Merco Half Marathon

A storm front came in and I all but gave up hope of a PR.

It is a relatively local event so we just drove up the morning of the race.

The race is fairly new and the number of entrants not to many.  I didn't really experience any serious crowding issues.  The event was well organized, mostly flat, and the route aesthetically pleasing.

This is the first time that I stuck fairly stringently to a training plan.

	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sat	Sun	Totals
June 20-26		8.37	5.6			8.7	12.3	34.97	2
June 27-July 3	3.5	8	8.2	8.37	8.65	7	12.2	55.92	3
July 4-10	3.5	8.6	9.5	7	7	7.5	12.2	55.3	4
July 11-17	4	7.5	8.6	7.5	8.6	7.5	10	53.7	5
July 18-24	5	7.3	8.7	7.3	9.2	5	12.3	54.8	6
July 25-31	5.3	7.3	8.8	5	8.7	7.3	10	52.4	7
Aug 1-7	5	7.5	8.7	5	9.1	7.5	12.3	55.1	8
Aug8-14	5	7.5	9.5	7.5	9	5	10	53.5	9
Aug15-21	5	7	9.5	7	9.5	7.3	12.3	57.6	10
Aug22-28	5	7	9.5	7	9	5	10	52.5	11
Aug29-Sept4	5	0	9.5	6.4	9.5	6.4	14	50.8	12
Sept 5-11	5	6.8	8	6.8	9.5	5	10	51.1	13
Sept 12-18	5	6.8	10	0	9.7	6	14	51.5	14
Sept 19-25	5	6.2	10	6.2	9.7	5	10	52.1	15
Sep26-Oct2	1.5	0	14	9.2	13.3	9	14	61	16
October3-9	8	9	11	3	10.1	5	8	54.1	17
October 10-16	5	5	0	6	5	3	13.1	37.1	18
								883.49

The foundation of this training plan was Hansen's Half Marathon book

On Mondays I did hill sprints based on Brad Hudson's book.  I did Saturday Hill sprints on weeks were I wasn't doing a long run (12+ miles on Sunday).  During the training cycle I set PRs for 1 mile, 5k, and 10k.  I really felt I was in for something special on race day.  My goal was to break the previous record of 1 hour 51 minutes.

And then the storm blew in...

Actually, it wasn't that bad, a few sprinkles and light wind.  Frankly, it was a little too warm and humid for my running preference. 

I knocked almost 5 minutes off of my previous PR at 1 hour 46 minutes and 6 seconds.

I definitely want to run this race again.  Having experience with the route could help me knock off a few more seconds, and I plan to be faster next year.

For spring 2017 I've decided to return to Santa Cruz.

American Civil War

I purchased Greg Wagman's Altar of Freedom with scenario books.  The idea of putting on whole civil war battles not just part of the battle really appeals to me.  He also is using single base units.

However, I wasn't quite willing to go down the 6mm road for this project.  I didn't want to deal with yet another scale of buildings.  I'm still trying to work something out for my 28mm buildings.  But I had acquired 10mm buildings for my 15mm World War 2 battles.  The solution became obvious.  So far I've orders some figures from both Pendraken and Good Ground.

My first attempt at basing:


Seems a bit scant, more like a skirmish line.  So I stripped the bases (Litko) and tried again.























This will take me longer to paint, but I think I can manage 2 units a week.  I'm hoping to put on the battle of Perryville sometime in the spring.  The ultimate goal will to be able to recreate Gettysburg.

I'm not sure how long I will play Altar of Freedom.  It is not solo friendly, and it just doesn't seem to have the same level of excitement as Piquet - no surprises there (pun intended).

You can see the Numidians in the background getting ready for their new 80x60mm base.

Punic War Musings

Some sources:


Putting out the battlefield.


A bit like Trebbia...


The Romans cross the river...


Closing the gap



I glued my four stand units to single 120mm wide hardboard stands, this is a temporary measure as I plan to rebase (again) the entire collection to 80mm x 25-60mm to go for that Impetus look.

A String of Records

My training for the Merced half is going well.


And then...

And before that...




Finally...



During my last tempo run of 7 miles I posted 4 sub-8 minute miles, and 8:03 and well, there was a nature calls break that ruined that time.  But my pace is definitely starting to look sub-8ish.  Dare I hope for a sub 1 hour 45 minute half?

Battle of Three Rivers

For my birthday I put out the War of Spanish Succession figures again.  I need to break them in.  Mostly I just played about with my terrain until I felt I had something interesting.  The aerial view:


French on the bottom, the more numerous Austrians at the top of the photo.  French win if Austrians can't break them and cause them to leave the battle field.  Eugene commanded the Austrians, the French had Tallard.  The larger river was very difficult to cross except for at the bridges.


The Palatinate attempted the impossible.




