Training Archive: PGIn the 31 days ending 2007-08-31:
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| 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 | W | H | F | |||||||||||
Friday Aug 31 | ||
| trail running 30:53 [3] | |
| weight:135lbs shoes: Montrail #2 | ||
| Training, yes training, remember what that is?
Laced on the shoes and headed out for the basic minimum, up to the power line (17:27) and back (13:26). Blisters and swollen big toe were still sore, but certainly tolerable. And doing something is better than nothing. Drained under the big toenail yesterday, using the horizontal approach with a needle, which seemed to work find with almost no discomfort, rather than the vertical one with a hot paper clip, or even the get-it-over-with don't-mess-around approach that Kissy suggested with a power drill and a large bit. The last option, the drill, might have made sense if I needed to drain both toenails, then I could have just put one toe on top of the other and gotten both cleaned out with one quick pass. But I generally believe in first trying the minimal approaches to any medical problem, bringing in the heavy artillery only if it is really necessary. Meanwhile the swelling in both feet overall has gone down, can once again see the usual veins and tendons. It seems unlikely that this, together with draining under the big toenail, accounts for the two-pound drop in the G i the last 24 hours, but you never know. It would be nice if I could stop my summer-long assault on 140. Tomorrow may try for 2 days in a row! | ||
| C • Target event? 13 | ||
Thursday Aug 30 | ||
| Note | |
| I really really need to get back to doing some training, and to do that I really really need to set some target events, or goals, or figure out some sort of motivational trick, or something.
But not today. Today was another divine trip to the course at Yale, this time with Charlie and Tom Noonen. Wonderful day. Good weather, good company, good vibes, even some good golf at times. And, because under the circumstances it would have a major sin to do otherwise, totally excellent behavior, even on the 16th when it took three swings to extract myself from the trees, even drawing blood on one of them, and dooming what on the tee had been reasonable hopes of breaking 80. And I even finished the 18th with the same ball I had teed up on #1. As Swampfox might say, So fine. Or as Boris might say, Sweet. | ||
Wednesday Aug 29 | ||
| Note | |
| weight:137lbs | ||
| A few numbers from last weekend's rogaine:
The course was just 50 controls, but spread out over about 170 square kilometers, one reason that no one came close to getting all of them. We got 32 (64%), and 1706 points out of 2392 (71%). We went 58 km as the crow flies, 3,000 meters of climb. Actual distance was a lot more as many routes were way off the straight line to avoid hills, rivers, cliffs, lakes, and/or thick woods. I ate about 2,600 calories, seemed plenty. Drank just water. Stomach was fine (but it was not hot). ------------------ One more set of numbers I'd like to see sometime -- the results! | ||
| C • Results 1 | ||
| Note | |
| Sometimes all you have to do is ask....
Rogaine results are up. Seems like we got 5th, pretty good, first in our class, can't beat that. Nice thing is another 100 points or so wouldn't have made any difference. (We could have even blown off 10 and 14 at the end, but then we would have missed some of the fine chafing conversation with Ken and Glen.) | ||
Tuesday Aug 28 | ||
| Note | |
| slept:2.5 | ||
| Seems like I may lose a big toe nail. It was feeling some pressure the last few hours of the rogaine, and now it has that feeling. I can't remember if drilling through the nail (or driving red-hot needles under it), with the goal of reducing fluid build-up and pain, actually improves the chances of saving the nail.
Also hope I don't get a stretch of nights with not enough sleep, as I did after the last rogaine. Like, it's 4:30 and I've up for an hour already.... | ||
| C • nail 19 | ||
| Note | |
| Only a couple of post-event photos, and I am only giving a link to them, not posting them here, as they are, well, at least the second was is, in Gail's words, rather gross.
The subject matter is feet, and what they look like after rogaining in totally wet conditions for 24 hours. First the feet that don't look so bad, just a normal prune job, but still perfectly acceptable on a family web site. Some people are just photogenic. And then the gross one, destined to join my Cyclops shots of a couple years ago in setting the standard for bad taste on AP. :-) I'm not sure how Barb's are doing 48+ hours after the fact. Mine certainly no longer looks like I have some horrible disease, though the blisters will be a while in mending. | ||
| C • gross one 6 | ||
Monday Aug 27 | ||
| Note | |
| Back home after a stop for some rogaine practice in Randolph, Vermont. Taped up the blisters pretty well and the feet were mostly ok, though lower back was quite sore for a while. Had a nice walk, but legs seemed quite tired on the few hills.
Here's the map of the rogaine. Story will follow, but first I have to go have a fight with Radio Shack (and Sprint) about my new phone and service.... :-) (I'll also post an enlarged copy of the map that's easier to read.) | ||
| C • Trails and roads 6 | ||
| Note | |
| Map, larger scale, north part.
