Saturday May 31 |
 | run 1:01:00 [2] | |
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| Ran out to Sometime Spring to see if it was flowing. It was but it wasn't strong so maybe another week or two or three and then that will be it until sometime next year. |
| Note | |
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| It looks like a 125 tower wind farm is in the offing for a site NW of Laramie. As a Texan might say upon observing the 5000 or so gas wells dotting the DFW airport, it's a start.
Additional note: several homes were destroyed by a tornado around the Ames Monument. The monument, having been built by sturdy railroad men (and being rather sturdy itself) was undamaged.
Visiting the Ames Monument is a popular activity indulged in by many orienteers racing and training in the Laramie Range. Tradition has it that if you take your compass to the Ames Monument and touch the compass to any part of the monument as high up as you can reach, it will probably develop a bubble eventually. But you never know, and it never hurts to try. |
Friday May 30 |
| run 1:20:00 [3] | |
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Thursday May 29 |
| run 1:16:00 [2] | |
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| I came oh-so-close to stepping on a baby elk today. My next step was going to end up on it.
It couldn't have been more than a few days old, especially given that it had no signs of hail damage from the storm last week. I'm not sure which of us was more startled/scared by the experience--maybe it should go down as a split decision. |
Wednesday May 28 |
| run intervals 1:41:00 [4] | |
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| Saw quite a few antelope, one lonely coyote howling for some company, a lewis carroll bird, exactly zero sub-morons, and--the best part--the first moose of the year. It was looking very gangly and ready to eat succulent water vegetations. |
Tuesday May 27 |
| biking 1:21:00 [3] | |
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| My gas mileage couldn't have been better. |
| Note | |
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| If you don't know how the Team selection process works and give even a quick look at the Team Trials results, the natural question is: how does Leif Anderson not get picked for the WOC Team? You ask people to show up at a set place and time to lay down their very best, but in Leif's case with results better than 3 of the 5 people taken for the team, it still wasn't good enough. Once again, a flawed process yields a flawed result. |
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| C • How? 23 |
| biking 56:00 [2] | |
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Monday May 26 |
| run 2:40:00 [3] | |
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| Memorial Day weekend may be the traditional start of summer for most of the country, but around here, it can be pretty much hot or miss as far as the weather goes, and today it was a miss--with the Laramie Range totally socked in by fog, mist, drizzle, and light rain. And of course a little wind, too, this being SE Wyoming, and not Austin, TX, which is my kind of town (even if it is threatened by Crazy ants.)
I decided to run hills, and, while I was running, did a little memorializing of my own, of several orienteering experiences that I was reminded of by the day.
Three especially came to mind, and while the chronology might not be right (all from the early to mid '80s), the first memory was a trip down to Switzerland with Ron Pontius, to run in a Swiss Cup race. His two sisters came along too, and we all slept in one bed together. Well, maybe "bed" isn't quite the right word. It was in some kind of a hostel type affair and the building we were in was some of barn-like structure. We were the only ones there, though I imagine the accommodation must have been arranged by the organizers. And the "bed" could have easily accommodated 8 or 12 people or so, as it consisted of a long platform that ran across the entire length of one wall. We must have had sleeping bags. Or maybe we just slept in straw? Anyway, the second day of the cup was at Les Alpettes, the classic venue from the '81 WOC. There was a cold rain that only got colder during the race, and by the last few controls I was having problems just holding on to the map (very Possum Trottish, though at Possum Trot it is more usually at the start of the race where the hands are fiendishly cold.) My hands were so cold by the time I finished, just trying to open the car door was at the limit of what I could do, let alone do things like untie shoes, change clothes, etc. That race still stands out in my mind as the coldest I've ever been at the finish of a race. Brrrrr!!!
The second memory involved another trip to Switzerland (I was stationed in Germany at the time, as I was when I did the Swiss Cup race), this time to run in the Swiss Mountain Marathon with Margo Thornton. I don't remember the details of how it happened, but it all came together because of Heather Williams, who ran with her brother Reid. The basic gist of the race was you run for 2 days, camping overnight at some remote spot, and carrying all the clothes and food you need (it seems like tents and sleeping bags were transported by the organizers, but maybe I have that wrong.)
