Training Log Archive: CleverSky

NE Canoe-O Champs, Crow Island Assabet River, championship course, in Aims's J200. Probably the slowest boat to do the longest one, but also (I think) the only C-1, so I got to take home a shirt. I think this is the only time I've had a paddle in my hands since the canoe-O last summer, and that was the only time since Pawtuckaway the previous year (or has it maybe been even longer?). I haven't completely forgotten everything, so I'm still a mediocre paddler (as opposed to a horrible one). No real problems with boat handling, which was nice (no wind due to the sheltered river venue). The one error was a control on a pond away from the river (across a dirt road), where I initially went to the right, then spotted the control across the water and had to go the other way around, less than a minute lost, I think. Portaged on the first control instead of paddling down the little pond, and also portaged the long upstream leg to #6 -- probably 1500 meters or so of carrying the boat on my shoulders on that one. A competent showing, but nothing to get excited about. The 110 m of climb was real, as there was one control on top of a big hill. I was at a real disadvantage on that one, as the C2s could keep the boat moving while one person went up the hill.

Picking up some controls afterwards. Interesting AOWN/discovery moment at the last one, which was at a landing spot. As I got out of the boat, a snake that was curled up on the bank decided to hightail it out of there, but its normal escape route is into the water, so it suddenly leaped directly toward me and disappeared into the river in the vicinity of my ankles. Pretty cool!

Ahern State Park, Sprint #1. Pretty awful job of navigating, even the "spikes" weren't very fast, and the blown controls were real stinkers in a sprint context.

Ahern State park, Sprint #2. Navigation only slightly better, most notable miss being the last control, where I drifted so far left that I caught myself when I stumbled into control #1 (~45 degrees off). But I suppose it pays to pick your battles cleverly. I wasn't sure that I was psyched to drive all the way up to Laconia for this, but since there's so much else going on this weekend, the field was thin (Ernst was there, but injured), and I wound up winning both sprints, despite my abysmal performance. Perhaps more importantly, it was a rare day when Stephen didn't have to rehearse for anything, so I was able to persuade him to go along for the car ride despite the fact that he wasn't feeling well -- he does like to go orienteering when he gets a chance. When we got there, he decided to give the orienteering a try anyway, and turned in winning runs on White (uncontested) and Yellow (ahead of about 10 other entries). Nice job!

A bunch of walking with Nancy, from the Aquinnah bus stop down to the beach, then on the sand to the lighthouse and back twice, and back up to the bus stop, and later from Beetlebung Corner to Menemsha.

Oak Bluffs to Edgartown and back, riding MTB with slicks, with Nancy.

One of my brother's classic training rides from his high-school days, though starting at a different spot and I'm not sure exactly what route he used to take. Hot day, so I figured riding the Incubus would be more enjoyable than running. Wore my typical non-cyclist clothing, though in retrospect I probably would have been happier with gloves. I actually failed at the mountain, reaching a red-line on the heartrate that necessitated getting off the bike on the steep part about 1/3 of the way up. Pushed it for 50-100 yards, then started riding again, and also walked up the final steep pitch. Funny thing -- when I got on the bike to ride down, I noticed that I wasn't in the lowest gear, I was two sprockets up from that. I don't recall shifting up when I reached the parking lot, but surely I must have... Weird thing on the way home: in Greenville, I swear there's a sign that says "Fitchburg 13", and then a mile later when you get to Rte. 31, there's a sign that says "Fitchburg 14". Getting pretty tired near the end of this, and when I reached West Townsend it was hard to contemplate going over Bayberry Hill, and I considered going around, but I convinced myself to HTFU and do it, though I saved myself a little climb at the end by taking Old City Rd. and Holman St. Moving slow enough by then that I wasn't even outrunning the FDFs. A pretty fine outing.

Gilchrest St., down and up three times, just the steep part, i.e. turning around at the culvert just after 21 Valley Rd. Splits 1010 1107 1016. Pushed a bit on the third one to see if I could match my first one, and came pretty close.

Picking up a control that got left behind after Barb's school exercise yesterday at Boojum. There was a new fence up that stymied my plan of how to get to it, but I was able to drive around to a different entrance, and I had enough of the map stuffed into my head that I didn't need to turn on the computer to take another look to see how to go (granted, it was a White level control).

Ratlum, Sprint #1. Screwed up #2 prety badly because I mistook a gap in the laurel for a trail, and mistakenly thought I had gone a lot farther than I really had (and got caught by George, who had started after me). Small time losses here and there otherwise, though nothing too bad. Straight over the top on #8, and came out reasonably close to where I wanted to be. On #9, I got flummoxed by a streamer on the other side of the boulder, and thought the control had gone missing, but I spotted it on my way to the trail.

Ratlum, Sprint #3. Not perfect, but no errors big enough to constitute a miss. Glad that I did the tougher one first. A good enough performance to put me ahead of everybody except Marie on combined time, and therefore be crowned Laurel King!

Woke up with an unexpectedly uncomfortable sensation in my right hamstring (I think that's which muscle it is) and no idea what would have caused this. So I asked myself "WWPBD?", and decided to run up a mountain on my way home from flying. Didn't have a lot of time, so I picked a modest one, Pack Monadnock. The climb part of this was 17 minutes and change.

C • Wouldn't PB also really pus... 1