Training Log Archive: PG

Local streets in town, just to get out and see if there was any storm damage. Which there wasn't. Just a few more twigs and leaves down than usual. Storm was pretty tame, a lot of rain but no really bad winds (so far). The Connecticut River is running high, but not near its banks here, though I imagine it will rise a bunch more in the next 24 hours.

And why does a short flat road run seem so difficult? The body feels like it's really going to hell.

C • there are days like that! 1

Training at Mt. Tom with the gang. Got over there just in time to get a run in and be out by noon, when the park was closing because it's supposed to rain tonight. Or maybe because the park people wanted to go home early and this was a good excuse.

The course, Red course set by Phil at the A meet in October 2008.

I would have been better off staying home, perhaps. Not much energy, few O' skills, and a sense of tip-toeing through the forest meant that my significant headstart on the girls (so that I could hang some streamers) lasted an appallingly short distance -- they had caught me by 6. On the way to 10, I determined that I might not make it back by noon, so I reversed course and headed for the finish. Perhaps the only sensible thing I did.

Actually, maybe there was a second sensible thing -- a stop for pizza afterwards at Sam's in Northampton. If you're feeling depleted, have to eat, right?

I think I won't post my splits, because there are all so slow....

My route, as far as I went.

C • Slow splits 1

Out to the start triangle. Not feeling real spry.

And back from 10, shortest, flattest way possible.

Pre-banquet ride with Phil, Alex, and Ali. I spent most of the time trying to keep up, made slightly easier by the fact that I was the only one who knew where we were going.

And then a fabulous French dinner (courtesy of Gail, Margi, Ali, and Alex), reliving moments of glory over there --

Poulet saute aux Ducs du Bourgogne
Aubergine grillee
Des tomats frais du jardin
Quelque chose avec tomats et polenta
Salade melange
Un assortment du pain
Coupe dea peches

and, of course, deux bouteilles du vin blanc.

Lots of laughter. And somehow, after all of that, we seem to have O' training scheduled at ten in the morning at Mt. Tom. If I can get up in time, not a sure thing, as I am mildly soused.... :-)

What a fine evening.

C • Quelque chose avec tomates??? 2

C • Revival of WMass chapter 1

France day 1, my course, and my route. Comments are here.

France day 2, my course, and my route. Comments are here. At this point I thought I could do this stuff.

France day 3, my course, and my route. Comments are here. Missed 2 (lots of downed trees in the area), missed 3, the jungle was leaving 4 on the way north to the main trail. Should have been dark dark green on the map. Not so sure I could do this stuff.

France day 4, my course, and my route. Comments are here. The zig at 2 was getting around fallen trees. Then 7 was bad, couldn't find/follow a trail. The shame was at 8, single tree in a field.

France day 5, my course, and my route. Comments are here. More disasters.

France day 6, my course, and my route. Comments are here. And one more disaster, #4.

And a hike on the Long final map, my route. Pretty shaky.

Back in the real world. First a trip to Litchfield to check on things at mom's, no crises, or at least none that couldn't be dealt with.

And the last part of the real world is the most pleasant part -- plans for a dinner Friday evening with the local O' gang, dinner with a French theme of course. Gail has found an old recipe of her mother's, "Le Poulet Saute Aux Ducs De Bourgogne," sounds excellent, although in proper respect to where we actually were, it should be renamed "Le Poulet Saute Aux Ducs De Savoie."

Will be a chance to do a little planning for the important parts of the fall O' season -- corn maze O', renegade O', more dinners, maybe a little mapping if we can find some lidar for Eddie to do his magic with.

Certainly beats taking care of mom and dealing with clients.

Oh, and follow-up from a conversation with Eddie in France about his work producing basemaps for clubs, for which he donates his fees to the Team -- Bravo!!! -- well, I remarked at some point that he needed an agent to deal with clients, especially the billing/collecting part. Pleased to report that it seems like Pete and Lex Bundschuh are willing and able to take on that role. So one less thing for Eddie to worry about while he does his good work. Cool.

