Training Archive: PGIn the 31 days ending 2007-07-31:
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| S | M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Sunday Jul 29 | ||
| run/hike (with pack, 6 pounds) 1:42:18 [2]9.4 mi (10:53 / mi) | |
| weight:133lbs shoes: Montrail | ||
| On the Appalachian Trail north of route 9 in Dalton, to the outlet of Gore Pond and back. Lots of roots and rocks. Run/hike going out (and up), 56:35, run back, 45:43, all at a relaxed tempo. Warm, humid, soaking wet by halfway. Good to get out.
Passed two guys with very heavy packs heading north. On my return trip I stopped and chatted for a moment. They turned out to be father and son, with son doing the whole AT and father joining him for Massachusetts and a little of Vermont. Son was tall, strong, and friendly, with a mammoth pack. Father a little shorter, a less imposing pack, but an extra 20 pounds or more of belly to carry. The vibes seemed very good, made me envious (and thinking of what never was). Father wanted to know if I'd fallen much, and I could answer in all honesty that I hadn't yet gone down today even though I usually fell a lot. More than once he said how cool he thought it was that I (apparently a very old guy) was out there running. I think we were both a little envious. Father also wanted to know how far it was to the next shelter/water. He couldn't have asked a better person, as at that point my personal GPS (the one between my ears) was really working well. On the way out I'd been totally out of contact with the map most of the way. The AT is on the map, but totally wrong. It wasn't until about 40 minutes in that I knew exactly where I was, but then the rest of the way I had the trail mapped perfectly. Trail map. ------------------- I was out in Dalton because I'd been doing some serious rogaine practice in Pittsfield, playing in a tournament, mainly as a way to get access to a really nice private course by one of great old architects, A. W. Tillinghast. Three days of serious golf, and while my golf was shaky at times, my behavior was very good. Especially when it was over and I went up to both the pro and his assistant and complimented them for the various things I thought they had done well (and they really had done well, under difficult weather conditions). And they were both so pleased to get thanks instead of the complaints that are probably what they hear most of the time. So I left feeling quite good about myself.... | ||
| C • bad mapping 9 | ||
| C • Please tell Gail 1 | ||
Thursday Jul 26 | ||
| biking 1:33:30 [3]25.8 mi (3:37 / mi) | |
| weight:133.5lbs | ||
| Bike ride up to Shutesbury via Wyola, back down via East Leverett. Not much motivation to start, but slowly got into it. Pretty warm.
Just for the record, no blood doping, no EPO, no whatever is the preferred stimulent these days, no caffeine. On the other hand, if ice cream is on the banned list, I am in serious trouble. I also continue to be in a pretty good mood. Maybe it is due to my staying away from any conferences or conventions, international or domestic... :-) | ||
| C • ice cream 7 | ||
| Note | |
| Looking ahead a bit, I've been giving serious thought to a couple of changes in my life for next year, adding the word "emeritus" to a couple of my current roles, that of Sprint Series Commissioner and that of Chair of the ESC. Both positions seem like they are ready for new occupants with some new ideas.
One role I hope to keep going for a while is Treasurer (unpaid) of a local non-profit. I think I'm coming up to the 5-year mark, and after about 3 years of depressing meeting after depressing meeting (always bad news, always problems to deal with, always about to go under), the place is really hummimg now. New contracts, new programs, management and board are much stronger, finances are better though still a struggle, board meetings are really interesting. And other than signing my life away on a reasonably regular basis, I don't have any responsibilities hanging over my head other than trying to make sure we make good decisions. As you might guess, had our regular monthy meeting tonight. Two and a half hours, enjoyed every moment. | ||
Tuesday Jul 24 | ||
| Note | |
| So now Vino is out of the tour, blood doping.
I've been watching some of the mountain stages, and enjoyed it, but every time I see someone climb really well, I wonder how much they are doping. It's not a question of whether they will catch anyone else, just who will be next to go. And they say golf is pure. Yeah, right.... | ||
| C • Vino 12 | ||
| run/hike (with pack, 13 pounds) 1:03:42 [3] | |
| slept:6.5 weight:133.5lbs shoes: Montrail | ||
| Meant to get out late afternoon, but I seem to have fallen asleep, so I finally headed out after dinner, and right after a large serving of ice cream. Good rogaine training. You never know when there might be ice cream available on the course, and being able to eat and keep moving has to be trained. And with my rogaine partner training first in Italy and now Austria and soon the Wild West, we should also be ready for pizza or sachertorte or T-bones (not to mention all sorts of alcoholic beverages).
39:54 up to the top of Toby, walking fast as possible, definitely feeling the pack, heartrate 170 at the top. 23:48 back, jogging easily, getting quite dark. Left quad felt like it was starting to seize up at one point, but seems mostly ok now. Too much golf? Speaking of which, brilliant teamwork with Gail today, 66 including seven birdies, probably the best I've ever played and she was putting lights out. Ausgezeichnet! | ||
Monday Jul 23 | ||
| biking 1:09:07 [3]20.3 mi (3:24 / mi) | |
| weight:133.5lbs | ||
| River Road / Old Deerfield loop, just got caught by light rain the last few minutes. Good effort.
