Savoy Mountain, 8/15/2010: A strong start went for naught as I faded hard 14 miles or so into the 22-mile Savoy Mountain Trail race. In Florida, Mass., this event was two laps of a heavily wooded, rolling loop that featured only one stiff climb. The summit of Spruce Hill afforded a nice view to the west, including, I believe, the quarry south of Adams. Weather wasn’t a factor, as it was cool albeit humid.
In the last two months, I’ve had good training overall. But in the two weeks leading up to the race, I began to think that I might be taking it a little lightly. I got in some good hours, and in retrospect, I may not have tapered correctly. The week prior to the race, I managed to get 10 hours in despite taking three rest days.
Completing the first lap, I felt fresh. About three miles into the second lap, I tripped and fell, and it took the stuffing out of me. After that, I never regained my pace. Did I go out too hard; did the first descent of Spruce Hill beat my legs up more than I thought? Whatever I did, the second time I descended Spruce Hill I had to walk as my quads and calves were locked up tight. Thankfully, my troublesome IT band kept quiet this time around. I was glad to finally cross the finish line and scarf down a couple of hot dogs. Whatever my travails, it was a beautiful day in some very nice country that I’d never seen before.
Looking back in my training log, in the last two years, my foot races have been between 5km and 10 miles, with two 50 milers thrown in. I need to re-acquaint myself with middle or marathon distance running events.
Savoy Mountain is organized by the Western Massachusetts Athletic Club, a nice bunch of people that put on some great trail races in - you guessed it - western Massachusetts each year. Check them out!
Möösehüf, 8/4/2010: Umlauts make it seem more heavy metal. Today, I went to the long-abandoned Snow Bowl alpine ski area on Weldon Road for an old-school workout. Story and pictures here.
Bent out of shape, 7/31/2010: Over the years, I've lost my share of ice points while roller skiing. Usually, they go in some crack in the road, the pole twists at a funny angle, and that’s it, gone daddy gone. Before today, I’d never seen this:
Bent out of shape
These ferrules are one month old; they blew out at the same time. What gives? Was it the extreme heat earlier in July? Four days ago, they were fine.
Busman’s Holiday, 7/30/2010: Three hours in the Shawangunks is rather harder than three hours in Jockey Hollow.
Craving a change of scenery, I drove north to Mohonk Preserve. A three-hour run mixed a couple miles on carriage roads with a scramble through the jumbled boulders of the Rock Rift Trail and plenty of up and down. Two hours in, I detoured down an unmarked trail off the Northeast Trail. Not an animal track or a herd path, it was an obvious trail down to the base of Bonticou, and I followed it straight down the fall line. It seemed to end in a open, somewhat expansive meadow with a jeep road.
So I ran for 6 minutes down the road, bordered on one side by a well maintained stone wall a few feet into the trees. I expected to run into the lower portion of the paved Mountain Rest Road coming up from New Paltz. No luck, however, and no other signs of civilization except some fresh tire tracks. Turning back, at the end of the jeep road I noticed the continuation of the unmarked trail. Down a much gentler grade, I ran for a couple of hundred yards. At a stone wall with a rusty gate swinging loose, I stared at a sign on the tree: "Entering Mohonk Preserve. Fee required." What? Hadn’t I been in the preserve? I turned around; behind me was a sign reading, "New York City Water Commission. No trespassing."
Well, duh. How long had I been running off the preserve? Make me a criminal. If you guys had the sense to post your land in a place where one can see the sign, I’d be happy to respect it. But since you didn’t, shame on you, and I don’t feel guilty.
So I turned and jogged straight back up the fall line on Bonticou to the Northeast Trail, and eventually worked my way over to Cedar Drive for a twenty-minute climb to the top of Guyot Hill, before returning to the Spring Farm trail head. A great day, but the several long, grinding climbs left me gassed. My post-run cup of coffee was well-deserved.
Sorry, I have no pictures today. While there were some great photo opportunities, I left the camera home. The cell phone (with camera) stayed in the car, where it belongs. While I enjoy taking and sharing pictures, sometimes I find that the camera is a distraction that disrupts my workout a little bit. Next time, in the Catskills?
Kick-start my heart: App Gap Roller race, 7/3/2010: To the left of the cones denoting the finish line in Saturday’s App Gap Duathlon, there was a wet spot on the road with light red chunks of vegetable matter. "What’s that?" I asked. "Someone hurled," replied another skier.
The ol’ hamstring is feeling about 90%, but I don’t quite trust it for a footrace yet. So when I saw the posting on NENSA for the App Gap, roller ski duathlon in Waitsfield VT, I made quick plans to go up there. Men skied 7km; women skiied 5km.
