Leonids

Tonight the Leonid meter show is underway. However, it won't be a big show this year due to the moonlight, and low density of the comet's stream. It will probably be null all the way out here in the westerly west with that darn tootin Pyramid downtown blasting the sky with light. You never know though when you might see a fireball and those are totally worth it.

I was talking to a friend a couple of days ago and timely enough we stumbled onto our memories of going out into a big field in po dunk Florida to watch the shower till dawn. It was a very peaceful night. I tried to watch some last year, but it was just so cold that night in Nebraska. Other times, it was just too cloudy out. I forget which year it was maybe 2001, but that was amazing. If only I had the digital cameras of now back then.

In 2002 I spent all night gazing and got 1 decent pic. I took like 4 rolls of film that night. Why film? No digital sensor I had could have a long enough exposure without severe noise. So film was the ticket. I got a lot of black pictures back that day. hahaha

Spaceweather still has my submission up. It's funny because looking at this pic, you think "that's it?!!" But when I think of all the time and planning I put into this one little picture, it was a huge success to get this one image right before dawn broke out. So many times in the night you would see what seemed like a big and colorful streak and wonder..did I get it? Nope..you got nuttin but stars.

http://www.spaceweather.com/meteors/images/19nov02_page6/p1.jpg

Recovery Runs

About 2 weeks ago, I ran another half marathon at Red Rock Canyon. It was a good strong week with 30 miles for the week capping off my first ever 100+ miles in one month. I used my Garmin gps unit for geocaching in a cheap ipod arm case to give me my running details. It worked well. My previous run at RRC was 4 weeks earlier and that run kicked my ass. This run seemed to have ended well with nipple chafe averted from the chilly wind by changing into under armor. There was no doubt though that I was tired and ready to stop when I got back to my truck. The last mile was creaky!

3 days later I was still really sore. My ankles, calves, knees...what the heck happened? My run 2 weeks prior at the mountain left me refreshed in comparison. I thought about it a lot and there was nothing that really stood out as to why I would be so sore after this run. Rockier terrain? Hotter temp? Too many miles?

Regardless of the cause, it was a mental minus for me. So the following week was about getting in quick short runs that felt good and left me with mental pluses. I still called it a recovery week however you put it. 5 days of running without soreness, and I was feeling much better, but I skipped a long run that week. Then I got sick and took another 4 days off, which seemed like forever. Heck, the last time I went 4 days in a row was back in April. I'm lucky I've not injured myself to have to rest for weeks at a time.

Getting right back out there, Liz suggested we take Veteran's Day and go run at Red Rock Canyon. I said of course, even though I now had this irrational idea that RRC has it out for me. We ran a little over 5 miles that morning at a nice and easy pace. This was good though because it gave me a positive run at RRC. Later that night, I had just a tiny bit of quad pain, but nothing that wouldn't be considered out of the possibility of normal.

The next morning, I decided to head back out to the mountain and get in a decent 6 or 7 mile run there. It had been 5 weeks since I'd last been to Bristlecone trail which is a tough trail to run for me due to the elevation and steepness of the ascents/descents. I was still thinking of this as an extended recovery week though. I didn't plan on pushing myself too hard on this run.

Bristlecone had a bit of a surprise for me though in the form of snow and mudd. I knew it would be colder up here now with prolly some spots of snow. I even went out and got some new pearl izumi fleece arm sleeves to test out in the cool weather. Those worked really well too. I likee! However, some parts of the trail had a good couple of inches of snow. I had to be really careful and walk in many areas especially on the mud. It's crazy running downhill and seeing snow kick off in front of me. I was pleased that even though my shoes are not goretex, they held off moisture well enough. I only saw one couple hiking with their two dogs the whole time I was out there. It's just never a trail run unless I see dogs!

I got back to my truck and noticed a dog had peed on my truck tire. Made me laugh. But once in my truck, I realized that my camera was like a block of ice! The back side of the mountain was in shadow and was fairly cold, prolly right around 40 or little colder. It was a good slow run though. Later that night, I felt fine as could be. Red Rock still has some mean mojo to it I think. It won't be long before I go back. Gotta tame that beast! I'm kidding, you can't tame mother nature, you can only adapt to her.

Here are some pics from my snowy run!



