Day 2 - Week 8/24

Today's run was another 3.5 miles as I went to River-woods and back. There hasn't been too much new snow, so the streets were a lot clearer.

I also made a trip to IKEA with Mark and Lily. I got a floor lamp, a new cutting board, and a bread knife.

I wanted to get some shelving, but I need to measure out the space in my apartment a little better, to make sure that everything will fit right.

At home, I'm packing for my trip to England, and really looking forward to it. Also, I took this picture. See if you can spot the thing that's out of place.

Day 6 - Week 7/24

I've been really bad about writing lately. Fortunately, I've been less bad about exercising.

Two days ago (thursday) I ran 3.8 miles with my dad. Yesterday, I did 3.5. Today, I woke up to about three inches of snow on the ground, and so did 30 minutes on the recumbent bike.

My cardio fitness seems to be getting better. During these runs, I feel like I'm being held back my my legs, rather than my lungs, which is a nice change.

--- Part 2 ---
My dad convinced me that the weather wasn't that bad. So I ran another 3.5 miles today. I'm still needing to walk a bit during these runs, but it's definitely getting easier.

His advice is to focus on my breathing. He says that it makes the little aches less noticeable.

As far as personal stuff, Christmas went really well. My cats got a great haul, and are more or less making peace with the dogs. Somehow, Tobin's Chihuaha has realized that it can chase the cats around. It's pretty funny watching a toothless 4-pound dog chasing 25 pounds of cat.

Day 3 - Week 6/24

I put in another three miles tonight. My stopwatch somehow turned off about 10 minutes into the run, so I don't have a time.

Adding in a few extra days of running should smooth my transition into the half marathon program.

Day 2 - Week 6/24

I didn't record the two runs from last week. Neither was especially long, partly due to weather, and partly due to finals.

Today's run went significantly better. I'm on week 8 of the couch-to-5k program, which calls for a 28 minute run. I traced out a 3-mile route, and went for 36 minutes, including my warmup.

My heartrate was between 158 and 167 for most of my run, and my pace felt comfortable. I'll see if I can add some extra distance onto the next run.

Running. Day 2 & 5 Week 4/24

I extended monday's run to be 6 minutes, 9 minutes and 6 minutes (with three minutes of cool down between the running). Monday felt pretty good and was comfortable through the first two runs. The third felt a bit slow.

Today was two sets of 10 minutes. Unfortunately, I put the run off a bit too long, and as a result, and the weather had gotten quite cold.

But, the good news is that I've gotten my pace up to 9-minute miles on the first 10 minute run. So, that's some improvement. Also, I'm still on-schedule.

Running. Day 6 - Week 3/24

Today's run was supposed to be 20 minutes, with 5 minutes each of warm-up and cool-down.

I set out and my heart rate monitor was not registering quite right. And, after the warmup (and getting stopped a minute into the jog by a traffic light), I set off. The run felt pretty good at first.

About 6 minutes in, my calves started to feel pretty heavy. I kept going, and they didn't get better, but they didn't get any worse, either. At around the 18 minute mark, I realized that I'd picked a somewhat too-long route. So, I decided to add on an extra minute and a half to compensate for the pause at the traffic light, and eat up some of the extra distance.

The extension felt good enough that I just kept going, and increased my run-time to 25 minutes. At the end, my heart rate was holding at 166bpm.

So, I'm feeling pretty good after the last run of my third week.

Running. Day 4 - Week 3/24

Today's run was:

Warmup
Run 8 min
Walk 5 min
Run 8 min
Cooldown

I ran outside, and had a heart rate monitor with me. This time, my heart rate stayed between about 165 and 175 when I was jogging, so that seems much better. It also drops off really quickly during the cooldowns, so that's also a good sign.

The running has been mostly ok, though I'm unsure how well friday's 20 minute run will go. But, we'll see.

Current Weight: 186

Running. Day 2 - Week 3/24

Today was Day 1 of Week 5 of the couch-to-5k program. This week is interesting because each day is different.