In the reverse of the world cup pursuit format, we started at 30 second intervals on skate skis from the intersection of German Flats Road and VT Route 17, which climbs over Appalachian Gap from Waitsfield to Bristol. The first couple hundred meters are benign enough: a gradual climb that you can V2 on. But soon enough the grade got steeper. When Matt Piper, a Paul Smiths student who’d started 30 seconds behind me, caught up and pulled away, I foolishly tried to keep pace with him. The grade varied, in some places you could V2 and others you had to settle for V1. The last kilometer before Mad River Glen had me at the end of my rope. Some of the other racers noted the same thing when we were all gasping for breath at the finish.
Leaving the transition area at Mad River Glen, I felt like a buffalo on a banana peel. It took about 50 meters to remember how to ski classic, just in time for a big switchback and a 10% grade. But once I settled in, I got a second wind and began to pick up the pace. With no shade since the first kilometers, the stiff headwind in last couple hundred meters to the finish was quite welcome is it cooled me off. A good time was had by all. If I can make it back here next year, I will.
A Second Look at ORDA, 6/10/2010: Here’s a link to an article I wrote for FasterSkier on ORDA, this time from the viewpoint of the athletes. Many thanks to Nat Herz for editing.
One step up, 2 steps back, 6/5/2010: For Memorial Day weekend, friends from Ontario met us in Upper Jay, NY. On Monday, Colin and I skied the up Franklin Falls Rd in Au Sable Forks, to the toll gate on Whiteface Mt. We opted to ski easy - or as easy as one can when it’s all uphill. I hit the steep kilometer near the end hard: the first time I’d got my heart rate up since the combination of sinus infection and torn hamstring. Although short, the year’s first hard effort was succesful.
Franklin Falls Road: the beginning of the fun part.
Fast forward to today. Having received permission for a structured interval workout from my physical therapist, I went to Lake Denmark for level 3 intervals. There was no problem reaching my target heart rate, but at the start of the 4th repeat, a wave of fatigue washed over me. I pushed through the fourth repeat and called it a day. No trouble from my leg, but my body needs to become re-acquainted with going hard.
A few years ago, looking for that magic bullet of a workout plan, I browsed through a book aimed at old guys with a chip on their shoulder: "The Successful Master Athlete" or something like that. It was aimed at a general audience, perhaps the primary markets were track and field athletes, swimmers, or runners. The beginning of one chapter on health was especially insightful. In paraphrase, it said, "It is imperative to avoid injuries." No kidding, what a stroke of genius! Now tell me: exactly how does one manage to never get injured? Everyone gets dinged up to a certain extent, but it seems like I get myself into a big fix about once a year now. Then I spend 4 or 6 weeks getting back up to speed.
Today, I’d originally planned to run a 50-mile race in Vermont. But for the second consecutive year, an injury or illness has derailed my summer plans. I don’t do anything imprudent; nay, I’m about as spontaneous as a brick. I spend 20 minutes stretching after each workout, which occasionally upsets the wife. Should I stick to running on a treadmill, or use one of those elliptical machines? Perhaps I could ride the stationary bike at a pace slow enough to allow me to read a book. Shall I spend 5 days a week in the gym, or perhaps watch paint dry? Sorry to vent, but it’s a bit frustrating some days.
Conditions at Lake Denmark, 5/23/2010: Physical therapy is putting me on the path to recovery, yet I still have a ways to go. At present, the only outdoor activity I can do is rollerski. Thus, today I made my way to Lake Denmark.
The road took a terrible beating this winter. There are some new potholes that will swallow a car wheel, to say nothing of a rollerski wheel. Networks of cracks have widened and extended themselves. A section of pavement between the picnic area and the Sterigenics office, which was never meant to accomodate some of the heavy vehicles now using it, has become nearly unskiable as great swaths of the surface layer have sheared off. There’s a lot of loose gravel right by the picnic area, where the county did a hack job patching potholes.
Overall, however, the road is still quite usable. Especially from the picnic area south to Mt Hope Road. This is still the best all-around place to roll in Morris County.
A great way to start dryland season, 5/11/2010: A sinus infection and bronchitis. Just wonderful. In addition to a torn hamstring. My pharmacist gladly dispensed some cutting-edge (and pricey) prescription medication. The upside is that a little more enforced inactivity will help heal my injury. Before I read this, I was actually feeling sorry for myself.
