andy reagan only the interesting stuff

Pretty pictures

Among other things (like my two tests this week (tomorrow and Thurs night) my impending first marathon (4D 9HR) and finishing my UVM application) I've been working on my project for my modeling of math bio class, which is extending a model of opinion dynamics. There are two opinions, A and B, and anyone can hold one of both of these. In each population, there are zealots with fixed opinions, and by varying these two zealot percentages and looking at the steady of states of the system I observe this: (as the % of SS in opinion A)

You are looking at the region where 0 ≤ p ≤ .3, 0 ≤ q ≤ .3. Using matlab's fsolve, I'm not getting all of the steady or really the ones I'm interested in (so I haven't implented checking whether they're stable yet)...so it's a work in progress but that's research I suppose.

the TOUGH DAWG

I first heard about this challenge from the manliest of men, Sir Justin Morrison who is currently at OCS and who would have most surely dominated the challenge yet again. Every year, (for the past while anyway) the local running store and triathlon team sponsor RunAbout Sports puts on the Brush Mtn Breakdown 16-mile trail race. And the very same weekend, triathlon and cycling team sponsor East Coasters hosts the Rowdy Dawg mountain bike race, with a category XXC (pronounced double-cross-country) comprising of a hardy 36 miles that includes traversing the very rocky Gap mountain twice.

After a season on mountain bike racing, and training for my first marathon, I felt I would never be more ready to complete these races back-to-back and claim the title of Toughest Dawg in Justin's absence.

Here are both of my write ups from immediately after the races from Garmin Connect.

Brush Mtn Breakdown

It was a chilly morning for this year's Brush Mtn Breakdown, with the kind of wind that takes your warmth down to the bone. My race went well, not too fast to Beast and I hiked up to save some for the return and for tomorrow. Chrissy passed me on Beast, but she took a wrong turn onto Mayapple and cut the course by a little, so we never saw her. By we, I mean Alex Brown and I, who ran pretty much from mile 7-on together, after I caught him down Snake. He was a great running buddy, together we had a solid pace and he gave me a couple block shots along the way. The worst part of my race was when I tried to avoid a stream crossing by walking across this downed tree, but I slipped and bounced off my right quad and into the stream. That hurt, but just a scrape on my leg and arm that will heal quick. Alex waited up a little bit for me and we didn't slow down for long. He had enough left for a sprint into the powerful finishing headwind, and got me there. We also passed Ruthie finishing her 8-miler on our way back. Our course may well have been 16 miles, but the Garmin doesn't get all of the little turns and twists of the trail, especially when I'm flying down it. I think the 8-mile on the other hand was a little longer, at like 8.5. And special props to Chris Crowley for finishing on a busted ankle at mile 8.

Super D

Not long after getting home from the running race, I was headed back up to the top of Brush Mtn, this time pushing/riding a bike that I was to race back down. I wore everything I had, and was sweating my butt off on the way up but comfortable as the wind swept across the ridgeline on the very top. I didn't actually hit start on the Garmin before heading down the mountain, and without risking death I kept my hand firmly attached the to the handlebars, so no data. I'm not sure where to get the times for the downhill during the VT home MTB race, but I'm pretty sure that I beat my time, even with a mistake (not a crash though, I went off the trail and had to stop real quick to get back on). Knowing that I had a long race coming the next day, and house to clean before a party that night that got off the hook, I didn't stick around for the Chill Cat DS.

Rowdy Dawg

It was cold one, although if anything I was overdressed, and this race cracked me. My water bottle I'd brought was moldy and without a chance to clean it, I left without it and that combined with lack of sleep/slight dehyrdation from the night before caught up with me eventually. I got the first aid station at mile 14, having done the Gap trails which were killer, and climbed to the very peak of Brush, and I was exhausted. Cole was there, and he even said I looked rough. But I got some food in me, some cheerwine, and it picked up. I rode well until I started cramping on the climb on Joe Pye on the second lap, but spinning lightly still made it to the top. Made it to the aid station again fine, and David and Emily were there so I hung out for like 10min and it was fun. Drank like 3 sodas, but that didn't help much and I cramped realllly bad coming back up Poverty. Had to walk/spin ultra-lightly the rest of the way, even cramping while walking a few times. I finished though, and although my time wasn't great, I think finishing is what earns the title of Tough Dawg. I wasn't the ToughEST dawg, as Laura Hamm crushed the course today. All in all, I felt great about how I rode technically, mostly cleaning the Gap trails, including both times up that really steep guy while people were hiking it saying "we paid to do this..." haha, and I wish my legs could have been more with me to finish stronger, but I did that to myself by coming into this weekend tired, and missing 2hrs of sleep the night before this race. I do feel ready for Richmond. And on another big positive, I didn't crash at all!! Even being so tired. So I definitely think my technical skills are coming together, combined with going a speed at which I feel comfortable.

Overall

I was really excited to see Laura Hamm before the run on Sat, and she was doing the 16-miles with her last run being that race last year, and she was of course doing the tough dawg! So I wasn't going it alone. I did get her in the run by about 10min, and then by 3sec in the Super D, but I'm pretty sure that she crushed me so hard in the MTB race that didn't matter at all. So props to Laura for being the toughEST dawg, and I'll settle for being just a tough dawg.

the Campus Hobo Challenge

As the second challenge in the Andy vs Sam Challenge Series, we will be attempting something I've wanted to try for awhile.  The weather has gotten cold for this one, but here goes.

A while back, if I couldn't find a place to live for the semester, I had heard of (doubt it's true) a guy who camped out for a semester by the Duck Pond, and I was going to try it.  Granted I did find a house with David and James, but being homeless the questions that come up immediately were "where will I eat" and "where will I shower" or "what about my stuff (bikes)."  However, the challenge stuck with me and I've been wanting just to try it. The days of warm have passed, but the questions above aren't too hard to answer for a 3-day attempt at this. Given I'll be eating lunch at D2 every day like I always do and can bring a camp stove to make oats in the morning and spaghetti at night which is what I always eat now anyways. The gyms are open to students to shower. And I'll only have what I can carry (shouldn't need more!).

Blacksburg is the polar opposite of NYC though, and there are parks galore, including the Jefferson National Forest that has lots of campsites ~3mi outside of town.

Without further adieu, the rules are:

• the challenge lasts 72 hours (3 days)
• cannot go "home" in that time
• no sleeping or showering at a friend's place (how easy would it be just to crash on a friends couch for three days)
• no camping anywhere illegal (not trying to get in trouble here)

Where it is illegal to camp is more of an open question, but I don't think nodding off on a book in the library will land you in trouble. What I haven't been to strict about is food, and so you're allowed to eat out, eat on campus, eat a friend's place. But the idea is to carry as much of what you need as you can (definitely including textbooks #sorryback).

Challenge on! I won't elaborate on my plan to accomplish this, but save that for a post after it's went down.

The first challenge: Mountain-top Sunrise

Or, in Sam's case, the tallest-building-in-my-flat-town challenge .

The result: