Ouray: Day 2

Wow. That is all I can say. I wish I could post just one of the 40 pictures I took today. This place is amazing, beautiful, and totally overwhelming. Kim and I drove the ten minutes into the town of Ouray today to check out Box Canyon, where the Festival will take place this weekend.

We drove up to the canyon, parked the car and walked up the road to the bridge. We looked down over the bridge into the canyon and were completely awestruck. Ice everywhere. As far as we could see down the canyon to our left and to our right. And as far as we could see down. Beautiful blue, green, yellow and white formations of hanging ice and enormous pillars touching down to the canyon floor 400 feet down.

We were totally excited and intimidated at the same time. Have the little climbs we have done in Alaska prepared us for this? I guess we will find out. We hiked around and checked out the town. Watched some of the qualifying rounds of the climbing competitions. Got our Ouray Ice Park memberships. Ate at a cute little cafe with delicious scones and hot soup.

We checked out the climbing store in awe of the selection of tools, packs, and gear that we don't have in Alaska. I asked about a Simond Ice clipper that I tried out when in Canmore last year. I've been looking for it ever since, but you just can't find them in the US or online. The owner of the store actually got on the phone with the Simond representative and was going to ask them to send me one, but he just got voice mail.

Then we went back to the canyon and suited up and decided to find a climb. Since we only brought our dinky 60 meter rope we didn't have many options. You can't really hike down into the canyon. You have to rappel. And you can't really see what your rappelling into and you are not really sure if you will be able to climb out once you get down there. What if we rap in to some crazy overhanging mixed route?

We talked to some people and ended up finding an area at end of the canyon where the climbs were all in the 30 meter range and rapped in. It was late in the day so we got in a few laps, still huffing and puffing from the altitude, then I climbed out and belayed Kim up.

I'm feeling better now that we got some warm up climbs in. Tomorrow we have two clinics each. I signed up for Advanced Ice in the morning, but after seeing what advanced is here in Ouray, I'm not so sure that I am advanced. We'll see. I may totally make a fool of myself tomorrow, but that is what I do best.

That's all for now....

I'm in Colorado!

Hi, I haven't posted all weekend because I have been getting ready for this trip. I just realized that I forgot my camera connector for my laptop so there will be no pictures until I get back.

Kim and I arrived in Ridgway Colorado around noon today. We are totally disoriented, so I apologize if this is incoherent. We flew the red eye to Salt Lake then hopped over to Grand Junction, Colorado on a commuter jet. My fear of flying and the fact that right before we started descending the pilot said something like, "There is freezing fog in Grand Junction right now that might make our little jet into a flying Popsicle, so we are gonna do our best to get you on the ground." has given me some anxiety in the past few hours. I'm sorry did I just hear that correctly?

We landed fine and realized there was just some snow on the ground and it was a balmy 33 degrees. Kim and I stripped off our jackets as if we had just arrived in the tropics. We laughed at signs that said, "Ice may be slippery." and "Temperatures below freezing, be careful on roads."

We drove about 2 hours to the town of Ridgway in the snow, all the way commenting about how bright the sun was. "What is this strange thing they are calling daylight?" "Why is the sun still shining at 4pm?" We arrived at the hotel in a daze hobbled over to the local brewery for some food and beers. We were huffing and puffing the whole way trying to get used to the altitude. All of these changes have hit us all at once and seem to have seriously messed with our minds. Altitude? Sunlight? Lack of sleep? All three of these things are contributing to the fact that I need to take a nap.. now. More later...

Mt. Marathon, Round two

Wednesday I officially entered myself in the Mount Marathon race again, set for July 4, 2008. Since I was a finisher last year, I can automatically enter again without having to enter the lottery. My outlook on that race is quite a bit different than it was last year.

Last year I signed up on a whim and never really expected to get in. Once I found out I was in, I was nervous because I had never been on the mountain and didn't know what to expect. I heard only crazies do this race. You can read about my pre-race jitters here.

Now that I have been on the mountain, completed the race, and had an awesome time, I am super excited for this years race. I can now set some new goals.

