Training Log Archive: Swampfox

Basically a repeat of yesterday up at Happy Jack, except that it felt like it was a tad colder, and definitely windier. Maybe not a full blown ground blizzard in the parking lot, but working towards it; most skiers were hunched over and many were guarding their faces as they walked across the lot. So fine!

Despite all that, the snow actually felt faster to me today, and I felt pretty good for the 2 1/2 hours I was out. I saw 2 bull moose at very close range on one of the trails. They weren't interested in yielding the trail for me, and I was even less interested in trying to press through them, and so it was a standoff. Eventually they got bored and moved on off. I also saw a Graham B, though the first time I saw him, I didn't recognize him (he was moving too fast to be recognizable as anything but a blur of arms and legs.) Trails were impeccably groomed.

Should start gradually warming up for the next few days, but for now I will concentrate on enjoying the proper winter conditions while they last!

C • Christo's artwork on the Arkansas River 5

Just read an article laying out the indisputable facts of how Trump won the Electoral College because of the unlawful votes of millions of previously undetected illegal Russian immigrants. Looks unquestionably solid according to numerous uncited experts who have analyzed the data, so at last we now the truth of how Trump overcame seemingly impossible odds to win the presidency. Hopefully the wall that Mexico is going to pay for can be extended to wall off Russia as well, and that Mexico can be tricked into paying for that part, too. It is going to be one hell of a wall, and just think of the mountain of aggregate it is going to require. Bonus thought: maybe they can require that the wall be made out of coal, and kick start the coal industry in that manner.

Also, it's snowing outside! ; )

Colder today with temps in the low teens at Happy Jack to start with and down in the single digits by the time I was done skiing. Effectively much colder due to some return of the wind.

Skiing was beautiful, very crystalline in nature due to an inch of fresh snow and the colder temps. My skis were waxed at least a color too warm, so I got the benefit of having to make some effort to get along the trails and especially on the climbs. Good stuff, if chilly. The grooming couldn't have been any better.

About an inch of fresh snow was on the trails today, and it snowed very lightly off and on while I was skiing. My skis felt slower than yesterday, but I wondered at the same time if maybe it wasn't just I was tired. My arms didn't seem to have much to give. But, whatever. It was really nice out with the new snow, and occasional the clouds would break for brief glimpses of blue skies.

When I switched over to run, and started off, I realized almost at once for sure it hadn't been my skis--I just didn't have any "go juice" today, and my legs were as flat as pancakes. Probably from too little sleep the night before, is my guess. I did pre-energize before training with a bagel and some coffee, but it didn't seem to take. It didn't matter though, as I was just going for an easy jog anyway, and I carried that out as planned.

On my way back in, I bumped into Justin (snow biking) on his way out, and we chatted briefly.

C • legs 1

Another big crowd out at Happy Jack this afternoon. Temps felt a little crisper than they have for the past week or so--probably more because of some breeze than because they were that much colder. Very pleasant winter conditions, at any rate. Snow was fast, skiing was fun. Besides lots of skiers, I saw as many snow bikers as I think I've ever seen up top, especially while I was running afterwards.

While I was out, I wondered idly if anyone in the administration had dared mentioned to el Maximo Presidente that the women's march in D.C. yesterday might have been a teensy bit larger than the inaugural crowd, or that there had been a couple of other marches scattered around here and there. But probably not, figuring out that he's so smart--hey, he has an uncle that graduated from Harvard!--that there's no way he would be fooled by the exaggerated numbers the press were propounding, and would have already determined that there were only a few hundred protesters at most.

Not long ago I came across this:

“That’s another thing we’ve learned from your Nation,” said Mein Herr, “map-making. But we’ve carried it much further than you. What do you consider the largest map that would be really useful?”

“About six inches to the mile.”

“Only six inches!” exclaimed Mein Herr. “We very soon got to six yards to the mile. Then we tried a hundred yards to the mile. And then came the grandest idea of all! We actually made a map of the country, on the scale of a mile to the mile!”

“Have you used it much?” I enquired.

“It has never been spread out, yet,” said Mein Herr: “the farmers objected: they said it would cover the whole country, and shut out the sunlight! So we now use the country itself, as its own map, and I assure you it does nearly as well.

It immediately made me think of the long ongoing trend in orienteering mapping towards ever larger scales with ever larger amounts of detail.

