Canoeing and water

No matter where I am, water is usually nearby. When I was growing up my parents would take for walks along the Welland Canal. During the summer, we would swim in Lakes Ontario and Erie. Later on, I would row and sail on Lake Ontario. I have good memories of sailing on Lake Ontario. Fast forward, a couple of years, as I currently live close to the Ottawa River. In the warm weather, I swim and row in the Ottawa and Rideau Rivers. It seems that I'm always close to water.

Every year my father and I and occasionally, one of his fellow scientists will go canoeing and portaging in Algonquin Park. This year the dynamics will be a little different. My father has a scientist visiting from Bulgaria and Ohio this year. This presents a bit of a problems as you can only safely fit three people in a canoe. We had two options, one which I was more comfortable with than the other. We could take a solo canoe and a large 17 footer. I would be in the solo canoe and my father would pilot the larger one. The other option is two take two 15 footers. I would pilot one and father would pilot the other. Piloting a canoe can be a lot of fun but tricky at times when you want to travel in a straight line for an extended distance. The secret is to have a good "J" stroke. Even though the trip is a couple of months away I want to impress my father with my canoemanship. The local outfitter runs remedial canoeing course on the Ottawa River near where I live. Today, I signed up for one of there upcoming courses. At this time of year, the Ottawa River is still quite frigid. So, I don't think they will be teaching us capsizing skills. With these soon to be acquired canoeing skills I hope that the trip will be a success and that I can take some of my friends on future canoeing trips into Algonquin Park.

Google Analytics

One thing that most bloggers are curious about is many people read their blog and possibly a little about the viewers. There are a variety of tools that a blogger can use to find out information. Some websites are free and others charge for this service. Jason talked about a data source that provided information about visitors to his site in this entry. I have been using Google Analytics for a little while and learning very gradually the capabilties of the software. I also use it to keep track of visits to my brother's website. Google Analytics recently came out recently with a beta version of the software which is more powerful and richer than the earlier versions. I stumbled on the new beta version by mistake but look forward to exploring its capabilities.

Sore!

There are some advantages to blogging after a interval workout rather than before. After the workout I can report on how it went, how I feel and what my times were. Last night, it was 5x1km intervals on 30 seconds rest. (3.45/4.00/3.54/4.08/3.58) Every second intervals is slower because we have run the hill. By Ottawa standards, it was a warm night 75F/24C and the first one we have had this year. I was drenched with sweat before the workout. How do I feel? I feel a little dazed but my powerbar and chocolate milk are keeping my upright before I head over to Subway for a meal. I was pleased with the workout as my dismal workout on Monday helped me run well tonight. The swimming workouts that I'm doing for cross-training as strengthening my core and upper body. One more week of intervals and then it will be time to rest before the half-marathon race.

I fit!

It has been windy the last couple of days and I decided to wait for the wind to die down before following the instructions on my new tent, “Assemble your tent at home before doing so during a storm in the wilderness.” Late yesterday, the wind had died down so I headed over to a nearby field to assemble my tent for the first time. I connected the poles together until they formed a lattice and then inserted then into the corner slots. I next clipped the hooks onto the poles and the tent was up. It uses the same ideas as Jason’s tent so I used some tricks I learned from the Shenandoah trip. The fly has some Velcro fasteners that attach it to the poles. I opened up the vent at the top to get some air circulating in the inside. The final step was to attach the footprint to the tent. I did the next operation with a bit of apprehension, that is, to get into the tent. Why the apprehension? I’m a little over six feet tall and finding things to fit my long frame is always a challenge. I laid down in the tent and saw that I could position myself in three configuration, left diagonal, straight-down and right diagonal. The left diagonal position didn’t work as my head brushed against the door. The straight-down position was a little better. The right diagonal position was the best as it gave me a couple of inches of space near my feet as well as near my head. It was a big relief when I discovered that the tent would fit my long legs. The tent ships with a set of six guy ropes which I think are used to hold open the vestibule and other parts of the tent. I’m going to have to get Jason’s advice as where to attach the other ropes as the REI tents share similar designs. My next task is to get a lightweight sleeping bag that I can use over the summer months. I think that the “down” sleeping bag I use in the fall/winter is too warm for summer hiking.

