Training Log Archive: PG

Beautiful day, in celebration of Gail's birthday we took a trip to the NW corner of the state to go see an exhibit of works by Picasso and Degas at the Clark Museum in Williamstown. Mostly disappointing, the premise seemed a stretch, and the works on display were mostly not so interesting, though there still were several fine Picasso's. I guess no one wants to loan out their really good stuff.

Better, and also at the Clark, was a very small exhibit of works by JuanMuñoz. Never heard of him before, but it was quite cool and definitely more interesting than the P/D exhibit. Though, as you might expect given the star-centered nature of our society, the P/D exhibit was very crowded and the Muñoz was almost deserted.

And then, since it was right nearby in North Adams, we went to Mass MOCA, which I'd never been to, but which I'd heard referred to as the Museum of Big Art, alternatively the Museum of Bad Art.

Well, it was quite spectacular. Many more things that were wonderful than awful (contrary to my expectations), even the entire building given over to Sol LeWitt's wall drawings was pretty cool -- in the course of half an hour I changed from being quite dismissive to very much enjoying it.

Be warned, however -- if you want to see the exhibit, it will only be there until 2033, so don't tarry too long....

The one thing we missed out on, for lack of quick thinking (i.e. signing up on the spot to be Mass MOCA members), or maybe because it was late afternoon and we were starting to get hungry, was the members' reception for the opening of a new show, the artist in this case being Leonard Nimoy. Yup, he was there. Yup, we could have met him. Though I imagine that would have been a much bigger deal to some other APers we know.

The flip side of missing Mr. Nimoy was that we got the last unreserved table at Cafe Martin in Shelburne Falls. And finished things off with a very delicious and rich piece of chocolate birthday cake.

C • Thanks for the review 9

Nice break in the weather, mid-70s, almost cold. Up in the hills on the west side of the valley, nice loop, and the only ratty pavement was in Shelburne Falls and a little bit in Whately, maybe 2 or 3 miles at most.

So Phil wants to do another century. Sounds like a fine idea, but there are lots to chose from, including all sorts of possibilities of the make-up-your-own-route variety.

Easy pace to South Deerfield and Whately. Very windy.

Some stress in my life right now that I would be happy without, but I guess I can't complain since it's my choice. Trying to increase the return on an investment over what has been offered. We shall see.

To Greenfield and back. Into the wind the whole way, or so it felt....

The following is not intended as any form of criticism, but rather as a statement of concern that what we are doing is not the best approach....

The subject is relays. We have a US Relay Champs, but it is sort of a second-class championships under the current system.

This year's relay champs were in Colorado last Tuesday, part of the Rocky Mountain Orienteering Festival which ran from Saturday July 17 to Wednesday July 21. From all I heard, the maps and courses were great.

But when I look at the results of the relay I see only 16 teams, and only 10 of them are eligible, 2 in the 4-point class, 3 in the 8-point class, and 5 in the 12-point class. That's not very many. And not enough.

I'm not blaming anyone or anything for this. I'm just wondering what should be done to get more vibrancy in this championship event. Is it a matter of scheduling? Or insufficient PR? Or that nobody gives a shit? Or that in our individualistic orienteering world, most people don't like relays?

And as I look around at what's going on in this country, I don't see many other relays being held this year. In fact I don't see any other relays, though I haven't really searched. And this strikes me also as not a good situation.

Do we do something to revitalize the relays? And if so, what?

Or do we just let them fade away?

C • Relays 25

No time to bike today because I had stuff on in the morning, a PT appointment and a tax appointment midday, and a golf match in the afternoon. Yup, a silly golf match.

Which ended up, as in most other golf-related stuff, just like orienteering. Meaning ---

1. If you hang your head and give up after a mistake, you guarantee that you won't do well. And we all make mistakes.

2. In orienteering, the only thing that really matters is your time. That defines you on that day. Talk all you want, you did what your time was.

And in golf, of course, all that matters is your score. Excuses are worthless. Easy to make but worthless. And all the would'ves and should'ves and could'ves are equally worthless.

So today, with a variety of miscues on both sides mixed in with a few moments of reasonable skill, I missed early and often, trailed most of the way, only caught up at the top of the chute, and out-kicked him on the way in.

So now I have to play another silly match....

I'd taken three days off, one planned, the next two because of rain, which wouldn't bother some folks but I have not yet reached the point of being willing to head out when it is wet. And my heels and Achilles tendons still hurt so running was out of the question. So I thought I would be well rested. Perhaps I was, but I still felt like crap.

A longer ride, up to Brattleboro on the east side of the valley (Millers Falls, Northfield, Hinsdale NH), back mostly right down Rt 5 (Guilford, Bernardston, Greenfield, Deerfield), which you might think was stupid, major highway, heavy traffic, but I-91 gets all the through traffic and 5 not much, and the pavement is good, and there is often a shoulder.

The only problem was that I was wasted by the time I got to Brattleboro. Into the wind most of the way there, but really that just meant I was going slower, not working harder. Just one of those days. At least I had the wind with me coming back, only reason I made it.

I suppose the one good thing was I missed running over the skunk by about 2 feet. It was already dead, but I didn't notice it until it was almost too late....

Stopped twice to refuel (both fluids and just mentally), once in Brattleboro, once in Greenfield. Economic observation of the day was I paid $1.52 for a roughly 24-ounce soda in Brattleboro (fountain style, so I could get some ice) and 63 cents for the same thing in Greenfield. Counting the cost of the cup, I guess the first place made about $1.45 off me, the second only 55 cents. Either way it was worth it, the alternative was a call home and begging for Gail to come pick me up.

Ended up drinking 3 quarts, still lost 4 pounds, which I figure means I sweated off 5 quarts. Yikes. Maybe I'm getting too old for this shit....

