Training Archive: PGIn the 7 days ending 2008-07-05:
| [csv] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| « | » |
| » now | |||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
| |||||||||
| S | M | T | W | H | F | S | ||||||||
Saturday Jul 5 | ||
| nautilus 50:00 [1] | |
| Followed the workout with about 4 hours of rogaine practice, had the place mostly to myself as it was raining on and off. I suppose the four hours of wet feet was actually good rogaine practice.
One of my most enjoyable outings in the last month as I reconnected with the concepts of rhythm and relaxation -- thanks here to suggestions from Mike F and the wealthy N -- which seem to be much more productive than the slash and thrash style I have be favoring recently. Once again, just another way that O' and RP are really the same sport. Nice surprise in the mail today. After some comments a week ago about maybe this being the time to make desserts a higher priority in my life, what should arrive but a large container of delicious chocolate chip cookies. At least I assume they are all delicious, certainly the ones that just got inhaled were. A very nice and much appreciated present, even if its impact on the G might be quite inflationary. All of which makes it hard to score this as anything other than a very good day, even if the endless heat, humidity, and rain is getting a bit much. Time to look into a trip to the higher altitudes. | ||
Friday Jul 4 | ||
| run/hike 3:22:52 [2]13.4 mi (15:07 / mi) | |
| weight:139lbs shoes: Asics trail | ||
| Decided that the 20+ miles to Glastonbury Mt. was a bit ambitious (i.e. stupid) given the continued very humid weather and chance of storms, so I opted for a shorter though not trivial effort, from Williamstown going north on the Pine Cobble Trail, joining up with the AT and then the Long Trail when in Vermont. Went as far as County Road and then back the same way.
Trail was crappier than I remember, or maybe it is just my declining agility. Lots of rocks and roots, mud in places. But some nice sections too! Carried a small pack, couple bottles of water, a little food, a jacket, car keys (well secured), not much else. Felt tired most of the time but kept plugging away. 1:51 out (and up), 1:31 back (and down). A dose of reality perhaps before next weekend's rogaine. Approximate route. | ||
| C • RRR Brooks trail 1 | ||
Thursday Jul 3 | ||
| trail running 58:33 [3]6.2 mi (9:26 / mi) | |
| weight:138lbs shoes: Asics trail | ||
| Nice run with Phil on Mt. Toby -- up N. Mt. to power line (17:30), then Muck, Muck Cut-off, South Mountain Cut-off (30:50), long downhill down S. Mt (40:24), then back via a bit of Middle Mt. and the field. Legs felt a little tired from yesterday, but still not bad, didn't have any trouble with the hills. Phil seem to be suffering a little at the end, though his diet may have something to do with it -- breakfast apparently was 3 cups of strong coffee, and nothing else.
Scared up two fawns in the first ten seconds, they must have been lying no more then 20 yards from the house, but no sign of mom. Based on this one observation, I'd say deer are born with natural speed, it's not the result of years of hard train and lots of interval. These two guys were fast. I have in mind to take a long run/hike sometime this long weekend, maybe something on the AT or Long Trail. And old favorite was RT. 9 in Vermont north to Glastonbury Mt. and back, about 20 miles round trip, one of the advantages of which was a nice spring coming out of a pipe just below the summit. Haven't been up there for many years. Used to do it with not much walking, but I know that wouldn't be the case now. I'll see what the weather looks like.... | ||
| nautilus 50:00 [1] | |
| A late trip to the gym, as I found out it will be closed tomorrow.
And why I like the place. | ||
| C • another reason 3 | ||
Wednesday Jul 2 | ||
| trail running 54:40 [3] | |
| weight:139lbs shoes: Asics trail | ||
| Phil's loop at Mt. Tom on a warm afternoon. Time requires two asterisks, the first being the time out I took on the climb after crossing the Quarry Trail, stopped for a couple of minutes, time not included. And then ditto on the climb up to Goat Peak. In both cases I wasn't far from the top of the climb, but the legs were weak, the breathing was getting harder, and the spirit was definitely not willing. Did manage to run the climb from Lake Bray up to the Quarry Trail without stopping. Overall time was actually a little better than expected, but then there are the two asterisks....
