Training Archive: PGIn the 7 days ending 2008-04-19:
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| S | M | T | W | H | F | S | |||||||
Saturday Apr 19 | ||
| Event: US Middle Distance and Relay Champs | ||
| orienteering 29:45 [3] 3.3 km (9:01 / km) +130m 7:32 / km | |
| shoes: integrators 2006 | ||
| Middle distance champs at Letchworth West, M60. Won class, but a very unsatisfying "run" because of really low energy. A bunch of better times in M50 and 55. Warm day, but just felt tired even by the time I reached the start triangle. Pretty much no redeeming values. Course, woods, organization were all excellent.
My routes. | ||
| orienteering 12:20 [4] 2 km (6:10 / km) +50m 5:29 / km | |
| shoes: integrators 2006 | ||
| Sprint in the early afternoon, a fundraiser for the junior team. Surprised myself by feeling better. The course was clearly flatter and shorter, but I ran all the hills as compared to running none of the hills in the morning. Navigation was fine.
Thought it was an excellent course, not too easy, not too hard. My routes. Haven't seen any results because.... | ||
| Note | |
| .... I headed off before too long for some more rogaine practice, this time with Peter and John Goodwin. A fine outing, as usual a mix of the sublime (3 birdies) and the absurd (two quadruple bogies), and certainly made more pleasant on a very warm afternoon by the offer of the guy in the pro shop -- You want a cart, just take one. So we did. And since there was no e-punching, we could take the holes out of order, I think we went 10 through 17, then 2 through 8, then 1, 18 and 9. All to avoid other rogainers who didn't seem to have quite the sense of urgency we had. Got around very quickly and just made it to dinner in time.
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Friday Apr 18 | ||
| Note | |
| Off to Rochester at the crack of dawn to meet up with Gord and Lise for a fine round of rogaine practice at Ravenwood.
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Wednesday Apr 16 | ||
| Note | |
| Freedom, opening of golf season | ||
| C • Happy Freedom Day 1 | ||
| trail running 56:00 [3] | |
| shoes: Asics trail | ||
| "13 hills" loop in Greenfield, good effort. All the ice is gone, and the soil drains well so there is no mud. The only downer is that a year ago 56 minutes would have been an easy (very easy?) pace.
And then out to the golf course. A beautiful day, nearing 70, time to put on the shorts, which seemed to be distressingly snugger than when I last wore them last fall. But really, what did I expect? My game itself, just played 10 holes with some old friends, was remarkable only for its variety -- a 2 and two 3s on one end and an 8 and a 9 on the other. What will be interesting is that the plan is to try to make some significant and specific changes in my game, and I am excited about the possibilities. And also wondering if something similar happens in orienteering. Does one start off a new year with the intention of making certain very specific changes in technique? Picking a couple of weak spots, figuring out what needs to be changed, and then practicing to make it happen? As opposed to just vowing to get in better shape and not make so many mistakes? I think our orienteering performance might be better if we did a better job of identifying weaknesses, figuring out what needed to be changed, and then working to change it. But do we ever really do that? | ||
| C • O weaknesses 1 | ||
Tuesday Apr 15 | ||
| Note | |
| April 15, last day of the season, a day not without difficulties in a season that has been not without stress, mainly due to too much work, mainly too many new clients, they just seem to keep coming, a friend or a relative sent them. Normally I try to have nothing left to do on the 15th, no appointments, but not this year.
