Training Log Archive: PG

Three times hiking up the steep trail up South Sugarloaf (8:17, 7:54, 8:20), getting tired on the last one. Back down via the road (7:13), the trail (4:00), and the road (7:07). Still some snowpack on the shaded parts of the road, but soft and good traction. Sunny, mid 40s, nice outing.

Taking the day off, I felt like going south a little bit to run in some snow-free woods, but wasn't up for the drive down to Trout Brook. So I talked Gail into coming along and we went to Gay City, where I ran a Green course from the first A meet on the map and Gail walked for about 40 minutes.

Not bad, not great. The knee seemed to manage it ok, just a little sore but I don't think this made it any worse. But wow was I slow, and feeble on any hill, and even going slow I still fell down half a dozen times. But it was good fun, the forest is great, beautiful day, sunny and cool. No O' mistakes to speak of, despite no compass and not wearing my usual one contact, so my reading vision wasn't great. Just had to concentrate a little more, not a bad thing. Route.

Saw Clint's flock of deer, plus one control, a remnant of some long ago meet, but no flowers other than the fake ones at the small cemetery by the parking lot.

Getting there and back was less fun. Spent about 10 minutes in a tie-up on 384 on the way down and that was the quick trip. On the way back I 91 north was closed in Holyoke due to some sort of accident, and the traffic was horrendous. Here's our route home, about an hour wasted.

The last part of the detour was to Hadley to get a good dinner at Butternuts and then to Amherst to see There Will Be Blood. First movie I've seen in a couple of years and really excellent.

C • Holyoke traffic 7

To the start, back from the finish.

Three inches of slush outside, so I went on the treadmill.

So the entertainment on the tube was a program called "10 Years Younger" or something like that. The premise is that they take someone and have a bunch of people guess how old s/he is, and them do a bunch of things to them over a week's period to make them look younger -- skin treatments, hair, teeth, make-up, clothing -- and then have a bunch of people guess again. And of course they are supposed to guess a lot younger.

So for today they did their usual stuff to a woman for whom the first round of guesses averaged 35 years old. They did the make-over, but what was interesting -- not that I wasn't fascinated by the various beauty tips -- was their effort to improve her self-confidence, and thereby her self-image. For this, they picked something that she was afraid of, swimming, she'd never been able to swim and also never wanted to be seen in a bathing suit, and gave her a couple of lessons (from a very attractive guy), and it seemed to have quite a positive impact, the sense of success and the better self-image.

So with this, plus the teeth whitening and skin treatments and a new hair do, and make-up and new clothes, she did look better. And the second round of guesses came in at, drum roll please, 28. And she was very pleased, and all the folks on the show were just as excited as could be without actually peeing in their pants, and the show wraps up, but I'm thinking, numbers guy that I am, hold it, 35 - 28 = 7. That's only 7 years younger. Fraud!

But it was still pretty exciting, and certainly got me through most of my treadmill session.

C • The curse of the Web 5

Back to the urologist today, to get the second opinion on the biopsy results and it was mostly inconclusive too, some "highly suspicious" cells though not willing to say they were cancerous. And the recommendation was to do another biopsy, which won't be done until mid-June since you aren't supposed to do them too close to one another, if I understand correctly. So I get to wait another 3 months, though my assumption is that something is wrong and that it is just a matter of time before some serious action needs to be taken. The urologist says that there is zero danger in waiting 3 months, though I am not so sure.

So we set up the next appointment and then as I was leaving, I decided to ask for a copy of the pathologist's report. Which they gave me, and which included a section of the second opinion from the guy at Johns Hopkins. I asked if I could get a copy of that report, and they said they didn't have it, the important comments were what was included in the local pathologist's report.

Seemed reasonable, but I still wanted to see the JH report. So I headed off to find the local pathologist (New England Pathologists), which after some searching I found in the bowels of Mercy Hospital in Springfield. They clearly were not used to getting visited by patients. I stood there for a while, quite ignored, listening to three pathologists discuss some slide they were all looking at, Finally some young woman came by, asked if she could help. She could have, of course, but she wouldn't, couldn't release the JH report, but she was nice enough to get me the phone number down there. She went off, but I stood there a little longer reading the NEP report. Another pathologist wandered by, and I asked him what a couple of things meant, and he was quite friendly and we talked a bit, and I asked about getting the JH report. Sure, he said. And a few minutes later I had signed the necessary forms and was walking off with what I wanted.

There is an art to chatting people up. Doesn't always get what you want, but often it does.

Emotionally not so bad today. I am getting quite resigned to the fact that something will need to be done. Sooner or later.

C • As you said... 2

Greenfield ridge.

Loop up on Greenfield ridge, known either as the 13 hills loop or the hour loop, the latter being more relevant since it took me 65 minutes. In my defense, the conditions weren't good for running fast or sometimes even running rather slow, ice in a lot of places and a good bit of soft snow in others.

But still pretty feeble, had to stop and rest for a moment on a couple of ups through the snow. I suppose the positive aspect is I got out and did it. And the knee was not too bad.

No weights today. In the future I may refrain from providing any details as all that seems to get me is a lot of crap.... :-)

C • a lot of crap 12

On the Greenfield ridge. Still some snow and lots of ice, have to be agile on the slopes where the trail is icy and tilted. Phil would definitely not like it.

Knee is feeling a little better, didn't seem too bothered by some slipping and sliding. I've been icing it regularly, which reminds me to go get some ice right now -- even though I'm still at the office, there are some dixie cups in the freezer just waiting to be used.

Then another PT session after the run.

Sent an e-mail to my neice last night, she is teaching in NYC, seeing if she wanted to come orienteering this weekend. It turns out she is busy, soccer tournament, but definitely wants to get out this spring, and has a friend interested too. So I sent her my schedule to see if anything interested her. Which made me realize that I have O' scheduled for the next 6 weeks -- WCOC meet Sunday at Trout Brook (not definite), then Flying Pig, then Billygoat, then Rochester, the Tio-Mila, then West Point. Have to get in shape! At least the last week has been better.

C • "Phil would definitely not like it." 6