Training Log Archive: bl

SPS after work. Same start as Monday. Came back thru the woods to avoid an abhorrent out-back on the road. Mild. GPS didn't work for some reason.

Great Hill summit for the moon rise with Beth which was mostly obscured by cloud but decent enough to count. Haven't missed since October's. This was the 3rd supermoon in a row tho too obscured to be impressive. We encountered a woman hiking back. I thought to ask her if she was interested in seeing the moon rise, minutes away, but a bit too late. She was moving quickly. Jan 1 & 31 were full moon days. 12/3 was also the UNO mtg.

SPS, fine March-like day. Had not been there in several months. Not able to jog any distance. Not "inspirationally dressed" for it either but close. First 0.4 mi not recorded, added on. The pleasantest people encountered were the dog walkers.

continuous stairs

Lex & Pete Bundschuh's Snowshoe party last night. Maybe twenty met in a muddy parking lot at Silver Lake SP. It was mild and calm. The trail was fairly good, some ice, mud and water but easily enough avoidable. We spent close to half the time in the open, a grassy field with virtually no snow. There was a pause for a shot of liqueur at the high point. Then back to the house for the social side with Pete's first stopping to light his brush pile.

Started walking in Concord neighborhoods when I realized I wasn't going to get a haircut w/ a lot of time on meter. Then spent the rest of the time at the Y.

Last night marked a year to the day for the valve surgery. Ironically, I was in Boston for dinner, on Park St., on the edge of Beacon Hill. MGH is about diagonally opposite on the other side of Beacon Hill. The dinner attended was similar to last years but with different speaker. Couldn't make it then because it was about two days post-op.

Have not "walked away" from this as I'd expected. The arterial issue is part of the problem but still, CV stamina is not there, which is not what I expected.

The Commons & Gardens were well enough lit. Holiday lights in the trees still. An ice skating rink in action tho very little snow on the ground. Surrounding buildings and streets all attractively ablaze with city life. Cold, with some wind, but quite fun to be there and quite the contrast to the spring Marathon days we've experienced there.

C • Boston 2

The list of Super Bowl Sunday movies (10 years+), not entirely recoverable and probably out of order (fm Feb, 2012):

1 Titanic (first for sure and was the movie to see c. '97)
2. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
3. The Thin Red Line
4. A Beautiful Mind
5. Lord of the Rings
6. one eve we stayed home
4 Girl with the Pearl Earring
5. Saving Private Ryan
7. the year we went the wrong weekend...
8. Million Dollar Baby
9. Slumdog Millionaire
10. The King's Speech
11. The Descendants ('12)
12. ? ('13)
13. NZ ('14)
14. The Imitation Game ('15)
15. The Finest Hour ('16)
16. No mention but about a week post op
17. Post ('18)

Still a lot of ice today, at least around the house. Had a cover over a car in the drive that was itself covered by a waterproof tarp. I removed the latter when I saw the clearing sky around sunset. But freezing rain returned and the cover was frozen and stiff this morning. Had to bring it inside to get rid of the ice layer and finally to the basement for drying.

To end of Stoneybrook & back a bit after dark. Clearing, near half moon. It was a rainy, dreary day, beginning with a layer of ice. The walk and drive were a sheet of ice. Went to the garage a few times in microspikes. When I went out for the walk, I had running shoes on. Not falling was the challenge.
Sanded after.

Raw, spitting day with rain on the way (and a blow to the snow).

At BHS - surface more uneven than I'd considered - where wind and shade acted and did not. Maybe 40% of the track was useful.

Ice fishing on Turee, almost Currier & Ives but too few people. Heard a January robin. Around 40F.

Went back to BHS in pm. A lot of snow had melted over the track. Interesting to see how little cover works for skate glide - 1/2" of wet corn snow over a hard, flat surface was good for a few easy passes. Tried out one of the soccer fields. Where groomed, it wasn't so good but more smooth, soft <2" crust over grass worked pretty good.

End of day at Y. Low 40s peasant. Promising at BHS infield for morning crust possibilities.

Noted last time skiing at BB was 2/6/2016, on the route I'd intended yesterday. Nothing like visiting such a place say 4 times a month for keeping in touch. Last winter was valve repair season so no go. A # of '06 winter BB visits were warm days for foot O.

Went to Bear Brook to try classic. Started from Podunk pkng & took trail to E of the road at headquarters that goes to the camp ground. I'd done this quite a few times but not in a few years. Came to one intersection (sign said Hemlock Tr., -1). Took it, thinking it might be part of what I'd done before but had forgotten. Went a few hundred meters toward a large hemlock tree line and knew this was new. Started back as I had a long enough ski planned. Then, however, I decided to give it a try - something new and flexibility was fine. Under the thick, high canopy, the snow was pretty thin and skis occ hit dirt, a root or rock. There were some fresh ski tracks. At one point, I had to return to pick up a dropped hat. Skis had to come off a # of times due to too thin a layer of snow. The trail led across a steep slope for quite a bit in a really fine section of high hemlocks.

Finally, came to a jct that said Hemlock Tr. to L (& no tracks) and Pine Pitch with one set of tracks straight. My cell battery had surprisingly dropped right off about 15' before with the relative cold and Strava usage so I could not determine where I was relative to the road. Was not pleased with the uncertainty. It was all unfamiliar - not on the BB map, so I returned to the original intersection, walking and skiing, rather than get to the next jct and risk more uncertainty. Got back there 33' later. Returned to Podunk pkng. Had run out of time. Did check the kiosk map and noted that Hemlock was a MTB trail and was able to find the intersection where I turned around.

C • XC adventure 7

Token at BHS. Went there around 5:30, chewed up groomed but good time.
Decent light from parking lot. Mild.

