Training Log Archive: PG

Maybe OK, not sure.

So the final ranking was --

1. Whitewater Draw (wonderful despite the wind)
2. San Pedro House (pretty good, but the wind...)
3. Ash Canyon B&B (virtually worthless)
4. Sierra Vista Wastewater Treatment Plant (worthless)

Yesterday's map (click on map for a larger version) --

The Achilles seemed to mellow out after breakfast, so off on another O' course, walking only of course. This one was a good bit easier -- fewer hills, less cactus, less rock. Got around in under an hour. And no acupuncture today.



And then late afternoon, the rest of the biathlon, down in Sierra Vista. Strong winds made it interesting -- both as to where the ball would go, and just trying to stand solidly enough to put a proper swing on it -- but one thing was sure, downwind it really went. My time was good (2:15), the score was good (82), and got done 10 minutes before it was too dark to see anything. Excellent.

Classic Green - Splits

O' course in Catalina SP north of Tucson, with a bit of acupuncture thrown in. Had planned to skip it, but Achilles suddenly was behaving itself, so figured I'd do some at a walk and see how it managed. Seemed to manage fine.

The O' was good fun, except for early on when I forgot you have to pay attention to exactly where you are going all the time. Brushed a cholla cactus and got two segments stuck to me, one above the left ankle, the other ouside of the knee. Stuck in pretty good.

Managed to extract them without doing further damage, though the process was reasonably painful. It certainly was motivation to not brush up against any more such things, and I didn't.

Otherwise, missed one control early on, just slightly off, a couple of minutes gone before I recovered. And I was very slow on several steep rocky slopes, really didn't want to take a tumble and impale myself again.

But good fun, and it was sunny, and 75F, and no snow in sight, and no one was going on about silly windchill factors. :-)

And then off to nearby Dove Mountain for the second half of the day's biathlon. Quite the course, the pros played the match-play champs here a couple of times recently, but apparently they complained a lot -- that it was too hard, especially the greens -- and the event has moved elsewhere.

Beautiful desert course, but the greens were certainly too hard for me too. Lots of big slopes, misread or mishit a putt and you could be 10 or 20 feet off instead of 2 or 3. Same held for any shots to the greens, whether from nearby or far off, the effective targets were tiny. I guess the O' equivalent would be no controls, just streamers, and maybe in the dark.

Nevertheless a fine afternoon, good company, no snow, no ice, no windchills. And I actually played pretty decently, 94, a lot of good shots but 41 putts and some extra chip shots too. It was quite clear that I do not have the game to take on such a challenge. But that doesn't mean you can't try, and have a good time in doing so.

A sense of the course (click on photo for a larger version), pin looks like it's not even on the green. Perfect drive, just a wedge was left but hung it out to the right, 3 putts (and even that was a challenge) --



And third shot to the green on a par 5, pin was in narrow back right corner. I was on the right side of the fairway, not a good angle, from there all you could see was the top of the pin over the cactus. Hit a good shot but a yard short, dropped in the little pot bunker, another bogey. But it sure was fun trying. And only one lost ball, and that on the 18th.

Long Green - Splits

A step forward, a step back. Achilles is acting up again.

C • :( 6

At the indoor track, a mile and a half to get the oil flowing.

And then 4x400 on a 2:30 cycle. Went about as expected, no worse, no better. 1:47, 1:45, 1:44, 1:42

Followed by an 800 that was intended to be twice that, but it didn't happen. 3:46

And an easier last half mile.

Overall, OK. About the right amount and intensity. Didn't feel great, but also didn't feel awful. And got it done. Now time to start running outdoors.

Seemed easy enough.

Much better today, didn't seem hard other than just taking a while. 9:04, 8:50, 8:49, 8:48, 8:00.

A bit of a struggle today, first time in a while. Felt a bit weak afterwards, like my blood sugar was low. But the benefit is not thinking about any other ailments. It's good to have limited mental capacity.

Treadmill again. 8:59, 8:27, 8:00, 8:27. Felt OK.

