Training Log Archive: Charlie

Part of Rhonda's morning class.

A little West Simsbury jaunt with Rhonda. Last practice before our trip.

in the gym with Eric. Not the best. Back was tight, so backed off on the deadlifts, used lighter weights on the squats, ended up doing a lot of bands. The back has been cranky for several days now. Probably too much laurel, too much driving.

With Rhonda, from PV

Busy day. Lots of work to do on rate filings. Did some brushmowing and planted some tomatoes during my breaks. Thought I would ride but the day got away from me.

Not much time, just wanted to do a few sets of squats, since they seem to be doing me some good. 4x6: working up to 90#.

With Rhonda, from PV. Nice morning.

Zack's last day in town and there was a lot of chipping going on. At least 4 hours worth.

Event: Westchester County Challenge
 

Model event at Ward Pound Ridge. Drove down with Bill. Not much of a crowd. We arrived just before 2, the first to arrive, and the next folks didn't show up until I was finished. Nice course, nominal distance 4K, and WPR was lovely, good visibility despite full leaf-out. All the chipping this week was perhaps not the best prep. Found out on the way to #1 that my legs were dead, but no real difficulty getting around. A couple of real blunders. On the way to #6 I convinced myself I was looking for a charcoal platform, when the control was actually on a dot knoll. Then to make it weirder, I found an unmapped charcoal platform, not all that far from the knoll, but of course there was no flag there, so some wandering around, eventually seeing the flag on the side of the knoll and thinking to myself, what kind of charcoal platform is that? Then another clunker, leaving 7 and somehow jumping ahead and thinking I was leaving 8 headed to 9. Went about the requisite distance, found a reentrant, but no flag. Wandered for a bit, then looked hard at the map and noticed that I had not yet been to 8. So how to get there now that I have wandered a bunch? Turned out to be not so hard, although there are a lot more substantial cliffs in the area than show up on the map. The rest was pretty straightforward, straight to 9, passing the rock on the line and the reentrant was pretty distinctive, a little high at 10, but didn't lose much, straight to 11, picking off one of the stone piles on the way across and seeing the flag coming up right in front of me. A fine time, but a long ride home, avoiding the traffic jams on 84 going up 22 and through Sherman, New Milford and Litchfield

Map and route

In the gym with Eric, stretching and rolling, deadlifts (135#), back squats (85#), pull downs, GH raises, pushups on the BOSU, ball planks. Good session.

Physical therapy appointment for my neck.

Home in time to join in with Zack and his boom lift, de-limbing and bringing down a big chestnut oak that he thinks was too menacing to the hot tub. He is pretty darned skilled with the boom lift.

Event: WCOC, WOD event at Bethel Schools
 

Laurel wrangling along the back trail for 45 minutes, building a pile to chip later. Cleared a good part of a very dense thicket. Not much else grows in a real laurel area, just a very few straggly pine seedlings.

Close on another 2 hours of laurel wrangling and chipping, with Zack. Finished off my pile and went and worked on an area of his choosing, clearing a good sized area and a path around one of the gates to get the tractor there. Pretty tired after that and maybe that is enough laurel for one day.

Longest ride of the season so far, and pretty successful, considering I was already pretty tired from laurel wrangling today. Up Sandy Brook Rd to the top at Rte 183 and back.

A chipper not being enough entertainment, seems like Zack rented the boom lift and was up chopping branches out of a dead pine tree preparatory to bringing it down. He has been complaining about it for a long time. However, 50 ft of boom lift was not enough for him to take it down the way he intended, so it is still there, although shorn of branches. Instead I went up with him and we took dead branches out of an oak tree that were hanging over the shed in a menacing fashion. He is pretty good at this sort of thing.

In the gym with Eric. Stretching and rolling, deadlifts 130#, step-ups, back squats 65#, one arm rows (40#)

Maybe another 2 and a half hours of lopping and chipping Some of it involved getting rid of some big piles from Zack's big clearing experiment from last November, the rest just working off a big patch in the 2006 clear cut. Tiring work. In two sessions, before and after lunch.

