Training Log Archive: PG

Let's see if I've got this right --

Kissy is laid up from knee surgery.

Boris is out of commission with an injured butt.

And Kat shows up in Laramie for some private coaching.

In the old days, another edition of the Troll Trasher Rag would already have hit the newsstands....

C • Didn't disappoint 2

Another great day.

Off with Gail to the NEOC local meet at Nobscot, one of my favorite places from the late 70s, and then after at least 20 years absence, a fond memory from 2 years ago.

Ran the Red course, longest on offer, seemed about right for what I wanted, and had a good (maybe very good) run. I wasn't sure how the legs would feel. Yesterday's very short excursion on South Sugarloaf, especially the downhills, had my legs feeling dead on the warm-up. (The second time down, dropping at 135'/minute, I could feel the jarring on the legs while I was doing it, but it's the kind of training that needs to be done, and done more often.)

But once I got going I had more energy than expected. Ran well for the first 30 minutes, then a few weak moments the rest of the way, but still running pretty well most of the time. And a little more aggressive at times too. And definitely better at reading the map on the run than I've been recently.

Got done, time was excellent, then took a very pleasant walk with Ian Smith out to check the trails on the way to #1 (yup, they're screwed up in a couple of places), plus a nice chat with him. He's getting better, also still lots of room for improvement. Plus he does a bunch of organizing stuff for CSU, which is cool.

Afterwards, just to show that you can teach an old dog the occasional new trick, I took advantage of something I've seen Barb do with great success -- before we left home I did a quick search for "vegetarian restaurant Framingham" and up popped Big Fresh. Hardly out of the way at all. We stopped there, shared a Spicy Peanut Noodle Stir Fry, really excellent. And then happily headed home.

Today's routes and a few comments.

Worst mistake was to #1, and I could blame that in part on a couple of mismapped trails (and I walked out there afterwards to be sure). But I still should have adjusted quicker. To 8 (across the marsh), just a little too far left of my intended line. And then to 14, the last control, popped out of the little marsh just east of the control, saw the flag, went to punch, but the code was wrong. Did a double-take, how could this be, I was right on line. Though this looked like it was on a boulder and I was looking for a flattish knoll. Looked around, and there was mine, at most 20 meters away. The closest I think I've ever seen 2 controls in this country.

I ran well for 31 minutes (exception was the steep climb up to 3, unrunnable for me), on the way to 9 all of a sudden I felt out of gas. Walked the first part of the hill to 10, and then the last part to 11, that part quite slowly, but then ran the rest of the way not so bad.

Overall, more improvement over the last 6 weeks, both physically and technique. Getting some efficiency back. And was moving pretty well on several legs.

12 down, 38 to go.

Just a short warm-up. As usual, should have done long, but something was better than nothing.

Red course - Splits

A short but useful outing -- two trips up the trail straight up South Sugarloaf and then back the same way, walking up, jogging down, hard on the quads both ways, 450' vertical.

Up: 7:43. Down: 3:38. Total: 11:21.
Up: 7:07. Down: 3:21. Total: 10:28

Went to see Sugar. We both really liked it.

Several things, but first a progress report since March 1 --








Down 11 pounds, and it's starting to show in my running. :-)

13 hills loop in Greenfield. Don't run it often this time of year, but it's a nice test loop, plus it drains really well so even after 3 days of rain it's not muddy.

Ran the first half at just a good steady pace, moving nicely. Then not sure if I picked it up a little or it was just the accumulation of hills, but on the way back I was definitely breathing hard. But still in control. So hard work but felt really good. And the time, 53:07, while still well off the 49+ of a few years ago (and that was a race-pace effort), was a good improvement over my best uo to now this year of 56:35. Excellent. 10 down, 40 to go.

Tomorrow will be an easy day, then maybe O' at Nobscot on Sunday?

So we're going to the Oringen and the Swiss O' Week. (Yippee!)

And anyone who complains about the online entry systems that we have for most A meets in this country ought to have their head examined.

The Swiss one wasn't so bad for signing up, perfectly OK in fact, just the paying is the pain in the rear, can't use a credit card, have to go to the bank to get a wire transfer, and hope to hell the person at the bank actually manages to get it done right, despite the fact that she is giving every indication that she doesn't know what she is doing.

The one saving grace is that the organizers respond quickly to e-mails, so within a couple of days I knew that it had actually worked.

The Oringen, well, I suppose in their defense I should say that it is a big operation, about 10K people entered so far, a zillion classes, all sorts of other possible fees. But still. I went to sign up. Got logged in OK. Filled out all the info, a couple of times actually because it was quite finicky, then saved it. And then noticed that the club I'd entered, WCOC, had disappeared. It hadn't been in their database, and when I tried to add it, nothing happened.

And then, since we weren't signed up as a member of a club, when I went to register for a class, the only possibilities were the recreational ones. Probably went through the process 3 or 4 times, trying to figure out what I could do differently, finally gave up and sent off an e-mail to the organizers asking for help.

Very prompt and nice reply first thing in the morning, two of them actually, one from the Oringen office, one from one of the programmers. They had had a little problem with this, thought it was fixed, maybe not, but they had hacked the system a little and inserted WCOC as a legit club, and now it should work fine for me. Which it did, though very much at a snail's pace, apparently still a lot of heavy thinking required on its part.

Or at least it worked perfectly until it came time to pay. And to be fair, this wasn't the systems problem. It looked easy. They took credit cards.

I have to make a slight detour now. I have one credit card that I use for everything, and a debit card I use almost never. A week ago I was looking at my monthly credit card bill, just checking, and there was a charge for a little over $500 from an outfit in Phoenix I had never heard of. Now, I had just been in Phoenix, but I sure didn't remember spending $500 on anything. Neither did Gail. So I called up the card company. Got someone to talk to after a while, she took the details on the questionable charge, put me on hold to get more info on it, came back after a while to tell me they had no information on the party, no phone, no address, no nothing, and while I was starting to ask how that was possible, she put me on hold again, then came back to say that she had removed the charge and closed the account. My account. Boom.

Removing the charge was fine, but closing the account was not. But it was done. A new card with a different number was supposed to have been sent out Tuesday (still not received).

So anyway, today I'm trying to pay the Oringen fee with my Bank of America debit card, and I put in all the numbers, and then I get flipped over to some sort of extra security check operation, and deal with that, and then finally get to press the "Make payment" button, and then the message comes back - rejected.

So I go through it again. Rejected again. Call of BofA, finally get a person. Of course it was rejected, outside of your normal spending pattern. Hmm, maybe because I don't have a spending pattern except to get a little cash at the ATM. So a lengthy conversation with him about how and when they are planning to make life hard for me in the future by rejecting me some more, but at least he says if I try once more this charge should go through. Which I do, and it does.

I think I am just being tested to see if can still keep from getting pissed. So far, mostly so good. But enough is enough.

C • spending pattern 6

I forgot that I had a monthly board meeting this evening that conflicts with the track group, so got myself over to the track this morning. And since i was by myself, changed the workout, the new plan was 8x400m with a 100m jog recovery. I also fantasized on the way over about adding on a 1000m at the end to make a nice 5K package, but the mental commitment to that was certainly less.

Warm up 3 laps, then (time for 400, time for 100)....
1:36.9, 34.4
1:37.8, 33.8
1:37.5, 35.7
1:38.7, 36.4
1:40.1, 36.9
1:38.7, 35.2
1:36.9, 35.6
1:36.3, 32.7, 17:43 for 4000m
At that point, no way I was doing another hard 1000.

Just about as hoped. Was shooting for 400 times of 95-97, but the legs didn't feel lively and the recoveries were both short and active. I was very tempted to take a little break after the first four, but that seemed to be just postponing the inevitable, and then the 5th one seemed headed in the wrong direction, so I buckled down a little for the last three and they were OK.