Been a decent week. Odds of running Boston, now 9 weeks off, are back up to 20%. Were less than 10% a couple of weeks ago. And the weight is starting to go in the right direction. Just have to keep at. There is a phrase I like when picking a pace at the track, comfortably hard. I think the proper phrase in this other context is pleasantly hungry.

I am making slow progress (let's be kind and put the emphasis on "progress") in restoring a little order to the chaos in the house, or at least my share of the chaos. Just about got all my clothes shaped up (organized or thrown out as needed). Some progress on paperwork. Some progress on closets.

Now confronting the chaos in my "office" -- for starters, maps strewn all over the place. So I grabbed a bunch that might be for 2014 to see if I could do my usual filing, one year per three-ring binder plus an index on the computer so that I can find stuff in the future. At the same time I update my index of non-O' races. The source for doing all this is, of course, perusing my log for the year.

And there's the rub, because I am immediately slowed down by running into log entries that I had forgotten about. Such as this from January 2014, looking ahead to plans for the year --

Sports things I'd like to do at some point in the future.

Been thinking about this a little. When the thinking takes place when I'm driving, or something similar, then it's easy to have ambitions. When the thinking takes place when I'm running, such as today, the proper reaction is -- whom am I kidding?

Anyway, on the list for 2014 --

-- O'Ringen (every fifth year syndrome, 70 this year, finish in the top 10? or 5?)

-- Either qualify for Boston 2015, or do another ultra if I can find the proper event (interesting, not too easy and not too hard, right time of year, early fall).

-- World Rogaine Champs (enjoy it, do as well as we can)

-- !0-mila (enjoy it, do as well as I can and the team can)

-- World Masters, though no idea if we will go

And beyond --

-- Run Boston again, but only if fit enough to enjoy it

-- Shoot my age (probably not possible for a few years, if then, closest this year was 7)

-- Finish off the NH 4,000-footers (only a couple left, pretty trivial goal)

-- Go play at some of the classic places (such as Bandon, St. Andrews)

Note that there is no North American orienteering on the list. Not that I don't enjoy it, not that I don't try to do my best, but it just is less important these days.

And also note that someplace and at some time there is lying in wait something that will happen that will end all this athletic foolishness. I hope to put it off for a while, but it's there. In the meantime, enjoying stuff becomes more and more important.

So the question is, how did I do? And it seems, not so bad.

Done -- O'Ringen (third), qualified for Boston (3:47, 4:25 was needed), WRC with Sandy (did as well as we could, and enjoyed it), 10-mila (enjoyed it, and team did great).

Not done -- World Masters in Brazil. Never really got interested. And then I was having my eyes done. Also, no progress on the 4,000-footers.

And for 2015 (and beyond)?

Seems like all four are still in contention. And also seems like, and this is something new, I really have no goals in O', other than perhaps to still be able to both do it and enjoy it. That is a change. I'm not sure if it is for the better or for the worse.

A little more this time, got it done OK I think.

Slower pace, no stopping. Being cautious, not the Achilles today but the arch. Twinged it last night walking around the house, the same feeling when you do something and all of a sudden your back or neck is complaining. Don't know what's really going on.

It seemed a little tender, but not hurting. So maybe OK. Give it a little extra magnesium. And the side benefit is no problems with the Achilles as all psychic concern was elsewhere.

At the Smith indoor track. Everything seemed hard. 1600s in 8:25, 7:55, and 7:59, good break between each. Last was alternating slightly faster and slower 200s, faster ones were 52, 54, 52, 50. Feeling tired, but glad I went. And one of these days I'll have to see if I can run more than a mile at a time.

Chatted for a bit at the end with another OF, actually not quite so old, 66. He and a friend come up twice a week from the Hartford area, only indoor track that they can get on. Nice fellow, a sprinter, best distance is the 200, does about 28 these days, though he says he's in the midst of changing his training to focus more on the "longer" distances (i.e. 400 and 800).

