record APFT, 294 points

What I listened to on the way in: mewithoutYou, "January 1979"

The eventual two-mile run mantra: mewithoutYou, "January 1979"

WX at 0700: 51 (11), DP 51 (11), BP 30.21 (1023), Calm, fog, RH 100%

Raw scores:
80 pushups. 100 points, 75 required to max.
77 situps. 100 points, 76 required to max.
14:00 run. This sucked ass! I did NO speedwork in getting ready for this and it showed. I had lots of power left in the legs, but nothing for oxygen content. Lesson learned: next time, I gotta force myself to do speedwork. The taper was fine. My legs were fine. I just couldn't breathe enough to turn around a faster time, and so my time was 32 seconds slower than the last time. I knew I was in trouble when I hit the first mile in 6:48. Bad, bad, bad. I knew I didn't have it in me to run a negative split today.

I tapped in at 181 pounds, 2 over allowable. My computed body fat after tape test ended up being around 19.5% or so.

I could do the easy thing and just do LSD from here on out, since I don't have to take another APFT until September, but if I'm smart I really should start interspersing it with speedwork about a month and a half out.

This is the converse of the running idiom, "speed kills, do LSD." Should have done the inverse to get ready for today. I just loathe doing speedwork.

So...while I met my personal standard of 290 or above, I didn't meet my goal of a 300. A 300 is achievable, but the hard part will be doing the unpleasant things required to get there from here.

Military history and mythology

Tonight, as I was attempting to cue to a particular episode of Pinky and the Brain, I was tuning for something in the background. It was a tossup between snippets of the Iditarod on OLN, or the film Midway on AMC.

When I was 9 years old, one of my childhood friends' had a fairly large VHS tape collection at his disposal. Note that this is 1981, so we're talking old rotary dial, non-varactor, non digital tuned VHS with dew lights and a skew dial and a mechanical counter and the (at the time of its release) advanced feature of LP versus SP so you could squeeze 4 hours on a T-120 (or, in this case, an RCA VK250 tape).

One of the films I used to watch often was Midway. My friend and I used to build ship models and play out ship battles between those ships. He also had a fairly large collection of Time/Life quarto-size World War II history books. As a kid, I had read about Midway, and could speak at length to the events in the battle, as well as key figures on both sides.

The name John Waldron rings few bells for most outside the naval aviation community. But CDR John Waldron took Torpedo Squadron 8 (VT-8) off USS Hornet and drove them to an attack that he realized he probably would not survive. That being said, his commander's intent was clear, mimeographed on paper the night prior. If there was one plane left, he expected that last plane to drive his attack home. Not one pilot in Torpedo 8 cut and run. Accomplishing Waldron's intent, at the cost of the ultimate sacrifice (only one of sixteen men that flew survived the battle), bought enough time and space to enable Bomber Squadron 3, commanded by LCDR Max Leslie, and Bomber Squadron 6, commanded by LCDR Wade McClusky, to destroy three Japanese main fleet carriers.

Tthe hardcore naval history buffs would remember that Leslie pressed home his bombing run with no bombs on the racks. Turns out that Midway was the first time that the SBD-3 Dauntless dive bombers in Bombing 3 were outfitted with electrical switches to arm the bombs, rather than flying with armed bombs from launch. A short-circuit in the safety resulted in Leslie (and a number of his pilots as well) inadvertently jettisoning their only ordnance enroute to target. Leslie had nothing more than two .50 caliber machine guns to strafe his targets.

I'm reminded of running into a guy who was an F-14 jock a few years ago. I think this was at Kingston, RI, for an air show there. The Tomcat driver was assigned to a squadron (VF-41) routinely embarked on USS Enterprise, but more significantly, his aircraft had the name "McClusky" painted on the tailplanes of his aircraft. LCDR McClusky had commanded Bombing 6, which during Midway, was embarked on, as you may guess, Enterprise (albeit the one that came before the current one). I asked him the signficance of the McClusky title, and I was not surprised that it was named for RADM Clarence Wade McClusky. The McClusky award goes to the best attack squadron in the fleet. This guy apparently didn't realize the coincidence of the McClusky award going to a squadron embarked on a ship named Enterprise, but maybe I was just being more geekish than usual.

As a career soldier, I think it's important that we nurture our organizational history for our Soldiers (or for that matter, Sailors, Marines, or Airmen). It gives them some perspective on the traditions and names they perpetuate. Having spent a few years in organizations that jealously guarded their heritage and history (e.g., the 7th Cavalry Regiment, and the 82d Airborne Division, among others), it's a shame when those traditions and knowledge don't get passed on to those who ultimately carry the flame.

A Whole Lot Of Nothing

This morning was a taper day for the physical fitness test I take tomorrow morning.

Sum total exercise for today was 40 pushups, 50 situps, and walking up a few flights of stairs at work.

On the other hand, today's mail brought with it Echelons and Coalesced, respectively the first and latest albums by For Against, a Lincoln, NE band I've been following since 1989. As a high school student I would religiously check the listings in the stores for For Against after I bought their first album December.

Like a few other alt-music obsessions, I attribute my For Against obsession to WDCE FM 90.1, the student-run radio station at the University of Richmond. Richmond itself is a depressingly conservative city, but its student radio station was so bleeding edge alternative as to astound the imagination. Thus, if you wanted to hear something other than top-40, AOR, or easy listening, WDCE was the only station available. The first time I heard For Against was sometime in 1988, so it would have been something off Echelons.

The other band to which I attribute WDCE's influence is Game Theory.

For tomorrow: gotta figure out what to indoctrinate into the iThink for the 2-mile run.

Previous favorites:
The Cure, "A Forest" (Trees Mix)
The Smiths, "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" (also the Ocean Blue cover of the same song)
Henry Rollins, "Drive-By Shooting" (which I also used as a mantra during 400m repeats during college track)
Journey, "Only The Young" (q.v., opening credits to the film Vision Quest)
Corrosion of Conformity, "What(?)"
The Reputation, "The Stars of Amateur Hour"

Given recent music selections, mewithoutYou, "January 1979" is the frontrunner for tomorrow morning. So far.

3.8mi, 32:35

50 Foot Wave, "Clara Bow"
The dB's, "Live For Today"

WX at 0700: 47 (8), DP 33 (1), BP 30.02 (1016), winds calm, RH 57%

Odometer 2: 326.5mi

Z2.
Resting heart rate before start = 62

A good sign, methinks, if I can run at wog pace and still run 8:40 per mile. Today was the last run I intend to do before Wednesday. It was marked by a little chillier temperatures than I expected this morning. I had to grade up to long-sleeve shirt before going out.

I bought three new albums yesterday; two long on the hit parade, one fairly new:
50 Foot Wave, Golden Ocean - good...but I don't think I've ever disliked anything Kristin Hersh has done, either. Six of the songs are rehashed from the self-titled 50 Foot Wave EP. Both are in digipaks, which are nonreplaceable if it ever gets damaged.
Chris Stamey, Travels In The South - also excellent, although I've had some of the tracks off the album for a while as promotional MP3s from the Yep Roc records site.
The Chris Stamey Experience, A Question of Temperature - somewhat disappointing on first listen. It didn't grab me the way the other albums have, although this one is far more, for want of any better descriptor, atmospheric. Not quite my bag of tricks.

Splits
1.5 12:53 12:53 08:35
2.3 32:35 19:42 08:34 08:40

7.6mi, 59:44

Velocity Girl, "Labrador"
mewithoutYou, "January 1979"

WX at 0800: 62 (17), DP 62 (17), BP 29.45 (997), winds SW 17, intermittent rain, RH 100%

Odometer 1: 368.5mi

Z3-4.
Resting heart rate before start = 59

For four days of not running, I didn't have any excuse not to run fast.

One thing I had to consciously do was to belly breathe. This is based on something I was reading about max vO2 and how power output largely depends on the amount of O2 being processed. During my last two miles, I concentrated on attempting to cycle as much air as possible. That resulted in my fastest 2.5 split in about three months. It's not the times I was running in the fall, but once this physical fitness test next week is done, I intend to take a substantially different take on training for the summer.

I'm planning on running the 2006 Disney Marathon. In getting ready for the run, I need to massively ramp up the long runs so that I have the experience of physically running over twenty miles at a stretch. One goal before running the marathon itself is to do a longer run than 26.2 miles so that I have an idea of the mental resilience I'll need to finish a run of that length and pace.

And this is probably the last hard run before Wednesday. I'll probably do hard push-up and sit-up workouts through tomorrow, and taper for the test, which is Wednesday morning.

Splits
1.5 11:30 11:30 07:40
2.1 28:29 16:59 08:05
1.5 40:21 11:52 07:55
2.5 59:44 19:23 07:45 07:50

Jump 64 and 65, Raeford DZ, A/NT

Today was an unusual day in that I got a multiple lift. Very rarely do I get the opportunity, which I passed on yesterday, and took today. That's particularly good, since the jump I was supposed to be doing tomorrow was scratched due to rain on the drop zone. So, with the introduction complete, here goes:

Jump 64, Raeford DZ, A/NT
Cruiserweight, "This Ain't No Beach Party"

Drop altitude 1500 feet AGL, time of drop approximately 1040
KHFF 311730Z 23005KT 7SM -RA BKN040 OVC090 18/13 A3005
Conditions at: KHFF observed 1730 UTC 31 March 2005
Temperature: 18.0°C (64°F)
Dewpoint: 13.0°C (55°F) [RH = 73%]
Pressure (altimeter): 30.05 inches Hg (1017.7 mb)
Winds: from the SW (230 degrees) at 6 MPH (5 knots; 2.6 m/s)
Visibility: 7 miles (11 km)
Ceiling: 4000 feet AGL
Clouds: broken clouds at 4000 feet AGL
overcast cloud deck at 9000 feet AGL
Weather: -RA (light rain)

The one had me pushing the stick (as in I was the last jumper to exit). Winds at altitude were cruising! The first two passes had jumpers land in the trees, the first because of incorrect spotting of the release on the pilot's part, the second because some knucklehead didn't factor in winds at altitude and ran with the wind into the trees on the eastern edge of the DZ. Consequently, upon gaining canopy control, I knew immediately that I didn't want to spent a lot of time in the air, and proceeded to dump air for about 2/3 of my descent. This was the first time I'd jumped Raeford DZ, and I didn't realize there was two patches of trees, a tractor, a pond (surrounded by trees), and a big patch of briars all within the confines of the DZ. It was the briars that I narrowly missed by about 20 feet. In my haste to get to the ground, I didn't see the briar patch that was immediately below and rear to me. I stopped dumping air and steered away from the briars. Upon landing, I immediately got up on my feet and started running away from the briars before the parachute could foul on the briars. This was a good thing, as the jumper immediately before me landed even closer to the briars and was pulling his parachute out with a distinctive tearing sound (as in damn, that would have hurt like hell to land in, not to mention the intense embarrassment factor of getting a thorn bush enema) as the branches were popping off the ripstop nylon. A soft landing, though, and I was less than 150m away from the chute turn-in truck, which was a large white package truck.