Of all the women I have been on US teams with, Margo was the one who really had a motor. She stopped orienteering long before she had a chance to reach whatever potential she had (surely it takes about 10 years to develop anything approaching full potential, and that's concerted training--not just going to whatever local meets which are available and the odd "A" event or two, and filling in the gaps with some vaguely O' related running activities on trails or streets or whatever), so there's no telling how good she could have become. Of course, a motor alone isn't enough, but it is one of the pre-requisites.
But beyond having the motor, she had an essential ingredient to be found in any truly outstanding athlete, which is that she was plain out and out tough. You might not have guessed it just to look at her (actually, you can't just look at anyone and tell if they're tough or not), but she had it in spades.
We were driven up the start in a bus, to an area above treeline, which would have been utterly Swiss beautiful were it not for the fact that, again, there was a whole lot of cold Swiss rain coming down. We ran for about 6 hours the first day, and every step was in the rain. Splish, splash, splosh!
When we got to the overnight, it was so painfully obvious how little idea of what we were doing. Other people were preparing full meals with elaborate cooking equipment and so on, while we had the equivalent of a light snack and maybe a few pasta noodles. It was an entirely inadequate amount of food to even replenish us from the first day of running, let alone fuel us up for the second day. But not once during the entire competition did Margo make even the slightest complaint about anything at all.
The third memory was from a long run I did up in a Norwegian fjell once together with Kalle Lindquist and Gert Jonsson, on a day that was very much like the one here today--very foggy with extremely limited visibility, and misting and drizzling the whole time. I doubt if any Americans would have ever known Kalle, but he was a very good Swedish orienteer, just below national team level, and full of energy, the sort you would instantly know was in the room even if the room were quite crowded with other people. In Sweden he would have been better known, if for no other reason that for a time his face appeared on the box of a type of cereal popular with athletes (perhaps foresaging the appearance of another orienteer on another brand of cereal in another country?) Probably not so many folks here anymore remember Gert's name, but at the time he was a rising star in Swedish orienteering, fresh off of a World Cup victory in France. He was a real running talent and had great chances to make the WOC team to Australia that year. We had just spent some days training in Kongsberg, and were on our way to Oringen in Falun, where, if memory serves, Gert finished 3rd or 4th or something like that, just behind the winning Anders Erik Olsson and Jorgen Mortensson (who lost a shoe during the race but just kept on going, also being a pretty tough sort).
Unfortunately for Gert, he just missed being selected to the WOC team, and during the time he would have been in Australia, he injured a knee while running a race back in Sweden. He was never quite the same after the injury. So much of what happens in life hinges on the most marginal of differences--you just never can know for sure.
So, those were my memories while I was running today. Nothing to do with Memorial Day itself of course, but memories just the same.
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| C • Memories 9 |
Sunday May 25 |
| run 1:38:00 [3] | |
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| After mapping; a decent enough day, and the winds even relented after about 4 days of strong blowing. Ran off-trail for about 95% of the way. |
Saturday May 24 |
| run 1:26:00 [3] | |
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Friday May 23 |
| run 52:00 [2] | |
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| Ran around town to try to get some sense of when power might come back up. Nice to not get hailed or snowed on again. |
Thursday May 22 |
| Note | |
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| Tornado training; in other words, not so much training today unless you count frantically trying to get computers, guitars, amps, etc. in a safer place down in the basement prior to an oncoming tornado, and then sawing down a dangerously leaning tower of pizza of a tree, picking up blown apart fence, and misc. trash and debris after the fact. No power still by mid-morning next day (writing this Friday), but things could have been much, much worse--witness poor Windsor, CO.
It hasn't been confirmed by the National Weather Service that a tornado touched down in Laramie, but it's pretty clear it did, tracking from SE to NW, coming just east of Wal-Mart, flying right across the golf course, literally right over my house and neighborhood and then over across the north Prairie where it must have hit the power sub-station out there. Many trees down, power lines down, roofs torn off, sheds destroyed, windows busted, and so on. But again, look at the pictures out of Colorado, and you can only think how genuinely lucky we were.
Lots and lots of folks were driving through the neighborhood after the tornado until dark, and most of them were pausing at my corner and taking pictures or video of my fence!
