Training Archive: PGIn the 7 days ending 2007-07-14:
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| S | M | T | W | H | F | S | |||||||
Saturday Jul 14 | ||
| Note | |
| rhr:47 slept:8.0 weight:131.5lbs | ||
| No further research today on the FDF extermination front, but that's not to say there hasn't been progress. I sent an e-mail to the Man, the Boss, the source of information about blue cups and blue caps, the one and only Russell F. (Russ) Mizell III, Professor of Entomology at the University of Florida, reporting on our findings and wondering if he had done any further research.
He responded quite promptly -- Peter: I have not done any more research with the trap. There is a lot that could be done. I did publish what we completed in the journal article below. http://www.bioone.org/perlserv/?request=get-docume... Regards, Russ ----------------------------------- If you're into FDFs, there is some good stuff there. And as far as academic stuff goes, I can say that it is a whole lot easier to read than two other academic publications I cast my eye on recently, one by my brother and one that was something Barb was reading on the plane to Oregon, and both might as well been written in a very foreign language, well, actually, I think one of them was to a certain extent. But Russ's work is downright readable. ------------------------------------ No training today because of the holiday (le quatorze Juillet), also resting up for the Assault tomorrow. In my feeble condition, will my roughly 5-minute headstart over Phil and roughly 10 minutes over Clint be enough? The reason for hope vs. Phil is that he has to go down as well as up, the reason for hope vs. Clint is that he goes out so fast he can't finish. We shall see. Meanwhile I had a nice soixante-dix-sept today. For those who collect useless facts, 77 et le plus petit nombre en anglais nécessitant cinq syllabes. | ||
Friday Jul 13 | ||
| biking 1:07:51 [3] 20.2 mi (3:21 / mi) | |
| slept:6.0 weight:132lbs | ||
| Old Deerfield / River Road loop before breakfast, started at 6:30, had meant to be out by 6 but time just slipped by. So a little more traffic. But still pretty lonely out there. Crisp and clear morning, a bit of fog along the river, pretty nice.
Good effort on the hills coming back. I could tell, because i wasn't doing any daydreaming. Thinking of doing the Soapstone Assault on Sunday. Been a while since I ran a race. | ||
| C • See ya there... 4 | ||
Thursday Jul 12 | ||
| trail running 34:10 [3] | |
| slept:6.0 weight:131lbs shoes: Montrail | ||
| A planned short workout became even shorter, though that was not all bad. Drove over to the gate to try some hill repeats. First one felt terrible, walked some. Second one better, help being warmed up, walked the one steep pitch. Third one better still, ran the whole way.
Mainly just not used to anything close to threshold pace, or any deep breathing. Had to remind myself that it was ok to be breathing hard. Had originally thought to go for about an hour, but this seemed enough, legs needed an easy day. Lap 1 (roughly 275' climb, a couple of flat sections): 7:10 up, 4:46 down, 6 kills. Lap 2: 6:32 up, 4:44 down, 1 kill. Lap 3: 6:12 up, 4:42 down, 1 kill. Couldn't find my keys where I'd left them, found them about 6' away after just a minute's search. Just about to really freak out. Time to ditch that habit, hiding the keys, that is. Other than that, drank too much, ate too much, but at least made more progress on AP (anti-procrastination, not AttackPoint) week, ordered a new computer, been meaning to for 6 months. Tired, bedtime.... | ||
| C • computer 7 | ||
Wednesday Jul 11 | ||
| Note | |
| slept:6.0 weight:131lbs | ||
| Took me a while to get down the driveway this morning because the AOWN sirens were going off -- spotted first one turkey, then another, then some little ones (maybe a foot tall). Called up Gail, she ran and got the shotgun -- no, just kidding, she's still not running.... :-(
So in a couple of minutes they all crossed the driveway, 4 adults, about 15 kids, taking turns dashing across into the safety of some ferns on the other side. Very amusing. Route of the turkeys. | ||
| C • Great use of gped! 7 | ||
| biking 3:03:24 [2] 47.7 mi (3:50 / mi) | |
| Had to leave the car in Greenfield to get the windshield replaced -- a couple of foot-long cracks appeared last Thursday, cause unknown, and getting it fixed within 6 days is actually quite excellent! -- and they were going to take about 3 hours, so I figured I might as well use the time to get a ride in.
