Training Log Archive: PG

Mogollon Rim Rogaine with Barb and Cristina.

Barb got sick. Cristina, in her first 24 hour rogaine, got very tired.

Hot days, cool night. Fine course, interesting possibilities for overall route. I'll post my route when I get home, don't think it will come out well using the camera. We spiked all controls we went to but one, missed about 5 minutes there. The night orienteering was the best part.

Tried my hardest, I really did, in lots of ways, but now really struggling. Disappointed in myself. If that is cryptic, so be it. Had a long talk with Gail afterwards that helped some.

Bonehead move was getting up on a steep slope after a rest stop sometime in the night. Slipped, reached back for balance, grabbed unsuccessfully at some rocks, slipped down a few feet, and then got whacked in the left forearm by a good-rock that I had dislodged. No serious damage though it hurt like hell. Part 2 of the bonehead move, and the much more annoying part, is that it was only 15 minutes later that I noticed that in the process my watch had been ripped off. A sentimental loss, last of the box of 5, but I will get over it.

C • box of 5 4

Event: Mogollon Rim Rogaine
 

Went out for a very modest hike along the top of the rim on something called the Rim Lake Vista Trail, which purported to offer spectacular views out from the edge of the Mogollon.

When I first started orienteering, I often managed to get lost on the way to events because, as I kept telling myself, I was so focused on the upcoming O' event. And furthermore, I was getting all my mistakes out of my system, so a good run around the course was virtually assured.

Anyway we headed off, west on 260, catching feature was when 260 dropped off the rim, I saw the road start to go down, so a quick u-turn, off on the side road, park, there was the trail, off we go. Nice and flat, just fine.

To make a long story short, we found a nice bike trail, scared up a couple of hawks, did a little cross-country, circled around, headed back, got back to the car after about 55 minutes, not a sign of the rim, because I seem to have parked about 5 miles too soon. At least we had the sense to turn around before too long, or we'd still be out there looking for the rim.

We should do terrific in the rogaine tomorrow, totally focused and all mistakes already done.

A bit of cross-country, the rim has to be over there someplace....



And a bit of nature, a little thing that appears to be a cross between a lizard and a toad....

C • I believe that's a horned l... 2

Drove down the road to the correct spot, totally obvious. Nice trail out to the rim, took in the views, a little further along the rum, more views, then back to the car. Now that wasn't so hard, was it....

C • EVA 13

Up the Barnhardt Trail a little south of Payson, AZ, at a very mellow pace until it seemed like the right time to head back. Which also was at a very mellow pace. Route.

Quite warm, quite beautiful, excellent taper.

So, Arizona, a very few photos, none of which adequately convey one factor -- the heat. Though it is a lot better at 6,500' where we are staying.

After a bit of time laying in provisions in Phoenix, headed for the high country and stopped for a hike along the way. First task was to find a proper parking space....



And then put on lots of SPF 85 sunscreen -- no photo of this, but Gail, please take note. :-)

Then time to head up into the hills on a very nice trail that very gradually climbed the slope left of the minimal stream, always nice views, and actually cooler and breezy as we got a little higher....



Not much water down there, and no good way to get to it either, but then we didn't need to....



And at some point we headed back....



And then off to high country again, a stop in Payson for a few more provisions, and then finally the opening of the magic box, which Barb had arranged for us to pick up in Phoenix, and from which she prepared a very fine organic vegetarian dinner. Yummy.

C • Magic box 2

Over on the other side of Mt. Toby, from the gate to the start of the Power Line Power climb (6:22), up the PLPC (1505), back down the jeep trail (22:05). A little faster than last time, slowly getting better. Entertained by Car Talk, even though I think their puzzler was wrong, assuming $2 bills still exist?

C • Yes they do. 1

I was examining the one solitary stitch on my right palm, and for some reason I started counting up the number of different places I've been stitched over the years, and came up with 16, though I might have forgotten one or two. Eight were intentional (bionic toe, 6 last December, and the latest), but the other eight definitely weren't.

Roughly in order....

