Training Log Archive: Spike

An easy run on West Campus. Running for 45 minutes but with a long break in the middle. As I was running by Pioneer Cemetery I started chatting with a woman who was going to visit her husband's grave. Without really meaning to, I ended up chatting with her for quite a while. She showed me the grave and flowers she'd brought, talked about her husband's life, talked about his book (he was a prof at KU), and all sorts of things. It was sort of odd, but mostly just a nice chat.

1

Mowed the lawn and did some yard work to fill up the yard waste cart.

It was my night to make dinner. So we had hotdogs and watched baseball from Taiwan. I hadn't realized how much I missed watching an inning or two of baseball. The TV coverage from Taiwan is a good substitute for watching Royals games.

C • Taiwan ball 5

I went for a jog on West Campus and it felt good. Not just good to have done or ok or anything, but actually good. How nice!

1

MTB on pavement and gravel. I wandered around a bit on roads. The roads are better than the bike paths these days. Lots of people are out on the bike paths, but hardly anyone is driving on the roads. My legs felt ok, but I was getting tired at the end.

I did two short sprinty MTBO courses. The first was on the Water Tower Park map and the second was the short course at 4 Parks (an UsynligO course Mary set up).

UsynligO worked perfectly today. No strange beeps. No arrive-at-control-location-but-no-beep.

2

Easy jogging...err, slow jogging, it didn't feel easy. To/from the start of the UsynligO course plus a bit extra.

I jogged around a little sprint course with a bunch of controls. Fun.

I heard a new sound from the UsynligO app. It turns out there's a special sound when you pass a control that is on your course, but not the control you are looking for. I didn't know the app did that. I recognized a new sound but didn't realize what it meant.

You can check out leg 4-5 here:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B_ax0PfgVsI/?utm_sourc...

3

C • not the control you're looking for 1

I shuffled around in the light rain on West Campus. Felt slow (and I was slow). Nice to get out.

Work is stranger than usual. Not necessarily bad, but just odd.

1

I probably should have gone for a run. But I didn't. A bit of time on the roads and levee on my MTB was a good alternative.

Longish day with back-to-back meetings. I don't know how people like Mary handle having lots of meetings. I had 3 today. That's draining.

1

UsynligO on Norwegian TV news (the 8th segment):

https://tv.nrk.no/serie/distriktsnyheter-vestlands...

Norwegian sounds so fun!

Mary wanted to do the PTOC UsynligO course at Northwood Trails. So we did.

The area is a normal suburban housing area that borders part of a stream way park. Lots of "private" sidewalks go behind the houses (almost like alleys) making it more interesting area. You feel like your are running through people's yards a bit (and meet lots of barking dogs).

The area is fairly hilly, too. The sidewalks add lots of route choice options. I don't think we could get permission to have a regular race there, but for some training it seemed ok to use the private sidewalks.

The map started with lidar contours and Open Street Map data I sent to Shifman when he moved. He lives on the map (and he set the course). I think Fema (sp?) did most of the mapping by looking at air photos. The map is ok, but some field checking would help. I had a bit of trouble reading the map - probably a mix of old eyes and our ink jet printer being low on ink (also not using very good paper).

I took a few walking breaks on some of the uphills. I also wasn't sharp - more of a jog with a map than actually orienteering.

I used the UsynligO app. But I think I had the gps accuracy setting so short that it was hard to get a quick reaction when you reached the control location. After the 5th control, I switched the app to "Score O" mode so that I woudn't worry about the app. I think it registered all but one control.

2

C • Good to know 2

Short jog on West Campus. Nice to move around, I guess.

I also mowed the lawn later in the day.

1

Mary's mom died last night. She'd been in hospice the last week or so. We knew it was coming, but it is still really difficult. I will miss her. She liked to describe me as her "favorite son-in-law" and that was always good to hear.

Here's a snapshot from when we last visited Patricia:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B_LbostggRG/?utm_sourc...

I rolled around on my bike - kind of wandering, taking it easy, mind wandering, too. I went out to Clinton Lake and rolled around in the state partk.

On the way home I was going up a hill on Clinton Parkway. I had a headwind, too (from the east - unusual). As I huffed and puffed up the hill, my watch buzzed and I saw "that's pants." It was perfect. If it had come two minutes later, I'd have been over the top of the hill and rolling easily downhill.

1

On my way toward West Campus I saw Mary coming home. I knew she'd done some sort of orienteering, so I got the map from her.

The course was a summer sprint we had almost 10 years ago. I jogged through the course. It was a lot of fun and made the time pass quickly. My mind was working pretty well, so that was a nice bonus.

2

I knew this would happen, and I'm glad they made the decision, but still a bit sad...

The South American Orienteering Championships 2020, scheduled to be held in Brazil at the end of October have been cancelled and moved to October 28-30, 2022 with the same concept and organisers.

C • That's pants. 11

Rolling around on roads on my MTB. Nice to get out. Nice weather - upper 40s and sun, low wind.

1

I shuffled around on West Campus. I saw Mary and jogged over to meet her and jog home with her. But she still had some running to do and I decided to just head home. That would give me time to make dinner before a Skype dinner with Summer, Silas and Owen.

