downhill cojones



The Hill at
Yellowstone & Gallatin,
Livingston

 

Another 2.5 miles at 6am.  I'm pretty good for a 6am-er on Monday - not so much on Thursday or Friday.  Today I tried to get a good picture of The Hill but all the ones I took betray how steep it really is...or at least how steep it seems.  Its really not that big of a hill, especially compared to the surrounding mountain scenery, but since I usually run it after only 5 minutes of running, it feels like a monster.  Nonetheless, it was a great morning run and a great start to the day.



I love running up The Hill because it is so fun to truck down The Hill as fast as I can possibly go.  I don't really have any downhill cojones when it comes to biking but I always trust my feet and don't mind opening it up when I'm out for a run.

stomping grounds redux

Wallace & Aspen, Bozeman

I am back in architecture school and that means you get to do fun hypothetical projects with hypothetical money.  This semester's project is hypothetically located in NE Bozeman so today I spent 2.5 hours covering 3.5 miles, run-walking with my friend Alex's super deluxe Canon EOS Rebel T2i.  It was overcast and wet out so I wasn't really looking forward to the expedition but it turned out to be quite fun as I am a neighborhood-explorer by nature.  This is the area of Bozeman which I consider to be my old stomping grounds (back when I was a youngster in my mid-20s).  I've covered a lot of miles in this neighborhood - actually I still run here occasionally after work or on my lunch break - so it was nice to get some pictures of this incredibly eclectic and visually stunning district.  Historically, it is a mixed-use, industrial-residential neighborhood which is now inhabited by artists, skiers, cyclists, blue-collar workers, and environmentally friendly stewards who keep the neighborhood smelling charmingly of wood burning stoves all day long.

In order to maintain consistency, today's posted pic was still taken with the Droid even though I took 258 photos with the Canon (thanks Alex!).  Tomorrow I'm going back for more!

prodigious powder

Incredible Emigrant Gulch snowboarding mission today!

Emigrant Gulch, Paradise Valley

Lincoln and I met up with Grif and JR this morning in Emigrant and headed up past Chico Hot Springs Resort.  Grif brought his ferocious little Kitty Cat to help up get up the old mining road to gain a higher position before we started hiking.  We trekked for about two hours through warm but overcast weather and some snowfall.  I was lagging behind the boys, taking pictures, shivering in the wind, worrying about avalanches, bemoaning my sore hip flexors and wishing I was in better shape, when I began to question my desire to be a backcountry-er.  At one point I came to the definite conclusion that despite how many inspiring and glory-filled climbing books I've read, I absolutely do not want to climb Mt. Everest (now Lincoln can finally relax).  But the descent banished all my foolishly negative thoughts.  Lincoln found a fantastic face which we were able to drop into from a protective stand of trees.  The face opened up into beautiful, untouched, wide open, smooth-as-butter snowfields that had us laying down absolutely glorious turns.  The run fed us into another perfect run, followed by another, and another, and another.  This afternoon, the slopes of Emigrant Peak were filled with our joyful hooting and hollering as we all reveled in the thrill of fresh, prodigious powder turns.

At the bottom, JR, Lincoln and I all grabbed ahold of the tow rope strapped to the back of the Kitty Cat and Grif pulled us back down to the vehicles.  We had a blast being towed behind the snowmobile together, conjuring up all our old waterskiing skills to avoid crashing into one another.

After the day's exertions we stopped at the conveniently located Chico Hot Springs Resort to soak in its restorative waters and drink cheap beer.  On days like this, its hard to deny how sweet life is out here in Paradise Valley and I'm happy to have friends to enjoy it with.

black and blue

Main & Lewis, Livingston

2.5 miles at 6am.  Its hard to get up this early but it is so worth it.  The streets are virtually empty so I can run right in the middle of the road and I'm done with my workout before the day even starts.  Except I tripped on a manhole cover at mile 1.5 and am now hobbling around my office with black and blue knees.  Jeez, this falling down thing is verging on the ridiculous.

running for the light

 

vacant school on
5th & Lewis, Livingston



It was my first day of the new semester and my favorite thing about the first day of school is that you usually don't have any homework; you just have getting-organized-tasks.  Getting organized is my favorite thing on planet Earth.  So after I stopped at the bookstore to get some cool books and a giant cutting board all I could think about was getting across Bozeman Pass as quickly as possible so that I could get in a run before dark.  I made it out the door by 5:15 while it was still semi-light but alas, that was not early enough to soak up any vitamin D rays and I had to turn on the headlamp after 15 minutes of running.



