Training Log Archive: Charlie

Huntington bonus Brown course. Generally entertaining, but a little trouble navigating. 1 was fine, saw the flag from a distance. 2 was basically ok, but I found myself pushed off to the right more than I wanted to be. 3 I was following the wrong stone wall for a while, and ended up going by 4 on the way, so 4 turned out to be easy. Got a stick in the face on the way to 5, knocked my glasses off, then was having trouble seeing for a while until I rubbed the lenses with a handkerchief, but the control wasn’t hard, just along the wall. 6 was another case of getting pulled off to the right, slow progress, but no trouble finding it. 7 I did have a little trouble. Got to the area, but I was one knoll S and had to hunt a bit. 8 was fine, although I cut over too soon and had to see where I was relative to the marsh below. 9 was just a loss of focus. Maybe the easiest leg of all, but I didn’t read the map well, and whatever I was looking at I was expecting a stone wall. finally just went back to 8 and did it over. Probably at least a 5 min error. Then on the way to 10 I was pulled off a bit to the right, surprised to be on the trail, then at the end I got pulled up to another boulder farther up the hill, so maybe another minute or so.

When I got back to the car, there was Joe, apparently finishing up a mountain bike ride. While I considered the protocol these days for going over to say hi to a friend and secured my mask, he was packing up and gone. It sure if he saw me, and too late to go try to say hi to him.

I got tired the last few legs, but the hardest part of this is always the ride home. After about 45 minutes the L leg was throbbing. Next time I will remember to pull off the highway and walk around for a minute or two.

A couple of hours in the garden weeding.

HSP Bonus 3.9km course - Splits

Stroll at the lake with our neighbors Glen and Karen. Mostly with Karen, as Glen went off running. I thought about going with him, but saw how sprightly he was and immediately thought better of it.

We had been after Zack to fix the electric fence around the vegetable garden and after some protracted negotiations we had bought an AC controller that we can plug in to the outlet on our deck, rather than the solar powered one that had failed, and needed at least a new controller and a new battery, and maybe a new solar panel. We had the solar set up because it had been previously used when we fenced a clear cut in or about 2007, and then we moved it to the garden when we didn't need it in the forest any longer. '

Anyway, I built an over-sized bird house to house the controller and Zack hooked it up. Not all the wires seem to be getting current, though, so I will have to investigate some more. My hip got way out of sorts during the operation, so some significant rolling and a trip to the hot tub to try to jolly it.

C • current 4

This was hard. The back is on fire, presumably due to the knot in the hip area.

McLean GR, from the trailhead on Barndoor Hills Rd near the corner with Simsbury Rd. This is an old favorite, and I have been thinking about doing it for some long time. Looking it up, haven't done this route since January 2016, and the various injuries and infirmities I have had have made me put it off, and then there is the lack of interest on the part of my usual training partner, but she was off on a two hour walk, so I had the time, and was feeling more than usually spunky. A couple of goals: complete the 5 miles without stopping to walk; do it in under 70 min. In the early going, I thought I had a chance to be near 60, but as things wore on and I got to the hillier sections and the more uneven footing I was slowing down. Lots of roots on some sections. Only one trip - not nearly a fall, but a good jolt to the hamstring. In sum, an excellent experience. Pretty hard, but feel really fine afterwards.

I passed on Rhonda's morning walk around the neighborhood, but got a couple of calls from her reporting that Luther was out there, walking parallel to her in the woods while she was on the road. Then in the course of a 4 mile walk she also saw two other bears.

C • Luther 5

With Rhonda at the lake, her track, as I must have pushed a wrong button, or not pushed hard enough. Including a stop with a folding saw to cut off a pointy stick that invaded the trail, too big for the loppers I had brought the other day.

Short outing. 4x8 Romanian DLs at 75, 75, 75, 95
2x 8 conventional DLs at 95. Felt fine. The hamstring seems like it is well on its way to recovery. Amazing how quickly something can heal if you find the right trick for the particular injury. This was impervious to most of the usual stretching and strengthening, but responded very quickly to the RDLs. It has been a long time since I did Deadlifts, because they bugged the hamstring too much. Seems like I can do them just fine now.

First run in a while. Hard, slow, but nothing particularly hurt, so this was successful.

Doing a little maintenance along the trail and this fellow hopped across. Reasonably well camouflaged, but he is just above the mountain laurel leaf at the bottom left. Now that we are learning about frogs, seems this guy is a wood frog.

C • Frog 2