Claire

New Years in Durango

2012-01-08T16:37:00.001-07:00

This New Years weekend I headed to Durango along with some friends to get in some skiing and see what the snow conditions were like. There was a lot of snow in early December but since then it's been pretty dry around here and in most of Colorado so we weren't sure what to expect. Saturday morning I found myself at Silverton Mountain for the second time in my life, it's a great mountain with great skiing but it's not your typical ski area. There are no groomed runs, you will end up hiking, and you can get yourself into real trouble. It's backcountry type terrain with a lift that takes you up most of the way to the top. Currently the skiing is unguided which means a lift ticket is less than most of the other mountains around Durango but in about 2 weeks a lift ticket prices will go up as a guide will be required. Avalanche gear is always required (beacon, shovel, probe) to ride the lift.

The morning was pretty windy so the lift was delayed in opening. At around 11 we were on the lift but until then we waited in the tent as that's what they have instead of a lodge. It's a pretty nice tent as it has a wood stove, refreshments for sale, and this awesome tree. I think this is the first real christmas type tree I saw this season, not that it's really an xmas tree. I was tired and there were nothing comfy left to sit on so I took the picture while laying on the ground trying to get settled so I could take a nap.

As mentioned the mountain doesn't have a lodge so if you need to go to the bathroom you can use this outhouse or find some trees on one of your runs. You can also see the helicopter that they use for heli-skiing in the background, someday I'll go heli-skiing but hopefully it'll be in another country.

The first run we went down had some ok snow but towards the bottom I ended up in some tight trees and it really wasn't much fun to get down thru them because the coverage wasn't great. We were hiking up to our second run and stopped to look at Mandatory Air, a run they had just avy bombed and opened. Nathan decided since it was just opened and we could get first tracks on it that we should go. Upon getting ready to head down the run, Nathans binding broke. What did this mean, that he had to head back down to the bottom of the mountain via the lift and I was left to decide what run to do by myself. I wasn't sure about going down Mandatory Air alone as there is a section you have to downclimb with a rope but he seemed to think it would be the best way down for me and I would be able to get first tracks.

The snow on the run wasn't that great as it was pretty windblown. The run is called Mandatory Air as there is section where when there is enough snow you may have to jump, I'm not 100% sure on this as I've only been there early season where they route you to section where you have to use a rope to go down part of the run with some semi stairs. I have no plans to go down that run again anytime in the near future. I feel like last time the section you needed the rope for wasn't that long but this time it seemed really long and took me a good 20 minutes to get down. Part of that I was yelling and getting a bit mad at Nathan for sending me down it alone but it was a bit late to get too upset so I tried to focus on not breaking a leg. So for this downclimb, you keep your skis on as the edges help to let you grip the snow and keep from sliding down, and then use the rope to lean on and help stabilize you. As you can see from the photos it's steep and rocky.

Middle of the down step


Done with rope! That middle section is at the top of this photo.

After that run I was feeling a little less confident in my skiing abilities and I was still skiing alone so I decided I would take Tiger down, a pretty mellow run that required minimal hiking. The snow was alright but still nothing great. At the end of the run, you walk across the stream and end up on a road where you get picked up by an old FedEx type truck that takes you back to the lift. If you end your run further up the road from the lift than an old school bus will pick you up, like I said not your typical ski mountain. I made it back to the lift in time for last chair but at that point I was content to just call it a day as the snow just wasn't that great and I was ready to head back to Durango to celebrate new years.

On the car ride back to Durango, I told Nathan how horrible my experience was on Mandatory Air was and that I can't believe he thought it was a good idea for me to go down that run. He didn't know how bad that section was until Monday when he returned to the mountain. Upon getting back to Flagstaff he said he was sorry for sending me down that run as it was in pretty bad shape.

We spent New Years night in Durango where we started the night by utilizing the hot tub that was at the place we rented for the weekend. Then we piled into a car and headed downtown for some tasty wood fired Neapolitan style pizza and to see where the night would go. The night started great and then I drank way too much, the chocolate martini while delicious put me over my limit. New Years morning I felt awful, we were supposed to ski at Wolf Creek but is became clear that it would be best to change it to a half day. When we got there I still wasn't feeling great as everytime I bent over to buckle my boots my head would start spinning. Ada was in a similar state so we stuck to mostly groomed runs and slow chair lifts while some of the others headed into the trees. By the end of the ski day I was feeling much better which was good as I decided that instead of staying in Durango another night that I would head back to Flagstaff, 6 hours in a car. Monday I slept in and headed out for an afternoon run to enjoy the warm, sunny weather we've been having the last 2 weeks as I know it won't last.

All in all, it was a good weekend. I just wish there was better snow and that I hadn't drank so much on New Years Eve.

Don't Bust the Crust

2011-12-30T12:00:00.000-07:00

This year was the first time I did not go home to be with the family for Christmas. With flights being pricey and not having many days off I decided I would stay in Az for the holidays and get in some running, skiing, and relaxing. Christmas Eve and Christmas morning were spent down in Sedona. Christmas Eve I got in a 17.7 mile and was pretty sure that some sort of wildlife was stalking me. Then I followed it up with a 9 mile trail run Christmas morning with my friend Gail. The sign to the left can be seen at a lot of trailheads in Sedona, also in Moab.

On getting back to Flagstaff we headed into the mountains to see if there was enough snow to do some back country skiing. We tried but the conclusion was not enough in the chutes and looks like there will be even less after the past few days where we have reached highs in the 50's. We headed back down in the trees but there wasn't enough cover to make it fun as the downed tress and rocks were not fully covered yet. But it was a great reminder of the benefits of living in Flagstaff, that even in the winter there are snowless trails only 30 miles away.

Allison Clay Chute

Lately I've been on runs with amazing views and the camera on my phone just doesn't cut it but I could never justify hauling around my old camera as it just didn't fit nicely in any of the little pockets of my running belts or bags and it didn't take very good photos. So after xmas I headed to best buy to see if there were any after xmas deals and picked up a digital camera that had been returned for about $90. It's the Sony cyber-shot DSC-W70 and is 16.1 MP and about half the size and weight of my old camera,so far it's a big upgrade. It takes much better pictures and is easier to carry along on runs with me, so expect more photos this next year and probably race reports as I no longer need to rely on the photos of others.

My first digital camera was in the Cannon Elph series. I received it as a graduation gift a few weeks before I graduated from college in the spring of 2004. When I recieved it, it was a top of the line ~$400 5MP digital camera now it just shows how much cheaper and better the technology has become.
Below are some pictures of my trail run in Sedona yesterday that were taken from the Airport Loop. No matter the trail in Sedona there are always great views to be had.

Transrockies Run

2011-08-18T18:24:00.001-07:00

Humphrey's Saddle

Views from Weatherford Trail

Well it's been awhile since I last posted. Since the last post I've been doing a lot of running. I've done some more Rim to River runs in the canyon. Have been on a road trip to northern california and reno where I explored trails and vineyards (put in 70 miles of running while on vacation). And have run up and down the San Fransisco Peaks here in Flagstaff multiple times. With the most notable runs being the ones up to Humphrey's saddle from both directions.

