Training Log Archive: CleverSky

Marble Hill. This place is near my office, but I'd never been here before. Ran with a trail map (with contours) from the town website, which was nicely color-coded to match the blazes. The woods here looked more scruffy and less interesting than the other places I've been running lately (not that I left the trail, mind you).

I went to the Banff Film Festival last night in Portsmouth, with Nancy and Jon Nash. I had a ticket for a concert tonight, but it's been postponed (by 11 months). Stephen is in a show that we're scheduled to see tomorrow night, which so far is still slated to happen. Looks like the DVOA meet in a little over a week has been axed, and I expect that will also be the case for some other things looming on my schedule. We got a memo at work today basically suggesting that we work from home, though the office will not be closed. I'm planning to continue to go in unless they do close the facility, because I don't work well from home, I'm not really set up to do so, and I don't think the office will present much of an infection risk since it will be nearly deserted.

Looking forward, hang gliding does not seem to present much of a risk of infection.

C • Conservatory will be closed... 3

A short out and back from Nancy's house, first thing in the morrning, because I wasn't going to have time later. A little chilly in just a T-shirt.

Rattlesnake Hill. Managed to do pretty much the loop I had in my head, for a change. Lots of frogs singing in the pond up top.

Another neighborhood variation, In The Dark. I got another new headlamp in the mail today, this one very similar (identical?) to the one I liked the best but that became unreliable. This was a rather uninspired little jaunt, but it was nice to be able to do it in a T-shirt.

C • New headlamp? 2

Ansonia, HVO/WCOC winter training, Red, 6.5 km, 290 m. Mostly pretty good the woods were nice as usual, except for being a little slow in some recently logged areas where there were a lot of branches on the ground. Visibility was outstanding, and the weather was basically perfect.

Two mistakes, and one clerical error. I was mentally distracted on #2 and missed by just a bit on the uphill side, but I failed to turn and see it; found it just fine on the way back, but the time loss was close to four minutes, moving slowly while relocating. On #17, I was off to the right coming into the logged area, and underestimated the challenge of spotting the stone wall. My first guess as to which was I was off was correct, but after going a little way, I second-guessed myself and went the other way, until I got a better look at the group of boulders in that direction and saw where I was. About three minutes on that one. Also kind of slow on #16 because I was reading the map poorly, and was wrong about where I was, but I kept going in the right direction and "spiked" it.

Then the clerical error. I spiked #11, but then on the short leg to #12, nothing made any sense. I was completely perplexed. I went back to #11 to confirm that it was the right control, but it was on a really unambiguous feature. Tried heading to #12 again, and was baffled in the same way. Adequate examination of the map finally clued me in to what was happening. The course did a little loop at 11-12-13, so that the 10-11 leg passed close to 13. After going to #13, I then tried to navigate as if I were going from #11, but of course that wasn't where I was. Once this dawned on me, I went to the real #11, and everything was fine from there. 7-8 minutes lost on those shenanigans. My split at "11" is therefore bogus, and all of the rest are shifted by one.

15 minutes lost is pretty pathetic. But it's just training.

splits
RouteGadget

C • #13 2

Home from Nancy's house after dropping off her car, on the Incubus. Temp in the low 40s F, I think, and a decent headwind the whole way (though not nearly as strong as it would have been earlier in the day). I took a bunch of back roads (twistier and hillier), avoiding the numbered ones as much as possible.

Rattlesnake Hill, In The Dim. With a map this time, which I looked at a little. Finally turned the headlamp on with a few minutes to go, because I realized that my inability to see my footing had slowed me almost to a walk. Would have been a very different story if it hadn't been overcast.