Well, I'm thinking about starting this blogging business up again, however coming at it from more of a training point of view this time. As the snow starts to cover the mountains I've been living in for over a year, I am setting my sights on some lofty goals. All of which are centered around ski mountaineering racing (ski mo racing). If you don't know what this is (because very few people do, even here) it is this: Put skins (let you travel uphill on snow) on your skis, run up a snow covered mountain, take skins off, blast down said mountain, repeat. Last spring roomie Scott and I were introduced to this sport at the 5 peaks ski mo race here in Breck. It was 4 accents, equalling around 8500ft of vert. Both of us were very rookie. I, for one, was wearing a bike jersey, my relatively ginormous backcountry ski pack, using womens skis that were light in the ski world, but ridiculously heavy in the ski mo world, and a pair of rental boots that weighed a bit less then my own pair. And besides making crucial newbie mistakes, like letting our food freeze, and wearing rental boots (I had huge blisters for the last 3 hours of a 4.5 hour race), we had a blast and managed to not do horribly. I should also mention that my training was basically my winter of backcountry skiing. Trudging slowly up a skin track or through powder on a heavy set up. Scott had a few days on his, i'm gonna call it mid weight set up too (super light compared to a normal BC set up) but also never really trained to go fast. Basically what I'm getting at, is I got the itch...we both did. Here is a video of the five peaks in Breck, Scott and I make an appearance at 0:12 (you get to see my awesome set up) and again seeing scott cruising a 1:49 and my amazing duct taped water bottle holster at 1:54!

There are a few reasons why I'm gonna focus on ski mo racing this year. The first comes from my abysmal performance at the Jemez Mountain Trail Runs 50 miler in may. With the record snow fall, it was really hard to get a good ultra marathon base. I had to drive and hour and half at the least to find some good dry trails and on my wage as a liftie, it didn't happen too often. I did do alot of snow shoe running, but i just wasn't getting the volume (perhaps my refusal to run on paved roads was a bit stubborn). In what I hope is a correct prediction, training for ski mo racing is going to be great cross training for long distance trail running. It is considerably less impact letting me get more vert per day then running, i'll be doing a lot of vert and I think that it should be very beneficial for my climbing and descending legs once the snow melts, and you don't really get to go 60 mph snow shoeing. Another reason I wanna focus on it is because I think I can do well. I'm a strong aggressive skier and apparently that can be a real advantage in the sport (or rather a disadvantage if you aren't good) and I'm no stranger to clocking 10,000 ft of climbing in a day or getting after it for more than 6 hours. I will also be one of the youngest guys competing. Turns out, most 23 year olds (in Breck anyway) wouldn't be caught dead in lyrca, unless of course it was under 3 layers of tall tees and and a extra long hoodie, as they waddle to the bars so their jeans don't fall off. Basically saying that I'm hoping to get some sort of sponsorship out of this winter.
So this blog, for the time being, is going to be a look into a very inexperienced yet hopeful and motivated ski mo athlete's quest to wow some people and himself. I have no coach, only a few friends who dabble in the sport, and basically only my past experience in highly competitive endurance sports (if I can even call collegiate xc an endurance sport anymore) as a reference for training. It will be quite the experiment. But if it means I get to be outside enjoying this magical place, I am more then willing to get a little dirty figuring things out. Real training (I've been running and skinning) will start just as soon as Mtn Outfitters receives the bindings I ordered which should be by the end of the week. My basic plan is to spend the first month and a half to two months just getting out there and spending time on my skis logging alot of vert. Then I'll starting adding some threshold workouts as well as fast interval training to get that turnover better. And of course I'll be doing some long days hopefully once a week. I'll be tracking my training with my Garmin, mostly to see how much vert I'm doing, I'd like to see how much I put in this season on skis and possibly make a goal to work for.

