Training Log Archive: CleverSky

Willard Brook. I set myself a 5.5 km course that was intentionally somewhat obnoxious, and did it at decidedly less than race pace, including the occasional detour to look at something interesting. Some legs went right through the medium green laurel, which worked out better at some times than others. Temps in the low 50s F, nice to be out in the woods in short sleeves.

A bunch of little culs-des-sacs in Shirley. I had made just enough mental notes to be pretty sure I was missing one, and I was (Daniel). I think I saw it but didn't see a street sign and it wasn't so clear that it was a road and not a driveway. Oh well, easy enough to pick up some other day. Temperature was < 40 F, so I had to dress kind of warmly; better gloves might have been a good plan, but I didn't suffer too much. Made it home while the sun was still up.

This moves Shirley into 3rd place for me on CityStrides, ahead of Buels Gore VT. Huh? Turns out that one of the trails at Mad River Glen is the service road for the top of one of the lifts, and the top couple of hundred meters cross the town line into Buels Gore. I skied that trail once the one time I went to MRG. And there are only two real roads in Buels Gore (one of those just nicks the corner), so I'm 33% done.

Today marks one year since I stopped going in to the office for work. Almost everybody else had cleared out on the previous Friday, but I kept going in for four more days because I didn't have internet at home at that point (other than via my phone). But it became clear that this was going to last a while, so I packed up, ordered cable modem service, and joined the work-from-home crowd. Since then I've been to the building three times to pick things up or drop things off, never long enough to sit down and the last time I didn't even go in the building, I just dropped something off at the loading dock. I don't know what the deal is going to be going forward, I think the building will be generally closed for another couple of months at least, a lot of the work that I have coming up will be working with people in Michigan, Mexico, and China, so it's not like my being in the office will put me in direct contact with them anyway, and by next January they're planning to sell the building and move our operation to Framingham, which I have no interest in commuting to, so work-from-home may be the general plan going forward.

Around the block, In The Dark. Morning would have been a good time to get out, but I had a dentist appointment before work, and then later the rain came. So I waited until late, when it was just drizzling. Encountered no cars, so after not very long I turned off the light. The forecast still claims it's going to switch over to a brief period of snow in the middle of the night, but I'm skeptical. And if it does, I'll probably never know about it.

A trip to Townsend, mostly on pavement, to pick up a couple of gnarly streets on CityStrides. The ridiculous section of Bayberry Hill Road (our local version of Doyle Road) was a low-grade ditch, blocked in places by fallen trees. I have a memory (maybe false) of my mother driving a VW Bus down that nearly 50 years ago. Past the power line it was okay. Blood Road was somewhat better, with a flooded stretch and ice here and there. I also took a short cut home that may have not been so much shorter but it did avoid the busy road, and since I was on a mountain bike I did actually ride some trails and through some puddles.

Nashua River WMA. No snow left in the woods, really, but there were some icy spots left on the trails. A bunch of this was on trails, then a little bit carefully crossing frozen marshes, and some on previously unknown faint trails.

A neighborhood stroll to give my ankle a rest and not do anything that would increase the wind chill on a cold evening with some breeze. Nice to be able to go out after work and after dinner and not need a headlamp. Checked out the lake, there's about 50 feet of open water before you get to the questionable ice. Western part is still mostly frozen, but the east is wide open. I think the forecast is for a chilly week, so maybe the last bits won't melt right away.

Coop Sawmill, HVO/WCOC winter training series, 7.7 km. Mostly clean, other than stopping too soon on the way to #8 and checking out a different hill, and veering off the right halfway to #10, but it was clear that things looked wrong and I corrected before too much damage was done. Also a moment or two of fussing with which trail to take when leaving #12. Nice sunny day, cool and breezy, but not much clothing needed (two shirts but no gloves or hat) and no snow left anywhere. Wrenched my right ankle on the way to #7 (ow ow ow) after having done the same yesterday early on. (Also stubbed that toe going to #4 but had no further trouble with that.) Terrific woods, the kind of place where I'd be running along and note that there was a nearby trail going in my direction, but no point in finding it because it wouldn't be any faster than the woods.

Drove down with Nancy, and met up with Charlie, Peter, and Clint, so it was nice to see folks and chat for a bit (they all did either Green or Brown). A wild ride home, with wind strong enough to make it hard to keep the car in the lane, and a couple of intense snow squalls that caused nearly an inch of ice buildup on front-facing surfaces of the car.

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