Jump 65, Raeford DZ, A/NT
Armor For Sleep, "Car Underwater"

Drop altitude 1500 feet AGL, time of drop approximately 1150
KHFF 311855Z 21010KT 4SM -RA BR SCT022 BKN040 OVC060 16/14 A3008 RMK SLP189
Conditions at: KHFF observed 1855 UTC 31 March 2005
Temperature: 16.0°C (61°F)
Dewpoint: 14.0°C (57°F) [RH = 88%]
Pressure (altimeter): 30.08 inches Hg (1018.7 mb)
[Sea-level pressure: 1018.9 mb]
Winds: from the SSW (210 degrees) at 12 MPH (10 knots; 5.2 m/s)
Visibility: 4 miles (6 km)
Ceiling: 4000 feet AGL
Clouds: scattered clouds at 2200 feet AGL
broken clouds at 4000 feet AGL
overcast cloud deck at 6000 feet AGL
Weather: -RA BR (light rain, mist)

This was the big one. As a sign of appreciation to the folks who were running the jump, I presented the primary jumpmaster a case (that's 24 cans, not 12, you wankers) of beer (as is customary for jump milestones in the community in which I work).

After pushing the stick, I made it a point to be the last one to board so I would be the second one to exit (after the jumping JM). I had a good exit, although once again (like yesterday), the right riser took a divot out of my right cheek. Descent was uneven with significant winds at altitude leveling off at about 500 feet AGL. As I was dumping air initially, I was attempting to steer away from the pond and trees in the middle of the DZ, but had to make some corrections in the last 300 feet of descent so that I wouldn't hit the 20-foot tall chute turn-in truck or the 12-foot tall large field ambulance parked next to it (as in damn, that would have hurt to bounce off the side of a truck going 16 feet per second down and about 5 mph laterally, not to mention the intense embarrassment factor of getting clotheslined by a truck that I could've avoided) . I landed about 15m away from both vehicles in front of about 15 guys who were looking at me like I was absolutely nuts. Admittedly, that was a bit closer than I would've liked for comfort. But I had a soft landing and the chute didn't foul in anything after landing.

I could say it felt almost anticlimactic, but two near-misses during a day (plus a third, since it started raining within 40 minutes of my second landing) was plenty of excitement.

Jump 63, Ste Mêre Eglise DZ, A/NT

mewithoutyou, "January 1979"

Drop altitude 1500 feet AGL, time of drop approximately 0850
KFBG 301355Z 11004KT 7SM BKN250 16/10 A3003 RMK SLP172
Conditions at: KFBG observed 1355 UTC 30 March 2005
Temperature: 16.0°C (61°F)
Dewpoint: 10.0°C (50°F) [RH = 68%]
Pressure (altimeter): 30.03 inches Hg (1017.0 mb)
[Sea-level pressure: 1017.2 mb]
Winds: from the ESE (110 degrees) at 5 MPH (4 knots; 2.1 m/s)
Visibility: 7 miles (11 km)
Ceiling: 25000 feet AGL
Clouds: broken clouds at 25000 feet AGL
Weather: no significant weather observed at this time

Didn't jump yesterday, and passed up an opportunity for a second chute (as opposed to actually going to work).

This was probably one of the best jumps I've had in a while.

Good exit, although I probably didn't tuck my head down hard enough since my helmet and right chin got rubbed by risers. I didn't want to have a long walk, but since I was noticing high winds at altitude (but not at surface) steering for a location away from brush and water would be important.

Thank god I was jumping a steerable parachute. I was able to buttonhook a landing less than 400m away from the assembly point. I even avoided a gust at landing, and the landing was soft.

In some ways I'm kicking myself for not taking the second chute offered (there were four left after manifest call was complete), but I didn't think I could in good faith take one...particularly since I didn't tell my boss I was going on this jump. Oops.

Two to go. Unfortunately, it looks like the jump that's scheduled for Friday might get rained out since the weather is calling for thundershowers. Time to start digging. I would really, really, really like to be done by the end of the first week in April at the very latest.

5.1mi, 41:47

Saxon Shore, "Amber, Ember, Glow"
Chris Stamey, "The Sound You Hear"

WX at 0600: 48 (9), DP 42 (6), BP 29.63 (1003), winds W 13, RH 81%

Odometer 1: 361mi

Z3
Resting heart rate before start = 53

A little brisk (felt colder than 48F this morning) but not a bad run...particularly since it was preceded by 160 pushups (40x40x30x30x20), 100 situps (100), and one set of ab/hip flexor work.

Consequently, today started slow (which might explain the generally positive split between the first and second legs and the very markedly positive split in the third leg).

It was a tad breezy, though. Work permitting, I was going to try to get onto a jump today, but it looks like work won't cooperate and there won't be enough of an opportunity to get to the DZ in time. The irritant is that I've slid my completion of the jumps I need for Master Parachutist further and further back. I also haven't resorted to slightly more desperate measures such as attempting to find night jumps, jumps on a weekend, or jumping with other units at Fort Bragg who routinely jump combat equipment with mass exits with nonsteerable parachutes.

On that last one - in the three years I spent in the 82d Imperial Airborne Division, I accumulated 39 jumps. 25 of them involved combat equipment. Over 15 of them were at night. Two were on hardstand (i.e., asphalt/concrete) drop zones. Two of them were using steerable parachutes. That was it. I don't feel any compelling need to jump nonsteerable parachutes any more unless I absolutely have to.

Splits
1.5 12:27 12:27 08:18
2.1 29:53 17:26 08:18
1.5 41:47 11:54 07:56 08:07

Modern Day Heroes and the Contrast

In the midst of channel surfing to get away from the Disney Channel, I chanced upon a series of interviews on C-SPAN tonight. The interview I was watching was of Corporal Michael Oreskovic, who is a cavalry scout currently attached to Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He was assigned to one of the line troops in the reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition squadron in the 1st Stryker brigade and had lost his left arm about midway at the upper arm. He had already been shot in the left arm once, and a few weeks later was on a mounted patrol before he was about to conduct transfer of authority with the replacement unit when he was hit again by a car bomb, badly enough where half of his arm was blown off in the blast.

What I found utterly awe-inspiring was CPL Oreskovic's, well, equanimity over his life. A 23 year old man, who joined the military out of patriotism, as a volunteer, was visibly at peace over having to wear a prosthetic arm for the rest of his life. He was very matter-of-fact about it, and exuded maturity far beyond his physical appearance.

The cliché that every "generation has its heroes" can sound trite at times. The men and women who are in theater, though, represent some of the best that the Nation has to offer.

In contrast, I see with my own eyes the insularity of some civilians, and think that it's a shame that the values that I see in the soldiers who fight and sometimes die for the things we have asked of them are not reflected in some of the people they defend. Those they defend pick through the food on a table only wanting to get their share, sleep late, and generally not thinking about the rest of the world around them.

"You've never lived until you've almost died. For those who fight for it, freedom has a flavor the protected will never know."

Perhaps I can be forgiven this little piece of catharsis, but I look back to the career choices I've made and realize that I have no regrets. I'm not particularly conservative relative to my peers in the Army, but it's an honorable profession, and I believe in what I do on a more fundamental level than just it being a paycheck.

5.1mi, 43:46

Corrosion of Conformity, "What(?)"
Corrosion of Conformity, "Negative Outlook"
Eric Idle, "FCC Song" (lyrics attached, because it's just that kind of day)

Fuck you very much the FCC
Fuck you very much for fining me
Five thousand bucks a fuck
So I'm really out of luck
That's more than Heidi Fleiss was charging me

So fuck you very much the FCC
for proving that free speech just isn't free
Clear Channel's a dear channel
So Howard Stern must go
Attorney General Ashcroft doesn't like strong words and so
He's charging twice as much as all the drugs for Rush Limbaugh
So fuck you all so very much

So fuck you very much, Dear Mr. Bush
For heroically sitting on your tush
For Halliburton, Enron, all the companies who fail
Let's send them a clear signal and stick Martha straight in jail
She's an uppity rich bitch
And at least she isn't male
So fuck you all so very much

So fuck you dickhead Mr. Cheney too
Fuck you and fuck everything you do
Your pacemaker must be a fake
You haven't got a heart
As far as I'm concerned you're just a pasty-faced old fart
And as for Condoleeza she's an intellectual tart
So fuck you all so very much

So fuck you very much, the EPA
For giving all Alaska's oil away
It really is a bummer
When I can't fill my hummer
The ozone's a nogozone now that Arnold's here to say:
"The nuclear winter games are going to take place in LA"
So fuck you all so very much

So what the planet fails
Let's save the great white males
And fuck you all so very much

WX at 0600: 66 (19), DP 64 (18), BP 29.57 (1001), winds SE 10, light rain with thunder, RH 93%

Odometer 2: 322.5mi

Z3 low.
Resting heart rate before start = no reading today.

After a day of nothing but farting around/fucking off at my brother-in-law's house eating and being really unindustrious/sloblike, I thought today would be faster. In a word, no.

Today was fucking slow. I think that, and some Easter-related ire, might have sparked the recurrence of the FCC Song.