Obviously you can get this by clicking on the little globe, but I just like it front and center....

C • Bike route 2

Almost done, added maps and comments for 2002 to 2010, missing results from 1984, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2010 and one map 1988 (plus I want to get better scans for the 2008 maps)....

The recently completed North Americans and a rainy afternoon has gotten me inspired to dig into the archives for a little bit of history of the event, though my history only starts in 1975, the first year I attended. I think there were one or two early editions, but I'm not sure.

We'll see how far I get, it may take a while....

Map of event locations.

1975
Bear Brook State Park, Allenstown, NH. M21 -- day 1, day 2. A color map (there weren't many)! First time orienteering outside of Quantico-land, I was surprised to find marshes and ponds at the top of hills. Also summer vegetation and the bugs were out, this was late May. Not many memories, but I do recall looking for #9 the first day forever, and the the second day being so excited to find #4 that I celebrated quite a bit on the way to 5 and quite soon had no idea where I was. Finished 6th.

The map was wonderful at the time. A year later, now living in NEOC-land, I set courses for an A meet there and discovered the map had its problems, though I still enjoyed going there a bunch of times because it was the best we had. Now it would be considered atrocious. But somehow people managed.

Partial results, page 1, page 2. There might be a few familiar names, though quite a bit younger.

1977
Brownsburg, Quebec -- M21, day 1, day 2. Day 1 was very straightforward, or to use maybe a more appropriate word, idiotic, such as leg 6-7. The woods weren't great, but most of the time the best routes were out on the trails or fields. Seemed at the time like a waste of a day. Day 2 was different, cold and hard rain for starters. The woods, it turned out, were quite awful, lots and lots of rocks, very slippery, quite miserable, though my main recollection from the day was going through the farmyard just before #11, about a foot deep in cow muck. I just kept running, tried not to think about it, or fall. And the day as a whole, well, it made you think back fondly to the first day....

The map for day 2 is in pretty bad shape. The course has almost faded away completely. Those were the days when the punch card was in the map cases, so everything got wet real fast. A close look will show the points along my route.

Partial results, page 1, page 2. Note Pam James winning F12.

1980
Brecksville, Ohio, M35 -- day 1, day 2. That's the end of the M21 maps as I always ran in my age group from now on. This was also the first year of the BK cup, so I managed to duck out on any responsibilities in that regard....

The two days on M35 show how different the orienteering can be depending on the course setter. Day 1 was relatively flat and definitely fast. The main hazard was getting across the golf course (I can't believe they had permission, the golfers didn't seem real happy). The second day was "across the grain," up and down, and repeat and repeat. Had on-and-off company from a young Tom Hollowell for the last half of the course, he was much faster going up but I'd gain it back on the free fall going down.

Finding the results will take a trip to the basement....

.... but thanks to Gene Wee, here they are. :-)

1982
Carbury, Manitoba, M35 -- day 1, day 2. I was chatting a week ago with Jim Webster, event director of the 2010 NA Champs,and it turns out he was event director in 1982 (the only other time we won the BK cup!). They had the Canadian Champs the weekend before this, also in the sand hills of Manitoba (wonderful terrain), and at that point, a week before the North Americans, it seemed like it might be a good idea to put together a little organization for the following weekend. So everything was a bit of a scramble, though the only thing I remember being amazed at was the map.

It had apparently been at least somewhat fieldchecked. It seemed unclear whether that had made it better or worse. The contours were a little flaky, the vegetation mapping was quite terrible, the trails were shaky. I do believe the north lines were accurate. :-)

The orienteering still was really fun, as long as you knew where you were.

And on the back of my day two, the all-important calculation for the BK cup --



It really should go in the Orienteering Hall of Fame (if we still had one).

Results -- part 1, part 2.

1984
Harriman SP, NY, M40 -- day 1, day 2. Boy, looking at this map, and I think it was the second area in Harriman to be mapped, after Silvermine for the US Champs in 1979, it sure reminds me of the major challenge -- just reading the map. The regular contour lines were very faint, and the small (but very useful) trails were hard to see too. I look at it now and wonder how I (or anyone else) managed at all. Younger eyes, I guess, plus focus on the big features.

I think I got beat on Day 1 by one second by a visiting Scandi. Unfortunately that was the only day that counted as #4 on day 2 went missing part way through the morning. But it was still fine orienteering, probably the best it's ever been at Sebago, as over the years the vegetation has grown up (that's for sure) and the hills have gotten bigger (that's maybe).

1986
Coulson, Ontario, M40 -- day 1, day 2. I have almost no recollection of this place. I think it's one of a number of places I've orienteered more or less north from Toronto, perfectly OK but very nondescript. I think maybe there were "issues" (the map? a questionable control or two?) but maybe I am imagining that. I think it was hot, but I may be imagining that too. I really don't have a clue, though it seems like I went to all the points without many detours. So I guess it was a fine event!

Results -- part 1, part 2.


1988
Hickory Run SP, Pennsylvania, M40 -- day 1 (day 2 seems to be missing, will have to search....). First time at Hickory Run, have been back there several times since and enjoyed it. One of those successful times when a club (DVOA in this case) maps an area quite a distance from its home turf, and then they use it a lot over the following years. As opposed to, perhaps, the North Americans in 1982 (Manitoba) or 1986 (Coulson, Ontario), where I wonder if the areas were ever used again.

Zero memories of my runs, and no routes marked on the map (that's pretty stupid in retrospect), so all I can assume now is that I spiked them all. :-)

One memory of the weekend was meeting a Norwegian in my class, Ivar Opsahl. Kept in touch, saw him a bunch of times in the following years. I do recall he had a hard time dealing with getting beaten by an American.... :-)

Wish I'd done that more -- make connections -- because you tend to keep showing up at the same events as the years go by. And it's nice to know people.

