Running the Red Rock

Crazy busy weekend. My best girl friend was sealed (aka married) at the Salt Lake Temple on Saturday. She looked stunning coming out of the temple and had a beautiful luncheon at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. I had to book it to Moab shortly after to run the Moab Other Half Marathon the next day.

After not doing much training I was excited to run with good friends, not so much the super hilly 13.1 mile course. To make matters worse once the race started I realized my iPod had broken at some point since my last training run... so bad for someone who never runs without cranking the tunes. Lucky for me Shonda never runs with music, she totally talked me out of my freak out and helped me finish despite lack of music. The race was really well organized and some of the local breweries were sponsors so there was free beer for all of the runners at the finish. I hadn't been to Moab in a year but it blows my mind every time I'm down there. It's hard to believe all of the red rock and massive rock formations are only 3 hours away from Salt Lake City and the best pow on earth. And for the first time in a while I'm not registered for any upcoming events.

Bear on the Trail

Today Bear, the Major, and I set out to Park City to ride the Flying Dog trail.



'Crossing on a mountain bike trail is definitely on of the most fun things I've done in a while. Even with major lack of suspension it felt amazing to motor up hills with an ultra light bike underneath me, that and blasting through sand was a breeze. The only 'cross bike related issue I had was due to thin tires, when standing on steep inclines with loose rocks underneath the skinny tires didn't grip as well as mountain tires and I kind of fell into a tree.



The Utah Cyclocross Series starts in a month from today!

On a side note: my poor dog is limping a bit and one of the big pads on a paw is split open and is peeling away (equivalent of getting a large blister on the heal of your foot)... I'm a terrible mommy!

In It

Riding, running, training, swimming.

Where does your mind go when you're in it?

Trying Times

Tonight into early tomorrow is the Perseid meteor shower. I plan on going up to Lindsey Garden's with Bear to watch and reflect on some things. I've watched meteor showers with my mother and friends in the past, both of which are going through trying times presently.

A good friend at work has just received news that her husband's colon cancer (which had been removed, treated with chemo and radiation, and all tests have come back negative since) has actually grown back into a baseball sized tumor that has wrapped around his aorta. The surgeons have removed 99% of it and will restart chemo and radiation therapy. Aside from the whole cancer scare (an idea that hits more close to home than I'd like to admit) the worst part is that his tests continuously came back negative... meaning either they aren't effective or the cancer is stage 4 and a tumor that size grew within 3 months.

Both of my parents have lost their jobs due to the poor economy. Both are receiving unemployment checks and should be financially stable for at least the time being. On a selfish note, this means I'm left without any source of funding for living expenses or school from anyone but myself. Student loans take time and having little/no credit has made getting a credit card a relatively hard task. I've transferred to the community college here for the semester while I wait for my student loans to be processed. Luckily, I'm eligible for in-state tuition and have received some scholarship money.

I suppose events like these force you to remember that things could always be a whole lot worse. I'll be keeping my friends and family in my thoughts and keep believing things will eventually fall into place.

Sometimes Utah Really Rocks

After getting called in to work at 9PM and staying till 8 this morning I decided it was about time for a ride with the boys.

All I can say is Mid Mountain Trail.

23 miles of single track starting at Deer Valley Resort to Park City Mountain Resort to The Canyons Resort. Most beautiful, fast, fun trail ever. It basically winds up to the top of each resort via switch backs. The descents were incredible! Tight turns through birch trees and wild flowers with just about every type of terrain (baby heads, dirt, sand, red rock, etc.). Even after getting no sleep and not eating well in the morning the adrenalin rush this trail gave me kept me going all 23 miles... with out touching the granny gear. I could ride that trail everyday.



I'm pretty sure I scared away any wildlife because I was hollerin' "yee haw" the whole way.

PS- no pictures of my own because it was just too good to stop.
PPS- I need a full suspension bike so I can stop stealing Shonda's Kona Lisa DS.

Sometimes Utah Really Blows

I hate Utah today.

Being a 20 something girl in Utah sucks... unless you're LDS and married.

Every time I go to the doctor and I hand over my insurance card I'm asked if it's my husband's. Lame.

I tried to trade in my car at 3 different places. Every single one low balled me (more than the usual skeezy car salesman low ball). I'm sure if I would have showed up with a husband I would have gotten close to the flippin' blue book value.

