Training Log Archive: PG

Event: Nottingcook Forest
 

A little warm-up.

UNO local meet at Nottingcook Forest, site of an A meet last fall and the Billygoat next spring. Last fall lots of people had not so clean runs -- the forest is not so easy for orienteering, a combination of a reasonably complicated topography and varied vegetation. It's not really thick, it's not really nasty, it just isn't all that fast and the visibility isn't all that good. And it keeps changing, little bits quite open, little bits thick, always changing. So there's a continual conflict between wanting to run a straight line and wanting to find the best running. And the result is that it is easy to make mistakes.

I had a decent run, one bad control, a couple of minutes, and maybe another minute total on a couple of others. Wasn't moving great, legs a little less than fresh, but still would have taken a clean run to be 10 minutes per km. Which was about what I was doing last fall. As I said, not a fast forest.

My routes and a few comments --

Note: Master maps and pin punching today, but an interesting forest (i.e. if you can't have everything, a good forest easily beats high tech).

3. Too far left leaving 2, and then couldn't convince myself to go look where the control was until I'd spent quite a while circling a very small area. 3:20 for a leg less than 100 meters. :-(
8. The "crossable" marsh looked totally unappealing (deep water, green slime...).
9. Past the edge of the knoll, southwest, after a bit saw the control way back to my right. There was no clear end of the marsh. I actually stopped for a moment after I punched to check the bearing back to the knoll and it was due east. So something was a little fishy, but no big deal.
10. Quite thick in the last 100 meters, also lots of rock, all sorts of boulders almost big enough to be mapped. Getting confused, saw the cliff, found it on the map and was ok. Lost maybe 45 seconds.
11. Caught up to a guy in a red hat, punched together, never saw him again.
12. Moving much better, visions of a guy in a red hat beating me to the control.
14. Trouble reading the map as I started down the last steep hill. I remember thinking, just go down a couple lines from the bottom and figure it out. Got lucky, spotted the control right ahead of me when I couldn't have said exactly where I was.
15. Little teeny knoll just before the last up told me right where I was.
16. Moving really good, passed Hans Bengtsson, patron saint of NEOC, sort of knew where I was all the time, back in control at the end and spiked it. And then in.

Thanks to Bob Lux and the UNO folks for a nice day in the woods.

C • routes 5

Gail wasn't in when I finished, so I went right back out just to run a bit more. Nice trail loop, plus I spotted her on her way to the next to last control.

Map is hard to read on the run, even when on trails. I can pick out some stuff, but not very well. The eyes are fading. I suppose I should be doing exercises for them too. Eye-yoga?

C • Eye yoga 2

So October was a really good month for training, 46 hours and doing something every day. And enjoying it a lot. In the back of the mind is a goal of 365 hours for the year, at 319 now, most will need to be in November. Got to keep at it if I want to take any more scalps. And taking a scalp is so much fun.... :-)

Yesterday: 2/6 (yc), need improvement.

Tomorrow: No orienteering, drove enough today. Plan is either a 18.4-mile trail run (distance according to the guide book, not the website) or a local 5-mile road race. Haven't decided which, and doing both is out of the question.

C • Your a beast! 5

C • Tully trail 2

Red course - Splits

Same as Wednesday but the other way around. Much more pleasant, just a gentle breeze from the west and about 60F. Didn't get done much before sunset, which is getting earlier and earlier and is going to jump an hour earlier on Sunday. Hiss, boo.

Also got out for a round of rogaine practice for the first time in a month, played with Gail, very pleasant. And certainly appropriate, as I have a rogaine scheduled for two weeks from now so it's time to sharpen my skills.

Though first a little O' tomorrow up in UNO land, site of the 2009 Billygoat.

Yesterday 2/6 (yl), still packing in the calories. Preparation for the rogaine? I wish that was the case. It's more just a lack of willpower.

13 hills loop in Greenfield, progressively harder effort as the run went on, legs felt decent. Time was a little better than expected.

Just before I started the guy who runs the gym said, "Enjoy your workout." Normally what I really enjoy is when the workout is over and the good feeling from having done it, as opposed to a good feeling while doing it. But this time I must have reminded myself half a dozen times to enjoy the workout, and maybe I did a little more than usual.

And then the usual routine. Managed it with no falls, ditto for the trail run, pretty good.

Yesterday: (ye), no "g" again as gluttony is out of control.

C • 'g' 12

Awesome progress on the cross-training plan, no that's not exercise related cross-training, but life skills cross-training in anticipation of one of us croaking. Gail just let on that she took some photos of a couple of bowls we have and uploaded them on her computer and reformatted them and e-mailed them off to a friend who is a potter and is going to make a couple more like them. And this is a week after just one short session on how to do this, which I was pretty sure she'd forgotten. Brilliant.

Not a great day for a fair-weather biker, but I thought I'd give it a try anyway. 39F, gusty winds out of the west, but dry anyway, I think not far up in the hills there was a little snow. 3 long-sleeve shirts, tights, thinner black gloves. Was a little chilly at times but not bad. But not all that pleasant, except perhaps the last couple of miles when I had a nice tailwind. Route.

Legs felt dead, which was why I passed on a run.

Yesterday 2/6 (yc), a joint trip to the surgeon guarantees some conversation.