Results -- part 1, part 2.


1990
Beaver Lake, Caroline, Alberta, M45 -- day 1, day 2. Oil country northwest of Calgary, also interesting terrain. At some point you figured out that things mapped as small ponds, or uncrossable marshes, or crossable open marshes, or crossable wooded marshes, were all basically the same thing, and you should just avoid them. And the woods were a little scruffy. So routes were a matter of linking up as much as possible the trails and the open areas and the patches of white woods. And when you did that right, it was pretty easy and fast. And when you didn't (see day 2, #7), you could blow off a lot of time.

I think a number of folks had bad experiences here.

Results -- part 1, part 2.


1992
Prince William FP, Quantico, VA -- M45, day 1, day 2. Back to where I started orienteering. I think this is the nicest part of PWF, mostly good forest with interesting topography, the kind of terrain where you really should not miss, but if you don't pay attention, then parallel errors can really bite you. And my recollection is that Quantico did a really nice job hosting the event.

Results -- part 1, part 2.

1994
Barrie, Ontario -- M50, day1, day 2. I suppose this event was an example of how different the orienteering can be depending on what course you run. This was my first year in M50, so I was still running well, but the courses were shorter, and also apparently the expectations were lower, because we were supposed to have course lengths of about 4 to 4.5 km and winning times of 45-50 minutes. Either the forest is really awful, I thought, or they don't realize that older folks can still orienteer. Probably the latter. So my motivation for the weekend was to see how far under the 45-50 minutes I could get. Got 32 minutes both days. Was I annoyed it was too short? Heck no, it was wicked hot and coming up the last hill each day I was toast, very glad I was about done.

What was annoying was the course design. Essentially the same course both days, so lots of familiar territory on day 2. Who knows, perhaps that was all they could do. I do know there was a lot more map that the longer courses got to use. And also that, if I remember correctly, the organization was first-class.

But I think it was times like this that kept me running longer courses for a long time, just for the simple reason that I wanted to see more of the terrain that was being used.

Results -- part 1, part 2, part 3.

1996
Meramac SP, Sullivan, Missouri -- M50, day 1, day 2. A trip down memory lane, back to the site of the 1976 US Champs, first time I won, thanks mainly to Bob Turbyfill making a mistake at the master maps on day 1 and circling the wrong depression.

This time the map was better, which probably made the orienteering easier, even though it seems I still screwed up some. One thing that hadn't changed were the hills.

One other memory of the trip was going bowling in Sullivan with Charlie and some others. I think that was my bowling excursion for the 90s.

Results .

1998
Pothole Lake, Kamloops, BC -- M45, day 1, day 2. Canada had switched to 10-year age groups, so now I was in my last year in M45-54. Which meant we got to do a lot more interesting orienteering (compare this to M50 in the previous two editions).

I've run in some wonderful terrain in the Kamloops area, also in some crap, though most of it has been wonderful. And this certainly was nice. Very interesting. Also very hot if I remember correctly, but I think it is always very hot in Kamloops. And I don't remember much else.... :-(

Results -- part 1, part 2, part 3.

2000
Hudson Valley, NY -- M55, day 1 (Sebago), day 2 (Ringwood). Back to Sebago again (first used for the North Americans in 1984), this time with a 1:10,000 map and quite a different mapping style, but still with the same hills and rocks and laurel and huckleberry bushes (or whatever they area, something like blueberries, knee-high). Rockwood had its share of hills and rocks too.

I look at my routes and I see what I did at the first control on day 1 at Sebago, and I don't know how or why I did it. But I think it was a precursor of things to come....

Results -- part 1, part 2, part 3.

2002
Edmonton, Alberta -- M55, day 1, day 2. This was Canada's year, so summertime orienteering again. Hot.

Rather easy orienteering, the main problem being picking the right route, or perhaps I should say guessing the right route, because it often a matter of around a marsh or through it, without knowing whether the marsh would be OK or awful. I think my strategy was to not cross any marshes unless there was no choice, figuring I might lose a little going around, but lose a lot going through.

Day 1 course was mostly OK (except 6 to 7, really...), day 2 was pretty worthless, though I must admit the terrain limited the options.

A few more comments (written at the time) are here, scroll down a ways.

So far can't find any results....

2004
Cleveland, Ohio -- M60, day 1, day 2. The second time for the North Americans in this part of the world (see 1980). My recollection from the first time was of steep slopes, and there were certainly some steep slopes again. And also some mud.

But the orienteering was interesting. I'm tempted to say the maps left something to be desired, but I'm not sure that's a fair statement since the first day I was blind (having lost my contact for distance vision very early in the course) and the second day I was orienteering as if I were blind (seriously, my O' was better the first day when everything more than a foot away was a blur).

I believe this was another weekend when we got whomped in the competition for the BK cup, perhaps because the Canadians were better, but a contributing factor was that a lot of our guys/gals didn't show up.

A few more comments (written at the time) are here, scroll down to items 20 and 21.

Results....

2006
Hamilton, Ontario -- M35 (sprint), M21 (middle), and M55 (long).

This was the year the North Americans changed to Sprint-Middle-Long. A very first-class event put on the Mike Waddington and lots of other members of what used to be called Hamilton Kings Foresters (a really fine name for an O' club, though maybe better suited for a Canadian club than an American one). And at least the first two days were World Ranking Events. Which is why I did something I hadn't done at the North Americans for 29 years, run M21. Because there was talk about how each country was going to be ranked by how many WRE points its top 10 or 20 runners had, and this would be used to allocate slots at WOC and/or World Cup events. And I thought, well, maybe I can add a few points for our side.

