Training Log Archive: Charlie

Billygoat at Mountain Lakes. I've been thinking about it for a while and made a snap decision around lunchtime to go. I thought 3 hours would be a reasonable stretch goal. Bad omen - cut my finger on my icebugs trying to get them on. I had done this before, but it was quite a few years ago. Wrapped it up in a handkerchief to keep the blood off the map.

Started out by missing #1, peeking up the reentrants from the left and somehow missing it, all the way up to the top and then wandering down. Then fine to 2, 3. A long slog to 4, where I failed to look at the clue and went to the wrong end of the cliff. Skipped 5 because 4-6 looked so easy, and it was, but then couldn't get out of 6. Kept running into walls of barberry and backing out. 7 was ok, although I was off one knoll to the R. A little wobbly in the circle at 8. Fine to 9, 10, although very slow going uphill. 11 was fine. A long slog to 12, and when I got to the road and thought I would jog, the jogging was clearly over and I walked the rest of the way. GSwede had remarked not long ago that his strength for orienteering came from the hamstrings and I thought at the time that it made a lot of sense. Alas, I have no strength in the hamstrings and they let me know it the rest of the way.
Don't think I've been in the NW area before, and it is quite nice. Saw 15 on my way to 12, 13 was really good, got flummoxed in the trails on the short leg to 14 and lost time. Obviously fuzzy headed, I ate a clif bar, which helped. Then 15 was fine, especially since I had seen it before. Leaving 15 was really confusing and I was seeing a lot more stonewalls than I saw on the map, so I headed back to the trail I had come in on. 16 was a little farther downhill than I expected, then 17 and 18 were fine, and the long slog in.
This was hard enough that it may be the end of billygoating for me. Unless I have some long-awaited hamstring resurgence.

Map

DIY Goat - Splits

In the gym with Eric. Better today. Did some goblet squats and deadlifts, in addition to the general stretching and mobility stuff.

Dog walk with Rhonda. Slow day, woke up with a lot of stiffness in the R leg, butt and hip, so canceled the planned ride for today.

This helped some.

With Rhonda at the lake. Itching slowly subsiding from yellow jacket encounter of the other day.

While watching a bit of the Tampa Bay Patriots, er Bucs. I think it was enough to last me for the rest of the season.

With Rhonda and her new e-bike. Each has 3 power assist levels, but not sure which one she was in and how the two bikes line up. For me the jump from 1-2 seems bigger than the jump from 0-1 and both seem bigger than 2-3. Anyway, I was in 1, and she was pulling away going up Sandy Brook Rd, so I went to 2, and caught and passed her pretty quickly, so back to 1. When we turned around, I turned the assist off for the downhill, which seemed fine, until we had about 5 miles to go and the L hamstring started complaining, so back to level 1. Then in a bit he hamstring was hurting again and I was struggling with it. About then a guy came zipping by, legs pumping vigorously and keeping a brisk pace, soon far ahead. About then I pushed the assist up to 2, just what the doctor ordered for the hamstring, but in a while I was back up to the guy who had passed earlier. I certainly didn’t want to pass him, hung on for a bit, but had to pass or go back to level 1, so back to 1 it was There’s only 1 hill on West River Rd, and I am a relatively a better climber than I am on the flats or the downs, and damn, I was catching up to the guy again, didn’t want to pass, but didn’t want to lose too much momentum, either. I drew close to even, and then we were at the top, so easy enough to let him go again. After the hill there is one of those speed monitoring signs and he was going 22. Not that I think he was particularly trying to go fast.

C • Shocking the locals 5