Training Log Archive: Charlie

Hike at Peoples SF with Rhonda, Sassy and my cousin's son Jake. Jake is hanging with us for a few days while Matt is helping his sister Anne. Anne's husband Pete passed away last night. Very sad.

On the way back we saw a handsome bear walking along Ratlum Rd. Sassy made the most unusual and tortured sounds. Not quite barking, not really moaning. She was very excited.

Brown X at West Pt, day 2. A pretty good run, only one clunker, drifting downhill and off the map on the way to #5, lucky to figure out where I was. A couple of controls that were easy to find, but hard to get to. No physical problems today. Icebugs were a good footwear choice. Saw Katia a few times, moving fast, and Ching-Hua once. More interesting navigation than yesterday.

Map and Route.
1. A little flummoxed by the remote start. Stumbled a bit getting to it, and then thought it looked strange down there, started a 180, but only got a few meters before I turned around. Then still a little tentative crossing the hill on the other side of the road, but saw it from a distance. Quite a few folks around.
2. Aimed for the marsh, could see the rock feature from the middle of the marsh. No problem.
3. Probably other good ways to do it, but along the marsh was fine. R side seemed like better footing. Nothing to worry about until I hit the trail, but keeping track of the cliffs before the trail anyway. Easy.
4. OK, but got distracted by another larger cliff just below, seems not to be mapped.
5. Not my best work. Planned to go along under the cliffs, but I saw a lot more cliffs than were mapped and I wasn't paying enough attention. Ran right to the edge of the map before realizing I was lost. Went by the orange control on the cliff, decided I was in the big SW facing reentrant and recovered, although I had the damnedest time climbing in the cliffs to get to the control. Ed Kotowski was there, and Katia, who showed me a clean pair of heels. About 4 minute error here.
6. Struggling along, watching Katia disappear. Left of the marsh looked like the better footing. Surprised to see a control on the rootstock on the hill 150 M before the control, because I thought I was further. Lots more rock features here than mapped, but eventually found it.
7. Saw Ching-Hua, who had a different control, followed her a bit. I was confused by this control all the way, thought it would be higher. And of course there are many more cliffs. Finally got to a cliff I thought looked promising, Not there, but looked over the edge and there it was a couple of lines down. Not trivial to get there at all. Had to backtrack, climb down, slide on my butt. Lost a minute or two apparently.
8. Meant to go further right, but drifted. Through some laurel, hit the cliff by the little marsh and then angled to the stream. OK, now I know where I am. Around the two rocky spurs, then uphill. Caught up to Bob Bullions near the control.
9. Up through a gap in the cliffs on top, little open area with a faint trail, then saw the rocks on the left, dropped down and in from the NE. Met Katia again, coming in from the SW.
10. Drifted well right of the line, trying to force myself more N. Checked the orange control on the cliff one line up, even though I knew I was too high. And then found my cliff, which also seemed high to me, but I'm sure it was fine.
11. Easy leg, mostly because I was aiming for the stream past the two spurs that I had passed on the way to 8. Flag easy to see, but hard to get to, through the green, fallen trees.
12. Being careful, climbing over the hill, but then could see it.
F. Moving pretty well here.

C • Good job! 2

Sunday Classic, Brown X - Splits

Event: West Point A-meet
 

West Point Brown X course at Lake Frederick-Bull Pond. Navigation basically fine. I wore the Hokas because my legs were so sore, but that didn't work out so well, good for the legs, but not enough traction for wet rocks. I took a hard fall, mostly on my shoulder, but shook up a bit and slowed down after that. Then a bit later got a stick on the forehead, not much damage, but a lot of blood. So pretty beat up after, skipped the time-o and the maze.