It was therapeutic, in a way, to run in warm, light rain, New Model Army nod (Here in the rain/You know you're alive/Running in the rain) aside.

It's also comforting that by leaving at 5:50am and getting back now, I spared myself having to run through what is now a hard torrential downpour. That's not running in the rain, that's just suck.

Splits
1.5 12:37 12:37 08:25
2.1 31:02 18:25 08:46
1.5 43:46 12:44 08:29 08:30

9 miles approximate, 76:42

Lise Westzynthius, "1st Movement" (EPO-555 remix)
Housewife, "Channel Noir"
Rachel Loy, "Love Me Too Much"
Saxon Shore, "Amber, Ember, Glow"
The Amazing Pilots, "The Price of Winter"

WX at 0800: 48 (9), DP 46 (8), BP 30.06 (1017), winds Variable 3, mist, RH 93%

Odometer 1: 356mi

Z3.
Resting heart rate before start = 49

Slow and painful at parts. Some of this I attribute to trail running, some I attribute to running without a set route in mind (or at least one that had been vetted).

Some just points to the need to taper.

Sleep is becoming a factor. Three weeks of getting less than 6 hours a night caught up to me two days ago.

Splits
first 1.70: 14:47
last 1.70: 14:29

7.6mi, 61:34

The Reputation, "Face It"
Housewife, "Channel Noir"
Saxon Shore, "Amber, Ember, Glow"

WX at 0700: 48 (9), DP 44 (7), BP 29.88 (1011), Calm, RH 87%

Odometer 2: 317.5mi

Z3
Resting heart rate before start = 57

First good 7.6 in a few days. I did 160 pushups(40x4), 100 situps(100x1), and one long iteration of ab work concentrating on hip flexors and adductors...so today was probably slower as a result.

Not bad, though. Not stellar, but not bad. Next week will start tapering in preparation for the physical fitness test on 6 April.

Splits
1.5 12:00 12:00 08:00
2.1 29:24 17:24 08:17
1.5 41:45 12:21 08:14
2.5 61:34 19:49 07:56 08:05

5.0mi, 41:55

Lise Westzynthius, "1st Movement" (EPO-555 remix)
Rachel Loy, "Love Me Too Much"

WX at 0600: 42 (6), DP 41 (5), BP 30.14 (1020), winds NE 6, RH 93%

Odometer 1: 347mi

Z2.
Resting heart rate before start = 57

Nothing hard. Slow recovery run based on yesterday's run and the runs the two days prior. Today was definitely an example where if I had run hard, it would've been counterproductive.

Splits
2.5 20:52 20:52 08:21
2.5 41:55 21:03 08:25 08:17

The Incredibles Is Not A Fucking Children's Movie

It's been impossible not to notice the heavy advertisements and promotional tie-ins that Disney has been doing for The Incredibles. Nonetheless, while I liked the movie, I totally didn't think it was for children below the age of, say, 12.

Big fat invective and spoilers follow.























































Here are some plot elements in The Incredibles that made me think "why don't I just have the kids watch Alien3":
- Attempted suicide [suicide]
- Trips away from the office [lies]
- Marital problems/tension [potential for divorce]
- Sexual innuendo [sex]
- Allusion to adultery (not actual) [sex, infidelity]
- Edna vets the new suits (to include the ones for the children, including Jack-Jack) with missiles and machine gun fire [death, killing children]
- Hiding behind the corpse of one of your former best friends [death]
- Lethal torso shot with the rock [death]
- Launching someone to certain doom from tram car into water far, far away [death]
- Lethal tram car being chucked into two guards at a checkpoint (think of Newton's Second Law and what would happen to a normal person if a 600-800 pound lump of metal hit you head on going about 70mph.) [Yes, you guessed it, death.]
- "There are children aboard this plane" [near-death]
- The rundown of assassinated Supers [murder]
- The refinement of Omnidroids killing the Supers [murder]
- Discussions of how Supers with capes got killed [murder]
- "They won't show the same kind of restraint because you're children." [murder]
- Gambling with Mirage's life [attempted murder, justifiable homicide]
- razor saucer flies into cliff, explosion, dead guy [death, attempted killing of children]
- razor saucer flies into each other, explosion, dead guys [death, attempted killing of children]
- razor saucer flies into ground, explosion, dead guy [death, attempted killing of children]
- "You married Elastigirl...and got busy?" (okay, real appropriate for, well, CHILDREN, huh, what the fuck?") [sex]
- tank crews bruleé à la deus ex machina by laser blasts from Omnidroid. Probably some collateral death to infantry nearby [death]
- Jack-Jack the Satanic Human Torch [yeah, baby]
- Cape. Jet Turbine. FOD. Cuisinart. [puree!]

And Disney is selling this as a children's movie? Did parents all over the United Imperial States of America check their fucking intellects at the pocket book? Oh wait, it's the Imperial States of Orthodoxy. Pass me some shitty American beer.

First time I saw The Incredibles was on a Disney cruise ship. At the end, the parents and children are clapping at the end of the movie. What the fuck??? I would be perfectly happy to keep this movie locked up until the kids are, oh, about 12.

And here's the reason why:
- It's one thing to trivialize the kind of normally lethal falls that occur in the Warner Brothers universe, along with the undisputed excellence of Acme products. Just ask Wile E. Coyote.
- It's another thing to give death (and let's call it what it is, it's death) more than lip service but sell the movie to children? I cringe when I think of toddlers watching The Incredibles.

That's why I'm really inflexible about kids (mine or anyone else's, for that matter) playing with "guns" or "knives" in the yard. That's about as verboten as the kids watching Barney or Jerry Springer. In real life, death hurts. It hurts a lot when you have to witness it, and a lot of the time, it probably fucking hurts like hell for the one who has to prematurely undergo it.

Dead is dead. Children can have their childhood, but as I say sometimes at work, it's under a nonpermissive METT-TC (Mission, Enemy, Troops, Terrain, Time, Civilians = battlefield environment). Dead people don't get up. I'm sure there are some folks in Phnom Penh, Srebrenica, Kigali, or hell, even Fallujah who would probably agree with that statement.

On the bright side, the suborbital sequences of the rocket pushing over max ordinate in space are pretty damn cool.

As I reiterate: it's not a fucking children's movie.

7.6mi, 62:05

Cruiserweight, "This Ain't No Beach Party"
Boys Night Out, "I Got Punched in the Nose for Sticking My Face in Other People's Business"
EPO-555, "Le Beat's On Fire" (URL is for all those non-Danish speaking folks out there; if you feel native, go here)
Mary Lou Lord, "The Wind Blew All Around Me"

WX at 0600: 42 (6), DP 30 (-1), BP 30.05 (1017), winds NNE 2, RH 60%

Odometer 1: 342mi

Z3.
Resting heart rate before start = no reading today.

I wasn't sure how today was going to feel, and the start wasn't particularly auspicious for what wasn't supposed to be a recovery run. Today wasn't a hard run, but it was at tempo. After yesterday's trip to the zoo, my legs were probably tired from dragging 90 pounds of gear and children around in a Radio Flyer wagon, but not so tired that today's pace was embarrassingly slow.

On another note: some people have iPods. I'm too cheap (or haven't convinced my wife that I need one) so I have an iThink (i.e., the one in my skull). The iThink is free but suffers from inconsistent memory. Today's iThink was also on the Preview Shuffle Mode from Hell since I was continuously bouncing between 4 songs or so over the first six miles. It was, to quote Anthrax out of contest, "caught in a mosh."

It wasn't until the last mile and a half that I settled into the Mary Lou Lord song, finally.

Splits
1.5 12:10 12:10 08:07
2.1 29:52 17:42 08:26
1.5 42:07 12:15 08:10
2.5 62:05 19:58 07:59 08:09

The Incredibles Is Not a Fucking Children's Movie

Placeholder until I can really get my invective on later tonight.

5.1mi, 42:06

Lise Westzynthius, "1st Movement" (EPO-555 remix)
EPO-555, "Le Beat's On Fire"

WX at 0800: 42 (6), DP 41 (5), BP 30.03 (1016), Calm, mist, RH 93%

Odometer 2: 310mi

Z2-3.
Resting heart rate before start = 63

Recovery run that turned out to be faster than usual. Not much to say. I'm going to the North Carolina Zoo today, so I'm holding off on any significant work, since I'll be pulling both the kids through the zoo today in a Radio Flyer wagon. That actually should end up being about 5 miles worth of hard walking.

Splits
1.5 12:22 12:22 08:15
2.1 30:01 17:39 08:24
1.5 42:06 12:05 08:03 08:10

8.5mi, 73:21

The dB's, "Lonely Is As Lonely Does"
Game Theory, "Penny, Things Won't"
The Ventures, "Walk, Don't Run"
Jane Siberry, "The Walking (And Constantly)"
Jane Siberry, "Mimi On The Beach"

WX at 0800: 45.0 (7.2), DP 30.9 (-0.6), BP 30.12 (1019), winds NNE 10, RH 57%

Odometer 1: 334.5mi

Z3 steady state.
Resting heart rate before start = 52

I wasn't looking for anything ambitious today. First run in three days = nothing extremely hard. Today was just a day to go for a relatively moderate steady state run, so I decided to stay off pavement and go just for distance/time.

The last two splits are approximate since I missed cutting the split at the actual time.

It did feel good to get out and run again, but it's been getting progressively harder to wake up early and go running. This points to discussions of burnout, but I don't think I'm running enough to really get into what I would call burnout. Maybe I'm just getting lazy.

Splits
1.70 14:40 14:40 08:38
2.32 34:46 20:06 08:40
2.72 59:00 24:14 08:55 approximate
1.70 73:21 14:21 08:26 approximate 08:41

5.1mi, 41:18

The dB's, "Lonely Is As Lonely Does"
Letters to Cleo, "Pizza Cutter"

WX at 0600: 42 (6), DP 39 (4), BP 30.08 (1018), Calm, light rain, RH 86%

Odometer 1: 326mi

Z3.
Resting heart rate before start = 57

Faster, but unexpectedly so. It's looking like my good runs for this course and distance are all sitting in the 41 minute range; it's the exceptional runs that are hitting below that. Notably, my PR is around 39 minutes. I have grown old and slow.

