Training Log Archive: dlevine

Shovelling the snowbank that the plow made in front of our mailbox/newspaper box.

Payne

15-11 - game tied eight times; kept using handball strategy instead of racquetball...

15-11 - game never close; led 8-2, 10-4, 12-6, 14-9...

11-4 - led 10-1...

So I had the watch and when I thought I did an extra lap just before the 1 km mark, I took a split. That, combined with my perception and my time for the last 14 laps convinced me that I did do an extra lap. The watch also gave more evidence for the "loose minute hand" theory of the clock as I was reported to have done a 33.5:44 by the clock, consistent with having started at nearly quarter past.

At the start of class, there was Theresa and me (who teach part time), the instructor (Mary), and one student who always has to leave early. Mary tried to declare a "snow day", but by five past some stragglers showed up so we took the limited number of flotation belts and went to the deep end for a more rigorous than normal, but shorter than normal, class.

So the cutthroat game becomes singles, me against the young guy with the long arms who plays so well. I started out strong, going up 10-1, but managed to lose the first game 15-14. The second game was 9-9 when he got hot(ter) and won 15-10. I jumped out in the third game 13-6 and "held on" at 15-9. So, I lost 2 out of 3, but actually outscored him. This is easily my best performance against Doug since he "made the leap" to good player (possibly our best).

Random @ 17 (out of 25).

Clearing the drifts (2-4 ft.) in front of the garage when I got home at 9:30 p.m. My daughter, of course, went right inside - ostensibly to go right to bed... Hmmm....

So, I show up at the pool with my watch in a baggie and the clock is at the top of the hour - one of the two positions from which I expect an accurate result. And yes, the two times agree. Now if I can only bring the watch when the minute hand starts horizontal...

Either way, my fastest swim of the year, so I am happy.

Random @ 15.

Normally I would rate this a 3 for intensity, but I had so much deadness in my legs that I had to really push to complete this.

Polar Bear Series #3 - Bonaventure Campus - Temp 10F, Wind Chill 0F

Was cold at the start, but warmed up by the 1-mile mark except for my right pinkie; it stayed cold until about 3.5 miles. Took off my gloves a bit past 3 miles and my toque in the last half mile. After the 2-mile mark, I passed three people and was passed by none. I was 5th out of 8 in my age class and about 43rd out of 80 overall.

Splits: 8:33, 9:04. 8:48, 8:55. 8:28

Hill climb with ramp @ 14 and resistance 14-20.

Okay, now I know the clock is screwy. This was really 16.5:02. What's that, you ask? When I started the minute hand (with the second hand at the 12) was clearly right on the 2, i.e. ten past. When I finished (with the second hand two seconds past the twelve), the minute hand has halfway between 26 and 27 after. Watching it indicated that the minute hand now had a half-minute error though I could not determine the direction. So, I swam in 16.5 minutes (by the minute hand) and 2 seconds (by the second hand).

I really have to bring in my watch.

Payne, 15-7 (tied at 5), 15-12 (led 14-7) and 11-0. Still, it was more of a workout than the score makes it look.

Really just one set of dips after the racquetball...

Instructor showed up late and then had to leave early for "fork lift driver training". Not your usual excuse...

So last night I had a dream where I ran into three groups doing the Time Warp (Rocky Horror). Then one of the dancers appeared right in front of my face and I woke up with a start - forty minutes late! To misquote Freud, sometimes a dream is just a warning that you're oversleeping.

Stranger (or not) so far almost no one I told this to today knew what the Time Warp was. I feel like I am in a cultural vacuum...

At least I was able to identify the Twilight reference on one of my student's shirts today.

C • Time Warp 4

Random @ 17

...after a long layoff...

So today starts the resumption of the MWF Payne workouts. Named after my friend Phil, they are nonetheless aptly named since he is in much better shape than I. Still, three days a week (though on Fridays we play racquetball and solve all of the university's problems) of pain will probably pay off in the end...

Late to the pool and it was crowded with slow swimmers. By the time I got a lane, I could only swim short so I tried a quarter mile straight through using all freestyle. The clock was at the top of the hour so I couldn't test my "loose minute hand" hypothesis. Still, it felt good and I am going to see what I can learn from this going forward. My per-mile pace here was quite a bit faster than my last few swims.

