Teaser / New energy source

I’ve had the greatest 18 hours of workouts in probably a couple of years. I’ll write more later, but… Man.

Yesterday on the way home, I finally found a pond in which to swim. About a half mile long, clean, deep-ish water, no motors. So, I started with a lap in the wetsuit. Proved to myself that, while fine for sprints, a surfing wetsuit kind of stinks for swimming more than a couple hundred yards. (Fortunately, there’s a new one on the way).

Then – a 5 miler. Wicked, wicked tough – straight up hill to start, and then down the steep to finish. But, absolutely beautiful. At the end of the run, there were a couple of guys fishing in the Pond – will have to bring the kids back.

This morning, I woke up early to ride. Was on the road well before 7, rode ‘cross the state line out to Watch Hill through some Scooby-Doo type fog (So thick you could cut it with a knife). Watched next to no rollers come crashing in – wind was still. Then, rode uphill, out of the fog through Westerly. I’d seen a sign that Boombridge Road had a bridge closed, but kind of banking on its being closed to automobiles due to being decrepit, and knowing that I, while not the picture of svelteness, do not weigh nearly as much as a car, headed down the road. Worst case, I’d turn around and get an extra 4 miles.

The bridge was open, and the view over the Pawckatuck river was extraordinary. Brilliant blue sky, deep green grass and trees, dark tannic water – ought to be a postcard for New England. (I took pictures; will post later). Stopped briefly for a bocadillo* and to call the fam to let them know I was still alive.

Back to Mystic, a bit later than I’d planned. And back into the fog as soon as I hit River Road – man, that was cool, both figuratively and literally – I had to pull my armwarmers back on. Stopped, got some coffee, and rode up to Butler Elementary for Nate’s t-ball game. Missy had brought some pants to fend off the cold.

After the game, I took the kind of long way home, up Noank-Fishtown road instead of over Cow Hill, just so I could come down the hill on Yetter and see how close to 45 MPH I could get (Haven’t dumped the Garmin yet to see what it was). Man, what an 18 hours.

Best part, I feel great – even less sore than when I started.

* Bocadillos may be my new during run/ride energy food. I got introduced to them as dessert when I was riding a Colombian submarine. They’re nothing but guava pulp and sugar, dried and wrapped in a banana leaf (or a bit of sugar cane leaf – not sure what). Each brick of bocadillo is:

  • 200 Calories
  • 38 grams of sugar
  • 15 mg of sodium
  • 6 g of fiber

I suppose they could use a little bit of protein to make them all hip and with it, but as far as I can tell, they’re functionally identical to Missy’s SportBeans, ‘cept instead of being $1/pouch, it was $3 for 12 bricks. And, the wrappers are biodegradable – no goopy packages to carry home in a pocket or hand.

I think that in the future I’m going to cut each bocadillo in two (to get 100 cal/serving, same as a pack of SportBeans) – 200 cal at a pop seems to be a bit excessive.

The last problem, though, was that I got them at a Fiesta Market when we were down in Houston. As far as I can tell, none of the groceries in Connecticut carry them.

Oh, and I’ve got pictures, too. Will post probably tomorrow with run report.

Poking the Helmet Debate

I’ll be up front – I usually wear a helmet while riding the bike. Both of my kids have bike helmets, and are pretty religious about wearing them, even to the point of telling their friends “Hey, wait – I’ve got to get my helmet” when they go to ride bikes. Helmets are good, m’kay?

But bikes are better.

The couple of times I’ve caught the kids without helmets, I’ve just handed them to them, and a couple of times when we’ve been out as a family in the evening, Missy and I walking and the kids riding, I’d just told them to keep going, ’cause in my mind building kids who love cycling is going to make them healthy years later. I’d rather treat the helmet as a “nice to have” instead of an all-or-nothing, making riding the bike sometimes a negative experience.