Had a very nice weekend in Vermont, though no training. Behaved myself pretty well, though it is always easier when things are going well (as they were on Saturday) than when they are going less well (as on Sunday). Also a nice long talk with Vivian and Mike after dinner on Saturday, the part of which that I remember most distinctly was at some point there was a question put to me of a somewhat personal nature, I don't remember what the actual question was, but my answer started off with, "OK, I'll give you a serious answer." And at that point the conversation got much more interesting. Which made the weekend even more of a pleasure. | ||
Friday Jul 20 | ||
| trail running 1:03:01 [4] | |
| weight:133.5lbs shoes: Montrail | ||
| Oh, I needed that.
Up to the power line, then over towards the gate, did the bridle path loop, and back. Good effort, progressively harder. No pack, no walking, felt like running a race, hurt, felt good. Definitely needed after doing nothing for 3 days except stuffing myself. FDF note -- lots of kills as usual, but shouldn't wear a pink shirt. Don't think they got me, but had to swat a couple. Off to Vermont for the weekend chez Fritz. | ||
Wednesday Jul 18 | ||
| Note | |
| weight:132lbs | ||
| Decided it was time for an easy week. And to catch up with some work at the office. | ||
Tuesday Jul 17 | ||
| hike (with pack,10 pounds) 59:00 [1] | |
| slept:6.0 weight:130.5lbs shoes: Montrail | ||
| One of those days when you just feel like crap. Warm and humid, but not really hot nor really humid, plan was a round with the wealthy N in Southampton and then a stop on the way home for an out and back on the Mt. Tom range. I was already feeling beat by the time we were done in Southampton, so I figured I needed more fuel, so a stop for something to eat and drink. Got over to the south end of Mt. Tom, headed up, and felt hot, tired, no energy. But plugged away, got up to the towers, then it was time to start running.
And for the next 15 minutes the running got scaled back more and more, as did the goal, which had started out as the Connecticut River (6 miles each way) and finally ended up as the top of the old ski area, maybe a mile and a half each way, if that. And when I got there, I figured, maybe I'm just still depleted, so I drank a bunch more, and ate an energy bar, and just stood around for a while trying to attract FDFs, no luck there either. And eventually trudged back to the towers and jogged slowly down the scree back to the car. Good for pounding on the feet, not much else. Got home, thought I might still be depleted, ate and drank a bunch more, then had dinner, then ate and drank a bunch more. Definitely no longer depleted. I believe the correct term is bloated. Severely bloated. I suppose this is one of those days that will make other days good by comparison. One bit of good news, beautiful views all along the top of the cliffs, but then am I ever going to get a camera? If I do, it will need to be pretty indestructible, given my clumsiness. | ||
Monday Jul 16 | ||
| biking 2:38:16 [3]42.8 mi (3:42 / mi) | |
| weight:132lbs | ||
| Nice ride up in the hills to the west of the valley, one main climb getting up to Goshen. Route. Nice steady effort without overdoing it.
Plus the usual rogaine practice, soixante-quartorze. Incroyable. | ||
| C • Avoir vous a change votre nom au Tigre? 1 | ||
Sunday Jul 15 | ||
| trail running 54:06 [4]5.5 mi (9:50 / mi) +550m 4:40 / km | |
| max:180 slept:7.0 weight:131lbs shoes: Montrail | ||
Went down to Somers, CT, with Phil to run the Soapstone Assault, a loop around the bottom of Soapstone Mt. interspersed with 6 climbs up it and 5 descents (so you finish at the top of the lookout tower).
And how did it go? Let's just say (1) I was the only one with a blue cap on, and (2) I won, not just over the FDFs (about 40-0), but the race too. :-) Coincidence? I think not. Actually, I ran pretty well, no daydraming at all. First trail race in almost a year. Handicapped start by age and sex, using a system like the Dipsea, and as I checked out the small and weak field I figured my main competition was Deb Livingston (a very good trail runner, would beat me handily when I was racing last year, and, as I found out later and very enviously, is heading off in a month to race the ultra around Mont Blanc), whom I had a 5-minute headstart on, or maybe some unknown young guy, who I had 11 minutes on. Phil? Anything he would gain going up I could get back going down, and I had a 5-minute head start on him. Clint? I had a 10-minute headstart. I may be old and slow, but I've been doing some hill training and the legs are getting stronger. It was a strange feeling running the race in that I was by myself the whole time (passed two really old folks very early on), but because of the 5 up-and-downs, you'd pass anyone 5 or 6 minutes ahead of or behind you. So each time coming down, I'd keep hoping to see Deb as late as possible. On hill 1, I was maybe 2 minutes down from the top, on hill 2, maybe 1:45, on hill 3 maybe 1:45 again (that's better!), on hill 4 maybe 1:50 (better still, first time I was feeling confident), on hill 5 maybe 2 minutes or a little more. And nobody else in sight. So I dawdled just a touch going up the last really steep hill, but when it flattened out towards to top it occured to me that the elapsed time between her and me might be close, so I put out a good effort for the last couple hundred yards and up the fire tower. Got her on the elapsed by 13 seconds. And then some guy came in a little later, 52+ elapsed, so I think I was second for that. But the race was clearly, first to the top. And first is first, even in a weak field. So that makes the third time in roughly 30 years that I have won a running race, no orienteering involved. All are somewhat bogus. The first was the original M&M Trail Half Marathon sometime in the late 70s, hilly and rocky trails from the Mass Pike underpass north to Goat Peak. Field of about a dozen, Roland Cormier was clearly the best, but as it turned out he is even more scared of heights than I am, and so when the trail got close to the cliffs he would take some bushwhacking detour. I think I was ahead of him at the end, but in any case he missed the last turn up to the Goat Peak firetower and he came in half an hour after me, having done a lot more than 13 miles. The race was memorable for one more thing -- nobody was at the finish, take your own time, write it down on a clipboard. Not exactly finishing to cheering crowds.... The second one was a one-time event, the Power Line Power Hour. This was a spin-off of the Power Line Power Climb, 800' climb in 8/10 of a mile up the telephone line trail on the NE side of Mt. Toby, as painful a race as any I know because you could run the whole thing, but boy it hurt. The race existed for a few years, but then faded away, maybe it was after the year when a guy saw it in some race calendar, drove out two hours from Boston, only to discover that he had missed the decimel point and it was not an 8 mile race. So then my old rogaine partner Fred dreamed up the PLPH, how many round trips (or half round trips) could you make in an hour. I think there were three entries, Fred, me, and some other guy who did one round trip and packed it in. I did 3 in about 53 minutes (i.e. 2400' up and 2400' down, 4.8 miles), Fred did 3 in about 58, so I claimed a victory. Again, no one at the finish line. And then today, where there actually were 3 or 4 folks at the finish! And at this rate I should be ready for my fourth triumph in another decade or so. It will have to be really bogus. | ||
| C • Yeah, but you cleared out most... 2 | ||
| trail running 27:00 [2] | |
| shoes: Montrail | ||
| Warm-up loop of about 20 minutes on the trail around the base of Soapstone, a very good idea, both to check out all the turns, and to warm up.
