Training Log Archive: PG

Event: Paugussett SP Local
 

WCOC local meet at Paugusst. Red course, very fine design by Dave Webber, always interesting. Warm (upper 80s), quite humid, summer orienteering.

Had an ok run. The first priority once again was not to hurt the hamstring, which meant just be more careful, less crashing through stuff, much more cautious on downhills, especially where it was rocky. Mission accomplished in this regard.

Certainly didn't have much energy. Partly the heat, I was sweating like crazy. Partly I wasn't rested. And partly, and surely the bigger reason, was I'm still out of shape. Though making a little progress.

My O' skills were ok at times, a little shaky at others. Got into it sometimes, reading the map nicely as I ran along. At other times that just wasn't happening. Maybe 3 minutes of assorted minor errors.

But still a great pleasure to be out doing it.

Today's map.

C • Coneheads 1

Left Paugusset right after running to head down to Cranbury Park in Norwalk, site of the Sprint Finals in September. Spent a while walking around with Joe (the course setter) talking about the general layout of the courses. Looks like it will work really well. Even have parking, a pavillion, power for the e-punch crew and the loudspeaker, and good spots for the starts and finish, all within about 50-100 meters.

Plan is for the 2 sanctioned sprints, each also 100-pointers for the Sprint Series -- and the point scale may be something like 100, 95, 90, 85, 80, 78, 76, 74, 72, 70, 69, 68, etc., still not decided. So someone a ways behind can still advance quite a bit.

And then a third sprint, a women's course for the top 6 women in the Series, ditto for the men, then both courses open to anyone else (mass start) who wants to see if they can do better. Lots of loops, three-winged butterflies, who knows what else we will dream up....

And then home, stopping to buy a quart of chocolate milk, which Dr. Mark (Hammer's nutritional guru) says is about the perfect post-workout nutrition. It was all gone within a few miles.... :-)

Red - Splits

Getting lots of things done today -- mow the "lawn," change the oil in the car, laundry, grocery shopping (where I check my blood pressure, 117/70, good), continued upgrading my rogaine gear (new and bigger Camelback, new shoes to try), plus drinking/eating lots, but it's dinnertime and so far no training as the thunderstorms have been rolling through all afternoon.

Maybe after dinner....

Usual hike up to the top, right after dinner (grilled salmon, red potatos, salad), feeling very full. Thought I might take it easy. Didn't.

Back the round-about route. Again, didn't take it easy, full belly and all. Like ultra training I used to do, get used to running on a full stomach. Sweating a whole lot.

Looking gloomy when I left, thought I might have to pull out the headlamp, but it had cleared up by the time I reached the top and there was still enough light at the end.

Still not an FDF to be seen. Perhaps they have heard the rumors....

Bike ride just before dinner, beautiful late afternoon ride, Old Deerfield / River Road. Working hard the whole way.

It ocurred to me after I was done that I hadn't been daydreaming at all, but completely focused on riding -- the pavement, the grade, the gears, the traffic, the wind, and how much my legs and lungs were complaining (and they were complaining for sure, but also felt pretty strong). Which was sort of a nice feeling, means you're putting some effort into it and not just cruising.

Reminds me of the complaint often lodged against running races (as opposed to orienteering), that they are just so boring. Wheras I almost always have found my mind totally occupied by thoughts similar to today's on the bike -- pace, form, running surface, grade (up/down), monitoring one's vital signs (by feel), all the above just focused on yourself, and then there was the competition. Never found the races boring. But maybe I'm easily entertained. There are some much smarter folks on AP and in orienteering, and they may have higher standards.

Also a very early round of rogaine practice before driving home from Wolfeboro after a very nice visit.

C • Concentration 19

Got to bed by 9:30, excellent, out cold right away, but then awake at 4:30 again. That's more sleep anyway.

More rogaine practice, really awesome today, beautiful course and weather, very hilly walking.

Now have to get out the door for another run....

On the woods roads in Wolfeboro, slightly different section, very pleasant. Get a gold star for getting out both days.

For those with some interest in rogaine practice, hit possibly my longest drive ever, about 285-290, on the 16th at Owl's Nest. Downhill, tailwind. Power rating of about 2.2. (And John Goodwin, age 17, hit his about 340-350, power rating off the charts.) Had a really fun day.

C • Long drive 2

Up at 4:30, way to early. Off to Wolfeboro, NH, visiting Peter Goodwin and family. Not much internet access. Rogaine practice first, cool, gray, occasional rain, then quite a ways out on the lake in these one-person strange pedal kayaks, then finally got out for a run before dinner. Hoped to go for 30 minutes, but found some nice woods roads and went longer.

No pack, no hiking, just running. Still feels weird, like the muscles need an injection of suppleness. But ok overall.

Had an early morning date on the golf course, first-round match in the club's match play championship. Not sure why I signed up for it, since I found a few years ago that I didn't enjoy golf when it got too serious. I think this time it was part of my effort to meet some new people this year.

So, anyway, I'm driving up to the course and I'm feeling nervous. And I'm feeling stupid for feeling nervous, I mean it's just a round of golf, so I spend the 20-minute drive thinking about nervousness and what it does to you and how to deal with. And trying to come up with something that will calm me down. (Of course a little nervousness is often a good thing, shows you care, but this was a bit much.)

