MMT training run in VA

Last weekend I flew down to Maryland to visit briefly with Kathy and Bob (hi! bye!) and then drove to Virginia for an organized training run on the Massanutten 100 course. I'll be doing that race in May for the first time, so it was nice to see the middle third of the course and meet a few people also doing the race. Major bonus was warm weather and the chance to really run, on trails, without snowshoes :)

About 50 folks gathered at the slightly-chilly start:

Then the run director told us to get going, so we started up the first climb. Nice little trail up the side of the hill with a few switchbacks. A bit of an action shot:

An attempt at an on-the-fly selfie:

It turned out to be a very pretty day with lots of gorgeous sunshine. Also lots of wind, which we especially felt up on the ridgeline. You could hear the biggest blasts coming through the trees and then it was time to hang onto your hat for a few seconds!

The course varies a lot in that section: Singletrack up and down over the ridge, some forest roads, a bit of road running, up a steep hill back to the ridge, along the ridge for a few miles, back downhill, more road, one last big uphill, another section of ridge, and finally 5 miles of the Stephens Trail which seem to take forever. That trail goes in and out, up and down, through one little drainage after another, without landmarks or any idea how far you still have to go. Then suddenly there's the parking lot. That should be interesting during the race.

One of the pretty trails heading toward the ridge:

The race motto is "Massanutten Rocks!", and there certainly are plenty of those. But there are also plenty of leaves (at least in February), which tend to cover up many of the rocks. That made for some interesting challenges, including a couple slippery climbs and descents. So I'd like to add that "Massanutten Rocks and Leaves!"

On one of the road sections looking up toward the ridge:

Following the Shenandoah River as it twisted and turned through the valley. At least we weren't paddling on it for miles and miles...

It was real pretty up on the ridge, but without many "photo opportunities" in the way of views. This was one of the better spots I happened to catch:

An attempt at photographing the ridge itself - not too successful in showing the terrain sloping down on either side:

Saturday's training run went great, and we all won a jug of water or soda to take home (leftover from the aid station donations) :)

I stayed in Luray Saturday night to give myself another shot at the course on Sunday morning in the form of a 10-mile loop.

Another pretty morning, another leaf-covered climb. I'm not sure how awake I was right at the start:

Some interesting rocks in the first climb:

And a short side trip to see a real view!

I got to spend a couple hours with Kathy and Bob and the Daytona 500 that afternoon, sweet! Then it was back to Albany and somehow winter had returned in the meantime. Sigh... back on the snowshoes tonight. But at least it's training!

Snowshoe day in the northern Catskills

I'm loving my new snowshoes! Getting into Hardrock (really? I still can't believe it) means getting serious about uphill training, so I went to the Catskills yesterday for the first time. It was a bit of a drive but totally worth it for a long training day.

I started with a short foray to the north along the Long Path, up the first climb:

Then back down and up the Escarpment Trail to Windham High Peak. That trail had plenty of traffic and was well-packed to the peak, making for a nice extended climb with a few views of the ridge to the south:

Almost to the top... so if I go up this mountain 4 times would that be enough altitude training for Colorado? I guess not - but it's still better than basically flat/sea level in Albany.

Continuing over the peak, the trail was much less traveled and more work, with was also good training. Just slower. Hard to believe how little distance I covered overall yesterday. But I did see some interesting views and rock formations:

And interesting trees:

I had nice weather all morning, even some beautiful sunshine as I was heading back:

Then... a snow squall hit as I was starting up the final 600-ft climb back to the top of Windham High Peak. That was pretty crazy. My previous tracks were still visible but were in the process of getting covered over. I made sure to watch the trail markers - wouldn't want to go off course at the end of the day in a snowstorm.

I made it to the top with tired legs - after only 4000 ft climbing. I've got some work to do!

The sun trying to break through the blowing snow:

And then - full sun again! Strange weather.

A bit snow-blasted:

I liked these shadows:

By the time I got back down to the car, the snow squalling had started up again, time to be done for the day. Many thanks to McDonald's for the large bathroom where I could change and for the hot oatmeal and coffee :)

Big Red Freakout! at RPI

John's here to visit, RPI men's hockey team is playing at home this weekend, and it happens to be the Big Red Freakout! How could I pass it up? Supposedly I didn't get "choice" tickets because I ordered only a week ago - but we liked 'em - front row seats on one of the corners of the rink. An awesome view of the action.

Heading to the game, John wanted to know what all this snow is doing here?

Pre-game warm-up:

The annual Freakout tradition is give-away of some type. Back when I was a student (late 80s), one year they gave away a vuvuzela to every ticket holder. It was incredibly loud, obnoxious, and totally awesome. Not long after, they banned noise-makers at college hockey games. I'm pretty sure there was a direct correlation. The following year they gave away towels to wave. Hmm.