Just another small 2.5 miler up the hill.  The most interesting thing about today's run was how sore the front of my shoulders were.  I finally went to yoga class yesterday, which I hardly ever do but am trying like the dickens to get into the habit of.  Realistically, my body is more suitable for lifting massive amounts of weights.  And I can, let me tell you.  But last year I decided to stop lifting weights in an effort to help my body become more efficient at endurance running.  You wouldn't continue to give a fat kid candy and I couldn't continue to let myself lift weights anymore.  The idea was somewhere along the line of what happened to Lance Armstrong when he got cancer, lost all of his muscle mass, then was able to rebuild his body into a tiny endurance machine.  I definitely did lose a lot of muscle mass over the last year but since I wasn't administering myself chemotherapy or starving myself, most of that muscle mass was replaced by soft, chewy flesh.  Now when I fall down while I'm running I wind up with almost instantaneous bruises.  Bruises are a brand new phenomenon in my life - apparently muscles are like a suit of armor?!  So now this year I am introducing yoga and Pilates into my exercise routine to help build my strength back up without adding muscle mass, hence the sore shoulders.  Yup we'll see how this one goes...

Historically, managing my running goals while I'm in studio has been almost impossible.  This semester I am determined to use running as a tool for managing my sanity rather then an additional imposed element into my busy schedule.  Thankfully it will only continue to get warmer and lighter everyday which will help to keep the spirits up.  I'll be running for the light all the way until summer.

doing the work

Geyser & D Street, Livingston

0 degrees?  I've seen colder.  But it was still slightly shocking to the system after fairly temperate winter weather last week.  I bundled up and did my 2.5 mile street loop down to H Street and back past the Electric Jesus.  By the time I got back to the house I was warmed up enough to shovel the sidewalk, despite limited visibility from crusted eyelashes.

Whenever I don't feel like doing the work, I just think of Rocky in Rocky IV when he ran around in 4' deep snow banks wearing a sherpa-lined pleather jacket, then I tell myself to stop being a wuss and go bench some ox yokes.

the road less traveled



West Pine Creek, Gallatin National Forest

Since I haven't been on a backcountry expedition in a few weeks, Lincoln and I decided to gear up and head to West Pine Creek for a little forest trek.  We parked a few miles down from the trailhead since the road hadn't been plowed and walked in, Lincoln on his split board and me on snow shoes with my snowboard on my back.  We have been running and biking on this trail but haven't heard from anyone if this is a good place to hike for turns.  We thought we'd give it a try and if it turned out to be crap, at least we'd still get in some good exercise.

Well it turned out to be crap but at least we got in some good exercise!  It looked as if hardly anyone was using the trail possibly because the snow pack was not condusive to hiking - a soft 6" crust sitting on top of snow soup of variable thickness.  Even though I followed in Lincoln's skin tracks, I broke through a lot on the way up and had to slog to keep up with Mr. Turtle Wheels.  We got in a couple of measly turns but it wasn't steep enough to get up any speed and we ended up poling ourselves down the road back to the truck...yes, poles and snowboards!  Slightly awkward and thus very amusing.

Now back at the house sipping Irish Hot Choclates and getting ready to roast some chicken and root vegetables which will taste extra delicious after today's effort.

slop job mess

Front Street, Livingston

For my introductory post I chose a town run to establish my home base, Livingston. I have lived in 13 neighborhoods over the past 10 years and in every single one it had been my intention to document them photographically but it never happened and I am disappointed about the lost memories. I have lived in Livingston now for 1.5 years and I am finally going to break that cycle! I think the best way to explore your neighborhood is through running. Looking at the same houses everyday, learning the street names by heart, saying hi to the same people walking their dogs, watching the shop owners shoveling their sidewalks, seeing the river rise and fall with the seasons - it all makes you feel like you genuinely know something, like you belong to it. For training purposes I prefer to trail run, but the past couple of months I have been almost exclusively doing town runs since I have been going to school as a part time graduate student while still working about 30 hours a week. Just getting out the door is my main goal right now and probably will be until this spring when the mountain trails start to melt.

I went out for one of my established 5 mile town runs (I call it the Circle House Run) but I had to ratchet it down to a 3 miler after my stomach remembered that I had consumed an entire po'boy sandwich, a glass of wine, and a few spoonfuls of pumpkin pie filling only 2.5 hours earlier. Unfortunately I know from past experience in the eating-before-running department that its better to be safe than sorry. I was so happy to be out running in the daylight, something I haven't had a chance to do in a couple weeks. I tend to have visibility problems in the dark (read: face-planting) since Livingston doesn't have very many street lamps and a vicious wind that blows my ponytail into my eyes. Despite a tiny snow squall, the visibility today was decent. However, the street conditions offered up quite the buffet: clear asphalt, glare ice, crunchy ice-snow, soft powdered sugar snow, and hidden puddles of deep water - what my high school Spanish teacher would have called a "slop job mess." Sometimes running on the street in these conditions is almost as fun as trail running since it encourages what I call "engaged running" - having to pay close attention to foot placement to keep your feet dry or to avoid slipping. Its a lot more fun to zigzag, hop over puddles, and jib off of curbs and trees than just plodding along in a boring straight line.

I'm off for a Saturday night cocktail at one of the local establishments, cheers!