Option A is a steady 10 mile climb from Shultz tank (8000ft) to Humphreys saddle(11800ft) on the Weatherford trail, which has beautiful views but questionable footing. Then you get to the saddle and run down the Humphreys trail and get back to Shultz tank via the Kachina Trail, about a 21 mile run. The other way is to do it in reverse which gets the climb over first and cuts out a few miles. So you start at 9300 ft and climb to 11,800 ft in 3.5 miles, but then you get to run downhill for 10 miles before hitting the rolling hills of Kachina and ending with around 18 or so miles. I'm still not sure which way I prefer as they are both very challenging.

Flowers while on the run

Aspens

Wildlife of interest seen would be a momma bear and her cub two weekends ago, luckily they were running away from us.

The training is done and the packing is almost complete. If you want to follow my team as we embark on this journey, the race is pretty good about updating results and putting up videos daily on the website. I'll be running with Anna Kobb in the womens open division and our team name is Team Gore Running Wear Girls as our company is providing us with some clothes to wear for the race. Some very Euro style running wear... Our plan is to just take it one day at a time and enjoy the views.

Well here's to hoping I still like running after 6 days, 119.5 miles, and ~20,800 feet of elevation gain in the Colorado Rockies.

http://transrockies.com/transrockiesrun/news/

Rainbow Rim Trail

2011-05-26T20:46:00.001-07:00

This past weekend I did some camping on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon at a place just outside the park boundary on the Rainbow Rim Trail. The trail has 5 view points where forest roads intersect the trails and you have amazing views. Since this is in the national forest you are also able to camp right next to the edge of the rim if you like.

We arrived on Friday night at the Parissawampits view point, if I did it again I think I would camp at the Locust view point as that's the best one for camping right on the edge of the rim and right off the trail. Where we were you had to walk a few minutes to get to a view point but since we had the dog with us this was fine by me as I didnt have to worry about her being so close to the edge of the rim.

Saturday morning I got up and got ready for my long run. The plan was to run to the Locust view point and back which was around 16-17 miles round trip and would have me run from the first to the third viewpoint. The trail was great for running but you did have to watch your step as there were lots of loose rocks for rolling ankles on which I only did a few times. In between the view points you are in the forest so there is a decent amount of shade and you're also at 8000 feet so the temperature was perfect and didn't get too hot.

Within the first 10 minutes of running I came across some animal remains. I spent the next mile wondering what animal it was and how its bones ended up on the trail. Don't think I ever came to a conclusion but probably a cow.

Here is a picture from the second lookout. The edge is just past my pack.

I can't remember if I took this at the second or third lookout. I feel like it was the second lookout.

This picture is from the third lookout, I didn't get that close to the edge as at this point I was feeling a bit tired and really just stopped long enough to take a picture.

I picked up my puppy with about 5 miles to go as she ran behind Nathan until we met on the trail and then she joined me for the end of my run. We were both pretty tired when we got here, the first lookout only a few minutes run from camp. I didn't even notice the lookout on my start but it was a great view to end the run on.


One happy pup

Porcupine Rim Trail

2011-03-30T09:01:00.000-07:00

Two weekends I go I went to Moab, UT home of the delicate arch in Arches National Park. I have a picture of it in a previous post when I headed there for thanksgiving. This time we were in town to do some mountain biking/hiking/running. We arrived Friday afternoon and were able to get in a short mountain bike ride before it got dark out. Since I'm not very skilled I did the slickrock practice loop, and let me say that it let me realize that I shouldn't bike any of the other slickrock trails. Riding slickrock is very strange, the entire trail is on rock that's marked with paint and it's amazing how much your tires grip the rock. On the downside no matter where you fall, you will be falling on smooth rock at the best and jagged rock if you aren't so lucky. Another down side to camping in Moab is that sand gets everywhere. You can't enjoy any food without having the added crunchiness of sand.

Saturday the decision was made to do the Porcupine Rim Trail which is a point to point trail that started less than a mile from where we were camping. The trail starts at about 5830 and climbs over the first 4 miles to 6800ft. After that you descend the rim to the Colorado river and it ends at about 4000 feet. The overall trail length was about 14.4 miles. It took me awhile to decide if I should do the trail or not but in the end I told myself if it didn't feel good running it that I could just turn it into a hike. I took it easy up the climb and mixed running with walking. The view from the top was amazing and I wish I had taken a picture there but didnt so I stole one from Nathan, to the left.

After that the trail descended and I did take a few pictures from one side of the rim maybe a mile into the descent. I also wish I would have had some pictures of the end where you are running 10 feet from the edge of the rim and it is following the Colorado River, very pretty. But at that point I was just trying to finish the run so I didn't stop to take any pictures. In the end it took me just under 3 hours to do the trail and considering it was my longest run this year and my second run since surgery I was pleasantly surprised. To make it even better the rest of our group was on mountain bikes and started the trail maybe 20 mintues after me and finished maybe 10 minutes before me. They caught me right before the single track about 2 hours in which is where they took that lovely picture of me at the start of the post.

An example of why I don't ride slickrock.

Back to Running

2011-03-16T19:18:00.000-07:00

Stitches came out last Thursday and for a few days I had a pretty sweet Frankenstein scar. The first two pictures below are from the day the stitches were removed. In the second picture you can also see where my deck drains were. Also you can notice what looked like a double/triple chin as after the neck drains came out the swelling increased by a lot. The line goes up to being level with my ear line and as can be seen by the photo taken today in a few months it shouldn't be very noticeable at all.

8 days post surgery


2 weeks after surgery

Unfortunately it's hard to take a picture of my tongue but I can now answer how much of it they took out since I have a copy of my pathology report which states the sample "is an oriented elliptical portion of tissue, 2.5cm anterior to posterior, 1.8cm medial to lateral, and 1.2cm in thickness." So from front to back that's about 1" front to back, .7" left to right, and about .5" thick. In a different section it mentioned that the depth of invasion was 4mm and that all surgical margins were negative for carcinoma and clear by at least 5mm. The swelling has gone down a lot on my neck and tongue and I am to a point where most people can't notice anything about my speech. My tongue is still healing and feels strange/numb but I'm getting used to it.

Well it's been exactly 2 weeks since surgery so I was able to go for my first run today. This past weekend I really got the itch to run as the weather was sunny and warm. I made the most of it by going for a hike and a mountain bike ride in Sedona. I had asked if I was allowed to bike after surgery and they said once I was home from the hospital that would be fine, but I'm pretty sure they probably didn't mean mountain biking in Sedona, oh well. Due to the fact that I haven't ridden my mountain bike in about 5 months and that I just came out of the hospital I was more weenie than normal on the ride. Sedona also has some pretty technical trails so on the one I ended up doing a lot of hike a biking. Tight turns were also an issue as I still can't completely turn my head from right to left so that was also interesting.

Running went pretty well, I went for a total of 22 minutes my legs felt a bit uncoordinated. I felt a lot of tightness in my neck and left shoulder where it was hard to really keep my upper body relaxed but no real pain to speak of just discomfort. I think with some more stretching of my neck and a bit more time for the remaining swelling to go away that the tightness shouldn't be an issue anymore. All in all I'm glad that everything seems to be returning to normal. The strangest part is still the numbness on my neck and ear from the dissection and more and more it's the strange feelings/spasms that shoot up and down that side of my neck as the nerve endings reconnect.

The start of a good weekend starts tomorrow night with some St.Patty's day celebrating and will be followed with a trip to Moab that should be filled with lots of mountain biking, running, and napping on the red rocks.

Cancer, huh?

