Everything I used to bore people on newsgroups and mailing lists with, now in one inconvenient place.
I know I’m supposed to be saving money until I get a new job, but I’ve ordered my ticket to the StackOverflow Dev Day in Toronto. Right now my only question is how late to wait before ordering my SO Reputation t-shirt so my rep is in the right ballpark when I wear it there.
I think the networking opportunities there will be awesome. I wonder if I should print out a bunch of resumes?
I made another foray out into Irondequoit Bay. The conditions were pretty favourable – there was no wind at first, although it built steadily during the time I was out there, and was in my face on the way back. There were almost no wind-drive waves, which meant I was dealing almost entirely with boat wakes. And boy, did I deal with a lot of boat wakes. I don’t understand power boaters at all – well, except the ones out fishing, anyway. It seemed like there were 3 or 4 boats with two or three guys in each one that were just going up and down the bay. I don’t think there wasn’t a time when I couldn’t see at least one of the 4 approaching and another one receding. I don’t see the point, myself.
I made a pretty steady 6.0 mph up the bay. On the way back, the wind and my tiredness and the wakes slowed me down to around 5.0 mph for the first mile and a half. I had to keep stopping to rest on the last mile, and barely averaged 4.8 mph. My total time back to Baycreek was around 57 minutes. My best recorded time last year was 1:05, so that’s a big improvement, but not as much as I’d hoped.
After finishing, I went for another 2 miles on the creek. It was very hard. I was extremely tired and had to keep stopping for a rest. I’ve *got* to do better than that.
Afterwards, I met a couple of members of the team, and we were standing around talking when Paul D asked me what was on my shirt. I looked, and it seems like 
I had a bit of a rub spot on where my shirt bunched up under my PFD. That’s not good.
Almost the entire kayak team met at Dan’s today for a 5 mile time trial. As well as most of the Baycreek Team, we also had Jason Quagliata, Jim Mallory, and Nicole Mallory, so basically the elite of the Upstate New York kayaking world. Jason is currently on the US national marathon kayak team, and Nicole either is or soon will be on the national team, and she’s been on the junior team in the past. Jim Mallory has represented the US in the Olympics in sprint kayaking and used to be on the national marathon team as well. Like I said, an impressive gathering.
Dan had set up a 5 Mile Time Trial course, but the start was two miles from his dock, going upstream for 1.5 miles and coming down 3.5 miles. I didn’t think I needed or wanted a 2 mile warm up, so I paddled up half a mile and started. I went up 2.5 miles and back, using my GPS to track the distance and watch my team.
Dan had pushed me to set a goal time of 50 minutes, which seemed too fast for me. But 10 minutes per mile sure makes the mental math easy – look at the distance, and multiply by 10, and if your time is below that, you’re on time. The first two miles went by in less than 20 minutes. I grabbed a quick sip of water on the turn around, but the third mile was slower than 10 minutes. I’d sort of hoped that turning down stream would mean that I’d get a bit of an advantage, and be able to maintain the magic 6 mph with less effort, but alas it wasn’t to be. The fourth mile was a real struggle, but I was a hair slower than 10 minutes. In the fifth mile, I had to stop for a quick drink and stretch, and I kept slowing and speeding up as I pushed myself above 6 mph and sagged, pushed and sagged, over and over again. I was very glad to see the bridge where I’d started. I yelled “damn” as the GPS showed 50 minutes tick by before reaching the bridge.
My total time was 50:14, which is better than I expected, but not as good as I’d hoped. But even better, a couple of the other guys on the team where within a minute or so of me, so maybe I won’t be the slowest one on the team forever.
Splits:
| Mile | Time |
|---|---|
| 1 | 09:55.20 |
| 2 | 09:56.16 |
| 3 | 10:10.17 |
| 4 | 10:04.89 |
| 5 | 10.07.95 |
| Total | 50:14.37 |
Considering how shitty the rest of the day was, it wasn’t a bad finish.
Today was another “see if I’m ready for the Round The Mountain Race” paddle. I went out into the Bay, in spite of the fact that my spray skirt doesn’t fit very well and keeps popping open. The wind was steady almost exactly in my face on the way out, but the waves were fairly small and not breaking into the cockpit like they were last time I tried. In spite of the fact that I was managing to keep up a fairly steady 5mph pace into the wind, I didn’t feel very comfortable in the waves, and so I turned around at the 2 mile mark. I felt even less comfortable with the waves behind me, in spite of the fact that they immediately raised my speed to around 5.5mph. After three miles my right shoulder (the opposite from the one that was bothering me all winter) started to hurt, and my pace slacked off down to 5.2 mph for the fourth mile. When I got back, I had thought of going up to the weir and back to add another 2 miles, but I didn’t have the energy and my shoulder was still hurting, so I did a short warm-down loop at 4.1 mph.
On the other hand, comparing my times with last September, which I timed with a watch instead of a GPS, this time I was about 45 seconds faster for the first mile, and about 1:45 faster to “Two Mile Point”, so I should take some solace in that.
But based on my discomfort in even minor waves, my sore shoulder, and my increasingly sore elbows in spite of the vast quantities of Aleve I’m consuming, I’ve come to two sad conclusions.
Too bad, because I’ve always loved pushing myself to train for athletic events, whether it was the Canadian Ski Marathon, the North American Orienteering Championships, or just a long backpacking trip.
My goal for this year was to finish a 10 mile race. I didn’t say which one. I have decided to make the Tucker Lake 9 Miler my first race of the year, since it’s on a river and won’t have wind and wave problems, and it gives me another 3 weeks to prepare. After that, I might consider the Armond Bassett races in July. Don’t see much else on the calendar that appeals until Long Lake. I’d hoped to get a team together for the Auburn Great Race (since it requires one biker and one runner as well as a kayaker), but nobody is expressing any interest.
Last evening I went for a long slow distance paddle. It was cold and windy, so I opted for Irondequiot Creek even though it’s too shallow for a good workout. I thought I’d head upstream and see how far I got.
Part of the point of this exercise is to see if I’m ready for the ‘Round The Mountain’ race in three weeks time. Originally my first long race of the season was going to be the ‘Tupper Lake 9 Miler’ (which is actually closer to 7.5 miles) on June 6. But RTM is an attractive race for many reasons, except for that whole ‘only being three weeks away and being longer than I’ve paddled this year’ thing.
So basically I wanted some indication on this paddle if I’d be able to paddle the 10.5 miles of RTM without dying (figuratively or literally). To be a real test I probably should have gone on the river or maybe even on the bay, but trying to squeeze in a paddle on the way home argues against the river, and the windiness argued against the bay.