Light rain, about 50F, but the track drains really well and no puddles.

I was quite surprised to see another guy there when I arrived, putting in laps, fairly slow. There have certainly been times in the past when that would bother me, not how he was running, but just that there was someone there watching, would bring to the surface all my self-consciousness. It didn't seem an issue today. In fact, the first time I passed him there was a friendly hello back and forth, and then the second time enough of a chat to determine that he was there for an hour, 24 laps, so 10-minute-per-mile pace, good for him. He was doing his thing, I was doing mine, no problems, Nice to be able to deal with these trivial situations better than I used to.

3 laps before, one lap after, plus walked another lap after.

I was occupying (or hopefully only partially occupying) my mind during the last couple of 400s by pace counting, and it seemed to me, if I remember numbers correctly from a few years back, that my pace is about 10% shorter than it was then. Maybe that explains why I'm running slower. Lack of suppleness, flexibility, running efficiency, basic conditioning? All of them?

Separately, went to see Goodbye Solo last night. It got fine reviews, in part for being understated. We both liked it but also a little disappointed. Seemed like it needed a little more meat on the bones. Still, way better than the average multiplex offering (although next on the list may be Startrek, which Gail wants to see, but I have no clue about other than I think people have pointy ears).

And separately again, an excellent article in The New Yorker about health care costs, should be sobering reading to anyone who thinks that a single-payer system is the answer to all our problems.

C • New Yorker article 12

C • Star Trek 37

So I hit the (small-time) jackpot last night at the XC race. Neither of the really fast 60+ local guys showed up, so I got a usual prize, a coupon good for a free entry at a future one of these races. Plus there's a predicted time prize -- I predicted 22:15, missed it by 1 second. Sometimes even just one second isn't good enough, someone hits it right on the button, but last night it was, and that was worth three more coupons for future race entries. So if anyone out this way wants to run and wants to save the $4 entry fee, let me know....

Obviously the value is pretty minimal, but the coupons themselves are great, a version of the old baseball cards, except the stars are local runners. Pictures on the front, short bio of the runner on the back. Pretty cool.







Larger versions (Sidney front and back, and Bob front and back).

C • xc race 2

Not sure why, perhaps as a result of my nice talk with "dad" last night at the race and the good spirits that put me in, but I woke up this morning and decided I had done enough psychological penance ("You are your own worst critic," a friend once told me) for my bad behavior a week and a half ago.

And the black cloud just disappeared, though hopefully the lesson learned will not be forgotten.

On Pocumtuck Ridge. Another perfect day for running (though not for much else) -- about 50F, misty/foggy. Moderate pace, just as intended. No falls, just as intended. Took a little bit of willpower to get out, but not as much as many days as the legs are doing better and many more runs are actually fun these days. Just hope it lasts.

26:06 up, 22:18 back. 8 down, 42 to go.

Back to the track tomorrow evening.

Seems like Oringen will also be in the plans.

Extract from the results of yesterday's race (written up by "dad"). :-)

C • nhappy is good. 1

Northampton 5K XC. Another perfect evening for a hard effort, about 60F, low humidity.

20 seconds better than 2 weeks ago, just what I was shooting for, though partway through I was guessing that I was going to come up short -- first mile was 5 seconds faster, second just 3 faster. But worked harder the last mile, ran it just about as fast as the first two even though it is uphill, and ended up just where I wanted.

Splits: 7:13, 7:05, 7:14, 42.

Still need to HTFU when it comes to working hard. Holding back a little bit for the first couple of miles (no lactic acid in the legs at the top of the first hill, no real heavy breathing) as if I'm scared of crossing the red line, though I'm not really that close. The third mile was closer to the edge, felt pretty close to the right amount of pain, still could have pushed a little more. Just have to relearn how to do this.

Still, very pleased. 7 down, 43 to go.

C • Another interesting option: wkly 5k, same course. 7

10 minutes before, 10 minutes after. Almost missed the start, usually they start about 10 minutes late, tonight they were just 5 minutes late.

So then the best part of the race happened after it was all over.

The race happens every Tuesday evening from the beginning of April through late September, and it's been happening since at least 1988, at least that's the first year I ran it, and always the same family putting it on, dad, mom, and daughter.

And I've known them for even longer, and they are, well, the word "weird" isn't quite right, maybe the word "different" is better. Dad was a conscientious objector back in the Vietnam days, went to jail for his beliefs. All are strong-willed, tend to be judgmental, sometimes in a good way, sometimes not.

I'd been reasonably friendly with them over the years -- it's hard to be too friendly when they are "different" and I am "different" -- until 6 or 8 years ago when there was a decided chill. The chill was coming from dad to me. Best as I could figure out, it happened after I had said that I wasn't going to play host to one of the running club's winter "fun runs" -- we had for a bunch of years, a bit of work, plus getting the local farmer to come and push the snow back to make more room for parking, and the previous couple of years the attendance had dropped off quite a lot, from maybe 25-30 to 6 or 8, and it just didn't seem worth the trouble. This happened to be the first year dad took over the job of putting together the schedule of fun run hosts, and he seemed quite taken aback when I explained we weren't going to do it any more. And I think he took it personally.

And I started getting the cold shoulder whenever we crossed paths. I think I made a couple mild attempts to unfreeze things, but to no avail. Perhaps it was some other reason altogether, but I never knew.

So anyway, two weeks ago at the race I chatted with daughter for a while, and I made a point of thanking dad for putting on the race for so many years, how cool that was, and the chill didn't seem quite as bad.

And tonight, I thanked him once soon after the finish, and then after the little awards ceremony I went up to him and thanked him again and started talking about how nice it had been having the race for so long, and he asked how I was doing, and I took to opportunity as I sometimes do nowadays to talk about Life (with a capital L) and my journey with PC and things I've learned, and he told me about his back surgery last fall and the three stents in his heart -- just a couple of OFs talking about their ailments -- but after 15 minutes or so there were lots of smiles on both sides. And I walked away, no need to worry about what caused the chill, just happy it was gone, the positive feelings of the race now well down into second place as far as good events of the day.

Life is full of unexpected surprises.

Over on the other side of Mt. Toby, time to see how my climbing legs were doing. Warm-up from the gate over to the start (6:29), then up the telephone line to the top, 800' climb (13:54), then the pleasant run back down the jeep trail back to the gate (21:50).

And the part that mattered, the 13:54 was excellent. For comparison, did 15:34 in mid-April, and 15:05 two weeks ago. The hope for today was under 15, maybe close to 14:30, even though you never know, the legs always feel like crap the first few minutes. But this time when I started up I could tell in the first minute or two that things were better. And it was a beautiful day too, low 70s, low humidity.

Now all this positive stuff is not all good, because it also means that there will be no excuses for not doing a real good effort. So you know it's going to hurt. But the legs hung in there well, running more of the moderate slopes and walking stronger on the steeper ones, just getting wobbly the last 30 seconds or so. And then you touch the fence at the top, look at the time, check the pulse (about 170), and then almost immediately there is this wave of intense satisfaction that rolls over you. Real progress.

For comparison, last did this seriously back in the summer of 2004, time was 13:08, plus 3 times the year before, times between 13:18 and 13:31, so this is not so far off that. Though it was a perfect day and I had good legs, so this may be the best I can do now. But it's useful to keep trying. And if you do run a good time, it feels so good....

Splits at the usual places: 3:45, 7:26 (3:41), 10:13 (2:47), and 13:54 (3:41).
Route. 6 down, 44 to go.

So I had my care package all set to mail off but the Post Office was closed for Memorial Day. I had to go up to Greenfield for a meeting so I took it along and stopped by the UPS store afterwards, but it was closed. So then I went down to the FedEx place, but it was closed too. It will have to wait until tomorrow.

