Training Log Archive: PG

Leverett - Cave Hill. Not as hot, so worked a little on the hills.

Hanging streamers for Ali, Alex, and Phil for a course in the NE corner of Norwottuck. Started at 7 am and it was already 80F and dew point in the upper 70s. Started to wilt after about 15 minutes and seriously wilted within 25-30, so bagged going to a couple of points.

My navigating at least was reasonably ok.

951/1000

Lake Wyola - Shutesbury loop. Unpleasantly hot, upper 90s and humid. Didn't push it. Haven't done this loop in a while and it seems I did it in the right direction -- the crappy pavement was all on the climbs whereas the downhills were nice and smooth.

I suppose I should add that in my third (and unlogged) training of the day, a brisk 2:40 walk in mid-afternoon, I had a hole-in-one. Except it was missing a couple key ingredients -- (1) I was playing by myself, so no witnesses, and (2) it was on an uphill par 3, with the top of the flag visible but not the green, so there was not the psychic pleasure of watching it go in the hole. But it was quite nice to walk up the hill, see the ball mark on the front of the green, not see a ball anywhere, and then find it in the hole.

By the way, the legs actually felt pretty good and I was moving quickly. Must have been the nap.

C • ace 10

Amity hills (just 2) with Dave, very mellow pace as he ran Vermont 100 over the weekend. So a nice chat about that and life and general. And then the usual hour at the coffee shop with a few others, in my case killing a little time before the next training....

A little warm-up, legs felt very sluggish. Slept a little restlessly last night, but I gather that was better than Gail (2 hours?) or Cristina (3 hours). Was Ali's cherry cobbler laced with caffeine?

Sprint training at Cemetery Hill. Course use some new areas mapped by Phil, and I definitely wasn't up to the challenge.

Botched 6 (the best route may have been up, or it may have been down, but it certainly was down and then up).

Botched 9, though perhaps that's not the right verb as I never actually found it. Interesting though -- compared my route on the aerial photo to Phil's, I turned in the first time at exactly the right point, obviously just didn't see the streamer, then did a bunch of other searching. Somehow that makes me feel better.

Botched the route to 11, and this one really was quite imaginative -- was heading for a narrow strip of yellow through some dark green, found a passage that I wouldn't map as yellow as it was very narrow with shoots of multi-flora rose reaching out to snag you. Made my way very slowly and carefully through that as I was wearing shorts. Discovered afterwards that I was actually on an indistinct trail right next to the open slot I was aiming for, and the open slot was actually just an index contour line on the map that I saw as yellow not brown.

A reasonably pathetic run....

And very tired.

Waited around for all to finish. Then went into Northampton with Cristina and Melissa for a large breakfast. And then home for a much needed nap.

935/1000

CH East - Splits

Hanging streamers for sprint training at UMass for Ali and Jordan (and Cristina and Melissa and Phil and Gail, and I suppose, me). Quite hot.

Also was quite clever, stuck a few strips of duct tape on the back of my map case, made it easy to hang streamers where it would otherwise have been difficult (walls, big trees with smooth bark).

921/1000, in the home stretch.

Then decided I should run at least the shorter course, so jogged down to the start.

Shorter sprint, 1.9 km beeline, no mistakes, but then I had just been to all the points. And you shouldn't make mistakes in sprints anyway.

Decent effort. And no way I was then going to run the longer sprint.

And then back to #5 on the long course....

Well, just another case of losing my mind....

See, first I went and hung all the streamers, using a map of one course with the points for the other course hand-drawn on it. And then to run the shorter sprint, I'd changed maps, taking a clean one with just the short course on it. So far, so good.

And then just before I got to the start, I went by a place where I'd hung a streamer, and I looked at my map, and there was no circle there (naturally, it was on the course), and I had the following thoughts (I can't remember in which order):

-- Why did I hang a streamer there? Obviously I meant to hang it at the start triangle, which is just around the corner. I'm really dumb.

-- And, wow, how did I possibly remember to hang a streamer there, even though it's not marked on my map. I'm really smart.

And my mind processed all this and the next thing I knew I was taking this streamer down (it was taped to the side of a building, right next to an entrance door). Debated for a moment tucking the streamer in a pocket in my shorts, but happened to see a trash can just inside the door, so that's where it went. Quite pleased with myself for cleaning up.

Went and ran the short course.

Saw Ali and Jordan and Cristina, watch them start the long course. Saw Gail. She tells me about her trip around the long course, and a map issue with the 5th control, which I had just trashed. And it suddenly dawned on me what I had done.

Hustled down to #5, in the building, pulled the streamer out of the trash (no one was watching, luckily), hung it again, about a minute before A and J and C arrived.

I am such an idiot sometimes.

C • "such an idiot sometimes" 1

And then a visit to Bub's for BBQ and fixin's, and then Ali's for cherry cobbler and ice cream.

All just to make sure we had a proper O' event. :-)

Another modest bike ride, South Deerfield and Whately. Shouldn't ignore the running but some days it just doesn't happen.