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July 05 Stagnant air plus firework smoke = bad allergies :(My allergies are really bad again this mng. The combination of no wind, with the smoke from last nites fireworks are burning my nose and throat :( Looks like I will need to keep on top of the dosing with anti histamines today. I use the 4 Hr Chlor Trimetrone tablets which work very well for me. I usually only need to take 2-3 a day. Today I suspect I will need to keep on top of this every 3-4 hours. summer colds (or flu?) = no paddling again :(I havent paddled since last Monday which is almost a week now ( its Sunday mng). After a great paddle on Monday when I paddled almost 10 miles in about 1:45 ( 4 sets of ( 3 x 5 mins on 15 secs rest between reps ) 5 mins rest between sets ) I was going to paddle tuesday but felt really tired, and the same again on Wednesday. By Wednesday evening I had a fever, and chills :( Since then I have been sat at home with no energy feeling pretty crappy.
Finally today I am actually feeling well enough that I want to go for a paddle and I am planning to get out for a short easy paddle later this mng to see how things go. June 28 North west canoe kayak development campBack from a week over at Lake wenatchee at the Regional development camp.
Had a great week paddling twice a day or more in sprint boats and surf skis.
Not a great session on Tuesday when we were up first, straight after a very heavy breakfast. Took me till the last set to get going, then we were done for the sesion :(
Our session in the K4 became a great experience when we sank the boat mid lake :)
Finished the week with a great paddle in Tubby Two with Greg B, on the most incredible day with sunshine, flat water, and amazing views of the mountains.
I might add more later when I am less tired. June 21 Mountains To Sound raceBack from the Mountains To Sound relay race
I was paddling again, so had a 12 mile paddle from Redmond to Kenmore.
I took a gamble, on getting favorable conditions on Lake Washington, and paddled my Epic Legacy K1.
Overall not a great paddle, for some reason my quads decided to start cramping after 25-30 minutes, so I was in agony for the remainder of the 2 hours 8 minutes it took me to finish the 12 mile paddle. This isnt something I have had an issue with in any previous paddles, so have no idea what brought it on?
The team was super fast this year, so I was about 15-20th out of the boat park, really early on. This meant that the river was much emptier for my paddle, so I only overtook 3-4 boats, but was overtaken by 2 other boats.
I ended up stopping 3 times to clear weed from my rudder. My attempts at a weed guard for the rudder were inefective, but I didnt have any problems with the bow after I added my custom plastic coat hanger weed deflector :)
After last years excellent top 10 finish ( on the paddling leg) im expecting to be somewhere in the top 50 this time. But that does give me plenty of room for improvement for next yeat :)
My official time from last year was 1:57:33, so it looks like this years time will be at least 10 minutes longer than that, putting me somewhere around 15-20th :(
June 12 BSOD in ialmdd5.dll on my acer aspire laptop with win 7 RCJust finished fixing any annoying blue screen that started happening after I upgraded to Win 7 RC ( from Vista SP1) The laptop ( Acer Aspire 9400 ) was reliably bug checking when we switched users, and about once a day when left all on its own.
The bugcheck was reported in ialmdd5.dll which a quick search on bing showed as an Intel graphics accelerator.
So where to get an updated driver? I went looking at the acer site, but when I finally found the download page for my machine, they didnt have anything newer than the curent version I was running :(
So of to Intel, where they have stacks of drivers to download, but which one did I need? No sign of ialdd5.dll when I searched for it, so back to the laptop.
I ran devmgmt.msc, and dug into the details of the display adapter which reported as a Modile Intel 915GM :) That let me find the right download.
Unfortunately its an XP driver :( So when I ran the installer, it puked saying I was running an invalid OS. Fortunately teh app compat layer caught this, and offered me the chance to run the driver install again in app compat mode. This worked, and after a reboot, I havent had a bug check yet :)
The version I was originally running was 6.14.10.4363, and the one I got from Intel is 6.14.10.4764 and this seems to have fixed the problem.