Plus a jog down from the top afterwards. | ||
| Note | |
| Splits (around, up, down)
Climb 1 - 1:40, 4:32, 2:20 Climb 2 - 3:56, 5:05, 2:44 Climb 3 - 1:36, 4:45, 2:51 Climb 4 - 1:43, 3:42, 2:22 Climb 5 - 5:49, 3:00, 1:23 Climb 6 - 1:27, 5:10 | ||
Saturday Jul 14 | ||
| Note | |
| rhr:47 slept:8.0 weight:131.5lbs | ||
| No further research today on the FDF extermination front, but that's not to say there hasn't been progress. I sent an e-mail to the Man, the Boss, the source of information about blue cups and blue caps, the one and only Russell F. (Russ) Mizell III, Professor of Entomology at the University of Florida, reporting on our findings and wondering if he had done any further research.
He responded quite promptly -- Peter: I have not done any more research with the trap. There is a lot that could be done. I did publish what we completed in the journal article below. http://www.bioone.org/perlserv/?request=get-docume... Regards, Russ ----------------------------------- If you're into FDFs, there is some good stuff there. And as far as academic stuff goes, I can say that it is a whole lot easier to read than two other academic publications I cast my eye on recently, one by my brother and one that was something Barb was reading on the plane to Oregon, and both might as well been written in a very foreign language, well, actually, I think one of them was to a certain extent. But Russ's work is downright readable. ------------------------------------ No training today because of the holiday (le quatorze Juillet), also resting up for the Assault tomorrow. In my feeble condition, will my roughly 5-minute headstart over Phil and roughly 10 minutes over Clint be enough? The reason for hope vs. Phil is that he has to go down as well as up, the reason for hope vs. Clint is that he goes out so fast he can't finish. We shall see. Meanwhile I had a nice soixante-dix-sept today. For those who collect useless facts, 77 et le plus petit nombre en anglais nécessitant cinq syllabes. | ||
Friday Jul 13 | ||
| biking 1:07:51 [3]20.2 mi (3:21 / mi) | |
| slept:6.0 weight:132lbs | ||
| Old Deerfield / River Road loop before breakfast, started at 6:30, had meant to be out by 6 but time just slipped by. So a little more traffic. But still pretty lonely out there. Crisp and clear morning, a bit of fog along the river, pretty nice.
Good effort on the hills coming back. I could tell, because i wasn't doing any daydreaming. Thinking of doing the Soapstone Assault on Sunday. Been a while since I ran a race. | ||
| C • See ya there... 4 | ||
Thursday Jul 12 | ||
| trail running 34:10 [3] | |
| slept:6.0 weight:131lbs shoes: Montrail | ||
| A planned short workout became even shorter, though that was not all bad. Drove over to the gate to try some hill repeats. First one felt terrible, walked some. Second one better, help being warmed up, walked the one steep pitch. Third one better still, ran the whole way.
Mainly just not used to anything close to threshold pace, or any deep breathing. Had to remind myself that it was ok to be breathing hard. Had originally thought to go for about an hour, but this seemed enough, legs needed an easy day. Lap 1 (roughly 275' climb, a couple of flat sections): 7:10 up, 4:46 down, 6 kills. Lap 2: 6:32 up, 4:44 down, 1 kill. Lap 3: 6:12 up, 4:42 down, 1 kill. Couldn't find my keys where I'd left them, found them about 6' away after just a minute's search. Just about to really freak out. Time to ditch that habit, hiding the keys, that is. Other than that, drank too much, ate too much, but at least made more progress on AP (anti-procrastination, not AttackPoint) week, ordered a new computer, been meaning to for 6 months. Tired, bedtime.... | ||
| C • computer 7 | ||
Wednesday Jul 11 | ||
| Note | |
| slept:6.0 weight:131lbs | ||
| Took me a while to get down the driveway this morning because the AOWN sirens were going off -- spotted first one turkey, then another, then some little ones (maybe a foot tall). Called up Gail, she ran and got the shotgun -- no, just kidding, she's still not running.... :-(
So in a couple of minutes they all crossed the driveway, 4 adults, about 15 kids, taking turns dashing across into the safety of some ferns on the other side. Very amusing. Route of the turkeys. | ||
| C • Great use of gped! 7 | ||
| biking 3:03:24 [2]47.7 mi (3:50 / mi) | |
| Had to leave the car in Greenfield to get the windshield replaced -- a couple of foot-long cracks appeared last Thursday, cause unknown, and getting it fixed within 6 days is actually quite excellent! -- and they were going to take about 3 hours, so I figured I might as well use the time to get a ride in.
