Training Log Archive: PG

Struggling a bit with the new eye recovery, felt much more so like a large corneal abrasion than the other one did. So pretty miserable last night. Moderately better today but still headaches. The doc, on my morning visit (with the driving supplied by Gail, thankfully), pronounced the surgery "perfect". The word you want to hear.

And also managed to deal with a variety of people and issues and we now have a new water heater. :-) Seems like the old one lasted 24 years, much longer than expected. And the people handling the replacement couldn't have been better.

Got the right eye done, this one with a fancier new lens to deal with a lot of astigmatism. At least that's the plan. Right now everything is very blurry and irritated.

And in other news, doing our best to keep the economy going, though not intentionally. Yesterday it was a flat tire about a mile from the Hartford airport as we on our way to drop off my brother, but it was close enough so he just grabbed his pack and hoofed it the rest of the way. So 4 new tires to be acquired.

And this morning, getting trash together to put out, I discovered that the contents of the water heater were on the basement floor. Splish, splash. So trying to arrange for a new one ASAP. I will say that when you're talking to someone and want them to drop everything and take care of you, it's a great ploy to say, I'd really like to decide on this right now, because I have to leave in an hour for eye surgery. :-)

Seemed to work anyway -- a proposal and contract was at the front door when we got home, and installation is tomorrow. I've been doing business with this company for 30+ years, and nice to see them respond the way they should. Some people do get the notion of customer service.

So back to the eyes, still need to let this one calm down, will be giving it medication for another month, hopefully it will work. And then the last step is new glasses and maybe new contacts. But we are getting there.

And one other development -- the bruised right arch from Sunday. Really hurt Sunday afternoon and night, could hardly walk, but after a lot of icing it was a good bit better on Monday. Still hurts a little, so I haven't run yet, trying to make sure it's healed. But there has been good progress.

And even this did not spoil the fact that Sunday's O' run was really fun.

C • Customer Service 4

Map from Day 1. A bit of a strange course. Could have done without the climb up to 13. Click on map for a larger image.



And from day 2. Very nice course. But I have never seen a ruin printed so small, see #8, not anywhere close to so small. Just messing with me I assume, seeing if my new eye is really any good.

It ain't that good. :-)

C • Ruinous 16

Day 2, M60, GreenX, 5.8 km, 205m climb.

After a little bit of a shaky start, a very fine run, except….

Except that about 5 minutes from the finish, coming downhill to #11 at a good rate of speed, landed on a pointy rock right in the middle of my right arch. Ouch and then more ouch.

Seems like a class 2 injury, where class 1 is it goes away after a minute or two, which means maybe a day or two of soreness will follow, class 2 is it doesn't go away, but not so bad that you can't keep running, which means a week or two at least of recovery time, and class 3 is when you can't even finish, in which case you are screwed.

So now I am hobbling around, the arch very sore, one assumes a deep bruise. Don't expect much activity this week. Other than getting my other eye done on Thursday.

The good news is that perhaps the rest will fix my sore hip (it's certainly not bothering me now), along with the psychological cure of having all my attention focused on the arch, so the hip can just be cool. This has worked many times in the past -- the best cure for an ailment is to get another ailment on a different part of the body.

Back to the orienteering. Overall a good effort, certainly a better effort than yesterday, and a good result. And the last part of the course, especially, was as much fun as I've had orienteering for quite a while. Thanks to Kseniya for the course setting, a much better course than what we had yesterday.

And it seemed to be a fine weekend overall. Good vibes. I think the secret was to make the map, or at least certain features on the map, virtually unreadable, and thereby focusing all the normal complaining needs onto just one area, so everything else gets off scott free. Brilliant strategy. From my point of view, a role player in the organization with one of the easy jobs, the weekend seemed to go just fine (as long as I stayed away from the map discussions).

And the forest is wonderful. Way better than Harriman. There will certainly be a Billygoat in its future.