2011-03-08T09:21:00.001-07:00

Some of you have probably heard already and some of you maybe not. But as I live in a small town now everyone out here pretty much knew after I had told about 5 people as I guess news like that spreads like wildfire in a smaller town. With that came a lot of akward interactions as after a few people heard I could just see the dread in their face. I stopped telling people after awhile as it just got to be a bit much for me to handle.

The quick version is that the week after the Ironman I noticed a sore under my tongue and assumed it was a canker sore, although to this point I had never had one so was prob not in a position to be determining that. It didn't go away so it was mid January when I called the dentist to get it looked at and have my teeth cleaned. A week later I was getting it biopsied by an oral surgeon and 3 days later I got the call. The call where the doctor told me I had cancer and needed to call x, y, z people asap along with lots of other info that I just didn't absorbed. That was Feb 3rd and the rest of that day was a blur as I spent it calling doctors to get appointments. In the end the diagnosis was well differentiated squamous cell carcinoma on the left-posterolateral tongue. In terms of staging T1N0M0, stage 1. While I noticed the sore after the ironman the reality is the cancer cells were multiplying there for awhile before I noticed them and I noticed them about as early as you can notice something like this so my doing the ironman did not cause cancer ...

After a few visits to the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix I was set for surgery March 2 to have a partial glossectomy (removal of tumor and some margins from the tongue), and neck dissection on the left side of my neck in case the cancer had spread. Now I really didn't want to have surgery I mean there are risks with every surgery but as the doctor said it's really that small risk versus death. So some how I was supposed to be less anxious about the surgery because if there were any complications as long as they weren't death I would be better off, I did not like that mentality. Except for comparing my odds to death I really liked my doctor and I realize he was trying to make me less nervous but saying slurred speech, uneven smile, shoulder twitch, or death just wasn't making things better in my head.

I'm now just short of a week post surgery and as they say I did well. I still don't understand why doctors say that as I did nothing except sign a consent form. My doctor did great, surgery was 2-3 hours and went smoothly, they took out part of my tongue and for the most part I'm talking normally and it's still somewhat swollen. The lymph nodes came out and there was no nerve damage associated with that. Post surgery was rough as I had what I would call a migraine (felt like someone was driving a railroad spike into my left eyesocket), nausea from the anesthesia and morphine they were giving me. There was a lot of dry heaving (thankfully not vomit as with my tongue as swollen as it was I feel it would have just gotten stuck in my throat) and all around misery for a few hours. Once I was switched to percocet things got much better. It wasn't till Sunday afternoon that I was released from the hospital so I was going insane as it was so boring there and I was able to walk around freely as they were just waiting for my neck drains to slow down.

My neck/face are still pretty swollen, I can't move my head freely so it's always stiff/sore. In another week I should be able to run so all things considered I feel very lucky. Lucky to have caught this so early, have a great doctor, and a great support team. Thanks to everyone for the care packages, flowers, and good thoughts they were very helpful in this not so fun time in my life. Hopefully the worst of it is behind me and the next 5 years of checkups will go without a hitch. Just remember sometimes cancer strikes for no reason so if something seems odd go get it checked out by a doctor.

http://www.handlebarsandwich.com/03/07/2011/heavy-shit (if you want some pictures of my hospital stay, neck drains, etc, nathan has some posted on his blog)

In other news, looks like Ryan Hall will be talking to our team run flagstaff tomorrow night to answer questions and sign copies of his new book. Any questions I should ask him?

Avy Savy

2011-02-09T09:38:00.000-07:00

In the first 15 minutes 93% of all avalanche victims are still alive, most avalanche deaths occur during the fall hitting rocks or trees. From 15-45 minutes 2/3 of victims will die of Asphyxiation. If the victim survives after 45 minutes they have probably found an air pocket and may be able to survive longer but if not rescued they will eventually die of asphyxiation or hypothermia. (in full burial avalanches) Below are some avalanche viedoes. In all these cases the people are very lucky which is not true in many cases.

After watching avalanche videos and hearing of people encounters with them, you quickly get it in your head that you don't ever want to be in a situation where you are looking at a 15 minute time frame to rescue your friends or be rescued. While beacon technology has come a long way in helping to pinpoint the victim, rescue times have not decreased dramatically because you still have to dig the victim out from under a lot of hard packed snow. While we did not practice digging on an avlanche field we practiced probing and digging into a large pile of ice/snow made by a snow plow and it took awhlie to get to the burried beacons.

In order to learn more about avalanche safety, I took the Avalance 1 course at the Silverton Avalanche School. It was a great course that combined classroom hours with time out on the snow. I learned about what some of the causes for weak layers in a snow pack are, how to dig a pit to see the snow layers and conduct tests to get an idea for the stability of the snow. Also about how to determine where good places were to put skin tracks on the way up the mountain and how to come up with different routes down the mountain so as to avoid triggering an avalanche as well as determining safe stopping points so that if an avalanche is triggered multiple people won't get caught in it's path. We also spent some time practicing beacon searches. After the class I realize I still have a lot to learn about safety in the backcountry but now I have the tools to make my own decisions regarding safety and know a lot more about how to stay out of trouble.

On the last day of the class we had a short session in the classroom and then headed out to Red Mountain Pass in the San Juan Mountains to do some touring. It was a great day with some great views and tree skiing. Now we just need some more snow in Flag so I can go out and get in some more turns.

Ready to run

2010-08-21T19:09:00.001-07:00

I arrived in Buena Vista today for the start of my race. The opening dinner is done, my bag is packed, and its time to relax. The scenery on the drive here was beautiful and I am looking foward to more of the same over the next 3 days of running. My goal for this race is to have fun and enjoy the views.

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Preparing for TRR3

2010-08-17T08:29:00.000-07:00

Well I leave Friday after work or Saturday morning to head to Buena Vista,CO where I will participate in my first 3 day running race. This is the first year the 3 day solo option is being offered as the typical GORE-TEX TransRockies Run is a 6 day event that you run with a partner. With being new to multi day running races and having just moved I was very excited about the 3 day solo option. It means I can get a taste of the race and see if I really do want to do the full race next year with a partner.

Since the run is sponsored by Gore, the company I work for a bunch of people from work will be headed to the race not to mention a bunch of other teams from Flag will be there so I should know a good number of people at the race. I've been told that it's a ton of fun as most of your day you are hanging out.

This week I get to work on what to bring: mandatory items that I mush carry with me each day on the run are a rain jacket, warm hat and gloves, and a survival blanket (just got this last night). Then there are a bunch of optional items. Other items that are going to be needed are clothes for all types of temperatures since I'll be camping in the mountains at night and running in who knows what kind of weather during the day. To make it even more interesting the race provides you with a duffel bag and that's all that you can bring with you. In there you have to fit whatever you will want for the race, including your sleeping bag and pad, any special foods, extra shoes, etc. They transport the bag to the camping location each night, as each day is point to point, so whatever isn't in that bag you won't have.

Well with the race being less than a week away I'm not really nervous or worried, at least not yet. The race is going to be what it's going to be. While the running may be hard I'm excited for the mountain scenery of Colorado and spending most of my day just hanging out. If you care to follow I think they post results for the race after each stage on the website, first stage is Sunday Aug 22.

Mountain Man Triathlon Olympic Distance

2010-08-13T09:07:00.000-07:00

This past weekend turned out to be a pretty good one despite the rough start to it. I had planned a long run for Friday morning but only managed to make it a mile before my stomach turned into a knot and forced me to stop and sit for awhile. So what I hoped would be a great long run turned into a mile run and a mile stagger back home.

