Training Log Archive: PG

Northeast Individual Champs hosted by EMPO at Thatcher SP. Another good run. Routes/comments.

Green Y - Splits

Northeast Relay Champs hosted by CNYO at Gilbert Lake. Good run. Routes/comments.

GreenY - Splits

Hanging streamers at Mt. Tom for Leif to run the Billygoat sprint from last spring. Hamstring a little off, glad not to be doing any more.

Sugar-Gunn loop with Phil, reasonable effort but still being cautious. Another perfect afternoon for running.

To the top of South Sugarloaf and back. Hamstring is mostly ok, but of course I haven't tried running fast(er) yet....

Back home, up to the power line and back, decent effort up, relaxed back. Beautiful late afternoon just before dark, leaves are all turning and falling. Definitely nicer than Texas.

Same route, by myself, a little harder.

Also went to 2 soccer games this weekend (my neice plays goalie for the U. of Texas team), both 1-0 overtime wins, the second over 6th ranked Kansas. She played good, even got an assist on the winning goal today.

Same as yesterday.

With my brother in Austin along the lake.

At my brother's in Austin, meandering around the neighborhood. Upper 80s and humid, terrible.....

Gentle run up to Gunn Mt. Road and back. Feeling old and creaky.

On the other hand, I amused myself for much of the way thinking abut my bet last weekend with Eglinski. Normally we have some form of friendly wager at O' races which I used to always try to structure so that I would win, but in recent times, due to his advancing age and questions of self-esteem, I have tried to structure so that he would win.

This past weekend we were on different red courses, and Saturday got by without a wager. For Sunday I offered my usual (we adjust for the different course lengths, and then he gets a bonus of 5 minutes), but he looked at the sad shape I was in and coutered with a new proposal -- if I could finish my course and then sometime in the following 2 weeks run for at least 20 minutes, well, I'd win the bet.

That seemed too much in my favor, so I couter-proposed that even if I met his requirements, he still had a chance to win if he could get his weight under 170 pounds by the end of the two-week period. I didn't know how much he weighed now (other than a lot more than he used to!), I asked Mary but she didn't know, but Spike said a recent number was 174. Perfect.

So I've done my part. I trust Spike will make an honest effort. Last I saw he was already off to a good start -- when he saw that I'd finished on Sunday, it obviously worried him enough that he got out of the line for an extra hotdog.

11 days to go. Is 169 doable? Do we need to get Nadim, the master of weight issues, to drop in on Spike in Kansas City and put him on the scale? We shall see....

Day 2. Legs a little sore but not bad at all. Certainly put out more effort today and legs didn't feel too sore afterwards, but again felt rather weak. Don't know if it's the lack of recent training, or just that's it's been a long season. Or maybe after a birthday on Friday the legs started behaving like they were a decade older.

Again a clean run. Routes and comments.

Red Y - Splits

Day 1 at Telemark, Red Y course (M45). Really didn't know what to expect as far as my legs were concerned. The plan was to run, but as gently as possible, and see how it went.

Actually went fine, though I must have said to myself 20 times, "Slow, careful, relax...." This was hard to do especially toward the end, when the orienteering got pretty easy and was mostly on roads, but I kept it at a shuffle. But the hamstring felt no worse at the finish. My conditioning, on the other hand, didn't feel so good, as I was feeling quite weak walkimg the uphills.

The orienteering seemed pretty easy, no mistakes.

Red Y Day 1 - Splits

Checked out the model area at Telemark with Gail. Relaxed walk, trying not to hurt myself.

Old Deerfield - River Road loop. Steady breeze from the south made going out easy, coming back a grind.

To Montague, back along the river.

Hanging streamers for Leif to run the short Blue course at Mt. Tom from the day before the Billygoat last April. Walking/jogging first half, then hamstring objected to one stumble. Walked thereafter, hamstring feeling sore again. Not terrible, but set things back either a little or a lot, not sure.

Little bits of running, but still not comfortable. Better going uphill, landing on toes.

Up to Lake Wyola and back.

Thought I'd try running a bit, but that lasted only a minute before I decided it would do more harm than good.

An easy walk. Hamstring is slowly getting better, but still too soon to try any running. Biking seems to loosen it up.

Leverett loop, good hard effort, quite windy.

Harriman, again. Glad I took the bike, got a couple of nice rides and not so much time standing around....

In Harriman State Park.

Leverett loop, decent effort. Hamstring still sore but biking doesn't seem to bother it.