markc7

This is the part of my training cycle called the taper, in which I do very little activity in the two weeks leading up to an ultramarathon race. Here is the race website. Looks kinda fun and a bit nutty, right? I'm doing the 24-hour solo run along with a couple dozen other people. The course is a 10km trail, which will be a lot more fun than the last 24-hour race I did (on a 400m track!) In the meantime, I plan to do a leg workout today or tomorrow, a short (1 hour) night run on Friday, and maybe one more trip to the gym next week. But for the most part I'm just kicking back and trying to relax.

Welcome aboard!

Welcome aboard!

Welcome aboard!

Welcome aboard!

http://dsc.discovery.com/space/qa/alien-ufo-edgar-mitchell.html Seriously though, believing that some kind of conspiracy has covered up evidence of aliens/UFOs requires one to believe that governments are much more competent than they really are.

Welcome aboard! I tried bouldering a couple days ago and was terrible at it, but I can see how it would be lots of fun with practice.

I'm hardcore enough. Bane was in a couple of the cartoons, and he was also in the unspeakably bad George Clooney Batman movie. In the movie he was just some mindless monster who acted as Poison Ivy's bodyguard; in the comics he was one of the few villains other than the Joker who could do real damage to Batman. In the story "Knight Fall", he actually cripples Batman. He's a very cool character. In some versions she does. I suppose that if they were to wedge her into one of these movies, they could do it realistically. Talia Al Ghul is Ra's Al Ghul's daughter. Her and Batman have a weird love hate relationship. She's extremely loyal to her father, but is also in love with Batman and she knows his secret identity. In the comics, they have a child together. It would be a tough line to walk in a movie, but I think it would be cool. I agree. In the movies and comics I actually like the character of Bruce Wayne as much as I like Batman, it's a shame that we saw him so rarely in this one.

Welcome aboard!

I would buy one of those.

Yesterday I did a long run in Gatineau Park. I had been planning this run for a long time, and now that I'm leaving Ottawa soon I decided it was my last chance to do this run. The plan was to explore some of the more remote and interesting parts of the park that I hadn't visited before. I'm going to let the pictures do the talking here. Me at the very start of the run. 8:30am Saturday at the college in Hull. http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/markc7/00001a-1.jpg About 12km in. This is a part of the park that I know like the back of my hand. http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/markc7/00006a.jpg A nice view of the Ottawa Valley http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/markc7/00007a.jpg At Meech Lake http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/markc7/00011a.jpg Meech lake http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/markc7/00012a-1.jpg I almost stepped on this little guy! He was standing so still that I didn't even notice him until I had to jump out of this way. http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/markc7/00013a.jpg Going down this hill was fun, but I knew that I had to go back up and over. http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/markc7/00017a.jpg About 2km from Wakefield, this was the furthest north that I reached on my run. http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/markc7/00021a.jpg Running in Gatineau Park you get lots of glimpses of lakes through the trees. http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/markc7/00022a-1.jpg I made it to Lake Phillipe, a popular camping area, about 45-50 km into the run. http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/markc7/00024a.jpg If anyone ever tells you that going spelunking in the middle of an all day run is a bad idea, tell them to bring it up with me. http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/markc7/00025a.jpg I was prepared with a headlamp and two flashlights. Other cavers has less foresight, and I had to share my lights with them. http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/markc7/00027a.jpg Inside Lusk Cavern. It may look like there is lots of light, but a large portion of the cavern is complete darkness http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/markc7/00030a.jpg The last time I was in here was five years ago, and the cave has become noticeably different in that time. For much of the way through, you are in chest deep water. http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/markc7/00035a.jpg The exit from Lusk Cavern. How did my camera stay dry? http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/markc7/00043a.jpg Mud. http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/markc7/00044a.jpg Lusk Lake. Yesterday, I had it all to myself. http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/markc7/00045a.jpg http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/markc7/00047a.jpg I almost cried when I saw this at the side of the road near the Taylor Lake campsite. I was thirsty from trying to conserve water, and I knew that I was starting to run low. But I didn't know how low I actually was. When I started to refill my bottles and my backpack, I realized that I had less than a cup of water left. http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/markc7/00048a.jpg This was the moment that I decided to cut my run a bit short. I had lots of water with me from the tap, but the damage was already done. I had covered 70-75km, and was very happy with my day. But I was exhausted and didn't want to spend the night in the park. http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/markc7/00049a.jpg I reached a road about 2km from here and hitched to Eardley, then from there to Aylmer. Note to self, Highway 148 is a lousy place to ride the thumb. I caught a bus from there back to the city, and arrived home around 8:30. My feet were in pretty good shape despite being soaked and shriveled up, but my back was red and raw from the bouncing of my hydration pack. I literally screamed when the water from the shower hit my back. All in all, it was a pretty great time. Here is a map of my approximate route: http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/markc7/GPrun.png