This blog also might include a sub blog entitled "Bro Diaries" A look into the phenomenon of 'Being a Bro' from the perspective of an active young gentlemen from the inside of this otherwise lazy and ridiculous age demographic. I already have plenty of stories for this sub blog, from the ridiculous attire this community comes up with, to the comments I hear on the bus or at work. Here's a teaser: "I like disk golf, but man its just alot of hiking around, not a big fan of that" Awesome. Stay tuned for an in depth look to the a people whos only contribution to society is supporting ma and pop tall tee shops and local bars. Am I being elitist? Yes. OH! just remembered a conversation I overheard of a Snowboard instructor explaining to his student what "steeze" means. Gotta love Breck.

Well off to go run, got turned around by ski patrol this morning skinning up breck and therefore did not get the workout I intended. Dumb.


If you want more info on ski mo racing go here.

Two hundred and fifty-eight

I've come up with my race schedule for the year, and i'm pumped. Mostly because it will give me something to work for. Going to work as the sun rises and getting home as the sun sets makes it hard to get myself out there especially after a long day of standing in the cold dealing with some less than competent people. But, i've discovered the benefit of skiing/skinning in an out of work. I saw one of the most beautiful sunrises I have ever seen yesterday morning as skinned down the street on my way to a trail. An amazing way to wake up. And when frustration sets in when i'm dealing with people who can't get on a lift moving at a snails pace, I can either look up from my office to see the view of 10 to 15 peaks on the continental divide, or remember moments like yesterday morning. Anyway, here is the schedule:

Feb. 6: Gold Rush 7k Snowshoe Race, Frisco CO

March. 6: Jeremy Wright North American Snowshoe Championships 10k, Beaver Creek CO

May 21: Jemez Mountain Trail 50 Mile, Los Alamos, NM

June 18: San Juan Solstice 50 mile Run, Lake City CO

July 8: Full pacing (~58 miles) of the Hardrock 100 Endurance Run, Silverton CO

August 20: Leadville Trail 100 Mile Run, Leadville CO (if i can afford the entrance fee)

There might be some local trail races scattered in there just for fun, and i intend to try and get some sponsors....hopefully.

His Newest Adventure

He just wrote a few sentences in an attempt to update his blog, but it was crap. Instead he called his talented author friend to write another one for him since the last one was awesome. To put it plainly and probably really understating it, his last week was chaotic. There were tens of thousands of people in town (apparently around 100,000). All the out-of-towners still didn't seem to dilute the bro take over and he was starting to get fed up. One of the days he worked (YES HE HAS A JOB) it was sub zero all day. He had found out that week that some law offices don't close for MLK day...dumb. One bitter sweet moment to save him from this week were his multiple skype sessions most notably the one with his family at 6:30 on christmas morning. Jelly Bellies and a stocking, and a christmas cracker and getting to see his beautiful family (obviously this is a pretty strong word for some of his 19 year old brothers) almost made him feel at home, but not really.


It kinda seems like this guy just keeps complaining, but really that isn't what this blog is about. It is about how all those frustrations melted away with two clicks of his boots into his bindings. But this wasn't any normal set of clicks, it was the clicks that signal the start of an adventure. Finally the stars aligned, and by stars he means his and his roommates schedules, and they had the time to do some backcountry. Detracting a little from the bad ass-ness of the adventure was the ski lift ride up to the top so they could get to the backcountry gate. But getting away from that first paragraph and into the untracked, beautiful, empty, slightly windy, raw, and dangerous wilderness was all the bad ass-ness he needed. The effort coupled with the constant awareness of the avalanche terrain around him let his worries anxieties and frustrations fall away fall from the sky in fresh snow that he was about to destroy. It was yet again another of those awesome moments where there were many factors that could make someone grumpy, strong cold winds, almost zero visibility yet there was a large smile in his face the entire 2000 foot hike to just below the summit of Peak 6 (some unstable looking snow denied their summit attempt).
The skiing wasn't amazing, he could't see 10 feet in front of him and the snow went from wind slab to deep powder every 10 feet or so, but boy was it the most fun he had had on skis yet this season. Scott saying, "Man we need to do this more often" seemed to sum up their morning. There is nothing like earning your turns.

To cap off this awesome day he just found out that while law offices might not close for MLK day, they sometimes let off their employees. And as he tells his author that this should suffice for the blog, he can't help but think to himself, Everything is Promising.

Day 5 to ?

