jannimetrics

jannimetrics @ 2009-08-07T07:15:00

2009-08-07T14:22:33Z

(Aug 4): Bike 7.5 miles, walk 1.25 miles, 98.75 miles toward Minas Tirith, 1992.75 miles total
(Week of July 26): Walk 2.75 miles; 90.5 miles toward Minas Tirith, 1984.5 miles total
(Week of July 29): Bike 15 miles, walk .75 miles, elliptical machine 1 mile; 87.75 miles toward Minas Tirith, 1971.75 miles total

Clearly, my enthusiasm for updating is waning

2009-07-15T01:16:26Z

On the other hand: elliptical machine = kind of fun. Sort of halfway between running and biking standing in the stirrups. Yes, I know, everyone tried to tell me ...

(July 14): Walk .75 miles, elliptical machine 1 mile; 71 miles toward Minas Tirith, 1955 miles total
(July 13): Bike 7.5 miles; 69.25 miles toward Minas Tirith
(Week of July 6): Bike 15 miles, walk 1 mile; 61.75 miles toward Minas Tirith
(Week of June 29): Bike 7.5 miles, swim .25 miles; 45.75 miles toward Minas Tirith

Home again, home again ...

2009-06-28T15:26:07Z

(Week of June 22): Bike 24.5 miles, walk .25 miles; 38 miles toward Minas Tirith.

jannimetrics @ 2009-06-16T19:13:00

2009-06-17T02:56:01Z

Being conservative here, because I've not remembered to post in ages:

June 16/today: Bike 7.5 miles; 13.25 miles toward Minas Tirith.
(Week of June 8): Bike 5.25 miles, swim .5 miles; 5.75 miles toward Minas Tirith.

1884 miles total and time to start the return journey!

(Week of June 8): Bike 12.75 miles; 100 miles from Mount Doom to reach the Morannon (Next time, think I'll accept that ride with the eagles ...)
(Week of June 1): Lots of yoga, no cardio; 87.25 miles from Mount Doom
(Week of May 25): Bike 15 miles; 87.25 miles from Mount Doom
(Week of May 18): Bike 20 miles; 72.25 miles from Mount Doom
(Week of May 11): Walk 1.75 miles; 52.25 miles from Mount Doom

jannimetrics @ 2009-05-05T21:11:00

2009-05-06T04:14:33Z

(May 5/today) Bike 8.5 miles; 50.5 miles from Mount Doom
(May 4) Bike 7.5 miles; 42 miles from Mount Doom
(May 3) Walk .75 miles, 34.5 miles from Mount Doom
(May 1) Swim .5 miles; 33.75 miles from Mount Doom

jannimetrics @ 2009-04-30T21:04:00

2009-05-01T04:06:05Z

Bike 7.5 miles, walk (yesterday) .5 miles; 33.25 miles away from Mount Doom

jannimetrics @ 2009-04-29T20:10:00

2009-04-30T03:11:31Z

Bike 10.5 miles; 25.25 miles away from Mount Doom (because the eagles couldn't carry everyone)

jannimetrics @ 2009-04-28T21:29:00

2009-04-29T04:29:25Z

Bike 7.5 miles; 14.75 miles away from Mount Doom

Whoosh!

2009-04-28T04:53:48Z

(Apr 27/today) Bike 7.5 miles; 477.25 miles total (plus 5 Sam-only miles, plus 2 leave-the-mountain miles, plus 5.25 eagle): Frodo claims the Ring just as Sam finds him. Gollum attacks again, bites Ring from Frodo’s finger and falls into lava.

Ring Destroyed.

Barad-dûr and Morannon collapse ... Sam carries Frodo back outside. They see destruction all around ... As they go down the road, smoke and steam belch from the mountain. Reach an ash hill and climb to the top. Are cut off from going further. Both fall.

(Apr 26) Bike 5.5 miles; 469.75 miles total (plus 5 Sam-only miles): Continue to foot of Mount Doom. Sam tries to warm Frodo as he sleeps ... The Day of Doom ... As attempt to start, Frodo falls and begins to crawl. Sam carries him ... Stop more than half way up base of the mountain. Rest ... Sam and Frodo both crawl up slope to Sauron’s Road. Frodo turns east and see the Eye: falls. Sam carries him again ... Gollum attacks! Sam fights Gollum. Frodo goes ahead ... Frodo enters the Door to the Sammath Naur.

(Apr 20) Bike 7.5 miles; 464.25 miles total (plus 5 Sam-only miles): Rest ... Fumes grow worse. Some wind from the west ... Rest.

