Rough Week - aka Yuckers

This has been a really rough week for doing anything but working really.  That big project to fix up rollers and prevent burning was a bust, when the machine started back up burning was the worst it has ever been.  Not just burning, which started right away at startup under conditions where we never see burning, but very unpredictable burning.  The machine would be running fine and then all of a sudden the material would just get torched.  This continued for almost a full day (Tuesday night to Wednesday afternoon) and more segments were pulled with heavy copper plating than I've ever seen.  The first shift operator working on removing these segments made a great discovery though, the contacts of the top and bottom set of rollers were not touching, meaning there is nothing to hold the material in contact with the rollers while plating.  A bit of brainstorming and a great idea from Dean, the engineer who installed this plater and knows it very well, and a project to create spacers was underway.  Our machine shop came through in a big way, staying late to get 130 of these spacers modified so we could get the machine back together and running, and not a spot of burning since then.  Plated up rollers is still an ongoing issue, but it is a pretty minor one now compared to what it is.  So hopefully this problem is solved for now (I'm sure in about 5-6 months if not sooner it will be back, and the contacts are now too thin to turn down again) and I'll have a quiet weekend on call.

Training has not happened at all this week, which is really bad since it is freezing at nigth and it seems like snow has to be just around the corner.  In fact, my sister out in UT called me to tell me about the beautiful white landscape she was looking out at, and West Yellowstone got 4-6 inches I think.  Rumor is it snowed here a bit, but it must have been during the 13 hours each day I have been at work.  My one ride yesterday is the first time I've been out in daylight all week, and a 5k tomorrow is my last running race of the year (for realz this time) and barely even a running race really, since I'll be dressed up as a Mario Kart character, kart and all.  Hopefully my kart is fast so I can still contend for an age group award.  Should be an interesting day; I'm not really sure where I fit in with this crew I'm hanging out with, lets just leave it at that.

Weekend Off

The motivation to train still is a bit on the low side, but there is snow out west now, so I better get my rear in gear or I'm going to be hurting on the West Yellowstone trip next month.  I did get out for 75 min or so in the rain on Saturday, and I'm going to go out and run or something tonight, skipping that is not an option.  I have a 5k race this weekend, so I'm thinking top end speed work might be in order.  I know it's kind of bogus to do one speed workout and expect it to make a difference in a race, but my conditioning is pretty good, just need to get in the game mentally to put up a fast time I think.  I did mile repeats a couple weeks ago and coasted through a couple 5:40's and finished with a 5:06, so I know the speed is there somewhere.  Just need to keep it up for 5k.  Work has been a few busy days now with a major machine PM happening on the copper plating line I'm in charge of.  We are removing all 150 odd contact rollers, cleaning them, checking them for shorts and opens, and turning down the contact surface, which sometimes means replacing contacts if there is too much corrosion, and then putting it all back together again.  Almost at the end of that project, just hope things run well once it's back together, or else it's back to the drawing board to try to deal with this persistent burning problem that has been troubling that machine.

Intervals

 First day back on the rollerskis in a few weeks went surprisingly well.  I was feeling the plyometric workout from lunch, and the 4th interval I was losing focus pretty quick, so there is work to do for sure, but I was close to pace for a few of them.  5:17-5:14-5:16-5:33 for about a 1.1 mile loop.  This weekend I'll get a long skate in to start building the base back up before West Yellowstone.  Also, as promised here are a couple pictures my friend Jim took of the workout.

Looking at those pictures I wonder how many miles those shorts have on them.  They are the same pair I've had since I was a basketball player my freshman year of high school a long 12 years ago, and I ran every day in them the first summer I trained for cross country.

Travis's Wedding

Saturday afternoon was my friend and fellow skier Travis's wedding.  The ceremony was held at French park and officiated by another friend and skier Bjorn.  The homily compared marriage to sking the Birkie, an analogy that probably half the crowd or less could directly relate too, but there was good humor and gems of wisdom scattered throughout that everyone could relate to.  It was great catching up to some skiiers I hadn't seen in quite a while, but will hopefully see more of soon when the snow flies.  The food at the reception was good and I did a lot of dancing (which was fun but I can't really ever classify my dancing as good, with the possible exception of DDR).  I also had Bjorn put a burning candle in my lap then try to make me laugh so I end up with hot wax all over my pants.  It's a bit disconcerting at times that this guy is going to be a doctor and entrusted with peoples lives, but he knows when to be serious, as his ski racing can attest to.  Sunday we met at French park again for sub sandwiches (over 20 feet of them in fact) and some frisbee.  A good time was had by all, and I got along with Travis and his wife Amy's friends pretty well.  All in all a great weekend, and I even have left over wedding cake still waiting for me at home.  Yum!!

Race Weekend

This weekend was a busy one, starting with the big woods half marathon on Saturday morning.  I haven't done any runs over 6 or 7 miles since the marathon, but that didn't really worry me, and I figured 6 minute pace would feel pretty sustainable.  I was right, my race ended up being 1:20 which is about 6:06 miles.  I went out in a group of 5 off the front immediately and we stuck together until mile 3 and the 10k cutoff where 3 turned off and it was just a 2 person race after that, and even then not for long.  I hung with the eventual winner for another mile or so when he started to form a gap.  He had 40 seconds at mile 7 and was out of sight by then.  I ran the second half of the race all alone, something I'm getting oddly used to in races, but still haven't been able to push the pace on these long races when running solo.  I had a great 1/2 earlier in the year where I chased down Sam Pertz over the second half of the race to run a 1:17 PR, so to run alone to a 1:20 wasn't bad, not good enough for any kind of prize though unfortunately.  Several of my friends also ran it, and there was the 3rd win in a row for my coworker Mike over my friend Jeff.  With that race over running season is winding down.  I might have one 5k left in a couple weeks, otherwise it is time to buckle down and get in shape for the upcoming ski season, which means I need to get back going on the rollerskis, which I haven't touched since the weekend before the marathon (I did the first ever Birkie marathon +2 miles to get 28 miles for my 28th birthday this year).  I might try to jump right back into intervals on Tuesday, they keep me pretty exciting about rollerskiing since they are a way to mark progress.  Long skis are very effected by route and wind so they do not provide as good of an indicator.  Then Saturday evening I went to my friend and fellow skier Travis's wedding, but that's another post.  Soon I'm going to try to start taking pictures to spice up a huge boring wall of text, so be on the lookout for that one.

Last trail race

Big Woods 1/2 marathon tomorrow, so today was an easy training day.  4k at lunch and a bit of light leaf raking before making pasta, banana bread, and garlic cheese bread with day old hoagie rolls from Hogans.  Lots of friends running the race tomorrow, and I should be looking at one of the top spots depending on who shows up to race, so things could be exciting.

Radio Edit

I did have some rather sad and personal posts here that were the motivation behind me starting this blog actually, but since this is the Internet and there is the possibility that someone might read them they have since been removed.  If you really want to know come find me in person and ask me about them sometime.  So mostly this blog will be about racing, but I will throw other oblique references to the rest of my life in there.  Don't worry, you really aren't missing much.  My social skills are a bit on the deficient side, and sordid details are sorely lacking in all aspects of my existance, but I manage to muddle through life anyhow and mostly enjoy myself along the way.  Happy reading!