Training Log Archive: Charlie

usual exercises. Missed them yesterday.

Brown X, day 2. Not as good as yesterday, but still a reasonable time, and held on for first on the day, but this time only by about half a minute over walk. Not very proud of myself for taking the road around to 2 - too far and too much climb. I would have been happier to climb the not so very big hill, I think. Once I got to the power line, I lost interest in the road and went up the very steep power line, but easy from there. 3 was easy enough, trying to stay out of the green. 4 was also easy, using the stonewall corner as a guide, and then going through the little slot that led right into it. Drifted wide right on the way to 5, but hit near the intermittent stream and followed it up and in. Angled to the road to 6, past the water stop and went in on compass from the bend. I seem to have stopped short, checking out a lot of things that sure looked like hills, probably losing a minute or so before seeing a hill with a rootstock, and then the second hill with the rootstock. Then tried to go on compass to 7, but drifted well right, bouncing off the stone wall and scratching my head a bit before heading south and hitting it. I suspect about 1:15 lost there, but maybe more. Then a clunker going to 8, too, again drifting right, misreading the situation and thinking it was going to be up closer to the road and climbing way too much before turning and seeing it behind me and to the left. Another 1 minute or so. Then settled down for 9, taking the road across the dam and hopping the fence, straight in, could see first the hill and then the control well before I got there, and hustling in as fast as I could. Map and Route.

A little visiting, and then back in time for lunch with the group at home, before J&J headed back to the city.

I was lucky to have a particularly friendly and accommodating start crew. I got to the start only to find my contact lens acting up. It was coming on and off my eye, so I couldn't count on seeing the map. I hustled back to the start and swapped for glasses, got a new start time in short order and on my way. Now that I am home, my eye is pretty sore and feeling abraded.

C • contacts 4

C • Link to Map and Route not working 5

C • Wow, I'm impressed on your.... 3

Brown X Day 2 - Splits

Event: HVO/WCOC A-event "Love The Lakes"
 

Brown X course at Love the Lakes. No track, as I was not thinking clearly enough this morning to remember the GPS watch. Beautiful day, pretty clean, although I was having a bit of trouble reading the map because of glare. Slow to #1, on compass, thinking I was seeing a bit of a ditch, looking for but not seeing the trail, and then there was a pile of stones, and a flag. Good. On compass to 2, reading the hill and the rootstocks, over the crest, another rootstock, should be just to the right, and there was Lou P crawling out of the pit. Excellent. 3, 4 on compass and reading the hill and the cliffs without incident. Angled out to the road toward 5 - extra distance and an easy attack versus climb. Stayed on the road to a little past the water stop. Just low coming in, but saw the rocks and spiked it. Over the top on compass to 6, a little right to get through some easier spots, then once I was across on compass until I saw it about 40 M or so in front of me. Right around the pond to pick up the road to go to 7, a bit longer, but easy running and finding from the road. Except first real error. The stream-bed was a bit subtle and came sooner than I was expecting it, so I ran about ten steps past, saw the stone wall coming up and hooked back. Maybe about 25 seconds lost. Back out the way I came and road all the way around to 8, attacking from the bend. Stopped and checked #10 on the way for future reference. 8-9, straight E to the big trail and around, seeing the boulder and the flag from the trail, then checking the code and being confused for a few seconds because I was looking at the code for 11 on the clue sheet. Oops. On compass to 10, didn't see it until I got there because it was behind a tree. 11 was the only clunker, losing at least 1:30. Ran on compass and hit the boulder just S, but didn't see the control boulder, and didn't see a trail anywhere. Stood there for a while, looked at the little bridge, wandered for a while looking for a trail, finally saw some orange markers and followed them back to the same spot, found it. Frustrating! Then across the bridge, up and over, not fast to 12, seeing the reentrant opening up and trusting it would be right there, as it was, up through the yurts to 13, end of the wall. A good run, first on Brown X. Pretty fine! Visited a bit with friends, and then hit the road to get back for the hijinks at home.

Map and route.

