Training Log Archive: PG

Event: Hudson Highlander
 

So the main news from the Highlander that the world is waiting for is the results of the great jump-off.

The details -- I finished the Highlander and wisely determined that if I did not jump right away, before I stiffened up, than any jump was going to be more like a step, with a possible distance of at most 2 feet. So I recruited Ross as the official in charge, with Wyatt as his assistant, and we marked off the starting line in the dirt down by the dumpster, an appropriate place it seemed, and then I backed up, took a running start, still barely able to do that, and let loose, good distance, except it seemed I foot-faulted by at least 6 inches.

Backed up again, another great leap, damn, another foot-fault, this time by 8 inches. I claimed, with some truth, that I couldn't see the line, so Wyatt marked it with a couple of sticks. That was better. One more huge leap, and this one was both fair and far.

Time to measure. I lay down on my back, the jump was clearly longer than my length, first goal achieved. Ross made it official, my height plus 6", or 6' 0.5". A PR, at least in the last 20 years. I was psyched. Big cheers from the spectators.

While we settled down to wait for Barb to show, there were various other jumpers (Ross, Joe, JJ), some good, some not so good, but under the rules of the competition all totally unofficial. I was in the lead and feeling good.

Eventually Barb showed up, we intercepted her and Dave as they were heading out on the final loop on the Pole Brook map. She was all business, a quick approach, a mighty leap, virtually into another zip code, the final distance recorded as my distance plus twice the length of my shoe plus another 2 inches, for a total (as I now measure my shoe) of 8' 2". And then zip, she was off to Pole Brook, leaving the rest of us stunned. Except for me. I knew she could out-jump me, and I had my second place.

In secondary news, the Highland was won by Will Hawkins and Erin Olafsen. A wonderful course, the men's classic from WOC '93, plus a trail run, plus another 7 km or so on Pole Brook. Thanks to HVO (and especially Daniel Schaublin and Paul Bennett) for both the inspiration and the execution.

Highlander. About as good as I can do, no more than a minute of mistakes. 13th. Best was Will in just over 3:30, then Ross in 3:52. I kept careful count and fell 22 times. I was told since that was less then one per kilometer that I clearly wasn't running hard enough. One fall was bad, relatively early on, head first downhill, caught a log hard on my right upper quad, quite sore the rest of the way but not limiting, just had to get over it.

Injury report:
Big toe -- a little swollen and sore, but not terrible, and to be expected these days given the abuse.
Shins -- hardly a scrape despite no gaiters, a side benefit of moving so slowly.
Right quad -- no visible damage but very very sore.
Left knee -- a little sore on the inside where I got it at Valley Forge, but should be OK.
Arms/triceps -- no problem, despite the falls.
Chafing -- only problem was forgetting to tape the nipples, so they are a little tender.
Overall -- seems like nothing that won't heal pretty quickly.

Saturday: 3/6 (ygo)
Sunday: 1/6 (y)

C • Very cool 2

Highlander - Splits

Whately - South Deerfield loop. Trying to do a little fine tuning on my planned pacing for the Highlander tomorrow, i.e. very relaxed, trying to put out the absolute minimum effort possible and still keep the bike moving forward. Actually made it a very pleasant ride instead of the usual basically working as hard as I can ride. And the difference was only about 20 seconds a mile. Might have to try this more often, especially if I am going longer, but only if I can manage to keep the ego securely locked up.

About 60F, windy, a little cold for this fair weather rider. The same weather tomorrow (which is forecast) will be a little warm, but certainly acceptable.

As for goals for tomorrow, it seems like 3 hours should be a reasonable goal for the first half, based on the test runs. With the second half a little shorter and including the trail run, it should be a good bit quicker, except the body will be failing by then. So maybe another 3 hours, or 6 hours overall. Seems like a nice target. The only problem is leaving enough in reserve for the jumping contest afterwards. A target there of 5' would seem doable, except post-Highland even 3' may be difficult.

4/6 yesterday (ygol), the "learning" was a primer on the care and proper use of fry pans, the "organization" was getting all my maps for 2008 logged and filed and annotated (which revealed the mess underneath that is the pile of 2007 maps, next to be done).

The plan was to run on the M&M trail heading north from the Leverett-Shutesbury Road up to the height of land, a run I've done from time to time over the years but not too recently, some hills but nothing so steep that you dread the effort.

But it seemed like the M&M has been rerouted, or cancelled, or something. After about 10 minutes it veered off from its usual route, went a little ways on a narrow path, reached a sign that said a shelter was off to the right, went a little farther and just sort of disappeared, about the same time there was a nice new sign saying the land was part of a tree farm and folks were welcome, just stay away from any machinery. No machinery (or signs of any recent logging) in sight, but also no trail.

Kept going, crossed a little trickle, came out on a logging road. Figured I'd see where it went. It went up, meandered around a bit, reached a clearing, continued but much less distinct, another clearing, continued but now even less distinct. And I was trying to remember all the landmarks in case I had to find my way back.

And eventually it just petered out. But I was pretty sure I knew about where I was (I had a topo map), so I just bushwhacked a couple hundred meters west and popped out on the trail I had been originally planning on running. An old friend, so to say. No trail markers on it any more, but at least if I crashed and burned on it, it seemed like there was a greater chance that someone would eventually find me.

So up to the height of land, and a touch more to check out a couple knolls, they were mapped just about right, then back the way I had intended to go out.

