Training Log Archive: TomN

QOC Fountainhead Red. A fine course in very nice woods, and a perfect day to be out, with the temperature in the low 70s and some breeze. I've had a lot of trouble with this terrain in the past, but for some reason everything clicked this time. I had a great run with only one mistake (leaving 13 I saw the trail to 14 and didn't bother thinking about what to do when I got there; went up the wrong reentrant, punched an orange control, and finally saw the mapped rock pile southeast of the control). Lost about 4 min. Pretty happy with this run.

Red - Splits

4-mile road run, with a set of hill sprints inserted after the first mile or so. 10 sprints on a moderate slope at 25 seconds each, jog back down another 35 sec, let's say 1 minute per sprint. These were shorter than the 60-sec sprints I did the last time I ran this workout (because I couldn't find the place I did them last time). But I did more of them. So far, I think the longer ones offered better training, but we'll see.

Hanover, ME to Kensington, MD with a stop in Exeter, NH to unload Mei-An and all her stuff for her senior year at school. The drive timing wasn't too great, because we got stuck in terrible traffic around NYC from about 4 to 7 p.m. in the pouring rain.

Down to the Post Office and back. The route is about 2 miles of steady 5% grade, down then back up. This run felt really good. I felt like I was actually running, and not just jogging in place. Intensity was moderate, 2-2 breathing the whole way.

Then I jogged back to the east end of the pond to take a picture
in the morning mist. It seems like the new Google+ "get shareable link" doesn't work if you want to embed a thumbnail.

We convinced my dad and stepmother to go up to the Woodman's Peak overlook, because they hadn't seen the new trails that had been put in over the last year or so. They had a fine time, but I was giving Sandy pretty much constant help, and hoisted her up some of the hard spots. Dad hiked the whole thing independently (his 90th birthday is next month).

Back again today for the Puzzle Mountain - Woodsum Spur trail, solo this time. Weather the same as yesterday, warm and muggy. Got an early start to avoid the heat.

The Grafton Loop Trail is the newest AMC trail. It ascends Puzzle then continues around for another 14 miles north to Baldpate and down to the notch, then crosses Route 26 and completes the loop on the west side over Old Speck and Rumford Whitecap, 12 miles.

Puzzle Mountain overlooks Howard Pond and dominates the view out from our lakefront. I've done the Puzzle section of the Grafton Loop Trail several times before, but the Woodsum Spur is new, and makes a loop through the ledges on the south side of Puzzle Mountain. I was hoping for good views of the pond.

As it turns out, the views are mostly southwest, but there is one really outstanding view of Howard Pond from an open ledge just below the SE summit. I phoned home to see if they could spot me, waving and flashing a reflection from my phone. It didn't work, too far even for binoculars. But worth a try again, now that I think I have a better idea where I was.

Made reasonably good time going up, had some trouble finding the trail on the Woodsum Spur in a few places (it's new and relatively untraveled, and pretty rugged), and ran the 3 miles down.