In the process, my mind wandered, as it often does, settling this time for a bit on "Memorial Day" and what it means and what it should mean. Of course, what it means is a 3-day weekend and people having BBQs and the start of the "summer driving season", but not a whole lot of remembering. Maybe in small towns there's a parade, still usually more civic showing off (the fire truck, the local politicians, the high school band) than remembering. Though they have one in Sunderland that isn't bad, from the center of town down South Main to the cemetery. I miss it most years, but I remember one that was quite poignant, a brief and low-key ceremony at the cemetery, one by one through all the wars in which someone from Sunderland had died and the names of the dead, the last being Vietnam, one soldier, his mother getting a single red rose. Makes more of an impression on you than all the bands and BBQs ever will.

And I thought back to the only time I ever went to the grave of a relative. It wasn't on Memorial Day but it was the same feeling, just much stronger. 15 or 20 years ago we visited my grandfather's (my mother's father) grave at the American Cemetery in Verdun, France. He was killed in 1918, before my mother was born. As I said, it was the same emotion, just so much stronger, incredible sadness. When will we ever learn....

A chart of the G for the last few years. Just was curious.



If this had been a chart of an old friend of mine, a careful chart reader would identify three occasions in which his eye was starting to wander in the direction of another women....

In my case, the 2006 drop was to stay ahead of (i.e. below) SF and keep him from achieving one of his goals for the year, to race at less than the G. Silly (on my part) but quite satisfying, and the impact on my fitness was striking.

C • old friend 2

Event: Club Champs Return to Mt Tom
 

NEOC 2008 club champs at Mt. Tom. Yup, 2008, but better late than never. The meet popped up on the schedule just recently, courses by Samantha, meet organized by Jeff and Judy, a pleasure to have one just down the road, well, maybe 25 minutes, but that seems real close.

I was thinking this could be my first go at a Brown course, M65, but then it being the 2008 champs, and I was 64 (O' age) then, M60 and green it was. That seemed more than enough as I was still a little battered and weary from yesterday.

Orienteered so-so, ran so-so. Or maybe it's more accurate to say they both started out pretty well, but then the running went downhill when the course went uphill, whereas the orienteering went downhill only when the course finally went back downhill. Ran well until #4, orienteered well until #10.

It's funny, I was thinking on the ride over that I should try to pick the pace up, just to get back the feeling of moving quicker through the forest and the stress that adds. Of course, picking the pace up for the whole course wasn't possible, so the idea was to try on some individual legs. Good idea, except I forgot. At least until I saw Carl Childs just ahead of me at 11. And then I shifted up a gear (it help that it was seriously downhill), and nailed 12 and 15 at a good rate of speed. That would sound like a success, except I diddled around to both 13 and 14, losing anything I might have gained by running faster. Got to do both, run and think, but at least better to have tried, to remember what it's like to start moving again. Need to work on this a bunch.

Quite beat by the end, dripping wet (mostly sweat....). Still way too warm for my tastes, about 80F, and summer is just starting. 5 down, 45 to go.



Larger version.

C • '5 down, 45 to go....' 3

Picking up some controls, all at a walk.

C • Picking up controls. 1

Entered the Swiss O Week. Looking more likely for Oringen too but not yet decided (need to in the next few days).

The initial challenge will be to do the harder training without getting hurt, finding the right balance. At least the G is doing well, still trending slightly down. That has to be part of the package.

C • Cool 1

Green course - Splits

Event: WCOC Ansonia Nature Center meet
 

Still dehydrated.

WCOC local meet at Ansonia, hosted by Greg and Sergei and Kseniya. Just excellent. Ansonia is such a sweet place even with the leaves up, and those guys always set good courses and today was no exception.

Today's menu was the normal selection of courses through Red, plus a course that was called a sprint but Greg was quick to add, felt more like a short middle.



I opted for the Red first, thinking if I did the sprint first, then the Red would be with dead legs all the way, as opposed to maybe only part of the way under this plan. And that's about how it turned out. Slowly got tired, more walking especially on the long leg heading south. But my navigating was excellent, and the running wasn't too bad for quite a while. So overall a good run, progress, though where I want to be in 8 weeks would have me doing the course 4 or 5 minutes faster. Maybe I'll figure out a way to justify going down there in a month or so to have another go at it.

Larger version of red course.

And then the "sprint." Certainly not running at a sprint pace, the legs feeling the previous effort, more walking up hills than I would have cared for, and not really pushing the mental effort, but still OK. Navigating was again good, just a couple of cases of coming down a slope and expecting to drop right on to the control and being 20-30 meters off. One case I saw it right away, the other I had to scratch my head for a bit.



Another fine course. Larger version.

4 good workouts done, 46 to go.

A little warm-up. Helped, should have done 10 minutes.

Drove down and back with Phil, very pleasant. Good friends are priceless.

Red - Splits

Sprint - Splits

One of the joys of orienteering overseas (or trying to plan to go overseas) is the imaginative use the English language is put to. From the web site of a 5-day event in Spain in August --

"All categories in official tests using the system Sportident.
In the Open category will be allowed the use of a card classic.
Some of the careers of classical antioficial be with tweezers."

That third line, say what?

C • Pin punching 4

Of course sometimes the English is very clear, as in this bit about the Swiss 6-Day:

"The walk from the assembly area to the start will take between about 5 and 50 minutes. The finish is at the assembly area. There is an exception for classes from start 1 and 2 that run day 3 on the Glattalp (see courses): walk from assembly area to and from start & finish: 4.5km with 700 m height difference."

A 4.5km walk to S/F with 700m climb, and then back down after the finish. They don't kid around.

So should I feel glad that H65 is on a lower (and less interesting) map, whereas H60 and younger get to climb, or annoyed that I'd miss out on the special terrain?

Since the next day is a rest day, I suppose I could always hike up that afternoon and have a look.

If we go to Switzerland....

C • Switzerland sounds great 3

Hot, about 90, got out the bike for a short ride, South Deerfield and Whately. Definitely hot.

Dehydrated this morning.

I took a look at our rogaine route a couple of ways in Gmaps-pedometer. Here's how we actually went, distance covered was 63.8 km. I supposed what we really went would be 5% more (?) because we're not goes exactly straight even when we are trying to.

And here's as the crow flies, 53.4 km. Actually not as much different as I would have guessed given all the serpentine canyon walks.

Time moving was about 19 hours.

I was thinking of going down to run the Holyoke 5K XC, but it was very warm (upper 80s) and I remembered that there is also a track group on Thursday evenings, and that seemed to make more sense, easier to back off or cut it short.

The group was running 2x400, then 4x800, then 2x400, all with fairly short rests. I figured I'd see if I could do the 400s in 1:45 and the 800s in 3:30. Actually was a little quicker, but also working perhaps a little too hard. But I made it all the way.

400: 98.7, 51 rest
400: 98.9, 60 rest
800: 3:19.4, 71 rest
800: 3:24.0, 67 rest
800: 3:23.1, 66 rest
800: 3:22.5, 69 rest
400: 95.8, 56 rest
400: 97.5

The fine splits provided by an old watch of Gail's I borrowed, an Ironman women's model (is there an Ironwoman's model?). Seemed to work OK.

A little before, a little after, plus a lengthy leisurely walk after.

So, if I have 2 months to get fit, 60 days, then that means at least 50 decent running workouts. 2 down (yesterday counts given the heat, lack of sleep, and recent rogaine, meaning that it was an appropriate amount of stress to the system), 48 to go.

I'm wondering if I should get a toy (one of the Forerunners gizmos) to help with the motivation?

