Training Log Archive: Charlie

Very pleasant visit last night and this morning with George and Leslie and sister-in-law Linda, all on their way to meet up with George's brother on his AT through hike somewhere near Hanover NH. They will visit with him at road crossing, re-supply him and the like for a week.

Finally got around to putting my maps from the Italian 5-day together:

stage 1
stage 2
stage 3
stage 4
stage 5 part 1
stage 5 part 2

C • Stage 5, Part 2: #'s 12 and 15 4

C • Maps 6

Pretty nice out. Rhonda was going to Stanclift to swim, so we negotiated a pickup there. I overestimated the time and arrived early which was good, since Rhonda decided there were too many people in the water for swimming to be interesting and one quick look confirmed it. A hot day, but pleasant enough riding on shady country roads. Only hot spot was coming across the dam.

Good session with Eric, back feeling about as good as it has in the last few years, but still a bit tired from the travel. Really good on the DLs and goblet squats.

Long travel day yesterday, thought I would sleep this morning, but up at 3:30. Will probably crash later.

Stopped by Francesca's for a short visit with Tullio and Giulia, who are headed home today.

A little gentle swim at Stanclift with Rhonda, who moves a fair amount faster these days.

Best race of the week, city sprint in Pinzolo, 15k down the mountain from MdC. We got early starts so we could get on our way to Milano after the race. They had advertised it as a mixture of forest and town, but it was instead two town sections separated by 1 km along the road. Very fun, 3 small bobbles, starting to turn one street too soon on the way to 7 but corrected pretty quickly, a little confused on the way to 11 because the map numbering was wrong and I was trying to figure out whether I was supposed to go to 12 or 15 next (it was 15), and suddenly found them had lost count of intersections, and finally went by the entrance to a parking lot and came around from the other side. The last was the worst, probably 40 seconds or so. Not bad, and ended up 14th out of 45 or so. Then a little visit with Daria, Peppino , Renato and the kids and on our way down the valley, arriving in Dormelletto at Matt and Sheryl’s around 3:15. Excellent.

Checking results after, Katia won W40!

stage 5 part 1
stage 5 part 2

C • W40 2

Walk to the start, as steep or steeper than advertised, but not as long.

Not my best work. Day 4 at Carlo Magno, finish at the bottom of the ski lift. A great deal of difficulty with several controls.

stage 4

1. Appeared to be easy, Head in from trail, ski run to a lone tree, but a lone tree in a forest and a tree really no different from any other, and lost about 3 minutes hunting for it in a really small area, flag tucked in low.
2. Would have been much smarter to drop a few lines and take a trail, but the trails are often hard to tell from the elephant tracks. Would also have been smart to realize there was a spur that led to it, but instead I shuttled a few times between two other controls that were nearby, visiting each of them twice.
3. Much better, through the yellow to the hill, no problem.
4. Also fine. Had to cross amreLly deep reentrant, but angled up the far side and ran right to it.
5. This control was at a tower, and I went right to it, but didn’t see the tower or the flag, but after a while, there was the flag tucked in low, right next to me, and there was the tower, although it didn’t look like much.
6. Easy on compass and top of the hill.
7. Pretty physical crossing the deep reentrant, but came right to it. My time was really slow, so I guess there was a better way.
8. I guess ok, as I got over to the right area, and only had to climb back a line to get t.
9. Kind of a disaster. Judy dropped a few lines and took a trail almost right to it. I went cross country, hitting the wrong trail a bit higher up, and ending up well past it at a ski run. Fought my way back to the right area, but got sucked off by another control a bit past. Finally corrected, at least 5 minutes gone. 10. Downhill, just keep going.
38th on the day, by far my worst, around 26th through 4 days.

A bit late this morning, off to “our” coffee bar, greeted by the charming waitress who asks us if we want “di solito “, that is, the usual. Nice to be regulars. Double espresso cappuccino each and a brioche to share. Nice place. Then back to the apartment to have breakfast with Daria and Peppino.

Pretty good race at Grostè, at least until the end. The last control not counting the go control was a very short leg to a pit, but I just couldn’t seem to find it, wandering around looking in all the unmapped pits, eventually going back to the prior control and still getting within a few meters and not seeing it. Finally climbed on a hill and could see it from there. Frustrating. I was in 11th place after 13 legs, finished 27th.

stage 3


1. Through a bit of a lumpy area, followed the road a bit then across a broad lumpy reentrant and could see the saddle ahead of me, just hard to get there. Better would have been to cut over before the reentrant and look for the narrow path that led very close. But no trouble finding it.
2. Fun leg, climbed a fairly large hill, not steep, and from the top I could see the valley with a couple of marshes, a couple of depressions and about 80 cows. Aim for the cows, who were guarding the flag closely, but showed no interest in the approaching runners.
3. Over a hill and along the ridge of it, but confused by the proliferation of unmapped rocky pits and stopped short for a while. Maybe lost a minute or so.
4. Pretty direct, no difficulty, barely remember it.
5. Up hill, Katia passing me like a shot, over the top, the big reentrant in front of me, cliff at the top, and knew my control was just below and beyond the cliff. Spike, and 7th fastest time on the leg.
6. Another spike, going right of the hills and up the slot with the mapped ditch, right in, and 6th fastest on the split.
7. Tentative, across the reentrant and came up a little high, checked another rock first, lost a bit of time, maybe 2 minutes.
8. Straight down, easy.
9. Down near the trail, and suddenly a lot of people around. Easy.
10. Neglected to follow the train and got off a bit to the right, stopped and looked left and corrected, maybe a minute.
11. Slow, took the trail, but not far enough and had to look for it from below, harder than coming in from above, maybe a minute.
12. To the road, and then tough steep climb to the hilltop. O problem , just tiring and slow.
13. Over a little spur to the pit. Not hard
14. Shortest leg of the course, but went right by it, then spent a lot of time searching, back to 13, tried again and still couldn’t find it. 9 minutes lost by the time I tracked it down.
15. Straight, down and up. Right would have been better.
F. Somehow had the fastest split here, even though it was the same leg and time as the day before, but it came after an uphill leg here and people were tired. I did get passed in the chute by a younger guy, though.

So mostly pretty good. Took the lift down after, and walked back with Jeff and Judy, tired but not as tired as yesterday.

Very pleasant antipasto at Jeff and Judy’s beautiful apartment. Theirs is a lot better equipped than ours, and much more conveniently located. For example, we will walk a km and a quarter to their place on our way to go up the mountain to the start tomorrow.

We had been driving to the base of the lift with G and K and walking back, but everybody is walking tomorrow.