Went up to Brattleboro (via Rt. 5) and back (via Rt. 142 mostly). The legs were as dead as there were lively yesterday, and yesterday, when I think back on it, they were quite lively, hardly noticed the weight of the pack at all. But today was tough, no energy. Not so bad going to Brattleboro because there was a gusty wind out of the south, though I was still moving real slowly, but not much fun coming back into the wind most of the time. Stopped partway back at a store to refuel/rest and that helped. There are days like this. I suppose it is like bad weather days, makes you appreciate the good days more. | ||
| Note | |
| Saw a mink this afternoon at Beaver Brook. I definitely need to get a camera.
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Tuesday Jul 10 | ||
| run/hike (with pack,11 pounds) 2:25:50 [3] | |
| slept:4.0 weight:131lbs shoes: Montrail | ||
| Rogaine training with Barb at Mt. Wachusett, a really fine outing. Her suggestion for an outing, mine to try Wachusett instead of Monadnock, her requirement to be underway at 5:30 (so she could make a meeting at work at 10). So I was up at 3:30 to get organized and eat and out the door at 4:30, both way too early, way, way too early, until you fast forward to 8:10 am and we are all done and the morning is still pleasant, but you know it is going to be 95 and humid, but we are all done!
We both show up at right about 5:30 at the base of the ski area. It takes a few minutes to get the blue caps prepared, but we are underway before long, and it is pretty nice out. I seem to be in charge of the route (pink is hiking, blue is running), so first we take care of making sure we make it to the top, then it's off to the SW part of the map to look at a clearing where I thought there were windmills, but if there ever were, there aren't now. Then back the way we'd come for while, then cutting over a shoulder of the mountain so we could try running down a ski trail, and finally, just enough time left for a trip back up to the top and then run down another ski trail. Almost all was really fun, and good training too. Least fun were the rocky trails near the top, most fun was a stretch of really nice trail heading over towards the missing windmills, no actually, really the most fun was running down the ski trails. The vegetation was anywhere from a knee to waist high, but it was all quite benign, no prickers, no nasty stuff at all, plus no hidden rocks or downed logs. You just float down, never seeing where the feet are landing but it didn't really matter (except for the one time I didn't see the snowmaking pipes and went sprawling). The stuff was all still a little wet, so by the end of the first time down, and certainly for all of the second time down, the feet were soaking wet, but that just seemed to add to the fun. Really cool.... My only concern was that at the start of the trail we took the second time down there was a sign saying, Stay off the trail. Maybe we should find another one, I suggested, but Barb reasssured me, Don't worry, those signs are on all the trails. And down we went.... :-) Other items of interest (at least to me) -- The blue caps worked well, though there was an issue that I hadn't previously run into, though it had been discussed here, namely, keeoing the FDFs out of one's hair, and keeping one's hair out of the sticky stuff. Barb seemed to think that there were several FDFs taking up residence in her hair, though a careful search could only find one. I assumed that no self-respecting FDFs would be interested in bedding down in my hair, but I found one there too. Hmmmm. Solutions? Barb did say that next time she would wrap her hair tighter, or do some such thing, I didn't grasp the details, or maybe I wasn't paying too close attention, because a haircut, which is overdue, will take care of the issue for me. We enjoyed a fine rendition of "Requiem for a Deer Fly," performed by an FDF on my cap. The music is notable for its soulful yet strong buzzing, all emanating from a fixed location, and with the passage of time it slowly fades away before dying off completely. A haunting and yet oddly pleasurable melody.... There was some discussion of Swampfox's destruction of his AP training log. I think it is fair to say that both of us were rather pissed at him. Barb, because she is a very sociable person, and this seemed like a very anti-social act. Me, because I couldn't get a straight answer as to why he did it. So that means I have to speculate. And the only speculation that makes sense is that Swampfox was losing it. Losing his sanity, of course, we all know that, but also losing his standing atop the AP training standings, first to the