Keystone to main junction (10:43), to Quarry Trail ((6:03), to junction with M&M (9:57*), to Lake Bray road (9:15), to Goat Peak (5:51*), to M&M/Teabag junction (3:14), back down (9:34). The loop, annotated as if run in the other direction. I saw one of the park workers after I was done, I said the park was looking nice (I wasn't kidding), and he seemed pleased, don't know how often they get compliments. And then I thought about it for a while, and went back to him (he was cleaning up around the shelter) and said, excuse me, I want to correct what I just said, the park is looking _really_ nice. And we had a good chat. And I said I'd been coming to the park for years for orienteering. And he said they had a big event coming up in October. We chatted about that for a bit, and I can't remember exactly what he said but it was something to the effect that orienteering was just a fine use for the park. As I said, a good chat. Another running term that almost came into play today, "Wagon steps," named after my co-editor years ago at Ultrarunning, Stan Wagon. Stan lived on the other side of Mt. Toby, where the trails are steeper, especially the trail up the telephone line, about a 20% grade, and Stan from time to time would take great pleasure in announcing that he had run the whole thing, no walking. But then one time I was running there with him, and it was steep enough that I determined that walking one stretch was both easier and faster, but Stan was still running. I was keeping up, of course, and I had such a good view of his running form that I couldn't help but notice (and laughing at!) that, yes, he was still running, but the secret was an extremely short stride length. Hence the official definition of Wagon steps -- running when the length of your stride is less than the length of your foot. No Wagon steps today, but in a few places it was close. | ||
| Note | |
| Start of a new trash system in town. They still pick it up curbside every Wednesday, both trash and recyclables (glass, cans, plastic, paper), but now you have to put the trash in bags you have to buy from the town, 75 cents for the smaller ones, a buck fifty for the larger ones.
I think I had something to do with this happening, went to a couple of selectmen's meetings when they were considering it and they seemed to be on the fence. I was very much for it, mainly because my neighbors on one side seemed to put out about 6 big bags of trash every week and never a single bit of recycling, and it seemed like if they wanted to do that, then they ought to pay for the privilege. I left this morning before they put their trash out so I don't know how much it was this time, but when I came back, and after trash had been picked up, there was one of the empty blue plastic containers used for recyclables at the end of their driveway. So maybe progress. Sometimes a little economic incentive works. | ||
| C • Worked for my dad, too 22 | ||
Monday Jun 30 | ||
| trail running 41:27 [3] | |
| shoes: Asics trail | ||
| Up Wantastiquet Mt across the river from Brattleboro, climb was 1060'. Up in 24:39, back down in 16:48. Made it all the way up without walking, though it was not without a bit of willpower (and a shortened stride and slower cadence). A couple minutes slower than a couple of years ago, but I am older, and also carrying about one and a half extra five-pound bags of sugar.
At some point the phrase "Murphy repeats" popped into my mind, and I chuckled as I realized that I was in fact doing a set of Murphy repeats up Mt. W. The term is named in honor of a local runner Jim Murphy. Jim was a pretty good runner, an even better (or more loquacious) talker about running, especially his own. A run with Jim would mean you might ask him, How you doing, Jim, and that would be the last thing you would get to say, because he would never stop telling you all about his running. And one time he announced that he had been out the previous day doing repeats up Mt Toby, and, because he didn't know when to shut up, it came out pretty quickly that he had actually done just one repeat. Hence the term, Murphy repeats, and a whole lot of razzing. | ||
| C • a much needed running term 1 | ||
| nautilus 50:00 [1] | |
| And then to the gym, though I didn't go there directly. First a very enjoyable round of rogaine practice with Mike Fritz, enjoyable for the excellent company and good conversation, enjoyable despite my truly atrocious golf, at least on the front nine, though I did at least finish with some semblance of grace. And I believe I behaved quite well!
And then he headed off back north. and the sun was still shining and there was no rush to get home, so I stopped for another 9 holes of RP, a similar progression from atrocious to quite fine. And then stopped at the gym for a good workout. Hmmm, good day, 10 pm, time for dinner. | ||
Sunday Jun 29 | ||
| Event: WCOC BBQ, Sprints, Meeting at DeWeese Farm | ||
| orienteering 28:04 [3]2.5 km (11:14 / km) | |
| shoes: integrators 2006 | ||
| The Ratlum "sprints" at the DeWeese estate. Started off with sprint B ("sprint" seems not quite the right word for something that I did at about 11 minutes per km). Here is the map and my route.
