Training Log Archive: bl

10 miler, said I was going to do but had second thoughts as it was snowing & temp about 34F. Snow not sticking on road but wet & thru to skin after a while. Seemed the big flakes were always coming from ahead. To Brown Hill/Page Road corner of Bow, so some new things to keep mind occupied. Seemed like I was too often climbing a big hill. Last 2 miles on rutted dirt road in woods. Good to get inside & put something dry on. Could have used a change of shoes around 6 miles. Good to do, helps next Saturday's effort.

Brown Hill/Page Road

Fall competitions:
ROC US ultra-long champs & sprint
Boulder Dash (entered, did not make)
Rocky Woods
Boojum/Pine Hill
Blue Hills Traverse
UNO Beaver Brook

Went to SPS XC, considering 2 loops, maybe sub-15 but was cool in the hollow, took the first easy.

Surebridge (12/04), this time of year, offers nirvana...

Started the second thinking I'd break 15' but just did not feel like it - actually ran 100m, then said "no", went back got cell, beeper, car keys from under the log & took a slow jaunt thru SPS. Had felt energetic all am, probably could have summoned something but this is a dormant time of year & maybe a bit dormant myself, even if 13 mi O event next Saturday. Have a long run due for tomorrow.

C • Flying to MD? 2

Noon Fisk-Little Pond loop, 65F, tee and shorts, good enough energy. Was a
time when this run at noon seemed too long for time available.

Powder blue DP, not really December-like.

Birch8 loop with Diane. Little lumbago for some reason. Felt like a March or early April day, sans melting snow.

Noon, pleasant chit chat run with Diane, Water Tower loop. She offered (as I've been stalling) to buy me NB993's for 20% off, Red Shoe barn, Dover - and that is already $10 off my local store ($140 is a bit precious). About time I bought a new pair of shoes.

Once upon a time (when living in Newton much of the '70s), I regularly went to the New Balance factory in Brighton, MA to buy 'seconds' - perfectly fine shoes with some unapparent imperfection at half price. Those were days of CSU running. Members Tom & Dot Fitzgibbon would sponsor a 'soup run' from Hopkinton to their home in Newton (some 19 mi) late February as pre-Boston training. Dot worked at the NB factory. Have always found NB shoes comfortable and very satisfactory.

Noon Luti loop. Princess Di declared a Frizzy Hair
Day (spitting rain, raw) so was free to roam & run. Ran near a 4 level for
a tad of personal accountability. Heaven knows, there's so little of it
these days. Passed over the 2 mi mark on the course, so felt I had a decent
mile (gradual up, gradual down) split in line - started looking for next
just after 7' - never saw it, was certain I'd missed by 8:10 or so. Must
have been running so fast that a moment's distraction prevented my seeing
it.

Event: NEOC - Mt. Tom
 

Bear Brook fieldwork. Good weather, no leaves/optinmal visibility (I thought), no snow yet mentality, felt the call of fieldwork. Did the math for the Mt. Tom meet, 115 mi ea way & this activity won out (13.5 to car park, get out, go to work). UNO needs to map another 2 or so km2 for '11 BD (to be done amongst several members if no professional). This parcel is about 0.5 sqk, generally flat, contains 2 fields, one quite large, virtually no contours - the last suggests it might have logging history. Many thick patches of new white pine, much vegetation change & hard to map. Enter a wood with high pines towering over height-of-eye & higher new growth, find an old ride running down the center (yellow stripe but choked with thick briar). Then some rough open patches, spaces in stone walls for machinery passage & old ruts & the mapping & symbols used tell the story. First pass always seems like making acquaintance. Virtually no boulders in this section. Dogs found lots of ticks & obnoxiously chased a horse. Started 0930 & was after 12 before I knew it.

Hayes Marsh, Bear Brook

C • Perhaps a section to not pu... 2

Nottingcook loop after a few chores. Wanted a run as well. Another 50F day, November quite a warm month. Gunshot not 50 m away just as I was leaving forest - over an embankment by a stream - could not see hunter, sure gave me a start.