Training Log Archive: PG

Event: WCOC Five Ponds
 

WCOC meet at Five Ponds in Litchfield. Couldn't pass this up since I was going to be in Litchfield anyway, though I wasn't sure how much I'd do.

I managed to get somewhat re-hydrated by the time I started, and legs were surprisingly not at all sore, but I think I must have been a little weary, which translated means slow, as I was way behind Becky. Though part of that was due to a couple of bad controls, and part to taking a while to get going physically. But I surprised myself by running quite a bit. Also crashing quite a bit, must have had half a dozen hard landings, plus a few other more gentle falls, there goes another minute or more right there.

But glad I went, haven't been in the SE section of the map for a long long time (maybe not since the 1985 Billygoat?). And there are some beautiful woods there.

Thanks to Jim and Rich for doing this, a local meet with no White or Yellow course (that's a rarity, I think), so could park a different place. I often wondered about the need to offer beginner courses at every meet, though I suppose it's heresy to say so.

Course (Green course): part 1, part 2

My route: part 1, part 2

C • heresy 1

Picking up a few controls, all at a walk. Feeling quite tired and a little queasy.
Fortunately was followed pretty quickly by a food stop in town.

Nice outing, carpooled with Ali so entertained the whole time.

Easy day tomorrow, then the 5K Tuesday in Northampton, will see if I can stay within a minute of Alex, unlikely, and impossible if she wears her headcam. And there will be a visiting dignitary, Carl Fey.

And then Wednesday evening is the debut for Phil's new sprint map on the outskirts of Northampton. Anyone else interested?

My route.

620/1000

C • Thanks, Peter. 2

Green - Splits

Event: Wapack & back Trail Race
 

Wapack end-to-end trail race. Suffered a bit.

Legs were pretty good, had some energy. No cramping, no soreness. No blisters. Only two falls, neither a bad one. But in retrospect I was badly dehydrated, and my GI system started complaining when I wasn't much more than half done. Couldn't decide for a while which end things might want to get out, or perhaps both. Finally had a pit stop in the woods with about an hour to go, helped a little, but I'm still feeling queesy four hours after finishing.

And the dehydration? Started at about 135 pounds I'd guess. Finished at 126-127. That's not good. I should have known better. It was a warmish day and I wasn't drinking much. Live and learn.

Time was OK, I'd figured I should be something under five hours, and I was, but given how I was moving the last hour or two, 20 minutes or more faster was certainly possible. Oh well.

Distance and climb -- who knows? The course had been wheeled some time ago, 21.5 miles, and since then there had been one change that I think added some distance (anywhere from a quarter to a half a mile), and the 305 says 20.5. Something is bogus.

Course was nice enough, but very very rocky in some places, especially on some downhills. There was a concurrent 50-miler going on, out and back plus an extra seven miles, looked like the winning time was going to be over ten hours, which is really slow. It's not a fast course.

C • orienteering? 3

Short and easy run on the upper part of Earl's trails. Discovered one short section I hadn't seen before, linking them to section on the south side of the O' map.

FA interview with Jams Levine, conductor at the Met. A good example of how an interview of something I know nothing about can be fascinating. The one exception (and the proof of my lack of awareness) -- a discussion of some particular chord and then some particular note, and then after the playing of the piece I had no clue as to what part of it they were referring to.

Still, another interview that I could have gladly listened to a lot longer.

Trail race tomorrow, lots of hills. I think under 5 hours is a reasonable goal.

Short outing at Northfield Mountain. I was thinking of doing the whole outer loop, but my legs were tired and that seemed like a pretty stupid idea. Still got a bit of uphill anyway.

Plus a round of golf, just my third of the year. Need to get out more often than once every week or so, not that it would make my game any better, just that otherwise the season will be over and I won't have played much.

Entertainment (while running, not playing golf, though maybe I should try the latter too) was This American Life about proms. Not a part of my upbringing.

Signed up for the Shamrock Oringen, will be first time orienteering in Ireland. :-)

Just a short trip, a week, but may have to take the clubs along too.

C • Shamrock 3

Mill River to Juggler Meadow and back, a little faster the last few minutes. Mid-50s, raining, the kind of day I normally have trouble getting out the door, but somehow it happened pretty easily. And the running conditions were quite pleasant. Perhaps I need to change my attitude about running in the rain.

The next couple of days will be easy, then a trail race (21.5 miles, 6,000' climb) on Saturday, then O' at Five Ponds on Sunday. The last one may be at a very slow pace.

Also the weekly update for L&F --

Starting weight: 144 (mid-December)
Jan. 1: 142
Jan. 8: 139
Jan. 15: 137
Jan. 22: 136
Jan. 29: 136.5
Feb 5: 136
Feb 12: 134
Feb. 19: 134
Feb. 26: 133
March 5: 133
March 12: 132.5
March 19: 133
March 26: 134
April 2: 135
April 9: 135
April 16: 131.5
April 23: 132.5
April 30: 132.5

Mood: L&F isn't over, just late with this week's numbers. Nice to see that it's been useful to a few others besides myself. And, as far as I know, no impressionable young women were harmed in the process.

I need to keep at it for another month and a half (Mt Washington). Though this week so far would indicate that I am not keeping at it very seriously.

From the Notch out to the end of the roller-coaster and back. Most of route, went another few hundred meters east beyond where the o" map covers. Quite a few hills.

