Training Log Archive: Charlie

My exercises from Eric.

Busy yard day.

1. Picking up the drops and taking whatever I could extract from the apple tree that had remaining fruit. About half the haul ended up in the compost, the rest in a bin for future cobblers and some eating. Next year I should pick much earlier, as there were a lot of drops.

2. Then got the chainsaw out to take down some trees that were leaning across trails. One by the hot tub was pretty hung up, so after I cut it at the base a few times and it wasn't coming out I hooked up the winch on the Polaris. I felt a little bad because Zack was away at work, but it certainly didn't make sense to wait for him. Eventually it was down and I bucked it up for firewood.

3. Because it was layin in the path, I picked it up and took it back to the splitter, split it up, brought half of it in the house for firewood.

4. Then I got the garden stakes and the like from the vegetable garden, put them away for the winter.

5. And then mowed all the tall stuff in the vegetable garden, and in a few days ill root till it.

All of this was pretty good except splitting wood. The splitter would be much more,friendly if it sat about 8-12" higher. As it is, this activity really hurts my back, even in its more or less rejuvenated state.

C • Winter fires 11

11 pull-ups.

Rhonda's morning class.

Whatever was bugging my ankle a few days ago seems to be resolved. Hurt quite a bit around Monday, and again on Tuesday when I ran, but less on Wednesday and not at all today.

While watching (participating seems like an overstatement) an actuarial webinar. Continuing Ed.

Zack was home today and wanted to work on leaves, so we fired up the tractor and the leaf vac. More work than it looks like, 'cuz it needs a fair amount of unclogging, and dumping is not that trivial either. One might think the chopped up leaves would just slide out, but they are surprisingly reluctant. Need to be coaxed out with a rake. Then there are the various repairs that need to be made. An hour and a half, made a dent, but not a really substantial one.

working out with Eric. Several new things today, more upper body stuff

Rhonda's morning class.

About half of my every-other-day exercise program. Ran out of time and will finish up later.

Two dog loops. Not concentrating, missed a turn on the first loop. Bad enough at o-meets, but even in my own yard.

C • Bad sign 4

The rest of the back exercises, including the ones that are the most difficult for me, like the bosu squats. Excellent!

Rhonda's morning class. Stiff today after squats and then wood-splitting yesterday.

Not bad. A little effort, but more or less under control for the first ride in a while. Strange pain in my R ankle, feels like maybe a bruise, but I'll have to investigate. If I had taken the trouble to look up my best time from this rowing season, I would have known that it was only 2 seconds faster than this and I would have had something to aim for. No rush, though.

C • Good to see you back 4

Regular stretching and strengthening exercises. Slow, steady improvement. Even my knee has been feeling better.

My forester, Jim Gillespie, came by to help me cut and split some logs that have been hanging around in the back field for a few months. Very nice of him, but a lot of work for me, too. Not used to it and I got pretty tired, and by 3 or so I was quite ready to quit.

Then we also had a visit from our friend Jason, the bear guy from Sessions Woods. He was out hiking around with his infant daughter in a backpack, came up from Cherry Brook Rd through the woods. Jason and Jim had met before, but didn't really know each other. Jason was friendly with our friend Joan, and remains friendly with her daughters. He told us that the youngest daughter Katie has bought out the interest of the other 4, and is planning on moving into the house. We also had a chat about the unfortunate bear incident at Sessions of a couple of months ago, and I got the inside story on the bear in question.

C • Translation from the Italian? 10

Event: Explore the Sanctuary, Westmoreland Sanctuary, HVO event
 

Green course at Westmoreland Sanctuary. New map by Greg Balter, who also set courses. Beautiful open woods, and physically not so bad. Quite a few mistakes, although none that were as bad as the ones at Harris Center 2 weeks ago. Rode down with Rhonda and Bill D, pleasant company.

Map and Route

Finally got my Highlander maps posted:

Part 1 - Surebridge
Part 2 Trail Run- Surebridge
Part 3 - Rockhouse
Part 4 - Sebago

Green - Splits

Event: Kentucky Orienteering Games
 

Abbreviated Rhonda class. It wasn't going to happen, but then Jackie showed up at 5:45, and Rhonda wanted to finish at 6:15 to see Zack off to school.

From the house. Should have gone out a bit earlier, as it was getting cold, even with a jacket and tights. Also the sun was getting low enough that the combination of glare and traffic on 219 was a little intimidating, but otherwise a delightful excursion. Enough of a hill to get the motor running.

working out with Eric. Loosened up considerably from the Highlander.