adventure racer crowd, then to Hillary, and now he'd be behind Barb and probably even me. And he couldn't handle that. So he blew it up. There was also some discussion of the procrastination that seems to govern my whole life, and also seems to govern Barb's whole life at work. Not fun for either. Though I was delighted to note some progress yesterday in my new campaign to minimize the problem, plus already at this early hour I had logged one great success today, a rather trivial success for sure, but a success is still a success, namely, that when I got up at 3:30 and took care of the usual immediate priorities, pee, record the G, check e-mail, check AP, there was an e-mail from Randy with questions about arrangements in Kiev next month. And within 5 minutes I had researched the matter, decided I needed more info, and fired off an e-mail to Ukraine. Wheras the normal procedure would have been to do nothing for several days, all the while obsessing about it, and then finally forcing myself to deal with it, all quite painfully, with the all-too-common e-mail opening line, Sorry to be so slow getting back to you.... Progress, even in small steps, is still progress. We were done almost too soon. The Montrail shoes still felt great, energy levels were good, Barb seemed to have shaken off the lingering effects of the previous night's debauchery, and all seemed well in the world, for me at least, I wasn't heading to work, first stop was a grocery store, where I bought a half-gallon of non-fat chocolate milk and a pound bag of carrots. Within the next few hours all the milk was drunk (as well as about 3 bottles of water) and most of the carrots were eaten, an intake that I assume would make most dieticians blanche, and which still had me coming home 3 pounds down. Perhaps because it was hot and humid and I stopped first in Westminster and then, what the hell, there was no one there and the course was wide open, next in Templeton, each for a round of satisfying O' practice. Got home exactly 12 hours after I left, a very fine day. | ||
| C • Stay off 2 | ||
| C • Swampfox 15 | ||
| C • Where have all the windmills gone? 2 | ||
Monday Jul 9 | ||
| Note | |
| slept:6.0 weight:132lbs | ||
| We've decided to pass on Colorado. Just seemed too complicated to get it all planned and executed. I need a personal travel agent....
Eating way too much. Goal for today (and every day this week) -- make a major dent in the to-do list, and figure out a way to significantly reduce procrastination in my life. It drives me nuts. I don't do it at work, just the opposite there, but at home it's a disaster. It sounds stupid, but if I could fix it, the quality of life would go way up. That's true, both seriously and sadly. Or I suppose I could deal with this next week.... No, no, no. | ||
| C • and I am the opposite 9 | ||
| C • No Colorado 3 | ||
| biking 54:54 [2] 15.3 mi (3:35 / mi) | |
| Late in the day ride. Was planning to go out mid-afternoon, but postponed it when I found out my pump didn't work despite my best repair efforts. So off to the bike shop first, and it didn't work for them either, and it still didn't work for them after they had worked on it a while, just kept leaking air once the pressure got above 60 psi or so.
So I now have a new pump. And an old one that le saboteur is welcome to, he knows who he is.... :-) Finally out for the ride, no energy at all, took it easy, slowly felt better, worked harder at the end though that may have been due to my concern about getting home before the storm arrived. Which I did. Now back on the no food after dinner plan. The key is to stay out of the kitchen. And anyway, it's not that long until breakfast, scheduled about 4 am, prior to a dawn (pre-dawn?) outing at Mt. Wachusett. | ||
| C • Faire du vélo les ennuis de pompe 3 | ||
| Note | |
This being "un peu de français" week in my log in honor of Les 5 Jours de France 2007 -- where Lyn Walker, WCOC, won, yup, that's right, won F65 today in stage 1! -- and since there may well be some questionable french appearing, I'll put forth my nomination for the worst official french-to-english translation, this one a last-minute information posted at one of the early 5 Jours. I wonder how many elites showed up at the post office at 2 pm looking for their second map....
| ||
Sunday Jul 8 | ||
| run/hike (with pack, 7 pounds) 2:34:28 [3] | |
| slept:6.0 weight:131lbs shoes: Montrail | ||
| A mid-afternoon run/hike on the Robert Frost trail from the gate on Reservation Road south to Bull Hill and back. I had been think of going all the way down to Bull Hill Road, but after I had been going for a little while, Bull Hill seemed plenty far enough.