Because there are 350 women in the race, there is a staggered start. The first 150 women finishers from the previous year start in the first wave. The rest of the finishers from the previous year and all of the rookies and rif-raf, start in the second wave. Don't get me wrong, being amongst the rif-raf is definitely a fun place to be. I spend a lot of time there. The people at the back of the pack don't take themselves too seriously and always have a good time no matter where they finish. But I imagine there is also a certain kind of fun to be had out in front too. Maybe I will never be out in front, but I think I can get close in this race.

My goal this year is to finish in the the top 150, so that in 2009 I can start in the first wave. Which means finishing in about 1 hour and 30 minutes. This is an attainable goal. Last year with minimal training I got up the mountain in 1:20 and down in 35. I just need to get up the mountain in under 1 hour and I am set.

My plan is to hike as fast as I can up any mountain I can find in the months of April, May and June. That includes making a few trips down to Seward to scope out the mountain, find the fastest path, practice running down the most perfect scree field ever, and work on coming down the cliff in the chute more quickly and efficiently. Also to prepare I plan on entering some of the other races in the Grand Prix of Alaska Mountain Runners.

So there it is. It's fun to put my goals out here in the public. It makes me more accountable for them. And if I fail miserably you guys can all have a laugh at my expense, eh? So it's a win, win situation.

Starting off the New Year right

Usually my New Years Day is spent recovering from the night before. I wake up around noon, eat some greasy food, and settle on the couch in my pajamas where I stay for the rest of the day watching movies. I get up periodically to rehydrate and visit the fridge.

This year was a bit different. Brian and I spent New Year's Eve with his parents, eating dinner and drinking wine, but the next day I woke up at 9 and packed my ice climbing bag for the first trip into Eklutna Canyon of the year.

With the high of leading last week still looming in my brain, I was itching to get back out and lead something, anything. Kim was eager to lead too. We passed Ripple, which is starting to get fat and lovely. There was already a party on it so we continued down to Boonesfarm. At the end of the season last year, Kim and I climbed the first pitch of this climb, only to be backed off of the second pitch because it was melting out and crumbling. So I had not been to the top of the climb as of yesterday.

The bottom of Boonesfarm is low angle ice, to series of short bumps, and a little vertical section that leads to the first anchor. Kim lead up it, and I followed. I was feeling the affects of the wine I drank the night before, and thought, maybe I won't be leading today.

Boonesfarm

It's funny how my mind goes through different stages on a day out ice climbing. On the hike out I was ready to go. We got closer to the climbs and I started to get nervous and I thought, well maybe I won't lead today. I saw Ripple and I was psyched to lead it again. We stood under it as we were passing by and I thought, yikes, that looks scarier than it did last year. Kim wanted to lead Boonesfarm, because she didn't think she was ready for Ripple so I relaxed again. I started following up and felt strong. I got to the vertical section and my calves were burning, my arms were tired and the damn rope above me was pulling me and annoying me again.

Looking up Ripple

When I got up to Kim I hooked in to the anchor for a rest and she said she was done leading for the day. I looked up at the vertical curtain and it looked harder than anything I've led thus far. But something in my mind clicked and I knew I could do it. I had no nerves, no doubts, no fear. It was like a moment of clarity. All of the fear and anxiety about leading that normally cloud my brain were washed away.

I took advantage of this moment and told Kim that we could swing the lead. Which means, now that I have just climbed up to her, she had the rope neatly stacked on the anchor, and she already had me on belay, I could just continue on lead up past her.

The curtain was steep, but the ice was just about as good as it gets. Leading on a vertical curtain is tricky because there are no nice little bumps to make you feel secure when you stand up. You have to kick your crampons into the side stand up and hope that they stay. I felt confident that even if my feet slipped out, my tool placements were bomber enough to catch me. At one point I had to stand with most of my weight on one leg to put in a screw. Usually you try to get your weight balanced over both feet with your left tool overhead to form an "A", while you push in the screw at your hip. But sometimes you can't avoid standing in an awkward position. And it hurts.

It made me think about the issue of working at your full potential. I read a blog post recently about how most people could accomplish more than they actually do, but their minds get in the way. Your mind tells you to stop, you think your muscles are fatigued, but really you could push a lot further. This situation where you have to put a screw in and you have to keep standing on your feet in order to not fall proves this theory. I stood on that one leg long after I normally would have stopped if I were doing a calf raise. After I believed my muscles was fully fatigued, I stood on it for another full minute. The pain was excruciating, and exhilarating at the same time. It made me wonder how long I could actually stand there before my calf gave out.