New tent...

Today, I got a notice in the mail to say that my new REI tent (http://www.rei.com/product/731428) was at the post office for me to pickup. Last week, I was trying to think about the first thing I would do with my tent. There is a grassy patch near where I live so, I'm going to setup the tent and see how it all goes together as well as to try out the footprint. The tent comes at a great time as I have a couple of trips in the future where it will come in handy.

REI has a 20% off sale for the next week which is sweet! One thing that would have been handy on the Shenandoah hiking trip is a camelback to slide into the top of my backpack. There are a couple of configurations that I'm looking at, (http://www.rei.com/product/733683) and (http://www.rei.com/product/749987).

Final set of intervals...

Tonight, I do my final set of 1,000 meter intervals. We'll do four intervals on 30 seconds rest. Next week, we will do five and the week after we will do six. The 30 second rest will make for a tough and painful workout as the body will not have a chance to recover between the intervals.

I'll do my second half-marathon of the year at the end of the month and it will act as a good benchmark to see how my training has progressed over the winter/spring months.

Shenandoah Hiking trip - Part 3 of 3

The following is a travel log of my hiking trip in the Shenandoah National Park, in Virginia.

Part 3 of 3

Day 5 - Monday April 23 2007

Once again the day started off with the warm sun shining through the tent. I was up early and decided to air out all my gear that was starting to get a little damp from its constant use. It would be a day spent drying things out, relaxing and doing a bit of exploring. After a meal of Tang and oatmeal we hiked up to the rocks to the middle of the upper falls. We had some fun getting wet and dunking our body and clothing in the falls. This picture is of Jason and Emily hiking down the falls back to camp. We broke camp late morning and continued our trek east until reaching the lower falls at which point we started to ascend in a northerly direction. Our lunch stop was at one of the falls along the trail. It was cool eating lunch in the shadow of a mist and breeze coming off the falls. Our stamina would be tested during the next part of the hike as it would be all uphill to Appalachian trail. We sought some relief at a mountain fed spring. It was a relief when we reached the softly undulating Appalachian trail. We would hike the Appalachian Trail back to Jason car and it was a pleasure to hike along. We took this group picture along the Appalachian Trail. Once back at the car we loaded our gear into Jason's car and drove to Emily's car. Once at Blackrock gap we took some final pictures of Jason and Chris. Our next stop would be Outback Steakhouse for a filling meal after a couple of days out in the hinterland. The crab cakes and shrimp was a great way to start off the meal. Our main course was a thick and juicy steak.

Day 6 - Tuesday April 24 2007

I started the day off early and once again had a hot breakfast in the hotel. While eating breakfast I booked the hotel shuttle to drop me off in the Inner Harbor. I left the hotel wearing long pants but quickly zipped into shorts as it was going to be another hot day. As I was nearing the World Trade Center I spotted something that I had wanted to see and that is, an R2D2 USPS mail box. I stopped in at Borders to see if they had any Shenandoah hiking books but they were all out of stock. It was great to survey the construction in the Inner Harbor and take note of some new condos being built along the waterfront. I slowly walked along the waterfront stopping an sporting goods store with hopes of getting some Timbuk2 gear and may be a Patagonia top but ended up getting a travel t-shirt and underwear. While shopping my folks called and I was able to relay what a great trip I had and to catch up on news at home. My next stop would be Canton, where I stopped in at Safeway to load up on some last minute groceries. It was then back to the hotel to load up the large backpack for the last time. Jason and Adam met me at noon and we went for lunch at Rosina's Gourmet. It is sort of a tradition to go for lunch at Rosina's. After lunch, Jason dropped me off at the airport and I started my journey south to Atlanta, Georgia before heading north a little while later up to Ottawa. It was a really great long weekend. I hope that we can make hiking in the Shenandoah National Park an annual tradition.