Training Log Archive: Lori

Orienteering with Presto at Boxford State Forest! My upper body was a complete mess from dragging myself around on the ice yesterday. However, my lower body was feeling tired but kind of ok, so I figured orienteering would be a fun Sunday activity :-). The course was pretty fun, although the map left something to be desired. I had quite a few moments of not really being able to match the map to the terrain, which definitely slowed things down. Presto had a great time running around in the rain and (apparently) smelling deer. My legs weren't ever feeling particularly fast, but it was good to get out!

Ouch!

Green - Splits

Franconia Ridge loop with SGB and Presto! We intended to head out to NH to do some leaf peeping and decided that clearly the best way to do this would be to combine it with a fun hike. Apparently a good chunk of the rest of New England had this same plan because we ended up having to park on the exit ramp from the highway!

The hike started out really well. The leaves were beautiful, and we were going at a good clip. Presto was having a great time running around sniffing things and people were admiring his jackets :-). About halfway up the mountain there started to be snow on the trees, then the ground, and pretty soon the trail was an icy mess. We hadn't brought microspikes because we weren't expecting quite so much winter, and I had almost no traction. We continued on a bit slower than planned, though and eventually reached the summit of Little Haystack. The ridge was actually really nice hiking because the trail was just covered in snow, not ice and after some debating about whether it would be easier to descend the steeper and quite icy Falling Water Trail or the less steep Bridal Path, we decided to continue on to Lafayette. The views from the ridge were gorgeous with the Presidential Range completely covered in snow and the other mountains a nice orangey-red color.

The problems really started on the descent from Lafayette. I was awkwardly using my arms and legs to haul myself from one extremely small dry patch to another and even still I went down hard a couple of times. Presto was of course completely fine and SGB's shoes seemed a bit better for ice. We got below the icy part of the mountain before sunset (thank goodness!), and then ran as much as we could while we still had some light. Luckily we happened upon some kindly campers just as it was getting completely dark who offered us one of their spare lights, so we made it safely off the mountain. A ton of other people ended up in the same situation because we saw at least 15 people on the trail after dark and there were something like 20 cars in the parking lot/side of the highway on our side of 93 and a similar number on the other side. I hope everyone made it off ok! I can't say it was an experience I want to repeat, but it turned out to be an awesome day!

Running with SGB and Presto after lab in absolutely perfect weather! Presto was totally excited to be out and got even more so when we saw THREE rabbits all right next to each other :-). Running was great tonight!

Hills with Giovanni and Presto at CSU training! Lab was freezing today and I was cold enough walking home that I ended up overdressing both myself and Presto, but I think he'll forgive me :-). Presto and I were the only ones to show up at Giovanni's tonight, so after waiting a few minutes we headed off to do 9 reps of Prospect Hill. It was fairly uneventful in a running up and down a hill sort of way, although we did see the smallest dog ever. I'm not even sure this dog would come up to Presto's wrist! We couldn't stay for dinner, but Giovanni did show me their new tandem mountain bike! Craziness!