Looking down from the top of Boonesfarm

I figured hanging on the side of a climb 200 feet off of the ground is probably not the best place to test this. I finished the last leg of the climb with a feeling of complete control and comfort. Leading is starting to feel so natural for me. I had so much fear last year that I thought I would never get to this place. I don't doubt there will be more fear in my future once I move on to more difficult climbs. But this comfort is giving me the leverage to do just that.

The Best and Worst of 2007

January - Return from PA to darkness and piles and piles of snow!



Leading Ripple! (I don't actually have a picture of my lead, but here is the climb)



Also, adopting the Tasmanian Devil, oh no wait, that's our kitten Migsy



February - Laura Z. visits and we try to sway her to move here from NYC (Still pending...)



March - Cat Skiing...



...and Ski train!



April - The amazing Eklutna Traverse



...with a scary ending



May - Moving into the new House! With a hot tub!



June - Sitting on top of Bold Peak (3rd times a charm)




...and Whithorse for the Solstice, my first drive on the Alcan Highway AND mountain biking for 24 hours... well not really.



July - Mom and Angie visit!



.. and Brian catches a KING!



Mount Marathon - best race evah...



... worst hat evah.



August - Brian finishes the Soggy Bottom 100



Rock climbing!



September - Visiting Brian's brother and his wife, Christine in Michigan



October - Adopting Niko("Lucky")



November - Winter Biking!



December - First Christmas that we stayed in Alaska and a visit from the Garcias



Yesterday... skiing in Eagle River





HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Movin' on up

Last night was the first ice race of the Frigid Bits season. Carlos had plowed a mile long track into the ice on Goose Lake and we had the option of doing 5 or 10 laps. I considered doing the 10 laps but then thought about being out there by myself long after all of the guys had finished and having to watch them party at the burn barrel while I trudge through my last laps. So I chose to do five.

And five was enough. The first lap was great, I took my position in the back with about 25 guys in front of me and one behind. The only reason the one was behind me was because he was hauling a generator on his trailer to power some sort of monster headlights that he had mounted on his bike. After the second lap they started to pass me. Passing on the ice around a curve is kind of hairy. At any moment your bike could slip out from under you and take out the other guy.

I had one bad spill and it happened to be right in front of the crowd around the finish line. There was a complete 180 degree turn within a 5 foot area and I decided not to slow down on lap 3. Maybe I could just swing my back tire out and straighten it out and go. Well, I got the swing out the back tire right, but it kept swinging right out from under me.



I ended up finishing second to last! Woohoo, I am totally moving up in the pack. I mean just last month I was talking about, "I'm in last" this, and "I'm in last" that, and look at me now. I came in like 24th out of 25. Now that's progress.


All joking aside I do feel like I'm gaining fitness. Even if I haven't been riding much I seem to be able to take more pain than I used to. Or maybe it was the couple of glasses of wine I had with dinner before the race. I even got an award for being a good sport! A 22 ounce beer with 9.2% alcohol to top off my buzz and make the burn barrel extra special! Thanks Carlos!

"Lay off me, I'm starving!"

These days I cannot eat enough. I have lost weight over the past few weeks, despite the fact that I feel like I am constantly stuffing my face with food. I am usually a fairly healthy eater. I love all fruits and vegetables, salads, whole grains, low-fat dairy, and lean protein. But lately I have been eating pretty bad. It's not because I am being lazy, but because a salad just does not satisfy my screaming appetite.

I guess it's because I've been running a lot now on top of all of the recreational stuff. But I'm not running that much. I think about all of the ultra endurance racers. They must have to eat sooo much to stay fueled for their training. I am a bit of a food addict, so it's kind of fun to be able to eat more. I also don't feel guilt when the inherent sweet tooth rears it's ugly head.

This morning I went out for an hour run and halfway through I felt really weak. I had only eaten one GU before I left. I had to stop and walk after 3 miles and that was even difficult for me. I have done many hour long runs now on only a GU, but I guess that is not going to cut it anymore. My body seems to metabolize food the instant I swallow it.