It is amusing to watch sprinters work out. Most of the time seems to be spent doing nothing, maybe a bit of easy stretching. And then every once in a while something short and fast. He was doing long stuff this morning, 300s. :-)

Thought about going to the track early, but no willpower. Usual on the treadmill. 9:00, 8:27, 7:55.

Usual pauses between miles. 9:05, 8:31, 8:00.

This week I've been stopping after each mile to check if the Achilles is still really good enough. Walk around a minute or two, then keep going. Would be nice to get back to regular training.

Life is good right now, in many ways.

Life is good right now, in many ways.

Time for an example. Or two.

In the past few days I have received a couple of e-mails that have put huge smiles on my face. There is a story behind each, different circumstances but similar situations.

The first story goes back maybe 15 years, around 2000. Time of the dot-com boom, followed shortly by the dot-com bust. I've always been one for investing rather than spending, and the boom was a great time, made lots of money, whereas the bust was not so great, lost a good bit of it back. The market fluctuates, nothing new there, though this was rather severe.

At the same time I got to be friends with a young man who had had a tough life, lots of problems, but was trying to turn things around. My sense was that there was a very good person inside.

His plan, or his hope, was to go to law school, but he had no funds. And right at the top of the boom I was flush, so I proposed that if he could get in a good school, I would fund it. I put the money aside. The timing was good, had it stayed invested I would have lost 2/3 of it in the next year or two. In years that followed I considered it one the best investments I had ever made.

He went to law school. Got a succession of good jobs, all in public interest law, working for the disenfranchised, doing good things. We were seldom in touch, he'd moved away, but every once in a while an e-mail would arrive letting me what he was doing.

The latest came this week. He is now director of all operations in his state for a large national non-profit. He wrote, in part:

"It has been challenging and rewarding. I’m extremely fortunate to be in this position, and expect to make big things happen. Of course, I would never be here without your confidence, encouragement, and support. I believe I am doing important, good work to honor your faith in me, and on good days I think even Thumper would approve."

How can this not make you feel good? We have no kids, so no college expenses, nor all the other expense of raising them, nor just the challenge of trying to raise them properly. So you look where else you can to make a difference.

I was listening to a podcast sometime not long ago, and there was an interview with a venture capitalist about how he decides whether or not to put money in a venture. And he said he looks much less at the business plan, and much more at the character of the person in charge -- not do I want to invest in the product or the idea, but do I want to invest in the person.

I think it's good to keep that in mind.

The story behind the other e-mail also goes back quite a few years, starting with a local non-profit dealing with teens and homelessness, where I was on the board and treasurer for a few years. But at some point I quit, having lost my trust in the executive director. Fast forward a few years, the ED had resigned in disgrace, also unfortunately leaving the agency rather badly in debt, including to the IRS and the state.

The new ED was a young fellow, he'd been second in command when I was on the board, so I'd known him for a long time and seen him under stress, and he was smart, very competent, and wise beyond his years. I asked around a bit over the summer as to the situation, then stopped in to see him early in the fall.

We spent quite a while going over everything -- operations, debt, personnel, and especially his own situation. Because mostly I was evaluating him, though he may not have realized it. And he passed with flying colors. Again, if I had ever had a son....

So time to step up, and this time the source of funds was some money of my mom's that had to go to charity when she died, and could go earlier if it made sense. And this made sense. We went back and forth with ideas -- not just how much to help, but how to structure things to get the most benefit to the organization, how to measure progress, what the long-term goals were, both for him and the organization. And made a deal.

A few months have passed. Yesterday's e-mail said, in part:

"I hope the new year is treating you well. I thought I would forward the attached board report to give a you a quick snapshot of how the year is going. It feels amazing, and somewhat surreal, to be in the financial and program position we are in right now. I often have to pinch myself to make sure that I’m not dreaming. Now the trick is to keep the forward momentum going. Bold, responsible and responsive steps for the future.

"Thanks for making this possible."

Maybe my 70s will not be all bad....

C • I love inspiring stories like this 3

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