(Apr 19) Bike 7.5 miles; 456.75 miles total (plus 5 Sam-only miles): Rest. No attempt at concealment. Frodo goes faster than Sam hoped ... Rest ... Extra effort squanders Frodo’s last strength. Sam cannot sleep. Argues with self. Ground trembles ... Continue on in dark light. No water. Sam’s mouth too parched to eat.

(Apr 14) Bike 9.5 miles; 449.25 miles total (plus 5 Sam-only miles): Rest ... The Dreadful Nightfall. Only half bottle of water left. Frodo sleeps fitfully, and Sam, very little. He sees gleam of Gollum’s eyes ... Wake in dim light of dawn. Discard everything they do not need (which we kept until now because ... ?)

(Apr 13) Bike 7.5 miles; 439.75 miles total (plus 5 Sam-only miles): Rest ... Stop to eat. Mount Doom is due south. Leave road and turn toward it.

jannimetrics @ 2009-04-12T13:18:00

2009-04-12T20:37:43Z

(Apr 9) Bike 7.5 miles; 432.25 miles total (plus 5 Sam-only miles): Camp just off road. Hear horse-messenger gallop by during night... Return to road. Frodo ceases to speak. Stumbles as he fights Ring.

(Apr 5) Bike 7.5 miles; 424.75 miles total (plus 5 Sam-only miles): Rest ... Find cistern with muddied water in bottom. Drink and fill bottle. Eat.

(Apr 3) Bike 4 miles; 417.25 miles total (plus 5 Sam-only miles): Camp just off road. Hear troops at night... Return to road. More and more Frodo is bowed down by the Ring. Feeling pretty tired myself.

(Apr 2) Bike 7.5 miles; 413.25 miles total (plus 5 Sam-only miles): Find cistern, but it is empty. Eat and rest.

(Apr 1) Bike 3 miles; 405.75 miles total (plus 5 Sam-only miles): Rest.

(Mar 30) Bike 2.25 miles; 402.75 miles total (plus 5 Sam-only miles): Camp just off the road... Return to road. Trudge east.

(Mar 29) Bike 13.25 miles; 400.5 miles (plus 5 Sam-only miles): Out on the plain, drawing near Isenmouthe: Road-meeting ... In confusion of several companies meeting, Sam pulls Frodo with him, crawling across the road and over the curb. Crawl 20 yards to a shallow pit and sleep. Cold ... Sam sees Gorgoroth is pitted with great holes. Roads are empty. Crawl from hollow to hollow slanting toward the foothills to north ... Halt. Sam decides they should go back to road ... Climb onto the causeway ... Walk east along the road as it skirts the Ash Mountains. See no one.

Biking with the orcs

2009-03-28T03:08:28Z

(Mar 27) Bike 3 miles; 387.25 miles (plus 5 Sam-only miles): Road runs down a long slope into the plain. Frodo starts to stumble.

(Mar 26) Bike 8.75 miles; 384.25 miles (plus 5 Sam-only miles): A side path runs south into Gorgoroth toward main road. Sheer drop from road becomes increasingly deep ... Road bends a little north and hides view from west. Rest. Orc company sees them, assumes they are deserters. Frodo and Sam are forced to join march.

(Mar 25) Bike 7.5 miles; 375.5 miles (plus 5 Sam-only miles): At first light, hide in a hollow under an overhanging stone. Strong wind from west. Ahead the valley has climbed nearly to top of the inner ridge. Water course ends in broken steps of rock. Can see road from old castle of Durthang. Frodo sleeps. Sam finds water. Returns and sees Gollum. Wakes Frodo to watch. Sam sleeps ... Light fading when wake. See watch fires on heights. Return to spring. Fill water bottle ... Climb warily up to the road when it swings east.

(Mar 24) Bike 3 miles; 368 miles (plus 5 Sam-only miles)

(Mar 22) Walk 3.5 miles; 365 miles (plus 5 Sam-only miles): Brief halt.

jannimetrics @ 2009-03-20T22:11:00

2009-03-21T05:27:12Z

(Mar 20/today) 13.5 miles; 361.5 miles (plus 5 Sam-only miles): Two brief halts

(Mar 19) Bike 9.75 miles; 348 miles (plus 5 Sam-only miles): Stagnant pool of water. Do not see it in the dark ... Grey light – Hide and sleep (by day, because we have learned nothing, sigh) ... Eat. Finish Faramir’s food. When quite dark, begin again.

(Mar 18) Bike 2.25 miles; 338.25 miles (plus 5 Sam-only miles)

(Mar 17) Bike 3 miles; 336 miles (plus 5 Sam-only miles)

jannimetrics @ 2009-03-16T21:32:00

2009-03-17T04:46:46Z

(So those five "bonus" Sam miles are of course because I'm not following Frodo, I'm following that ring ...)