Went up to Brattleboro (via Rt. 5) and back (via Rt. 142 mostly). The legs were as dead as there were lively yesterday, and yesterday, when I think back on it, they were quite lively, hardly noticed the weight of the pack at all. But today was tough, no energy. Not so bad going to Brattleboro because there was a gusty wind out of the south, though I was still moving real slowly, but not much fun coming back into the wind most of the time. Stopped partway back at a store to refuel/rest and that helped. There are days like this. I suppose it is like bad weather days, makes you appreciate the good days more. | ||
| Note | |
| Saw a mink this afternoon at Beaver Brook. I definitely need to get a camera.
| ||
Tuesday Jul 10 | ||
| run/hike (with pack,11 pounds) 2:25:50 [3] | |
| slept:4.0 weight:131lbs shoes: Montrail | ||
| Rogaine training with Barb at Mt. Wachusett, a really fine outing. Her suggestion for an outing, mine to try Wachusett instead of Monadnock, her requirement to be underway at 5:30 (so she could make a meeting at work at 10). So I was up at 3:30 to get organized and eat and out the door at 4:30, both way too early, way, way too early, until you fast forward to 8:10 am and we are all done and the morning is still pleasant, but you know it is going to be 95 and humid, but we are all done!
We both show up at right about 5:30 at the base of the ski area. It takes a few minutes to get the blue caps prepared, but we are underway before long, and it is pretty nice out. I seem to be in charge of the route (pink is hiking, blue is running), so first we take care of making sure we make it to the top, then it's off to the SW part of the map to look at a clearing where I thought there were windmills, but if there ever were, there aren't now. Then back the way we'd come for while, then cutting over a shoulder of the mountain so we could try running down a ski trail, and finally, just enough time left for a trip back up to the top and then run down another ski trail. Almost all was really fun, and good training too. Least fun were the rocky trails near the top, most fun was a stretch of really nice trail heading over towards the missing windmills, no actually, really the most fun was running down the ski trails. The vegetation was anywhere from a knee to waist high, but it was all quite benign, no prickers, no nasty stuff at all, plus no hidden rocks or downed logs. You just float down, never seeing where the feet are landing but it didn't really matter (except for the one time I didn't see the snowmaking pipes and went sprawling). The stuff was all still a little wet, so by the end of the first time down, and certainly for all of the second time down, the feet were soaking wet, but that just seemed to add to the fun. Really cool.... My only concern was that at the start of the trail we took the second time down there was a sign saying, Stay off the trail. Maybe we should find another one, I suggested, but Barb reasssured me, Don't worry, those signs are on all the trails. And down we went.... :-) Other items of interest (at least to me) -- The blue caps worked well, though there was an issue that I hadn't previously run into, though it had been discussed here, namely, keeoing the FDFs out of one's hair, and keeping one's hair out of the sticky stuff. Barb seemed to think that there were several FDFs taking up residence in her hair, though a careful search could only find one. I assumed that no self-respecting FDFs would be interested in bedding down in my hair, but I found one there too. Hmmmm. Solutions? Barb did say that next time she would wrap her hair tighter, or do some such thing, I didn't grasp the details, or maybe I wasn't paying too close attention, because a haircut, which is overdue, will take care of the issue for me. We enjoyed a fine rendition of "Requiem for a Deer Fly," performed by an FDF on my cap. The music is notable for its soulful yet strong buzzing, all emanating from a fixed location, and with the passage of time it slowly fades away before dying off completely. A haunting and yet oddly pleasurable melody.... There was some discussion of Swampfox's destruction of his AP training log. I think it is fair to say that both of us were rather pissed at him. Barb, because she is a very sociable person, and this seemed like a very anti-social act. Me, because I couldn't get a straight answer as to why he did it. So that means I have to speculate. And the only speculation that makes sense is that Swampfox was losing it. Losing his sanity, of course, we all know that, but also losing his standing atop the AP training standings, first to the adventure racer crowd, then to Hillary, and now he'd be behind Barb and probably even me. And he couldn't handle that. So he blew it up. There was also some discussion of the procrastination that seems to govern my whole life, and also seems to govern Barb's whole life at work. Not fun for either. Though I was delighted to note some progress yesterday in my new campaign to minimize the problem, plus already at this early hour I had logged one great success today, a rather trivial success for sure, but a success is still a success, namely, that when I got up at 3:30 and took care of the usual immediate priorities, pee, record the G, check e-mail, check AP, there was an e-mail from Randy with questions about arrangements in Kiev next month. And within 5 minutes I had researched the matter, decided I needed more info, and fired off an e-mail to Ukraine. Wheras the normal procedure would have been to do nothing for several days, all the while obsessing about it, and then finally forcing myself to deal with it, all quite painfully, with the all-too-common e-mail opening line, Sorry to be so slow getting back to you.... Progress, even in small steps, is still progress. We were done almost too soon. The Montrail shoes still felt great, energy levels were good, Barb seemed to have shaken off the lingering effects of the previous night's debauchery, and all seemed well in the world, for me at least, I wasn't heading to work, first stop was a grocery store, where I bought a half-gallon of non-fat chocolate milk and a pound bag of carrots. Within the next few hours all the milk was drunk (as well as about 3 bottles of water) and most of the carrots were eaten, an intake that I assume would make most dieticians blanche, and which still had me coming home 3 pounds down. Perhaps because it was hot and humid and I stopped first in Westminster and then, what the hell, there was no one there and the course was wide open, next in Templeton, each for a round of satisfying O' practice. Got home exactly 12 hours after I left, a very fine day. | ||
| C • Stay off 2 | ||
| C • Swampfox 15 | ||
| C • Where have all the windmills gone? 2 | ||
Monday Jul 9 | ||
| Note | |
| slept:6.0 weight:132lbs | ||
| We've decided to pass on Colorado. Just seemed too complicated to get it all planned and executed. I need a personal travel agent....
