biking - dark blue bike1:14:20 16.62 mi (4:28 / mi) +401ft4:22 / mi ahr:104 max:122 weight:136.5lbs
With Gail, north along the river, back through Montague Center. Windy from the south. Enjoyed it on the way out, ducked it a bit on the way back by staying in the lower hills.
Sore places are getting better, but the legs were still tired. Gail was getting up the hills as fast as I was.
hike with Gail1:26:50 [1] 2.8 mi (31:01 / mi) +321ft27:59 / mi
Also with Phil and Margi, delightful. Slowish pace was plenty hard enough to tax my battered body. :-)
As to the battered body --
The back is surprisingly mostly fine. Haven't really tested it, but in no rush to do so.
The left big toe (the non-bionic one) is pretty sore. Kicked a rock dead center at some point yesterday. Hurt at the moment, then didn't notice it until I was done, then by yesterday evening was hurting quite a lot. Took a couple of ibuprofin this morning (first of that in some time). Good enough to mange a walk. Don't think I did any lasting damage.
The quads. They did a lot more downhill running than they are trained for. Pretty sore today. But not near as bad as when I ran down Mt. Toby a few weeks back.
Tick bites. Just seeing if you're paying attention. Haven't seen a tick since maybe April.
Overall, I think things are OK. But can't do this stuff too often.
orienteering2:14:08 7.22 mi (18:35 / mi) +1239ft15:59 / mi ahr:139 max:155 weight:136lbs
Covid-Goat at Mountain Lakes.
I hadn't been sure I'd wanted to do this. Last orienteering was in the winter, and my left calf had gone bad on me then, so no running for a long time. I had no interest in just walking the CG, so over the last month I've done little bits of running to try to gauge what was possible.
It was certainly better than when I started up with a little running last fall. At that point running for a minute without walking was a challenge. I think it's helped that I purposely do a lot of riding out of the saddle. It has at least a little relevance to running, whereas riding in the saddle has none. When I realized earlier this week that the course was only going to be up a little longer, I figured it was this weekend or never.
Wednesday was a test. Ran for just over a mile, made it the whole way without having to walk, so that was a clear success. So it was a go.
On my way a little before 6 am. Fog much of the down there, WTF. Temperature upper 60s. No fog at Mountain Lakes, but as I pulled into my VIP parking spot 10 yards from the start/finish, an equal distance from the loo, it started to rain, WTF again. Forecast had been for low 70s and sunny. Reminded me of Lincoln Gap, forecast was sunny and pleasant, got rained on for the first 45 minutes of my ride. Well, handled that, could handle this.
On my way a little after 8. I'd looked at the map some in advance, mainly looking to see if I could see a way to get some water part way around the course as I wasn't keen of carrying. Lo and behold, there was a nice route to 12 that went right by the S/F. So I left a bottle outside the car, and a Cliff Bar in case I needed it, and headed off.
Basically a good run. Best thing was probably my energy, just kept plugging away, walked when it went up, jogged when it went down, jogged in bits and pieces when it was flat. Kept that up the whole way. Glad it was over when it was, but if it been a BG instead of a CG, 3 or 4 km longer, I felt like I could have managed to keep going. The ups were never long enough or steep enough to really toast me.
What did toast me was the humidity. Dew point must have been in the upper 60s. Before long I was sweating profusely and then soaking wet. No big deal other than for my glasses, fogging up big time. It was pretty aggravating. My vision is bad enough already. Today it really sucked. I could read the map just by taking the glasses off, but my vision on the move was shaky, especially when running.
Fell once, not good, hopefully not bad. Wrenched my lower right back somewhat. Not so much that I noticed it when on the course, that's a good sign, but then I noticed it right away when I stopped. Hmmm.
Navigating? Got off to a bad start, wandered in the vicinity of #1 for a while. The rest was fine, nothing more than a slight bobble on 8. Routes were generally trying to go as straight as possible.