(Mar 16) Bike 7.5 miles; 333 miles (plus 5 Sam-only miles): Hear orc scouts. Hide behind bush. Learn news of Gollum. Light fades as they hide ... Continue in the dark along eastern edge of the valley.

(Mar 14) Walk .5 miles; 325.5 miles (plus 5 Sam-only miles)

(Mar 13) Bike 5.75 miles; 325 miles (plus 5 Sam-only miles): Ridge stands 1500 feet above the plain. Plain is crawling with enemies. See Mount Doom 40 miles away ... Try to go north along ridge, but cannot. Retrace path back to valley floor. Stay east of water-course ... See orc hold by path on west.

(Mar 10) Bike 8.5 miles; 319.25 miles (plus 5 Sam-only miles): Hear water trickling from gully on left ... Road broadens and a rough wall begins: nearing an orc hold. Cross river-bed (a few pools in the bottom). Low scrubby trees. Midges ... Climb up into a ravine. Hide in brambles. Frodo sleeps. Sam sees star and also sleeps ... Continue up ravine until it disappears, then climb last 100 feet to the ridge.

(Mar 9) Swim .25 miles; 310.75 miles (plus 5 Sam-only miles)

Bicycling through Shelob's lair

2009-03-09T04:54:14Z

(Mar 8/today) Bike 8 miles; 310.5 miles (plus 5 Sam-only miles): Noon. Sam wakes, returns through Under-way. Exits Lair. Reaches cleft by the Tower of Cirith Ungol. Puts on the Ring. Ring lets him hear fighting in the Tower. Runs over crown of the path and removes Ring. Climbs to top of the Tower and rescues Frodo ... Frodo and Sam reach gate of the Tower ca. 5 a.m. Watchers send up signal of their escape. Run. Road curves out of sight from the gate ... Road curves down sharply to meet the Morgul-road. At the bridge just beyond the road meeting, they jump. Land just a few feet below in a thorn thicket. Dawn – but dark in the valley ... Climb down to bottom of north-running valley ... Halt briefly. Sam falls asleep. Turn north in the ravine. Frodo discards chain mail. Sam wishes for light and water ... Frodo senses Black Rider. Halt again. Sky brightens. See flight of fallen Witch King – ill news for Barad-dûr. Eat a bit ... Cross over to path west of a dry stream bed. Valley rises slowly to north.

(Mar 7) Bike 5 miles; 305.5 miles (plus 2 Sam-only miles): Tunnel forks. Left tunnel closed with a door. Realize Gollum is gone. Shelob appears. Use the Phial of Galadriel to drive off Shelob. Tunnel rises steeply to exit. Use Sting to cut webs ... Frodo runs ahead and is stung by Shelob. Sam fights off Gollum and reaches Frodo and drives off Shelob, but is too late. Thinking Frodo dead, Sam reluctantly takes the Ring and continues on ... Sam reaches base of a flight of shallow steps to the cleft ... From the cleft of the Pass, Sam looks back. Hearing orcs, he puts on the Ring. When orcs reach Frodo, Sam rushes back ... Sam follows them back to closed door in the Lair. Hears orcs say Frodo is NOT dead! Climbs over the door, runs down the Under-way. Knocks himself out against the Tower door. Sleeps through night.

(Mar 6) Bike 7.5 miles; 302.5 miles: Frodo finds opening to main pit on left.

(Mar 5) Bike 4.5 miles; 295 miles: Opening to Shelob’s Lair. Tunnel is so high and wide that Frodo and Sam can’t touch hands as they feel their way along each wall. Tunnel climbs slowly ... Frodo and Sam’s senses become numb, but feel things hanging down.

(Mar 4) Swim .25 miles; 290.5 miles

(Mar 3) Walk 2.25 miles; 290.25 miles: Reach bottom of the Winding Stair. Stair zig-zigs up the sloping cliff. Even looks down on wraith-road at one point ... Reach the top of the stairs. See red light through window in top of the Tower “a long way off.” Sleep there between two great piers of rock. All around are “jagged pinnacles...crevices and fissures” ... “Day.” Sam wakes and sees Gollum ‘pawing at’ Frodo. ‘Sneak’ conversation. Gollum leads them “up a long ravine between piers and columns of torn and weathered rocks.”

(Mar 2) Walk 1.25 miles; 288 miles: Reach a wide shelf – cliff on left, chasm on right. No longer climbing. Ground is broken.

jannimetrics @ 2009-03-03T16:21:00

2009-03-03T23:47:59Z

(I'm really irked that my heel issues mean I can't do the black stair on a stairmaster, humph.)

(Mar 1) Swim .25 miles; 286.75 miles

(Feb 27) Walk .75 miles; 286.5 miles: Above the stair, the cutting continues with a winding path – still climbing, but needs no steps: “seemed to go on for miles.”

