Training Log Archive: CleverSky

Helping Stephen move from West Hartford to Middletown (CT). His old place ("The Dump") was on the second floor, and his new place ("The Ridge") is on the third. We did a good job with packing the vehicles: we did one trip with a 9-foot U-Haul van plus my Crosstrek, and a second trip with the Crosstrek and the Vibe. In between we brought a few thigs down to drop them off in North Haven. We arrived at The Dump at about 3:45 PM, figuring that we'd be better off working in the evening than in the heat of the day, but it was still pretty hot. I think it was still over 80 when we headed home close to midnight. Most of the stuff was pretty easy to move, the one exception being this sectional couch thing that he has that's very hard to move through doorways or around corners. All that's left for Stephen today is a few small items and cleaning supplies.

Wandering around the south side of town at a pretty relaxed pace, on some little-traveled roads, and some more familiar ones. The best choice with so many FDFs around.

10 ring pullups. Charlie has been doing some of this lately, so I figured maybe I should, too. The last one was kind of tough.

(Putting in the comments because I'll probably forget them by the time Garmin Connect recovers. I'll be interested to see where I went.)

Squannacook River WMA. I timed this well, it had rained hard during the afternoon, then I saw on the radar that I had a break, and near the end of the ride I heard some thunder and it rained again on the drive home. Temperature was okay but it was wicked humid and my glasses were fogged to the point of uselessness pretty much the whole time. About halfway through it occurred to me that I was going by the stretch of the river that I paddled last month. Flat and easy riding, quite relaxing. Some of the trails were nice and wide and grassy, but with a narrow gap in the grass, and others were very narrow and I was continuously hitting wet vegetation on both sides. There were a few puddles, but it wasn't really muddy.

Last time I rode this bike, there was an annoying clunking coming from the front end, and I had forgotten to do something about it. Still there, of course, but it was hard to figure out where it was coming from. Seemed like a loose headset, but the headset wasn't loose. I did manage to diagnose it while riding. Turned out it wasn't from the front at all. I made the mistake of putting the multitool into the little saddlebag before the spare tube, and every time I hit a bump, the tool would bang against the seatpost.

C • Interested to see where I went 3

WIth Nancy, around the Westford Schools campus, In The Dim. Starting to sprinkle when I picked her up, increasing as we went along (no big deal since we were mostly under trees), and steady rain when we finished and went for ice cream.

My Garmin FR10 seems to have completely croaked. Won't connect or charge. So I went on ebay and bought another (used) one for $15 plus shipping.

Out on the Incubus again, a little cooler today than yesterday, and a bit more of a plan in my head. I don't think I'd ever been through Timberlee Park the back way before; I used to deliver newspapers there when I was a kid, but that was before they built the Zodiac section. Curiously, almost the same amount of climb, and exactly the same speed as yesterday.

On the Incubus. Hot day outsude, and in the afternoon it was heating up inside my house as well, so I started out with the primary motivation simply being to generate a breeze, and I was taking it easy, though I put in a little more effort later. I often look at a map before I go for a ride and come up with a loop of a suitable length, but today I was just making it up as I went along.

J Harry Rich State Forest with Nancy, In The Dim. After an oppressive day which we spent mostly indoors, we went out for some takeout food, and because the sunset didn't look like it would be great, we went down by the river for a walk once it cooled down very slightly. Then the sunset looked like it would be good after all. Oh well. I had been thinking of hitting this place for a while, so it was nice to do it. Brought a little flashlight but didn't quite need to use it. There was a pretty good breeze, which made it almost tolerable. My watch ran out of juice, so I grabbed Nancy's track.

Afterwards we got ice cream and then went out to see the comet, which we spotted for the third night in a row. And with Nancy's binoculars, I was just barely able to see the four moons of Jupiter.