Training Log Archive: PG

Took the gondola up from town to 5 Laghi, then walked over to Lago Ritort and then up to Passo Ritort. And back. Very pleasant, weather was mostly cloudy but got no worse, so better than expected. And back to the top of the lift just in time before they shut down for lunch.



The lake --



The trail up to the pass --



And coming back down --

C • Sigh ... 2

Mid-afternoon, a bit of rain had passed, and time for a more vigorous outing. Other side of the valley this time, east of town, heading towards Monte Spinale (2104 meters, town is 1520), not sure how far I'd get, also not sure how much, if any, was runnable.

Well, I ran the first 200 meters, roughly. Then got real steep, no way to run, but as the climb went on I ran here and then when it was more gradual, maybe totaled about 20% of the time. Got up in the open at about 1900 meters, and it was looking a bit ominous, and then it started to rain.

And so I thought, why be stupid, and I turned around and headed back down. Made it as far as Malga Fevri, the spot marked by a couple of bends in the road (jeep trail, really), a couple of buildings, and a lot of cows. Though no bulls as far as I could tell.

Good training for the quads and the lungs, lots of heavy breathing. And beautiful scenery too.

Map, started just below the tourist office (yellow "i"), cross the stream at "1572", and up the route marked by all the dots.

Off from Asiago, heading to Madonna di Campiglio for three days in the mountains. But, since the on-and-off rain -- which we have mostly missed at times when it mattered -- seems destined to stay around for a while, I figured I'd best go for a run in the morning when the weather has tended to be better.

So we stopped in now familiar Lavarone, same little parking area just below the old military cemetery where we were with Jeff and Judy a couple of days ago. And I did a nice loop on the Long map. A good climb at the beginning, then a nice stretch flat or downhill over to the west edge of the map, then down the dirt road back to civilization, then back into town and a final climb back up to the car.

Very nice run, said I'd be about 50 minutes and figured it just about right. Breathing hard on every uphill, but managed to run them. Though the route I picked purposely avoided any steep ups.

And then, because you are supposed to take in some fluids and some nutrients right after a run, stopped at the pastry shop down on the main road for a gelato. It went down easily.

Hope to do more runs this week. Knee was a little off after I finished, but not for long. So no longer an excuse.

Now, in Madonna di C, lots of clouds, a little rain. Tomorrow is supposed to be more rain, but so far the forecasts have been consistently wrong. So who knows.

C • Madonna di Campiglio 1

Today's course (click on map for larger image) --

Italy, day 5, 2.5 km. Finally a run that was reasonably clean. Just decided to be more careful. Meant more stops, but that was better strategy in this terrain.

Will be second overall, probably first or second on the day.

By the way, 70 meters of climb to the first control, mostly straight up. I took 5:06, leader in my class took 4:01. Doesn't matter what the age, you have to be strong. WOC runners might do it in 2:00?

(Added GPS track. Haven't seen final results but I was second overall and pretty sure second on the day to Kurt Huber, a minute faster.

Wondering why I was so out of breath out there. Gail pointed out that we were at over 5,000'.)

C • Kurt Huber 2

Yesterday's course --



Screwed up #2, looking too far east. Screwed up #4, crossed the field and couldn't find the big trail for quite a while (seriously!), really screwed up #5, too far left and mixed up the vague trails, thought I might never find it, screwed up #7 a little, didn't see the boulder in the thicket for a while. But spiked #'s 1 and 9!

Overall thought the course was very uninspired, but that's no reason to do it badly.

One more day left, still in second (barely), but way, way behind.

Otherwise a fine day. Got a fine parking spot (such things matter when you are old). Rode the lift, chatted up the cute Russian F21 on the way up, then spotted the leader in my class, Signar Eriksson, passed on greetings from Hammer and we chatted a while.

Then afterwards we hooked up with Jeff and Judy, went up the hill a bit to visit a cemetery from the first world war. On the way back down there were two guys getting set to go out for a run on some of the WOC courses, struck up a conversation with them, turned out they knew Ali and Alex. And Biggins, and Ken Sr., and Ed.

Because one of them was Antti Myllannen (sp?), who was the IOF advisor when the World Cup in ski-O was out in Tahoe 2 or 3 years ago. And the other was Eivind Tonna (sp?), also a ski-O guy, coaching the Norwegian ski-O team (or maybe the Finnish team?). And both on the IOF ski-O Commission.