And after all that, it snowed most of the night, so that the whole valley was 100% winter white this morning. Ah, to be in Laramie--so fine! |
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| C • Wow 1 |
Wednesday May 21 |
| run 56:00 [2] | |
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| Pretty flat legs, which is about what I expected after yesterday. So I took it easy and ate waffles! Yum!
To follow up on Bubo's note, it was still Sommar today, but maybe tomorrow we slide back towards Spring a bit. There are still some big snow drifts dotting the area I'm mapping, but they are melting fast and soon it will be time for the first Running of the Cows (for 2008)!
Since we don't have Swedes, we must use cows instead. And that's just the way it is. |
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| C • Swedes... 1 |
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| C • weather alert 8 |
Tuesday May 20 |
| Note | |
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| I have only two words for today: Cowboy coffee. |
| biking 54:00 [3] | |
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| Quick ride down to the river, which in response to several mild days in a row, is starting to rise. It's gonna go higher...
Super nice Sommar weather out! |
| run intervals 1:26:00 [4] | |
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| 8 x 5. |
Monday May 19 |
| run 1:16:00 [2] | |
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| Sommar. |
Sunday May 18 |
| Orienteering 1:10:00 [4] | |
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| As good as summer, except for some late day wind that was a touch too frisky for true Sommar. But I may have frukost tomorrow anyway. |
Saturday May 17 |
| biking 47:00 [3] | |
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| run 1:21:00 [2] | |
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| Brilliant day--at last!! |
Friday May 16 |
| biking 1:13:00 [3] | |
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| Some signs of spring making a slight return. Whew! |
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| C • Signs of spring? 3 |
| Orienteering 1:14:00 [4] | |
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Thursday May 15 |
| run 1:56:00 [3] | |
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| Note | |
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| I was interested today to learn that Texas, which already has everything, now has even more: the enigmatic ant. If the literature is to be believed, this ant is extremely fecund and spreads like carpet grass, whatever that is. They like (to eat) far ants and therein lies the problem. Would Texas as we know it be the same without them fiercesome far ants? Probably not.
It must be admitted there is something charming about the notion of an enigmatic ant. And it doesn't even sting! Constrast that with the infamous far ant, which stings like all hellfire and tarnation combined, and then some. I remember once reconnoitering after a statue of SRV in Austin--which is my kind of town--and I spotted a passle of far ants trying right hard to become near ants. I had to skeddadle because they were fixin to git me.
It has been proposed that the ant be formally named the Raspberry Ant--after the discoverer, a Mr. Tom Raspberry, and not after the power pop band once of some reknown.
It is not known at this time if disorienteer is extremely concerned, or only moderately concerned. |
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| C • ants 4 |
Wednesday May 14 |
| run 1:34:00 [3] | |
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| C • The results are in... 3 |
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| C • Raspberries 2 |
Tuesday May 13 |
| biking 2:01:00 [3] | |
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| What say ye, fawn Spring? Have we paid dues enough, and done with Winter's driven ice and shrilly peals this day at last? |
Monday May 12 |
| run intervals 1:41:00 [4] | |
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| 9 x 5, from home, and then breakfast--just in time for noon! |
Sunday May 11 |
| run 1:45:00 [3] | |
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| A much nicer day, one day too late for graduation. |
Saturday May 10 |
| run 1:51:00 [2] | |
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Friday May 9 |
| biking 27:00 [3] | |
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| run 1:58:00 [2] | |
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| More snow in the afternoon. Happy Jack was looking like a perfect winter postcard! |
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| C • :-( 1 |
| biking 1:14:00 [2] | |
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Thursday May 8 |
| Note | |
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| I don't know what it was, but I was filled with an overwhelming desire today to get up in the morning and dust my broom. Most peculiar! |
| run 1:26:00 [2] | |
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| Snow and a stiff wind led me to throw in the towel on mapping earlier than I would have otherwise, and instead I took a loop around on some of the ski trails--which are still on average better for skiing on that running on.
