Training Log Archive: PG

Stopped in Charlie's neighborhood on the way to Litchfield, just time for a short run. Which was all I felt like anyway, still a little stiff after yesterday's race.

This outing turned out more pleasant than expected. The trail was up and down quite a bit, so my pace was slow, but I managed to chug up all the hills without too much ado, and that left the usual sense of satisfaction.

Results from yesterday.

And a couple photos from yesterday --

C • Nice pics! 1

Warm-up

New England Trail Running Champs at Northfield, just up the road so it seemed silly not to go.

A pretty good run even if my time is the worst ever. But just 40 seconds slower than 2 years ago, and that's not so bad. And about where I would hope to be in relation to some local runners, so that was another OK sign.

Walked several times on the climb, always just little steep sections, total was about two minutes. I think at that point I can walk just about as fast as I can run, and it's a lot easier psychologically.

Haven't seen results yet, other than knowing the best 60+ was 50:02.

C • 1" 2

Warm-up.

Up the Mt. Ascutney road. This is right about half a Mt. Washington, about the same average grade (12%), but only half as long. I ran it in 2006 in 44:10, my notes say I ran the whole way. And then ran the first roughly 2.2 miles of it in 2009 as part of a race to the top of Ascutney, at that point the course used trails for the rest of the way. I did that 2.2 in 28:10, walked some, felt quite tired.

Today was a struggle. It seemed the road was steeper than before, and my watch moved faster, but those are not new sensations. I ran the first mile, and then walked quite often thereafter, usually for a minute at a time with 2 or 3 minutes of running in between. I don't think that's much slower than trying to keep running, and it certainly is easier psychologically, for me at least, though I know others a just the reverse, finding it a real downer to walk at all, like admitting defeat.

My time this time, 29:58 to where the trail turns off, and 47:52 to the top of the road (middle of the summit parking lot), was acceptable. Clearly I can't do what I was doing 5 years ago. I was hoping for under 50, so that was OK.

Who knows what it translates to at Washington. Double it and add 10 minutes? That would be about 1:45. And would be about what I think is possible. But who knows. I guess that's why you run the race.

C • sigh 1

Since I was up there, I there I'd go check out one of JJ's launching sites. The trail over there was much rougher than I expected, can't be all that easy to drag a glider over there. And the launch site? Totally terrifying, even though the low clouds meant that there was no view out or down. I beat a hasty retreat.

And then back down the road, feeling a little fragile, so I stayed off the pavement virtually all the time. Even if it was rough going at times, it was a lot softer and easier on the feet.

Found a couple of ticks afterwards crawling on my right leg. Made sense, it was the one on the way down brushing up against the foliage a lot.

A nice outing, left me quite wasted. So only dragged myself around 9 holes afterwards.

A short warm-up.

C • O Employment Stats 7

Three times up and down South Sugarloaf. First time was up the road, down the trail (carefully), with the trail being somewhat muddy.

Second time was up the road using the steeper part, must be a section at 20+%, ran it all, slowly, then down the trail again, now even wetter due to the rain in the previous ten minutes.

Third time was up the usual road route and then back down first on the road and then some less steep trails.

Not pushing the pace. I've had a modest cold since last Friday and resting pulse is high and legs didn't feel very spry. So just chugged along right about as planned. And very glad to have it done before lunch.

Forgot one other thing about today's outing.

I wear one contact for orienteering. I need it for distance vision. I can read the map pretty well with no correction at all.

My existing contacts were getting pretty ratty, so I called up the place I got them and said I needed new ones, and the guy said I'd need a new eye exam first from my eye doctor.

So I called up my eye doctor, and it turned out my last exam was 11 months ago, recent enough. And then the woman there said that if I could get the specs on my contacts, then I could order them online and it would be cheaper.

So I call up the contact guy again. Can I get the specs? And he tells me! Such and such a size, such and such a curvature.

Call back to the eye doctor's, give her the specs, she says she can order me some samples, they are free, shipping is 10 bucks. Sounds like a deal to me.