9 am, the wig lady, husband died last year, he took care of all the numbers, she pleads ignorance of everything other than her business, selling wigs to cancer patients. She's mid-70s, still looks fabulous. I have had a few clients over the years that seemed similar, quite gorgeous women, obviously have been quite gorgeous all their lives, and it's as if their good looks give them a free pass on some of the normal responsibilities of life, such as paying the bills or sticking to a budget. I had one a couple of days ago, good job, makes 75K at work, has nothing, yup, nothing, withheld for federal tax, and even having a couple of young girls doesn't save her from owing quite a few thousands. And she has nothing withheld because she is always short of money, as if this is going to help, and I'm just wondering, where does the 75K go? I'd guess that maybe, along with always being pretty, she's always bought whatever she wanted, budget be damned. And she gives the impression that life is unfair because she doesn't have everything she wants. I have a hard time summoning up much sympathy. Anyway, the wig lady is also not to be bothered with too many details. I've got most of her papers but am still missing a couple of crucial things, like the gross receipts for the business, and it seems just too difficult to find her bank statements today, she is too busy. And I ponder the state of things and then file for an extension, figuring I will deal with this at some point down the road. And her bill will go up. So she is off, and the next guy in is by most appearances a loser, doesn't work, used to do day trading and in the process whittled down his rather meager assets, lives with his mom (he is in his 50s), doesn't have enough income to have to file, but came in to file anyway to get the $300 so he could stimulate the economy, except he doesn't have enough income to qualify for the $300. So nothing to be done, I send him off disappointed. Then finishing off some other stuff that people are coming by to pick up, and in the process I check the daily report from the IRS and, shit, they've rejected two of my returns. Now, maybe over the course of the whole season, 600+ clients, maybe 1300 returns, I get at most 6 or 8 returns rejected, and here it is the last day and 2 are rejected. One has a dependent claimed where the name and SS# don't agree with the master file, the other has the same problem plus another dependent who has already been claimed on another return. So I call up both of them and all I get is answering machines. Leave messages and move on. By 11:30 things are starting to shape up. I think I about heading off for a run, but it is beautiful out, sunny, mid 50s, so I change plans and head out to the golf course for a bit of rogaine practice. I spend a couple of hours, what a fine thing to do on the 15th, trying out a few things, the first day of a new season always full of hope ad plans and ideas for improvement. We shall see about that, though it certainly is true that in the last year my orienteering and my golf were going in opposite directions, and my orienteering was not getting better. So back to the office about 2 pm, and dealing with more loose ends, still no word from my two rejects, and then another appointment at 3, just a couple coming in to sign and pay, but they had a complicated return, inherited a bunch of money, owe mega thousands, so it takes a while to make sure everything is taken care of and plans are made for 2008. And then they were off, and the next guy, interesting case, not my favorite guy, mid 30s, but times haven't been good for him and he's struggling to hold on to his house. Made about 25K last year, about 10K from a place where he was a "machine operator" machining parts, and the coming treated him like an independent contractor and gave him a 1099 and didn't pay their side of the FICA taxes. Which he would normally have to deal with now, pay both sides, employer and employee, except this was clearly a case of he was an employee and should have been treated as one for tax purposes. He quit the job last summer, and there is no love lost for the company, so we do an arcane form that claims he's not liable for the employer's share, but to do that we have to fill out a 3-page form called an SS8, giving all the details of the work situation to show it met all the criteria for being an employee. And this form gets sent off to someplace in northern Vermont, and much as I'm not really fond of this guy, I am hoping that the IRS launches an investigation of this company and nails them. And then he's off, and there's a call from another guy to get his taxes done, it's about 4:30 now, and he's a long-time client, says his mother died recently, life has been a bit of a mess, so I say come on over, though it will be 40 minutes because he doesn't have a car and he's walking from the other side of town, and he's a slow walker. So I take care of some more loose ends, more people coming in to sign, send off their returns electronically. Still no word from my two rejects. And then this guy arrives a little after 5. He's poor, looks pretty ragged, but an ok person and certainly doesn't smell bad. His mother lived with him, he's an only child, and she died a month ago, sudden heart attack, got up to walk across the room, her heart went, she died right away, in his arms. And that wasn't the only thing. His income was down for the year, 9K instead of 15K, he'd been in an accident in September. He's a dishwasher, works the evening shift, was walking home after work, 1 am, got run down. Was the guy drunk? They said he wasn't, but I think he was on a cell phone. Was it his fault? I was in the crosswalk. Out of work for several months, at some point it will go to court, but all that is beyond him, the lawyer is taking care of it. The one good thing, the place he worked took him back as soon as he was able to work, even though they had hired a replacement in the meantime. He'd worked there some 20 years. So I took care of him, with pleasure. One of my rejects calls. After a bit of searching she finds the correct social security number for her kid, and we get that one taken care of. But then, shit again, another return is rejected, this one by MA, and for some unknown error code on a rarely used form, and by now the MA folks are closed for the day, so I go on line and find the document that gives all details of what different codes mean, and then call up the software company to see what they can do, and after a while the guy says he'll call me back in half an hour when he finds out what his MA developer says. And while I'm waiting for that, and getting the last couple of returns signed and filed, reject number two calls up, and they've also screwed up one kid's social security number, and the other kid seems to have already filed a return claiming herself, so if they want to claim her anyway they have to file on paper, which means getting down here and signing and getting it in the mail this evening. So we take care of that, and then the software company calls back and it seems they have been in a disagreement with the MA tax folks about the correct way to interpret the law when filling out this form, has to do with installment sales that were done back when MA had variable capital gains rates, and this guy says I can't e-file it, but filing it on paper is just fine. The logic of which escapes me, a set of numbers on an e-filed form are wrong but the same numbers on a paper filed return are fine, but I swear that's what he said. So get a hold of those folks and get them in to sign. And that's it, 7:30, time to go home. A long day, a long season. But a lot of good memories. | ||
| C • Thanks 14 | ||
| C • 1 | ||
Monday Apr 14 | ||
| nautilus 30:00 [1] | |
| Late, just before closing, so the manager isn't there and I can't investigate the actual value of a "Nautilus pound." | ||
| C • 1 UK Pound = $1.96 USD 1 | ||
Sunday Apr 13 | ||
| Event: 30th Annual Billygoat Run | ||
| orienteering 2:24:10 [3] 13 km (11:05 / km) | |
| shoes: integrators 2006 | ||
| The Billygoat.