Cultural observations from the Phoenix airport --

They have big signs outside proclaiming it to be the World's Friendliest Airport. After getting checked in and through security, I pulled out my laptop to see what sort of service they were offering and what the charge was to hook up for an hour. What a pleasant surprise -- free wi-fi, all you had to do was answer a question:

Would you say Phoenix is
a. The World Friendliest Airport
b. Pretty friendly
c. Well, I didn't even bother with c and d, I think d was "unfriendly", because any place that makes it so easy to log on is definitely friendly. I checked a and moved on.

There was also time for a beer (Barb's idea!) and some nachos (also her idea, but since it was mid-afternoon and all I'd had to eat was a bowl of granola many hours earlier, I had more than my share of the nachos, and they really really tasted good), but we were both offered, and passed on, a shot on the side. Is this standard practice? Does it taste really good too? Do they have a service to carry you onto the plane. I have no answers. Clearly, more research is needed.

C • gizmos 2

Read Unaccustomed Earth on the trip. A really wonderful, wonderful book, actually a collection of stories about relationships. Brought many smiles, a few tears.

C • book 2

Time to get serious thinking about summer plans. At the rogaine I was talking about it a little with Bash, and I remember making the following distinction -- that orienteering when you are fit is a different sport then when you are not fit.

When you are fit, when your running can keep up to your navigating, then there is a sense of urgency about everything, and there is a constant struggle to be up to the challenge of moving accurately and fast. Whereas when you are less fit, and you don't see a hill you can't walk, then that sense of urgency disappears, the mental challenge changes completely (mostly disappears), and everything is a whole lot easier.

For orienteering in Europe, long trip, time, expense, I want to be fit, at least by the standards of M65. I want to feel like I'm ready to race, not just to finish. So the question is, am I there? And the answer, obviously, is no, not yet, though there has been progress. And so the next question is, will I be there in 2 months? And the answer is, possibly, much work would need to be done.

And maybe the way to get that work done is to set the goal -- tickets, entries, etc. And then see if it can be done.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

C • Goals 6

With Phil from the Amethyst Brook parking area, south on the Frost to Station Road and back. 36:28 out, 35:12 back.

Upper 70s, felt warmer, pleased to get out and run for 70 minutes even if it was a struggle. Legs not so bad, taped up the worst of the blisters.

Spotted a pair of pileated woodpeckers. And 2 ticks, one large and one small, so far....

Scanned the rogaine map, easier to read. I'll write something up later, but I think I need a nap, or a shower, or some exercise first, or maybe all three.

Quick inventory -- blisters on three toes of right foot, none terrible; upper left calf has a sore spot, also a muscle on the inside of the quad, runs from the groin to the knee, neither bad, just surprising that neither hurt during the event at all. No sunburn due to use of large amounts of sunscreen. About 12 hours cumulative sleep deficit. Quite a few less brain cells. And certainly ready to rogaine again, these things really are fun.

C • Ready for a quick turn around? 11

A tour around the course, or at least our route....

Overall strategy -- work as a team, communicate, have fun. We had a bunch of discussion and analysis of various routes, whether to head west or not into the big canyons, where it turns out most people went. Decided that our route was better, several more controls to get for a similar number of points, but not the big climbs/drops.



40. By the "tank" (a dried-up dammed-up pond), just left of the top of the big reentrant, and down, looking for the side reentrant. There was another one before the correct one, just the same size at the correct one, so one wasn't shown on the map at all and the other was shown too large. Good practice training the eye, and a reminder of the flexibility needed. Always on the compass too, the whole time we were out there, no matter what. I would guess I checked my compass on average at least every 30 seconds over the course of the 22 hours we were out.

All needed a reminder, repeated on the the next couple of controls, to keep communicating. Had to get back in rogaine mode.

30. Straight to the big reentrant, staying just slightly right of the line. We weren't sure how high the control would be, turned out a bit higher than I expected. That's not to say it was wrong. With a 1:30,000 map, everything was usually a little further than expected. Or maybe it was just the anxiety, wanting the confirmation you're right.

71. Your basic canyon bottom walk -- keep track of all the turns and always check the compass, get to the correct side canyon, go up to the control. Same operation, day or night. Easy. And given the steep slopes, no other option.



51. Tougher, plus I was being sloppy. Route across the slope was just a little too high to get a good view of the flat spur to the left, plus wasn't pacing. So there was uncertainty as we got close, but either Barb or Cristina had it figured out.

90. Some discussion of back up out of 51 and around to the right, but down and up instead. Then by the top of 3 reentrants, out the spur, down until it got steep. We were just to the right, maybe 50 meters. Nice view of the western terrain.

50. Back up. Not much of a climb. At the top Barb said her pulse was about 150 and she looked flushed. Checked mine, 96. The first sign her system was going screwy, and the pace so far had been mellow. Not good. Then across some bland terrain, picked up the E/W trail which simplified matters. First of many breaks, for Cristina to adjust shoes. No complaints from anyone about stopping. This section of the map, blander and flatter terrain, was the toughest, better to be doing it in the daytime.

61. Basic canyon walk, a very shallow "canyon" but very well defined.

60. Straight compass, partly for the lack of a better alternative, partly just for the challenge. Execution was perfect, plus all the little changes in the contours along the way made sense. Also benefited from having all the fingers crossed. Cristina was impressed.



80. Toughest leg (60 had an easier recovery if you missed). Straight compass. Perfect, hit the reentrant maybe 100 meters above the control but the reentrant seemed small and, thinking it was the smaller one NW of the correct one, we went on. Nothing, turned came back a little lower and there it was.

Difficult because it was a diagonal approach on a gently undulating hillside with not much in the way of distinct features anywhere, and the reentrant turned out less distinct than I expected. You could waste a lot of time here, we probably wasted about 5 minutes. A little annoyed at myself, but only a little as could have done much worse.

52. Straight to the road, then trail, then in, a little careless at the end but no problem. Water stop, another break, Barb feeling worse. The breaks early on were about 10 minutes, then they got longer.



81. Canyon walk, then up to the high ground, over the top, down the left side of the big spur. Nice.

70. Up to skirt the big reentrant, then straight north, canyon walk, and over the small spur at the end.

91. Down to the main canyon, lots of thorns (only really bad vegetation we encountered and I, with just shorts on, was feeling very vulnerable, fortunately B and C found all the openings for me), then up the steep slope. Barb looked like she was feeling awful. I took her fanny pack to help a little. Took another look, she was really suffering, took her camelback too. Not easy, full sun, sure glad it wasn't a 600' climb, and I was sweating like crazy by the top. A bunch of deadfall all along the top, pain in the rear. Coming down the slope towards the end, I thought we might be one reentrant farther right then we were and was hoping to see the control reentrant right ahead of us, but it was clear where we were and not really any time lost. An unpleasant leg.

62. Now for the long trip south. A long canyon walk, interrupted by a break for Barb, also to get filled in on Cristina's life story. Obviously that (the life story) took longer than 10 minutes, but the story entertained us all the way up the canyon. Over the top, another reentrant lined us right up, easy. Ran onto Valeriy and Olga at the control. Did they have anything like Tums? No, but Olga fished out a charcoal capsule for Barb.

82. Up to the trail It was there (you never know), as mapped (again, you never know). To the T (again, as mapped), then down. A brief discussion along the way about whether we were obligated by the rules to report Valeriy and Olga for offering aid to another team.... :-)



64. Up to the trail, but didn't get too far before time for another break. Barb looked even worse. There was a suggestion that she might be better if she threw up, but she seemed reluctant, claiming not to know how to do it. She went off a few meters, made a few puking sounds but no success. Slowly onward to the trail. Pace and reading the subtleties to know where to turn off, no problem.

72. Straight, always reading the terrain too, easy. Getting dark.

46. Canyon walk. Dark at the control. Another break, longer now, maybe 20-25 minutes. Real dark, no moon until after midnight. At some point Barb threw up (fingers down the throat method, though I've never had that do it for me, I think I just keep heaving until something comes up, fortunately it's been a few years since I've had the need).

