Recovery day from Tuesday’s killer workout – there were many ppl missing this morning :)
Strength!
After a couple of warmup rounds I was going 5 reps @ 50kg or 3 reps at 60kg. This is awesome, previously my 1RM had been 60kg :) Now I need to set a new 1RM….
We finished with some KB technique work, focusing on the rack position to reduce fatigue.
On Saturday I met up with some old friend from highschool (from when I lived in AK) and some new friends, and we went on an beautiful scramble of Teanaway Ridge area. Over 7mi we climbed to Bills Peak and then down and up again to traverse Mary and Judi Peaks.
The snow was 0-24″ along the route, and though we broght ice axes they were not needed (which is good b/c mine was in storage). It would have been nice to have another foot or two of snow so we could use our snowshoes and avoid all the post-holing in the rocks/trees, we ended up leaving our snowshoes at the cars as there was virtually no snow at the trailhead and the approach was all bare ground.
It was great to catch up with old buddies and hear what everyone was up to, gossip about where former classmates are now, and I learned that I really need to stock up on movie quotes before I go out again!
Krista and I wanted to go backpacking somewhere for the weekend, the requirements were:
I checked the weather forecasts for Ellensburg, Leavenworth, Moses Lake, Vantage, and Mt. Rainier – they were all dismal. Seeing as how we’d be wet no matter where we went, I decided to go to Mt. Rainier – there are campgrounds to fall back to if it’s really wet (having the car and real toilets nearby always improves the experience) and the rangers would be able to recommend a good hike/campsite for the weather.
Luckily the forecast was improving, when we arrived at Mt. Rainier National Park on Saturday the weather for Sunday had already changed to ‘cloudy’ instead of ‘rain’. After talking with the rangers I decided we’d go to Snow Lake, an easy hike to a scenic campsite.
Snow Lake is a fun little hike, and fit our needs perfectly – short enough that our lazy start still left us with daylight after we arrived at camp, and we didn’t feel like drowned rats after hiking the rain. With high spirits we setup camp & changed into dry clothes, prepared dinner, and tracked down the pit toilet.
Of the two campsites we ended up at #1 as camp #2 had its tent platforms under a few inches of water. Unfortunately, #1 had different challenge – it was exposed to the strong gusts blowing up & down the valley all night. After the wind pulled our tent stakes from the sand I hunted down some BIG rocks and finally secured everything for a night of wind.
Sunday was dry as forecasted, but also cloudy as forecasted, so there was only a brief glimpse of Mt. Rainier before the clouds covered everything. It was a nice hike out in cool weather, after a brief stop to play tourist at the Paradise Inn we headed back to town.
A Trip Report for the Ragnar Relay, Northwest Passage, from team #15, the ‘Yellow Blazers’. (Official Site)
Some would call it a stupid kind of lazy. The Ragnar Relay sounded like a lot of fun, but organizing 12 people and 2 vans sounded like a lot of work. Why not enter as an Ultra team instead and run a little
farther? 6 people are easier to organize, and we all fit it in 1 van!
So that’s what we did: 189 miles, 24 hours, and *6* people.
Continue reading →
My third STP ride ended in defeat – I’m no longer 20 and can’t ride 200mi without training :( I threw in the towel at the end of day as I was totally exhausted and had some serious road rash from a wipeout near the end of the day. But as I’ve completed 2 previous STP rides (2 day & 1 day) I don’t feel too bad about wimping out on this one.
Pieter and Joanne did complete the 2-day ride easily though (they trained!), it was very hot weather and lots of sun, their training showed as they flew through the miles.
Go running with your four-legged friend! Hundreds of dogs, along with hundreds of people, gathered at Seward Park to run the Furry 5k race Sunday morning.
I ran with Katherine, Tom, Stephanie, and Jacob – we kept a comfortable fast-yet-talking pace throughout the run, with Stephanie taking the lead with Socrates. Unfortunately Socrates will only go so far before stopping and waiting for Katherine, resulting in many breaks for Stephanie while the rest of us caught up!
My results – 18th in my class (30-39 Male) with a 24:40 finish!
I’ve been taking a figure drawing class, and it’s a lot of fun. I haven’t drawn anything in a very long time…I took some NW Indian art classes in college, but that was different. And in high school I took drafting classes. So really, I haven’t done any drawing since elementary school (where I took some summer art classes).
It’s quite a challenge for me to do figure drawing, for so long all my work has been about communicating information (software, diagramming, technical drawings, CAD, etc) that to switch modes and just draw what you see is difficult. My first day of class I spent all evening just starting over – I’d get started, then start putting down lines and getting stuck on the wrong path. After a lot of reflection on advice from the instructor and some reading, my second week was much better – I actually had a drawing that looked like a living person! I’ll get some scans of my drawings posted soon (both the good and the bad).
The class has a few more weeks to go, then I’m thinking of taking a portrait class so I can put a face on my figure drawings :)