Tuesday, July 31, 2007

A toga update

Last weekend, I headed back to my parent’s place to put in the final vinyl window inserts. It was a good feeling as all of the windows have now been replaced and the task is complete. I stopped by Fabricland to buy some material for my toga. I started looking at material on the rack and realized that four yards of anything could be expensive. I talked to the sale associate and she suggested I look at the one-dollar table but none of the colors were suitable. We went next to the half-off table and I found a blue-gray material that was the end of the line. I was relieved when there was just enough to make my toga. I am glad that I decided not to wear purple as I don’t want to look like a clone among 300 other students. I was debating whether I need some props like a sword, a clasp, or a laurel wreath but decided I just want to be an ordinary roman wearing a toga. The one thing I bought was a package of safety pins as they will come in handy keeping things together as I want to avoid an embarrassing moment. I’ll post pictures of Julius Caesar Chris once I am back from the conference.

Friday, July 27, 2007

Live Free, Die Hard 4

Last week, I watch the latest Bruce Willis movie, “Live Free and Die Hard.” I enjoyed the movie as the some of the special effects were wicked. I knew that some of film was shot in Baltimore but decided to give myself a challenge to see if I could locate any of the areas. The ending has a couple of port scenes which I think were filmed at Dundalk. The traffic jam scene was filmed at Mount Vernon. The cinematographer worked hard to avoid showing the top of the monument. I could see why they selected the location as you could have cameras posted at all four corners of the square and effectively control the action. The fighter jet scene and the truck rig on the freeway and the tunnel footage I think were the best for special effects. It was a good movie.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

A relief...

It is a big relief. I finished the final Harry Potter book late today. It was a hard and challenging book to read as I found it so dark. I could feel the book pulling down which was kind of weird. I'm not sure if I would want my kids to read the book until they would be a little older.

Toga

In a couple of weeks, I head south to Atlanta, Georgia for a conference with some of my student peers. I attended the same conference in Phoenix, Arizona last year and had a great time. I enjoyed the conference proceedings but one of the things that brought me back this year was the CEO Boot camp. The boot camp was two hours of high octane exercises, stretching and seeing how could do more of a certain exercise than the conference CEO. The exercises were made a little more challenging as it started at 600AM. This year they had added something new which has started to get me excited. For one of the sessions you have to wear a toga. I have never worn a toga. My initial thought was to just buy a white bed sheet and dress like Charlton Heston in Ben Hur or Julius Caesar. But I did a quick google search and found a site called http://www.howtomakeatoga.info. The site strongly recommends not using a bed sheet but to go to a fabric store and buy four yards of whatever material meets your fancy. I was talking to some friends and they suggested that I not buy purple. Purple is the royal color and it is what most folks would wear. I let my imagination run wild for a while and thought about blue pinstripes or something in blue at least. I could go with a red and white combination but those colors don’t usually work for me. To add a bit of authenticity I’ll wear my five fingers as the Romans always wore minimal footwear. As I write this I still can’t see myself wearing a toga but there is always a first time and it should be a blast. I’ll be one of 300 students all wearing multi-colored togas.

Sunday, July 22, 2007

HP

I stayed up last Friday night until the magic hour with 1500 people at the largest bookstore in town. The line was so long that it took me 30 minutes just to get my hands on the book. While waiting for midnight to roll around I skimmed about of books on Vista security and thought about how secure I was not make my laptop. Once I had the book I headed over to the 24 hour grocery store to buy a quick snack of rice pudding and started to read the book slowly. I hit the sack at 3:00AM by which time I was really tired. Yesterday, I continued to read the book a work through the first 100 pages. Not much has really happened to this point which is nice as there are 600 pages more to read.

I sent out two geocaches recently and they are being found. I went for a 7 mile run this morning along the Ottawa River which felt good after being stationary yesterday. My Wednesday night intervals with the Running Room are going well and I'll post an update later in the week.

