Training Log Archive: PG

Event: WCOC - Sessions Woods
 

WCOC meet at Sessions Woods, hosted by George and Lyn. Red course, 6.2 km bee-line. Warm and humid.

Missed the first 5 controls, after which things got better (fortunately). Plus the heat beats me down, never have like hot days. So overall could have been worse, I suppose.

Nice course, clusters of controls with long legs between that gave the option of trail runs. Nice to not have to spend all the time in the ferns.

In the match between the studs and the babes, I think they (Ali and Pavi) beat us (me and Joe) by 11 seconds. Joe, you've got to run faster. I did my part vs. Pavi.... :-)

Controls: 118/1200

C • you got it 1

Picking up controls 1 through 6. At a slow walk.

I was thinking during part of my walk that I should try a thumb compass (and a magnifier?). Or is this dog too old to learn new tricks?

C • Are you considering 13

Red - Splits

So my new control count started at the one-year anniversary of the first one, August 10. So far I've got:

France training -- 6
France spectator races -- 12, 12, 9, 15, 8, 10
Mt. Tom training -- 10
Norwottuck training -- 12

Total so far: 94
Goal: 1200 by WMOC next July

Special adjustment factor allowed -- every hour of mapping is worth 10 controls.

C • mapping 1

Old Deerfield / River Road loop, moderate pace (actually the legs felt like they were doing some work, but the heart rate stayed very low, not sure what that combination means), partly to try to loosen up the legs, which are still quite sore, and partly to see the impact of the flooding on the local farmland, which in places was quite severe. Being 10 feet higher or lower made a big difference.

More traffic than usual in a couple of places because I-91 south is still closed between Greenfield and Deerfield, until they can be sure the bridge abutments are sound where it crosses the Deerfield River. Should be quite the traffic mess on Monday afternoon.

O' training at the Notch, course by Phil along the north side of the range. Legs were sore from yesterday. The plan today was to try to run a fair bit (except when it went uphill much) at a relaxed pace, and that went pretty well. Second part of the plan was to not worry about the controls -- if I found the right spot, fine; if I wasn't sure, well, just keep moving. I think I found most of them but probably not all. So a good session, thanks to Ali for the inspiration and Phil for the courses/maps.

And then food! Just down the road at a pizza place, very pleasant at an outdoor picnic table, listening to, among other things, gross stories from Phil's past.

I suggested to Gail that today's 6 controls should be part of her year-long goal of 600. She professed to be not interested. Should I start the count for her?

And I need to get my count going. I think a proper goal is 1200 by WMOC in Germany in early July.

The course, and my route (perhaps).

Down to Holyoke for the 5K XC race. Picked up Ali on the way, which meant we got caught in real bad traffic on Rt. 9, so got there 15 minutes early instead of 30. Just enough time for a warm-up (in which she is jogging and I am just about race pace).

C • What's this... 2

Better than I expected by a good bit, I thought under 22 would be hard to do. So quite pleased, plus an age-66 record too by about 15 seconds.

Very entertaining at the start to see Ali take the lead, and she still had the last I saw, about a half-mile in. Meanwhile I was doing the best I could, and was pleasantly surprised by what the 305 said I was doing, though these days I don't trust it very much. But it said I was running about 6:45-6:50 miles, and that was encouraging, so I'm sure I hung in there better than I would have otherwise.

Legs are going to be very sore tomorrow.



Can anyone explain to me why my time for the first and third miles are different than my pace for the first and third miles?

C • time and pace 6

Cool-down, during which legs got progressively sorer....

O' training tomorrow at the Notch at 5:30 pm. Anyone interested let me know.

C • Damn, wish I lived a little... 3

Because her boss says she can't go out alone given the high water, and she couldn't find anyone else without an excuse not to go, I seem to have been recruited to keep Alex from drowning while she goes to check her temperature loggers along various tributaries of the Westfield River to see if they are still there or have been swept away. I do not believe I will be electrocuting any fish.

Hopefully all the roads (those little dirt backroads) aren't closed and we will be able to get to a few sites, the loggers are still there, and we don't drown. Especially the last item.

C • I guess you found some despite the deluge... 2

After a day spent trying out a new profession -- chauffeur to beautiful young women -- I decided that as excellent an occupation as that might be, it didn't do much for my cardio-vascular system, and a little training was called for. Alex headed off for the Northampton 5K XC, but that was way too vigorous a prospect for my fragile legs (after yesterday's dalliance at the track). So I headed over to the gate for a little jog on the trails of Mt. Toby.

And as I was quite pleased that I was out doing something, the mantra for the run was, "Go as slow as you like." And I sauntered along, first flat, then steadily up for a while, and the legs actually felt OK. The front of the legs, that is, the quads. No problem going up, though I was not pushing the pace. The back of the legs were feeling tender from yesterday, so I was extremely sensible and didn't push the pace going down either.

What a nice way to train!

In Litchfield. Very happy to see the power still on when I got there about 7 pm with the storm over except for a bit of steady but not strong wind. Several detours for road closing on the way, but two didn't affect me, one cost me only 5 minutes, and the other I just ignored (turned out to be a tree resting on the wires about 15' above the road, but cars were coming the other way, so why not).

My pleasure soon ended, as the power went out about 30 minutes later. Out came the candles and flashlights. Somewhat of a nuisance (though I'm not the one dealing with it), because mom gets up every hour or two during the night for a bathroom trip and needs assistance. So for me it was an early bedtime, 9 pm.

Up at daylight, still no power, electric company had no idea how long. Took a short tour around town, all the power seemed out. Back to mom's. WTF, might as well go run. And I'd been thinking after yesterday that I needed to rev up my legs (or as Tiger would say, I was in need of some reps), so off to the Litchfield high school track, a very pleasant spot on a very pleasant morning, and quite deserted.

Jogged over, 8x200 (200 jog) seemed plenty ambitious enough, and I managed that without disgracing myself -- no falls! -- and then jogged back to mom's. Feeling quite pleased with myself.

And then after a while, having determined that there was really nothing I could do there of much use, I split. Stopped at Charlie's on the way back to see how he and his ailments were doing, but no one there. So then I stopped at George's to see how his ailments were doing, but no one there either. Maybe that will teach me to call in advance. So then stopped at a golf course in Agawam and almost no one there. But in this case that was a good thing as they were open (a little wet but not bad), so I played a quick round, 9 holes quite atrocious, 9 holes quite good, that's about my usual mix, just it usually alternates hole by hole rather than 9 by 9. And then headed home.

Where, if I can get my act together, I will start up OCAD and start learning how to use it, and see if I can get a basemap of Earl's trails from Eddie with some newly discovered lidar, and maybe sometime make a new map. Maybe....

And also, now that I've had a little guidance from Alex -- who now has a room in our house for her occasional use -- about how the modern world works, maybe even revisit my Facebook page for the first time since I established a presence there a couple of years ago, and see if FB is a useful/amusing/entertaining spot for someone about 50 years older than the average FB user.

So much to do....

C • Facebook 10

Up along the river for a couple of miles to check the flooding. The road was underwater for maybe 150 yards. A couple of bikers looking at it on the far side. A guy in the process of taking off his bike shoes on the near side, getting ready to walk across? And a guy out in the middle, about knee-deep, walking (not carrying) his bike across.

And the Connecticut was quite impressive, moving right along, all sorts of debris from Vermont (pieces of road, top soil,...), plus I thought I spotted a bit of Ken's driveway going by. Vermont seems like it really got screwed, lots of roads gone and they take a lot longer to fix than downed wires.

C • Mt. St. Helens 1