Training Log Archive: bl

Event: NEOC: Great Brook Farm & Youth Series #3
 

Event: 30 Years of Pond Mt
 

30 years @ Pond Mt., 1 day A meet, brown. Cool, early fall day. First 5 points were good, never found the 6th and then was OK with the rest. The right hamstring got wrenched before 6 and when I gave up on 6, adrenaline ebbed away and negative hamstring feedback was stronger. Pushed about as hard as I could for the final points, though, as I was interested in comparison splits. Energy-wise and valve and right leg-wise I felt OK but for the next issue, that of an ailing hamstring.

Turned the map over & thought something like "Oh, my, work right from the start". Off into the really nice woods with a pledge to keep map contact.

Leg detail
1. Straight, read everything, kept in contact tho at very end was wondering - the wall faced away
2. Also straight, below rocky stuff, could see the knoll then stone pile/flag
3. Long leg - I chose straight tho one might have followed the blue drainage a good bit. Contoured around the first reentrant, contouring out of it after the intermittent stream was tiring. Then across the path & down to the ruined wall. Didn’t see the wall split off to the N. Was a bit confused but stuck with the WSW wall, noted it climbing, & finally got back in confident contact when I came to the path. Straight from there, in control with map reading.
4. Pretty much straight, read everything
5. Same
6. Never found it! Shortest leg, too. Gave up after some 15+’ - had no more ideas, was annoyed and that was that. Passed by the boulder maybe 1.5 contours above about 1/3 rd of the way. Saw the 4-5 cliffs <100m before the flag. Went below them & then angled up. Got on stoney ground field and went up. Expected to see a cliff (2m) or maybe even a flag before the cliff. Just saw jumbled gray rock. Went up & up and then thought “stop, you’ll go too high”. There was a cadet there also looking but no dice immediately. I started back toward the previous point. Went almost to where I could see the boulder then returned above the cliffs this time. This route took me higher. I could again see what appeared to be larger cliffs still higher and made my way toward them. No flag. After some more circling, I’d had it. There was another runner there as well (again). No more ides to act upon. In retrospect, one misread was likely the cliff with 2 boulder triangles 2 contours up. I now think I mistook this for the lower ones. Still I canvassed the rocky ground area several contours up & down.
7. Went back to compass course from the vicinity of 6. Hard to get down the rocky stuff. When I got to the big reentrant and started up the other side, I could see the biggish cliff on the knoll for a place check & then read to the flag.
8. Straight, and thru the cliffs which was work. Flag visible when I got thru
9. Paralleled the field edge in woods Tired and hamstring wanted out!
10. Got more to R than I realized with the green on the spur. Crossed a low wall covered in green…oh, this wall. Went up some to hill top and the point was finally visible. Along field’s edge and in. Right leg had had it but it was not the claudication issue of before.

Disappointing for the DNF, inability to find 6 and then intensify the hamstring issue which goes back to 2011 but w/o any issues til a month ago on BHS track. I should learn from Charlie & Glen's perseverence.

Hadn't planned on a second day but spending time in WCOC land is its own reward.

Course

C • #6 4

On the way home we stopped at the Corn Maze. Beth didn't get out of the car. It was busy, busy. I had a copy of the classic course & walked most of it w/o much difficulty. The corn was dry, had thinned, and had seen some abuse. There were a lot of would be pirates looking for chests etc! Didn't seem the maze in the maze was there.

This pirate ship maze was in the local paper today. Too simple for orienteering.

What a week. 4 days NYC/Brooklyn. Sights & sounds to distraction. Then out by more of same, Queens, and the Bronx. Then, in need of gas, we find ourselves all the way over to Mamaroneck. So why not Harrison? Past the very aged Carvel I went to in early-60s. Then Halstead Ave and finally Harrison town. So why not Danner & Hess and the neighborhood. Then I saw someone going into 15 Danner from some 75 yds away so why not the door bell? The lady of the house answered and invited us in. Walked around the first floor, a flood of memories, going back 55 or so years. Looked around the yard, too. Past & present mixed tightly, at least in my mind. The owner was most curious what I recalled about the layout etc from the 50s & 60s. Three fairly tall trees that had grown since and the pear & maple were long gone. Hedges mostly gone, too. A subsequent garage addition looking old. A yard can change a lot in 50 years. Nearly all of the houses in the neighborhood are still there. Mostly more landscaping & plantings.

Then to HHS & on to Kent/Fuller Pond Rd where we set up a tent around dark with a menagerie of livestock for company (as well as Greg Alswede), a world apart from the zoo of 53 Jay street. Warmed up this AM on the edge of the ’99 BG map and stood in the center of the start triangle, unchanged from 4/11/99. And, on the way home, Siri led us out of the woods, so to speak by leading us right by Barkhampstead Reservoir. The last time I saw that lovely body of water was 2004, leaving Charlies’s house. West CT is so lovely. Little Kent-like schools are in a Shangri La, setting-wise at least. Finally, the Corn Maze & then we were very ready to head home.

Brown - Splits

From 53 Jay into Dumbo away from the Greenbelt, by an electrical substation that was fascinating with all its complex apparati. Past old, dilapidated 3 floor housing units. Got to the old Brooklyn Navy Yard property behind construction fences. Thought I might be able to get around it but then focused on the fact that it went to the water. Came back pretty much the same way.

Earlier walking in Battery Park and the financial district/Wall St area for a world apart — concrete canyons where volumes of money run through.

From Jay St. along the East River early enough for decent yellow light. Lots to look at, dog walkers & joggers galore. Impressive Manhattan skyline of block buildings reflecting the morning sun. Lots of stops for photos and poster reading. One lady just off the ferry from Manhattan asked me where the nearest hotel was...@ 0730. Told her I was only on my second day in Brooklyn and that she should ask her phone. At 3rd fl level, a man directly across the street from our B&B got out of bed stark naked (in the 3-4 BR loft residencies w/ walls of windows), off for a pee.

Walk-jog still. Right buttock lets me know it's there.

City walking some with luggage. Car ended up 3 levels below the street, the B&B 3 above. Brooklyn and Manhattan are so much about people, faces, situations. A bit overwhelming. People are as trees in a forest - no shortage.
Subway negotiation, Times Sq twice - midday lights were defiantly bright & colorful.