Camping/Mining

This weekend Heather and I are going camping at Spectrum Mines in Oregon!

Spectrum Mines is

"a 20 acre privately owned patented mining claim located 27 miles northeast of Plush, OR. Once owned by Tiffany’s of New York, it is Oregon’s first commercially operated sunstone mine. Also, it is one of the richest color Oregon sunstone deposits in the world, producing up to one kilo of colored sunstones per cubic yard of dirt. In June of 2004 Chris Rose, owner of Spectrum Sunstone Mine, found a single pocket that contained ¾ kilo of red labradorite sunstone."-www.highdesertgemsandminerals.com

You can camp out there and dig for jewels and whatnot. Heather found it on the Travel Channel and it woke up the archaeologist in both of us. It's not dinosaur bones, but hey, it'll be fun.

It's going to be a weekend of hanging out and digging for Red Sunstones, hanging out, and having fun.


So basically the plan is to come back with a slew of gems and retire on what we find. We'll take a bunch of pics and let you know it went. Have a great weekend!

Spandex...the Final Frontier

Actually, it's a nylon/spandex blend.

Anybody who rides bikes for competition comes to this decision early on. As I made the leap from mountain biking to road biking, I was faced with the dilemma-is it really worth it to rock spandex?

Sadly, there's no way around it. Riding road with my loose biking gear made it seem like I had a drag chute behind me, slowing me the crap down. Every rider that I've spoken to agreed that there was no way around it-if I wanted to go faster, tights were the way to go.

Even after that experience, I had to psychologically prep myself. I had a sprint triathlon coming up, and I had the trisuit purchased and ready to go. It sat on my hamper for weeks, mocking me. I grew up laughing at the skinny guys hunched over their skinny bikes, wearing their neon colored tights, and now it had come full circle. I was about to become one of them, minus the skinny.

I sucked up my pride, pulled on the shorts and shirt, and I wore my racing clothes for the triathlon. They were tight. But they worked, and I didn't have to deal with the drag that my other riding clothes put me through. So, it looks like I'm one of those nerds after all.

Feel free to make fun if you see me on the road.

Battling Soreness with Chocolate

Lucky you guys, you get to learn from my mistakes.

My legs hurt. Bad. Because I didn't eat my post-workout meals for the past two days.

Let's talk about post workout nutrition. After you run/lift/swim/dwarf toss/whatever, your muscles will be starving for calorie replenishment. Makes sense, because you burned quite a few calories tossing those dwarfs. Your muscles have been broken down in the process, and will rebuild themselves to be stronger and more resilient. Sweet.

However, they can only do that when they're fed. You've got to put building blocks in your system before your body can rebuild. In the first half-hour after you work out, your body is begging for some simple carbs and protein to start building you back up. Feed it. Physical cues?
Soreness. Your muscles are jacked. Consuming a post-workout meal reduces your soreness the next day, and speeds up your recovery time.

Trust me. I've neglected to make my shake two days in a row now, and I'm feeling the pain. I got lazy and figured I'd eat when I got home. Bad idea.

All's you need to do is make a quickie snack with some simple carbs and a decent amount of protein, and you're good to go. Some good post-workout snacks are chocolate milk (a great ratio of sugar, protein and fat), some fruit w/peanut butter, a protein shake (I like to put oatmeal in mine), or even a granola bar will hold you over until you get home.

It's the easiest way to reduce soreness. And you get to drink chocolate milk. Mmmm...

Hawaii...

Hmm...it looks like there's a race that I'm looking towards for next year. I'm nervous even talking about it.

It's a half-70.3 miles, and it's in Hawaii...it's the Honu Half Ironman race on the Big Island. Looks like a party. A big, painful party.

A sprint tri is a lot of fun, and it's pretty accessible, but 70.3 miles is a bit different. The training is going to involve some long-term discipline and time commitments. Scary/exciting.

It's kind of weird because six months ago this would have been a joke to me. There's no way this would even be considered. But now I feel this weird eagerness to fly to a beautiful island and torture myself.

I guess I'm at this point in my life where I want to do the things that I never thought I'd do, or I maybe I just want to keep scaring myself. I just don't like the idea of doing the same thing day in and day out, no surprises, no challenges.

Luckily I have an amazing wife who always supports me (as long as I don't get myself killed) in my wackiness. If Heather wasn't so supportive, there's no way I'd even consider this. I'm a lucky dude.

She's pretty cute, too. :)

Time to Run

After taking some time off. I'm getting back to work on my marathon training. It's funny-after all of the progress I've seen it can still be intimidating to get back into it. I feel like a beginner again. In this light, it's probably a good idea to review the basics, the key tips that helped me to push through beginner's anxiety and find my stride (somewhat).

• Shoes: Sounds shallow, but is totally key. If your shoes are wrong for you, it's going to affect your feet, then ankles, knees, hips back, all the way up. Lost of people start out with shoes that don't provide support and are just too heavy. Running shoes can be expensive, but well worth the investment. Anyone who has started out with crummy shoes and traded up (like me) can testify to this.
  
• Posture: Good posture takes a bunch of pressure off of your back and opens up your lungs to help you breath better. Running while you lean forward may feel natural, but you're going to hate it after a few minutes. Someone told me to "run like you want your junk to cross the finish line first". It's kind of awful, but it's a good way to remember to keep your back straight and hips forward. At least it's hard to forget.
  
• Gait: My natural running style was to take big 'ol strides and try to take the fewest steps possible. Wrong! What you want to do is take a lot of smaller steps. A high "turnover" or stride rate is an indicator of a strong runner. Try to have your foot fall just in front of your body and minimize your bouncing.
• Effort: When you're starting out, take it easy. Run for a while, then walk a bit. Then run again. What you don't want to do is wear yourself out and dread the next run. Just do the miles that you planned at your own pace and enjoy it. Make it so you look forward to your next workout.
  

• Stretch: A lot. I like to stretch right after my run, but a lot of people run for a half mile or so, stretch, and then finish out their run as well. The key is, make sure you do it. You don't want to tighten up and pull something when you start out. Here's a link to a few good stretching routines:

http://www.time-to-run.com/stretching/stretch1.htm

That's a pretty good start, I'll try to keep this stuff in mind tomorrow when I get going again.

The Next Tri...

Looks like we've found a candidate for the next Triathlon: The Sandman Tri in Santa Cruz!

The event takes place on Sunday, August 3rd and consists of a .5 mile swim, 15 mile bike, and 4.2 mile run on the beach.

It's about 4 hours from Redding, but Santa Cruz is a sweet place to spend the weekend before the race. The beaches are great, there's the Boardwalk for the young 'uns, and there are a bunch of shops and local restaurants in the area, so you can be a tourist, then an athlete.

I've had a couple of guys come up to me and express interest in doing the next triathlon with me, so here's your chance. The City of Gold Triathlon was intimidating at first, but it turned out to be one of the best times I've ever had. Everyone there from the competitors to the volunteers were totally supportive, and everyone who came along with me was just awesome to be around. If you do it, it's seriously something that you'll never forget. Trust me, you want in on this.

My Favorite Peeps

This picture sums up what your best friends do for you.

In addition to Heather and Matt(aka Pvt. Caller) are Anna taking the pictures(very well, I might add), and Tommy racing in the group behind me.

This race wouldn't have been nearly as fun as it was with you guys there, but more importantly, this is just a brief example of what great pals will do. They pick you up when you're tired and encourage you to move when you want to quit, and they go through your trials with you. Everybody needs people like this. Anybody who sees Heather, Tom, Matt or Anna at church tonight, give them a high five.