Training Log Archive: CleverSky

Pearl Hill to Willard Brook and back, just trying to do something to shake the crud out of my lungs. I did manage to make a loop of it this time, which is a little more pleasing. Not icy, not quite slushy, but enough soft snow that it wasn't exactly good footing. Not quite as far as last time, and surprisingly a little faster. It's going to be really wet out in the woods for quite a while. I think the Billygoat is going to be a jog, which is too bad, since I like that area.

Usually the sore throat comes at the beginning of the cold for me, but this time it didn't show up until later, likely due to iritation from coughing. Had to take twice as much Excedrin today as I typically ever take, and used a lot of tiger balm, and took some cough syrup, and sucked on a lot of cough drops, but managed to be a well-behaved audience member as the show that Stephen was in took one of the three winning spots in the statewide high school theater competition -- I watched half of the fourteen finalists last night and today. Just as well I didn't sign up for Kentucky, I would have been in awful condition for it (and looking at the map, it doesn't look like my kind of terrain anyway).

Down to about half the rate on cough drops. Got the batteries changed on Mom's heart today (outpatient procedure), so she should be good for another five years.

The day of chain-sucking cough drops.

Wasn't sure if I'd make it to work today, but I dragged myself in and did manage to accomplish some things. Apparently nobody at work can tell I'm sick unless I say so. This probably either means that I'm pretty tough and manage to cover it well, or I'm a total wuss because I'm not actually very sick.

Outwardly I think I probably seem pretty okay. I am still functioning, but moderately miserable on the inside. Alternating aspirin and acetaminophen, plus sudafed, and tons of Tiger Balm. Let's hope things improve tomorrow.

A cold.

Downhill skiing at Sunapee with Nancy (tix courtesy of Lex). Nancy's opinion was that it was decent conditions -- for January. After yesterday's balmy weather, I kind of had it in my head that it would be similar, and even checking the forecast this morning didn't get me in the right mindset when I packed clothes. I was basically okay except that I really should have brought a face mask. It was 15-20 F, but with a ripping NW wind that wasn't bad on the lift (at our backs) but was less fun going down the slopes. Not much loose snow over a frozen base. But you can't complain too much. We only did about a half-day's worth of skiing (6-8 runs, didn't keep track), and also spent some time evaluating the situation with Nicole's fender-bender and getting the car towed to a repair shop. (And meeting her new beau.)

Up Watatic and back with Patti, via the longer but less steep route both ways. Footing was relatively poor, due to people having postholed sections, and some slippery spots where there was just the thin overnight snow on top of blue ice. At least the snow melted on my driveway so I didn't have to shovel or anything.

Somewhere on the Pacific coast, a documentary film director who is also a simulated war correspondent decides to get a haircut, and flies across the country to do so. Although this does not set wheels in motion, it does affect the direction in which they are steered. Speculative, but certainly not impossible. Meanwhile, with digitization complete, momentum should be conserved with a move to either windows and tiles, or RC. Or both, of course, why not be ambitious? But this is unrelated.

Well, despite the fact that I thought I hadn't been up on those trails in Willard Brook in a very long time, it appears that my memory is a little porous, and in fact I had. At a sort of interesting juncture, though we won't go into that.

Had a headache last night, woke up with a headache, had a headache all day, and it didn't respond to any of my normal treatment regimen, so I figured maybe I should try getting more oxygen into my bloodstream. Looked out the window and it appeared to be drizzling, and I figured it would probably turn to rain. Temp in the mid 30s. Utterly miserable. Around this point my back started to stiffen up really badly. Yeah, let's do it.

Snowmobile tracks seemed like the best bet, and I figured Pearl Hill was where there would have been the most traffic. Headed out on a trail that I haven't been on in about 20 years, if ever. Very nice, gently uphill the whole way, and therefore easier on the way back. I tried a side trail on the return in the hope that I could make a little loop out of it, but I got to a spot where there hadn't been enough traffic to pack the snow, and I was postholing, so I went back. The snow was a little soft, not quite wet enough to be slushy, and there was no ice. And the drizzle turned to flurries (which later on eventually accumulated just a little).

My head didn't really bother me while I was running, but the headache definitely isn't gone. I suspect I may actually be sick, but that my immune system is doing a pretty good job of fighting off whatever it is.