I wanted to ride, and Zack liked the idea of picking me up, so we settled on Stop & Shop in Simsbury, as he wanted to go there anyway, and I added a bit to add up to about and hour and a quarter, since that seemed to be an agreeable time frame. Heading that way at traffic time is a bit dicey. When I was barrelling down 309 toward W Simsbury a woman made a left turn close enough in front of me that I had to slam on both brakes. Then on W. Mountain Rd I had a very big SUV pass me within about 12" of the handlebars. Yikes! Better to head the other way, at least at that time of day.

C • Yikes 1

In West Simsbury. One of my better rides of this young season, and I think I am more or less ready enough for the upcoming ride in Croatia. Not to say the actual bike riders don't pass me like the Acela.

Another hour and a half or so of rather intensive laurel wrangling with my associate Zack. Very satisfactory. We are now about 80% of the way through a thicket I wouldn't have imagined we could have done. Mountain laurel is mostly air, so the chip piles aren't that intensive, but it a pretty fierce barrier. Now that the area is open, it is really nice.

C • laurel 10

And one more hour and the area is pulverized of mountain laurel. Very satisfying, although I am pretty tired. About an hour a day is a reasonable amount of this for me, but pretty tempting to continue when I have such good help on hand.

Event: UNO Wolfeboro O'Ringen
 

Walking around this morning with the dog, I went to check on an area that Zack and I had talked about clearing mountain laurel from. Got there, and a little disconcerting because there was way less mountain laurel than I remembered. Then I saw the clues, the tire imprints, the aggregation of chips. Turns out Zack went out last night at midnight cut a path in and chipped away in the tractor's overhead work lights. Amazing.

C • Time zone adaptation 6

Weight workout in the gym. Pretty good, but felt a little strain in the L pectoral doing knees-to-elbows, so cut things a bit short. DLs (140#), box step-ups with 25# DBs, 3x10 each side, K2E, 2x5 and stopped, GH raises with 12# DB 1 set, did the rest without, pull downs at 8, back squats 65# 3x10. 2 minute plank.

An hour of laurel wrangling, building a pile to chip when it stops raining. Not raining hard enough to make it unpleasant, but best if I keep these sessions to no more than an hour anyway.

Zack is back and we spent a good part of the day with the chipper. I knew he would like it. So maybe a good 4 hours of cutting and chipping, including knocking off the big pile I had left from the last two days, and then some tractor maintenance while Zack cut the grass and opened up a path to get the chipper to a stand of laurel I would like to have disappear. And then a lot of butt rolling to try to get my back gentled down, and various neck and upper back exercises that needed doing.

Dropped Rhonda off at the airport at 5, then home to sleep another hour and a half. Eric was under the weather today, so I did my gym workout on my own, and it went quite well. Started with a bunch of stretching and rolling, then moved on to 5 sets of DLs., working up to 135#. Then alternated box step-ups with 2 25# dumbbells and knees-to-elbows. 3x8 for step-ups, 3x5 for K2E. Then 3x10 with 2 25 dumbbells, alternating squats and bench presses, then back squats with just the bar alternating with 8 BOSU pushups, then 3x10 alternating GH raises and pull-downs on the machine at 9. Finished up with a 2 minute plank. Nice. Much like what I do with Eric, but a little more.

Another hour of laurel wrangling. Saving the chipping for when Zack is here tomorrow.

PT session for my recalcitrant neck and shoulder. Seems that the issue is scar tissue from some old injury in my trapezius, that then radiates everywhere. Some massage, some exercises.

Out to route 8 from PV and back. I had ideas of a longer ride and maybe someplace else, but the day got away from me. It was already 6:30 when I started, so pushed the pace to get back.

Second trip to the airport today, 18 hours apart. Makes for a long day. Went to get Zack, who is back in CT for a couple of weeks.

Laurel wrangling. About 1:30 cutting and then another 1:10 dragging it to a staging area where I can chip it. Pretty good-sized pile. Achy afterward. That is about enough for one day.

