Garb-bear, 6/28/2009: The second bear of the year put in an appearance at Lake Denmark last Friday. I parked at my usual spot, the turnout where the fence-enclosed dumpsters are. Standing at the back of the Subie, I heard rustling in the underbrush as I put on my helmet. A couple of seconds later, a bear ambled out of the bushes, stopped not 20 feet away, and looked at me. He wasn't that big - about 3 1/2 feet high at the shoulder and 200 pounds. I wish I could sprint as fast on snow as I did back into my car. The bear and I looked at each other. He walked around to the front of the Subie and looked right in at me. I honked the horn a couple of times; he didn't budge. Finally he turned and headed back into the underbrush towards the lake.
After a couple of minutes, I figured he was gone. Time is money, even for the marginally employed, and I had a workout to do. I got out, clipped into the roller skis I'd abandoned in haste, and turned to my right, ready to head up to the Navy Gate. I saw Mr Bear right next to the fenced-in dumpsters, looking quizically at me. Again, no more than 20 feet away. Hoping my shorts wouldn't turn brown, I started as casually as I could north up the little grunt hill, heading to Green Pond Road. After going 10 yards, I stopped and looked back. He was up on his hind legs, paws outstretched to the top of the fence. Unfortunately, I didn't bring a camera today.
This is the first bear I've seen at Lake Denmark that's habituated to people, so beware when you head out.
Ripped? Not. 6/27/2009 I've completed one course of physical therapy for the bad hamstring. I've run several times, including a 2.5 hour run in tough terrain. Up to this point, I've had an inchoate fear of doing hard running workouts, i.e. intervals, and really tearing up my leg. Today I threw caution to the winds and put in a good lactic threshold effort, including moosehufs, in beautiful Hedden Park. My leg didn't fall off, but I'd forgotten that running intervals aren't easy. Even if it's just level 3.
Treehugger, 6/14/2009: Sunday, the traditional day for a long, easy distance workout. Today, it was running followed by roller skiing. I happened to bring a camera today. How often does one see baby birds in the wild? One more reason Lake Denmark is a primo spot to train. Pictures can be found here.
Double, 6/12/2009: "Are the trails muddy?"
Here I was, mud pasted from shoes to nose after an hour's bike ride followed by an hour's run. It's done nothing but rain for 10 of the last 14 days. In the parking lot off of Route 24 for Lewis Morris Park, this guy accosted me as he pumped up his tires and otherwise prepared to head out for a ride. It was all I could do to keep from replying, "Duh."
Today, for the first time in 2 years, I took the antique mountain bike for a spin. My hard-core riding friends consider this a fairly straightforward place, but there are plenty of attention-grabbing technical bits for occasional mountain bikers like me. Several climbs taxed my legs and I had to zigzag this way and that to avoid the biggest obstacles. I worked to keep up momentum to get over them without stopping.
Kate Whitcomb wrote an interesting post about counting time in one's training log. Descending gnarly, gravelly, rooted hills, all the while stressing that I'll fall and break a collarbone, will be counted in my training log. Cry all the way up, scream all the way down.
When I returned to the parking lot, I swapped the bike for running shoes and put in another hour. Recovering from the bad hamstring, up to this point, maximum time running has been 70 minutes. Nothing fast, and nothing too long. Most of the time it's been shorter. The key is to gradually build up frequency and distance, then work in some speed, and finally intervals and overdistance. At present all my interval workouts are on roller skis, with one banal exception on the elliptical trainer in the gym. For 15 minutes, my legs protested the regimen change; then they accepted it. Running uphill, my heart rate was a lot higher than normal; I haven't used those muscles much yet this year.
I didn't worry about all the level 2 I was incurred; but now, after dinner, I can feel it. At the age where the AARP regularly importunes me to join, I need to be careful to get enough rest and dial it back a bit in the easy workouts.
Cycling, 4/20/2009: Yesterday, I went on the first bike ride of the year with Lars. Around Hackettstown, hills abound for your cycling and suffering pleasure: short, steep hills are scattered about, with longer, nastier ones thrown in. Schooley's Mountain, anyone?