Like most people, I could use more intelligence. I think it would be tacky to try and acquire it, but maybe it will find me. There would seem to be two route choices, but the map is pretty vague, and I'm not sure either is actually passable. The metaphor is somewhat short on dimensions, though -- there's a quantum physics effect by which choosing one route can alter the other. Either path could lead into a swamp, as could neither.

Across Holman, then I went to the other side of the Mulpus following other snowshoe tracks, back to the bridge, then the Mulpus loop (which was entirely untracked). Some flurries, mostly sunny, and warm out, just below freezing, so the hat and gloves came off pretty quick.

Forgot to mention a weird AOWN moment from yesterday: in Vermont, I though I saw a turkey standing on the side of the road (on the paved shoulder), but when I got closer, I saw it was actually a vulture. Not eating anything, just standing there. When I drove by in the other direction a couple of hours later, it was still there, looking maybe a bit more ruffled.

C • Vulture 5

Variety can be safely forgotten, and that would be wise. Meanwhile, it's (II)! Somehow, that pleases me more. What became of Ruby? Wha?

Kingdom Valley, aka Ken Walker's house. Spur of the moment decision to go, tossed a bunch of gear and the car and drove to Vermont. I started with the Long sprint, using my skating skis. I put some liquid shoe polish wax on them, which gave me more glide than I knew what to do with on this steep area. I brought my canoe-O map holder which I hung around my neck with clip leads, but they didn't hold, so I just stuffed the board in my jacket and pulled it out periodically. Screwed up the first control (unused to the map scale, and headed for the last control instead of the first), and the navigation wasn't too terrible after that.

Decided to switch to snowshoes for the Middle sprint, but when I went to the car I realized that I had forgotten them in the garage. So I pulled out the old waxless skis instead. This went marginally better, as I was able to climb better and they were more controllable on the downhills. Screwed up the first one again (not paying attention) and made a few other dumb mistakes.

"Quiet" as a euphemism can have quite different meanings. What is the opposite of "analogy"? Job is neither the opposite of nor quite like cake, since you can have it and be it too (but of course, you are what you eat). At some point, I need to get some kinda bounce, though. Can I say that I haven't? When I figure out why the two out of the three are so seemingly unreachable, I'll be less anxious.

Perhaps oddly synchronized with a broken filling, I got filled-in off schedule, with some basic but unimportant details lost in the fuzziness, but the overall gist more than adequate. Something apparently went terribly, incomprehensibly wrong. Thus haunted by images cascading from an abandoned shopping cart, I was also able to find red carpet photos prompting the future viewing of Michael Moore movies, and embarked on a search of historical documents that ended up deeper than I expected, into the serious dark ages of marginal legibility. Maybe cathartic, maybe disruptive, definitely reburied. Almost entirely irrelevant, really, though the balancing concept makes me wince. Dig through enough data and it's easy to find illusory connections, but Glen's asking if I can stuff a basketball was unquestionably weird. It's very possible to get everything and end up with nothing, if the boat remains level until it goes over the waterfall.

An inch or so of wet stuff didn't blow all that well, but the plow crud got flung great. After that, I spent the listed time with a shovel cleaning up spots that the blower doesn't get to very well, and chipping up large pieces of ice, which got a lot of black asphalt showing.

Snow dealings, round 9a: blowed a couple of inches of overnight snow off of the driveway. Hardly seems worth mentioning. My mailbox post has emerged, looks like maybe the metal pole conducted heat up from the ground to melt a little snow, but it will still be a while before I reattach the mailbox and resume delivery.

On the way to work, there was a delay at the intersection of 225 and Mulpus road, where somebody had managed to tip a Jeep over on its side. You'd think that by this point in the winter people would know better, but the actual circumstances could be complicated, I suppose.

A little stroll in the woods at Cathedral of the Pines with Patti. Mostly unbroken snow except for a section on a snowmobile route. The lake was more packed/scoured and easier going, but the wind was a little harsh. Used the Finlandia skis. Pretty fun speed spike (real) near the end.

Once around the main loop at Pearl Hill, on the snowmobile tracks. No glide, probably should have waxed or something. Used the Karhu skis.