That was Tuesday. Friday the samples are in. I have 6 lenses at my prescription, and 6 more a quarter diopter different just in case. All for 10 bucks. And maybe some people use them just once, but I'm told that using them a few times each should be OK.

Use one for the Speedy Goat, vision was good. Use it again for the Billygoat. Vision still good. Use it again today. Vision still good.

Go to take it off. Not really paying attention, taking them out is never a problem, I reach in a second time and there's nothing there. Huh? It feels like it's hiding in some corner of my eye, but I'm damned if I can find it. I give up after a couple of minutes, and by now I'm no longer feeling like it's hiding somewhere, time to go catch the train.

Get to Grand Central. Look up on the big display board to see what track my train is on. My vision is off. The contact has reappeared, now nicely centered. WTF. After I get on the train I take it out, no problem.

But I have a little more sympathy for Charlie and Phil who i think have struggled with "losing" contacts when they were still in their eyes, and I was thinking they were just losing their minds....

O' practice in Central Park. Course had 15 controls, but I sailed right by one without stopping so I guess that doesn't count (unless I'd been using the new ski-O touch-free punching).

Quite good fun. I had Chris Cassone's "The Great Central Park Treasure Hunt" map (a legitimate O' map, 1:7,500, though a bit out of date). For each control there was a question, sometimes not easy to answer. I'll post more about it in a bit, but got to get some dinner after a long day trip to New York and back, primarily for dealing with mom's affairs.

717/1000 (283 to go, a little less than 3 months left).

Here's my route, starting in the lower left, going to #10 first.

More info about Chris's operation is here. Lots of interesting stuff going on. He gave me a copy of the map a few years ago and this is the first chance I've had to try it. At each point the map had a question to answer, sometimes easy, sometimes not. Or maybe they were all easy and it was just me having problems or being in too much of a hurry.

10 -- couldn't find a sewer grate.
15 -- Got what I thought was the right answer, but it's 5 letters, not the required 6.
7 -- ran right by this one, focused on getting to 5.
5 -- no sign to be seen, either below the arch or on top.
14 -- no topiary animals that I could see.
11 -- I could see a big red sign off in the general direction of Columbus Circle, but with the fog and light rain and my so-so vision, I couldn't read it.

Understand now, I have been to 6 controls, and I have not yet gotten a correct answer. But I am having a great time. :-)

Onward. Remember that part of the challenge is that planning ahead not only involves what your route is, but also reading and remembering the question that you're trying to answer at the next control. And, though not shown on the map, the great majority of the terrain off the paths is fenced off and out of bounds. But not all of it. So the route selection is more interesting/challenging than it might appear.

2 -- Found the statue after a slight detour, question was what was the first word. First word was the wrong length. Ran around to the other side of the statue. More wording. First word fit! I got one!
3 -- Nice route over through the maze of trails, spotted the creature, a mythical thing, just not sure what it's called, though I might be right.
12 -- Got another one.
6 -- And another, I think.
4 -- And another. Realize that, lacking a pen, I have to remember my answers too, no trivial matter.
1 -- Got it.
9 -- And got it too.
3 -- And another one. And a bunch of these are quite interesting, things in Central Park I would have never known existed.
13 -- Last control, took a moment to find it, then nothing made sense until I looked on the other side and there was the answer.

And then quick as I could down the finish chute.... :-)

Saw lots of people out there, none of them orienteering. I doubt that any of them knew I was orienteering.

Take a look at Chris's site. Lots of cool things. Makes me think (1) I wonder how many people are employed in orienteering in this country, using FTE's (full-time equivalents) as a measure for part-time efforts, and (2) maybe a goal of OUSA ought to be to do what we could to increase that number. Because if that's all we did -- imagine if there were 10 people in the USA who had jobs in orienteering -- there would be a lot more going on than there is now.

C • central park 2

From the apartment over to Central Park, and back.

A day off today, first since December 8 of last year. Seemed about time. Still hoofed it around the golf course in somewhat damp conditions, but that's different.

Catching up, here are my routes for the Speedy Goat sprint relay on Saturday -- leg 1, leg 2.

Tomorrow, with any luck, a little O' training in Central Park.

C • OOB 4