Friday, July 20, 2007

Books - The Assault of Reason

In the reading department this has been a good summer for me. I started off by discovering the author, CJ Box. After reading his most recent book I got hooked and borrowed all his other books from the library and read them. I next discovered Barry Eisler's John Rain series of books. I bought his most recent books and again borrowed all of his other books from the library. For both of these authors, I could start reading one of there books and have it finished a couple of days later. George Tenet's book, "At the Center of the Storm" is a book that is taking longer to read that I would have thought. I read a chapter and then think and reflect on what he says about his days working for the CIA. Last night, I finished my favorite book of the summer, Al Gore's, "The Assault of Reason." This is a book that I'll most likely read a more couple of times in the future. I'll quote from the inside jacket of the book, "A visionary analysis of how the politics of fear, secrecy, cronyism and blind faith has combined with the degradation of the public sphere to create an environment dangerously hostile to reason."

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

On Friday, at the stroke of midnight I and a lot of other Harry Potter fans will have there chance to read the final Harry Potter book, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” Once again, I’ll stay up until midnight and go to the bookstore and watch the clock move ever close to the magic hour. The bookstore has WiFi so I can surf and try to score a couple of more babble points while waiting for the book to become available. At that point, I will constrain myself to read only a couple of pages per sitting as I fear that if I don’t, the book will be read over the course of the weekend. There are already leaked copies of the book available for viewing on the web. Did I take a look? Yes, I only looked at the table of contents which doesn’t reveal much. I’m comfortable waiting to until Friday midnight to experience the final book as what is a couple of extra days after waiting a couple of years.

Monday, July 16, 2007

I hate Urtica dioica...

While geocaching yesterday I ran into some urtica dioca. It is weed that I don't like interacting with as it always leaves me itching. Urtica dioca is commonly known as stinging nettle. My aversion to stinging nettles is sort of like Jason's to poison ivy. The cache was 40 yards away and the only way to get it was through a patch of stinging nettle. My first brush with the nettles was not fun. I jumped into a stream up to my knees and washed away the irritant. I wasn't too concerned about the water quality of the stream. I jumped up on shore and through another patch and found the cache nearby. It was back again into the stream to wash my legs again. Once home I washed my legs with Hibiclens and then with betadine. I thought I had nipped the problem in the bud. A couple of hours later I tried hand sanitizer with a moisturizer. In the wee hours of the morning I tried a 3M skin cream. I stopped by the drug store this morning on the way to the office and found relief and it felt good. It came in the form of polysporin. I coated my legs in the stuff and felt normal again. Ever couple of hours I would lather on some more of the cream. The cream is yucky as it sort of like wearing dried glue on your legs but it is given me relief. Next time I see a geocache surrounded by stinging nettles I may take a pass until I'm wearing pants.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Death Package

This morning I did a 5km road race in the borough of the city that I live. The community paper had been advertising the race for the past month. The race went through the local street and the course was in the shape of a dogbone. A couple of my friends at the Running Room were on the start line with me. The race went well and I finished in a time just over 20 minutes which is good for me as it is the shortest distance that I have raced this year. As well, the race gave a chance to break in my new pair of sneakers. The race draw prize was one of the more interesting parts of the race. The first draw prize was a death package. At first thought it sounds rather bad. A local road race promoting death. One of the sponsors was a local law firm and they were offering powers of attorney and wills for a couple which was sort of neat.

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Geocaching adventure...

Yesterday, I did my first research session in 30C/86F conditions. The training sessions are four hours long and once outfitted you feel like a test pilot as you have a variety of sensors inside and outside your body, all measuring how you are reacting to the heat. In a future post, I will describe in detail what happened and will happen at my two sessions next week. The next sessions will be at 95F and 104F. It is fun training in the heat but the only bummer is that you don't get a tan.

While geocaching yesterday, I made a data entry error that put me on the wrong side of the Ottawa River, on the north, Quebec side. When I got to the apparent cache site all I could see is a large patch of poison ivy. Would a geocacher put a cache in the middle of a patch of poison ivy. I double checked my coordinates and had entered 24 rather than 23. The correct coordinates put me back on the south, Ontario, side of the Ottawa River. The cache was a little nasty as they had magnetically attached the first waypoint inside a metal culvert leading underneath a sidewalk. You had to reach elbow deep inside the pipe to fetch the metal canister to get the next set of coordinates. The final cache was hidden inside an old willow tree that was apparently surrounded by poison ivy but I think that the folks at the cache before me didn't know what PI looks like. While leaving the cache I spotted a red fox which was cool. It looked like a super sized cat and was on the prowl for dinner.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

