Sunday Sep 28 |
 | Orienteering 1:36:00 [3] *** 12.7 km (7:34 / km) +200m 7:00 / km | |
| spiked:10/25c shoes: glacial insect |
| NAOC long. Glorious map, crappy conditions (near 100% humidity, 68F), and I never got into it. Largest mistake of the year, probably 5 minutes, at control 6; it was a long slog thereafter. I never really felt like orienteering this weekend, and unlike Hammer who told me yesterday that he had a smile on his face the whole way round, I was pretty disappointed to turn over the map at 16 and realize just how much of the course remained. Not CNYO's fault: I think I've just had enough orienteering for a while. Will probably run the Highlander next week since I'm already entered, but that may be it for the year. |
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| C • smile 2 |
Saturday Sep 27 |
| Orienteering 44:15 [3] **** 6.2 km (7:08 / km) +160m 6:19 / km | |
| spiked:12/15c shoes: glacial insect |
| Workpersonlike run at the NAOC middle. Not apparently moving fast enough; got caught by Brian May towards the end. Blew a minute in a vague area near the end. Didn't bother me much. |
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| C • Workpersonlike? 1 |
Friday Sep 26 |
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| Event: North American Championships
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Thursday Sep 25 |
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| Event: ROC Mendon Ponds
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| Orienteering 56:15 [3] *** 7 km (8:02 / km) +100m 7:30 / km | |
| spiked:22/24c shoes: glacial insect |
| ROC Mendon score event; warmup for the weekend on the west side of the map. Warm and lightly overcast; still 62F at 9pm when I got home. Unfortunately it appears this is going to be the nicest weather for a while. |
| Orienteering 10:00 [2] *** | |
| spiked:4/4c shoes: glacial insect |
| Control collecting with minuscule headlamp in the full dark. |
Wednesday Sep 24 |
| Running 50:00 [3] 6.67 mi (7:29 / mi) | |
| shoes: johann edesmerelda bach |
| Evening jog (I always want to write 'jogg'; it looks more serious in Swedish) from Old Browncroft north through almost to Empire. For some reason the trails smelled of something excremental in the middle third today; unsure what. Warm and almost dark (the weather, not the something excremental) at 71F dropping to 69F, dp 52F, clear. Last five minutes up and down the road near the car since it was by then completely dark. (Start was 6:46pm, so this shouldn't bother score-O competitors for tonight too much.) |
Tuesday Sep 23 |
| Running 44:30  5.93 mi (7:30 / mi) | |
| shoes: johann edesmerelda bach |
| 4*4/3. Was just going to be an easy jog to catch up from Sunday's run, but felt good. Stopped feeling good after about 45 seconds of the first interval, but the die was cast.
In the dark along the usual route (first running in the dark since about March...). Clear, still, 62F/46F. |
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| C • Do you count for the US in NAOC? 2 |
Sunday Sep 21 |
| Running 3:07:10 [3] 19.0 mi (9:50 / mi) +800m 5:25 / km | |
| ahr:156 max:175 shoes: johann edesmerelda bach |
| Moving on towards Georgia... VT-9 parking lot in Woodford Hollow, VT south 9.4 trail miles to the power line crossing (8.7mi north of MA-2, 9.4mi south of VT-9). A warmish day, cooler in the valleys at the start than above (64F at the start and finish, but low 70s at 2500' judging by my car thermometer's behavior earlier en route. The thunderstorms in the forecast with 30% probability didn't arrive, though there were a few scattered cumulus clouds to the north and east and the humidity was clearly higher than say, yesterday. (Bennington airport reported 72F, dp 56F at 2pm.)
This section is completely different-feeling from that of three weeks ago: fewer views (there will be more when the leaves are off in a few weeks), the best from the power line at the end, with a view east across a valley (to Allen Hill across VT-100), west to the Taconics, and north as far as Glastenbury and back along the lower hills I'd come from. The view from Harmon Hill, a much-advertised short hike from VT-9 (1.7mi, 970') was lame in comparison. Many beaver ponds, some genuine miracles of beaver engineering, to compensate. Leaves just starting to turn on the outer side of trees, but the inner parts of trees are still green, producing the odd feeling that when you look at a view, much of the vegetation is russet, but inside the forest it still looks almost like summer.