Cutthroat with a good player and the prodigal son (whose rust is coming off). I started serving left-handed and led 7-6 when the other good player got into a groove. He won at 15-9, then won the next one in a shutout. At this point, I decided that right-handed serves were needed (though I hadn't really had the option in game 2). I started cold, and lost 15-9 feeling mentally out of it. I got it together and won the fourth game 15-12. At that point, my serve started working and the other player slipped out of "the zone". I won the last three games 15-1-0 (with the good player being shut out!), 15-4, and 15-6.

I hurt my hand somehow, though. I have a black and blue covering the pinky side of my right hand, about a third of the way across. I guess Thursday's match is off.

Conservation trail at Allegany State Park. Level 3 intensity is when I was breaking trail; level 1 is the downhill back to the car (on the broken trail) and the level 0 is while waiting for my companions.

The woods were beautiful and no one had been by. Had my AOWN moment when a grouse suddenly fluttered out of the snow seven feet in front of me and took off. (That's the level 5 intensity - the fifteen seconds that don't show up; heart rate really shot up - it nearly hit me as it took wing.) One of my companions saw the whole thing; neither of us knew that grouse would bury themselves in snow like that - never mind take wing. When the third of us caught up, we tried to make him guess what caused the whole; he never came close.

It's days like today that make me wish I had Bash's inclination to take a camera with me on some of my training exercises. Wouldn't have caught the grouse, but the rest of the woods were wonderful to behold and I wish that I could share...

C • Photos 3

Still suffering. Once again, I made it further until my first break, but between my last two breaks (not counting the finish), I only lasted something over a minute. Some day...

I don't get it. It felt like my fastest swim (and the water was cool); two other swimmers commented that I was moving today; and I got a subpar time. I suspect the minute hand slippage on the clock again. Of course, all I have to do to settle this is bring a watch into the pool, so I probably better stop whining.

C • Subpar Times 4

C • Programming Contest 5

Hill Intervals @ level 7

Theresa's car had (almost) no gas so I had to do the morning carpool and got to the pool too late to do the long swim, so I "wimped" out.

Cutthroat with an experienced player who has never progressed and a novice. I resolved to serve left-handed and soft all night. I was too casual and dropped the first game 15-11. I won the second 15-8 and the third 15-11 (with the novice having the 11, so I was relaxed) and the climactic one 21-8. At the end of the first game I was thinking that I needed to record this as a -1 intensity to reflect my lack of effort.

Polar Bear Series, Race #2. 18F, little or no wind.

Roads were slushy, but for the first 20% of the course, one could find pavement to run on. After that the side streets weren't plowed enough to do much. Went out feeling okay, but missed the 1-mile mark for my split. A while later Brigid Mahoney caught me and said I was really moving (for me) and that I had done about an 8:40. She passed me, but I was able to keep her in sight. Hit the 2-mile mark at 17:56, so once again, my second mile was my slow one. At the start of the campus loop I was the last in a pack of four. I caught two of them, but couldn't quite reel in Brigid. It didn't help that her brother warned her with 150 m to go that I was trying to catch her. She beat me by 4 seconds, but we probably owe each other a debt of gratitude for the last 10-15 seconds that we saved.

For a while I've been jealous of Mike Lyon's ability to both attend his kids athletic events and get in a workout. Today, I decided to try this at my daughter's volleyball tournament at Pitt/Bradford. I took off between the end of the round robin (her team was off for the last game) and the playoffs (they had the first round off). Went out in the snow and just kept running. Was thinking of trying to psych out the 5K course for tomorrow, but was paying more attention to the traffic and snow cover. It should have been cold and I should have been under-dressed - folks who saw me certainly thought I was and said so - but I was so warm that I shed gloves at the three mile mark and my toque at the four mile mark. When I reentered the gym and folks saw me they commented that I looked really warm except for the ice on my forearm hairs. In any event, the great thing about a volleyball tourney with fifteen teams of girls is that the men's locker room was empty and I got a great shower.

Oh, and congratulations to Sarah, whose new team swept the tourney winning every game by at least seven points.

I don't get it. I thought every lap today was faster than the corresponding lap on Tuesday; I was more awake; the pool was cooler. And I was a grand total of 3 seconds faster. I suspect the clock. (I am serious; it's an old analog clock and I think the minute hand tends towards the 6. I'm going to have to get a waterproof watch.)

Instructor had technical difficulties with the sound system and nobody stepped up so we started late... kind of sad...