Saturday I helped Nathan with a mountain bike ride he organized by being at an aid station. For my efforts I ended up cooking a lot of bacon for the riders who decided to continue the ride despite the pouring down rain. Oh how I love the smell of bacon.

With the weather being so terrible on Saturday I was not sure I was going to finish the race on Sunday as I had decided if it was 50 and raining I might just do the swim and be done. Luckily race morning when I got up there was no rain and the temperature was perfect.

My wave started at 6:40 and I got to the race site around 5 to rack my bike and get my transition area set up. The organization of the race was not the greatest. It seemed like nobody there knew any of the rules for racking bikes so people were taking up tons of space and tons of non racers were just getting in the way. I found a spot in between two people who had 2 full towel widths between their bikes, so I just put my bike it in the middle and there was still plenty of room for everyone, so I thought at least.

The water was a nice 70ish degrees so I was able to use my wet suit. The swim went pretty well for me, I started out pretty slow as lots of people seemed to be thrashing around at the beginning. By the time I hit the first buoy I was in a rhythm and felt pretty good. The first transition went pretty well with my foot only getting somewhat stuck in the wetsuit.

I headed out on the ride. Luckily for me I know the ride course pretty well as it's one of the only safe roads to bike on up here. The first 7-8 miles are relatively flat but the last few before the turn around you hit a series of hills that can just kill your speed. Luckily for me I've had some practice so I made it up them ok but some of the people from lower elevation were definitely gasping for air at the tops of them. After the turnaround it's a fast ride back to transition as with the downhill you don't have to work very hard at all. I felt pretty good on the bike but there were still a few women who blew by me so I know I need to work on my biking a lot more.

After the bike I started the run. With the stomach issues I had on Friday morning I wasn't sure what to expect so I started out pretty slow for the first mile. I was feeling pretty good so as the run went on, I started to increase my speed. At around 1.5 miles the hill began, you gain 400 feet in a mile. Luckily I had been doing lots of uphill trail running so it didn't feel that bad. After the hill there was a bit of flat before the turnaround and at that point I felt pretty good so I decided I was just going to go all out for the second half of the run. I flew down the hill and when I hit the flat road again with 1.5 miles to go I just kept the pace up and ended up picking off a lot of people. Best part was of course out sprinting a guy at the end, he thought he had me but he was wrong. As he pulled even to me I took off for the last 10-15 seconds and victory was mine, see photo below.

All in all I'm pretty happy with the race. I didn't taper at all and had some hard hill and trail runs the week before and I still felt great. I was also really excited by my run time as I feel like I'm finally starting to get my speed back which is exciting. All in all a great day for a race, and I hope to be much faster next year. After my next big race, Trans Rockies 3 day run which starts next weekend, I plan to focus mostly on biking for Sept and Oct as I feel my running is in a good place.

Tempe Towne Lake is Empty

2010-07-22T13:45:00.001-07:00

Well in "local" news Tempe Town Lake is now empty as one of four rubber dams tore and caused the lake to drain. You read right, a rubber dam. There are hopes that a new dam structure will be in place and the lake refilled by early November so as to not impact the lakes biggest event, the Ironman. I hope they have it fixed in time as it would be terrible to train the whole summer and then not have a lake to swim in. I wonder if the race directors ever took into consideration that the lake just might not be there from one year to the next.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2010/07/22/20100722damfolo0722economy.html

Heidi and a bit on the Schultz Fire

2010-07-09T09:26:00.000-07:00

Well it's been awhile since I posted but I've been busy.
I made it back to Maryland for Eagleman and while the race didn't go very well the rest of the weekend was great. I did learn from the race what I need to focus on for the summer, long bike rides and runs. Since getting back I've been pretty motivated and have managed to get in some longer rides of 75, and 85 miles. This weekend I'm headed to Santa Fe where I hope to get in another 80-90 mile ride as I am planning to do my first century ride with 5,709 feet of climbing in 2 weeks.

Then there was the Schultz Fire here in town which was just depressing as they closed a lot of the wilderness area and trails. The last time I checked it had burned over 15,000 acres and now they are worried about flooding during the monsoons. Some very beautiful trails, waterline, are probably gone for a long time maybe even forever which is just really sad. Below is a video that shows a bit of what the fire looked like from parts around town.

Then after/during the fire I decided it was time to get a permanent trail running buddy. There was a huge adoptiong day called Pets in the Pines held by Second Chance where they had tons of animals up for adoption. I got to the event about 20 mintues early as I wanted the best puppy there, by the time the event started I had found the perfect one, Heidi. She's a shepherd mix and is now about 3 months old, they estimate she'll be a medium dog of about 40-60 pounds when she's done growing. While she won't be running with me for awhile she already enjoys trail walks and riding on the side of the big dummy. All in all she's a great puppy and I'm glad I finally decided to adopt one.

Race Report: Tribal Sprint Triathlon

2010-06-04T13:29:00.001-07:00

Well the race didn’t go quite as I planned but I guess that was part of the reason I did it.

I didn’t get a lot of sleep the night before as I was car camping and between the biting bugs and me being convinced the creature outside (javalena was the guess) was going to jump into the open door to eat me I didn’t sleep much or well.

The alarm went off at 4:15, I left the camping area around 4:40 and was at the race site by 5:15. The desert is pretty out now, lots of blooming saguaro's.

Upon arriving at the race site, I grabbed everything I thought I would need and headed to the transition area. About 10 minutes before they were going to close the transition I noticed a lot of people were wearing wetsuits despite the 75 deg water temp and 1K length. So I ran back to my car and got mine. I made it back with enough time to throw my running shoes and visor into the T2 bag hand it off and make it to the boat ramp (bike was point to point). Of note the ground was not smooth pavement, there would be no running from the water to my bike.

The swim went ok but as I was putting on my cap and goggles I realized I forgot my ear plug. Not a big deal just means I’m stuck breathing on just my right side which means a slower swim since I usually breathe every 3rd. Other than that, the swim went pretty well, I was much calmer than I typically am and the wetsuit didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would. By the end I felt like I was finally getting into a good rhythm so I’m hoping that will stick with me for Eagleman and will enable me to feel comfortable going fast from the start. After the swim I walked to my bike, got out of my wetsuit pretty quickly and was off on the bike.

I was expecting a pretty flat course since it's near Phoenix and all but it turned out to be lots of rolling rolling hills not to mention sharp turns, cattle guards, and two turn arounds with one being around an orange cone after coming down a hill. Not to mention that it was very windy out. On a few hills I felt like I was working very hard just to go down them.

T2 was a bit chaotic as volunteers were helping to find and give out the T2 bags we handed over at the start line. The volunteers were doing a great job, I just happened to finish the bike at about the same time as 10-15 other people so it took me about a minute to get my bag. I quickly put on my running shoes and set off on the run which ended up being a trail run the first 2 miles. I was doing well passing lots of people especially on the trail and then about 4 min before the end my shoe came untied so I stopped to retie it and then finished the race.

All in all not a great race but I now know what I need to remember for Eagleman. I’m still not really sure what my time at Eagleman will be but regardless it will be good to be back in MD for the weekend. And in trying to be positive the weather has only just gotten good for training out here and my big races are in the fall. Last year by Eagleman I had already been burnt out for about a month and this year I feel like I’m just getting into the swing of things. So if I am a bit slower at Eagleman but have motivation to train hard thru the summer then I think I’ll be okay with that ... so long as I do well in my races this fall.

