Friday Aug 31 |
 | Hike 4:00:00 [1] 8.6 mi (27:53 / mi) | |
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| Hike with Nora and Adam up Chocorua, on the Piper trail which approaches from route 16 to the east. A really nice outing: teaching some calculus to Adam on the way up; discoursing about "love" with Nora on the way down; and lots of bad jokes. Unfortunately, we were in a cloud at the top with no view (but no people either for most of it, which was nice), and we had rain all the back on wet, slippery rocks. Reminded me of ... |
Thursday Aug 30 |
| tennis 30:00 [1] | |
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| With Adam. I'll just log the games, since it's the only time I run for the balls. |
| Note | |
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| The mystery of the bloated feet and ankles seems to be solved: apparently, I was allergic to the rubbery (latex?) adhesive bandages that I had covered my feet with. Took them off one foot last night, and that foot was back to normal this morning. Took them off the other this morning, and that foot is now almost normal. Weird. |
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| C • Latex bandages 3 |
| Trail Run 11:19 [3] 0.95 mi (11:54 / mi) | |
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| Run up West Rattlesnake with Adam, about 500 feet of climb. Easy pace, which allowed him to be right behind me at the top. |
| Trail Run 7:46 [3] 0.95 mi (8:10 / mi) | |
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| Run down Rattlesnake, with Adam quickly disappearing in the distance. He finished about a minute ahead of me. I think he has potential to be a good downhill runner (unlike his Dad!). I was going plenty fast, fast enough to get my hip complaining. |
Wednesday Aug 29 |
| Note | |
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| In New Hampshire at Lake Winnepesaukee for 5 days. Not sure if I'll feel up to doing any 4,000 footers this trip.
Since yesterday, my feet and ankles have swollen up like balloons. Not sure what's going on, since neither my feet or ankles are hurting. So it doesn't bother me except when I look at them and see somebody else's feet (someone who weighs about double what I weigh). Probably, the massive swelling I had on my inner thighs from chafing (as Ken said, "think raw beef") has drained into my feet. |
| cycling 1:52:54 [3] | |
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| Loop from our house on Moultonborough Neck through Center Sandwich. Legs felt fine, though I took it easy. About 28-29 miles. |
| Kayak 30:00 [2] | |
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| To Long Island bridge and back. Felt like work for my arms, but not very aerobic. |
Sunday Aug 26 |
| Orienteering 9:30:00 [1] 19 km (30:00 / km) | |
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| The rest of the rogaine. |
Saturday Aug 25 |
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| Event: Laurentian Rogaine
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| Orienteering 14:00:00 [2] 36 km (23:20 / km) | |
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| Laurentian Rogaine, centered in Sainte-Adele, Quebec. Partnered with Jeff Schapiro: my third rogaine, his first. We got 27 out of 50 controls, and went about 55k point to point (probably around 50 miles total). That came to 1554 points, which I think was a decent result. The biggest dissapointment for both of us was slowing to a crawl over the last 4 hours. Still, we covered everything we planned to definitely get when we set out, save for 52 which we never found (it was night, and though close to a road, the woods were steep and thick), and 55 which we skipped at the end.
Jeff and I had compatible rogaining styles in that we both like to keep plodding along. Other than punching and filling water bladders, we stopped and sat down twice (at my request, to try to deal with foot problems), maybe 3-4 minutes each time. So we were moving for all but 6-8 minutes of the 23 hours 30 minutes we were out there. But not moving very fast. We did some very easy jogging over the first five hours (maybe an hour and a half), but when Jeff started to cramp, it was all walking from then. Maybe I could have been pushed to run more, but I was content to make it a walking affair, especially since Jeff has a pretty fast walk which we kept up for more than half the rogaine.
Our plan was good, and we stuck with it. We started north and went clockwise, devising a route that focused on the higher scoring points, skipping anything low scoring that didn't seem to meet our expected point per minute average. Of the 18 controls in the 60-90 range, we got 15.
Our navigating, I think, was pretty good, though there were a few lapses that probably wasted about an hour when added up; plus the 50 minutes or so lost going to and looking for the one we didn't find. But we spiked a lot of controls, including some deep in the woods at night. And in places, the woods were as gnarly as anything I've ever seen. Unfortunately, we had no clue sheet. (Jeff got the maps and brought them back to the car. When I asked if there were clue sheets he said no. But I found two clue sheets when I got home between the seats of my car!) I don't think it mattered much, since we only had trouble in the circle with two controls: 76 where we probably lost 15-20 minutes, and 52, which we didn't find. In both, it looked like a spur was circled, but the clues were "top of cliff". It might have helped to know what we were looking for.