13 ring pullups

From PV up Sandy Brook and back. Felt reasonably lively after two days of hunkering down. This was the fastest by far I have done this ride this year. Part of that is doing it by myself, so I concentrate a little more, part is being stronger after riding around Sicily for a week.

Still not able to post HH maps on sprintseries.org/doma. I had a problem with this about 6 months ago. When I try to post the map I get a page:

"Forbidden

You don't have permission to access /doma/edit_map.php on this server.
Apache/2.2.3 (CentOS) Server at www.sprintseries.org Port 80."

When I had the problem before, I published the map directly from QR for a while, until that didn't work, but by then my original method of loading the .jpg file from DOMA was working again. Now, neither method seems to work. It was working last week after Boulder Dash. Hmm.

C • File size limit? 2

Another rest day. Not motivated.

C • Give yourself a break! 1

Definitely a rest day. A couple of short walks, but with some difficulty.

Event: Hudson Highlander XVIII
 

Hudson Highlander XVIII

I had it in mind to walk the whole way, but leaving the start I was almost keeping up with Phil, Peggy, Bernie and Nadim walking, and so a little jogging kept me in the group. It definitely wasn't comfortable, though. On the flatter sections they would pull away, and maybe out of sight, but then on the hills I could walk faster and I caught up. It was definitely fun to be with them, but I was going faster than I was comfortable, and not really planning my own routes. We did a lot of the trail run leg in reverse, going to #2, and then going to #6 and #7. On 3, Phil went straight up and over and I stayed with Bernie, Peggy and Nadim going a little right to scrub off a line or two of climb. Phil seems to have gotten a bit ahead there, and I was doing my own navigating to 3, 4, 5 and 6 anyway. Phil stopped short on the way to 8 and we caught up to him again.

The trail run was hard, trying to stay with the group. Again, they got away a few times, but came back to me on the uphills. Happy to get off Surebridge to the easier to see Rockhouse map. 11 was easy, and saw Alex on her way to 17 right after. I was heading more or less right to 12, but Peggy was reading a bit better and saw the right cliff developing before we got to it.

Then down the big reentrant toward 13. Phil headed up earlier and I followed him, but we were still too far left, when we saw Bernie, et al further down the hill. We all converged. We saw Glen a bit further along, but apparently he had already punched, and we had to go back uphill for it. By then, a stick in my shoe was getting intolerable, so I tried to get it out and catch back up, but it took me a while to tie it with cold hands, and I just caught a glimpse of Phil before they all disappeared into the mountain laurel. I tried valiantly to catch up, catching sight of them a few times, but working harder on finding them than on finding the control. Headless chicken? Pushed through some heavy mountain laurel and got out to the marsh, but a fair amount left of the control, and saw them coming toward me. Tried again to catch up, and again they disappeared. I was following the faint trail west and lost it, wandering around in some dense laurel for a while before figuring out that I was near the marsh S of the trail. Fought my way through horrible laurel, finally hitting the large E-W trail well W of the way to 15, where I saw my group again and knew that they were way too far ahead to catch. So a relief, more or less. Studying the map leaving 15 I walked right into an overhanging chestnut oak branch, smacking the top of my head pretty hard and falling down. But then I just chilled out, had a GU, took the trail until near the marsh NW of 12 and 16, up and over from there and got my confidence back. Caught a little laurel on the way to 17, but in good contact all the way, and easy to find 18, too, although I whacked my ankle on a rock near there. Interminably slow slogging along the road to 19. At that point I was under 5 hours, and it seemed reasonable to do the last loop in 1:30, but that might have involved some jogging, which wasn't going to happen. I saw Dave Onkst, a cadet, and Stina Bridgeman all heading from 20 to 31 when I was on my way to 25. The southern loop on Sebago was particularly pleasant, including a very brief visit from Ian, who was moving quickly when he passed me near 27. I was thinking I ought to be careful looking for 30, but then I saw it from a good 150 M away, so that was easy. Back by the tennis courts and across the footbridge, thought about going up and over, but decided that it would only save about 100 M and be harder navigation than just going around, and indeed around was trivial. I could see the bag from the trail. Down to the road and then up through the houses. Bag was on the ground, but I could see the ribbon around the tree from a distance. A slow jog in. HH XVIII in the books!