Map, larger scale, south part. So the summary of the Laurentian Rogaine was in my log entry for a couple of days ago. Here's more detail, not that anyone else needs it, but for my own amusement and memory.... This was my second rogaine with Barb, the preceding one being Big Muddy in Oregon in May, and I think I felt a good bit less apprehensive about this one. Partly because my hamstring has been fine recently, partly because I didn't have to get on a plane to get to this one, and partly because I knew I had a good partner (and knew her a little better, too). And I felt a little better prepared, both physically and regarding gear. Barb, on the other hand, let it be known in the days before that she was feeling a bit intimidated, partly (I think) because this was a championship event, partly (and this came out more later when we had a look at the starting field) because all of the other competitors were so buff, the AR folks especially (and by implication, that she was not buff and, I do believe, neither was I), and partly (though this is just a guess) because she was a little concerned about slowing me down. I did my best to assure her that (1) we were only taking a semi-competitive approach anyway, (2) in her new slimmed down look (130), we certainly had at least one buff person on our team, and (3) much of the time in Oregon I was pressing to keep up to her. The hour we had to plan passed way too quickly, and we came up with a route (shown on the map with red lines, if you look carefully) that went north first, since we wanted to get to 75 and 76 and didn't like leaving them to the night or the very end. And then wandered to the NE, and then down through the middle, and then, well, we'd see how things stood and wing it. So we had a plan, sort of. Which we changed a lot, especially for the night. 31. (34 minutes) Over the bridge in town, the river, which didn't appear very significant on the map, looked a whole lot wider and deeper than anything we wanted to cross without a bridge. Francis had said things were dry, that it had been a dry summer, but it had rained a whole lot overnight, and was still raining. Francis had said nothing about the rivers. I took a look at our planned route and saw what could be problem crossings on the way from 76 to 75, and again in the NE section. Hmm, not good. The climb up to 31 was longer/steeper than anticipated. Had to remember it was a 40,000 map, 10 meter intervals. About 50 meters into the climb, up through the wet grass/brush, was the last time we had dry feet for 24 hours. 62 (27 minutes) Easy point, easy route, testing the woods, variable, some nice, some a good bit thicker than I cared for. Had the DeWitts on the same route, they were a little ahead and out of sight by the time we got to the control. On the way we had the first opportunities to enter/exit the woods with the chance of getting attacked by angry dogs or shot by angry owners. So far, so good. 75 (37 minutes) Decided to take the straight route, since it was shorter and offered the special bonus of crossing the autoroute without the benefit of an over/underpass. Fun!! Woods going up to 75 were ok. Control was on a big cliff, no problem, followed the broad spur, then the reentrant as it developed. 76 (40 minutes) No problem getting over to the area, but the area around 76 was steep. Steep climb getting up on top through the cliffs, crawling on my belly at one point, one of several times Barb said she wished she had her camera. Visibility up top was not great. Stayed up high because it was easier going, then we just had a feeling it was time to turn right and perfect, there was the control, top of another huge cliff (although with everything wet and presumably slippery in the rain and fog, I really didn't want to get close to the edge to see just how big the cliff was). Excellent. 43. (1 hour 7 minutes) So at some point we had adjusted our route to pick up 43 and then use the bridge on the way to 65. Didn't know how much water would be in the river above Sainte-Marguerite Station, but if it was even a half of that at Sainte-Adele, that was more than we wanted to cross. Getting to 43 took forever. First problem was getting down from 76. Steep, cliffs all over, everything wet and slippery, I was keeping my fingers crossed that we wouldn't get stuck above some cliffs that we couldn't get down. At the bottom we picked up the very overgrown trails perfectly. A long walk over to 43's hill, where the memory of 76's hill scared us into taking the too long walk around on the trails. 65 (1 hour 9 minutes) Another long walk. Straight down 43's hill, no problem. Crossing the big open area was fine, grass varying from knee- to waist-high. Over the river, not as big but still would not be easy to cross. S-M Station had a few commercial places, including an auberge or two, a spa, a massage therapist, and a golf course, hard to believe we were passing on all that to rogaine in the rain, but we were. Dropped our packs at the bike trail (old railroad line) and had a pretty straightforward climb up to 65. 80 (43 minutes) Back down to get our packs, where we met up with the DeWitts. They had gone straight from 76 to 65, quite terrible woods/hills/cliffs. Then a long road walk to 80. 23 (18 minutes) Along the road, up the hill. Small hill, seemed to knock us both back a peg, energy-wise. 73 (37 minutes) Despite that, Barb started running on the first bit of downhill road and we ran all the downhills to 73. 73's hill was steep and rather thick, although the woods opened up just before the control (north part of the spur). 91 (44 minutes) Left 73 along the spur to the SE, picked up a logging trail through very trashy woods, but even the trail wasn't great, lots of unnecessary deadfall across it, maybe that's why it wasn't mapped. Picked up a mapped trail, used it to get close to the road, but where we wanted to exit there was a very yippy (Barb's term) dog barking and she wanted nothing to do with it (she has her anxieties, I have mine), so we looped around and came out between a couple of other houses where there were no canine issues. Along the road we had a discussion about what we were going to do if, when we reached the bridge crossing the stream, we determined that we either could or couldn't cross it farther downstream. Got to the bridge, rapids there, still a lot of water, decided it was crossable in the vicinity of rapids, otherwise likely a swim, which we were not up for. And Barb wasn't really up for planning to cross it at all, I'm pretty sure I talked her into it. So the end result was we dropped our packs at the bridge, planning to come back that way and eventually cross the river once at 60, where it looked like there might be rapids, and again between 60 and 72 where it looked like there was a small bridge. Ran all the downhills and flats on the way to 91 and back. After not having rained for 2 or 3 hours, it started to rain just as we dropped our packs, and was pouring real hard for a while. But no thunder/lightning. Just more water for our crossing. 