Low expectations. I'd been to Clear Lake (on the south side of Fahnstock SP) I think once before, and vague memories were that it wasn?t so much fun, the Northeast trifecta -- hilly, rocky, mountain laurel. And it overlaps the south part of the Bushy Ridge part of Fahnstock, also not one of my favorite areas. So low expectations, also low enthusiasm. And maybe a bit deflated after our visit chez DeWeese (and the DeWeese gym), though also still laughing about it of course. As it turned out, I got around the course ok, no mistakes at the controls, decent routes I think, a decent skip I think, just absolutely no energy. Well, maybe I had a little energy when it was gently downhill on a smooth trail, but other than that it was pretty sad. But let's focus on the good stuff -- I feel great! The knee was getting a little worrisome in the last hour, but it never got bad, and afterwards it felt just a little sore. One blister, second toe, it will take care of itself with the aid of a little duct tape. Not too many scratches, not too many barbarry thorns in the knees, no ticks spotted yet, no sunburn, no corneal abrasions. Basically just fine. Routes are posted, most of map, northeast part. Following the crowd to 1 and 2. Leaving 2 everyone in sight was heading down the hill to take the route to the right to 3, but I'd already decided to go left. It was a bit lonely heading off, everyone else going another way, took a bit of nerve, though I did drag Jim Eagleton with me and we were moving at about the same pace. Still lonely all the way there, passed one walker, asked if he had seen any other runners, 3 or 4 he said. Along the way I decided that none of the skips on the final loop looked that good, certainly not as good as skipping up north, though I wasn't sure which was better between skipping 4, 5, or 6. Got up to 3, saw some folks that seemed to be about who I should be with, so I guess the routes were about equal. Jim was maybe 50 yards ahead, and he turned right, skipping 4, and I decided to do the same, though within 100 yards I was already regretting it, thinking it was a dumb move. But I was committed. And Jeff Saeger was coming the same way too. Had company from Jeff most of the rest of the way, sometimes he was a ways ahead, sometimes I was, also company from from Jim until he disappeared (behind me) after 17, and from Mike Bishop for a while until he skipped 19 and finished ahead. After a while we'd been out an hour, then 2 hours, then finally done. And a nice surprise when comparing splits with a few folks afterwards, it seemed skipping 4 was a first-class skip, definitely better than 18 or 19. Sometimes you get lucky. A fine BG, thought not short and not easy. That's not saying it was too long, but it might have been pushing the limit a little, especially if it had been a warm day. But orienteering is a sport that is supposed to offer a sense of adventure, and it seems a little foolish to put too much emphasis on getting a course length or winning time to match some perceived standard. Just set a decent course, get the controls in the right place, and let us have at it. And if sometimes a course gets the better of us, well, that?s not such an awful thing. | ||
| C • Was going around west of Sp... 2 | ||
| Note | |
Got home thanks to a ride from Phil, the snowpile is shrinking but still about 4 feet high. Launched a snowball at his departing car, fortunately missed by inches putting it right through his open window, which would have been very anti-social!
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| C • I agree that 4 was the best... 10 | ||
The Goat - Splits | ||
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