Training Log Archive: PG

Had a very nice dinner last night at a new place (for us), the Gill Tavern, celebrating Valentine's Day.

There were some impressive numbers from the weekend storm, but the most important (and most appreciated) data aren't even reported -- not a flake to be seen in Sunderland.

I suppose it shows either incredible self-confidence, or incredible stupidity, or perhaps some of both.

There have been any number of comments in recent years, particularly from the relatively younger set, about the image of orienteering as primarily something that old guys do. And therefore not a sport attractive to younger folks.

And even if it is true that there are some old guys that do it, the emphasis should be on the younger, flashier, prettier set. And ditto for any marketing.

And old guys should be kept hidden away.

Especially old guys with beards.

Especially especially old guys with beards wearing pajamas.

So then how does one explain the cover of the January issue of the Swiss O' Magazine?

Are they making a play for subset of old guys with beards wearing pajamas, the subset that likes to run around with radio antennas? Is that an untapped demographic?

Should we be including this in USOF's strategic plan?

Or, maybe, have the Swiss just gone bananas?

C • ? 8

Time for a longer run, since Sunday is the only day it's possible, and fortunately the weather was cooperating, sunny, upper 20s, and windy, but not so windy that it was unpleasant. Did a loop that was an old favorite of mine, Stillwater - Bardswell Ferry, so named after the two bridges across the Deerfield River. Endless hills. Just a good run to work on HTFU. Used to be able to do it in about 1:40, and was pleased today to be under 2 hours.

All back roads, maybe a third to a half dirt, but even the paved ones had enough winter sand on them that there was no sense of just pounding the asphalt. And the section around 11 miles that isn't plowed for about a mile was just fine.

Just an occasional car, plus a couple of hardy cyclists. And no discernible activity at the Cosby estate (pretty much all the land on both sides of the road between miles 8 and 9), though as usual it looked immaculately well taken care of.

Legs felt a little tired up the first long hill -- you start will just about a 20-minute climb -- then pretty good for about the next hour, and then tired again on the last couple hills.

Feels excellent to have done it, and not so bad during the doing. Nice entertainment as usual, mostly a TAL on guns, and then a Wait Wait Don't Tell Me for when I was getting tired, didn't demand much thinking.

C • 3

An early run on the treadmill because I wasn't sure if I'd have time later, just 4 easy miles. 9:36, 8:28, 8:27, 8:27.

I forgot to note yesterday a short podcast I listened to at the end of the run, an item from "The Moth" (often very amusing short stories, available for free via iTunes), this one by Malcolm Gladwell. I've read a little of his stuff (I think Spike is a big fan), usually interesting and quite serious. This was, well, different, and very funny.

C • Gladwell 7

"13 hills" loop, plus a little detour to pick up a glove I had dropped while changing channels. Glad I realized it when I did, didn't have to go back very far.

Petty good conditions, all snow covered but not much ice. Legs seemed OK, hamstring is calming down.

So I listened to this guy on Connecticut Public Radio (see yesterday's comments), and he was pretty good. The show was on buriels. It seems like people are doing a variety of strange things -- getting their ashes mixed with ashes they have saved from departed pets, lots of people doing that, one guy wanted to buy a bunch a pepper shakers and put his ashes in them and give them to all his friends (the host took exception to that, one of the guests suggested that the holes in the pepper shakers would too small and maybe one of those things that hold grated cheese would be better), people want to get their ashes scattered at sea,

So many good things to learn!

And then there was his babe assistant who started off the show by declaring she wanted to have her body swallowed by a giant squid, then hoisted in the air by balloons and then blown up, so parts of her and the squid would come raining down. And the same babe closed the show by saying she didn't give a damn what happened to her body because, after all, she'd be dead.

An entertaining show. As long as I didn't think too seriously about the subject matter.

Right hamstring just a little off so I sadly passed on the track workout and ran on the treadmill, 5 easy miles, 9:45 and then 4 @8:30. Don't think I made things any worse.

