Training Log Archive: CleverSky

Brisk walk back to the inn from the car rental place at the airport, after returning the RAV4 that we had rented for a day to go visit lighthouses and stuff (including driving out on the beach to Great Point).

The earliest things in my head that really qualify as memories, at least that I have any time reference for, are from a trip with my parents to Nantucket, probably in 1965. I specifically remember a couple of things that happened at the hostel where we stayed. Nancy and I stopped by the hostel (closed for the season), but nothing looked familiar.

However, at another location, I was able to get a before and after picture. After 200+ years, the windmill doesn't seem to be changing much. (The vanes are still there, stacked on the ground, I'm assuming they get removed for the winter.)


There was another weird thing, too. Early in my life, I acquired a notion of what "cobblestones" were. But then later on, I encountered "cobblestones", and they looked different than the image that was stuck in my head. The ones I have generally encountered look more or less like this:

But now I know that my original image of them must have come from that Nantucket trip, because Main Street (and some other streets in town) consists of this insanity:

Imagine trying to negotiate that on a tandem with a toddler hanging off the back. You need a big pile of quaintness to get away with this kind of infrastructure.

At least now I know what those ACK stickers on cars mean. I had always thought they were a Bloom County reference.

Nantucket is a weird little place.

Another year gone by. Looks like total training volume was about typical of what I've been doing over the past five years, though with proportionally more hiking and less running, and with more shoveling and snowshoeing than usual, thanks to the record snowfall (I could do without a repeat of that).

I didn't have a stated objective, though I had the unstated objective of being in decent condition for the Highlander, and I felt like I succeeded in that. Although Jeff and Ernst both cleaned my clock, I was well ahead of Bernie and Peggy, and was still moving pretty well at the end, allowing me to come out on top in the duel against the other three people in my vicinity.

I had no orienteering until (other than a bit of hapless ski-O flailing before the Billgoat, where I did okay, and likewise did okay at the Traverse. At the Corn Maze Champs, I spazzed on the first race (as usual), did better after that, and had a lot of fun.

Only six A-meet days this year, four on Blue and two on Red, so I guess I'll get just a Blue ranking (though I stopped paying much attention to rankings a long time ago, so I'm not sure what the current rules are). I do have a nice little bottle of maple syrup sitting here on my desk from my M35 second place.

It's annoying that I have this foot injury, or whatever it is, and at some point I may have tp decide whether to just try running on it and putting up with the discomfort. It doesn't hurt when I'm running, but after I run, it hurts when I walk on it (particularly in the morning), and it hurts if I squeeze in it a particular way (which the other foot does not). What I don't know is whether running on it will cause progressive damage.

I don't think I have any particular goals in terms of things that I'm trying to prepare for (I'm likely to be a non-participant at the NAOC because of my technical role), but I am going to try and have something I can log here every day. (Starting January 2.)

Snow dealings, round 1b: Nancy's driveway. The plan was for Stephen to have shoveled yesterday, but Nancy got off work a little earlier than she expected, and Stephen wasn't home yet. I called later on, expecting Stephen to be outside shoveling, but Nancy said that he was done. Then she called this morning and said that it turned out that all he had done was to spread a little sand on top of the snow. Not impressed. He had a dentist appointment this morning, and had no car, so I was his ride. While he was getting his teeth cleaned, I bought some improved tools, and when we got back to his house, I handed him one and I took another, and we went at it. This refrozen stuff was nearly bulletproof, but I developed a way to deal with it using the steel scraper that I bought, and we got a good portion of the driveway down to bare asphalt. I left the rest to him; we'll see what he does with it.

50 situps.

Snow dealings, round 1a. This was the sort of storm where I figure there was probably a lot of variation in what you got, depending on where you were. In my case, it was two or three inches of sleet. I waited until evening to do anything about it, when it had (I hope) stopped coming down. Dense enough glop that I couldn't use the drive on the snowblower because even the slowest speed was too aggressive, so I had to push the machine by hand (which I think was less effort than shoveling, but I'm not sure). Got it down to where there's enough blacktop showing that it should get down to bare pavement as soon as we get some sun.

Watatic hike with Patti.

13 ring pullups, 50 situps.