Training Log Archive: cedarcreek

At the gym

Cooldown on the treadmill.

Really tired afterwards---I was shaky and sorta weak for the rest of the night.

I need to do more of these longer gym workouts.

(And I really need to get my bike rideable. I so want to go riding.)

Event: WPOC Keystone Capers A-event
 

Event: OCIN / FAST-O Armco Park
 

I broke 10 minutes per K!!!!! (Using the straight line distance, I'm 9:55/km!)

I haven't done that in a *long time*!

Armco Park Fast-O, set by Stryder.

Really fun courses. I had looked at them beforehand (for Steve), and they looked pretty easy, but still fun. I noticed that the map was probably not as easy as it looked---It wasn't clear from the map exactly what I should be seeing. The long course, Short, was more difficult than I expected---Someone at the start mentioned oxygen debt clouding his thinking (I can't remember who---sorry!) on the long leg, and my experience was similar.

I just eyeballed the first leg, and---check my GPS track---it took me almost 100m to get pointed exactly at the control. I was trying to run as much as possible, and I was really sucking air. (Way harder than my normal gym workout---I need to find my HRM chest strap!). I kept not taking the legs seriously until I finally got fed up and started really being clean out of controls. I still got drawn in by 9-10, where I took the road for a few steps before I turned back and went around the vegetation.

I really tried on the last split, but I was slow at either end, wasting at least a full second getting my shaking hand lined up with the Go and the Finish. I had 12, but there were a bunch of 10s and one 9.)

The first course took a lot out of me (still not feeling great), so I skipped the "Shorter" course.

OCIN Armco Park - Short - Splits

A little longer gym session than normal. Stopped several times---didn't feel well.

Event: Salpa-Jukola 2011
 

Check out the little blue globe in my Tuesday log.

Attackpoint took the splits and figured out where the controls were using the time stamps from my GPS track. ken is amazing.

Event: OCIN FAST-O - Miami Middletown
 

Miami University Middletown, set by David Waller.

Very fun "alleged" sprint. More like a sprint middle. Too long, too green, too much climb---but really, really, really fun.

I wore shorts, having forgot to bring long pants, and ran through a whole bunch of fresh poison ivy. Had some tingling by the end, but went to a restroom and soaped up my legs and arms and washed it off with water. No ill effects to date. I also sprayed my legs beforehand with DEET, which I'm thinking helps prevent the ivy from soaking into my skin. (Completely a wild-ass guess.)

C • You're right 4

Advanced - Splits

Stationary bike. It's a beautiful day. And I go to the gym.

Session cut short---also did a quick cool down but I won't log it.

I have got to start logging my workouts. Not that I've done many.

2 movies to mention:

Bill Cunningham New York (1)
The Big Uneasy (1)

I saw these a few hours apart 3 or 4 weekends ago. What struck me about these two documentaries is that they are, at their heart, about ethics and professional responsibility.

I have been a fan of Bill Cunningham since the 80s (I don't follow his columns very often, though, and I didn't know he was the photographer of the stuff I remember from the 80s until I saw this movie), and I would not have ever guessed the ethical and journalistic principles he holds. He is an eccentric for sure, but I'm amazed by his principles---He sets a high bar.

The Big Uneasy is about the levee failures in New Orleans during Katrina, and about how the investigations of those failures and even the preparations for the future were compromised by the Army Corps of Engineers. It is a damning indictment of the command structure of the Corps and its misuse by Congress. Here is a case where the Federal Government (most specifically Congress) didn't care what the elected officials and people of Louisiana wanted, and certainly didn't care to talk about the best paths forward. The cover-up of the engineering investigation is a national and ethical disgrace. For me the biggest head-shaker was the work product of Dutch levee system designers who proposed what appear to be solid, workable, beautiful, and safe conceptual designs ***after 3 days of work on-site in New Orleans***. Whenever you hear the acronym "Mr. Go", (Mississippi River Gulf Outlet) you should think "Engineering and Ecological Disaster". The biggest "Shock and Awe" moment was the conclusion of the "engineering second opinion" that the US Office of Special Council requested to confirm or discredit Maria Garzino's whistle blowing report. It gave me hope. Definitely see this movie.

2 links:
Dutch Dialogues 3---Outfall Canals Group: The movie covered these briefly. After I saw the movie I found these images, and I saw solutions to technical questions that were nagging at me. I'm not a civil engineer, but when I assess something technical, I try to think of questions I want to see answered. These images answered a lot of my questions. (I do have one nagging question that these images beg, but I'm keeping it to myself for now.)

Professor Raymond Seed's "Soul of the Profession" Letter (pdf) plays a big role in the movie. It was a little hard to find, so I'm posting a link. It's a long letter---42 pages---and it's kinda technical with a fair bit of insider politics within the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). But it is basically the letter you hope you'd be able to write if you saw things happening that threaten the soul of your profession. If you read nothing else, scroll to the last page and read the PPS (the second postscript). Crazy stuff.