Training Log Archive: RLShadow

Rec center; about 15 people sharing 3 courts.

Worked at Bristol today, at the Summit Center. Lots of excitement at Bristol today, with the state alpine championships being held along with the state XC relay championships. Being in the Summit Center, I didn't get to see any of the alpine races (although I saw many alpine racers getting off the lift), but got to see the XC relays from a reasonably good vantage point. It was neat having the Summit Center pretty much filled with skiers from across the state, along with parents and coaches.

The portions of the relay that I could watch (the start, the exchange zone, the finish, and a couple of places on the course) were quite exciting. And as many people know, I'm not exactly a XC aficionado :)

But I really enjoyed the whole scene, especially with many people cheering, blowing horns, etc.

JCC league. Once again, had a sub for my normal partner, Glenn. (So far, in 5 weeks of play, Glenn and I have played together only once.) Tall guy (who goes by the name "Saint" -- not sure how that came to be) with grey bushy hair and beard, around my age, very good overall (a notch or so better than me). I found out later that he used to be a tennis pro, so it makes sense that he would be pretty decent.

We got killed the first game, 11-3; I was playing pretty badly, and the other team was playing quite well. We came back to win the next two games, 11-9 and 11-3. I think it was a case of the other team cooling off a bit and me playing better (and my partner playing a bit better, although he didn't start off as badly as I did).

To Finn Park, around the field, and back. Stopped at the stream but Homer decided not to go for a swim ...

Pickleball at the Rec Center; drop-in for $2 arrangement. Had a number of reasonably good (close) games.

Last day at Stowe. No fresh snow; generally good conditions.

GPS distanced was 24.9 miles.

We had lunch at the top of the gonola -- this entry is for skiing after lunch. Tough to get going after sitting for nearly an hour ...

GPS distance was 10.5 miles.

More skiing at Stowe. Tough skiing (lotsa fresh snow, but with some surprise icy spots in places). Fun though. GPS said 28.5 miles covered, but again a fair amount of that was uphill. Cold and, in places, very windy.

Skiing at Stowe with Cheryl and trailsnail. Nice day; conditions good on many slopes, pretty marginal on others.

16.5 miles covered according to Forerunner, but of course a lot of that was going uphill on lifts.

Skiing again, after a short break to shed some layers.

17.2 miles covered per Forerunner (again, a good portion of that was on lifts).

Mt. Hope cemetery. Footing was decent for about 80% of the ground I covered, but some untraveled or lightly traveled (by vehicles) roads were quite icy and required significant caution.

Webster Rec Center. Had some very competitive games. (After the first two games, which had a very wide mix of skills.)

Th afternoon pickleball at the rec center. 20 people at the peak, with 5 courts, so no one sitting out.

It seemed like a very nice day so, with Homer in tow, I decided to vet some potential control points that Rick L. had come up with. By the time we got to the U of R, the sky had clouded over, the rain had started, the wind had picked up to around 30 mph, and the temperature had dropped about 10 degrees. So we didn't spend as much time as I had intended ... Still, got something done at least. And Homer got a bit of a walk in.

JCC league. Mike S substituted for my normal partner Glenn, because Glenn was away skiing. We played a top-notch team -- I found out later that they're probably the best team in the league and are currently undefeated. We gave them a valiant fight in the first 2 games but lost both, then we kind of folded in the last game. Scores were 11-8, 11-10, and 11-4. Even in the close first two games, there was no doubt in my mind that they were better than we were and we were somewhat fortunate to be that close. Good workout.

Webster Park. Gorgeous day to be outside, but I still totally suck at XC skiing .... I'm a disaster on any downhills, so I was quick to take off my skis at the least little downgrade (like a 10 foot drop or so ...).

Went with trailsnail. When she perused my skis when she was dropping me off, she commented on how ancient and worn out they look. I'm not sure why she would say that, they're only around 40 years old or so!

She suggested that maybe I'd have better success with more up to date equipment ...

C • You at least 12

At Webster Rec Center. Good group of people, lots of good games.

Absolutely gorgeous conditions today.

Very brief pickleball session at the Rec Center.

Mid-day walk with Homer, over to Finn Park and back. Bushwhacked most of the way from the end of Woodland to Maple, roughly the same route back.

No GPS carried -- estimate of route walked:

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=5809022

JCC pickleball league. Once again I didn't play all that great. I need to get my touch shots down to where they are more dependable to feel like I can compete in this league. I'm definitely not used to playing this caliber of play on a routine basis at the Webster Rec Center. There are a number of players from the Rec center who could easily compete in the JCC league, but there is such a wide range of ability of players, that it's rare that we wind up in a highly competitive game with four fairly evenly matched players.

Glenn and I played Gail and Trish (which was kind of odd because they were our opponents the first week of play -- so in 3 weeks of league play, when there are 6 teams, we've played them twice). As before, Trish took a while to get her game going but she was on fire by the 3rd game.

We won the first two games 11-8 and 11-10, and got blown out in the 3rd game 11-3. So we won in games, but they outscored us in points. Both games won and points won count, and I'm not sure which counts the most or if both of them count, how they are weighted.

Skiing at Bristol, with Cheryl and trailsnail. Forgot to bring the GPS so not exactly sure of how many runs and how much vertical, but my guess is 8 runs at around 5 minutes each and 1200 feet each. Not all that crowded for a weekend day. Conditions generally decent, with one very icy slope (Northstar), and one slope with a lot of loose snow (Rocket) that made skiing a lot of work but was actually pretty enjoyable. Just tiring.

Sat. afternoon pickleball at the Rec Center. We had 6 courts available to us (both sides of the gym), but only enough people for 4 courts of doubles play, plus 3 left-overs. Overall, I played moderately poorly I thought. Had maybe two satisfying games.