Training Log Archive: AliC

Event: Canceled: NEOC: High Rock
 

Just a few ankle drills before it was pointed out that maybe wearing out ankle before trail run wasn't actually a good idea...

Skyline (Fells version) trail run, clockwise with Ian, Brendan and Andy Donaldson of the running section. Beautiful morning, and no ankle problems! I was definitely ginger running (soooo many rocks!), but all good. I'm sure that has got to help with strengthening it!

We went up the tower, my first time ever, cool placing Boston places on the horizon/below us, it really must be amazing when the leaves go...

Event: NEOC: Nobscot Night-O
 

And back in Boston and to the track with Ian! Just good to put the benchmark up there for the season and to see what type of shape I'm in. There were oodles of people around the track, because of a soccer game in the interior, but mostly they were aware and only slightly messed with lane 1...

It went ok, but not great, it's hard to be 25s off my PR, but I think this is a better performance than recent trail 5ks, so perhaps getting back in shape!

C • Take it easy 5

NEOC Nobscot Night-o by Alex and Ed

So, Alex said something to indicate Markku V., IOF ski-o event advisor extraordinaire, was in Boston over lunch, so I quickly dropped him a facebook invite. He's doing a 2 month program at Harvard Business School for super-business types, it sounds very, very intense. They do something like 200 case studies in that timeframe? Chatting about some of the case studies on the way to the race gave lasting impressions about the hugeness of US defense spending and minuteness about US savings rates... not new ideas, but he had numbers and direct comparisons to other countries to back it up.

At the race, chit-chattering, then thought I'd go out early so I could actually jog a bit while able to watch where I was putting my feet. Markku helped me tape up my ankle, I should definitely be doing that, taping a taught band from forefoot, over heel, anchored just above ankle felt like it might help prevent the extreme dorsi-flexion.

So joggeroo'ed the short course, although when it got dark, walked in the woods, because it was too hard to see where to put my feet definitely safely. Was super-fun, I do really, really, really like orienteering! But my orienteering was pretty sloppy. Since I haven't had a race in awhile, here's a full analysis.

1 - Well, the map is maybe not stellar to 1, but I stayed on trails until the stone wall, then followed that in.
2 - Easy-peasy one, trail to boyscout amphitheatre. (Alex did plan the short as a hard orange, I hear.)
3 - Not great on bearing, at one point found myself veering right, so overcorrectd left and was a bit further left when I came out to control than I would have liked.
4 - First one I'm really not pleased with, from the big trail bend in the steep section, I apparently lost many contours (plan was flat) to end up by the ruin by the stream. Not sure at all how I descended so much, bad!
5 - Trail the whole way there, although got faked out by a zone of rough open to a ruin that seemed trail-like when I passed it in the dark and then made me question what was going on...
6 - Fine, short little leg!
7 - Whoops, worst one. Got quite close on trail, then came off trail too early and searched not-far-enough before coming back out to a trail, relocating and heading back in.
8 - Trail jogging in the dark!
9 - Stayed on upper trail and headed south from a trail junction.
To finish - Um, whoops, upon arriving at trail I went up instead of down. Not cool Ali, just look at your map or compass and that would have been avoided!!

So it was great to get out, see New England orienteering folk and just be in the woods. Ed had a super-cool projector system for the results, which was fun. Oh, and Markku recommends reading a book called "Running" or something like that by Timothy Noakes on physiology. Has anyone read?

C • The Lore of Running 3

Specific strength on campus hill... but jeez is it annoying with the cars! Bah. On the way back ran into my boss on the bike path and he reports that there is a better hill within Ottawa Hills that I should go look for, probably less car-busy.

My Colloquium Day @ Toledo

Woo, glad that's over, did want to make a good impression at the new place, and think it went well enough, at least feedback so far has been very positive!

So this was 10 min abs + 1 min back before I was whisked away to colloquium dinner. Ended up going to the same place as Neil and I did a day ago, but that's fine by me, yummy food!

At the start of colloquium, while introducing me, one of my two new bosses delved into my orienteering and ski-orienteering, showing a few photos (one of finish of sprint final in France, two of ski-o, maybe last ski-WOC?) and doing a decent job of explaining it. Amused, at least the new bosses are enough on board to mention it. =)

My talk abstract and title, in case any one is curious:

It’s Not all Star Formation: The Impact of Old Stars in Local Galaxies

Star formation is responsible for much of the appearance of local galaxies. The copious ultraviolet and optical radiation from young stars demarcates such prominent features as spiral arms, rings, bars and individual star clusters. In fact, the young luminous stars are usually assumed to be the sole cause of gas ionization and dust heating in galaxies. This assumption is the backbone of deriving global galaxy star formation rates at both high and low redshift. However, this direct connection to star formation dramatically breaks down in some cases. Early-type galaxies have the smallest ratios of ongoing star formation to total mass (specific star formation rates) and the old stars in these galaxies not only heat a large fraction of their dust, but surprisingly, can also dominate their gas ionization and UV emission. Using high-resolution infrared data, we can also separate quiescent regions within local spiral galaxies and compute the contribution from old stars. Recent work using the Spitzer Space Telescope measures this old-star related emission from small dust grains called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). These examples highlight the need to consider the contribution of old stars to solve the galaxy-wide energy balance and to be aware of their contribution whenever star formation rates are measured in lower specific star formation rate locations.

C • Abstract 7

And, Neil stopped by! Woo! So headed out for a run after work, well really, after the internet got installed in my apartment- also woo, now it's really inhabitable =).

After way too much traffic driving to the park, scampered out and attempted to do a perimeter. And slyly introduced Neil to the idea that we were going to do 4 x 4 min intervals... which it was great to have company for. Last one was kind of erratic because the trail did funny things around the visitors center/some open fields.

And, headed out to Wildwood Metropark on a gray rainy morning. It's about a 20 min run there, and then I fiddled around on the trails for a bit, but do embarrassingly have to report I got lost once or twice. Well, not lost, lost, but wasn't sure what direction was back. Hmm... maybe that does count as lost lost. Anyways, a good run, legs weren't feeling sprightly enough for interval efforts though. And Wildwood is nice, some deep ravines which are interesting, but the trails shy away from them, of course... at least is rolly and not-pavement. It would probably be mappable, but not many point features, probably rootstocks would need to be included and used.

C • Not lost... 4

Hopscotch, mogul jumps, twist jumps and sumo jumps. Working on starting the ankle strength on up!

Little recovery ski on the bike path in the approaching-dark. Mostly double pole, probably 35 minutes of it, then a bit of no-poles. Legs didn't actually feel as bad as I expected them to the day post-race!