Warm and humid, sweating a lot, also trying to drink a lot, plus ate a couple of energy bars (which, if nothing else, sure make an uphill go quicker and more pleasantly, especially if there is chocolate in the energy bar). Was totally soaked after a while, and that was before the rain came, but only lost about three pounds. Had a mini-crises about half-way, when I took my blue cap off to check the kill count and saw that the duct tape on one side was flapping loose, any adhesiveness no longer working. Damn, was it going to come off completely? Would I be defenseless? Was this the making of "Revenge of the FDFs?" And from an economic point of view, was my purchase yesterday of a nice new (and larger) roll of blue duct tape a bad investment? Distressing thoughts, all of them. The only possible positive was that just a little but earlier I had whacked a branch -- didn't duck quite enough -- hard of enough to feel it. Had that been why the tape was no longer sticking? There certainly were bits and pieces of leaves clinging to the sticky stuff. So all the way back I worked on moving smoothly, no sudden movements, no contact with any more branches, and the cap stayed intact all the way back. And the outcome was about as expected: PG 51, FDFs 0. And a useful workout. -------------------- One of my occasional diversions.... I was driving up to the course very early this morning for a 7 am match, and even though the hour was early, the mind was hard at work, putting together a game plan you might say. And the game plan was that while it can be hard to control how the body wroks, and it works differently from day to day, or even hour to hour, there is no excuse not to be mentally alert. And mentally alert all the time. Which means all the time (1) making good decisions about what you should do, and then (2) thinking through the key(s) to what is needed to execute the way you want, and then (3) keeping your concentration so you actually do it. So part 1 of the game plan was to be smart. Part 2 of the game plan was to be mentally tough, particularly in the face of the various adversities that always seem to appear. Meaning, don't ever give up. You just never know what may happen. And then, since I was also having fleeting thoughts about mortality and the passage of time, part 3 of the game plan was to enjoy the morning, enjoy the challenge, enjoy the company. Note that in all of this I am talking about golf, but I could just as easily be talking about orienteering.... So how do I do? I think I did pretty well. There were the usual errors here and there, but my thinking/planning was pretty sound. The guy I was playing said afterwards he was impressed how everytime I hit a poor shot and/or got in trouble, I didn't compound the problem with another poor shot, the next one was always good (no, I'm not making this up, and I didn't pay him to say that). As far as hanging tough, well, I had two chances to lay down and roll over. On the first, a rather difficult par four, drive in the trees, never found it, reload because you never know, good second drive, but by the time I am ready to play it, lying three, he is already just in front of the green in 2, easy chip. You never know I kept telling myself, you can still get a 5, and I hit a real good shot about 20' below the pin. And maybe that got him thinking a bit, because his chip was weak, maybe 15' short. You never know I kept telling myself, and then drained the 20-footer, and suddenly he needed his to win the hole, and he charged a bit, and then missed the one coming back, and I'd actually won the hole and then he was really talking to himself. You never know, on ne sait jamais, just don't quit. The other chance had a less fortuitous outcome, a par three, we both missed the green, he chips up dead, I blade my sand shot over the green, over the rough, past the toilets, into two-feet-high weeds. In this case I knew, it was time to move on to the next hole. And part 3 of the game plan, I enjoyed the morning, enjoyed the challenge, and enjoyed the company -- my opponent runs the Section 8 (subsidised housing) program for Greenfield, and a friend of his who was playing with us left the insurance business after 40 years to go back to school to get his masters in education so he can hopefully start a new career as a middle school teacher. A coule of guys who could cuss with the best of them, but also very interesting. And I give myself pretty close to an A for the outing. | ||
