Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Training Week 7/25 - 7/31

Mileage is somewhat skewed this week because I technically did two long runs: Sunday and Friday. That's just the way life and the schedule works out sometimes.

Onto the numbers...

7/25, Sunday: 13 - 2:12:33, Homeplace Loop, Cathance River Trails and Mt. Ararat Trails. I figured if I combined runs that are 5 miles and 9 miles from my house into one run, I'd get about 13. Add two summits of Mt. Ararat, and that's exactly what I got. Over 1,000 feet of climbing, too. Felt solid the entire way and really focused on just running easy. I felt a bit tired, but was pleased with the run. Killed 18 deer flies...they were brutal out there. Only bummer was that some of the Cathance Trails were pretty overgrown. They've weedwhacked some in the past, so hopefully, they'll do so again this summer.

7/26, Monday: 5 - 44:42, Brunswick Town Commons. No offense to the Homeplace Loop, but I needed a change of scenery. I've been running that loop ALOT. Nice to get back to some familiar terrain, too. Felt a bit tired again today, but otherwise good.

7/27, Tuesday: 7 total, White Mountain Milers Inov-8 Summer Series, 5k - 20:20; 2 mile warm up / 2 mile cool down. Took it seriously this week as I really wanted to see what sort of time I could run on this course. That being said, 5k's are dumb. Taking it seriously for me basically means sprinting the entire thing. Yay, Captain Slow Twitch! Aside from the sprinting part, I felt great and was pretty happy with the result. I'd love to sneak into the teens, but not likely on this course. The hill that makes up most of the second mile is just way to big. (I'm not mentioning the long downhill that starts right at the 2 mile mark.) Splits were 6:21 for the mile and 13:30 for two miles. Yup, that middle one is a killer, but the downhill in mile 3 evens things out.

7/28, Wednesday - Off. Contracted another cold from the kiddo. Yay, snot!

7/29, Thursday: 5 - 44:53, Homeplace Loop. My legs felt good, but the rest of me felt sick. I was in "let's just get this done" mode the whole way.

7/30, Friday: 15 - 2:40:49, Bradbury Mountain State Park (One lap of the Breaker, one lap of the Scuffle course and another lap of the Brearker). D and I finagled a day off together, which ostensibly was to be used to pack for our trip to Baxter State Park, but we dropped Samantha off at daycare and went for a run. Possibly bad parenting. Who cares, though, because we had a great run! Temps were a bit cooler, which was awesome, and the deer flies were practically non-existent. I felt very comfortable the entire way. Legs were good. Energy was good. I definitely could have run a few more miles with ease, which is a great feeling on that terrain. (More than 2100 feet of vertical.) A great day on the trails. D has a better description here.

7/31, Saturday: 4 - 47:02, Baxter State Park, Kidney Pond Circuit. Our first of three days in Baxter State Park for a mini-vacation. I was stoked to get out for a short run, since the running plans were back-burnered in favor of hanging out as a family. My plan was to just run real easy on the trails around and near Kidney Pond; explore a bit. As you can tell by the time and the pace, things didn't go quite as planned. First off, the trails were WICKED technical. Barely runnable in places. Even though that slowed me down a lot, it was actually really fun to pick my way around the rocks and roots you'd expect from a Maine trail. What I didn't expect was an incorrect sign and some major bushwhacking. After two side trips, one to a cool point on Kidney Pond and the other to a random canoe landing on a stream, I ran a bit further and starting thinking about just turning around, but then I reached a trail sign, which indicated that Kidney Pond Campground was only .7. Perfect, that would give me about 3.25 miles. Left I went. The trail was great for a while, and then it was not so great. In fact, it was gone—totally overgrown. The trail ran right along Nesowadnehunk Stream and almost into it. Actually, I may have been better off wading in the stream because the trail was that bad. I could have tripped over a moose and not realized it. In most place the grass was over my head. Finally, I broke out to a small clearing with another trail sign: "Kidney Pond Campground - 0.7." Crap. More buswhacking ensued until I finally reached the final .25 mile on the access road to the campground, which I hammered at 5k pace knowing that D would be wondering if I was still alive. I'm all for exploring and finding new trails, but this was a bit much. I hate bushwhacking. The welts and hives all over my legs were so pleasant. D took one look at me, and decided she wasn't going to run that loop. Good choice.

We had a great trip to Baxter. It's such an awesome place. A little hiking and a little running for me over the next couple days, which I'll recap next week. D has a terrific post about our trip here.

Totals
Totals:
Miles: 49
Trail: 49
Road: 0

Again, the numbers are a bit skewed, but that's a big week for me. That's not a bad thing, though. Part of me wishes I'd snuck another mile in there somewhere to get to 50. Either way, that's the biggest week of 2010, and the most since one week in March of 2009. The tired legs seem to be working, too, since I've felt good on all my long runs and during my speedwork. Not sure how it works out that way, but I'll take it. I'm very hopeful that these past couple weeks will pay dividends at the Bradbury Mountain Breaker on Sunday.

TUNES!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h2YLWNzJ6U

5 comments:

Jamie Anderson said...

In regards to Friday... parents often pay for babysitters so they can go out and get drunk. I think dropping her off a little early at daycare so the both of you could get in a run together is much more noble.

Nice job on the week and glad Baxter was fun. It does indeed rock there. See you Sunday!

sn0m8n said...

We felt guilty for about 2 seconds between the door of daycare and the car door. We cheered when we got in the car. Maybe we'll combine drinking next time.

Scout said...

Love the Elvis! One of my Pineland races I had "I can't stand up for falling down.." going over and over in my head.

I haven't seen 49 miles in a week in a long time...and I don't work. Awesome!

middle.professor said...

If you start your training week on Monday then you wouldn't have had two long runs in a week (funny how that works). As for the overgrowth, somebody's got to maintain these trails - may as well be you!

sn0m8n said...

Who starts their training week on Monday? You know, besides everyone else in the world.

Hope I didn't sound cranky about the overgrown trails. Never once did I think, "Those slackers need to get out here and work on this." I just knew that I was on lesser used trails, and that's the risk you take. Still, I HATE bushwhacking.