Training Log Archive: cedarcreek

Event: OCIN - New Year's Races - Camp Timberhill
 

New Year's Eve Night O at Timberhill Camp (part of Rentschler Park in Hamilton, Ohio).

I finished with 43 seconds to spare. A bobble on the second-to-last control (the shortest leg on the course, basically all trail) almost put me overtime. I'm confident it was in the right spot, but the map wasn't so good to the west and south of the control---it may appear different in daylight, I suppose. I'm not complaining---This is a normal sort of issue for a local event.

I really should have spent the night there. If I'd taken a sleeping bag or a few blankets, I would have.

I don't know if it was the swimming intervals I've been doing (with very high HR), but I felt really good out there tonight. It took me at least ten or fifteen minutes to get going, but then I was able to push pretty hard and maintain a kinda high HR. (I was going slow on even minor uphills at the end.) I just noticed my normal gym workout seems to peak out at 155 or 160, and I just hate pushing on the machines. The swimming is kinda free high intensity---I don't have to think about it or push for my HR to go really high.

I paid more attention to the clock on the wall this session. I can't really see it without my glasses---I'm getting some corrective goggles that might help.

I did 14 lengths with recoveries of about 90-120 seconds. I need to edit my last session---no way was I doing 30 second recoveries. I did one 60 second recovery tonight and it was bad---I couldn't maintain form *at all*. My Hr was usually close to 180 after 1 length, but it dropped pretty fast down to 120 or so. I still had to wait another minute or so to let my arms recover.

I had a few laps where I was really smooth---long, streamlined, and fast---and a few more where I my form was just failing---slow, draggy (my feet would sink), and I had much more trouble breathing on my weak side.

I was trying to do 500m, but at 350 I was just done. I climbed out of the pool and was shaky and unsteady for a long time. I got on a bike for 20 minutes and felt a lot better after.

20 minutes on the bike after swimming, watching TV.

Finished reading "The Prohibition Hangover: Alcohol in America from Demon Rum to Cult Cabernet" (1), by Garrett Peck, Rutgers Univ Press, 2009. I got this after reading Daniel Okrent's book "Last Call" (about Prohibition). This is a book that covers a lot of ground, from Temperance Movements in the 1800s to Prohibition to explanations of the companies that make beer, wine, and spirits. It then continues on into the oddities of state alcohol laws including a recent Supreme Court victory that allows small vineyards to sell directly to customers in remote states (in some cases). I didn't know that the legal age to buy alcohol was 21 for most of America's history, but that empathy toward soldiers less than 21 going to Vietnam got a Constitutional amendment passed that dropped the voting age to 18 in 1971, and that states quickly dropped the drinking age to 18 as well. But then there was binge drinking and an increase in car crashes that led to MADD in 1980, and states soon after ratcheted the age back to 21, which is the oldest drinking age among first world countries. The final few chapters talk about so-called neo-prohibitionists who are trying to further reduce access to alcohol and about possible future directions for US alcohol laws. Having seen first hand the drinking situation at several universities recently, I'm leaning towards the side that wants to reduce the drinking age, perhaps to 18. (Canada is 19, the UK is 18. Germany is 16 for beer.) It's a tough call because if it isn't accompanied by some harsh rules regarding drinking and driving, it's going to increase drunk driving. I believe the current system where drinking is illegal but nearly everyone under 21 drinks is just the worst hypocrisy, and it encourages binge drinking in secret, so when someone does need a hospital, no one wants to take them or call an ambulance because everyone will get in trouble.

Anyway, it's a good book. The chapters are pretty quick, and they're informative. There were a handful of annoying technical detail errors, such as that Calvados is made by a religious order of monks: "Some of the most famous spirits come from European monastic orders, such as Benedictine and Calvados." He probably means Chartreuse, made by Carthusian Monks. But the errors are nitpicks. I really enjoyed it. (The last few chapters are a really good resource for high school and college students looking for a good controversial subject for a paper.)

C • prohibition 6

The blue globe is hr data for the whole workout, minus the swimming. I had trouble pushing my HR high on the bike and elliptical. I'd just hit a wall and have to back off. I know I got it high during the swimming, though.

Swam 10x25m with 90-120 second (edited) recovery. I was finishing in the vicinity of 170 bpm, and I'd start again when it dropped to 120 or so.

A lot of fun. My form is improving a little, but my arms were pumped and rubbery when I was done.

Paul (1): Funny. It's a Simon Pegg and Nick Frost movie about two Englishmen on holiday in America. They start at Comiccon and then rent an RV to visit UFO sites in the American Southwest. S**t happens and they end up with Paul, an alien who is trying to escape from Jason Bateman. I really liked it. It includes a huge number of UFO movie quotes and homages. I annoyed my niece and nephew howling with laughter. (I still need to figure out what the black mailbox is, though.)

Event: OCIN Billy Pig XI / TROL #4
 

Picked up 8 controls just before dark. Took along an LED headlamp with near dead batteries. I didn't need it until the last 3 controls, and it was definitely in "moonlight" mode. I gotta remember to change out those batteries promptly.

