Geocaching, the military, and bow hunting

Yesterday, I was out geocaching and with the expectation that it would be cool and quiet afternoon. This was not too be. As I was driving up to the trailhead I passed two groups of army recruits decked in cammo, face paint and carrying an assortment of rifles, sniper scopes, and machine guns. They looked like a serious and dangerous bunch. At the last moment, I noticed that most of the guns were plugged. They were hoping to ambush another platoon concealed much deeper along the trail. Lucky for me the first geocache was in the opposite direction and an easy find. I continued along the trail and noticed a guy in cammo sitting midway up a tree keeping very calm and quiet. Later I would find out that the woods were occupied by deer hunters with bows. The third cache find was what I call a "gotcha." The cache was suspended 15 feet in the air and hanging from the nub of a branch. Standing on a three foot stump and using a 10 foot long branch I was able to knock the cache down. As I was lifting the cache back into place along came a couple of deer hunters wanting to know what I was doing. I showed them the cache and my GPS and explained what geocaching was all about. Before they headed back along the trail I asked them what to do when in the woods during deer season; do you move silently or make some noise. They suggested to make more noise that you would expect of a deer prancing through the forest.

Raining and running...

On my way to work today, I felt compelled to take off my winter gloves. Something unexpected was happening where I live; it was raining for the first time this year. It felt good to feel the rain landing on my hands. If you live in Vancouver or Victoria, British Columbia, I think this thought would come with a groan as it is always raining on the west coast. This can mean that warmer weather is on its way. There was a downside to this warm trend. The snow is starting to melt forming large puddles that one must dart between. This is made more challenging at night when it is hard to distinguish between the black road and a puddle. This became more apparent during my Running Room workout in the evening. I ran down to the store trying my best to avoid getting a soaker but failed miserably. The workout took the form of four mile warmup followed by 5 x 1km repeats on 90 seconds rest. It was my first speed workout of the year so it sets a benchmark on which I can only improve. (4.04/4.09/4.24/4.24/4.22) On Friday, I head down to my folks place and will run in the Burlington Good Friday 10 mile race. The race is long enough that I can only treat it as a training workout.

Phoenix Half-marathon parthttp://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Phoenix_Jan2008/photo#5158142882052942002 1

Getting there

Friday January 11

My adventure started at 5:00 am when I caught the taxi to the airport. I arrived at the airport a little later than expected and was whisked through security and customs with the stern warning that if I did hurry I might miss my flight. This had the unintended affect of boosting my blood pressure needlessly, as once I was in the departure lounge it was announced that the 6:30 am departure would be delayed due to light bulb issues. There was some talk in the lounge about how long it could take to replace a light bulb. As time went on the airline staff called up more and more folks rebooked them on other flights. After a five hour delay our flight took off and we landed in Philadelphia an hour later. My new flight to Phoenix would leave late afternoon so I had lunch and spent much of the afternoon surfing the web with my laptop. I had packed a Robert Ludlum thriller novel helped in passing away the time. The flight to Phoenix was uneventful and JB met me at the airport. In keep with tradition, we had supper at PF Chang’s and started off the meal with lettuce wraps. The main course was Chicken Chow mien. JB dropped me back at the hotel and I bedded down after a 21 hour day.

Saturday January 12

I awoke at 7:00 am local time which is 9:00 am Ottawa time and headed down for breakfast. My first stop would be Arizona State University (ASU) which is the location of the half- and full-marathon finish lines as well as the shuttles to the start line. My goal was to see how much time I would need on Sunday morning to walk/jog to the shuttle buses. The further they were away to earlier I would have to leave. The distance was 1.5 miles. While on the campus, I tried my hand at some geocaching but couldn’t find a single geocaches but found a petrified log instead. As I was heading back to the hotel, JB texted me and we set up a rendezvous time. Once back at the hotel, I checked with the front desk and they confirmed that there were still some seats available for the 6:15 am shuttle to the start line. This was a relief. I took the last available seat. My legs would be grateful on Sunday morning.

Early afternoon JB arrived and we headed over to REI to pick-up an order that I had placed over the Christmas holidays. It was a relief to find that the down jacket I had ordered fit. While trying on the jacket we starting talking to a staff member originally from Michigan and she was able to give me a good overview of the features of the jacket. From REI, we headed to downtown Phoenix to the race expo which was twice as large as last year. I quickly picked up my race package and we checked out the rows and rows of exhibitors. We next headed out for lunch at a local burritos chain. The next part was cool as we drove up to one of the highest part in the Tempe/Scottsdale/Phoenix area, South Mountain, having an elevation of 2200 feet. It is a long a windy road without any guard rails. The trash cans are elevated and set at an angle because of the coyote threat. The panoramic view from the top was awesome.

