Training Archive: SwampfoxIn the 7 days ending 2008-03-08:
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| S | M | T | W | H | F | S | |||||||||||||||||
Saturday Mar 8 | ||
| Note | |
| I forgot to mention that the day after the sub-morons finally freed their stuck vehicle up near Tie City, they returned in force and began shooting apart the offending snowdrift. Oh yes! This is no joke--they really did!
The sub-moron is easily amused, and even more easily angered, and they do not show any mercy towards snowdrifts, and that's for sure. | ||
| C • Shooting 5 | ||
| biking 35:00 [3] | |
| After a few minutes out, I knew enough to know that biking wasn't the best idea after all. Heading south was tolerable to almost pleasant, but I wasn't planning on biking down to Denver. East and West were raw to borderline. North was frigid, like the neophyte about to step foot in the nunnery for good. All thanks to an insidious north wind with heavy refrigerations from snow and ice lying on the ground in too liberal amounts. Brrrrrrrrr!
Notch another victory to Winter. And to Obama. | ||
| skiing 2:19:00 [3] | |
| Did as much climbing as I could, because climbing is the best part of skiing up. | ||
Friday Mar 7 | ||
| Note | |
| Barack Obama is coming to Laramie today. I think he is coming for a campaign rally rather than to check out terrain for Laramie Daze this summer, but I might have it wrong.
I'd be interested in seeing him, but I'm not so interested in standing in line 2-3 hours to do so, so I will probably go skiing instead. | ||
| C • Speedy travel 3 | ||
| run 35:00 [3] | |
| Ooops--I goofed. I ran through the new Convention shopping area again, and saw that the first store open is Jimmy Johns, and not Jimmy Deans. So, scratch the West Australian cuisine, forget about a dish of succulent, writhing King Brown. Instead, it's a sandwich shop. | ||
| biking 28:00 [3] | |
| A little too chilly to be out biking by mid-afternoon for the way I was dressed, but sometimes you just gotta HTFU. The crowds are already gathering outside the UW Arena-Auditorium...
I'm calling this day for Winter, too. Winter is racking up an impressive string of March wins! | ||
| skiing 1:24:00 [3] | |
| Very nice conditions again! | ||
| biking 1:07:00 [2] | |
Thursday Mar 6 | ||
| skiing 1:56:00 [3] | |
| Went up to Happy Jack in the late afternoon, and skied until well past nightfall. It looked like it had snowed several inches up there (but not in town) overnight, and the conditions were again completely outstanding. Despite that, I only saw one other skier the whole time I was out!
It was again a relatively chilly day up there for the time of the year, in the teens. It definitely goes down as another checkmark in the winter column. Really nice skiing, and the snow total just keeps growing! Maybe spring will start putting in an appearance next week, since it is obviously passing on this week? | ||
| biking 1:00:00 [2] | |
Wednesday Mar 5 | ||
| Note | |
| Could this be the future of US Orienteering?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kissy223/2295962883 They're agile, they're fast, they're not skittish in the least when it comes to forcing cactus or rocky terrain, and they wield the fastest dipsticks in all of Texas. Why settle for trolls when you can have these guys instead? True, they're a little hard on the eyes and stand no chance of ever becoming a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader, but it's tough to select for everything when what you're really after is a lean, mean, navigatin' machine. | ||
| Yowsa!!! 1 [3] | |
| There might be something after all to the folk wisdom that "a swampfox's Yowsa!!!" is never done. Today is not going to be the day that the skiing goes bad, and that's for sure! | ||
| C • Yowsa!! 4 | ||
| C • A sweet picture 3 | ||
| run 40:00 [3] | |
| Ran out in The Flats, with sun in my face when I ran south, and a chill north wind in my face when I headed the other way. When I ran east or west, I saw people tracks, dawg tracks, one set of mountain bike tracks, and, a little surprisingly, almost no javelina tracks.
