Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

First testing out of the knee, on a walking track at the New River Gorge lookout which was reasonably rough in places (not convinced the Garmin was giving me full value in the denser forest). Happy with the way the knee felt - a bit awkward and swollen but no pain and nothing structurally unusual (in fact it was more comfortable to run on than to do anything else). The gorge itself is impressive, as is the bridge across it - one of the longest and highest single-arch bridges in the world. Got drenched in the final minute, on a day with very frequent showers - I think this must be a new personal best for the greatest number of times I've turned windscreen wipers on and off on a single day.

The rest of the day was spent travelling to Asheville - four states ticked off for the day, though none of them new. (I'm acquiring quite a map collection as a result - most states have a "welcome center" just after you cross the border, and many of them give out free road maps of the state). Lots of hilly country and autumn colours, and several impressive bits of civil engineering.

This trip is proving to be something of an elections tour, with signs everywhere for midterm elections in the US; there are also local government elections in Ontario (although it's a pity from the entertainment point of view that ill-health has deprived Toronto's election of its most colourful candidate), and I'll be arriving just in time for the final round of Brazil's presidential election. There was abundant evidence in West Virginia, and to a lesser extent in the other states, that I don't have a lot of ideological fellow-travellers in these parts - after all, it's a state where a Democratic candidate for Congress once had a campaign commercial in which he pulled out a gun and opened fire on a copy of proposed legislation to set up an emissions trading scheme.