Training Log Archive: cedarcreek

One-hill route with a loop of the rec center. First time I've done this route in months.

It was a hard night for me. I had to walk downhill early in the run, and it was hard to push the pace because I couldn't let my heart rate get as high as it normally does. Normally, I can top out at 170 without any real problem. Tonight, I couldn't really get it above 150 until the last 1/3 of the run. I'm thinking it was because I ate a big dinner an hour before the run.

Some recent movies:

Step Brothers (1): Stupid, uncomfortable, and silly. I started out thinking, "These guys make too many movies," and ended the movie thinking I was perhaps seeing some brilliant comedians pushing the envelope to entertain themselves. It's about the only reason I could think of that they made this movie rated R. If you see this and give it a (0), I'll claim that I warned you, and you went anyway.

The Visitor (1): Wow. Pretty scary look at post-9-11 America, but almost a joy to watch. I keep telling myself the pendulum is starting to swing back towards normalcy, but it ain't there yet. Very interesting musically. I might have to research the CD that was given as a gift in this...

Hot Fuzz (1): This was my second viewing. Interestingly, it seemed less annoying this time. The first time through, I had the impression that certain scenes just went on and on and on. The second time through it seemed very well paced.

I Am Legend (1): I wish I'd seen this in the theater. Some of the Manhattan wide shots must have been breath-taking on the big screen. I read a lot of science fiction up through high school. Although I don't consider myself a maven of SF, I do enjoy it. I'm a little surprised that Will Smith has such an SF theme in his work---Independence Day, "I, Robot", and now this. The story didn't sell me completely---It's a mix of Cast Away, Outbreak, some Zombie movie, and Signs. I might have to read the book now.

Helvetica (1): Katie had no patience for this movie *at all*. "It's about A FONT," she said and stopped watching after 23 minutes. Neat documentary. The film maker made the movie partly because no one else had already made it. It's very interesting to think of that as you see the movie, because Helvetica is just everywhere. It's used so much it is invisible. I wouldn't say I'm alert to fonts, but I do notice them a lot. This movie is largely a discussion about both the confluence and the conflict between artistic dogma and commercial graphic design. It succeeds in that it gives time to both sides of the argument, and yet doesn't take a side itself. I really enjoyed it, but I'm crazy like that.

I am such a pushover with the (1)'s tonight.

C • I Am Legend 3

A quick run from the hotel in Oklahoma City. It was about 100 degrees, and I stayed in the shade as much as possible, which wasn't much. The last 5 minutes was basically survival, where I stood under shade trees letting my heart rate and breathing drop back to acceptable levels. It was a really nice run, but just way too hot.

I jumped in the pool (indoors) after the run, and it felt amazing. But I had to leave and shower to catch my ride to dinner. It took several hours to recover after the run---I was really dragging.

Event: OCIN East Fork Sprints
 

Putting out controls at East Fork Beach for the 3 sprints (plus white). Used a lot of controls (34?) but ended up with some courses I really like.

I named them Shorts, Pants, and Gaiters, but Pants and Gaiters really are just "pants" courses.

Shorts starts off in the open area of the beach with some fast, easy controls, and then gets into a little control picking section with some buildings, and not being able to see the next control right away, then goes into the forest for a fairly tough 70 or 90m leg (mostly due the map), then some easier white forest legs of intermediate difficulty. Most people came back with a few scratches, so "shorts" is a little optimistic, but anyway.

Pants and Gaiters are tougher, but hopefully still fun and fast.

A really bad day from the technical side. I got less than 4 hours of sleep, and I had to leave for a flight not later than 1pm (I was hoping for noon). But in my sleep-deprived state, I looked at the battery, verified red and black (seriously I did), hooked it up, heard the fuses blow, looked again, and saw that the red was a reflection off something near me and yes, crap, I don't have working inverter anymore.

I asked around for a spare inverter or some fuses, but no joy, and I pull two 15 amp fuses from my car (from two different "engine circuits"), effectively disabling it until I replace them.

