Training Log Archive: Charlie

With R&S at the lake. Not feeling particularly spunky.

Did some laying around, finally got it together enough to go do some brush mowing for an hour. Not bad.

Caught the 6am bus at the stop across from the hotel, with a few Norwegians and a Kazakh woman from the meet. Comfortable double decker, and we were the first aboard. A few more at the bus station, and then filled up at the station in Pescara, in full light. Then straight to Fiumicino, through beautiful countryside, green fields, mountains, forest, hilltop towns.

Long day. Arrived at JFK at 8, rented a car, went to Jess's to meet Zack. Jess's friends Meg and Kevin, also friends of Zack's were there, so we hung out a while, finally home at 1:15 am.

Very intricate sprint race in Montorio nei Frentani, small town in the mountains of Molise, not far from Campobasso. I went back later and walked the course quite a bit faster than I had run it. We had a remote start and somehow I didn’t comprehend how I had arrived at the start triangle and so was mistaken leaving it. Nothing lined up and so I lost a good 3 minutes before I found the first control. Rattled, I had a hard time settling down. But others did as well. We had a map change, flipping it over after 6 controls, and that was the occasion for another error. Took me a bit to find the second triangle at the 6th control, in part because I was looking for a 6 and not a triangle, and then didn’t see the 7 right away, but instead headed for 17. When I got untracked, I still found 10 before 7, which at least made it easy to find 10 later when I needed it. Again 5th out of 6, ahead only of my friend Stein and only by 20 seconds. He had also got stuck flipping the map over.

Lovely town. Had some excellent pizza, only 5€ for a mushroom pizza I could only eat 2/3 of, but plenty of Norwegians to share it with. €0.80 for a coffee. Not a town up to date on modern prices.

Plenty of opportunity to chat up the mayor, the carabinieri and several residents, complimenting them on the lovely place. Very colorful- we were serenaded by a fellow who played a fine fisarmonica (accordion) and another on a zampogna (Italian bagpipe), playing traditional songs. Quite a festive occasion.

Montorio nei Frentani sprint part 1

Montorio nei Frentani sprint part 2

C • Montorio nei Frentani 5

Back early enough to get mostly packed and head to the beach for a last swim. Warm water, soft sand, sun shining, beach deserted. Really fine. And then a walk along the sand for half an hour to dry off enough for packing. Excellent.

Today was for me the nicest day. I really enjoyed the tiny mountain town and the atmosphere, had a short nap on the bus, and nice to get back in the daylight.

At the ski area above 1500 m at Passalanciano. In the fog, and couldn’t clear my glasses. Generally ok, with some errors. Worst was #3, wrong side of a patch of trees, and lost about 3 min. Then smaller errors, less than 1 min each, at 5 and 6. The fastest guy had caught me up at 6, and I was pleased to hold him off the rest of the way.

Maielletta ski area morning race

2nd of two races in the forest along the ski slope at Maiella. This was primary la a downhill run, with a bus to take us back up to the start. Very rocky and slippery, and re-injured my bruised foot from ten days ago at Harris Center. Mostly quite good, but the best runner in my group had caught me up from 4 minutes back at #7, and it was pretty illuminating to see him scamper through the boulder field that I was finding so difficult to traverse. Only one real mistake, when I stopped too soon on the way to #3 and was confused in the rocky ground. Probably cost around 3 min. 9 min back of the leader, my biggest deficit, and 5th again.

Maielletta ski area afternoon race

With Giulia again, at the beach. This time there were several orienteers, so she led the class in English. Very nice class. It would be good to do it right before the race.

Fun race in the beautiful old town of Lanciano, quite old, includes the Bridge of Diocletian from the 3rd century. Once again mostly fine, but rounded a corner lookin for the third corner on my right and found myself in a group of kids and got distracted enough to lose count, ended up going down the wrong set of stairs and around cost a minute or so. 5th again today, bit only 3 minutes behind.

Lanciano sprint

C • Was this... 2

Pleasant gentle yoga class led by Giulia, who just took her certification exam Saturday, so her first time as a pro instructor. It was advertised to the orienteers, but only I and 3 of the meet staff showed up, so instruction was in Italian, even better.

Nice city sprint in Vasto. Mostly ok, but a few bobbles. The worst in an area we crossed a few times. Lots of circles there. I was headed right but convinced myself I had to go back one corner. So I did, and then realized the mistake. About a minute there. Others more minor. One where I thought the control was on an unmapped statue in a park, circled it, scratched my head, then found it on a light pole on the other side of a bush. Best time was about 24:56. I was 5th of 7.