34 (56 minutes) Back to the bridge, picked up the packs, then road and then trail almost to the point, though the last hundred meters was thick woods and then very thick brush. Beautiful little bay. 44 (30 minutes) Trail, then a bit of very new trail that climbed 3 contour lines in the right direction before it stopped climbing and headed south. Woods higher up were very nice, easy point, just a long slow climb. 60 (29 minutes) Getting down off of 44's hill looked dicey, but it wasn't bad. Partway down you could hear the river, there were definitely rapids. But despite a road ending on one side and a trail on the other, there was sadly no bridge. The river was about 20 yards across, no so bad, but moving rather fast (or we could go upstream, above the rapids, it was maybe 30-40 yards wide, undetermined depth). We looked at it. It seemed doable to me. Barb said something like, "Dude, we are really going across this, are we?" And when I said, "Yes," I think she was starting to freak out a little, because once again, "Dude, we are really going across this?" (I believe this was the only time in the 24 hours that I was Dude!) Not that I was feeling real good about it. Mainly I felt that we had no choice, and when you have no choice, in a way that makes it easier. You just do it, you have to. So I moved downstream about 10 yards, just below one set of rapids way too strong to cross and just above a stretch of fast-moving but relatively rock/boulder-free water, where I figured if we got swept away, we had enough space to swim and get washed up on the other side before the next set of rocks. Got to do it. We stuffed our maps and compasses and the control card in our packs so we didn't loose them. And I stepped in. Knee-deep, rocky underwater, slippery, ugh. I looked back. Come on, I yelled, it's ok. Barb looked terrified. Come on, I yelled, also feeling quite terrified but trying not to show it. She slid in. I edged out a little further. Waist-deep, tricky footing, current picking up. I thought, maybe I should have gotten a branch I could use as a walking stick to help with balance. Now if I was an AR I'm sure I would have known what to do next, but I don't do this stuff every weekend, meaning like never. But what popped into mind was, Hold on to each other, and only one person moves at a time, and the next person doesn't move until the first one has a good solid foothold. So we started that and it seemed to work, even out in the middle where it was waist/chest-deep and moving fast, and the one whose turn it was to advance would be hanging on for dear life while trying to get a new foothold. And 3 or 4 feet at a time we worked across, and suddenly we were past the worst of it, and then suddenly it was fun! Out the far side, big smiles, very cool. And we could even deal with the guy by the rundown house scowling, saying something about private property, but there was no barking dog and he didn't seem to have a gun. So we smiled, "Le chemin?" He pointed in the direction of the road and we were off, more big smiles, very cool. I believe it was not long after this we had the discussion about all the buff people at the event, and, my opinion at least, how Barb was certainly one of them. 51 (23 minutes) Up the road. Still in a state of delight. 72 (45 minutes) More road, then a bridge we hoped was there, which it was. Getting dark, hustled along to get there just about 8 pm. Not much light left. 21 (48 minutes) More trail and road, a long climb, now quite dark despite a full moon, as there was still a thick cloud cover. We passed a house with a big party going on and we were reminded that it was Saturday night. Got to watch out for drivers. Passed a restaurant, Maison du Chemin Nouveau (House of the New Road), wonder who dreamt up that name, didn't exactly get the saliva flowing. 32 (33 minutes) Road then decent trail, but even on trails at night demanded full attention. Hard to tell exactly where the control was (small concrete dam), we came in on the north side of the stream, at a little pond, I could hear rushing water not far away, but the woods were almost impassable and I took a bad spill on a small cliff that I didn't see and came closer than I like to doing serious damage to an ankle. So we beat a retreat and came around on the south side and it was straightforward. 54 (54 minutes) Harder than it might look, because there was no trail on the map along the south side of the lake, though any rogainer knows that often there are trails in such locations. Up the trail, across the road, up the next trail, we debated going through the woods on the high ground, thinking that along the lake it may just be cliffs coming right down to the water. But we decided to go have a look to see if there is a trail. And there was a faint one (faint at night at least, I'm sure it's more obvious in the light). And we could just barely follow it as it twisted between the rocks and deadfall and bushes. But it got us to the corner of the lake. And then it just disappeared. And ahead was a very unappealing stretch of swamp, maybe not too far across, maybe a ways, couldn't tell. Couldn't tell how deep either. Where the trail seemed to stop there was a bit of dry land going out into the swamp. And a root stock mostly blocking it. But there seemed nowhere else to go. As I was crawling up over the root stock, remains of the spruce sticking out to one side, I noticed that several little branches had been cut off. Not recently, but definitely cut off. Must be the way. And bit by bit, around and about, and we were across the swamp still on the vaguest bit of trail, but much better than nothing. Excellent. We found the connection to the trail on the map, then lost it once, then it got better and before long we nailed the point, first of many that Barb's eyes spotted at night while I was just seeing trees. 