We sat there a long time. She moaned a lot. Some talk about heading in, would be a long walk. Getting cold, down in a canyon, not moving, shivering, out came the extra clothes. After a while Barb said we should try to keep going. The plan was, we'd stop whenever she wanted, as long as she wanted. Or go in. Either way was OK, you're a team, you stick together.



83. Skipped 45, it was up high and she never would have made it up the canyon wall. Out of the canyon, fortunately an easy climb and Barb was temporarily feeling better, then down to the next one, easy.

74. Headed off, and this is one of situations where you are glad it's not recorded on video tape. I was in front, a little bit east, then a u-turn to the right to continue the canyon walk, except my u-turn was too soon and too sharp and I was heading right back to 83 without knowing it. B and C had stopped. I kept going a little. They yelled. I was stubborn. They yelled some more. I was still stubborn. Finally I turned back, to humor them I remember thinking. And of course they were right, and I was some combination of embarrassed, chagrined, amused, and amazed.

Before long Barb was fading again. Another break, 20 minutes or so. Cold again. She was lying on a sand bar, miserable, got up after a bit, went and threw up some more. Had we a shovel with us we could have put her out of her misery and buried her on the spot, but we didn't.

Strange as it may sound, I was optimistic, we were still moving, still making progress, still getting points. We'd had 1090 by dark. Maybe another 400 in the dark and more in the morning and a decent score was still possible.

Eventually moved on, cold again. More canyon walk, then a very steep but fortunately not too long climb up to 74. Nailed it.



55. Canyon walk. Post-puke, Barb was again doing a little better.

84. Tough climb out of the canyon, but we made it, then compass course for the "g" in "Springs," perfect. Around and up to the control.



56. A break at 84, though now Barb was feeling a little better and we were keeping the breaks to 10 minutes or so.

A major change in route. Cristina was drinking a whole lot more than either of us. Our original route had us going a very long time between water stops, but at night I thought that was OK. It wasn't. So a new plan for a few southern controls and then we'd see how things were when it got light.

Time to go, they headed down, I took a moment to take a caffeine pill, then I stood up to follow, slipped, reached behind me to break the fall, managed to dislodge a football-sized rock as I was sliding down a few feet and it followed me and crunched me on the left forearm. Hurt like hell, but nothing broken, things settled down, and I moved on.

Canyon walk. Checked my watch after about 10 minutes, but it wasn't there. Fuck. Too far to go back even if I knew right where it must be.

69. Straight compass to the water stop. Perfect. I mean, really perfect, hit the road, looked across, and there were the water jugs. Another break, Cristina and me readjusting shoes, re-greasing feet. Someplace in here (probably a little earlier) Barb started to put away a Gu (with caffeine) about every hour, and she was definitely on the mend. But maybe Cristina was getting a little tired/sleepy.

Off again, road to the bend, then compass, easy.

68. Tough control. Combination spur and foot of cliff. Back up over the spur, down the little reentrant so we knew where we were. There was an unmapped road down there, problem is you want to use it, but you also have to map it so you know where you are. Got over in the vicinity on the road, my gut said the control was a little higher. Went up maybe 50 meters, looked around, a couple big (really big) boulders, no controls, thickish forest. Circled around the second, anxiety growing, and just then lit up the reflector a few meters away. Bliss. Called B and C. Onward.

49. Barb definitely doing better. Cristina was hanging in there. I had a few toe blisters but was generally OK. Up to the ridge, trail to the bend, compass across the road and down, easy. Starting to get light.

So Barb had hung in there all night long and we had 530 points in the night despite all the adversity, 1620 so far. 2000 still possible. I didn't have any competitive ambitions for the event, really, honestly, just there for the adventure with friends, but 2000 was a nice round number.

37. Via the water stop. Barb was now in the lead for a few controls, her turn, having followed most of the night. Hit the water stop just right, another break there, maybe 10 minutes, then hit the control, no problem. By now the lights had been stowed away, the birds were singing, life was good.

36. Straight, plus reading the map, perfect.

47. Up and over to the main road. The side road didn't exist, but no problem, compass to the spur, off the end, up to the control. Beautiful woods in the early morning light.



73. Canyon walk, then angled across a slope up to the flat spur just below the control. Perfect route, prettiest spot on the whole course.

34. So break time. Cristina was now getting very tired.

Up the hill, out to the road, a bit of a walk on it and then down to the control.

44. Took the around route. Simple.

35. Another break before leaving 44. Cristina said her hamstrings were starting to go. A quick review of the symptoms, yup, that was it, time to head in, no point in risking serious damage with her on the WOC team. I just hoped she would hold together until we got in.

(And I was also a little bummed, had hoped to go for 4 or 5 more controls, got myself in a bit of a non-communicative snit, far from the first time in my life, would love it if it were the last. So damn counter-productive. OK, PG, repeat after me -- if something is bothering you, say so, don't wait for someone else to try to figure it out and maybe reach some totally wrong conclusion in the process. OK? 100 times on the blackboard? OK?)

Canyon walk to below 35. Another break to rest up for the final assault. Getting hot. Put on more sunscreen (at least I did something right). Then up to the control.

Finish. And in, very slowly, no hurry. 1890 points. Excellent under the circumstances. And I had had an absolutely wonderful time (except for the last little bit....), a couple of absolutely wonderful partners, another adventure, another memory. Though it took me until the next morning to get my head straightened out. Hopefully no damage done. I guess no one ever said life was easy.

And before next time, and I sure hope there is a next time, I'm going to get a light like Cristina has, because it was something else.

C • Thanks 5

Usual disclaimer, this is my log and I can write what I want (and apparently Eddie can too).... :-)

Continuing with my cryptic note from yesterday.

Progress. A lot of thinking and then the unexpectedly useful part, writing down an analysis. Understanding things better, much less disappointed in myself. Still trying to work through how different choices you can make in specific situations tie in with choices you are trying to make in a much broader and long-term sense.

And unexpected progress in a totally different and, be forewarned, socially tasteless matter that I only mention because of its medical interest. To put it simply, the muscles I have had to train to allow me pee only when I want to pee, are the same muscles that allow you to pass gas only when you want to pass gas. You tighten them up or relax them for one purpose, you tighten them or loosen them for the other. But being able to pass gas without peeing is a skill that this OF has not yet mastered (or should I say, re-mastered). But, as I said, progress. :-)

Took a couple of photos of the rogaine map. One smaller, one larger. Don't know which is easier to read.

Our route started going to #40. Got to 72 in the last of the daylight. 46 through 49 in the dark. Note that it varies from the original planned route (which itself had left the end up the air depending on time and circumstances).

We passed on the whole western section (there was a lot of discussion about this). My thinking was that the max was about 3400 points, I figured the best team might get 3000-3200, and that something in the range of 2000-2200 would be roughly what we were capable of. And the west side, while it had a lot of high pointers, it also had a lot bigger hills. And on a hot weekend at 7,000'....

Most teams started over there. We were quite lonely the whole team. Most of the points we went to had only had 4 or 5 teams there ahead of us.

The best (Nickolay Nachev and partner) ended up only 2760. I have a feeling a lot of teams trashed themselves in the heat.

We ended up with 1890. If healthy, but still just walking at a modest pace as we did, I think 2100-2200 was easy, 2300-2400 a stretch but possible. I think, and I thought while we were doing it, that our route was the best -- for us. We could have croaked big time in the western part and it would have been a long way back.

We got 1090 before dark (9 hours), another 530 in the dark (8 hours), and then 270 in the morning (4 hours, came in a couple hours early). Start was at 11 am, got dark a little before 8, got light about 5 am. All times approximate since my watch....

