Monday, April 26, 2010

Another Week of White Mountain Running


Paul near the summit of Table Mt.

M- 3.8 Peaked Mt. 49:45 with Paul and Frank, ran pretty easy, 27:06 to summit, 1200 ft gain

Tu- 3.1 wu at Whitaker Woods, 3.0 mile Cranmore Hillclimb Retro course 22:12, supposed to be a hard threshold run. I’m not sure if I ran too hard but it was a good workout. 2.0 cd Ran the course 5 sec slower than when I used it for a training tune-up in 2006 before the World Trophy. 1100 ft gain. I’ve run 21:05 and Dave Dunham has the course record at around 20 flat.

W- 6.9 Black Cap via Kettle Ridge, down Red Tail 1:12:55, 41:57 to summit, ran super easy and still managed to run 2m 30sec faster than last week to the summit, 1700 ft gain

Th- 2.5 wu w/ Roger, 6x1Mile 3:00/400m rest 5:01 5:03 5:01 5:01 5:03 4:59, 0.5 cd Great workout. Felt like garbage on the wu, but found pace pretty easy once I got started. Last 2 were pretty tough, but good effort.

F- 5.7 Green Hills single track with Paul 58:06, dog tired. Easiest run I did all week in terms of terrain, but stumbled through the whole thing. Marked the Mud Muck Moose course after work with Paul and Roger.

Sa- 2.0 wu, 10x300m hard, 45 sec/100m recovery w/ Tim Livingston. 49-51 sec for repeats. We ended up taking about 53 secs for recovery on each one. Tim was a big help on this workout as he has a little more speed and switched the lead with me on every other one. Quads were pretty dead on this one. 0.5 cd. Timed the Kennett track meet after


View from Table Mt.

Su- 13.6 Bear Notch Ski Touring to Diana’s Baths via Attitash Trail 3:50:24 nice easy long mountain run with Paul. Ran into some snow on the last 1.5 miles on the Big Attitash ridge which slowed us down, but all of the climbing was runnable. Started at the ski touring center where I directed the Mud Muck Moose trail race in the morning and ran to the trail head in North Conway. 2800 ft gain. Photos are here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=60117&id=1315312930&l=8d189a62b7

Totals: 53.3 miles, 9.5 hours, 6825 ft gain. Really happy with the week. That’s 3 really good weeks in a row. Once again the strides and drills took a back seat, but I was tired as hell all week. I’m especially pleased that I got in all my runs and workouts despite a busy week at work and a demanding weekend of volunteering. Things are really clicking. I’m pretty tired, but I’ve been staying on top of the sleep and eating right and hydrating and that seems to be making the difference. I’m really pleased with that mile workout as I would have had a hard time doing that in college with all the speed work I was doing, not to mention all the climbing and hard work that I had done leading up to it now. Sunday’s run wasn’t very hard, but it was time on my feet and I didn’t bonk at all before the end of it. I’m going to skip 7 Sisters this weekend as I don’t want to chance messing up my ankle, plus 8 hours of driving doesn’t sound appealing after a long weekend. I’ll get a long tempo in Saturday and a long mountain run on Sunday.


Paul Postholing near Big Attitash

Monday, April 19, 2010

Burn Baby Burn, Tuckerman Inferno


Me running up the Tucks Trail. All photos taken by my beautiful wife.


M- 6.9 miles 1:17:35 Black Cap via Kettle Ridge, down Red Tail, 45:14 to summit, ran easy, 1700 ft gain

Tu- 5x1600m, 3:00/400m rest 5:11 5:09 5:10 5:09 5:05 good workout, felt yesterday's climb. 2 wu, 0.5 cd

W- 6.9 miles 1:16:46 Black Cap via Kettle Ridge, down Red Tail, 44:31 to summit, ran easy, pretty tired, 1700 ft gain

Th- Cathedral Ledge Rd. 1.5 wu w/ Roger, 3x3:00 repeats (0.25 miles) using the "Equalizer", a chord attached to my waste that allows me to pull Roger up the hill. It slows me down but work my quads more while he has to run like hell to try to keep up!, 4:00 repeat (0.5 miles, solo), then 6:57 to the top of the road (0.85 miles, 8:11 pace, ~11% grade). Pretty good workout. 1100 ft gain

