Training Log Archive: RLShadow

Working on mapping Dryer Road Park. Trails, trails, and more trails. All with a seemingly endless number of switchbacks ...

Mapping at Fort Hill. Nearly have the Ft. Hill area finished. Wish I could say the same for the Dryer Road portion (with its zillion trails).

Mid day run on a hot, although not that humid, day. From Seneca Park Zoo parking lot, north through the park, then on the old railroad bed. To Lakeshore Drive and return.

Early-morning (6:30 am) run with Anne on the Hojack Trail in Webster. Klem Rd to Lake Rd and back. First run for Anne in nearly a week due to an illness. The days off might have done her some good, she was running faster than normal and without much effort, at least so it seemed to me. She had thought that she might have to abandon the idea of doing the Rochester Marathon because of the imposed week off, but now she's thinking she still might be able to do it.

First of two planned long or semi long runs in preparation for Rochester marathon on Sept. 16. This was the semi long run, the longer one is planned for next weekend.

Ran on the canal path, since that's where much of the marathon course is going to be. Started at Shoen Place in Pittsford; ran east towards Fairport, to the park at 31F. Ran a little further then headed back, for a 2 hour run. Felt pretty worn out at the end, and this is only half of what the marathon will be. Doesn't give me a real confident feeling!

Event: ROC - Night-O & Sprint
 

Webster Park Sprint. I felt pretty good about my run. No major bobbles, but a couple of less than optimum route choices. I finished 4th, getting beaten by Nate, Gil, and Rob H., all of whom are much better orienteers and runners than I am. So no shame in losing to that group! Also, I beat a few people who normally would be ahead of me at most orienteering events. So no serious complaints about my performance.

The route choices where I could have done better were going to #6, where I planned to do the shorter, more direct way through the woods but somehow overshot it and found myself near the trailhead, so I just took the trail back to the bend, costing some extra distance. So I guess this wasn't a route choice problem, but rather an execution problem. Then coming out of 6 going to 7, I took the trail again, without thinking about it too much -- I guess since I came in that way, it was more mindless to go back out that way. Again, I could have saved some distance by going through the woods. And then going to #7, I went up and then back down rather than staying low and taking the trail along the creek. I'm not really sure if that cost me a whole lot of time , but it certainly didn't seem like the optimum way to go.

C • #9 4

Night Score-O at Webster Park. Really bad. I used to think I was pretty good at Score-O's, but I haven't been lately. I seem to manage to pick very poor strategies, and don't execute them very well. Then I typically change my mind about the strategy several times, leading to an even worse strategy. This event was similar but even worse because of the additional challenges of it being at night. I had a lot of trouble going back and forth between looking at the map and looking at the terrain. I think something that would help is making it more like a memory-O, where I look at the map and then remember what my next 4-5 turns etc. should be, but I found myself referring to the map way more often than that, with each glance at the map costing me a lot more time than it would during the day. I'll blame aging eyes (partly) on that.

I wound up with only 11 controls. On two others (the famous 122 and 106), I was at the center of the circle but no control in site. However, many others had the same issues with these controls and missed them also.

ROC Sprint - Webster Park - Splits

Warmup.

Interval workout. From OCD (B-313). Ran on Rye Rd off of Latona, where a few of us used to do intervals many years ago. It is a fairly straight, flat, lightly trafficed residential street with some shade, around 850 meters long. We had previously figured out a start and end point for 800 meters, with a midway point for 400 meters. My GPS watch showed that the distances were fairly accurate but one of the 400 meter stretches was around 10 meters short, so I adjusted the start and end points accordingly.

8x400 meters, average 93 seconds (ranged from 89 seconds to 99 seconds). Warm and humid day.

Cooldown.

Slow, medium length run on a very humid morning (72 degrees with 68 degree dew point). From home. Woodland to Bay to Rt. 104 bike path, to 5 Mile Line Rd, to Klem, Bay, DeWitt, and back home.

My weight after the run was a record low (for the last 15 or so years, anyway), and I can't believe it's really legit, even though I drank water on the run and more after the run; I'm sure after I fully hydrate, it will come up.

