Training Log Archive: GlenT

Substitute instructor. Plenty of hip work.

From the Y. Partly sunny when I started. Seven minutes later it started to rain lightly and continued for the rest of the run. At least it was warm (60s). Saw a good-sized snapping turtle on someone's lawn and then a great blue heron.

Didn't feel like running. Walked, at 4-4.5 mph and 2-3% grade.

Class is now characterized as "yoga" rather than "yoga/pilates" since Emily is now listed as the regular instructor. That's fine by me since it seems that fewer push ups are involved.

From the Y - South on Michael Rd to Elliot. Shout cut by the middle school then north on Rt. 4 and back to the Y via the nursing home. More time on Rt. 4 than I'd prefer but at least the shoulder is wide. Bright sun, low 50's - tough to beat that.

Event: HVO Silas Condict
 

Event: Explore the Sanctuary, Westmoreland Sanctuary, HVO event
 

HVO event at Westmoreland - Red course (7.0km SL, 300m). New map of area by Greg Balter (completely new, lidar base). Courses by Balter too. Mostly open woods with occassional blowdown/deadfall, rockiness underfoot and plenty of rock detail (quite well mapped but had to pretty much stop to read it all). Some trails were difficult to spot because of leaf cover.

An OK run after the first three controls. Took the wrong trail out of the start and added a significant climb to recover. Sloppy on 2 and 3 and took a while to figure things out. Hesitations on 4 and 5, trying to get them right. Fine the rest of the course but probably left 12 - 15 minutes out there on 1 to 5. Stefan Slutsky caught up to me at 11 and we raced for the next few controls until I burned out after 14. Fun to run hard for a bit.

Temps in the upper 40s/low 50s so good for running. Warmer than last weekend.

Big rubber ball.

From the Y. Ventured across Rt. 4. Legs felt OK.

Weights. The stretching parts felt pretty good (and not as painful as I expected).

Walk around the neighborhood with Janet to get some blood flowing through the leg muscles. Heart rate seems bogus, as does the climb.

Event: Hudson Highlander XVIII
 

Event: EMPO --Thacher State Park
 

Hudson Highlander XVIII. Start on Surebridge, trail run on Surebridge, O loop on Rockhouse, finish on Sebego. Very nice course by Kseniya with help from Balter. Quite cold with temps in the 30's and low 40's - some snow pellets while I was on the Rockhouse map.

Finished. Tired. Sore. More when I download the FR.

My 17th Highlander finish (missed the first one). A pretty good run navigationally with about 10 minutes total lost on controls 11, 13 and 18. Also had what may have been suboptimal route choices on 2 (the hilly trail rather than the flat one further west), 5 (around to the south rather than over) and 31(trail and across the dam rather than parking lot and trail to west - although since I wasn't running at this point my route was probably fine).

The race started on the Surebridge Mountain map (at 1:10000 thankfully) with on orienteering section to the north enf of the map and then a trail run back south. The first leg was the King of the Mountain but I kept my pace appropriate for a six hour race. Was behind J-J for the last part of this leg and then until the trail junction at Times Square. Pretty much alone for 2-5 except for the group of three cadets who I saw a few times at controls planning their next leg. I think Tori wasn't far behind on the trail to 2. Kseniya went by on the way to 4 (had she made an error on her own course or did she start late?). Tori caught up on the way to 6 and we then flip-flopped until the aid station at 9.

Trail run was 9-10 - Tori left the aid station before me and I didn't see her again. Jeremy went by just before we reached Alan Young checking off runners at the top of the hill and the three cadets went by about midway. Not surprisingly, I caught no one. The trail run was pretty gnarly with lots of ups and downs and rocky footing but with a quite nice section right at the end approaching Lake Skannatati (downhill and less rocky).

Chatted a bit with George and Betsy Hawes while I refueled at the aid station and then proceeded onto the next section on Rockhouse Mountain. I was alone for 11 - 13. Bobbled 11 because I was still eating a Gu and didn't switch back into orienteering mode until after I crossed the power line and realized I wasn't sure where I was. OK to 12 and then headed in the direction of 13 (note to self: not an adequate plan) but failed to climb so got pushed off line to the left. Sort of recovered by forcing myself to the SE into the big reentrant, but remained a bit nebulous as to exactly where I was. And lots of other stuff was going on during this leg: I spotted a 6-point buck, as I slogged through the blueberry bushes my legs gave their first hint that if I kept doing this they would cramp and then snow pellets started falling. But, I still needed to get to 13. With a combination of reading the somewhat subtle contour detail and vegetation along with some luck, I found the ditch near the control, which got me to the control. Stina got to the control a bit ahead of me and then I caught up to her at 14 and we flip-flopped until I bobbled 18. As I was leaving 13 I heard voices and saw Phil, Charlie, Peggy and Bernie (and I assume Nadim, although I don't recall actually seeing him). I tweeked the effort up a bit knowing that a group working together might be able to catch me. They didn't know that I had already been to the control, so I might have drawn them off. Apparently I was able to keep moving a little faster than them, so I didn't see them again until the finish.

