Training Log: Spike

Pre-breakfast jog on west campus. Temp was 78F at 6:30 a.m. but there was a little bit of a breeze and it felt pretty comfortable in the shade.

I saw a couple of interesting birds - an Orchard Oriole and several Scissor Tailed Flycatchers. We're at the north edge of the normal areas you see the Scissor Tailed Flycatchers.

Today is the last day of my between-jobs week. It sure has gone quickly.

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Easy jog on west campus before breakfast. Yesterday's morning run felt fine, but today felt like a chore. Still, I'm glad I got some running. We're in a "heat advisory" so anything outdoors is a chore. Might try to do some easy MTB riding in the late afternoon.

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MTB on the river trails. As I pulled into the parking lot the radio announcer said that the temp was 100F at the Lawrence airport. But on a bike, taking it fairly easily, and in the shade on the trails it wasn't too bad.

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I shuffled around on west campus before breakfast (and while the temps were still reasonable).

An interesting editorial today:

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2017/jul/19/editorial...

I wish they'd recognize the $900,000/year in on-going savings that came out of the performance audit of solid waste.

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C • Letter to the editor? 4

Hot out there when I biked at Clinton. I haven't been on the MTB trails out there in a long time. I was on the blue trail from the trail head to the stream crossing, then turned around and rode back to Lake Henry, then took roads back to the car. At the turn around I spotted a Belted Kingfisher, so that was pretty nice.

The blue trail is a bit technical, with roots and rocks. There are a few spots where I got off the bike. There were a couple of times when I got a bit out of control, but not so bad that I crashed.

I had lunch with Pam at Free State. That was nice. I know they were glad to see her. Pam and Dad used to eat there every Friday (if they were in town). Pam hadn't been back since Dad died. Alex was glad to see her. FSB is also the last place where I talked with Dad. We had lunch there a couple of weeks before he died.

Also, I got the car registered. I didn't realize that a sale within the family requires no sales tax. That was a very pleasant surprise (and another form, "affidavit of relationship," to complete).

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I guess today is a bit like what it would be to be retired. Though I probably spent more $ than I will when I'm retired.

I started the day with breakfast with the state auditor. Always fun to chat with him. I also grabbed an espresso at La Prima Tazza and took a look at the Norwegiann "Veiledning til o-tekniske tester oh evaluating på klubbnivå."

Next, I hit the river trails on the MTB. I was a bit surprised how many cars were at the trail head at 9:30 on a weekday morning. The excitement of the morning was that a high school kid training for the upcoming cross country season was lost on the trail. He'd started running at 7 a.m. and wasn't yet back. A few folks were out looking for him. I spotted him on the trail heading back after I'd biked about 1.5 miles out the trail. I checked to make sure he was ok and I had the impressing he was fine, but tired of everyone asking if he was the lost runner and if he knew the way back. I'm not sure how you get lost on the river trail...

Biking felt pretty good. It helped to be out before it was super hot and that the trail is in the shade of the forest. I think the heat advisory started around noon and will run through the rest of the week.

After lunch, I took some steps to register the old man car. I discovered I need another form signed by Pam - "affidavit of relationship." That form means there's no sales tax, so it is pretty important and will save a load of cash.

I also watched a bit of the RedbullTV coverage of the MTB world cup in Andora, did some final sewing on the latest O' pants, watched Maja Alm run the 3000m on the track, and updated AP.

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A post shared by @okansas on Jul 18, 2017 at 7:21am PDT

C • getting old 3

Short and slow run on the trails at Clinton.

I start my new job a week from today, so I'm enjoying a week off. Spent the morning do some lidar-for-basemaps instructions for local mappers (Gene, Dick, Paul and Reta). I think it went ok, but I learned a few things that will make it go smoother if we do it again. We had lunch at the 23rd Street Brewery.

After lunch, I worked on a new pair of O' pants and nearly finished them. We've got some lighter weight supplex. It is a good weight for O' pants. But, the white is very thin. It reminds me of the older see-through O' pants that the Finnish team used to wear.

Also, the paper finally reported my job change. The article went online earlier today and about 5:30 I had a call with the reporter who is writing the story. I guess they'll update it for the web and have a fuller story in print.

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Jogged around on the trails at Clinton before it got too hot. I cut the run a bit short because my legs didn't want to run and I figured I could get home in time to watch the last hour+ of the Tour De France.

I saw Kara and Matt on the trail, but didn't chat with them other than saying "hey."

I'll probably get out on the river trails on the MTB later today. I need more training minutes to get Cristina-bot quiet.

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MTB on the river trails. It was hot out, but not too terrible in the shade.

Near the end I stopped and chatted with a guy who was wearing rubber boots, gloves and a long sleeved black jacket. It turns out he was a grad student from Iowa State working on a project for his doctoral dissertation. He was collecting data on snails. He showed me how he collected the data on a phone (so he'd have photos with GPS coordinates). He was also taking soil samples. He showed me a "tiger snail" that he was looking at.

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PTOC sprint at Bonner Park.

I boomed 8. I was a little unsure as I got near the control and must have been looking at the map when I should have glanced around. If I'd looked up, I think I'd have spotted the marker.

I warmed up on the way to the first control. I should have done a 10 minute jog. Not because I needed it. But when I checked my email and Cristina-bot was hassling me about being 23 minutes behind and it'd be nice to be logging another 10 minutes.

A nice bonus...Reta brought fresh picked cucumbers from her garden. They should be perfect for the gazpacho I'm about to make.

I drove the old man car. It is nice, especially for cruising along on the highway.

http://sprintseries.org/doma/show_map.php?user=spi...

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C • Old man car 2