The sprint was at MacMaster University where Mike teaches, very nice course. M17-20, M21, and M35-44 all had the same course (and all were scored for the WRE), so I put myself in M35, not that it mattered, I was out of my league. More on the day here.

The middle and the long were at Rocky Ridge. I think I'd run there in the late 70s or early 80s, very interesting terrain, lots of small features, easy to get confused. Ran in M21 in the middle because that's where the WRE points were. Not a good run, though not as bad as a lot of folks, just a missed opportunity on a day perfectly suited to me. More on the day here.

I can't remember if the long was also a WRE, but enough was enough, wanted to run my age group at least once. Had a good run. More on the day here.

As I said, a really nice event. And a move to create a finish area with some excitement, which was done very nicely, a trend that was carried on by this year's NAOC in British Columbia.

Oh, and the Canadians won the BK cup, handily.

Results....

2008
north of Syracuse, NY -- M60, sprint 1, sprint 2, middle, long. CNYO was the host in 2008 and the format was again sprint-middle-long, though there was a wrinkle for the sprint, there were two sprints Friday afternoon and results were based on the total time. Overall a very fine weekend, talking about the "weekend," namely the middle and the long, they were wonderful. The sprint terrain was iffy, mainly because there was a lot of summer vegetation in the open fields and it was a huge disadvantage to be starting early.

I had not a good day at the sprints, the first one was shaky, the second terrible. Bounced back with a pretty good run for the middle and a very good run for the long, though I remember be very tired and feeling very slow. Slow as one may be, however, there is something to be said for hitting all the controls.

Saturday and Sunday were wonderful terrain. In a ranking of the best places to orienteer in New York state I'd put them right at the top of the list. And certainly ahead of Harriman (just as much a challenge and, due to the lack of rocky ground and laurel and knee-high vegetation and monstrous hills, a lot more fun). Though I think some may disagree. :-)

Oh, and the Canadians won the BK cup, handily.

A few more comments (written at the time) are here.

Results.

2010
Cranbrook, British Columbia -- M65, middle, long, sprint. Wonderful event. Fun terrain, great organization. Enough said.

Oh, except the USA won the BK cup once again!

A few more comments (written at the time) are here.

Results....

So that's it. Except not quite. There was either one or two editions of the North Americans prior to when I started going in 1975. Does anyone have any info about them?

C • calculations 8

C • Manitoba 3

C • Coulson 6

C • Bear Brook '75 2

C • sebago '84 2

C • thanks 2

C • 1996 and 1998 1

C • 1994 map links? 2

Over in the Conway hills, bit of a rough ride -- a good bit of rough pavement, bounced me around enough at one point that my water bottle went flying out of its cage, some steep downs giving me the clear message that my hands are strong enough for extended braking, a bit of dirt road....

And then Walter's driveway, too steep at one point for the gear I was in especially with my back wheel slipping a couple of times, so that at one point where I needed just one more rotation to get to a flatter place the power just wasn't there. And for a short moment I was dead stopped but in perfect balance, but then of course I started to fall to one side, and one foot got out of its pedal but the other didn't, and me and the bike did a rather ungraceful full roll.

But no harm done to either me or the bike, the only reminder of the event is all the dirt streaks on the back of my shirt.

So not the easiest ride, lots of hills too, but all already forgotten because I also got to see Walter for the first time in a while. Caught up on things, and then, believe it or not, at one point he mentioned being bothered by all the deer flies, so a quick seminar for him and another life that has been saved.

There really should be a way of making this an official religion (The Church of the Blue Caps?), then everything would be tax-deductible. There must be someplace online that takes care of things like this.

Meanwhile, something useful, I have already loosened up the right pedal. It's not that I didn't know it was too tight, too hard to get out of. It was just a matter of actually doing something about it. It shouldn't take an accident to give the motivation to fix it, but it does....

C • FDF 3

C • winning times 1

I found a real quick way to get the distance for possible bicycle loops, nothing fancy at all, just use the get directions feature of Google maps and then drag the line to whatever loop you are thinking about. It's idiotic as far as how to get from point A to point B, but very nice for this purpose. So, for example, here's a possible route up into Vermont for luring Jeff out here some time for a ride....

And you can just drag the route around and see how long alternatives are. There's probably a way to get an elevation profile too, but that's beyond me.

C • Another nice feature of usi... 1

C • Busy roads 2

A night out, the latest Swedish movie can wait, went to see Winter's Bone, just wonderful, although you might not want to take the little kiddies.

"Guys and Dolls" day at the local course, an annual event where the ladies group members each invite a retired (or at least semi-retired) partner for a round on the links, a two-person scramble more specifically (you each hit, and then choose the best one, and repeat). So Gail invited me, forcing me to abandon my three-week-old time out for bad behavior.

And, in fact we were quite brilliant.

Not as brilliant as the time about 4 years ago when we were totally brilliant, me with the long game, Gail with the putter, draining everything, and we finished with a 66, low score of the day.

But still, 72 this time, a lot better than expected, good for fourth. And my behavior was excellent, but then it isn't hard when your game is good. The test is when your game sucks.... :-)

Another hard effort, I know not why, didn't even have to get back before any young chicks were showing up. But it just happened. I guess that's OK, although I really enjoyed the couple of rides late last week when I just went at a relaxed pace. Have to see if I can get back in that frame of mind.

But meanwhile, my energy seems to be on a definite uptrend. :-)

C • A stop at the Inn? 2

Short flat ride just before dinner, actually working very hard after the first couple miles, don't know why.** But the legs had a little zip. I don't know if my new nutritional regimen has anything to do with it -- taking my daily vitamin/mineral pill, plus I've eaten some meat several times in the last week -- but I definitely feel better than a week ago.

