Training Log Archive: PG

Event: Hudson Highlander XVI
 

Highlander. Quite good run. Just one bad control, maybe 2 minutes at most. And the legs had a little life, at least for the first couple of hours. Things were hurting a bit as time went on, but still running in bits and pieces right up to the end. It helped a lot that it was cooler than it's been recently, probably in the low 60s at most.

Despite supposedly being fully charged, Garmin died after about an hour and a half. So I'll get to mark my routes the old fashioned way. Will not be hard, knew where I was just about all the time.

Haven't seen any results or splits yet, but this was certainly a whole lot better than last year. And I seem to have survived to O' another day. :-)

Nice trip down and back with Phil. Plus I seem to have taken custody of the bottle of wine that Hannah won, since she can't take it back to West Point. Plan is to open it up in a couple of weeks when there will be CSU (and others) training here on Saturday and a NEOC local meet at Norwottuck on Sunday. And, of course, this being the CSU-Amherst section, a good party in between.

C • Wine 10

C • Scramble 16

Highlander - Splits

OK, time for a quiz just to see if you have been paying attention. The quiz relates to a couple of things that are part of OUSA's strategic plan. Just two questions so it won't take you long.

!. It is now possible to renew your membership online (and also to make a donation at the same time, such as to the teams). This is a good thing because by making it as easy as possible to renew (and donate), more people should do it.

Based on the most recent numbers, what percent of membership renewals are now occurring online?

(a) 10%
(b) 25%
(c) 50%
(d) 75%
(e) no figures available, no one is keeping track.

2. One important part of the plan is to increase the number of starts at local club events. Historically, local club starts have only been reported annually when club dues are paid. More recently, starts for the 16 most active clubs are being calculated quarterly. For the first six months of 2011 compared to the first six months of 2010, local club starts are:

(a) down 20%
(b) down 10%
(c) flat
(d) up 10%
(e) no figures available, we're still just getting the annual numbers.

Let's see who knows what the correct answers are....

C • Pessimistic 18

Over to the track in Litchfield for another of my short and not too stressful sessions. Not sure exactly what good they do me, but I just think that if I don't try to run a little faster sometimes, then my running will get even worse.

Or maybe just working on my sprint for the end of the Highlander....

8x200, 200 jog.

46,2, 45.2, 43.9, 44.4, 44.8, 43.7, 43.2, 41.7. Average recovery about 1:04.

Under the "life is short, eat dessert first" general category, booked tickets for Istanbul. The pricing remains a mystery. Looked up the flights, there's a nice non-stop JFK-IST, $835 round-trip. Talked to Gail, were we ready to pull the trigger? Looked at the 5-Days web site, still possible to enter? Yes on both counts.

Back to purchase the tickets, too much time had expired, had to start over. Now the price was $785, $50 less than 30 minutes earlier. That's on Turkish Airlines. The flight is operated by them under a code-sharing agreement with USAir, and if you buy your tickets via USAir (exactly the same flights), it's $1700+ round-trip. WTF?

Needless to say, the Turks got our business.

C • Nice! 3

I believe there is a phrase about football players that is not intended as a compliment -- he's short but he's slow. Today's run was of a similar nature, also not a compliment. Just a struggle. Stopped after 15 minutes for a while, then decided I eventually had to get back to my car, so finished it up the shortest way possible. Not pretty.

I can blame it on the warm and humid weather. Well, I hope I can, and it's not just totally me.

So Eddie is working on the basemap for Earl's trails, and he adds in various small stuff that he can see, or thinks he sees, or thinks the lidar sees, or maybe some other way that I don't understand. And he wanted me to go out and check a few places to see what really is out there, like at a place where he thinks it might be a root stock, for example.

So I wandered up and down and around and about. Conclusions:

-- Most of the possible root stocks were not there. Very few root stocks in the area.
-- He's picking up the jeep trails real well, and the bike trails almost not at all, and some old abandoned jeep trails pretty well. Too bad about the bike trails, but good about the old trails -- even if they don't make the map, they can be very useful for fixing the positions of other things.
-- Contours were generally excellent.
-- And I found a few mappable features that I didn't know existed, nice place to put controls. A pleasant surprise.
-- I think we'll be able to do some good orienteering there.

And then 3 hours wandering up and down and around and about on a very hilly golf course. Beautiful afternoon and my game was sometimes really good.

C • Where did you get the lidar 13