Training Log Archive: PG

Event: NEOC: Nobscot
 

Splits from today are here. Pretty close to getting a really good scalp. :-)

NEOC meet at Nobscot, Red course (longest offered), 6.2 km.

Remarkably good run, with the emphasis on the running, not the orienteering, even though the latter not too bad, just a couple of minutes lost and half of that when I didn't want to get my feet wet.

But one of those days when the legs had some life in them. Wasn't trying to run fast, just keep running, and only walked two times for about 50 meters each. Hamstring is still little sore, but in a way I can live with, hopefully not in a way that it means it will crap out on me.

And the orienteering was good in one respect -- for whatever reason, much better today than recently reading the map on the run. Helps to have a nice forest and a lot of trails.

Nice course by Ali. And very efficient NEOC operation, including a monitor on which you appear immediately when you download. Really nice.

My route.

Red - Splits

Road up to the summit house at the west end of the Holyoke Range. Well, almost to the summit house, the last 100 meters was blocked off by construction. Ran the whole way, but then it's not so steep, average grade is 7-8%.

Steady rain, cool. Fine for running, but I am so glad we didn't have such a day a week ago.

C • Might want to get your snow... 3

And back down, raining pretty hard by now. Not a good day for views, or hang gliding. But there are some trails over there that might warrant exploring.

Best training run all year, including the best orienteering of the year, or ever?

To explain....

Eddie came up to me late Saturday afternoon, very unhappy. Seems he had been part of the crew picking up controls at Earl's Trail, had retrieved 10 of them, but when he got to the last one and was checking that he was all set, one of the e-boxes was missing. He retraced his route best as he could, but no sign of it.

My response to him at the time was not to worry about it, seriously. Because of all the things that could go wrong, that was way down at the bottom of the list in importance. And it wasn't even a box that was being used for any of the other events, so there was no scrambling needed to replace it.

He was still pretty unhappy.

I've had it in mind since then to take a trip out there to see if I could find it, although I figured the odds were someplace between slim and none. Eddie had sent me a scan of his route. And today was a beautiful day, my legs a bit more recovered from Ascutney, in need of a modest run. So I headed off, jogged out to the start of his section and started looking.

One thing was clear right away and that was that you could never have told there had been an orienteering meet there. No tracking, nor any signs at any of the controls that would indicate where they had been.

I figured the likely places were at the control sites, though I assumed he had checked those pretty carefully, and in areas of thicker forest, where a branch might have snagged a control and dislodged the e-box. Least likely were areas of open forest and along trails.

So following his route best as I could, I started a zig-zag search pattern.

Up the hill to the shallow reentrant. Nothing.

Short leg to the top of the knoll. Nothing.

Mostly trail across to the reentrant, carefully checking the entrance and exit. Nothing.

Over to the saddle. Nothing. And by now I'm think that this is really the classic "needle in a haystack" routine, and don't be disappointed when you don't find it, you tried.

Down to the big boulder. Pretty open woods. Eddie's route indicated an approach a little bit from the right, so what seems like about halfway there I told myself to go farther right. Went about 20 yards that way and son of a bitch, there it was.

Unbelievable.

I probably should not say this, but programmed as we are to always "check the code," the thought immediately ran through my mind -- is it the right number? As if there was more than one of these things out there.... :-)

I am somewhat manic-depressive by nature, and this just ignited the manic side of me. So totally cool.

Jogged back, called up Gail, told her to send Eddie an e-mail right away. He too is pretty happy.

And since the expense of replacing it has can now be taken off the balance sheet, a bigger donation for the Ski-O team. :-)

C • Tremendous success 25

C • Congrats on the find! 2

Leverett loop, legs didn't have much, but good to get out. (And good to get away from the computer, the sharks are out on AP again.)

Easy flat ride, just loosening up the legs, which are feeling the effects of running down the Ascutney road yesterday. Very pleasant out.

84-19-0-14 with the early morning group.

Went up to Mt. Ascutney for a test to see how absurd it would be to run Mt. Washington in two and a half weeks. Ascutney is just about exactly half of Washington, same grade, average about 12%. Did it last year in 47;53, figured I'd be a good bit slower this year.

Which I was, but not as much as I thought. I was expecting 51-52. So I suppose this was good. The only problem is that it wasn't quite bad enough to totally give up on Washington. May have to try this again next week.

A lot of walking by the way, but never more than a minute at a time.

C • next week 9

Took about a minute to take in the view and then headed right back down. Pound, pound, pound. Was ready to be done long before I was actually done.

So having trashed my legs it was time for a proper warm-down to keep them from being quite as bad the next couple of days. So a round a Brattleboro on the way home, 84-18-0-14, quite hilly. Also maybe an hour in the rain (and my umbrella was left in the car), about 15 minutes of it pouring, but I found a handy shelter at just the right time.

Very enjoyable, except for the couple of balls hit deep in the woods....

86-17-0-14, a few bad holes, quite a few good ones. Nice to have the time again.

Event report for the NEOC web page.

C • A lovely report 1

Found at Cemetery Hill: pair of running shoes, Mizuno Wave Rider 15, size 8.5 women's with orthotics in them.

Lost at Earl's Trails: green EMS Mid-weight Techwick zip-top shirt.

If you have lost the shoes or found the shirt, please contact me (pg@crocker.com).