1:36, ahr 155 out, 1:31, ahr 157 back (though a third of the climb is in the first mile so it's hard to compare properly). Total time out 3:25, so 18 minutes either eating or looking at views. Good footing for New England mostly - muddy but not too much, rocky but not too much. One grass snake and a few birds were the only sightings beyond the usual squirrels and chipmunks.
Route.
I have felt remarkably good for both these runs so far. I think it can be blamed on the blueberry pie and coffee from the VT Country Deli just off I-91 on VT-9. We will see what happens next time when I'll have to start in Massachusetts. Maybe Shelburne Falls can help. Of course, given the current schedule and then the likely snow schedule, 'next time' will likely be in late spring 2009 or even later (I'm hoping to get some snow-free trips further south during the winter, but there are no scheduled trips this way through Thanksgiving without orienteering events invading them, and hoping for December-April to be snow-free this far north is a little implausible. Even in the thaws, you need to know it's snow-free before driving extensively to run a steep rocky trail on an endeavor for which if you don't manage at least 18 miles roundtrip, the day is a waste because you'll have to come back to redo this section later, so you may as well have explored somewhere else...) |
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| C • How much of the AT have you run? 2 |
Saturday Sep 20 |
| Note | |
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| About 6 miles wandering around Lamentation Mtn and Chauncey Peak; here. A perfect afternoon; cloudless and ideal temperature and humidity for walking, and some gorgeous views. |
Friday Sep 19 |
| Running 1:05:00 [3] 7.22 mi (9:00 / mi) | |
| shoes: johann edesmerelda bach |
| Westwood trails in Guilford, starting from Dunk Rock Rd parking area and taking a wander around the northern and western trails. Like the neighboring Branford area, this stuff is really gorgeous, although not all of it is runnable (even some brief scrambling on some trails). Evening, clear and still, 62F / dp 46F. |
Thursday Sep 18 |
| Running 57:00  7.0 mi (8:09 / mi) | |
| shoes: johann edesmerelda bach |
| An evening jaunt around most of the hilly bits of East Rock. Great running conditions; still, clear, sunset, 67F dropping to 64F, dp 42F. Felt sluggish. |
Tuesday Sep 16 |
| Bike 1:10:00 [3] 16.0 mi (4:22 / mi) | |
| shoes: shimano m-180b |
| Out to the old canal junction in Greece. Glorious evening; when it gets colder, the bugs will stop thinking so too... |
Sunday Sep 14 |
| Running 48:00 [3] 5.49 mi (8:44 / mi) +200m 4:53 / km | |
| shoes: johann edesmerelda bach |
| Tryon Park. I have wondered for a while whether there is a way from Empire south into the Tryon Park trails (and thence to Browncroft). I don't think it's legal, but it does exist and comes out here. North from the Tryon Park lot to there (10min), back south as far as the last hill before Browncroft, then back again. Sluggish both from yesterday's effort and the heat and humidity (84F/dp 68F, sunset; overcast and not much breeze). |
Saturday Sep 13 |
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| Event: ROC - NOD - Highland Park
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| Running 1:56:00 [3] 13.5 mi (8:34 / mi) | |
| shoes: johann edesmerelda bach |
| Letchworth. This time parked at access C (halfway down the dam area access road on the east side near Mt Morris) and ran the FLT first north to its end at the Greenway (ran 100 yards west on the Greenway to reach the foundations for the former rail bridge over the Genesee, long since gone; just under 3 miles and mostly downhill), then back to the car the same way, and south as far as the trail junction for access point D, 3.8 miles further south. I was here only last Sunday.
The views are much better in this northern section, especially between the dam (access B) and access D, and the trail is more level, but on the whole the actual forest is less attractive, with more weedy plants and a few overgrown fields to push along the edge of. Some nice views of the Hogsback from both sides, and of various stretches of the river and its cliffs.