As I sit here listening to a crazy lady yelling as loud as she possibly can about wanting her job back at a person who is “not her mother”, I’m thinking about two things. One, this blanket is really itchy and two, she has a really annoying voice. But I feel for her. I take that back she has a really annoying voice. Go away! I do however, also feel like yelling at someone. I would make sure to make it less annoying though. I don’t have a job yet, and I started applying for them back in September. The company decided not to tell me they weren’t going to hire me, even though they said they would let me know if I didn’t get a job. Now she’s banging on someone’s door. I went to investigate and turns out she is saying “give me my dog back”, not job. So my segue (had no idea that’s how that word is spelled) from crazy lady with job and mommy issues to my job issues just fell apart. Shoot. The point is I’m not happy about being unemployed. I’m also not happy that this freaking girl won’t leave the parking lot.

Because of my incessant email checking, waiting for some dang job new, it has been to hard to enjoy my time away from school and have some adventures. However, that doesn't mean I haven't had more adventures. Things have changed since my last post...mostly snow. Oh man has it snowed alot, apparently it has been a record early season! I've been taking advantage of it by doing some skinning, at night, in the middle of the day and at the wee hours of the morning, which is absolutely ridiculous because I have nothing to do all day. The few popular trails I've been on since it snowed are really well traveled and make for surprisingly good running. So that makes me happy because the one run I did on the roads from here was awful. A 400ft decent out the door on sidewalks to get to the busy dirty roads in town, coupled with not having run for a while, plus coming back up aforementioned hill makes for an unhappy Simon. What makes for a happy Simon, is weaving through a thick snowy forest over half frozen streams up and down hills in complete silence etc.

Speaking of thick snowy forests and streams and hills,Scott and I went on a winter backpacking trip in the backcountry. At this point I'd like to point out my amazing segueing skills. I'd also like to point out that the lady is back and annoying as ever. Anyway, we started from the rock creek trail head outside of Silverthorne, immediately took a 3 mile warm up hike/detour/we missed the turnoff, eventually got back onto the Gore range trail which 5.5 miles later met up with the salmon/willow lakes trail which we got on for a 3 mile accent to bring us to the Willow Lakes. That was a run on sentence if I have ever seen one. I learned a few things on this 12ish mile hike to our camp site. Everything is harder in the snow (i already knew this...wait for it) with a huge backpack on. Turns out its hard to pack light when you're going to be sleeping in the snow. The last three miles I was breaking trail up what was 2/3 of our elevation gain for the way out. Half way up as I was feeling super tired, grumpy, and fed up with my weak ass shoulders which haven't had a heavy pack on them for way too long. As a familiar burn crept up in my legs I started thinking about how nice it would have been to have snowshoes when I ran the Rim to Rim to Rim last March (the last mile and 1000 feet of elevation gain I was slowed both up and down with 2-3 feet of snow) which made me think about my other ultra marathon training runs, which made me think about my first ultra which made me think about how my second and third and fourth ultras will go which made me think, "I love this pain" and then I started going faster. What? Yes. I don't know either. But whenever I start thinking about stuff like that I go from feeling like crap and not loving it, to feeling like crap and feeling just the opposite. Anyway, eventually made it to our camp spot right next to the first of three completely frozen completely flat and completely white lakes. It was perfect.

We saw absolutely no one the first day (ran into a mule train on the way back) and were surrounded by wilderness which to us appeared completely untouched by humans. Not even having a trail to follow or evidence of anybody else ever being there made me feel so much more detached from the world...there is nothing better. Massive peaks with aggressive ridges and steep slopes rose straight out of the basin we were in only a few hundred feet from us and wrapped around us increasing the sense of isolation. I love mountains!!! (see earlier blog post). Though I didn't get much sleep in the cold and everything is much harder winter camping, that 20 mile trip was one of the best trips I've ever had. I can't wait to get back to that deep silence again. Turns out we could have made it a 10 mile round trip...20 is way more badass.

Well the girl has left, I am tired, and my warm room that makes far too much noise at night is calling. Tomorrow: get a job (this is a nightly plan), do some backcountry skiing, hottub (naturally) perhaps make something delicious for dinner, and try to forget about my troubles and enjoy the amazing life I'm living.

