Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Stay tuned

Hey,

Sorry this is just a quick note that I haven't forgotten my faithful blogger/creeper readers. I have a ton of pictures and will have them connected to my new picture link here. I can also tell a bit about the trip. It was amazing, so many things to tell, too few vocabulary to put into words. :( But I will try. Cheers,

Darryl

Friday, September 19, 2008

Hawaii here we come!!

Almost ready to say good bye to this continent for the first time. I've never flown away from North America, been to the states, but never to another continent. And I'm getting married too!!! Never done that before, ha ha. Wooo hooooo Sorry I haven't written much lately, it's the same excuse as last time. I have pictures and want to write up on my hiking last weekend with them, but never get around to it when I'm at home. lol don't tell my boss I write on the blog at work.

Last weekend I rate right up there with Ironman. It was one of the best days I've ever had workin out. My buddy Gerad hikes quite a bit and somtimes does some climbing. No ropes, nothing too dangerous(although there were some sketchy parts) and he invited me to go with him and a friend of his, Laura. We got to Heart Mountain around 11am, it was going to be a beautiful day although a lil cool at the start. There's a short trail to the start of the climb, ummm I forget the name of the trail, it's quite well known, just off the trans can, and barely into the Rocy mountain range.

We got going on the trail and soon saw this was a well used trail and lots do the same climb, it's not really a trail, cause it's climbing, some scree, some rock, trees, grass, roots, etc. At times we didn't know the exact right line to take but there were footprints in the snow to follow. Yes it had snowed the weekend before and we climbed high enough to get into this. The day was soo warm though that by the time we headed down the snow was nearly gone. The pace we started out was pretty quick, and we soon realized we better slow it down a bit if we are to make it. I'm relatively knew to climbing, Gerad and Laura had tried this climb before and not made it. They were determined to finish it, conquer it today.

So we finished the trail and headed up the barely unmarked sorta trail. It was awesome and I was truely loving it. Fall colors coming out, beautiful sunshine, awesome workout, then the view is the reward!!! What else could a exercise junky/outdoorzie person want?!?!?!?!? There was a fairly large grp ahead of us and we passed them eventually, Gerad's a bit competitive deep down inside. Maybe that's why the pace was so high at the start, hmmmmm Gerad? hee hee Oh well we would take a break and eventually we'd settle into a more doable rythym. My calves were getting the workout of a life time, constantly pointing the toes upward.

We even got to do some rock climbing. Don't worry, it was really dangerous as in one wrong slip and.... well you know. But the rock was dry and really rough so the hand holds were solid and I wouldn't pull myself up till I was sure about it. Some "livin on the edge attitude" is ok right? We even got to climb up through a chimney section, that was really neat. Soon we had passed the point at which Gerad/Laura had turned around last time. There was no stopping today, we moved onwards and upwards(as Greg says, but this time literally upwards). We stopped a bunch but I didn't mind. I think at one point Laura appoligized, I guess she figured cause I was waiting. My response was somthing like, "Sorry for what, I get to be up here in this crisp clear air and look at the view around me, climbing and having the time of my life!!!"

There were several humps we have to get over, if you have ever done any climbing you'll know that when you're on the mountain you can't often see the top. So you just climb towards the peak you can see and know there will be another after that, and another, etc. Julie will know what I'm talking about. It's awesome, I took so many pictures, and we posed many times on various outcroppings. Gerad and Laura both work at istock photos, they are photographer geeks. Gerad is one of those people that can do it all, he excels in absolutely EVERYTHING!! I can still kick his ass on the bike though. lol You can tell I hold onto that, hopefully he never actually trains or I might be in trouble. :P Eventually we got to the top and once again the view was amazing, I was like a lil kid up there, and the weather was great too. We did a lil exploring on top and sat down to have lunch.

There was a bit of wind(in Susi language "wee bit") that seemed to be blowing up the mountain from our backs and we got to witness an awesome sight. There was a hawk gliding around in circles wayyyy down below us. You know like they normally do, I'm not a city person I've seen it a million times, but this time I really got a good perspective of it. Anyways we watched and he climbed. When we first saw him he was a spec wayyy below us, the thing that was soo amazing was the rate he climbed with so little effort. They just tip their wings around, never really moving them or flapping them and in like a minute he was now a spec above us. I don't know how far he climbed maybe 2-300 ft in 60 seconds??? You get the picture he made our trek look like a day at the beach for him.

The way down was pretty uneventful, except that my quads were like jelly after. I'm only now on friday getting over the pain. I had a worse time walking after that hike then after Ironman. I guess it's not something that I'm used to. Hopefully I can do more in the future, this totally confirms it, when I'm done IM I'll be moving to trail running/ultras. There are two things I really really enjoy they are exercising and being outdoors. I'm sure I'm not alone, you guys enjoying the summer/fall weather we're having??? Even if you're not exercising, get out for a walk or somthing!!

Tomorrow we leave for Hawaii, I have to pick up my renew'd passport in a few minutes. Cutting it close eh? I thought it was still valid, but checked earlier on in the week(thank goodness I did) and saw it had expired in May, so I had to quickly head off to the Harry Hayes. I wasn't going to get my sized wedding band on time so we were just going to use the one they had and trade it for the sized one when it gets in, however they called yesterday and said they had it all ready for me. That was a nice surprise, we'll pick that up today too. Lisa's getting her nails done today, steaming or w/e the dress. We're not sure about traveling and not getting them creased, anyone have any ideas? Suit case ok? We really don't want to take them as carry on. I say worst case scenario we can get her dress steamed out there too. hmmmm what else do I gotta do, oh yeah report the attempted car thieft, and write a letter to Boardwalk about me firing my landlord, ha ha. Last month of rent October!! We went and took another look at the new house to show Lisa's Aunt. Anyways I may not write again, so cheers, wish me luck, break a leg, all that jazz, Over,

Darryl

Friday, September 12, 2008

Un-structured training

Hey there,

I got bored at work, so as you will notice my page takes a bit longer to load. Sorry Cam, your dial up may not like it too much. Don't worry two of em will be down quickly. I really like the Ironman one. :) I guess it wasn't really bored, cause I have lots of work to do, I just don't want to do it. That can still be bored right?

Oh well as I was sayin unstructured training, it's all of those things that you avoid in your build up for that race. If that's picking crab apples, mowing the grass, going for a walk with the spouse(make sure you keep them happy), or other things with the spouse that you may have been too tired to do after the long training sessions. For me I'm still training, think I've done 4 runs now and one leasurely ride along the paths. My workouts are based on the weather, I love gettin out there to run or ride, not so much swim, and I don't want winter yet. So the unstructured part mainly is the fact that I don't have to do it if I want. I love to run, but sometimes we get tired of IG pushin us around, telling us what to do. hee hee It's great to finally be the boss, my body is fully recovered, but my mind isn't. That's why I need to focus on what I want to do, stuff that takes no energy to convince myself to do. :) Happy unstructured training everyone. K, I should do some work, cheers,

Darryl

Thursday, September 11, 2008

IMC 2009!

I'm registered!!! Here's to another year!!! Now I can forget about it for a bit and get back to some unstructured training. :)

Recovered

Hey there,

Sorry I haven't posted for awhile. I don't post when I have nothing to say, but if I have too much going on(lots to talk about) I won't post either. Weird huh? So when do I post? Well I would have posted earlier but I wanted to get some pictures up, now I realize that may never happen, if it does I'll just put them up on another day.

The recovery has been good, I didn't do anything for the first two weeks. Nothing, na da. I think now I've run 4 times, no swimming, no riding. Running is my main thing I guess, I'll always fall back on that. It gives me the most satisfaction. Yesterday I actually went longer and ended up doing 14km. Yeah longer then normal, the weather was awesome, I feel great(still felt great after the run).

K, lets see what else has been going on. Well the big day is coming up. We are leaving on the 20th for Maui to finally tie the knot. This girl I know has agreed to become my wife, no I didn't need to get her drunk or drug her to have her agree. So if you guys/gals have any warnings for her, you better hurry cause she's going through with it as of Sept 23. :)

They're ending the 40 yr/no money down thing so we had to quickly decide and buy a house. At first it seemed really tough. Our spending range made it difficult to find a lot of possibilities, but we managed to find one and are in the process of signing all the papers. It's official, we move in on Oct. 14. I couldn't be happier to get out of my neighborhood since someone tryed to steal my car a couple nights ago. They didn't steal it, but broke up the steering column completely. It's not the first time someone's tryed that(on a dif. car).

I think I'll be signing up for IMC 2009. I had thought about doing Cozumel, but there are too many unknowns like money, time off and where I spend it, etc. I like IMC and have only done it once, I like the course so why not do it one more time before I try somthing else. Hopefully I get in, my number didn't work on Sept 8 and I thought I was SOL, but they're opening it up again online for the general public. Maybe more people tryed to enter on the 8th like me??

Anyways I'll try to post some pics later, my mom came into town for a visit last weekend too and I have some pics of us going for a little hike. She hemmed Lisa's dress so that was nice for her to be involved(we're going alone to Maui). She also picked up some of my IM pics so she can brag to all her friends back home about her son rockin to a speedy 10:46, ha ha Next year we'll try to go even faster, Greg said I could so don't any of you tell me otherwise!!