Besides the usual Scandinavians, I chatted up the Belgians who had been in Laramie this summer, Dirk Goossens and Linda Verbraken, and also Nick Barrable and his young family, wife Sara-Jane and baby 9 mos.old.

Vasto sprint

Intended to walk to town, but felt like I was getting roasted by the sun along the beach, so doubled back for sunscreen. Try again.

So this was the walk into Vasto, along the beach, with a pretty ferocious climb up to the top, then a stop for lunch at a place along the Loggia Amblingh, the footpath that climbs to the upper town. Forgot to turn off the watch, so I deducted about half an hour. Lunch was very good, Cozze ripiene ala vastese, that is, stuffed mussels, Vasto-style. Not sure how they do the stuffing, but it was very tasty, with a clear broth that tasted of the sea and tomato and onion.

By the end I was a bit tired and footsore, but no race today, so just a little time to relax.

Departure day from Alto Molise, and quite a fine time. A little taken aback by my bill this morning for 3 nights stay and 3 full and spectacular dinners. Less than €200! I pressed another 60€ in cash on her, which seemed to be a big surprise to her, so that felt a little better, but I would certainly have been happy paying quite a bit more. Not in any rush, so stopped in Carovilli to walk around a bit. Classic little Italian hillside town, very intricate, nice architecture, lots of narrow curving staircases in all directions. Quite a fine place for a sprint, but of course many old European towns are.

Then thought I would go for another walk in the forest preserve at Collemelluccio, but to my surprise it is closed on the weekends! Never would have thought. So on my way, a bit earlier than I had planned. A very pleasant drive down to the sea through rolling country, quite open, with rather pointy hill tops with villages perched on them like jewels.

Glad I had taken the trouble to learn Italian traffic signs and rules, as it made me feel more secure driving, but alas it is a trouble that not very many of the other motorists have gone to, including the guy who passed me, pulling into the oncoming lane and over a crosswalk when I stopped to let a lady cross. She had the sense to stop in front of me to make sure of what the guy was doing. But otherwise driving was easy and pleasant. I was able to drop the car half a mile from the hotel in Vasto, so pretty easy. I will take a bus next Saturday when it is time to go home.

Here in Vasto it is quite warm. No one at the beach, though. I asked the lady at the desk and she said that for them it was winter and in fact she had a sweater on. I was sweating in my t-shirt.

I came to an accommodation with her. I addressed her in Italian and she responded in English, I responded again in Italian and she in English, after the third time she asked me if I wanted to speak Italian and I told her I come to Italy to speak Italian, and now we understand each other. This was certainly not a problem in the mountains.

C • Alto Molise 8

Part of a walk along the beach from the hotel. Didn’t start the watch until I had been going a while, and 5his was the second excursion anyway. The first one was in flip flops after going for a swim and I was a little concerned about going any further. So back to get sneakers. Beach is good for walking.

Back to Montedimezzo for a longer excursion. This would certainly be quite a fine place to run, but that seems pretty remote to me right now. Some very different terrain, some very rocky, mossy and dense, some very open white oak forest. Many miles of marked trails in this forest. There is a sign a good ways in that says you should be out at closing time, 4:30 this time of year, so good I left when I did yesterday. I might have missed it, but I didn’t see a similar sign nearer the entrance.

Then back to Villa San Michele, determined to put in a better effort to find some of my friend Lina’s relatives. Parked and saw a few women talking together and I went and asked them if they knew Lina. Well, yes they did, and one of them was her cousin Maria. Then I asked them about the place where they package truffle products, which seemed closed when I went by earlier, and one of the women looked down the street and said, ther he comes now, and it was the guy with the truffle business. So I went off with him for a bit and he packaged up some truffles for me. Then back to visit Maria, who now had an elderly woman named Irma with her, complete with obligatory black dress. Irma was pretty hard to understand, but Maria is pretty excited about Lina, and pretty soon she calls her up and we all chat and laugh for a while. Then she offers me a coffee, and pretty soon she is cooking spaghetti, and there is some meat, a giardiniere of carrots and cauliflower, some delicious bread, some homemade wine. Quite the spread. Then we headed up the street past Lina’s grandfather’s house to where Lina’s nephew and wife and baby Nicola live. Nicola is 9 months old, and there’s a great-grandmother there, complete with both head covering and black dress. Quite a nice couple of hours, and then I was on my way to Agnone to tour the bell factory there, on the fervent advice of my host Enzo, who will be glad to hear about it.