Eating way too much. Goal for today (and every day this week) -- make a major dent in the to-do list, and figure out a way to significantly reduce procrastination in my life. It drives me nuts. I don't do it at work, just the opposite there, but at home it's a disaster. It sounds stupid, but if I could fix it, the quality of life would go way up. That's true, both seriously and sadly. Or I suppose I could deal with this next week.... No, no, no. | ||
| C • and I am the opposite 9 | ||
| C • No Colorado 3 | ||
| biking 54:54 [2]15.3 mi (3:35 / mi) | |
| Late in the day ride. Was planning to go out mid-afternoon, but postponed it when I found out my pump didn't work despite my best repair efforts. So off to the bike shop first, and it didn't work for them either, and it still didn't work for them after they had worked on it a while, just kept leaking air once the pressure got above 60 psi or so.
So I now have a new pump. And an old one that le saboteur is welcome to, he knows who he is.... :-) Finally out for the ride, no energy at all, took it easy, slowly felt better, worked harder at the end though that may have been due to my concern about getting home before the storm arrived. Which I did. Now back on the no food after dinner plan. The key is to stay out of the kitchen. And anyway, it's not that long until breakfast, scheduled about 4 am, prior to a dawn (pre-dawn?) outing at Mt. Wachusett. | ||
| C • Faire du vélo les ennuis de pompe 3 | ||
| Note | |
This being "un peu de français" week in my log in honor of Les 5 Jours de France 2007 -- where Lyn Walker, WCOC, won, yup, that's right, won F65 today in stage 1! -- and since there may well be some questionable french appearing, I'll put forth my nomination for the worst official french-to-english translation, this one a last-minute information posted at one of the early 5 Jours. I wonder how many elites showed up at the post office at 2 pm looking for their second map....
| ||
Sunday Jul 8 | ||
| run/hike (with pack, 7 pounds) 2:34:28 [3] | |
| slept:6.0 weight:131lbs shoes: Montrail | ||
| A mid-afternoon run/hike on the Robert Frost trail from the gate on Reservation Road south to Bull Hill and back. I had been think of going all the way down to Bull Hill Road, but after I had been going for a little while, Bull Hill seemed plenty far enough.
Warm and humid, sweating a lot, also trying to drink a lot, plus ate a couple of energy bars (which, if nothing else, sure make an uphill go quicker and more pleasantly, especially if there is chocolate in the energy bar). Was totally soaked after a while, and that was before the rain came, but only lost about three pounds. Had a mini-crises about half-way, when I took my blue cap off to check the kill count and saw that the duct tape on one side was flapping loose, any adhesiveness no longer working. Damn, was it going to come off completely? Would I be defenseless? Was this the making of "Revenge of the FDFs?" And from an economic point of view, was my purchase yesterday of a nice new (and larger) roll of blue duct tape a bad investment? Distressing thoughts, all of them. The only possible positive was that just a little but earlier I had whacked a branch -- didn't duck quite enough -- hard of enough to feel it. Had that been why the tape was no longer sticking? There certainly were bits and pieces of leaves clinging to the sticky stuff. So all the way back I worked on moving smoothly, no sudden movements, no contact with any more branches, and the cap stayed intact all the way back. And the outcome was about as expected: PG 51, FDFs 0. And a useful workout. -------------------- One of my occasional diversions.... I was driving up to the course very early this morning for a 7 am match, and even though the hour was early, the mind was hard at work, putting together a game plan you might say. And the game plan was that while it can be hard to control how the body wroks, and it works differently from day to day, or even hour to hour, there is no excuse not to be mentally alert. And mentally alert all the time. Which means all the time (1) making good decisions about what you should do, and then (2) thinking through the key(s) to what is needed to execute the way you want, and then (3) keeping your concentration so you actually do it. So part 1 of the game plan was to be smart. Part 2 of the game plan was to be mentally tough, particularly in the face of the various adversities that always seem to appear. Meaning, don't ever give up. You just never know what may happen. And then, since I was also having fleeting thoughts about mortality and the passage of time, part 3 of the game plan was to enjoy the morning, enjoy the challenge, enjoy the company. Note that in all of this I am talking about golf, but I could just as easily be talking about orienteering.... So how do I do? I think I did pretty well. There were the usual errors here and there, but my thinking/planning was pretty sound. The guy I was playing said afterwards he was impressed how everytime I hit a poor shot and/or got in trouble, I didn't compound the problem with another poor shot, the next one was always good (no, I'm not making this up, and I didn't pay him to say that). As far as hanging tough, well, I had two chances to lay down and roll over. On the first, a rather difficult par four, drive in the trees, never found it, reload because you never know, good second drive, but by the time I am ready to play it, lying three, he is already just in front of the green in 2, easy chip. You never know I kept telling myself, you can still get a 5, and I hit a real good shot about 