In Memoriam: Oddvar Ask, 4/30/2010 Oddvar Ask passed away on 10 April at the age of 84. Born in 1925, Ask emigrated from Norway to Bay Ridge, Brooklyn NY, in 1954. He subsequently moved to Lake Telemark, NJ. A member of Lake Telemark’s Odin Ski Club, he competed both in jumping and cross country. Although he qualified for the 1960 winter Olympic team, Ask didn’t receive his citizenship in time to travel to Squaw Valley. He continued to ski cross country and run local races for a long time after that. In a phone conversation, his contemporary Roy Selland recalled many road trips north, traveling to races with Oddvar Ask. R.I.P.
Where’s Goldilocks? 4/23/2010: Sunlight glinting on fur, three black black bears milled aimlessly about the parking lot at Mount Hope Historical Park. After tearing something in my leg, I’d hobbled 2 miles back to my car, only to see these miserable bruins blocking my way. From the hillside above the parking lot, I shouted and clapped my hands. While it may not be the best bear etiquette, I just wanted to drive home.
They looked in my direction. Finally they seemed to get the message, and ambled casually into the meadow towards the woods. Every so often, they paused, looking wistfully towards the houses on the other side of the road. Today was garbage pickup day, and I was delaying their lunch.
Today I’d returned to Mt Hope to explore sections that my daughter and I had missed on our aborted geocaching adventure. If you want to see the detritus of old-time iron mining operations, this is your destination. I wouldn’t recommend going off trail: there are so few distinguishing features to the landscape, that you could get disoriented pretty quickly. It's almost all deciduous forest, with blueberry bushes all over the place as ground cover. There are a couple of decent climbs, but overall, the terrain is relatively flat. With perhaps 3.6 miles of trail, it's good for a shorter workout.
Ursus americanus, by the birch tree to the right of the large pine. Why cell phone cameras are lame.
Go with the flow, 4/6/2010: Pyramid intervals were the order of the day on the hill in Hedden Park. I had every intention of starting out easy, but it just seemed so easy to go hard today. I pegged it, and felt good. Every interval workout should go this well.
Mount van Hoevenberg to close?Proposed budget cuts for next year might close Mount van Hoevenberg. Read more here.
Change of scenery, 3/25/2010: Just to keep things interesting, I'm working on running some different places this spring. Today, I ran on the Patriots’ Path, from Chubb Park in Chester south towards Bamboo Brook. There are a couple of side trails so one isn’t totally locked into an out-and-back run. The terrain varies from flat, alongside the Black River, to some fairly steep up and down. Towards the Bamboo Brook outdoor center, the trail becomes narrow and a good tick check is necessary when you’re done.
Hit Parade, 3/18/2010: Following the women's relay at the Olympics, Kornelia Marek tested positive for EPO. Is this her fave tune?
Product review: Bite the hand that Feeds You, 3/13/2010: The sports drink mix I mail-ordered arrived via UPS today. Whenever I mail-order from these guys, they thoughtfully provide a sample of some product someone’s hoping I’ll buy. It might be a razor; it could be laundry detergent. Today, it was a packet of PowerBar® Energy Bites.
A bite size portion of an energy bar or a gummy version of gel is a recent trend in sports nutrition. The logic must be that a small package with a couple of gummies or bars is easy portion control. Maybe they cost less per serving than a full-size bar. Maybe there’s a convenience factor during a race.
But in the heat of a race, do I really want to scarf down something that looks like a petrified cat turd? And let’s check out the ingredients: 3 of the 4 ingredients in their proprietary energy blend are sugar. What’s that all about? Fat content is acceptable; however, there's not a lot else to keep you going. A little carbohydrate; a little bit of protein; no anti-oxidants. Compared to the gels I currently use when racing, this product falls short nutritionally.
PowerBar® Energy Bites tasted okay, but they weren’t thrilling. If you’re a fan of the company, you’ll probably like them. But they won’t be winning me over time soon.
First time caller, long time listener, 2/17/2010: "Yeah, this is Jerry from Cable, I wanna talk about the men's sprint in the Olympics today." Just imagine if your local sports talk radio station took phone calls from cross country ski fans. After only 2 races, the amount of hate comments on Faster Skier is off the charts. This includes 2 comments today that were so egregious, the administrators subsequently removed them. The amount of hubris and ignorance exhibited by these people is amazing. Exactly what are you thinking? Which races has Vordenberg penciled you in to start: is he holding you back for the pursuit or the relay? With all your magnificent insight, why aren’t you on the service team?
As a ski nation the U.S. has made big strides in the last 8 years. We have some great athletes, and several have a chance to medal. The haters -- you know who you are; it's so easy to talk trash when you don't have the guts to sign your own name -- are acting like USST has guaranteed cross country medals. Well guess what, there are no guarantees in life.