So a fun chat, for sure. And Antti said they really want to have another world cup in the USA, to honor at least a little the "world" in world cup. And why not the USA again?

I asked where, Tahoe again?

Yeah, that would be fine, or maybe the Boston area where they had the events this past winter.

Boston area? Oh, you mean Vermont?

Oh yeah, that's all Boston area to us…. :-)

And do Greg and Ken and Ed know about this?

Not yet…. :-)

And then they were off, trotting off up the hill with no apparent effort.

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And then we went to the pastry shop…. :-)

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And then to the IOF event center. Jeff wanted to go to the open IT meeting. But it turned out to be at the Hotel Grand Astoria, so off we went to there. Found the IT meeting, just starting, I stayed for the first presentation, but I couldn't hear very well, nor read the power point slides, so I skipped out.

Went to the Foot-O commission meeting, but got kicked out of it, told it was closed. Really?

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Then after a while to get some dinner, a pizza place just across the square. And there is Kurt Huber, long-time acquaintance from Swissland, also born 1944 so we are always in the same class. Chat for a while.

And then a guy comes in alone, sits at the table next to us, immediately chats me up before I can even consider chatting him up.

Very interesting and entertaining. Swiss guy, neither 20s and 30s nor old, orienteering well as a junior but not since. Works in M&A, last 5 years on his own. And recently got back interested in O' enough to decide to sponsor a member of the Swiss team, just happened to be Judith Wyder. Good choice!

So we talked a lot about business and marketing and all the things that OUSA could really use some help with, but of course he is Swiss. And for him, the sponsoring deal looks really good now, because after WOC is over he can organize events with Judith and a bunch of his clients and it will be a big selling point to them that they get to meet Judith. So he's sure he'll get his money's worth and more.

Anyway, very fun dinner, both interesting and lots of laughs. And then another twisty drive to end the day.

C • Stone walls? 5

C • SkiO friends 2

Day 4. 3.8 km, lots of downhill.

Worse than ever. And I was really determined to orienteer well. But it didn't happen.

But a great day so far socially (except for getting kicked out of the foot-O meeting).

1. Met leader in my class, passed on greetings from Mike Waddington.

2. Renewed acquaintance with four others in my class, including Ivar Helgesen, famous maker of base maps when they were used.

3. And got the early scoop on the next World Cup event(s) to be held in the USA, probably in 3 years.

More when I get back to my laptop. Typing on the phone is painfully slow, though I am improving....

Report from the IOF meetings --

1. Went to the open IT meeting with Jeff. Presentation #1 was about "Live Center" -- Gps, web TV, live results. Seems like so far they have 1,200 paying customers. And others things were said, which I couldn't really hear. So I left Jeff there on his own.

2. And headed to the Foot-O Commission meeting. Where I stayed about 10 seconds until being told it was a closed meeting. WTF? Seriously, what can be so sensitive that they don't want anyone else there? Seems to me to be the perfect recipe for making bad decisions.

Though certainly in keeping with the IOF's general lack of openness and communication.

Alex after she finished --



And Ali, well, the Czech woman finished and down she went, and Ali finished a moment later and down she went. And then after a little bit the Czech started looking at her map, and Ali saw that and rolled over and they started chatting and it must have been the better part of five minutes before they got up. No hurry really, they were the second and third finishers and no one else came for quite a while.



And my map from yesterday --

C • Great races. 2

Italy day 3, 2.5 km. Another rather feeble run, especially at the beginning. Screwed up the first one, then screwed up the second one even more. After that got going pretty good, except not the best route choice on the last one. Once again the feeling is, oh, well, not the end of the world. And still two more chances to have a good run.

Third on the day, second overall. Results are here.

On the bright side, not really ailing. Knee seems better, ankle has calmed down.

And I'm very much enjoying the trip. Spectating at WOC is both very boring, and a lot of fun. And our three runners today did great.

Tomorrow we get to run on a little bit of the Long map from today. The start is a 50 to 60 minute walk (plus another 15 from the parking to the finish), with 250 meters climb. It is possible to reach the start by taking a ski-lift, cost is 3 euros. Guess who's taking the lift?

