Training Archive: SwampfoxIn the 31 days ending 2008-01-31:
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| T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | W | H | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thursday Jan 31 | ||
| skiing 37:00 [3] | |
| Quick mid-day ski. It was a little windy out. Translation: by any normal human being standard, it was *really* windy out. The ranchers were all busy deploying cow anchors, so their beeves wouldn't blow away. Call me the breeze!
Skiing later in the afternoon should be extra fun! | ||
| skiing 1:39:00 [3] | |
| The winds backed off a teensy bit in late afternoon (or did it only feel that way in the trees?) but a vast conspiracy of truckers with their trucks in the Wal-Mart parking lot hinted at road closures further west again. The hotels looked like they were doing pretty bang-up business too. | ||
| C • hotels 2 | ||
| biking 1:26:00 [2] | |
Wednesday Jan 30 | ||
| skiing 1:32:00 [3] | |
| The ambients weren't so bad. But the perceiveds ruled, and it felt cold! Ahhh, so fine!
And some portions of I-80 even re-opened today, even better. While I skied, I tried not to think about the mounting evidence that the new weasel Attorney General is looking more and more like the old weasel Attorney General. Instead, I concentrated on my new vocabulary for the day, which included the standout word "dikfore". So much to learn, and so few hours in the day! | ||
| C • What's a dikfore? 2 | ||
| Note | |
| Given all the recent focus on Kansas, it is almost astounding that ESPN has the Texas-Texas A&M game on instead of K. State at Kansas. What the heck is going on??? Is this proof that sub-morons have taken over at ESPN? | ||
| biking 1:36:00 [2] | |
Tuesday Jan 29 | ||
| skiing 1:07:00 [3] | |
| Day 5 of the windstorm. Some people imagine that by the time the 5th and 6th days roll around, the winds are surely dwindling and about to go into doldrums. That may be true in some of the wussier spots on the earth, but around here, if you get to Day 5, that's a sure sign that the momentum is only building, and that was certainly true today. I-80 was closed nearly the whole way across the state because of the wind. Driving up to Happy Jack was so weird, because the interstate had turned into a total Ghost Road! Not a single other vehicle in sight. Sure, it's not the DC Beltway, but still, to have no other cars on the road has an other-worldly feel to it, almost as if the only possible explanation was giant metal eating spaghetti monsters slurping up the rigs as they struggled up the Gangplank.
The snow was extra slow today. A lot of last night's snow became windblown. I have no idea what it is about windblown snow that makes it so slow, but it is. | ||
| Yowsa!!! 1 [1] | |
| run 37:00 [3] | |
| Freezing hands, face, and especially feet meant that I has happy to to do just a short loop on some of the Crow Creek trails. It must have gotten chillier than the forecasts called for; the 60 mph gusting winds definitely only added to the fun! | ||
| Note | |
| Interesting article about whether or not the Galapagos can survive the Rosstopher. I can't pretend to understand the scientificese, but even so I think I can guess at how it all ends.
http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/travel/27gree... | ||
| biking 1:34:00 [2] | |
Monday Jan 28 | ||
| run 1:00:00 [3] | |
| Day 4 of the epic windstorm. Massive winds were blasting the valley, and the wind generation facility's governor had kicked in so that the facility wouldn't shake itself apart. | ||
| skiing 1:18:00 [3] | |
| Note | |
| In honor of ebuckley's early tax filing, I played "Taxman" several times through tonight.
"If five percent should appear too small, Be thankful I don't take it all. 'cause I'm the Taxman, Yeah, I'm the Taxman, And I've got muscles you won't believe!" (disclosure: I added that last line) | ||
| biking 1:21:00 [2] | |
Sunday Jan 27 | ||
| skiing 1:43:00 [3] | |
| Day 3 of big winds, the biggest so far, even bigger than certain well known O' personality's upper legs, and 3 days running means we are now in a full scale windstorm. Yeehaw!
