Training Log Archive: PG

Here's the first part of the Highlander, legs 1-6 with my routes.

1. Just following the crowd.
2. More folks seemed to be staying high/left. First of a number of times I went my own way in relation to those right in front of me. A little out of touch with where I was for a while, but a couple of folks up ahead, including JJ who set the course 15 years ago, so I just kept moving, figured out where I was.
3. Again, largely a feeling I was on my own despite quite a few people around. The direct line to the main trail involved a couple of serious drops down cliffs. After the main trail, up the hill, saw the Saeger train (Sam, Hilly, about half a dozen West Point groupies) just ahead on the little trail, that was nice, these days they are usually way ahead of me. They all went more right on the approach, I swung a little left, picked up the nice big reentrant, and then over the spur to the control. Got there just the same time.
4. Up the hill, the train ahead of me went a little left, I went straight, right on. Same time at the control. Another triumph, since they were moving faster. :-)
5. The high parts of the Surebridge terrain can be very slow going (it's a gamble, stuff has grown up a lot since the map was made), so I took the right route. Very easy to execute, picked up about 100 meters on the train.
6. A little tricky but no problem.

So far doing well, almost certainly running too hard, most definitely not a "lazy Highlander." But I was trying to stay relaxed.

Here's the next part, just leg 7.

7. A bit of a strange route, but I was trying to avoid the crap in the last kilometer of the leg on a more direct route. Back the way I'd gone to 5, saw a few familiar faces, I remember at this point I had just fallen twice, which seemed quite remarkable. Out to the main trail, I looked over my shoulder and there was the train, about 10 folks, so I just stopped, let them go by, didn't want them to see where I was going, then cut to the right north of Surebridge Swamp. Got a good line, only company was Stephan Slutsky, he went left of the next swamp, I went right. Still good woods up the hill to the saddle after the swamp but then the last 400 meters were pretty bad, despite the white on the map. Got to the last 200 meters and there was the train coming in from back left, now over an hour into the course and I was still with the WOC stars!

Here's the next part, legs 8-15.

8. At 7 I was punching in in the middle of the crowd, and for once, as I looked out over a sea of high ferns, I used some common sense and let them all go first. Had a nice beaten path, across the narrow swamp, a bit of trail, another trail to a junction, where there seemed to be short pause to consult, which let me catch up. And then I lost my common sense, got a little impatient, tried to zip by several cadets going down the steep hill, took a tumble, crunched my right quad pretty good on a fallen log, and fromall around calls seem to come, "Are you alright, sir?" Felt like an idiot, and was hurting pretty good too.

Took me a bit to pull myself together, and when I got over to the area of the point it was clear that no one had found it yet. I got pulled a little right by the crowd, saw the steeper sharper reentrant, back to the left and saw the control. Less than a minute lost.

Apparently Eric Nystrom was here at the same time and was quite bummed to see me (and therefore know how bad he was doing). Wish I had seen him, I would have been delighted.

9. Across the steeper sharper reentrant and the train was heading higher and a little right, whereas I was planning a left swing, in the company, more or less, of Pavlina, Dan Schaublin, Mike Lyons. Good route, executed it OK even though for a good stretch in the middle I couldn't have told you exactly where I was, but I was going the right direction, and the big amounts of laurel were off to the right. In control the last 300 meters, and delighted to get the word from Paul Bennett at the aid station that so far there was no sign of the Saeger sisters.

10. Except, just as I was leaving, he called out, "There they come." Oh, well, keep trying, doing good. #10 was slow and a little tricky at the control, Pavlina into it just ahead of me.

11. Down the hill, Daniel out in front, spiked it, moving well.

12. Took the straight route, only bad route choice of the day, never even noticed the trail route to the left. Not that my route wasn't fun. Daniel said something about getting tired of people following him, said in a very mild way, but partway along I figured I need to show I wasn't following him, so I went ahead. Perfect execution, but there were a lot of downed hemlocks and rather slow going and at the control, there was the train.

13. Decision time. The train went right to get to trail, which didn't look so great to me, a ways to get to it and then it didn't help that much, so I went more or less straight, just looking for the most passable going (couldn't trust the map for the vegetation, a lot thicker than shown). Got through the first half OK, then tried to stay on the bare rock as much as possible, then perfect approach and nailed the control, even (much out of character) gave a yell to Pavlina who was 40 meters to the right.

And no sign of the train, never saw them again. I gather they got to the trail, went the wrong way for quite a while....

14. Down the hill, picked a really bad line and got caught up in some ferns and bad rocks, when I looked up Pavlina was 100 meters ahead. Rest was easy.

15. Easy, still more or less with Dan, Mike, and Pavlina (all nice company).

Here's the next part, legs 16-19, plus it shows the route of most of the trail run back to the parking area just west of Kanawaukee Circle.