Another indicator of impending weenieness is that I deliberated through three different permutations of snivel gear for today's light rain. In retrospect, I could've just gone t-shirt and shorts and I would've been just fine. I can't believe I was actually thinking about wearing a rain suit. This is pretty pathetic for a guy who used to revel in running in the rain when he was younger.

While yesterday's recovery run was crucially useful, my legs were still tired. This will necessitate a significant taper before the beginning of April when I'm supposed to take a physical fitness test.

I bust my ass to get back and I still run a 2 second positive split from the way out. Likewise the center section. Unfortunately, a remapping using USAPhotoMaps tells me it's 2.1 miles. Bummer.

Splits
1.5 11:57 11:57 07:58
2.1 29:19 17:22 08:16
1.5 41:18 11:59 07:59 08:01

5.1mi, 46:10 = unrepentant wogging

Shirley Walker, theme to Space: Above and Beyond
snippets of John Williams, "The Battle of Endor I" from Return of the Jedi
snippets of John Williams, "Rescue from Cloud City/Hyperspace" from The Empire Strikes Back
The entire prejump script with embellishments from 82d Airborne Division, Airborne Standing Operating Procedures, Edition VI

WX at 0600: 32 (0), DP 32 (0), BP 30.13 (1020), winds NW 5, mist, RH 100%, wind chill 26 (-3)

Odometer 2: 305mi

Z1.
Resting heart rate before start = 51

I'm going to have to check the validity of the 2.1 split distance. Somehow it doesn't make sense that I'm going the same speed, same effort, and running that much slower.

Identical start/end splits. That doesn't happen often.

Today involved some massive wogging. After yesterday's run and 120 Hindu Squats last night (70x50), I think I can safely say today was going to be slow. The magnitude of slow was amazing, but in all honesty, probably required. Any harder run than Z2 today would've been totally counterproductive. So there.

I'm gratified that wogging still equals 9 minutes/mile pace, though. Yes!

Splits
1.5 13:21 13:21 08:54
2.1 32:49 19:28 09:16
1.5 46:10 13:21 08:54 08:58

7.8mi, 64:28

(placeholder until I can update this.)

Chris Stamey, "The Sound You Hear"
Kansas, "The Spider"
The Reputation, "The Stars of Amateur Hour"

WX at 1400: 44(7), DP 37 (3), BP 29.96 (1014), winds NE 7, RH 75%

Odometer 1: 321mi

Z3 but not labored Z3 except uphill.
No HRM reading.

Positive splits but not by much. Much more efficient on the return leg.

Powerlines splits:
17:40 to second hardball (17:40) 3.1km leg
33:00 to turnaround (15:19) 3.2km leg
48:25 to second hardball (15:25) 3.2km leg
56:41 back to first hardball (8:16) 1.5km leg
64:28 back to start (7:47) 1.6km leg

A feeling of dread

I normally eschew television. I read the news out of newspapers or online, the weather is usually not specific enough for me, and I fucking loathe reality shows and sitcoms.

In spite of this, I've been watching two shows lately with some regularity. The first is MI-5, which is better known originally on BBC as Spooks. (Nice to see the A&E folks just cliffed the BBC's website.) I suspect the original moniker probably doesn't carry the racial epithet baggage in Britain.

The other show I religiously watch, more so than MI-5, is Battlestar Galactica. This is the remake, mind you. I binged out on the original BSG when I was a kid.

One of the things that I really have to recommend the new BSG is its treatment of human problems on the show. All too often, Americans look to TV for escapist fantasy (e.g., Dallas, Friends). But this is a show that's not intended for the average viewer, I think.

One of most illustrative things I've seen on the new BSG was an explanation of the importance of posse comitatus, which is a thorny topic in my line of work these days. As I recall, the rationalization of why we don't make our military into the police is that "when that happens, the enemies of the state tend to become the people."

More pointedly, BSG doesn't present the clean, optimistic future (yes, I'm quoting a nonauthoritative source) that Star Trek does, for example. It reminds me in some ways of Space: Above and Beyond, which I adored (and also didn't shamelessly cater to the American viewership).

Anyway, I digress. What particularly stuck out in this week's BSG was its depiction of what it's like to be a commander and a planner when you send people out to do your plan. Having been a planner on more than a few occasions (and being one by military occupational specialty now), there is one scene in this week's episode that gave me a tightening of the gut that I don't normally associate with TV. (Listen here.)

It's hard to disassociate that scene from the feeling I used to get when I heard men over the radio in training getting hacked up in (simulated) combat. While it was usually the other way (my guys on the winning side), there were times when things would proverbially go south.

When I was a troop commander, there was a sign I used to hang in my office. It said, simply this:

LIEUTENANT

REMEMBER: EVERYTHING YOU PLAN AND WRITE MUST BE EXECUTED BY THESE MEN (with a photo of paratroopers in a live-fire exercise)

THEY AND THEIR BUDDIES WILL BE THE FIRST TO PAY FOR YOUR MISTAKES

DO YOUR JOB WELL - FUTURES DEPEND ON IT

I periodically think of the simple gravity of that statement. Sometimes I see things that remind me of that reality. This week's episode of BSG is one of them.

If you're in the military, and have planning responsibilities for subordinates, and this excerpt doesn't bother you at any level, you need to get the hell out and go somewhere where the price of substandard work isn't so fucking extreme.

No wogging Saturday

Title mostly says it all. I did no wogging on Saturday.

Instead:
160 pushups (40x40x40x40)
100 situps (100)
one set ab work (15x4 count supine bicycle, 10x4c leg lift, 40x4c flutter kick, 20x4c raised leg crunch)
20x4c Dirty Little Bitch (the quaint name coined for an exercise I learned at Fort Benning once)
190 Hindu Squat (70x50x40x30)

My back is sore and my legs are sore, so today will involve some wogging. Long, but slow wogging.

7.6mi, 60:00

Liz Phair, "Supernova" (I have no idea where this came from.)
New Order, "Dream Attack"
R.E.M. with Kate Pierson, "Furry Happy Monsters" (from Sesame Street)

WX at 0700: 39 (4), DP 30 (-1), BP 29.72 (1006), winds SW 7, RH 69%

Odometer 2: 300.5mi

Z3-4.
Resting heart rate before start = no reading.

Today was going to be a jump. I thought I was going to be already on the manifest, but that ended up becoming a wolf ticket. There were two parachutes left for straphangers when the names were finished being called. I could not in good conscience ask for a parachute when there were folks who were pay losses (i.e., had not jumped in over six months and needed to jump to restart their jump pay). So, I ended up going home at 6:00 after a 5:15am manifest call.

I was disappointed, but there will be other opportunities.

Today's run, on the other hand, started out promising, and then I just started to fade. My legs were just tired, which would explain the positive splits, especially in the last split, which is by far the flattest of the course and should be nominally the fastest if I've paced correctly.

Tomorrow will necessitate some wogging, methinks.

Splits
1.5 11:31 11:31 07:41
2.1 28:22 16:51 08:01
1.5 40:03 11:41 07:47
2.5 60:00 19:57 07:59 07:52

Jump 62, Ste Mêre Eglise DZ, A/NT

Chris Stamey, "Insomnia"

Drop altitude 1500 feet AGL, time of drop approximately 1610
KFBG 102155Z 26007KT 7SM SKC 12/M08 A2974 RMK SLP074
Conditions at: KFBG observed 2155 UTC 10 March 2005
Temperature: 12.0°C (54°F)
Dewpoint: -8.0°C (18°F) [RH = 24%]
Pressure (altimeter): 29.74 inches Hg (1007.2 mb)
[Sea-level pressure: 1007.4 mb]
Winds: from the W (260 degrees) at 8 MPH (7 knots; 3.6 m/s)
Visibility: 7 miles (11 km)
Ceiling: at least 12,000 feet AGL
Clouds: clear skies
Weather: no significant weather observed at this time

Two for two in jump attempts so far. Three to go before hitting master parachutist.

Today marked the first time I'd jumped the Soft Loop Center Pull Reserve Parachute. The SLCP is a little different from the Modified Improved Reserve Parachute System reserves I'd jumped in the last few years...in fact, now that I think about it, I can count on two hands the number of non-MIRPS jumps I've done. My first jump on a Casa 212 aircraft three years ago involved jumping a T-10 reserve, as did a jump I did with an Army Reserve rigger company five years ago. Before that, the last time I'd jumped a T-10 reserve was in Airborne School. back in 1993. (I took about a six year break in jump status between my fifth and sixth jumps.)

No JM duty today. That's a rarity. Some of the other guys in the unit asked me where my jumpmaster sweatshirt was; literally every time I've jumped with my current unit, it's been as a member of the jumpmaster team. Not today. I was stuck in a briefing that I thought would run all day, so I didn't attempt to get on.

As it was, I was able to negotiate sloppy seconds...erm, as a straphanger for today's jump. I guess I'm glad I jumped today since the outlook for another jump I'm supposed to do tomorrow isn't so good (predicted WX 15-25mph with intermittent rain).

Today's exit was clean, very clean. No twists, although I had some severe oscillation upon gaining canopy control, which is actually normal under windy conditions. I even verbalized a six thousand count before gaining canopy control. What I did not count on was exceptionally fast winds at altitude. The jumper immediately in front of me started dumping air when it became apparent to him that winds at altitude were a little, shall we say, brisk.

One of my coworkers, who can be flippant at times, but is one of the most proficient jumpmasters I know, was on the JM at the ramp today. I asked him a leading question about whether he was going to release jumpers early. He didn't, and he gave a fairly generous margin between jumpers since today was a JM-initiated exit. I had a nice long walk back to the assembly point; it didn't occur to me that dumping air might be a prudent idea.

