Training Log Archive: PG

A little running to oil the joints.

WCOC local meet at Five Ponds, courtesy of Charlie DeWeese.

Nice day, nice course, but I have a hard time remembering when I've had a worse outing. The note on my map says it all -- "No brain, no energy." But other than that I guess it was OK. :-)

A little shaky to the first one, then misread where I was nearing 2 and thought I was farther east, turned west and before long there was a house in front of me. Spent quite a long time in the area just standing still, not figuring out where I was. The next few were OK. But then came 7....

Cut west to the trail. Turned right, it looked a little funny, and shortly I remembered that I was heading to 7 and not 8. Thought I might as well head straight to the next junction, but seem to have crossed a good-sized trail without seeing it. And wandered a while through various forms of crap.

And wandered some more.

And got quite discouraged.

And thought about the various things I could do, like quit, or at least not turn in a time, or whatever.

And at some point I thought maybe I'd somehow gotten to the right place, so I checked out a couple of knolls, but no such luck.

And went a while longer.

And then the nice big trail and corner of the pond made it pretty easy to figure out where I was. Spiked 7 from there, at a very low rate of speed.

Missed 8 too, lots of logged stuff and I most certainly had neither strength nor energy nor fighting spirit.

And at some point in here the internal conversation shifted to the question -- If you are feeling like this, why in the world are you thinking about getting on a plane to go orienteering someplace this spring/summer?

And my heels were not doing good either.

But usually quitting is not in my vocabulary, so I kept going, finished, though totally without distinction.

The only positive thing I'll take from it is that the route I drew on the map afterwards and the FR route are not that different, even when I had no idea where I was.... :-)

Got something to drink, then headed out to pick up 10 controls. All at a walk. All easy. Though still no energy. Map.

Red - Splits

Usual trails. About 50F and a touch of rain, so much nice for running (but not for anything else) than the recent warm days. Felt easy. Though still running very modest distances and modest speeds, just hoping the heels hang in there. They're doing a little better, I think the heel cushions help.

Fresh Air again, I seem to like the show, this time a guy talking about federal budget deficits, quite dogmatic and therefore less persuasive (and less interesting) than it might have been.

I wonder what will happen with this stuff over the next few years. And especially, what will happen to tax laws for 2011 and beyond. Lots of things expire at the end of 2010 and who knows what will be extended, and what won't. There's going to be some battles over that.

In the meantime, 2010 remains a good year to die.

C • to paraphrase Wilkes 3

Same route as yesterday, mainly so I could tell JJ how far the 305 said our run was. I was planning on an extra 20 minutes at the end, but it was warm and enough was enough. Heels are a little less sore, but I still need to be careful.

1 week to go.

Fresh Air, interview with a journalist who wrote about Iraquis forced into excile. Very interesting.

And for JJ, the same couple was on the platform at Sachem's Head. Yesterday, we stopped to take in the view, nice day but a strong wind. He was sitting on the edge of the platform working on his laptop. And just as we got there she scurried off down the slope, and then reappeared a moment later clutching a piece of paper that must have blow away. As she came up past us I could hear her say something to the effect of, Praise the Lord for finding the piece of paper.

Which, off course, seemed a bit much to me. And then, before I could stop myself, I came out with, God helps them that help themselves.

And then JJ and I were off, with a short discussion about where my phrase came from, and was it from the Bible, and certainly if it wasn't, then it ought to be.

I heard from JJ later that the phrase is credited to Ben Franklin, a source of much wisdom.

And back to today, no stopping at the platform or any attempt to engage her in further conversation, but that didn't stop her from calling out to me, "God bless you."

I suppose it can't hurt.

C • self-help 2

A run on the ridge with JJ, warm day, glad we weren't intending to go for a long time. And then a shower and then lunch finished off with some fresh brownies from his mom. Yummy.

C • Holy cow! 7

On the ridge, out to Sachem's Head and back. Pretty warm, also windy. Relaxed pace.

Listened to a very pleasant Fresh Air interview with some actress, can't remember her name, was promoting some recent movie I haven't seen about looking for WMDs in Iraq, also had been in The Wire, but we don't get HBO, also in The Office, but I've only seen the old episodes, which I quite like, but have no idea where and when the current show appears.

All of which sums up my general cultural awareness, someplace been none and slim. :-)

And regarding whatever little bits I may learn, the universe of the stuff I'm unaware of is expanding many many times faster.

C • The Wire 6