Training Archive: randyIn the 31 days ending 2007-10-31:
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| M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | W | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wednesday Oct 31 | ||
| running (trail/XC) 56:08 [3] 10 km (5:37 / km) | |
| joy loop 2
Samhain today. Saw one pagan out on Joy, in the most unusual getup, but you really have to go at sunrise or sunset on the sabbats, that's when most come out. I miss running at sunrise, but that's when I get my best work done now. Oh well, the Wheel now spins onto another year, next stop Midwinter's Eve, Yule, The Solstice, Fesitivus or Xmas, depending on your persuasion. Watched a "documentary" on Nostradamus last night. I'll admit I'm a bit of a Nostradamus geek, tho from the skeptical side of course. But the semiotics is beautiful. I wonder why they never have professors of semiotics on those Nostradamus shows (well, I know why, or course, that would give it away). Anyway, they have a million learned "professors of Nostradamus" come on (how does one get to be a "professor of Nostradamus" anyway; that's some sweet action if you get it), telling us how this quatrain or that one relates to Osama or the Twin Towers. Now, I'm no "professor of Nostradamus", but I have a handful of books on the subject in my library, and I look up cited Osama quatrain in a book published last decade. Gee, no mention of Osama or anything close in the "interpretation". For good measure, I look it up in my book published in 1912 (a must for any Nostradamus geek), gee a different meaning. Hmm, I wonder why my 1912 book has no mention of "Hitler" in any of the interpretations? And why don't these "professors of Nostradamus" have these volumes in their libraries, which I assume must be extensive. Well, I still love Nostradamus, the writing as art, at least, is beautiful. I will say the man had a tremendous amount of talent. Imagine how dry the writing would be if it was "in the year 2001, Osama Bin Laden will organize the flight of aircraft into the World Trade Center". I'm sure art precluded the seer from writing his prophecies thusly. Well, for good luck at the US champs, I'm going to go bury a statue of Nostradamus in my backyard. I think I'll bury some Loonies and Euros also. | ||
| C • Nostradamus 3 | ||
| paddling 30:00 [1] | |
| outdoor puzzle related
| ||
Tuesday Oct 30 | ||
| running (trail/XC) 55:29 [3] 10 km (5:33 / km) | |
| joy loop 2
Oh, good grief is right. It occurs to me to write about the stupidity of prickling volunteers, but it is simply easier to resign. It occurs to me to ponder, that if every volunteer in USOF resigned, would "for profit, non-chartered" entites save the day? Perhaps, but the good news with that senerio is that it would not be my problem. One has to ponder if "for profit, non-chartered" entites would add or reduce the efficiency of providing orienteering entertainment to the USOF base. They have to carry their own insurance, and since insurance premia are proportional to membership, not races, this may double or more the total cost of insurance borne by various race organizers. They have to conpensate their employees and principals, another inefficiency (at least vis-a-vis each USOF volunteer accepting personal inefficiency in exchange for that warm and fuzzy, which goes away when the board snubs you). So, more cash goes to places other than the woods. How is this made up? Higher race fees for you and me? More efficient operation by the FPNC's. Anyone could operate more efficiently than USOF, but to me, it is a "goodwill sponge", for lack of a better term, assuming USOF adds value in some way, as FPNC's don't have to bear the cost of maintaining the USOF community. Is this cost 0? We could find out by having every USOF volunteer resign and see if USOF is necessary at all. May not be, I dunno, but if it is, it is a goodwill sponge. Is the board thinking of these issues? I don't know. The board is not responding to my comments, which may be wrong, but are at least articulate and made in good faith. I'm no feet (foot?), but I'm not totally ignorant of the dismal science. Well, this is a dead horse in my life, outside the intellectual interest. I do feel the board should be brought to task the way this is being handled -- it seems like a big deal (there seem to be some potential gotchas here; incentives aren't aligned for one thing, and anyone who participated in that trainwreck Ukraine meet knows what I mean) -- but no request for comments on clubnet or AP, a proposal to be made, but no draft of the proposal circulated to USOF members for comment, etc. And speaking of feet and the dismal science (quoting) And why do you