Training Log Archive: Charlie

The ruins at Pompeii in the morning, being a guide for my Swedish friend Margareta, then lunch at the rather prosaically named Pizza and Pasta in the town square, a nice place where the owner and I remembered each other from the several times we ate there last year. A very fine rigatoni with eggplant, sausage, bufala and provolone.

Then a trip up Vesuvius, good brisk walk. And late to our new hotel in Paestum.

C • Fish still fresh? 2

Left at 6am on the bus to Pozzuoli to catch the ferry to Ischia, but on the way we learned the ferry from Pozzuoli had been cancelled because of rough water, so we scrambled for another plan, which involved catching another ferry from a different harbor, so longer on the bus, and a much longer ferry ride, arriving at the island at 1030 or so. First start pushed back from 11 to 1130, and it was already 1115 when we arrived at the park, so I had to hustle since I was the third starter.

Small town forest, very thick, but with a lot of trails, mostly faint on the map. Turns out that the course could really be done without going into the thick stuff, which was good because I was wearing shorts. The terrain was very complex, with lots of big rock features, depressions, man-made objects. I was really thrown on the way to the first one and went past it. I never did figure out the map scale until I was done. So maybe a 2.5 min error on 1, then an inefficient route to 2 that cost another minute, and then settled down. One more rather bad error that I got lucky on. Heading from 5 to 6 I got distracted by the parallel line from 8 to 7 and ended up navigating to 7, ready to punch, but it was the wrong code for 6. Took me several seconds to realize why I was in the wrong place, and so maybe another minute lost. However, everybody else was having trouble too, and the times were spread out. When I looked I was 5th of 25 in M70, and on a different course from the M65s.

Had a nice time comparing notes with Bjørn Sandlien, also M70, who remembered meeting PG in the early 90s with some enthusiasm. Nice fellow, seems quite fit.

C • Dove siete arrivati sul'isola? 2

After the race we hiked to a local restaurant for a rather serviceable penne with tomato sauce followed by a rabbit cacciatore that was excellent. Then we had a bus tour of the very interesting island, although I am getting way more bus time than meets my needs. And finally the ferry, this time really to Pozzuoli so it didn't take as long to get back.

Around Capri, from the harbor to town, CCW to the Faraglioni and the natural arch, then a bit of wandering before hustling up to the Villa Iovis, the ruins of the palace of the Emperor Tiberius, didn't have time to go in, because they told us to be back at 1230 at the dock, but then we didn't leave until 130, so I could have toured the grounds.

After a bus ride to Positano and Amalfi, back to the hotel in Sorrento, the very comfortable Flora, in time to see my Norwegian friends on their way out for dinner. As it was raining, a good portion of the group descended on the pizza joint next door. For a very tasty tomato and mushroom pizza, a nastro azzurro beer and a bottle of water, my tab was only 8 euros. Amazing. Super thin crust, it came out almost as soon as I ordered it.

Short race in an old hill town (San Gregorio da Sassola) seemed like it would be fun, easy. It was pouring at the start and fairly cold. The race had three distinct sections. The first was 6 controls in a very steep forested park, impossibly slick and muddy with the rain, uncontrolled sliding down, hand over hand climbing grasping at branches to get back up, then a fast descent through the upper town, a fairly rectangular grid, and finally a warren of steep, narrow winding staircases, very tiny with a blown up map section to illuminate it, but not really enough for me. Even the best time in M70 was over 15 min a K, and I was 10th of 29. This time the M65s did better and I was 21st of 48 overall.

Left Rome this morning and headed now to Naples, and finally tonight to Sorrento.

O-race at Lotti di Garbatella, very intricate apartment complex in southern part of Rome. Short legs, lots of direction changes, hard to see the little passage ways on the move. Never been anyplace quite like it. Several small errors. No big ones.

Worst ones involved going down the wrong street from a complex intersection. Got bailed out one time when I came to a control that turned out to be my #13, which was all I needed to know to then find #12, and made for an easier trip back. Then another chance to learn an old lesson again. Circle seemed to be centered on a thicket, and made a few circles around the thicket and the one next to it before reading the clue. Oh. Inside building corner. And there it was, more or less under my nose. Not that bad, no one leg more than 3 minutes, so no individually debilitating errors.

Ended up 12th out of 37, 16th out of 55 counting the relatively weaker M65 youngsters. Similar to yesterday.

Took the Metro to get there, and left when I was done, getting off the train at Colosseo on e way back and going to the Capitoline Museums. A real favorite.

C • "the relatively weaker M65 youngsters" 1

An hour or so walking around, and then an hour at the Palazzo Barberini, national gallery of art, and conveniently right next to the hotel. Then back to my room for some vigorous rolling to try to prep for the race this afternoon at Garbatella.

Dinner with my Norwegian friends at the excellent Olimpio. They didn't like it as much as I because the lights were too bright, which suited me fine. But there was general agreement that the food was top notch.

3 hours walking around with the photo-o map, Trevi, the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Vatican, Castel Sant' Angelo, many other places. Need a nap.

Long sprint in Villa Borghese. My back was very tight, and slow running, but only one real mistake, lost about a minute, stopping short on #19, and then looking around a bit to try to figure out what happened. 11th out of 37 in M-70. M-65 had the same course, and 18th out of 55 between the two classes. Gps track when I get around to it. Not bad.

When I got back I fell asleep and I missed my dinner companions, so I went alone and had dinner at Olimpio down the street. Excellent! Tonnarelli allo scoglio, that is, pasta with squid, mussels, clams and shrimp in a light tomato sauce. Very fine. Much better than the place we went last night.

C • Beware, the Ides of March! 2

C • Villa Borghese 3

In Rome. Sat with an elderly Albanian woman on the plane. She knew no English, and said she didn't know Italian, but after a bit it seemed her Italian was not so bad, and I remembered a bit of Albanian and we had quite a chat, maybe 90% Italian and 10% Albanian.

Went out for dinner with some Norwegians, including my roommate Jan Gaute. They all live near or past the Arctic Circle. They had quite a trip to get here, too. 6 hour train ride to Trondheim and then the flight. We tried for Anni Cinquanta, about six blocks away, but it was closed and not opening for another 1:15, so we went back and ate nearer our hotel, the Anglo American near Barberini Palace.