Training Log Archive: RLShadow

Very easy run at lunch time with Sue D. from OCD fitness center, along canal trail from Long Pond heading west.

Walking with Sue D. at tail end of the run.

Long run, on the canal, from Shoen Place east past Perinton Park a ways, then return. With Anne, and the dogs. Took several walking breaks, including in time and distance. Average pace while running was 9:27, which is way faster than Anne should be doing long runs (hence the walking breaks), although just about right for me. Nice day, quite cool, low 30's, but very little wind.

Glen Edith Hill. I really wasn't specifically setting out for a hill workout, but the Glen Edit hill is relatively sheltered, and the weather was miserable (late afternoon; cold, rainy, and very windy). Did 3 hill repeats plus two loops at the top, until we (Anne and I) bailed out because the weather had gotten the best of us. Reminded us of the weather at the Webster turkey trot ...

Long run on the canal with the canines, on a gorgeous day (sunny, upper 30's or so, not much wind). From Lyndon Rd., east past Lock 30 to the old Lock 60 (from older canal). To keep the dogs from burning out too soon, I made a point to walk for a couple of minutes every 15 minutes or so, and each got a dog biscuit at each walk break. They seemed to hold up better than on previous runs, although they were both still dragging near the end.

Very very easy run with several walking breaks, with Anne S. and Sue D., the latter of whom hasn't been doing much running lately. This was Anne and my attempt to get her into doing some longer runs, by agreeing she could walk whenever she wanted. Sue actually did very well for what limited running she's done lately. We took three walking breaks, other than that she was able to run the distance fairly easily. Started at Perinton Park, ran east through Fairport, down Cobbs Lane, and just past Lyndon, then return. Fairly cold, stiff wind from the west in our faces on the way back.

I was happy to see my weight was only marginally higher than normal, after all the food yesterday.

Webster Thanksgiving day "4.4" mile race, starting and ending in Webster Park. I always strongly suspected the course was way short, and this year I had my Forerunner on so I got a measurement of it that way. The Forerunner says the course is 4.19 miles; the Forerunner may not give the precise distance, but the course is clearly not 4.4 miles.

The size of the field has gotten out of hand, in my opinion, and maybe some sort of cap should be put on it in future years. Parking was a real mess, although we (Anne and I) got there an hour ahead of the race start so we got a decent spot in the lot at Holt and Lake, which quickly filled up. In the end, people were parking along Lake Rd, east of Holt, quite a ways from the start/finish, and way south on Holt Rd, on both sides of the road.

We thought we had an appropriate position in the crowd at the start, but when the race actually started, we found ourselves behind a ton of people, most of whom were slower than us. After about 0.5 miles, I was averaging 9:30 a mile. It was when the course turned south on 250, just short of the 1 mile mark, when I could first run the pace I wanted to without being held back by the mass of people.

Weather was absolutely terrible, almost as bad as it could be for a race. Low 30's, windy, rain ranging from fairly heavy to medium-light.

My time was around 32:10, starting my watch when I crossed the start line. I believe my official time will be more like 32:25 or so. That's 3 minutes faster than last year when I was in much worse shape, so considering the bad weather and the crowd in the first mile of the race, I was fairly satisfied with my time. Anne ran an official 37:00, which was way faster than the 40:14 she ran last year. So she was also pleased with her time.

Update: The chip timing system bit the dust after around 10% of the finishers had crossed the line. The Yellowjacket web site says it was because of the extremely wet, muddy conditions, which caused a connection to come loose at the finish. They had partial results posted; the results went up to 32:08 which missed getting my time recorded by 10-20 seconds. Of the results that they had, there were already 4 people from my age group ahead of me, so I didn't place in my group. I think Anne had a good chance of placing in her group, but we may never know ... The site said they had a video of the finishers, and from that they will try to piece together as many of the results as they can. It won't help me, because my number wasn't visible as I was coming in to the finish line.

Also, the Yellowjacket site said they had 1500 entrants between the "4.4" and the 2.5 mile races. In my opinion, that's way too many for the "infrastructure" there (limited shelter, parking, bathroom facilities, and narrow 2-lane road to start that many people on). But if people still come, in spite of the problems, the voice of the customer must be saying that they'll put up with those things, to compete on a course that is advertised as the incorrect distance. Although maybe that's the appeal, if people assume it's 4.4 miles, they'll be very happy with their pace per mile!