Preparing for First Tri of the season

2010-05-27T19:38:00.000-07:00

With Eagleman just around the corner I figured it would be wise if I did some type of triathlon leading up to it. The last triathlon I did was last years Eagleman and I figure that going a whole year without being exposed to transitions and open water swimming would be a recipe for disaster. Especially when I reflect on last years race where I was convinced I was going to drown before and during the race and then had some pretty slow transitions mostly because I took the time to reapply sunblock.

This Saturday I'll be headed to the Phoenix area to do the Tribal Sprint Triathlon (1000m swim, 23km bike, 5k run). The plan is to camp out somewhere near the race Friday night as the race starts at 6:15 or for me at 6:17 as that's when the women's wave goes off. The early morning is going to be rough but it means I'll be done before 8 so it shouldn't be unbearably hot out yet as the high of the day is going to be around 95.

I'm not really sure where I'm at right now in terms of my training I've been swimming more than last year but I am not as fast on my feet so those will probably balance out. The biking I really have no idea about, I've been biking I'm just not sure if it's more or less than this time last year. I'm hoping that the drop in elevation will make my efforts seem easier even if I don't go any faster. My hope for the race is to feel comfortable with the open water swimming and then to try to push the bike and run as much as I can. Hopefully, the results will give me some kind of an indication of how Eagleman will unfold.

Bike to work week and Snowbowl road

2010-05-21T09:35:00.004-07:00

Well this week is bike to work week and people here do a great job of participating, it helps that there are lots of incentives. I was on vacation Monday but biked in Tues, Wed, and Today. I feel bad about not biking in Thursday but the pain in my shins led me to drive. Wed was great as local businesses set up free breakfast stops (see map of locations) around town so you could bike to get your breakfast and then head off to work. My favorite was Biff's Bagels where they had ample bagels, cream cheese, orange juice and coffee.

So far I only have some data but looks like on Monday 439 people biked 3889 miles to get to work and Tuesday was 447 with 3792 miles. I have to guess Wednesday may be a bit higher with the free breakfasts around town but maybe not. Commuting other than requiring a bit more planning wasn't all that bad so I hope to continue to be able to ride in to work 2-3 times per week when the weather is good.

Snowbowl Road Ride

In keeping with the bike theme Wed was my first time climbing snowbowl road. I didn't quite make it to the top, the climbing on the road starts at around 5.6 miles on the map below and goes for about 6.2 miles I'm told. I made it to just after the 4 mile marker on the road (9.6 on the map ~8550ft) before turning around but that was more because of time constraints than my legs burning out. Surprisingly the way down was a lot harder for me than the way up because I am terrified of turning on steep downhill windy roads. I actually had to stop once on the way down to shake out my arms as my white nuckle death grip on the brakes caused my arms to tire out.

I wasn't really pushing it on the way up but next time I think I'll have to time myself and see how long it takes me to get to the top and then set a goal for the climb by the end of the summer. Really I think the better goal is for me to be able to ride down in my drops by the end of the summer without having to stop and without breaking everytime I got over 22 on the downhill.

Telegraph 10K

2010-05-13T16:27:00.000-07:00

This weekend I headed out to the four corners region. The initial reason for being out that was was for Nathans 12 hour mountain bike race, 12 hours of Mesa Verde, but on top of that I found a trail 10K in Durango and I had been itching to do a race so that is what made the decision for me.
When I got out of the tent saturday morning lots of people were already wide awake getting ready for the bike race; lots of people wearing spandex, drinking coffee, checking tire pressure, and making last minute preparations for their day. The bike race started at 7am in what is know as a Le Mans mass start, this was my first time watching such a start and it was very entertaining. The riders had their bikes set up near the barn where they would record their laps but the actual start was probably 400m from the barn down a gravel road. So the bikers line up 400m away from their bikes, the gun goes off, and they then have to run to their bikes. Lets just say some people really went for it trying to actually sprint in mtn bike shoes, some took their time, and some people unfortunately fell. At any rate watching helmet and spandex clad bikers try to run in mountain biking shoes was well worth getting up early.

After watching the start of the race I gathered my running things and headed to Durango, about 40 miles away. It was still cold but by the start of the race at 9 it was pretty warm and sunny out. It was a pretty small local race with a 1 mile, 5K and 10K option. Looks like there was 34 people in the 5K and 52 in the 10K based on results.

The race started with running up a dirt/rocky road it leveled off and we made a turn to run around a meadow still going slightly uphill. After the brief run thru the meadow the trail really started to go up and there was a series of switchbacks. After 23-25 minutes or so I reached the highest point and we headed immediately back down.

The first downhill part was pretty steep and scary, for me at least. To the left was a bit of a drop off and where there weren't rocks there were sections of sand that were hard to stop and turn on. All in all it wasn't that bad I just had to pay close attention to where my feet were going to land. After this steep section the downhill became more managable and eventually we ended up in the meadow. I think this was probably my favorite part of the race as there were tiny rolling hills and some banked turns it didn't hurt that I was feeling pretty strong at this point too. In this last meadow part I managed to pick off a couple of runners as I tried to pick up my pace for a strong finish. I would have picked up the pace a bit sooner but my watch inidcated I had more distance left then I did, guess it lost signal at some point. Luckily the end was the same as some of the 5K and when I saw the ribbons marking the 5K course I knew I should pick it up as there couldn't be much left. Before I knew it I was headed back down the dirt road and I was done. Results are up and I managed a time of 50:52, which is around an 8:08 pace which I'm pretty happy about considering how long the hill was in the beginning.
The rest of the day was pretty relaxing. I headed back to the mountain bike race, went for a short road ride and followed that up with a nap.

Ironman in May Challenge

2010-05-07T09:37:00.000-07:00

At work they are having the Ironman in May Challenge which is to promote exercise, as I believe May is national fitness month. So every building here in Flagstaff, 9 total I think, draws up a set of rules posts them and then has giant tracking sheets where you can track your progress and those of the other participants. It's actually pretty great to see so many people participating and trying to complete the challenge. Of course there are some incentives to participate and finish. 1) All participants can participate in a pizza party. 2) All finishers get a technical fabric t-shirt. 3) Prizes will be given out each week for those that log miles for that week. And of course the first finisher (male and female) gets some type of grand prize.

There few rules were, you have to go at least 3 miles on the bike, 2 miles of run/walking, and 400m of swimming at one time for it to count.

So I spent the better part of my weekend logging the 2.4 swimming, 112 biking and 26.2 running miles. It looked something like this.

Sat
12:01 - 3.5 mile run
6:30-7:45 Masters Swimming , 2700 meters
9:00-12:30ish: 50 mile ride
1:30-?: 9 mile run trail run
4:00-5:30: 13 mile on stationary bike and finished swimming
6:30 Giant Calzone for dinner followed by ice cream
7:30 - 2 miles walking around town while eating ice cream

Sunday
6:30-7: 2.5 mile run started snowing so
7:30-9:30 instead of outside ride went back to sleep
10:30 coffee
11:00 - Gym where I did 49 miles on the bike and 9.2 miles on the treadmill
2:56 : FINISHED

I felt pretty good about the effort when I left the gym. By the end of the day Monday it was official I won for my building beating the first male by about 3 hours (he had about 16 miles of running left when I left the gym Sunday). Now I just have to wait and see what I'll get even if it just ends up being bragging rights for a bit that's fine. All in all it was a good way to see the sheer volume of what I'll need to do for a full ironman and it was a good way to try to get ready for Eagleman. My legs were a bit tired this week but not all that bad.