F- 9.2 Upper Moat Brook singletrack w/ gate add-on, 1:20:24, couple inches of fresh snow! 3x80m strides at end

Sa- 14.6 miles 1:42:39 (7:02 pace) Stark Rd. Eidelweiss Loop. Ran easy w/ Pete Mallett. Was supposed to run the Tuckerman Inferno today, but the race was postponed to Sunday due to safety concerns for the bikers in the notch and the skiers in the ravine. Both Pete and I wanted to keep the long run in the schedule for the week so away we went.


Laura ripping it up on the Sherbie

Su- Tuckerman Inferno 1st place team! Congrats to Al on the run, Sean in the kayak, Pete on the bike, and Laura on the ski! For me, 25:33, 2.4 mile hillclimb on snow, 1850 gain. My PR to Hermit Lake shelter is 25:07 in the 2006 Inferno, but with a course change this year's race was about 0.1 miles longer. Doesn't sound like much, but when you're running 11 minute miles that adds up. I definitely felt Saturday's long run, but gutted it out. Fun event as usual. wu/cd 2.5

Totals: 57 miles, 8.37 hours, 6350 ft gain

Pretty happy with the week. Doing the easy climbs the day after hard workouts was tough, but I think I'm adapting to it. The workouts still went well too. I would have liked to have been faster on the mile repeats, but I wasn't any slower than last week and still closed in a 5:05. I simply forgot to do strides on Monday and drills on Wednesday (maybe a little tired?!). Really happy with the week as a whole though.

As far as the Inferno, it's tough to compare to previous years, but I'm pretty pumped with the results. It's only a 2.4 mile climb, but I was tired from the long run and the rest of the week, I wasn't 100% into it mentally due to the date change, it was slicker that the year I ran my PR, and I still ran a PR type time. I think it shows that my climbing fitness is there. In previous years I've run some fast times in the spring because I've been in good shape and I was racing well. This spring I don't feel I have been racing all that well, but I'm still running comparable times. Hopefully that means I will have some sharpening to do for the big one.


Keeping it classy

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Rollin' on The Rivah

M- 8.0 Hurricane Mt. Rd. 1:09:13 felt good, tried to run easy, 9:08 pace up N. Conway side 9:08 pace up Chatham side, 2200 ft gain, 5x80m strides after

Tu- 5x1600m, 3:00/400m rest 5:18 5:09 5:10 5:06 5:05. Good workout. No sense of pace on the first lap of the first repeat, but found it after that. 2.5 wu w/ Roger, no cd, 8.5 total

W- 5.0 Cranmore Access Road, 58:01, easy run w/ Seth, 1200 ft gain

Th- 0 long day of surveying in Rye, NH at Odiorne Point State Park

F- 6.5 Merrimack River Trail 52:27, wet, ran with ankle brace for first time, felt good, ran back with the Brothers Quintal, was going to do strides, but was pretty cold from the rain

Sa- Merrimack River Trail Race 1st 59:05. Good race against Ben Nephew (11 sec back). Felt good on the fast stuff and climbs, but really favored the ankle on the downhills and really technical stuff. Headwind in both directions. 4.5 wu/cd

Su- 16.0 Hurricane Mt. Rd. 2:23:40 This may have been one of the dumbest ideas I've ever had, but it was a hell of a workout. 4400 ft of gain. Ran the first over and back with Paul Kirsch in 1:16:25 (9:33 pace), then went out and did it again. I felt pretty good on the climb on the N. Conway side (8:30 pace), but it was tough coming back up from Chatham the last time. I managed 8:41 pace for the last climb. It felt a lot like the last few miles of the race at Mt. Washington. I stopped at the top to regain my composure before the last descent to the car. It was not the most interesting run, but it was probably one of the toughest runs I've ever done from a mental perspective.

Totals: 58.5 miles, 7.89 hours, 7800 ft elevation gain. Solid week. Would have liked to have run Th, but didn't make it happen. I also need to get back to the ballistic exercises and strides this week. I'm beat.