I don't know the area all that well, so with Lars leading, we rode hither and yon for 45 minutes. Then we did something I've never tried on a bicycle, systematic intervals. We found a longish, gradual hill, and did several repeats. Lars rode in a big gear at low RPM, to build up specific strength. He's focused on cyclocross races coming up in autumn. He stayed aerobic all the way up the hill. For 2 of the repeats, I was happy to stay within 15 meters of him, verging on level 3 heart rate. The others weren't so pretty. And while Lars pedaled constantly in that one gear, I kept changing back and forth across 5 different ratios. But it's a far improvement from previous years, when the first ride was always painful.
Burnt out, 3/10/2009: This morning, I had intended to do ladder intervals, running in Hedden Park. Initially, my warmup was fine. When I got to the part where I do some hard accelerations prior to the actual intervals, things were no longer fine. The left hamstring that's bothered me since the fall just wasn't interested in going fast, and wasn't shy about letting me know. Easy distance doesn't seem to be a problem, but when I pick up the pace, I feel it immediately. Fortunately, it only hurts running and not skiing.
So I opted for an easy run instead but found myself slowing down to a walk or a stop here and there. I stopped a couple of times to build cairns. While cairns are cool, building them doesn't do anything for VO2 max or base endurance. I'm a bit burned out, from driving back and forth every weekend than from training. A few days off are in order. If you want to find me at 5 AM for the next few days, look in my kitchen instead of at Lake Denmark: I'll be baking!
Coach, a conclusion: Due to a change in my employment situation, I've been unable to continue my coaching from Janice Sibilia. She kindly provided me with a rough outline for race season, and I've been back on my own since December. While our agreement ended sooner than I would have liked, I definitely derived benefits from the changes she made to my regimen. With Janice's strength program, I gained upper body strength, which had declined in the last 2 years. She also made me do speed work, which I had been avoiding. Perhaps most important she somewhat reined in my tendency to overtrain. It all made a positive difference. If you're thinking about getting some coaching, Janice is someone you should contact.
Dirty deeds, done dirt cheap, 3/9/2009: The worst thing about klister skiing is cleaning up afterwards. We went to Prospect on Sunday, where Laurel had a ski play date with a friend. There was total coverage, and it was warm: temperature above freezing, even at 9 AM. I applied a blend of Star purple and Toko silver klister, and off we went. We had a fine day, and had excellent kick. But by the end of the day, our ski bases were a dull, lifeless shade of black. Looking at these poor skis, polished and shiny when we took them out of the bag, one would think they had never been waxed. The snow hadn't looked dirty, but our bases had picked up quite a bit of dirt. I've spent a couple of hours just clean waxing them. First, the spatula knife to remove the klister. Then I clean-waxed the kick zones twice; then I clean-waxed the length of the skis. After four passes clean-waxing, they were satisfactory. That's approximately an hour's work for one pair of skis.
Conditions at Lewis Morris Park, 3/3/2009: Following Monday's storm, I skied in Lewis Morris Park for 83 minutes this afternoon. Under the painfully bright clear blue sky, individual snow crystal reflected light pink and green. The light powder that fell called for matching blue hard wax. There was only about 2 inches of snow, just enough to adequately cover the trail. My antique rock skis were refreshed with a new grind, courtesy of the roots and rocks I punched down to periodically. For the most part, skiing was smooth, with decent glide and an easy, relaxed gait. But in a few spots, the skis grabbed on a rock, and I jerked to a stop, much like a dog running as fast as it can, until it reaches the end of its leash.
Rockaway Wildlife Management Area Run, 3/1/2009: A dusting of snow fell overnight... not enough to ski on, but enough to make roller skiing a pain in the neck. What's a poor boy to do except go for a run? New story; words and photos right here.
On Saturday, we drove to Prospect Mountain. Friday's rain had little or no effect on their base. Universal klister was the order of the day. Nice and fast.
Figuring out how to skate, Mt van Hoevenberg. So far Laurel has a move halfway between V1 and marathon skate.
Conditions at Freedom Park, 12/21/2008: I skied all over the trails east of Millbrook Road after Friday's big snow. Sunday I went for a 3 hour tour. Crossing Den Brook, there were some wet spots and bare spots. Otherwise, coverage was excellent. Although it was snowing as I set out, by 10 AM the precipitation changed to rain, freezing to my jacket. Amazingly, my kick wax worked all morning. Someone had been out Saturday, putting in decent tracks on most of the trails, so I avoided having to set a track before I could ski. If I hadn't bonked toward the end, I could have stayed out longer: there was quite a bit of terrain that I didn't cover.