52 (57 minutes) Time includes 2 stops, one right at 54 to grease up the feet in the hope of forestalling some blisters. There was already one on one heel, probably one on the other heel, bottom of some toes were getting hot. Second stop was on the trail below 52, one of my blisters had popped and, as usual, they hurt the worst right after they pop. So this time Barb put Compeed patches on both my heels and I put on dry socks. Felt much, much better. In between stops we had to deal with an off-trail section. First, contouring due east about 400 meters, that went well, good woods, then climbing about 3 lines, woods got worse and worse, thick spruce plus lots of seasonal brush. Started getting very nervous about missing the cross trail, but eventually it showed up. Trail/road to near the control (top of a cliff), then a small hard-to-find trail to what looked like the top of a cliff, but no control. Barb suggested looking a little higher, then spotted it, at the top of what I'd assume (since I was staying as far from the edge as I could) was a different face of one huge cliff. 42 (23 minutes) Back the same trail, then a little further, then turned left at the right spot. Was pretty sure we had the right place to turn in, and we did, but it was thick. 50 (1 hour 10 minutes) And it was thick getting back to the trail, and I guess we hadn't gone quite far enough when I thought we had, so I turned around and went back a little, and I got turned around a little more, and the compass said south was one way and that didn't seem right. And I was freaking out, just feeling stupid, and trying to recreate what I'd done and where we might be (and the time we were losing), and at some point Barb said maybe we hadn't gone far enough, so we went just a little more NW and there was the trail. All took place in a tiny little area and over maybe 3 or 4 minutes, but amazing what damage the mind can do if you give it a chance. Of course, not long after we found the trail we lost it again, just at the NW tip of the pond, high vegetation. Found it again, it was hard to follow all the way down the west side. After that ok, but I was not in the mood to take the more direct trails to 50, so we took the longer road way around. Did give us the chance to chat up a local drunk, well, he tried to chat us up, something about watch out for the cars (Oui, oui, je sais, from me, while I think Barb was keeping her distance), then where were we going (La bas, down there, pointing down the road as if I knew what I was doing), and soon we were past him. Who knows, maybe we should have been more friendly, maybe he would have asked us in for hot chocolate. Just after we passed him we saw Bash and her partner, heading back where we'd been. Maybe he asked them in. 46 (34 minutes) Across the bit of stream, picked up what we hoped was the correct trail, then navigated correctly though about 8 junctions, then got the control (end of a small marsh) for icing on the cake. Brilliant map. 63 (51 minutes) Back to the trail, more trail navigation down to the lake. Could hear lots of noise (it was now about 2 am) from a big party, I believe I suggested it sounded like a pagan ritual, I imagined various animal sacrifices going on. More roads and trails, all ok, then got the control easily, though at night you never know until you've actually done it. 81 (54 minutes) Long trail walk, first part a bit rougher, then nice, no problems, except I think it was at some point along here that Barb slipped and went down and cracked her knees on a log, and one of the knees was a good bit worse off for the encounter. 90 (1 hour 4 minutes) Long road walk, thought it might take an hour or a little more. It did. 70 (56 minutes) Another long walk, expected an hour, did about that, though I thought we might do a little better. Took what we thought was a clever shortcut in the middle, road to clearing, across the nice clearing, just a touch of woods to road again. Except there was a strip of bad woods before the clearing, and then the clearing, well it might have been a nice clearing a decade or two ago, but now it was a mixture of brush and shrubs and chest-high thick hummocky grass. Hard to push through, plus I fell down a bunch of times. The couple hundred meters of thick woods on the other side were nice by comparison. We'd seen Phil Bricker and Jeff Shapiro maybe 5 minutes on their way out of 90 when we were on the way in, thought we might catch them at 70, but no sign of their lights. 41 (39 minutes) Sky starting to lighten up. Trails all the way, no problems, caught up to Phil and Jeff who seemed to have spent some time investigating the first high tension pole. Off with the headlamps. 64 (1 hour 23 minutes) Pretty much a disaster. Plan was to go to 45, headed east to the trail, never got there, woods were terrible, decided to turn downhill to get to the trail there. Chest- to head-high vegetation, rocky ground, I kept crashing, Barb's right knee was getting really bad. Finally got to the trail, had long since given up on going to 45, now off to 64 and stay on trails as much as possible. Which we did, just took a long time. I was getting tired going up, Barb's knee was real bad going down. 40 (30 minutes)Trail/road walk. 56 (30 minutes) Around the lake then in to the point. Nice woods, thankfully, still hard going downhill on a bad knee. 10 (57 minutes) Out to the road, and home, or so I expected, but partway along we met Ken Walker and Glen Brake, and they were heading for 10, and it seemed like we had time enough, so we went there too. Nice chat along the way, about chafing and other fun things. 14 (16 minutes) Still 53 minutes left, Ken and Glen were going to pick up 14, so we did too, though they were moving faster and were soon out of sight. HH (29 minutes) 39 minutes to go, plenty of time, except first the woods were crap again, and then it took much longer to find a trail than I expected, and pretty soon I was having another freak-out session, this one about getting caught up in something and coming in late. But no damage, back with 10 minutes to spare, one last fall on the last little slope 50 meters from the finish, feet slipped right out from under me. Turned in our card. A little food, a little drink, packed up the tent, packed up the gear. Headed home, dropping Barb at the airport on the way, still no idea how we did. But not too badly beaten up, and a fine time and some excellent memories! And ready to do at least one more before they pack me off to a nursing home. | ||
| C • route 14 | ||
Sunday Aug 26 | ||
| rogaining 9:50:00 [1] | |
| shoes: Montrail | ||
| Rest of rogaine. I will post our route when I get home. | ||
Saturday Aug 25 | ||
| Event: Laurentian Rogaine | ||
| rogaining 14:00:00 [1] | |
| shoes: Montrail | ||
| Laurentian Rogaine in Ste-Adele, Quebec, with Barb. Don't know how we did because they hadn't put up results by the time we left. I'd guess we were quite respectable but not awesome.