I will grade this out as more a winter flavored run than an early spring flavored one, though the sighting of even a single robin might have turned the tide the other way. | ||
| skiing 1:47:00 [3] | |
| Skiing was great, a full-on winter day with teenish temps and so much new snow that all the garbage cans and most of the picnic tables have vanished. There could well be some vehicles in the parking lot under some of the bigger drifts, for all anyone knows.
While I was out, I spotted a very large bird and my first thought was that I had made an exceptionally rare (rare for around Laramie anyway) sighting of the incredible African Hawk Eagle, which is able to gobble down an entire antelope while in mid-flight. That's hooves and everything. Pretty impressive, especially considering I can't even eat a banana before a race. But when I got back home and consulted my bird books, in the end I was forced to conclude that more likely it was just a crow. But some of them are really big! | ||
| C • Hawk Eagle 2 | ||
Tuesday Mar 4 | ||
| skiing 1:40:00 [3] | |
| Though it was dry down on town when I went up to the trails, up top it was snowing very lightly. It snowed with increasing intensity while I was out so that by the time I was finishing up, it had just about become a very fashionable March blizzard. But back down in the valley, there was just the most occasional of snowflakes.
It was a better day for skiing than running, not only because the trails conditions were just about over the tip, but because it was overcast and really windy all day long, and it would have been rather raw running. | ||
| biking 42:00 [2] | |
Monday Mar 3 | ||
| run 48:00 [3] | |
| I ran out across The Flats, over by the Wind Generation facility (do we really need more wind?), and through the Convention Center complex before returning home. The first new retail shop over there is now open: Jimmy Deans, which is a restaurant type of place, supposedly featuring West Australian cuisine. I can't tell if that's supposed to be a joke or if it's for real. WTH ever heard of West Australian cuisine??? But if it's for real, then I expect they will surely have some fine barbecued King Brown, and I for one will look forward to that first bite of some sumptious snake. Not because I think I will like (seems highly doubtful) but because then I can tell Jason "Snakeman" Poole all about it!
During the run I thought a little back to last March. I was just starting to run again, after taking the winter mostly off to rest my hip. I'm not in great running shape today, but I'm heads and tails above where I was this time last year! That was worth a smile. ; ) | ||
| skiing 1:50:00 [3] | |
| Enough snow was blowing over the Happy Jack Road--and melting and re-freezing on the road--that the way in to the the parking lot lacked little for treacherousness. It was worth it though, because the trails were just terrific. Best March conditions ever? Have to enjoy it while it lasts, because this is the time of the year when the weather gets so fickle. Skied until dark, and then past that.
Very luckily, a snowplow was clearing out the parking lot entrance just as I was finishing up, otherwise getting through the drifts could have been interesting. | ||
Sunday Mar 2 | ||
| Note | |
| My multiple choice question (from the news today): if someone who should know better describes the Prez as "a convinced environmentalist" and a world leader on the issue of climate change, then they: A) are married to the Prez, B) are lying, C) are being diplomatic (a nice way of saying they are lying), D) are speaking out of fear, because the Vice Prez is lurking nearby with a possibly loaded shotgun, or E) have been drinking the Koolaide. | ||
| C • That's a trick question! 7 | ||
| Yowsa!!! 1 [3] | |
| Nothing like a little Yowsa!!! to get March off on the right foot. | ||
| skiing 2:07:00 [3] | |
| There was a whole bunch of new snow up at Happy Jack, and the snow levels there are the deepest I can remember for early March. The trails had been groomed this morning, but since it snowed most of the day (and some while I was out too, stopping only at dusk) the trails were soft and deep. Despite all the new snow, few skiers were out today. It makes me wonder if spring break might have started, though it seems a bit early for that. Maybe it's pre-break spring break or something like that.
Across the way from the parking lot, there was a whole confliction of sub-morons trying to extricate a vehicle heavily morassed in a massive snowdrift. It had been out there yesterday too, and a smaller group had been (obviously) unsuccessful. Usually if they can't get it out after a day or two, they will go up and just shoot it apart, in part for sport, and in part out of concerned environmental awareness. | ||
| biking 41:00 [2] | |