Map and Route.
1. Stayed on the road to Lake Georgina, then up the reentrant - nice safe route.
2. Along the ridge for a ways, then could see the knolls up ahead R of the line. Briefly examined the knoll right of the control. I hadn't realized it was a knoll from the map because the circle cut off part of it, so I was thinking it should be a spur, so a little confused.
3. Left of the marsh, and could see the bag from a bit of a distance. Not sure why my time was slow on this leg, maybe just picking my way along the marsh.
4. Along the line through the green. Green was slow. Continued more or less on the line to the second trail, up the trail to where it bent N and then across the bare rock spur and on until I could see the big rock. Easy.
5. Tried to stay on a contour, but ended up climbing a line or two, then fumbled the control a bit because I got one rock face too low. Not bad.
6. More or less straight, a bit left of line, then down the reentrant and it was tucked around the corner.
7. Trail all the way to the long knoll, then along the edge of the knoll and in.
8. Back along the edge, through the patch of yellow, on compass. I could see the hill developing, spiked it nicely.
9. Feeling pretty confident, across the little reentrant and the knoll, then down the reentrant L of the line, saw the big rock up ahead, and then slipped on some wet rock and went down hard in the rocks. Got up and made it to the control, then started to feel a bit sore and woozy.
10. GPS track shows a lot of red, trying to shake off the fall, and pretty much walking exclusively in the rocks, also a little confused when I got there, stopped short and looked at it for a while. Lost about a minute or so.
11. Better, L of the line, left of the marsh, then more or less right to it.
12. Around the big cliff, straight in, could see the rock formation from a distance, but not flag tucked in at the base until I was right there.
13. Got to the circle, but fumbled a bit finding the right cliff. Lots of people there milling around.
14. Meant to go along the line, but drifted downhill a bit, and then had to go around the big cliff, and kept getting pulled left, so not that great a route. Also, somehow read the control as being in a reentrant, although that didn't cause much trouble. I could see the big boulder to my right, so knew I was on course.
15. Shortly after leaving 14 got a stick in the face, pulled off my glasses and got a lot of blood on the map (and elsewhere). Pretty disconcerting. Somehow it seemed like a good idea to go to the right and cross the marsh at the narrowest point, instead of left and around. Slow going on the other side and getting tired. Got past the top of the hill and started looking for it, although I still had thirty meters to go. Not that great.
16. Straight, easy. Nice when I bother to follow my compass.
17. Easy.

Had a nice conversation afterwards with Giovanni and Katia, and then joined by Anna S-S, who also speaks Italian. That was a nice surprise.

C • Time? 3

Saturday Classic, Brown X - Splits

Quite a bit of rolling in advance, and a trip to the hot tub, but hard to loosen this right leg up. Anyway, a good solid effort.

Checking my concept 2 log, I just passed a full day for the current rowing year, which comes to a close the end of this month, and logged 321,000 meters. A day is good.
Looking back further, I've had two previous years, 2005 and 2007, where I logged over 23 hours, but this is the first year I've logged 24, with 2 and a half weeks to go. I haven't always been meticulous, this year or others, about logging my workouts, so maybe I did more in another year. 1999 is likely to be my highest total, but it predates the Concept 2 log. My own record for it shows 542,000 meters and just under 38 hours. A lot of rowing that year, particularly as I was recovering from ankle surgery that winter.

C • Concept II 2

On the bike path north from rte 20 in Granby with Zack. Not a very auspicious start to the biking season. When we turned we learned that we had been enjoying a following wind on the way out, so a bit of a struggle coming back.

Two dog loops. Second one was unencumbered, as Sassy got a better offer and didn't come. Legs felt a bit dead, but still the best time this year so far. Woods drying out quite a bit.

Glad I didn't plan on any more. Feeling pretty slow and sore today. Beautiful day out, but didn't get out much.

Spent most of the morning in Springfield, visiting with my cousin's husband, who is in the hospital and quite sick. Nice guy, difficult to see him in this situation. Then plenty busy in the afternoon with work.

Couple of dog loops. Not much energy after late night, and perhaps still a bit stiff and tired from Sunday. A little faster the second loop, not because I was putting out any more effort, but because Sassy was letting me lead more.

Then right to the rings hanging from the beech tree and six pullups. A little stress in the upper back, so fine to stop there, and a little tenderness in the elbow after, but not too bad.