C • Nice pace! 2

Short run on the treadmill at the Bayview Y, part of tapering for the Thursday Webster race. Started slow, increased speed to around 7 min/mile for a few minutes then slowed back down.

Easy run on the Hojack Trail with Anne, tapering for Thanksgiving day race.

Long run with Anne; started at Ontario Beach parking lot (north end of Lake Ave). Ran south on the trail along the Genesee River; it eventually comes out on Lake Ave. by the cemetery. Crossed the river on the pedestrian bridge, took trails through Seneca Park, then railroad bed to O'Rourke bridge back over river. Railroad bed is OK but not a really great surface for running; a lot of areas of large gravel, and other places where you have to pay a lot of attention to where you're stepping. Our pace definitely slowed down on that stretch. Sunny day, temps in the mid 30's, but a significant wind from the N-NE made the northerly run a lot chillier than when we were going south.

Long run with the canines (Homer and Hazel) on the canal path; started at east end of Cobbs Lane, ran east for 5 miles (well past the first cross road, but not quite to the second cross road), then 4.5 miles back. Homer and Hazel seemed to have gotten dog-tired, as they were really dragging on the way back, especially the last several miles, even though it was a nice cool day (low 30's). So I gave them a break and walked the last half mile to the car. Hard to believe that I'm actually in better running shape than either dog.

Slow, easy run, but on a very windy day at an unsheltered (from the wind) part of the canal. (From Canal Ponds, west to Henpeck Park.) From work at OCD, with Sue D. Her last run was with me a week ago, so she's not getting back into running with a whole lot of gusto ...

Warmup for interval workout.

Intervals, on Woodland Lane. 12x400, avg 1:34, fastest 1:30. With Anne, she averaged around 1:53 with a fastest of 1:50, very good for her.

Cooldown after intervals.

Long run on the canal with Anne. From Shoen Place to Perinton Park and back. Got rained on a bit the last few miles, otherwise a very pleasant day for a run.

Checked out Boughton Park with Cheryl, Paul, and Anne.

Event: ROC - Annual Mendon Trail Run
 

ROC Mendon Trail Run course (partial) -- did registration, then after the runners started and things settled down, I went for a short run on the trail, going backwards from the finish line, to meet up with Anne (she was doing the 20K, I had decided to run with her on her second lap).

Mendon Trail Run course -- ran with Anne on her second lap. Fairly easy pace for me, much harder for her of course because she had already done one lap and it was my first!

Mendon Trail Run "5K" course (actually longer than 5K) -- after Anne finished her 20K, I had planned on doing a second 10K if I was ambitious, but I wasn't quite ambitious enough to do a whole second lap, so I split off at the 5K turnoff. I was running moderately hard but nowhere near race pace.

Short, very easy run on the canal from OCD at Canal Ponds. Ran with Sue D., a lady I used to run at noon with quite a bit when I was working full time. It was her first run in ages, and she did halfway decent considering.

Canal path run in late afternoon, with the dogs. Started at Lyndon, went east to the second cross road, and back.

Easy, long run on the path along the Genesee River, starting at the north end of Lake Ave.; with Anne. Cool day but actually very pleasant; little wind, no precipitation.

Treadmill workout at OCD fitness center. Had it on random hills, ranging from 2% to 8.5%. The climb of 240 m is an estimate based on the distance covered and what I roughly figured to be the average incline (these treadmills don't give you the total climb for a workout). My first treadmill workout of the season, so part of the purpose of this was to get my mind and body into treadmill workout mode (which I generally dislike, but when the weather is like it was today, it will be my fall-back workout).

Easy, medium length run, on roads near my house (Maple, Klem, Gravel). Pace was very easy but pulse seemed higher than I would have expected for what seemed like a slow pace. Have been having high blood pressure issues, not sure if that is related to high pulse ...

Event: ROC - Oatka Creek Park
 

Cheryl and I both had the day off, so we took the dogs to the relatively new path along the lake by Durand Eastman. I ran with Hazel, she walked with Homer, then we crossed paths and switched dogs so they each got a bit of a run. Very nice day, sunny and no wind.

Ellison Wetlands, with Anne. Empire to Old Browncroft and back.