Building A Better Bumblebee

nkrichards wrote:Good to hear that the household is getting back to normal and that you were able to get back out there.

A short outing is better than no outing at all.  The fitness will return.

Thanks, Nancy! It was nice to get outside. I gave myself plenty of rest breaks to take photos.

Like...


This one.


This one..



And this one!

I do love this time of year.  

ounce wrote:Does your HR monitor say "TILT" at greater than 170?

Nope. It says 171, 172, 173...

But I usually don't try to *really* max out my heart rate, and I can't on those little spurts running uphill. It takes more to push it up into the upper 170s and into the 180s, like a hard-run 5K. My brain says "Nah, that's enough!" and keeps me from working the extreme upper range of my abilities if I'm not racing for a PR. :

That's a smart monitor.

Hey, it looks like that last picture (very beautiful by the way) is cock eyed!  Is it that tough to take a level photo?  Or...could it be that it's not flat terrain?  

I just figured that it's flat everywhere, until you got to a mountain when the ground went straight up.

ounce wrote:That's a smart monitor.

Hey, it looks like that last picture (very beautiful by the way) is cock eyed!  Is it that tough to take a level photo?  Or...could it be that it's not flat terrain?  

I just figured that it's flat everywhere, until you got to a mountain when the ground went straight up.

Ah. I understand your confusion.

This may help:

hill
noun
noun: hill; plural noun: hills

1. a naturally raised area of land, not as high or craggy as a mountain.

synonyms: high ground, prominence, hillock, foothill, hillside, rise, mound, mount, knoll, butte, hummock, mesa; More
a sloping piece of road or trail.

"they were climbing a steep hill in low gear"

a heap or mound of something.

"a hill of sliding shingle"

synonyms: heap, pile, stack, mound, mountain, mass

"a hill of garbage"

2. A "mountain" in Texas.

Thanks for that, Mark.  Our highest peak in Texas is taller (and a lot easier to climb) than Half Dome.  There are a few of them in West Texas.  Otherwise, they're hills.  We also (there's a test later on this) have the 2nd biggest canyon in the US at Palo Duro Canyon in the panhandle.

Will the teenager get to rake those leaves?

ounce wrote:Thanks for that, Mark.  Our highest peak in Texas is taller (and a lot easier to climb) than Half Dome.  There are a few of them in West Texas.  Otherwise, they're hills.  We also (there's a test later on this) have the 2nd biggest canyon in the US at Palo Duro Canyon in the panhandle.

Will the teenager get to rake those leaves?

Wow! You have a hill that's 8,839 feet high? I figured that sort of prominence was reserved for high school football stadiums. 

I don't think I could afford to pay the teenager to rake that much..

Mark B wrote:

ounce wrote:Thanks for that, Mark.  Our highest peak in Texas is taller (and a lot easier to climb) than Half Dome.  There are a few of them in West Texas.  Otherwise, they're hills.  We also (there's a test later on this) have the 2nd biggest canyon in the US at Palo Duro Canyon in the panhandle.

Will the teenager get to rake those leaves?

Wow! You have a hill that's 8,839 feet high? I figured that sort of prominence was reserved for high school football stadiums. 

I don't think I could afford to pay the teenager to rake that much..

Oops. 8,749 feet.  They're trying to make them that tall.

ounce wrote:

Mark B wrote:

ounce wrote:Thanks for that, Mark.  Our highest peak in Texas is taller (and a lot easier to climb) than Half Dome.  There are a few of them in West Texas.  Otherwise, they're hills.  We also (there's a test later on this) have the 2nd biggest canyon in the US at Palo Duro Canyon in the panhandle.

Will the teenager get to rake those leaves?

Wow! You have a hill that's 8,839 feet high? I figured that sort of prominence was reserved for high school football stadiums. 

I don't think I could afford to pay the teenager to rake that much..

Oops. 8,749 feet.  They're trying to make them that tall.

Oh, hey! Guadalupe Peak!



It's practically in New Mexico, but if I was from Texas, I'd claim it too.

Those photos are beautiful.  Now if I had trails like that around here, I might run them more often.  Ours are either wide and barked or graveled (which I dislike) or very, very technical.

As far as hills in Texas, I've run in Austin and it wasn't flat.  I have also been to Palo Duro canyon - certainly not flat.

