Training Log Archive: Charlie

Birthday party for Cooper. Among the guests were Matt, Hua and Tai and hung out with them after.

This was not all that entertaining - walking by the lake on snow that was alternately icy and crusty,breaking through. Slipped a few times, but no falls.

This was it for the day. Rained hard all day and barely got out the door at all.

Went to see the podiatrist who operated on my toe 4 years ago to complain about the general state of my foot. He seemed a bit perplexed by it. Took an x-ray which he thought looked fine. Thought my plantar fascia was real tight, asked if I stretched. I stretch a lot. Then I explained to him what I thought was going on and he understood.

When I cut the tendon in 1980, the guy who repaired it made a pretty big error. Instead of re-attaching the tendon, he cut off the short end and pulled it through,thinking maybe it would stretch out, I guess. Well, no, it never did. And so I went through then next 30 years or so with a toe that angled down and a lot of associated pain. Then in about 2013 I tripped on a rock and broke the toe, right in the joint, and after another year this new guy figured that the right thing was to fuse the joint with a big screw and lift the toe up.

That worked,more or less, but with the current problem: pressure from the shortened tendon creates tension in the foot,and thereby screws up the calf and (I think) causes the constant strain up my R leg into the quad and hip.

What to do? He says he can lengthen the tendon, make a cut in it and slide it so it is a bit longer. Recovery is 3 weeks completely no weight bearing, and then maybe another 3 or 4 beyond that. I kind of want to try it, but it is a bit frightening, as any prior operations on this foot have turned out to have adverse results.

Not going to do it now, anyway. Too many reasons for me to not undergo that sort of operation now, places to go, uncertainty over Rhonda, etc. And maybe wouldn't do it until November or December. That's enough time to get another opinion on it.

dog loop with Sassy. I tried going out earlier with icebugs and gave up pretty soon, not liking post-holing through the crust much. Not as much a problem for her, as she mostly stayed on top. Cold, but pleasant enough. Some tracks from various neighbors who found their way in and walked parts of the trail. out and back.

Pleasant morning in sunny San Diego with George, Leslie, Sarah, Andy,
Forrest and Mia. Included a trip to the dog beach, where there was some impressive winter surf and plenty of canine hijinks, and a visit to Modern Times brewery, where Andy is the engineering manager - and then to the airport and home.

Brown course at Anza.

Nice day, just a bit overcast, good for running.

1. You could see people leaving the start for quite a way, but the first control was well out of sight, so beyond knowing the general direction of travel, plenty of navigation left to the leg. Could see the two hills, one well right of the line, and passed left of the one on the line and it's substantial rocky ground, up the spur, counting reentrants. This was fine.
2. Also fine,on compass and contouring along the side of the big hill, could see the small hill from a distance. Caught up to Bob Cooley just after.
3. Again on compass, over the top and down the reentrant. Further down than I was expecting it, getting a little anxious but there it was. I was past Bob by now and didn't see him again.
4. Up to the ridge line and could see the big hill in the distance,just a matter of getting there. As I got closer, saw Erin McDowell coming in from the left.
5. On compass, gentle sidehill, lots of small ups and downs. Distinctive bigger hill about 100 M short of control, so felt pretty confident. Erin and Johanna Merriss a bit ahead of me.
6. Long leg, struggling to catch up to and to keep up with Johanna and Erin. Trying to keep discipline with the compass, but drifting a bit right from time to time. I was looking for something distinctive to correspond to all the green dots on the map. I guess they were just ocotillo, but those are more or less everywhere, so not generally helpful. Anyway, finally got upon the big ridgeline, and there were quite a few people both right and left. Hesitated a bit, then noticed the big gully off to my left and assumed, correctly,that it would be at the top. So probably lost about 3 minutes here.
7. Along the ridgeline, trying to keep a rough pace count and checking the prior gully a bit. Fairly near the control I saw Erin heading back toward 6,last I saw of her.
8. On compass, and with my glasses and hat off, as I was starting to fog up quite a bit. Not a bad leg for pretty much flying blind.
9. Long slog up the hill, picking my way down the rocky gully to the control, which was almost all the way at the bottom.
10. North a couple of gullies then a climb up the one that faces directly E toward the control. From on top I could see the three line hill, but not the flag, and wondered if the clue meant the control would be at the bottom, or at the bottom of the top line. Anyway, decided to go for the bottom, and endured a steep descent first, which involved banging my knee into a cholla bush. Probably lost two minutes picking spines out of my knee. And the control turned out to be near the top, anyway, so back up.
11. Not my best work. Tried to go on compass and count spurs, but I seem to have drifted left and missed the right spur. Once it was clear to me I had gone too far I looked back and saw it quite a bit farther down the hill. Lost another 2 minutes here.
12. On compass, hoping for the best, and eventually I saw the finish banner.

Not bad overall, but as always, room for improvement. Apparently I only finished a minute or so behind George and Leslie, but they turned the wrong way out of the finish and showed up at the car about 45 minutes later. I was wondering.

Brown classic course

Brown Classic - Splits