Today also marked something which I consciously had to do, which is stand up, still in the harness, after landing. I did this primarily to get my canopy and suspension lines up and away from a tree which they were going to drape on. Now ordinarily, this is unbelievably stupid in combat conditions. Chances are that if you're jumping into combat, it's a safe bet that you're not jumping in unopposed. Consequently, the 82d Airborne Division tells its jumpers to remain on the ground and remove themselves from the parachute harness after activating one of the canopy release assemblies. Standing up in the harness is an invitation to get shot.

One last note. Today marked the further occurrence of picking up a gust just shy of landing. My landing wasn't particularly hard, but it wasn't particularly soft, either. It was a textbook side parachute landing fall, but it was a hard one.

7.6mi, 61:22

The dB's, "Rains Around Here"

WX at 0700: 28 (-2), DP 23 (-5), BP 29.99 (1015), winds Calm, RH 79%

Odometer 1: 313mi

Z4 hard.
Resting heart rate before start = 59

Two day break, lots of stretching, full hydration, and what do I have to show for it? Positive splits. It started promisingly enough-- unfortunately, it would seem I didn't have enough raw strength to sustain a hard run of that speed. Or something like that. Normally I speed up in the last 1.5 and 2.5 splits, but not today.

If busting my ass gets me an overall 8:03 pace, I 've got another think coming.

On the other hand, I run markedly faster when I'm not packing snivel gear. That wasn't an option today, as the weather line will indicate.

Splits
1.5 11:47 11:47 07:51
2.1 29:06 17:19 08:15
1.5 41:13 12:07 08:05
2.5 61:22 20:09 08:04 08:03

The War and Distant Memory

Yesterday, I found out that SFC Donald Eacho, of the 1st Battalion (Mechanized), 9th Infantry, was killed in Iraq by an IED attack. His name particularly stuck out because he was the training room NCO in my first real Army assignment. When I inprocessed an armored cavalry troop at Fort Hood ten years ago as a very young, very inexperienced, and IIRC, very immature lieutenant, then-SGT Eacho had been the guy to receive my files and inprocess me into the troop.

This is the first time that I've really known someone who showed up on casualty lists. If there are any reminders that the Army is at war, this is it. I think it was just a matter of time before it happened, but you never really expect it to happen.

About a year ago, two people who I'd only met in passing were killed by hostile fire in Iraq. I didn't know either too well, although I recognized their names from the casualty reports. This was different, as I had worked closely with then-SGT Don Eacho for about a year and a half, and saw him every once in a while after that when I moved off to the squadron staff.

The things I remember about SFC Eacho relate mostly to my immaturity as a junior lieutenant, but also to his patience and maturity as a junior sergeant.

He was a military modeler in his spare time. He had brought in a small diorama pedestal of a German Panther tank, and it was exquisite. I had massively (unintentionally) stepped on my crank by saying "I used to model when I was a kid." But not to that detail and certainly not to that level of skill.

A few months prior, tactical communications had come up in conversation in our weekly troop training meetings, and as the training room NCO, he was present at all the weekly training meetings within the troop. Somewhere along the line, I was telling him about a squad radio that I had seen before ad nauseaum and he told me, "hey sir, I know what a PRC-126 is." Turns out he had used them in his last assignment while he was at the 10th Mountain Division. My mistake. I learned from that, though.

But I remember him being an exceptionally capable noncommissioned officer, and while the other sergeants used to jokingly call him "Ea-cho-la" (in the style of the Ricola cough drop commercials), as the training room NCO, he was the track commander of the troop command post track. In addition to his garrison responsibilities running the troop training room, he kept the troop TOC straight (a function which many discount, until you need to send reports higher, which I personally learned as the executive officer for another troop some three years later), and was a good guy to work with.

Googling his name (since the last time I'd spoken to him face-to-face was in 1997) brought up an event that did not particularly surprise me. Turns out Don had saved a family from a car wreck a year or so before he went to Iraq and was recognized with the Soldier's Medal, the highest non-combat heroism award in the U.S. Army, for it.

I lose count of the number of noncommissioned officers whose formative influence shaped my development as an Army officer. I consider myself privileged to have served with Don Eacho. He was a good man, and the Army is worse for his passing.

7.6mi, 63:09

The Church, "Reptile"
Let's Active, "Every Dog Has His Day" (which has been re-released on Collectors Choice!)
For Against, "Stranded In Greenland"
For Against, "Svengali"

WX at 1800: 62 (17), DP 30 (-1), BP 29.95 (1014), wind SW 14, RH 29%

Odometer 1: 305.5mi

Z2, Z3 finish on last leg
Resting heart rate before start = 62

When I ran indoor track at St Christopher's School, one of my teammates, Gray Williams, had a not infelicitous moniker for what he related was insincere cross between walking and running. Although I don't admit to doing much wogging, that was an accurate indicator of what I did today. 7.6 miles of sluggitude recovery run is good for the soul, although after a run of this legth I'll have to go for a short easy recovery run. Today was a fat burner, but in reality, didn't really fit the training schedule. But it felt good in a guilty (if you'll believe that idiom) way.

Splits
1.5 12:25 12:25 08:17
2.1 30:13 17:48 08:29
1.5 42:42 12:29 08:19
2.5 63:09 20:27 08:11 08:17

8.5mi, 73:05

George Sanger, defend mission background music from the games Wing Commander and Wing Commander 2
Jane Wiedlin, "One Hundred Years of Solitude"

WX at 1300: 66 (19), DP 39 (4), BP 29.79 (1008), winds WNW 15, RH 39%

Odometer 2: 301.5mi

Z3 steady state, almost at oxygen debt. It felt like fairly easy race pace.
Resting heart rate before start = no reading. 30 minutes after the finish = 79.

I wasn't really planning on a long run today, but given the forecast of thunderstorms and winds in excess of 25mph, I thought it might be good sense to run before the weather went south.

Not as fast as last week's, although I got home and promptly bonked out. I think sleep deprivation over the last few weeks finally caught up to me (and being outside doing airborne operations probably acted as a catalyst as well).

Splits
1.70 14:25 14:25 08:29
2.32 34:27 20:02 08:38
2.72 58:56 24:29 09:00
1.70 73:05 14:09 08:19 08:40

Jump 61, Ste Mêre Eglise DZ, A/NT and static J

Christina Milian, "Call Me, Beep Me" (Yes, it's the theme to the Disney cartoon Kim Possible. Really.)

Drop altitude 1500 feet AGL, time of drop approximately 1420
KFBG 041655Z 26007KT 7SM FEW080 11/M08 A3009 RMK SLP192
Conditions at: KFBG observed 1655 UTC 04 March 2005
Temperature: 11.0°C (52°F)
Dewpoint: -8.0°C (18°F) [RH = 25%]
Pressure (altimeter): 30.09 inches Hg (1019.0 mb)
[Sea-level pressure: 1019.2 mb]
Winds: from the W (260 degrees) at 8 MPH (7 knots; 3.6 m/s)
Visibility: 7 miles (11 km)
Ceiling: at least 12,000 feet AGL
Clouds: few clouds at 8000 feet AGL
Weather: no significant weather observed at this time

Something new for this one...aviation weather readings, which are a lot more relevant for airborne ops than the rollups in the past.

First jump in eight attempts. It's about damn time.

Today involved jumping a few lifts before I pulled my JM duty. Good exit, good verbal count, no twists, quickly gained canopy control and immediately turned into the wind. Jumping a size 4 parachute, no riser burns, no testicular squash. I missed the field landing strip by all of about 150 meters. That's a little closer than I wanted to be, but I'm glad I didn't have to turn with the wind and run with the wind. I wasn't taking any chances today since it'd been a while since I last jumped.

Had I been thinking a little differently, I would have considered steering for the turn-in point and button-hooked my approach at about 400 feet. It would've been doable today, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to take my chances with hitting the FLS. Or, for that matter, any other significantly packed pavement (like the roadway next to it).

My JM duty today, on the other hand, was nothing but money. I was paired with another JM who was a graduate of the Fort Benning JM course, but was, from what I could tell, an inexperienced JM on the Casa 212 and was a little apprehensive in the saddle. It underscores why it's good to have an active unit jumpmaster refresher/knowledge sharing program. I discussed this with the company executive officer, who agreed with the idea of having what amounts to a community of practice among the JMs in the unit (of which there are quite a few).

In any event, the spot was dead on, I had clear view of the panels, and none of my jumpers landed in the trees. All my time warnings were dead on, and one of the jumpers on the next pass mentioned "good spot" as I passed him, which was affirmation enough.

Why I was thinking of Christina Milian, I have no earthly idea...although I did read a review of the film Be Cool this morning which did mention her prominently.

All in all, a pretty good airborne day. Four more to 65.

5.0mi, 41:35

The Church, "Reptile"
The 5,6,7,8's, "Woo Hoo"
Petula Clark, "Downtown" (I have no idea why.)

WX at 0700: 23 (-5), DP 21 (-6), BP 30.09 (1018), winds WSW 2, RH 92%

Odometer 1: 298mi

Z3
Resting heart rate before start = no reading.

Today didn't seem too cold until I started running on the side of the road facing traffic going about 45 mph. Oops.

Today's run was Slow, slow, slow. Preceded by 160 pushups (in blocks of 40, 40, 30, 30, 20, 20) and 100 situps (one block). I even stretched. I'll see where the improvement is in a week and decide if I need to change up somewhere along the line.

Today should break the streak of not jumping. Winds are supposed to be under 10mph, visibility unlimited, clear and sunny. If I don't jump today, I'm gonna have a raging case of the ass!

Splits
2.5 20:59 20:59 08:24
2.5 41:35 20:36 08:14 08:13

5.0mi, 41:02

Chris Stamey, "Stupid Pop-Rock Song"
The dB's, "We Gold"

WX at 0700: 23 (-5), DP 21 (-6), BP 30.06 (1017), Calm, RH 92%

Odometer 2: 293mi

Z2 first leg, Z3 last leg.
Resting heart rate before start = 60

The astute reader will see a monster negative split. I attribute this principally to doing 120 pushups, 100 situps, and a variety of ab work before starting. The hip flexors took some time to loosen up, so I'll have to take special care to stretch those since there's a physical fitness test about a month away.