C • start line 6

Green X Day 2 - Splits

Event: HVO/WCOC A-event "Love The Lakes"
 

HVO/WCOC A meet, day 1, M60 GreenX, 5.3 km, 250m. Pretty good navigating. The legs seemed to have no zip, but maybe that was just because of all the hills. Who knows.

Main event of the day was this was the first test of my new left eye. I've obviously been checking its vision compared to my right eye over the last week and a half. After the first couple of days after surgery, things calmed down and the vision close up is definitely better than with the right eye. Where there is a contour line, I pretty much see a contour line, as opposed to the right eye, where I see a fuzzy contour line, and a shadow, and some other random interference and blurriness. Though I do have to have the map very close to focal length distance from my eye; otherwise things get fuzzy very quickly.

So anyway, today. I'm not sure I'm supposed to be orienteering -- gardening is not allowed to avoid getting dirt in the eye -- and if the doc knew I was going orienteering (and knew what O' was), he might have banned it. But he didn't know….

It's not like the map was suddenly simple to read, especially on the run. But it was a lot easier than what I've been dealing with in the last year or two. When I stopped to look carefully, the dot knolls were dot knolls, the boulders were boulders, the cliffs were cliffs.

I still thought the lines were thin and the symbols were small and maybe things were a little fuzzy, and so part of me was still a little disappointed in my vision. So I was really really happy to hear the experts talking afterwards about how bad the printing was and how small the symbols were. Because I could still make sense of things a whole lot better than two weeks ago at the NAOC. :-)

And that was even with changing eyes, normally I read the map with the right eye, so I had to make some adjustments. But still, yippee!

Note that my overall vision still sucks. Get the new right lens (and a special pricy one to deal with bad astigmatism) this coming Thursday, and then after that settles down new glasses for far vision and maybe new contacts. And then I'll really know where things stand. But today was sure a pleasant surprise.

As far as the rest of my O' today, dead legs going up any hills, good free-fall going down, good navigation (missed at most 30 seconds). And, it should be said and repeated, a wonderful forest.

Other than that, a pleasant morning working at the start, get to see lots of people. It means running without having eaten for about 6 hours, don't know if that made a difference or not. But an easy way to make a small contribution to the job of hosting a meet. And when people held out their e-punches for me to check the numbers, I could actually read them.

If this progress keeps up, in another month or so I'll be able to read road signs. :-)

C • NY Times 5

C • eyes 2

Green X Day 1 - Splits

Taking a few days off. My left hip had been on and off sore for a few weeks, time to see if I can get it to calm down. Bothers me at home (things like getting into bed). Running it hurts the first little bit, then OK. Don't know what's going on. May need to take some more off days.

Warm-up checking out the south edge of the Amherst College grounds.

So, under the assumption that the way to get the legs moving a little faster is to go out and move them faster, back to the track for a short but quicker workout. At least that was the plan, 4 x 400 with a good rest in between, with the quarters in the range of 90-95. Meaning, sadly, full effort.

I'd finished the warm-up with a couple of quicker 200s to stretch the legs, but now was the time to put up or shut up.

First one in 92.4, hard work, felt like it was as fast and as far as I could go. But then a nice gentle walk for the remainder of the 5-minute cycle.

Second one in 90.0, this was really was as fast as I could go. And also exquisitely bad mental tactics. Because it hurt. And I had two more to go. And I really really didn't want to do that two more times. And when you are by yourself, it's easy to shift to plan B.

Not that there was a plan B, so I had to make one up real quickly, how about scratch the last two 400s and do an 800 a little slower, say 3:15. Oh, good idea, won't hurt so much.

So off on the 800, pace was about right, but after about 300 it was crystal clear I didn't want to run an 800 either, so beeped the watch at 400, 98.5 and had another walk. And thought, that was a bit of a wimp job. And thought furthermore, well, that one didn't hurt, so now there's really no reason not to put out for one more 400. Just don't start too fast.