The usual 7:15 am class, haven't missed one yet since I started, though time was tight today. Mainly, it keeps me doing the stuff on a daily basis between classes.

The Tuesday evening Mt. Toby group, Donna, Rob, Dave and me this time, a good turnout considering the weather, rain, 40F, windy.

Strange run. Legs felt good to start, up the first couple of hills without difficulty. Lights were needed after about 10 minutes, at which point the rain really started to come down, but I was cruising along pretty well, had to wait a couple of times for the others to catch up, I just felt comfortable on the rough ground even if I couldn't see so well. So the pace was on the slow side, hit the start of the long climb up South Mountain in 50 minutes instead of the usual 45-46 (daytime).

And then my legs said, Not so fast. And all the way up the 15-minute climb was a struggle to keep up. And the rolling terrain over to the S curves it was a struggle to hold back. And then a struggle to keep up on the last steep climb. And then a struggle to hold back on the long descent. It seems I like going down a lot better than going up (a fact confirmed clearly by my splits at Mt Tom over the weekend).

So the overall time was 10-12 minutes slower than usual, partly the dark, partly the rain, partly Dave was just being very cautious and we weren't going to leave him behind. Still a fine workout, excellent character builder. Getting a little cold at the end, especially both thumbs, my clothing is certainly not the best.

No falls. :-)

Yesterday: 3/6 (yge), need to get back on track with organizing, no "o" for a while.

And between the yoga class and the evening run, over to the Boston area with Gail to check out a surgeon at the Lahey clinic. Very impressed, made an appointment for December 15, plus pre-op stuff for December 4, but before then I have to check out another guy, my first choice, the appointment with him is not for another 3 weeks. And if I feel good about him, and he will have me, then these appointments will get cancelled and different ones with the second guy will have to be made. So nothing is set in stone yet, but it is getting there.

Bit of a long day, but it has to be done.

Too nice an afternoon not to go out, especially with rain, and maybe even a little snow, in the forecast for the next couple of days. Leverett loop counter-clockwise. Relaxed pace the first 30 minutes, then worked a little harder.

Yesterday: 1/6 (y), certainly not getting any g's, too much chocolate and other sinful things.

A little bit tired from the weekend's exertions but not bad, and not really sore from the hills and the falls, all a pleasant surprise.

Day 2 at Mt. Tom, Blue course (M21).

Another good run, no mistakes to speak of and a decent effort. One regular scalp for the weekend (Jon Campbell) and one semi-scalp -- Balter on Saturday, he's not on the Standing Team but a win over The One is not trivial. Most likely would have been a second semi-scalp today but The One retreated to the Red course to lick his wounds.... :-)

Falls today: PG 8, including a couple of whams, hit pretty hard; mom not reported (and for mom, not reported really means 0 because I would get a phone call if mom went down).

A few comments on my routes --

1 and 2 were easy because I was going so slow up the hill.

5 was tricky, the woods were a little trashy, but I did it just right, despite the fact that my mind was flipping back to 30 years ago when I was making the original map and someplace right in here I went to step over a log and at the last moment saw a quite large snake coiled up on the other side, and it had markings that could have been a rattler (there are a few of them on Mt. Tom, or at least there were 30 years ago), but in all honesty I wasn't sure because before I knew it I had backed up at least 50 yards, and I have avoided the area ever since, never been in there, never set a course there, never never, until today. Glad to report that no snakes were sighted.

8 and 9, both a little nervy on the approach, but nailed both. On 9 especially, there was enough variation in the contours as you got near the control that I knew I was right on even before I saw the marker.

10 through 15, Little Mt. Tom, in control all the way, even though I took several falls in the vicinity of 13, and even though whoever made the map sure didn't get the contours right for the reentrant just SW of 15. I got there, things didn't look right at all, actually stopped and asked myself if there was anywhere else I could possibly be. Decided there wasn't, so I went up and over and there was the control. I guess mappers must have bad moments just like everyone else.

17. Sad to notice that a huge old oak about 150 meters SW of 17 has gone horizontal. It was a glorious tree, grew up when everything around it was field, big lower branches stretching way out. But no more.

19. Last real control and made me nervous. Stopped short, then saw it ahead of me, very relieved, as the mountain laurel comes and goes, not the distinct edge shown on the map.

Another fun course. Thanks to Jeff and Phil for a great weekend and also for arranging the usual fine Western Mass. weather. :-)

My routes.

C • Scalps... 18

Warm-up, just enough to get the heart pumping.

Picked up 1-8 and 12 on the Orange course, felt good to be at least a little useful. Walked all the way to 5, then ran some coming back, though I had to be careful with a full pack (including a bunch of stuff from the water stop at 4) and several control posts sticking out a foot or so above my head, kept forgetting not to go under any low branches. and every so often I'd get yanked backward. But a nice outing at a slow pace.

Spent a little time with Carl Underwood, a very promising junior, now in 10th grade I think, talking about what he might do to move his orienteering to the next level. I think my two main suggestions for now were (1) to do as much orienteering as possible over the next year, running two or three courses at meets if possible, helping to pick up controls, whatever, and (2) to learn to read maps much more precisely than he is doing now.

I think he ran about 65 minutes on Red today, 6.8 km, he has potential. Yesterday he ran 17:50 for 5K at the CT XC champs.

Also need to report that Gail made it around both days. :-)

C • Carl 3

Blue Day 2 - Splits