16. Four of us, walking up the hill, slight different lines, basically together.

17. Tough leg, got off too far left just at the end, saw the others, corrected, maybe 15 seconds behind, definitely helped.

18. Caught back up, leg was easy.

19. Across the rocks. and then out in the field to where the WOC '93 finish was, though, just to be picky, it was in a slightly different place. Time for the course was 2:37:21, winning time in 1993 was about 1:27. Better than my first goal of 3 hours, better then my second goal of twice the winners time. The forest is slower (underbrush growing up after some fires, also a lot of downed hemlocks as they are dying), but no way of knowing how much difference that makes. Regardless, very pleased with the time, but also wondering a little bit what I could have done 15 years ago.

Also found out here, no sign yet of the Saegers....

Here's the next part, the trail run.

We got a Xerox of the original 1:15,000 map, hard to read, but the route was streamered. I was a little quicker out of the aid station, but then Mike went by me, then Daniel caught up and we ran the last part together. Very benign trail run, good footing, pretty flat. I wasn't complaining.

And here's the final part, legs 21-28 on the Pole Brook Mountain map, used for the WOC '93 short final.

Still no sign of the Saeger sisters as I started on this loop, 3:00 into the race. Six hours was in the bag, and a quick look at the rest of the course gave the impression that under 5 hours was definitely possible. And they had speculated that the winning time might be 4:15 to 4:30. Excellent.

21. Heavy underbrush on the approach, 2-3' high. Just 20 yards into it got a serious cramp on the muscle on the inside of my left thigh. Never had that happen. Suddenly the rest of the course seemed like it might take a whole lot longer. But fortunately it subsided by the time I reached the control and never flared up again. Missed maybe 15 seconds at the control. There with Daniel, Mike just in sight behind (he had stopped to change shoes), no sign any more of Pavlina.

22. Out to the road, jogged up it, then just a long approach to 22. In control almost all the way, walking the ups, trying to run as much as possible on the flats and downs.

23. Didn't use the road, probably should have punched out to it half way, might have been a little quicker, hard to say. In control all the way.

24. Easy.

25. Headed for the road. Mike had caught back up, so me, Daniel, and him together, except I was fading, had to walk as the road tilted up just a little. Decided if I was going to walk I might as well take a straighter route (they were going around via the trail). So I cut it, found a reasonably OK route through the marsh, got to the control about 30 seconds after them, better than I would have done going around.

26. Caught up to Mike dropping down the hill, Daniel had gone further right. Found the white woods, across the marsh, not bad, though it would have help if my legs and back had been loosed and I could have bent over more easily to duck under stuff. Through a little more laurel, hook up with Daniel again, the rest is easy.

27. Pretty easy. And then, after a long time by ourselves, there are lots of people around, several on their way to 22 including Phil and Charlie, and 3 on the way to 28 just ahead of us, turns out they were two cadets and a fellow from SVO, James Rayburn. Daniel sped up to try and catch them (he couldn't), I didn't even try. Together with Mike at the control.

Finish. And then on the way in I told him to go ahead, not wait for me, but he was a real gentleman. Jogged all the way in, but definitely not fast. 4:27, much better than expected. Not dead yet.

Scalp report!

After a very long dry spell, took some scalps today (where taking a scalp means beating a member of the men's standing team or the women's WOC team). Actually, I haven't had many opportunities as I've been just running the Green course this year.

Tentative count for yesterday is 4 -- Sam, Hilly, Pavlina, Jonathan Campbell. :-)

And here are the winner's route back in 1993.

C • Neat 12

Plus a few minutes on the stationary bike to loosen up the legs.

The only annoying ailment is the left knee. Not real bad, but.... Need to get out the ice a few times.

And then a long stretching and balancing session in the sauna.

Event: Hudson Highlander
 

So the main news from the Highlander that the world is waiting for is the results of the great jump-off.

The details -- I finished the Highlander and wisely determined that if I did not jump right away, before I stiffened up, than any jump was going to be more like a step, with a possible distance of at most 2 feet. So I recruited Ross as the official in charge, with Wyatt as his assistant, and we marked off the starting line in the dirt down by the dumpster, an appropriate place it seemed, and then I backed up, took a running start, still barely able to do that, and let loose, good distance, except it seemed I foot-faulted by at least 6 inches.

Backed up again, another great leap, damn, another foot-fault, this time by 8 inches. I claimed, with some truth, that I couldn't see the line, so Wyatt marked it with a couple of sticks. That was better. One more huge leap, and this one was both fair and far.

Time to measure. I lay down on my back, the jump was clearly longer than my length, first goal achieved. Ross made it official, my height plus 6", or 6' 0.5". A PR, at least in the last 20 years. I was psyched. Big cheers from the spectators.