In the gym with Eric. Stiff, but improving a lot after I had dug into my R upper glute area with the lacrosse ball. Deadlifts had a little snag, some low back pain with 135#, so stretched a bit and dropped down to 115# for the rest of the sets. Bench stepups with 2 20-lb dumbbells alternating with TRX rowing, then squats with the 2 dumbbells at my shoulders alternating with bent over 1 arm rowing with a 35# dumbbell. And all the usual stretching and rolling, planks.

With Rhonda from PV.

Plenty sore today. Had some trouble last night when I got in bed, kept getting up to stretch cramping adductors, but it all calmed down eventually.

Nice phoebes this morning perched on the deck and on branches outside the office window.

At the lake with R&S. Tired legs, tender back. Included a stop to throw sticks for the dog, who loves swimming out to get them.

Up E River rd from PV, back W River, with Rhonda, very easy pace. Just fine.

Event: 2018 Billygoat XL
 

Billygoat! Blue Mountain in Peekskill, site of the 2002 BG. Rode down with J-J, Ken, Jeff and Erik, back with all but Erik who was on his way to New York and thence to JFK to Stockholm.

2018 map quite a bit harder to read than the 2002 version. Much darker, denser looking.

Map

Pretty good result, under 3 hours and ran more than I expected to. Pretty sore in the low back during and after, but no damage done.

1. Big group headed out to the R, but I could see the big trail to the left better and went that way, and followed a big pack in that direction. Trying to stay clear of Jim Crawford, who was swinging his hiking poles pretty aggressively, and trying to hang on to Ken, not at all easy. On the trail to opposite the pond, where Ken cut in by the stream and I went on one more hill before cutting in. Steve Tarry was in the area, too. Crossed the stonewall and headed down, pretty good crowd at the control.
2. Across the power lines, across the road W of the bend, up along the edge of the marshes under the hill, and up and in. Still trailing Ken and others.
3. Mostly straight, using the stone walls and coming up from below on the W.
4. First error. Got way too high and too far N, figured out it was wrong and started heading S, saw Ken coming back at me and eventually got there with Steve T.
5. Following Steve around the cliff and down the slope seeing the boulder from a distance.
6. Trying not to lose too much height on the side slope. Steve was a little higher, but I got there first and cut around the corner and in.
7. Plan was to head to 8 and go from there (or maybe even skip 7), but 7 was so short from 8 that seemed better to save it. A little bobble in the circle, too far right, but not much lost. Got together with the Pauls and Eric. Paul Bennett, Paul Regan, Paul Bisset and Eric Smith.
8. Back to 8, straightforward and glad to have already checked it out once. 9. Then Paul Bennett was leading our group and I was trying mightily to hang onto the back. Now I think 9 may have been the best skip, but I wasn't considering it. Instead I was looking at 13, 17 and 19. Anyway, hanging onto the little pack, saw the little pond and took an easy way down the hill, still running last in the group.
10. More or less on compass, picked up some trail near the pond for a bit but resisted going down to the pond, just up and over the hills and in.
11. Out to the trail and back down the way we had come to 1.
12. Through the finish and to the tree.
13. Decided with the group that we would skip 17, so off we went to 13. Easy navigation, but nasty footing following the stone wall across the marsh. Paul Bennett still leading our parade.
14. Along the marsh to the trail, saw a bunch of folks on their way from 17 to 18, including J-J and Kristin. On the trail E then around the hill and up the reentrant, but ran by the flag and lost my group momentarily, but lucky enough to pick up Earl.
15. Struggling to get back, Paul ran the pack ahead into the marsh and had to back up and go around, which allowed me and Earl to catch up. Over a few more bumps and then could see the flag. Earl was a bit left and further ahead, but came back and joined up for a bit.
16. Going well to this one until I hallucinated a flag up in the reentrant to the right. Went up to check, so lost a bit of time before correcting over. At this point we parted ways with Eric, who was resolved to get them all. and we headed more or less south toward 18.
17. SKIP
18. Somewhere in there we saw the last of Earl. Saw Susie coming the other way, in the direction of 15. She said "I'm Pygmy", but in my addled state and with my always questionable hearing, what I heard was "I'm pregnant". Took me aback a bit, but after a few more steps I figured it out. Out to the trail across from the smaller trail that we were looking for, and headed down that. Seemed like it took a really long time. Eventually the hill on the right and cut in just past that, got into some really gloppy marshy stuff and had to fight our way down toward the stream where the control was. Not so pleasant, and can't say this was a useful skip.
19. SW to the road, get to a more or less reasonable entry spot and up and it. Not quite as high up as I had thought it would be.
20. By now Paul is getting a bit tired of leading and I'm getting a little sparkier, so I lead for a while up to the ring trail and straight past to the upper trail, R toward the E/W stone wall and along that, counting off features. Went one hill early, figuring we'd go around and have a straight shot up and in, but the marsh was a little bigger than we thought so a little bit of extra climb to get over that hill. No difficulty finding the control.
21. Figured on trail route to the left and executed it well. Down L of the pond, out to the trail corner. Left a bit to the small trail and followed it all the way to the large E W trail. R on that for a bit, cutting in before the pond and then up the hill and in. I had been leading but was a little too high and left and Paul found it.
22. Down the hill, on compass, just pick the right rocky knoll. A little tentative, stopping to look around a bit early, but OK.
23. Left side, although now that I look at it there is a perfectly fine trail route to the R side. Aimed for the pair of larger marshes and hit between them just fine, but it was slow getting there, with lots of marshes and some intricate footwork. Once out to the trail, just stayed with it until the sharp bend and in from there.
24. I got hung up going around the marsh and lost a bit of ground to the others who had gone straighter, to the stonewall and back down the trail we had followed earlier from 19 to 20. Ring road around the bend then up the reentrant and right to it. Turned and headed south with a bit of a head of steam.
25. Easy
F.