Our skiers are giving their maximum effort in Callaghan Valley. If haven’t been training next to them, and if you're not in the wax room, back off the rude comments. Who knows? There's an outside chance you might learn something.
Martin Luther King Jr Day, 1/18/2010: Laurel was home today as Dr. King’s birthday was observed at her school. We decided to try our hand at geocaching in Mt. Hope County Park. This is just west of the world-renowned Lake Denmark roller ski area. The park meets one end of Lake Denmark Rd and Picatinny.
Being our first attempt at this pursuit, we fumbled about and went up a couple of blind alleys. The cache wasn’t so easy to find. Looking at the GPS, we guessed that we had walked further than we needed to, so we retraced our steps about 20 yards. And encountered a bear with 2 cubs.
They were off the trail, about 50 yards from us, and they weren't moving. The wind was blowing towards us. Although I didn’t think they had our scent, the sow looked in our direction. I didn’t care to cross their paths, so we turned down an intersecting old road and walked along the power line until we were able to bushwhack through tall grass back to our vehicle. Laurel did very well. Although she told me she was nervous, she didn't freak out or make any untoward noise at all.
Disaster and light, 1/9/2010: My family made our annual December pilgrimage to Mt van Hoevenberg between Christmas and New Year's for a bit of skiing. Six inches of snow fell on Monday the 28th, making for nearly perfect tracks.
Wednesday morning dawned so cold that I decided to start the Subie and let it warm up for awhile before we drove to the ski area. So I fired her up, put the gear lever in neutral (manual transmission) and went to load our stuff. The car stalled out. I went to re-start it, placed the gear lever in neutral, took my foot off the clutch, and it stalled out again. In gear, the clutch would not engage. The motor ran fine, but the trusty (up until now) Subie wouldn't budge. The rest of the day was a frantic stress fest as I tried to figure out what was wrong. I dare you to call AAA, locate a garage, and find a rental car, while 300 miles from home, the day before New Year's Eve. As my wife had to work on Sunday, there was no thought of an extended holiday while the Subie was repaired.
Marlene, our hostess at the Brookside, came through big time, not only letting me stay on her phone for probably 2 hours. She loaned us her automobile to go to the Hertz place at Saranc Lake airport. The nearest rental car I could find and an 80-mile round trip. Everyone at Mount Van Ho had ideas on how to resolve our situation. The best news of all was when Andy from AK Auto called. After locating a used transmission, and preparing to operate on my car, he called to tell me that the Subie was operating normally. Gears changing properly, it ran properly in town and at highway speed, the whole 9 yards. It was as if the transmission was stuck in first gear all this time and it finally warmed up enough to function. They don't appear to have a web site, but if you're in an automotive pinch in the High Peaks, AK Auto in Jay, New York has my recommendation. I'm headed up there next week to collect my vehicle.
Thank you to all for your support!
I found your stash, 12/9/2009: You thought you were so slick, covering up the beginning of your new trail in Hedden Park with dead leaves. Too bad you raked a section of the circular trail clean in the process, making it so obvious that something was up. Looking forty feet uphill, it's easy to see the wide swath of dirt, swept clean of leaves. I have to hand it to you, I like this sort of trail. Straight uphill.
I'm still not sure if you're a hiker or a mountain biker. The first time I checked this trail out, I noticed vestigial bicycle tire tracks. But they don't dovetail in too well with the rock steps up the steepest bits. If you're riding a bike up that gnarly, ankle-wrecking section, I commend you.
Crocodile tears? 8/30/2009: We've returned from a short vacation in central Vermont. Nice lake, featuring nesting loons and a cabin that's settling on its foundations; its wavy floors feel like you're on a boat at sea. Close to a section of VAST trails, which afforded some nice running. But additional punishment was necessary. As we were staying close to Okemo, a time trial up Mountain Road, which goes from Route 103 past Okemo's base lodge up to a fire tower near the summit, seemed appropriate.
Dawn patrol
After warming up around the base lodge, I set out. From the base lodge parking lot, there's a false flat for about 40 meters and then the road starts to go up. And keeps right on going up.
One of the easier bits
My heart rate soared pretty quickly, but between the 10.6% average grade and the road condition, progress was slow. The medium-fast pavement was covered with small striations made by the snow machines that use the road when they're grooming in winter. I hadn't noticed them when I scouted the road by automobile, but on roller skis they slowed me down. Approximately 2/3 of the way up, there was a flattish 100 meters where one can relax and ski V2 alternate, but the rest of it was grinding V1. I kept it up and pushed up the hill. At 5 kilometers from the base lodge, there's a turnout and that's where I gratefully called it a morning.
View at the 5km mark
Sunset, Mount Holly VT 26 August 2009
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