It was then onto JB’s place where I met his folks and watched and listened as he played a variety of pieces of music on his piano. It was great listening to him play his concerto. Our plans of eating at the Spaghetti Factory were scuttled when we learned the wait time was 90 minutes. We opted to have a pasta dinner at a nearby fast food place. Before heading back we stopped at Kroger’s to get some bananas, fig newtons and pretzel goldfish. Before calling it a night I laid out my running gear for the morning.

2008 Goals

2008 Goals

* Run a 1:30 half-marathon time
* Go on more OHOC outdoor adventures
* Do more hiking trips
* Climb more of the 46ers (46 highest peaks in the Adirondacks , NY)
* Loose 10 lbs by May 30 (race date –National Capital half-marathon)
* Hike the West Coast Trail/Shenandoah National Park/Old Smoky National Park
* Run a faster Baltimore half-marathon (< 1:34 ) in October 2008
* Visit Brent ( Algonquin Park ) by canoeing and portaging and bring along a digital camera
* Reach 500,000 Babble point (now 350,000) www.playbabble.com
* Do more cycling (road and mountain biking)
* Geocaching goal 900-1000 finds by Dec 31 2008
* Become more mobile
* Complete an Olympic Distance triathlon (1500m swum/40km cycle/10km run)
* Swing dancing – Learn the Lindy Hop
* Take the train to Baltimore

Salt

A quick weather update -- Ottawa set a new record over the weekend. We received one foot of snow over a 24 hour period. Now we return to the topic of the day, salt. Tonight, I went for a 48 minute run along the Rideau Canal and the path was in good shape. While getting dressed for the workout I noticed something, my shoe laces have become more stiff and white. The road salt in becoming infused in my laces which is making them stiff and hard to tie. I'll have to give my shoes a bath in a couple of days. Over the Christmas holidays,I'll be doing a 10 mile race in Hamilton which will be a good workout as I do my final preparation for my second Phoenix half-marathon in early January. The goal for this race is to better my time last year, 1:33.

News

My rate of blogging has drop slightly recently but I hope to return to a more normal pace soon. I’ve been busy with school, work, my honour society and training. My next running race is coming up quickly on Boxing Day in Hamilton, Ontario. It will be the 86th edition of the Harold Webster 10 mile race. The race comes at a good time as the caloric expenditure of the race allows me to eat well during the holidays and not worry about gaining any weight. My plans for New Years aren’t settled but I’m hoping for something special this year. We will have to see. On another matter, I’m working on having an informal mentor. He is someone I have known for a couple of years and is mentoring a couple of other students and I am looking forward to his guidance and advice.

Stamps and awesome workout

When I was growing up my father would sing a famous Flanders and Swann song called, "Mud, Mud Glorious mud." I did a quick google search and found this video. I guess you could ask what does this have to do with stamps. For the past little while I have been singing my own variation of the song, "Stamps, Stamps, Glorious Stamps." I recently volunteered to put stamps on membership cards for my honour society. Tonight, I finally finished after putting stamps on 700 envelopes. The chore started out with 300 envelopes but I volunteered to do some more. So, once I had put on a couple of hundred stamps I started to sing the song to keep my focus. It is a relief to get the chore finished.

Tonight, I had an awesome workout. The conditions were a crisp 15F/-9C with a windchill of 3F/-16C. It was the coldest conditions that I have run in this year. I was cold walking down to the canal. Once at the waters edge I started at a fast pace to warm myself up. After two miles I was starting to sweat. For the next five miles I was able to maintain a pace of 85% of my aerobic threshold. The workout felt great.

Snow...wet and not enough

Overnight, we got our first dose of snow (two inches). It came in the form of wet snow which melted during the day leaving wet slush. I was hoping for more as I'm eager to go skiing as well to start snowshoeing but this will likely have to wait until after Christmas.

Tonight, I had an awesome run, it was one of those "flow" experiences when you run very fast and smooth almost as if you are on auto-pilot. This was unexpected. Earlier in the day, I got my annual "flu" shot and was starting to feel under the weather. Things continued to feel iffy as I was heading down to meet the running group. Once we started out on the run at a brisk pace I quickly moved in the grove and was able to spend most of the workout running very fast which sort of felt effortless.