In a couple of places, people had gone off trail, through the trees. One of the bushwhacks was downright precipitous, plunging from the crest of the hill by the power line towards Radtke Road. My rock skis are over 20 years old with Salomon SNS bindings. The boots have all the support of a bedroom slipper, and control going downhill was a bit of an issue. So after awhile I bagged this particular off-piste excursion.
Back on the crazy train, 10/25/2008: September was pretty much a lost month. Hamstring problem noted below, then a cold that turned into bronchitis. Basically 3 weeks frittered away doing nothing but work. The location of my current job made it well nigh impossible to get to the physical therapist that has helped me out several times in the past. Change sucks and I stressed about it for awhile. But I signed on with a different physical therapist, and so far things are going well. My leg is loosening up: for the time being I'm allowed to do pretty much anything except run.
Janice has amended my training plan accordingly. I've roller skied plenty recently: specificity is good; and I've done sessions on the elliptical trainer at the local YMCA. I had 2 weeks where I did intensity on the elliptical trainer. This week I got back outside, and what a difference. On the elliptical, my heart rate was up in the zone, no problem. But there's no comparison between the elliptical and actually having to go uphill on foot or on [roller] skis.
Less tired but injured, 9/29/2008: Following the post below, I recovered OK. Three consecutive rest days with 8 hours' sleep - the exception rather than the rule around here - were invaluable. I skipped some planned hard efforts as well, and that combination seemed to do the trick. Over Labor Day weekend in the Adirondacks, I was able to put up a decent effort going up the USST Franklin Falls time trial route.
But a week after Labor Day, I couldn't go hard in a running speed workout. I've got that familiar, nagging pain in the back of my left leg, the same thing that caused me to skip Escarpment in 2007: high hamstring tendonopathy. Tendonitis right where the hamstring connects to the gluteus.
Escarpment Race 2008: The weather report had called for a 60 percent chance of thunderstorms and showers. Every time rain has been predicted this summer, it didn't rain. Less than a half mile into the race, we ran for 30 yards through knee deep water where ordinarily the trail was dry. On portions of the climb up Windham High Peak, water just drained down the trail. I should have taken this as a warning.
Going over Acra Point, I began to hear occasional thunder. I suffered going up Black Head: legs loaded with lactic acid, although otherwise I felt OK. Had I started too hard? As I dropped down off Black Head into Dutchers Notch, thunder came closer and closer, you could hear the storm moving north and it hit hard around the time I was down in the notch. Choose any cliché you like: sheets of rain, raining cats and dogs, any one of them would fit. Lightning struck too close for comfort a couple of times. Going up to Stoppel Point I'd have to say the rain slowed me down some, but I was still pushing the pace. The storm cell moved north, off the ridge, and by the time I reached the feed, rain had stopped.
I slowed down noticeably descending from Stoppel Point. From Stoppel Point to the finish is 4 miles, almost all downhill, and at that point, my body just doesn't like going downhill. Perhaps I should have started easier, but when I start easy in a race, I never seem to pick up speed later on.
Right about the time I dried out, another rain came in. This storm cell settled right over the ridge, with pounding rain, and many lightning strikes hitting way too close for comfort. As I splashed through standing puddles, I remembered that water is a good conductor of electricity. Two guys ran past me, whooping and hollering "Yeah, this is it! This is what it's all about!" They were right, of course, but I couldn't hang on to them as they pulled away.
Coach: 6/29/2008 Up until now, my training has been self-directed. But in the last couple of years, I feel that I've fallen into a bit of a rut, and I wanted to try something different. So I've signed on with Janice Sibilia for coaching this year.
I've been accustomed to doing things in a particular way for so long, it's taken some time to adjust to Janice's training plans. Basically that means I haven't beaten myself to a pulp each week: the first few weeks felt too easy. Initially, I must have tried her patience somewhat, with a certain amount of nagging: "I don't think I'm working hard enough. Can't I beat the crap out of myself a bit more?" But as she noted, I signed on because I wanted a change. So I'm going with the flow and expecting to maximize my limited workout time. The first big test will be the Escarpment Race, I'm looking forward to that. Periodically I'll let you know how it's going.
It may be the embodiment of hubris; it may be a mid life crisis - but it's better than buying a Porsche.
- Find places to ski in the Garden State
- Find places to roller ski during dryland season
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