Training Log Archive: PG

Event: NEOC Heart and Troll Revival A-Meet
 

Warm-up

Mt. Tom A meet, Blue course (M21) just for the hell of it.

Had a good run, about as good as I can do. Pretty good routes, all good execution and no problems at controls. Just not running fast anymore, nor even walking fast up the hills. Downhill is still not so bad.... :-)

Real nice course by Phil, a lot of choices, including 2 legs, 11-12 and 18-19, where there were several possible routes none of which were appealing (that's a polite way of saying all of them sucked). I think my choice going to 12 wasn't the best, going around to the right was a little better. But going to 19 I think I had a good route, based on how far back I was behind the best guys. Although I don't think the differences were major, more important was just making sure you executed your route efficiently.

Real nice day for running, around 50, no sun (sun this time of year when it is low in the sky can be difficult when you are running into it), and the rain held off until late afternoon. And the forecast is for all the bad stuff, heavy rain, thunder, and strong winds, to pass through during the night and to be sunny and pleasant tomorrow. Keep the fingers crossed.

Legs felt pretty good!

My routes: first part, second part.

Oh, almost forgot, today's fall count -- PG 2, mom unknown. Just two is really really good for Mt. Tom. As Eddie said, must be the yoga.

Yesterday: 4/6 (yloc).
Today: had a really good ESC meeting, so fine to have Linda as chair and Lex as Team Administrator.

Blue Day 1 - Splits

Leverett loop, clockwise, not pushing it, didn't really the exercise with orienteering the next two days but it was too nice out not to do something.

C • Safe and sound 4

Got home from the bike ride and Sandy and Valerie had just arrived, and Valerie wanted to take a short run, and she wanted a guide. A moment to change my shoes and shorts and we were off up the hill, up to Gunn Road and back. The mixed oak and hemlock is just beautiful this time of year as the leaves come down, plus the late afternoon light, a very pleasant outing with very fine company!

Yesterday: 3/6 (yoc). And for today, certainly an L as I made dessert for tomorrow night, more cooking than I've done for a long long time. Though no idea yet if it will be edible. And also at least a c and really probably a C for a fair amount of conversation in trying to get ready for the weekend (lots of house cleaning and food preparation) and stay in a good mood. Mostly successful I think, though Gail may disagree.... :-)

Early run with Dave up South Sugarloaf. Legs still feeling like crap, butt still sore, but a beautiful morning, right about freezing, nice views from the top. Just moving slower and slower.

16:12 over, 9:42 up, 7:17 down, 15:27 back.

Went to see Appaloosa last night, talked Gail into coming too. Really enjoyed it, we both did. Interesting characters, slow paced but better because of it. I doubt younger folks would find it appealing.

C • New Western 4

C • We saw it, too 1

On Poet's Seat ridge, out the middle trail, back the lower one. Legs feeling a bit sore so didn't hurry.

Yesterday: 3/6 (ygc), though I can't really remember for sure. And for today so far (yglOc), the O (get the chaos in the house organized before croaking) is because you can actually see most of the surface of my desk. And that's not because I just swept everything off onto the floor. And all maps are filed. :-)

Hard work again, but at least the little bit of chatter afterwards indicated that I wasn't the only one feeling it. But I'm sticking with it, and doing stuff on my own regularly.

Some more ideas for things to work on to keep from falling so much.

Yesterday: (ygE), yes a capital E for lots of progress. :-)

Planning on the Mt. Toby loop later, supposed to be cold rain (and will be dark the last half). Good mental training for Virginia. But only if I actually do it.

C • ideas 2

C • Yoga color 2

Mt. Toby loop with Dave, Rob, Donna, and Sara. Started a little earlier, 5:15, so got just about a hour done before the lights were needed. The good news was it hardly rained at all and it wasn't that cold (mid 40s). The bad news was that my legs felt like crap, quads were feeling it and left butt was getting a little sore. I guess it was overdue, the last few times out I've been feeling pretty good.

So I struggled a bit, walked a little bit more on the steep sections, then ran a little faster on the downs to catch back up, even in the dark. I think doing some training running at night may actually make you better running at night. Funny how that works. And no falls! One close call but saved it.

And the last 20 minutes was nice, downhill mostly, and also being entertained by Sara, who does a lot of public defender work at the appeals level and has a case coming up before the SJC (our state supreme court) in a couple of weeks. The good conversation made a world of difference in the enjoyment of the run.

Think I will take it easy the next few days before trashing myself this weekend at Mt. Tom

Hatfield and Whately, mostly dead flat, which means I spent virtually the whole time working, as opposed to hilly rides which seem harder but you get to coast a lot. Not sure which is better for you, but I've been riding mostly flat the last month or two.

Legs felt ok, good effort. Real nice late afternoon, upper 50s, no wind, had the right amount of clothing on (shorts, long-sleeve and short-sleeve shirts).

Saturday: ?/6
Sunday: 4/6 (ygec), behind on e, but got the main one done (re mom to family), by the time I was done it was too late to pig out.

C • Hilly is better 5

Event: WCOC Sessions Woods
 

A long day, though not without its pleasures....

First stop, well actual first stop was filling up the gas tank, 2.89/gallon at the local pumps, nice short-term relief compared to 3 months ago, but not what we need in the long term to break our addiction.

