Weekly 17-Dec to 23-Dec-2018: Indoor Track Running (no, seriously)

Monday:  6
After picking up Matthew from UNH for Christmas break, we stopped at Noanet Woodlands to run on the way back.  Wetter than normal, from recent rains, but still completely runnable.

Tuesday:  8
Chilly hill workout with Matthew before work.  It was 24 degrees, so the temperature wasn't the issue, but man, was that wind whipping.  From the Y, a 2-mile warmup, followed by hill repeats on Park, then Narragansett including fingers, and a 1/2 mile hill ascent on Oak (Route 91).

I don't do many hill workouts, but I really should as 1) it's good strength training, and 2) at least some prep for spring/summer mountain running.  Worked most of the day before driving back up to NH again, this time with Mark and his friend Lucas.

Wednesday:  7 run, 17 ski
Rented a 3-bedroom townhouse for five of us (the aforementioned, plus my cousin and his son).  Rented from a Bostonian that is starting his prep work for his twelfth straight Boston.  He gave me some suggestions on running routes.  I took his first option of running from the condo (across the Kancamangus Highway from Loon Mountain), down the "Kanc" to the Lincoln Woods trailhead, a little on the trail, and then back.  I was leery of traffic on the Kanc, but for naught, as this section was just plain deserted.  So cool to get on the snow-covered trail, albeit for only a mile, and it whet my appetite for more.  16 degrees.

Nobody here at 7am.

Hard packed by snow-shoers and XC skiers

Spent the rest of the day alpine skiing at Loon.  It was comfortable in the low 20s, but the only disappointment to me was that there was no glades skiing (those trails seemed to have cover, but were closed) and no moguls.  So really just a lot of cruising runs, which are not nearly as fun to me.  Kind of like running down Atlantic Avenue versus the trails at Yawgoog; the former has awesome scenery, but after a few repeat runs gets old, whereas the latter pales in scenery, but has a higher fun factor.  Post-skiing, it was back to the condo for drinks and appetizers (I love the apres-ski environment), then the hot tub, then out for Mexican grub before coming "home" to the condo completely wiped out.

My love of outdoor fires attracted me to this deserted fire outside a lodge
mid-mountain, and caused me to get separated from the rest of our group

I know I'm simple and easily impressed,
but I did enjoy this steam train ferrying us skiers from one lodge to another

The view are not too shabby today.

Thursday:  10
AM:  Between being exhausted, having to check out at 10am, lacking the mogul and glades terrain I sought, and lift tickets costing a ridiculous $90 ($98 on weekends), I opted to forego skiing today, and run trails and snowshoe instead.  After dropping Mark and Lucas off for skiing, I drove to the Lincoln Woods trailhead this time in order to get more trail time (as in 100% trails today).  Looked at the map, and opted for a roughly 7-mile OAB run up to Franconia Falls.  More than a foot of snow the whole way; packed hard and double-track for the most-part, but the closer I got to the falls, it really was single-track that had not seen as much packing down.

I played this game, but there was no explanation of any outcome.
Just a diversion to keep things interesting?

Trail intersections very well marked

A little softer here on Franconia Falls Trail, but no post-holing

And finally, Franconia Falls, still flowing, but completely iced over

PM:  After having lunch at Loon Octagon Lodge with Mark and Lucas, I contemplated renting XC skis and going out, but the time by now was just to tight with a 1.5 hour window.  Took another of Paul's (the Bostonian landlord) suggestion and opted for some hill running (with snowshoes) at Greeley Ponds trails.  This trail was tighter, twistier, and hillier than the morning's run, and my legs were talking to me for much of the way, but sure glad I got this in!

Starting off hilly right away

Beautiful, and so cool in the deep woods here.

Upper Greeley Pond, where I turned around.

Friday:  5
Back home in RI, went from the snow yesterday to the rains today.  Winter solstice with the highs approaching 60 degrees.  Some might revel at this; I cringe.  What to do in this warmer weather?  Head to the beach.  It was just getting dark as I parked in Watch Hill.  Ran a few short roads past the the Ocean House and onto the beach, then down to the lighthouse and back.  Back at the car, I had only gotten two miles in, but my shirt was drenched and clinging to me, and it was pitch dark.  Considered throwing the towel, but instead, ditched the shirt at the car, and headed out to Napatree.  It was pitch dark now, and without a headlamp, it was both cool and eerie as I got further out on Napatree with the surf pounding next to me (in fact, waves crashed over my legs twice) and distant roving lights at the Watch Hill Lighthouse occasionally appearing.

Saturday:  6
BU Mini Meet #3, Boston University.  Felt totally out of my element here, but I've always said I wanted to at least try indoor track, and with Matthew (and Keith) running here today, this was my perfect opportunity.  Based on my recent 5K time at Avondale (18:13), I converted that to 10:55 for 3K, and thought that's where I should seed myself.  Matthew correctly advised me that my pace should be faster in the shorter 3K distance, plus on an indoor banked track as compared to road, so I ended up seeding myself at 10:30.  After checking in, I immediately wanted to go outside for a warm-up, but having never in my life even set foot on an indoor track, it seemed more prudent (boring, but prudent) to run on the actual track I'd be racing on.  Ran into Scott Grandfield and ran a few warm-up laps with him while we caught up.  (He's a regular at these events and loves track; cross-country not so much.)