I’m not arguing that helmets don’t work – they do, even in high speed situations. But making them completely mandatory with punitive makes people not ride bikes, or so sez some Commonwealth medical researchers via BikeRadar:

For example, a 1989 case-controlled study (i.e. directly comparing helmet wearers with non-helmet wearers) published in the New England Journal of Medicine concluded that bicycle helmets reduce the risk of head injury by 85 per cent.

Writing in the British Medical Journal in 2006, Dorothy Robinson, a statistician at the Department of Primary Industries in Armidale, Australia, claimed that helmet laws caused cycling levels to drop by 20 to 40 percent in several Australian cities and states.

Robinson’s point seems to have been backed up by evidence from 1990 – Victoria, Australia, introduced an all-ages cycle helmet law in that year and helmet use rose from 31 percent to 75 percent, with the number of head injuries dropping by 40 percent.

However, cycle counts in Melbourne showed drops of between 33 percent and 46 percent. Injuries dropped roughly in proportion to the decline in cycling. The proportion of serious head injuries compared to overall injuries fell only slightly.

I’ll be clear again: I think if you’re going to ride and have a helmet, you ought to wear it. However, if you’ve got a bike and a car and decide to go somewhere on the bike instead of in the car, do it. If you want to go cruise the rail-trail in a straw bowler, feel free. And if you really, really want to go climb wearing a USPS cap and pretend you’re Lance back in 1999, knock yourself out, helmet or not.

Bikes rule. Go ride.

Rain

I’m a bit behind on the blog. But, I’ve been riding a bunch.

Somehow, I think I ended up with a little bit of a cold last week – not quite the swine flu, but, man, I felt like dogmeat. I swam one day at lunch, but only made about 1000 yards ’cause it’s hard to rotary breathe and cough at the same time.

Transcendence hit, though – Wednesday night I did a short mountain bike ride – house to Pequot Woods to River Road and back. Thursday was hill repeats on the road bike at lunch. Saturday was blown off.

Sunday, though. Drilled, but was determined to get the ride in. I stopped by Arcadia State park, figuring I need hills before MooseMan in June. And hills I got.

I spent two hours going up hill and down dale in the mizzle (more than a mist but less than a drizzle), cold spray heading up my back. I finally get the idea of overshoes – my feet were frozen until about 90 minutes after I got done with the ride.

But, man, was I sad I had to finish the ride. It was the first time in a long time I’d really, really loved riding again. The bike is a beautiful thing.

One last thing: I’ve been rocking (rubbing/running/palping – please read BikeSnobNYC if you’re not) a ForeRunner 305 for a while with the speed/cadence sensor. And, unlike Lance, I’m a grinder, not a spinner. Turns out my average cadence is about 80, not 100. On hills, it even drops to about 70 or 65.

So, I’m not quite sure what to do about it. I suppose I’ve got to work on it, but I feel like a pansy when I’m in the granny gear. Thoughts?

Planter Boxes

So, Missy and I are going to try to raise vegetables this summer. However, we’ve got kind of a tough yard – mostly shaded, pretty rocky. The only real flat spot has the boy’s playscape on it, though once they get a bit older, I think we’re having a bonfire and converting it to a garden.

So, our only real option left has been to build boxes and do some intensive container gardening. As it’s not yet May in Connecticut yet, we’re not completely behind the times. So, here’s today’s batch:

Planter Boxes for Veggies

I designed them to use standard 8′ lengths of lumber without much waste. The planting portion of each box is 7’x1’x1′, which let me use standard 8′ lengths of lumber. The sides are 1/2″x6″ roughcut from a local lumber store that sells them cheap in 16′ lengths. I cut a foot off of each board, and used that to make the ends of the boxes. I also cut a 2″x4″ into 1′ lengths and used that, with another 2×4 on each side, to brace the bottom of the boxes. Each box has a 4×4 at the corner, cut to fit a slope. I’m lining them with 5 mil plastic with some drainage through holes in the boards, and once they’re full of dirt, we’ll put in a soaker hose for watering.

