Training Log Archive: CleverSky

Town Forest, trying the trail from yesterday on foot, with a random ratty pair of O-shoes from the bottom of the pile. I see now that the first part of it is on the privately-owned, landlocked parcel. Rather than just go back the simple way, I took a page from the deep past and went up the long-neglected Horse trail, and went right, the way I used to, up through the gorgeous woods along the town border where nobody ever goes. And then back via Mystery Blazes. What I think I need to do now is to try and scout out whether there's a way to get from where the new trail pops out on the Powerline trail, parallel to the town line, to the nice woods, bypassing the flooded trail sections. Worth investigating, though I suspect it's thick and/or marshy.

This was a good solid effort, felt good once I got going, on a pretty nice afternoon. Now to put on the hazmat suit and do a grocery run.

Well, that didn't work. I usually go to the supermarket in the hour before they close, in part because it's not crowded then. When I got there tonight, I found out that they're closing an hour early now. One of the employees was coming out as I arrived, and she said that they open at 7 AM for people over 60, and 8 AM for everybody else. I asked if I was over 60, and she said she didn't think so. I guess that's good -- although I'm only 19 months away, despite the white hair and wrinkles at least I don't look older than I actually am. Don't know whether I'll go back in the morning, or just chill and go tomorrow night, it's not like I'm out of food yet. And I also learned that reusable bags are now banned statewide.

C • hazmat suit 4

C • Reusable bags 10

Noodling around in Town Forest. I checked out the new trail that I found last time I went running here (the northern loop), which turned out to be quite pleasant, out on an esker between two marshes, then a U turn when it dead-ended, back along the base of the esker, then veer off and connect to the Powerline trail, which is unfortunately still annoyingly plagued by water hazards, some beaver-induced. My skillz were pretty good, the only dismounts were to get past wet areas, and I even surprised myself by negotiating the stonepile culvert just before exiting to Gilchrest. Beautiful afternoon.

Home to the Nashua River in Groton. After our hike yesterday, Nancy came by my house for dinner, and when she went home, she forgot her phone on my kitchen table. She wanted to go to Gibbet Hill for the sunset, so that seemed perfect, I could ride over and deliver the phone, then ride home. I was making pretty good time when

BANG!! I didn't actually recognize the sound immediately, but then I felt the roughness of the pavement and knew I had a flat. The sudden loud sound suggested that it was a sidewall blowout. I considered how much further I had to go, and weighed that against the chances that I could even fix it if it was indeed a blowout, and decided that my best bet was to push/carry the bike the rest of the way, and get a ride home from Nancy. And I made it to to the top of the hill just in time for the sunset. I never even thought about the fact that Broadmeadow woudl have been shorter (not usually an option because part of it is one-way).

A piece of the Midstate, with Nancy, from Bushy Lane to Barre Falls Dam. The Midstate is usually deserted, so it was a sign of the times that we encountered seven people (before we got to the more densely trafficked area near the dam), including one guy with a backpack who was on Day 2 of a through hike, north to south.

Nobscot, social distancing Green, 5.9 km. Navigated quite well, the only goof was on #5, a pit on the far side of an area busy with rock. I missed a bit to the right, scratched my head for a bit, then bounced off the trail beyond it. A couple of ankle wrenchings, but I don't think there was any lasting harm done. Definitely not the best choice of shoes, there were a few times when coming downhill when my traction on the leaves was far inferior to what spikes would have provided, and my feet went out from under me. One difference between a "real" meet and something like this is that I put more effort into keeping my feet dry; in other circumstances I would have just charged through a shallow wet area instead of picking my way through and looking for logs to cross on.

Did not bring a phone to do the QR punching.

In addition to Nancy, who I drove down with, we saw in the parking lot the Luis-Trout family, and another guy in a NEOC shirt whose name escapes me.

splits

A very wet day, and not that warm, so I opted for an indoor ride, this time out in the garage so I could open the car windows and listen to the radio. Still challenging, one really close call early on that I managed to recover from, then fairly well-behaved. Tough on the hands, because it's squirrely enough that I can't easily change hand positions. I should get tires for the Motobecane and see if that's any easier. Distance is once again meaningless, the actual distance was exactly zero.

Around the Cowdrey from the 2A parking lot, late morning in advance of what looks like it will be less pleasant weather later on. Solid effort.

C • Your forecast is for 0F wit... 3