Very mild in town, and for a few afternoon hours meltwaters were gushing down the streets. Some of the savvier Laramie denizens even set up lawn chairs in their front yards and fished for winter salmon in the streets--the word was they were biting hard, especially on corn giblet baits. The trails were flat smacked with innumerable wee skiers. Nice to see so many folks out enjoying the outdoors! | ||
| run 52:00 [3] | |
| Ran on some of the off-piste' trails at Happy Jack. | ||
Saturday Jan 26 | ||
| Orienteering 1:39:00 [3] | |
| Mega snow, mega wind, mega sunshine. | ||
| C • How much snow is on the gro... 2 | ||
Friday Jan 25 | ||
| skiing 1:47:00 [3] | |
| My original plan was to run at Diamond Bay, but after an entire 2 minutes of running, I realized the wind was blowing so hard it would have taken the bristles off a wild boar more efficiently than a dozen ranchers down in Texas would, so I abandoned that idea and headed for the relative calm of the ski trails at Happy Jack. I thought it might get warmer for a change than Karlstad today, but it wasn't even close. | ||
| biking 1:17:00 [2] | |
Thursday Jan 24 | ||
| skiing 39:00 [3] | |
| It was so nice out that I couldn't resist sneaking out at noon. It was about what I imagine the better parts of Texas to be like on the best days this time of year, though with fewer armadillos and prettier cowgirls. | ||
| C • Prettier cowgirls? 2 | ||
| skiing 1:02:00 [3] | |
| End of day skiing; more skiers, no more moose. | ||
| run 37:00 [3] | |
| biking 1:08:00 [2] | |
Wednesday Jan 23 | ||
| run 39:00 [3] | |
| One of those days where the beauty of Wyoming really jumps out at you--sunny with a few puffy clouds, crystal clear air, and the valley and surrounding hills and mountains big and bold in winter snows. It's the beauty of big horizons. | ||
| skiing 1:17:00 [3] | |
| News of the impending mini-warmup hadn't hit the ski trails yet. Conditions were great even if the skis were riding slow. No moose. | ||
| biking 1:20:00 [2] | |
Tuesday Jan 22 | ||
| Note | |
| I can't believe it--I'm going to Austin! SRV, here I come! | ||
| Note | |
| To judge by how the global equity markets reacted to the disclosure of the G on 20 January--first released here--I'm not sure it was such a good idea after all. Talk about plunges and utter wreckage.
And look how the Fed reacted: they didn't even wait for their next scheduled meeting next week, and as soon as they could this morning, they cut interest rates by a whopping 3/4s of a percent! It's understandable they were going to be a little dismayed by the hefty 142 value, but it looks like that figure caught them completely off guard and was a devastating blow to their confidence that all was safe and sound. It just goes to show what a crucial role the G plays in the world's financial markets, and it is no laughing matter (even though it seemed funny at the time.) | ||
| run 1:01:00 [3] | |
| Sunny again at last, and no wind. So fine! | ||
| skiing 1:06:00 [3] | |
| When I sallied forth onto the trails, I felt lively, vigorous, thin, tall, rangy, confident, ready to do battle.
But I could not get the figure "142" out of my head, and gradually the life forces ebbed, until by the end I felt vacuous, rubbery legged, doubtful, imprecise, wishy-washy, rotund. In other words, like a citizen marathoner. Man, what a drag. | ||
| C • Zero sum game 4 | ||
| biking 1:22:00 [2] | |
Monday Jan 21 | ||
| Yowsa!!! 1 [1] | |
| Well, not just Yowsa!!!, but chilly Yowsa!!! | ||
| skiing 1:08:00 [3] | |
| It must have been on the colder side, because the skis were slow. I was thinking it was going to be around 10F or so when I headed up, but that had to have been off. Luckily the winds had gone off to play somewhere else.