Last did this in 2006, a couple of times then, both in 66 minutes, so the deterioration continues.... :-)

A few sore places from yesterday's fall, but they disappeared as soon as I got going.

Two interesting Fresh Air interviews, the first about Obama's foreign policy, the guy wrote an article in the current New Yorker which I happen to be reading, the second about Bernie Madoff. In both cases nice to get a little exercise and learn a little something at the same time.

I also got what has become a more often event than I would wish, namely confirmation that blind faith in the accuracy of the 305 is not a good thing. 3.09 miles out, 2.74 miles back along exactly the same route. That's a non-trivial difference.

Does it matter which wrist the watch is on (and therefore which way the watch is facing, and therefore how well it picks up the satellites)? If I look at the track, it seems that there is up to 50 meters of difference between the out and the back. That seems like a lot. Is is worse because for the western half of the run I was mostly on a north slope?

I certainly can't imagine using the GPS track for any accurate mapping.

-------------

Control count --

Was 560 prior to last weekend. Add 14 and 14 and 12. So now an even 600 out of 1000.

C • Control count 15

Last of the maps from the weekend --

My route from Saturday morning's middle.

And my route from the afternoon sprint. Not sure I should publish this one. After I took a careful look at the map when I finished, I figured I had gone out of bounds four times, once blatantly, three times maybe yes, maybe no. GPS confirms that.

I had in my mind that the OOB areas were ones where RV's were parked, so I gave those wide berth. The others, well, It just didn't occur to me at the time. I was having enough trouble trying to keep up with the map reading, and the OOB slashes made it hard to see what was underneath them, and of course there were no markings in the terrain. Whatever, if they want to retroactively DQ me, so be it.

Though I don't think we were following the Canadian rule that you are supposed to turn yourself in -- if you haven't already left, and if you heard the announcement, and if you actually knew where you were out there....

Whatever. Main lesson from the run ought to be that my map reading under stress was way too sloppy. Got to be more precise.

And finally, not that it made the slightest difference, but did anyone else notice the finish (the double circle) was mismapped both morning and afternoon? Both showed the finish chutes too long -- look where my GPS tracks stop. I wish I could run 120 meters slightly uphill and stop and punch all in 22 seconds (as I supposedly did for the middle), or 45 meters and stop and punch in 12 seconds (in the sprint), but those days are long gone.... :-)

C • L&F - the end? 10

C • Honesty 13

Just because we had left West Point yesterday in early afternoon didn't mean that our orienteering was done for the day.

We were heading for my mom's in Litchfield (CT), and there was no rush to get there, and it was a nice day, so I planned to take a few back roads I'd never been on. Lacking any road maps, I spent a few minutes in the morning looking at Google Maps, picking out a route, and doing my best to commit it to memory.

Here is what the planned route was. Get off I-84 at the exit for 311, take it to 22, a short bit north on 22, right on Quaker Hill Rd., to 37, to 7, cross the Housatonic, and then back streets on the north side of New Milford to miss the usual traffic snarls on the south side of town. I did my best to commit it to memory. Supposed to be 41 minutes, not quite 20 miles, just about as fast as going around via 84 and 7.

Here is what we did. 71 minutes, 33 miles. In the process I --

-- slept right through the exit for 311.
-- got off at the next exit, happened to be route 312, maybe Google just had it wrong?
-- got over to 22 as planned, a quick jog north, the next right, looking good but the street name was wrong.
-- still trying to head generally northeast, eventually came out on a bigger road, but no signs indicating it's name.
-- gut feeling, turned right on it, not a good move.
-- Eventually got to some civilization, a road sign that said we were on the desired road (37), and a gas station. Went in to ask.
-- Clerk said they had no maps of any kind, and she had no idea where any roads went.
-- Another customer started giving me a lengthy set of instructions, starting with head back the way we'd just come on 37, and then going on and on, only confirming how different our minds work.
-- And we did the rest of the route perfectly (I really did remember a bunch of turns correctly).

Orienteering lesson I took away from this.

1. Having a map is a good thing.
2. Looking at a map, assuming you have one, is a good thing too. I've never been a great fan of map memory exercises or map memory courses. That stuff can get you into trouble. Just learn to read the map a lot better, and a lot faster.
3. And don't daydream, which is what got me into trouble in the first place.

C • next time 1

C • Planned route 1

A little warm-up.

Twice up and down South Sugarloaf, up the road, down the trail.

It seems I am just as uncoordinated as ever. Second time coming down, and it is a fairly steep trail though not very rocky, I nicked a rock or root with one foot and went sprawling forwards, first continuing down the trail (which was angling diagonally down), then off the edge and down the slope. Fortunately I got stopped pretty quickly by a fairly small tree -- the slope was steep enough that I would have gone quite a ways (though not off any cliffs).

The usual cosmetic damage, this time re-opening the wounds on my left hand from yesterday, plus a few assorted other scrapes, plus a right quad that feels like it hit something, but I don't think anything serious.

What with stopping and then climbing back up to the trail, it did mean my descent, which had been proceeding quite quickly, was a bit slower than the first time.

Obviously I shouldn't be doing this stuff. But I'm going to be like my mom soon enough, better enjoy things while I can.

Splits: 9:58 up, 3:31 down, 9:55 up, 3:43 down. Vertical is about 450 feet.