VO2 test – cycling

Later this week we will start the formal part of the research. Today, we did a VO2 max test on bicycle to gauge my physical fitness. They were pleased last week by my low resting heart rate (42). The setup for test is, you wear a heart rate monitor on your chest, have a nose clips on your nose and breath through a tube hocked up to a machine providing air that analysis your oxygen to carbon dioxide concentration. It also measure things like the number of breaths per minute and a boat load of other measures. Once you are hooked up to the gear you start cycling for two minutes at a certain resistance (measured in watts) and then they increase the resistance by 40 watts. Each stage is two minutes long and the resistance is raised by 40 watts. The starting resistance was 40 watts. I was able to hold on for six stages before I shut down. My calfs and quads were burning by this point. The researchers decided to stop it as I was ready to go to the next stage. In the end, I have a VO2 rating of 50 which is a little lower than my running VO2 which means that I am in good shape.

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Research July 2007 - 1

A little while back I heard through a friend that the UOttawa Human Kinetics department was seeking fit individuals for research projects. I have participated in two research projects in the past and so was eager to do another one. The research project involves measuring a person's body-thermal response when working in hotter and hotter conditions. The formal part of the research involves cycling for a fixed period of time under progressive hotter conditions while hooked up to a variety of internal and external measuring devices. Today, I was suppose to do a VO2 test but postponed it a couple of days to allow my legs to recover from the hiking. Instead, we measured my height, weight, blood pressure (normal), heart rate (low) and got wet. The getting wet part is cool as I had done this a couple of times, it is not what you think. The goal was to figure out what was my percent body fat. There are a couple of way of measuring body fat. The most common and least accurate is using skin fold method. The technique which gives a better estimate is known as hydrostatic weighting. The gold standard is something called the DEXA scan. In the past, I have done all three tests. For the current project, we did the hydrostatic weighting which involves getting into a tank of water and sweeping the bubbles off your body. The next part is to sit on a platform under water and blow out all the air from your lungs. You sit on the platform for a couple of seconds and they measure your in-the-water weight. We did a couple of hydrostatic measuring sessions until we got similar results. Early next week, we will do the VO2 test on a bicycle and then later in the week, we will do the first test session. Each test sessions will be under hotter conditions. Most of the protocols that we will use are things I have done in the past so much of it is familiar which is great. In future entries, I'll describe what happens at various sessions.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Mt. Marcy 2007

Mt. Marcy, Adirondacks, NY June 29 – July 2 2007

Short version

Climbed Mt. Marcy 5344 feet
Climbed Mt. Phelps 4161 feet (hiked solo)
Climbed Tabletop 4427 feet (hiked solo)
Ascended three more of 46 tallest mountains in the New York
Met some great folks that want to climb the other 46 peaks
Met my first mountain steward
Great hiking weather, cool and sunny – it only rained at night, but rained every night
Ate some expensive lasagna
Missed the iPhone release
Restocked on fig newtons

Long version

Friday June 29 2007

Over the weekend, I accomplished a goal that I long thought was unattainable which was to climb Mt. Marcy, the tallest peak in New York at 5344 feet. I knew that I would eventually climb it but didn’t know under what circumstances. I had heard that it would be a long and hard climb but it seems that the rumors preceded the reality. Climbing Mt. Marcy would be a long day but with plenty of water, food and snacks, 250 people climb it during the peak summer season.

On early Friday morning, Chris and Elaine picked me up and he took the long way to Lake Placid via Ogdensburg, New York. Normally, we would cross at Cornwall, Ontario but the native Indians were having there day of protest. The Cornwall border crossing runs through the Indian reservation. Rather than run the risk of delays due to the protest we opted for another nearby crossing. The US Custom/DHS were ready for the long weekend and pre-screened the cars in the queue which sped up the custom formalities. We cleared customs quickly and started our trek south. Four other cars in our group would cross at Cornwall at various points later in the day. Our first stop was a Price Chopper in Lake Placid where we bought lunch and provisions for the next couple of days. I bought pita bread, packaged tuna, fruit, soda, ice tea, propel and fig newtons. I also bought some new 3M bandages that come in a neat package. We arrived at our group campsite in the early afternoon and set up our tents. Over the next couple of hours fourteen more tents would be setup at our group campsite.

