Training Log Archive: bl

AM DP, up to W-H Road - walk on Mike Dumas' property, a portion of his woods thinned, maybe 60%, looking very open & mysterious in the foggy green.

Had a red squirrel in the HAH - it ran along a wood pile & up a tree. Zoe spent inordinate minutes sniffing the pile but did not consider up. Now, hopefully, no more squirrel in the wall front and center when I sit at the computer. It went on too long. Or are/were there babies...time will tell.

At the T.I. which had spanking-new and brightly painted weight machines. Will take some getting used to.

Evening DP with me as guest.... Beth's turn, done together after anniversary dinner in town. Frogs croaking, a small (but dead) Milk snake, deer in flight, turkey tracks, two people at a distance - probably the Saltmarshes, as well as avoiding wet feet which wasn't easy.

Event: CSU Park-O: Esplanade
 

Teenie weensie DP under umbrella watching dogs eat grass on edge of Sandbox - Mocha on leash as it is pet therapy day. She had a bath last night & her preferred "perfumes" are taboo!

This little guy wanted inside (or seemed to)

Warmup on Stoneybrook, not visited much anymore yet a quiet street

Sprint O, wet & knarly. Fell once, no less dead fall than last week. Slower but took easiest routes the first time. Foggy glasses needing a croakie. Took an Ohio thorn out of left forearm.

Weather too unattractive to make Boston attractive.

Mini-sprint - Splits

Still gray & rain. Walk & talk on phone for a change.

Fisk-Little Pond, cw, slow start but felt good second half. Steady
rain by end. Different shoes, felt better. Need more pairs, Be-kind-to-feet week
coming up.

Faraway series, photos from elsewhere, #64
A view of Mount Darwin (from voyage of ANNE CHRISTINE), 1982


From one of the best adventures I ever had - showed up on a dock in Punta Arenas, Chile on the St. of Magellan with a backpack and a dream. Thirty-six hours later, I left on a 40' Norwegian yacht to see famous Cape Horn and sail on to the Falkland Islands. I'd not met the young Norwegians aboard until then. Among other things, my orienteering in Scandinavia drew me to the boat like a compass needle to the magnetic field. I've since visited the owner of AC in both Oslo & Bergen.

C • Reminiscence 3

DP, gray & raining but getting greener all the time.

CW Luti in the gray chill, got hot easily enough. Raining at end.

Overdue visit to the TI - been a month. Cap'n Crunch is counter-weighed with abdominal crunches, never enough of them however.

Walk/jog thru SPS woods & trails, "kink reduction."

Found an empty robin's nest on top of the fence by the bike path at shoulder level. Not too smart.

Q. How smart are robins?

A. Robins are not quick to learn new things as blue jays, and do not have as good reasoning power as jays. But they are adaptable, and can quickly figure out how to find food and shelter in a new area where they've never been before. Many of their behaviors are instinctive, which makes them very adaptable but slow to learn new things.

Robin was a childhood nickname. I've never seen a rocket scientist when looking in the mirror.

More desperate dog stuff. Went right into scratchy woods for adventure (close-together pines), then one thing led to another, SOD disappeared fm lack of sun & then the fun began as it took awhile to figure out where we were - but then a path & fun was over all too soon.

Event: Billygoat Run
 

BG #33 - rained on & off over night, hard in the early AM as we were contemplating the Great Out-of-doors & what it was providing us - rain all but stopped a bit before start time. I'd call this a B run - visibility got to me on several occasions. And the eyes are the brain's windows.

#1 & 2 were mostly follow, look at map a bit. Had decided to skip #14, never took time to look at all 36 legs - 14 looked good enough.
#3 & 4 began to navigate
#5 had decided I'd keep splits on 305 for an exercise; stopped to get water & recall pressing the watch but did I e-punch....? Plagued me for much of the rest of the way...wasn't going back, even when I first asked myself
6, 7, 8 one or two unknown runners in sight ahead
9 getting to be on my own for a short white
10 went by the three pools, down the reent, left on path - a group of maybe 4 kept on going on the path as if they were going somewhere else! That was cause for pause but cont'd round the green marsh, contours not yet providing reassurance - finally a spur &,yes, the reent, looking-marsh flat ahead, a rocky knoll & cp
12 believe this was where I saw Jeff Saeger
13 saw Glen leaving this, maybe 2' ahead - huge boulder!; saw Pavlina as I was leaving
14 skip
15 caught up to a lg gp by doing so; Angelica Riley asked me if I'd skipped like I'd had better had! Ernst, TP & others as well
16 & 17 keeping with this rather lg gp
18 noted TP taking a bit of a short cut & when we got to swamp, maybe 4 othrers just ahead having taking a bit of longer rte
thru 22 controls where I could see Alex J and Becky C a bit ahead, running tandem. Could not catch. JJ at 21/2
Approaching 23, I thot the refreshment tent was at 19/27, so I figured I had to go another 125m south but something was computing - went bk, looked at code & I was where I was supposed to be - phew!
24-26 alone;
19/27 saw Phil & Charlie but did not consider they were at 19!
28 by far, the worst, vis got to me. First left 90 deg wrong way - sorted that out before 100m wasted; then misreading of walls, never saw the green uncross marsh, came to expected path but where. Nothing really helping but finally marsh on right, stream exiting across path - should be on map! but was nearly 300m fm where I expected to be! finally noted 2 bldrs in the marsh, was sure where I was. Got to cp vicinity in mt laurel, did not find, wasted another 90" (alone, leaving heard 2 voices)
29/30 alone
31 mostly alone saw a fellow I'd seen earlier but he disappeared so alone again, but got it no problem
32 alone but saw color as I stood on top of spur thinking "down/over there?"
33 long trail run, ponds in fog. Leaving 33, heard someone behind...was Pavlina! Across road to 34, felt a bit of a rt thigh cramp, she disappeared in green & mist
34 3/4ths way there who should appear but Jeff, moving faster. Got to trail with him but he was gone

Finally the finish! Did not know how I had done. Being alone a lot made me wonder. Seeing Charlie & Phil at "27" made me wonder even more - later learned C was having big vision problems, PB hamstring problems. When Pavlina and Jeff showed late, that helped.

Really pleased my own hamstring (right this year) held up. Was worried before the start as it has been noisy all spring .

Was a really nice course/map, forest (another fairy land) & meet in general. Great job by WCOC; the refreshment station well in the woods with tent took a lot of hauling. Not sure how the 305 knew my heart rate w/o monitor.

Very nice time visiting with Steve, Betsy & Ernst...hours for chatting!

Any more?


Award MOC's


"Podium" finishers


"Can we go home?"

C • can we go home? 3

Billygoat - Splits

Event: Speedy Goat Sprint Relay
 

AM DP w/ paper as well. Good (no porcupines) & bad stuff! eg, cyber bullying right here in Concord, 13 y/o's Facebook post wishing her teacher dead vs. bin Laden's killing all those WTC people - 1st amendment vs threats/bullying (teachers count!), plus inanity/insanity in contemporary behavior. Right below same page, mother guilty for 2005 cook-baby-in microwave. Then state politics where two good quotes came up: "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance" (Derek Bok, Harvard) & William Buckley: "Conservatism implies a certain submission to reality" --- but not in NH.

Time to get out of town! Come to think, time to go to the BG.

C • BG 1

Drive to Bethel, CT with Steve Tarry, lady friend Betsy and Ernst. Stayed at Brautigam's. Put up tent in their yard (#8). Joe & especially Pavlina were most generous with providing dinner & breakfast at short notice in a preoccupied Head Goat household.