I watched Matthew run his 3K (8:56).  The time seemed to go by quickly - good!  I'm such a newbie at this that I had absolutely no idea when, where, or how to pick up my lane assignment stickers to affix to me pre-race, nor what the rules were when I could cut in to lanes 1-3 (I had a staggered start forward from the main group on lanes 4-6).  Fortunately, Matthew gave me pointers after his race and before my heat (5th heat). 

Banked track at BU that I was about to run on

Getting some pre-race advice from Matthew.

1st half:  The gun went off and it seemed chaotic to me to figure out how to get into position.  I probably screwed that up and in hindsight, should have pushed myself to get higher up.  I ran the first two laps mostly in lane 2, until I settled in towards the pack of a single-file pack.  I was seeded 14th of 18 in this heat, and that's about where I was for at least the first five laps.  Shortly after that, the guy in front of me went around a woman and as she came back to me, I decided to go around her and try to stick with the guy as well.  We repeated the same process another lap later.  I remember feeling tired, hot, and my throat really dry.  Around and around and around the track we go.  Didn't we just do this?!  I remember looking up when passing the start/finish and seeing 8 laps to go.  ANOTHER 8 LAPS?  Just shoot me; I felt like pulling off to the side and taking a DNF.

Nervously awaiting the start. 
What the heck am I doing here?

Towards the back of my heat and awkwardly close to other runners,
 after one or two laps.
(just about to cross white line behind guy in white singlet)

Tight pack

2nd half:  Scott was giving me some encouragement to stay with the pack I was in, so that helped me to hang in.  Somehow the laps passed by, and by the time we got down to 3 laps, we were seeing some more separation and I was passing people again.   With two laps to go, I passed one or two more, and then at the gun lap, picked up my pace to finish strong.

My final lap; stride is longer as I pick it up a little

Final results:  10:18.  Exceeded my goal, so I guess that's good.  Full results here.

The results show me as 71st out of 79th, which sounds horrible, until I learned that the entire 6th and final heat of 18 runners didn't receive their times at all due to some sort of timing company issue.  Man, I would've been furious if that had happened to me.  It's not about the $15 entry fee, but my time driving to and from BU (about four hours right there) and basically taking up the day, racing, and not getting any results at all.  Don't know why they didn't have any backup timing.

200m Splits (huge thank-you to Matthew for getting these):

• Kilometer 1:  41, 41, 41, 40, 40
• Kilometer 2:  40, 41, 41, 40, 42
• Kilometer 3:  42, 42, 41, 42, 37

Pros:

• Crossed one off my bucket list by running an indoor track race.
• Exceeded my guestimate of 10:30.
• Running in a rather tight pack definitely helped to pull me along and keep splits consistent.

Cons:

• Running in circles (or ovals) isn't very exciting.
• Had absolutely no idea how to pace.  Left to my own devices, my splits and times would likely have been much more erratic.
• My final lap of 37 seconds (versus 40/41/42 for the rest of race) suggests I left too much out there.  Rookie mistake.
• Didn't know when to make my move to pass runners or when to try to pick it up.
• Felt like I was going to trip over the metal divider separating lane 1 from the infield.  The part where it was not connected and jutted out a couple of inches into lane 1 caused further concerns for me.
• My mouth got progressively drier the whole race (I had dry coughs post-race as well).
• Post-race cool down got me into some really sketchy areas.  In one undesirable neighborhood across the tracks, some guy yelled something at me but I couldn't understand and just looked away from him and trekked on uncomfortably.
• The distances are just so much shorter than what I normally race, which gives the dilemma of I can't imagine running a shorter distance, yet I can't imagine racing more than the 15 laps I already did.

Sunday:  12
AM:  6 mile run at Bluff Point with Brady.  Easy pace on trails, and very enjoyable.  After Brady's encounter with deer last week, Beth had advised to the effect of "Wait 'til he sees a horse!".  Well, she was right on the mark, as he was really spooked by that huge "dog" on the trail.  The horse's rider mentioned that Brady seemed scared.  He just cowered, and I basically had to pull him to get around the horse.  Fortunately, this was on the fire road section headed out to the point, so there was plenty of room to maneuver.  Once we got around the horse, Brady picked up the pace and uncharacteristically pulled hard on the leash to get away from that thing.  On the way back, I went into the single-track trails, and that always is more enjoyable to me and he seemed to be enjoying himself more as well, pulling ahead and then looking back to see if the old man was still keeping up or not (barely!).

Love this shot I took of Brady with the ocean in background.
Fun trail run, and I'd like to think he enjoyed it as well.

PM:  6 mile Christmas Light Run with Tommy and Matthew.  My poorest planned in the seven years to date, as it was just two days to Christmas, and I figured out and invited a few others at the last minute.  It's fun to run in bigger groups, as the currently-injured Mikey had arranged last year, but still enjoyable as Tommy also remarked how the run went by quickly.

Weekly mileage:  55

Weekly synopsis:  Fun week of running, and glad I could fit in 55 amidst a week of winding down work for the year, as well as a lot of driving (two trips to NH and one to Boston).  While I have yet to pick a spring marathon, that's a goal / New Year's resolution of mine, and so far happy that five out of six of my past weeks have been north of fifty.

Weekly highlight:  By all rights, it should be my foray to indoor track racing.  Nope.  Snowy trails trump indoor tracks for me, even if a workout or sufferfest.  The highlight for me was my double on deep snow trails, 10 miles on Thursday.

Weekly lowlight:  Only my lack of forethought and planning for the Christmas Light Run.  Time is flying by, and I'm enjoying the holidays with both boys (and Brady) home, but I'm kind of a scatterbrain lately in terms of planning anything out ahead of time.