Brilliant map by Francis Faldereau. Very small scale (or is it large scale?), 1:40,000 with 10 meter contours, but the contours were very good and the mapping of trails was superb. The terrain used is in the Laurentians, NW of Montreal, hilly, rough woods in a lot of places, but also lots of roads and trails. So routes tended to be further from the beeline, and my assumption is that a good score required a lot of running. Which we didn't do, though we probably ran an hour or so in bits and pieces. So we moved rather slowly, but excellent navigation, don't think we missed more than 10 minutes, if that. Good to have a partner with good O' skills, and also with young eyes, especially at night. Stayed out the whole time, just a couple of quick stops for foot care. Rained the first 4 hours, then again quite hard in the late afternoon, then again in the evening. And the vegetation never dried out, so everything was wet pretty much the whole time. All my usual blister spots were fine this time, but I got a couple of big ones in new spots for me, back of each heel. Only really bothered me the last 3 hours, and even that was tolerable. Barb had trouble with one knee, took a hard fall at one point and did something unpleasant to it. Thereafter downhills, and especially steep downhills, were often slow and painful. My legs were pretty good except for the blisters, though I'm sure my fall count was well over 100. My balance and coordination just aren't there any more. Highlights were a few patches of really good night orienteering, a stream crossing (waist deep or a little deeper, good strong current, really good teamwork to both stay upright), some good French with the locals, excellent temps (we each wore just one shirt the whole time, not too hot, not too cold), excellent map. Lowlight was one 25-minute battle, and I mean battle, to try to contour across an area that turned out to be horrible (thick summer vegetation waist to head high, hiding rocks and deadfall on the ground). Never made it across, quit and retreated, but still felt at times like we would never get out. And I kept getting upended by encounters with rocks and logs, head down on the ground, feet up in the air tangled up in the vegetation. Not fun, and I don't even think Barb was laughing, even though I'm sure I presented quite a scene at times. And I suppose another lowlight was passing by a variety of commercial establishments that offer massage, or hot tubs, or fine French food, or even just a place that was dry, and not stopping in at any of them. Though it sure was a topic for enjoyable conversation. Got partway home, stopped a Montpelier, only got that far after drinking 3 Cokes, first semi-serious caffeine a quite a while. Did the job, but I didn't really want the 3 more it would have taken to get me home. | ||
Friday Aug 24 | ||
| Note | |
| No mice caught, but also no mouse shit. Progress? Or are they just playing with me. | ||
Thursday Aug 23 | ||
| Note | |
| weight:135lbs | ||
| Busy day, time to be setting the traps tonight, and I haven't even gotten around to the details from last night, when (drum roll please!) --
One victory for the old-fashioned wooden traps -- 
It's a bit hard to figure out just what this fellow was doing when the trap got sprung, since it seems to have been caught with its head out to one side and its tail out to the other. And one victory for the newer "quagmire" traps -- 
This fellow just got in and couldn't get out. Some only marginally connected observations -- 1. It seems that both our counter tops and our kitchen floor are the color of mouse shit. 2. Why is it that when I look at the mice and their current predicament, the word "Iraq" comes to mind? 3. The mice caught by a wooden trap the last two nights were caught by the same trap. That trap now has two victory marks on its back side. Keep this up, and pretty soon it will remind me of college football players that seem to wear helmets with a bunch of marks on them. I had always thought those marks indicated outstanding plays. Is it possible they indicate mouse kills? 4. Another day without training, but still an active and happy AP log! | ||
| C • ? 4 | ||
| Note | |
| Off to Montreal for the rogaine in the morning, and my taper is going very well. Though my mind continues to fail. Made up a quite beautiful and well-constructed piece of string with knots every 5 km, and different colors for the knots every 10 km, and very pleased with myself, until this evening, when reading the rogaine info on the web, I discovered that the map scale will be 1:40,000, not 1:30,000 as I had thought.
I can still use it, just every knot will be 6.67 km, hmmm, think I better make another one.... | ||
Wednesday Aug 22 | ||
| Note | |
Just 1, batting .250 last night, but given recent history that's progress. :-)
| ||
| C • Mouse 5 | ||
| Note | |
| Ok, bedtime and the traps are out again, 4 fine wooden ones and 2 sticky trays (held in place by some blue duct tape). How many will be successful when I check in the morning?
Better not be 0.... By the way, the last time I remember having to go on a serious trapping program, maybe 4 years ago, I think we logged about 25 kills over about a month before the population seemed to fade away. | ||
Tuesday Aug 21 | ||
| Note | |
| weight:136lbs | ||
| Lots of good ideas for catching rodents, killing rodents, and disposing of rodents (either dead or alive), but in all honesty, given the situation early this morning, none of that advice was worth a damn.