Part 1 - Surebridge
Part 2 Trail Run- Surebridge
Part 3 - Rockhouse
Part 4 - Sebago

Great organization, super grill-master Max, pleasant ride home with J-J, Jeff and Ernst.

C • Streak stays alive! 16

HL - Splits

Abbreviated series of the usual exercises.

11 pull-ups on the rings.

Rhonda's morning class.

11 ring pullups, on the way back in from class

With R&S, from the backyard down the eagle scout trail through the town's open space property. Includes a lengthy stop (10 min or so) to visit with our neighbor Alis, whom we haven't seen in some time, and who was equipped with 2 dogs, good company for Sassy.

Weekly session with Eric. Good progress.

10 ring pullups, 'cuz J-J did it.

C • peer pressure 2

Rhonda's morning class, or at least most of it.

Trotting around in McLean with Rhonda.

Posted the maps from the weekend, Day 1 and Day 2. Relocation was never a strong suit for me.

The usual exercises. The bridge series is really great. The squats maybe a bit too much, and I am likely to cut down on them some. Otherwise very good. I am doing squats, one-leg balancing and planks on the BOSU, which is pretty favorable.

Up Sandy Brook rd and back with Rhonda. This is certainly much easier than anything we did in Sicily, and goes a lot faster.

Spent the night at Compass Point, the very lovely lake house of Bundschuhs and Ruutupolds. Great company, lulled to sleep by rushing water, beautiful on awakening and walking around. What a treat!

Nominal course length was 3.4, and I did a lot more. When I was good I was very good, but when I wasn't . . . Worst were #2, where I didn't seem to have any luck trying to relocate, and was only vaguely hopeful when I finally found it. There were a lot of people hanging around, including running into Tony F my first pass, and then again near when I found it, and #8. I bailed out 4 times to various features and walked in ever more slowly, kept coming back to the same area. By the last time I couldn't imagine I wasn't in the right place, but couldn't find anything until somebody came in and punched. After punching I pulled down a big dead pine branch that was hanging over the control.

Otherwise, some minor losses on 6, where I was confused by the little marshes on the way in and wandered off line, and 9, where I stopped short and milled around for a while. Otherwise pretty fine. Drifted right on 3 and had to climb the hill, so lost some time there even though I knew right where I was. Really happy with 4, 5, 10, 11, and seemed to have the fastest split on 12.

Map and route.

Afterwards really stiff and sore, especially after the drive home.

C • #12 4

Sunday - Day 2 - Brown - Splits

Event: UNO Boulder Dash
 

Boulder Dash day 1 Brown. Physically felt pretty good, and did a fair amount of running. Only one big mistake, but it was a doozy. 1 was streamered, and easy enough, although I wasn't really reading the map and so got nervous that I might have missed it. Trail around to 2, went more or less right to it, but felt lucky. More or less straight to 3. A little right on 4, but looked around when I got to the more open area and saw the rock. 5 was on the trail, then 6 was on compass, and just missed it before turning back, so maybe a minute lost. Then 7 was the disaster. Saw the stone wall symbol off to the right and convinced myself it was a north line, happily headed south. Things weren't lining up, but didn't get too upset until I came to the wall. Still didn't know what was going on, trying to figure out how I could have gotten to the wall beyond the control so quickly, when it dawned on me. So feeling a bit pissed I headed off toward 7, but without being in good contact, and I wasn't able to establish where I was except in general terms. Finally I found a flag by a small marsh, figured out where I was, and went right to it from there. The rest of the course went well, staying in good contact, keeping moving, reading right in. The only glitch was losing maybe k30 seconds or so by thinking I was going from 10 to 11 when I was only at 9, but figured it out quickly.

Map and route.

Nice visiting with all my long time friends.

Saturday - Day 1 - Brown - Splits

Up much earlier than I wanted this morning. Rhonda was up at 2, and in a fairly animated conversation with Zack, who was still up, so I only lasted a little while after that.

This was just a dog walk with Sassy, who presumably hasn't been getting quite as many of them.

The g suffered under the influence of what our guide called la sfida siciliana - the Sicilian challenge. That is, very good food and way more of it than it is possible to eat.

Thought I might get out on the bike, but it was starting to rain a bit, and I was certainly starting to lose energy, so this will have to do. Another dog walk.

full set of my back exercises. I wasn't doing much of these the last two weeks, but the bike was generally beneficial and my back felt quite good on the trip.

Long travel day, home at last.

