Training Log Archive: Ari-o

Event: NEOC: Mt. Wachusett
 

Adventure day! Warming up for the O, then running a hill aftertimes.

About a week ago I asked Alex if she wanted to go to the Wachusett O. Apparently she was still coming off the marathon because the answer was something like "well, probably, if I'm up for it."

I took that as a yes. Headed out to Wawa and signed up for the Blue. Since the spring I've orienteered one course at Pawtuckaway, so there might be a little rust. But what a day! 40 and sunny and beautiful.

Started a minute behind Alex up a big hill. Ran the road to a wall, and caught Alex who had gone diagonally, and we bumbled to the control. 2 should have been easy, but I overran it on the trail and looped around looking for it, lost a couple minutes. But 3 was a long trail and road run and I made the best of it, attacking well but hesitating towards the control. 4 I lost another couple of minutes, taking a good route but then flubbing the distance, until I finally found the right rock and the control.

5 was good, mostly on trails, although my attack was again not great. 6 went well, down the trail around the cliffs, good attack on a bench, right to the control. Short leg to 7 that I totally flubbed. Didn't help there was another guy looking around for it; I went back to 6 and found Alex, who then helped me find the control, which was a bit further than I'd run (I think, per Strava).

I was tired of using Alex as a crutch, so she went to run through green, I went on my own magical mystery tour down the hill to a road. The large navigation to the next control looked hard; not much to nav by or get caught by. And the road was great. Nice run down except for some skin left on a rock, then a good run on the road, and then a good attack up a cliff (map in mouth) right to the control. Per Strava flyby, it was about 1m faster than Alex's run (and that's including my slow-but-deliberate attack, by this point I was actually doing some orienteering).

Ran to a road, trail, stream, 9, followed the stream to a bend and looked right at 10, Powerline to wall to 11, three streams to 12, flubbed 13 a bit not reading the contours well (shallow saddle looked like a hill with the edge of the map nearby and open contours) and off to 14 and the finish. Won the course (unless someone faster started later) and had a lot of fun. Excellent terrain (with the leaves down), lots of climb, would make a terrific Billygoat (last time: 1996).

Warmup-Cooldown

Double pole test at Annursnac.

Or, will my noodle arms work after 3h of classic yesterday?

Answer: kind of.

First trip up the hill (after the warm up) was struggly, with my right shoulder definitely feeling yesterday. Second was faster. Third, catching Greg, was faster still, which meant I had to do a 4th. But I was cooked after the third! 4th was slow. 3:27, 3:23, 3:16, 3:33. Would be interesting to see what I could do with sharp pole tips not coming off of 5h of training in two days.

But a nice day nonetheless.

Interstitials, which had a bit of climb.

Blue - Splits

Rain let up overnight so out to Littleton to ski, and try out some Niflheim skis too (my ratchets are broken enough I really didn't want to try to stride wet leaves, also my classic poles are a mess; I really should just buy new classic poles this year). Lots of juniors, and I chatted with some of the other masters/coaches up the hill. Then four juniors wanted to go long, so I went long. It got breezy but dry around Harvard, and was fine coming back through the chip seal and turny parts.

Until for whatever reason the speed reducer on one of the skis wouldn't disengage. At the start I think the moisture kept it locked down, but later on it would pop up in to the first notch on any rough sections, which is most of the return of the loop. Which meant one of my skis was significantly slower than the other, which was not good for striding! (The other did the same thing, but that notch didn't engage the speed reducer). So I had some proper struggles and got dropped by the boys, but Cary found me as he was out skating, since he's trying to actually ski this year, apparently.

Finished up Picnic to Hill, which was all repaved (although not in its entirety down Horse Farm Hill) but was a joy to roll.

Also I think I'm done with classic rollerskiing this year.

C • Speed reducers 4

Skipped NP this morning (sleep in!) so instead, it was off to meet Alex to go to the Fells. Run over Sullivan for the ride up. Didn't even have to wait too long!

Then running the Fells. We ran the Skyline Loop, sort of, because there was some getting lost and a lot of "are we on the trail?"-ing. Mostly we were, and it's well marked. Was nice for the first 3/4, then started getting pretty rainy, but we made it back without getting too lost or drowned. Alex's light may or may not have died near the end.

Stealing Alex's elevation again because her Garmin found 100m more than mine?!

Then car sauna!

C • garmin 2

Thinking of rollerskiing the bike path, but then realized juniors are going to Prospect, and so is Alex, and she can give me a ride from Herter. So off to Herter!

Got there early (!) so lapped the parking lot a few times, no poles.

My Garmin/Strava seems to be underestimating the climb, so I am going to use the climb that the Strava segment shows instead (correlated with Alex's log, and yes I spent way too much time looking at this). Update: stole Alex's vert.

Five times up the hill, with the leaves being blown off after the first two (THANKS!). Legs definitely feeling 50 sections from yesterday, and some new pole tips would help, especially in the dark and with janky slipperiness. Negative splits until #4, but my technique quit then. I'll blame the pole tips.

The rollerski warmup. Slow, with lots of leaves.

The runny down parts.

Warm at NP, and bright. Time change! Even some sun at the end, which Dana and I were not happy about. Played a game where I added the digits of the stadium section together and ran that many stairs (strides), so 27 would mean running 9 (so 18, or just more than halfway) and then fast hiking the rest. Anything with a zero in it was a sprint, which definitely spiked the heart rate a couple of times.

Wanted to run. Wanted vert. Closest hill: Summit. Took some different routes, found some new stairs, had a modicum of fun!