Physically, this rogaine followed the pattern of my first (with J-J), where I also stayed out all night, and also could barely pick up my legs by the end. In both cases, I think I didn't get enough food. In this one, I ate 2 1/2 power bars, some shot blocks, a couple handfuls of gorp, and 3-4 fig newtons, plus lots of diluted energy drink throughout. I stopped eating at about 18 hours (in both rogaines) because my stomach started to feel off, and I didn't want to risk making it worse. I think my leg muscles were simply starved over the last four hours. My second rogaine, with Jeff Saeger, was my best physically, and I felt OK all the way to the end; but in that one we ate a big meal and slept 3-4 hours. Was it the food, the sleep, or both that I needed? I'll have to keep experimenting.
Medically, I'm lucky to have avoided any serious injuries because I must have fallen over a hundred times and I could easily have smashed some body part (such as a head) on a boulder or log. My old trail shoes had no traction on wet boulders or logs; a river crossing over huge boulders was especially harrowing (for me, Jeff had no problem with it). The non-serious injuries are many, especially to my feet, but they will all heal in a matter of days.
For the record, our route was: 31, 62, 75, 76, 65, 80, 23, 73,91, 60, 51 72, 32, 54, 42, 50, 46, 66, 63, 81, 90, 70, 41, 53, 24, 22, 61.
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Thursday Aug 23 |
| Trail Run 46:25 [3] 5.3 mi (8:44 / mi) | |
| weight:140lbs |
| From Smith after lifting, the usual route including the XC course. Low energy, and hip not doing great. Maybe the rogaine will whip it back into shape. |
Wednesday Aug 22 |
| Trail Run 37:25 [3] 4.2 mi (8:54 / mi) | |
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| Dirt track and trails around Smith, mostly easy. |
Sunday Aug 19 |
| Trail Run 3:48:48 [3] 20.8 mi (10:59 / mi) | |
| weight:140lbs |
| Savoy Mtn trail race, my sixth (and apparently last, since rumor has it the race won't be put on again). I hate this race: some of the worst "trails" in New England. But I wanted to do a long run today, and the weather was perfect (50 at the start, 68 at the finish), so why not? I felt pretty good to the end, and did very little walking; but some of the "running" was incredibly slow, especially through the really muddy sections, of which there were many even though this was probably a better than average year (both feet were totally submerged in mud a couple times). My hip bothered me the whole way, and made me very cautious on downhills. Blisters were forming that I nipped in the bud by tightening my laces at the turnaround. But the tight left shoe might have contributed to pain from my neuroma over the last hour. And so it goes. Splits: 56:42, 33:03, 18:48 (1:48:33), 1:10 (fixing my shoes at the top), 14:30, 37:28, 1:07:03 (1:59:05). |
Saturday Aug 18 |
| Note | |
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| Spent an hour and a half mapping new trails at Mt Tom near Lake Bray. There's one main new twisty bike trail, blue blazed; but then there are some less distinct trails that are borderline for putting on the map. |
Friday Aug 17 |
| cycling 1:00:42 [3] | |
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| Westhampton-Leeds loop, 18.1 miles. |
Thursday Aug 16 |
| Trail Run 24:45 [3] 3.15 mi (7:51 / mi) | |
| weight:140lbs |
| Went down with Adam to the Thurs. 5k race in Holyoke. Plan was to pace him to a good time without him feeling like it was a "race". He's done almost no running this summer (other than Colorado), but he'll be doing cross country at Northampton High in the fall. The cahllenge for me was to figure out what the pace should be. It was warm and muggy and Adam had been at tennis camp for 3 hours with an hour rest before the run. I think I hit it just right. Mile splits were, roughly, 8:00, 7:55, 7:50, with a faster finish. And it didn't start feeling hard for Adam until the last mile. I'm sure he will go a lot faster in races this fall. And for me: a very pleasant, middle of the pack, run! |
| Trail Run 4:00 [2] 0.4 mi (10:00 / mi) | |
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| Brief warm-up. |
Wednesday Aug 15 |
| Trail Run 51:20 [2] 5.3 mi (9:40 / mi) | |
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| XC course from Smith after lifting. A very slow jog, practicing the rogaine shuffle. (I was going to say "a snail's pace", but I read recently that a garden snail moves at about 50 yards per hour, and I was quite a bit faster than that.) |
Tuesday Aug 14 |
| Trail Run 1:31:30 [3] 9.86 mi (9:16 / mi) | |
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| Called Peter to see if I could get him off his lazy butt. It worked. Ran with him on Toby: race course to the hairpin turn, back via the power line. Felt OK chugging up the mountain at a steady pace. But pretty low energy by the time we got back. Hip sore but runnable. Forerunner said 9.55, sportstrack 9.86. 39:37 (gate), 20:20 (hairpin), 31:11. |
Monday Aug 13 |
| Trail Run 41:16 [3] 4.9 mi (8:25 / mi) | |
| weight:140lbs |
| Outer loop plus one lap around fields from gym. My hip seems to be back to where it was six weeks ago: so no fast running between now and the rogaine. Otherwise, I felt pretty good -- light on my feet, now that I've reached my goal weight. Five days of Boy Scout Camp food seems to have trimmed off a couple of pounds. Just as effective as food poisoning. |
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| C • :-) 3 |
Sunday Aug 12 |
| Note | |
| weight:139lbs |
| Back from Colorado 5 day. This trip was more about having time with Adam, and about trying to get him excited about orienteering, then about my own races. It was very successful. Adam was dissapointed that he didn't have any mistake-free runs on yellow, but he did pretty well considering how little he has orienteered. He was consistently second M14 (behind Ethan Childs, who is way ahead), and third yellow overall (with a Norwegian F14 also way ahead). He loved the orienteering races and training, and is psyched to try orange (which he would need to move up to next year).