The installed prototype is here:

Planter Boxes for Veggies

Missy started seeds this weekend, and I’ve got another 4 or so boxes to build. I think I’ll do an Instructable about putting the boxes together when I do the rest of them. Until then, it’s store-bought fresh veg.

Life lesson #2 – Dad is fallible

Man, I love to go camping. One of the joys of fatherhood to me has been teaching the boyos the ways of the backpacker – tread lightly, leave the woods cleaner than when you arrived, and sleep outside as often as possible. We try to make at least 7 outings a year (April through November). I’ve pulled chocks about midnight on one full-moon November night thinking Jake was too cold. And we’ve done the “roughing it” out of the back of the car with the Cub Scouts, who are surprisingly hesitant to go backpacking.

Tonight (I’m blogging from my iPod touch while the boys sleep) was supposed to be our triumphant return to the woods for 2009. Melissa had a supper group of girls coming over, so I called up the DEP, and got the permit for Peg Mill, their favorite spot. Loaded the bags, last night, picked up the kids after work, and stopped for stove fuel on the way to camp.

Thought everything was wired. Last night I’d checked and rechecked all the gear – stove, replaced the filter in the water purifier, made sure we had the match container. I was set.

So, we hike back into the woods, set up shop, and commence to camping with about 45 minutes of effective light left. I got the tents set up, arranged stuff to start supper, hung the bear bag, and life was good.

Until I went to start a fire in the fire ring.

Turns out the match container was in the bag. Just NO MATCHES.

Oh fudge. And I did say fudge.

So I put it to the kids. We had just enough time to pack up and hike back to the car, or, I coils try to start a fire with the magnesium fire starter and a can opener. Against my better judgement, but with the kids enthusiastic, we voted to stay.

First attempt almost worked, but I wasn’t quick enough getting enough tinder on the fire. Second attempt was thwarted when Jake dumped a handful of twigs on the flame, smothering what I’d been slowly working. Third attempt failed because I didn’t have enough twigs handy. Fourth attempt failed – well, probably because it was supposed to.

We had supper of apple sauce and chocolate bars.

As we watched the last of the light fade (new moon is F’n dark), it hit me that I’d been collossaly dumb the couple of times I’d had either twigs or the limited amount of paper or cardboard burning. Instead of trying to light more twigs, I should have started the fracking stove. Or lit the candle lantern. Or done Something instead of trying to light uncooperative twigs.

Now that I’m thinking about it, I’ve got to wonder if I ought not just try to spark the stove tomorrow morning instead of worrying about shaving magnesium with a k-ration can opener.

Man, sometimes I’m dumb. Like collossaly dumb. Hopefully the boys take away that dad is fallible. But that it’s wrong to quit trying.

Ps- the breakfast got cooked – one spark and the stove roared to life. But we did stop for second breakfast with the runners from the church.

LATE ADD: For the record, we survived

P1000412

Stupid wired after late swim

Y’know that endorphin buzz one gets after a good workout? Keeps me awake when I work out at night.

This week’s been very, very good to me. Actually, the last two weeks have been great. I’d gone off about the Houston runs – man, that’s still a high.

Monday, I was on travel but still managed to squeeze in 7 miles in the rain at BWI. If you’re ever staying near the airport, there’s a GREAT trail that runs around BWI. Part of it goes right under the flightpath for one of the runways, and it was great watching the SWA flights drop out of the scudding clouds with huge trails of vapor blowing off of their wings, woosh overhead, and go land. It might feel like riding a bus when you’re in the airport, but it’s still amazing that those things can fly. Witchcraft, I tell you.

