Dumbing it Down.

Gonna begin my "Dreck-Free" campaign in earnest. No pressure on anyone else, I'm just changing the game for myself. Guess it's been building for a while, but a couple of last-straws hit me today.

• I negated a new cache posting to my ignore list rather than run out the door to FTF it. That was like toeing a line in the sand.

• I reviewed my owned caches and saw this:

Only multis and puzzle caches going unfound, running neck and neck with archived caches for finds... noice. All traditional 1/1s up the list (and therefore not pictured) getting found frequently.

In my workaday life, I have to dumb down product to meet customer demand. But in my playaday life, I don't. I'm going to post caches like ones I've had to work to find, and found challenging, and therefore enjoyed, and hated, and loved to hate, and found memorable for those reasons.

So, I started by beginning to systematically delete the crappé I've placed, and to rethink all the hides I have in the pipe, and set forth with a new grim determination to only hide caches for us, and those like us (d*mn few left, heh).

They're probably not going to get found, I know. But hey, the fun is in the hide.

Geocaching Quality Control.

I'm reaching out through the internet and lifting high QuestMaster for all to see. With these words, you become one of my caching heroes.

>>If you hide more than one cache per month, that's probably too many.

We don't need more hides. We need quality hides.

In a better vanished time, people must have actually read the Tips on Hiding Your First Geocache and they must have actually gotten the part about "Ultimately you'll want to place a cache in a place that is unique in some way. The big reward for geocachers, other than finding the cache itself, is the location. A prime camping spot, great viewpoint, unusual location, etc. are all good places to hide a cache". We used to take this business very seriously. We considered it a duty to deliver people to special places that they might not otherwise have known about. We never even considered hiding caches in uninteresting places like a Wal-Mart parking lot because we would have been ashamed to hide such a cache for our fellow geocachers.

That was then... This is now...

The community of geocachers is different. Too many of the new players just don't get it. Where, pray tell, is it written that the object of this game is to write one's name on the greatest number of waypointed stationary? It's a numbers game for many of them and they're just not going to bother with the old way of doing things. It's too much work for one measly point in their game.

Excellence, in their way of thinking, is achieved by aiming at the easiest targets and hitting them. Their precious find count is typically a gauge of their "talent" for picking out the easy ones and enduring the tedium of finding them all. It's all fine and well to play the game this way but it's probably not wise or healthy to brag about about one's degree of anal-retentiveness, which is often the case, whether they will admit it or not. In that better vanished time, fellow geocachers shared stories about the great caches they had found. Today it's more about how many guardrails they have kissed. These folks are the biggest bores that ever were.

I really don't see that this game is going to be getting any better anytime soon. It's too easy for the numbers cachers to populate the list with more than their share of lame hides because typically they have already relieved themselves of any responsibility to provide an interesting location, a decent container, swag, and proper maintenance. The quantity of caches they hide is pretty much all that matters to them. The good caches ultimately get lost in the mix and it follows that anybody who might enjoy a quality cache in the old school tradition just isn't going to give geocaching a second look when they key in their zipcode and see that this is a game of hide and seek the microscrap in parking lots.

I'm fortunate that I discovered geocaching when I did and that I got to play the game before the mass hiders of junk appeared on the scene. With due diligence and a little luck, it's still possible to find a decent cache once in awhile.

The Long Description.

WARNING! This cache is LAME!

Why didn’t I think of this before? How could I be so dumb? Here I was lugging heavy ammo cans full of stuff way up into the hills when I could have just dropped a film canister into the grass by the turnpike less than 5 minutes from home! If you have enjoyed any of my other hides then you will not like this one at all. It is exactly nothing like any of my other caches. Please do not go looking for it! I, personally, wouldn’t want to go hunting for this cache on a bet but then there is no accounting for taste, is there?

This cache is hidden just like its inspiration on the other side of the pike. A certain amount of stealth will be required to bag this cache since you will be in the direct view of the MacDonald’s employees working the drive thru window. Be on the lookout for the police who frequent this area because they could take exception to strange behavior around the dumpsters. They may try to arrest you for vagrancy if they think you are poking around in the trash for something to eat. Have the cache page at the ready and politely explain that you are looking for a piece of trash stuffed inside a small plastic container. They may accept this explanation or have you committed but either way you’ll have a great story to tell!

I hid this cache really well so that it would be very difficult to find because some people really enjoy the challenge of looking for a needle in a haystack. If you enjoy a challenge like this and cannot resist a cache conveniently located by a superhighway then this is the cache for you! Cache is small, so remember to bring something to write with.

Additional Hints (Encrypt)
If you haven't got a clue then you aren't going to get the hint either.

Only a Geocacher Could Understand.

I'm catching myself getting crotchety about caching. Maybe I'm a throwback to another caching day.

From QuestMaster, not me, but I cheer and cry with every line:

>> Geocaching just isn't what it used to be.
I remember when it was more about location, location, location and less about numbers, numbers, numbers.
I remember when it was more about going places and seeing things.
I remember when it was less about finding stuff and how many.
I remember when nobody cared about being first.
I remember when people hid caches one at a time.
I remember when there was less quantity and more quality.
I remember when geocaching was more hiking in the woods and less riding around in the car.
I remember when there were no micros and nobody hid caches in parking lots.
I remember when we didn't have to practice "stealth" or play the dodge the muggle game.
I remember when geocachers were more outdoorsy and less nerdy.
I remember when caches were caches (i.e. supposed to be found) instead of "evil" hides.
I remember when geocaching was run more like a hobby and less like a business.
I remember when there were fewer rules and a lot less politics.
I remember when nobody got banned for writing a silly poem.
I remember when geocaching was a lot more fun.