My old (technically current still) landlord claims I didn't repaint my old apartment well enough. Most people just move their shit and leave... in fact, that's what I've done the past 3 places I've lived. This time I knew my landlord was (is) a cock bag so I painted the walls bright white in a semi-gloss paint (at his request) and made sure the floors and appliances were spotless. Today he calls me to let me know he thinks he can still see some powder blue in the bathroom and some yellow in the office. He plans on charging me for someone to paint it again and rent for every day that it stays the way I left it. The colors were all very light, I primed, I painted, and now I'm going to get boned because I'm a little girl all on my own in Utah.

I can't remember the last time I was this fucking pissed. Balls!

Summer Ohhh Nine

Although I haven't been on a ride in 4 weeks I have managed to stay busy... with things other than work and school (whoa!):

-Moved from the university area of SLC to the oh so trendy Ave's
-Got a pooch. His name is Bear, he's an Australian Cattle Dog (little blue Heeler), he's about 1, loves the trail, and doesn't shit in my house
-Ran the Bryce Canyon Half Marathon (6 minutes faster than the SLC Half)
-Enjoying lots of live music: Park City Roots Rock Reggae Fest, Jenny Lewis, Bon Iver, The Black Keys, and open mic night at Moe's
-Hiking a ton with my homies
-Got a job at Snowbird for the winter (free tram pass worth $1100 included)



I've got some good karma going lately:
Point 1: went on a night run with Bear about 2 weeks after I got him, someone lights a loud firework as we cross the street, he wrangles out of his collar and books it up the Ave's in the dark, I search for 45 minutes (screaming his name and balling to strangers), run home to get my phone (since I've given my number out to said strangers), I get home and my dog follows me through the door as my neighbor explains that he'd been waiting there for 30 minutes.
Point 2: After leaving Shonda's house in Park City I was coming down Parley's Canyon (traffic goes about 75), heard a thumping noise under my feet, my ABS light goes on, drive home since there aren't many places to stop in the canyon, look in my tire well, see the my tire has shredded but stayed in tact.



Lots of plans in the next few weeks too:
-Snake River float trip next Thursday with the PACU crew
-Jupiter Peak Steeplechase August 8th
-Birthday celebrations the weekend after my birthday include the first day of Oktober Fest at Snowbird followed by bar hopping through Park City (without membership fee's!)

Still making silly wishes.

4th of July in Jackson

Jackson, WY is the most beautiful place I've been in my life.

Fact.



PACU crew and significant others made the 4.5 hour trek to WY for the holiday weekend. Within 20 minutes of arriving we downed Billy Burgers and signed up for the Jackson 4th of July 10K.



We camped on National Forrest land on Shadow Mountain. I definitely hadn't peed in the woods for years but it was totally worth it for the flow-y single track just a few miles up the fire roads from our site. I got to steel Shonda's Kona Lisa DS and motored up the mountain despite the elevation being twice what I live in... I was feeling so good that I bombed down the trail and totally nailed a log and ate shit. I caught guff the rest of the trip for my sweet spill. After riding with the boys the entire group went for a hike to Grizzly Lake by the Red Cliffs. Dogs aren't allowed in the National Park so we had to stay on the east side... kinda sucky but still beautiful.



We ran the Jackson 4th of July 10k the next morning, I ran average 10 minute miles (absolutely sucking wind the entire time, 7400 ft bizzle). Unfortunately, while I was taking a recovery nap the day before I left my trail running shoes outside of my tent during a thunder shower so it was a pretty squishy 6.2 miles for me... but I did keep my red cowboy hat on the entire time. Classy. We got a pretty rowdy, drunk game of Apple to Apples goin' that night while listening to "country rock". Probably the most fun I've had since I moved from Carbondale.

Going to work and school was a total buzz kill on Monday... I mostly want to quit my job, drop out of school, and move to Jackson. There's definitely a job opening at the hospital there... not that I looked or anything.

Running Through Cougar Country

Some of the PACU crew spent the morning in Provo at the Provo Riverwoods 10-Miler... now, the race aside Provo is it's own little world. It is home of the Brigham Young University Cougars, the LDS university, and it's filled with all the typical stereotype mormons: the men who think they're all that and a bag of chips, the wives with 6 children and no job, and the young married couples playing house and living off of mommy and daddy. So, this race took some real tolerance because there was a 20 minute shuttle ride to the start and the finish was filled with a ton of loud children and spouses.

The course was one of the most beautiful I've ever seen. It started at about 7000 feet up in the mountains, it's been raining for the past week so everything is green and some clouds were hanging on the peaks... majestic fo' shizzle. After running 3 miles down a small canyon we turned on to the Riverwoods Trail which follows the Provo River and goes past Bridal Vale Falls, it's all shaded and nicely paved. It should have been my best time because it was a great downhill/flat course.



Reasons the PACU girls didn't do as well as last week:
-The hospital has been crazy busy this week so we were all beat
-Apparently we spend enough time together that our periods have synced... therefor cramping and bloating ensued
-I'm getting sick from not eating enough carbs (trying to drop the pound-age)
-... and I'm out of excuses

I was hoping to run 9.5 minute splits since last weekend I was at 9.9 but I ended up running at 10.01... pretty disappointing. Not bad considering there was conversation at mile 4.5 about "I just want to walk this fucker" and "Oh, I feel like shit" and "I really don't want to play anymore". All in all everyone did well, no racing till the Bryce Canyon Half Marathon (July 18th).

PS- my quads are getting a little rediculous... I can only imagine what they'd look like if I started riding my bike and got a tan. Daaayum.

BLS: Basic Life Support

Is it wrong if I thoroughly enjoyed practicing chest compressions for 3 hours today in my BLS renewal class?

CPR is pretty unaffective... but it sure is fun.



Oh, Pam.

Running at the Butt Crack of Dawn

The PACU Crew took on another running challenge this morning. This morning at the crack of dawn, to be specific. The Salt Lake City Crack of Dawn 10-Miler started with a 2 mile stretch up East Canyon to the lookout over Little Dell Reservoir, down the switch-backs to Emigration Canyon, all the way to This is the Place Park for the finish.



The worst part of this run wasn't the 2 miles up a canyon but the lack of level road to run on. Most of the race had a pitch off to the right which has made my left knee and quad pretty sore. My first race was the Salt Lake Half Marathon with 10.8 minute splits, today's race (my second) I had 9.9 minute splits. I'm pretty happy with that progress considering major lack of training and feeling relatively crappy the past day or two.

Over breakfast San San "the machine" Wu (she placed 2nd for the women overall, first in her age group, and then went mountain biking) was talking about the Jupiter Peak Steeplechase race. It's a trail run in Park City up to Jupiter's Peak and back down for a total of 16 miles. It sounds like a pretty good race to determine if I should do the Pike's Peak half or full marathon next year. There are only 250 places so I'm sure I'll be registered before the end of the week. I've put a lot on my plate for this summer with work and class, but it should be a blast!

June-
13th- Provo Riverwoods 10-Miler

July-
2nd-5th- Jackson Hole camping/ mountain biking trip
18th- Bryce Canyon Half Marathon
31st- Snake River float trip

August-
1st-2nd- Snake River float trip
8th- Jupiter Peak Steeplechase Race

September:
19th- Chequamegon 40 mountain bike race

October:
18th- Moab Other Half Marathon

Back that Thang Up

New back-up plan! As usual I spent my first day off of the week reading, studying, and worrying. Mostly worrying about how I'm going to carry my fat butt 10 miles for the SLC Crack of Dawn 10-miler on Saturday but also about the constant fear of not getting into medical school. Original back up plan was to apply to nursing school and have my BSN by the time I could apply to medical school again... or just be a nurse and have a relatively normal life with things like free time and sunlight, but that sounds like all kinds of lame.

I started considering grad school since I really don't want to try the nursing bit unless I absolutely don't make the cut as a physician. The University of Colorado, Boulder has a masters program in Integrative Physiology that looks pretty stupendous. In fact, I wish I would have just accepted my offer from University of Colorado, Denver and transferred over so I could get my BS in the department... shoulda' coulda' woulda' I suppose. Either way, the course studies are beyond interesting with classes like Cellular Cardiovascular Physiology and Molecular Genetics of Addiction. Do I hear PhD? I hear school till I'm 50 and broke till I'm 93.

I could always take the easy way out and stick with exercise physiology. It wouldn't be terrible seeing how strong hot boys in lycra are every day.



Oh, and you best believe I'll be applying to SIU's School of Medicine when the time comes. I'm sure they give preference to former Salukis...

Spring in the Springs

(Pretty cliche title).

