Training Log Archive: bl

Yesterday's episode in delusional thinking.

GPS route explained a few things - that make sense now. Little wonder I never saw the end of the pond. Turn around was because the path needed to take me up the hill - L hand path no longer existed. That's a lot of line o course to miss, especially when approached with equanimity & "let's nail this" part....

Event: UNO Well School
 

Event: NEOC: Breakheart Navigation Race
 

Breakheart Junior Fund raiser Score O: hot, hot day as expected. T showers much later. Was accurate - went to all the points w/o error to speak of. Only water stop I noted was my second to last flag - didn't stop there, was nearly done. So no water which was a first for nearly two hours in the heat. No water, no cramps until driving home.Then they hit with a vengeance - 20' stop at a Mobil for stretching & OJ. Then worse (manual shift prob exacerbated), culminating in the last few miles - wanted/needed to stop but no shade & no AC in car. Spent 2 hours on the bed with a fan & fluids - most times I moved my legs, a thigh cramp (right or left, anterior, posterior, medial lead to wincing & pleading... 'when this stops, I won't move for a very long time'. Finally, mostly abatement, sat up, got up walked & ok. Never so beset with cramps.

Only problem & it was a big one was the 17:57 split between 2 flags - the one before the line O & my first found line O point. I have one 7:48 & then nothing above 6' for the other 25 points. I came to start of line O. Knew I needed to really be sure where I was. Two small trails, a knoll to right with spur but it wasn't convincing - looked green & map showed white & knoll was pretty diffuse. Ran this way & that way & back to road. Even managed to get turned around. Then basic desperation...'OK, get to NW end of major pond' (just 100m in). No pond to be found...hmm. So, ok, get to road you know is north of you. Eventually did that & then same paths & on. Was not trusting with some paths missing on map or d/c'd. Did not get first 2 flags (did not know what I might have missed). My first flag was the high point halfway thru the line O, then got 3 more. Shame, shame... 305 trace shows the foolishness.

Fun perversion considering the heat. Many nice moments in the woods. Was brain dead enough not to note contours-only section - just thinking white woods & navigated just fine. Only when I got home & recovered & studied map, did I see the somewhat subtle nakedness of the contours-only section.

C • I had to stop for 30 minute... 6

Breakheart Score O - Splits

Trail making with BOS & other helpers in KRTF off Rob Rd. Forest acclimatization as well as heat exposure training. Got there around 9:40 - they'd been at it since 0800. Had to walk a fair distance to find them. 2.5 hrs of work left me tuckered - the others had been at it another 75'. We did about 85% of the job by length. Had Z&M along at their insistence on this hot day. Bob D cut a tree early on that fell pretty hard right along the trail, every one out of the way. After that, did not see M for quite sometime. Thought she was hanging out with others but finally her absence was impossible to miss. Not present!! Called Beth to drive the short distance to look where cars were parked. M had hightailed it, apparently at the time of the crashing tree. Made sense, she can be afraid of her shadow at times. Was back in lot by a station wagon (not ours) & went right to safety of guest room & stayed there when she got home with Beth.

A really nice part of KRTF...always thinking this might make a nice O map but never get beyond that. Well, did add it to UNO lidar list but project so far prohibitively expensive. Quite open with high canopy - would need very good base map as much is rolling. Another 90+F day.

Woodhill Hooksett loop around 6p. Still very warm but bit of a breeze at times & shady in Nottingcook. 91F at 7p. Encountered a car backing down WH downhill...too steep & rocky for this new vehicle. Two cheerful young women from Manchester out for "joy ride" with a pleasant mutt in the back. Never showed any annoyance - which abated anyway. There's too much abuse & littering going on though. Yet here was an activity that was legal & not particuarly abusive (maybe some potential for erosion in places). Just young people having fun. Cold hose shower at home & a fan for a few minutes, too.
Finally cool. Flashback to a hot dorm room on the Leigh campus, Memorial Day weekend, surprised to see it was 2008. Goodbye, May!

Entered Breakheart meet Sunday. Have been feeling a bit lost: BG, WP, EMPO spring buildup plus College Woods - then virtually nothing on the horizon til now.

PL DP, sun already warm at 7a. Walked to small swamp, now spilling across road from the rain. PL is glare & heat, here it's green & cool, last night's rain falling off the leaves, shafts of sun, ferns near peak.

Hammond NP with Beth & dogs in guise of looking over Boy Scout area for 6/4 BOS picnic. Forgot how lovely it is...best place in Bow for such - looks like something in a national park in the west with huge pines.

Run back, away from sun, mostly in shade but still somewhat cooked.

Noon at Memorial Field track - cool, overcast, ideal. Ran 8 laps, 3.2k
about same pace, 3 effort. Rare to run more than 4 - need to get used to
it & then run faster. Then some grass jogging & back inside NHH. Tomorrow noon it will be around 85F.

To Memorial environs & return.

Tony Mangan entering Darwin


"Nightscliff Beach Darwin At Long Last! A Long Way From Queenscliff, Melbourne"

Leaden legs - went to SPS, walked on XC course to track, walked once around & back to car. Also right calf was throbbing last night - the one I pulled at the Gunstock ski-O in Feb - so I heard the message.

Also a meditative day:
My boss (Ravi L since July, '04) died yesterday from a blood cancer. He was around 60. He was last at work on Dec 21st. I saw him once here after that when he came in to get something. He initially had low platelets and then across-the-board low blood cell indices. It seems that without a stem cell transplant, he had no chance. All the kings horses & all the king's men and medications were to no avail. He died on a fine day in May, his own Memorial Day.

Memorial Day, a fine day in May