Training Log Archive: CleverSky

Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg, north section. I heard that there was good (enough) ice here, and the DN guys are going to be holding some races tomorrow (they're in Litchfield CT today), so I decided to take the opportunity for some late-season skating. Nancy came along, but decided she wasn't comfortable enough on her skates and took them off and went for a walk instead. There were maybe a half dozen people there with ice windsurfers when I arrived, though most of them disappeared before I really got out there.

The ice was somewhat bumpy but still skatable near the beach, but considerably smoother farther out, crossed by the occasional snowmobile track ridge. Decent wind, and my sailing was... okay. I was surprised that I seemed to be able to go quite a bit faster than the windsurfer guys, passing them pretty handily. There are three main sections of the lake, but there was open water at the Narrows, so I couldn't get to the larger central section, where there were a number of DN iceboats.

Most of this was sailing, but I did a little skating at the beginning, and in the middle when I put the sail down for a bit. One fall when I started a crossover turn just as I was entering a section of heavily pockmarked ice. Top speed was near the end, when it looks like I broke 23.5 mph -- that feels pretty fast, especially if you don't know if there might be rough ice coming. On a big lake with good ice, that could be a real hoot.

C • Lake Ch.... 1

(Hmm, this appears on Garmin Connect, but it isn't showing up in AP. Not sure why, but I uploaded it manually.)

A tour of Lake Shirley, In The Dim, pretty much everywhere I could get to without taking a chance near open spots. There's no real public access to this lake, and the only time I can remember being on it was by canoe (borrowed from Aims) when Stephen was really little (so over 20 years ago), when I lived next to the main stream feeding the lake, and when the water was high enough it was possible to launch from my back yard. Didn't see anybody the whole time I was out today except for a young lady sitting in a chair out on the ice, who turned out to be a mannequin. The highlight was seeing three bald eagles (two adults and a juvenile) flying around up in the NE section, including a close flyby from one of them.

C • Showing up 1

I'm getting farily close to the end of the Swedish course on Duolingo. Tonight I finished the vocabulay introduction level of the Sports unit, and was disappointed that "orientering" was not one of the words they teach us. The only really useful words in that unit are "lopp" and "lag". Maybe "slår" and "tränare". And I guess "skidor".

C • Duolingo 3

Hickory Hills, In The Dim (no headlamp). I first tried to get on at the north beach, but the ice had receded from the shoreline far enough that jumping and/or wading would have been required, and I wasn't going to do that, at least not with the bike. I knew the west beach would be the same, and I wasn't sure of a good place to park near the dam, so I tried the south beach. I was able to pull up onto the snow (there's no parking lot there), and the ice was solid all the way to shore. I wore a PFD and ice picks just in case, but I'm pretty sure the ice is still quite thick everywhere away from the edges. I slowed down for about five minutes to chat with a guy who was walking his dogs on the ice (Jim LeBlanc, I've talked with him before and we have a lot of friends in common). The rear outer tire started to slip a bit, might be that it needed to be pumped up more, but I moved it back into position and it didn't give me any trouble.

Neighborhood walk with Nancy, In The Dark.

Down to the lake and Back, In The Dim. Chilly, but at least it wasn't as diabolically windy as it had been all night and most of the day. First pavement, then ice, then more pavement, then pretty icy trails. Didn't need the light until I went into the woods. All of the snow is gone from the lake, but it's really bumpy from the snowmobiles. It might work for iceboats, but it's too rough to be interesting on skates. Other nearby lakes might be smooth, though, and this one would be fine for the ice bike.

(AP guessed this as pedaling? Weird.)

Over to Timberlee and back, In The Dim. Bundled up again, and picked up a bunch of tiny streets, 15 of them, which gets me to a hair under 50% of Townsend. Temperature wasn't too bad, though it was getting really windy, and even that was okay until I was on my way past the lake at the end. Headlamp was off for a lot of this, then I turned on the strobe to make myself visible, and for the very last part I had it in regular headlamp mode.

If I want to have a goal of riding a bike at least once every month, that's three down, including probably the most challenging ones.

Riding over to Shirley Depot to meet Nancy. As I was starting, one of the leather toestraps snapped - might have been original equipment from the 1970s for all I know. I opened the garage door and in under a minute located an unused pair of leather toestraps, so I was good to go. This ride was in jeans and lightweight hiking boots and ample clothing.

With Nancy, picking up some CityStrides streets.

And back home, by a slightly different route, and picking up another few streets in Shirley.