Hardly any residual soreness from yesterday other than a slightly tender crotch. Quite amazing.

** Actually I do know why. I debating going for a ride, let it slip, finally decided not to, then Alex called, she was coming by for a private seminar on how to prepare blue caps, say in 45 minutes. And in a flash I changed to thinking, just got enough time, was out the door in 5 minutes and then wanting to make sure I got back before she arrived. Social politeness, it turns out, can be good training motivation. :-)

C • And then I took the scenic ... 7

A little more on today's ride.

First, it was just a ride. I'm a competitive person, but that seems to disappear when I'm on the bike. My only experience with racing was maybe 20 years ago getting talked into being the biker on a team in one of those bike/paddle/run events. Out of my league. But also just didn't like the scene.

And biking also scares the hell out of me. It seems that everyone I know who rides much has done some sort of major damage to themselves at some point, and I'd just as soon not join that club. I've done enough damage to myself in other sports already....

Note to self -- I really should sign up for the Road ID program, since I never have ID with me when I ride or run.

Second, despite that statement of non-competitiveness, I still try to do as well as I can, even though the unavoidable fact is that I have virtually no talent for the sport, nor do I do much training. It's mainly a pleasant pastime, particularly when it is hot, or my running is on hold (or both).

And doing as well as I can means being as well prepared as possible. So I spent probably 3 hours yesterday familiarizing myself with the course. I hate not knowing what is coming. So when I headed out today I had the cue sheet marked up with notes about every climb, about possible danger points, and about places I might resupply, plus a real good image in my mind about exactly where the course went.

This made the ride a whole lot more fun, and a lot easier psychologically.

Third, lots of people were riding in packs. It's faster, but it's not for me. As I said, scares the hell out of me. One guy pulled up early on, happy to ride together and chat a little, I politely told him to get lost, to me the only possible outcomes were going to be that we would be talking and then touch wheels and I would go down, or we would be talking and miss a turn. I'm just happier by myself, so what if it's slower.

Fourth, Jeff and Judy like to take longer breaks, stop and have something to eat, enjoy the day. Phil likes to take longer breaks, stretch out his neck and back. I just like to keep moving. Took three refueling breaks (maybe 1 minute, 2 minutes, and 2 minutes), plus took a social break to visit with Jeff and Judy at their lunch stop (maybe 3-4 minutes). To each his or her own style.

Fifth, I think I parceled out my energy just about right. Kept my heart rate just where I wanted it, highest was on the steady climb up the side of Wachusett, but even there things were under control. Fluid intake was good, always stuff with electrolytes. Morale was always good, even the countdown of miles the last 20 or 30 miles was good, never really paying much attention, the miles just kept going by. And I was still getting up the hills at the end, even though by then they were a whole lot smaller.

Went into the ride fully loaded, weight was up about 3 pounds this morning, which I took as a good sign and not a bad one.

I'd say the only mistake was not drinking enough the last 45 minutes, but it was late enough that I got away with it. I did drink a whole lot after we were done, and my weight was fine when I got home.

Sixth, thanks to Jeff for the inspiration to do it!

So now I will have to find something else out in the future a ways to give me the motivation to do some more training.... :-)

Climb to the Clouds century ride.

Such a fine day. None of the bad things that could happen did -- crash, flat tires, bonking, cramps, various physical ailments, thunderstorms, not even any freezing rain or snow. And if the course was a little short, so what.

Nice route, nice scenery, nice company over and back with Phil, and an especially nice time post-ride hanging out with Phil and Jeff and Judy, lying on my back under the shade of a big sycamore tree, not even any ants, catching up on things with their fabulous Ms. Hillary (who we rarely see these days and is in Oklahoma City right now) and their fabulous Ms. Samantha (who is in Europe right now, and doesn't that sound a lot better than OK City, just one more way orienteering is so much cooler than rowing, even though the rowing folks may be paying the cost of graduate school for Ms. Hillary....), ah, it was very pleasant.

Time above includes about 9 minutes not moving, 3 stops for refilling bottles, and a social visit with Jeff and Judy at the gazebo in Princeton. The expectation if nothing went wrong was about 7 hours, so this was excellent.

More later....

C • Under the Sycamore tree 3

C • In Princeton 1

C • very nice job, well done... 2

Very easy ride, just practicing going as gently as possible. Otherwise just eating a lot.

C • Good luck tomorrow 1

So this was written 8 days ago --

Went in for a second blood test this morning. Had my physical just before heading west and got a message on my answering machine a couple of days later asking me to please call the doctor's office, not exactly the message you want to get.

So I called and the receptionist said right off the bat not the worry -- why didn't they say that in the message they left? -- just that it looked like I might be a little anemic (and I'd told the doc I was feeling tired) as a couple of numbers were on the low side, and they wanted to check a couple of other things.

Got a copy of the first test, RBC (red blood count?), hemoglobin, and hematocrit (4.10, 12.1, and 37.4 respectively) were all marked as low.

So if I start eating a bunch of meet will I be overflowing with energy? Guess I'll wait and see what the doc says first. I do know that I've been negligent taking my multi-vitamin/mineral pill the last few months.

Went in today to discuss the results of the second test, which showed my ferritin was low, 25 vs. a normal range of 30-400. So I'm anemic, which might have something to do with feeling so tired.

I was interested in talking about the best ways to add more iron to my system, but the doc was interested in what's causing the anemia, specifically how I might be losing blood. So, since the most usual cause can be ruled out (menstruating female) it seems like my next stop will be with a GI guy, to stick a camera down my throat to see if there are any bad things happening in my upper GI. Fun and games. I'm not sure if my doc's eagerness to check this out is good proactive medicine, or just defensive medicine.

