Training Log Archive: cedarcreek

1030pm run around the neighborhood. Katie had a side stitch or something, so there was a lot of walking in the last half.

I finished a book called "The Pentagon Wars" today. The subtitle is "Reformers Challenge the Old Guard." There was a movie made from this book that starred Cary Elwes and Kelsey Grammer. It was a comedy that made fun of the acquisition of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, specifically, the live fire testing of the BFV. The Army leaders didn't want to compromise the program or highlight the problems with the vehicle by doing realistic live fire testing. They lied, abused their power, and basically put the program and the payments to the contractor ahead of the safety of the people who would eventually be riding in the vehicle while under hostile fire. The author fought, at great risk to his career, to have the vehicle tested properly so it could be improved. As I said, the movie is a comedy, and the humor is biting satire. You laugh, but you're also thinking that there is deep truth being exposed. The book is not satirical. It's the story of how the author and some fellow "reformers" tried to change the system. I really liked the book. It says a lot about how difficult it can be to act ethically in a big organization. It also made me desperately want to read a book called "A Discourse on Winning and Losing" by Colonel John Boyd, USAF (Ret). It's called the Green Book in the USMC, and it's said to be the briefing charts of a 13-hour briefing by the Colonel. It is said to be not about just warfighting, but conflict in all forms.

Quick 10pm run with Katie. A bit of walking---less than the last few runs.

It was a little cold and it was bothering my throat. I might be coming down with something.

I've been trying to remember songs that make me run faster. I found a strange one tonight---Sigue Sigue Sputnik, "21st Century Boy". It has a lot of tempo disruptions, but it worked. Go figure.

I had time last Friday to see a movie, but only a 10pm showing that would let me be somewhere at midnight. So I picked...

Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (1) The reviews were mixed---only 57% good. My favorite critic quote is, "It's as if the filmmakers were doing something that impaired their concentration and made them lose focus on something they started. " I liked this a lot more than the first one. This sequel is very much dirtier and very politically incorrect. At first it seems like a series of funny gags connected by the thinnest story, which is the kind of movie I cannot tolerate, but then it actually starts connecting the threads and repeating jokes, and it actually started earning my respect as a cool story, so I just decided to go with the toilet humor and enjoy the movie. NPH is hilarious. There are some stereotype jokes that are very uncomfortable to watch, but so funny. The bad guy is a standout---he totally sells it. (Make sure you wait until the end of the credits. It's only a few seconds long, but it's worth it.)

C • SSS 3

Event: Tiomila 2008
 

Basically the same run as last night, again with Katie. A lot of walking. Katie and I stopped by a running store today (Mojo), and talked with the sales person about shoes for her. Katie has been having some problems with her biomechanics (knees and arches mostly). And my Brooks are so old the glue is failing. (I should not admit this, but they're between 10 and 14 years old, but they were lightly used for most of that.) So---I suspect new shoes are in our future...

I did the last 200m almost as fast as I could. I didn't know I could go that fast. (Although it wasn't *that* fast.)

Another quick run around the neighborhood with Katie.

I am reading a book called "Airborne" by William F. Buckley, Jr. It's about sailing across the Atlantic. I bought it a few years ago because of some random recommendations, and I never cracked it open. But since WFB died recently, I found it, dusted it off, and started reading. I didn't know what to expect, so I wasn't really expecting a lot. But the more I read, the more I get into it. I'm about halfway through it, and it just keeps getting more interesting. I will say, though, that I have completely neglected looking up some words that I probably should have looked up. I'm really looking forward to the next chapter, which is supposed to be a very simple introduction to celestial navigation. Very cool.

Short run around the hood with Katie. Had a five dollar foot long at Subway a couple hours ago, and my stomach was really struggling with the run. Oh well.

I had a really busy weekend with no movies, no TV, no awesome food, but I got a lot done.

Event: US Middle Distance and Relay Champs
 

Event: 30th Annual Billygoat Run
 

Event: MVOC-Hills & Dales sprints
 

Butterfly Sprint at Hills and Dales Metropark, Kettering, OH (MVOC).

I drove up primarily to help out with any SportIdent problems, and spent about 10 minutes total diagnosing a problem they might have fixed anyway. I say primarily because I'm in the doghouse because of all the time I spent on the Flying Pig, and I used working on my car as an excuse to go to this event.

I hope I get some sprint points. I'm slacking on my sprint attendance.

I was in a real hurry, so I only had time to run one. Gabe (daedalus) recommended the Butterfly sprint, so that's the one I ran. It was one of the shorter sprints I've run, and it was very fun. Gabe really made good use of a small area. I'd love to see the map edited to make it look more ISSOM-like (and I even offered to do it).

The Counterfeiters (1) Die Fälscher, 2007. German with English subtitles.

My last tank was a little over 47mpg---the best I've gotten with this car. I was driving extra slowly on Sunday and Monday, and this probably reflects that. But w00t! anyway.

Event: German Ridge Ramble
 

Ran to the rec center with Katie. First real run in a long time. It's weird that my leg muscles are okay (from the walking up hills out at East Fork), but my aerobic fitness is in the toilet. I was sucking air so bad.

I did fartlek hill intervals on the way up the big hill. Again, the legs are strong, but the lungs aren't.

This is my first actual training in a long time. It's one month to the US ARDF Champs, so I really need to buckle down.

I am tired. I was a pack mule most of the afternoon, carrying 6 and then 7 gallons for well over a mile (mostly on flat)---That's 48 and 56 pounds, respectively. I admit to being a backpacking wimp. Then a shorter bit (750m?) with 4 gallons.

I lot of planting stands and programming SI gear.

The unknown that got me was that I had to buy the water (7 cases of 6 gallons each), sports drink, and snacks (cookies and pretzels) myself. I've spent about 5 hours since Friday shopping unexpectedly---Costco didn't have water in gallons---Wal-Mart 1 was out of the cheap stuff, so I had to buy their 2 remaining cases of "Nursery Water, fortified with fluoride"---Meijer's didn't have any in cases---and finally, at Wal-mart 2, I had to wait 25 minutes while they found and carted out 5 cases. In the past, that was taken care of. (I'm not complaining, because other people in the club have done a lot more than I have.)

The last few hours was with a headlamp. I'm recharging the batteries now for some early morning Night-O to do a short loop we didn't place SI boxes on, plus some of the white course.

Up in 3 hours.

Event: Flying Pig XII
 

Way too much going on. I'll be carrying a lot of water into the woods today and Saturday in preparation for the Sunday ultralong.

Wednesday I spent about 12 hours making battery packs for all our old SI units. I thought it would take 4 or 6 hours, and it was a lot slow than I expected---12 hours.

Thursday we spent 3 hours reassembling the SI control boxes with the new batteries, but we didn't get done. I've got maybe 30 more to do today.

The big goal today is to finish putting the advanced stands in the woods and to carry about half the water to the remote water controls.

I've to either find someone to program controls for me, or I've got to do it myself. Then a pass of all the controls tomorrow to place the SI, and the remaining water.

I've also got to be in Oxford immediately after the first sprint to get the stands, flags, and SI gear, which I am reusing for white and yellow controls Sunday. Oxford to the Sunday event site is about 80 minutes driving, so...there are a lot of logistical issues. I might be using a headlamp Saturday to finish. I don't think it will come to that.