C • Welcome to New England ;-) 2

Another short ride today. We skipped the steep broken road up from Regaleali to Valledolmo, and then went across toward Sclafani Bagni, beautiful old town up on a giant rock. Some longish climbs, but I was able to use a higher gear comfortably, and then after Sclafani Bagni the girls got in the van before a really long descent into the area of the Parco Della Madonie. Mike and I descended down a long series of tight, tight switchbacks on a narrow road to the valley, beautiful giant valley with big mountains along the side, and much less intensively farmed. Every day has had much different scenery. Another excessive lunch, this time at the beautiful Case di Cardellino. Then we hopped into the van for the ride to Palermo and packed up the bikes. This was perhaps my best day for feeling strong and comfortable, although in fact quite a short ride.

Short ride today, accompanied by Roberta and Tino, filling in for Daniele who is away at his grandfather's funeral. After a rather substantial breakfast, even by my standards, we went to the Agriturismo Villa Dafne for a cheese tasting and "lunch". Villa Dafne is quite an operation, where they make their own cheese, as well as raise sheep and cows, garden vegetables, vineyards and olives. Giuseppe, one of the owners described the cheeses and the process for making each of the 10 varieties we sampled. When they brought a plate out, I wondered how the four of us could eat that much cheese. However, I was mistaken. That plate was just for me, and each of the others got one just like it. Of course it was wonderful, and there was some wine, the Tasca d'Almerita Leone white that we had tasted yesterday. We started with ricotta, first some that was two days old, very delicious, and then the incredible one-hour old fresh ricotta. Soft, delightful, a mix of cow with 15% sheep. Then we passed through mild primo sale flavored with pistachios, to stronger, sharper cheeses made in the same process, but aged six months and 9 months. The 9 month cheese was very strong, very good. Then we moved into the stretched cheeses, and had provola - like little provolone, and then smoked provola. That would have all been fine, but then came aperitivi, olives, eggplant caponata, salami, prosciutto, carpaccio, etc. that would have been more or less fine, but now things started to get out of hand with a first plate of wonderful spaghetti with a sun-dried tomato and oil sauce, although that doesn't describe at all the complexity of it. Well even that might have been ok, but the second plate soon showed up, polpetti with peas. Struggling mightily to eat just a little of it, and soon came the cannoli, of course with their own ricotta.

We were not capable of the ride back, and stumbled into the van for the return and a nap. On the way back I had a nice chat in Italian with Roberta, who is a windsurfing enthusiast.

C • Cheeses 8

Quite a nice ride today. We had a van transfer from Massierella Rossella to the village of Caccamo, with its medieval castle built right in the rock. The ride started with a rather steep uphill through the town on cobbled streets, then mostly up but some down and nothing flat. We stopped for a picnic lunch in Roccapalumba, Daniele once again finding local pizza and fresh ricotta. I ate way too much, which was ok on the ensuing long and sweeping downhill, but a little distressing as it got really hot and we had a long climb to the next town, Alia. At that point Daniele cut our ride a bit shorter, and we went right instead of left. Originally it was scheduled for 74 k, but it ended up 56, which was plenty. A 7k climb up to Valledolmo went better than imagined, and then the others went in the van for the last 7k, mostly down through some really rough roads to the winery at Regaleali, Tasca d'Almerita, the largest and most prestigious winery in Sicily.

This was my best day physically. Legs felt strong, hills went well, back was more or less fine. Most importantly the battle with my saddle didn't erupt the way it did on Friday and Saturday.

This is perhaps the most elegant place I have ever stayed. After cleaning up we had a tour of the winery and a rather elaborate tasting, all explained in a lot of detail by the lovely Sofia, but alas mostly lost on me, as wine is not something I have interest in. After a bit an elegant dinner with four types of wine, three appetizers, soup, beef with mushroom sauce, their own tomatoes and lettuce, potatoes, and finally a ricotta cake. Amazing.

C • It's just amazing where you all go.... 2

A bit unsettled this morning. The guide Danele's grandfather died last night and he was pretty distressed, trying to figure out what to do. Then the battery died on the van and there was some time spent dealing with that. And finally ready to go, maybe an hour or so later and it started to sprinkle. That was all it took for the girls to decide they didn't want to ride, so a rest day from the bike and we went in the van to our hotel in Piana degli Albanesi. Instead of riding, a leisurely lunch at this beautiful country house, and then a stroll around the property. Then when Mike wanted to relax, Rhonda and Cindy decided to walk, so I went with them down the road a ways and back. Watched some farmers cultivating their very dark fields, preparing to grow winter hay or wheat. They use tractors on tracks, as it seems too muddy and steep for wheeled tractors.

