Wednesday May 31 |
 | Running in terrain 1:00:16 [3] | |
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| Across from the house, another failed attempt to run the "standard" Lane-Horse-Seaver loop, although I didn't bring the GPS this time. Wary of getting caught too far to the right coming down from the northern high point again, I managed to get too far left, and when I thought it looked familiar, I compounded the problem by going even further to the left. Eventually got within sight of some house on Tyler Rd. (Bobby Smith's old place, maybe), and then turned right on a dead-end ride, and picked my way around Square-Pond Marsh, which involved going though a bunch of thick saplings. Until now, I hadn't really appreciated the extent to which the descent to the Friendly Trail involves threading a needle between ugly areas. Need to find some good landmarks in there. I did observe that the leaves are now thick enough that I can't see the house on Seaver from the trail turnoff. Didn't bring a light, and it's a good thing I wasn't out there much later (though I could have finished up on roads once I got near the lake), but it was still 76 F at the end.
Been caring for a sick kid for a couple of days, and I have a ticklish throat now. Hoping it doesn't develop into much. |
Saturday May 27 |
| Shadowing 34:09 [2] | |
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| Followed Stephen around the White course. He did quite fine for most of it, though at control #9, what I thought was successful execution of a tough leg turned out to actually be random wandering until he found it (there was a simpler route, but he made a wrong turn), and on the last control (#10), he did exactly the right thing, but the sketchy little trail had him skeptical because it appeared to dead-end, so he backed out to a place where he was sure of where he was, then got upset because things weren't working out. So I encouraged him to try again, doing what he thought was right, and he found that the trail contunued, and he didn't have much further to go to get to the control. There were streams in the way, though, and he didn't know how to get across, so I had to explain it to him. "You're a boy", I said, and with that he splashed his way right across. |
| Orienteering race 27:01 [3] *** 3 km (9:00 / km) | |
| spiked:8/11c |
| Forest Park, Sprint #1. A little inefficient getting down the hill to #1, trouble seeing the flag at #8, and didn't attack too well at #10 (or maybe the map wasn't quite right). Pretty hot and humid, so it was tough to get up much enthusiasm for going fast. |
| Note | |
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| Skipped Sprint #2 -- it was getting late, it was very hot and humid, and the Koehlers were enthusiastic about hitting the road, particularly Nicole, who had a birthday party to get to. |
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Sprint 1 - Splits |
Friday May 26 |
| Running in terrain 50:39 [2] 3.83 mi (13:13 / mi) | |
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| Valerie loaned me her old GPS (Garmin 301) a few weeks ago, and I finally got around to trying it out. Intended to do the standard Lane-Horse-Seaver loop, to find out where it actually goes. This was after a brief rain, so the ferns were all wet, and therefore soon so were my pants. No matter. But on the Horse Corral trail, I may have turned off into the woods a little early, and I thought I got to the top of the hill okay, but there are too many leaves out now to see the house, so there was some uncertainty. Then heading down toward the Friendly trail, I got off course somehow, and I was worried that maybe I was going too far to the left. Cloud cover kept me from being sure which way the setting sun was, and the next thing I knew I was going much too far, through some thickish stuff (lots of saplings, and laurel here and there. Nothing to do but forge onwards, and I knew I'd come out on a trail or road somewhere. Eventually I did, and it was a much bigger trail than I had been anticipating. Took only a few steps to guess that it was the powerline trail, which was confirmed very quickly when I passed the Snowmobile Dead-End (and that also confirmed my guess that the woods off the end of that trail are not much fun). That means I was actually much too far to the right, not the left. Just headed home from there.
The GPS made various beeping noises during my run. I looked at it the first time, and it seemed to say that I had completed the first lap (whatever that means). I suspect that the others may have been warnings about losing/acquiring satellite lock, or perhaps low battery. Guess I need to RTFM. Which will also be necessary if I want to download the track log.
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Thursday May 25 |
| Bicycling 1:36:47 [3] 23.75 mi (4:04 / mi) | |
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| Rode up into NH and back via a scenic route on the Incubus. Absolutely stunning day, perfect for a bike ride. Glad I brought a water bottle. |
| Note | |
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| Decided I should do like Peter, and post maps from all of the races I've won, or almost won, outside of North America:
Okay, well, that was easy. I don't feel any lighter, though. Time for some Ben and Jerry's before bedtime. |
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| C • posting maps 2 |
Wednesday May 24 |
| Shadowing 21:34 [2] | |
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| Followed Stephen around the beginner's course. He has two speeds: about as fast as I care to go, and stationary. So it's like running really short intervals, sort of. Gave him two hints: reminded him when he was near #5 that Sanna had said something about this one (that it was hard to see the trail, prompting him to turn around and successfully find it), and on the way to the finish, when he had managed to get himself pretty lost, I said that I hadn't even looked at the map, but I knew where we were. That prompted him to look around and realize that we were right next to his first control. |
| Orienteering race 31:58 [4] *** 3.33 km (9:36 / km) | |
| spiked:7/10c |
| Pine Hill sprint. Not horrible, but could have been better. Two major (for a sprint) boo-boos: Bad route on #3, and blew the attack on #8. |
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Sprint - Splits |
Tuesday May 23 |
| Note | |
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| Drove up to Morningside to go hang-gliding, and found the weather conditions to be somewhat less favorable than the forecast had suggested. I therefore practiced one of the most important of pilot skills: the ability to shrug and say, "I guess today's not the day", then just turn around and drive home.