Ha, fooled you, Kenny is. Plus Gail and me of course.

Course from yesterday in Levico Terme (click on map for larger image).



Results are here.

C • Italian law 9

Having run for 3 straight days, it was clearly time for a rest day (so what if the runs were 12, 26, and 11 minutes, the effort was there). Plus it was raining. Plus the so-called additional O' event was about an hour away over the same twisty roads we drove last night (and will be driving the next two days).

So a rest day it has been.

We are slowly getting acquainted with the folks sharing our small hotel, with real progress this morning at breakfast. Chatted up the guy and his wife sitting at the next table, they are from Halden, Norway, he wanted to know if we knew Tom Hollowell by any chance, they were friends back when Tom lived there as a teenager. Only known him for 35 years, more or less. And that led to a lively discussion. I think his name is Jens Erik Mjølnerød.

And he pointed out the family at one table, that included Emil Wingsted, former champion in sprint maybe? And he pointed out a family at another table, that was the parents and siblings of Olav Lundenes, no slouch himself.

And then a bit later another Norwegian ambles over, didn't get his name, but he'd spent a year in Quantico-land not too long ago, mentioned knowing the Lennon family. Plus I gather he (or maybe his daughter?) has somehow been involved in helping our junior group with their stay in Norway. Obviously I need to get names and facts straight, but it was quite the entertaining breakfast.

And then there is a Swiss group, but they speak Swiss German so that puts them a bit more distant, though not nearly as distant as if they were Finns. Last time we were here, WMOC in 2004, the place we stayed was mostly full of older Finnish orienteers, all part of a group. Didn't meet a single soul….

So breakfast lasted most of the morning, and then at some point in the afternoon it was time to do something, so we did what old people do and went for a drive.

Up to Gallio first, town where Rick and Linda are staying, though we had no idea where, and then, just because I like to do these things, headed off on a side road going severely uphill, no idea where we were going. But the road was pretty good so we were making good speed.

Up and up, mostly above the low clouds, very pretty, and then we come around a corner and there is a ski area. And the name rings a bell, I'd read it in our 5-day meet info, it's where we are supposed to park and catch a shuttle bus for day 5. So day 5 will be up the road a bit. As will the WOC middle and relay.

So we drive up the road -- I didn't think there was any harm, a public road, as long as we didn't go exploring -- and there was a side road heading off to the east and the name of it was familiar, name of the map from WMOC, so I headed off that way, but it turned to dirt and so we turned around pretty quick, didn't really want to get stuck out there someplace.

And there was a refugio, didn't look open, and also a XC ski center, they were open, or at least it looked like the bar was. Beautiful spot, trails heading off in different directions, must be nice in the winter. And then we headed back.

A couple of stops in town for shopping, plus my first gelato of the trip. And then back to our place, where I discovered that the ski center seems to be the venue for the WOC relay. Well, it is a very nice spot. As long as it doesn't rain. Which it is threatening to do for the next week or so.

And I am feeling quite rested…. :-)

C • Familiar People 21

Day 2, sprint in Levico Terme. 1.7 km. Not bad, maybe second or third on the day, but the first guy was a minute faster. One mistake, 30 seconds or so. But these sprints are always fun.

Off to Trento later to cheer for the sprint relay team.

(Added GPS track. Finished second. Seemed to have lost 45 seconds on the one bad control. Oh well.)

C • Signar 3

Another long but fine day.

First a long twisty drive over the mountains to Levico Terme for day 2 of the spectators 5-day, a sprint. Highlight of the visit to LT was clearly our parking space -- in the shade, right by the lake, no more than 150 meters from the finish line, and as far as I could tell, the absolutely best spot of anyone there. And when you are an old man and an old lady, such things matter…. :-)

The sprint was pretty straightforward, which didn't keep me from getting on the wrong side of the stream, and more importantly wrong side of a wall, on the way to #8. Could easily have jumped down, but tried to wait until it was legal and think I got it about right. That cost me maybe 30 seconds. Ended up second on the day (and second overall so far), and 30 seconds faster would have changed neither. And the guy in first is very good. Have been beaten by him before.