Forehead (hockey stick), 4 stitches
Left hamstring (skate blade), 3
All around right eye (skiing collision), maybe 15
Tendon just below left kneecap (rock while orienteering), 3
Tendon just below right kneecap (rock while orienteering), 3
Left knee (rock while orienteering), 2
Back of scalp (cliff while orienteering), 3
Right eyebrow (log while running), 40

I assume this is just a normal amount of wear and tear?

C • My stitches log 27

My right hand coped surprisingly well, even on the side planks.

Northampton 5K XC. Generally good footing, a couple of decent hills. Been three years since I last ran this (it's a weekly race, every Tuesday evening from April to September), and as expected tonight's time was both a PW and (under 2009 rules) a PR.

Beautiful evening, perfect for running. Plan was to see if I could break 23, so quite pleased. Ran pretty hard. Probably could have run just a little harder, but I've lost a little of the sense of pacing I used to have -- always used to know just how hard I could push it and still make it to the finish line. So 3 or 4 times I backed off just a little to be on the safe side. But pulse was still in the 160s after I was done.

Splits: 7:18, 7:08, 7:26, 42.

My best time on the course way back when was about 18:30. So this is 25% slower. My orienteering seems to have slowed down a little more, but then things like agility and eyesight and memory -- the deterioration of all of them -- come into play there too. So this seems about right.

But of course I looked at the age records, and the record for age 64 is 21:33. It would be real nice to put in the work to see if I could get that, both for the challenge and also given the fact that the current record holder is a sex offender. Seriously. Would be nice to wipe his name off the list. But he won't last long anyway, there's a guy about 61 or 62 who lives in Brattleboro and sometimes shows up and can still break 19. (But he didn't show up tonight, so I got the over-60 prize, free entry pass to another of these races. Perfect.)

Got held up by a traffic jam in Northampton (reasonably bad accident) so just time for the inner loop.

Back to the doctor's today for minor surgery. I always thought that "minor surgery" was, as the saying goes, surgery that happens to someone else, but this was truly minor -- removal of some bits of graphite fibers from my right palm.

Those fibers had been comfortably residing there for about 9 months. They were originally part of the shaft of my 5-wood, and it got a little banged up over the years, and at some point last summer in letting the shaft slide through my hand I got speared, reasonably painfully so, though the pain may have been as much from the stupidity as the actually wound. I extracted most of it, but not all. And since then it bothered me most of the time not at all, but every once in a while if I would grab something wrong, I'd get quite a sharp jolt of pain. But never quite enough to do something about it.

When I mentioned it to my doc last week, he said he could take care of it, no big deal. My lingering thought was that he was excited to do a little old-fashioned medicine instead of just the usual GP stuff.

Anyway, I showed up this morning first thing, somewhat anxious but not bad. A shot of painkiller to make things possible, and after a couple of minutes he went at it. And after about 5 or 10 minutes of cutting and poking and mainly trying to soak up my blood so he could see, all he had produced was one sliver of graphite, about 1/16th long. Time for plan B.

So far part of the blood control operation had been a cuff around my arm, inflated to just more than my blood pressure. Took this off for a moment, raised my hand way up to drain the veins ("That looks better, nice and pale."), and then cranked the cuff up an extra 20 points to see if that would help.

Much better, and before long a couple of longer pieces had come out, and he looked around a little more and decided he was done. One stitch went in, a lot of blood got wiped up, and I was happily sent on my way. Now I'll just have to see if that improves things.

Note: I was also sent happily on my way by results of most of my blood test. PSA is .006, which is excellent (0 is the goal, but this is close enough to just be considered "noise"). Cholesterol is 203, which is a little high but also a little better than before, and the HDL part is 75, also better than before and excellent. Other stuff was in the normal range, though I did notice that something called hematocrit was 41.0 and on the low end of normal. I think this is the number the cyclists try to get at 49.9 (more than 50 will flunk a drug test), so I maybe need some EPO. Or maybe just get out the door and train a little more.

C • Hematocrit 12

Couldn't fond any EPO in the house so had to go for a run. In town, flat, felt no so bad and was putting out a decent effort by the end.

A little excitement on the south side of town Saturday evening, mini-tornado, relocated one of the old tobacco barns....

C • No place like home 11