Very satisfactory. A good nap on the way home. Thanks to J-J and Jeff for driving!

C • Sounded fun 4

Billy Goat - Splits

Billy goat tomorrow.

Gave Erik a head start and did the 2017 night-o course, still streamered, although two of the streamers have been chewed down. Got a little hung up in laurel a couple of times.

In the gym with Eric, deadlifts, squats, lots of band work, the usual rolling and stretching.

Same as yesterday, PV to Rte 8 and back, this time with Rhonda.

Laurel wrangling.

This was actually part 2. Yesterday I did a lot of lopper and chainsaw work just at the start of the hospital loop, maybe 1:45 worth. Today I set up the chipper in the vicinity of the charcoal platform, dragged all the laurel cut yesterday over there and chipped it. Laurel is hard to chip, hard, dry and twisty. I had one pine tree to get rid of, and that was a much more cheerful experience. Anyway, after about 2 hours I was way too tired to do any more, but I left the chipper out in case it seems like a good idea again tomorrow.

This is a very personal endeavor. I doubt that anyone besides me will even notice what I got rid of.

C • Wrangling 12

PV to route 8 and back. Legs felt tired, L shoulder tied up. Nice day, though.

Morning stroll with the dog. The barred owl flew right over our heads and lit in a tree, looking at us and us at him. Then he flew off, taking advantage of the corridor the trail creates. He has quite a wingspan. Very quiet. If he hadn't been so close when he flew over I wouldn't have noticed him.

In the gym with Eric. Good session. Deadlifts (125#) goblet squats, bands, GH raises, first pushups since I hurt my hand this winter, 3x8 on the bosu. Generally fine.

West Simsbury. Perfect day.

From PV up and over the Hogback dam. Better than last time. Very encouraging.

Not a good sleeping night. Submoron shooting off fireworks at 11pm for a while. I'm sure it was quite good fun.

Rhonda had signed me up to help our neighbor chip up a pile of brush, so off I went at about 8;45. Turned out pretty well until I got down past the stuff that had been cut live, which chips fine, and into the stuff that had been scavenged here and was either long dead or rotten. Neither of those is at all suitable for chipping, so the next plan was to get this stuff off the grass and into a pile in the woods. and that took a good half of the time. Back home around 12:30, but curiously devoid of energy.

Rainy enough that a bike ride didn't beckon.

