Training Log Archive: PG

Stopped on the way back from Litchfield to do a loop around Charlie's house. There was quite a bit of traffic on the road, early Sunday afternoon, and I was wondering about the wisdom of my planned route. But I shouldn't have been -- if you ride on roads that go from nowhere or to nowhere (Hartland, West Hartland, and East Hartland all being prime examples of nowhere), there really isn't going to be much traffic.

Parked at the prime spot, Pleasant Valley where all the fishermen park. Up the river to Riverton, nice pavement. Then route 20 over to East Hartland, more nice pavement and almost no cars, included a 7% downhill for a mile and a half when not a single car came by. Then 179 south to Canton, here the pavement wasn't the best, so had to keep an eye out for holes, but also not the worst, not near as bad as the best roads in Northampton or Amherst. And to finish the loop, 44 back through New Hartford, lots of traffic but also a nice wide shoulder. So a fine route. Except maybe for the hills.

Warmer than I expected. Was pretty croaked by the end. Maybe should have taken more than half a bottle? But did enjoy the route, new for me.

100 seems like a long way.

C • Sorry to have missed you! 5

Short, flat ride south of town, late afternoon. Back not real happy again.

Shutebury - Lake Wyola loop. Lovely day, lower humidity. Long grind up the Shutesbury hill, lot of sweating and hard breathing.

The idea is to do a century in a couple of weeks. Not sure if that will be feasible, but at least I'm trying to get prepared.

C • century 4

I'd drawn up a course a couple of weeks ago when Boris was visiting, but then he was short of time and didn't use it. So I thought I might as well try it myself.

The maze is cool. Jogged around. That took all my resources, given my conditioning, plus having been out on the bike for a while, plus the fact that the maze grooming is well underway and there is a lot of very soft dirt to run on.

Made a couple of little mistakes, just lost my concentration for a moment. The hardest for me is looking ahead a leg, hard to do that and still keep track of where you're going as the intersections just keep coming at you.

Really fun.

Another corn ride. Legs are slowly feeling a little better. Wish I could say the same about my back.

Back still a little unhappy.

Nice ride on a nice afternoon. From Bernardston to Vernon via 142 and Pond Road, back via Tyler Hill and Rt. 5.

There's a discussion thread -- 12 easy ways to make O' (or whatever you want to call it) our new national pastime. I'd just glanced at it, not really interested, especially given the tone. But I was thinking as I meandered along on my bike this afternoon, hmm, I wonder how corn-maze O' shapes up against Randy's 12-step program.

1. Proposal -- change the name to "Corn Maze Navigation Racing." Response -- you gotta be kidding me. Score -- proposal is expunged.

2. Proposal -- change the name from "Rogaine" to anything else. Response -- for sure, like maybe "Corn Maze Orienteering"? Score -- pass.

3. Proposal -- ban interval starts, mass starts only, unless you're really big, then use wave starts or seeded starts, helps get volunteers home on time. Response -- exactly, we are really big, so seeded starts in the daytime and (mellow) mass starts at night. And our volunteer gets home before anyone else. Score -- pass (with high honors).

4. Proposal -- festive friendly start/finish at same place. Free food and beer. Response -- I assume 5 meters apart is close enough? And the food and beer at Bub's BBQ is all free, once you've paid for it. Score -- pass.

5. Proposal -- friendly staffed aid stations. Response -- Aid starts in a corn maze? Again, you gotta be kidding me. Score -- proposal is expunged.

6. Proposal -- much longer distances, at least 20K. Response -- 20K in a corn maze? Everyone would go bonkers. Again, you gotta be kidding me. Score -- proposal is expunged.

7. Proposal -- one day of racing. Response -- yup. Score -- pass.

8. Proposal -- travel worthy destinations and venues only. Response -- Sunderland, yup, and Mike's Maze, yup. Score -- pass.

9. Proposal -- board trail race requirement, at least 3 20K+ trail races required. Response -- ain't got no board, but our king has done over 100 such things. Score -- pass.

10. Proposal -- allow and promote GPS devices as an aid in navigation. Response -- come on, Randy, don't be so old-fashioned, we're pushing drones this year. Score -- pass.

11. Proposal -- web site improvement -- get your shit together. Response -- Been there, done that. And an award-winning logo too. All done in 48 hours. Got all the people and the interest we can handle. Score -- pass (with high honors).

12. Proposal -- drop the "The World's Smartest Athlete" thing on the web site. Response -- WTF, ain't on our website. Score -- proposal is expunged.

Total score -- of the 12 proposals, 4 are obviously absurd and have been expunged. Of the remaining 8, we are batting 100%.

And this just in, when asked for a comment, Randy's spokesman/interpreter, a fellow known only as j-man, said, "You corn maze guys are fucking brilliant."

Son of a gun, just did a Google search on "corn maze orienteering" and our web site is right there, top dog, #1 item on page #1. I guess we had this SEO thing under control without even knowing it.

And so what if the web site is 2 (or 3, or 4?) years out of date. Our webmaster is a new mom, so cut her a little slack, OK?

C • Site 7

C • Rock on 1

Trying a little running. Legs felt OK. Back has a sore place, not sure if it something to ignore or not. Will have to experiment a bit.

To Leverett via Cave Hill. Could tell pretty quick that I had no energy, so this became a very mellow ride, just keep it in one or two gears lower than usual and the same slow cadence. For feeling like crap, it was quite a pleasant ride. :-)

Got a letter today that starts out -- "We are pleased to tell you we did not make any changes to the tax reported on your return."

Really? They are pleased? I would think they would be slightly pissed, having spent some time on something that produced nothing in return. Shouldn't the letter start -- "We are sure you will be pleased..."

Second time over the years I've been audited by them, and the second time they've struck out. :-)

C • Pleased 5

Another corn ride, really just a slight modification of my River Road - Old Deerfield loop. A decent effort on the ups. But after the corn stop and cooling off for a couple of extra minutes, the legs were suddenly lacking in zip. So just kept turning the pedals and eventually I was home.

(This was the slow way around the loop. Breeze was out of the south. Usually I go so that along there river, where there is protection from the trees and hills, I am into the wind, and out in the open fields I am with the wind. Seems I forgot this time.)