I don't have a long caching past, I ain't been around all that long. But I am the future of caching. I'm gonna do my part to win back the day one cache at a time.

And I Was Honest When I Took the Test.

122 As a 1930s husband, I am Very Superior Take the test!

Random Notes from San Diego Rock n' Roll Marathon '08.

Training for this one involved Run miles/Bike minutes bricks containing run mileage increasing 1 mile per week (only the once-weekly long run distance) with no scaling back, while simultaneously scaling back overall training time every fifth week. Sounds complicated, but it's not. See here:

week 1: 188 mins: 8 mi R/108 min Bike
week 2: 190 mins: 9 mi R/100 min Bike
week 3: 190 mins: 10 mi R/90 min Bike
week 4: 210 mins: 11 mi R/100 min Bike
week 5: 210 mins: 12 mi R/90 min Bike
week 6: 160 mins: 13 mi R/30 min Bike
week 7: 225 mins: 14 mi R/85 min Bike
week 8: 225 mins: 15 mi R/75 min Bike
week 9: 250 mins: 16 mi R/90 min Bike
week 10: 250 mins: 17 mi R/80 min Bike
week 11: 190 mins: 18 mi R/10 min Bike
week 12: 275 mins: 19 mi R/85 min Bike
week 13: 275 mins: 20 mi R/75 min Bike
week 14: 300 mins: 22 mi R/80 min Bike
week 15: 225 mins: 12 mi R/105 min Bike
week 16: 170 mins: 13 mi R/40 min Bike
week 17: RnR Marathon

The idea here was to avoid running injuries but still train the internal energy system to handle long-duration episodes without bonking. Biking while glycogen-depleted ain't as easy as it sounds, either. Runs were at race pace (for us, 10 minute miles, which makes the math really easy to do).

Considerations were:
One Long day/week, this is the key workout for the week. Run milage increases week to week; time increases every 4th week after a 25% cutback week. Runs are at Marathon pace (10 min/mile).
Other listed workouts are key workouts, any other are EASY runs of low milage, low intensity, low HR (144). Usually for me, the first was 5 mi with hand-held waterbottles. EASY!
One day a week is STRETCH day. Don’t exercise, just stretch out as your workout.
Do some light leg weight lifting so you don’t get injured.

Sundays were this Key Long brick, which threw a long shadow over the rest of the week, especially when the workouts started going over 4 hours and the weather began to really heat up. Some weeks had secondary <1> or tertiary <2> key run workouts - I just won't list them here because, hey, does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care? Mostly <1> involved some light AT sessions, and <2> would be 12 milers at 10 minute pace.

Sun: Key Long
M: A + light hand bike
T: <1>
W: L + light stat. Bike
Th: Stretch/off
Fr: <2> or EASY run
Sa: Pwr + EASYEASY run

I missed the key long workouts for weeks 10 and 11, when I could only squeeze in 8 milers. I detrained at week 14 - the 22 miler became a 19 miler when my left hammy seized up, then caught an upper respiratory infection which I took with me to Florida. I knew I could finish, having done it twice before, but I was worried about cramping up, which I'd also done twice before. Cramping up during the final and longest training runs was not a confidence builder.

I bought some S!caps to hopefully improve over eating salt packs during the run. I swore to run very slow up the 3 mile grade at miles 7 - 11. Pace management, strong hydration and the mystical formula of S!caps were going to save my race. That, or my only hope was for Greg to burst into flames and I could cruise with him.

All in all though, my left hamstring was feeling twingy all the time for no good reason, and I had a premonition that something bad was going to happen.

As it was, our hoped-for finish time somewhere between 4.22 and 4.30 didn't happen as Greg's knee suddenly felt like a nail had been driven into it at mile 18. Funny how the world turns; I started the run feeling like my hammy was gonna take a turn for the worse, but as the miles ticked by, the potassium, smart pacing, concentration on stride length and two-cups-o'-Accelerade per stop worked for me.

Mile splits.
1: 10.27
2: 10.01 20.29 *
3: 10.14 30.43 **
4: 8.27 39.11
5: (Missed it in all the confusion) 9.42... **
6: 19.24 58.35
7: 10.14 1.08.50 *
8: 10.25 1.19.15 **
9: 11.06 1.30.22 *
10: 10.40 1.41.03
11: 8.53 1.49.56 *
12: 11.06 2.01.03 ** (we peed this mile too)
13: 9.39 2.10.42
14: 10.52 2.21.34 **
15: 10.22 2.31.57 *
16: 10.41 2.42.38 **
17: 10.22 2.53.01
18: 13.49 3.06.51 *...this is the mile where Greg's knee went ka-pop, and the 10's go ka-stop.
19: 12.43 3.19.34 *
20: 12.26 3.32.01 **
21: 11.20 3.43.22 *
22: 13.27 3.56.49
23: 12.18 4.09.08 **
24: 11.44 4.20.52 **
25: 11.49 4.32.42 * **
26: 11.36 4.44.18
Finish: 2.19 4.46.38

We walked the aid stations, so their locations on the course influenced our mile times. After 18 we did a lot of walking for knee-reasons.
* Water stations were located at the following mile markers: 1.4, 2.9, 4.8, 6.9, 7.9, 8.8, 10.1, 11.6, 13.7, 14.8, 15.6, 17.6, 18.6, 19.8, 20.9, 22.5, 23.5, 24.1, 24.9.
** Fruit-punch flavored ready-to-drink Accelerade was served at ten water station locations at mile markers 2.9, 4.8, 7.9, 11.6, 13.7, 15.6, 19.8, 22.5, 23.5, 24.9.

All in all, a positive run. Greg bagged his first marathon and did it in a good time considering his knee pain. I was happy to finish it without cramping - a first for me - and to finish feeling stronger than when I started.

Next stop: Volkslauf.