So I think back to times I've been nervous before sports events. Most of those have been before O' events, but the problem certainly declined over the years, run enough events and pretty soon A meets are no big deal, and then national championships are no reason to panic. But international events can still fire up the nerves. And I still haven't found a way to deal with it, other than to keep competing so that eventually even the main events become somewhat routine.

But this was just a little local club match, and my stomach was still rumbling.

And then I thought back to the Western States 100 Mile in June, 1993. First time at the event, the grand-daddy of the 100-milers, across the Sierra from Squaw Vally to Auburn, CA. It wasn't my first 100-miler, I'd finished four others out West that were just as hard, but I remember as we were driving east on I-80 up into the mountains and I got a sense of the scale of what lay ahead, I was literally shaking. Nervousness, anxiety, a healthy dose of fear.

And I remember at some point I said to myself, Would you rather be coming up here to run tomorrow, or coming up here to crew for someone else who was going to run?

And the answer, quite immediately, was that I wanted to run. And so the next question was, Well, if you are doing what you want to be doing, why are you nervous?

And somehow that settled me right down.

And I thought about the golf match, and I asked myself, Why are you doing this? Is it for some form of hoped-for athletic accomplishment?

And the answer was, No, I see it as a nice way to meet someone I wouldn't otherwise meet.

And the conclusion from that was, And that's making you nervous?

I calmed right down, and a little while later the drive off the first tee was dead center. And the company was good, very nice guy. And as fate would have it, he had lived in the Tahoe area for many years, working building ski lifts, had worked at Squaw Valley a bunch, had even watched the start of Western States most years, certainly the couple times I'd been there. A small world...

Out just before dinner, direct route to the top of Toby, same as last Thursday but didn't have the willpower to put the extra 5 pounds in the pack. So a little quicker, heart rate a touch lower at the top (170).

C • Do you run back down with the ... 5

Then ran back the round-about way, striding out more, back to more normal pace, feeling reasonably good except for the pack bouncing around a bt more than I cared for.

More pleasant day-dreaming, including thinking back to Sunday and the trip over to Clint's fine meet at Crandalls, and how if Phil had gone and we'd driven together, then we surely would have stopped on the way home for a nutritional break, something similar I'm sure to our stop after the Billygoat, when he got a large bag of something he claimed were "health food chips," I mean, I think they had a little bit of whole grain in them though they were mainly fat and salt, and I got a rather large container of some delicious ice cream, all packed full of beneficial calcium and protein.

And I thought about this for a while and decided that tonight might be desert time again, have to follow Wyatt's advice and not get the weight too low (and it was 126.5 after the run).

So that got me most of the way home, reality intruding just a bit towards the end in the way of little aches and just general tiredness.

And then I get home and see that Phil had been laid low by food poisoning on Sunday evening, which is something you shouldn't wish on anybody, and I'm thinking, damn, he should have come to Crandalls, at least he would have had a good base of health food chips to fall back upon.

Off to Sugarloaf Frostee.... :-) :-)

C • container of ice cream 18

Was about to go out in the early afternoon, though feeling neither inspired nor energetic, but the radar showed storms moving this way and a little too close. So I lay down for a moment.

Woke up an hour or so later, storm had passed and the sun was out, had a little food , dug a few holes for some plants Gail was putting in, and then headed out. And felt much better.

Old Deerfield / River Road loop, hardly any wind, pavement almost totally dry, and for the first time this year had some zip in the legs. I'm not a good cyclist and everything is relative, but it felt like there was a little power in the quads, something that might at least register a positive number on one of JJ's power meters, if I had one. And it felt great!

Three minutes faster than any other time on the loop this year, and within a couple of minutes of times from a couple years ago when I was doing more biking. Excellent. Good for morale, the psychological equivalent of an extra-large chocolate milkshake.... :-)

Weight was 127 afterwards. Which is not to be confused with the G, which is only measured in the morning. Need to drink up.

C • So did you determine how large... 5

So I went to Eastern Mountain Sports to start looking into things that might may a rogane more enjoyable -- better socks, better shoes, other blister prevention/treatment stuff, a little bit bigger Camelback.

At some point some sales guy comes over, do I need help.

Well, it depends, do you know you stuff, I ask.

Well, it depends, he says, if you want to know the chemical composition of the glue that holds the shoes together, then I'm in trouble, but I know a thing or two.

Now I'm hopeless when it comes to gear, just never have paid attention, but we talked for the better part of an hour (the store was not busy, very stormy out), and he was pretty cool. Even to the point of, when he goes to get me a pair of Montrail Hardrock shoes to try on, he gets a pair in his size too and puts them on, just so he remind himself of how they feel.

So I didn't get any shoes, got to do some more research first. Did get a couple different kinds of socks. And did, in my best imitation of Barb, though not nearly as well, spend a bit of time proselytizing about the joys of orienteering.

Nathen, nice guy. I'll be back.

Oh, and I passed on Sugarloaf Frostee on the way out, on the way back it was closed up tight. Maybe tomorrow.