Discounted time:

Three games of doubles with two experienced players and a prodigal son (returned after a year off; third time back - first with me). Young guys vs. old (we had 60 years total on them!). We snoozed through the first, winning 15-6 and then snoozed through the second, getting lazy on serve returns and lost 15-9. Both teams woke up and we won the third 15-11. Then cutthroat as the young experienced guy had to leave. I won the first 15-6-0 and led the second 11-2-1 before falling asleep and eventually winning 15-11-9.

Felt slow and the pool was warm. Also lost count, but I suspect I was actually accurate.

Doubles. Me and a newbie vs. an experienced player and one with some years, but no maturity (and a bit of "roid rage"). We lost the first two 15-13 after being tied at 13 both times. Down 9-2 and 11-3 in the third, we came back to win 15-14. Won the fourth 15-7, but lost the rubber match 15-8. Not bad, though, as my partner improved noticeably throughout the evening before fading at the end.

(And no, I don't know that the fourth guy does steroids - though it wouldn't surprise most of the folks who play. Physically and psychicly, it fits. Everyone else there knows him better than I do so I just stay out of his way...)

C • Roid Rage 2

Warming up for handball...

Did what I could with lots of breaks. Probably did more than 95% of the exercises, losing pace some and losing some as I reached for the pause button with my exhausted torso. I really need a speech recognition control for that - of course, then I would need to have breath, so...

C • map 2

Warm-up for Letchworth Ski-O. Hadn't been on skis in two years due to knee surgery. Fortunately, it seemed to come back quickly.

1. Up the yellow corridor to the unplowed, but snowmobiled parking lot to the northern part of the field, then to the trails on the right (5:59).

2. Obvious route, with a brief hesitation at the first junction which ended up confusing me far more than it should have (5:07).

3. NE to trail and then S at the control. Had wrong code, but it seemed too obvious to be anything but the flag I wanted (time estimate: 4:30).

4. E and then across plowed road and then down unplowed road. Turned S on the road before the control and went SE across field, trail, and field to control (time estimate: 10:55; combined 3-4 was 15:25).

5. Across field and along obvious path. Saw Mary Smith coming N on path and hoped she was on a different course (since I mistakenly thought I had started before her) (7:13).

6. Along trail at edge of gorge to junction, then overland through the pines. Climbing the steep hill was a challenge as was relocating at the top. Finally struck off into the location allowing for stone wall, ridge up ahead and trail to N to bound any error; practically spiked it, but had lost a good amount of time. (13:11).

7. N, then W, then N to road. Crossing road, couldn't find trail and bushwhacked NNW, eventually hitting trail that came out near another on the snowmobile track. Cursed that the track was OB and continued into the field eventually going NW to trail. Lost map contact and followed trails generally N before seeing snowshoe tracks heading north-ish. Followed them, but they led me out to the sand pit E of the control and with no path up. I tried to sidestep, but couldn't do it; took off my skis and climbed the ten feet. As I was putting on my skis, noticed that I had lost my punch card; sure enough it was in the pit. After I retrieved it, it was a straight shot on the trail to the control (24:12).

8. Down the power line until I took a shot straight S at the control and spiked it (4:02).

9. NW to power line, across road, N of pond and eventually to trail junction below the "6" in the clue code. From top of that hill bushwhacked to control. The strategy of attacking a ski-O control through green slash is dubious, but somehow this worked out better than I deserved (15:02).

10. Trail NW, then E, cutting the corner at the end as I saw someone near the control (6:01).

11. Obvious route S, bushwhacking at bit from parking lot S of pond to trail head NW of control (11:07; includes in to finish).

F. Trail to road then along a path at edge of road.

All in all, a nice outing considering that I hadn't been on skis in two years. Alas, commitments will keep me from more ski-O this year. Go figure...

C • Code for 3 16

C • Not OB and other comments! 2

Cutthroat with two very good players. Lost the first game to the young guy who warmed up faster than us. (15-8). Lost the second to him as well (at 15-12) when he came on strong with his serve at the end. Won the third game as my serve got hot (15-7-4). Lost the last one at the end when I inexplicably (tired?) missed four relatively easy serves in a row (21-18).

First run in the Polar Bear Series. Race temp was 19 F, but with no wind and even a bit of sun. Footing was okay, with hard packed, somewhat slick snow most of the way. Most runners added distance to take the outside lanes which were more often wet pavement. Saw most of the Lyons crew, mostly from behind...