20' below the pin. And maybe that got him thinking a bit, because his chip was weak, maybe 15' short. You never know I kept telling myself, and then drained the 20-footer, and suddenly he needed his to win the hole, and he charged a bit, and then missed the one coming back, and I'd actually won the hole and then he was really talking to himself. You never know, on ne sait jamais, just don't quit. The other chance had a less fortuitous outcome, a par three, we both missed the green, he chips up dead, I blade my sand shot over the green, over the rough, past the toilets, into two-feet-high weeds. In this case I knew, it was time to move on to the next hole. And part 3 of the game plan, I enjoyed the morning, enjoyed the challenge, and enjoyed the company -- my opponent runs the Section 8 (subsidised housing) program for Greenfield, and a friend of his who was playing with us left the insurance business after 40 years to go back to school to get his masters in education so he can hopefully start a new career as a middle school teacher. A coule of guys who could cuss with the best of them, but also very interesting. And I give myself pretty close to an A for the outing. | ||
Saturday Jul 7 | ||
| biking 2:07:27 [3]35.4 mi (3:35 / mi) | |
| slept:6.0 weight:131.5lbs | ||
| Bad day out at rogaine practice, quite incompetent, thought at one point I was going to have to do three hours on the bike as penance, but things improved significantly towards the end. Plus my behavior was really vary good! Vraiment!
So no penance was really called for, but it was a nice afternoon, no storms in sight, so I headed off for a trip up to Northfield via Millers Falls, and then back via Gill and Turners Falls. West wind, crosswind most of the time. Nice rolling route, no long climbs but lots of small ones. Only negative was when I went to add a little air to my tires, the pump didn't seem right, and then some piece came flying off, and then it definitely wasn't working. Merde, have I been sabotaged? Monsieur Phil? Tour de France is starting, but it's hard to get very excited about it if everytime someone does well you find yourself wondering what doping regimen they are on rather than what training they have done and what panache and balls they have. But it's probably the same crap going on as has been going on forever, just more people getting caught. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. In honor of a much finer French sporting event, Les Cinq Jours de France, which starts on Monday, I will have to sneak a little French into the log this week. Been to several earlier versions of it, many very fond memories. | ||
| C • Drugs don't help that much 6 | ||
| C • Sabotage! 2 | ||
Friday Jul 6 | ||
| hike (with pack, 7 pounds) 40:07 [2] | |
| slept:5.0 weight:130lbs shoes: Montrail | ||
| The weather map looked threatening, but the big storms were still far enough away to give enough time for a trip to the top of Toby, as usual walking as fast as I could. Which proved difficult, because I kept losing my concentration.
See, just before I left I got an e-mail from Mike Fritz, a golfing/orienteering friend (and he and Vivian were hosts for the U.S. Relay Champs in Vermont several years ago). Gail and I had been up to visit about 10 days ago, and at some point in the visit the talk had, as it does among civilized people, turned to the matter of FDFs. And it seemed that Mike had half of a love-hate relationship with FDFs, the hate part that is. He spends a fair bit of time mowing his network of ski trails, and the FDFs have been driving him nuts. So his ears perked right up when I told him about all the research and experiments we were doing. And as we were leaving I reached into our car and pulled out the extra jar of sticky stuff that I just happened to have, and, well, it's fun to give presents, but never ever has one been received with such obvious joy. So this e-mail says in part: "I had a great time mowing today. I had about 30 FDF kills and they were not able to cause any damage in return. This is truly amazing body count differential. "I was able to create a very good test. It had rained last night and conditions were slightly humid this morning - prime FDF activity time. I went out along the field edge and then into the woods for a 2 hour mow. The last 20 minutes were in the rain again. I'm happy to report that the sticking capability of that amazing ingredient still worked in the rain. "You have changed the way I can mow now, and the times I can go out. I could go out now and hit the little white ball around and have a bad round and still think it was a great day because of all these FDF kills. "Thanks big time, Mike" And of course he sends me the obligatory photo of the blue hat with all the dead FDFs stuck to it. Just like the obligatory photos of their newborn that proud parents always want to show off. So all the way up Toby I keep trying to keep the speed up, and then I start thinking about Mike's e-mail, and I'm laughing and I'm losing my focus. and then I snap out of it and pick the pace back up, and then I start laughing again.... So 10 or 15 seconds slower than the last couple of times, but the heartrate at the top was only about 150. Legs are feeling stronger. | ||
| trail running (with pack, 7 pounds) 33:16 [3] | |
| shoes: Montrail | ||
| As I reached the top the wind was howling, but it wasn't all that dark and the thunder I was hearing was still a ways off, so I figured I might as well take the round-about route back and get in a little more running. But it was threatening enough that I was inspired to pick up the pace.
