Training Log Archive: PG

Event: WCOC Fairfield University Sprints
 

Sprint B of a trio present by Rick DeWitt on a fine new map he made of Fairfield University. This one seemed like particularly hard work, finished feeling like that was all I would do for the day. Perhaps it would have helped to warm up a little? No mistakes of any substance, maybe a couple of sub-optimum route choices.

Nevertheless, went out on sprint A after maybe a 10-minute break. Seemed to manage no worse physically. Again, no mistakes of any great significance. Credit that to a good map.

And then figured, what the hell, might as well do all three, so finished up with sprint C. I was a little slower on this one, not sure why, but put out a decent effort.

Overall reasonably pleased. Leg held up OK. And I got the message -- time to do a little training.

Very nice job by Rick and Sussie.

Course A - Splits

Course B - Splits

Course C - Splits

Checking a few points at Mt. Tom for event 5. Beautiful morning, nice stroll, no bears.

And a couple more points. No bears again. WTF?

C • no bears 6

Question perhaps someone has an answer for....

On Sunday at West Point I took more than my usual number of falls, many of them quite jarring, but only one did any damage, and on that one I cut my right hand, a gash in the meaty art of the palm, done by a rock I would assume even though I'm not sure.

Except it was not like my usual, where I go down, catch myself with my hands, get one of them on a rock, and sheer off my palm a layer of skin and a little flesh about the size of a penny. Done that many times. Seems to take a couple of weeks to heal, oozing a bunch, nothing awful but quite annoying.

This time there was a lot of bleeding, blood was soon dripping from the end of my fingers, had to wipe it off the map case a few times. When I came in I washed it off with some water, and discovered the cut this time was closer to perpendicular to the skin, maybe 60 degrees. Quite deep, looked about half an inch deep, hard to really see, maybe 3/4 of an inch to an inch long. Rather ugly and serious looking.

Went to First Aid, they washed it out with some antibacterial stuff and put on a little ointment, and then were just going to cover it with a bandage. But I said to put some tape right on it, and to pull it really tight, as I imagined that doing what putting stitches in might do.

For the five days since then my routine has been the same -- wash it off well with soap and water, then put some tape on as tight as I can, pulling in the direction that would seal the wound.

The first couple of days there was some redness, but now that has mostly gone away, and there never has been any swelling. It looks remarkably good. Also no pain the last couple of days.

My recollection is that had I put stitches in, they would come out after 5 days. Which I assume means that in 5 days the wound knits together well enough that it's not going to open up again. Since I have had the same kind of pressure on the two surfaces, pushing them together, can I assume the same thing has happened here, that things have mostly healed?

As I said, it looks really good. If there was an infection, I would expect there to be redness, or soreness, or swelling, but there are none of those. Can I possibly be good to go?

I guess I'm wondering because the initial cut was really nasty, imagine a knife cutting in rather deeply. Can it really be doing so well?

C • Telemedicine! 37

87-11-1-11

Back to Earl's Trails to check on some suggestions from Ali. Figured I might as well run one of my courses, so did that first. Went pretty well.

And then back out for a short walk, more corrections, the highlight of which was an AOWN moment. Keep in mind that in all the time mapping and course setting I had seen no deer, no large birds, mainly just squirrels and mountain bikers.

So I head a few noises, much more like squirrels than mountain bikers, paid no attention, and then heard a significantly louder noise. Looked in the direction the sound was coming from and about 40 or 50 meters away a couple of creatures were climbing a tree.

My first thought was porcupines, although they were a little quick for porcupines. And then another noise, and mama bear sticks her head around the tree to peer at me. And then she starts climbing too. Goes up 5 feet, sticks her head out to look at me, up another 5 feet, and stop to look. Meanwhile the two cubs were up about 20-25 feet.

Was I supposed to be scared? If so, I wasn't. After all, I had just treed three bears without even trying. But no point in being stupid, so I slowly circled away, feeling quite lucky for the encounter.

It was near a Blue course control by the way.... :-)

C • Bears 11

After a get-together with Alex and Ali to review their early morning vetting -- and yet more cavities :-( -- and then a quick tour of the UMass start/finish area to check on logistics, headed out for more fixes at Earl's Trails. Made excellent progress as it turn's out, solved several problems.

Still lots to do, but getting there.

Another meeting for planning for the 5-Day, and the food was delicious. As far as the meeting, well, the first part reminded me of my visit to the dentist a few days ago, the part where he goes through your teeth one by one and tells you which ones are OK and which ones aren't. And the ones that aren't obviously need some work done.

So in this case it was Ali and Alex going through the controls they had checked, most of them but not all, and telling me which ones were like my rotten teeth. And each comment, not matter how well intended, still feels like another little dagger. Not another dentist appointment in this case, but more time out in the woods, fix it or move it.

But best to find out now rather than later.

Got a few more days to get the courses done, so out again tomorrow. And then meet notes, and start lists, and whatever, whatever, whatever. Brings back memories of O-Fest '93, every day you'd polish off the to-do list, and the next day a new one would be back, and even longer.

But eventually everything got done then, as it will this time. Just a lot of stress. But that's why they pay us the big bucks.... :-)

C • caries 2

Into Amherst to drop off maps for Ali and Alex to do some vetting. Slight headwind.

And then back home with a little bit of meandering in Amherst (and some atrocious "pavement") and through UMass and a stop for some heavy cream for the last touches for the chocolate rum cake Gail is making for tonight. Yummy.

Slight tailwind, not working very hard.

Earlier, 83-10-0-10

What am I missing here?

The event is a "Festival of Sprints," with the highlight being the elimination tournament on Saturday, events 2, 3, and 4, which is limited to 30 people, first come, first served. There is also a sprint on Friday and another on Sunday. And also a middle distance on Saturday if you either aren't among the first 30 for the elimination tournament, or would just prefer to do a middle instead.

How many people were they expecting to attract? The cap on the main event is 30. How many more were they counting on coming for what seems to be a secondary event, the sprint-middle-sprint package? Another 30? Another 50? Another 100?

Ten people had entered as of May 7. According to the website, the first entry deadline is next Monday, May 14. People almost always enter only when the deadline is close. By Monday they might have had 30, or 50, or 100 entries. Why pull the plug before the market has had a chance to respond?

What was the expectation in terms of numbers? Was that reasonable in light of previous experience?

Or were there organizational problems behind the decision to bail?

And as Carol says, won't this make it just harder in the future to attract people to events that may not happen? And should the sanctioning process now add an examination of whether a proposed A meet will actually take place to its already long list of duties?

I know if I had been planning on going, I would probably not have entered yet, but I surely would have bought a plane ticket. And would now be highly pissed.

Fortunately I'm not. But there are still a bunch of questions I'm curious if there are any answers to.

While I'm talking about A meet numbers, here's where we stand right now for the 5-Day --



My original expectation/hope was 150 for the two A meet events and 50-75 for the three other events, which would have generated a very nice contribution to the ski-O team. Looks like we may make the number for events 1-2, and will exceed it for 3-5. So maybe even a better donation.

But also more work to do....

Courses are just about final, vetting this week. Regular entry deadline is Monday the 14th.

C • Last minute A-meets 16

C • Some times things are as simple as they seem... 2

Raining away outside so on the treadmill, which offers the added benefit of being able to stop if ailments act up. But ailments were mostly behaving themselves.

Cautious effort -- a mile flat (10:10), a mile walking at 12% (16:50), a mile flat (9:30). And that was enough.

On the same page as Gail, beautiful today, supposed to be wet tomorrow, best get out today. Turners Falls and Millers Falls.

88-9-0-10.