Today was 5 min warm up, and then 3x(5 min jog + 3 minute run) with an extra 2 minutes of cool down at the end.

My dad came out, and the jog felt pretty good.

Current Weight: 183lbs

Running. Day 7 - Week 2/24

I missed my second workout this week, and decided to just continue on with the couch to 5-k program. So, today was the last day of Week 4.

My dad invited me along to the gym, so I did the workout on a treadmill. It was interesting to see both my speed and my heart-rate. There's still a lot of room for improvement.

I think that my jogging speed on the previous runs has been about 6-7 mph. And, I was surprised to see that my heart-rate was getting above 180 during the 5-min runs. So, my cardiovascular fitness really has some room to improve.

But, the run generally felt good, and after, I went up and lifted some weights.

Current Weight: 183

Running. Day 2 - Week 2/24

This was week 4 of the couch to 5k plan.

This week will be:
5 minute warmup

2x of
3 minute jog
90 second walk
5 minute jog
2.5 minute walk

And a 5 minute cooldown.

I was expecting tonight to be really unpleasant from the cold and the two days of rain. But, it actually went nicely. The cold felt good while I was jogging, and most of the water was off the ground. The increased time felt pretty easy, too. I think I'll try for a faster pace next time.

Current Weight: 186

Running. Day 6 - Week 1/24

I missed my run last night, so I went this morning. It's getting quite a bit easier. And, the podcast is still helping.

So, I've completed week 3 of the couch-to-5k program, and will go onto week 4 on sunday.

Current weight: 181.4

Running. Day 3 - Week 1/24

Tonight I continued my couch-to-5k program.

The routine was:
5 min warmup
90 second jog
90 second walk
3 min jog
3 min walk
90 second jog
90 second walk
3 min jog
3 min walk

I found a podcast that had all the timings in it. It was nice to not need to keep checking a watch.

Current Weight: 186.0

Running. Day 1 - Week 1/24

Alyssa convinced me to join her in the Illinois (Half) Marathon that's happening on May 1st.

I've got 24 weeks to get ready. It's a lot of time, but I really haven't been good about exercising this weekend.

So, tonight I did day 1, week 3 of the couch to 5k plan. It wasn't too bad, but I can definitely tell that I haven't been exercising much. Still, it's a start. Hopefully I'll be ready.

Weirdness in the Data

There's some weirdness in my data.  Weird can be good; unexpected results are interesting.  Weird also means a lot of re-checking of data.

 

Brazil seems to devote a tiny fraction of its land to agriculture.  Of the years I'm studying (1990-2007) no state has more than half of a percent of its land devoted to agriculture at any point.  At least, this is what the data is telling me.

 

For comparison, Illinois uses about 80% of its total land for agriculture.

 

So, I've been re-checking, and re-checking. My first thought was that I'd mis-read the units on the state areas.  My data had a state with over a billion square kilometers (Pará).  But, that turns out to be true.  Next, I figured that maybe I'd made a mistake in converting from hectares to sq. km. But, I think I got that right, too.

 

The most recent thing I've checked is if the units on the reported areas planted made sense.  Maybe they said 'hectares' when they meant 'sq. km'.  I verified this by looking at tons/hectare.  But, that seems reasonable at least within an order of magnitude (54 tons of sugarcane/hectare seeemed plausible). 

 

So, the next thing to do is to talk to some Brazillians, and see what they have to say.  But, it's making me really curious.

Cool Brazil Research

It's my second day in Brazil. Yesterday, I finished the afternoon at
work, and headed home with Werner and the other students.

Later in the evening, we went to a nice Polish dinner, and then headed
back to the apartment for some Caipirinhas. I went to bed early and
tried to catch up on some sleep.

Today, we returned to IBMEC and my research started off really well.
I figured out how to make Motion Charts with google spreadsheets. I'm
entirely too happy about the ability to make cool multi-dimensional
charts. Here's an example of the things I'm looking at, hopefully the
script will embed properly.

Arrived in Brazil

I just arrived in Rio. My flights were pretty uneventful and got in
on time, and the layover in Miami was really easy. I´ve made it to
IBMEC and am trying to figure out where to start my research.
Everything´s going well, and the other guys here seem like a lot of
fun.

