Training Log Archive: PG

Deer season (the shotgun part) is this week and next, so Phil and I ran in the Quabbin watershed where hunting is only allowed a couple of days (Thursday and Friday). Phil suggested we try some woods intervals. We quickly determined that running off-trail at any pace would get the heart going, as the ground was soft and there was a good bit of knee-high underbrush. So we did 5 x about 10 minutes of woods running with either some trail running or a moment to admire the scenery in between. Very fine training, and good practice trying to match up the terrain with the not so accurate 1:24,000 map.

With Walter on the trails south of his house in the Conway hills. First time on a mountain bike, think I'm still in one piece though I will surely have some sore places tomorrow. No crashes!

WCOC meet at Trout Brook Valley Routes/comments. Ran pretty well, pushing the effort the first 20 minutes, probably more than I should have. But hung in there pretty well. Rocky in places and very wet.

Blue - Splits

HVO local meet at Baileytown. Routes/comments. Good effort on reasonably rough terrain (rocky, blueberries in places, almost no trails).

Blue - Splits

With Charlie from his house on Ratlum Mountain, a nice loop around on trails that finished off with a 600' climb up the road from the SW. Actually, the whole run was hilly (there is no place in the vicinity that is flat), but the pace was quite gentle. Roads about 20-25 minutes, rest trails. Followed by a delicious Thanksgiving dinner!

In the hills north of Dry Hill Raod in Montague, just following snowmobile trails to see where they went -- Bare Hill, Quarrey Hill, around the east side of Pine Hill and down the spur, stopping short of the last houses on Dry Hill Rd., then past hill 271 and down into the Hannegan Brook drainage a ways, then back up and back. Bits and pieces of nice woods, ran off trail for about 10 minutes.

No O' training today (even forgot to take a map with me, left it in the car and was a couple of minutes out before I remembered and didn't feel like going back), so if Spike does any, he's got me. On the other hand, he's probably due for one of his mostly worthless 30-minute sessions on the indoor trainer....

Billygoat at Mt. Tom up through #14, then back to the parking lot (ran out of gas around 13, was starting to fall a bunch, and wisely decided to cut it short). But good for the first 75-90 minutes.

Blue Hills Traverse. Another good effort. Routes/comments. Also some comments in the split list.

Traverse - Splits

Little Blue Hills Traverse. Good hard effort, as fast as I could the whole way. Routes/comments.

Before and after.

Mass start - Splits

Sugar-Gunn loop, varying pace - hard up to the power line, then a bunch of strides with relaxed in between, then quick again at the end. Nice day, shorts and t-shirt, may not be too many more like that this year.

Loop around Mt. Toby, couple of tough hills (power line from North Mt. to Middle Mt, and up from the S curves to the hairpin). Felt ok, mostly.

Up to the power line and back. A few sore places....

WCOC meet in memory of Gari Williams at Paugusset SF. Routes/comments.

Red - Splits

Up to the power line and back. A dusting of fresh snow made everything pretty, and slippery.

Ran Billygoat course at Mt. Tom from April, hanging streamers for Leif. Got real tired towards the end, maybe lack of any food/water had something to do with it. Routes.
Interesting comparing splits with last time. First 4 controls (up, up, up) were all just as fast. Didn't skip 5 so that added about 7 minutes. 7,8, and 9 were all much slower, partly because I was checking to make sure I was putting the streamers in the right place and partly because in April I had hooked on to Kenny and Boris and they were zipping. Long leg to 10 was a little slower (had company last time), long leg to 11 was same time (alone before). After that I was pretty beat today and the times were all slower, but part of that was also due to going faster the last few controls in April trying to hold off Clint. It's always interesting what a little motivation will do.
Had one incident that makes me wonder where my brains have gone. Was almost done, saw a small branch about head high and brushed it aside with one hand. Hadn't seen the bigger branch right behind, which raked across my face right at eye level, removing my glasses and feeling like it had done a number on my right cornea.
Now looking for glasses is not so easy when you're very nearsighted and, of course, you don't have your glasses on. I scouted around for a couple of minutes with my head hovering about 10 inches off the ground, but no sign of them. I had a spare pair in the car, so I figured I'd mark the spot and then go get them and come back and hopefully have more luck. Tore off a piece of streamer tape, tied it onto the brnch that had zapped me, and lo and behold, there were my glasses hanging onto the branch.
This being the second time they had come off today (the first time I'd found them easily), I was determined to get smart and do what I had intended to do at the start -- tie a piece of the orange tape to the frame. So I took the long piece that I no longer needed to mark the spot and tied it to the side piece of the glasses and tried them on to see if it seemed ok. Fine, but of course there was a long end of the streamer hanging down, so I grabbed it and yanked and it didn't break, and I yanked harder, and then harder, and in the process of finally breaking the tape, my glasses flipped off and poked me quite unpleasantly in my left eye. How dumb can one be....
And as I write this this evening, the right eye is fine and the left eye is driving me nuts.

Up to the top of Bull Hill (39:10) and back (30:30), moderate pace going up, working hard on the way back. Cold season is coming, there was ice on any puddles left from the last rain.

Up to the power line and back. Stetched it out for a bit on the first part coming down.

On Mt. Toby with Phil. Lots of uphills until we reached the high point after about 50 minutes, then ventured off-trail a bunch of times on the way back, including some places I'd never been. Very fine outing.

Up to the power line, then up it to Middle Mt. Road, and back. Good effort, legs not feeling too bad.
Now comes the hard part - off to the memorial service for Gari this afternoon.

Up to the power line and back, relaxed pace.

With Phil in the Pelham hills. Nice run, included 10-15 minutes off trail, a good reminder to get more of that back into my running. Also good having a map, just the practice reading on the run.

Robert Frost loop on Mt. Toby, working hard. Legs were getting a little tight towards the end, but not too bad.