In the meantime, more iron will certainly be on the menu. It would be nice if that made a difference.

Oh, and the good news (and expected, but you never know) was my PSA is undetectable.

C • Ferritin 3

Best ride of the year, by far.

But to start at the beginning, my old friend Dave (among other things, running buddy and prostate journey mentor) stopped by for a chat. He is running the Vermont 100 Mile this weekend. Last year he dropped out at about 75 miles, totally beaten and in the aftermath totally down on himself. So he's back at it again, has trained a lot. And really wants to finish. And is, naturally, quite apprehensive about what is to come.

So we spent an hour talking about it, the physical, the mental, the psychological. I've done a few 100s, including Vermont (in all honesty, the easiest, only 14,000' climb and low altitude), so he was trying to figure out what I knew and I was trying to figure out what advice to give him.

And the advice boiled down to (1) be smart, especially about pacing, especially about being willing/happy to walk rather than considering it a sign of low character, (2) figure out a way from time to time to have some fun, because that will make the miles go by, and (3) you will suffer some, don't be surprised, it does not mean you are a bad person, it just happens, just keep moving forward. And you will be surprised by what you can do.

And it was a good talk, the kind of thing that makes friends so valuable. And then he was off, and I was off on my bike.

The plan was to ride easy, a pace I could keep up for a long time (100 miles?), and keep my heart rate down, hopefully no more than 140. I've tried that before, blown it always on the first hill....

But this time I was more disciplined. And I started thinking about what I had said to Dave about being smart, and about how in ultras every time I started breathing hard it was a time to start walking (which in itself made the ultras more fun, you are stressed in a lot of ways, but not cardiovascularly).

So I starting figuring out how to "walk" up a hill on my bike, what sort of pace I could go at up a hill that wouldn't get my heart going up much. Total focus on relaxing instead of working hard. And there were definite possibilities.

And I got around one of my standard loops only a couple of minutes slower than usual, and much less effort. And very much enjoying the whole process. Heartrate average was 123, max 141, instead of the usual for bike rides this summer of about 140/160.

We'll see if I have learned anything on Sunday.

C • Dave 5

Had thought I might take the day off, but it's supposed to rain tomorrow so it seemed to make more sense to skip tomorrow.

Down to South Amherst and back, steady breeze out of the south. Reasonably comfortable pace on a pretty flat route, though the sweat still pours off and the miles take their sweet time going by.

Went for a PT evaluation today. This is always amusing, they look at my feet and my legs and my alignment and just sort of shake their heads (and maybe think, oh, ought to be able to get a lot of appointments out of this guy).

So the PT, Aimee this time, I would say she is quite cute but I know some get offended by statements like that, so I won't. And she listened to my history, that always takes a while, and looked and measured and poked and pulled, and then had me walk up and down the hall a few times. And then we talked some more, and then the ultrasound machine came out for a while, and then I get taped up a little. And then sent off with the next appointment in three days where she will give me homework in the form of various exercises and stretches to do.

I told her my hope was to running again in 2-3 months. I'd say I'm mildly optimistic.

The most amusing part was, after she'd watched me walk, when she said that it seemed like there was a lot of tension in my body, and perhaps that tension is not helping my heels. And I suggested that she might be right, since I was certainly putting some effort into not falling over. And we talked about balance some, and my lack thereof, and I think I am going to be getting some homework in that regard too.

My sense was that she views me a quite the challenge. We shall see.

C • Balance & Golf 6

C • Balance & yoga 2

With Phil, late afternoon ride to Millers Falls, Northfield, Gill, Turners Falls. Which pretty much croaked me, though actually not quite so bad as yesterday to my pleasant surprise. Phil, meanwhile, was full of energy (and waiting for me a few times) and is still out there as I write this, doing a loop around Mt. Toby (an extra 13-14 miles). Oh to be young....

So if I take yesterday's ride, and today's, and add another 30, easy, I've done a 100. Sunday should be no problem. Right.

C • Water bottle cages 6

Up to Wendell and back via Millers Falls. Just felt wasted the whole time. Warm day, had one bottle with me, almost stopped at the general store in Wendell for a refill, ended up stopping in Montague at some guy's house, saw him outside and he had a handy faucet. Just one of those days you know 15 minutes into it that it's not going to be easy.

And the pace was slow too, just kept dialing it back so I could keep moving.

Can't imagine I can ride a 100 next weekend, but every day is a new day.

Though I suppose I had a better day than Lance did.

Leverett loop clockwise. Was intending to take it very easy, but it didn't happen. Not quite as wasted as after yesterday's ride, but still pretty feeble getting off the bike at the end.

Steady breeze out of the south. The nice thing about this loop is that, because of the topography and vegetation, you can et the wind with you more than it's against you by going around the correct way. Had a very friendly tailwind the last three miles.

Low 90s. Another cold shower afterwards.

Went in for a second blood test this morning. Had my physical just before heading west and got a message on my answering machine a couple of days later asking me to please call the doctor's office, not exactly the message you want to get.

So I called and the receptionist said right off the bat not the worry -- why didn't they say that in the message they left? -- just that it looked like I might be a little anemic (and I'd told the doc I was feeling tired) as a couple of numbers were on the low side, and they wanted to check a couple of other things.

Got a copy of the first test, RBC (red blood count?), hemoglobin, and hematocrit (4.10, 12.1, and 37.4 respectively) were all marked as low.

So if I start eating a bunch of meet will I be overflowing with energy? Guess I'll wait and see what the doc says first. I do know that I've been negligent taking my multi-vitamin/mineral pill the last few months.