Ran pretty vigorously, and the legs felt looser than they have in quite a while. I had a good collection of FDFs on the back of the hat, the final score turned out to be 40-0, another shutout, but unfortunately there was a second contest going on, this one between me and the rocks, and here the score was a solid thumping, 1-0, in favor of the rocks. As I said, I was making good time, letting loose on a nice downhill, when a rock reached up and grabbed me and I went Splat. Ooooohhhh. Felt like what I've seen baseball players do when they slide head first, except this was on rocks. Fortunately no damage except to my hands, forearms, chest, belly, quads and knees.... But nothing bad, a few abrasions and some missing skin. Note my excellent taste as shown by my not providing any photos.... :-) I immediately checked the most important things -- were the hands ok (they seemed mostly ok, I have rogaine practice lined up for Saturday and Sunday with the expectation of getting 5 new names toward my goal of 25), where was the blue hat (it appeared undamaged, the sticky stuff still doing its job), oh, and finally, were the legs ok (a little battered but fine). And I say a quick thank-you that I'm running and not biking and haven't just crashed whipping downhill on bad pavement at 40 mph, because that would have done a whole lot more damage. A decent effort the rest of the way home, but the legs were definitely a little less loose and the pace was a little more cautious. | ||
Thursday Jul 5 | ||
| Note | |
| slept:6.0 weight:130lbs | ||
| Shoes
Seven sisters route, out and back starting at the Notch. Mount Norwottuck o' map is just the other side of the Notch. | ||
| C • Low CG 7 | ||
| biking 1:09:17 [3]20.2 mi (3:25 / mi) | |
| Sticking to my plan of alternating biking and some king of running/hiking, today was a day for biking and I got out just early enough to beat the storms -- though I would imagine Eric Buckley and other real cyclists relish going out in bad weather, ideally on bad pavement too....
Usual Old Deerfield / River Road loop. Legs were quite dead to start. Actually, I was surprised they weren't worse, the quads and various knee tendons weren't sore after yesterday, just tired. So I took it easy on the way north with a gentle tailwind to boot. Got a bit more motivated on the rolling hills coming back on River Road and put out a decent effort there. Also got out for an early morning round of rogaine practice, a common occurance these days. A few thoughts about that, and the giant waste of time it is -- 1. I've made an informal deal with myself that I will play as much as I want, and not feel the slightest bit guilty about it, as long as (1) I also get in some real training at least 5 or 6 days a week, with that training for the time being focused on preparing for the Laurentian rogaine (I've pretty much written this year off for orienteering), and (2) I behave myself. 2. I'm playing much better than I ever have, and at age 62, having been at this pastime on and off for about 50 years, that makes it really, really fun. I would normally say that at this point in life there is no possibility for improvement in any physical activity, so this is a real surprise. Similar in a way to my really good orienteering in 2006, though that was a matter of the best I'd done in ten years, not the best ever. As far as other areas where there is room for improvement, I'd say the mental side seems to be on a steady downhill trend, but there are certainly now, and probably always will be, possibilities for improvement on the psychological and relationship sides. For right now at least, I view that all in an optimistic way, glass half full, not half enpty, with progress being made. 3. I set as an informal goal to play with at leats 25 new people this year, and I'm doing pretty well on that, forcing myself to be more outgoing with strangers. And that has been fun too. And surprising, in at least one way -- was sitting around chatting with 6 or 8 guys after a round and someone said something very negative about Bush and Iraq, and I was curious what the reaction would be, and one by one everyone chimed in with some version of, "You've got that right." Normally not what I'd expect from a bunch of golfers, but it is a blue-collar club and this is Massachusetts. ------------------------- My other contemplation for the day revolved around the G. I have been breaking my rule with some regularity the past couple of weeks, the rule about no eating after dinner, I suppose in reaction to various remarks from various parties about how I was wasting away. I certainly haven't been hungry for a while (after having been hungry every evening for about three months). But I've been checking things out and there certainly is still room for improvement, improvement meaning a lower G, I mean, I don't think all my ribs are showing.... :-) So we shall see. Though it will take some willpower to give up my new fondness for chocolate milk, lots of chocolate milk. Speaking of which, hmmm, off to the kitchen.... | ||
| C • The best thing about bad weather... 2 | ||
Wednesday Jul 4 | ||
| run/hike (with pack, 6 pounds) 2:58:29 [3]12.5 mi (14:16 / mi) +1600m 6:21 / km | |
| rhr:50 slept:7.0 weight:130lbs shoes: Montrail | ||
| Seven Sisters race course, first time there for a few years. Still the same sharp rocks (basalt) and steep ups and downs, plus for a stretch in the middle it needs someone to come along with a weed-whacker as the underbrush/prickers are flourishing.