Nice run, a bit of adventure and a bit of anxiety in just about the right proportions.



Yesterday 4/6 (ygol).

And a good session of gentle stretching.

Totally totally bummed, temporarily I hope. Got a call, the hot-shot urologist I was supposed to see in a couple of weeks at the Lahey Clinic is packing his bags for elsewhere. Can't see me. So I have to find someone else. There are other possibilities there, probably just fine possibilities, but still. Need to do more looking/calling/asking. A real pain in the ass....

C • Big News! 5

Dave called up yesterday and wanted to run early, and also wanted to run up South Sugarloaf to check on preparations for the filming of Edge of Darkness. No sign of Mel yet, but they seem to be making good progress on "making a bad guy's lair with a missile silo that will cover up the existing lookout tower up on the mountain."

Legs felt OK, even though about halfway up I had to call a halt to my latest rendition of "Tales from Estonia" and concentrate on processing a little more oxygen. But a good run, and good company.

16:08 to base, 9:19 up, 7:07 down, 15:26 back.

C • You get Mel... 2

So you look for inspiration in life in different ways -- from different sources, for different things, and for different reasons -- sometimes inspiration for matters rather significant, sometime inspiration for matters rather insignificant. I was looking at Barb's summary of her 17-point plan and it's got me thinking.

No, I don't have a 17-point plan of my own in the works, and no, I couldn't put together all those nice graphs. But it seems to me that there was quite a lot of value for her, not in any dominant single item but in the accumulation of lots of less drastic items (though I realize that no caffeine or no meat, for example, could be very drastic for some). Her plan was geared to last until the Estonia rogaine, and she seemed very pleased with the outcome.

So I'm wondering if something along similar lines might be useful for me. I'm pretty sure it would. The question is, what things do you put on the list.

What I would like to put on the list are, in general, a few things that would make me feel better about myself if, and it's a big if, I could show somewhere near the same success as Bard did. So what might they be?

So here's a possible list --

1. Stretching/yoga (y)
2. No eating to the point of being uncomfortably full (g)
3. 30 minutes of progress on house chaos (o)
4. Teaching Gail something I normally do, or learning something she normally does.(l)
5. Answering my e-mail (e)
6. Spend a non-trivial amount of time listening and talking with Gail (c)

It's a rather short list. It's also a list that getting 6 points in a day would feel wonderful, and it's possibly impossible. Even 4 or 5 would be quite fine. My guess is that in the recent past I've been averaging about 1.

#1 seems both absolutely needed and possible to do, as long as I am careful.

#2 oh, that would be nice. Eating is so nice, I just never stop, especially in the evening. Note that there are no specific items to eat or to avoid, as I seem to be able to handle that part pretty well (like I've cut out red meat and ice cream for several months with no difficulty).

#3 is absolutely needed. Before I get too old to do it. Before we move, when the point comes that we need a house without stairs. Or just for the positive surprises when long-lost memories are dredged up.

#4 is a recent idea, though it may take a lot of repetition before things stick -- so far she's showed me how to turn on the grill and I've showed her how to pay bills online, and I'm pretty sure both of us need another lesson (or two or three). The idea here is, who knows when either of us might croak (or semi-croak).

#5 I'm pretty good most of the time, but when I'm bad, I'm awful.

#6. We're working on this. It just needs continual work.

So that's an initial try. I may add some, may toss some. It may last a week and be forgotten, or last a while. I hope it lasts at least until I get sliced (that's the motivation for #s 3 and 4).

Poet's Seat ridge down to Mountain Road and back, out the white trail, back the red. Included 10x(35 sec on, 35 off)(25dd), just to stretch out the legs, don't know if the consequences are productive or harmful. But it feels so nice to run fast, even if for short bits at a time, and particular to run fast on a narrow somewhat twisty trail. Makes you feel like you are going even faster.

No falls. Hit no trees.

And then 10 minutes in the sauna stretching. Also very nice. I could get used to that.

All this is final preparation for what I believe is called a lazy Highlander on Sunday. And maybe a jump-off.

Saw a fine movie, Trouble the Water (NY Times review). Makes you think, always a good thing.

And certainly makes me even less concerned than I might have been, and I wasn't very concerned to start with, about such things as how long our O' courses are supposed to be....

(I suppose it could also make me think how foolish it is to waste life on such a trivial thing as orienteering, but then life has to have its fun moments as well as its serious ones.)

C • Concerns 1

Looking ahead to the fall schedule, seems like this event should not be missed. The NEOC one 20 or so years ago ("The Route 128 O'Ringen") was a memorable day.

Pre-register by this weekend.

And then right after yoga class a nice run on my 13 hills loop on Poet Seat ridge in Greenfield. Started a bit slowly but then gradually increased the pace and was working reasonably hard at the end.

A couple of years ago this time would have been a more relaxed pace. I think the difference is just tighter legs and a shorter stride, so the same effort covers less distance. It may be a permanent condition. At least my breathing was good.

And then a visit to the sauna at the gym, and then a cold shower, and then a stop on the way home at the farm stand for some fresh corn for dinner, about the last of the season, and then even a stop at that den of sinfulness, Dunkin Donuts, for a couple of raisin bagels for a late breakfast.

A fine morning.

On Saturday's entry, I've put in better scans of the 3 map segments. And here's the whole course.