It looks like I might be going to Paraty this weekend, and that would
be great. I´ll update soon when I´ve got some more news, and when
I´ve caught up on sleep.

Day 2: Marcy, Gray and Lake Tear of The Clouds

Today was our big hike. We planned on climbing Mt. Marcy (the highest
mountain in NY) and Mt. Gray (the highest trail-less mountain in NY)
from the Adirondack Lodge.

I got up at about 6am to pack and get ready for the long climb. At
7am, my parents, Al and I got in the car headed towards the Adirondack
Lodge. We were on the trail by 7:39.

The hike out to Marcy is pretty nice. The grade is pretty reasonable
all the way up, and there are some spectacular views, especially from
Marcy Dam (photo-marcy_dam)

We had a gorgeous weather, and it was one of the few days this summer
with no rain. The trails were pretty muddy, so we spent a lot of time
looking balancing on fallen branches and looking for other ways to
avoid stepping in the bigger mud puddles.

About a mile away from the summit, there's a clearing that gives a
great view of Marcy's peak. (Photo-marcy_east) In total, it was 7.4
miles from trail head to summit, with 3166' ascent.

The summit was gorgeous, and we could see for miles and watch as the
clouds rolled in. (photo-summit)

After we'd eaten lunch, we headed down Marcy's west face towards Lake
Tear of the Clouds. After descending 998 vertical feet over 1.1
miles, we were at the outlet of Lake Tear of the Clouds. (photo-tear)

This is the highest pond-source that feeds into Hudson River. Its
outlet is so small that we were able to hop over it to reach our
herd-path. Gray is fairly well traveled, so the herd path was pretty
easy to find, but really, really steep. We climbed about another 600'
up, over the course of a quarter mile or so. (photo-gray)

Then, we headed back down, and began our descent towards the Adirondak
Loj [sic]. This was about 7 more miles. At the end, I was pretty
wiped out, and really had to focus on the trail to keep my footing.

We made it back to the Loj ad about 6:00 and then headed home for a big dinner.

Since I like signs, I thought I'd include some photos of the sorts of
markers we ran into in the mountains.

The simplest are the guide-posts that are set at trail junctions.
These give distances and directions. (photo-guide_post).

Next, there are trail makers. These are color-coded, and the colors
are marked on trail-maps, making it easier for people to be sure of
where they are. They generally also carry an insignia to represent
the group that maintains the trail. (photo-trail_marker)

On exposed rocks, the way is generally marked by blazes (photo-blaze)
and cairns (photo-cairn). On Mt. Marcy these are intended to protect
the alpine vegetation by leading people on a few narrow paths.

Day 1: Traveling to New York

Got up at 6:30 and was out the door by 7. No troubles getting to the
airport or through security (they didn't even notice that I forgot to
take my toothpaste out of my bag). We arrived in Burlington around
noon, and met up with family.

Since it was lunch time, we got to stop at one of my favorite VT
restaurants: Al's. They're a burger place that serves
fried-clam strips. The food was great.

Next, we went to Cheese Traders, another great little store. They're two floors of just wine, cheeses, and Vermont
products. We met up with Morgan and Tobin, and went with them to run
a few errands.

A couple hours later, we were on the ferry across Lake Champlain to
NY.

The weather was cool and windy, a nice change from Champaign.

Then, about 5pm we got into Keene Valley. The summer's been pretty rainy and all the water has made the plants amazingly green.

Tyrral's Ford

These photos were taken during a trip to England. Tyrral's Ford is a pub near Ringwood, in the south of England. If any of my readers pass though that way, I'd strongly recommend their steak and kidney pie.

There were also two particularly interesting (if entirely grammatical) signs.







This seems like something out of a fantasy novel.






The same wording was used on several other signs I encountered in England. I was surprised that the British explicitly labeled their marriage licenses 'civil'. It seems like a savvy way of using precise language to resolve a tricky social issue.


And for context, here are the signs in their natural habitat.