(Feb 26) Walk 2.25 miles; 285.75 miles: Road curves east again, next to the ravine of the Morgulduin. Way slants up steeply. Frodo glances across the vale and sees Minas Morgul ... Come to the white bridge. The road crosses it and winds up to the city gates. All is rotten, cold. Frodo totters forward as if to cross the bridge, but Sam stops him. Gollum leads them back across the road to a gap in the stone wall – a path along the slopes north of the river ... On a high shelf overlooking the city Frodo stops. The Morgul-host marches forth ... Continue up path a short way. Reach bottom of the Straight Stair. Stair is cut into the cliff with walls on each side, steps narrow, uneven, and steep as a ladder.

(Feb 25) Walk 2.5 miles; 283.25 miles: Turn east and reach the Southward Road. Follow the road into a great ring of trees to the Cross-roads. The setting sun lights the fallen head of the statue of a King of Gondor ... Pass east out of the trees, following the Morgul-road. Road climbs steeply, but is straight ... At the top of a ‘flatiron’ the road cuts through the steep-faced drop and curves sharply south around a “great shoulder of rock.”

(Feb 24) Walk 2.25 miles; 280.75 miles: Turn south across a long broken slope.

(Feb 23) Walk 2.25 miles; 278.5 miles: Climb a great ‘hogback’ – climb the steep backslope, covered with spiny thickets. Descend the even steeper cliff face. Part way down, crawl into a ‘hollow hall’ formed by a “tangled knot of thorns.” Sleep ... THE DAWNLESS DAY ... Day grows even darker as time passes. Gollum wakes them (ca. 4 p.m.): “No time to lose.” Leads them down the hillside.

jannimetrics @ 2009-02-21T15:05:00

2009-02-21T22:09:01Z

(Today) Walk 3.5 miles; 276.25 miles total: Go down a bit, but then up on a longer, steeper slope ... Halt briefly. Can see tops of trees behind. Darkness begins to spread.
(Friday) Walk 2.75 miles; 272.75 miles total: Go around a dark pit.
(Wednesday) Fence .25 miles; 270 miles total: Cross a deep cleft.

jannimetrics @ 2009-02-16T22:28:00

2009-02-17T05:47:10Z

(Feb 16) Walk 2.5 miles; 269.75 miles total: Dusk. End of the forest. Can see White Mountains to the west and dark peaks of the Ephel Dúath to the east. A vale falls away before them – the Morgul. Gollum wants to continue, but they stop until midnight. Perched in an oak, the hobbits cannot sleep.

(Feb 12) Walk 2 miles, fence .25 miles; 267.25 miles total
(Feb 11) Walk 2.25 miles, fence .25 miles; 265 miles total
(Feb 9) Walk 2.25 miles; 264.75 miles total
(Feb 5) Walk 1.5 miles; (through Central Park in the snow), 262.5 miles total
(Feb 4) Walk 2.5 miles; 261 miles total
(Feb 3) Walk 3 miles; 258.5 miles total
(Feb 2) Walk 1 miles; 255.5 miles total
(Jan 30) Walk 1.5 miles and swing in the snow, 254.5 miles total
(Jan 29) Walk 1 miles; 253 miles total
(Jan 28) Playing dinosaurs .25 miles; 252 miles total
(Jan 27) Swim .25 miles; 251.75 miles total
(Jan 21) Fence .25 miles; 251.5 miles total

jannimetrics @ 2009-01-19T20:21:00

2009-01-20T03:36:41Z

(Today) Walk 3.75 miles; 251.25 miles total
(Sunday) Bike 7.5 miles; 247.5 miles total: Cross a tumbling stream ... Nightfall. Sleep beneath an ancient tree. Sam restless ... Leave at first light.
(Saturday) Score fencing matches without competing 0 miles; 240 miles total: Brief rest
(Friday) Walk 2.5 miles; 240 miles total
(Wednesday) Fence .25 miles; 237.5 miles total
(Tuesday) Bike 2.5 miles; 237.25 miles total

But I missed the fact that back at mile 225 we left Faramir behind! And am still wondering why I would do such a thing. Stupid ring ...

jannimetrics @ 2009-01-12T21:56:00

2009-01-13T04:56:59Z

Walk 2.25 miles, fence .25 miles; 234.75 miles total

jannimetrics @ 2009-01-10T18:34:00

2009-01-11T01:38:16Z

(today) Fence .25 miles; 232.25 miles total
(yesterday) Bike 6 miles; 232 miles total: Cross a fast stream. Brief rest. Eat.

RB exploratory draft (yesterday):

4,100 / 60,000
(6.8%)