Training Log Archive: W

Another long-esque run with a buddy for the first bit. Picked up a little on the second half to my standard pace, but my hip flexors were pretty tired today too. Then went to the shop and waxed a lot of skis that weren't my own, which is even more boring than waxing one's own.

Also, booked flights to............?

C • booked flights to............? 2

Spun in front the grey cup, boring game, ended up watching Mulan instead, which I found so much more delightful. Especially the musical numbers.

Today I learned about:

Salchak Kalbakkhorekovich Toka

So this fellow was the prime crazy guy during the 20s and 30s of Soviet Russia in an area called "Tannu Tuva", which now seems to be partly Russia and partly Mongolia. What I particularly liked was the name of the university he was from: Communist University of the Toilers of the East.

They certainly weren't ones for pizzazz, back then.

--------------------

Victoria Sprint Camp. The answer was sprint camp.

C • Hahaha! Mulan, eh? Some gre... 3

6 x 8 minute intervals at 10-esque pace. At least, 10k pace effort, I think I'd be pretty sad if that were my paces considering the effort if I were on a good surface, instead of runnng on soft snow, to packed snow, to almost pavement: 4:11, 3:54, 4:00 3:53, 4:24 (uphill), I wonder how my Garmin found 26 metres of gain on the flat interval, but only 24 meters of McKinnon ravine.....

Thought about Sweden, off-leash dogs, and people wearing shorts over tights (which should be a fine-able offense, as should off-leash dogs, come to think of it).

C • garmin 1

A quick jaunt in the dark before dinner. I thought my hip flexors were going to be sore, but they worked themselves out quite nicely, and I felt quite good. It was also nice to run in road shoes for a change. I think I'll do a long run tomorrow in road shoes. I'm not suffering for grip.

Today, in learning:

Keith Raniere

Now this is a solid nugget of information. Firstly, this guy is so smart he's part of the "Mega Society" for ultra smart people, a "One-in-a-million" group, but he apparently aced the self-administered test and became a "one-in-10-million". And THEN he started an executive training courses who some people think are awesome and other consider a cult. And who wouldn't, when they say they offer the "keys to the next step of evolution". You would think that a guy this smart would think of a less weird way of making gazillion dollars.

I guess all the IQ in the world won't make you clever.

Well, I was going to run today, but then I had to swing over to the shop to fix the skis I sold to a guy. I knew the bindings looked like bad news, but I made some new holes and I think (read: good god I hope) it'll be okay. So, instead, a nice easy ski down at Goldbar, where I was promised 90km/h winds and was sorely disappointed. Had lots of thoughts about lots of things, so many big things in the works right now its hard to stay focused on one of them. Though, they're all approximately about the same topic. Sometimes I find that that many things makes me indecisive on all of them.

Today, on Wikipedia:

Jean Yu

So, apparently Jean Yu is known for her "architectural approach" to fashion. Without actually looking at her work, I can't quite envision what kind of clothes that would produce.

And then I looked it up, and my best guess is... for Anorexic women?

I almost forgot I did this workout. I suppose that just defines how inconsequential the exercise really was. Perhaps I should bike faster?

10 x4 minutes at FT training, which means just me. Oddly enough, Goldbar was deserted because all 10,000 kids were over at Capilano tonight. I'll admit, the vibe of having all sorts of people skiing while I'm doing intervals is kind of entertaining. More interesting than being all by myself, even if I am listening to the mash-up of Avicii and Flo-Rida.

Okay, big decisions while there are seat sales. This winter, should I:
a) Go to the Ski-O World Cups and spend a woeful amount of money on accommodation and transportation and trail fees and entries for 2 weeks-ish of really, really good skiing? But also have to do Ski-O?
b) Go to Phoenix and run the marathon, see if I can't go sub 3:00, spend 1/3 as much as Ski-O, thanks to free accommodation?
c) Do something else, maybe Anza-Borrego? (meh)

Not gonna lie, I'm leaning towards B. It'll keep me focused on running speed fitness, and will keep the coffers available for travelling more in the spring/summer.

Anyway, today I learned about:

Survival of the Fittest (The Spectacular Spider-Man)

So, turns out Peter Parker has more friends than just Mary Jane and Harry, there's also apparently a "Gwen" and "Eddie Brock". Granted, when I was a kid, I watched the Spider-man cartoons because the song at the beginning was awesome and I thought it was cool when they had those wavy circles when Spiderman used his Spidey sense.

C • What about 22

I'm actually quite surprised that the easy run today took that long. As in, I had hoped it would take longer. Easy pace, packed-ish snow, yet still, I look at my watch near the end and curse the fact that time has clearly slowed down. I wanted to run for longer, darn it, but I don't have time for longer loops (yes, I am aware that that makes no sense).

Sullivan, Indiana

According to the census, Sullivan, Indiana, has a population of 4,617 people, where 0.0013% are "other races", meaning not "White, African American, Native American, Latino, or Asian", which calculates out to 6 people. So.... are they Inuit?

C • obviously they are... 3

First ski of the season, and I felt like garbage! Granted, I went straight from quite possibly the most fatiguing game of indoor soccer I've experienced yet. You run your face off down the field and put yourself into open space only to have a teammate decide to toe punt it in the approximate direction of the goal but miss by a mere 30 feet. But wait, I was a defender, so, back I go. These people have played for a long time, but they don't seem to have grasped the 3 simple steps to being a good soccer player:

1) Move into open space
2) Receive pass, control, pass to someone else in open space
3) Move into open space

Its just that easy. It isn't rocket science. /rant

Point being, totally roasted. Felt awful doing the intervals, 5 x 10 minutes, I think I did the 12 x 4 minute while running faster, which either means my running is much better or my skiing shape is just atrocious. I'm okay with the latter.

Come on, random article, give me something interesting....

Agesilaus (Historian)

Sadly, it looks like Agesilaus was clearly a D-list historian. On the upside, he did get published in "Big Shiny Writings 1536", so good on him! (for non-Canadians, that would be a reference to the CD "Big Shiny Tunes", of which I think all Canadians own at least a copy of Big Shiny Tunes 2)

C • ;) 6

Well, it finally warmed up enough to go outside for a run. Run in the soft snow at a pretty painfully slow pace, but I could feel the extra effort needed to push off the soft surface, so it was a good leg strength exercise.

Ski workouts start tomorrow, its going to be tough to wanna ski on some old Atomics with the thought of new World Cup Fischers arriving next week. Can't wait! Also a bummer to not get to ski on my new boots because all my rock skis are on Salomon. Ah well.

Today I learned about:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockstar_(Reemer_song)

To be honest, I thought with this Wikipedia project, I'd learn some interesting things. But well more than half of the pages I come across are just SO POINTLESS. Though I did more digging and learned that the lead singer of "Reemer" is named "Johnny Vegas" and he's just fat guy with like, 6 chins. So that was cool, I guess.