I had to hurry up on home because I was meeting a photographer for a glamour photo food shoot. Afterwards, it did seem like the pizza tasted better than usual. But maybe it was just the MSG. |
Wednesday May 7 |
| biking 47:00 [3] | |
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| Orienteering 1:24:00 [4] | |
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| Lots of firsts for the year today: first run where I felt like I was moving almost as fast as a fat, farm raised, basting turkey can waddle (yes, training really works!), first rain, first thunderstorm, first run in thunderstorm, first hiding under tree during thunderstorm, and first hail. A few lightning bolts came down within a mile or two of where I was, but I was under a tree by then. Now I think I am re-acclimatized to lightning bolts for the coming season.
Some say never get under a tree during a lightning storm. I say if it's lightning and you're standing still out in the middle of a huge open area and getting pounded on by hail and you're thinking: "Well, at least I'm not under a tree, that might be dangerous," you don't even have the common sense of a flea. I bet the indians never wasted any time looking for cover.
I've read that SE Wyoming and adjoining portions of northern Colorado get more hail than any other part of the country. That may be true, but I wonder if there are certain sections of the Rampart Range that might not be pretty high up on the list too. When I was mapping Saylor Park, I never saw so much hail as I saw then. |
Tuesday May 6 |
| run 1:11:00 [3] | |
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| Pasqueflowers are out and blooming everywhere!
While I was out running, I thought about, among other things, Buffett's astute observation about Berkshire's significant age advantage, given in answer to a question at the recently held Berkshire annual meeting (paraphrased here):
"On corporate America aging issue, I think we are doing fine. Our average age is eighty, so we are only aging at 1.25% per year, lowest rate of aging in corporate America. If you have a 50 year old management team, they age 2% every year, I think you run bigger risk there."
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Monday May 5 |
| biking 1:32:00 [3] | |
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| It was absurdly nice out, and all over town contractors were breaking out their dozers and backhoes and scrapers to dig more holes for new hotels. Hard to reconcile a day like this with the blizzard just last Thursday. That's one of the downsides of a place like Athens, GA. Sure, Athens has pretty much got a lock on R.E.M. and B-52s, but if you're in Athens and you want a blizzard, your only hope is to head for the nearest DQ. |
| run 39:00 [2] | |
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| biking 1:12:00 [2] | |
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Sunday May 4 |
| Orienteering 1:32:00 [4] | |
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| 2 x 25 loops at secret location. |
| biking 36:00 [2] | |
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Saturday May 3 |
| run 1:14:00 [3] | |
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| biking 1:00:00 [2] | |
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Friday May 2 |
| Note | |
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| I don't look at the Kansas City Star as often as I used to back in the days when Spike was a KC employee and assisting head dude sort of guy. But something stirred me to look at it this morning, and right up top was a funky picture of Mayor Funkhouser, who used to be Spike's boss.
What made the photo funky was the house in the background, which wasn't looking too happy. In fact, it looked like it had been beset upon.
Last night some strong Wyoming winds snucked across the prairies and, when nobody was looking, pounced on portions of Kansas City and did some appreciable amounts of destruction.
Judging by the blizzard roaring through Laramie this morning, Kansas City may need some shelter from the (coming) storm. |
| Note | |
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| Things are not looking up for mapping any US Classic Championships area today:
Organizers are right now trying to decide if the annual Laramie Pre-Kentucky Derby Outdoor Sunbathing Beauty Contest should be held or not. My guess is they are going to skip the over the contest as an unnecessary formality and head straight for the awards ceremony, which, by tradition, takes place at various of the downtown watering spots. |
| run 49:00 [3] | |
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| Around town at end of the day (highways closed all day.) Some snow, a bit more wind, but the worst of the wind was off to the east and so it wasn't so bad. |
| biking 52:00 [2] | |
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Thursday May 1 |
| run 1:18:00 [2] | |
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| In between repeated snow squalls, there were moments when it wasn't snowing. Technically, this qualifies as snow intervals. For some reason, I felt like a harmonica every time a new squall blew through. When I got home, I got an atlas, opened it up randomly several times, and each time I stabbed a finger down on it with my eyes closed. Must have been some kind of hoodoo voodoo going on, because every single time my finger ended up on top of Marksville, Louisiana. Very strange! |
| biking 1:10:00 [2] | |
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