And now for the techie details :)
The bug check as reported in the Event 1001 in the System event log was
The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x00000050 (0xffaa40e0, 0x00000000, 0x8a4a2a75, 0x00000000). A dump was saved in: C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP. Report Id: 061109-26609-01. The bugcheck code is 0x00000050, and seaching on bing for bugcheck 0x00000050 got me to this page http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms793437.aspx Which indicates its a PAGE_FAULT_IN_NON_PAGED_AREA. While interesting, its not going to help me figure out a resoluton though :( Fortunately when the bugcheck occured, the blue screen info also displayed the offending DLL. II hadnt made note of this, the next step would be to crack open the dump, and run !Analyze -v -nodb on it, and see what that reports. Lets see what we get there. First of remember to start windbg in Admin mode ( run as admin ) else you cant open the dump files. Second, the dumps live at c:\windows\minidumps Third, set your symbol path to the public symbol server. I can never remember the path, but a quick search on bing for microsoft symbol server took me to the KB with the symbol server path :) After opening the dump, and running !Analyze -v -nodb, and taking in all the warnings about wrong symbols :( Right at the end of the output, I got the following.
FOLLOWUP_NAME: MachineOwner IMAGE_NAME: ialmdd5.DLL SYMBOL_NAME: ialmdd5+32a75 BUCKET_ID: WRONG_SYMBOLS The key piece of info here is the IMAGE_NAME which points me to ialmdd5.dll :) June 07 a whole month since my last post ?Wow, nearly a whole month since I last posted. Thank Facebook for that, and being crazy busy at work, plus taking on a new book to Technical Edit, plus everything else thats going on.
Fitness wise, I have been back to the gym regularly 2-3 times per week, and have been doing a performacne training class and then weights. Other than that I have been trying to paddle 3-4 times a week, but its ended up being 2-3 times if I am lucky.
Weight management wise, I have been pretty good with meal tracking, and have been sticking to 1500-1800 calories a day, but with limited success at getting my weight down. Thats mostly because every week so far there has been one day that has sabotaged each weeks hard work, from 2 weeks of birthdays, and parties, to Ski to sea, and other stuff. Have to see what the enxt few weeks hold, and if I can crawl down below 190 Lbs, and on towads 185?
Next weekend in Ted Houk regatta on Green lake.
Week after that its the Mountains To Sound race where I am doing the 12 mile kayak leg again, and the following week I will be over in Eastern Washington for a week at the North West Regional kayak development camp. It will be nice to get away for a week and be able to concentrate on kayaking every day, and get away from work and email for a week :)
May 08 No paddling for another 2 weeks :(Another 2 weeks has gone by since I last paddled, or did any other kind of workout :( This time it was brought on by a late spring cold that went round the girls first ( Ellie first, then Caity, then me)
Thank goodness its almost gone as I need to get out and paddle again, AND practice for my leg of the Ski to Sea race which is coming up soon. Im doing the cross country ski leg for some strange reason :)
April 16 Sprint kayaking on YouTubeHad to find somewhere to put the list of current favorite videos on YouTube.
If you have any more good ones, please let me know, and I'll update the list :)
Tim brabants
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mhpY3jyPys Saul Craviotto medley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6EbazS1USs 2006 World Championships
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvCSWDyScGE Exit Balancing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6fmIUBebh Intro to canoe & Kayak
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLB23U3Leec Split screen slo mo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCgOIcxFYhU SCKC Interviews
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1uXSJtSutU Adam Koerven slo mo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_PRdxHt21c Wednesday paddleStill working on my balance, it was a struggle again today? It felt like my core was just tired from paddling yesterday perhaps?
I also tried moving my seat back one whole setting ( from 5 to 6 on the nicely marked seat track) and while that definitely eased my hip flexor ache, my legs were still tight and troublesome.