Great skiing. We've really had great conditions now ever since mid-December. A bit of a late start, but otherwise the best season I can remember, given that? | ||
| C • One of these days... 2 | ||
| run 53:00 [3] | |
| It seems like it had been eons since I've been running up at Happy Jack, but no longer. I ran after skiing on portions of the ungroomed network that gets used by snowhoers and some backcountry type skiers. Footing was good, if chilly--the cold kept trying to seep into my shoes and gloves. No moose. | ||
| biking 1:36:00 [2] | |
Sunday Jan 20 | ||
| run 45:00 [2] | |
| When I noticed that I hadn't run even once so far this week, I thought, damn, I better get out and motivate. Even PG has been more structured and dedicated to working on his stride than I have been. So while everyone else was at church this morning, I hopped out and did a little loop out across the north prairie and back through a new neighborhood and some playing fields. It was so warm that if the sun ever came out, there might even be teaspoon sized spots of melting on the streets. Admittedly a pretty pudgy run, but much better than anything I've done recently, considering recently equaled zero.
Btw, PG, if you're reading this, thanks for the G update. You can understand that Gonomists all over the world are already breathing a little easier. True, the G is approaching alarming levels and there's no telling what could happen if you showed up at Rhonda's at dessert time. But at least now the analysts are working with a known, rather than an unknown. I thought about your advice to take bold action and short the G, but I really hate both the mathematics of shorting as well as the historical record of those who have tried to short their way to a fortune. So I'm gonna go long! instead! ; ) No, actually, I'm going to sell some G puts, and since I have some confidence in you, I'm selling the out-of-the-pounds August '08 134s and a few of the 132s as well. Now get out there and drop enough pounds to really put the hurt on your rogaining partner as she struggles to keep abreast! B.btw, did you see the story in yesterday's paper about Springfield--hey, that's out your way!--getting burned big on some fancy paper sold to them by ML? Where the article went: "Unlike many of the hedge funds, banks and brokerage firms burned by their purchases of shaky mortgage-backed securities, local governments usually lack the staff and resources to make informed decisions on complex investments." It should have been re-written to: "Unlike many of the hedge funds, banks and brokerage firms burned by their purchases of shaky mortgage-backed securities, local governments usually lack the staff and resources to make informed decisions on complex investments. But they buy them anyway." | ||
| C • No, actually, I'm going to ... 3 | ||
| skiing 1:06:00 [3] | |
| Warm almost beyond belief--way up over 20F at least--and not windy either. | ||
| biking 1:00:00 [2] | |
Saturday Jan 19 | ||
| skiing 1:32:00 [3] | |
| Winds were in full tilt mode. Good thing it wasn't direly cold too! Lots of fresh snow, and the skiing was A++. | ||
Friday Jan 18 | ||
| Note | |
| Have to get fortified; some yumtastic Yowsa! is developing outside. | ||
| Yowsa!!! 1 [3] | |
| Powdah Yowsa!--yeah! It was so fine that when I got done, the only way it could get any better was to eat some pie of one of the citrine fruits. So I did. Yowsa!!! | ||
| C • Grapefruit pie? 6 | ||
| Note | |
| While I was tending to the pressing Yowsa! situation, I was left with a little time for some random thoughts, and I started thinking about what a sickly start the markets have got off to this year. They are off to an all-time worst ever January, and that's despite the Prez not too long back assuring everybody the American economy was strong and everything was OK because he was the Prez and how we were going to show those evildoers.