With Phil, North Valley Road to the top of Mt. Lincoln. Actually ran the whole way but not without difficulty.

And then back down the same way, which my 305 measured at 10% shorter. Is it just having a bad day (wouldn't be the first time), or pissed at me, or hormonal problems? I think it should know -- and I assume it reads my AP log while it's connected, so it will find this out right now -- that it can be replaced. Got that, 305? So enough of your crap, OK.

Lgs felt quite feeble, especially afterwards, when I was walking about like my mom does now. Not pretty.

Back home from Greenfield after leaving the car to get some brakes repaired. Didn't have much zip, despite the fact that it was cool out.

Plane was a couple hours late leaving Geneva yesterday, and given the fact that I tend to err by quite a bit on the early side in getting to airports, we spent a few hours there. They gave us vouchers to get some lunch, about 20 bucks each. The 20 bucks just covered a sandwich and a soda. That place is expensive.

So not back to New York until 5 pm, and then the gate wasn't ready, and the the baggage unloaders were having a competition to see how slowly they could unload the plane. Didn't get home until a little after 9 pm, which was about 3 am by my internal clock. Struggling to stay awake at the end, really should have pulled over for a 15-minute nap. Not so smart.

C • Driving while sleepy 1

Seems I now can upload photos/maps again.... :-)

A brief report on the tomato growing contest. We each had two plants, different varieties, both cherry tomatoes but Gail's are yellowish red when ripe and mine are red. She also pruned hers a good bit more. The results so far -- being very charitable to myself, I would say that she has out-produced me at least 3 to 1. The season is not over, but the trend is clear.

Here are the plants, quite intertwined at this point. Her plants are on the front/left, mine on the right/back. Most of the tomatoes you can see are hers, though there are a few of mine that are hidden.

They are all quite delicious. :-)

C • Varieties? 7

World Cup races in the USA in 2012

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Whoa, World Cup races in the USA? Next year? Yup.

It’s August and it was 99 degrees on our last full day in France, so what better time to think about ski-orienteering? :-)

I bring it up because a bunch of us at dinner a couple of nights ago got to hear Greg Walker tell the story of why there will be World Cup ski-O’ races this winter in the Lake Tahoe area of northern California. Most of this was news to me, and perhaps news to many of you, so I thought I’d pass it on. I think I’ve got the story pretty much right.

BAOC has been putting on ski-O events for a bunch of years, mainly a week-long series of races each year up near Tahoe, under the leadership of Tony Pinkham, and more recently with the help of Greg, a member of the USA ski-O team. In an attempt to raise the visibility of the series, they inquired earlier this year about making one or more of the races World Ranking Events. These have more status, might attract a few more people, and also require more from the organizers.

So Greg asked Carl Fey for help in getting approval for some WRE’s. Carl is an American from the Rochester, NY, area who has lived in Europe for many years and is very connected with the ski-O scene at the IOF level. In fact, he was the IOF senior advisor for the Ski-O WOC that was held in Sweden this past March. Carl said he would check with the IOF Ski-O Commission. And shortly the word came back, no problem with having several WREs. And also, how would you like to host some World Cup races?

Now the World Cup is a lot bigger deal that a WRE or two. One step down from the WOC, World Cup races draw international teams, and the organizational demands are of course greater. But the prospect appealed to Tony and Greg.

And then Carl e-mailed, “And how would you guys like to host the World Masters Ski-O Champs at the same time?”

Well, that was quite a bit more than they were willing to take on, so the deal was made for the World Cups. BAOC was willing, Tony has been organizing the series for a long time and has good relationships will all the ski area owners, Greg would be the primary mapper and course setter, his dad Ken will be the national controller. The IOF advisor has visited all the event sites, and he and Greg spent a bunch of time this past week going over plans.

So yes, it’s really happening. Much more information is in Bulletin 1:
http://orienteering.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07...

And if you have an interest in ski-O, it would seem like it would be a lot of fun to be out there in late January and early February.

Please pass the word.