Just got back from trying the Bergen Peak trail run. It was really good although I’m not used to the elevation gain during the initial part of the run. The trail was low on rocks for the most part and pretty soft on the feet, the backside still had snow on it though but walked a good chunk of that. Ended up running the first three miles which was a ton of elevation gain, walking a mile, then running another 3, walking a mile, and running the last half mile. Good little run especially when it warms up, and there are some trails in the plains below it if I had wanted to extend the run by 3 to 4 miles.

Working on getting my runs back up to an hour as winter always drags me down to only 40 to 50 min. Running on a treadmill just sucks for any longer then that.

Some good info on this trail below:
- Map, Review, and pictures!
- Info and Driving Directions. It’s past lakewood after I70 and not too far from Denver.

What I love most (and hate if you are there) about Italy is that they will never be any kind of economic threat to the rest of the world, ever… Why might you ask? Because if you are wanting to buy a drink at a disco, you might think oh i’ll go buy a drink, but nay, you must first buy a ticket in a very long line, and then after that you must go to another line to present that ticket for that drink, oh and they don’t really take credit cards very well, and they have nothing like a tray to hold all the orders. I’m so glad I was not born in Italy as I would have shot myself in my sober sober head years ago from frustration. I encountered this again with sandwiches etc. My only guess is they like lines, or they like to pretend they are employing twice as much people, or they like being inefficient.

I exaggerate a little as I wasn’t that frustrated (mostly cause they have a lot of cheap wine which makes you very patient), but it is very evident they will never be able to complete globally with the USA and China’s and even Japans of the world. It’s just sad to see. Beautiful country through, and at least they make great ice cream.

I am also basis as I HATE their “soccer” team, I use quote marks as their team is mostly just a bunch of pussy actors who spend their time practicing their dives. And when I start to love a head butting french man over you, you might be in trouble as a country.

Venice was absolutely amazing, most expensive place I’ve ever been though. Go for a day or two and see a dieing city and just imagine how amazing it would have been 300 or 400 years ago.

It was a great trip, the beach tournament was fun and after a few days feeling more confident in that I know how to play on the beach. After that headed to Cique Terra and Venice, not a lot of pictures but most are from those locations.

Steve and Rose visited for a week from Ireland which was a blast! Big thanks to Chappy and Liz for letting us stay at their house and Liz for teaching us all how to snowboard and getting us a big discount on our passes! Apart from a small fluke wrist fracture Steve suffered we all did well and by the end of our second day were able to turn! A few more days and we would probably be falling a lot less. I’ll try to post some photos and videos when Rose posts them.

I had one monster fall where I hit the back of my head, thank god for helmets or my brain would be splattered all over the snow. I switched from Regular to Goofy on my second day and I think that is going to be the way I go in the future, but a bit tough to switch everything in your feet and mind. By the end of that day it was going well and I can see how addictive snowboarding could be.

I’ve been having a hard time finding the perfect sled for this year but luckily Slate has a great article on the best sleds and I went with the Airboard 180! Rumor is you can go up to 80 miles an area, control your direction easily since it has ridges on the bottom, and go off jumps with little worry besides fear of death! It is the only sled that is advertised as needing a helmet.

Visited Arizona for the first time for regionals this last weekend. Our team did great and I had a good time apart from having to adjust to waking up so early from my normal schedule. Thank god the temp was only in the low 90s as the previous weekend it had been 105 both days. We almost got to nationals but lost a key game on game point.

Arizona was really pretty in a desert way. I really don’t know why that town is there and can’t imagine they are going to have enough water to last another 100 years. I read the wiki entry and sounds like some old guy build some canals which started the entire mess.

Heading to Fool’s Fest this weekend to play some ultimate frissbee (Lawrence Kansas). Should be cold and wet which will suck but going to be fun to play with everyone and first time to get to play with Dmarsh in a long time :). Plus I’m hoping the Mongolian BBQ we used to go to all the time is still open as its delicious.