Event: "O" in the Pines A meet
 

Beautiful ride from the wonderful il Vigneto through the magnificent vineyards of La Planeta, the biggest winery in this part of Sicily. Varied landscape today. Vineyards and olive trees very well maintained and loaded with fruit. This was a difficult ride, with several climbs, particularly into Santa Margherita di Bellice, where the old town was destroyed by an earthquake around 1968, and the town was rebuilt next to it. Fascinating to see the ruins unrestored, undeveloped on a hill next to the old town. Then a sharp downhill and a long uphill to Sambuca in Sicilia, sister city to Winter Haven FL, as it says on the sign entering town. We stopped for lunch in a park in the center. Two kinds of Sicilian pizza, sandwiches and the tasty local melon. Down and then up again to Giuliana. At that point we thought the climbs were over, but we had another harder climb awaiting. Giant panoramas of ancient volcanoes, farmland, olives. We climbed again past the 5th century church of Santa Maria nel Bosco, then finally a descent into Contessa Entellina and our rather remote B&B and our host Paolo, interesting guy, the house built to his own design, and many projects to personalize it. His olive trees are loaded. At the coast they are harvesting, but here it is a different climate and he will harvest next month. He also has a number of persimmon trees (cachi, they are called here). I never really understood the point of persimmons, as the ones I seem to have encountered are hard and tart. These are luscious, incredibly sweet and red orange. Wonderful. The steepest hill of the ride was Paolo's driveway, a good test.

C • Back vs Hills 2

Paolo is quite an enterprising and interesting fellow. He is from Treviso in the North, but came here often on vacation, and was able to buy three small plots that were each not larg enough to build on. He designed the guest house and had it built 15 years ago, and now grows olives, walnuts, persimmons, plums, citrus, capers, and many other things. He does a lot of stonework around he house, and also a lot of scavenging of unusual rounded rocks of some unknown archaeological history. He is a wonderful cook. We had an antipasto of local cheese and local dry salami, his own sun dried tomatoes and his own cured olives. Then a first plate of a kind of penne with a tomato sauce with white and green asparagus, transcendently delicious, and a second plate of local pork sausage wrapped in fennel leaves and thin slices of veal, with lightly sautéed potatoes and a wonderful salad from his garden, of course with local white and red wine from unlabeled bottles. Marvelous. Finished with a light cake, filled with his own jam.

C • Meal 3

Lovely day. First few k in Marsala were a bit interesting, with lots of turns and city traffic, then escaped to the country. The day was a bit repetitive, lots of olive trees and vines, the occasional flock of sheep. Literally 100s of abandoned stone farmhouses. Daniele tells us that in the 60s, times were good, things were cheap, and many farmers bought second and third homes, but they were too hard to keep up, and they have let them go. After about 30 miles we came to the town of Campobello di Mazara, where we stopped in the town square for lunch. Daniele had purchased pane cunzatu, the most wonderful local sandwiches. Crusty Sicilian bread, tomatoes, celery, onions, anchovies, lots of really good olive oil. This may be the finest thing I have encountered. By a great act of discipline I ate only one. Then back on the road. I forgot to turn on the watch after lunch, so the next 5k just shows as a straight line. Not too far off there. Eventually we took a side trip to the wonderfully imposing Greek temple ruins at Sellinunte. Overwhelming! Huge temples, one restored more or less, the others jumbles of huge stones and columns. Then 10 more miles to our wonderful resort for the evening, Il Vigneto in the Agrigento wine country. This is the most comfortable and appealing place we have stayed, and we have stayed in some very nice places. We had a nice time relaxing by the pool, drinking some Peroni Nastro Azzurro beer.

Theoretically from Erice to Marsala today, but Erice was completely socked in so we went down the mountain in the van to Val d'Erice, marveling at the many switchbacks we had climbed yesterday. Then headed more or less toward the sea, first south for about 15 miles through very flat farmland, with muddy roads in places and an unrelenting wind in our faces, then flying to the sea when we turned NW. Eventually we arrived at a restaurant by the salt works, where we had another extended multi-course lunch, and then it was raining a bit and the girls had lost interest in riding, so back in the van to our hotel.