Glad I went. I have the feeling that I'd like to keep doing some orienteering, but not too much. It is hard on the body. But a little bit, even at the speed I'm going now where it's a different sport than it used to be, a little bit is just fine.
biking - dark blue bike1:24:55 19.08 mi (4:27 / mi) +276ft4:23 / mi ahr:106 max:128 weight:136lbs
With Gail, flats south of town, except for the "wall" which she negotiated with some trepidation in advance but no difficulty in the actual doing. Sort of like Phil yesterday. We'll have to see if, like Phil and his wall, she'll opt out of ever going there again. It is true that some things are clearly worth doing once, and common sense would say that once is enough. Like Lincoln Gap.
biking - dark blue bike1:19:53 19.31 mi (4:08 / mi) +946ft3:57 / mi ahr:127 max:159 weight:136.5lbs
Ride with Phil from his place, out to Westhampton and back. He proposed doing the climb out of Williamsburg up 143, non-trivial, said it was the only local climb he hadn't done this year. Though after a bit of discussion, it turned out he had not done The Wall this year; in fact, he had never done it. Well, that settled where we were going.
Nice day if a bit windy, in our face going out, not as much help coming back as I hoped, though often on such things there is a sizable gap between perception and reality. But none of that mattered. The Wall was what mattered. Time to take care of something he has been avoiding for a long time.
It may be steep (and it's not really that steep, I had a gear to spare) but it sure is short, and in a minute we were up, heart rates certainly not in the red zone.
That taken care of successfully, the ride back was satisfyingly mellow.
2 PM
biking - dark blue bike1:19:20 17.25 mi (4:36 / mi) +305ft4:31 / mi ahr:122 max:136
With Gail, out to the rail trail bridge and back. NW wind, 15 or so, so a lot slower going out. Legs tired, but managed to keep up.
biking - dark blue bike1:11:21 18.26 mi (3:54 / mi) +851ft3:45 / mi ahr:135 max:166 weight:136lbs
Afternoon ride to Leverett and Montague Center. Sunny, light breeze, low 60s. I started with my arm warmers on, figured I'd take them off after a couple miles when the hills started, but they stayed on the whole time.
I'd noticed Phil had recently done a section of uphill in Montague Center, Court Street and Taylor Hill Road, that I've run up many times and walked up a few times with Gail, but if I've ever biked up it, I don't remember.
So the plan was to do it. But as I was getting near Montague Center the alternate route, down to and along the river, very gently rolling, seemed so much more appealing. So I decided to go down to the river. But when I got to where I'd have to turn left to go up, all of a sudden the bike just turned left. What could I do? Let it go and walk home?
So up I went, a nice little climb in two parts. Croaked a little towards the end of each part, but not too bad, don't have enough endurance when climbing out of the saddle. But it was over quickly, leaving just a nice downhill and a little more along the river. In retrospect, the choice was just right.
biking - dark blue bike1:28:34 18.26 mi (4:51 / mi) +600ft4:42 / mi ahr:105 max:121 weight:136.5lbs
With Gail. We drove north a bit and then rode up into Vermont on the west side of the river. Wind from the north, low 60s, definitely felt like fall. Went by Vernon Green nursing home, I think it was Kissy's grandparents that owned/founded it??, looked nice and well taken care of. Also by the now closed nuclear plant. A few more hills than we usually do, which elicited a complaint or two from Gail, though she seemed to get up them just fine.
And both bikes fit in the back of her car with no disassembly required. :-)
Supposedly every baby is adorable in the eyes of its parents. I wonder if that holds true for snapping turtles. Don't know how old this one is, but total length was only about 2.5 inches.
biking - dark blue bike1:14:43 20.02 mi (3:44 / mi) +413ft3:40 / mi ahr:132 max:164 weight:137lbs
Old Deerfield via South Deerfield, back via Cheapside. Missing my normal training partner as she, rightly so, decided a day off was called for after six days without a break.
No reason to to do something nuts, but it seemed like working a little harder would be a good thing. So I put out a good steady effort for the first hour, before easing up a little for the last 15 minutes. Seemed just about right.
biking - dark blue bike1:20:28 22.21 mi (3:37 / mi) +584ft3:32 / mi ahr:138 max:162 weight:137lbs
Lower hills to the east. Legs felt good, as they should have, since only doing mostly easy efforts and no reason to be tired. A nice way to train -- either outings are fun because the pace is relaxed, or they're fun because the pace is hard but the legs are fresh. Though maybe that's just wishful thinking.