My own races went from fantastic to dismal. Summary: Day 1: very clean run at about 7:20 per k; tied for best time on green with Rich Kelley. Day 2: another very good run with just 2 one-minute errors. Dropped to second M50 behind Rich Kelley for the two-day, but over 8 minutes ahead of the next best time on green. Day 3, night-O: disaster. The contact lens was somewhere in my eye, but not where it did me any good. Couldn't read any contours or rock in the three technical areas and just blundered around until I got through the course. Day 4: short-O. Pretty good run, spoiled by a six minute error. Still salvaged third M50. Day 5: Long-O. DNF. I spiked the first five controls, with a train of M50s following me from 3 to 5. Then I tried to get away by choosing an unusual route to 6. I got away all right, just didn't know where I was. By the time I relocated on the road I was looking at a 20+ minute mistake, and Adam and I were at risk of missing our plane if I continued. Seemed the only thing to do was hang my head and jog back to the finish. |
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| C • Adam 3 |
| cycling 1:59:44 [3] | |
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| My old Conway loop (rt 5 to rt 116 to Whately Rd). Moderate pace. 34.15 miles, 3:30 per mile. I tried a new sports drink, Accelerade, which has the supposedly ideal 4:1 carb to protein ratio. I thought I might switch from Gatorade for the rogaine. But the taste made me want to puke, and by the last half of the ride my stomach felt bloated. Anyone want a large container of powdered orange Accerlerade? |
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| C • I seem to have a cast iron sto... 2 |
Saturday Aug 11 |
| Orienteering race 42:28 [4] 4.6 km (9:14 / km) | |
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| US long-O champs at Saylor Park on a 1:15,000 map. This was a dnf: the distance and time are through control 5. The woods were not quite as open as previous days, and there were some thick marshes to cross and lots and lots of unmapped rock. I had been looking forward to this race, but I was nervous because my hip was sore from the short-o and our plane departure time didn't allow me to be out more than 2 hours without taking a big risk. The race started well. It was a mass start but, surprisingly, I was quickly all by myself. I spiked the first control, arriving at the same time and from a slightly different direction than Steve Gregg. Then I got ahead of him on the way to 2 and was in the lead of the M50's up through 5, all of which I spiked, with some minor hesitations. But I had Steve G. Dave E, and Charlie S. right behind me at 5 and I purposely took a highter route across the main reentrant, thinking I might get ahead by avoiding a few lines of climb going around to the right. I think the 1:15 scale threw me, because I came up way short in a parallel area and couldn't figure out why I couldn't find it. Unfortunately Glen T soon showed up and was looking in the same area, which just reinforced my belief I wasn't too far off. Actually, I was 300 meters short. I had so oversimplified the leg that I might as well have had the map in my pocket. (I could at least have been pace counting ...) After numerous failed attempts to relocate on rocky knolls (yeah, right, there were hundreds), I headed towards the road over 500 meters away. Since I was looking at the wrong part of the map, nothing looked right until I got all the way to the road and then quickly knew where I was. But by now I was looking at a 20+ minute mistake, and I started panicking about missing our flight. And my hip was hurting. And my hamstring was cramping. And Adam was waiting for me at finish. I headed back to the finish feeling totally deflated. It wasn't even a paticularly difficult leg. All I had to do was keep some kind of minimal map contact as I went. What an idiot! |
| Orienteering 1:00:00 [2] 4 km (15:00 / km) | |
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| The search for control #6 and then the ignominious march back, mostly walking. |
Friday Aug 10 |
| Orienteering race 39:55 [4] 3.7 km (10:47 / km) | |
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| US short-O champs at Manitou Lake. Complex reentrant/spur topography, all forested but open woods. Not a rock on the map. Two one-minute errors, and a six-minute error on 7 that should have been a one-minute error. That is to say, if I had stopped to think, I would have easily figured out that I had gone by the top of the little reentrant I was looking for and dropped into the next reentrant. This is the "thinking sport", right? Instead, I went into panic mode and compounded my error. Others had problems too, many also on 7, so I ended up third M50. But definitely not a "podium run." On the downhill leg to the go countrol, I reinjured my left hip for the umpteenth time. |
