Training Log Archive: RLShadow

Event: ROC - Durand Eastman Park
 

Durand Eastman orienteering course, set (sadistically) by feet. Mango 1 plus Mango 2. Distance logged is what the Forerunner said I actually covered; official "orienteering" distance is 7.7 km.

Lots and lots of climb; up and down every ridge there was, multiple times, it seemed. Good use of a relatively small area to give a very substantial physical challenge.

My time breakdown was 62:18 on Mango 1 (4.7 km), averaging 15:01/mile (of the distance covered), and then 36:39 on Mango 2 (3.0 km), averaging 16:35/mile (definitely running out of gas).

No major orienteering mistakes, although a few bobbles:

Mango 1: #1 (lost maybe 30 seconds going to the wrong re-entrant initially; not a big mistake but kind of aggravating and totally unnecessary); #8 (didn't know where I was along the road and went up the wrong spur; maybe lost a minute); #9 (went right to the correct corner of the building but I was on the wrong side of the uncrossable fence!; lost around 1.5 minutes); #12 (started looking too far N, then went too far S, before finally spotting it; lost around a minute).

Mango 2: #3 (thought it was going to be on top of the spur, should have read the clue sheet to see it was the re-entrant; lost only 20 seconds or so).

More lost time, though, was just trying to catch my breath going up the many very steep climbs.

Mango 1&2 - Splits

Mid-morning run on the canal path, with the dogs. From Perinton Park, west to around Bushnell's Basin, and back. Very nice day, low to mid 60's, sunny, little wind. Dogs thought it was much too hot, but Homer got to swim in the canal three different times, so that helped him stay cool. Felt good, seem to be pretty much recovered from marathon.

Morning run, on the Hojack Trail with the dogs. Felt very good, considering it's 4 days after the marathon. Averaged 8:30/mile from Klem to Lake (which is somewhat downhill, maybe 70 foot overall drop), then 7:56/mile from Lake to Klem (which obviously is somewhat uphill). 52 degrees, sunny, slight wind. Very nice morning.

Very very easy run (with a lot of walking) at Ellison Wetlands. Can hardly even call this a workout, just another step in recovery from marathon.

Easy, flat run, recovering from marathon. Felt surprisingly good, for around 48 hours after the finish of the race. Ran with the dogs, on the Hojack trail, from Klem Rd, towards Lake Rd but didn't get that far, turned around at the 1.5 mile point.

Walk with the dogs, on flat terrain, to work on recovering from marathon. Actually felt quite good today; I suppose that's because my race went so badly yesterday so I didn't stress my muscles as much as if it had gone better. I had a blister on the ball of my right foot that was bothering me the last 4 miles or so of the marathon, and was quite tender to walk on after the race yesterday. Today, it is still visible, but hardly tender at all. It was only slightly noticeable on the walk today.

Went from our house, out to Maple, to Finn Park, did the loop around the field, stopping at the stream for the dogs to get some water (on a very warm day), then returned via the Rt 104 bike path to Bay Rd, to Woodland, and home.

More analysis of Buffalo marathon (which went very poorly) and Rochester marathon (which went well):

Average pace, start to mile 17:
Rochester: 9:08/mile
Buffalo: 8:57/mile

Average pace, mile 17 to end:
Rochester: 8:32/mile
Buffalo: 10:06/mile

Final time:
Rochester: 3:53
Buffalo: 4:06

So on the surface, it looks like I did the first 17 miles at a pace that was 11 seconds per mile faster in the Buffalo race, but then paid for it big time from that point on. I'm not convinced that the problem was simply a matter of being 11 seconds per mile too fast (although I'm also not ruling it out).

I can definitely say, though, that it's far more satisfying to go a little slower in the beginning and speed up towards the end, than to go too fast at the beginning and be dying at the end!

Buffalo Marathon. A personal worst, by quite a bit!! Very definitely hit the wall ... not sure why. May have gone out a little too fast but really not excessively fast, based on my time in last September's Rochester Marathon (where I averaged 8:55/mile for the race).

My average pace from the start to mile 17 was 8:57/mile. My average pace from mile 17 to the end of the race was 10:06/mile. My slowest mile (mile 22) was 11:04 (most of the miles from 17 on included some significant walking stretches.) Classic case of hitting the wall.

Definitely my slowest and least pleasant marathon ever. The frustrating thing is that I really don't know the cause. The weather was quite nice -- ranged from around 50 at the start to 60 at the finish. I thought I had trained pretty well, tapered OK, and eaten sensible foods in the days before, and the morning of, the race. Guess it's just one of those things ... some days, it's not your day.