C • Nice race! 12

Got home early enough to participate in setting up for Rhonda's party at the bridge by the Big Down Marsh. Zack brought a picnic table and an ice chest down in the pickup truck. Rhonda's mom walked down, but her step-dad got a ride the last half of the way from Zack on the second trip. Quite an elegant little party. Attendees included three of the yoga girls, Karen, Jackie and Sheryl, two husbands and one kid, the lovely Georgia, Jonathan and Jess, Zack, Rhonda, me and her parents. Shrimp with cocktail sauce, cheese and crackers, some really fine guacamole, a lot of wine and beer. I suspect that she will want to do this again, but we packed it all up around 5 and back home.

Brown X Day 1 - Splits

A lot of travel. We went down to NYC yesterday to show Rhonda's parents Jess's apartment, etc. They all went to a show. Came back this morning via Poughkeepsie, where we got a tour of Marist from Zack, walked out on the Mid-Hudson bridge, at least a bit.

A lengthy hot tub session loosened my back enough to get on the rowing machine.

Tonight I learned the answer to a question I have asked myself from time to time.

The background is that Rhonda is planning a wine and cheese party tomorrow afternoon at the bridge overlooking the Big Down Marsh and Zack has some transportation duties with the Polaris. He went out this evening to scout the situation and came on a big tree that had come down across the trail, and came down with enough force to bring down another one. He tried to cut it up in the dark by the light of the Polaris, but somehow the throttle on my prize 346XP got dislodged, so that it wouldn't release. He decided this was a problem, so he came to consult me. I was of course asleep. Seemed like the kind of thing I could take care of tomorrow in the daylight, but then again I'm planning on leaving for the O meet at around daylight, so it seemed that I'd better just go see about it. Confirmed that the throttle was busted, tried to figure out how to unjam it and decided it was beyond my meager capabilities. So the next plan was to get out the old model 51, gas it up, and whoops, gas spraying out from a broken gas tank. Not using that. So then I got out my heavy duty model 362XP, hadn't used it in probably 7 years. Disappointed to see that it had a pretty full tank of gas. Thought about dumping it out, but I didn't have all that much more chainsaw gas mixed up and no useful container to put the old gas in. Started it up and it started up pretty well, so what the heck? Got down to the tree, lit up by the Polaris, and started sawing. The blade was really dull. Wouldn't cut anything. Back to the barn, start filing away, slow work. Then I thought I had a new blade for that saw stashed somewhere. Looked around and found it, switched blades, back down to the tree, and made some short work of it. Awesome!

So what was the question?: Why do I need three chainsaws?

C • an alternative... 9

Went to see the podiatrist this morning about my damaged big toe. It has two problems: a bad tendon repair of 35 years ago, and breaking it last fall at the DVOA meet. So it's swollen and sore and dysfunctional. The offer is to fuse the distal joint, straighten the toe in the process. It now bends toward the next toe (after the break) and down (after the tendon repair). Seems like the best I can expect from the darned thing. The recovery is 2 weeks no weight bearing at all, then 4 weeks in a surgical boot, followed by normal activities. Doesn't sound so bad, considering. So at this point I am figuring I will do this right after the RHINO, December 8, and theoretically be more or less functional on or about Feb 1.

C • Seems like a good time to get it done 4

regular routine, plus planks, plus some squats and lunges. Squats and lunges made me real sore last Friday, which seems to mean I should do them more often.

Thought a test was in order, and this is a run I have done enough times to make it a good measure. I ran with some urgency, but not killing myself. Got tired toward the end, but generally pretty satisfied with the time. My hip flexors and butt seem to be doing much better than they have. Back is still quite stiff. I was thinking a 55 would be ok, so a 53 was better than expected.

Usual exercises, plus a revival of the planks series, with Rhonda. Seems like it is doing quite a bit of good, but no improvement in the mid-lower-back pain. Keep at it, think about what else.

Finally collected Rhonda's parents at the airport, in for about 8 days. Nice to see them. Rhonda had warned me that her mom had missed connections the last two times she flew, and darned if they didn't miss this one too. They had a three hour layover, got something to eat and then installed themselves across the hall from the proper gate. They found a nice lady to chat with who was also intending to go to Hartford, and the three of them watched with some interest the people lining up across the hall to get on the plane. They chatted and waited until about 10 minutes after the plane had left and then made some inquiries. Luckily enough there was another plane in another three hours and eventually they got here. On the bright side, their luggage was already in Hartford, so no wait at baggage claim, and at least they didn't end up in Buffalo.

C • An engrossing conversation... 3

Rhonda's morning class, once again with guest instructor Tyler. Pretty challenging. He's a strong young man