In a few hours I'm off to Cortez & Durango to watch part of a 12 hour mtn bike race and get in a 10K trail race and some miles on my road bike. The weather is looking great for being outside.

Slideshow from trip To Germany & Austria

2010-05-03T22:20:00.001-07:00

Well it's taken me awhile to get these up but here are some pictures from my trip to Europe. It was a great vacation, I just wish I could have stayed longer. This is a slide show that we put together of a small portion of pictures we took on the trip. They provide a good idea of what we did on vacation.

Synopsis:
We ended up in London for a night so we walked by a lot of the big picture items as you can see. Following that we headed off to Munich where we walked around the city a bit with Brett and Krista and got to see the Glockenspiel in action. As soon as I saw it, I remembered being there as a 4/5 year old. Then we walked around saw some of the old buildings and churches and ended up eating and drinking at a Hofbrauhaus where there was a polka, om pah band playing. It was a great first day in Germany.

The next morning started out with a short train ride to Innsbruck which is where we stayed for 2 nights. After finding a hotel we headed off to Stubai Glacier to get in a half day of skiing. You actually had to take a Gondola up to the base area which was a bit unusual.

The next two days we took the train from Innsbruck to St. Anton where on the first day we skied St.Anton and the second we went on the other side of the valley and skied Rendl. St.Anton was a bright sunny day where spring skiing conditions were to be found. At the end of the day we hit up apres ski at Mooserwirt where we drank plenty of beers and enjoyed the drunken bump run back to the bottom so we could catch the last train back to Innsbruck. At Rendl it was a bit colder but the terrain was a bit more to my liking. By the end of the day my legs were tired and I was ready to put the skis away for the rest of the vacation.

After skiing we took yet another train to Vienna with Brett and Krista. We only saw a small portion of the city but I really enjoyed just walking around, going to the various markets, and looking at and touring some of the old buildings and churches. And because the walking wasn't enough we paid a few euros to climb 343 steps to get to the top of St.Stephens Cathedral. From the top you could get great views of the city. After Vienna we headed back to Brett and Krista's where we enjoyed a BBQ and then packed up for the trip back to Flagstaff.

And just like that the trip was over and before I knew it I was in the middle of an 11 hour flight that seemed like it was never going to end.

Of note I did get my fill of Smarties and Kinder eggs. I also enjoyed many tasty beers, breads, and cheeses. The trip was great and I look forward to planning another trip out there in 5-10 years. Before that trip hopefully I'll have traveled to some other parts of the world and maybe I'll have time to relearn German.

Thanks to Brett and Krista for hosting us, I had a great time. Can't wait to see you when you get back to Maryland.

Deutschland

2010-03-19T10:31:00.000-07:00

This time next week I'll be packed up and ready to get on a plane to Munich. I'm very excited about the trip for many reasons. I'll be seeing Brett and Krista, which is exciting because they moved to Germany before I moved to Flagstaff so it's been awhile. Also I'll get to go skiing in Austria again, which is where I learned to ski at the age of 3/4, and I will be able to eat and buy as many Smarties as my stomach and bags can hold. And when I say smarties I don't mean those crappy American sugar wafer things, but the amazing ones of my childhood. A colorful sugar-coated chocolate confectionery.

When we moved from Germany to Maryland, age 7, one of the things I remember missing most other than my friends were the candies (favorite being Smarties) and my favorite ice cream flavor. The stuff over here, especially the chocolate, just didn't compare and m&ms don't have anything on Smarties. I thought the candy was gone from my life forever until a trip to Montreal in college where I saw them at the convenience store and in ice cream. They aren't available in many places in the US and certainly not in bulk so it's always exciting for me when I can buy them or when people bring them back to me after being in Europe. The bag below was courtesy of Nick last summer.

Currently the plan is to take the first few days of the trip to hit up some skiing, most likely Innsbruck and St.Anton/Rendl areas. I went to St.Anton for spring break in college one year and it was good skiing followed by some amazing apres ski at Mooserwirt and then in town, so I'm excited to try to get back there again.

After some skiing looks like we're going to be more touristy and probably do a day in Munich and a few days in Vienna.

Other than that the snow is melting nicely up here in Flagstaff so hopefully the trails will be clear soon. The past few weekends I've been enjoying a day of biking/running in Sedona and a day of skiing on the mountain, a very nice combo.

Sedona Half Marathon

2010-02-08T09:03:00.001-07:00

Well it’s been awhile, since the last post I got caught in the storm we had out here and was having a lot of fun skiing and sledding. I’m glad I haven’t had to shovel snow in the last week though because it got old pretty quickly. I'm sure you people back east know what I'm talking about as it sounds like you have been digging out for awhile now as well.
This past weekend I ran the Sedona Half Marathon. I was using it to get back into doing long runs and to hopefully make my body hurt so I would be motivated to train. Mission accomplished my legs are still pretty sore. I knew the course was hilly (1100 ft elevation gain) but it was much more so than I expected. I was thinking being under 2:00 would be a good start to my season and I ended up running a 1:56:55 with a few walking breaks so I was pretty happy. If you are looking for a challenging and scenic course this is one to do. If you took your eyes off the hills on the road in front of you, you see tons of beautiful red rock formations.

Let me say leading into this my legs were far from fresh as the week before I had 1 speed and 1 tempo workout and also 2 lifting sessions, arms and legs. So while my legs felt dead on the uphills they felt equally dead on the downhills. I still don’t think I’m 100% used to the elevation but certainly I’m handling it much better than when I did the Flagstaff Half Marathon in October (~2:18) and think with a bit more hill and speed training it should no longer be an issue.

Other reasons I was pleased with the race was it started at 8 and I got up at 5:30 ate and my stomach handled the effort much better than usual. ( I used to get up at least 4 hours before a race to eat and usually work myself into an anxious state) I also managed to stay calm up to the start of the race. And during the race when I noticed my legs were dead and I might not do as well as hoped I didn’t just give up I tried to focus on cresting the hill and running the downhills and looking at the gorgeous scenery. In the end it worked and I ended up meeting my goal. So while I may not be as fast as I was this time last year, I'm happy with the results and I'm excited to get in some more workouts as I think I'll be able to have some fast races with a few more months of training.
Post race I went with a few other runners to the Coffee Pot where they have 101 omlette’s to choose from, very tast. A perfect end to a race morning.

Snow Day! makes for a 3 day weekend

2010-01-21T11:42:00.000-07:00

Upon getting to work today, a bit late, I had a wonderful email in my inbox. The entire way in to work I kept saying that they would have to cancel work tomorrow because there was just to much snow. Well the email said just that, that plants would close due to weather after first shift today and that they will be closed tomorrow. And that we can use our own judgement in deciding to go home early today. That was sent out about an hour ago and my guess is that in the next hour there won't be many people left here.

Reason for being late this morning was that I was finally able to get up and function early enough, 5:30 to get up to snowbowl and skin up the mountain for a run down. I'm not sure how long it normally takes people to get up but I was well behind everyone else and wsa getting passed by people I didn't know on the way up. Oh well with more practice hopefully that will change.

The way down was fun but it's the deepest snow I've ever skied in and I have got a lot of learning to do. The deepest I probably ever was in before was probably a foot this was probably 2+ feet and when my skis sank in I came to a dead halt. Hopefully by the end of this weekend I'll have figured out how to float a bit better.