And so the 4th one, 91.2, remarkably good, hurt some of course, but knowing it was the last made the difference.

And the whole workout? An interesting mental see-saw, and a good enough physical effort to accomplish what I wanted. Not so bad. :-)

C • Last One 2

And a short jaunt around the neighborhood afterwards.

Off to Litchfield, so the usual opportunity to run someplace different. This time I thought I'd have a go at Zack's Nassahegon Loop, Zack being Charlie's son and Nassehegon being a state forest between Litchfield and Hartford with lots of mountain bike trails. I figured I had an distinct advantage over Charlie in that I didn't have to drag a bike around the loop, but also a distinct disadvantage as I didn't have Zack waiting for me at junctions to point me the right way. Also, I had the advantage of having a map of the GPS track of the route, but the disadvantage on an overcast afternoon of not having a compass.

Clearly my navigation was far from perfect, since my covering his 4.2-mile loop in only 3.8 miles is not a sign of success. I figure I found, and then lost the trail at least three times, maybe four. Lost it pretty soon after I started, went down a reentrant but it was a little overgrown so I turned back. That might have been the correct one after all. Meandered on a bike trail for a while, possibly back on the correct route again. Maybe lost it again. Definitely found it again, but then lost it again and had to do a bit of bushwhacking to get back to where I needed to be.

But eventually I made it back to my car, despite being quite sure early on that I had no idea where I was. In such circumstances you do the only reasonable thing -- keep moving, preferably at a good pace. :-)

Legs felt pretty good, though there was only one hill of any substance and it wasn't much.

And the highlight, a fine AOWN -- while I was meandering along, quite lost, mostly concentrating on the twisty bike trail which was quite hard to follow, I happened to look up, and there about 20-30 yards in front of me was a fine specimen of the American black bear. It was sideways to me facing downhill, a little left of the trail, and it hadn't seen me or heard me or smelled me yet.

I stopped, had a good look, seemed to be a lone adult, no sign of any others around. Just a perfect sighting. And then I made a move, and it looked my way and then -- well, this bear knew how to move in the woods and a little scruffy vegetation wasn't going to slow it down. It took off, heading downhill at a high rate of speed, quite a noise, branches breaking, small tress swaying. In 5 or 10 seconds I could no longer see it; in 10 or 15 no longer hear it.

Very very cool. And I'm not sure if it a good or a bad thing, but yours truly, normally full of anxiety about everything, wasn't the least bit scared. Though, of course, if it has been a western bear, I would have at the very least peed my pants. :-)

===========

So here are the GPS tracks, Charlie in red that I was trying to duplicate and me in blue. Hmm, not so good. Seem to have lost the trail at least four times. Oh well. The bear, by the way, was on the hillside just south of the State Fish Hatchery.

C • Awesome 8

Wedding day yesterday for Sam and Ross. I've been to a few weddings over the years and I can't remember one where the vibes were so good. A great pleasure to be there.

And also, to be honest, a bit of reflective thinking on my part about how old I have gotten. Many good memories, for sure, but now, a lot of years have passed.

There were stories about S&R's adventures. There were photos of people really enjoying themselves. There was the presence of a couple of wonderful families and some very cool friends. It got me thinking that in life, when you have the opportunity to do things that are fun, you darn well better do them. Even if, or maybe especially if, the old folks around think you should be focussing on the so-called serious things in life.

Fun, adventures, and especially good friends and family -- those are the important things. As the saying goes, no one says on their deathbed that they wish they had spent more time at the office.

It was a very fine wedding.

C • PG and TG 3

Bike trails near Eaglebrook School plus a couple of sections of old woods roads that I hadn't been on before. Nice morning, but cool enough that long pants and a long-sleeve shirt seemed called for. Legs a little tired, but all the hills were gentle.

Old familiar road loop, around both Sugarloafs. Got it done. Much more humid than I would like, but what can you do.

Had to get it done this morning because we are off to Florida this afternoon.