One more stroll along the rim before heading to the airport. Another beautiful day up at the rim, terrible hot in Phoenix.

Lots of progress.

G (unofficial) was 135 at the airport, unfortunately the fat one of the two of us.

Cristina is a cool partner for a rogaine.

Mogollon Rim Rogaine with Barb and Cristina.

Barb got sick. Cristina, in her first 24 hour rogaine, got very tired.

Hot days, cool night. Fine course, interesting possibilities for overall route. I'll post my route when I get home, don't think it will come out well using the camera. We spiked all controls we went to but one, missed about 5 minutes there. The night orienteering was the best part.

Tried my hardest, I really did, in lots of ways, but now really struggling. Disappointed in myself. If that is cryptic, so be it. Had a long talk with Gail afterwards that helped some.

Bonehead move was getting up on a steep slope after a rest stop sometime in the night. Slipped, reached back for balance, grabbed unsuccessfully at some rocks, slipped down a few feet, and then got whacked in the left forearm by a good-rock that I had dislodged. No serious damage though it hurt like hell. Part 2 of the bonehead move, and the much more annoying part, is that it was only 15 minutes later that I noticed that in the process my watch had been ripped off. A sentimental loss, last of the box of 5, but I will get over it.

C • box of 5 4

Event: Mogollon Rim Rogaine
 

Went out for a very modest hike along the top of the rim on something called the Rim Lake Vista Trail, which purported to offer spectacular views out from the edge of the Mogollon.

When I first started orienteering, I often managed to get lost on the way to events because, as I kept telling myself, I was so focused on the upcoming O' event. And furthermore, I was getting all my mistakes out of my system, so a good run around the course was virtually assured.

Anyway we headed off, west on 260, catching feature was when 260 dropped off the rim, I saw the road start to go down, so a quick u-turn, off on the side road, park, there was the trail, off we go. Nice and flat, just fine.

To make a long story short, we found a nice bike trail, scared up a couple of hawks, did a little cross-country, circled around, headed back, got back to the car after about 55 minutes, not a sign of the rim, because I seem to have parked about 5 miles too soon. At least we had the sense to turn around before too long, or we'd still be out there looking for the rim.

We should do terrific in the rogaine tomorrow, totally focused and all mistakes already done.

A bit of cross-country, the rim has to be over there someplace....



And a bit of nature, a little thing that appears to be a cross between a lizard and a toad....

C • I believe that's a horned l... 2

Drove down the road to the correct spot, totally obvious. Nice trail out to the rim, took in the views, a little further along the rum, more views, then back to the car. Now that wasn't so hard, was it....

C • EVA 13

Up the Barnhardt Trail a little south of Payson, AZ, at a very mellow pace until it seemed like the right time to head back. Which also was at a very mellow pace. Route.

Quite warm, quite beautiful, excellent taper.

So, Arizona, a very few photos, none of which adequately convey one factor -- the heat. Though it is a lot better at 6,500' where we are staying.

After a bit of time laying in provisions in Phoenix, headed for the high country and stopped for a hike along the way. First task was to find a proper parking space....



And then put on lots of SPF 85 sunscreen -- no photo of this, but Gail, please take note. :-)

Then time to head up into the hills on a very nice trail that very gradually climbed the slope left of the minimal stream, always nice views, and actually cooler and breezy as we got a little higher....



Not much water down there, and no good way to get to it either, but then we didn't need to....



And at some point we headed back....



And then off to high country again, a stop in Payson for a few more provisions, and then finally the opening of the magic box, which Barb had arranged for us to pick up in Phoenix, and from which she prepared a very fine organic vegetarian dinner. Yummy.

C • Magic box 2

Over on the other side of Mt. Toby, from the gate to the start of the Power Line Power climb (6:22), up the PLPC (1505), back down the jeep trail (22:05). A little faster than last time, slowly getting better. Entertained by Car Talk, even though I think their puzzler was wrong, assuming $2 bills still exist?

C • Yes they do. 1

I was examining the one solitary stitch on my right palm, and for some reason I started counting up the number of different places I've been stitched over the years, and came up with 16, though I might have forgotten one or two. Eight were intentional (bionic toe, 6 last December, and the latest), but the other eight definitely weren't.

Roughly in order....

Forehead (hockey stick), 4 stitches
Left hamstring (skate blade), 3
All around right eye (skiing collision), maybe 15
Tendon just below left kneecap (rock while orienteering), 3
Tendon just below right kneecap (rock while orienteering), 3
Left knee (rock while orienteering), 2
Back of scalp (cliff while orienteering), 3
Right eyebrow (log while running), 40

I assume this is just a normal amount of wear and tear?

C • My stitches log 27

My right hand coped surprisingly well, even on the side planks.

Northampton 5K XC. Generally good footing, a couple of decent hills. Been three years since I last ran this (it's a weekly race, every Tuesday evening from April to September), and as expected tonight's time was both a PW and (under 2009 rules) a PR.

Beautiful evening, perfect for running. Plan was to see if I could break 23, so quite pleased. Ran pretty hard. Probably could have run just a little harder, but I've lost a little of the sense of pacing I used to have -- always used to know just how hard I could push it and still make it to the finish line. So 3 or 4 times I backed off just a little to be on the safe side. But pulse was still in the 160s after I was done.

Splits: 7:18, 7:08, 7:26, 42.

My best time on the course way back when was about 18:30. So this is 25% slower. My orienteering seems to have slowed down a little more, but then things like agility and eyesight and memory -- the deterioration of all of them -- come into play there too. So this seems about right.

But of course I looked at the age records, and the record for age 64 is 21:33. It would be real nice to put in the work to see if I could get that, both for the challenge and also given the fact that the current record holder is a sex offender. Seriously. Would be nice to wipe his name off the list. But he won't last long anyway, there's a guy about 61 or 62 who lives in Brattleboro and sometimes shows up and can still break 19. (But he didn't show up tonight, so I got the over-60 prize, free entry pass to another of these races. Perfect.)

Got held up by a traffic jam in Northampton (reasonably bad accident) so just time for the inner loop.

Back to the doctor's today for minor surgery. I always thought that "minor surgery" was, as the saying goes, surgery that happens to someone else, but this was truly minor -- removal of some bits of graphite fibers from my right palm.

Those fibers had been comfortably residing there for about 9 months. They were originally part of the shaft of my 5-wood, and it got a little banged up over the years, and at some point last summer in letting the shaft slide through my hand I got speared, reasonably painfully so, though the pain may have been as much from the stupidity as the actually wound. I extracted most of it, but not all. And since then it bothered me most of the time not at all, but every once in a while if I would grab something wrong, I'd get quite a sharp jolt of pain. But never quite enough to do something about it.

When I mentioned it to my doc last week, he said he could take care of it, no big deal. My lingering thought was that he was excited to do a little old-fashioned medicine instead of just the usual GP stuff.

Anyway, I showed up this morning first thing, somewhat anxious but not bad. A shot of painkiller to make things possible, and after a couple of minutes he went at it. And after about 5 or 10 minutes of cutting and poking and mainly trying to soak up my blood so he could see, all he had produced was one sliver of graphite, about 1/16th long. Time for plan B.

So far part of the blood control operation had been a cuff around my arm, inflated to just more than my blood pressure. Took this off for a moment, raised my hand way up to drain the veins ("That looks better, nice and pale."), and then cranked the cuff up an extra 20 points to see if that would help.

Much better, and before long a couple of longer pieces had come out, and he looked around a little more and decided he was done. One stitch went in, a lot of blood got wiped up, and I was happily sent on my way. Now I'll just have to see if that improves things.