Of those mentioned I would like to see any of these three (not in any order of preference, though) -- Mr. Whisper (Who for this role? Anthony Hopkins?); 5-Zsasz (never heard of him, but very creepy!); and Black Mask (Who?) Also would like to see a kickass woman villain created...or is there another one I don't know aside from Cat Woman? I would like to see Bane; to me he's up there with the Joker in terms of real threats to Batman. The other name missing from the list is The Great White Shark. He's a great character and would perfectly fit the mood of these movies (read "Arkham Asylum: Living Hell" and "Face to Face" to know what I mean). Poison Ivy probably can't be done because she has actual superpowers that wouldn't fit well with the more realistic movies. I love Harley Quinn and she's by far the most interesting female villain, but she can't be in a movie unless the Joker is there too. Talia Al Ghul would make a kick ass villian and also romantic interest, and would tie the third movie to the first one really well. She might be the only villianess that would actually work.

Crazy long trail run in the park today. Pics and story soon. Now I need to sleep.

Welcome aboard!

Thanks! I'm very happy with how it went. Now i kinda wish there were more 10-mile races around town. This afternoon medman and I went for a 7ish km run. It was cloudy out and started raining partway through which was nice and cool. I was still a bit tired out from the race yesterday, so the pace was fairly moderate.

1. During the summer the gym is empty except for grad students and some summer student 2. I have almost never had to wait for a treadmill 3. I rarely have to wait for the squat rack 4. Pool, sauna, basketball, squash, wall climbing, aerobics studio, etc in the same building 5. Tons of exercise bikes, for some reason 6. Mirrors, but not too many 7. Personal trainers charge 20$/hour and aren't on commission 8. There is another gym close by on campus when this one isn't open 9. Free for students and faculty 10. 30 seconds away from my office

The no-frills 10-miler is a small event put on by the local running club. The name says it all; nothing but water at the aid stations, no t-shirt, no timing chip, no big prizes. Just a measured course and a stopwatch. The course consisted of three laps of 5.33km each through the Central Experimental Farm. There were a few minor ups and downs but the course was flat for the most part. This was the first run I've ever done that started in the evening and I've never done a 10 mile race before so this was going to be a learning experience for me. The start of the race was as low key as you would expect from a race like this. Around 100 of us toed the line. The RD gave announcements for less than a minute, then just yelled “Go!” I ran the first lap with my friend Mark, who is generally a little bit faster than me. We were both feeling good as we came back to the finish line in around 27:30, which put us on pace for a decent finishing time of 1:22:30. I wanted to push myself a little bit, so in the second lap I slowly pulled away from Mark. He held a very even pace throughout the whole race, but I gradually sped up and started picking off other runners. By the end of the second lap (54:11; 26:40 lap time), I had passed at least ten other runners. In the last lap I was starting to get tired but I knew that if I held my pace I could finish close to my goal of 1:20. Near the start of the last lap I passed a former running buddy. I said “Hi Luc! Remember me? I'm the ultrarunner, we used to run together”. He kind of nodded but without any recognition. Later on, as I ran towards him on an out and back portion of the course, he said to me “Hey! I remember! Ultraman!”. Other runners were having a hard time as well, and I continued to pass people up until the very last km. In the last couple hundred meters, I tried to chase down one last runner. We took turns surging and holding each other off, but in the end he had a little bit more in the tank than I did. He finished three or four seconds ahead of me. I crossed the finish line in 1:20:3x (around 27:00 for the final lap). Mark finished just over a minute behind me. We stuck around for the awards, and I got a coolmax t-shirt as a draw prize. All in all, it was a great race and I hope to do some more races of this distance in the future.

Welcome!

Welcome aboard!

1:20:3x I'm very happy with my time. It was a great race. Report tomorrow.

Wow, great job! that sounds like a really fun race. I've always wanted to do an uphill race like this or Mt Washington Road Race, or Pikes Peak. Ever thought of doing that one?

I've got a race coming up today. It's a 10 miler at 6:30pm I've never raced this distance and I've never raced in the evening. Well, I've never started a race in the evening. I hate 10k's, but I love the half marathon distance, so I might really enjoy running 16km or I might really hate it. We'll see. Also it's a multi-lap course, 3 x 5.33km, which will make for an interesting experience. Weather is cloudy and cool, and it looks like rain. I'll go out on a limb and make a prediction of 1 hour 19 minutes.

This evening I went wall climbing with a couple friends for about two hours. It was pretty fun. I have great upper body strength, but zero technique. So I climb very inefficiently, wasting energy hanging by my hands while my legs just kinda flail around. But it was a good time nonetheless.

Welcome aboard!

I've given blood over 30 times, and it's something that I'm very proud of. Although I am a little disappointed in myself that I haven't done it more times. I've been donating since I was 17 and should have over 60 donations by now, but things often get in the way. I have O-neg blood which makes me the universal donor; my blood can be given to anyone. It's actually quite an enjoyable experience and I've never had any problems with training or recovery. I usually take the day off of training, although on occasion I've run before or afterwards. I'm going to make an appointment for next week.