Mid day run from work, at OCD (B-313, near Ridgeway and Weiland). Ran down Ridgeway to Lake, to Driving Park, to Mt. Read, Ridgeway, and back to B-313.

Air was much more humid and oxygen-laden than I've been used to lately ...

Recovery run, from the Pike's Peak Ascent the day before. Anne and I both felt remarkable good, considering.

Pike's Peak Ascent.

We did it! Our initial goal was to make it under the cutoff time of 6:30, which we revised downward to 6 hours (didn't want to aim just for the cutoff and then be a minute late!). Then after a training hike on the lower 2000 vertical feet of the course, we revised our goal downward to 5:30. So finishing in 5:18 was very gratifying.

More details (way too long I realize, but it's tough to describe how the race went without giving some background of the course):

The Pike's Peak Ascent, which covers 13.3 miles and has a vertical gain of 7800 feet (ending at 14,000 feet), is a long, relentless uphill, but for the most part, is not super steep. The average grade is 11%, nothing to be sneezed at, but not like heading up a black diamond ski slope, for example.

For reference, some grades of hills around here: The Empire Blvd hill from the bottom (at the bay) heading west is 5%. The Glen Edith hill (from Bay and Ridge in Webster, down to the bay) is 7%. Smith Road, in Irondequoit Bay Park East, from the cul de sac down to the bay, is 8%. At Bristol Mountain, where we did some training hikes, if you go up the hills that represent the easiest way down from the top (the "Green" slopes), it comes out to almost exactly 11%, same as Pike's Peak. Still, at my level of fitness, I find I can't run any appreciable distance on an 11% grade.

Because of the uphill grade and the altitude, one of the first things regarding the Pike's Peak Ascent is that the any normal frames of reference in terms of "minutes per mile" (or minutes per km) can be thrown out the window. Both in terms of the average pace for the whole race, and also within the race, as in general, each mile is tougher than the mile before it.

To elaborate, with some examples: This year's men's winner, Matt Carpenter (who has run a flatland marathon in 2:32 and a 10K in 31 minutes), averaged 10 minutes per mile in the Ascent. Averaging 15 minutes per mile would put one in the top 10% of the men, and averaging 16:45 per mile would put one in the top 10% of the ladies.

Also, in terms of pace per mile changes within the race, a male at the 10th percentile (15 minutes per mile) would be expected to run the first 1.25 miles of the course at around 10 minutes per mile, but the last mile of the course (which climbs 770 feet, for a grade of 14.6%, ending at 14,000 feet) in more than 20 minutes.

Fortunately, there is a pace chart that has been created that will tell you what your time should be at various key points (9 different places) in the race, for a given finish time. Using this chart, at any of these particular places, you can tell that, for example, you're on schedule for a 4 hour time, or a 5 hour time, etc.

A drawback of this pace chart is that it is assuming that one has done significant training at high altitude (10,000 to 12,000 feet) and at very high altitude (12,000 to 14,000 feet). For flatlanders like Anne and me, the pace chart warned that our pace in the upper part of the course would take a substantial hit, due to the altitude. This would say that, for example, if we thought we were capable of a 5:30 time, our pace on the lower part of the mountain should be somewhat faster than a 5:30 pace, knowing that our pace would be slower than a 5:30 pace on the upper part. The big warning that came with this information is to NOT go out too fast, that the pace on the lower part still needs to feel very relaxed, otherwise, really bad things will happen as the altitude increases.

So we decided to aim for a 5:30 finish time, which was based on a training hike we did on the bottom 2000 vertical feet, where we didn't think we were pushing the pace all that much and still did splits that had us on track for a 5 hour finish. (And taking into account that we would slow down at higher altitudes.)

On the day of the race, we fortunately fell in with a group that was going at just about the right pace for us on the lower part of the course, where it is difficult to do any passing. We hit our split time at the "Top of the W's" (about 20% into the course) on a slightly better than 5-hour pace. Without boring you with excessive detail about split times, things went according to plan: we kept up the 5-hour pace for the next couple of splits, then we started to slow down at the altitude became more of a factor, which was expected, but we didn't slow down all that much. For the most part, our intermediate split times between various milestones never got below a 5:30 pace.