Then some time to kill before the WOC sprint relay started at 5:30 in downtown Trento, so off to visit the posh apartment that Jeff and Judy have procured for the week. So posh that it has its own gate at the end of the driveway. So posh it had no address, at least not one J&J could remember. The directions were simple -- look for the gate near the Hotel Dolomiti, we'll try to hang an American flag, then honk your horn and we should be able to hear you, and if not, send an e-mail.

So we have a leisurely lunch and then head over to the HD, which we locate without any problem. But no American flag we can see, nor is there a gated driveway that seems to fit the rough description of where it should be.

But then we spot a possibility -- no flag, but a gate, and near the HD, so we pull in and honk the horn. No immediate action. Honk again. In the house closest to the gate there is movement in the drapes and soon an older woman is visible. We just sit there. In about a minute the gate opens. I'm not sure why, but who's to complain.

Except that once in, it becomes clear that there is no posh place with J&J. Meanwhile the gate has closed. Hmm, hadn't planned on this.

And then the old woman comes out, accompanied by what might be her daughter. The usual conversation, a little bit of fractured English, some Italian, lots of smiles on our part, and pretty soon the gate is back open and off we go.

Cruise around the HD in ever widening circles, no flags, no gates, when on a little alley not far from the HD Gail spots two cars behind a gate, might be J&J's and Linda and Rick's. So act two. Honk a couple of times. The old woman peers out from the drapes. After a little bit the gate opens. We drive in. Gail gets out to check the cars as the gate is closing. She reports they are definite not J&J's and L&R's cars. And we are trapped again.

And act two continues just the same, a little English, a little Italian, smiles, and pretty soon the gate is opened and we are out of there.

At this point we decide to send an e-mail. That takes a while, but it works, and a couple of minutes later Jeff is running up the road to rescue us. And direct us to a gate a little farther from the HD than we expected, and where there was indeed an American flag. We just never saw it.

But all's well that ends well, the place was indeed posh, the company was excellent, and I now feel like I can connect with your random old Italian female. Never know when that might be a useful skill to have.

Oh, and then finally the sprint relay. You can watch much better on the computer, I'm sure. But it is fun being there, just soaking up the vibe, marveling at how they pull this off in the middle of a good-sized city. The results are elsewhere, As I'm sure others did, we rejoiced at Sam's world-class performance, we enjoyed seeing Ross with some of the best in the world, we were dismayed by the missed control for Ethan, and then, as the rain got heavier and heavier and the thunder and lightning appeared, we were amazed by Ali's finishing kick.

It's a pleasure to watch our team in action.

And then, of course, to wrap things up, a long winding drive back over the mountains in the rain. Very glad not to be riding bikes at that moment, as more than a few of the locals were.

C • travelogue 4

Course from Venice. Pretty straightforward. But a lot of fun. Dodging the tourists adds immensely to the challenge and the fun.

Another pleasant day, no buses, no boats, one more observatory, another short O' course that was more than long enough for me, and to start it all off, at least 9 hours of solid sleep, most in a long time. Life could be much worse.

My orienteering was rather feeble some of the time, but not all of time. When we left there were 5 old guys ahead of me, but none by more than 2 minutes, so not too much damage done. Main problem was just not reading the contours as automatically as I feel I usually do. I've had that problem, sometimes really bad, in limestone country before, and perhaps it's happening again. We'll see.

Today's (click on map for larger version).

Pretty sure there were no falls, had my gloves on just in case, but did roll an ankle running on a trail, should be noticeable for a while but hopefully not really bad.

Best part as is often the case was the hanging around time, which included chauffeuring 4 pretty women in our rather small Fiat Panda, so it was cozy, up to observatory visit #3. Ali must think we're nuts….

But the rain held off, and then it cleared up for the opening ceremony, where our team looked outstanding, as did our team leader Tom (Hollowell), once again offering his wisdom and experience and a chuck of vacation time to help us out.

I will also add that my attempt to get with the times, and here I'm talking about life and culture issues, not orienteering, well, I'm making great progress.

The story is, I was told by my older brother that he had been told by his very cool daughter, that he had best get himself a smart phone and learn how to use it, or else pretty soon he was going to be too old to ever learn how to use one, and then life might as well be over. So this spring suddenly he shows up with an iPhone. And sort of knows how to use it.

My brother is only a couple of years older than I am, so I figured my time was running out too. So I got myself one a couple of months ago, signed up with T-mobile because they have a good deal for using it outside the USA, and sort of figured out how to use it too.