Flow/Fartlek workout - awesome

Tonight, we did out usually 11km fartlek workout backwards and something amazing happened. While at the running room I peeled off my running tights and decided to run bare legged. We set out running along the bike path that runs next to the canal. The speed demons took off midway through the run. Somewhere along the way they took a wrong turn while I stuck to the normal course. They would eventually catch up to me near the end of the workout and surge by. This happened at Dow's Lake. I was running at a good clip at this point and knew that if I stopped then the workout would be over. I went flying by the speed demons who were catching their breath. They didn't take nicely to me surging by. Rather than slow down, I sped up, it would take them 1,500 meters to catch me. They would surge and I would respond with a burst of speed. We surge back and forth a couple of times. My final kilometer was done in 3:42 which works out to a 5:57 mile. I didn't know I had such running speed in my legs this late in the season. It was an amazing experience to be running this fast. It sort of felt like being a pronghorn whose top speed is 61 mph (98 km/h).

Rattle Me Bones 2007

This morning I violated my Sunday morning-sleep-in rule. I got up at 6:00 am to eat breakfast for the Rattle Me Bones 10km road race. As I was leaving I could see my breath in the cold morning air. I donned a pair of REI polar fleece gloves as the temperature was 0C/32F. Once the sun had risen it started to warm up a bit but it still would be a race in chilly conditions. This is the seventh time that I have done the race and it is always an interesting experience as this year was no exception. Due to logistical problems half the racers (250) started the race without timing chips. I decided to wear a short sleeve coolmax shirt and a pair of running tights. Much of the race was done against a biting cold wind which forced most folks to run faster than normal just to keep warm. At the finish line I was in 57th out 500 finishers and with a finishing time of 42.46
1km 4.04 | 2km 4.07 | 3km 4.19 | 4km 4.15 | 5km 4.20 (21.07) | 6km 4.16 | 7km 4.23 | 8km 4.15 | 9km 4:15 | 10 km 4:17

2007 Baltimore half-marathon

Short Version

1:35:23 on a hilly course
Improved my time by 101 seconds over 2006 race
Place 150/5044

Long Version

A little over a week ago I ran in my third Baltimore half-marathon and came away very pleased with my race. I improved my personal-best for the course by 101 seconds and finished in 150th place out of 5044 finishers. In the weeks leading up to race day I was unsure about my fitness level so I went into the race not knowing where I would finish. I flew down to Baltimore on Friday morning and Jason met me at the airport. We went over to the race expo and I picked up my race package. At the expo they had a cool exhibit for horseradish cheese (http://www.cabotcheese.com/f1.php?left=menu-ourproducts.html&right=/ourproducts.html) which had a mild taste. I headed back to the hotel to unpack and to lay out my racing gear for the morning. Later in the day, Jason, Emily and I went out for a carbo-loading meal at an Indian restaurant where I ate a humongous plate of rice. After the meal we went up to John Hopkins University to take in some swing dancing. I danced less than I would have like but I didn't want to stress the legs for the big race the next morning.

I was up early on Saturday at 5:30 am. I wanted to have my breakfast fully digested by race time. It took the form of a couple of bowls of Vector cereal, a handful of bananas and some strong tea. The original plan was to do my warmup run (5km/3.1 miles) starting from the hotel and ending at the start line. At the last minute, I changed my mind as the hotel was offering a shuttle that would take you close to the start line. This was a relief. I caught the 7:00 am shuttle and quickly located the bag-check area. I spent a little while chilling before I headed over to watch the start of the marathon(a) (b). Along the way I spotted Larry-the-lighthouse who was going to run the race as a lighthouse. Once the marathoners were on their way I headed back to bag-area and munched on a Clif bar. The spurt of energy would ensure that I was fully fueled for the race. At this point time seemed to speed up as soon it was forty-five minutes before race time. I ditched my sweats and warmed up over to the start. I waded through 4700 runners before I found an opening near the first corral. At 10:45 am the siren sounded and we were off with 13.1 miles to go. The course heads south slightly before heading in a westerly direction for a couple of miles. At around the three mile mark a familiar site came into view Patterson Park. We ran down one side of the park along the bottom and the up the hill on the other side. At this point the marathoners met up with the half-marathoners. A distinguishing feature of the marathoners was a "FULL" sticker on their singlets. As we ran further and further away from the harbor we gained elevation eventually reaching one of my favourite parts of the course, Clifton Park. Clifton Park is the former estate of John Hopkins and has an eight-sided gazebo [Clifton Gate House (1887) ] (http://www.baltimorecity.gov/government/recnparks/popups/parks/clifton_park.htm) which is a relay point for the marathon.

