Training Log Archive: CleverSky

Hickory Hills, In The Dim. I stared out just skating, to survey the situation. Some of the ice was the stuff dreams are made of. I was hoping that the last few cold nights would have frozen the main part of the lake, but in fact there was more open water than there had been a few days ago, it's now almost entirely open. The west part was still good, although it was making the noises that it makes when it's freezing that would be terrifying to those unfamiliar with them. Some sound like it's cracking under your weight, but you look down and you can see that it's a good 10 cm thick.

C • Boom crack 5

And then out with the sail. There was very little wind, and I wondered if I'd just be skating around pulling a big piece of dacron with me, but it picked up a little and I was able to get cruising a couple of times, up over 14 mph briefly. So not too bad. It was windier earlier, but I had to work (and it was cold in the morning).

And another bit of skating to finish up, partly to get my hands warmed up (reminder to self: use the warmest available gloves/mittens with the sail).

Nancy was planning to pick up a few streets down near Shirley Reservoir that she didn't have, and that I didn't have either, so I said I'd join her there, picking up a couple more on the way. Pretty chilly with some substantial wind, so I was dressed more warmly than usual. Nothing hurt very much, glad I wore the cushier shoes.

I could feel a headache coming on in the morning, so I grabbed a couple of pills, and had some breakfast because I don't like to take them on an empty stomach. But as the day went on, the headache got worse and worse, and the pills didn't seem to be helping at all, and I had to try and take a nap, but that was hard because my head hurt so much. Then around 2 PM I got up to get something, and noticed that I had something in my pocket: the pills. I had eaten breakfast, but forgot to take them. They work much better in my stomach than they do in my pocket.

Lake and back, In The Dim. I couldn't get up the motivation to go for a run, but I could to bundle up and go for a walk. But once I got outside, it seemed like jogging would be a better idea, so I jogged instead. The main point of this was to take the short cut across the lake and check it out, and I walked that part. The good news is that the howling wind all day blew the ice clean, so maybe I'll try taking the sail out tomorrow. I had thought about that today, but there was way too much wind and I would have been way out off my confort zone, I think. Tomorrow is supposed to be slightly tamer, but likely still much stronger than I've sailed in to date. We'll see. In any case, the ice is totally excellent.

Hickory Hills on a lovely morning, long shadows across the surface for a while. Cracking noises as I stepped out ontp the ice, same as last night, but it's often the case that there's a bit of open water at the edge of the beach here. The ice was about as good as it gets, with snow just a few flakes deep, not enough to be an issue in terms of motion. Turned out that there was a lot more open water than I had realized, the main part of the lake was largely unfrozen, so I stayed in the west section (there was likely more ice in the south, but it would have been sketchy trying to get between the islands). I was wearing ice picks and a PFD, and the lake is really shallow (shoals above the ice surface in a number of places), so I wasn't concerned. No ice fishermen had been out, the only tracks were what looked like somebody's dog had wandered across in a few spots. But then I spied the responsible party: a fox! The fox spied me as well, and scooted off into the woods down in the SW corner. I felt very rusty, in multiple ways.

C • I felt very rusty, in multi... 3

Down to the lake, In The Dark. I thought I'd give my sore foot one more day, and went to check out the ice, which had gotten a dusting of dry fluffy snow during the day. Lots of cracking noises as I stepped onto it (not a concern when I know it's only a couple of inches deep), then I went out a way and punched a hole with a screwdriver. Hmm, maybe 5 cm, kind of marginal. So I went out further and tried again, and there it seemed to be at least 10 cm. That's more encouraging. Excellent surface.

A walk with Nancy, In The Dark, but we never needed to turn on the lights. Monday had caught up with me last night, and I crashed early and slept for a long time, so an easy day was in order. And it was a day when the whole country felt at least a bit unburdened.

My right foot was a little sore after yesterday's walkabout, so I went out on the bike instead, In The Dim. I figure I might as well do a couple of nearby towns on CityStrides by bike, so I figured out an easy route that would pick up a few dead ends in Shirley. Some of these were dirt, so I took the fat tires (but with the screws removed). (Garmin isn't syncing, so I don't know if I'll get credit for this.)