want to work at presumably below-market wages on a project like this?. I wouldn't. And if USOF wants to keep their head in the sand about the volunteer/labor crisis while moving ahead on this, go for it. At least feet's comments add some comfort that I'm not totally off my rocker for the way I attempt to think things through. Speaking of the dismal science, will the Fed show some backbone tomorrow? Part of me actually thinks so. The captain has lit the fasten seatbelts sign. I'll be bad, but its the right thing to do. Raise the damn thing by 25bps. Back to USOF. I know both my readers love it when I rant USOF, but I'm not sure if its because I'm a "USOF guy" or an "iconoclast" (god I love that word, now that I know it). The latest news is LROC's meet doesn't have the votes to get sanctioned, as of this writing, because of a NO vote without explanation, and Mikell's recusal. Wyoming ranks 4th on my list of US states raced in by count, so they can hold A meets, IMHO. I'm tempted to cover for Mikell's recusal, but alas I have a conflict of interest as I really want an excuse to go out there, so ethics says I can't do it. I'm sure it will get pushed thru eventually, but not in time for the board to do anything about the championship request at this meeting (tho I'm sure they'll do the 'ol punt to the ex committee; a rant for another day). Now, who's laying odds the board gets trail O champs done at this meeting? I'm not a cynic, I just play one in real life :) I wonder what a world based on common sense, transparency, efficiency, and free from proselytization would be like? We can only do so much to proselytize for such. | ||
| C • I read it too 3 | ||
Sunday Oct 28 | ||
| orienteering race 1:18:50 [3] 7.7 km (10:14 / km) | |
| green lane red
| ||
Friday Oct 26 | ||
| running (trail/XC) 56:45 [3] 10 km (5:40 / km) | |
| joy loop 2
| ||
Wednesday Oct 24 | ||
| running (trail/XC) 57:11 [3] 10 km (5:43 / km) | |
| joy loop 2
| ||
| C • French Creek maps 3 | ||
| running (track) 29:11 [2] 5 km (5:50 / km) | |
| TNT lite second training run around the track a few times in the rain
| ||
Tuesday Oct 23 | ||
| running (trail/XC) 1:01:59 [3] 10 km (6:12 / km) | |
| misery loop 1
| ||
Sunday Oct 21 | ||
| orienteering race 1:36:49 [3] 8.3 km (11:40 / km) | |
| elk neck red
| ||
Friday Oct 19 | ||
| running (trail/XC) 57:42 [3] 10 km (5:46 / km) | |
| joy loop 2
| ||
Thursday Oct 18 | ||
| running (trail/XC) 59:55 [3] 10 km (6:00 / km) | |
| misery loop 2
| ||
Wednesday Oct 17 | ||
| running (trail/XC) 57:26 [3] 10 km (5:45 / km) | |
| joy loop 2
| ||
| C • TNT? 2 | ||
| running (trail/XC) 23:18 [2] | |
| TNT light second training
| ||
Tuesday Oct 16 | ||
| running (trail/XC) 59:18 [3] 10 km (5:56 / km) | |
| misery loop 1
| ||
| aerobics 15:00 [3] | |
Sunday Oct 14 | ||
| orienteering race 42:27 [3] 4.85 km (8:45 / km) | |
| egelmans green
| ||
| orienteering race 12:45 [3] 1.63 km (7:49 / km) | |
| egelmans sprint
| ||
| C • "I wonder if that is normal at this stage?" 3 | ||
Friday Oct 12 | ||
| running (trail/XC) 55:36 [3] 10 km (5:34 / km) | |
| joy loop 2
| ||
Thursday Oct 11 | ||
| running (trail/XC) 1:00:57 [2] 10 km (6:06 / km) | |
| misery loop 1
Nice easy pace today; have not been feeling well. Also possibly saving for TNT, but the schedule seems to be in flux, and I am totally clueless what the upshot is. Was supposed to be loop 2 today but totally missed the turnoff and didn't realise it for another 10 minutes. Not much difference really. Missed the turnoff as I'm in space, having alot on my mind -- thinking of 2 disparate things. First, an article in the current issue of SFO Magazine is suggesting that the stock market is presently in a "mania", putting up graphs of tulip mania, south sea bubble, etc., along with a modern chart (and conviently mixing and matching logarithmatic and arithmatic scales, I might add). I'm not convinved, but not totally ruling it out of hand either. It must be pointed out that the author is a Robert Prechter disciple, who has been calling for calamity for over 20 years; even a broken clock is right twice a day. And I know Helicopter Ben will keep me safe. There's more to write about on this subject, but I'm confident the above is plenty blather enough, but interesting to contemplate in the now cool fall air. My thoughts are that we may be in a problem for systemic reasons, not necessarily fundamental or traditional reasons, but I'll leave it at that. The other is the ongoing decision as to whether or not to resign from sanctioning. I'm leaning that way, but am giving myself 'til the US champs to make the decision, so I can notify Clare in person if that is my decision. Forgetting all the previous hassles, the