While we settled down to wait for Barb to show, there were various other jumpers (Ross, Joe, JJ), some good, some not so good, but under the rules of the competition all totally unofficial. I was in the lead and feeling good.

Eventually Barb showed up, we intercepted her and Dave as they were heading out on the final loop on the Pole Brook map. She was all business, a quick approach, a mighty leap, virtually into another zip code, the final distance recorded as my distance plus twice the length of my shoe plus another 2 inches, for a total (as I now measure my shoe) of 8' 2". And then zip, she was off to Pole Brook, leaving the rest of us stunned. Except for me. I knew she could out-jump me, and I had my second place.

In secondary news, the Highland was won by Will Hawkins and Erin Olafsen. A wonderful course, the men's classic from WOC '93, plus a trail run, plus another 7 km or so on Pole Brook. Thanks to HVO (and especially Daniel Schaublin and Paul Bennett) for both the inspiration and the execution.

Highlander. About as good as I can do, no more than a minute of mistakes. 13th. Best was Will in just over 3:30, then Ross in 3:52. I kept careful count and fell 22 times. I was told since that was less then one per kilometer that I clearly wasn't running hard enough. One fall was bad, relatively early on, head first downhill, caught a log hard on my right upper quad, quite sore the rest of the way but not limiting, just had to get over it.

Injury report:
Big toe -- a little swollen and sore, but not terrible, and to be expected these days given the abuse.
Shins -- hardly a scrape despite no gaiters, a side benefit of moving so slowly.
Right quad -- no visible damage but very very sore.
Left knee -- a little sore on the inside where I got it at Valley Forge, but should be OK.
Arms/triceps -- no problem, despite the falls.
Chafing -- only problem was forgetting to tape the nipples, so they are a little tender.
Overall -- seems like nothing that won't heal pretty quickly.

Saturday: 3/6 (ygo)
Sunday: 1/6 (y)

C • Very cool 2

Highlander - Splits

Whately - South Deerfield loop. Trying to do a little fine tuning on my planned pacing for the Highlander tomorrow, i.e. very relaxed, trying to put out the absolute minimum effort possible and still keep the bike moving forward. Actually made it a very pleasant ride instead of the usual basically working as hard as I can ride. And the difference was only about 20 seconds a mile. Might have to try this more often, especially if I am going longer, but only if I can manage to keep the ego securely locked up.

About 60F, windy, a little cold for this fair weather rider. The same weather tomorrow (which is forecast) will be a little warm, but certainly acceptable.

As for goals for tomorrow, it seems like 3 hours should be a reasonable goal for the first half, based on the test runs. With the second half a little shorter and including the trail run, it should be a good bit quicker, except the body will be failing by then. So maybe another 3 hours, or 6 hours overall. Seems like a nice target. The only problem is leaving enough in reserve for the jumping contest afterwards. A target there of 5' would seem doable, except post-Highland even 3' may be difficult.

4/6 yesterday (ygol), the "learning" was a primer on the care and proper use of fry pans, the "organization" was getting all my maps for 2008 logged and filed and annotated (which revealed the mess underneath that is the pile of 2007 maps, next to be done).

The plan was to run on the M&M trail heading north from the Leverett-Shutesbury Road up to the height of land, a run I've done from time to time over the years but not too recently, some hills but nothing so steep that you dread the effort.

But it seemed like the M&M has been rerouted, or cancelled, or something. After about 10 minutes it veered off from its usual route, went a little ways on a narrow path, reached a sign that said a shelter was off to the right, went a little farther and just sort of disappeared, about the same time there was a nice new sign saying the land was part of a tree farm and folks were welcome, just stay away from any machinery. No machinery (or signs of any recent logging) in sight, but also no trail.

Kept going, crossed a little trickle, came out on a logging road. Figured I'd see where it went. It went up, meandered around a bit, reached a clearing, continued but much less distinct, another clearing, continued but now even less distinct. And I was trying to remember all the landmarks in case I had to find my way back.

And eventually it just petered out. But I was pretty sure I knew about where I was (I had a topo map), so I just bushwhacked a couple hundred meters west and popped out on the trail I had been originally planning on running. An old friend, so to say. No trail markers on it any more, but at least if I crashed and burned on it, it seemed like there was a greater chance that someone would eventually find me.

So up to the height of land, and a touch more to check out a couple knolls, they were mapped just about right, then back the way I had intended to go out.

Nice run, a bit of adventure and a bit of anxiety in just about the right proportions.



Yesterday 4/6 (ygol).

And a good session of gentle stretching.

Totally totally bummed, temporarily I hope. Got a call, the hot-shot urologist I was supposed to see in a couple of weeks at the Lahey Clinic is packing his bags for elsewhere. Can't see me. So I have to find someone else. There are other possibilities there, probably just fine possibilities, but still. Need to do more looking/calling/asking. A real pain in the ass....

