Training Log Archive: Swampfox

There was some nice breeze out of the west, so I opted to emphasize bike riding and rode assertively straight into the wind. I must have been riding fairly strongly, because I passed a fair number of cars that were poking along, and even two motorcycles, though the dudes on the motorcycles were pretty fat so maybe that was why. Good ride.

Ran afterwards, and caught the super fine super moon. Though at least around here the King Tides were a disappointment, as I didn't seen any signs of a high tide or even catch a whiff of the smell of sea water.

O' at Remarkable Flats; thought elk season had started (it has) so went out in the middle of the day, which worked out fine--I didn't see any hunters out and about, or even driving around. Another brilliant day, with a little more breeze than we've had for the past week.

Busy day at work today, and that meant exercising got pushed back some. Biked first on what was yet another very nice day, and with a nice bit of breeze from the east--in contrast to the last several rather breezeless days.

Then I headed up to Happy Jack for some trails, and with regular time now guiding the sun down an hour earlier, by the time I stepped out of my truck, it was already just about dusk.

But no matter. I didn't have anything more than running easy planned, and had a more than half full moon to light the way. Didn't see a single mountain biker, which is funny--I hardly ever see any mountain bikers out after dark, whereas once snow arrives, I hardly ever see any snowbikers *except* after dark.

Then I came home, and while re-fueling (dinner) and perusing the detritus of the election in the NY Times, this caught my eye:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/13/sports/football/...

For some context, Rock Hill is where I grew up, and Northwestern is where I went to high school--twice! (The high school and a junior high were constructed side-by-side at the same time, and while neither got finished quite in time for the opening of the school year, the high school was close enough for classes to get started, but the junior high was not. The district solution? The new high school was adding a second high school to town. So what would have been the Northwestern senior class stayed at Rock Hill High and grades 9-11 went to the brand new Northwestern, along with my 8th grade class. By the next year the junior high was finished, and my class went there for our 9th grade, and then went back to Northwestern for grades 10-12. More than anyone ever wanted to know about that--ha!)

And not only was Coach Echols the football coach at Northwestern, for that first year he was also the tennis coach (I played tennis.) He didn't know one iota about tennis and was strictly filling in the gap in an apparent act of total desperation (he was also overall in charge of Athletics for the high school), but he did know something about weight rooms. During our pre-season, we spent *a lot* of time in the weight room. Which is how swampfox got so burly that to this day it's all but impossible for me to squeeze into a t-shirt that is anything smaller than, say, Medium.

I remember Coach Echols would frequently tell us: "Men, you have to maintain." To this day I'm still not quite sure what that was supposed to mean. But that's the kind of thing he would say rather than something like trying to get a higher percentage of your first serves in, or something specific to tennis.

The football team was only mediocre while I was there, but one guy in the class ahead of me did go on to the NFL (Rick Sanford, played for the New England Patriots), for the first to do so from Northwestern.

Until I read the article linked above, I had no idea Rock Hill was considered to be such a football hotbed, and didn't even know Jadeveon Clowney was from Rock Hill, since usually in the drafts and subsequent mentions in the NFL you hear which university such-and-such played for, but not as often where they came from.

And none of the above has anything at all with the damn election! ; )

The weather gods dialed in another exquisite day of weather. Nobody objected and I certainly didn't. A t-shirt was remarkably fine for running in the sun, and not near enough once it got past dusk.

I went back to the course I started yesterday, and began all over again from the start, and got an earlier start in the afternoon. But not that much earlier, and I judged I could finish up the whole thing, as long as I pushed the pace along. Which I did--both things. Navigated well even though my concentration was wandering now and then, and just managed to finish up with enough light to still read the map. The coolest thing was seeing a bull moose out in the big open area where the Twin Boulders are physically located.

I was out doing some biking earlier, and really the exceptionally nice weather and sunniness helped in some measure to assuage the feelings about the events of last night.

The stretch of beautiful weather extended another day. Biked, and then tried to squeeze in an O' run at Twin Boulders before it got too dark, and I only made it through 40% of the course before I couldn't read the map anymore. Ran a piece of the nearby Enduro Trail back, which would have been easy enough anyway, but with the illumination from the 1/2 full moon, there was plenty of light to see by.

On the way out, I stopped briefly at a creek, which turned out to be a mistake because as soon as I opened the truck door, there was an overwhelming smell of something very dead. I couldn't see what it was or where the odor was coming from, but it had to be pretty close, and my guess is either it was coming from a gut pile or else a shot animal that a hunter didn't find.

Removed another hedge plant; I think that makes 4 this fall. If nothing else, it serves as a good indication that my shoulder and upper arm have recovered from the bike crash and surgery, as getting one of these things out of the ground involved some real grunt work. And in fact it now seems to me the shoulder and arm feel almost completely normal now (except for some numb areas from the surgery) and with just as much strength and range of motion as before. Quite a satisfactory outcome in that sense.

Another unusually nice day, and almost no breeze either. The extended weather forecast shows more of the same coming up--very odd.

Biked and then ran, choosing to run down along Pole Creek and taking a higher trail back to finish the loop. I saw a bull moose across the creek at the Devil's Playground, and noticed it had only one antler. I'm not sure if this is when moose beginning shedding their antlers, and while it seems early to me, I guess proof is in the pudding. I suppose it's also possible you could lose an antler in a contest with another moose for dominion.