Breckenridge Colorado Day 1-4

Day 1- After a 10 hour drive from flagstaff (that is 2200 miles in about 10 days now). I made it to Breck and only 20 min after Scotty. We made a trip to the grocery store to buy some ingredients for our gourmet camp stove dinner of past and pasta sauce. Then spend another two hours looking for a camp site. We eventually found one, at about 10,000ft. Walking from the tent to the car leaves me breathing much harder than walking 50 ft should. Had our gourmet dinner next to an illegal camp fire (didn't find out it was illegal until the next day) and it was glorious...Also, at 10,000ft two beers go a long way.

Day 2- Started our search for a house at Starbucks...Yes i know starbucks. But in our defense we were told it was one of the only places with free wi-fi (lies) and it was in a sweet old yellow house. Anyway, called about 6 or 7 different places, and went and visted about 3 right away. Then we got a call for a cheap (relatively) place 200 meters from where I might work and from the ski lifts and it included heat, and we said yes. So we found a house the first day! Then we went for an epic bike ride in the rain up a trail that was less trail than it was a path amongst tree roots. Combined with the rain it made for a frustrating accent and a dangerous decent. Only crashed a couple times. This trail was right next to our camp site so we felt pretty badass biking and camping. Had gourmet leftovers for dinner.

Day 3- Scott had an interview and then we waited around for a phone call, which eventually came, so we got the application process going but still didn't know if we got the place. Then we went to another trail were I ran from and scott biked. The amount of trails in the place is ridiculous. Ultra training is going to be soo much fun next summer. Then we had some gourmet ramen and tuna seasoned with an artisan blend of chili spices. Saw a massive bear and I really do mean massive. Passed around my limited edition NAU ultimate frisbee, and went back into town for some local beer, where we met many drunk locals. Breckenridge Brewery Vanilla Porter is freaking delicious.

Day 4- Which is right now. Well not all of it is right now. This morning after/during a cup of tea continued our slacklining session that we started last night by car head lights. Now we're in a local cafe/bakery (yep no more Starbucks) waiting for our application to get approved so we can move into our sick pad bro. Which brings me to my next segment:

First impressions of Breck: Lots of bros. And I mean lots. It might get a bit overwhelming later. But we found a climbing/mountaineering/ski mountaineering shop yesterday which proved that there is a non-bro community here, which is a relief. I need to find somewhere I can buy a cord for my camera so I can upload pictures because it would make this boring post a heck of alot more interesting. Well I have to go figure out what i'm going to do today...Run? Mountain Bike? Climb? oh its a hard life.

Ireland

I am sitting here in a Galway hostel, being anti social and writing this. To be fair to myself...nevermind nope I just suck. By the time I finish this I will be done eating and off the computer and I'll have no excuse. Well anyway, Ireland has been for the most part more relaxing than Spain. Though cold, not very cold but after living in sweat kingdom, it is very cold. I've had two tours (by relatives) or Northern Ireland cities and I really enjoyed them, though I now have a completely different perspective of the how bad things were, how much better they have got but also how much separation there still is.

Been travelin alot on bus and train and since I left Spain without my Ipod and my concentration time while reading is about 2 minutes, 5 if it is an interesting part of the book, I have been doing alot of thinking. Thinking about...whether or not I want school to be in my future, thinking about girls, thinking about how cold I am, thinking about how awesome and cold this winter is going to be (I am cold right now), thinking about thinking, thinking about writing a book, though the more I think about it the more I think it is a ridiculous Idea, thinking about how I really want to go running, thinking about how I want to go biking, thinking about how I want to get a touring bike and go off for a few months next summer, thinking about how this would strongly conflict with plans to become a famous ultrarunner, thinking how awesome it would be to be a pro ultrarunner, thinking about how amazing real Cadbury's chocolate is, and finally thinking about how cool Ireland is. Well, I am done eating. Now its time to be a big boy and find some friends.

Bill and the Bar

I have an interesting story. Finally. Not that I haven’t had interesting experiences here but not ones worth telling. This one on the other hand will be worth it. I hope.