Note: I was also sent happily on my way by results of most of my blood test. PSA is .006, which is excellent (0 is the goal, but this is close enough to just be considered "noise"). Cholesterol is 203, which is a little high but also a little better than before, and the HDL part is 75, also better than before and excellent. Other stuff was in the normal range, though I did notice that something called hematocrit was 41.0 and on the low end of normal. I think this is the number the cyclists try to get at 49.9 (more than 50 will flunk a drug test), so I maybe need some EPO. Or maybe just get out the door and train a little more.

C • Hematocrit 12

Couldn't fond any EPO in the house so had to go for a run. In town, flat, felt no so bad and was putting out a decent effort by the end.

A little excitement on the south side of town Saturday evening, mini-tornado, relocated one of the old tobacco barns....

C • No place like home 11

Event: Billygoat
 

Billygoat -- the course (with my route). As usual, you could skip a control, and go to either of the two #5's.

Not as bad as I feared, either in how I felt or how I did. Still was stumbling and falling a whole lot. But could have been a lot worse.

A few comments --
4. Went down the left side of the marsh to keep open the option of skipping 4 (which I still like the idea of, but decided against).
5. Took the right fork. Seems like left was quite a bit quicker (though my execution of the apparently simple route to 5R was quite bad). To 6, no problems, just a lot of walking.
9. Not good. Headed for the trail and missed it, too high, so in the crappy woods for far too long. Probably better to head west from 8, right out to the trail, longer but easy. And then approach to control was bad, had a couple others around me and got pulled left, though at least I corrected quicker, just had a gut feeling I was wrong.
13. A little too high on the hillside after half-way, wasted time both with extra climb plus crappy woods on slope plus too much time reading map and not moving.
21. Lots of crappy woods in the first half (oh to be young and agile), but I got a good line to avoid the worst slopes and green and rocks.

So finished well after 13, pretty much all by myself (and by myself quite a bit before that too). Saw Glen just before 18, he was just behind me going up the hill to 20 but I think I had a better micro-route to 21 and got clear. And a few others (Kristen, Randy, Ben) were not too far ahead at the end, but they were never in sight.

C • Really really old 1

Scenes from the BG --

Childcare the old-fashioned way, not an adult in sight, and the kids having a fine time, including Max Ahmed on the ascent (larger version)....



And half of WCOC's outstanding leadership duo (Lyn Walker) showing fine form at the finish....



While the other half (name withheld to protect the guilty) was enjoying the Billygoat birthday cake....

C • Yum! 1

Billygoat - Splits

Finally got around to doing my routes for the Team Trials:

Sprint. Comments: This was pretty close to as good as I could do. It was very easy, surprised me, but then the rocky areas were quite bad. They could have made the course a lot harder by using harder placements but I don't think that would have been better, and probably worse.

Only problem was 3, lost a few seconds, plus a little uncertain coming up the hill to 8.

Middle. Comments: Not a bad run, just no legs and feeling a little insecure at times as there were places where you did not want to miss. Shaky right off the bat, got off course on the way to the first trail, but at least I was sure when I was dropping down to the control. To 4 ended up a contour line too high. To 14, stood still quite a while about 100 meters short, just not reading the map well, finally determined I had to go farther along the ridge before dropping down. The rest was OK.

Long. Comments: Not too much in the way of errors, but there were some. Shaky approaching 1, was lucky to see it. 3 was the worst, figured I'd run down the reasonably clean reentrant and do a left hook over the small spur, but the reentrant was quite junky and I lost track of where I was and cut left too soon, and proably spent 2-3 minutes getting through the manzanita, cussing all the time. And missed 12 a little, did a loop around the rocks before I found the correct cliff. That last one was definitely a case of struggling to read the rock detail on the 1:15,000 map.

As far as routes, hard to compare because everyone else is so much faster. The only places I felt particularly good about my routes was the first part to 3, finding the ride angling down the steep hillside (hard to see on the map), and then to 10, staying high and then coming in at the end through clean forest. The rest was, well, forgettable.

C • RouteGadget? 1

Drove over to Boston to visit with my niece Alex and my brother Michael, up from Texas for the weekend to visit her. Took the T in from Davis Square where she lives to Park Street, then spent a long and very pleasant time walking around, mostly in the North End, also some around Beacon Hill. Once again, too much to eat, but good training for next weekend. Got home just before the storms rolled in.

South Sugarloaf and back before breakfast. Hard to get out the door, but then it's done for the day. The usual no zip, but at least ran all the way up, even if the pace was slow (10:10).

I seem to have gotten a number of e-mails this week inviting me to be a friend of someone on Facebook. I thought there was an age limit, like under 30? And I already spend too much time on the computer as it is.

Is there any reason I should be on Facebook?

C • seems doubtful 7

Went in for my annual physical and as is often the case with such things, there is good news and bad news. To start with the major bad news, and when this happens to someone of my stature it can only be termed major bad news, the fact is that I'm shrinking. No, not in the way that I'd guess most of us get spam offering to remedy that. Just simple height. And short as I have always been, peaking at 5'6.5", it seems I am now 5'5.5". So now I can fondly look back to the days when I was not just faster and smarter but also taller. My dad lost about 4" by the time he was done, so I guess I'm headed for 5'2".

Next, the minor bad news. I had thought because of my medical adventure over the past year that I could dispense with the annual DRE, but that was not to be, though at least this time it was not so painful. As expected, there was no prostate to be found, just, as the doc said, a divot.

And the good news? I still have a pulse.

C • Not all bad news 3

Up along the river (route). Sluggish as usual.

I think the right state of mind for Sunday's Billygoat will be mellow. Seems the only reasonable option.

A few notes from California --

1. I had good feelings from the orienteering. One reason had to do with something I try to do but too often forget, namely to connect in some way with someone new at every orienteering meet I go to.

In this case there were a couple new connections. The first was with Nikolay Nachev. He is originally from Bulgaria, was on their junior team and then senior team, but never got to go to WOC because they never had the money to send more than a couple of runners and he was third or fourth. He is about to get his citizenship in this country, and there was an issue as to whether he could compete in the Trials. My opinion had been that he shouldn't have because there was no way of knowing when he might actually get his citizenship and so the team composition might be in limbo for quite a while, but I have no say these days (probably just as good) and the other team members seemed happy to have more competition, so he ran. And that seems like it was the right decision.

Anyway, on Sunday, the long course, I was the first starter and I expected to see a few of the young ones cruise past me, which they did, and one of them was Nikolay. Though at the time he was passing me, I don't think the word "cruise" ever entered my mind. We came together on the steep climb up to #8, I was maybe 10 meters ahead of him with about 5 or 6 lines still to climb. I was climbing at a rather slow pace; I wasn't actually breathing hard, didn't feel like my heart was working that hard, but the legs were just dead and it seemed like the best I could do. Nikolay, on the other hand, sounded like he was in the last mad dash of a short race, tremendous noise breathing in and out, really a quite terrible racket, alternatively he was about to have a massive heart attack. It was very impressive, or scary, I mean, we were only half way around the course, how could he possible be working so hard?

And as I staggered up the hillside, and the racket kept up, and I'd look over my shoulder to marvel at it all. And note that I was looking behind me, because for all his youth and his strength and his effort and his just frightful noises, it suddenly occurred to me that he wasn't going any faster than I was! By the time we got to the control I was still in front. To #9 it was uphill quite a bit more. Things returned to normal and he quickly passed and was soon long gone, while I was spending too much time laughing about the trip up to 8.

Later I had a chance to chat with him, a real nice fellow. And next year maybe he is in better shape and makes the team.

The second connection was with a fellow I had seen around a bunch but not talked too, but had heard lots of good things said about earlier in the weekend, namely Greg Lennon from Quantico. The lots of good things were with regard to the work he did, really the driving force, to make the hiring of an Executive Director for USOF a reality.