Market pundits have identified the ongoing credit/mortgage crisis and the attendant uncertainty as being the chief cause for the intense malaise. They've got it about half right, because if there's one thing investors hate, it's uncertainty. But they have got the nature of the uncertainty entirely wrong. The real uncertainty has to do with the G. There hasn't been a single official G pronouncement this year or even a press release as to when the next measurement might take place. No wonder the markets have gone to hell. What investors in their right minds would invest so much as a zinc plated nickel when they are worried and all fearful that a huge pig wattle of flabbiness is about to be unleashed upon the Attack-O-Sphere? It's not a $100 billion stimulus package that America so desperately needs (though it may want one.) It doesn't need any more progeny from the Spears Clan (though it's going to get one anyway.) It doesn't need anymore blandestations from prez wannabes about how, no, they're really going to be the toughest and most iron-fisted one on poor immigrants just trying to make a little money to send back to their families. It does not even need spandex, though when curved in the right ways by a svelte figure, there is surely nothing wrong at all with a little spandex now and then. Hmmmm....but I digress! No. What America needs is much simpler. It needs the G. PS--PG, if you are reading this, the markets have already been down for about 100 days in 2008, and January isn't even over yet. If you have any compassion at all for the obscenely overpaid Wall Street trader types and hedge funders and their ilk, you will hop on a scale at once! If this goes on much longer, soon they will be even less able to afford their trophy wives than they were already unable. | ||
| C • Regarding the current econo... 1 | ||
| skiing 2:08:00 [3] | |
| Perfect conditions: several inches of new snow, freshly groomed trails, temps in the crisp high single digits, and more moon than wind.
Didn't see any wolves, moose, golfers, or foxes. | ||
Thursday Jan 17 | ||
| Note | |
| I thought I might go out and get started on the new maps today, but when I glanced at the thermometer, I decided I would opt for skiing instead. I'll let another month go by; by then the local orange groves should be blossuming for sure, and the pollen laden bees buzzing happily in balmy spring airs. | ||
| skiing 1:52:00 [2] | |
| Cold, windy, snowing very light flour snow, made me feel like sesame cherry pie, found a carbon fiber ski pole. | ||
| biking 1:17:00 [2] | |
Wednesday Jan 16 | ||
| skiing 1:11:00 [3] | |
| It was really cold out and it didn't seem like a good idea at all to go out, but I had to--I had promised I would go look for someone, but it proved to be totally futile. The ice fogs were so thick in places up on the ridge you couldn't have seen if Mitt Romney was telling the phony truth or just the usual political "elect me" lies if he had been standing one foot in front of you.
It was so cold the skis had no forward glide whatsover. Hell, you'd have been lucky to have had any backwards glide! The only skier I saw on the trails was a cowgirl headed back for the parking lot, and her comment was: "It's too damn cold." If there had been any wind at all, it would have been. Well, truthfully, even without the wind it was. She was right. It's always seemed like a good idea to never get into arguments with cute cowgirls. The best skiing tactic turned out to be to totally disregard where the trails went, and instead to try to ski towards wherever the next patch of sun on the ground was, and then, when you got there, to linger as long as possible. | ||
| biking 1:35:00 [2] | |
Tuesday Jan 15 | ||
| Note | |
| I just want to be the first to say happy Estimated Tax Payment Day to the Taxman: happy Estimated Tax Payment Day, wherever you are, Mr. PG! | ||
| C • Ack! 8 | ||
| skiing 1:27:00 [3] | |
| "Change" being something of the catchword of the moment, I thought about change some too while I was out skiing. Specifically, I was thinking about the forest and the changes that are coming. On last night's news there was an interview with some forestry people down in Colorado, and they have revised their estimates of the kind of damage they expect to see the pine beetles do to the northern Colorado and southern Wyoming forests. They now apparently believe that mortality of the adult pine trees (I assume they meant lodgepole pines) in those forest will be essentially 100%.