Noon rolled around, and Mike offered to drive to a car parts store to get some fuses. I put them into the inverter, replaced the 15 amp ones into my car, and left. It was a high-stress afternoon, where I drove 40 minutes home, spent about 50 minutes showering, packing, changing kitty litter, and verifying everything was okay to leave for a week, then hopped back into the car for a 55 minute drive to the airport where I arrived at the gate 20 minutes before departure. If you don't know, this is a very high-stress affair. At 10 minutes before departure, they don't have to put you on the plane (it's happened to me), so I figure I made it with 10 minutes to spare.

I found out later that I was really dehydrated. I thought I was drinking enough to stay ahead of it, but no, I was not. I was *way* behind.

A big thanks to everyone who helped take down the courses. I just could not get a later flight.

I thought I did pretty well with the lidar contours and 2 hours of walking around (where I took no map notes or anything). There was at least one major problem with a control---I used a manhole cover that wasn't mapped---I mistook it for an electrical box that was mapped with a black circle. The flag was visible, though, and I hope it wasn't too unfair.

Spent most of the evening Thursday and a lot of Friday working on the map updates and finalizing the courses. What a nightmare. I am still a real OCAD noob, and having to revert to version 6 to update this map really sucked. It wasn't that bad, I guess. I'd do it again. Total time to update was about 12 hours, which is probably 3 or 4 times what it should have taken.

I emailed the Clermont County GIS department today and they emailed me back some really nice lidar-based contours with 2ft interval. It matches what I saw yesterday in every way I can remember (which isn't saying much).

Getting this done in time for printing maps on Saturday is going to be hard.

Checking my sprint courses at East Fork Beach. The map needs work. I could probably get by without any map updates, but if I can find some good contours, I might have a chance.

There are two big problems with the map:

1. The trail/shelf above the beach in the green is shown at the top of the hill, not in the middle. I could probably design around the current map, and I doubt anyone would have trouble, but it bugs me.

2. The open area at the beach has a lot of contour detail that isn't shown. Again, I doubt that anyone would have trouble, but it would be nice to get it right and be able to see on the map the occluded lines-of-sight. Right now it looks like you should be able to see anywhere from anywhere, and it's just not like that.

Event: WOC 2008
 

A set of 8x400m runs with 200m walks. I was trying to do something at the track. I meant to do 3 mile repeats, but I felt like crap on the first 400m, and decided to scale down the distance. Running fast is fun, so I thought I'd just do a bunch. I didn't know I did 8 until I looked at my lap times (on the Forerunner so it's easy to determine distance).

200m warmup 2:00
400m run 2:35 (intended as a mile pace)
Pause for 3 min
400m run 2:04 (intended as a fast lap)
200m walk 3:07
400m: 2:08 (fast lap) Pulse peaking out around 190
200m: 2:22 (the realization struck that I'm not gonna be able to do many of those fast ones, so I'm just going to try to run smoothly with good turnover.
400m: 2:56 (back to my 10 min per mile pace---crap---pulse max 167)
200m: 2:50
400m: 2:33 (a little faster, but pulse about 180 at the finish)
200m: 3:07
400m: 2:25 (felt pretty smooth, again 180 or so)
200m: 3:05
400m: 2:27 (getting tired, last 100m sucking air bad)
200m: 3:29
400m: 2:28 (started about 130, ended about 180)
400m walk: 6:30

Now sore and tired.

Spike asked me about Nudge a few weeks ago, and I wrote a little bit about it and promised to write more when I finished it. I finished it about a week ago, and I have had a lot of trouble thinking about what to write. The first thing I wrote might be a better review than this.

It's a fascinating book. It has changed the way I look at political debate. The authors call their idea "Libertarian Paternalism", and the point of that idea is to give people both the ability to make their own choice and at the same time, to protect people who can't, won't, or are not able to make that choice. When I write it like that, it sounds like a bad idea. But having read the book and thought about it (a lot), it provides a middle ground between liberal and conservative legislation strategies. In that sense it is revolutionary.

