Training Log Archive: PG

Over to South Sugarloaf (14:51), up (9:02), back down (6:52), back home (14:29). Better than last week. Still a struggle on the hill, but legs just tired, not hurting. Beautful late afternoon, got to the top just at sunset, unfortunately now at about 4:40pm.

C • 6

Event: WCOC - US Team Fundraiser B-Meet & Sprint
 

WCOC meet at Tarrywile, Red course. Good run. Felt a little stronger than I have recently (and there were lots of hills), getting back into a little regular training. Beatiful day, nice course by Sergei, fundraiser for the Team. Routes/comments for this course and the sprint.

Sprint course at Tarrywile. Feeling a little tired, but not as bad as I expected. Good course.

C • sprinting... 2

Red - Splits

Sprint - Splits

Along the river to the town line (17:35) and back (16:44). A little quicker than I intended or expected.

Wtih Phil from Amethyst Brook over Mt. Orient and down to the first brook crossing. Struggling on the first long climb, legs (quads) sore/tired, working hard trying to keep up, which seemd to leave Phil quite delighted. Took a while to recover on the nice trail down to the brook. On the way back put in some effort to keep a decent pace on the way back up to the high point, then eased off coming down until at some point Phil said that we might not make it back in 30 minutes. That immediately forced him to surge ahead, which forced me to surge back, so the last 8 minutes or so were at pretty close to full speed. Ah, the foolish games we play. 35:30 out, 31:30 back.

Up to the power line (18:10) and back (13:26). A little easier/slower on the way up, meant I had to work a little harder coming back. Very wet, leaves really dropping and covering the rocks.

Over to South Sugarloaf, home is center of the map (15:12), up (9:30), back down (7:02), back home( 14:50). A struggle to run the whole way up, and in general a lot of work for a slow pace. But doing it is better than not doing it. One hill at a time....

Up to the power line (17:19) and back (13:49).

Event: Northeast Sprint Championships
 

Northeast Sprint Champs at Trout Brook Valley. Good run, started a little slowly, decided I better pick up the pace, but then didn't have any staying power on the uphills. But not too bad.

Sprint 2, similar to the first, good run, but a little feeble on the ups.

Sprint 3, about the same physically, which is perhaps encouraging as I didn't feel much worse than on the first 2 sprints. Mentally was another matter.... routes/comments.

With George, out to take another look at #5 from Sprint 3. Shouldn't have been the slightest problem.

C • orienteering w/ the kids.. 1

Sprint 1 - Splits

Sprint 2 - Splits

Sprint 3 - Splits

Stopped on the way back from Litchfield to run a little of the Tunxis Trail, heading north from 219 in Barkhamsted. Nice late afternoon, felt ok after I had been going a little, but only had in mind to do 30 minutes, so that's all I did.

C • Extra training 1

Stopped at the track just before dark. Plan was to run four quarters hard, and I managed it even though I felt like quitting after each one. 86.0, 83.4, 84.0, 83.9, with about 90 seconds rest between. Not much of a workout, but better than I was on the verge of doing (i.e. nothing).

Before and after, included a couple slightly faster 200s to shake out the legs.

Loop around town, flat. A struggle, legs sore/tired, marginally better towards the end. But better than doing nothing.

Went to Sugarloaf's Movie Night for two films. "Run Like a Girl," old footage from women's running over the past 40 years, and "Five Thousand Meters: Nothing Comes Easy," about 9 guys trying to make the Olympic 5K team in 2004. Both make you want to go train.

Why aren't there films like this about orienteering?

C • Because you need a better agent. 1

With Phil, Mill River to Atkins Reservoir (28:03) and back (24:07). Progressively harder pace. Nice to have company.

I have to say that there were a number of places where I spotted a rock or a log or a tree and had this image of my head making contact in an unpleasant way. A bit unsettling.

Up to the power line (17:54) and back (14:41). A struggle to run a slow pace. Quads felt sore, back a little sore afterwards.

Followed by a round of golf, notable for getting three 2's, one of them on a par 4. No, it wasn't miniature golf.

C • Not bad... 6

Ran out to the start a bit energetically since I was short of time. As usual, some waqrm-up is better than none, but that doesn't mean I always do it.

Day 2 at the Boulder Dash. Better than yesterday physically, put out a better effort. Still not working hard enough, but at least this was better.

Orienteering on the other hand was bad for the third straight time (WCOC local meet plus both days this weekend). That's not to say it was all bad -- had some decent stretches and a few moments of excellence (meaning I was moving well, in touch with the map, knew where I was going, all of which happens less often these days, if for no other reason than reading the map on the run in rough terrain gets harder and harder).

But it feels rather stupid to have worked harder than yesterday, and done some better orienteering than yesterday, but also have blown off about 6 minutes on one control. Losing my discipline, and getting burned. Routes and comments will be posted this evening.

By the way, this is about where I did my face plant last Sunday. The slope is steeper than it looks in the photo.