Up at Happy Jack, if all the trees are killed, I'm not sure skiing will still be possible, since there won't be anything to hold the snow in place. And the forest there will perhaps become all but unusable for O', once dead trees start blowing down in numbers. But there are even bigger implications for things like temperatures, snowpack melt dates, water flows, etc. Brings to mind again that Bob Dylan song about the times... It was a little chilly when I went out, and got colder and colder, thanks to wind and cold air from Canada being driven in by that wind. Tomorrow is supposed to be quite cold and so it might be a great day to go to the gym and observe cowgirls! | ||
| biking 1:19:00 [2] | |
Monday Jan 14 | ||
| skiing 1:01:00 [3] | |
| A short ski, but it's so nice to get out at noon when the sun's out that it's more than worth it! In the sun, it felt like summer. A kind of glacial summer to be sure, but summer. | ||
| run 1:36:00 [2] | |
| A pleasant run at sunset. Very peaceful. | ||
| biking 1:03:00 [2] | |
Sunday Jan 13 | ||
| run 1:08:00 [3] | |
| Ran a mixture of dirt road, snow, and short grass prairie w/ sage. Funny to compare years; even though I haven't run much at all in 2008 so far, it took me until Feb 26 last year to run as many minutes as I already have this year. If I keep this up, I may have to return to school just so I can join the XC team. After all, I still have a full 4 years of eligibility! | ||
| skiing 2:11:00 [3] | |
| I was planning to ski long enough so that by the time I got home, the slaughtering of the Giants by the Cowboys would be complete. Imagine my shock and horror when I turned on the TV after stepping in, and finding out I had miscalculated--still 4 minutes left in the game! But then imagine how it felt when I saw the Giants were winning!!! There was a definite case of happy feet on the loose.
It serves those evildoers right, trying to curse the Giants like that by sneaking in a TO bobblehead action figure when they thought nobody was looking. | ||
| Note | |
| Lord knows I don't want to be one in the habit of squashing hopes, but how in the world could PG think he is going to buff up on one them tarnified, computerized, internet linked, fancy boy weight liftin machines? He must a run into some mighty kind of powerful mind alterin beast down there in the New Jersey boglands is all I gotta say. | ||
| C • My sources tell me that you... 3 | ||
| biking 52:00 [2] | |
Saturday Jan 12 | ||
| skiing 1:28:00 [3] | |
| While I was skiing I noticed two additional areas of beetle infested pines in the forest. It's going to be very interesting to see what kind of beetle damage appears next summer. | ||
| biking 1:02:00 [2] | |
Friday Jan 11 | ||
| skiing 1:39:00 [3] | |
| biking 2:00:00 [2] | |
Thursday Jan 10 | ||
| run 34:00 [3] | |
| skiing 1:13:00 [3] | |
| A wall of wind threatened to blow some holes in the Laramie Range today, but the plutonic interior somehow managed to defy the aeolian forces and held firm--this time. | ||
| biking 1:13:00 [2] | |
| Read Steve Martin's charming little book about his comedic career. | ||
Wednesday Jan 9 | ||
| skiing 2:18:00 [3] | |
| Started snowing lightly right as I got my skis on, and snowed the whole time until a little after I got back home. Skiing when it's snowing is such a blast! | ||
| run 38:00 [3] | |
| Unusually icy underfooting on the roads and paths around town made paying attention essential. | ||
| Yowsa!!! 1 [1] | |
| Only about 1" of new snow at home, debated whether Yowsa!!! was even necessary. | ||
| biking 46:00 [2] | |
Tuesday Jan 8 | ||
| Note | |
| Woke up this morning and was stunned to see the big, big story out of the football world, referring of course to the monumental news that the Cowboys have signed quarterback Dax Crum out of Mesa Community College (3 years eligibility remaining.)
And the news that McDonalds is getting into the coffee business at last is pretty big too (nobody thought that black water they've been selling for years was really coffee.) | ||
| Note | |
| I am just about finished refining the recipe for a new incredible dessert: Cherry Sesame Pie. Yum! Too bad you can't patent recipes because it would make my fortune, and I would probably take some of it and by the new and improved SportIdent dipstick. | ||
| C • pie 3 | ||
| run 1:02:00 [3] | |
| Quite nice and sunny out, and so little wind that the Laramie City Wind Generation Facility's blades are just baaaarely moving. You really have to get up close and stare a long time to be sure it's moving at all.