This means I'll have to force myself to do this in the mornings, although it did seem to shorten some of the latent prep time before the run waiting for all the water I drank to settle.

The negative split is a pretty good indicator of overall fitness, but cutting 31 seconds per mile between the first and last splits over the exact same terrain in the exact same conditions means I'll need to work on strength some more. This means restarting the Hindu Squat regimen...

Splits
2.5 21:07 21:07 08:27
2.5 41:02 19:55 07:58 08:07

5.1mi, 43:57

40 Foot Echo, "Brand New Day" (which I never would've heard had I not seen Freaky Friday with Lindsay Lohan...)
Beatallica, "And I'm Evil"
Boulder Dash. (Again.)

WX at 0700: 37 (3), DP 26 (-3), BP 29.67 (1004), winds WNW 7, RH 64%

Odometer 1: 293mi

Z2.
Resting heart rate before start = 63

I had been meaning to find a jump and found one for this morning, but chickened out based on a forecast for winds in excess of 15mph. Such weather was most certainly not present this morning, and I'm sure the manifest call for that jump was ongoing as I ran. I hope for that unit that they jump, but it's another missed opportunity.

I might have to back up my estimate another month to April because I just don't think I'll get 5 jumps this month. 3 or 4, if I'm lucky, but the rest will have to happen in April.

I had been planning on running 7, but the body was not willing. It would've been able, but it would've been ugly, and I just don't feel that mentally tough right now.

The fringe benefit is that I guess I should feel happy for running an 8:32 pace in spite of exceptional sluggitude. Still, today's the slowest run in a while.

Splits
1.5 12:48 12:48 08:32
2.1 31:17 18:29 08:48
1.5 43:57 12:40 08:27 08:32

The Most Fucking Worthless Academics I've Ever Seen

I'm taking the US Army Command and General Staff Officer Course through correspondence.

My latest piece of homework was returned no-go. The sad thing is that it's a paper that I probably could've written with minimal effort as a college student. The hard part is sequestering myself for long enough to actually fucking write something that meets the standards of the course.

The only reason I'm doing the school by correspondence is because I don't want to go on three months of FGFOT (Field Grade Fucking Off Time) doing a course that is potentially not going to teach me something but is a regulatory requirement for eligibility for promotion.

Of course, my curriculum covers largely irrelevant bullshit like major combat operations against a Soviet combined arms army. Like that's going to ever happen now.

My ire at having to do required schoolwork that I patently think is a giant crock o' shit is magnified by the realization that I really don't give a flying fuck about the schoolwork and I'm just trying to check the block to get the required diploma.

This validates just about everything I thought about the coursework from the start, which is to quote an old armored cavalry idiom, WAFWOT.

What A Fucking Waste Of Time.

8.5mi, 71:24

The Bats, "Courage"
The dB's, "We Gold"
Velocity Girl, "Labrador"
Peter Liepa, theme music to the old computer game Boulder Dash

WX at 1000: 44 (7), DP 32 (0), BP 30.24 (1024), winds E 7, RH 60%

Odometer 2: 288mi

Z3.
Resting heart rate before start = no reading.

Tomorrow is supposed to be snow, so I figured I'd get in a long run today. Since most of it was on trails, it was a good productive long slow run. Combined with last night's pushups and situps, maybe there some workable improvement. Maybe.

I have no earthly idea why I was thinking of Boulder Dash, a game I haven't played in, oh, about 18 years. Seriously.

Splits
1.70 13:52 13:52 08:09
2.32 33:30 19:38 08:28
2.72 57:25 23:55 08:48
1.70 71:24 13:59 08:14 08:28

The Sum Total of Today's Activity, with 9 Minutes to Go

I had been planning on a long slow distance (LSD) run this morning. It was derailed partly by having to take a friend to the emergency room last night at about 10:30pm. And bringing the same back, at about 3:00am.

Needless to say, I didn't do shit all morning long. I didn't get into the swing of things until the afternoon, and even then, it was only after drinking 16 ounces of some pretty shitty coffee (if I ever find myself in a situation where I have to brew coffee for survival, I'm pretty well fucked).

Sum total for today:
130 pushups, mostly wide-arm. Sets were in 40, 30, 30, 30 blocks.
100 situps in one iteration.

LSD should follow in about 6-7 hours.

5.0mi, 39:30

The dB's, "We Gold"
disappear fear, "Boxers"

WX at 0700: 33 (1), DP 30 (-1), BP 30.08 (1018), winds NE 1, RH 86%

Odometer 1: 288mi

Z3 quick.
Resting heart rate before start = 60

I woke up a little later than I'd expected. Consequently, I seriously thought about skipping today's run. Instead, I decided to do a much flatter course than I routinely run. It constitutes the last 2.5 miles or so of the 7.6 mile run I routinely do and it's almost all pavement. Not surprisingly, today was pretty good, although I need to improve back to where I was in the fall.

I probably don't want to do this run too much in the interests of not fostering unrepentant laziness or indiscipline in my training program or whatever else.

Splits
2.5 19:53 19:53 07:57
2.5 39:30 19:37 07:51 08:00

5.1mi, 43:21

Julie Brown, "The Homecoming Queen's Got A Gun"
Julie Brown, "I'm A Blonde"
The Replacements, "Left of the Dial"

WX at 0700: 51 (11), DP 50 (10), BP 30.12 (1019), winds NW 5, mist, RH 93%

Odometer 1: 283mi

Z2-Z3 low.
Resting heart rate before start = no reading this morning. Oops.

Slow easy recovery run today. In spite of stretching, today was still a grind in some respects. It would have been a much worse grind had I not stretched.

The 120 pushups and 50-some situps and other related ab work last night might have been a contributing factor, particularly in the hip flexors.

I have no idea why Julie Brown songs stuck in my head this morning. If I find myself mysteriously drifting to a video store this week to rent Shakes the Clown, be afraid. Be very, very afraid.

Splits
1.5 12:35 12:35 08:23
2.1 30:52 18:17 08:42
1.5 43:21 12:29 08:19 08:25

5.1mi, 40:37

George Sanger, defend mission background music from the games Wing Commander and Wing Commander 2

WX at 0700: 44 (7), DP 42 (6), BP 30.02 (1016), Calm, mist, RH 93%

Odometer 2: 279.5mi

Z3 hard.
Resting heart rate before start = 60

Two things that preceded today's run that point to improvement:
1. Stretching. Today was much, much faster than yesterday, and the weather was not the only citable aspect. I probably need to start stretching again; while the "stretch to avoid injury" piece is debatable in some circles, the "stretch to loosen muscles up" definitely works. That would explain the -51 second delta from yesterday on the first 1.5 split.
2. Hydration. While drinking a liter of water before the run is irksome (and extends my pre-run wait about 40 minutes), it probably doesn't hurt. I don't worry about hyponatraemia for runs under 10 miles in any event; I'm pretty certain my sodium intake is more than sufficient (along with every other American in the universe, it seems).

Today wasn't a PR (about two minutes), but a little statistical analysis on an earlier run points to the value of stretching before going out the door. Since there's all of that much decrease in speed since the Cold From Hell(tm), I achieved one of the goals of this winter, which was to generally not lose any mileage or training base.

Splits
1.5 11:34 11:34 07:43
2.1 28:54 17:20 08:15
1.5 40:37 11:43 07:49 07:53

5.1mi, 43:12

Mike Oldfield, first portion of Tubular Bells (i.e., the part that played in The Exorcist)
Chris Stamey, "14 Shades of Green"

WX at 0800: 55 (13), DP 53 (12), BP 30.08 (1018), winds WSW 12, mist, RH 91%

Odometer 1: 278mi

Z3.
Resting heart rate before start = 60

I felt like ass today. Today was planning on being a 7.6, and I stopped at the 5 mile mark because my legs were just too smoked. Given that I haven't run consistently since last week, I think sustained mileage every day rather than the standard long-mid rotation may be in order. I just have to be careful since I need to start doing more strength work in the next few weeks.

Alternatively, I may go for shorter, harder runs rather than the longer runs since I think I have a fairly good handle on endurance. It's speed I'll be needing in the next few weeks.

Splits
1.5 12:25 12:25 08:17
2.1 30:41 18:16 08:42
1.5 43:12 12:31 08:21 08:23

5.1mi, 41:51

Throwing Muses, "Ruthie's Knocking"
"Heatmiser" from "Year Without A Santa Claus"
Wire, "Come Back In Two Halves"

WX at 1100: 48 (9), DP 35 (2), BP 30.41 (1029), winds NE 5, RH 61%

Odometer 2: 274.5mi

Z2-3.
Resting heart rate before start = 59

A pretty easy run that turned surprisingly quicker than expected. I normally run in the early morning, but with no work, I was able to get a run in during better conditions. I was also placating my kids' desire to watch Schoolhouse Rock on disk before starting.

Overcast and a little rain never hurts either.

Splits
1.5 12:26 12:26 08:17
2.1 30:02 17:36 08:23
1.5 41:51 11:49 07:53 08:08

The South By Southwest Connection

I was farting around on the WWW before starting my run this morning and decided to pull up South by Southwest. While there are other events associated with SXSW, the part I always will hold dear is the music festival. My first year on active duty was marked by attendance at SXSW '95 and that's a powerful reason to consider settling in Austin.

Bands I would consider seeing...
American Music Club
Jon Auer (of the Posies)
Mary Lou Lord (who was an unscheduled busker in '98 when I last went)
Magnapop
New Model Army (who absolutely fucking rocks)
The Reputation
Amy Rigby (formerly married to Will Rigby of the dB's)
Chris Stamey (formerly of the dB's, among others)

And unbelievably, Grey De Lisle, who I normally associate with Clifford the Big Red Dog as the voice of Emily Elizabeth.

More to follow when I have time to elaborate.

~6.5mi, 61:43

New Model Army, "The Hunt"
New Model Army, "My Country"
New Model Army, "Waiting"

WX at 0800: 24 (-4), DP 21 (-6), BP 30.37 (1028), winds Calm, RH 85%

Odometer 1: 273mi

Z3.
Resting heart rate before start = 60

I decided on something a little different today, so a little trail running was in order. Also included was some railroad tracks. I ran a little harder today than I would've had I been confined to roads, and the last mile on pavement was a useful indicator.