Fresh Air again, I guess they used Xmas week to replay some of their favorite interviews of the year. Yesterday I listen to her interview Quinten Tarrentino. Wonderful, just wonderful. And ditto today, half the show with Woody Allen, the other half with Tracy Morgan. Made the time go by a whole lot faster.

At work I continue to get compliments for my new good looks. So far over the past six months the only "undecided" has been Gail, though I think maybe she is getting just a little positive, and the only "opposed", or at least the only one willing to say so, has been Barb, who simply said that she prefers hairy men. :-)

C • Pod casts 4

C • Good for you 5

Once around the Greenfield course. An inch of snow overnight, which made little difference most of the time but in a few places covered up sheets of ice. Never went down, never really close, but was certainly following a law of inertia a few times (a body in motion tends to keep moving in the same direction unless some force is applied to it, and the ice wasn't allowing me to apply much force).

Right hamstring was a little sore this morning. Don't know why, it didn't hurt yesterday. Didn't feel a thing running (was ready to quit if it acted up at all), but it's still a little off afterwards. We will see.

Legs felt heavy again today. Yesterday was a decent effort but not hard, and I got a full night's sleep. Just one of those days.

So we're trying something new, and the instructor looks in my direction and says, "Peter, you probabaly won't be able to do this."

I've read any number of things over the years that talk about how kids react when people have low expectations of them (such as, forget about college, you're not good enough), and how the reaction is supposed to be that kids don't even try. And so low expectations is a bad thing.

Well, my reaction to this was to take it as a challenge. Of course, I still couldn't do it, but I probably tried harder and did a little better than I would have otherwise. So rather than a put-down it was a bit of extra motivation. Plus I was laughing, very much enjoying it, even though afterwards she was quite apologetic (unnecessarily so, I told her).

Just a reminder that everyone is different.

Also, nice to be heading off to class with a little light in the sky. The days are getting longer.

C • Challenge 18

"13 hills" (aka winter one-hour run). A little better than last time, just under an hour. Footing was variable, fairly icy south of Mountain Road, where it had had less foot traffic. But no falls, and no close calls.

Freah Air, about Afghanistan and how we spend money there that ends up in the wrong hands. Reasonably interesting.

Got myself some new ear phones (or whatever they're called). The ones that came with the ipod kept falling out. These don't, they hook around the ear, but they sure are ugly.

There's been a discussion about the best orienteering areas in each state (and Canadian province). I've been thinking I should put together my own list.

So I think I will start. It may take me a while, in part because I want to give links to all the maps so someone can see what I'm talking about, and that means I've got to scan them, and to do that I've first got to find them.

It may also take a while because I think I'll also try to figure out the worst areas in each state/province. I'm not trying to dis anyone. It just seems like a good way to dredge up some old memories. And if you take offense, well, no one forced you to read this.

So let's start with New England, my home territory for the past 35 years. Interesting that in 35 years I have managed to run on just 2 maps in 3 of the 6 states, so my whole experience in those 3 states will be on display.

And for anyone concerned about the propriety of naming the worst areas, maybe you'll feel better if you realize that in at least 3 states it's just another way of saying second best. (Which reminds me of the t-shirt I saw once on what looked to be a former marine -- on the first line it said "Southeast Asia War Games," on the second line it gave the dates of the Vietnam War, and on the third line it said "Second Place.") :-)

New England

Maine. Been there twice for orienteering, once at Thorncrag near Bates College in Lewiston for the first-ever A meet in the state, once to the second-ever A meet at Pineland Farms, site of the 2004 relay champs. Both were decent area, good events. Thorncrag gets the nod for best in the state (and Pinelands the worst) only because my main memory of Pinelands is wrenching my hamstring part of the way around the course on Saturday and sitting out the rest of the weekend, and how can you have good feelings about an area after that? Not fair, but true....

New Hampshire. This one is pretty easy. Pawtuckaway is the best, first used for a World Cup race in 1992. Sure, it has some bad places, sure it has had to survive an epidemic of excess form lines, but when it is good it is wonderful.