The Austrians would ultimately force the bridge with the help of their Prussians (top left corner).  On the other side of the board the French Cavalry would hold one hill, while an Austrian command held another, and the third Austrian command came across the bridge to "pincer" the French Cavalry.  The French in the Town merrily shot away at the Austrians on the hill, but eventually would come out to help the beleaguered cavalry.



Beyond the bridge as seen on the left, the French made a final stand on a nearby hill and ultimately threw back the Prussian and Palatinate attackers.  With losses mounting, the Austrian army quit the field (lost a major morale check).  It was a close battle with both sides low near zero on morale chips.  The battle of the "Hill bridge" was the deciding factor.

Big Bottoms

"If you want big bases, my miniatures got'em"

This transition started percolating in my brain during the last Roman-Carthaginian clash.  I was using the "Pulse of Battles" rules and I realized that the only reason I was using multiple bases for a unit was to turn one stand backward to indicate disordered.  Otherwise, having multiple bases was just a hassle for my players.  In the past I even had people trying to move all four stands at once and tumbling a couple of bases across the landscape..."shudder."

Then I started rebasing my world war II stuff for Field of Battle WW2.  I enjoyed the effect of mixing riflemen, machine guns, and mortars to create a diorama meant to represent a company of troops.  The concept of a base being a unit (company, battalion, brigade whatever) appeals to me.  Being able to put everything I need to know about that unit on that base in an inconspicuous way also seems the best way to go.

I started looking online figuring I couldn't be the only person thinking about this, perhaps others had already tried it out?

I found that Brent Oman toyed with this idea during the "Pulse of Battle" development.  It is somewhere in his blog "Wargames and Stuff"  He mentioned issues with bent swords and spears, or something like that.  Undaunted I continued looking and found "Impetus."

Wow! 120mm bases for 28mm and 80mm bases for 15s.  I figured 120mm base had to be the max for 28mm just from weight alone.  I so I rebased my very small War of Spanish Succession collection, and finally finished painting enough of them to put on the table.

Each unit is a "combat effective."  If it helps you can think of them as regiments or groups of battalions.  I don't care.  They have flags, because this seems important and adds to the look I am striving for.  Some of the units are quite old.  I started this project almost 20 years ago.  The first units have wine bottle lead flags, the newer stuff is rice paper flags.

The French and Austrians face off!  The French are defending the little town of hobbit folk (10mm buildings as I wait to build a 28mm town?).


French Cavalry Charging hapless Austrian infantry.




And a close up of La Reine






















Lyonnaise on the move


None shall harm the hobbit folk here!


Regiments Navarre and Dauphin


Wendt destroying silenced French artillery.


Why were they silent?  Austrian artillery counter battery fire!

Another look at French cavalry in action.


I had bought 8 cavalry for each unit at the start of this project, but on 120mm bases, 8 Front Rank cavalry would not fit.  As it was I had to stagger them on a deeper base for La Reine to get them to fit.  It looks really cool, but the base are heavy, and will require extra care when handling.

For me bases have become units and decorated (expensive) playing pieces.  It also works better for my meager 5x9 foot playing space.

I'm currently rebasing my15mm Egyptian and Hittite armies.  For these I'm going with 90mm bases because I can fit three chariots on one of these for a "unit" effect.  I bought command figures for my infantry to expand those units to 14 figures per 90mm base.  Close order infantry will be put at 30 mm depth, and light infantry (skirmish) on 40mm depth.

My online searches caused me to stumble upon Altar of Freedom.  I love the large scope battles, where you try to put an entire Civil War battle on the table, not just a part of it.  I tried it for 28mm WSS, but it didn't work for me, so I am scaling Field of Battle to 75 yards to an inch.  This should allow me to get Blenheim onto my table.  I've been play testing a few modifications using the above set-up, and things are coming along nicely.

I think I will return to Altar of Freedom for American Civil War (ACW), but with 10mm figures (to go with hobbit houses). I love the idea of the Priority Point system, it just isn't very solo player friendly. ACW will probably be my next project for sometime next year?  So much painting to do, so little time.

Ham and Bacon

I took the remaining ham of our Berkshire pig and removed the bone.


Looks like I got a good soup bone out of the deal.   Notice the skin is still on the ham.  I put the boneless ham into an equilibrium cure of about 3% salt, 1.5% brown sugar, 0.25% pink salt, some smoked paprika and white pepper.  All of it went into a plastic bag and rolled around for a couple of weeks - I turned it every day.

I then took the ham and bagged it up in a proper mesh bag.  I sprayed it with Bactoferm 600 to get some good mold growing to keep bad mold at bay.  I purchased a new curing chamber, aka beverage refrigerator for this project.  I equipped it with a temperature control set at 52 degrees, and add my humidity pan to keep it at 75% humidity.

Now I have to wait until November, sigh.  But it is looking pretty good so far.


I love Berkshire bacon.  The ratio of muscle to fat is just incredible.  It is so easy to do, and the cold smoking with applewood really makes it shine.  I tried making it without pink salt and the color was just too off, so I put the pink salt back into the recipe and ...