Warm-up, first on the bike path that goes by the Amherst track, and then a couple of laps of the track with a pair of quicker 200s to get the legs moving.

Last year I had the bright idea to celebrate my 69th by going out and riding my bike for 69 miles. Doing that again with an extra mile thrown in didn't seem like a bright idea as I hadn't been on my bike for a month and a half. So something else was needed, since spending part of the day in a eye surgery place didn't really do it. And the doc had said yesterday that running was OK.

So the plan this morning was to go to the track and see if I could break 7 minutes for a mile. Doesn't exactly tie in with 70, but close enough. I'd given some thought to doing it two mornings ago, actually on my birthday, but it was wicked humid and just seemed like a stupid idea (not that that has stopped me before). This morning was much more pleasant.

I figured 7 should be doable, maybe with a little room to spare, 4 laps in 1:45 or a little better, but you can figure all you want, it's only the doing that matters. But the plan was to shoot for quarters between 1:40 and 1:45 and adjust depending on how I felt.

And the legs felt pretty good. First quarter (and a real quarter, not a 400m) was 1:41.6, just starting to breathe hard. Second in 1:41.9, breathing steady but under control. Third quarter was always the hardest doing these things, hard to keep the pace up, today was 1:40.9, a very nice surprise and all of a sudden 6:45 seemed in the cards. And then the last lap, always a good effort, that seems unavoidable, 1:37.6 this time. Pretty well spent, but guessing that there was a little more in the tank because it never really hurt the way I remember miles doing. And the watch said 6:42.0. Delighted.

For reference, looked back in my records. When I first started running in the early 70s in my late 20s, one of my goals was a mile in under 6 minutes, got that after a while at the old cinder track at Georgetown University in DC.

Slowly got the number down as the years went by, 5:15 in 1984 (age 39),
5:09 indoors in 1989 (age 44), then 5:02 and 5:01 outdoors in 1989 in a attempt to break 5.

Then started the long decline. 5:12 indoors in 1990. 5:20 in 1992. 5:18 in 1994 (age 49). 5:37 in 1996 (age 51). 5:46 in 2006 (age 61) indoors. 5:59 in 2009 (age 64). I think in 2011 I was doing about 6:20, will have to check.

And now this. A little faster is possible, maybe 6:30 with proper training. But that may be too much to ask.

Regardless, this is just fine.

And the eye is better. :-)

C • Sub 7 5

So this eyesight stuff is an interesting voyage, one where I really don't know what the outcome will be. I know a little more today, but not much.

Woke up this morning and vision was very blurry, couldn't read my watch (all such comments refer to the "fixed" left eye), was not particularly happy about that. But I have pretty well got myself convinced to give this process some time, though that is not easy -- you want instant results.

At some point this morning, as the vision got much less blurry but still not as good as the other eye, I was starting to think, well, maybe it won't get any better, but maybe this also will slow down its rate of getting worse. Looking for a half-full glass wherever I might find one…. :-)

I had an appointment with the doc early afternoon. By then it seemed like I could see just about the same with both eyes, progress. His assistant put me in the chair, covered my old eye, put the eye chart up on the wall, how much could I read with the new one?

Nothing.

I shit you not.

She adjusts it, a vague form appears at the top, really big but really blurry, I take a guess at "E" and I think I'm right, but no hope for anything else.

Now realize that I have been near-sighted all my life, have worn glasses almost all my life, and I am quite happy with that. Had a good discussion with the doc about that prior to surgery. And so the plan is to keep me near-sighted -- in O' terms, able to read a map, need a contact to see in the distance.

But barely able to read the big E?

I shut my left eye, opened the right, no problem with the E or at least 2 or 3 lines below it. Not real sharp, but something.

Put my glasses on -- could read a bunch of letters now, and the two eyes seemed about the same. What gives? And, I must say, I forgot to ask what gives, so I don't know what was going on.