C • Well, that sounds wonderful... 7

Brisk walk around well-maintained trail network at the Collemeluccio forest preserve. Very nice. Lots of recent activity in terms of water bars, side spurs for views and historic artifacts, like the ruins of an old mill by the Tigno River.

And then a nice chat with the ranger about the place, who recommended the somewhat larger Montedimezzo reserve near S. Pietro Avellana. I told her what I was doing there, and on my way to orienteering in Vasto, and she was familiar and said there was orienteering around here, but just not right now.

At the ancient Samnite theater in Pietrabbondante. Nice setting. The theater is pretty small by Roman standards, but pretty well preserved. Bored looking guy collecting the 4€ entry fee, paved path down, one sign. But a pretty dramatic setting. After I figured out why the town is so named. I had thought maybe because of the extensive stone works at the site, but now it seems more likely from the huge cliffs and peaks that surround the village a few km distant.

After driving around some more, to Agnone, recommended by my host Enzo, Vastogirardi, back to Villa San Michele, where I walked by the old railway station and the cemetery. The train only runs about once a month now, a ceremonial sort of tourist attraction, and the station with its sign for V S MICHE E looks like it won’t be getting a new L anytime soon.

Then hiking a bit in Montedimezzo. I wasn’t sure what their hours were, so started feeling a bit anxious and cut the walk short because the parking was inside the gate. Steeper terrain, more trails. Maybe return tomorrow. Anyway I left at around 4:30, drove on to the town nearby, and then to see the larger town of Castel di Sangro, across the border in Abruzzo. Nice, but I didn’t really feel a reason to be there and headed back. Passed the forest preserve and it’s locked gate at 5:30, so good I left when I did.

After a short nap, down to dinner, another fine antipasto, similar, saving the two tastiest items for last the tiny bruschetta with truffles and the knot of fresh cheese on a lettuce leaf, but all was good. Then homemade ravioli stuffed with spinach and ricotta and a light tomato sauce. Enzo explained to me what is so good about Agnone. They have a bell factory that gives tours. Apparently they make the finest bells in the world, but yesterday when he was saying “campane” (bells), it sounded to me like “gambate”, which doesn’t mean anything to me. He is a little tough for me to understand. Anyway, he explained and I got him to slow it down enough that I got it. We watched a bit of tv news together.

And then to bed, pretty tired.

This was the second of three little walks.

Arrived in Rome this morning uneventfully, rented a car and headed south toward Naples for quite a while before the left turn up into the mountains to Alto Molise. First stop was the tiny village of Villa San Michele, the home town of my friends Lina and Angelo. Parked at the church and walked around town for a bit. Nothing going on there. I saw maybe 4 people, 3 of them a fair amount older than I am. Down the hill a bit to see the old town, Pagliarone, destroyed by a pair of landslides in 1933 and 1960. Villa San Michele, built primarily in the 60s, doesn’t have the charm of old Italian hilltop villages, but it is in a beautiful location in the mountains. Then on to my lodgings at Masseria Monte Pizzo, a few kilometers away, and walk #2, this one, tramping along on and off the ancient tratturo, the pathway along which sheep were herded from the mountains to the winter pastures by the sea 100 years ago or more.

Then it was definitely time for a nap.

Then the third walk, down the hill on the one lane road that ends at the Masseria, to the railroad bridge. Don’t really know if there is still regular train service.

Then it was dinner time. The Masseria is a family operation, father, mother and daughter. My conversation with the dad informed me that they are 63, 57 and 39 respectively. They have 4 rooms and restaurant seating for about 40, but alas I was the only customer tonight.

One always eats well in Italy, but this is quite a special place. The mamma is the cook and she is excellent. Very good bread, of course, 1/4 liter of vino bianco, then an antipasto plate, very varied, everything excellent. A small piece of torta salata, two pieces of bruschetta, one with black truffles and one with tomatoes, a small piece of frittata, slices of parmigiano e caciocavallo cheeses. A bit of fresh cheese that Nadia, the daughter called a nodino (a little knot), a piece of eggplant, sautéed perfectly, a stuffed mushroom, four kinds of salumi: prosciutto, braciola and two others, one spicy, and a little pot of caciocavallo that had been melted in the oven with hazelnuts and honey.