I kept fearing that we'd do the equivalent of hitting the wall in a marathon, but that never happened. The altitude didn't get to me in a significant way until approximately the top 1000 vertical feet of the course, from 13,000 feet upwards. By that point, I could tell that our pace was quite slow, but the important thing was that we were able to keep moving.

Words of advice from a number of people who had done this before were:

Keep moving, no matter how slow;

and: NEVER EVER sit down. ("No matter how inviting that rock looks, don't sit down on it" was one person's wording.)

We probably passed around 50 people sitting down above the tree line. Not many looked like they were in major distress, but most kind of looked dazed and expressionless. In most cases, I'm sure this was a result of them going out too fast at the beginning of the race, something that we managed to avoid doing.

The last third of a mile of the course was particularly tough, as it climbs around 320 feet (18% grade!), and at that level of fatigue, and with that little oxygen in the air, it was a major challenge. But the finish line was visible (although it looked VERY high up), with the PA announcer calling out people's names and hometowns as they approached the finish, so it wasn't hard to muster up the enthusiasm and energy to make it up that brutal hill.

Anne and I did the whole race together, sometimes being a bit apart when a few people were between us in the single track, but finishing less than a second apart. I'm quite a bit faster than her in any sort of flat races, but this was more of a strenuous hike than a running race, and she and I are pretty equal when it comes to hiking. She was a bit concerned that she would hold me up, and she told me before the race that I should feel free to go faster if I could, but frankly, I don't think I could have done it that much faster than we did, without feeling I was risking blowing the whole thing by burning out too quickly. It was definitely nice doing the race together, after working together on training runs/hikes for so many months.

We were very lucky in terms of the weather. It was sunny and 70 at the start of the race, and sunny and around 50 at the summit, with only moderate winds (forecasts of 40+ mph winds didn't materialize, fortunately). The view from the top, after having completed the exhausting climb, was something I wouldn't trade for anything.

A major surprise is that we felt great after the race, both that day and the next day. Way better than after a marathon, for example. My theory: We were so limited by our heart and lung capacity, that our legs really didn't get the workout they would have at lower elevations.

C • Way to Go! 10

C • Saving the legs 2

Still in Woodland Park, CO, getting ready for the Pike's Peak Ascent. Anne and I drove to the top of Pike's Peak this morning, intending to hike down the last mile of the course, and then back up. We got up there to find that there had been a major hailstorm the day before, and the top of the Barr trail was almost solid ice. We waited around for an hour or so hoping it would soften up to be passable, but it didn't show any sign of doing so. Therefore, this was an unplanned rest day.

It also gave us something else to worry about on race day, what if the trail is icy at the top, something we hadn't planned on, and certainly don't have any equipment for. One good thing is that probably 1500 other runners will have gone on the trail before us, and hopefully broken things up a bit.

C • Good Luck! 3

Event: ROC - Score-O
 

Run/hike with Anne on the lower part of the Pike's Peak Ascent course. Went from 6300 feet elevation near the start, to around 8300 feet. Our split between Hydro Street and the top of the W's was faster than what it should be for our goal time of 6 hours, and we didn't think we were working all that hard, so we're optimistically revising our goal to a more ambitious 5.5 hours. (Cutoff time is 6.5 hours, and that was our original goal, to finish by the cutoff.)

We're both feeling pretty good about the altitude, but we really won't know until race day how it affects us.

Second day of training in Colorado. Anne and I hiked the Columbine trail on the outskirts of Colorado Springs. It was only 4 miles but very challenging, and we did it in the heat of the afternoon. It was really a harder workout than we had expected.

In the morning, Anne, Paul, and I drove up to the top of Pike's Peak, to try to get ourselves used to what 14000 feet altitude felt like. We didn't get any altitude sickness at least. We even hiked down a very short way on the Barr trail, the trail that the Pike's Peak Ascent is run on, to at least see what the finish looked like.

Flying out to Colorado at 6 am Monday morning, to have 4.5 days to get used to the altitude before the Pike's Peak Ascent on Saturday, Aug. 18.

First day in Colorado. Went for an easy run with Anne to help get used to the altitude. Staying in Woodland Park, at around 8400 feet.

Felt halfway decent, considering I arrived in Denver around 11 am and went on this run at around 4 pm.

Warmup for race.