Back to the warm weather that I've been hearing about. I wasn't smart enough to get out at 7 am, but morning was better than afternoon, at least for air quality reasons, since I think it gets worse as the day goes on.

It was interesting descending into Bradley yesterday at about 7:30 pm -- there wasn't the obviously dirty smog you see in a place like Denver, and there were no clouds, but visibility was still terrible. From maybe 10,000' you could hardly make out anything on the ground. It did make for a very red sun as it was going down.

Bike route was a variation on my regular loop, River Road one direction, back roads in Old Deerfield the other. River Road is just a little hillier, so I did an out and back on it. Moderate pace, but still sweating like crazy, and feeling a bit faint when I climbed off at the end. A 10-minute cold shower, a lot to drink, and a nap helped with the recovery.... :-)

Century is in 10 days. Not a question between now and then of getting in better shape, but I do want to do enough in the next few days to get a little bit better prepared.

C • River Road 1

So I'm a week and a half late with this....

Wedding day in Yosemite. There was a sprint planned on a new map by Biggins, and a scavenger hunt, and of course a wedding, and of course my feet hurt, but a group was going for a run and for some idiotic reason I felt compelled to tag along.

On a fire road from Evergreen Lodge, it seemed all uphill (though apparently it wasn't), and after 17 minutes I decided that was enough and turned around. The others (Ken, Kenny, Mattias, Alex, Biggins, Will) kept going so I was by myself.

And I ran back, and after a while it started going uphill. And I had no memory of going down on the way out, so I thought I might have missed a turn. So I turned around, went back a ways, nope I hadn't missed a turn. Turned around again, went a little farther, everything was OK, just feeling stupid.

And sore feet and a hamstring that was suddenly acting up.

But it was a beautiful morning....

C • memory 10

After 10 or 15 minutes decided that if I was going to "sprint," I might as well get it done. And other than everything hurting, it was quite good fun.

An interesting course, a little more in the woods than I expected, I was wearing shorts, going very non-aggressively. A new map by Biggins, quite pretty, done in about 4 or 5 hours I believe, and as with any quick map job it is a challenge sometimes to figure out what it right and what isn't. And I want to be quite clear -- there were several things right. :-)

No mistakes of any consequence, which wasn't a trivial accomplishment. Started just after Abi, passed her when she overshot 2, she passed me back at 6 because she's faster, I passed her again when she was wandering in the wrong part of the wedding meadow, and she never quite caught back up despite my ridiculously slow pace.

By the time I was done it was clear what my training schedule would be for the next 5 days leading up to the North Americans -- absolutely nothing. That I could handle.

I'll put the map up in a while, still a couple of hours to waste at O'hare, but first I have to find a little food for me and a little power for the Mac.

OK, here's the map and my route. Given the map, and the interference with the GPS signal from the tall trees, I'm not surprised it took quite a bit of tweeking to get my QuickRoute route to match up to where I actually went.

There was a do-it-yourself result system in effect. I believe Ross won in 12+, maybe 20 seconds ahead of Boris (who ran about 30 minutes before the wedding, very late in other words, so he had the advantage of all the elephant paths). Z-man was maybe 16, the great Balter maybe 18. I think Daddy-O went quite a ways off the map. and finished in the 30s.

It is possible that the results are somewhere in the Boris/Kat-mobile and will eventually surface. But I'm not holding my breath.

Back to Calgary, first checking out a substantial rock slide that took place in Frank (that's a town in Alberta) about a hundred years ago when part of a mountain fell off and wiped out part of the town.

Seems like it would be just the places for terrain intervals....



and hill repeats....



Then via Kananaskis valley, totally gorgeous scenery, even some wildlife including this bighorn sheep....



Those guys travel in herds, and even though the guy above looks quite nice, and the young ones are very cute....



... it is rather sad to see them eating the pavement (though I assume they are licking the salt residue?)....

Nice, all the splits from the NAs are now on AP.

I got the following e-mail from event director Jim Webster --

Hi Peter,
Thanks for your help yesterday with the BK results and also for your kind words on Attackpoint. I'm wondering if you might have time to send a quick e-mail Letter to the Editor, of our local papers about the experience here. I think it would be great pat on the back to the local non-orienteer volunteers and continue to help raise the profile in our community.

Thanks,
Jim

Kimberley Daily Bulletin: bulletin@cyberlink.bc.ca

================

I sent off a letter to the editor. I'm sure Jim wouldn't mind if a few others did too.... :-)

C • 8

C • Letter to Editor 1

A very slow walk around Chinook Lake near Crowsnest Pass (on our way back to Calgary). Left heel/achilles is very sore, right one not so bad, kept up with Gail only because she took pity on me and slowed down. No running for a while.

Beautiful spot, got out between the passing rain showers so that was good, but not much wildlife, the highlight being a merganser ménage à trois (two guys, one gal).





Oh, and on the way over we stopped to check out the world's largest truck. It's not all that exciting, though it guess it still outranks the world's largest ball of twine. Gail's in the photo just to give the root-stock sense of scale.

C • truck 14

NA Champs sprint (M65), 1.9 km, 30m climb. The map.

Last day of what has been a superb event, The organizers have done it just right.

Ran well enough to win my class. Excellent.

But much more excellent was seeing the team win the BK cup. And all through the event, and in the two years leading up to it, there has been a good team spirit about this, and watching them get the job done was very very fun.

Course was easy, as almost all sprints are, but of course easy to make mistakes too if you are running hard. Though this one was (because of the terrain) pretty straightforward, most of the routes were straight with just slight adjustments a couple of times to simplify the orienteering.

Don't think I missed anything. Visibility was good, even through the green areas, so if you kept your head up you could often see the flags from a good distance.