Left foot still bothering me. Can't feel anything just sitting still or walking around, but there's a spot on the inside of the heel that generates distinct discomfort if I press on it with my thumb. |
Friday May 19 |
| CMC 6 [4] | |
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| C • Why? 7 |
Wednesday May 17 |
| Running in terrain 17:46 [3] | |
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| Down to Wildwood Rd. for DEP site visit. |
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| C • 1 |
| Running in terrain 43:38 [3] | |
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| Back from Wildwood Rd. after DEP site visit, roughly via the Lane-Tyler-Seaver loop, but in reverse. Lots of puddles after all the rain. Managed to find my way through the laurel jungle in the opposite direction pretty well, just a couple of small deviations. Didn't get too wet until the trail that runs over to Holman St., where the section next to the marsh was completely underwater, almost knee-deep in one place. Did I say a month ago that it looked like we wouldn't get a mud season this year? Hah! |
Tuesday May 16 |
| Orienteering race 22:41 [4] *** 2.87 km (7:54 / km) | |
| spiked:13/15c |
| Cat Rock Park sprint. Pretty clean until near the end, when I got sloppy on the last two controls. Pleased that the rain finally let up just in time for the race. Woods still plenty wet, but thankfully this area is not in a floodplain. |
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Sprint - Splits |
Sunday May 14 |
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| Event: 28th Annual Billygoat Run
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| Orienteering race 2:14:34 [3] *** 12.55 km (10:43 / km) +450m 9:06 / km | |
| spiked:20/25c |
| Billygoat, Macedonia Brook. Busted myself on a few routes by opting for some contouring to save climb, but it probably would have been faster if I had just sucked it up and gone over the top instead of sidehilling. Only one or two real navigational errors, but recovery was pretty quick in both cases. Skip choice seems to have been okay, and allowed me to get ahead of Saeger and Mokszycki at the end. |
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- Splits |
Saturday May 13 |
| Orienteering race 14:20 [3] *** 1.8 km (7:58 / km) +50m 7:00 / km | |
| spiked:5/6c |
| Pre-Billygoat sprint #1, Pond Mtn. Not too bad, just a little bobble at #4 due to features on the map being covered by the course. |
| Orienteering race 19:23 [3] *** 1.9 km (10:12 / km) +45m 9:07 / km | |
| spiked:2/5c |
| Pre-Billygoat sprint #2, Pond Mtn. Decidedly less good. "Small" bobble on #2 that actually amounted to a few minutes, way too much for a sprint. Not clean enough on #3, and overran #4 as well. Ugh. |
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Sprint #1 (Yellow) - Splits |
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Sprint #2 (Green) - Splits |
Wednesday May 10 |
| Road running 57:31 [3] 6.5 mi (8:51 / mi) +189m 5:03 / km | |
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| Gilchrest St.x 4. Boring, but as Peter would say, at least I got out. Cool, drizzly day, and not motivated to go sloshing around in the woods. Compared to Morningside, this hill seems as flat as, well... as flat as a rail trail. Splits 13:39, 14:40, 14:50, 14:22. The last round trip definitely had more vigor, because I knew I was approaching the end, but it was also getting pretty hard to see (fading light and wet glasses). |
Tuesday May 9 |
| Assorted 15:00 [2] 2.0 mi (7:30 / mi) | |
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| Pushed/rode/scootered Stephen's bicycle to the bus stop, then when he arrived, I chased him home while he rode. |
Sunday May 7 |
| Shadowing 1:05:00 [1] *** | |
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| College Woods. Followed Stephen to the first two controls on the White course, and when I established that he was doing fine, I let him got off on his own, and went back to the start for Rachel. She is ailing (a cold or something), but went out for her first attempt at Orange. Walking pace, and I coached, discussed routes with her, discussed what we were seeing in the terrain, and made some recommendations for more challenging route choices, just for the practice. Since she wasn't feeling well, and needed to get to her ballet performance, we shortcutted the course by omitting the four controls in the middle that looked to be in a cruftier section of the terrain. She did quite well navigating, which should help her confidence to try Orange on her own |
| Bicycling 48:31 [3] 13.66 mi (3:32 / mi) | |
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| Old/New West Townsend loop. on the Incubus road bike. I think that's the first time I've ridden that bike outdoors, and it's certainly a fine piece of machinery. |
Saturday May 6 |
| Note | |
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| I seem to have done something adverse to my left foot. I don't recall whatever the incident might have been, but it hurts on the inside, kind of on the rear portion of the arch. Feels bruise-like. I spent the day at Steer Roast, though there was nothing involved that should have affected my memory. I'll give it a bit of a rest, and figure it will probably just clear up. |
Thursday May 4 |
| Hang gliding! (Morningside) 24:00 [4] +150m | |
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| Carrying/pushing glider up to about the 60 foot point on the hill. |
| Road running 41:47 [4] 4.09 km (10:13 / km) +410m 6:48 / km | |
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| Morningside 450 x 3. Reasonably warm weather. This hill-climbing stuff is a lot of work. |
| Note | |
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| Bought a red sports car. Except it's blue and green. |
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| C • sports car 1 |