Well that's it for now as there's skiing and snow play to be had.

Blue Skies and Gorgeous Sunsets

2010-01-13T19:55:00.003-07:00

This past weekend turned out to be pretty amazing. Saturday was my first day of backcountry skiing since college and it was great to be able to do it again and with much better gear. Then I followed is up Sunday with my first road ride of the year.

Saturday: We were fortunate enough to get a lift ride up to the top of snowbowl which saved us probably 1.5 -2 hours of skinning up the ski slopes. From the top of the lift it was about an hour of hiking in ski boots with skis strapped to out backs to reach the top of what would be our first run for the day.

Digging a snow pit and me skiing.

After the first run down we skinned back up to the top again where we took a lunch break on a pile of rocks. I was very excited to sit down and enjoy the warm temperatures as I ate my almond butter, cheese, goldfish sandwich.

Run 2 : Not me skiing but you get the idea. The picture to the right shows the turns we took on run 2.

The last run of the day was through an aspen glade like the one shown here. Tree skiing is one of my favorite types of skiing and it was challenging for me Saturday because by this point my legs were about done and weren't responding as well as I would have liked.

After this it was a long ski back to the car, I spent a lot of time on the ski out telling myself to just get to the bottom and that it couldn't possibly be that much further. At the end of the day I think we covered around 10 miles and I was exhausted.

Sunday: The ride in Sedona was pretty uneventful but I realized that it was not as flat as I was hoping it would be. It turns out that the first half of my ride there was a net loss in elevation so as I was tired and wanting to get back to the car I had a fair amount of climbing to do. I'm excited to explore more of the roads down there this spring while I wait for Flagstaff to thaw out. The best part of that trip was the sunset on the way out of town. In general the sunsets out here are pretty amazing as since Sunday I've seen 2 more gorgeous sunsets.

Crested Butte

2010-01-08T13:17:00.003-07:00

I hope everyone had a happy new year. Here are some pics and a brief recap of the trip. I can't take credit for any of the pictures because while I brought a camera I didn't use it with my reasoning being that everyone else was taking pictures.

View from outside the front door onto the mountain at night.

All in all I had a great new years. My only complaint being that once the sun went down it got really cold really fast and I just don't like being outside in 8 degrees. The first day of skiing was lots of groomers as they hadn't gotten any fresh snow. I left the mountain about an hour before the lifts closed so I could do an easy run around town in the last bit of daylight. Friday night a couple inches of snow fell and during Saturday a few more inches came down making the trails a bit softer which was nice because I was trying to learn how to Telemark. Then Sunday was another long day in the car but very scenic as we went back through Ouray, Colorado and stopped to watch some Ice Climbers.

Some of the skiing crew from the first day.

Lift Picture

Picture Down Main Street

I don't have anything too big planned for this weekend, I'm glad to be in town and not traveling as next weekend it looks like I'll be headed to Vegas for a bit.

Skiing for New Years!

2009-12-30T14:31:00.000-07:00

Well Christmas is over, huge sigh of relief so it's time to get ready to bring in the new year. All in all I would say 2009 was a year full of changes, looking back it was a pretty good year even though there were some rough patches. I'm interested to see what 2010 holds for me but so far it's looking like it should be a great year, I'll be starting it off right by hitting the slopes of Crested Butte in Colorado.

I head out tomorrow for a long weekend where I'll get in a couple days of skiing, some hot tubbing, and hopefully some running. I'm very excited because it looks like my new skis will be mounted up by tomorrow morning (just dropped them off during lunch) and I have some telemark boots so I can start learning how to do that as well. It's been awhile since I last went telemarking, ~ 2 years and I only went twice but I really enjoyed it so I'm excited to go again even though it means I'll spend a lot of time falling.

Also the stress of Christmas and being home with my family has given me the motivation I needed to start running again. Since JFK I haven't been doing much and definetly have avoided running but since last Thursday I've actually wanted to run and have managed to get in a decent amount of miles which excites me because now I feel I can start to think about training for some early season races.

Well that's about it for now. It's a bit early but since I'll be gone, Happy New Year!

Puffy Coats and Skiing

2009-12-17T11:46:00.000-07:00

Thanksgiving to Christmas usually serves as a nice running break as the big fall races are done and the spring races still seem a ways off. After running JFK this year I needed a break from running more than ever. Luckily I think I have found some good winter substitutes to running that should challenge me and keep me in shape. To go with all these winter sports I finally got a down coat, it makes the cold much more bareable and it's fun to press on it and watch it puff back up.

First is downhill skiing which while not always a great workout does cause the legs to burn when you get into the steep and bumpy. I have some great skiing weekends planned for the near future which I'm really looking forward to. The more I think about skiing the more I realize how much I missed it while living in Baltimore. This weekend I'll be headed to Silverton (http://www.silvertonmountain.com/page/home ), I've wanted to ski here ever since I heard about it in the winter of '03-04. Hopefully it will live up to the hype.

Second I've started skate skiing. I've been three times now my fourth will probably be after work today. My initial thoughts were that it's fun and will be a great running alternative. My third time I spent a lot of time being frustrated as I couldn't get into a rythym and felt like I was just flailing. Hopefully with more practice and pointers I'll be able to go for 5 mintes without wanting to chuck my skis into the woods.

I've also started swimming and once I get my car back I hope to start doing some spinning as well which I'm hoping will help me out a lot with my tri's next year. I was surprised to find that swimming up at elevation isn't as hard as I thought it would be.

Lastly the nordic center also has snowshoeing which I think I'll get into a bit more in the next bit as running on snowshoes really makes your legs burn. And hopefully at some point I'll be able to hike up and ski down snow bowl before work but that will probably require another storm to motivate me to get up at 5:30 when it's only single digits out. With all these alternative I'm hoping that I can push back getting burnt out on running from some time in mid march to hopefully late april. That's about it for now, hopefully I'll remember to take some pictures at Silverton this weekend.

On another note I'll be going to my rents house (DC/Baltimore area) the 24-27, if you are in the area let me know so I can make plans to see you.

Arches for Thanksgiving ... Moab not McDonalds

2009-12-09T23:27:00.002-07:00

I had a great Thanksgiving minus the stomach bug Sunday night. We headed to Moab after work Wednesday and stayed there till Friday. Thursday we went into Arches National Park to see the largest collection of arches in the world. It was a good time and we even went on some"primitive" and "rugged" trails ... The brochure emphasized bringing liters of water and allowing 10-15 mintues to walk 200m a good read but times were geared for the morbidly obese. Below are some pictures from the park. If you are ever in that area you should check it out. Friday morning I did a short hike with Dee where I was amazed and how awesome the traction on those rocks really were. After that we packed up and headed to Durango for the night.

Sat was my first ski day this year at wolfcreek. The trails were all open but the tree skiing was a bit rough. Sat night we hot tubbed with snow falling on us which was great. Sunday there were a couple inches of new snow making it another great day on the slopes at Wolfcreek. It was great to be on skis again and those two days have me really excited for all the skiing I have ahead of me this winter.

How is that staying up there

A hole in a rock...pretty cool.

North and South Windows

The primitive trail was to much so I decided to take a nap.

Delicate Arch ... the one on the UT license plate

A view of the "rugged" trail

Breakfast after a very cold night of camping, I was very glad I had my toasty 0° down bag as it was prob around 20°. No pictures of dinner from the night before but we roasted potatoes, sweet potatoes, & veggies in the fire along with steak for meat eaters and veggie burgers for me. Followed with an amazing chocolate cupcake with melted peanut butter cup for dessert, yummy. Prob my favorite turkey day meals to date.