By then the assistant had put the reading chart in front of me and I did good on that one, next-to-the-bottom line, pretty small print, almost able to do the bottom line. So that seemed OK.

Then hung out for a while until the doc showed up to have a look. He peered through a couple of his machines and then declared that everything looked excellent. The various cuts were healing up, both where the lens exchange had been made and where he'd sliced me with a laser to help with astigmatism. At this point he was clearly much happier than I was.

So we chat a little, and he says it takes time for the eye to settle down, and improvement will come. Of course we don't know how much. But give it a little time. And in the meantime, take the eye drops, wear the shield at night, and no lifting heavy weights, no swimming, no hot tubs, no gardening. But running is fine, even today. I asked about running on trails, he was cool. I didn't ask about orienteering.

So now I do the drops every few hours. The dilation of the pupil is just about back to normal. And, I'm sure rather often, I pick up a map, or look at something in the distance, and cover up one eye and then the other, and see how things compare.

And at this point I would say that the new eye is starting to nose ahead. :-)

A long ways to go. And the right eye starts its journey two weeks from now. But very modestly hopeful.

My good friend Dave stopped by about 9 pm with a bottle of champagne and a chocolate cake. We polished off the champagne but our best efforts only took care of half of the cake.

Plus lots of good conversation.

A good friend is priceless.

Bike trails on North Sugarloaf, always up or down but never steep. Getting a little hard to follow as the leaves come down. Warmish and humid, but the legs felt fine. And just one fall….

Off in a little while to get my left eye done (cataract surgery). Would be a very nice birthday present if my vision improved. Right eye is scheduled in two weeks.

C • Happy Birthday! 16

Well, back home with my new left lens, but it will probably be tomorrow until I can tell how it will be, as the pupil is still very dilated. Though at least eyesight is progressively less blurry as a little time passes. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Short run in Deerfield, seeing if a trail extends any further than where I lost it the other time I went this way. Didn't then, and didn't now, funny about that.

Not a whole lot of energy….

NAOC sprint. Ended up tied for first in M65 with Jeff Saeger. Which seemed to me like just the perfect outcome. I got him by a couple of minutes in the Middle, he got me by a couple in the Long, and a tie in the sprint feels like we both won.

I had a good run, but still one mistake, 20 or 30 seconds. Still satisfied. Was a long sprint course, best time on the course (in M55) was 18:37. But you knew going in that it would be long, and you adjust.

Overall, a great long weekend. I spent more time than expected helping with team stuff, which was all fun, and certainly way more time on the BK and FC Cup competitions -- dealing with any issues that came up, and trying to make sure the scoring was done right. So a good bit busier than expected, but that was fun too. And nice to see the team do well. This is the one time when there really is the sense of a "team" and the vibes were excellent.

I was standing in the parking lot Monday afternoon, where the relay courses came out of the woods, and someone asked me how things looked. I said it depended on who came out of the woods first. And then out came Sam, no one else near, and I noticed she was taking a moment to check the code, good for her.

And then the same someone said that that was it, and I said, Not yet. But then not much later, out came Alison trailed by the Canadian (Kerstin), but Alison was moving with a sense of urgency and was clearly going to take second. And then right away Hannah and Izzy, wrapping up 4th and 5th, and first for the juniors, and in just a minute that really was it.

A fine day, ended as it should with all the focus on the young and the fast. They are fun to watch.

C • Team leadership 3

Sprint - Course 3 - Splits

Another not very satisfying run. Botched the first control and a little bit the third. Orienteering otherwise was not bad, but just couldn't read the map very well, had to stop, and stop, and stop. And still not seeing it well. Night and day difference from the maps last weekend. Don't know how much a 7,500 scale might have helped, but it sure wouldn't have hurt.

Bunch of falls too, several of them left their marks.

Long - Course 6 - Splits

NAOC middle, M65. Not a good run. Lacking in confidence among other things, such as not thinking clearly. Had a decent amount of fighting spirit, but never got comfortable with the terrain, and so always felt like I wasn't making good progress. No really bad splits, but a lot of mediocre ones.