I think I need to move the foot board back one half setting as well, but its already at the end of the tiller bar, so I have to stick a pencil in the end ( or something similar) if I want to be able to steer with the foot board any further back, plus Im not sure its going to come much further back?
The river was nearly perfect, except for a few swirly currents, otherwise it was totally flat. I was paddling later in the day, so the sun was really low on my return, and the flies were out in force which resulted in a few extra rations of protein as they took their suicide dive into my mouth.
By the end of the workout, I was starting to be able to put a lot more pressure into my stroke, but that only lasted a few strokes before my timing went out again, and everything fell apart, but its slowly coming together again.
Next paddle is going to be on Friday. April 14 Tuesday workoutsJust back from another 50 minutes paddling.
Still taking it nice and easy, and working on trying to get all my paddling muscles working again.
Todays focus was on rotation, and my hip flexors really paid for it, and let me know about it. I was getting some lower back aching until I realised I wasnt sitting up staight because my hips were aching. After sitting up straighter ( with just the right amount of fwd lean I hope ) my hips ached even more, but my back was fine.
The balance is still a bit of a struggle for the first half of the workout, partly because I am still crap at it, but also because I have a tail wind on my out paddle. After I turn around and start to head back, the headwind helps me sit the boat up, and keep it balanced.
Tuesday evening I dragged myself into the gym for a 30 minute bike ride and 30 minutes of weights ( upper body routine ) April 12 More paddlingSo far, I paddled Friday, Saturday, and am just about to head out again today, if I can get warmed up and motivated enough.
My shoulder seems to be holding up pretty well, although there are definitely a few niggling aches and pains, but these are from use, and not from abuse ( I hope) , and should go away with a days rest (tomorrow)
Next Saturday is the Race for Cookies at Cascade. This is a 2K time trial, and Im pretty sure i am not doing that, as I am still really working on getting some basic boat fitness back, and working a lot on balance in the boat. Its way to early for me to think about any sort of speed. First Cross Country ski of the seasonAs I am doing the cross country ski leg of the Ski to Sea race in May, I thought I should get some practice in, so I waxed up my classic and skate skis and headed to Snoqualmie Pass.
The conditions were warm, and it had been raining earlier in the day, but was now just grey.
I tried my skate skies but the snow was just way to soft and for a first time out it was way to much hard work, so I went back and switched to classis, and that was so much better. Still had some problems with breaking thru the very soft surface, but after abput 1/2 mile, the mess of snowshoe tracks subsided and there was actually a classic track to follow :)
This made things much easier, but I was still breaking thru the surface in places which made for slower going than expected given the speed of the heavy wet snow.
Anyway, I managed about 5 miles in an hour, 2.5 out, 2.5 back.
Now I need to find out more about the XC leg of S2S to see if I need to find some skate trails before the race, or if I simply rely on classic for the race. April 10 paddling todayI was going to paddle this mng, but the dreaded email beast got its fangs into me, so I ended up getting out this evening, and had a reasonable paddle.
Im still struggling with the balance, but its slowly getting better, now its just a case of keep working on it over time, and get all those core muscles built back up.
Then there is the little issue of gettting some fitness back, thats going to be another long struggle. Paddling this weekI managed to get out and Paddle on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and am just about to head out again now ( Friday)
Its not been very pretty, mostly slow stuff, trying to get some balance back in the boat, and build some paddling strength and fitness again.
I have been mostly paddling for about 50-60 minutes, and covering around 5 to 6 miles. I was pretty sore after paddling on Wednesday, which I put down to the sudden drop in temps as my shoulders ended up pretty cold. I made the mistake of thinking the weather was still in the upper 60's (F) which it had been on Sunday and Monday.
Anyway, its back to normal spring paddling conditions, cold, wet, not much wind, so back to the spring paddle clothing again. Hydroskin vest, fleece long sleeve shirt, and W/Proof jkt to keep the worst of the water at bay.