Had envisioned a longer excursion for the dog, but this is all she got. Earlier on her morning excursion around 7 she found a wild turkey egg on the wood chips on the trail. She was most pleased.

Event: WCOC Paugussett State Forest
 

Very handsome black-throated blue warbler hopping around while I was loosening up in the hot tub before heading out to find lampshades at Paugusset.

C • Don't think I've ever seen ... 2

Green course at Paugusset. apparently a re-run of a course from September 2015, but I wasn't there, so the first time for me. But I've been lost at Paugusset before.

Started out cheerily enough.
1. Up the trail next to the stone wall, then between the walls and right to it, except no flag. Oh, there it is, on the slightly bigger cliff to the SE. Pretty sure it was on the wrong cliff, but no real problem.
2. More or less up the stream bed, bearing left in the reentrant and aiming for the R side of the marsh. Around and past, heading up the reentrant on the R side of the hill and right in.
3. More or less on compass. A little hiccup when I came to a bunch of bikers on a trail who were interested in telling me all about a woman who had lost her black lab. I promised to look for it. I thought I had been at the big trail, but I wasn't there yet, came to the wall before the big trail and was a little surprised about it, but then pretty easy. Stone wall, marshy stream, edge of the knoll, second marshy stream, and I could see the boulder ahead.
4. Fought my way SE to the narrow trail, a little funky following it through marshes and deadfall, to the corner of the larger trail and then off the next corner, angling up the hill and into the twilight zone. I was pretty sure I had come to the exact spot, but no flag. Almost just kept going, but searched all the hills heading south as far as the reentrant, back and forth, then dropped down to relocate off the marsh where I ran into Bill and Nellie scratching their heads on the unmapped mtn bike trail. Joined them for a bit, but decided I had no idea, so I went NW in hopes of finding the stone wall N of the control. That done, I headed south along the knoll and the large (if overmapped) cliff, to the area more or less on the NW edge of the circle, where I saw Bill, who had already found the bag. So I looked around there for a bit and turned it up, in a location that looked nothing like what I was expecting,, and if my track is to be believed a place near the N edge of the circle which may not be mapped. Lost 16:30 there, compared to what my watch said when I first got there.
5. Another disaster. I really can't be trusted in this area. What happened was that I was further N than I realized, wandering through some really big features for quite a long time until I finally found something solidly identifiable. Looks like another 10 minutes lost here.
6. I suspected this one might be hard, and I wasn't disappointed in that. Got over fairly near, found a likely looking boulder with no flag, which might be the one generally to the WSW. Wandered down to the marsh, up the reentrant maybe as far as the bigger boulder, then decided I needed to cross one more spur, confirmed when I saw Nellie coming the other way. Probably 5 more minutes lost in this charade.
7. The rest is more or less fine. Up the reentrant N of the marsh that is along the line, just S of the pond beyond it, up and over the renetrant to near the nest pond, then W to the trail following it as it switchbacked generally NW, to the junction then left on trail all the way. Saw Bill just behind me there.
8. Nice leg, NNW to the reentrant, then NW up the hill, crossing my track from 1 to 2, aiming left of the marsh and seeing the rocky knolls before the cliff and right into it.
9. Down to the top of the cliff pretty expeditiously. Oh, at the foot of a 4 m cliff. How to get down? Very carefully.
10. Followed stone wall right along the line. Got down to the area but searched a bit because the boulder was behind a rootstock.
F. A little slow on the trail.

A fine day, started cool but warming up fast.

Map

GREEN - Splits

First time in a while. Not bad, but had to charge the battery first.

W. Simsbury and W Granby excursion. Getting better. Nice to be out.

In the gym with Eric, usual stuff, plus one leg stand ups, GH raises

Dog walking at the lake. She had her stitches out first so she did some celebratory swimming and rolling around. Quite a fine day for the dog.

Warm day, and time to get a little more distance. Flirted with going further, but this was enough. Have to build up in the next 4 weeks for our trip in Croatia.

First shiitakes from the logs we put up the winter of 2017.

in the gym with Eric, more or less the usual stuff. A little tender in the R hip, otherwise ok.

With Rhonda. Her first ride of the year, I think.