracks) and took a less than straight line getting there, but eventually got out ok. North, then West on paved road shoulders, then in at forest corner and hit control cleanly (tracks leading in).

Decided to cut #65 & #45 in order to shorten the route and get back on time

#47 - back to road, then in at forest boundary beyond river crossing, up to Winona Way trail where we picked up a good track leading to control.

#35 - no trail leaving #47 the way we wanted to off into the woods, a bit of wandering and slow negotiating unmapped marshy lands, then encountered a stream with no good crossing points, turned W and eventually came out to Hawley Rd (snowmobile) Back to quick skiing on snowmobile paths and in/out of #35 easily.

#75 - in on ski trail with good tracks to follow - a bit of a delay crossing unmapped stream, but then into control just fine.

HH - North on Winona Way (ski trail) missing right turn and ending up on road a bit west of intended. skied road (paved with snow cover) back to Bargy Rd (snowmobile) and pressed hard on snowmobile tracks to beat the deadline. Back with about 5 minutes to spare. 1380 out of 1900 possible points, 28 of 38 controls. 5th place.

No major injuries or complaints - shoulders and elbows sore from poling for two days.

Event: CNYO Snowgaine #15
 

CNYO Snowgaine with Frank Boscoe from Albany. Rain all the way up, until we got within about 5 miles of Winona, then snow reappeared quickly. Drove up to HH and did a little test of conditions to see what the best options were, then back to Port Ontario to our motel.

Half hour for briefing, map study and to file intention sheets - we quickly whipped up a loop figuring we'd do half a day on skis, half snowshoe to see how it went.

#67 - attacked this a bit later than I would have otherwise, but a clean route in across a smallish marsh behind another team (eventual winners), exited via the route I though we should have come in on - saved a couple minutes probably, but I fell and dropped my map and had to retrace my steps to find it, so we probably lost 5-6 minutes backtracking...

#43 - 75% snowmobile trails, clean attack, no problems

#32 - didn't have this on the original itinerary, but added it on the fly - S to ski trail (not broken out, but easy skiing), overshot attackpoint slightly probably cost 90s, otherwise clean.

#72 - retrace route on ski path, some serious downhills in rough terrain (I'm not a backcountry skier at all). Parts of the trail were melted down to bare earth and running water. Had to circumvent a lot of deadfall, but otherwise ok.

#63 - slow leaving #72 - terrain vague, felt longer than it should have. Eventually out to ski trail and snowmobile road, down to river crossing, then in along forest boundary. A lot of steep difficult hills in here - more than shown on map. Eventually got there...

#55 - slow exit from #72, skied on shoulder of road, then up and around - long way around, but skiable all the way as opposed to very steep and a questionable stream crossing on the direct route.

#71 - ski trail for a bit, then contoured around hill - lots of fallen trees, slow going...

#46 - another team had skied the forest boundary so we went that way on exiting - much cleaner, but more climbing. Back to snowmobile road then up across broad hill - seemed to take a lot longer than it looked like on map - pretty vague hilltop, but knoll with control quite obvious when we finally got there.

#40 - steep descent (bare booted this one), stream crossing then headed N (should have gone due E to road), next stream crossing had to be bare-booted and waded - no fun at all... followed by a steep climb up to control.

HH - (about 6 hours in) north to road, some road skiing, then walked to HH to swap skis for snowshoes. Lost time on out and back and transition
but my legs had good strength, but the backcountry skiing was taking a serious toll on ability to control skis (ie I fell down a LOT).

#50 - ran road, the snowshoes on snowmobile paths to just above control, into woods and post holing 3-4 feet in some places, ok in others.

#60 - back to snowmobile trail, cross river then north up slope - going ok but Frank noted that his heart rate was much higher than when skiing. Probably better per/km pace, but at too high an effort to maintain?

#70 - sketchy ski-trails (not maintained apparently), both getting tired at this point.

#51 - pretty straight shot and easy, beginning to worry about time - try for #30, or stick to roads and run back (slightly longer, but faster).

#30 - seemingly easy control about 1000m N of hashhouse - made the decision to go for it even if we incurred a couple minutes penalties. Got to the control just fine, only to find no one else had been here all day. So there would be no convenient herd path back to the HH and on top of it the snow was really soft and post-holing extensively. At one point crossing a stream on a snowbridge/downed tree I went straight through and into the stream - probably took 2-3 minutes to extricate myself and continue the slog. Wound up 19 minutes overtime which would mean almost an hour delay for starting on Sunday. Damn...

