If you’ve been following me, you’re aware I’ve been working on a master’s degree. This week I took a huge step towards moving on to the next phase of life. I had my thesis seminar, followed by the defense of my thesis. My committee chose to sign off on my work, so I’m that much closer to graduating. I do have some edits that need to be made to the thesis document itself, so I have about a month of work left to do. After that, I should be increasing my trip frequency and gear use, which should increase the frequency of my posts.
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It’s getting close to the “offseason” for many outdoor activities. Or, at least, the shorter days and holiday business tends to reduce our enjoyment of some of these things. It also happens to be a good time to take care of any maintenance you might need to take care of. Several years ago, I made use of the winter offseason to sew a couple of down quilts. I’ve been busting my tail on my thesis lately and not doing much else, so when a friend invited me out to Tyler SP on Sunday with the Morning Glory Yoga Run Club, I had to come. Most of the group was there to do a 16mi trail run in training for the Tyler Marathon. The longest run I’ve done has been just over 4mi (partially on trails, I might add) so I wasn’t up to that. But the time would give me the opportunity to do the whole ABCD loop. I have had a number of questions from readers about how to get some certain trail data onto their GPS. That answer is complicated, because it depends on the trail data and it depends on the GPS you have. If the trail data you want to use is a simple track from someone’s previous ride, you can load it directly onto your GPS. Fitness GPS receivers (like the Edge models with mapping) can do a Virtual Partner based on that file and do performance comparisons and whatnot. With a mapping handheld, you get a basic navigation (it warns you if you deviate from the trail, but not much more). If that .gpx track has more track points than your GPS receiver’s track point limit, you have to reduce the number of points in the track by simplifying it (some programs allow you to do this) or by converting it to a route, which will prompt you to turn (best used on roads where turns occur at intersections, than on trails where turns often occur dependent on terrain). I wish I could stake a claim on that word, but I can’t. I have no idea who came up with it, but I’ve been seeing it around lately.
After my ride in Indy and the mechanical I suffered (being the second time I had that particular problem recently), I decided I needed to replace some worn parts…particularly my 9 yr old XTR M952 rear derailleur. It still “works”, but I’ve had to bend the cage twice recently. It’s on its last legs, I believe. I got to ride these trails for the first time recently, though they’ve been open for a few years now, I think. I grew up just a couple miles from here and wish these trails were open when I started to mtb. Alas, they were closed to bikes long before I started riding. Yay for them being open now. The Hoosier Mountain Bike Association has done a great job with these trails. It’s well into tick season and for many, getting outdoors means dealing with ticks. Not only are they annoying little creepy-crawlies, they are also vectors for many different diseases. According to the CDC, the following disease/tick species associations are notweworthy in the United States (they are not necessarily exclusive to these particular tick species and there are likely to be more diseases, too): I ordered a Paul Components Stem Cap Light Mount to use on my On-One Pompetamine commuter bike, and it arrived via USPS today. My pocket prairie is coming alive this year. With more reliable rain and a little more time for things to establish, I’m getting a lot of neat flowers. Not even close to all of the ones I planted, though. The perennials pictured were planted as already mature plants, while the annuals were all planted from seed. I planted many perennials from seed last fall that will not flower until 2013 at minimum. |
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