Several new additions to my week. Started doing a small portion of my mileage with leg untaped. My achilles feels much stronger than when attempting this 2.5 months ago, so hopefully slowly reducing the mileage I have to tape my leg up for will get it to full health and tape-free running. Earlier in the year, I did a few weeks of decent bike mileage (for me) and thought I didn't hate it like usual and want to do some triathlons in the summer. I did those mountain/trail races which took up space for triathlons, but now have several coming up and no running race plans.
Did a very tough mountain run in Acadia National Park, which I had been meaning to get to the last two years on Saturday.
Monday: 8 Miles
+19 Mile Bike
Tried something different and starting some light bike training ahead of triathlons (I'll seriously train for these down the road, but just don't have the time and need to focus on running now). Biked to Ninigret in the evening, first bike since May. Legs were feeling it, but didn't have the usual chest burn I have sometimes when biking for the first time in a while. Maybe because a lot of those bikes come after a period of no exercise, whereas I've been running now.
Easy 8 mile in Ninigret where I definitely felt the bike there. Also getting weak at the end. Untaped my leg for last 3, was surprised to have a lot of strain and discomfort. Guess the tape takes so much stress out of it that I'm just not used to bearing full weight. Planned on 2 miles untaped every other day after this.
Biked back, not bad. Averaged 17.9mph for the bike which is much better than what I usually put up. Didn't feel like I hammered either so I was pleased. My fastest ride tied with Block Island 2016.
Tuesday: 10 Miles
Evening vin gormley plus burlingame loop. Pretty low on energy in the last few miles.
Wednesday: 12 Miles
5 miles AM easy Ninigret. Wrote on strava that my foot was bothering me but I don't remember this run at all (I've run in Ninigret a lot this year).
7 PM fun run double. Wanted to pace Sebastian 4:55 pace through 2 miles, maybe if I had something left I'd go for it myself. Felt super flat and was pretty much grinding it out. Ran a perfect mile (4:56 and pretty even), but just had no gas after that. Had to drop off after 1.3ish when Sebastian went by me and I could only manage 5:20ish pace. Kind of a disappointing effort but I didn't back off/taper for this like a race and I think my tempo/aerobic 5:20-5:30 efforts are a lot better for me right now (obvious 5:20 is easier than 4:55, I just mean doing longer tempo work is more comfortable than shorter 5k intervals). I was really more disappointed about not completing my pacing job, usually if I say I'll pace a certain length I can get there. I did think this was a possibility, I've done so little this fast and that 2nd mile is really hard. The fun run has been a place where I've had big CR goals but after Andrew McCann destroyed the CR (15:45) and nothing this year that has indicated I'm in any better shape than 2018 when I ran 16:07, I think I'm done with a hard fun run season for the year. Not really something I'm upset/disappointed about, I'm completely focused on Cross Country this year and hoping to perform well my final season. I think being in decent but not incredible shape will help greatly going into the season.
Dropped a low 6s to recover mile 2 then back into tempo pace, felt decent.
Cooldown home untaped, felt much better (albeit shorter) than Monday.
Thursday: 10 Miles
Beach OAB, super foggy and had some weird discomforts and stiffness in a lot of spots. Not the best I've felt on this run.
Friday: 7 Miles
Typical Haley-Bluff non-technical dirt lollipop. Just a easy run before a big mountain effort Saturday. Mid-80s and super humid so this was a real struggle. A few points where I just felt terrible, had to unexpectedly stop because I was tying up running easy.
Saturday: 16 Miles
+10 Mile Bike
Went for the Acadia Traverse FKT in Bar Harbor, Maine. Up at 4AM (in Dover, NH apartment) and started just after 9AM after a decently long drive. Dropped my bike at the Sargent Mountain trailhead and started at the Gorham mountain trailhead. I was confident I could get this one and I didn't think the time was anything crazy, but at 6,500ft gain this was significantly harder than any FKT I had attempted.
This route, while a traverse, has a lot of ups and downs and isn't a ridge run like a lot of other traverses. Unlike a ridge run, the ups and downs are frequent and you aren't really almost done with the climbing until you're almost done with the route. I gave little thought to that before the route. The first section went very well. I felt really fast up Gorham, over to the Beehive and up Champlain, a good but runnable climb. Fun terrain, with some technical wooded sections and smooth open rocky ridge running. Awesome views of the ocean as usual but not much time to check them out. This area was absolutely packed and I frequently called out to the people ahead to let them know I was coming. The Beehive was the toughest area, packed with people. There was one scrambly section leading up to the Beehive intersection and I got unlucky that a bunch of people were coming down. I let the first people go, but after realizing they weren't going to let me go, I kind of just went anyways which was a challenge with people going the other way.