The typical stereotype of a liberal legislation strategy is to prohibit some action that has been determined to be bad, and/or to propose ideas that might be called "one size fits all". On the other hand, the typical stereotype of a conservative legislation strategy is to propose ideas that favor laissez faire market strategies to a fault.

Nudge offers a way of thinking about proposed legislation that will tend to stop bad behavior, allow choice for people who wish to make choices, make choices for people who can't, won't, are are not able to, and still maintain a market strategy (but somewhere short of laissez faire) that automatically balances the equation when better ideas come along.

One thing I learned was that one of the market ideas that was implemented by Bush 1 (I'll try to fill in details---It's related to power plant pollution, but I don't think it's carbon credits---Maybe sulfur related? Something to do with scrubbers in the exhaust?), was very successful. It was one of those market ideas where my initial thought was that the market was there to be exploited, but this book says the market was an incredible success story. It acted as a nudge to get plants to upgrade way more than it was a way to let rich plants pollute. I think a lot of times political rhetoric overwhelms the actual success stories because politicos simply don't want to believe the truth when it conflicts with their political ideas.

The last section of the book was the most difficult for me to read, primarily because the ideas were so out there that I pushed away so I could digest the thoughts for a while. I was repeatedly amazed that ideas that I initially thought would never fly in Washington actually started to make sense to me. I'm talking about some crazy ideas. You won't believe me until you read them.

The very last section was a chapter of arguments against the book. I love it when authors take the time to address the criticism they've received.

I loved this book. I've been using the ideas for maybe a month now, and it has changed the way I look at things. I've used it at work, at club meetings, at home. It has helped me get my retirement planning in better shape, my cholesterol and blood pressure more under control, and got me to make some fitness decisions that I had been letting slide. I don't know if the effect is going to wear off eventually. If it does I might have to reread some chapters to see if the magic works twice.

C • Nudge 1

About an hour working to add rocks around the new air conditioner condenser unit. Rain hits the ground and gets mud into the fins. I'm pretty sure the rocks will keep the condenser clean. Most of the effort was digging the trench and getting it sloped to drain properly. I didn't buy enough rocks.

Event: SLOC - Forest Park O-meet
 

I had my first physical therapy session for my shoulder injury today. I was injured last July 13th when my Jetta got rear-ended and totalled. I kept hoping it would just heal, but it's gotten worse as I've started up with the summer activities, especially the yard work and the pouring the concrete pad.

I most likely have a tear of the labrum (see here for one type---I think), or bursitis of the biceps tendon.

I did some range-of-motion tests, felt some clicking, did some rubber band exercises, and got an ice pack and electrical stim for 15 minutes. The rubber band exercises were pretty tough on the injury. It started to ache more, and then I got the ice and the stim, and it felt *so* good afterwards. I'm gonna be using ice a lot.

I was really impressed with the tests. They seemed more complete than what the physician attempted, and I'm much happier now with the diagnosis (which admittedly was the same as the physician's). I had a lot of weird sensations that I have not felt in the injured shoulder, so I know the injury was isolated and identified.

I'm scheduled for about 4 weeks of this (twice a week), and then I'll know more about whether I need the next step, which is an MRI and possibly surgery. I did find out my insurance has pretty good coverage for PT, as long as they don't bill weird additional stuff. We'll see. Fingers crossed...

C • new one.. 3

One thing I learned is that rotator cuff injuries are hugely more common than my injury. The PT said they see rotator cuff injuries all the time. Every time I saw a non-shoulder specialist, they'd say, do this...and I'd do it. Then they'd frown, pause, and say, "Well, your rotator cuffs are healthy."

Reading that SLAP wiki link really matches some of my symptoms. For example, it often bugs me when I sleep on my side with pressure on the injury. The shoulder joint actually moves sometimes when I do that. I try to avoid sleeping on it, but I roll over when I'm asleep and I wake up with it sore.

Oh well. That's all for me tonight. I'm off to find an ice pack.