The jacket bit is always a hard call. My semi dry top is way to warm for these conditions, so I end up drenched in my own sweat ( even though its a breathable fabric - Kokotat Tropos ) and the next step down is my Marmot Precip jacket where my body temp is better, but I end up soaking from all the water running up the sleeves :( April 07 skiing days 13, 14, 15, 16 - AlpentalSunday (3/29)
Fresh snow on Friday (4/3)
Sunshine on Saturday (4/4) and Sunday (4/5)
PocketRockets on Friday
Head Super Shape magnums on Saturday ( an iffy choice ) and again on Sunday ( perfect )
Sunday mng conditions were to hard to adventure on the upper lift, so i skied mostly hard and fast on the lower lift. I tried Eidelweis bowl a couple of times, but it was just nasty hard icy lumpy conditions :( The lower runs were great :) March 26 Skiing Day 12 - AlpentalI managed to slip out of the office early today, and was skiing by 1 PM :)
It was almost a blue sky day up there. The snow was incredible, although mostly skied out, the stuff that was left was still amazing.
I managed 3 runs around International before my legs said no more, then finished of with some fast cruising runs on Debbies Gold before heading for home at 4 PM.
I used my Head Super Shape Magnum skis which were perfect for the steep conditions on Upper International.
Tomorrow is the last night of night skiing, so I may have to head up again to say good bye to night skiing for the season. March 24 Easy PaddleI had such big plans for working out yesterday, but as allways work go in the way, and I ended up squeezing in an easy paddle.
It had to be easy as I havent been out in the boat for a week or two, and my fitness in general, and boat specific fitness are pretty low.
So I worked on my balance, and did a lot of technique drills, and other stuff trying to get everything moving again.
I ended up having a pretty good paddle for about an hour, and felt comfortable in the boat. It seems like the exercises for my knee which are focusing now on strengthening my right glute are starting to have some effect in the boat. While there is still some way to go, I definitely felt more balanced, and had a lot more sensation of connection on my right side for a change.
My shoulder, while getting better, was still giving me problems for the whole paddle. Looks like there is still plenty of work to do to get my right shoulder back, and keep it there. March 22 weight mis management :(I finally weighed myself again yesterday at the gym, using their acurate scales so I know I have an accurate number.
The damage after 3-4 weeks of being sick with on then off again sinus infections / colds, no workouts, working long hours, and eating crap food is that I have bloated up to 192 Lbs :(
Thats just about where I was Pre 20/20 program, and is going to take a lot of work to get back down to my target weight of 160-170 Lbs. back to working out again - at last :)I finally felt well enough to head back to the gym yesterday. This was good as I had to take Ellie to PT anyway, so used the time to get in 30 minutes on the bike, a quick 10 minute run to get warmed up, then another 30 minutes of weights for my upper back and shoulders. Thats all on top of doing my 20 minutes of rehab exercises to try and get all my lazy muscles firing properly first.
I havent done these ( for my shoulder, or knee ) for about a week now, while I was feeling so ill with the last sinus infection / cold.
Now all I have to do is be able to get back to teh gym on a regular basis for a couple of weeks. Unfortunatley thats highly unlikely due to the amount of stuff I have going on at work right now :( Skiing Day 11 - Silver Fir and CentralGrabbed another couple of hours skiing this mng. Forecast was for warm weather with some precip, so I opted for my Pocket Rockets. Once I got there conditions were heavy wet snow over a very firm base, which was OK while I was on the well travelled routes, but of the main trail was just horrible as it was so bumpy, and the bumps where small and rock hard :(
Anyway it kept on snowing, and everything softened up, so after a couple of hours it was getting pretty good.
Summit West is closed for the season now, so I skied across to Central Express, then onto Triple 60, skied Parachute a couple of times, and then under he lift line straight down triple 60 which looked good, but was cascade concrete :(
I finished of with a few more runs down the different routes at Silver Fir before heading back home.
Im not sure if my Head SKis might have been a better bet in these heavy wet conditions, but the Salomon Pocket Rockets did OK. |
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