Splits - None applicable today.

5.1mi, 43:00

Orchestral Manoevres in the Dark, "If You Leave" (No shit. I'm almost mortified that this became a running mantra.)
Let's Active, "Forty Years" (Much better. I feel vaguely cleansed.)

WX at 0700: 28 (-2), DP 21 (-6), BP 30.13 (1020), winds NW 6, RH 74%

Odometer 1: 266mi

Z2-Z3.
Resting heart rate before start = forgot again.

A recent post on the Dead Runners Society list focused on the loss of training base after some time off. The poster (someone whose opinion I respect greatly for his insights on training tips) said two weeks is about all it takes to lose training base. This is probably holding true since my legs are starting to feel the effects of training again. The mornings are also exercises in some willpower since it's taking more concerted effort to get out the door, which I hope will change as it gets warmer.

A mite chilly this morning...a big change from wearing shorts yesterday.

Splits
1.5 12:38 12:38 08:25
2.1 30:33 17:55 08:32
1.5 43:00 12:27 08:18 08:21

The Other Gratuitous New Toy

After listening to jwer, my landlord, and most recently, my father-in-law, we decided to fork out for a Dyson DC14 Animal. We got the uber-swanky version with the quick-change telescoping handle.

While I cringe at the thought of paying $550 for a vacuum cleaner, I gotta admit the Dyson is the most über-badass vacuum cleaner I've ever used. I think back to the vaguely crappy Sears canister vacuum cleaner my parents had during the 1980s, one that was pretty close to the one that my father-in-law had until recently...

But for $550, it delivers on its promise of policing stuff up (particularly given our dog, a German Shepherd-Boxer hybrid who sheds with reckless abandon but not so much that you actually notice it in progress). I scoffed at its looks (the Dyson vacuum cleaners have a serious look of the 1970s-science fiction movie. I've refrained from calling it the Logan's Run vacuum cleaner. If it came with 1970s-era Jenny Agutter, maybe I'd reconsider...

7.6mi, 62:31

"The Shot Heard Around The World" from Schoolhouse Rock
The JudyBats, "When Southern Bells Ring"

WX at 0700: 41 (5), DP 28 (-2), BP 29.98 (1015), winds N 5, RH 60%

Odometer 2: 269.5mi

Z2, some Z3.
Resting heart rate before start = no reading

First run in 8 days. Yep, you read that right, 8 days. I'm in the process of kicking my annual Chest/Head Cold From Hell. I usually seem to get one every winter, I'm getting through the one for this year. Most of the time I can get by them but this one was bad enough where I was seriously impeded from doing anything at all, in spite of having some of the best running weather you can get.

Today's weather was no exception. A little cloudy, but clear. I also attribute today's uncharacteristically fast splits for effort (particularly the first 1.5) to having 8 days of no running.

Splits
1.5 12:09 12:09 08:06
2.1 29:51 17:42 08:26
1.5 42:20 12:29 08:19
2.5 62:31 20:11 08:04 08:12

The New Phone of 666

My new toy is a Motorola V265.

It replaces a Motorola V120e, which I got for, well, free when we signed up with Verizon.

I got it for a few reasons.
1. It was free (for the most part).
2. It took all my old accessories. More specifically, my headset, chargers, and most importantly, data cable.
3. It is supposed to get better reception than my old phone, which was actually pretty good.

The only thing I knew I was going to lose on my new phone was battery life. The Old Phone of 666 had fucking legendary battery life. An anecdote: when I was at the National Punishment, erm, Training Center at Fort Irwin two years ago, I was out in the box. I was able to receive an analog signal in the Verizon extended network, meaning I wasn't getting charged for airtime to call Maura's bat-phone (since it was on the same share plan). In three days in the box I could count on three calls, all about a half hour long, transmitting in analog mode. I did switch the phone off, but the battery was that good. No shit. No charging in the meantime. For what I paid, that phone was the muthafuckin' heat! Added in with 1XRTT capability, I was averaging data rates in excess of 120Kbps while on the road in scenic Charm City.

So...there were a few non-negotiables.

1. Had to have tri-mode. I almost never use 800 MHz analog, but when I do, it pays off big time. I found I spent quite a bit of time in 800 MHz digital based on places I went.
2. Had to have 1XRTT connectivity. My fat ass will be in Pennsylvania for a large chunk of this summer and the place I'm staying probably won't have broadband.
3. Had to be compatible with our existing set of chargers and headsets. Headsets, not a big deal since they're all using 2.5mm plugs. The chargers were a little more problematic, but as it turns out, Motorola has largely standardized it, so staying Motorola had some benefits.

A couple of added functionalities I got with the V265.

1. Speaker phone. Not sure how much I'll actually use it, but who knows?
2. Camera. Not sure how much I'll actually use it, but it's actually been useful once.
3. Polyphonic ringer. I could sit down and program the Imperial March into the New 666, but I have every intent of uploading it in MP3 format when I get around to it. Or Mike Oldfield's opening from Tubular Bells. Or something equally satanic and antisocial.

It's too early to see what to think of the battery life for now. On a more encouraging sign, I'm getting about 115Kbps from the phone where the Old 666 could only eke out maybe 35-40Kbps on even a good day. Data reception like that only bodes well for voice...

Now I have to think of how I intend to trick out the New Phone of 666.

The Sound of SCRAAAAAAATCH

Today marked my seventh consecutive unsuccessful attempt to get a jump since the beginning of January.

I stood a better shot of it today than any other day - I was up front on the second lift. The first lift had dropped and it was looking promising; the prevailing winds at the drop zone were 5 knots once you got down to tree level (although they were 30 knots at drop altitude!).

Getting in the plane for lift two, I weas optimistic since the wind had only picked up to eight knots.

On the approach, the winds gusted to 15 knots (two above peacetime allowable) and we started the required ten-minute wait until the next drop. We got about seven and a half minutes into the approach when the wind gusted to 15 again and we started another approach. Apart from the three times we circled over the Rockingham NASCAR Speedway (for want of any better place to go while waiting), it was a somewhat bumpy, albeit uneventful ride. After the second ten-minute warning, the jumpmaster team was instructed to land and unload the jumpers. The alternative would've been to stay in the air and unnecessarily hassle jumpers as they waited to exit.

Coming off, I spoke to the airborne commander (the overall leader in charge of the operation) and he was hearing from the drop zone "the winds have been reading 15.5 the last two readings." He rhetorically said "you think we should get the jumpers ready to go?"

For some reason, I started laughing uncontrollably. I think part of it was my answer to the question "do you think this'll get cancelled?" My quip back ended up being "I don't want to cause a panic if I come back and start derigging my shit."

Five jumps. That's all I really would like. How hard can it be?

6.2mi, 52:45

The Greenberry Woods, "Oh Christine"
The Greenberry Woods, "The Sympathy Song"
The Greenberry Woods, "Trampoline"
Kitchens of Distinction, "Smiling"
Throwing Muses, "Shimmer"
Antonin Dvorak, Adagio-Allegro molto from Symphony No 9. in e minor "From The New World"

WX at 0700: 55 (13), DP 50 (10), BP 30.00 (1015), winds Variable 1, RH 81%

Odometer 1: 261mi

Z3 low.
Resting heart rate before start = 56

Today was slow, slow, slow. Aerobically, today was a Z2 kind of run. For muscular effort, today was definitely a Z3 kind of run, so maybe I need to do some legitimate wogging for some legitimate recovery.

The weather was good, although it's supposed to rain later today. With luck the rain will be late enough where I can scam a jump. Red in morning, sailor's warning, and there was a nice evil shade of red this morning at sunrise, albeit through some overcast skies.

Splits
1.5 12:08 12:08 08:05
2.3 31:22 19:14 08:22 08:21
2.5 52:45 21:23 08:33 08:28

Batphones 'R Us

A few days ago my cell phone (a Motorola V120e) up and croaked on me. I put it down, plugged in the charger, and the next day, had no display. Previously, I'd called the phone Sisyphus as a tribute to the hapless dude from Greek mythology who was cursed to push a giant fucking rock up a hill for the rest of his existence. Try as he might, he'd never get the rock to the top of the hill. The stone would always roll back down to the bottom and he'd have to start again. Similarly, my batphone was an electronic tether, hence, I was tied to the rock.

More recently, in a spate of bad attitude, I decided to change the banner on the phone to Phone of 666. Not being a Christian, I don't feel particularly bound by the use of the digit 6 repeated three times, but I'm always amused to see how casual use of that number always gets people going. My informal callsign as a commander was "666" when I was talking to one particular battle captain, who used to use the moniker "Saber 3 Chuck" (versus "Saber 3 Charlie") over the radio. As I used to explain, with a troop callsign like "Shadow", and my position as commander, you could actually make a (pretty specious) case for 666 as a callsign. Uh-huh.

About two weeks after the Phone of 666 transformation (along with the startup message "Blood Makes The Grass Grow," probably a better barometer of my mood at the time) . I'm sure it has nothing to do with the electronics crapping out on the phone, but it makes for entertaining coincidence.

Unfortunately, since Verizon Wireless doesn't offer the Motorola V120e (which I actually thought was a pretty decent phone since I got it for free as a promotional offer when I signed on with them) any more, I'm in the position of trying to get another phone. I think I'll be settling on a Motorola V265.

I've resisted getting camera phones, phones with color screens, and more pointedly, phones with polyphonic ringers, particularly ones for which you can download elaborate ringers (which for the most part, have utterly fucking obnoxious hop-hop ringers when you hear them in public). My answer to that was to manually program in the ringers (and the V120e had about the same tonal quality as a battery-powered LCD watch) to something I liked. Not surprisingly, my ringer was the first few measures of John Williams' "Imperial March" from The Empire Strikes Back. Yeah, Darth Vader's theme. Other ringers I had programmed included John Carpenter's theme to Halloween and the theme to the old Warner Brothers cartoon Pinky and the Brain.

