Training Log: Swampfox

Note

"I try to get up every day."

-- Jimi Hendrix, commenting on his discipline

Jimi was one hard training cat. He didn't acquire his skills by accident. How about you?

C • Discipline 1

Note

The big storm that hit here last Friday had been cast out of a weather forecast that had called for a relatively minor snow at best. And the snow that started yesterday and continued into the night had also been predicted to be "a mere nothing". When I woke up this morning and saw the "mere nothing" was still howling away with snow everywhere, I began mentally preparing for the possibility I might have to intervene, something in the manner of Jimi Hendrix who used to point out that if you really wanted something done, sometimes you just had to do it yourself. He knew that if he didn't write "Purple Haze", "Purple Haze" wasn't going to write itself, and that nobody else was going to write it either.

The morning intensified and the blizzard lengthened and the overall desperateness got to the point where, halfway through some coffee, I realized I was going to have to take some action. I grabbed my stratocaster, pointed it at the sky, and said: "Let it be near-Spring!"

The skeptics and non-believers may scoff if they choose, but screw them. After a few minutes, the snow stopped. That's right, I'm telling you it stopped! Stopped! It was gone! Truckers on I-80 got out of their rigs (they had been stuck in the blizzard, some in the middle of a big detour away from I-70) and started cheering!! WYDOT personnel put an extra measure of swagger in their snowplowing!!! It was sweet, it was so fine, it was like the melody that would have been written if the Beatles had stayed together for one more album.

And now, an hour later? The winds have calmed, the sun is out, and it's pretty much back to regular near-Spring. There are probably partially clad cowgirls fixin' to catch some sun over in Prexy's Pasture this very moment. Mercy!

(Disclaimer: I'm not saying there might not be a few snowflakes in the air. If there are a few snowflakes still in the air, they are big and fluffy, and only serve to amplify and enhance the overall look and feel of near-Spring.)

skiing 2:16:00 [3]

Much new snow from last night and this morning, and even with the sun out this afternoon, it was total winter with no trace of spring conditions--really, really good skiing!

biking 33:00 [3]

skiing 2:11:00 [3]

Winter (slight return.)

Note

Important update to HonCan status: if I have figured my 2009 federal taxes correctly (which is a virtual impossibility given the complexity of the tax code? so who knows), I will have paid substantially more to Canada in income taxes for the year than I will have to the US of A. Crazy. If the Canadian government would like to mail me a quart of delicious maple syrup as a nod of appreciation, I would be happy to use it on some waffles. I'm not gonna hold my breath.

C • a quart of delicious maple syrup 3

run 49:00 [2]

Note

Knowing how much mapboy might be into things like this, I'm wondering if he has read this article, and if he can relate:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/magazine/07Teach...

Perhaps there are others here, too, with interests relatively well aligned with that of mapboy.

The short video clips that accompany the article are also fascinating and well worth viewing.

C • how to teach 5

C • Thanks for the link. I woul... 2

biking 25:00 [3]

skiing 1:02:00 [2]

run 1:13:00 [3]

run 41:00 [3]

With the big snow last Friday and 2 ensuing mild days, everything in town that is dirt is a mess, if not bordering on a perfectly suitable pig wallow. So, much as I prefer not to, I stuck to the roads. Doesn't matter--I'm still an American man! Yeah!

Didn't bump into any other runners while I was out, let alone girls in fairy dresses--darn. But there's always tomorrow!

skiing 1:20:00 [3]

run 1:03:00 [3]

Note

"No, you idiot! Hawks eat squirrels!"

Note

Sunset at 6 pm!

skiing 2:42:00 [2]

Skied part of the time on my own and the last bit with Ted. 100% spring snow conditions, with a whole mix of soft sections, crusty sections, some nice ruts, downhills cratered with sitzplatses, and some nice loose snow areas in the coolest, most shaded parts. A t-shirt would have been fine, as it was unbelievably nice and mild out, and nothing but full blue skies until late afternoon. One hiker I saw was topless but un-calendar worthy as it was a he and not a shapely she.