The last loop was on the Sebago Beach map, starting with an aid station and map exchange (control 19) near the parking area. Navigation on this loop was generally easier and there was less blueberry on this map than on Rockhouse, both very welcome. I was alone for the entire loop except for seeing several people passing in the opposite direction: Stina (as she was just leaving the aid station at 19), J-J, Daniel, Jeremy, Peter Z., Janet and Donna (on the road as I headed to 25) and then Ian heading south as I was going to 31 (WTF? - oh yeah, probably started late). I walked for most of the loop since my legs kept telling me they were going to cramp (and did once). Just kept moving along, trying to navigate cleanly and enjoying the woods.

A very fine production by the HVO crew (and additional volunteers). Thanks to all who helped.

HL - Splits

Weights. Triceps will probably hurt tomorrow.

Neighborhoods around the Y.

From the Y around the neighborhood.

Headed up to Hanover after having spent the night at Compass Point, the Bundschuh's "cabin" about 15 minutes from where the O meet was (Fall colors and the setting were absolutely spectacular.) Wandered around the Storrs Pond/Oak Hill map looking fo places to hide O-flags. Too early to hang streamers but have now seen most of the areas where courses will probably go. Very nice day - sunny and upper 60's.

Boulder Dash Day 2 at Harris Center near Hancock, NH - Green course (5.2km SL, 225m climb). Overlapping with yesterday's terrain except with more and bigger rocks if that's possible. Nice course by Alar - very technical start, a 1.5k route choice leg and then some more tecnical stuff to finish up.

Several smallish errors (all < 2 min) so an OK run. Hesitant (and very careful) to #2 but still missed by a bit. Overshot 3 and relocated on the hill beyond it. Lost contact part way on the long leg to 7 but recovered fairly quickly by heading north to the trail and taking it te rest of the way. Intended to take the trail back to 8 but crossed it without seeing it and hit a piece of stone wall almost to the road. Worked my way back to the trail and was OK the rest of the way to 8. After executing well on the way to 11, I lost time in the circle misreading some rock as I approached. Probably lost about 8 minutes overall. 2nd M60 (and 2nd two day total time). 8th overall on Green.

Sunday - Day 2 - Green - Splits

Event: UNO Boulder Dash
 

Day 1 of UNO Boulber Dash on Harris Center map near Hancock, NH - Green course (SL 5.0k with 165m climb). Lots of boulders, some "in-your-face" vegetation (affecting visibility some) and 2.5m contours. Partly cloudy and ~50F. New England orienteering at its best!

Had a pretty good run, losing a couple of minutes each on 8 and 12 and then about 1.5 min on the last control (still not sure what happened there - I know I didn't see the wall leading to the clearing until I doubled back to it). On both 8 and 12 I lost contact briefly in the middle of the legs but managed to get relocated fairly quickly. 1st M60, 4th on Green. Tim P fastest at 59. Tony M about 2:30 behind me with far more time lost to mistakes.

Saturday - Day 1 - Green - Splits

Weights.

At Ooms Conservation area - mostly on mowed grass trails. Perfect weather - 62F and sunny. Significant color in the leaves but not to peak yet.

From the Y. Sunny, upper 60s.

AOWN - Not at yoga class but on the drive to get there, spotted a bear crossing the road about a quarter mile up the road. Guess we should wait a while to fill the bird feeders.

Lots of help picking up controls, so didn't have to do any myself - thanks to all those who helped (Mark and Barb D, Rick and Linda Worner/Kohn, Gabor Bobok, Pete Dady, Shawn Forney, Stina Bridgeman, Pete Bundschuh, Charlie Shabazian and Jim Hall). All controls out of the woods and everything cleaned up by about 4pm. Time to decompress and sleep.

Waking up 16 controls in the NE section of the map, coming in from Fifty Six Road. ~45F when I started at 7:15am. Was hoping to see the moose whose droppings I had seen during earlier visits to the area, but no luck. Inadvertently stopped the watch for a few minutes between the 6th and 7th controls, but didn't bother to adjust the time or distance.

Event: "O" in the Pines A meet
 

Waking up 10 controls in the SE corner of the map on Saturday morning. Includes about 1.5 km of trail running out and about that much coming back,so the per km time looks pretty good. Overcast and 50ish, so very nice for running.

Picking up 6 controls in the SE, including one water stop (dumped 4 out of the 5 gal we had placed there).

Spent the afternoon at Pineridge helping set things up that weren't between the Start triangle and Finish circle.

Bags and SI units in the NE section.

SI units on the Day 2 W and Y courses. Just about done.