Too bad none of those ringers are transferable. Now my dilemma is going to be which MP3s I intend to reduce to phone-ringer size. I think The Exorcist will join Darth Vader in the phone.

So...I enter the modern era and will probably get one of the phones I vilify so much. I'm not sure how I became such a Luddite about technology, but I think my philosophy has been "newer is not always better" for long enough where it includes my attitudes about consumer electronics. Items in the house falling in that category:
TV (8 years old)
VCR (6 years old)
DVD player (3 years old)
Stereo (a Dolby Surround 2.0 receiver that I got 9 years ago that's still going strong)
Computers (5 and 4 years for laptop and desktop respectively)

I think part of my hanging on to shit for so long relates to my distaste for throwing things out. (Not surprisingly, I'm a historian by education and hobby.) Responsible environmental stewardship entails not tossing printed circuit boards out into the trash where they can eventually become HAZMATs. In today's society, the challenge is to figure out what to do with all that stuff. If electronics recycling was free, more people would do it. This is not to be reductionist and to say that someone should be subsidizing it, but I bet a recycling subsidy might not be a half-bad idea.

7.6mi, 60:30

The Roches, "Home Away From Home"
Game Theory, "Toby Ornette"
Anberlin, "Readyfuels"
Craig Safan, opening credits from The Last Starfighter

WX at 0700: 42 (6), DP 37 (3), BP 30.15 (1020), winds variable 2, RH 81%

Odometer 2: 262mi

Z3.
Resting heart rate before start = 59

Not a bad little run today. I decided to run the 2.1 leg backwards and the slowers splits on that relative to the other legs became apparent since the hills in the leg were much more apparent.

I've been slacking in the Hindu Squat category. Time to get back on the wagon.

Today's weather was pretty good. That's better than what I could say about the rest of this week; I'm scheduled for two jumps, neither of which are looking too good. One tomorrow afternoon is competing with rain (again). The one for Friday morning has to compete with high winds (in excess of 22 mph).

I just want six jumps. Is that too much to ask?

Splits
1.5 11:50 11:50 07:53
2.1 28:59 17:09 08:10
1.5 40:52 11:53 07:55
2.5 60:30 19:38 07:51 07:56

3.8mi, 33:15

The Bats, "Courage"
New Order, "Regret" (Fire Island Remix)

WX at 0700: 37 (3), DP 26 (-3), BP 30.36 (1028), winds N 3, RH 64%

Odometer 2: 255mi

Z2.
Resting heart rate before start = 57

Today just sucked. In spite of excellent weather, the body just wasn't cooperating. Some of it could be attributed to cumulative lack of sleep, but regardless, the legs weren't wanting to play. Today was going to be easy regardless, but even after taking yesterday off, if I can barely eke out an 8:51 pace, today is not a day to push the odds.

Splits
1.5 13:09 13:09 08:46
2.3 33:15 20:06 08:44 08:51

The Festival of Fat Americans

Fuck the Super Bowl. There. I said it.

The Super Bowl is traditionally my prompt to do anything that has nothing to do with some annual televised activity. I'm reminded of being in Europe and seeing an utter lack of dumpy people on the streets. It could be because they're not sitting on their ass watching American football in the annual lard-a-thon called the Super Bowl.

Real (i.e., not American) football fans, on the other hand, couldn't care less who's in the Super Bowl because NFL players could only dream of being as well-known as David Beckham. Or something like that.

A brief retrospective:
1997 - went to Crittenberger MPRC at Fort Hood to talk to the unit I would eventually command. They were shooting gunnery that day so I decided to try to get the ear of the squadron commander and the troop commander. I guess it worked out. No glass tit that day.
1998 - Internet relay chat, Copperas Cove, TX.
1999 - Internet relay chat while at the Combined Arms and Services School of Loose Morals...but that's a different story for a different day.
2000 - I don't remember, but I don't recall watching it that year either.
2001 - No recollection, not offhand. But not watching.
2002 - I was at Fort Knox for gunnery. My guys were in the officers' club. I went to the shoppette after making sure my guys were well situated and had a ride back.
2003 - I don't remember.
2004 - I was at a friend's house with Maura and the kids. I saw some of the game. I didn't exceed the 30 minute catastrophic cap. I didn't see the halftime show, but did note the truly fucking sophomoric character of the ads that year.
2005 - Snippets, but most of what I watched during that time was the movie Dumbo since it was on Disney Channel. I was at my in laws' house.

And maybe, the 2004 description describes where my ire at the Super Bowl comes from...although it might actually make the knuckle-dragging elements of American society learn what Roman numerals are what since they'll hit 40 next year. The erudite would use XL...but knowing America, I'll be seeing spots for Super Bowl Quad-X next year.

People raise hell about the Janet Jackson halftime show in 2004...but how much ire was raised about the equally family-unfriendly advertisements that involved some scatological humor and more than a little innuendo? Almost none until this year. Fucking double standards.

7.6mi, 61:06

Chris Stamey, "14 Shades of Green"
Dmitri Shostakovich, Allegro from Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major, Op. 102

WX at 0800: 39 (4), DP 26 (-3), BP 30.31 (1026), winds N 7, RH 60%

Odometer 1: 282.5mi

Z3.
Resting heart rate before start = no reading today.

I almost didn't make it out. I really didn't feel like running. In spite of taking yesterday off, my legs were sufficiently tired that I probably wouldn't have made it out of Z3 for very long regardless of relative effort.

I got in an hour, which is useful, if nothing else, for mental sanity or something like it. Today was a good example of going out and just turning the mind off. Mostly.

Splits
1.5 11:52 11:52 07:55
2.1 29:05 17:13 08:12
1.5 41:13 12:08 08:05
2.5 61:06 19:53 07:57 08:01

6.0mi approximate, 48:52

The Replacements, "I Will Dare"
The Replacements, "Answering Machine"
J.S. Bach, Fuga from Sonata No. 3 for unaccompanied violin in C major, BWV 1005

WX at 0700: 37 (3), DP 30 (-1), BP 30.26 (1024), winds NE 6, light rain, RH 74%

Odometer 2: 251mi

Z2. Resting heart rate before start = 59

My prediction about today's jump was accurate. It didn't happen, as it was raining at weather decision time.
I ended up going home and getting what I felt to be an easy run. If easy is an 8:09 pace or so (and there was absolutely nothing rushed about today's run) then I'm encouraged.

I was also wearing shorts for the first time in a while; the run started deceptively warm since the temperature dropped during the run. The humidity in the air and the low cloud cover helped retain heat towards the ground.

Had we been able to jump in the rain, I maintain today would've been pretty good...but the ceiling was probably too low for safety minimums.

Splits
None today. Overall pace ~ 8:09

7.6mi, 60:46

Philip Glass, closing credits to Hamburger Hill
Pizzicato Five, "Twiggy Twiggy vs. James Bond"
Michael Kamen, Band of Brothers Suite 2

WX at 0700: 28 (-2), DP 26 (-3), BP 30.4 (1029), winds NNE 6, RH 92%, wind chill 21 (-6)

Odometer 1: 275mi

Z3.
Resting heart rate before start = 51

Easy start relative to most other long runs netted a mostly successful attempt to get negative splits, although I had no goals (really) for today. I just wanted a good long run. I got it.

Tomorrow's forecast for the jump calls for wet snow and rain. I remain optimistic but privately my judgment is telling me "no fucking way." Unfortunately, next week isn't looking so opportune for jumps either, although I have two scheduled. Sure hope the winter decides to stop short of Fort Bragg tomorrow, just for a day. If not, then I'm going to have to find some place to go for a run out of sheer catharsis...but I quote James Webb's A Sense of Honor when I say "it's not heart that keeps you in this...it's asshole." Nonetheless, all I want is 6 jumps. That's not too much to ask. Really.

Splits
1.5 12:08 12:08 08:05
2.1 29:23 17:15 08:13
1.5 41:17 11:54 07:56
2.5 60:46 19:29 07:48 07:58

5.1mi, 44:01

The Innocence Mission, "Someday Coming"
Michael Kamen, end credits to From The Earth To The Moon
an assortment of running cadences

Examples follow.

when I was a young boy
mama told me
go to the store
get what you need
got me a yo-yo
wound it up tight
now my little yo-yo's
going all night
(no, not one of the politically correct ones.)

when I go to heaven
Saint Peter's gonna say
how'd you earn your living boy
how'd you earn your pay...

(cavalry scout version)
...I replied with a yell and a shout
I made my living as a cavalry scout

(indirect fire infantryman permutation)
...I replied 'cause I got something to say
I made my living hanging rounds all day

(M1 armor crewman permutation)
...I replied with a whole lot of pride
I made my living on a 70 ton ride

when I go to hell
the devil's gonna say
how'd you earn your living boy
how'd you earn your pay
I replied with a fist to his face
I made my living filling up this place

C-130 rolling down the strip
plane blew a tire and the damn thing flipped
64 troopers trapped inside
barbecued, sizzled, Kentucky-fried

in 1814 we took a little trip
in an M3 Bradley rolling down the Mississip
and we shot our rifles 'til the barrels melted down
and we grabbed a couple grunts and we went a couple rounds
they were mentally able and were physically fit
but if you ain't cav, you ain't shit

Everyone has their acts of rebellion. I have mine.

WX at 0700: 30 (-1), DP 26 (-3), RH 30.33 (1027), winds NNW 7, RH 86%, wind chill 23 (-5)

Odometer 2: 245mi

Z2.
Resting heart rate before start = 59
Average heart rate during run ~ 155

For a run where I was supposed to be doing recovery pace, and one which was unbelievably easy in time, I'm still clocking an average 8:33 pace. I can live with that. I was looking for about 45 minutes of easy run, and I got it.

No run planned for Thursday since I'm planning on jumping. On the other hand, it's supposed to rain that day. I will have the ass if that happens again (0 for 4 in my last attempts to jump)

Splits
1.5 12:44 12:44 08:29
2.1 31:17 18:33 08:50
1.5 44:01 12:44 08:29 08:33