And the worst? Old-timers will remember Smarts Brook up in the White Mountains, used one weekend when the convention was in nearby Plymouth in 1985 and wisely never used again. The vegetation was atrocious, the terrain was severe, and, what the hell, might as well say it, it didn't help things that the first day's start was misplaced by 400 meters.

Vermont. Another case of having only been orienteering there twice, but here the decision is easy. The best, and it was very fine, is Beaver Brook Farm, site of the 2002 relay champs.

The worst is an area that I would venture to guess that at most one or two other AttackPointers have run on, if that. It is Indian Flats and Mountains of the Moon, just south of Brattleboro between I-91 and the Connecticut River. The reason for the map, used just once, and for the event, was to celebrate the publishing of Orienteering for Sport and Pleasure, written by Hans Bengtsson and George Atkinson, the publisher Stephen Green Press being located in Brattleboro, on the edge of the map. It was a pro-am competition. The orienteers were the pros. The amateurs were various folks from other parts of the universe (publishing, marketing, other sports), the most well-known being XC skier Bill Koch. I think my partner and I won. Being a "pro," the prize was cash, 5 dollars to be precise. Silver dollars. I believe I still have them.

And for anyone complaining about the quality of mapping these days, or the quality of printing, this is a fine example of what I learned to orienteer on.

Massachusetts. Lots of possibilities here. I like Mt. Tom, I like parts of Quabbin, though it hasn't been used for years. The best award almost goes to an area that is clearly no longer the best because the woods have gotten a whole lot thicker, and clearly never had the best map, or even a very good map, but it was wonderful terrain. I'm talking about Boxford, NW of Boston. Maybe I have a soft spot in my heart for Boxford because I won the US Champs there in 1978, coming from behind on the second day to nip George Tuthill. But honesty prevails, and the best goes to Baldwin Hill in the north central part of the state near Ashburnham. Just a nice place, though it may have suffered from last winter's ice storm.

And now the worst. So many candidates. One out in my part of the state, Holyoke Community College, steep and full of miserable sharp rocks. Lots in the eastern part of the state, mainly because of thick woods, such as Powisset, and High Rock, and Wrenthem. I've stayed away from them for years. But the winner is one I've been to many a time, the lure is the event and not the map or terrain, yup, it's Blue Hills East. Truly awful. Rocky, hilly, crappy woods. It's used for the first part of the Traverse most years, and the strategy seems to be to get the orienteers over to Blue Hills West (not that BHW is that much better) as fast as possible. I've run there maybe 20 times, and probably haven't visited over half the map because you just don't want to go there. The only reason to go is because the Traverse is a cool event.

I've heard talk of remapping BHW and BHE and holding the US Champs there. Is someone insane?

Rhode Island. Again, only two choices, and here the choice is which is worse. And the winner for the worst is Diamond Hill, lots of scruffy terrain and crappy woods, and scene of the control being defended by the guy with a gun, since it appeared that it was on his land and he took exception to that. Needless to say, the results that day were tossed.

By default the best is George Washington SF, site of the 1987 US Champs, shaky map, nice in a few places but lots of knee-high (or higher) blueberry/huckleberry bushes. Only in Rhode Island would this take first place.

Connecticut. Lots of great areas in the state, the best being Ansonia Nature Center (site of day 1 of the WCOC A meet in May) by a narrow margin over Trout Brook Valley. Ansonia is so sweet, good woods, good terrain, not too hilly, not too rocky, just right.

And the worst is Brooksvale, a place that fortunately not many have been exposed to. A lot more crappy woods than desired, and it could use a map. Well, it has a map, but that map just needs to be tossed and things started over from scratch.

To be continued....

C • Diamond Hill 9

Back up on Greenfield ridge. A little icy, but for the most part the inch or two of snow several days ago has bonded to the ice so it's not bad.

The legs were bad though, just not there. One of those days. Perhaps I can take that to mean that yesterday was a productive workout.

Fresh Air on fillibusters and secrecy (two different interviews), OK but not great.

The shit has hit the fan today at work. Nothing bad, just swamped with work, but I will have little free time for a while. But, priorities being priorities, still time for the occasional AP post.