Training Log: Swampfox

Note

Easily my favorite video find in quite a while!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmcxIokfOiE&feature...

I can't remember when Axel Rose ever looked so buff. And to see him cut loose like that, it's almost like Guns N' Roses all over again. Mercy! It brings back memories of Dan S-H, who, if memory serves, was a pretty big GNR fan. I wonder whatever happened to Dan. For someone from Reno, he was a pretty decent orienteer.










(ett)

Note

For pre-dinner tonight, I had some sushi. I know some people might think: "What? Swampfox is eating sushi? In Laramie? Is the world ending?" But that's so unnecessary. I am not nearly as picky an eater as the rumor would have it. Plus, sushi is a fundamentally sound food for endurance athletes. You are what you eat, and many sushi dishes are made from some of the fastest swimming fishes there are.

I had some unagi as well as vegetarian yellowtail roll, with miso soup. Perfect! Very yum.

skiing 1:35:00 [3]

Winter strategized overnight a deployed Fog today. Since by gentleman's agreement fog use is normally restricted to work week use, Spring was caught unawares by this stealth maneuver and by the time Spring realized what Winter had done, it was too late. As a result, Spring conserved forces and called up Sun on the iPhone and told Sun to not even bother to show up for work today. Thus it was overcast in the valley all day and pea soup fog up top on the Laramie Range with consequent heavy riming of all the trees, telephone wires, and slow moving snowshoers.

Victory to Winter today.

Last third of ski was with Ted and Ed.

run 1:26:00 [2]

Footing was a little better today as the snow was a little more consolidated as a result of some additional showshoe use. Saw another crossbill high up in a pine tree.

Note

Something swampfox will be happy for: getting back an extra hour of daylight, starting tomorrow! Yowsa! So fine! Little up little down, but in this case, all up.

Just in time for Spring Break. Somewhere, in some alternate parallel possibility, the hip people don't say Spring Break. Instead, they say Tiomila. But I will stick with Spring Break in this reality. Yeah.

biking 1:42:00 [3]

Not totally brilliant out, but nice enough to go out in biking shorts, for the first time in 2010. Out past the airport to Herrick Lane--tur och retur. Wind directions were such that it was a little cooler coming back than going out, but then Laramie is such a cool place anyway, if you know what I mean.

I don't know, but but there might be a trifecta coming on today!

skiing 1:11:00 [2]

run 1:08:00 [3]

Note

"I try to get up every day."

-- Jimi Hendrix, commenting on his discipline

Jimi was one hard training cat. He didn't acquire his skills by accident. How about you?

C • Discipline 4

biking 1:15:00 [3]

Winter deployed a north wind (mild by local standards) which swept out of Casper and across the vast snow clad prairie in between--a solid move. Near-Spring cajoled Sun to come out with various flatteries and subtle blandishments. Sun responded and beamed like a proper sun should. It was a fair fight and Near-Spring won by ruling.

Biker relaxed briefly afterwards with tea (Earl Grey) and crumpets.

skiing 1:21:00 [3]

run 1:10:00 [2]

Tough going on the snowshoe trails, with many places waiting to lure a postholing, what with all the recent snow. But still beats running on roads!

Note

The big storm that hit here last Friday had been cast out of a weather forecast that had called for a relatively minor snow at best. And the snow that started yesterday and continued into the night had also been predicted to be "a mere nothing". When I woke up this morning and saw the "mere nothing" was still howling away with snow everywhere, I began mentally preparing for the possibility I might have to intervene, something in the manner of Jimi Hendrix who used to point out that if you really wanted something done, sometimes you just had to do it yourself. He knew that if he didn't write "Purple Haze", "Purple Haze" wasn't going to write itself, and that nobody else was going to write it either.

The morning intensified and the blizzard lengthened and the overall desperateness got to the point where, halfway through some coffee, I realized I was going to have to take some action. I grabbed my stratocaster, pointed it at the sky, and said: "Let it be near-Spring!"

The skeptics and non-believers may scoff if they choose, but screw them. After a few minutes, the snow stopped. That's right, I'm telling you it stopped! Stopped! It was gone! Truckers on I-80 got out of their rigs (they had been stuck in the blizzard, some in the middle of a big detour away from I-70) and started cheering!! WYDOT personnel put an extra measure of swagger in their snowplowing!!! It was sweet, it was so fine, it was like the melody that would have been written if the Beatles had stayed together for one more album.

And now, an hour later? The winds have calmed, the sun is out, and it's pretty much back to regular near-Spring. There are probably partially clad cowgirls fixin' to catch some sun over in Prexy's Pasture this very moment. Mercy!

(Disclaimer: I'm not saying there might not be a few snowflakes in the air. If there are a few snowflakes still in the air, they are big and fluffy, and only serve to amplify and enhance the overall look and feel of near-Spring.)

skiing 2:16:00 [3]

Much new snow from last night and this morning, and even with the sun out this afternoon, it was total winter with no trace of spring conditions--really, really good skiing!

biking 33:00 [3]

skiing 2:11:00 [3]

Winter (slight return.)

Note

Important update to HonCan status: if I have figured my 2009 federal taxes correctly (which is a virtual impossibility given the complexity of the tax code? so who knows), I will have paid substantially more to Canada in income taxes for the year than I will have to the US of A. Crazy. If the Canadian government would like to mail me a quart of delicious maple syrup as a nod of appreciation, I would be happy to use it on some waffles. I'm not gonna hold my breath.

C • a quart of delicious maple syrup 3

run 49:00 [2]

Note

Knowing how much mapboy might be into things like this, I'm wondering if he has read this article, and if he can relate:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/magazine/07Teach...

Perhaps there are others here, too, with interests relatively well aligned with that of mapboy.

The short video clips that accompany the article are also fascinating and well worth viewing.

C • how to teach 5

C • Thanks for the link. I woul... 2

biking 25:00 [3]

skiing 1:02:00 [2]

run 1:13:00 [3]