Training Log Archive: Swampfox

Large plumes of smoke were streaming out of the Silver Creek fire to the SW and the Ryan Fire to the west most of the day. Luckily one plume was passing well to the south of town while the other was far enough north by several miles so that there was no noticeable smoke in town. The wind was up and with just a slight shift in direction, it would have been bad with smoke.

Quite pleasantly warm out, and perfect for biking and running--both of which I sampled.

No question about which was the better team in the game yesterday--Wyoming was never in it. The next two games look like they could result in losses, especially the game next weekend at Hawaii. Lose both of them, and that could be good enough to sneak into the Bottom 25. And right now the offense is sputtering and the defense--which received a lot of preseason hype as being one of the best in the country--is looking very ordinary.

It's bizarre to think that this early in the season--just 4 games in--Kansas's destiny is already out of its control, and in order to have any chance at finishing even within the uppermost register of the Bottom 10, it will require other teams to snatch some victories from the jaws of defeat. For instance, unless an 0-3 Nebraska veers off track and picks up several wins, there will be no possibility of getting past even them, and you gotta know that if a Nebraska is even more bottomly than you are, then it's not going to work out, no way, Jose'.

C • Kansas 2

Biked in the mid-day, and it was quite nice out--sunny with some scattered clouds, maybe some patches of smoke here and there off in the distance, light breeze, and all warmed back up from yesterday. I rolled into my driveway at around 3 pm, and literally just a few minutes later enough smoke rolled in to completely obscure the sun and the west side of the valley. Wyoming was playing Boise State here with the game to start at 5, and it sounded like it was touch and go as to whether the game would start on time because of air quality (I had no idea they even looked at such things.)

By game time, I was up in the hills and warming up for some O' at Diamond Bay. It was pretty smoky as I was driving in and warming up, and for the first 10 minutes or so of the course I was running. It gradually got better from there, and by the time I was done the air was mostly clear again. Even so, it felt like I was running in pre-dusk most of the time, and at dusk by the end. Though by the end, it was truly approaching dusk, so was okay enough. I didn't have a good view of sunset from what I was, but it must have been spectacular.

Even by mid-afternoon it hadn't warmed up much despite full sun--just barely out of the 40s, with a cool breeze out of the south making biking feel extra brisk. Heavy fog developed overnight and the valley was still rimmed by very dense fog to the south and along portions of the Laramie Range. The warm half of the year is nearly done--though saying there is a warm half of the year here is a stretch. It's really more like a 5/12ths warm part of the year, even with a warming climate.

The Ryan Fire has become active again, with a big smoke plume stretching to the SE most of the day, and well south of the valley so no local impact.

Ran trails around Crow Creek late in the day--quite raw and chill in fog and light mist. Because of the fog, I drove out slowly, and a good thing I did: on the frontage road, I *barely* missed colliding with an antelope that was standing in the road. It slipped as it was trying to get off the road, and I was headed downhill where it took longer to brake to a stop. Going 30 mph vs. 50 mph was all the difference.

Big change in the weather--maybe we had frost last night, and maybe we didn't, and either way it doesn't feel like summer anymore. Even with full sun, by early afternoon it was only barely in the lower 50s, and a nice reprieve from what had been up until now a mostly very warm September.

While biking, noticed the large "Vote" banner was hung at City Hall, so I stopped in and fulfilled my civic duty. 6 weeks until the midterms...

Quite cool out, but I managed biking in a t-shirt. Switched to a long sleeved shirt for running later on, and ended up rolling up the sleeves almost at once. Ran intervals, 8 x 5 min, doing my best not to aggravate my heel, which mainly meant trying to put my foot down in the flattest places and not pushing off too hard with my toes.

While warming up, I ran into a herd of 22 elk, consisting of one bull and 21 of everything else.