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Green - Splits |
Thursday Aug 9 |
| Hike 40:00 [1] | |
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| Short hike at Catamount Ranch in Woodland Park, with Pikes Peak as backdrop. |
Wednesday Aug 8 |
| Orienteering 1:00:00 [1] | |
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| Barb's "bus-stop" training exercise (a big success!), plus pickin up controls with Adam from the Orange 1 course. |
| Hike 1:00:00 [1] | |
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| Hike at Castlewoods, doing a 2.3 mile loop to the ruined dam. |
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| C • Spooky graph... 3 |
| Orienteering race 1:22:22 [4] 5.4 km (15:15 / km) | |
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| US champs night-O. Not good. As soon as I started, I realized something was wrong with my contact and the map was a blur. I could see it well enough in the open areas, but every time we got to the rocky areas, I couldn't make out any contours or tell a cliff from a boulder. I should have adjusted by taking extra safe routes. Instead I moved fast, choosing attackpoints that would have been fine by daylight, but not at night. I blundered around the technical areas, having to relocate on roads or fences multiple times. It didn't help that I gave Adam the better of my two headlamps, and I couldn't even make out a building from more than 20-30 meters away. Over 30 minutes of mistakes. But, hey, the temperature was cool and I felt great! |
Tuesday Aug 7 |
| Orienteering 1:15:00 [2] 5.1 km (14:42 / km) | |
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| Did the orange 2 course from day 2 with Adam and Scott, helping them choose good routes. Some jogging, mostly walking. |
| cycling 1:45:00 [2] | |
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| Got the bike-O in this time before the rains. It was about 10k point to point, but we went more like 15k because there were some out and backs. Easy ride, but the hills were still hard work. One very technical and steep hill we walked the bike. |
Monday Aug 6 |
| Orienteering 1:30:00 [1] | |
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| Designed and carried out some compass and relocation exercises for the "junior junior training camp." |
| Hike 2:00:00 [1] | |
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| About a four mile hike with Adam at the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. |
Sunday Aug 5 |
| Orienteering race 51:04 [4] 6.6 km (7:44 / km) | |
| spiked:11/13c |
| Day 2. Another really good run, though I lost about two minutes, one each on #2 and #3. The altiutde didn't bother me as much, but I didn't have as much zip in the legs. Soundly beaten by Rich Kelley, but still the second best time on green for the day. Finished second M50, and second on Green, for the two-day with third over 8 minutes behind. |
| cycling 1:00:00 [2] | |
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| Mountain biking around Peaceful Valley, including a stop to try archery (I sucked). Started the bike-O course, but had to cut it short when the thunderstorm rolled in. |
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Day 2, Green 2 - Splits |
Saturday Aug 4 |
| Orienteering race 47:05 [4]*** 6.5 km (7:15 / km) | |
| spiked:12/13c |
| Day 1 of Colorado 5-day and of a two-day A-meet at Peaceful Valley
Scout Ranch. I loved this map and terrain! Some lightly forested technical areas with boulders and cliffs surrounded by lots of open field running. I had an excellent run navigationally, with just one 15 second miss on a reentrant in an open area. I felt like the altitude and heat really slowed me down, though you wouldn't know it from the per k time. My legs were rested and I pushed hard. Time was tied with Rich Kelley for best M50, and best on Green 2. |
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Day 1, Green 2 - Splits |
Friday Aug 3 |
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| Event: 2007 USOF Convention and Colorado 5-Days
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Thursday Aug 2 |
| cycling 51:30 [3] | |
| weight:141lbs |
| Leeds loop, in 90 degree heat and high humidity. Mostly, took it nice and easy. This will end my streak of 38 days of loggable aerobic exercise. Tomorrow is a travel day. |
Wednesday Aug 1 |
| Orienteering 1:00:43 [3] 5.7 km (10:39 / km) | |
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| Redid the Mt Tom course from 2000 that I did a month ago. I wasn't moving faster (it was hot!), but being more accurate (spiked them all) and choosing better routes, shaved 10 minutes off. There was the usual carnage at the back of the hat. |