That's not to say it was a run without a little drama. Though the drama was just before the start, and yet another sign that I am losing my marbles.

I have seen people freak out just before the start, they forgot their compass or something else, or a shoe is falling apart, or something, and panic ensues. (I will resist naming names....)

I don't think it has ever happened to me. Until today.

My start was 10:03, call-up 10:00. About 9:56 I am getting my compass and e-punch and control description holder out of my bag, perhaps 20 meters from the start, yup there's the compass, the control description holder, but where's the e-punch. Damn. Dump out the little ditty bag, not there. Dump out the main bag, not there. Shit, and I know they are not changing start times if you are late.

Panic. Call-up in 2 minutes. Go to the person at the call-up line. Do you have any extra e-punches? She sends me to registration.

To registration, do you have any extra e-punches? She sends me to the computer operation at the finish.

At this point the panic is definitely not easing.

To the finish area. I spot Alar. Do you have any extra e-punches, I start in a couple minutes?

And he looks in one box, nope, then a second, there they are, he hands me one, I run off.

It's just after 10. For some reason I detour by my bag, and there on the grass, about a yard from my bag, is my own e-punch. Grab it, leave the rental one, at the start just in time.

I am such an idiot. Is this the direction my life is going? It seems so.

My route.

C • thinking 6

C • scalp 1

Sprint - Course 3 - Splits

North Americans, long distance. The map (if you want to see the whole thing), and the section with my course (maybe a little sharper image?), 4.6 km, 175m.

Another fine terrain/course/map. It continues to be a first-class event.

My run was, quite simply a struggle, except for when the course went downhill and then things were OK. :-)

But the running in general was a struggle, and my heels hurt, especially the left one, the soreness getting up into the Achilles too, and my orienteering was as scattered as yesterday, perhaps a bit more so. I should add that I won my class by about 5 minutes, so the above may sound like a bunch of foolish complaining, but the run was in fact a struggle and I am in fact competing against a bunch of very old men.

One thing that is strange is my start times -- I was next to last starter in my class yesterday, and today and tomorrow I am dead last. I don't think I asked for late starts. But it is quite fine, though perhaps a bit of an unfair advantage. I like having an idea of what time others have run, and then there are always some tracks. Courses usually get faster as the day goes on.

Good to 1. Missed 2 to the left, 20-30 seconds. OK to 3, walking some. Good to 4. Missed 5 to the right, quite confused (my mind doing another disappearing act), 2 minutes(?). Good to 6, walking a lot. Good most of the way to 7, bad at the end, too high, 1 minute(?). Didn't see 8, right in front of me, 15 seconds. OK to 9. Good to 10 and 11.

So 37 would have been good in my current condition, perhaps 34-35 if I was running like last year.

But that ain't going to happen. We'll see if I can manage the sprint tomorrow, then no running for perhaps quite a while. Very glad I didn't make an European plans for the summer.

My routes.

Long - Course 5 - Splits

Event: North American Orienteering Championships
 

Whoops. Ran into Mike Waddington at dinner, we were talking about the day, he said he thought the winning time for all courses for the older folks was supposed to be 25 minutes, not the 30-35 I had just assumed. And so my course was about right.

Went and checked the COF website. 25 minutes it is for the older classes. As I said, whoops....

C • older classes 5

So should we start a pool?

How many days of the NA Champs will the results be posted for (if any) before the results are posted for the US Trail-O champs (which were on Wednesday)?

NA Champs, middle distance. Here's the map with the M65 course. Longer courses made use of the nice terrain in the SW corner and the two bigger hills on the east side.

M65 course was fine, certainly fun, also certainly too short. I won't say too easy, though they kept us out of some nice terrain south of 2 and 3, since I screwed it up even as it was. But a course that is done in 24 minutes, and should have been done in 20-21 minutes, is too short, plain and simple. And the last part, from 7 to the finish, was pretty trivial (though I have to say, it being downhill, that it was fun to actually feel like I was moving).

An interesting psychological aspect to the run. Out of shape and feeble as I have been feeling these days, I still expected to win the class, though of course you never know. I had almost the last start. A bunch of times were up, the best 35, I figured under 30 would do it. The course was only 2.7, 95m climb, so no reason under 30 should not be possible. So I guess I was optimistic.

By the time I reached the first control I already felt quite exhausted, but it was a nice cool day and that made things a lot better, and I kept putting out a good effort. The first few controls popped up right in front of me, just as they should, and part way to 5 I looked at my watch, a little less than 10 minutes. A look at the rest of the course, I was about half done, damn ought to be about 20 minutes. That should do the trick.

And then something happened on the way to 6, stopped paying attention, got up on the high ground just north of the control, but thought I was already in the vicinity of the control, surprised not to see it. Looked around a little, couldn't place myself. Then the usual semi-panic, decided to go back to the last known point, did that, tried again, this time saw what was happening and got the control OK. Maybe 3-4 minutes gone. Not really pissed, still thought I had it in the bag. Little did I know.

7 was straightforward, the rest were easy, and fast, and I got moving and that felt good, so I was going as quick as I could. On the way over to 10 I heard my name yelled a couple of times, that always picks you up a little, so I made good time coming in. And luckily so, turned out John Harbuck had 24:45, I was 25 seconds to the good, lucky I had hustled the last 5 minutes in from 7.

You're out there on your own in O', you never know how you've done until you finish, got to remember that. Very glad I wasn't a little casual and 30 seconds slower.

And nice to run quickly at times, even though the feet sure hurt now.

My route.

Middle - Course 5 - Splits

In Cranbrook, BC. Took an easy walk around some of the model controls. Quite nice. Looked especially nice for mountain biking.

C • And the map and photos.... 1