Back to yesterday evening, when an inventory of mouse-catching stuff showed that we had 2 old-fashioned wooden traps that didn't seem to work, 2 plastic catch-and-release traps that didn't seem to work, and one sticky-stuff tray whose partner had seemed to work pretty well. So at bedtime, out on the counter went the tray. And when I come down early this morning, probably after a pleasant night dreaming of many more victories over the mice, though I'm not sure because I never remember my dreams (except the anxiety ones), anyway, when I come down and turn on the light, what do i find? Nothing. That's right, nothing. Not just no stuck mouse, but not even a trap. The tray is gone. I look all over and under and around and behind everything, and it is definitely gone. The mice stole the fucking trap, or to be more polite as Cristina would be, WTF! Or maybe even WTMF! And of course there is the usual assortment of mouse shit. -------------------- This is getting serious. It is now afternoon, and I am the proud owner of 8 more traps, and I hope to use some of the fine ideas from various folks to make them more effective. And I am already dreaming of a massive slaughter tonight.... Though perhaps what I really need is an infrared webcam so I could find out what is really going on in the wee hours. | ||
| C • Totally!! 6 | ||
Monday Aug 20 | ||
| Note | |
| weight:135lbs | ||
| Another major AOWN moment early this morning, though I need to give a bit of history to put things in perspective....
Executive Summary -- we have a mouse problem. More details -- Well, we live in the country, so you sort sort of expect to have a variety of visitors and try not to get too excited about it. Bats in the living room, turkeys and coyotes and foxes in the driveway (at different times), deer helping themselves to Gail's flowers, a bear trashing our bird feeders, and then getting driven off by a very macho PG when it tried to trash our replacement feeders, a skunk in the garage, a downy woodpecker in the refrigerator, black rat snakes all around the house, bald eagles soaring overhead, plus the usual assortment of bugs, beetles, some very large spiders, wasps, hornets, ants, and, over the years, a whole lot of mice. We had a cat for a long time, Thumper, but fine as she was, she was totally worthless as a mouser. So the traps were put out on a fairly regular basis. First, the old standby wooden one, bait it with a little cheese or peanut butter, extract the dead mouse in the morning, grab it by its tail, step outside, whip it around and launch it into the bushes and forget about it. After a while the mice seemed to get good at consuming the bait without setting off the trap, so we moved on to these little grey plastic traps, put some dry cat food in, the mouse enters, its weight cause the trap to pivot just enough to drop the door. In the morning, while out getting the morning paper, dispose of the still very much alive mouse in a nice spot on the far side of the Connecticut River. So much more civilized, though not quite as civilized as a friend, who when she disposed of her live mice, also left a little supply of food just to get them off to a happy start in their new surroundings.... And that seemed to take care of matters quite well, and the last couple of years had been pretty much mouse-free. Until a couple of weeks ago, when we became aware of the patter-patter of little feet, and also of the nocturnal visits of the critters to our kitchen counters and sink. So out came the traps. And the old standbys, the grey boxes, caught not a thing. Maybe the cat food was no longer appealing, so I tried some very fine all natural peanut butter, but still no takers, and each morning I got to clean up more mouse shit. Back to the old wooden traps, baited with peanut butter. That worked, meaning they sure liked the peanut butter, but it had all been licked off and the taps were still set. Gail started doing research on the web, telling me about various electronic gizmos that, according to reader reviews, either worked like a charm or didn't work at all. Meanwhile, I went to the hardware store to see what they had. I wasn't quite ready for the bag of mouse poison and the traps they offered seemed no better than what we had, but they did have this product that claimed to take care of mice much the same way our blue caps take care of the FDFs, yup, a small tray of very sticky stuff that the mouse supposedly step in and then can't step out of. So I sprung for a box, contents were two trays, maybe 3" x 5" each. The instructions said to put them along the wall where the mice go. I put them out. Next morning I check, no mice, but a lot more mouse shit to clean up. Next night I put the trays out up on the counter, right where I've had hard evidence each morning that the mice are visiting. Next morning I check, again no mice, but once again a lot more mouse shit to clean up. Which brings us to last night, when I put out my latest inspiration, the two trays, each with a nice dollop of peanut butter in the middle. I sleep well, past 6 am. Down to the kitchen. And there has clearly been some action. The first tray has moved about a foot and it's upside-down, and there are little bits of sticky stuff on the counter. Signs of a fierce battle, but unfortunately the mouse escaped. Shit. But then I look at the second tray, and it's moved some too, and stuck in the middle of it is a mouse. Excellent! Except it spots me and starts to struggle and I think it's going to get away, but after a few seconds it sits still again. And I'm thinking, now what am I going to do with it. And I need to do something because every couple of minutes it starts moving again, and I'm afraid it's going to escape. Now Gail said later, when I was telling her about it, that I should have just killed it, whacked it, with what she didn't say. A hammer? A book? The Sunday paper? My laptop? I do believe I told her that next time I would get her up and she could come down and whack it. I do believe she withdrew the suggestion..... But I am AOWN, so I slid the tray/mouse into an empty box (originally used as packaging for 6 very tasty chocolate/caramel/peanut food bars, one of which I enjoyed greatly on my Wapack out yesterday, and another of which I offered to Barb, but she declined because she was slimming....), closed the lid, sealed it with some nice blue duct tape that I happened to have more of than I seem to need at the moment (did I mention that there have been no FDFs around on my last two outings?), and then delivered the nice little package to the trash can at the local gas station. Brilliant, or so I thought, although, as I said, there was a suggestion that I should have just whacked it.... So was this guy the only perp, or is there a whole gang of them still in residence? Will this be the end of it? Or will I have to buy more trays, and many more chocolate/caramel/peanut food bars (in order to get empty boxes), and maybe even more blue duct tape? Or maybe take a karate class? Or get a testosterone injection? We shall see.... And isn't it nice that you can write whatever you want on AP.... :-) | ||
| C • as a professional in this fiel... 11 | ||
Sunday Aug 19 | ||
| run/hike (with pack, 9 pounds) 3:30:00 [2] | |
| weight:136lbs shoes: Montrail | ||
| With Barb on the Wapack Trail, one more outing before the rogaine next weekend.