I setup my new REI Chrysalis tent and footprint and pleased that it went up quickly. This would be it inaugural use in the wilderness. I have to thank Jason for suggesting the tent as it worked great and kept me warm and dry through the three nights of rain that we got on the trip. The rain would collect and drain from the footprint and not accumulate in the tent. I next inflated my thermarest and unpacked my new MEC 7C down sleeping bag. Once the tent was up I ate lunch. Chris, Elaine and I went to the registration office and did a hike around Heart Lake. Our goal was to find the trail head from Mt. Nye and Mt. Street (trail #25). Both peaks are part of the 46 series but have undocumented trails. We headed into Lake Placid for ribs and pulled pork. On our drive in we spotted the rib festival and decided to check it out. The food was expensive, minimal and I ate some of my lunches when back at camp. The plan for Saturday was to climb Mt. Marcy and leave camp at 0830. We would have to be up early (0545) to get everyone else ready to hike. A little after we got the fire going the elements acted against us. It started to rain. We headed to our tents. It would rain for an hour.

Saturday June 30 2007

I awoke at 0545 and had the Coleman stove boiling water in a little while. It would take the smell of brewed coffee to get most folks to leave the comforts of their tent. The breakfast conversation was interesting. Normally, there is the discussion about who snores and not. A couple of folks were upset by the sound of zipper being opened and closed at various point during the night. We were given a stern warning to minimize our zipper interactions. The 12 folks that would hike up Mt. Marcy have different fitness levels. It was decided to break the group into a fast and a slow group. The slow group would leave an hour before the fast group. I was in the fast group and we left at 0830. Our first stop would be at Marcy Dam where we met the main trailhead. Before heading out I had filled my 100 oz camelback with water and my 2 liter dromerdary bag. I think I was carrying the equivalent of a galloon. Kevin and I broke away from the main group and would work off each other for much of the day. We both have similar fitness levels and would change the lead when we got tired. Along the way, I eyed the Phelps peak trailhead and wonder whether I could climb it over the weekend. We stopped at the Indian Falls and checked out the view. As we were climbing over little Mt. Marcy we passed the slower group. We would be at the top in about three hours and forty-five minutes. There was a cool wind blowing and I put on my shell. I took a picture of the summit plaque and then the battery on my camera died which sucked. Over the next half hour, the remainder of our group would reach the summit. The summit steward, a summer student from PA, talked about the environmental sensitive conditions of the peak. Mt. Marcy was first climbed on August 5 1837. It was renamed in honor of Governor William Marcy. (N44 06.767 W077 55.415) (Chris on top of Mt. Marcy) We spent about an hour eating lunch and chilling. The slow group started to head down a little after lunch. I followed a little while later. I spent much of the afternoon passing and being passed by the assistant forest ranger. We had met in March just after he had sprained his wrist skiing. The trek back to camp was equally as brisk as it took a little over four hours. The trip was made much easier as I sipped the camelback at will which meant that I never got dehydrated or needed to stop. My fuel for much of this hike would be Clif bars. Once back at camp I was bushed. I made myself a cup of strong tea and talked with Chris and Elaine. They had climbed Marcy last year and so they had hike Phelps and Tabletop instead. At this point, the idea of climbing two more of the 46 started to develop. I was happy that I had brought along my Keen Sandals as it was great to get out of the warm hiking boots. The hot shower felt good. The others would return over the next couple of hours. The Saturday evening meal was an interesting and expensive situation and even now, still puzzling.

The group opted for an Italian restaurant in Lake Placid. While driving into town the group leaders described what a pain “group meals” can be as someone always comes up short. Before heading into the town there was a fair amount of beer being consumed. Folks were so bushed that they were being driven to the shower which was only 100 yards away. For supper, I opted for lasagna, a salad and soda. The folks I was sitting with decided on lasagna and a soda. The other 12 folks had a pizza and beer. We all had a ravenous appetite. Then next part is where things get interesting. It was time to tally up the individual bills. Calculating the bills for 15 people is hard, complex and difficult. I’ll say that we spent more time calculating the bill than ordering the food and eating it. It was like going through a forensic audit. I was initially asked to pay $41 for my lasagna, soda and salad. After much haggling and redoing the calculation we whittled the amount doing to $30 which is okay but still strange that the beer and pizza folks had bills of $13. I was little pissed. Kevin who also ordered lasagna less the salad was asked to pay $30. Somewhere along the line we had been double charged for the meal. Once back at camp the elements were not in our favor as it started to rain heavily. The plan for Sunday was an easy day hike.

