Training Log Archive: bl

Event: Blue Hills Traverse
 

38th BHT, nice drive to & from with Jim Arsenault. Sunny but cold. Standing around waiting to get going...a deja vu. Not much in the way of mistake time but not the total time I'd like to see. Not sure why, possibly hamstring stuff that's quiet in the backroom. Saw a lot of Dave Yee, Phil Bricker & later Bob Dangel. Phil was hustling & straight at that! Must have been holding his compass with more concentration. Most everyone ran by #1. No misses on the east map. To #15, lost maybe a minute - path no longer readily visible? so retreated & went way that Phil & Alex Jospe had gone. #22 was a previous control & recalled the way by what I could see from the trail. Only real miss was #24 when Bob & Phil were too far left; control was hidden in green & hard to imagine a rock face on such a gentle slope. Went out of the way to be certain. Challenging course that went on & on. Not particularly beat up though: nothing a long, hot shower and 800 mg Motrin can't fix. Interesting and creative map print/fold. Nice shirts & day! and via Boston for contrasts.

Faces in the crowd...
Charlie with a big smile after a long day



Tim & JJ (TP keeping an eye out for an errant ? daughter



who has just finished



she gets a close-up:-)



Tough-as-nails, oldest finisher Hans surveying the finish area



And Judy, there with a smile, warm food and maybe even some concern for the still-missing-in-action

C • Trail to 15, 24 hidden 4

Traverse - Splits

More brush hauling than I'd planned but when Alan came by & pointed out that the chipper could not get across the bridge & I knew I was not really caring to pay for brush hauling time, I took up the chore & a chore brush hauling is. What's good for GWB must be good for me.

PM DP with Beth, a Sat pm social. Moon was just coming up. Thought it might have been the Wolf moon but that is January & this is the Beaver moon per Farmer's Almanac. Very nice. And Beth had her camera. Also encountered 6 young people, virtually unheard of other than related to O activities and some fairly long ago Boy Scout encounters.

November's Power Line moon

AM DP featuring cold hands & frost. Down to slough, reflections almost immediately destroyed by ripples, the dogs' signature. Not the life of May and June: ant mounds, turtle tracks etc. Just hard ground. Back in sun at the edge of the PL.

SPS track for more experiment. Was cloud-covered, 41F on car thermometer & a NW breeze which made it quite non-motivational. Did two of these & not the 3x8' miles I had intended. Even fingers were cold, wind chill adding to "screw this." Shows uniform pace after jump start & that I ran more or less on/around the track when in fact I ran in lane #1.

Ditto, learning curve...

Bit of an aimless wander after. Outlined the right hand field quite well. Hiccough in the already slow pace when the cell rang maybe 3 times, unusual/unexpected & did not bother to investigate.

TGIF - dear Pooka surveying his Kingdom, winter '99-'00.

Almost didn't go - traffic was so obnoxious I got cross! Looked for any way around but "the way thru is the way out." Thursday pm parking & availability of everything is good.

Noon, basic Luti, NW wind seemed a bit much at first but not an issue. A Go Slo w/o Diane & another look at GPS positioning. Had my excursions into the fields right on, occ off the road I was running on but is the road in the right place? Seems like it should be ok for mapping trails, walls etc....

Forgot running shoes so went home at lunch hour - sunny, hi 50s. Dogs roll their eyes: "Yeah, don't expect us to believe you've come home for good."

SPS XC after work, legs tired, interested in seeing FR route which appears to be very close. Got my running on the central path including the slight diversion, as it should. Yet mile markers not right. Forgot to walk around the car at the end for more input.

Recall my amazement with a DeLorme Blue logger around '06 - cart track with big puddle, went one side going, the other returning & it showed the 10' diversion as well as 'lollipopping' a boulder maybe 5m from the trail. I was most impressed with that utility in putting paths and boulders in their place....

AM DP, came to pass when the hot water wasn't hot so shower postponed - out the door with a mission. Stillness abounded.

Power line morning

C • Huh? 2

Gym - seems an excessive amount of time devoted to body stuff for the day (85') but certainly weights are essential, esp 'love' the leg exercising, more than placebo for cranky hamstrings.

Fisk-Little Pond, CCW, good temp, good energy for some reason, in part
because Big Brother was looking over me (ie, 305 from the sky). I've called
this 6.3, FR was 6.02 &g-maps was 6.12 as carefully as I could measure. Occ
wonder about the pace it tells me I'm running - I feel I can tell an 8'
mile pace from 400s at the track - it might say 8:24, then 8:11 & next glance 8:38, all the while I feel I'm moving at the same rate (and all w/in 30"). Impressed with the climb # as that's what I've been using - so maybe this thing really does know what's it's doing.

C • Welcome to the FR club! 7

Over Winant Hill, gray, overcast, good temp maybe 50F. Not a squirrel or other living thing noted. Nice combination of gray & brown. Lovely reflections on Turee Pond.

Faraway series, photos from elsewhere, #41

"Andean Spring", west of Santiago, Chile, 1986