I had originally said Sunday was out, but then realized we could do something early as long I was done by 11, so we met at the trailhead at 7. 45 degrees, cool and invigorating, she said let's run some to warm up, but after a couple of minutes of that there was the feeling that oops, that wasn't a good idea, her asthma was kicking in. Let's go back and get your inhaler, I suggested, but she was trying to kick the habit, in 30 minutes she'd feel better she said, so on we went up and over Mt. Watatic and Nutting Hill, with her apparently breathing only occasionally. And since 30 minutes had passed and she was still not breathing well, back the shortcut to the cars to dope up. So that took care of maybe 55 minutes. And then out again, back up the shortcut to the north shoulder of Nutting Hill, then a long running section to the end of Binney Pond. Then hiking the ups and running the flats and downs until in the gap between New Ipswich Mountain and Barrett Mountain where it was time to turn back, same process on the way back, running quite a bit as Barb seemed to be feeling quite spry. Amazing what a little oxygen will do. Nice outing. And I picked up her tent and a bunch of other stuff to take next weekend when I'm driving and she's flying. My only question -- I assume there are no controlled substances in here just in case they decide to take a close look at the border? | ||
| C • No controlled substances 12 | ||
| Note | |
| Second part of the day's duathlon was the so-called Divorce Open, aka the husband and wife annual golf tournament where we play. Divorce Open, because it's alternate shot, so if you hit a bad shot, it's your partner that has to deal with the consequences, and that can, well, test the relationship.
And we hit a good number of bad shots, I hit some shots from places I'd never been, Gail had the same opportunity, probably even more so, because on her own she's very accurate, whereas I hit the ball a whole lot farther but it sometimes doesn't end up in the most friendly places. So I put her in the trees a couple of time, and in the long grass a couple of times, but she never once took a swing at me. And she put me in a few spots, but then I had a beer after a few holes and was feeling quite mellow. And we both made some really good shots too, and knocked in several long putts, and finished with 79, a whole lot better than what we deserved. A fine day. AOWN moment on the way to the course, cruising northbound up I-91, spot a woodchuck up ahead in the breakdown lane looking like it wants to cross. Moderate traffic. It starts out into the travel lane, gets a couple of feet, looks towards the oncoming cars, realizes that our car and the one in front are way too close. Backs up just in time as we go by, and then I watch in the rearview mirror as it heads off in the next gap in traffic and just makes it across. Who knows what happened then, but several hours later there was no sign of any roadkill on I-91 south. Maybe it made it.... | ||
Saturday Aug 18 | ||
| trail running 30:59 [3] | |
| weight:136lbs shoes: Montrail #2 | ||
| Up to the power line and back. Windy and cool, feeling ok, well rested as usual and lots of ballast to deal with any gusts.
Damn, training twice in one week. What's going on? Actually it occurred to me that what I was really doing was fulfilling my part of the WOC challenge, where good results by the USA team require certain amounts of training by the rest of us. So today's requirement was at least 20 minutes in honor of Sandra making the A final. Tomorrow's will be at least an hour for each team member making the long A final. Monday's will be at least 35 minutes for each team member making the middle A final. Haven't worked out the challenge for the individual finals yet, but for the relay, the challenge gets real serious, if we beat the Canadians, I'll head out for at least 10 hours. | ||
| C • 1 | ||
| C • Relay 12 | ||
Thursday Aug 16 | ||
| Note | |
| Back down to Osbornedale for more field-checking for the Relay Champs. Finished the basic work, checking and sometimes rejecting points, plus a bunch more mapping. Now have to draw stuff up and see if I still like it a few days from now.
Terrain should work well. A lot of really nice woods, even in the summertime, a little bit of thicker stuff, a few open areas. And the logistics should work well too. Of course you never know until it's over. Approximate course lengths (all subject to change) -- Yellow (maybe a couple versions) 2 km Orange (maybe a couple versions) 3 km Brown 3 km Greens (4 versions) 4-4.5 km Reds (2 versions) 5.5-6.5 km 4-point teams: green-orange-green-red 8-point teams: orange-yellow-green-red 12-point teams: orange-yellow-brown-green The plan was to run a course after I was done. Hot and muggy, just didn't feel like it.... | ||
| C • Kids 1 | ||
Tuesday Aug 14 | ||
| trail running 1:31:30 [3] | |
| shoes: Montrail | ||
| With Phil, over to the gate, up to the hairpin, back via S curves and the power line. Legs felt ok for most of the climb, but then getting sore towards the end. Felt like I hadn't run for a long time. Glad the run wasn't any longer as I was starting to bonk. And if it had been usual summer weather instead of the mid 70s and low humidity....
Just haven't been motivated for any real training recently -- legs are fine for walking/hiking, just not for running. And the G is out of control. Need to get my act together. | ||
| C • 6 days w/o a run, and then 1:3... 9 | ||
Thursday Aug 9 | ||
| Note | |
| weight:134lbs | ||
| Woke up dehydrated and legs were feeling quite beat.