On the way up the hill I spotted raven flying with branch, which made me remember that last year in about the same spot along the interstate raven had nested on a sandstone cliff blasted out of the hillside to allow for an extra lane, so I took a quick look and was happy to see raven sitting in nest!

Hard to make detailed raven observations while driving on the interstate though.

Many, many people out on the trails--exactly as it should be!

run 1:12:00 [2]

After skiing, headed down to Plains of Despair and ran the road in from the Happy Jack Rd. Vehicles had driven down the dirt road as far as the corner in the road where last year's Laramie Daze Day 1 start/finish was, and from there ATV tracks continued nearly to the eastern HQs Trail parking area. After that, the snow was unbroken. Maybe with 2 more sunny mild days the snow will be mostly melted off the dirt roads again, but I don't know if the weather gods are going to offer up two more days as nice as today. It would be awfully generous if they did, though, and really bring out the Spring sensations!

Note

Having seen that some other folks here have read "The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo", I thought I would read it too. What's not to like? Girls and dragons in Sweden sounds fine to me, though truthfully tattoos are not so much my kind of thing. Well, maybe I should correct that. Tattoos on *me* are not so much my kind of thing, but tattoos on a girl could be OK. It would just depend.

I finally got around to getting a copy of the book recently and started reading it a few days ago. Right away I could tell it was good enough for it to be interesting to me, but still, it's a novel so it's not like I have to study and memorize it. I can just read quickly and casually, strictly for pleasure.

One idiosyncrasy right away is that it has been translated into British English, and not American English, so you see occasional words that are a little odd, like "gaol" for "jail". And every so often I've noticed a phrase that might have struck me as a little awkward or not quite right, and guessed that it might well could have been translated differently from the Swedish. No big deal though, and you just read along.

So I'm reading along and coming to the end of a chapter--obvious because the facing page only has print partway down, and it kind of seems like the chapter could be about to end, but when I go over to the facing page, it doesn't quite make sense. So I read it again, a little more carefully so I can get it this time, but really it still doesn't quite seem right. Now I start to think there must be a translation problem and something got dropped, and I'm about to turn the page, because the page in question is only a half page of stuff that doesn't seem that important anyway.

Right before I turn the page, I glance at the pages again, and see on the left side I have page 122, and on the right side? Page 443.

My copy goes from pages 1-122, then pages 443-474, and then pages 155-590 (the end.) It must be a new style of writing. Not only do you get the detective book with the mystery of the crime, you get the mystery within the mystery, courtesy of the missing pages. Having to figure this all out is going to make it so much better, and I'm pretty sure a few beers will help matters considerably!

Note

11 1/2 hrs of suntime!

C • Woah! 2

Yowsa!!! 1 [5]

Yesterday's snowfall wasn't supposed to amount to much, but anyone who studies Cowboy football would have known better. What better way to usher in Spring Training (first session today) than a nice March blizzard?

Weather forecasters: O
First day of Spring Training: 1

skiing 2:30:00 [2]

There was a *whole* bunch of new snow up at Happy Jack from yesterday's/last night's storm, and even at mid-afternoon the groomers hadn't even been able to finish up a first pass of rolling all the trails yet.

How much new snow? So much that an entire gang of Bubo bearing Norwegians would have been struggling big time. They would have needed to call out the extra long legged Sturla versions to cope with this snowfall.

And since the snow had been warm and wet, and since the sun had been out and since the temps were mild, the trails were very lumpy and bumpy. Still great to have such a nice day though, and sunshine at Happy Jack still beats beets any day.

I had planned to ski for a while and then run some, but as I was headed back for the parking lot I crossed over some fresh corduroy, and the option of skiing some more on the good stuff had more appeal

Note

Part of the time while I was skiing, I skied as quietly as possible, using very deliberate movements that would blend in, and not disturb the native and un-native fauna. Every 5 minutes I came to a complete stop and took measurements for 10 seconds.

Now I have finished analyzing the data back at home, and it is compelling. With a very high degree of certainty I can state that there were no mtb orienteers, ski orienteers, or trail orienteers up at Happy Jack this afternoon. There was not sufficient data to rule out the possible nearby (within 2 miles) existence of the sub-moron, however.