The beachcroft path descent down Champlain was awesome. Epic view of Dorr Mountain's bald eastern face while going down a switchbacky rocky step path. Good amount of people towards the bottom, including one group I yelled out to several times with absolutely no one hearing or acknowledging me. Nearly wiped out passing them off trail. I felt a little tired going up Dorr which was steeper than anything so far. It was still runnable and had a good amount of switchbacks. I began some walking sections, walking what felt steep and running what didn't. Didn't take too long to summit Dorr, quick tag of the sign and out towards Cadillac. The Cadillac climb was short, but much steeper and I walked most of it. I found it difficult to locate the actual summit (no discern marker), so I just went off of what looked like the highest point. Stopped for a few minutes to have some water, a gel and waffle and catch my breath. I estimated (wrongly) that this was about the halfway point of the route and I was well ahead of the FKT pace. I was about halfway done with climbing. I had a backup FKT route of the blackwoods loop, which would diverge very soon and be done with climbing. I only wanted to reserve that for if I felt terrible or was really struggling, so I opted to continue on the traverse.
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| View from Cadillac |
The Cadillac south ridge trail seemed fun (more open ridge runnable stuff), but I quickly diverged on the Cadillac west face trail. About -20% average grade. A lot of it was open smooth ridge, but some really steep spots that I didn't want to hammer down as a fall here would be bad. Some awkward sideways running on that slope with some very wet and slick spots that were challenging. Despite feeling mostly good up this point, this descent felt really long and exhausting. I was definitely battered and my legs were feeling it. I had gone from feeling great to really struggling and holding on, not a good sign with 8 of the 13 peaks left and 3,000ft of climbing. The Pemetic Ascent was brutal, maybe 17% average grade. Didn't have the legs for it at all and walked the majority of it. Legs just so tired. Eventually got to the summit of Pemetic but it had been almost an hour since Cadillac. I thought I still had a shot at the FKT, but it was a mental challenge to continue with a good chunk left. I sat for 3-4 minutes to recover my legs and told myself to get going before hitting 2:40 elapsed time on my watch. The pemetic descent was just as rough as the Cadillac one and really did me in. Just huge presidential-like boulders at a very steep grade. Not runnable for me, took forever to get down and horribly exhausted legs once again. I ran, slowly and fatigued, up towards North Bubble and just couldn't run anything steep. Slow walk up North Bubble, realized 6 more peaks and 2,000 feet more climbing wasn't in the cards and called it. Laid down at N. Bubble for a little bit then jogged with lots of breaks including walking. Got over to Jordan Pond and was so happy they had a water fountain to fill my empty pack. Took another good break which really replenished me (not my legs though) before figuring out the quickest route back.
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| View from North Bubble |
Ended up going up Penobscot, another cool ridge trail, as taking Carriage roads/flat trails would be significantly more miles. Tiring technical but runnable descent back. Had no leg power on the bike back but the scenery helped.
Was disappointed to bail on an FKT. Also disappointing that I probably could have gotten the Blackwoods FKT but I felt bad just after going for the full traverse. I was so disappointed/upset on North Bubble. I really wanted it in the moment and was definitely bummed out. Interestingly my mindset has totally changed and it isn't a big deal at all anymore to me. I guess that's the difference between FKTs and races. A bad/failed FKT is disappointing in the moment only, the disappointment of a bad race lasts a while. I've never experienced that kind of leg fatigue before, just brutal. I think this is for a few reasons:
1. I was in much better mountain/technical trail shape in 2020. Just did a lot more mountain runs with a better buildup towards the harder stuff (started with 2,000ft elev gain runs in March and worked my way up to 5K). This year I jumped right into the technical with little experience/buildup like 2020 and it's been much harder. It wasn't planned like that, but just where I fit in technical/mountain runs around races.
2. An easy effort mountain run is a lot easier than a hard one. I generally go at least somewhat hard on most mountain climbs/descents. What's different on an easier runs is I'll go easy on more runnable stuff and take breaks at most lookouts or summits. Those breaks and easy portions (as well as not going quite to the well on the climbs/descent) help me stay fueled and push back fatigue. I went hard from the start here and with no breaks until Cadillac, I think pushing for 1.5 hours straight really did me in.
3. Mountain runs with constant ups and downs are much harder than mountains run with a long up then a long down. I like getting the climb out the way in the first half of the run then looking forward to mostly downhill after that. Getting the climbs done while fresh and feeling good really helps, versus a run like this with many big climbs in the second is really tough. I had it in the first half, I didn't in the second. I think had the first half been a 6,000 foot climb, I may have gotten the FKT with only downhills left which are generally easier to continue on tired legs/weak body.
This run definitely told me I'm not in mountain/technical shape this year or at least not enough to be doing big runs with over 5,000ft of gain, good mileage and certainly no FKTs of that nature. Given past runs, I think my peak mountain fitness should be enough for this FKT, I'm just nowhere near that right now. I've done pretty much everything I've wanted to this summer minus a few FKT attempts except go to the White Mountains. Just got caught up in lots of racings, highpoints and going to different places (Catskills, Acadia). May try to get there the weekend before XC starts, but it may just be a hike as the routes I originally wanted to run are all long and tough, and I don't know if I have that in me, especially right before practice start.
Sunday: 8 Miles
Ninigret recovery. So beat up, very sore calves. This Acadia run probably hit me harder than Mt. Washington road race.
Weekly Total: 72 Miles
YTD Total: 1,142 Miles
Weekly Highlight: Going to Acadia/Bar Harbor for the first time in two years.
Weekly Lowlight: Struggling in Acadia.
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