This year we got these neat (but non-noise-emitting) gloves:

No more sign of The Swarm mascot - now we have Puck Man. Puck Man is really cool!

RPI jerseys and red clothing everywhere. I really needed to do a better job with our outfits for this event. And I need to head to the campus bookstore to discretely take photos of all the incredibly creative T-shirts that I saw. Example: "I go to Rennseler Rensseleer Rensalire I'm good at math" and "Rp" (hope the formatting holds for those).

Something else new - during the National Anthem, everyone shouts the word RED during the line, "And the rockets' RED glare" - cool!

The game is on! Yale is (was?) ranked #1 in the country, a typical formidable Freakout foe. But Yale had lost on Friday night to Union, while RPI was on a winning streak. There was hope.

Both teams came out skating great - lots of action, good puck handling, I was impressed. Yale started pounding the puck at our goalie (York) but he held them off. It was pretty unreal watching RPI hockey again after all these years.

A little help fixing the glass where the players had slammed into it and broken the connector piece. I told John it was good that we have engineers in the house, but he corrected me that it was good that there are technicians in the house - better engineering wouldn't have broken in the first place :)

Mugging for the usual selfie:

We got one in for a score. 1-0 in the first period. Nice!

Action right in front of us - I really enjoyed these front-row seats even though it was hard to see the play down at the other end. It was also great fun to be on the student (i.e. louder) side of the rink.

During the break between the 1st and 2nd periods, they rolled a car onto the ice and a guy had one chance to shoot the puck through a tiny slot in a board placed in front of the goal. This is almost an impossible task, so I concentrated on getting a picture just for kicks. But he made it in!!! The whole place erupted, it was incredible. Congratulations on winning a new car, dude!

John said that we had already had so much fun, he'd be happy with just that much of the night. I don't think that was a hint (and even if it was, I wasn't leaving yet!) :)

Yale scored a goal in the second period, darn it. The crowd didn't let up with the cheering for the home team and even more loudly jeering the opponents. I don't recall hearing or shouting the words "You suck!" so many times ever in one night (even when we had season tickets senior year). Example - the announcer tries to explain that there is a penalty on #24 of Yale, (whatever his name is) drowned out by the crowd yelling "You Suck!", two minutes for (everyone chimes in with) "Sucking!"

More great hockey, enjoying the game:

We closed out the 2nd period with an answering goal (this one right in front of us, awesome), so we were up 2-1 at that point. Another excellent 20 minutes of hockey, including a bunch of penalty killing by RPI (the refs started getting yelled at A LOT), amazing goal tending on our side, and some scary moments.

Let's Go Red!

In the third and final period, all heck broke loose. The ref called a delayed penalty on Yale, and just as I noticed our goalie York leaving the ice, I was about to explain the situation to John when suddenly pandemonium broke out - we scored!!

Then we still had a power play (because the teams had been at even strength when we scored), at which point we scored again!! Too awesome.

During the whole game, Yale kept getting opportunities at our net, and they kicked our butts in shots. Final tally was 40 to 18 shots on goal. But our percentage of scores vs shots on goal was way higher. Towards the end the chant started up with "O-ver-ra-ted" directed at Yale.

Our goalie taking a breather - he was a force last night:

A bit more play before Yale scored their second goal of the game, bummer:

Time was winding down when Yale pulled their goalie to get an extra offensive player. We made them pay with an empty-net goal, and that was all she wrote.

The Engineers celebrating the most awesome win, final score 5-2:

Yay for RPI hockey!! (Hope I don't lose my voice)

And to finish it off, some shots from our (quieter) snowshoe trek around Thacher SP this morning:

It wasn't even too cold (at least not yet) and we had a great time. Fun weekend!

XC ski day at Pineridge

It was cold last weekend - almost as cold as it was today, and today was absolutely frigid, like a below-zero start to the morning. At least there wasn't much wind for my snowshoe jaunt at Thacher SP on Saturday, but I was kicking up so much snow that I had to put my camera in a bag and then it was too cold to get it out. And that was the same scenery you've already seen anyway.

But on Sunday I managed a cross-country ski rental and a drive up to Pineridge XC ski area! The trails were great, weaving all around and up and down the woods. I hadn't forgotten that I love to XC ski, I just didn't remember how much. Love it!!

A winter wonderland:

My trusty little rentals:

Not sure why I bothered with the sunglasses:

The positive side of the ice storm from a week or so ago:

Pretty patterns on all the branches:

I can never resist a sign such as this:

However, east coast summits don't always have the same great views as in the west:

The sun even came out at the end!

Too much fun :)