Colorado is my new favorite place to be during spring, it might be my favorite place to be year round if the ski resorts weren't so far away from most major towns... and if the snow was as good as it is here in Utah. That aside, Colorado has way more to offer this time of year, most of the snow is melted and there are a ton more lower elevation trails that have dried enough to play on. Plus, the people are flippin' awesome compared to most I've come across on my outdoor excursions in the past year. I hiked Pike's Peak's Barr Trail and saw more people in one morning on that trail than I have on all of the trails I've been on in the entire 11 months I've lived in Utah (pathetic Utahn's)... not only does Colorado boast more healthy and athletic people but they were all super friendly, none of the competitive, local pride BS.



I stayed in Colorado Springs with some So IL homies and scoped out the Barr Trail for the PACU/AirMed running crew's next adventure. The trail is in pretty great condition considering how much foot traffic (and one bike while I was there) it gets. It has spectacular views and could be run-able with the right training. The only sucky part was the outrageous elevation gain. My house in Salt Lake is at 4400 feet and the Barr Trail head is at about 6900 feet so I was at a slight disadvantage from the start but by mile 4 (8800 feet) it seemed like my heart was working pretty hard for a 3 mph-ish hike... by mile 6 (10000 feet) I was hiking with my mouth open. Barr Camp is at mile 6.5 (10200 feet), I stopped to read all of the bulletins and the topo map and ended up talking with the woman in charge for the day. She was kind of a bad ass hippie, we talked a little about the trail and how most of the locals train for the Pike's Peak Marathon. There was a fair amount of snow a few miles past Barr Camp and my new hippie friend mentioned waste deep snow at the Summit House so once the snow was ankle deep Sydney (my four-legged hiking partner) and I turned back for the nine-ish mile hike back down. I'll definitely be registering for the 2010 Pike's Peak Marathon... I just need to convince the rest of the crew that running up and down a mountain could be fun.



I'm pretty much in love with Colorado for now, maybe it's a good thing I can't shake this school girl crush.

Official Note to Self:

I here by promise to not do anything stupid... after next week.

Summer Vaca

School starts again tomorrow, my summer will entail chemistry, trig, and work. Super Duper. But I did get to spend my week long summer vacation with my family and friends in Chicago. A few highlights:

Made my way to a Sox game, super fun (and cold). They won, I got to hang out with an old friend, and it was super rad being around real people. Salt Lake is so sterile and doesn't have much culture outside of Temple Square. I didn't realize how much I missed diversity.

My Dad and I rented a pair of 29'ers and went up to Kettle Moraine. We rode the the John Muir blue trail, the connector trail, and the Emma trail for a total of about 24 miles. Those trails are filled with all kinds of flow-y goodness and they're well maintained. It was pretty awesome to ride with my pops, even though he still kicks my ass (embarrassing). We had a few beers and ended up bringing home a Gary Fisher Cobia. Oh, and he totally hit a tree.

My little broha is growing up... and my mother is shrinking. I was able to make it to Eric's band concert but missed his prom pictures.

Aside from all of that trip biznass I finally found out I got into the Chequamegon 40! 40 mile mountain bike race in northern Wisconsin. Around 2000 racers, only about 150 of them are women. It's been called the roadies off-road adventure because there's absolutely no technical but there is a lot of climbing, it's basically a road race on knobby's and grass. Last year's winner went an average of 19 mph... and it was all mud. My goal is to come close to what my Dad normally finishes it in, which is about 2 hours and 45 minutes. We'll see. I have to stop all of this running garbage and start riding more. Except for the fact that I'm registered for the Bryce Canyon Half Marathon (July) and the Moab Other Half Marathon (October). Apparently I have a bad habit of getting sucked into sporting events.

The Eight Similes of Illusion

The Radiant Buddha said:
Regard this fleeting world like this:
Like stars fading and vanishing at dawn,
Like bubbles on a fast moving stream,
Like morning dewdrops evaporating on blades of grass,
Like a candle flickering in a strong wind,
Echos, mirages, and phantoms, hallucinations,
And like a dream.

100 days

Even though the 100 day marker is the hallmark holiday of politics I'm still going to honor it with a blog post.

A major shout out and congratulations goes out to the American people and President Obama. 100 days in office, 100 days with an african american president, 100 days in a shit storm of a failing economy and an endless war. CNN announced that our president's approval rating is at 64% and DJ Associates reported a 54% rating in Utah. I'm proud of you conservative bastards.