Yesterday, I didn’t sacrifice a workout. My flight got in just early enough that I was able to head over to the base pool to get in a good 35 minute workout – turned out to be about 25 laps at 70m/lap – just over a mile. Today, the best laid plans of running to the pool at lunch were turned over. But, things worked out anyway – I went back to the Y for the first time in a while and did 2300 yards in less than an hour, which may be my longest swim workout ever. I started with 250m of breaststroke, followed by a monster set of 20 laps (1000m) crawl, complete with flip turns. Caught my breath for a while, then set out to do another 10 laps easy – long, strong strokes, slow follow-through, easy breathing, and upright turns at the end of each length. The 10 felt good, so I did another 10 without stopping, finishing the last lap with an all-out, supper in the back of your throat sprint.

I’ve got a run (possibly) scheduled with the neighbor tomorrow at 5 AM. ‘cept he’s on TDY working 6P to midnight this week on short notice, so I’m guessing he won’t show. Wonder if I will. It’s also Bring A Child To Work day – Jake’s finally old enough to go, so I think we may have to put the bikes on the back of the car and let him take a quick spin around Jamestown on the way home and demonstrate “fringe benefits”.

Y’all rock. I cannot wait for Mooseman, even though my training hasn’t been what I hope it would have been. June will be all about endurance, suffering, and repentance.

Semi-regular rant – Early April 2009

1. I’m a huge believer that for the 21st century the internet and ubiquitious free or cheap access is as critical to national success as was America’s roads infrastructure was to the US’s dominance of the last half of the 20th century. And I think it makes even more sense for the government to do it than it did with the roads, as access to the internet is critical to freedom of expression, organization. all that fun stuff that is in the Bill of Rights.
So, with trillions being doled out, what’s a couple of hundred billion to begin connecting municipal internet efforts, revive muni-wifi, or maybe even hold some spectrum to build out publicly owned WiMax? Just a thought.

So far the Obama administration has offered $7.2 billion in grants to be doled out by two separate federal agencies to give to companies to build out networks in “underserved” areas. The whole process is mired in semantic debates over what “broadband,” “unserved” and “openness” mean. Incumbent players such as AT&T and Verizon are complaining about onerous openness requirements and are threatening to not even apply for the funds — these are the folks who have done everything in their power to suffocate innovation on the net and in the wireless world. [From National Broadband Plan? Dream Big, Feds, Very Big | Epicenter from Wired.com]

2. I’ve been running. Running is good. Running with the wife is better. Got in a total of 18 miles over the weekend with my soulmate. Love to run. Need to do more.

Springtime – Time to think about camping again…

ThinkGeek never fails to amaze:

Tauntaun Sleeping Bag

[From Tauntaun Sleeping Bag – Will it Become Real?]

It looks like the boyos and I have a potential date for the first camping trip of the year in about 3 weeks – Missy’s got supper club, and we’ve got warm weather and worms to dunk. Cannot wait to sleep in the woods again.

Training has been good this week – on schedule for the first time in a while. Great run on Tuesday – finished 4 miles in under 8:00/mile. I was spent at the end, but for a change of pace it rocked. Nice to know I’m closer to being able to hang with the fit guys at work.

Mindshare 24 March

I played soccer tonight. Tons and tons of fun, but I cannot get to sleep thanks to adrenaline. So, here’s what’s been bouncing around inside my head.

1. “Revolutions create a curious inversion of perception. In ordinary times, people who do no more than describe the world around them are seen as pragmatists, while those who imagine fabulous alternative futures are viewed as radicals. The last couple of decades haven’t been ordinary, however. Inside the papers, the pragmatists were the ones simply looking out the window and noticing that the real world was increasingly resembling the unthinkable scenario. Leadership becomes faith-based, while employees who have the temerity to suggest that what seems to be happening is in fact happening are herded into Innovation Departments, where they can be ignored en masse.” – Clay Shirky. He’s talking about the train wreck in the newspaper world, but this bit could be applied across the board. Thinking big thoughts is good for society.