But the real first stop was Sessions Woods for a WCOC local meet. Got a chance to re-run the Red course from the A meet in 2002. I suppose I did better, because at least I finished this time, whereas 6 years ago I skipped a control (#7). But in all other respects it was worse, 61 minutes last time, add a couple minutes if I'd gone to #7, maybe 63-64, still a lot better than this time.

It seemed that today's plan must have been to mimic the chicken running around with its head cut off, keep moving, just not much idea where I was going. I'm sure I was running slower than 6 years ago; I'm also sure I was orienteering worse.

#1. Bad general plan, bad route, bad execution, otherwise excellent.... Lost a couple minutes.
#2. Very inefficient on the first half of the leg, and then didn't spot the control for a while. Lost a minute or two.
#13. Simple leg, bad execution, too far right, not reading the map well, not registering in my mind what my eyes were seeing in the terrain. Pulled up on a broad knoll, expected to see the control on the south side. Nothing. Probably stood there for a minute figuring things out -- I don't really like to go rushing off to some distant big feature if I can help it -- then went and got it. Lost two or three minutes.
#14. Clearly didn't learn my lesson, just took off heading more or less southeast, but never took a good enough look at the map to understand what I was supposed to be seeing in the terrain. Finally located myself at a stone wall, too far left. Maybe that taught me, rest of the leg was fast and in control. Lost a minute.

Not a pretty race. I should know better.

My routes, compared with 6 years ago.

C • Controls 1

C • gas 22

Stuck around a while because I didn't want to be in Litchfield until later in the afternoon. So after a bit to eat, went out to pick up the first 6 controls on Green and first 4 on Red (9 in all, one was common). Orienteering was much sharper -- except I missed #1 again -- put out a good effort, ran up the hills. 47 minutes, minus a minute/control for untying and stuffing it in the bag, bag got heavier as I went, very careful not to lose any e-boxes.

My route.

And then since it seemed like there were a few more controls to pick up, and I was still in no rush to go, I picked up the last 6 controls on the Yellow course. Another good effort, ran all the hills again.

And then sat around a bit enjoying the nice afternoon. Made possible by Jim Henderson and Rich Nietupski.

My route.

C • Thanks 1

And then off to Litchfield to visit Mom.

After incidents the last two weeks in the city, there have been discussions with my siblings about the possibility of curtailing or restricting or chaperoning her weekly trips to the Big Apple. So I thought I would stop in and see if I could talk to her about it. Which I figured would certainly not be easy, might well be totally non-productive, and was certainly not something I looked forward to doing.

But it was in fact a good visit. I suppose the first good sign was that she remembered I was coming, the phone call 20 minutes earlier hadn't been completely forgotten.... :-)

So we started in with the usual stuff, like what was I doing, and how was Gail, and did we have any trips planned. And it felt like the movie Groundhog Day, where Bill Murray gets to repeat the same day over and over, each time varying his responses based on what he learned in an earlier version. In this case, when the question was repeated 5 or 10 minutes later, I thought back to my first answer, recalled how she seemed to react to it, and then changed my response accordingly. Made it quite interesting instead of quite annoying.

And then I switched to things I knew her memory could still recall, questions about her life as a kid, what schools were like, etc. Things 70 years ago seem quite fresh and brought quite a few smiles. And a few questions about me, including did I ski any more, Nope, not for 30 years or so, Why not, you were so good, Well, I broke both legs at different points, the second one quite badly, I was a month in the hospital. And did you have a cast on it? 4 months. Oh, that's a long time. And I really wanted to ask if she remembered why she never bothered to come see me in the hospital, just a couple of hours away, but that question won't be asked, or answered, in this lifetime....

And then we got to more current stuff -- was she happy (yes, definitely, had had a very good life, no point in complaining anyway, it doesn't do any good), did she like Litchfield or NYC better (liked them both, liked going to the city each week, exciting, looks forward to it, also really likes Litchfield), was she worried that she was alone in the city with no one checking on her (so what, she said, unlike many elders she doesn't seem to live in fear of bad things happening), why was she still walking to this place she went for dinner, 15-20 minutes, why not take a cab (oh, it's not very far). And so on.

Overall, a very long and very interesting conversation, it just seemed to happen.

And at some point, after maybe an hour and a quarter, it was time to go, enough was enough. And I headed off.

And on the way home I was thinking about what I thought about her trips to the city, and figured it might be worth a stop at the Ratlum Mountain Day Spa and Psychotherapy Clinic to help sort my thoughts out.

Charlie and Rhonda were, there, also Zach, the new film star, also Erik. The big news was that Erik's ankle is healing, he's hoping to run in the state XC champs Saturday, though running at Mt. Tomon Sunday is less likely. The really big news is that he's cut his gorgeous hair. Not totally shaved, but close. Seems like a XC team decision. I thought when you've got it, you're supposed to flaunt it.

And then a bit of therapy. I filled C and R in on the latest, and said my inclination was that the various bad things that might happen to Mom in the city would only hurt Mom, and not anyone else (as opposed to when we took her car away, since then she could have done serious damage to someone else). And if she enjoyed her weekly trips, why keep her from doing them.

Got total support from Rhonda. Also from Charlie, although he thought I was also laying the groundwork for my own requests at age 90 to be able to keep rogaining.

A very very nice visit, as usual it seems on Ratlum Mountain.

And now I have to see where I stand with my sister and brother, and what we will or won't do.

PS. Today's count -- 6 falls for PG, 0 falls for Mom. But I did get in a little yoga part way though the visit.... :-)

Red Course - Splits