Spent about 3 hours in the afternoon at Osbornedale, field-checking points for the Relay Champs. Made some good progress, in fact made some really good progress, especially psychologically, as this has been hanging over my head for a long time and I just haven't been able to get going on it. Woods are very nice, especially for summertime, most places are no different than they would be with the leaves down, at least where I'm sending the courses. Ought to work really well for a relay. I didn't get going until about 1 pm, most of the morning was spent on possible course designs, interrupted more than once by trying to get the latest sprint standings posted. Left Osbornedale about 6:15, came back via Waterbury, stopped there to take a quick look at a public course I'd never been to (East Mountain). Got there at 6:55, asked the pro if I could play just a few holes, he gave me a scorecard and smiled and said he was leaving at 7:00 and then I could do what I wanted (i.e. at no charge). By the time I fetched my clubs he was gone, and I enjoyed a quick 6 holes in the waning daylight. Which unfortunately is coming sooner these days. Home by 9:30, in a very good mood after a productive day. | ||
Wednesday Aug 8 | ||
| hike (with pack, 6 pounds) 39:01 [2]2.6 mi (15:01 / mi) +340m 6:38 / km | |
| shoes: Montrail #2 | ||
| Back from a nice trip to Maine, a couple nice visits, some good rogaine practice, and a lot of good food. Up to the top of Toby. Hot and humid, not feeling too zippy, and time was a minute faster than before. Must be well rested. Certainly not overtrained. And certainly not wasting away, though the current value of the G is temporarily classified.
| ||
| trail running (with pack, 6 pounds) 32:16 [3]4.1 mi (7:51 / mi) | |
| shoes: Montrail #2 | ||
| And then run back down via the S curves. Sweating like crazy, didn't feeling particularly speedy, but time was a minute faster here too. Maybe the stride is just getting a little looser. Still a touch of soreness in the left quad, almost in the left ITB, I'm not sure. Only noticeable on the steep downhills.
---------- On the trip to Maine I did some unplanned further research into the FDF matter, as I came across another product for dealing with them --  While this is specifically aimed at horse flies, it claims to deal with FDFs too (well, actually it just claims to deal with DFs too). The only problem might be figuring out a way to bring it along. At 2' x 2' x 5.5' (and an unknown weight), that would not be a trivial problem. Though I'd guess it would be really, really good rogaine training, especially if you were going off-trail at all. But maybe it is destined for stationary use, perhaps in estate settings. Chez DeWeese? More details. | ||
| C • horse pal 3 | ||
Sunday Aug 5 | ||
| road running 48:13 [3] | |
| In Camden, Maine, visiting Gail's aunt and uncle. A pre-breakfast run from their house over to Mount Battie, then up it on a nice trail, about 550' climb, legs felt good, great views from the top, then down the steep rocky ridge back into town. And within a couple of minutes my left outside quad was cramping/hurting and my right one was thinking of doing the same thing, so it turned into a very slow and careful and uncomfortable descent. Ran back the last mile on the streets, leg quite sore.
This has happened a couple of times before, both times I was doing a lot of biking. Don't know what's going on, but I don't like it. At least the legs felt good going up! | ||
| C • biking and quads pain 1 | ||
Saturday Aug 4 | ||
| trail running 37:27 [4]4.6 mi (8:09 / mi) | |
| In Durham, NH, visiting my second cousin Rich Davisson, went for an early run (definitely not a jog, for me at least) with his daughter Katy, Williams '05, now a med student at UVM, sounded like she knew Ross and Sam pretty well, small world....
Paved road for a bit, then trails, then the bit of paved at the end. She had said any pace was ok as long as it wasn't faster than 7:30. I don't think we were any slower than that either, which is fast for me these days, and I was working a good bit harder than I felt like doing at 7 am. After we were done, I mentioned that she was setting a faster pace than I would have set on my own, and her response was she was just trying to keep up to me. The mental games we play.... But at least the legs felt ok during and ok afterwards. I'm thinking it might be time to start easing back into track workouts and the local 5K XC races, at least if the weather cools off a bit. More research on the FDFs. I had on my usual cap, usual blue tape, usual sticky stuff, usual outcome, I think this time the score was 51-0. She had on a bright blue singlet, no cap, and her score was pretty close to 0-0. Meaning, they weren't bothering her at all. What gives? Do the FDFs find scrawny old guys that much more appealing than pretty young blondes? Route. | ||
Wednesday Aug 1 | ||
| biking 1:02:04 [3]19.0 mi (3:16 / mi) | |
| weight:134.5lbs | ||
| Down River Road to Hatfield and back, only hills were twice over the bridge over the Connecticut River and back up the driveway at the end. Wanted to do a few intervals, something I'd never tried on a bike before, other than the natural intervals of hilly terrain. So I did 6 x half a mile, one time got up to about 24-25 mph, the others about 21-22, all compared to the 17-18 base pace. The end of each half mile couldn't come soon enough! And to think that the top guys ride at about 32-33 for an hour.
The one thing I forgot to try was to see how fast I could get going, Doubt it would have been much more than 25. Not sure I will try this again, reasonably unpleasant! Diet is a disaster.... | ||
| C • G 6 | ||
| C • Quicker than that 13 | ||