Looking forward to the weekend with some trepidation. It's been 9 years since I rogained and I finished up the last one in a state of flu-like crap & would take almost 6 years before determining that Lyme was behind it and my subsequent loss of endurance fitness. I feel pretty good these days though still being treated for chronic Lyme but I think that phase of things is nearing the end and time to climb back into the rogaine saddle.

But it's looking to be a cold, wet slog of a weekend.... oh boy...

No opportunities today. Ate a big taco salad for lunch - tasty & reasonably healthy, but a ton of calories. Then Hayden chose Red Robin to go out for his 10th birthday dinner where I succumbed to a burger that certainly had way too many calories. Probably regret it when I get on scale tomorrow AM

{edit - 2400 calories over my 1900 base today - would had to run 20 miles or so to erase that gluttony}

on a positive note I have to drop car off for service in the morning so I'm going to force myself to run the long way home, maybe even venture into the woods....

The return of Tuesday AM Hill Sessions. Wasn't sure I'd be able to keep up with the boys, so went early to get a head start. Lots of ice on the paved portion at bottom, avoidable ice on upper parts. Did almost two trips before meeting up with Bruce, Mark & Tony. Finished up that trip and then ran a hard downhill to catch up with them. Turned around at the pavement on the third trip to join them. Felt pretty good and after 4 was going to just pad a short bit to make it 10 miles and make up for the skipped pavement, but went ahead and did another full pass making it just short of 5 reps. Felt real strong coming back up the last one as the sun rose in the east. Actually felt stronger at the end than the first couple. I think I'll be feeling a bit stiff today though...

Trail run w/ John, Tony & Matt. Very tough conditions - soft rotten snow, post-holing frequently, some sections nearly every footstep. Sometimes winding up in full submersion in hidden meltwater under snowpack. Can't say that ski's or snowshoes would have been any better. Just damn hard work.

If next weekends conditions are anything like these (and they may well be) then we're in for a long, difficult slog - but so will everyone else so it will come down to slogging tenacity....

Thoughts from this AM's run.
A) Warm conditions - glasses fogged from exertion - plan on wearing contacts next weekend.
B) Lots of meltwater - carry filter, less water volume in pack to reduce weight.
C) Neoprene socks a must.
D) More consistent sleep this week...

C • Slogging tenacity 2

took Hayden to Y to go swimming. Swam a couple laps, I suck at swimming so hit the whirlpool instead

feeling pretty mellow right now. might even venture out for a road run later...

L&F deadline - not quite down the 5kg I had hoped for, even though this AM's post run figure is under that target. I'll try and avoid junk calories this week, but I'm not going to track them this week and if I'm hungry, I'm going to eat, which may mean my weight trends up over the course of the week before the Snowgaine. But no reason to go into the event at a calorie deficit. Will try and get reasonable runs in Mon-Wed, then Thu & Fri off..

L&F	Start	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Avg Wt	176.7	175	173.4	172.5	169.1	170.4	170	167.3	168.2	167.4	166.4
rhr	48	48	45	45	46	45	48	47	45	45	45
sleep	7.2	7.9	7.4	7.5	7.7	7.5	7.6	6.4	6.8	7.6	7.3

Easy run on packed snowmobile trails. First half solo out to Webster/Parker, then Sodom Rd w/ Ginny & Brad at very easy pace.

Snuck out early to get a run in, thought about going longer, but the dirt road had melted out enough where its just packed dirt mostly, very little ice, and some muddy spots. So looks like its back to the unspiked shoes as well as calling this a road run again. Opted to just do one out and back and perhaps go longer this weekend.

took family to New Haven to see Cats @ Shubert. Had a steak bomb sub for dinner. mmmm. Then proceeded to eat half of Ellens chicken parm so we'd make the show on time. That's not going to help the G.

half hour @ 8mph, (3.7m), then 6mph pace for remaining 1.3m. Boring, but beats a zero

March 1st - training reset....

took a long lunch and came home to run for a few hours. Icy in many spots, muddy puddles in others. First few laps felt pretty sluggish but pace & energy felt better the further I got into it. Pretty monotonous just going back and forth on dirt road, but I guess that builds mental toughness. Need to remember lube on the longer runs