Will need to give some thought as to proper tactics for tomorrow, since it is in the same terrain.

Great to see all our team show up for this, it is priority #1. Now they just need to do some good orienteering. A lot of mistakes out there today. By my count the BK Cup is 107.5 to 96.5 in favor of Canada, the FC Cup 108 to 98 in favor of the USA. Three more events to go. Hope they bring their A games.

C • Cup thoughts 1

Middle - Course 6b - Splits

Event: NAOC2014 (North American Champs/Ottawa O-Fest)
 

Easy run around the sprint model.

The map may be 1:4,000, but there are still places I can't read it. Like the area of the control right outside my motel room, really small symbols packed together. I would have sworn the map was significantly wrong. Sometimes the sprint maps are the worst, and more and more stuff gets packed in. And what really matters, can I get through someplace or is it a trap, gets almost impossible to tell on the run.

C • Sprint maps 1

Here's the map from Sunday, the middle course (Brown Y, M70). Nice course.

Real nice run with Phil, exploring a bit on the north slopes of Norwottuck, trying to find, and then follow, what at times were phantom trails. Lots of hills, but all at a mellow pace in recognition of Phil's advanced age….

Need to get the bikers out to clean up their trails a bit, though in this area there aren't many bike trails to start with.

At the Amherst College track, by myself, warm-up. Quite windy and a little on the warm side.

400s with slower (but not slow) 200s between. I'd been thinking, using the general goal of making the workout "comfortably hard", that 8 repeats with times about 1:45 and 1:05, which would be about 7:35 pace for the 3 miles, although I wasn't sure I wanted to do quite that much.

Started out about right, 1:47.1 and 1:02.4, but then the next one was quicker, 1:42.0 and 1:02.3, and as it continued, I was definitely erring on the side of too hard and not too comfortable. Third was 1:41.5 and 1:01.3, and by then I had decided four would be enough -- was I channeling Phil? -- and the fourth one was 1:40.1 and 58.1, the last 200 a little quicker because I knew there was no 400 to follow.

And that seemed like enough to get some benefit and not so much as to do any harm.

I've always like doing intervals where the recovery is neither long nor very slow. One of my favorites a long time ago was 4x1600 with 200 in between and then a final 800, added up to 8K, or roughly 5 miles. And done with a total time of no more than a minute off my PR for the distance. I suppose one of these weeks I should try that one again, even if I'll be close to 40 minutes rather than the close to 30 back then.

And then a slow lap around the playing fields.

Late afternoon run on old woods roads in Deerfield. Really fine. Started out with a nice steady climb and it felt so easy…. :-)

Checked out a few more places I hadn't been before. Slowly completing a trail map of the area.

Very interesting winners of Nobel Prize in Medicine. (Well, their work is interesting, not sure about the winners themselves.) Subject is "internal GPS". I have always felt like I have one, can make it hard to understand what it's like if you don't have one.

Went partway up the trail to Jones Brook lodge in the Adirondacks. Nice trail, beautiful woods, but the legs were tired from the first step, so I turned around earlier than I wished. Was feeling tired at the end of the morning golf in Lake Placid, so I guess this was not unexpected. Regardless, good to get out.

C • Johns Brook Trail 2

Middle champs at Letchworth East, 2.9 km.

Another good run but not as good as yesterday, though the course was more difficult so perhaps that was to be expected. Legs also not as good, really dragging last half of the course.

Major challenge (and motivation?) came from being a bit of a jerk at the start. When it was time to take my map, I asked if it was necessary to put my name on the back. The starter looked at his start list, and then said, "Not unless you're planning on doing the course in 20 minutes."

"Nope, 25." said rather cockily.

The plan had been to get under 30. Now I was on the hook for 25. So a number of times I was checking my watch, doing a little figuring, and thinking, nope, ain't going to make it. Which turned out to be the case.