I missed getting out on the Piglet. I forgot to grab the USB hub off my main laptop at home before walking out the door, and I was dead-in-the-water without it. I spent a lot of time getting Geco working (in the days prior), and I *could* have committed to Geco *or* I could have just used OE2003---but I really didn't trust Geco yet, and I didn't want to go through the machinations of using OE for a goat again. So I drove to Eastgate and bought a hub---took nearly an hour. There was a line. The guy in front of me bought the insurance and had to do paperwork.

It was *so fun* to get these controls. It was beautiful out. I forgot how cool it is to wear my mega cleats on the steep muddy hillsides out there. The trails were sloppy wet, but the hillsides were soft grippy mud and I could just go straight up. I love that.

Ate with a group at Gramma's Pizza (1) in Batavia. I will be going back there.

Event: Midwest Course Setting Clinic (OCIN)
 

Event: MVOC - Night Score O
 

Sara Dallman's Caesar Creek Trail with Ridge Loop...Just messing with her Tour Divide GPS

Event: OCIN / TROL #3 - Miami Univ. Middletown Campus
 

Setting out the remaining 35 of 47 controls at Miami Univ Middletown. Meant to arrive twenty min before sunrise (sunrise would have been okay), but got there 20 minutes after sunrise and, as normal, everything just took longer than expected.

Got everything out by myself, except for one SI box that I didn't snap in when I was placing the stand---David Waller did that one.

The GPS track, again is partial---I started it after my first loop, and the battery was low very early on.

Almost didn't put water out at 45; and had several comments about how nice it was for people on the course.

I had a lot of legs that went across the grain of the trails, and apparently going around just wasn't tempting enough, so I got some complaints about the honeysuckle. I was more worried than I normally am about courses. I was stretching my comfort zone, and I wasn't sure the courses would go over well. A lot of people seemed to like them. A few complaints about the green, but even those seemed to like the course overall.

I'd had about 3 or 4 hours of sleep (I honestly can't remember), so I got home and fell asleep in a chair---then got up at 1am and went to bed.

A guy I work with had a business trip last week---to Honolulu. I saw his photos today (Tuesday), and I need to plan a trip somewhere really nice. Tahoe in January sounds perfect, but I don't think it's going to happen.

Seventy minutes quickly checking several points for Sunday's event, and putting out 12 controls. (The GPS track is very little of what I did, and I forgot to stop it.) I needed to spend more time, but I was running out of time to print maps. It's not good when you're up til 4am finalizing courses in Condes and then you sleep in and get woken up by a call that your aunt got moved from one hospital to the another. (She seems to be doing well, but the doctors don't know what's wrong. It is gastro-esophageal, and she can't keep food down. Her last meal was Thanksgiving.)

I got to Oxcopy at 420pm, and basically was done by 540pm. I was actually there until 610, though, because my last print job, the clue sheets wouldn't spool for some reason. I didn't hold anyone up, luckily. Kinda cutting it close, though.

Went from Oxford to my nephew's. Watch some new episodes of Beavis and Butthead (OMG. Wow.), and a show from the UK called, "The In-betweeners". Vulgar, but funny, and very slightly touching.

Course setting at Miami University Middletown.

Short on daylight. I had a doctor's appointment this afternoon, so it opened up the opportunity to check some control descriptions and check the honeysuckle. I do feel pretty crappy, though.

When the light had pretty much run out, I changed and rushed to Oxford for a planning meeting for next weekend's course setting clinic---I'm pretty excited about it, but we've got a lot of charts to make and a lot of exercises to plan.

Event: ICO Camp Belzer
 

Event: OCIN - TROL #2 - Miami Whitewater
 

Brown course at Miami-Whitewater. Looks like over six minutes of this was recorded at zone zero, which means the HRM lost signal---I was not going that slow. I fixed it here, but the QR maybe will show the dropouts.

I missed the early start "dry" part of the day, and instead got completely soaking wet. It wasn't cold unless you stopped. To paraphrase a woman who sat in the cube next to mine many years ago, "Praise the Lord for wicking fabrics!" Not because they wick when they're soaking wet, but because they dont get heavy.

I had so much fun. I'm really glad there was a short advanced course, rather than Orange. I took a far right route on 6-7 because it had very little climb compared to anything else. Not sure it was a good idea, but it repeated part of a leg that I set a few years ago, and I got to do it at a race pace, something I didn't do when I set previously.

PIcked up a bunch of controls in two loops. It was neat to slow down in the badlands section and verify that the controls really were in the right spot. When I came through earlier in the day, several of them seemed wrong (something I realize happens a lot at race pace).

Afterwards went to eat with Mike, Jeremy, and Vladimir Z., then to the hospital to see my aunt. She's apparently getting an endo procedure done to repair an esphagus-to-stomach connection problem. She totally downplayed the seriousness, but it's still a little scary.

I got up early on Saturday to go to a visitation. I know 2 guys, a Dad and his son, in a ham radio club I'm in, and the wife slash mother had a sudden heart attack and never regained consciousness. Also kinda scary.

I effected an awesome repair to a kitchen sink hose for my nephew, and delivered it so I could watch movies. Saw Rare Exports (1), one I saw last winter---a scary Santa Claus movie---and Badder Santa (1), an apparent cult Christmas classic that I have somehow failed to see. Until now. It's sort of an anti-Christmas movie that somehow seems Christmas-y. (Very rated R).

OCIN_MWW_TROL2_Brown - Splits

Event: 2011 December Chill
 

Event: OLOU Billy Goat