Legs were feeling tired from the last couple of days, so I wasn't sure how much of the course I would do, but if I did the whole thing the goal was about 3 hours (PR on the course is 2:08, a really hard effort 15 years ago, right now I might be capable of 2:40-2:45, maybe....), the expectation was probably 3:05-3:10. Walking all the uphills, that's pretty standard, running the downhills a bit cautiously, I used to be more foolish and much faster on them. One result of this was that I was probably in training zone 2 aerobically, whereas when racing it in the past it was at least 4, and 2+ hours of pure suffering. But even going slower, it is still tough on the legs both going up and going down. 1:26:32 out, 1:31:57 back, better than I expected on the way back as there is about 300' more climb and then the usual deterioration. Saw one guy out there, he was really HTFU, going barefoot! Though he was going very slowly. As far as my own HTF(eet)U program, the Montrail shoes seem to be a big improvement, feet seemed to be well-protected and well-cushioned and no blister problems since I got them. And, among my collection of shoes, they are quite stylish.... :-) | ||
Tuesday Jul 3 | ||
| biking 2:27:50 [3]42.1 mi (3:30 / mi) | |
| slept:5.0 weight:130lbs | ||
| Bike ride down to and around the Holyoke Range. Some days it feels like the wind is against you 75% of the time, or more; today it seemed as though it was against me hardly at all. That's not a way of saying that the legs felt good. The wind really was favorable, 8 mph out of the north as I started out heading south for about 12 miles, then diminishing and turning more NW as I turned east, then pretty much still as I headed back NW for the last 15 miles. Very fine.
The only thing not fine was that my route on the return leg included about 8 miles in Amherst, home of the state university, and also a town where the political elite prides itself on being liberal, progressive, superior to anyone else, whatever. They are happy to pass resolutions dealing with U.S. foreign policy. They actually do have a pretty good school system. But it would be nice if they could apply some of their collective intelligence to taking care of one of the basic resposibilities of local government -- fixing the roads. The pavement is terrible, and worse if you are on a bike. They don't do preventive maintenance (sealing cracks, or rebuilding roads before theyy get so bad that rebuilding gets a lot more expensive), and then they ran out of money to fix potholes, and then enough people got pissed, so they went out and fixed maybe 2/3 of the potholes, just tossing down cold patch with no attempt to make it smooth, so now there are alternating cracks and potholes and little mounds. Did I say their roads are terrible. So I spent the 8 miles figuring out who I was going to bitch to and what I would say -- I mean the town also prides itself on supporting "green" things, such as bike riding -- but at some point I got back to Sunderland and the pavement was back to being good and I suppose I will just mellow out and forget it. No, maybe I'll raise a little hell... :-) Other than that, a good ride, ok energy right to the end, guess my glycogen stores last at least 2.5 hours, since I was drinking just water and no eating. But I did have a glass of chocolate milk just before I left. Yummy.... | ||
| C • HTFU! 11 | ||
Monday Jul 2 | ||
| trail running 46:01 [3] | |
| slept:6.0 weight:131lbs shoes: Montrail | ||
| Over to the gate, then to the start of the power line power climb.
Had a really hard time getting out the door, just kept putting it off and putting it off some more. I'd have been quite happy to skip it completely, but I also know that the conditioning isn't going to get better without some work, and more specifically, without some running. Felt ok but a little slow, but a least i was running, which got the attnetion of one fellow I saw out there. He was walking, and he had something like a hooded sweatshirt draped over his head and down his back, not because it was cold but because of the FDFs. As I went by he said something like, "So they don't bother you, you just outrun them?" Huh? The flies, they can't keep up with you? Well, actually, they can. But you see, I got this.... And I proceeded to show him the blue hat, but not too closely because I didn't want him stealing any trade secrets, and I told him how I was testing this new miracle fabric -- if you say it's duct tape and sticky stuff, it doesn't sound quite so sexy -- and it was in the final stages of development, and in just a short while he could go to ByeFly.com and order some, and it would let him enjoy his walks in the woods again. And he was really interested, and as I took off I could hear him saying to himself, ByeFly.com, ByeFly.com.... --------------------- Well, that's what would have happened if Barb had been along, because she's our Director of Marketing among other things, and she would have had this guy drooling over the possibility of getting some ByeFly. But I'm just a scientist doing research, so when he said, "The flies, they can't keep up with you?" I just said No, and kept running. We all have our specialties.... | ||
| hike 15:46 [3]0.8 mi (19:42 / mi) +250m 6:13 / km | |
| shoes: Montrail | ||
| ... and then hiked briskly up the telephone line, 8/10 mile, 800' climb, still feeling a little sluggish.
| ||
| trail running 34:09 [3]4.1 mi (8:20 / mi) | |
| ... and then back home via the S curves. Working hard to try to run a little quicker. The muscles still don't feel supple. It may be that they never will again, but have to keep trying. A better pace than recently back from the power line, 13:15, but it was harder work doing that than it should have been.
Out for 96 minutes, as planned, so that was good. One of those runs when the greatest pleasure is have it done with. PG 23, FDFs 0. It did occur to me at some point that there may be some long term problems with ByeFly similar to what is happening with the miracle drugs -- as we kill off all the FDFs that are attracted to the blue hats, will there be a few survivors or mutations that don't have the fatal attraction, and will we end up with a population of FDFs not attracted to blue? And then what will we do? It's good there are scientists like me already thinking ahead.... | ||
Sunday Jul 1 | ||
| Note | |
| slept:6.0 weight:130lbs | ||
| After a lapse of perhaps 2 years, I have added to my Top Ten list, with entry #7. The plan is to finish this up in the next month, plus maybe add a few honorable mentions. It would be nice to get it done before I forget even more.
No ranking order for the 7 runs posted so far, other than that they will be in spots 2 through 10 in the final ranking. | ||
| C • #3 3 | ||
| biking 1:44:26 [3]28.5 mi (3:40 / mi) | |
| Bike ride up to Wendell via Lake Wyola, back via Millers Falls. Legs were a little tired/sore from yesterday's outing with Phil, but got better after a while. Perfect day, about 70, almost cold on the downhills. | ||