2. “Lee Smolin, a physicist at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario, who was one of the authors, said, “What is amazing to me as I learn about this is how flimsy was the theoretical basis of the claims that derivatives and other complex financial instruments reduced risk, when their use in fact brought on instabilities.” – New York Times. I considered “financial engineering” while I was working on my MBA, but the reliance on much of what I was exposed to on equations extremely sensitive to a single assumption made me leery. As I keep listening to Planet Money, I’m more a believer that the 3-6-3 model (Pay 3% to people in savings accounts, lend at 6%, and be on the golf course at 3PM) for the banking and finance industry was a system that didn’t need a lot of tinkering. Plus, who really needs millions of dollars?

3. “Getting things done, especially the right things, is incredibly satisfying, but waking up one day to realize you’re a stressed-out workaholic at the age of 28 is not. Life requires balance. You’ll be more productive, more creative, and more satisfied if you calm down and unplug every once in a while, even if it’s once in a very long while.” Questioning the ‘Cult of Done‘. I hadn’t heard of the ‘Cult of Done’, but this is a great piece encouraging taking even good stuff with a grain of salt. Understanding the limits of models, etc. See item 2.

4. “(F)inancial warfare comes with all sorts of risks. The Unites States is deeply in debt to other countries — especially China, which holds over a trillion dollars in U.S. securities — and that kind of leverage, in the wrong hands, could be destabilizing.” Danger Room (Wired). This keeps me up at night. Actually blowing stuff up is risky, expensive, and morally ambiguous. Blowing $100 billion on wrecking a country’s market over a dispute is arguably just expensive.

5. Belated reminder that William Gibson’s birthday is St. Patrick’s day. Makes a phenomenal excuse to go drunk driving on the information superhighway. His guest series over the last week is very NSFW, but worth a look. (Assuming you’re on a personal computer, of age in your jurisdiction, and not averse to boobs and foul language).

6. This is big and interesting – MIT backs free access to scientific papers. Cool counterpoint to the newspaper story.

7. For file under studies noone really needed: “The data suggests that relevant information will emerge even when the group’s communications aren’t firing on all cylinders. Groups where at least one member had a requisite answer to the problem tended to be more successful than those that rated highly for the open sharing of information. The sharing did seem to help the group build a cohesiveness in a way that simply obtaining the answer did not, however. So, being stuck in a meeting where people are discussing things you already know can serve a positive function.” Really? Having a clue helps? But if you don’t have a clue, at least you can have that in common with the rest of the clueless…

Be good to each other.

Dadgum

I’ve been slacking lately. Warren is going to hand me my hat in June.

I got exactly two (2) good workouts in this week. Monday my excuse was being stuck in the ATL (second least favorite airport in the world after IAD – even Bahrain has a good airport). Tuesday, I had a GREAT 4+ mile run at 8 minute miles, with the last quarter mile at sub-6 pace.

Wednesday – worked through lunch, then building Pinewood Derby cars with the boyos, and troubleshooting the Pinewood Derby track with beer with a couple of the other Cub Scout dads after everyone was in bed. Finally found something about the Cub Scouts that I liked. So, no time to work out.

Thursday – yeah, just lazy here, I guess. I worked through lunch again, but probably could have swum or rode after the kids were in bed.

Today, I spent a quality 55 minutes on the bike at 150 BPM heart rate during lunch. A bit disturbed that NONE of the TVs at the gym were showing the College Basketball playoffs. But, I had two great talks from TED – Dan Arley on why we all cheat on occasion, and Stuart Brown on Play. (I like to think that’s why we run, bike, and swim – what’s better than hammering, especially on the off chance there’s someone else to chase?)

So, pretty much a bust. Missy’s off at a well-deserved women’s retreat this weekend, so I think the boyos and I are going to have a little bit of male bonding. Pinewood derby and bar-b-q. First at Chester’s, and then I may get a smoker while we’re buying stuff to build garden boxes.

Or, has anyone ever cooked in a chiminea?