Got stung by some sort of bee/wasp/whatever towards the end of yesterday's ride. It got inside my shirt, upper chest area. I felt something there, went after it, but it got me first. Though it seems I got it too, as a dead critter dropped out when I got home. Hurt pretty good, but Gail (after a very short search) produced something called "Sting-eze". Odds are it's been in the house since sometime in the last century, but it seemed to do the job. :-)
hike with Gail1:15:24 [1] 3.29 mi (22:55 / mi) +720ft18:59 / mi
North Sugarloaf. Rocky and rooty trails. The pace was slower than usual, but the effort still good.
Several short stops to takes photos of trail signage the state has recently put up. We're in the process of doing something similar on Mt. Toby, so useful to gather ideas.
biking - dark blue bike1:15:51 18.23 mi (4:10 / mi) +891ft3:59 / mi ahr:131 max:166 weight:137lbs
Up in the hills just a little to the east. Not a lot of zip so by the time I came to Cave Hill it was just trying to get it done and then take it easy the rest of the way. Warm and humid.
Been thinking about doing the pseudo-Billygoat, but for that I should be running some. All I've done so far is once up the driveway and once down. Don't think that's going to do it.
biking - dark blue bike1:16:36 17.16 mi (4:28 / mi) +123ft4:26 / mi ahr:101 max:116 weight:136.5lbs
With Gail, south of town. A little warmer and more humid, but still a good pace.
2 PM
Note
I was watching an egret fishing, without much to show for it but an occasional piece of vegetation. But the painted turtle that was sharing the log was taking no chances, keeping its head well retracted.
biking - dark blue bike1:16:00 17.24 mi (4:25 / mi) +310ft4:20 / mi ahr:111 max:129 weight:136.5lbs
Gail is slowly getting her bike legs back, She certainly was making me work harder today.
4 PM
Note
I see dragonflies a lot, but never tried to get a photo until yesterday, when one sat down just in front of me and seemed happy to pose for quite a while --
biking - dark blue bike1:02:23 15.94 mi (3:55 / mi) +547ft3:47 / mi ahr:128 max:156 weight:136lbs
Better ride than I expected starting off, when I just felt tired. Spent the first couple of miles debating whether to stick to the plan and do a bit of hills, or just stay on the flats. Settled on a compromise, just to back off a touch on the ups, and that seemed to work just fine. Pretty soon the legs were feeling better and I was having fun again.
---------
Don't know if it had anything to do with feeling tired, but I'd been feeling stressed all day. Time to get my driver's license renewed and that meant an eye test. I'd been for a check-up a couple of weeks earlier, doc said the right eye (corrected) was 20-30, left eye (corrected) 20-70. The state requires 20-40 at worst. So I ought to have been OK, but when given a chance to worry, I normally take it.
Back-up plan if I failed was that if you're no worse than 20-70, you can get a license for daytime driving only. And in that case I figured my mother's genes would kick in and I'd drive whenever I needed to. But I didn't really want to go there.
Went to AAA for the test, very efficient, had an appointment, and the eye exam was -- well, how could it be so hard to read the chart at the doctor's office that just barely got me to 20-30, and be so easy to read this one, supposedly 20-40. I wasn't complaining. But I did ask if the machine was accurate, and was assured that it was. Who knows?
I'd also brought along what I hoped were the necessary documents to get a Real ID version of the license. No problem there either. And in ten minutes I was out of the office and also worries taken care of.
Except for the eyes. The left one has a real retina problem, so I have an appointment to see a specialist in a week and a half. They do surgery to fix it, the odds are good, but it scares the hell out of me. Not sure where that path will lead.
And the right eye, the "good" one, supposedly it could benefit from some laser treatment to remove some haziness on the lens capsule. Generally a safe procedure, but there are always risks. I'd imagine I'll have that done before long, as it would be nice to be able to see better.