But then I got lazy and started cooking late. So the dinner with Summer, Silas and Owen will be while I'm making dinner. That's pants.

1

C • Hahahaha 3

A song about running the trails at Clinton Lake:

https://youtu.be/oehI2AJxh20

Rolled around on my MTB on the roads. The roads are so empty. It is quite nice.

I rolled by Mom's house and saw Ron and Mom working on the fence. I stopped briefly.

When I got home, I loaded up a cart of yard waste for tomorrow's pick up.

1

Short jog on West Campus. Chilly. Might get some snow tomorrow night.

1

Lousy sleep last night. Feeling out of it all day. Still, I got myself out the door and shuffled around to enjoy some time outside.

Temp in the low 40sF, steady north wind, and a mix or rain and drizzle. A big change from mid 70sF yesterday. I prefer cool weather, so that was nice.

1

C • 40's and drizzle 2

MTB on pavement. I biked to/from Burcham Park and a bit extra.

I did Mary's long sprint O' course on the 4 Parks map. I did it as MTBO and used the UsynligO app.

When I finished in 19:28, I looked at the app and it said I hadn't yet found 17. I went back and did 17-18-19-Finish again. With the new finish 22:49.

When I got home I compared my GPS track from the app and from my watch. My watch showed me getting the control but the GPS track in my phone shows me short of the control. When I went to 17 the first time, I didn't hear the little music that UsynligO plays. I figured the phone's GPS must be off and just went on.

I'm not sure of the best way to carry my phone to get the best GPS track. I had it in a little waist pack and the phone on the back. When I compare my phone and watch, the track from my watch is better. I could probably get some sort of phone mount for my bike. Or I could just not worry about it.

2

I shuffled around on West Campus. Ho hum.

After running I mowed the lawn.

1

C • New activity 2

I rode my bike for a while. It was windy. Fun.

At about 2 pm the temp was 89F. That's not good. The wind brought some cooler temps and it should be more normal tomorrow.

I did a little yard work when I got home. The yard waste cart is full and waiting for pick up tomorrow.

1

Hot. Hot. Yuck. 82F when I got home.

I shuffled around on West Campus. I was on the small trails some of the time. I picked up a tick. Yuck.

When I got home I did a little yard work.

1

C • Got home? 2

When I was running I thought it looked a little hazy. I guess it is smoke from burning in the flint hills. I looked at a map with "PM 2.5" and it shows a blob centered on the Flint Hills.

Airnow.gov shows Topeka as:

Ozone 179 Unhealthy
Particles (PM10) 64 Moderate
Particles (PM2.5) 163 Unhealthy

And the map shows the bad air centered on the Flint Hills.

Unhealthy means, "Everyone may begin to experience health effects; members of sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects." Two levels are above unhealthy - very unhealthy and hazardous.

My legs felt a little tired this morning. I think that's from the hills and stairs I ran up yesterday.

I rode the bike path over to Baker Wetlands. Cloudy and gray, but warm.

1

I spent some time playing around with satellite data to see if I could identify areas with heavy bush honeysuckle growth. And I think I can. I'm not sure if that is useful.

Notes for future experimentation:

I seem to have best luck with Sentinel 2 L2A data.

False color based on bands 8, 4 and 3 seems promising.

See: https://custom-scripts.sentinel-hub.com/sentinel-2...

The urban false color images seem to do a better job of distinguishing between cedars and bush honeysuckle.

See: https://eos.com/false-color/

I've been looking at a time span of 3/20-3/30. I should check which time span works best. The key will be picking the right period of time when the bush honeysuckle is heavily leafed out but other vegetation isn't. Also it takes getting some luck with the clouds

On the old MTB from home to Spooner Hall to Lindley Hall to home (plus a few little bits thrown in).

I did four very short courses on the Spooner Hall map and then I did an old Geography Awareness Week course from Lindley Hall. The Spooner Hall map is a lot of fun. It is a bit hilly, too.

You can see a few terrain photos and images of the maps (and an old Jayhawk stomping on the map) here:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-nIJCEAA9Q/?utm_sourc...


2

Jogging on West Campus. A lot of the time I was running back and forth on the little trail in the woods.

I listened to a podcast. I usually listen to podcasts on my commute. But since I'm working at home, I haven't done that. I've listened to podcasts occasionally on runs (maybe 1-2 times a year). I listened to an interview with Marten Bostrom. It was interesting.

1

Event: Flying Pig XXIV / 2020 USA Nationals - POSTPONED
 

Easy jog.

The weather changed. Yesterday I biked in shorts and short sleeved shirt. Today we had freezing rain.

Ordered my take out pizza from the Big Mill. Gave them a good tip. Hoping they survive. I'm going to pick up my pizza right now.

1

Biked over to the river trail and did a little bit of single track. It felt great to get out. I'd planned to run but decided a bike ride would feel more interesting.

Lots of people on the levee. Getting to/from the trail was nice - very few cars outside.

Bike past the Big Mill on the way home. I'm thinking a take out pizza for dinner tomorrow night might be called for.

1

Easy ride with Mary on the bike path. Nice.

I did some yard work when I got home. Not much, just filled the yard waste cart for tomorrow's pick up.

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