Wonderful. My favorites were the nodino and the black truffle bruschetta, but it was all wonderful.

Then there was a first plate, home made tagliatelle with black truffles and mushrooms, the mushrooms wonderfully crisp. A lot of olive oil was involved. Just delicious. Then a dolce, semi-freddo al caffè. That is, coffee ice cream with a bit of chocolate sauce and some little roasted coffee beans. There was also a choice of home made liqueurs. Just outstanding.

C • Quite a day! 5

Legs were sore and tired, cut it short.

Event: NEOC: Townsend State Forest
 

225 squats. Getting easier, but it does take some concentration.

Event: Five + Five Vasto
 

I rode up to the Harris Center with PG, quite a pleasant excursion. I was waffling between Brown and Green, and chose poorly. Brown was listed as 3.0K and Green as 4.9, but Green ended up taking me quite a long time, and it wasn't until after that I saw Brown had been on a 1:5000 map, which would have been great fun.

Map and route.

1. Started out with good discipline, not too fast, keeping a tight compass, headed for the S end of the marsh and read the land up and in.
2. Short leg, on compass, kept the hill on my left, could see the boulders.
3. Executed my plan, bearing right down the drainage and across the knoll to minimize the marsh crossing, then reading boulders and knolls up and in, seeing Peter at the control.
4. Plan was to get down to the stream and follow it, at least for a while. Hit it a little right of the corner, but then followed a bit and then crossed where there was a friendly looking log, up the right side, crossed smaller stream on another friendly log, up the hill and just beyond. Easy.
5. Another log to cross and around the left side of the big hill, across the reentrant, saw the big rocks and in on compass, looking for the dot knolls coming up. Couldn't guarantee it was on the right one, but I came right to it, so punch and go.
6. This is where the 1:5000 map would have been a help, as I couldn't figure out what was going on in the area of the circle. Crossed the stone wall, which might have been some help but I didn't see it on the map, then on compass, coming through apparently just left of the control, but no idea. Milled around quite a bit beyond, Came back and missed, then south to the stone wall, but not careful enough relocating and again just missed it. South to the wall again, relocated on the crescent shaped hlll beyond and then back and in. Just never go the hang of the area.
7. Tried to head SE, but seemed like deadfall kept pushing me south, kept trying to correct, but eventually hit the curving stone wall near the curve, crossed it twice and then got on a better compass line. Got in the area of #2 and thought I would find that again just to confirm, so I did. Kept pushing SE, through some big rocks, down the the trail and followed it to near the N tip of the big marsh and headed in N of the marsh. Glen came by at a pretty high rate of speed. Got on the wrong hill complex, and bent around to where I could see the EW stone wall I had already passed, which certainly felt dumb, but then it was an easy matter just to head south get on top of the hill and find it.
8. Headed W until I got on the long hill, then down to the SW, missing it on the right and hooking back a bit.
9. Another place where I couldn't make sense of what the circle was going to look like and made a number of parallel errors. Finally bailed out to the trail going EW 150 M or so N, but the trail didn't quite look like the map to me. Found what I thought wer the big roks NW of the sharp bend in the trial, although the sharp bend on the map didn't look at all like that on the ground. Anyway, careful coming back between big rock features and got it that time.
10. N, picking up a bit of the trial on the W side of the small marsh, crossing the next trail in a bunch of boulders and on compass, following the shape of the land. Used big boulders on my right as a distance gauge. No trouble.
11. Should have been easy, along the right side of the hilltop, then crossed over thinking I would pick up the trail for a bit, but crossed it without seeing it and when I found the trail going NW SE I assumed I was R of the junction when I was left, and so spent some time stumbling around on the wrong hill, tweaking my foot a bit and getting really tired.
12. Drifted right, tired, footsore, Eventually got close enough to the mowed grass to see I had to go a ways to the left.
F. Slow, glad to get back, even if it took a while.

Peter had, of course, been back for a really long time, had some nice visits with the various people who had showed up, all lost on me, since I had spent all that time stumbling around the course.

And then a very pleasant ride back to Peter's a nice visit with Gail and a chance to admire her very fine new bike and then home a bit later, tired.

220 squats. Wasn't sure I was going to do this, as I was tired and back-sore, but it wasn't too bad. Glad to get it done.

Green - Splits

Feeling a bit sore, tired. Seemed like an easy day would be good