C • 6

Green Day 2 - Splits

Event: Boulder Dash
 

Normal birthday

UNO's Boulder Dash, Green course. A success and a failure. A success because I got out and did it and didn't inflict any more damage on myself. A failure because at times my orienteering was pretty crappy. But overall a success because no damage done.

More rain, what else is new, pretty hard overnight, looked like it was easing up as the morning progressed, but then pretty hard again while we were running. Very very wet in the woods. I just managed to get a contact in my injured eye, and my vision was mostly ok, and it was certainly better than wearing glasses.

Forest was very interesting. Visibility wasn't so good at times so O' was difficult. I botched a couple of controls, got off my bearing on one and got saved by a trail, on the other I just misread the map and overran my control. Probably lost about 5 minutes between the two. The rest of the time the combination of being extra careful, slippery rocks and deadfall, and low energy meant that I was moving real slow. Kilometer time is as bad as I've done in a long time.

I'll post my routes Sunday evening.

C • 2

Green Day 1 - Splits

Up Claybrook and North Mt., back Gunn Mt. and 47. Nice part of the day again, light rain. Legs not quite so bad.

Had the stiches taken out today. Not sure if my new look is more or less gorgeous, but head seems as sore as ever. Plan is to try orienteering tomorrow, though the idea of even brushing my head against something is very unappealing. We shall see.

Short road loop just to see if I could do any running. Head didn't really like the jarring but it was tolerable, especially if I concentrated on ignoring it. Rest of me felt old and fragile. But doing something is better than nothing. And it was a nice day, just light rain!

Interesting day. I had been tapering all week (lots of golf, no running) in anticipation of today, the Monroe Dunbar Brook trail race up in the NW corner of the state. It started to rain Friday evening, and it just kept raining, raining hard, for the next 36 hours. Something like 8 to 10 inches. But it stopped about daybreak today, and the WMAC webpage said nothing about canceling the race, though the message board did say that if you tried to cross the brook you'd be dead, and if you tried to use the rickity bridge, well you might be dead. The water was really ripping.

But it seemed the race was on, so off I went. The radio was full of news about flooding in Greenfield and people being evacuated from homes at 1:30 in the morning. but no news about the race. There were a couple of mudslides covering the road at one point, but you have a Subaru for things like that. And once I got there, there was a good crowd, and in fact the water was really ripping.

So they changed the course, still going in the usual clockwise direction over the top of Spruce Mountain and down to South Road, but then we turned right instead of left and hooked up with the way we had come up and went back that way. All of which was fine, and I was actually having a decent day, invigorated by the cool temperatures (about 50). And also feeling quite pleased with myself for a couple of pre-race moves -- I put my contacts on (both eyes, no nead to read a map) instead of wearing glasses so my vision was fine, and I'd tied my shoes on extra tight, so when they got wet, which happened right away (it seemed like we were under water for a lot of the course), the shoes still felt nice and snug, even going downhill.

So I was motoring pretty well, could see fine, shoes were fine, and going down the last steep, rooty, rocky, muddy, stream (oops, trail) at good rate of speed, not as fast as I used to do but moving nicely, when I slipped on something, and then I was airborne head first, and I have a memory of this fallen log right where I was heading and just enough time to think, "Oh, shit," and then wham, I made a direct hit on it with the upper right side of my face. I can't remember if I also had time to think, "I'm going to break my neck," or whether that was after the fact thinking I was lucky I hadn't.

I don't know what it feels like to get hit in the head by a baseball bat, but it can't be much different. I get myself up, hand up to the face, and it's full of blood, wipe it off, hand back to the face, it's full of blood again. Eyesight seems ok out of the left eye at least, the right one is a little blurry but I think it's just the blood. No other immediate damage. Since there is no alternative, back to the trail and finish the course, trying to keep some pressure on whatever I've done to my face to slow the bleeding. Fortunately there is little more than a mile left, and I am soon done.

They did a fine job at the finish, cleaning and patching me up, and not letting me look in the mirror ("You really don't want to look,") and then a friend drove me to the emergency room in Greenfield. Despite all the patching, the bleeding hadn't stopped, which I thought might help get me faster service at the ER. Which I thinhk it did, though I still spent 3 hours there, including quite a long time that it took the doctor to sew me up -- 40 stitches, 8 down inside the wound, 32 on the outside -- and then x-rays to see if anything in my head was broken. When they came back negative, Gail could finally take me home. Though not before I reminded the doc that I still had a contact in that eye. He figured he'd better get it out (for which they have ahandy little tool that is basically a teeny suction cup with a handle). But just getting my eye open far enough to get access to the contact was, well, let's say the doc said afterwards he enjoyed the sound effects.

If you've made it this far, then one warning, this photo is not for sensitive eyes.

C • 30

Run/hike from Rt. 2 up to the top of Massemett Mountain. Felt pretty feeble. 20:45 up (1060' climb), 13:10 down.

To New York City (and missing the Highlander) for the wedding of my first cousin, an opera singer.

C • 5

At Five Ponds in Litchfield, nice run down to the SE tip of the O map.