I placed 351st out of 710 finishers overall; 16th out of 37 in my age group; 263rd out of 480 males.

Saw Walt and Patty as we were walking to the start (actually jogging slowly, we were running late due to long lines at the bathrooms ...), and saw Walt again around the 12 mile mark, heard him give some encouragement to me.

On a positive note, Anne did real well. Her time in the Rochester Marathon was 4:49:28; in the Buffalo Marathon, she ran around 4:29:36, nearly 20 minutes (about 45 seconds per mile!) faster!

Winding down for marathon tomorrow, so this was a short, flat, easy run; on the Hojack trail, with the dogs, from Klem Road up to the second cross road, and back.

Resting up for the Buffalo marathon, so no running today. Took the dogs for a walk over to Maple and into Finn Park, and around the open field.

Second event in the Dirt Cheap trail race series, put on by Fleet Feet. This one was in Webster Park.

My goal was to run this one at something below a race effort, since I'm entered in the Buffalo marathon this Sunday. I think I succeeded, although the intensity was much higher than any typical workout that I do.

Patty Lyons started a bit behind me and caught up to me and passed me around half a mile into the race. I know from experience that she's pretty close to my speed in trail races, and that she knows how to set an even, realistic pace, so I stayed about 5-10 yards behind her from that point through the end of the race. It was definitely nice having someone to follow.

The race was advertised as a 10K but it was well short of that (5.5 miles), per my GPS. Anne has the same make and model that I do, and hers measured even a shorter distance (5.38 miles).

Finished 67th out of 103 overall, 1st out of 2 in my age group. (It helps being tied for being the 2nd oldest person in the race!)

Trail run at Greece Canal Park, scoping out the park as a possible orienteering venue. Time and distance included some walking, when I wanted to have a closer look at some areas.

Easy road run from home, part of winding down for Buffalo marathon. Ran to Maple, N of Maple to Klem, Klem to 5 ML, to bike path, to Maple, and home. With Anne. We managed to catch the very brief sunny period of the day (although still cool and windy).

Cool morning run on the Hojack trail with the dogs, before heading off to Fredonia for our son's long-awaited graduation.

Last semi-long run before the marathon. Ran from home, to the Rt. 104 bike path at Maple; took bike path to Rt. 250, then N. on 250 to Orchard, to North Ponds Park, on park trail back to bike path, then bike path back. Wasn't as warm as it was supposed to be today; maybe 70 or so, instead of upper 70's. Actually not bad at all.

Whiting Rd trail system in Webster. Two loops around the perimeter trails. First half (roughly) of the loop is reasonably flat and not too technical, although there are a few fairly steep ups and downs. Latter half of the loop is much more hilly, windy, narrower, and has some places where you have to watch your footing. In general, very nice trail system. Not nearly as extensive as Ellison Wetlands, but it doesn't beat you up quite so bad as the hills there either.

Nice day, sunny, low 60's. Ran with Anne the first loop and about 2/3 of the second, at which point she suggested that I go ahead of her, as fast as I wanted to. She was around a minute behind me, getting back to the car.

Medium-effort run on the Hojack Trail, partly to see if I was recovered from the long run on Saturday, and partly to work on breaking in new shoes. With the dogs. Felt pretty good. I hope to have these new shoes broken in enough to wear in the marathon in 2 weeks.

(Shoes are Asics Gel Kahana; the third pair that I've owned. I like them a lot; they're good for trails (in fact they're billed as trail shoes) and also for roads, and they are extremely cheap, and very durable. In the past, I've gotten them at DSW for $50 but it seems that DSW doesn't carry them any more, so I found them on line for $40 at finishline.com) (There is a Gel Kahana 2 which I haven't tried; it's somewhat more expensive, around $ 70. Presumably the Gel Kahana is being phased out for the "2", so eventually I'll try the "2" when I can't get the original.)

Tagging along behind Cheryl on the Orange course at Mendon. Cheryl usually does Yellow and is a little uneasy about Orange. I gave her the option, since it's Mother's Day, of orienteering today or not, and suggested that if we did, that she do an Orange course and I'd go along with her but try to leave the navigation to her. So the dogs and I followed her through the course. I would say she did the course 95% on her own, with just a few tips or leading questions here and there from me. She seemed to have a good time. There were only two finishers on Orange at the time we left, and she was first of those two.

One control, #3, was misplaced by a fair amount, and in kind of a thick area. She was able to finally find it with no assistance from me. I was impressed ...

Distance is the actual distance covered, per the Forerunner.