Once past Clifton Park we ran on uncharted territory. For the past three years the bike path around Lake Montebello has been closed for construction. This year they re-introduced the mile-long loop back into the race course. This was another highlight of the race. The race does a 360 degree loop of the lake. I really enjoyed this part of the race. The next part of the course would take us along the edge of the John Hopkins University campus. I was getting close to the ten mile where my energy levels start to wane. I sucked on a caffeinated-Clif gel which gave me a surge of energy allowing me to surge by a large number of suffering participants. The final three miles are all downhill with exception of one hill that takes you over a multi-coloured bridge. Last year, this was the point where I was really suffering. This year I was able to run over the bridge with a fair amount of gusto. I did a couple of long surges over the next couple of miles. The goal was to get to the finish as quickly as possible before I ran out of energy. The final mile was fast and painful. It was also a fun mile as you run through the gates of Camden Yards, the home of the Orioles. The finish line was a welcome site. It would take me a couple hours to learn from the web that I had improved my time by 101 seconds over 2006. My third Baltimore half-marathon was a great success and I am looking forward to my forth in 2008.

Labor day weekend

My Labor day weekend was a little different this year. Normally, I would head down to my folks place or be in Algonquin Park canoeing. This year I got the canoeing done a couple of days early so I headed back to Ottawa. Scott and his family were in town for the weekend so we hooked up for our usual run. We are both training for a half-marathon but at different intensities and so we went for a 1:40 run at my race pace which left me feeling sore for a couple of days. Midway through the workout I got a wicked blister on the bottom of my foot but was able to put a layer of 3M micropore tape on it afterwards but it was painful for a couple of days. We both enjoyed the run as it gave us a chance to catch on what is happening in our various lives and with our families. Afterwards, we had a BBQ at his sister's place. Scott's sister works for the same company that I do but we work in different part of the city.

My interval workout tonight was a challenging one. It took the form of 6*1km on 30s rest. I had been chugging coffee for much of the day which left me a little dehydrated at workout time. (4.01/4.11/4.02/4.13/4.16) I was nominally pleased with the workout but wished that I had run faster but then is always the next workout on the horizon.

Research finished. Hooray!

A couple of entries ago I talked about the research study that I was taking part in at UOttawa. The project was to analyze the thermal stress that a miner would experience during the course of a normal day. As the mines get deeper and deeper in the ground the conditions get hotter and hotter. The research involved three exercise sessions at 25C/77F, 30C/86F and 40C/104F. In all cases the humidity was at 20% so sweat would evaporate. Each session had three parts, the setup, the exercise and the unpacking. All of the exercise sessions were done on a recumbent bicycle in a calorimeter which is a highly climate controlled environment. Getting ready for each session took about 20 minutes. I had four skin temperature sensors on my back and legs. Internally, I had a tympanic (ear), esophageal (nose/throat) and a third one somewhere else. On my back I had a sweat capsule that would measure my sweat rate. Around my chest I had a heart monitor strap and a blood pressure cuff on my arm. On my other arm I had a blood flow sensor that would measure blood flow by shining a laser beam into one of my blood vessels. Finally, I wore a mask that would monitor my breathing rate, oxygen-carbon dioxide ratio and bunch of other breathing measures. One I was all connected up I would spend an hour in the chamber doing nothing. It was a good time to catch up on babble. I would take blood pressure and heart rate measures every 15 minutes. At the end of the hour I would cycle for 90 minutes at a low resistance. The resistance would simulate the energy expenditure that a miner would experience during an average work day. At the end of the cycle, I would take heart rate and blood pressures measurement every five minutes for 30 minutes. Once the cycling was over I would sit for an hour and play babble again. The final part was doing a maximal blood flow measure. The theory is that as you sweat your body reduces blood flow to the core and sends more blood to the skin for heat radiation and sweating/evaporation. The blood flow meter would track the blood flow rate over the course of the 3.5 hours. The final part was unhooking and removing all the sensors at the end of the session. In the sessions at 25C and 30C I was exothermic as I was heating up the chamber by cycling. When cycling at 40C I was endothermic as the chamber was heating me up as it was a couple of degrees warmer than my body temperature. In all the sessions my heart rate and blood pressure were slightly elevated and the only time I sweated was when cycling at 40C. I had initially that that working out at 40C would be a challenge but under a low humidity was quite pleasant. The researcher will be sending me a summary of the results in a couple of days so I will post the findings.

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.

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.

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.

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.