muddling along and learning the hard way

The last few weeks, I've really missed running. My mileage has dropped off and am only running MAYBE once a week. The knee pain is my current reason/excuse, but it hasn't kept me from biking. In fact, Chris Locke and I are considering doing the Firecracker 50 mtn bike race in Breckenridge on July 5th.
I'm considering changing jobs again. I have an opportunity to stay with the company and change positions again to something that I think I'll like better, but am not sure. I've been in telecom so long that I think I'm getting burned out on it. Although I still love technology, it might be a good thing to change industries completely. We'll see.
Got a call late last night that Allison's Grandfather passed away. Her Grandmother (his wife) died February of 07 and he has been getting weaker ever since. Still, no one thought it was his time just yet.
A couple of weeks ago, Lee and I tried to summit Mt Bierstadt. It's one of the 14ers out here and I thought it would be a good one to try first.














really didn't think that climbing a 14er in the summer would be much of a big deal. We hike up there, struggle with a little breathlessness and then hike back down in a couple of hours and then say we did it. Not that easy at all.



















We made it within 500 feet of the summit, but had to turn back due to weather and me being very unprepared. The weather forecast that day was for a high of 45 and sunny so I had three shirts on and compression shorts under hiking shorts. Other than a numb face, I was fine until my foot punched through the snow and got wet and subsequently numb. The higher we went, the colder it was and with the wind at a constant ~30-50 mph, and snow blowing, we decided to turn back instead of pushing it to the danger limit.















The video was taken somewhere around 12,800 to 13000 feet.


We'll be going back VERY soon to do it again and will be successful next time.

Tag, I'm it!

I've been tagged by Bad Ben.

1- How would you describe your running 10 years ago?

Most of my running was for triathlons or adventure races and training for them was done on pavement! YUCK! Even though the adventure races running events were on trails, I still trained on the roads. Most of my runs were 6 miles or less and usually no more than 3 days per week.

2-What is your best and worst run/race experience?

Sorry, but I don't feel like sharing my worst run experience in a public forum such as this. If you really want to know, ask me in person. Needless to say, it ain't pretty! There are several runs that stand out in my mind as being memorable in a positive way. A few of them involve races, but most of them are long runs with good friends.

3- Why do you run?

Stress relief, fitness, because "Fat Ben" is constantly chasing me, and I like to push/test my limits.

4- What is the best or worst piece of advice you've been given about running?

The best advice I've been given is to listen to your body. A strong mind can push the body to previously unthought of levels sometimes, but it takes experience to know when to listen to the body's pleas for mercy.

5- Tell us something surprising about yourself that not many people would know.

I was a paratrooper and an intelligence analyst in the Army for a few years and in my spare time, I troll online forums on philosophy.

Now I'm supposed to tag some other people so these are the people whose answers I'd really like to read:

Chris Locke

Matt Hart

Jamie Donaldson

Here are the rules guidelines:
If you have been tagged, you will find your name at the end of this post. You should then, copy the rules (or your version of them), and the set of questions onto your blog post, provide your own answers, and then tag 5 new people.

Just to be sure that everyone tagged knows they have been invited to play, go to their blogs and leave them a special comment letting them know, and refer them to your blog for details.

One more thing, once they've answered the questions on their own blog, they should come back to yours to tell you.