Been reading some good books lately, a lot of books I would have had to buy in paper format are actually being published to the Kindle at the same time which is just awesome to see! I’ve already saved enough to buy two kindles I estimate just off the savings. I read In Gallant Company last night which is volume 3 in a series of books about a boy in the British Navy as he slowly becomes a captain and all the adventures. The author is Alexander Kent and they are quick to read and very entertaining. I think there are like 20 volumes so should keep me busy for a while. I also just finished Manhunt by James Swanson a few days ago. It tracks the assassination of Lincoln by Booth day by day and was really interesting. I’m not sure in history class they fully explained that Booth and his conspirators had planned on killing the secretary of state, vice president, and president in the same night. What blows my mind even more is that the Vice President was staying with no security in a normal hotel, and they found a knife and revolver in a room nearby and the guy had just not gone through it. Very different from today and weird to think that any person could walk up to the White House and make an appointment to see the president.

Been working like crazy which isn’t a surprise, things are going very well and we are hoping over the next few months for clean up to really finish so we can push forward with growth and finishing a lot of much needed projects. I’m looking forward to around three months from now when we finish a lot of clean up on the backend and maybe I can take a short week off to travel somewhere nearby.

Joel, Dmarsh, Steve and me went cross country skiing this weekend. The route we choose was quite a bit harder than the other two I had done because the path was packed down and very icy. So going up hill we either had to walk or put on skins so that we didn’t slip backwards and fall to our fiery deaths. It was a lot of fun coming down though and even though we all fell quite a bit I managed to do ok. I can’t wait to get better so we can actually ski some of the more remote areas.

I finally went skiing (cross country) for the first time and it was awesome! Ended up going back and renting skis again a few days later and did a trail on our own on some far away snowy mountain. Here are some pictures of me and Lizzie trying to trudge through very deep snow and falling on slippery ice. Going to start going as its good for me to get out of the house and see that bright bright object in the sky.

I was able to shave a little over six minutes off my previous half marathon time, I’m pretty happy with that plus I felt a lot better. My legs didn’t hurt or tense up and I could have pushed a lot harder and probably done under eight minutes on my eight through eleventh miles. So my time for the 13 miles was 1.43.41.

My Mile Pace:
1 – 7:58
2- 7:44
3- 7:34
4- 7:34
5 – 7:39
6- 7:53
7 – 7:55
8 – 8:02
9 – 8:06
10 – 8:19
11 – 8:26
12 – 7:57
13 – 8:27

Wow what a great Harvest for Halloween weekend! Our team costume was British Gentlemen and more importantly for Saturday night I fulfilled a life long dream of being Goose from Top Gun, mostly because I’ve had a crush on Meg Ryan since first grade and he is married to her in the movie. Oh Meg Ryan how divine you are!

Woo! I tried out the new Fayetteville bike trails and they are just awesome, I was so motivated I ended up running a full half marathon today which is a first for me! I kept my target marathon pace and none of the injuries from about two weeks ago came up. Been icing like crazy the last week so I think that and the rest really helped.

Here are the details from my Suunto T6 watch:

13.11 Miles

1 Hour 50 Minutues

Max Heart Rate 171

Average Heart Rate 154

Average Speed 7.2 MPG

EPOC Peak 123 ml/kg

Altitude Range 954 ft to 1164ft

1536 Calories Burned

Temp 71F to 86F

Ventilation 130 l/min

Oxygen cons. 39 ml/kg/min

Respiration Rate 38 bpm

Hopefully I don’t collapse shortly, I felt pretty good until the last two or three miles and those were a lot harder.

