Training Log Archive: PG

So I get an e-mail from Barb last Thursday, the start of an exchange of very short messages over the next three days:

Monadnock hike -- Any interest in joining me for a hike up the white dot trail Monday morning starting at 5:40 a.m.?

Sure.

Cool. Do you have any of that sticky spray yet, and blue cups?

Are you thinking we should try out the blue cups Monday morning? If so, then I certainly hope you bring your camera.

Yes, that is what I am thinking.

Is there any reason to expect there will actually be any FDFs out and about? And why exactly 5:40 am?

No reason to expect FDFs. If I start the hike at 5:40, then I can make it to work at 10:00. So maybe we should meet at 5:30 to deal with the cups. If you can handle it.

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So I'm up at 3:15, a nice big breakfast (4 pieces of toast and jam, an apple, two scrambled aggs, a glass of OJ, cup of decaf, glass of water, vitamin pills...). And head off just as the sky is starting to lighten. I've already assembled the key ingrediants over the weekend, the bright blue cups, the sticky stuff, and a way of mounting them to the caps. And as long as there are two of us coneheads, well, I don't feel self-conscious at all.

Meet at 5:30. Apply the sticky stuff, on with caps. Not a soul around to laugh at us. Nor are there any FDFs around. As I've said, I think they've heard the rumors.

A very pleasant hike, hard work on the way up keeping up to Barb since I've 17 pounds in the pack (including a pair of ankle weights, headlamp, 3 liters of water, extra clothing, food, a few ibuprofen), you just never know what you might need. A very thorough and well-presented explanation of the whole range of vertical pacing concepts presented by PG, not sure how much of it registered, though I am pretty sure that more of it registered than was the case at 6 am at the rogaine, when I asked Barb to bring me up to speed on genes, DNA, chromosomes, and various other very small things I keep reading about, and she explained a lot and I, well, let's just say I'm not yet ready to take a multiple=choice quiz on the the subject.

And various other topics of conversation, including how long it takes to get to the top, and she didn't know, which really surprised me, but she guessed maybe an hour and 20 minutes up, an hour down.

So we reached the top in 51 minutes. And I was feeling it. Time for photos. And also to check the blue cups for kills. So far I had snagged one lonely mosquito and little bits of leaves and twigs from not ducking enough under a branch. But the cups sure were stylish.


A couple ibuprofen for her complaining knees. And back down at a very mellow pace, about an hour. Talking, among other things, about her kid's school and how cool the education model is, and Barb's plans for O' outings in the fall, when she's planning some new adventures for the kids that she hopes will include me and Jeff Saeger and other "O' gurus." Hmmm.

And then we're down. And she went off to inspect JJ's strawberry patch, and I headed a mile down the road to play a round at Shattuck....

C • All play 1

C • Hat 4

.... where it took me longer than expected to play, because my game was, let's say, shaky, and I had to hit the little white thing quite a few more times than I hoped, and also had to attempt a number of search and rescue operations in the woods, not all of which were successful.

And all the time I'm rewarded with such nice views of Monadnock, and I start thinking, you know, I paid 3 bucks for a trail permit and it's good all day, and it would be possible to knock the cost per round-trip down to a buck fifty....

.... so I head back to the state park, and head up again, this time no pack, and I'm sure quite dehydrated even though I polish off a couple of bottles of water. Zip up to the top (about 1800' net climb, with a couple dips along the way, and very, very rocky) as quick as I can.

Get up there and note that the population at the top has changed substantially from the earlier trip -- was 2 people with an average age of 53, now probably 200 with an average age of maybe 15. Just as glad I don't have my blue hat on now.... :-)

And then back down at a very careful jog, really trying to be careful, and even so within about 200 meters of the top my right foot catches a crack in the sloping rock slab and the ankle rolls more than it wants, and Damn, that hurts, and I'm hopping on the left foot for a few steps.

It's not so bad that I stop, but it twinges on every step, and I'm not happy, and I'm even less happy thinking how far I've got to go down. But this has happened before, and it seems like it's worse than I might wish, but also not so bad as it might be, probably in the category of slowly fading away over the next 10 minutes and then hurting quite a bit the next day. So I keep going, very careful and very nervous now, especially on all the drops, and it slowly gets better as expected, and I don't roll it again, and by the bottom I'm moving pretty well, quite aggressively actually.

But for a moment I thought, it's going to be a long way down hopping on one foot.

Pretty beat by the end, on my feet for 7 hours, but the quads felt good on the downhill. Stopped for a quart of chocolate milk on the way home, yummy, then barely made it back without dozing off.

A fine day....

And, Phil, the blue cups are ready.

Forgot one other thing. On the first trip up and down, Barb was in front setting the pace, me behind. And so I wasn't paying much attention to where we were, or where we were going, just enjoying the company (and trying not to fall over backwards when I lost my footing). All of a sudden we were at the top. And then somewhat later, oh, here we are at the bottom. Almost no recollection of the trail, the terrain, etc.

On the second trip, the powers of observation/concentration were back on, and it felt like I hadn't been there before. And from this trip I have very distinct recollections of the trail, the terrain, etc.

Amazing the difference.

But both very enjoyable trips.

C • How many lines? 3

C • I'm game 8