Training Log Archive: PG

On the same page as Gail, beautiful today, supposed to be wet tomorrow, best get out today. Turners Falls and Millers Falls.

88-9-0-10.

Route from yesterday's middle. Not much to say, in control all the way.

And route on today's long (also M60, GreenX). A little miss on #6, otherwise fine. Definitely helped at 13 and 14 by people just ahead of me. Best move was crossing the wide ride just before #7 on a narrow pice of bare rock, thereby avoiding all the barberry (and its resident ticks, one assumes). Second best move was not getting at all bothered by the wide flat reentrant 1/4 of the way from 9 to 10, mapped as white, actually dark green.

As far as enjoyment, Saturday was much better. Bull Pond has its share of hills and rocks and mountain laurel, but not really much of the knee/waist/chest-high blueberry or whatever else that stuff is. So it is much more runnable. Whereas Turkey Mountain, Sunday's map, has always been much junkier woods, and it seems to have gotten more so. Very few places where the running was fun. Turkey Mountain was just hard work.

And the cadets, as has been the case for the last decade or so (ever since the Campbells really improved the program, and now under the leadership of Mike Hendricks), once again put together an excellent weekend. The days of absurd courses, misplaced controls, and people in tears at the finish are just distant memories. Good for them!

Got around without any damage to my hamstring, I think, although right hell was hurting some. And a good gash to my right palm, a good bit deeper than my usual skin removal stuff. Did it early, blood all over the place by the time I was done, but it gave the first aid guys something to do. But certainly totally minor compared to what Phil did to himself.

I'm hoping it won't interfere with my grip.

A late afternoon bike ride back home, because it was a beautiful afternoon, because it might loosen up the legs, and because of those two huge scoops of ice cream Saturday evening.

C • bike ride 2

Green X Long - Splits

Event: 33rd West Point A Meet
 

Social notes from Saturday at West Point:

-- I met Vlad from last weekend at the BG. We laughed a bunch. I tried on his glasses -- just awful.

-- I got some remarks from Jeremy to the effect that he had heard I'd been trashing him on the web. Some more good laughs. He did not deny the fact that his orienteering had been quite special (and that does not mean "good") at the BG. Apparently it was also quite special today. So special that he had to be reminded that now was not the time to quit the sport, just as he was getting famous.

One of the side benefits of the visit was I got to spend some time with quite the stud (that's Jeremy), who had quite the big motorcycle, and quite the babe along with him. Better to be seen in such company than with the OFs in pajamas I usually hang out with.

-- I am thinking of starting a petition requesting that all old people stop orienteering, thereby dropping the average age and making it a much more visually attractive sport to the remaining 20 people still doing it. At which point one presumes it would boom. Hell, just start with me, George, and Charlie quitting, that would knock the average down a year for each of us. Add Don Davis to the mix and there's a 5-year drop right there.

-- And Phil, who seems to be in competition with Ken Sr and Alex as to who can damage themselves the most, well, Phil made a strong move today -- he may not have broken his right wrist but it was at least rather traumatized. But his reaction was just what you would expect of any of the three -- wrap it up and head back out on the afternoon sprint.

C • Jeremy 5

A very excellent run around the GreenX (M60) course at West Point. Very excellent because it was mostly a run, granted a very relaxed and careful run, but the hamstring behaved itself. In all honesty, nothing else mattered.

Walked up the hill to the start point, then just started running quite carefully, and that felt OK so I kept doing it. Was especially careful at the end, keep saying to myself to not do something stupid. And apparently I didn't.

Orienteering was straightforward, no problems. Helps not to be trying to go faster.

And afterwards, hamstring felt a little tender, but really not bad at all. As I said, very excellent.

Skipped the afternoon sprint, no point in pushing my luck.

Green X Middle - Splits

Hanging the rest of the streamers, no surprises. :-)

Going to West Point this weekend though not quite sure why. I guess I'll try a course and see how it goes at a gentle pace. Low expectations, but it would be nice to jog a little without hurting. Already removed myself from ranking consideration, so there should be zero pressure (except the usual self-generated) to do anything too strenuous.

81-8-0-10

Field checking points and a few map changes. Still need a couple of hours to finish up this stage. Time is getting short but I think things are on schedule.

Plus an early morning walk: 81-7-2-10. Still a problem with 8's, but only one this time.

Cool and misty all day, feet look like prunes. I suppose I should spring for some waterproof shoes for my morning activity.

Making progress on the courses at Earl's Trails for the 5-Day, an endeavor that has me doing something that I have never done before, namely working with a course consultant. I was a consultant a few times 20 or 30 years ago, but never the consultee.

Consultent is Boris. And so far the experience from my perspective is totally excellent. We don't have a lot of time -- because of my schedule the course setting couldn't start until about 10 days ago, and it took me about a week to get what I thought were decent first drafts.

Gave them all to Boris on Sunday, who was on his way to Sweden Monday evening. Detailed comments and suggestions from him in my mailbox on Tuesday morning. My reactions back to him yesterday evening. More comments back from him this morning. Very cool.

Now to get out and do a bunch more field checking, draw up fresh copies and do another round of consulting. So far so good.

C • Earl's Trails 3

Cloudy and cool (about 50F), but the roads were dry so no excuse not to get some exercise. Turner's Falls - Millers Falls. Didn't feel too zippy but got it done, glad I wasn't going much longer.

Hamstring is OK on the bike (though my calves were cramping several times), but it feels like it will object the moment I start to run. So no running for a bit.

Here's my route from Sunday's Billygoat. No mistakes except for looking for my glasses which were safely in the car.

I skipped #9. I don't think many others did. Since I was just walking, I wanted to save distance more than climb and that seemed as good as any. I didn't even notice 18 as a skip until I was on my way to 16 and I asked someone running past if they had skipped and they said No, and then I saw 18 was a good skip. But I don't think it was best for me.

The BG has always had a tradition that following is allowed. Perhaps it is best to leave it just like that, but after Sunday I wonder if the "rule" shouldn't be modified a little, maybe something like -- "Following is allowed, but only for 15 minutes without the permission of the person you are following." Or pick whatever time limit you want.

The reason I suggest this is I was followed for the first two hours. Always about 25 to 50 meters behind. A few times I thought I was clear but I just hadn't seen him, he was still there. And it got a little annoying. Especially on the way to 16, long gradual downhill trail walk, and he stayed right behind me, even though he clearly could run.

So one last attempt, on leaving 17, up the trail to 18, walked as fast as I could, opened up enough of a gap that I wasn't showing him the route and, well, the usual saying is that a picture is worth a thousand words....



Ah, well, I guess it just comes with the territory.

One other comment about the BG, or more particularly about Moreau -- there is almost no green on the map, and even where there is green it is hardly thick at all, and the visibility is uniformly good. That makes the orienteering a lot easier, especially when you add the marshes that are these nice big distinct landmarks. I'd guess the amount of mistakes by the field as a whole was pretty small. Look at the map and it looks very difficult, but it's not really that hard.

Either that, or we're all just getting better.

C • following 51