A few comments about the course -- #1. Ok, would have been slightly better if the control had been on the SW part of the knoll instead of SE, therefore closer to the trail.... :-) #2. Fine, nice bit of woods! #3. Fine. #4. Excellent. #5. Spiked it, though I'm quite sure it was on a cliff south of the one in the circle (and the clearing was farther south too). I expected to get through the mounain laurel and then hook back to the left, but there it was, just to my right. #6. And therefore, the direction to #6 seemed too much to the east instead of SE. But OK woods going to 6. #7 And OK woods going to 7 too! #8. And trails almost all the way to 8, excellent! #9. Ditto, excellent (except I took a shortcut, didn't save me anything). #10. Excellent for the first 90% of the leg. If the control had just been at the trail bend I used for an attack point, this would have been truly excellent. And if after that the course headed directly to the finish, it would have been really truly excellent. But.... #11. Uggh. #12. Uggh. But I finished, with not much in the way of damage despite wearing shorts. And mostly enjoyed it! | ||
| orienteering 10:00 [2] | |
| shoes: integrators 2006 | ||
| After finishing sprint B, I quickly determined that if I didn't wait long before I start sprint A, I could escape the need for both cooldown from B and then warmup for A. And, a look upwards revealed a darkening and somewhat ominous looking sky. So within 5 minutes I was off on sprint A, the shorter of the two and supposedly the more difficult.
Here is the course and my route. The observant reader with notice that my route seems to stop in the vicinity of #2. Which it did. After a somewhat round-about route to #1, though I spiked the control, I headed off on the trail to #2. Got to the bend in the trail, went in where the map indicated, the vibes were immediately very bad -- thick mountain laurel, the control and boulders were supposed to be 10 meters from the trail, but no sign of anything, very limited visibility, turned right, picked my way uphill a little bit, back out right at the bend, still nothing. Back in, this time left, and quite a ways down were the boulders and the control. And I just got pissed. Well, no, actually, the getting pissed had been building up over the couple of minutes I was climbing through the mountain laurel looking for the dumb thing. So I just quit, and very slowly jogged (and walked a little) back to the finish. Which was done at just the right pace, so that by the time I got back almost all the being pissed had dissipated and I managed to be quite civil and friendly (I think?), just said I'd stopped. As it turned out, it was a really good decision, because the sky was already much more ominous, and within a couple of minutes it was raining, and within a couple more minutes it was pouring. And I was glad not to being still going hand-to-hand with the laurel! | ||
| Note | |
| So rather than drip all over the inside of Charlie and Rhonda's house, I headed to their garage to change. Which included a very pleasant couple of minutes standing out in their driveway with nothing on, letting the rain rinse me off. Then upstairs to partake of the real purpose of the visit, the good food and company.
And, as it turned out, the fireworks, so to speak. It was still getting darker, and there was thunder in the distance, and then the power went out, and then the thunder got closer, and then I happened to be looking out a window and saw a very distinct bolt of lightning, and I've always known to start counting as you wait for the noise so you know how far away it is (and therefore how scared to be), 1000' for every second. And this one, I saw the bolt and heard the boom and there wasn't even time to think about counting. Awful close. And then a few minutes later, I was looking out over the deck, where their monster grill is, and another bolt and boom simultaneously, I figured it had hit between the grill and the house. So it was pretty exciting! Though I have this feeling that some of their electronics may not be working so well any more. Which would really suck. All this notwithstanding, the food was wonderful, another Rhonda masterpiece, and the company was even better. And the desserts, well, there were some brownies that Ross brought, and some other kind of sweet thing with coffee and I think lots of butter and sugar that Janet brought, and some chocolate chip concoction that someone else brought. Yummm. Finally headed home. Where I discovered my new technique for keeping from eating after dinner -- curl up on the couch for a couple of hours of light reading in one of my PC books.... :-( | ||
| C • AOWN 9 | ||
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}