My view is, and has been for some time now, that the efforts in including increasing amounts of detail dwarf any benefits to the racer from having this additional detail. Indeed it has often gone to the point of absurdity, where the additional detail has become a disadvantage rather than a benefit to the racer, because of diminished legibility and increasing irrelevance of any given piece of detail.

My wish for O' mappers everywhere would be to keep one principle foremost: that above all, a map must be useful.

Then the following principles apply: legibility, consistency, accuracy, and inclusion of all important details.

An orienteering map is not intended to be, nor should it be, an exhaustive, encyclopedic inventory of all possible objects within the competition terrain. And yet that seems to be what many orienteers think it should be, as if a map with less detail is somehow a compromised, second rate product.

C • Mein Herr 2

Even in the mid-afternoon, there was still a big crowd up at Happy Jack, and the parking lot was full when I turned into it. But nabbed a spot when someone else left almost at the same time. Skied mostly with Matt, and then a short bit with Mark and Ed.

Skies were nearly entirely overcast all day long, with only occasional breaks in the clouds; I never saw the sun. But quite pleasant out even so, and no wind.

And now we exit the darkest sixth of the year.

While I was running, I thought about the Trump presidency and his administration. I thought back especially to the earliest times, beginning with the festive inaugural atmosphere and the the incredibly uplifting, warm, and unifying inaugural speech so masterfully delivered, leaving all those in attendance and those listening form around the world inspired, hopeful, and enthusiastic.

But as time by, familiarity led to a certain amount of, if not outright contempt, then resignation that the reality was that few, if any, of the brandished promises made to the American people were going to come to pass, not in one Trump administration, nor a thousand such.

Mistakes were made. Of course in an overwhelmingly complex world with new, almost impossibly difficult problems constantly emerging, some amount of mistakes are inevitable. Some of the mistakes were almost charming, such as The Formosa Straights (sic) affair, when, on the second day of his presidency, Trump signed a presidential order for the Navy to seize the Formosa Strait and make it great again for all freedom loving people, in order to demonstrate his vast alignment with, and understanding of, GBLT issues. I suppose that might have been okay, if a somewhat embarrassing misinterpretation of basic world geography (and we will not dwell here on the resultant distressing increase of tensions with China that nearly led to a nuclear exchange, averted only by Trump's last minute concession to grant a 10% discount to any citizen of China staying in one of his hotels for two or more consecutive nights), but the lies that followed, trying to blame the whole thing on the American press in general and CNN in particular, became an all too easily recognizable pattern for dealing with anything that went wrong: just blame it on the press.

I suppose my enduring image of the Trump presidency will be how (as it was reliably reported by numerous insiders independently) when, in the middle of cabinet meetings, after tiring of listening to even a few minutes of briefings and discussion, Trump would shoot to his feet, stride over to a massive aerial photo of the inauguration mounted on the wall of the Cabinet Room, and animatedly say: "I'm telling you, there were at least 1.5 million there, maybe more, probably a lot more, looks like 2 million to me easy, Rick (meaning Secretary of Energy Rick Perry), get over here and help me count again!"

Even as a diehard Trump supporter right from the heady days of the glorious "Birther Movement", I have found myself worn down by it all, not so much by the multitudes of egregious and costly initiatives that led to nothing (though certain of them did help further enhance the Trump Brand, so I guess that was something), as by the mannerisms of the man himself. The constant preening, self-aggrandizement, the fabrication out of thin air of great achievements and taking sole credit for them, the insistent need for universal adoration and adulation, the lies, and the lies--above all, the thousands and thousands of lies that will keep generations of presidential historians busy--it just wore me down.

And so now, as the earliest candidates begin to appear and maneuver, and nascent campaigns initiate their quixotic quests for funds, and position themselves for a run at the next presidency, I find my spirit and enthusiasm renewed, renewed in the hope that maybe the next president can, indeed, make America great again.

C • promises 1

Skiing was quite good; there was about 1/2" of new snow that fell overnight. Saw more bikers while I was running after dark than I've seen in a while. One of the bikers stopped and we chatted briefly; I didn't know him, but recognized his name and realized that his wife was one of the two physical therapists that had given me some good suggestions back in the summer that seemed to have made a significant improvement with the very persistent groin/upper thigh problem I had that had been impairing my running.

A beautiful day with full sun; there was some breeze during the day, as evidenced by snow blowing across the Happy Jack highway and melting and re-freezing on the surface. But even this bit of breeze was only a change from the past week or so, and nothing like the typical afternoon winter wind.

Skied and ran; skied at a very easy effort today.