Training Log Archive: PG

Event: NEOC - Mt. Tom
 

NEOC meet at Mt. Tom, produced by Phil. Ok run, decent energy except when it went seriously up and then it was a struggle to get up even at a slow walk. Despite 3-4" of dry snow I only fell a couple of times, which was a pleasant surprise. Guess I wasn't running too aggressively.

My routes/comments. Real nice course by Phil on a cold (low 20s) snowy day.

Red - Splits

At Charlie's, mostly in the snow with perhaps 10 minutes on pavement, never flat.

With Charlie, mostly on the Tunxis trail north from Rt. 219. Snowstorm was just wrapping up, about 3-4 inches, footing wasn't great but not bad either. Maybe the first third on foot trails, then on woods roads, then the last 24 minutes on roads even though a good bit of that was in the slop on the side. Very nice run. Also good training for those times I knock my contact lens out -- ran most of the way without my glasses on because they just kept fogging up. At one point I scared up a creature quite nearby in the mountain laurel, which Charlie said was a big buck with a huge rack, but I never saw a thing....

I was thinking after yesterday's run when I felt so tired that I might not feel so bad if I wasn't carrying an extra 5 pound bag of sugar around my middle (that's my image for being overweight). Need to do something about that but it's probably not going to happen until tax season starts in a couple months. For now the challenge is to keep it from getting worse.

C • 5

Robert Frost loop on Mt. Toby. Quads were really tired/sore, not one of those days when it feels like fun. First day it's seemed like winter, about 30 degrees and breezy, wore gloves and hat and glad I did. A bit of ice, plus lots of water from recent rains. Pretty much gave up trying to keep the feet dry, even though it always surprises me how deep a puddle you can step in and not get wet if you pick your feet up quickly enough.

Along the river to the town line (17:33) and back (17:02). Had planned to go longer but the conditions were not pleasant (upper 30s, rain, wind) and my will power was lacking.

Out along the river, then up past Gunn farm to Gunn Mt. road, back North Mt. Very tired to start, but felt a little better as time went on.

Event: Blue Hills Traverse
 

Blue Hills Traverse. A good run, though I got awful tired the last 30 minutes or so.

Had the distinct pleasure of beating William (aka "feet" these days) to the first control (thanks, Joe for leading the way while others were higher up and to the west). And then a repeated distinct pleasure to beat William, again just barely, to #5. When I inquired what he'd been doing to be as slow as I was, he muttered something about not being able to remember the last time he had missed 5 controls in a row.

Saw quite a bit of Pavlina (who is getting faster!) and Samantha (ditto!) and Ross (who is getting slower now that he a real job) and Joe B (who claimed to be tired from some unexplained activities the night before that I assume involved an excess of booze) and John F (who came trotting by on the way to 8, saying he was "just chilling" when I asked why he was going so slow, and came by again on the way to 23 and very kindly offered to escort me in but I sent him on his way, though it must have frazzled me in some way because I blew the last 2 controls and finished 3 minutes after him) and even a glimpse of Ernst and Tim Parson (the right kind of glimpse, they were heading into 16 while I was on my way out, the roughly 6 minutes I had for an advantage being just enough to hold them off at the end).

A nice social run in other words. And one of my better ones in recent years, though I would have been happier if 15 had been the last control and the finish had been at the ski lodge. That way my energy and the course would have expired at roughly the same time.

Routes/comments.

C • 2

Traverse - Splits