Archive for April, 2005

Less than two months to go

Saturday, April 23rd, 2005

The Mohican 100 is on June 18th and 19th. I'm already committed, and I've even reserved the hotel rooms. The training has been going pretty well. The long runs are still hard (I don't think they'll ever get easy), but my times are pretty good, and I usually get through them OK. I guess things are going about as well as they can be. No injuries.

The usual week revolves around the long run on Saturday — I'll bike to Rothrock, then do a 30-40 mile run, then bike home. Sometimes they go great. Sometimes they go shitty. The rest of the week invoves maybe a couple other runs, but mainly biking to just get cardio time in without adding any more impact.

Today's run was interesting. Lots of rain, pretty cold. I didn't take the camera, since I knew I'd be soaked most of the time. This week is a little bit of a break, since I've been feeling a little rough around the edges. I had Ieva pick me up a few miles early since I was starting to get blisters from running in wet socks the whole time. I still got 27 miles in, though.

The weather's been incredible around here for the past month, though. Ieva and I have been trying to get out as much as possible to enjoy it. We've gotten out climbing quite a bit, which is really nice. It's starting to feel familiar again! I'll post some pictures from the climbing in a little bit. For now, here are some of the better pictures from the last month of running.

First climbing day of the season

Tuesday, April 5th, 2005

Ieva got us out to the Bellefonte quarry today after work, ending a long stretch of non-climbing. Neither of us had tied into a rope since the end of the road trip in November.

Man, it was a perfect evening, and the climbing actually felt good for both of us. Ieva's super motivated this season! Sheesh. We warmed up on the right side of the Beginner Wall, and then Ieva wanted to get on one of the routes on the French Wall. Someone added some new graffiti to the base, but it didn't affect any of the key holds (shhhh, don't tell them, or they'll come back). Neither of us led it clean, but that route felt good too.

I'm amazed we were able to leave work at 5, dig out a mass of climbing gear that hadn't been touched in a few months, and still fit in 3 routes well before dark.

Earlier today Ieva was checking out airfare on priceline. I guess she found two tickets to Virgin Gorda for $83 each round trip. They would have left tomorrow. We couldn't go, since she absolutely can't miss Amy's baby shower, but it's good to know that that sort of stuff is floating around. How cool would it be to come home from work to find out that you're going to Virgin Gorda tomorrow?! If you haven't seen them yet, you have to check out Bowers's pictures from his trip to Virgin Gorda with Kathleen. Oh man, that place looks incredible. I never would have thought of going there if he hadn't told us about it. He sure can pick the locations…

First section of the home wall is done!

Monday, April 4th, 2005

Jim, Michael, and Sharmishtha came over to finish off the first section of the home wall that we started a couple weeks ago. Michael and I actually found a matress while we were out getting beer. It only blew off the top of his car once.

Same as last time, there's a lot of images, since the camera was set to go off once every few minutes. Just select the "slideshow" option in the upper right of the gallery screen, and set the delay to 1 or 2 seconds for the time-lapse effect.

The strange glamour picture that shows up partway through is something that we found when we tore down the enclosure around the water meter to make more room. The thing's truly odd. I might save it for Klophaus. I know he'd love it.

Here are the pictures.