Here Is my mile pace:

1 – 8:16
2 – 7:31
3 – 7:33
4 – 7:40
5 – 7:54
6 – 8:15
7 – 8:44
8 – 8:24
9 – 8:31
10 – 8:40
11 – 8:54
12 – 9:04
13 – 9:18

We made it to the super backdoor game at Regionals to get the third bid to Nationals but lost to a team called el Diablo. It especially sucked as during the tournament we played them three times and lost each time despite them not really being that great compared to the teams we beat. The tournament was very badly run with some of our games not ending until 9.30pm and then having another game at 7.15am the next day. We even had to move fields during the final due to soccer needing the fields. So no nationals this year :(.

Two cars of people stayed and went out Sunday which was pretty fun, Austin has some amazing bars and great music. We ate some amazing Indian food the next day, it was the best I’ve had in the United States. The place is called the Claypit and its on Guadalupe near campus (not sure the street name is spelled right). It was in an amazing building too so check it out if you are in Austin.

Due to a lack of sleep and not being in ultimate fris shape I didn’t play very well Saturday but improved Sunday despite a jammed finger. I tore something the last game on Sunday though, pushed hard on a sprint and heard something pop or tear a little below my hamstring. I’m still recovering from the hamstring pull and I think I just messed up a connecting muscle that was overcompensating for a weakened hamstring. Hopefully its not too bad and heals quick.

I’m heading to Regionals this weekend in Austin Texas, in a fluke this year our region is getting three bids to nationals which is pretty damn sweet. It means we have a fighting shot at getting that third spot and getting to go to the National UPA championship! I’m still pretty hurt but at least at 75% so I’ll get to run a lot and hopefully after a few days of ice and rest will be even better. Finally able to throw now that my finger is healing up too.

I think our team has a really good shot and it would be awesome to go with them to Nationals. Plus by then I should be in better condition and able to play better (would be nice to win or at least tie one game at nationals). Somehow October has crept up on me as work has been super busy trying to organize a deal and some of the SEO work we do. Hopefully in a few weeks everything will settle down.

Ever since I got back from Egypt I have been getting injury after annoying injury. In Egypt I was running around 10 miles every other day as planning to run a Marathon at the end of October in Dublin. I won’t be able too now as I haven’t been able to run in a few months really because of injuries. I wouldn’t consider myself injury prone but since I’ve got back they have been hitting me non stop!

First, I play an ultimate tournament the first weekend I get back and pull a hamstring on Saturday. Not a bad pull but the next day I snap the other hamstring to where I hear it make that POP noise. I try jogging the next day and it snaps again during a very slow warm up. I rest it for a week, ice it every day, and it slowly gets better but I still can’t sprint without hurting it. Ends up taking around four weeks until I can really start pushing it and sprinting slightly. During this time I have to sit and watch two ultimate tournaments which is the worst.

Then, for the first practice I can finally sprint on it without a wrap and feel almost 100% I run into someone at practice. That usually doesn’t hurt but somehow my fist gets caught between us, all the pressure hits my chest causing the cartilage connecting my sternum to my rib cage to rip. Incredibly painful and I’m told not to do anything for four to six weeks besides high doses of anti inflammatories and vicodin. This stops me from running for about three weeks but I can’t wait longer or I’ll go crazy as running keeps me sane. I run and my hamstring is all better due to all the (insert expletive) rest. So a month later the chest is getting better, I’m back to running, and besides some tenderness and problems throwing and catching I’m mending without any terrible pain.

So yesterday I’m running and jump over a concrete wall to get off a parking platform onto the grass, the drop is a bit more than I estimated and I turn to grab myself to lower myself down. Bad move as the wall is rounded, I can’t grip, and my hand grates against rough rough concrete. My main throwing finger for ultimate basically gets mangled and I run home holding a big piece of skin with blood draining out of my clinched hand along the street. Its not too bad but a huge chunk of my throwing finger is gone and I got very frustrated at practice today as I can’t throw anything without ripping more of it off. And sectionals is this weekend. ( Insert expletive sigh.)

So all that fraking sucks. Frak being a cuss word from Battlestar Galatica and totally family safe (for more info on FRAK click here).