Where's the trail dude!


Clean fresh air babee!


Still lovin these cheapo NB 572s!


I don't need a stinkin tripod! A snowy rock will do. Liz says I look insane!

Ruff!

There are more ninja dogs in my neighborhood! Look carefully and you'll see the ninja in training too.

I really had to say Woof to get the dog to look at me. I think he telepathically said his name was Ed!!

RRC Panos

I've been fighting off a cold since Thursday. Scorecards are not in my favor today. I'll post some pics from my Red Rock Canyon run last week.

The first pic is made up of 4 pics which is really overdoing it because this stretch of rocks is just too big. It's hard to get a sense of scale without a person being in the pic, but you can see a trail on the lower right and get a bit of an idea.

This is just two pics. You can see the sandstone rock section behind the red rocks here, but I had to turn round at this point and it looked pretty nice.

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Endurance Blenders

First off, congrats are in order to my friend Marcro who completed his first Ironman in Panama City the other day. I used to be his official race photographer and captured his efforts in his first days of triathlons. I'm sure deep down this has been a goal of his for many years, so to see it finally come to reality is huge. In contrast, I ran for a little over an hour yesterday and thought, "Now imagine swimming for that long!". That just made me laugh because I know I would've been dead an hour earlier :)

I watched the ING New York City marathon today. I know, watching running is officially entering the nerd realm of running, but I had to see if Meb Keflezighi could defend his title. This was not to be though as he placed 6th. The winner of the men's race was Ethiopian Gebre Gebremariam. I believe this was his first ever marathon. Impressive! As was first ever marathon for Shalane Flanagan of the US in the womens race who placed 2nd. Nothing but inspiration going on in New York today.

In the regular world of regularness, I finally killed the cheap blender we've had for years. It's not too often when an appliance breaks and my wife smiles. So we finally got to Bed Bath & Beyond to get a new one. You know their discount coupons never expire? We ended up with a new Kitchen Aid blender for 100 bucks. If it's as good as their mixer though, it should make some mean smoothies for years to come.

While in BBB, my daughter pleaded with me to sit in the Sharper Image massage chair. Ok Ok Ok Ok already. I sat down and it was on lower back, shiatsu, heat setting. My face instantly changed after about 10 seconds. Then I looked side to side as if I was suddenly being watched! This was feeling really good. Asa then wanted me to switch into the other chair. I told her NO! Daddy is busy!

The last time I sat in a 'massage chair' was in an actual Sharper Image store some 20 years ago (sniff) I was sooo not impressed. So I'd never sat in one since. All of a sudden I was giddy over this massage cushion. Liz then says maybe we should get a recliner and put that pad in it. I think I tilted my head up as I envisioned myself going on a secret journey of whahhhgaaahhh. If you're confused by that just think of Homer Simpson salivating about a donut. I predict a strong chance of self indulgent shiatsu massages in my future!

The 5th of November!

I´m not the biggest Daft Punk fan out there. If I were, I would have seen their movie Electroma, which I'm still curious about. So, I finally remembered to find their new music video related to the new Tron movie coming out, and found myself watching a bunch of Daft Punk videos. The new Tron footage looks really good too. I can only hope the script and direction will be something above average. I have hope for the fresh new director though.

Anyway, I found this video bit from Electroma with Kill Bill music. I love the music from KB so that makes watching the whole sequence pretty easy. However, there's good use of tension, and the lack of facial expression allows one to project their own feelings. At the very end, I thought it was perhaps a commentary on how we have a tendency to destroy things in our lives and turn right back around rebuilding them. Always trying to get back to some point before maybe? Meh, I could be making a sculpture out of a piece of mud too.

Hello Ubuntu

I was telling my friend that I wussed out and made my pc dual boot just in case I needed windows for something. What??.... I have no clue!

Needless to say switching operating systems is never easy. I think I have the oldest computer out of anyone I know. I used to be so cutting edge! Minus the days I thought Windows 3.1 was never going to leave my screen. Anyway, I´ve been saying I was going to get on the linux train for a while now. It´s about time perhaps.

It´s been a busy last week with Halloween, my Friday run in the canyon, and dental shananigans (love that word). Hopefully, I´ll get some pics processed later this week and post´em up.