Event: ROC - Scout-O & Regular Meet
 

Last long run before Buffalo marathon. With Anne. Had transportation help from Cheryl. She dropped us off at the starting point, and picked us up at the end point.

Route: Started at Winton and Empire. Down Winton, to East, to Park Ave. Park to Alexander, worked our way past the Strong museum and into downtown. Did a short loop around downtown, then picked up the path going along the river on the east side, which goes past the U of R. Took the path into Genesee Valley Park, then picked up the canal path, which we took to Perinton Park (the end).

Very nice weather. Anne should be happy with this run, as her marathon goal pace is around 10 minutes per mile. On the other hand, I shouldn't be real happy, because my goal pace is more like 8:45/mile, more than a minute a mile faster than this run, and I was certainly feeling the distance the last 3-4 miles. Did not feel like I could have gone a lot further or faster without major discomfort. So we'll see what marathon day brings.

Easy run from home; to Maple, then bike path to 5 ML, and back.

Walking with the dogs at Ellison Wetlands, mid-afternoon. Managed to avoid any significant rain. Absolutely no one else at the wetlands when I was there.

Easy run on the Hojack trail with the dogs, on a cool, sunny morning.

From Klem to Lake and back.

Warmup for interval workout.

Yasso 800's. 8x800, avg 3:35. Anne averaged 4:15-4:20. On Woodland Lane.

C • Only a 3? 2

Cooldown after intervals.

Medved trail race at Mendon. This is advertised as a 15 mile race, but I did it last year and estimated the distance (from tracing out the course on an orienteering map) at around 13 miles. The course consists of three loops, which they claim are three 5-mile loops, but the first two loops are definitely less than 5 miles each, I concluded last year. I didn't have a Forerunner then, so I couldn't measure the distance that way.

Anyway, the course was a little different in a few places this year, generally in the direction of being a little longer. And as last year, the race organizers seem to get some sort of sadistic pleasure in having the course go through extremely muddy stretches, multiple times. I'm guessing there were at least 15 locations where there was no alternative but to plow through mud/muddy water that was at least ankle deep.

I had an absolutely terrible race, although I guess a good workout. The first loop (4.18 miles per the GPS) was fairly flat but very muddy, and I did OK on that (averaged 9:38/mile). The second loop was a lot less muddy but a LOT hillier, which slowed me down considerably; it was 4.13 miles, and I averaged 10:30/mile.

The last loop (around Quaker pond) was my downfall. It again was flat, but also extremely muddy. I needed to do about a 0.2 mile detour to Calvary Lodge for an emergency bathroom stop, for one thing. Then I totally lost contact with anyone either ahead of me or behind me, which made it tough to say motivated.

The worse part, though, was going off course about 75% through the loop, near the north end of Quaker Pond near the nature center. In my opinion, the turn I missed wasn't marked very well at all, but I should have turned back as soon as I realized I wasn't seeing any more streamers. (The streamers were fairly sparse on most trails, so it wasn't immediately obvious that they were missing.) It turned out that I did an extra 1.25 miles, and it would have been worse except that I happened to run into one of the race organizers going for an easy trail run with his wife. When he saw me he said, "You're off course", to which I said, "Yes, I'm WAY off course!" He was nice enough to guide me back to where I could pick up the course again.

Not only did I cover an extra 1.25 miles, but I covered it pretty slowly as I realized I was lost and was trying to relocate (without the aid of a map or compass).

The good thing about this little detour is that my distance was almost exactly 15 miles.

Anne also did this race, and partly thanks to my detour and partly to her improving dramatically, she finished around 4 minutes in front of me. Her time was nearly 20 minutes faster than she did last year, particularly impressive because I think the course, if anything, was slightly longer this year (and even muddier than last year).

Took the dogs for a walk at Ellison Wetlands after getting back from the Medved race.

Easy run in early afternoon, partly to recover from tough Ellison Wetlands hills yesterday, and partly to rest up for the Medved trail race at Mendon tomorrow (billed as 15 miles, but last year it seemed like it was more like 13 miles).

Ran from home, to Maple, to Ridge, to Gravel, to 104 bike path, to Bay, Woodland, and home.

Pace was leisurely but not extremely snail-like, and it felt quite good, never got my pulse up very high nor had to breathe hard.

Warm, muggy day, around 70 degrees.

Ellison Wetlands, in the morning, with the dogs. Tough workout. My pulse was certainly racing much of the time. Started at Empire, ran to Old Browncroft, then into Ellison Park for a fairly short stretch, and back.