He'd been at the BAOCs meeting the evening before about JWOC, and so we talked a bit about when USOF had organized WOC-93 and how that had been. Interesting conversation, also on my part brought back lots of memories, mostly good ones.

2. Spent Sunday night in San Francisco, took a very nice late afternoon drive around the city when the traffic was very light, then happened upon a really good Thai restaurant to finish off the day on a fine note.

3. Then to San Diego Monday morning to visit Gail's step-father, the reknowned (at least to bridge players and/or applied mathematicians) Ivar Stakgold, who at age 83 relocated out here from the East Coast, unloaded one girl friend and picked up another. A very pleasant day and a half visit before heading home Wednesday morning, including trips to the zoo and the museum of contemporary art, several excellent meals, and a chance to see Gail's half-sister who drove down from LA. And weather that was as perfect as it was miserable in Cobb. A very good trip.

C • Boston golf 4

C • Ouch, just read that.... 1

A few shots from the San Diego zoo, which make it pretty clear that a day there is pretty much just like a day in Sunderland --

Yoga class....



Nap time....



Some serious thinking....



Good vegetarian food (with plenty of fiber)....



And sometimes another nap....



Because you have have to rest up for the visit to the art museum, where art can turn out to be most anything (there are actually two significant pieces on display here)....

C • Which Thai restaurant did y... 2

Before breakfast run in La Jolla. Plan was to head for the ocean, but I didn't have a map, and I didn't get real close. And it was mostly on concrete, the rest on asphalt. But still quite fine, beautiful morning.

Route

Mostly down on the way out, even that seemed a struggle. Turned around at 20:25, figured I'd be 25 minutes coming back, but I hooked up with a local runner for part of the return and that kept me going. So a feeling of accomplishment rather than sluggishness.

Now off to see some sights, and eat, and maybe a few more sights, and then eat some more, and then eat some more. Will be quite the blimp by the time we head back east tomorrow.

San Diego, by the way, was where many years ago I met the most famous orienteer I ever met, Ingemar Johansson. A visiting Swede wanted to meet him, so we found his house, went knocked on his door, he was there, very interesting. I'd guess most younger orienteers have never heard of him.

C • Johansson 11

C • San Diego 2

Here's the M21 course from Sunday.

Team Trials, day 3.

Another slog, just longer this time. Slower than ever.

But the weather cleared during the run (started in the rain) and had a couple of very pleasant hours standing around afterwards, the karma was very good. So no complaints.

C • Billy Goat prep indeed.... 1

Long Blue - Splits

Middle distance at the Trials.

Cool and rainy. Some steep terrain but a real nice course. Orienteered mostly OK, at most a couple minutes lost, but had no legs. What can you do.

On the other hand, just getting around reasonably clean was good for a scalp, Mr. Velichko's. Take your victories where you can.

Here's the men's course. Ignore the beige bands, just bad lighting and a map not lying flat, also the first part is out of focus. But gives you an idea of things.

C • Results 5

Out to the start, a little running, mostly brisk walking, mostly uphill.

So we happened to go for dinner at a little pizza lace that, because of the rain, the BAOC folks had moved to for a meeting on plans to possibly bid to host JWOC in 2013. So I listened in a bit. And was struck by a few things.

1. I think it's great that they are seriously exploring this. We've had two championships in the country, WOC in 1993 and WMOC in 1997, plus several World Cup events. All have been a lot of work, all have had aspects that were near disaster, but all added excitement and energy and something special to O' in this country, and all were worth doing, even if you would be very hard pressed to identify any significant positive impact on orienteering from any of them.

2. I don't know most of the BAOC folks on their exploratory committee, but I hope they know what they might be getting into. It is a ton of work.

3. They listed their four primary areas of concern -- land use permission, volunteers, early money, and marketing. Without land use permission, obviously the venture dies. They think they can access early money. They think they can access volunteers, both within BAOC and from other clubs. And they think marketing will be a tough one because they have no skills there.

I think that marketing needs to be paid pros, and if you can raise the money, then this is one of the first places it needs to be spent.

I also think that the whole volunteer question is a tough one. They expressed concerns about people willing to work for nothing while others are getting paid. I'd be more concerned about people who are willing to volunteer, and take on major responsibility, without having the ability to really do the job. There were certainly cases of this in both WOC-93 and WMOC-97 -- great, someone volunteered to do something, but no ability to do it. You have to spend some effort to make sure that your volunteers are matched well to what they are expected to do.

4. And then there was a lovely exchange, a hint of the kind of thing that happens in all sorts of things, BAOC had forgotten to include in its proposed schedule -- BAOC decision by September, submission of a bid to the IOF by January, decision by next summer -- that USOF has to approve the bid and submit it. Whoops. And so what would USOF's schedule be? Well, they have a Board meeting set for October and they would need to have information well before that so it could properly be evaluated, and so on.

How nice it would have been at that point to hear something like -- this is a big thing BAOC is looking at, we (USOF) need to approve it but we'll do what we can to make the process move smoothly, and if we need to schedule another Board meeting just for this, no problem, we'll do it. Oh, well.

5. Will it happen? It might. BAOC has a lot of resources. But it needs really strong and forceful leadership, and from what I saw this evening, I'm not sure it has that sufficiently. At least not yet.

Middle Blue - Splits

Event: US Team Trials & Return to Boggs Mountain A Meet
 

Team Trials sprint at Spring Lake in Santa Rosa, CA.

Good run, couldn't have done much better, maybe 15 seconds at most, just don't run near fast enough, but this was a good effort and progress, I think.

Course was about as easy as you could make it, which actually was probably the best way to do it. It's fine terrain for a sprint by North American standards, but not by European standards -- no maze feeling, no abundance of uncrossable features, no sense that you better to hell be sure a route doesn't dead end on you, so the mental stress and the need for continual advance planning weren't there -- but you have to go with what you have. They could have made it harder/slower by burying controls in the rocky/thick areas, but they didn't and I think that was the right decision.

Today's course, more or less (drawn on a copy of the map available in advance, don't know if there were changes for today's version, plus took a photo in not the best light, so it's not real clear, but enough to give a sense of things).

C • route 2

Jog to the start.

So I'm sitting in the little funky cafe in Cobb with a great internet connection. Which is a very pleasant surprise given my first experience in Cobb (a very small place)....

Went to check into the motel. Charlie had made reservations, a room for Gail and me for tonight and tomorrow night, and then two more rooms for his gang just for tomorrow night. Fine, and the folks at the motel had written it down correctly on the reservation slip, but when they transcribed it over to their reservation master sheet for the month of May, things got reversed and we had three rooms for tonight and just one for tomorrow night. Not good.

It took a few minutes to get to the point where the two women (mother and daughter?) understood what the problem was -- and when I say a few minutes, I mean a few minutes, not a few moments -- because, friendly as they were, their IQ seemed to be about 100 if you added them together.

But eventually they understood that Saturday night was the problem, since the motel was fully booked except for one reservation that had been canceled. Clearly, they were going to be one room short.

But this is a perfect example of underestimating the skills of folks who maybe aren't the brightest, but, as they say, everyone is good at something.

Daughter announced that she could figure it out, she just had to move a couple of people from one room to another. And while I settled into a chair to read some tourist brochures, she struggled mightily, working out and then discarding various moves, until after perhaps another 15 minutes of much erasing and rewriting, she suddenly announced with a sense of triumph, "There, I've got it figured out."

And in fact we now had the two rooms needed for Charlie. And for someone else, their reservation just got, as we might have said before "lost in cyberspace" became the common explanation, well, it just got erased.

I called up Charlie to let him know he might want to check in on the early side tomorrow.

And complimented myself on being so totally mellow throughout this whole operation. But then again, they isn't much to do in Cobb.

C • things to do 4

Sprint 3 - Splits