Well, Lizz (roommate) and I got bored of doing nothing on our 1 day off a week. So we rented a car, found a friend (Renata) and headed off for Valencia Friday afternoon. Upon arriving to Valencia we realized how crappy both google map directions and street signs are in Spain. We took a wrong turn, tried to get back to that wrong turn but took another wrong turn. We thought we were on the other side of town but after asking a meter-maid (don’t know what they are called in Spain) it ends up that second wrong turn was actually the correct turn we should have made the first time. Eventually found a great parking spot, great for its location and also, there wasn’t a bum guiding us in and then asking for money because of it. This is apparently a profession. One bum was ‘guiding’ people into regular diagonal parking spaces, telling them to stop as their tires hit the curb, and requesting money. And people paid! Ridiculous. Anyway, we checked into our hostel dropped off our stuff and set out the explore old town Valencia. It was super pretty, really old 19^th century buildings connected by a confusing maze of tiny one way streets through apartments, bars, stores, restaurants, etc. We ate some tapas (had amazing croquettes de pollo) and washed it down with sangria, then moved on and took a taxi to La Ciudad de Las Artes (city of the arts). All built within the last few years, every building is super modern with crazy architecture. Each building sits on top of or next to a reflection pool, so it’s twice as amazing. If my camera had been working you wouldn’t have to tell you to go here to see pictures. After Lizz took a million and a half pictures we headed back to old town for some more food and more booze. We were wandering through the maze when a guy stopped us and told us he could get us two for one drinks at the bar he was standing outside of. We went in of course. It was a strange bar, with a bit of an African vibe to it. Small and very smokey. We got our cheap beer and found another back room that no one was in, and decided to hang out there. After a few more drinks this old guy comes in and sits down at the bar at this back room. If you know Bill from Kill Bill, then you know this guy, only the Valencia version. He was minding his own business and sketching in an old book of his. Once he finished that he started drawing on this metal thing on the bar. We decided he was worth talking to. I’d say it was more other influences that made us talk to him but we did anyway. He spoke only a handful of English words but with my meager vocab and hand gestures we got to conversatin. He had apparently abandoned and/or finished his bar grafitti and moved on to drawing a pair of lizards embracing on Lizz’s chest. You read that right. For the rest of the night, Lizz had two lizards, one with a very long wandering tail, on her chest. Red Flag number 1. More beers where bought, more bad Spanish and bad English was exchanged and we were beginning to become great friends with this guy. His name was something like Eugene. We still don’t really know. He told us his name in Spanish, Catalan, English, and French. Anyway Eugene kept saying he had lots of pictures upstairs. Turned out his house was directly above this bar. Well being the smart travelers we were, we followed this creepy old guy to his apartment. His apartment was amazing. He had so much random stuff. Huge oil canvas paintings, safari hats, African walking sticks, a personal bar, and a big screen tv. For some reason, he insisted on showing us a recording of the Rolling Stones. I think he liked the fact that I was a yankee (pronounced jankee). Well he turned on the TV and oops, it was still on the Porn channel. Red flag number 24. But we watched the rolling stones anyway. I couldn’t help but rock out/laugh at the ridiculous situation we had gotten ourselves into. We mentioned we should probably be leaving; after all it was 4:30 in the morning. Then he said something to the effect of it would be easier if we slept in his house for the night. Red flag number 25, and everybody knows if you reach 25 red flags you need to get out of there. And we did, I explained as best I could that we had to go back to an unnamed hostel right away. He didn’t press the subject anymore and let us out the door without anymore flags. He did however request that we let his dog out to pee. Well we made it back to the hostel and slept off an amazing night. Next morning we got some food, visited an art museum (saw some really cool installation art), went to the royal gardens, had paella in its home city, had gelato…I’m in love, and went back to the car. Almost got lost again trying to leave but after a long tired drive back we made it. I spoke more Spanish in 24 hours than I have since I’ve been here. It makes me wonder how good I would be at speaking Spanish if I really was surrounded by it 24/7. Oh well.

I have 4 more days in Spain then I’m off to Ireland! It has gone so fast! I really want to go home, but I think I’ll miss it here too.