Heritage Christian Services 5K race in Webster.

Splits:
Mile 1: 7:21
Mile 2: 7:24
Mile 3: 7:10
Mile 3 to finish: 0:39

C • Details!!! 2

Cool-down after race.

Early morning run, to try to beat the heat. Might have been better than later, but I was still drenched with sweat head to toe when I finished. Left the house around 7:10 am.

Headed east on Rt. 104 bike path from Bay Rd, to Rt. 250, into Webster village, Ridge Rd to Phillips, back on bike path to North Ponds Park, Hojack Trail to the second road past Klem, then back on Maple to home.

Probably the last long run before I leave for Colorado on Monday.

I plan on doing the Heritage 5K on Saturday so I'll take it easy tomorrow, either no running or a short run.

Bristol Mountain. Two times up and down. With Anne (on the day before she leaves for Colorado). Humid, sunny, tough workout. But she and I agreed that we should have done more workouts at Bristol as training for Pike's Peak.

Each ascent of Bristol Mt. was around 1.5 miles with a climb of around 1150 feet. Time of ascents were 29:47 and 29:25. Descents were around 1.7 miles each, a little longer than the ascents because we took a longer but more gradual downhill route at the top part of the mountain.

Fairly short and easy recovery run (recovering from 20K race yesterday). Legs felt surprisingly good, but I didn't have a lot of energy.

Started at Ellison Wetlands trailhead on Empire Blvd; ran 2 miles south on trail system, almost but not quite to Old Browncroft. Retraced route on the way back.

C • I was curious 2

Warmup for race.

Phelps 20K race. I wanted to have a good effort so I rested the two days prior to the race. Usually I like to get out for a short run the day before a race, but this time I decided I really needed the time off as I had run some unusually high (for me) mileage during the last 5-6 days.

I placed 78th out of 241 overall, and 6th out of 15 in my age group. A consolation is that the nearest one ahead of me beat me by around 3 minutes, so it wasn't a case where a little more effort would have affected my age-group place. (However, I would have had a better age-group placing if I were in either an older or a younger age group -- if I were younger, in the 50-54 group, I would have been 5th out of 25; if I were older, in the 60-64 group, I would have been 2nd out of 7.)

I like this course. There are two significant hills, otherwise it's fairly flat. I didn't do as well on the hills as I might have hoped, given that I've tried to do a lot of hill training this year. The first hill (between 5-6 miles), I pretty much held my ground with people around me, but didn't gain anything. The second hill (between 7 and 8 miles), I wound up walking for around the last half of it. I could have run, but I decided that I could walk almost as fast as the people around me were running, and use a lot less energy. So I lost a few places, but after that hill, I passed a lot of people in the closing miles of the race, so I think conserving energy on that hill may have helped me in the long run.

Some of the mile marks were off by a bit; mile 7 and mile 12 in particular (around 1.1 miles from the previous mile mark). Since the course is certified, that meant that some miles were short. Instead of giving my mile splits, I'll give the pace per mile per the Forerunner:

Mile 1: 8:07 (minutes/mile)
Mile 2: 8:01
Mile 3: 8:04
Mile 4: 7:49
Mile 5: 7:57
Mile 6: 8:56 (included the first hill)
Mile 7: 7:40
Mile 8: 8:55 (included the second hill)
Mile 9: 7:28
Mile 10: 7:48
Mile 11: 7:45
Mile 12: 7:24
Last 0.42 miles: 7:17 minutes/mile

The Forerunner said the course was 12.47 miles, compared to the theoretical 12.42 miles (only 0.4% off, pretty good agreement it seems; although I would think that if anything, errors that a GPS device would incur would tend to underestimate distances rather than overestimate them).

C • Running uphills 2

Cool-down after race (per Gil's suggestion!).

C • You will feel tomorrow anyway 2

Still at the cottage on Lake Simcoe. Anne and I did a somewhat abbreviated version of the long run we did on Monday. Started on roads, then on rail-trail for around 3-4 miles, then back on the road that goes along the shoreline. I felt OK, actually surprisingly good considering it was only two days after the previous long run. But that was helped by the pace being quite slow and comfortable for me. We did take some walking breaks, few at first, more later on in the run.