Training Log Archive: PG

Fine day to celebrate 72, if celebrate is the right word. First a dawn outing with the local birding group (hadn't had my binoculars out for quite a while). That took the morning, very pleasant.

Then some exercise, always a good thing (and who knows how many more years that will be possible).

And then off to Connecticut, to Torrington, dinner at Lina and Angelo's, they took care of my mom and over the last few years have become in effect family #3. Charlie and Rhonda there too (they've been family #2 for a long time), plus a couple of L&A's kids and their partners. Lots of food, lots of wine. Wonderful vibes. Big Italian family, totally different than family #1.

Than back to C&R's for the night and home in the morning.

A fine day, for sure.

Whately - South Deerfield. Tired legs, so this was enough.

Shutesbury - Lake Wyola. Bright sunshine (fall colors are getting really nice) and a little chilly, mid-50s, could have used an extra shirt. Thought about dropping down to 202 for an extra hill, but when the time came to decide, the decision to skip it seemed to get made very easily.

C • Happy birthday! 12

Wow, Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize. :-)

Nice ride today. Mostly just meandering around (including checking out the solar array that the town is finally getting built). In the middle of the ride were two trips up South Sugarloaf (0.85 miles, 450' climb, 10% average grade), done as an experiment to see if I could get up without getting the heart rate too high, or the breathing too fast. In other words, could I go slow enough to make it at least somewhat enjoyable.

The answer wasn't a complete Yes, but it wasn't too far off.

For point of reference, best time up this year was 9:17 (best time in the past about 8 minutes, though not sure I ever made a serious attempt), with the HR getting up to the upper 160s and lots of heavy breathing, especially on the part from the hairpin to the top .

Trip #1, 10:05, max HR was about 155. No deep breathing (no problem having a chat about 100 meters from the top with two ladies walking up). So that was excellent. But there is also no denying the legs (quads) were hurting, being called on to do more than they are trained to. So I don't know how long I could have kept going at the pace, though it felt like I was quite a long ways from exhaustion.

Back down, on the brakes all the way.

Trip #2, 10:55, max HR again about 155. This was slower, almost all in the first two or three minutes, where I think I was just daydreaming and going (a lot) easier than I really meant to. But the upper section was a similar pace to the first time up, and a similar effort. Again, legs feeling the effort but no heavy breathing, chatted with a couple of different groups on the way up.

So that was all rather nice, both the doing (not so painful) and also the knowing that it doesn't have to be painful. Thought for a bit about a third time up, but it didn't seem necessary. So I meandered home.

Another bright crisp fall afternoon. Easyish ride to Whately and Hatfield.

Saw Queen of Katwe last night. Very much enjoyed it. I think Barb would too.

C • Queen of Katwe 12

Late afternoon short ride up the river, getting cooler and darker. Decent effort.

The current election season is certainly entertaining (and appalling), with things currently trending in the right direction from my point of view.

But I have no hope at all that the result will be anything other than the 24/7 political warfare that we currently have. Sad!

(I believe proper English now calls for expressing all thoughts in no more than 140 characters, and ending with an adjective and an exclamation point? Well, I guess the above is one out of two. Verbose!)

(Shit, still too long. Pathetic!)

Much better...

C • And here for a second 2

River Rd - Route 5, with a corn stop. Cool (upper 50s) and windy out of the north (15-20 mph?). A lot easier going south.

2 long-sleeved (one very thin) plus bike shirt and tights seemed about right.