C • Big News! 5

Dave called up yesterday and wanted to run early, and also wanted to run up South Sugarloaf to check on preparations for the filming of Edge of Darkness. No sign of Mel yet, but they seem to be making good progress on "making a bad guy's lair with a missile silo that will cover up the existing lookout tower up on the mountain."

Legs felt OK, even though about halfway up I had to call a halt to my latest rendition of "Tales from Estonia" and concentrate on processing a little more oxygen. But a good run, and good company.

16:08 to base, 9:19 up, 7:07 down, 15:26 back.

C • You get Mel... 2

So you look for inspiration in life in different ways -- from different sources, for different things, and for different reasons -- sometimes inspiration for matters rather significant, sometime inspiration for matters rather insignificant. I was looking at Barb's summary of her 17-point plan and it's got me thinking.

No, I don't have a 17-point plan of my own in the works, and no, I couldn't put together all those nice graphs. But it seems to me that there was quite a lot of value for her, not in any dominant single item but in the accumulation of lots of less drastic items (though I realize that no caffeine or no meat, for example, could be very drastic for some). Her plan was geared to last until the Estonia rogaine, and she seemed very pleased with the outcome.

So I'm wondering if something along similar lines might be useful for me. I'm pretty sure it would. The question is, what things do you put on the list.

What I would like to put on the list are, in general, a few things that would make me feel better about myself if, and it's a big if, I could show somewhere near the same success as Bard did. So what might they be?

So here's a possible list --

1. Stretching/yoga (y)
2. No eating to the point of being uncomfortably full (g)
3. 30 minutes of progress on house chaos (o)
4. Teaching Gail something I normally do, or learning something she normally does.(l)
5. Answering my e-mail (e)
6. Spend a non-trivial amount of time listening and talking with Gail (c)

It's a rather short list. It's also a list that getting 6 points in a day would feel wonderful, and it's possibly impossible. Even 4 or 5 would be quite fine. My guess is that in the recent past I've been averaging about 1.

#1 seems both absolutely needed and possible to do, as long as I am careful.

#2 oh, that would be nice. Eating is so nice, I just never stop, especially in the evening. Note that there are no specific items to eat or to avoid, as I seem to be able to handle that part pretty well (like I've cut out red meat and ice cream for several months with no difficulty).

#3 is absolutely needed. Before I get too old to do it. Before we move, when the point comes that we need a house without stairs. Or just for the positive surprises when long-lost memories are dredged up.

#4 is a recent idea, though it may take a lot of repetition before things stick -- so far she's showed me how to turn on the grill and I've showed her how to pay bills online, and I'm pretty sure both of us need another lesson (or two or three). The idea here is, who knows when either of us might croak (or semi-croak).

#5 I'm pretty good most of the time, but when I'm bad, I'm awful.

#6. We're working on this. It just needs continual work.

So that's an initial try. I may add some, may toss some. It may last a week and be forgotten, or last a while. I hope it lasts at least until I get sliced (that's the motivation for #s 3 and 4).

Poet's Seat ridge down to Mountain Road and back, out the white trail, back the red. Included 10x(35 sec on, 35 off)(25dd), just to stretch out the legs, don't know if the consequences are productive or harmful. But it feels so nice to run fast, even if for short bits at a time, and particular to run fast on a narrow somewhat twisty trail. Makes you feel like you are going even faster.

No falls. Hit no trees.

And then 10 minutes in the sauna stretching. Also very nice. I could get used to that.

All this is final preparation for what I believe is called a lazy Highlander on Sunday. And maybe a jump-off.

Saw a fine movie, Trouble the Water (NY Times review). Makes you think, always a good thing.

And certainly makes me even less concerned than I might have been, and I wasn't very concerned to start with, about such things as how long our O' courses are supposed to be....

(I suppose it could also make me think how foolish it is to waste life on such a trivial thing as orienteering, but then life has to have its fun moments as well as its serious ones.)

C • Concerns 1

Looking ahead to the fall schedule, seems like this event should not be missed. The NEOC one 20 or so years ago ("The Route 128 O'Ringen") was a memorable day.

Pre-register by this weekend.

And then right after yoga class a nice run on my 13 hills loop on Poet Seat ridge in Greenfield. Started a bit slowly but then gradually increased the pace and was working reasonably hard at the end.

A couple of years ago this time would have been a more relaxed pace. I think the difference is just tighter legs and a shorter stride, so the same effort covers less distance. It may be a permanent condition. At least my breathing was good.

And then a visit to the sauna at the gym, and then a cold shower, and then a stop on the way home at the farm stand for some fresh corn for dinner, about the last of the season, and then even a stop at that den of sinfulness, Dunkin Donuts, for a couple of raisin bagels for a late breakfast.

A fine morning.