About 5" snow last night and over course of day. Went out east end of house thru the pines & hemlocks, a fair amount of dodging & stepping over. Probably is quite good on a BHS field with this new cover over icy base but wasn't inclined to drive there.

Fortunately light and easy to move aside.

Appointment with vascular surgeon today who leaves it to me as my femoral blockage is not such as requires removal or even leads to her recommending a focal endarterectomy. But if I want to continue a lifestyle that includes efforts like orienteering or just plain 10'/mi jogging, giving this a try is indicated. My choice obviously. Last night @ BHS reminded me that sx are just a reasonable CV effort away. No date set though.

At BHS. Went home from work, took a nap, then out to get something done. BPL then stopped at the high school. Such a good place to exercise after dark - no traffic and well lit at either end with a nice dark mid-portion. Obviously well-plowed when called for. Pleasant 30F. Haven't stressed CV system much to speak of. OOB pretty good with uphill start. Much of the rest was jog-walk which managed to bring on RL weakness, something I haven't done in quite some time. Have a vascular surgery appt tomorrow so at least felt good about updating symptomatology. Last time I did this loop had to be pre-op, easily more than a year ago. Will have to look with consideration for CV status. I'm sure I was better than. This is about the best I can do min/mi time.

Real run on the Y these days. Cold, cold wx, then rain and right now, skiing not possible. Could run outside though but haven't.

GNC weekend brings back memories of the great escape from the frozen north to, hopefully, fair GA weather...in which to keep the low O flame burning til spring came north.

I recall going to one GNC a weekend before a major southeast US ice storm.

Nottingcook walk with Beth from BBR end of WHR. The microspikes we had proved to be necessary. It is so refreshing to be in winter woods on such a day tho it was cold in shadow which was just about the entire time. We visited the open field to see if any dumping. Nothing new - mattress still there maybe 3 yrs now & some old appliances. Walked the trail we’ve leaf blown in past almost to the end and then back on the road which was uneven, full of recently frozen puddles from wheeled vehicles etc. Snow is generally hard enough to be able to walk just about anywhere.

Pretty much a repeat of yesterday. Day started as dreary-looking as can be but within the hour, sky was blue, sun brightening up the landscape. Then the temp plummeted over the course of the day to 10F or so, back to winter.

Treadmill at Y. Rainy day - actually a downpour on the way home from BPL
around 6pm. Mist-fog and oncoming lights made me hesitate a few times while driving. If the snow must go, at least nice to have the salt washed away.

At CHS on community tracks. Stopped by at noon. It looked most inviting. Returned after dark having gone home for Mocha etc. Beth in Burlington.
Several others out, 3 with headlamps but there was adequate ambient light.
Current normal winter temps are most welcome for this brief period. Fcst for 50 Friday. It would be nice to have some skiing consistency.

Token from Stoneybrook trailhead. Nice enough surface. I like these woods and fact that they are so close helps, too. One party of 6 snow mobilers and another of 2. Wished I'd left a car home for Beth in order to not have to return
the way I came.

Token ski behind Audubon. Empty parking surrounded by high snow banks. The hardest part was getting over the snow bank! Open woods, a bit windy. Did a short loop, eventually finding tracks which returned to parking more easily than departing.

Best would have been in our local woods on snow mobile pack. Took Mocha to Stoneybrook for just that but she did not care for the lack of firm enough footing & lay down on the trail and then in the middle of the road so we packed it up & went home.

Treadmill.

More shoveling. 13" per local paper, but dry & light. Car shopping used up the afternoon and, unexpectedly, we made a deposit on a 2012 Volvo station wagon. I never expected that we would view a clean shiny vehicle given recent weather. I was expecting a snow-covered lump. But perhaps car dealer lots have the greatest concentration of clean, shiny cars in the area, regardless of the awful weather. Salt-caked cars are about all there is on the roads. Windy & very cold all day.

C • newish car. 2

Snow shoveling & roof raking after work. About 8" in a NE blizzard.

I went to Rye Harbor yesterday. It was picture-perfect: calm, sunny, comparatively warm. At the time of the boat haul in late October, there was a Tu into Wed gale and then a Sunday into Monday storm. 24 or fewer hours before, it was the proverbial calm before as is today.

Y after work.

I've been looking for time to get to Bear Brook for classic skiing. Cold-induced lassitude has been a factor. And almost a year post-op, not being what I'd expected to be is probably a bigger factor.

This late Dec-early Jan. time frame is most notable for the very cold and the very bright (moon light).

Shucks. I would have joined you. Something like the blind leading the blind. This old guy on today's NYT front page caught my attention as I was leaving the local bookstore this eve. Surely more appeal to this. Come back alive anyway:-)

Not to beat this into the ground, but Phil's "winter nighttime ascent" jesting and coach's "why women live longer" brought back memory of this lady hiker/mountaineer from 2015. A very interesting read..."She died where the wind left her". Read it to the end.

Went to Great Hill summit with Beth to see the moon rise which was at 4:20. Passed the same vantage as yesterday with no cloud on the western horizon so a different “painting” tonight. It was windy atop Great Hill and it was nice to drop down to the sheltered spur to wait for the moon rise. Coming back, we could see and did not need any light. Just plain frigid each & every day the past week or so.

Cold weather companion

Moonrise

Morning walk with Mocha again to Stoneybrook - identical to yesterday.
Considered Parsons but the new house construction (hadn’t been there in 6 mo) removed any appeal. Also, encountering snowmobiles was possible. M was more bouncy each day and we walked a bit farther each time.

Pack Monadnock, Monadnock, Crotched Mt.