Tabataaaaaaaaaaa!

On Monday I did the Tabata protocol for running. 4 minutes (8 sets) of 20 seconds SPRINT WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT followed by 10 seconds of death.  I was dead by set 2, but still kept at it.

On Tuesday, I could barely move. On Wednesday, I could move but could not run. It was more of a death shuffle, requiring me to lift my legs using a rotative hip movement. I think my hamstrings shrunk by 2cm ...

I went for a recovery run in Morialta, figuring that I could blame me overall pathetic performance on the uphill on the hamstring issue. It was a beautiful, sloooooow run, but good nevertheless as I met this little guy. And yes, he's a guy (very much so actually).

One picture Tuesday

My new advertisement for PhD students.

Kermit's first day out

I got THE ROPE!!! And it's name is Kermit (yet another piece of western heritage that I need to familiarize myself with). We took Kermit to Arapiles this weekend and had a blast!

Here's how Kermit looks on me - apologies for the terrible quality, it's Marian's fault!

Check out the figure 8 knot!

We tried Dribble, 11 (I think) and two (TWO Stars!) Now remember, in the Arapiles guidebook, the number of stars is equal to the number of OMFGs you will utter on every pitch while you contemplate eternity. This was not the case on Dribble however. We had a blast! 

It starts with a glassy slab (GLAASSY SLAAAB!) but otherwise it has a superb, 50m long pitch! More about this later. First, did I tell you about my new awesome rope? It's name is Kermit!

After the first pitch with the GLAASSY SLAAAB! the weather turned crazy on us and it started to threat like it might transform into a gale. Sort of. Because spring. Or Arapiles. Here's me contemplating the fact that I would have to downclimb the first pitch and the GLAAASY SLAAAB! 

Not a very happy camper. Also, in need of moisturizer.  But in a short span (actually immediately after taking this picture - I wanted it to be on my tombstone, with the caption: "Josh gave me his rack"), the weather cleared and we could do the rest of the route. 

The 50m pitch was this beautiful delicious crack that ate up all my gear and then some. At the end of it you end up on this ginormous ledge where two little gifts from the Bolt Fairies await:

It makes sense because after placing 50m worth of gear, you end up pretty naked! 

I'd never thought I'd ever end up saying this, but here's me matching my rope.

I think Kermit is going to make a lot of friends because of its color. Mr Snake seemed a bit confused.

 

One picture Tuesday

I am not the brightest sheep in the pen. I went trail running in my five fingers. It was fine until it wasn't. Turns out, you can't really run downhill on a track in bare feet as those little pebbles are killers when you step on them at full speed/weight aaargh!

Realization. Part 249.

I have just been corrected on grammar by the associate editor of a top conference (that nevertheless accepted my paper). True, you might say, not only you learnt english mostly from books* but also you wrote that paper in a day because hell yeah! Coffee ftw!

Nevertheless, I have just realized NOW, while finally talking about people (as opposed to software systems, ok?!) in a paper, that there is a rule about when to use THAT and WHO. Apparently, unless you're a fancy schmancy writer,  you hafta use "who" when referring to people, and "that" when referring to objects.

Da fuck?! Apologies to everyone who was objectified in the past in my terrible AND NOW GRAMMATICALLY INCORRECT BLOG - I was totally not aware of this. Gah.



*and cartoon network.

Training plan. I has it!

It took me a while to make this because it took me a while to realize that I need to get back into proper shape (snort) and that I will most probably never have a long distance running partner again. Sigh. Add to this the realization that the time and luxury I had during my PhD years will.never.come.back.again. Double sigh.

I need to train endurance and hills and overall bad-assness, so behold my training plan.

Monday
* run 5km
* boulder at BZ (non-friendly) or pyramid pull-ups: 1,3,5,7 times 3 sets on the rim of my office door because, I can. At least I can do 1,3,5 pyramids, so adding the 7 will not change anything, right? RIGHT?!

Tuesday
* run 5 km
* VR Boulder (non-friendly)

Wednesday
* run 5 km
* Mt Lofty trek: 10 kg - 20 kg; increase by 3 kg every two weeks
* start with one summit and progress to two OR run up Mt Loft if weight smaller than 15kg.

Thursday
* run 5km
* VR lead - at least 3 roof attempts

Friday
* run 5km
* pyramid pull-ups: 1,3,5,7 times 3 sets
* 7 seconds hangs: 7x5x3 sets

Saturday - rest day
* friendly boulder at BZ  or the pad
* arapiles or grampians

Sunday
* morialta 10 km run (1.5 loops) OR chambers gully 10km
* if in arapiles or grampians then 5-10km run depending on the overall ball shrinking the day before.
Cannot run if no ballz.
* if feeling like a wuss then can take this as rest day but need to replace Monday run with Morialta loops.

Gah. So true.

Read the whole story here. Must get myself a blerch tshirt.

I have a problem.

And my problem is that I am a compulsive tab opener. I have not one, not two, but three chrome windows like this. This one in particular is where all the gear search and the training programmes are. There are two others for research and education respectively, because hell yeah!

Anyway, I think this is becoming a problem because:

annapurna:Submitted claudia$ pdflatex icse2014.tex
-bash: fork: Resource temporarily unavailable

I think my computer needs a restart - boo hoo hoo - I would love to say how long it's been since it's been up, but I can't because:

annapurna:Submitted claudia$ uptime
-bash: fork: Resource temporarily unavailable

GAH!

One picture Tuesday

I still can't believe that I did not bring Humpty and Dumpty to Australia but instead left them in Parc Guell in Barcelona. That being said, I can't believe that one month ago we were in Barcelona. ROAR!

The best anti-depressant

A student commented that (s)he hated every second of my course, without saying why. Two sleepless nights and a grant proposal rejection later, I have come to terms with it. Also, I bought this:

Because there is nothing like color to ward off depression. Also, there's nothing like color to replace rope safety specs.

Spring is here!

I know it's spring because it's 32 degrees outside one day and 20 the next. Sunny and super hot one day and super cold-turn-on-the-heater-in-your-office the next.

Today it is a bit cold but nevertheless I went to have lunch outside. Sat my elephanty ass on the stairs of the library and proceeded to munch on things and read. I wish I could say that I was watching undergraduate fashion go past but I couldn't, because:
a) there's no such thing as undergraduate fashion
b) the semester is over and thus the campus is. E.M.P.T.Y.

As I was reading and munching, I heard this beautiful, loud, deep tenor voice singing Nessun Dorma. Jesus! It was deep and it was loud but nevertheless it was spot on!

At first I thought somebody was evacuating the conservatory and the tenors were still at it, but the loud voice kept singing and getting closer and closer. I was also surprised and miffed to see that the group of schoolkids that was clearly visiting the Uni had not stopped to listen at all! "Uneducated ruffians! We are doomed!" I thunked to myself.

But then I took a closer look and guess what? The tenor was a scrawny, 1.5m tall, vietnamese kid, visiting the Uni with his class.

I love Adelaide!

One picture Tuesday

The best reason to wear a storm trooper outfit: overheard while talking about gender misrepresentation in science: "oh, here at our school the number of female is equal to the number of male staff, it's just that they get themselves pregnant and there's nobody left to teach!"