Sunday July 1 2007 (Canada Day)

It had rained so hard overnight that any zipper concerns were masked by the sound of rain on the fly. I was up at 0630 and was eating breakfast once the water was boiled. I filled up my camelback, dromerdary bag and packed my lunch. I asked the leader whether I could opt out of the day hike and do something a little more strenuous. If I could get on the trail early enough I could ascend the mountains before the traffic started to build. I talked the day hike over with Chris and he gave me some tips on where to look for the Tabletop trail as it is an un-maintained trail. Kevin also wanted a more strenuous hike and set out to climb Mt. Colden. After putting along layer of tape on my heel (preventative taping with 3M Micropore) I headed out towards Marcy Dam. Forty-three minutes later I was at the dam. I talked to the sweet, assistant forest ranger and headed onwards to the Phelps trailhead. The trail up Phelps is a similar to the main trail. It was rocky and eventually takes you up to a ledge that gives you a panoramic view of the other mountains. I made up some Propel and had an apple for a snack. The view was weird as it was misty one moment and then clear the next. The morning mist was burning off ever so slowly. Phelps (4185 feet N44 09.409 W073 55.281) The descent was a little slower as I had to negotiate the rocks. I met six groups on my way down. I stopped for lunch at a bridge a little before Indian Falls. Pita, tuna, apple, fig newtons, ice tea and propel filled me up. At this point, I constantly consulted the map as the trail to Tabletop is unmarked. The sign for the summit is 25 yards down the trail and hidden behind a tree. I got the impression that they were trying to actively discourage folks from climbing the peak. Before heading out on the trail I used the GPS to set a reference point. This would come useful in the future. Climbing Tabletop was a fun and unique experience. Most of the hike is through conifer trees that are a shoulder width apart. There are downed tree and roots through the trail but they are all easily climbed over. There are no trail signs as you follow the opening in the trees. When the trail got too overgrown I powered up the GPS and it verified that I was at the summit. Tabletop (4427 feet N44 08.400 W073 54.958) At this point I was starting to tire. I used the GPS to give me a count down of the number of meters/yards to hike before I reached the main trailhead. Once back at the trailhead I keying in the GPS coordinates of Marcy Dam and watched the miles-to-go grow smaller and smaller. Along the way, I met a couple who asked how much further to Marcy Dam. The guy was happy knowing the distance in miles, meters or yards. I reset the GPS and it was 2.1 miles to go. The trek to the dam was uneventful as the trail was becoming familiar. After signing out at the Marcy Dam checkpoint it was time to head back to camp. At a brisk pace I hiked west getting into camp in the late afternoon. Chris, Elaine, Yuri, and Dimitri and headed into town for a meal at a local bar. We patiently smiled as we watched the skies open and the rain to come down in buckets. The other eleven folks were having chicken and salad in the rain. As we were leaving the sun came out. Once back at camp I decided to do a cool down workout and to walk around Heart Lake in the dark. I was curious to see how much of it I could hike in the dark without a flashlight. Some parts of the trail were easier than others as they had put down a bed of white cinder which is iridescent. It was like following a white line in the dark. The walk loosened up my legs as I had fears of cramps in bed if I cool them down. Just as I was getting into the tent it started to pelt again.

Monday July 2 2007

I was awake at 0500 but decided to lie in bed until 0630. Today we would be breaking camp so I packed the sleeping bag and thermarest before getting out of the tent. The goal was to have all 15 folks packed and ready to leave for 0930. After breakfast I refilled the camelback and put my lunch things together. I shook the excess water off the fly and was pleased that the tent itself was dry. The were a couple of pools of water in the footprint but less than expected as I had set the tent up so that it sloped downwards. After the tent was packed I helped Judy take down her tent. With a couple of minutes to spare we head north to Saranac Lake which is northwest of Lake Placid. Much of the morning was spent climbing Ampersand Mountain (3352 feet N44 14.075 W074 12.625). For lunch I had a log of fig newtons, 2 packages of tuna, pita bread and soda to wash it down. After lunch we headed down the mountain and started our trek north. Along the way we stopped at Price Chopper to buy five packages of fig newtons and some Pretzel Goldfish. By early evening we were back in Ottawa.