latest making its rounds is the suggestion of more hassles for sanctioning to support the "for profit non-chartered" entities that are coming down the pike and may request sanctioning to conduct and market races within USOF. Its not my idea of being a totally unpaid volunteer to take on more hassles so that someone else is enabled to make a buck, especially when the job is already thankless, hassle-rife, and with no upside. I continue to wrestle with the question of -- is this a rational or cynical position -- and continue to have doubts of the former by the fact that I seem to be the only one to find this untenable, or have at least voiced those concerns. OTOH, I've never been afraid to say "the emperor has no clothes" when perhaps others haven't been thinking about it as clearly as it may not be affecting them so much. Anyway, as it stands now, I'm inclined to refuse to take on more hassle to support "for-profit non-chartered" entities. and am more than willing to pass the torch on to someone who has no such reservations. Now, if USOF was willing to pay me a bit, sort of spread this profit around a bit, as it were, that would be a different kettle of fish. But, the latest proposed budget doesn't seem to indicate that USOF is thinking in that direction, at least in my case. I guess when it comes to capitalism, what comes around should go around. As my brother-in-law says -- "capitalism is a sucky system, but its the best one we've got". Thinking a bit more about volunteerism -- my idea is that it is sort of a community -- everyone helps out were needed, the community, in theory, thrives, and there are mutual benefits. Yeah, sanctioning is a sucky, train wreck of a hellacious job, but I'll do it because I can at least be transparent, efficient, ethical, and whatever the 4th tenet was, and somone like Gary Graght can deal with insurance, because he's really good at that, and so on. But, for some people to make money off the system, and for others to endure hassles for free simply doesn't seem to fit that model. And if someone argues (correctly, I suppose), well, that's capitalism, and we are providing services that fill a void and therefore deserve to be compensated, should the sanctioning chair make the same argument? Well, it depends if the market can replace the sanctioning chair with the same level of skill at the same or lower demanded wage (or accept inferior skill at inferior requested wage (or possibly, shudder to think, get superior skill at inferior wage :-) )). All great in theory, but something I simply don't want to think about or deal with (I mean, this is a hobby after all), and the first time I'm asked to verify the insurance carraige of one of these entites, for example, is when the rubber would hit the road. Best to be gone long before that happens. It amazes me that USOF wants to go down this road without even addressing the volunteer crisis in any way. Forgetting my blather, a quick glance of the incomplete list of page 11 of the latest ONA hilights what I'm getting at. Oh well, way more blather than I can bear. This will be for others to decide, and rational people to deal with it. And back to the market -- Reportedly, the decline is due to European inflation warnings made by Axel Weber, a European Central Bank Council (ECB) member. Weber stated that although the ECB has temporarily paused its rate hikes, in his opinion the ECB may need to raise rates to a "restrictive" level. Gee, that ought to be good for the greenback. Is Helicopter Ben reading the news? Cynical or rational, you decide :) | ||
| C • TNT 1 | ||
| C • What's blather to you could... 1 | ||
Wednesday Oct 10 | ||
| running (trail/XC) 57:41 [3] 10 km (5:46 / km) | |
| joy loop 2
| ||
Tuesday Oct 9 | ||
| running (trail/XC) 1:00:18 [3] 10 km (6:02 / km) | |
| misery loop 1
ok, I love the heat, but hazy hot and humid is starting to wear a bit thin as we run into mid october. I love the crisp fall air more. Will we have any this season? | ||
| C • cool air 2 | ||
Sunday Oct 7 | ||
| orienteering race 2:30:03 [3] 16.8 km (8:56 / km) | |
| susquehanna stumble long
5th place | ||
| C • your site 2 | ||
Friday Oct 5 | ||
| weights (up bod) 20:00 [3] | |
| running (trail/XC) 1:01:00 [3] 10 km (6:06 / km) | |
| joy loop 2+
| ||
Thursday Oct 4 | ||
| running (trail/XC) 53:53 [3] 10 km (5:23 / km) | |
| joy loop 2
| ||
| C • You should come to tnt, Hard Trainer. 1 | ||
Wednesday Oct 3 | ||
| weights (up bod) 20:00 [3] | |
| running (trail/XC) 59:59 [3] 10 km (6:00 / km) | |
| misery loop 1
| ||
Tuesday Oct 2 | ||
| running (trail/XC) 52:52 [3] 10 km (5:17 / km) | |
| joy loop 2
| ||
| aerobics 15:00 [3] | |
Monday Oct 1 | ||
| weights (up bod) 20:00 [3] | |