Later in the afternoon Brian and I took his parents (they are visiting from back East) out for a ski. We skied for about two hours and didn't take any food. Halfway through the ski I started to feel really hungry. I couldn't get my mind off of it. When we finally got home I pushed everyone out of the way and went right to the fridge and cut off a big hunk of cheese and ate it. I stood there with the fridge still open and proceeded to eat cheese hunk after cheese hunk, not even bothering to put it on a cracker, ready to bite off anyones head who made a comment. Lovely.


It reminded me of a Saturday night live skit I saw once. It was back in the days of Chris Farley and David Spade. They were dressed up like teenage girls and sitting at the mall eating french fries. Chris Farley, donning a blond wig and makeup, was stuffing his face with the fries, when David Spade says, "Tiffany, I thought you were on a diet?". Chris Farley pushes him out of the way growling, "Lay off me, I'm starving!"

Dark days linger on

A friend of mine said January is the most depressing month in Alaska. You arrive at the solstice and think that it is suddenly going to be light out. But it's not. It is still very dark and doesn't seem to be getting much better. The short days are stressful. Even though the time that I am awake is the same, there is something about the sun setting at 3pm that makes you think the day is over. I have a problem with trying to get too much done. I keep trying to tell myself that "tomorrow is another day", and that I can finish what I was dong tomorrow, or the next day, but I still get stressed. And when the sun sets it feels like, thats it, days over, your out of time.

This week marks the second month of Team in Training finished. Despite the darkness, I feel really good about meeting my goal now. With my 1 hour and 45 minute run on Sunday, I now know I can run for my goal time. Now I need to work on speed.

After Sunday's run, I felt some pain in my knees. Having broken each of my legs over time, I have two bad knees and my doctor told me that arthritis is inevitable. I don't believe that nonsense about running ruining your knees. Except for the pain this week, my knees have never felt stronger. I believe running strengthens the muscles and tendons around your knees and helps to protect them. As long as you don't over do it.

So I took a few days off. We got almost a foot of snow on Christmas so I have been taking Niko out for a ski here and there. It's nice to be able to ski right out my front door at any time. I ski down the street one block and hop onto the lighted Chester Creek Trail.

Fund raising is going well, but I am a little nervous about it. I have about $1100 raised so far, which seems like a lot, but is only 1/4 of my goal. We'll be having a wine tasting and silent auction sometime in January or February so that should help. I hear my company may be setting up a corporate sponsorship as well.

Ok, I'm off to run for an hour. Now that there is more snow, my times have been much slower. I'm trying to not pay attention to distance and just run for time. Seeing how slow I am in the snow is frustrating, but once the snow melts in April, I am going to be super fast!

And the winner of the iPod Shuffle is....

MARK KIMERER!

Congratulations Mark! I'll be contacting you to find out what color you want. Being the geek that I am, I put all of your names into a database, one time for each dollar you donated since November 30th. I ran a random number generator to select the winner!

Keep an eye out for future raffles. I am at about 30% of my goal right now. Thanks to everyone who sponsored me so far!

Merry Christmas!

University Lake

Today was longer than yesterday, and tomorrow will be longer than today. It's great to be on the other side of the darkness. It no longer feels like it is closing in on us, and we can look forward to the longer days of February and March.

My Team in Training practice was supposed to be yesterday at Westchester Lagoon, but they moved it inside again to the Subway track. I didn't go. Our long run was 1 hour 45 minutes this week and, of course, I did not want to do that inside at a track with no windows. The sun is a rarity these days. I spend most of the light hours during the week in an office. So naturally on the weekends I want to try and get out every chance I can to see the sun.

So I took Niko out for an hour and 45 minute run, to University Lake, around a few times and then back home. I think we ran a little over 10 miles with a few stops to drink water and take some pictures. Running at University Lake is great because it's an off leash dog zone. There are anywhere from 30 to 50 dogs running around this park at all times and Niko loves it. I enjoyed it to because it kept my mind off the fact that I was doing the longest run that I have in a few years.

I ran an hour and 45 minutes, which is pretty much my goal time for the race. I feel good about meeting that goal. I've already got the time covered, I have put my base miles in and after New Years it is time to start getting faster. I have already started to add some pickups to my hard runs during the week. I also plan on doing at least one tough "hill" workout a week, to build strength and in case I actually do qualify for Crow Pass.

Two great days in a row! Here are some more ice pictures from yesterday... my stance is lacking in style, but there was a great ledge there for me to stand on and put in a screw!