Training Log Archive: PG

Joined the group at Walter's -- Bill and Siel, Gary, Dusty, Tim, and Walter -- for a session. He has it all set up, just hook up your bike, put in a figure for watts, someone chooses the program, and off you go for an hour. Program this time, after a good warm-up, was 3 x 20 x (10" hard, 20" easy) with 5' easy betweens blocks.

Things brightened up significantly when I discovered the power of the little electronic box in front of me, more precisely the up and down arrows, even more precisely the down arrow, that being the magic button, you press it and number of watts the machine demands of you drops by one. You keep pressing it, the number keeps dropping. Nirvana.

So I went from the first block being a struggle, wondering how I would manage to survive the hour, to (after hitting the down button a lot of times) the second and third blocks being not unpleasant at all.

So nice when you can just let your ego take a timeout.

C • power 3

With Walter and Gary, in the woods up behind Walter's place. Good conditions, mix of ice, crusty snow, and bare ground. Borrowed Siel's fat bike (she's laid up with a broken arm), tires fully studded. About 10F, NW breeze but you don't feel it in the woods.

Not a sterling performance. First, dropped the chain off the inside of the cassette, took a while to get it unstuck. Then started back up without realizing the front end had done a 180, knew something was wacko, stopped to check if the handlebars were reversed and somehow decided they were OK. Wasn't until Walter came back to see if I was all right that it dawned on me that they were actually reversed. Which certainly adds to the challenge -- feet kept hitting the front wheel whenever I turned a little and could hardly reach the brakes. Don't know what I was thinking.

And then generally feeling totally exhausted. Don't know what the deal was with that.

Very glad they were happy making it a short outing. And I'm hoping this was just one of those days and not the new normal.

A lot of warm rain overnight (and then turning sharply colder). We went back to have a look at where the turtle was. No sign of turtle, also no sign of any ice, just open water.

Also stopped in and chatted with a ranger. Sounded like what we saw was not too unusual. He was a little surprised an eagle hadn't swooped in for an easy meal. I'm guessing that the thick fog precluded that fate. But we'll never know what happened to that fellow.

Gail spotted this guy, thought it was dead --



On closer examination (but not too close), it was clearly alive, but barely moving. Perhaps it was about done with, or perhaps this time of year that's just the way it is. Its speed seemed to be about 2 or 3 minutes per foot.

She also spotted this guy, thought it was dead too --



But it was just napping.

C • Turtle 7

C • ? 2