Mark B wrote:

ounce wrote:

Mark B wrote:

ounce wrote:Thanks for that, Mark.  Our highest peak in Texas is taller (and a lot easier to climb) than Half Dome.  There are a few of them in West Texas.  Otherwise, they're hills.  We also (there's a test later on this) have the 2nd biggest canyon in the US at Palo Duro Canyon in the panhandle.

Will the teenager get to rake those leaves?

Wow! You have a hill that's 8,839 feet high? I figured that sort of prominence was reserved for high school football stadiums. 

I don't think I could afford to pay the teenager to rake that much..

Oops. 8,749 feet.  They're trying to make them that tall.

Oh, hey! Guadalupe Peak!



It's practically in New Mexico, but if I was from Texas, I'd claim it too.

Also looks like this:

Guadalupe Peak is behind El Capitan.  The first photo is a shot of El Capitan from Guadalupe Peak.  At ground level, El Capitan is mistaken for Guadalupe Peak.  New Mexico has Sandia Peak.

Michele \"1L" Keane wrote:Those photos are beautiful.  Now if I had trails like that around here, I might run them more often.  Ours are either wide and barked or graveled (which I dislike) or very, very technical.

As far as hills in Texas, I've run in Austin and it wasn't flat.  I have also been to Palo Duro canyon - certainly not flat.

I know, Michele. I was just engaging in a little recreational regional rivalry. And I learned at Tecumseh, Indiana, a few years ago that "little" hills -- especially steep 100-200 foot climbs repeated over and over and over and over and over -- can do a terrific job of turning your legs to jelly. Maybe even better than a single grind up a monster 1,000-foot mountainside.

And I'm very fortunate to live where I do. Those trails are only a mile and half from my front door. It's got a good mix of terrain from rolling to steep and surfaces from fairly tame gravel-and-dirt to muddy singletrack. I used to drive over to Portland to run in Forest Park, but in most ways, this is just as good or better.

If you ever make it out this way, I'd be happy to take you there. (Way better than llama viewing.)

ounce wrote:Guadalupe Peak is behind El Capitan.  The first photo is a shot of El Capitan from Guadalupe Peak.  At ground level, El Capitan is mistaken for Guadalupe Peak.  New Mexico has Sandia Peak.

Now that's a more impressive set of photos, Ounce. I'm impressed! It looks like a fun climb, too.

Cool geologic history, too. That's an ancient reef way up there!

Someday, Mark - I will get back out there especially since I still need to run a marathon out there - or at least a half in Washington.  I'm beginning to realize that I'll never get 50 marathons in 50 states, and although I ran XC Nationals outside Seattle, I'm not counting it since the distance is only 6K.  However, since I've run Cascade Run Off and HTC (4x), I think I can count Oregon for now.

Michele \"1L" Keane wrote:Someday, Mark - I will get back out there especially since I still need to run a marathon out there - or at least a half in Washington.  I'm beginning to realize that I'll never get 50 marathons in 50 states, and although I ran XC Nationals outside Seattle, I'm not counting it since the distance is only 6K.  However, since I've run Cascade Run Off and HTC (4x), I think I can count Oregon for now.

Well, if it helps, it seems they've moved the Vancouver USA Marathon to September now.

Looks like an elaborate patch quilt.
---
The below map of the Seattle area was representative of the current topography skills and wild ocean life in 2015.

ounce wrote:
Looks like an elaborate patch quilt.

Nice! The map of the West Coast has a similar look, since much of it was seamounts and volcanos scraped off the ocean floor as the North American Plate ground its way west over the millennia like a giant bulldozer. Throw in some flood basalts, volcanic fields and ranges and the alluvial and erratic remnants of Ice Age floods, and this area is a geomorphologist's dream!

I wonder if they had flood insurance during the Ice Age floods?

ounce wrote:I wonder if they had flood insurance during the Ice Age floods?

Boy, I hope so. Have you ever heard of them? They were amazingly huge. They're also known as the Missoula Floods, in an odd spirit of apocalyptic civic pride.



The floodwaters scalloped out much of eastern Washington, gouged out the Columbia River Gorge and flooded the Willamette Valley and where I live, leaving flood deposits hundreds of feet thick, including directly under where I am right now. It would have been something to see -- from several thousand feet up, or from space. On the ground? Not so much.