Well that's it for now. Maybe in a bit I'll have some more snow pictures to post as there is a chance of more snow this weekend. If not soon I should be able to post about my first attempt at learning how to skate ski.

Great scenery pictures from Waterline (Inner Basin)

2009-11-09T21:39:00.002-07:00

Well I'm sitting here watching Return to Oz and sipping on a White Russian. My computer is finally operational so I thought I would take a few minutes to get some pictures up.

This past week I have been dealing with leg pain so I took it pretty easy over the weekend, barely running at all. I managed to go for a road ride one day and then a nice hike on Sunday. I'll post a bit more about the hike later this week along with some pics but first I thought I'd share some pictures from the waterline ride I did about a month ago that I wrote about.

Picnic Location at Inner Basin

Note the cooler trailer

Mountains, even a tiny bit of snow

Inner Basin

Now back to the movie, so far it's about as strange as everyone said it would be.

From Fall to Winter and back, First Snow

2009-11-02T09:20:00.000-07:00

Well it seems I last posted about the leaves changing color so imagine my surprise when I'm eating lunch in the cafeteria last Wed and there is snow falling from the sky, isn't it Fall? By the time I left work I was glad that I had a scrapper in my car as there was enough on the windshield that the wipers just weren't going to be able to cut it. Some good news is that people out here are a lot better about snow than those in maryland as in they are decent at driving in it. But more so they don't go to the store the night before to buy all the milk, bread, and tp they can get their hands on.

After work I headed to some trails where there was a bit more snow so I got to enjoy running through the trees on freshly fallen snow. Unfortunately no pics of this as I started late and by the end I was running with the use of a headlamp. It was a great run and very peaceful.

I've also included a pic of the pumpkin I carved Fri night. I'm not artsy at all but I think it works as a type of witch, medusa something or other.

After 3 days of being ~19 degrees in the morning the weekend was phenomenal. I woke up saturday and it was sunny and in the 50's. A perfect day for my last super long trail run before JFK and halloween.

Once I track down Halloween pics I'll be sure to put them up as it was a great night and there were some great costumes.

My Lungs are on Fire

2009-10-20T19:20:00.000-07:00

I've been out here a month, hard to believe. Running on flats is now doable but doing workouts, running uphill, or into the wind causes a severe burning in my lungs as opposed to my legs. The workout tonight really made my lungs scream as I felt like I was running uphill or into the wind the whole time. Luckily the sunsets that occur during workouts serve as a distraction as they are orange, purple, and red making for a great show. What's still a bit annoying is if I go up a flight of steps too fast I am out of breath for at least a minute afterward.

I hope to put something up about the Soulstice race I did 2 weekends ago but first I'll talk about a non running event I did last Sunday. Leaf peeping on Waterline. Waterline is a gravel trail that goes up a mountain for 8 miles and puts you into the inner basin. The path is lined with aspen trees which at this time of the year are changing colors, so very beautiful. Then the inner basin is a kind of meadow in the mountain with amazing views of trees and the peaks. While the scenery was great so was the journey. If you could imagine something like hubs of fury on mountain bikes on a gravel trail you may get an idea. There was a total of 19 of us, and 2 bikes had trailers with coolers to tote up plenty of beer, wine, whiskey, and the picnic that was devoured on top. Every mile or so people stopped to take shots of whiskey and put new beers in their water bottle cages. We even did the equivalent of whiskey water stops for people passing us as we took shots by running next to them and handing the bottle of whiskey off to them for a gulp. At the top an amazing assortment of foods was layed out cheese & crackers, prosciutto, brownie bites, vegetables, apples & caramel, and tons of other things. At the top the first bottle of whiskey was finished, 1 but possibly 2 bottles of wine and tons of beer. Then the fun part going back down 8 miles on a gravel road. All in all a great time and a reminder that drinking and bike riding are a great combo. I'm still trying to get ahold of all the pictures that were taken of this event, once I do I'll be sure to post a few.

Well this weekend I'm back in Baltimore for my cousins wedding, I'm interested to see how I feel running back at sea level. Well this is it for now as I get more settled I hope to post more regularly but for now it'll be when the mood strikes. Hope to see and run with a few of you this weekend.

I'm not in Baltimore any more

2009-10-04T13:13:00.000-07:00

I know I'm not in Baltimore because:

Instead of seeing rats while walking to the bars I saw 2 skunks and had to very quickly run away from the one that was coming at me as it raised it's tail (apparently skunks and foxes are normal to see in the downtown area)
The first night I walked out the door I was amazed by all the stars I could see
There are bike lanes all over town and it's actually easy to ride from one part of town to another
People obey traffic signs and speed limits
everyone is very active
it is common for people to not have tv, rather if they have them they are for dvd playing only
you can apparently get a permit to just live in the woods in the summer
people are very friendly, I'm not used to this yet
At ladies 80's everyone seemed to be dancing whether they were good or bad and people really made an effort to dress 80's (and this is apparently a weekly occurence) prob helps that the drinks are .25
There is no Natty Boh (nobody's heard of it) or Yuengling

People know I'm new to town

I prefer riding on the shoulder of 66 to taking the back roads or some dedicated bike lane, which I have yet to figure out how to use
I don't have a mountain bike
I'm already commenting on how cold it is here
I don't know the staple locations as I say and where is that and am usually given a it's close to and I then have to ask where that is
It's a small town and I'm a new face
Also when my car arrives it's not a Subaru and it does not have all wheel drive

Settling In

2009-10-04T12:56:00.000-07:00

I've been in Flag for a little over a week and I am finally starting to get a bit settled in. The first weekend was a bit rough because all I had was what I brought in my suitcases and I really only knew 2 people in town and had no tv and no internet. I managed to do the flagstaff half marathon which proved to be my slowest half marathon ever but it was a good taste of what running would be like up here, hard.
I attempted a track workout on Tuesday but it ended up with running ast for a min and then jogging for a min which I was fine with. Wednesday was Ladies '80s followd by some weird heaven and hell event in a bar where people can dance on the bar. Ladies '80s was good as I met some people and dance and sing to '80s music.
Friday brought around a usual happy hour type event and my friends slideshow where he had a new batch of home brewed beer that was pretty tasty.
Saturday I managed to make it to the highest point in Arizona, Humphreys (12,633), in looking at the trail stats its 9 miles round trip and a gain of 3333ft. I hiked up with one other person and the views from the top were amazing, you could see for miles around in each direction and see where the trees were changing colors. We didn't stay up there long as it was very cold and the winds were gusting to a point where I thought I could get blown off the mountain. Once we got back to tree line we shed our layers and ran down. I have a feeling a lot of my longer days will be like this with hike/running up and then running back down. The total time round trip was about 4 hours with probably 2:20 up, 15 min of stop time andthe rest for the way back down.
Today there was an event called War Dog which is a trail run where you gain 3000ft it used to be a race but now it's more or less an annual event. The trail takes you through aspen groves which were beautiful today as they are starting to change colors. The skies were very overcast and there was some rain showers so I only did about 1.6 miles and turned around with the people I got a ride with. They were saying there could be snow at the top which would be exciting.
Now I'm back to unpacking my things and buying bike parts online because none of the bike shops in town have 650 tires or tubes.