Ran by a store front of a business which has just shut down and had that old "I am not really here, I am just watching a movie" feeling again. | ||
| Note | |
| Best thing I heard all day (so far): Fox News is *not* allowed to broadcast from Great Britain because it isn't considered to be a reliable news source there. It's further evidence that not only do the Brits sound more intelligent than we do, they actually are more intelligent! ; ) | ||
| C • Fox news 6 | ||
| skiing 1:26:00 [3] | |
| The wind may have been laying low earlier, but by late afternoon (= ski time) it was ready to rock and roll at full strength--and it was! Trails were fast with great grip on the ski edges. | ||
| biking 1:17:00 [2] | |
Monday Jan 7 | ||
| skiing 2:01:00 [3] | |
| Perfect temps today in upper teens, and no wind! So fine! | ||
| biking 1:18:00 [2] | |
Sunday Jan 6 | ||
| skiing 2:16:00 [3] | |
| Superb conditions today. At several points I U-turned for no apparent reason. I don't know what it was, something just came over me. | ||
| biking 1:24:00 [2] | |
Saturday Jan 5 | ||
| skiing 1:36:00 [3] | |
| 2" new. Lucky to not get blasted by last night's and this morning's super-winds. | ||
| biking 1:10:00 [2] | |
Friday Jan 4 | ||
| run 37:00 [3] | |
| Nice trot out in the Flats. Saw one cowgirl on a horse. | ||
| skiing 1:10:00 [3] | |
| Very windy, not in the least bit cold. | ||
| biking 1:17:00 [2] | |
Thursday Jan 3 | ||
| run 40:00 [3] | |
| skiing 1:27:00 [3] | |
| Skied past dusk. Mild. Windy. So fine. | ||
| Note | |
| I'm watching the Orange Bowl. Not totally sure who to root for. On the one hand, I'm wearing a brand new Virginia Tech hat--it fits perfectly, and I think the colors enhance my guitar playing skills. On the other hand, the KU campus is one of only two campuses I've raced on (I think we can all agree that West Point is much too bucolic a place to count as a campus.) I know quite a few KU alumni, but then there are ties to several Va. Tech alumni as well.
The contrast in the programs is interesting. Virginia Tech has a rich tradition as a football power. Thousands upon thousands of unsuspecting graduates would be quite surprised to look at their diploma and find it doesn't say they graduated from Beamer Ball University. Students routinely refer to the weekdays in between football games as "wasted time". Kansas, on the other hand, has no football tradition to speak of. The average KUer has no idea there is even any football team at all, except for maybe intramural tag football. When they see a football player on campus in pads and helmet, they assume they are looking at a member of the vaunted KU rodeo team. Some KUers will turn on the TV tonight and start watching the Orange Bowl, wondering why in the world some other college would want to rent the KU Jayhawk mascot just for this game, not realizing that it is the KU football team on the screen. And then what can you say about Coach Mangino, other than that he brings a whole new meaning to the term "Big Man on Campus." All in all, I believe I will have to profess to perfect nuetrality for the evening. | ||
| C • running on campus 21 | ||
| C • Basketball school 2 | ||
| Note | |
| Zumamaiya!!! Halftime show by ZZ Top!!!! So tasty, so fine! | ||
| C • Halftime 3 | ||
| biking 50:00 [2] | |
Wednesday Jan 2 | ||
| skiing 1:32:00 [3] | |
| About 30 degrees milder than it was yesterday. It felt fairly tropical! | ||
| run 27:00 [3] | |
| Note | |
| Fun facts I learned while watching the news tonight (though I suppose it depends on your notion of fun):
1) Wyoming leads the nation in per capita deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning. With all that wind, you'd just think... 2) Laramie was the hot spot in Wyoming today at 40F. That hardly ever happens. Probably the meteorologists all over are double checking their figures. And who says you can't learn anything from the TV. | ||
| biking 1:20:00 [2] | |
Tuesday Jan 1 | ||
| Note | |
| Ushering in the New Year last night was the Bee Delux Blues Band.
Here's Susie Bee: 
Here's Sammie Bee: 
They say it don't get too raucus in little Laramie, but it weren't none too true last night. Man they were buzzin', man were they loud! | ||
| C • Sweet. 2 | ||
| skiing 2:20:00 [3] | |
| Chilly. Quite a few skiers out, to judge by the cars in the parking lot. | ||
| biking 1:12:00 [2] | |