Warm, overcast, and nearly foggy; 72F rising to 75F, dp steady at 71F. Trail only occasionally muddy, but the grassy sections near the dam were pretty wet. Ended up utterly soaked. Carried a hydration pack, but it's close to impossible to stay properly hydrated in these conditions, so it felt like a struggle. Still, today was forecast to be the better of the two weekend days for running, with the rain just starting now as I write this four hours later. |
| Orienteering 19:21 [4] *** 3.1 km (6:15 / km) +50m 5:47 / km | |
| spiked:10/13c shoes: johann edesmerelda bach |
| ROC NOD Highland Park; sprint. Felt like getting a score so that I would at least have run six sprints this year (not that I am planning to run in two weeks, but given this map is three blocks from my house and I was going to be passing by at the right time anyway...). Felt sluggish, with lunch sitting uneasily (McDonalds is the best option in Mt Morris if you don't want pizza, as far as I can see, unfortunately). Map is imperfect, a product of continual updating of a bad base, and some control locations were not how I would have described them, and so I never really got much flow going. Still, our Estonian visitor deserved to beat me; I was running neither well nor fast. |
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| C • Slight corrections... 4 |
Thursday Sep 11 |
| Bike 1:15:00 [3] 18.0 mi (4:09 / mi) | |
| shoes: shimano m-180b |
| Canal to Pittsford. Really need to recharge the batteries in my front light... Overly warm for what I was wearing (running jacket) and felt sluggish. Overcast, 72F. |
Wednesday Sep 10 |
| Strength & Conditioning 30:00 [2] | |
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| 2*10 |
Tuesday Sep 9 |
| Running 50:00  6.5 mi (7:41 / mi) | |
| shoes: johann edesmerelda bach |
| Wetlands from Old Browncroft north at dusk. Did a lap of the perimeter trails, some of it at pretty good pace. |
Sunday Sep 7 |
| Running 2:04:00 [3] 14.2 mi (8:44 / mi) | |
| shoes: johann edesmerelda bach |
| Letchworth: FLT south from access point C (northernmost access point on River Rd, near the powerline crossing). Hotter and more humid than I was expecting, so I didn't actually enjoy the run that much, being extremely dehydrated by the end. Last 15 minutes was a real struggle. 72F, dp about 70F. Wildlife: 1 frog, 1 snake, many deer, a few squirrels. The trail here is odd because it continually crosses the deep gullies that head down to the river where they are easy to cross (ie, near the top of the slope), then faces the fact that thick pines are planted on most of the spurs, so when the trail was built, it needed to drop down below the pines to make it easy to get through. Hence although this was a 7-mile out and back by the trail measurement, I was actually never more than about 3 miles from the starting point. There are two viewpoints on small bluffs near the river, each about 0.5 miles downhill off the main trail and separated by about 1.5 miles of trail (so 2.5 miles apart by trail). I didn't fully realize until after getting back that they are actually only about 200m apart as the crow flies... something like this. The narrow ridge with the western viewpoint was fairly cool to run along. |
Wednesday Sep 3 |
| Running 48:00 [3] 6.19 mi (7:45 / mi) | |
| shoes: johann edesmerelda bach |
| Corbett's Glen to Ellison south end lookdown and back. Dusk; very warm (78F dropping to 72F, dp 62F, still, mostly clear); a little lazy running. There seem to be more weedy plants in Rochester than in New Haven ... and fewer rocks. |
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| C • e-mail 1 |
Monday Sep 1 |
| Running 4:05:00 [2] 22.4 mi (10:56 / mi) +950m 6:00 / km | |
| shoes: johann edesmerelda bach |
| Others may like to end a heavy training period with an epic. I prefer skipping the heavy training and just doing the epic. An almost training-free week becomes a decent one if you add running up Glastenbury Mtn (3748', ie 1142m, plus 15m of tower at the top). Started at Woodford Hollow on VT-9 at the AT crossing, 10.1 miles up the AT to the top of the mountain, an unlogged 15 minute lunch break, then back down the West Ridge and Bear Wallow trails, with 1.5 miles on the roads back to the start. 1:57 out, 2:08 back, which suggests the harder effort was on the way out since the trail backwards had several miles of un-New England rockless smooth 2 degree downhill. Ran about 95% of the time (some steep climbs excepted).
A 360 degree panorama from the top; Greylock clearly visible to the S 23 miles away; VT mountains I'm less familiar with to the north and northeast, and NY hills (diito) W and NW.. Gorgeous weather; cloudless, a 20 mph breeze above the trees, and 78F in the valley.
Route, missing a few wiggles on the outbound.
The VT-9 trailhead is about as far north as it's reasonable to go while commuting between CT and NY. Even this far north is only for special occasions. There is a lot more trail between here and Pennsylvania... |
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| C • hey, normally you insist on... 3 |