Training Log Archive: CleverSky

Midstate Trail, Barre Falls Dam to East Hill Road in Rutland. Started sprinkling around 5K, and continued enough to get me damp without ever real being full-on rain, at least where I was, but I could hear thunder. I had initially thought about going a little further, but I was not at all unhappy when I got to my bike. Less than half a Highlander -- I've got a lot of work to do.

Leisurely ride back to the car. I walked the bike for the first stretch because it was on a dirt road, and started the watch when I started riding. The rail trail was very pleasing. There had been bugs while I was running, and when I was going uphill on the bike and slowed down, they were back: the occasional FDF stuck in my hair, and a cloud of 6-10 gnats right in front of my face (very annoying).

Getting to the place where I dropped of my bike, and then back to the start of the run, was a boondoggle, in part because I was doing it by GPS instead of using a map. But on the way there, I saw one of the most horrifying things I've ever witnessed. Just south of Rutland center, there was a bunch of motorcycles on a group ride on the other side of the road, and the vehicle two spots in front of me was a pickup truck signaling for a left turn. I don't know if it was impatience or an appalling misjudgment of a gap, but the truck made the left right into them and basically collided head-on with a Harley, resulting in the 250 pound rider being tossed into the air like a rag doll and coming down hard on the pavement, after which he wasn't moving (and my view was blocked right after that by a car that turned sideways to stop traffic). There were plenty of witnesses, and I could see that somebody was already calling 911, so I turned around and left. I hope I don't keep seeing that scene in my dreams all night.

C • oh wow 2

Groton Rail Trail. I wanted to do something not too stressful on a hot, muggy evening, and I also wanted to test out the new GPS watch that I got on Ken's recommendation. Seems quite satisfactory, and better than my previous watch, in terms of size and user interface. Looks like I had automatic 1-km splits enabled, in addition to the ones that I hit for practice.

I did a decent job of mounting and staying on. I tried to do turns at both ends -- the rail trail is too narrow, but I've got width to work with at the road crossings. I might have succeeded on the first one if the road had been less steep, and on the second one I was just tired.

C • Watch 3