Getting Ready to Leave SLC

The ESCC/Internet² Joint Tech meeting is over as well as the IPv6 workshop I was team teaching that was attached to the meeting. Time to head home. Many of the students in the class were finding that their flights to the east coast were being cancelled due to weather. At least I don't have to go through all that. The University of Utah has been a great place to hold the meeting and the campus is huge. I have come down with a cough and a cold while here but I think it is something that has been incubating for a couple of weeks. The temperatures here have been generally cool, floating right around freezing which has made walking in the morning a bit treacherous. Starting Tuesday, evening meetings, dinners, etc. has limited walking opportunities but I think I needed to focus on not letting my cold get any worse. I had let myself get pretty chilled one evening and that was probably let the virus get a foothold. I even took the shuttle down to the student union this morning instead of the leisurely 1¼ mile stroll.

The University of Alaska will be hosting this meeting in about 17 months so I really need to get moving on logistics. Ineternet² has already made a site visit and seem to be satisfied but since I was the one who initiated bringing the meeting to town, I think I'm going to be busy.

Last night, several of us from the class went downtown looking for some dinner. Something besides food from the university. At one building with a overlook from the 10th floor, there was a great view of the Mormon temple. We also saw that the Mormon Tabernacle Choir was practicing that evening, so we went in to listen for a bit. Great acoustics in the building.

Here is a shot of the practice session from the back of the building. They really did sound very good... BTW, all iPhone snapshots.

Snowy in Salt Lake

I'm in Salt Lake City at the University of Utah for the Winter ESCC/Internet² Joint Tech Meeting. Fresh snow on the ground and temperatures right above freezing made for slow walking. The hotel is about 1½ miles from the student union where the meetings are being held. There are some evening meetings at the Marriot and I may just skip those due to the distance and the lack of transportation. The mountains surrounding the university campus look great with their fresh dusting of snow. One of the strangest things was the campus was absolutely deserted. On my walk this afternoon, I saw maybe 2 other people over a 45 minute period. Everything on campus is completely shut down. No food concessions open. This evening, I ended up having dinner at the student dining room (for dorm residents) as it was one of the few places available. The other choice was the hospital cafeteria. For some reason, hospital food didn't sound very appetizing. The dining hall was okay and it had a decent salad bar and offered quite a variety of food for $8.95.

I got very little sleep last night on the flight down so I think I will skip checking out the fitness center. Good night...

Monday evening - A pretty nice day today. Had a breakfast meeting with NOAA followed by the JT meeting until 4:00. I then took a tour of SCI, the Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute here at the University of Utah. Interesting place and a couple of researchers talked about some of their projects. They also had a 4x6 HD tv array for displaying some of their visualization products.

Instead of going to the connector and gigapop geek meetings at the Marriot, I felt like I really needed some exercise so I went for a walk/run. Some outside and some on the treadmill. 9 miles tonight and 10¼ miles for the day. No sore knees (or any other joints). Much of the snow has melted but didn't feel like wandering around looking for dinner or going to the cafeteria again. Settled for an apple and a Glucerna bar. Not much of a dinner but I usually don't feel like eating after running.

221.78 Miles This Month (Not on the Bike)

I actually made my 200 mile goal (walking/running) for the month on the Nike+ site. I generally tend to slack off with the aerobic exercise in the winter but since I didn't have any significant work related travel this month, it was a good opportunity to try and get in a decent amount of exercise. This months total is still less than I occasionally manage in the summer since I really prefer to go for walks on the trails and roads instead of the treadmill. Today, it was significantly warmer at +16°F so I had a nice walk down to lower campus and back in addition to a morning jog on the treadmill. I may have to lay off the running a bit since I'm starting to feel aches in some of my joints. Even with all the aerobic exercise and strength training, I think I may have put on a few pounds this month. That isn't good. This is being made worse by a couple of work trips coming up. I hope there is some sort of workout facility where I'm staying at the University of Utah. I'm going down for the ESCC/Internet² Joint Tech meeting plus I'll be helping teach an IPv6 workshop after the regular meeting. Traditionally, this meeting is a wealth of information and well worth the time and effort.

Sunday afternoon - I updated the mileage in the title but didn't update the screen capture since I don't have the capture software on my netbook.

High Mileage Week

This week was a high mileage week, especially for the winter. 70.4 miles is more common in the summer when there are places to go. I think the big reason is being able to run some on the treadmill. Lately, I've been able to run maybe half of the time usually doing intervals. Yesterday, the intervals were 10 min running and 5 min walking. Not bad considering that not to long ago, running 100 yards and walking a mile were real challenges. I haven't had a 200 mile month since Summer. Maybe this month. Only 40 miles to go...

Nike+ total just past 3500 miles. Ironically, this is probably about the same miles I've put on the bike during the same period.... I can't wait
'till summer.