A few of my favorite items on the new administration's 100 day agenda:

-Allowing the progression of stem cell research

-Executive order to close Gitmo

-Rebuilding foreign relations that the previous administration "tarnished" (ha!)

-Creating/protecting public land and making ignorant people aware that polution and global warming are real. (I had no idea people that dumb existed until I moved to UT)

-Interventions in the housing, banking, and auto industries (I'm treading very lightly over those issues)

Oh yeah, and his first signed piece of legislation was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act. Suck on that bizzle.

Doin' It

I've decided that I'm going to try to get into next year's Pike's Peak Ascent. 13.32 miles up a mountain, about 8,000 foot elevation gain, average of 11% grade. Kinda sounds like a sweet new challenge, mainly because I don't think I'm down with marathoning and the Wasatch Back sounds slightly more awful and team oriented. Plus it'll probably land within days of my birthday, a good way to ring in 22 years. Now I just need to convince Kathy and Ron that their old bones will make it up the hill with me.



That aside, this whole swine flu thing... in case anyone hasn't notice the prevention seems to be living a normal, sanitary life. "Wash hands regularly, sneeze and cough into tissue, abstain from touching eyes and mouth, and avoid sick people." Seriously, a pandemic? I'm not looking at door handles any differently than I usually do.

Power Walkers made it Possible

2.21.32

Aside from my iPod, Kathy, and Ron's water bottle, the power walkers got me through the SLC half marathon.. They move their hips and abnormally shaped asses in hypnotising and mind boggling ways. I'm almost 92% sure that I was in a trance up the entire hill in the 12th mile due to a power walker. Thank you ladies.

Beastly finish photo:

Dolla' Dolla' Bills

So it's tax day. Doesn't mean a ton to me other than a check from the feds that should cover next months rent. Super.

What does mean something to me is this tea party crap. The whole attempt at making the historic Boston Tea Party represent the taxation and spending of today is a little outrageous. The colonists didn't choose their representatives, we do... go vote if you're effin' PO'ed. Rick Santelli is pissed... so is most of middle and lower class America, there was no real person behind this whole "movement", aside from CNBC which is completely incomparable to the framers of the flippin' Constitution. And hey conservative America, yeah, shit is bad and griping about it might make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside but none of you have offered up any real solutions other than "let them fucking fail" (in reference to the banks, the stock market, the auto industry, the poor, the hungry, etc.).

It's called the Social Contract Theory, google it. Give up a little to get a lot back. A couple thousand dollars in tax money isn't jack compared to having freedom, life, and liberty. Pick up a book about what life is like for women in Afghanistan or Iraq and then tell me how hard life is these days.

PS- by the way, if you're really that upset and in that much financial trouble how about not taking off work to go spend money on processed tea to dump in whatever puddle is nearest to your local governmental establishment.

He just called you a loser:

SLC 1/2

 Reasons this Saturday is going to be absolutely terrible (with the exception of post-run brews):

1. 13.1 miles without 2 wheels under my butt.

2. Running hurts... a ton.

3. I run about 20 miles a week, but haven't done more than 7 consecutive miles.

5. I'm going to publicly display how terrible I am at running... and how red my face gets after 3 brisk steps.

6. Running at elevation is way hard.

I did my last "long" run on Saturday in the rain, I felt relatively strong and didn't have much pain thanks to the new Mizunos and a week off when the fam was in town. I've been able to maintain 10 minute miles on long  runs which should put me over 2 hours... that's beyond pathetic, people run full marathons in that amount of time. My official goal is just to finish considering this will be the first time I've ran with a bib number, buuut I know I'll be looking down at my sweet new Forerunner 405 to see if I'm keeping my pace up. In any event, Kathy and Ron will drag me along and Shonda promised a piggy-back across the finish line.

Watch me struggle.

Projected finish:

"BUTTER!"

81 inches of buttery goodness, that is powder, in 2 weeks.

I would say it doesn't get any better than that... but it totally did. My Dad and Broha were in town for the last week of the dump-fest. I got to hit up The Canyons, Snowbasin, and Brighton between class and work.

The Canyons had their Spring Gruv week going so we got watch the pond skimming contest and The Wailers concert. My Dad demonstrated some form of intoxicated interpretive dance that he claims is Jamaican. It was a pretty bomb week that included an A on a chemistry exam, a $400 shopping trip to CostCo., and dinner at The Porcupine... twice.

Shout out to my broha who made my shower less like a mister... I can officially get all of the conditioner out of my hair now.