So I find myself at all these places in Italy, both civilized and quite far from civilization, and the thing really works -- checks my e-mail, surfs the web, makes phone calls, hell, I've even sent a couple of texts, first ever.

I am definitely getting with the program, no more than 5 or 10 years late.

And just to make it clear, I am not pitching T-mobile. In some parts of the western USA it is rumored to work well, but where I live it sucks. Don't even get service at my house. So as soon as I get back I'm switching to someone else.

But right now, I'm cool. :-)

And I discovered how to learn more about using the phone. It's called bartering. Food for knowledge. I buy Alex lunch, she wises me up about all sorts of iPhone stuff. An excellent plan.

C • timely 5

Day 1. 1.9 km beeline. Not a disaster, but far from good. Very rocky. No falls, but tweaked an ankle.

(added GPS track)

C • Grazie! 15

Event: WOC 2014 + 5 Days of Italy
 

Long day, up at 4:30, off at 5:40, not back until 21:30, but a lot of fun, mostly -- could have done without the hour and a half extra spent at the bus parking on the outskirts of Venice, waiting for, well, who knows. But the rest was quite wonderful, and every WOC organizer is required to demonstrate some ability to screw things up, just so when it is all over the standard isn't set too high for the next year.

The first part, for those of us in the spectator crew -- among others Rick and Linda, Jeff and Judy, Sharon, Rich Parker, team members who weren't sprinting -- was doing our own bit of O' in Venice. First time I had done that and it was very cool. And I had just enough of a course to get the experience -- advertised as a longish sprint verging on middle, I had 1.7 km, took 12 minutes. And after an initial WTF on seeing the length of the course, I must have decided that it meant I just had to run harder, so I was quite exhausted well before the end. Just as one can get if one goes to the track to race a mile and a half or so. And that's what it felt like.

Anyway, good run, no mistakes, first in class.

And then a bunch of hanging out in the shade, and then the women's final started and we did serious cheering for Sam, and that was all fun.

And scattered about was lengthy conversations with three team members, the general subject of each being what either they specifically or the team in general need to do to get better. And those are good conversations to have, and also the conversations that should be going on. As opposed to the two perennial favorites, also known as the great time wasters, also known as pretty irrelevant in making the team better.

Namely, (1) how do we select the WOC team each year, and (2) what the best uniform design is. Banning those two subjects -- just think how much time could be freed up to think about what's important, meaning, what needs to be done to get better.

Unfortunately, not likely to happen, though one can always hope.

And then, as the men's race wrapped up, which we mostly ignored, a quick bite to eat, and then a boat ride and then a bus ride and a fair bit later back in Asiago.

Others run into -- Terje Moen (sp?) member of NEOC long time ago, lives in NZ, Göran Öhlund and Ingrid, he made the first O' map at West Point, at Round Pond, and a few other old-timers I've run into from time to time over here. Plus a woman who asked me to open a bottle of water for her "because I looked so strong." I kid you not. :-)

A taste of Venice. Short and easy but suited me just fine. Ran pretty hard. No serious collisions. :-)

You may think you are alone, but maybe not. Like today.

About finished breakfast at a little hotel in Vicenza and in walks Rich Parker from San Diego. Very nice, plus he was planning on taking the bus up to Asiago, but we have a mostly empty back seat, so good company on the drive, and catch up on west coast things.

Pull into Ago, and there are Hannah and Alex waiting for us (though that was pre-arranged). So get the training for the day following them while we check out every gelato shop in town, no actually every food shop of any sort. And then, after lunch and gelato, the latter for the young ones only, off on a pilgrimage in honor of Ali to visit not one but two observatories just outside town. I think maybe there was something in Italian saying keep out, but none of us has mastered Italian. An then a visit to a memorial in memory of those killed in the first world war, bitterly fought in the surrounding area.

And then at dinner in our hotel in a little village not far from Ago, who should walk in and join us but Patrick Goeres (sp?), soon to be Dr. Goeres. And we catch up on various things Canadian.

So a fine day. And off to Venice in the morning, 6 am bus. And the hotel guy, very nicely, will have breakfast ready for us at 5. :-)

C • Breakfast at 5 3