Hey Mark, I don't have time to catch up on your blog but just wanted to say Hi.

So, Hi.

T Miller wrote:Hey Mark, I don't have time to catch up on your blog but just wanted to say Hi.

So, Hi.

:waves:

Mark B wrote:

T Miller wrote:Hey Mark, I don't have time to catch up on your blog but just wanted to say Hi.

So, Hi.

:waves:

All the rich content Mark slaved over and the vast attempts at comic relief that I wrote over 14 pages and Tim didn't want to read it??????

He is truly wise.

ounce wrote:

Mark B wrote:

T Miller wrote:Hey Mark, I don't have time to catch up on your blog but just wanted to say Hi.

So, Hi.

:waves:

All the rich content Mark slaved over and the vast attempts at comic relief that I wrote over 14 pages and Tim didn't want to read it??????

He is truly wise.

Low HR Run: ~60 minutes (4.67 miles)

Weather: Partly cloudy, muggy, mild. 54° Gear: Topos, shorts, T, jacket (shed halfway in)

A nice day in a month of rainy ones. (We set a rainfall record for October as of yesterday.) I went out with plans to do about 60 minutes in the country. It seems short, but that's where my fitness is right now.

I was happy to see that I could keep my HR mostly under control in the first half of the run. Things got a little more difficult on the return trip, and I had to walk my HR down a few times. It's so weird when your brain thinks you've got more than your body is ready to deliver.

Anyway, it was a pretty morning with lots of colorful trees, blue sky and sunshine. I'm not complaining.

Walked first and last 5 minutes. Average HR for entire run: 133

Mark B wrote:

ounce wrote:

Mark B wrote:

T Miller wrote:Hey Mark, I don't have time to catch up on your blog but just wanted to say Hi.

So, Hi.

:waves:

All the rich content Mark slaved over and the vast attempts at comic relief that I wrote over 14 pages and Tim didn't want to read it??????

He is truly wise.

Hey...we had a visitor.  How nice.  This would have been the blog to read.  Not only does it keep you up to date on your training but it also includes health advice (flu shot anyone), frequent anatomy lessons, shoe reviews, trail recommendations (with photos), and the most recently added geology and geography lessons. 

Glad to see that you were able to get out there on one of those rare nice days.  60 minutes sounds pretty impressive given your training interruptions recently.  Glad you enjoyed it.

nkrichards wrote:

Mark B wrote:

ounce wrote:

Mark B wrote:

T Miller wrote:Hey Mark, I don't have time to catch up on your blog but just wanted to say Hi.

So, Hi.

:waves:

All the rich content Mark slaved over and the vast attempts at comic relief that I wrote over 14 pages and Tim didn't want to read it??????

He is truly wise.

Hey...we had a visitor.  How nice.  This would have been the blog to read.  Not only does it keep you up to date on your training but it also includes health advice (flu shot anyone), frequent anatomy lessons, shoe reviews, trail recommendations (with photos), and the most recently added geology and geography lessons. 

Glad to see that you were able to get out there on one of those rare nice days.  60 minutes sounds pretty impressive given your training interruptions recently.  Glad you enjoyed it.

Aw, shucks, Nancy... Thanks! At least I'm an equal-opportunity pontificator.

It was very nice out today. I know, I probably should have done less, but you know how that goes. 

And it was very nice that Tim stopped by! Perhaps he'll pay another visit one of these days. We can roll out the welcome mat.

Birthday Shoes Run: 5,300 meters (3.29 miles)

Weather: Overcast, scattered light rain. 53° Gear: Bare feet, shorts, long-sleeved T, jacket, hat.

Out to celebrate my birthday with my traditional "birthday shoes" run. I didn't want to take the time to do 5.3 miles (and I don't think my bare feet are up to that distance), so I opted for 5.3 kilometers. I even switched my Garmin over to metric to make sure I got it just right! It was drizzly much of the time, but the temperature played along and rose to 53 degrees while I was out there.

I love it when a plan comes together.

The run itself was good. I didn't do it low HR style, but by feel. My legs wanted to go in the low to mid-10s, so I obliged.

Average HR: 146. Max: 158 (I think that was a strap error)