But it was still a fine day of O', and wrapped another first-class event hosted by the Rochester folks. Many thanks to all of them.

Middle Brown Y - Splits

Long champs at Letchworth East, Brown (M70), 4.2 km. Another good run, no mistakes, always under control, and pretty good speed.

Highlights --

1. A good conversation with Glenn at the start, limited of course to 45 seconds or so, but the gist of which was that I was impressed by him at the Board meeting the evening before. Seemed more assertive and more sure of himself. Which was a good thing.
2. On the slight uphill on the first part of the leg from 7 to 8, I was running along quite nicely, legs felt good and I felt good, and I said to myself, This is why you train.

C • rout to 4 11

Long Brown Y - Splits

Event: 2014 US Nationals
 

Sprint Champs, Genesee Valley Park in Rochester, NY, M70 (brown course).

Fine day, nicely organized by ROC. Map and course were fine, ditto set-up and logistics. Not very demanding terrain, but as with any orienteering, you take what is given you and try to do the best you can.

Good run, can't say I missed anything other than not seeing things on the map, just bad eyesight these days. But just running to the center of the circle takes care of most of those problems, and as an extra bonus, it eliminates the need to check the control codes. Which, I probably shouldn't admit, I did not check most of the time. But no harm done. And I didn't skip any controls, or take them in the wrong order, so overall a clear success.

And there was the added bonus of venturing onto a golf course and not missing a single shot. :-)

Sprint Brown - Splits

Catching up on maps from the last couple of weekends. First is the MTBO from Huntington on Sept 21. I did the easy course because I figured if I did the advanced one, the odds of some serious damage to myself on the rocky single-track trails was way too high.

The easy one was pretty easy, and I was only off the bike to punch and for about 30 meters leaving #5 (the first bit was too rocky and rooty for my skills). Major accomplishment was punching at both the start and the finish (which were on posts, the others weren't) without getting off. :-)

----------

And then the score O from last Saturday at Westmoreland. The deal there was 90 minutes, 22 controls shown on the map plus 4 more someplace along the line, 2 of them in the northern half of the line and two in the southern half.

Good run, mostly. Didn't know if I could get them all, but figured I'd try. Headed for the southern part first. Didn't check out the northern part of the southern line, the plan was I'd do it on the way back if I didn't see the two controls where I was going. Got lucky, there they were.

By the time I started the northern line I still felt like I had plenty of time. But I guess I slowed down (it was a warm day), and by the time I climbed the really steep hill up to #127, I was doubtful, figured 113 would be skipped. And then I botched 116, too low at first, and then, well, I couldn't read the map well enough to tell it was up on top in the west-facing reentrant.

At that point 126 was definitely out. Thought I could get the last three on the way in, but there were a lot of downed trees on the way to the last couple. I figured I needed to be at the last one with three minutes to spare, think I had only 2.5, and a lot more junk leaving it. Just made it in time (seven seconds), but only after a very serious effort.

Click on the map for a larger image. North lines are supposed to be 250 meters apart. Map was supposed to be 1:10, was printed at 1:11, symbol sizes seem to be way too small. Certainly were for my eyes.

But you deal with it, just change your tactics. And it's a great place to orienteer -- interesting topography, some wonderful open and runnable woods, and almost none of the blueberry crap that's over on the west side of the Hudson.

More trails north and east of Eaglebrook, starting from Woolman Hill. A bit more hills than I had planned, but a fine outing (as are most outings where you go someplace new).

Same area as yesterday, just woods roads this time as everything was wet. Ran the old road that used to go across the ridge and down to the ferry across the Connecticut, plus checked a couple of side roads and one other place that I thought might be a trail but wasn't.

Both roads went to "camps" in rather bad repair, but still probably in use as places to smoke and drink and cavort without worrying about the authorities. No one around on a gloomy midweek afternoon, which suited me just fine.

Had too much on so sweated a bunch more than necessary. Not that that is a bad thing.