Week ending 21APR2024
2 days ago
Saturday, July 25, 2009
My Pick for the Polaris Prize
First two tracks from Hey Rosetta!'s Polaris prize nominated album 'Into Your Lungs'. It's my pick to win it this year. I put the first two tracks up so you can get a feel for the whole album.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Updates and Excuses
What I have been doing lately is hard to call 'training'. Lots of easy efforts, 140ish HR, one hour in duration or so, 4-5 days as week. I'm getting leaner and maybe a little faster. Averaging about 30 miles per week without a long run. Trying to work a long run in but finding it tough to get my ass out of bed on Sunday morning when I dont have a race day deadline staring me down. The goal is to get frquency and duration up to 6-7 days/50+ miles averages going in to Fall.
Gunner is off the DL and we've managed to get several runs in together. Running with him really helps to keep the efforts down!
Work and home life has been nuts and have kept me away from the posts a little. Jamie and I are meeting with a designer next week to talk about some renos on the place so I'll be able to post about that at least.
Polaris Music Prize has announced theior short list and an album from 'Hey Rosetta' made the cut. It's been a huge fav of mine this summer and I'll throw a track of theirs up here tomorrow when I'm not posting from work!
Gunner is off the DL and we've managed to get several runs in together. Running with him really helps to keep the efforts down!
Work and home life has been nuts and have kept me away from the posts a little. Jamie and I are meeting with a designer next week to talk about some renos on the place so I'll be able to post about that at least.
Polaris Music Prize has announced theior short list and an album from 'Hey Rosetta' made the cut. It's been a huge fav of mine this summer and I'll throw a track of theirs up here tomorrow when I'm not posting from work!
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Another road trip, another mountain, another post
This weekend made a mad dash to Vernon to see my mom and Keith for the weekend. Jammed straight from work on Saturday and got there about 8:30. Put Violet to bed and was crushed from a long day of work and driving.
It wasn't until Sunday that I realized I had totally forgotten to do my push ups on Saturday. Some background: I stated doing push ups every day in January of 2009. I started with 10 a day and have added one to the number I do each week. I'm up to 41 push ups a day and Saturday was only the third day all year that I haven't done them and the first two were because I was literally too sick to get out of bed. So, needless to say I was pretty bummed. I swear that my pecs looked smaller.
Sunday we had all day so after breakfast we headed up to Silver Star mountain just outside of town before heading over to meet my mom for lunch.
Here's Violet crushing a bowl of berries.
Once again I found myself at the top of a lift line wishing I had my bike. It was crazy. We got there just before the lift opened and the mountain and village plaza were empty. Took a quick stroll out onto the mountain to check it out.
Beautiful views of the valley below:
Violet and I hopped up onto a trail that wasn't for hikers to check out a sick MTB bridge built over the path. The end of the bridge we are walking away from is a sick 25 foot 45 degree ladder with a super sharp banked turn at the bottom. It gave me butterflies to think about riding it.
The mountain was awesome and the views were incredible. I just don't know why I keep torturing myself by going to mountains without my bike. It's a sickness.
By the time we walked back to the village the lifts were almost open and the place was packed with tons of super sweet rigs including a girl rocking full armour and riding a bright pink dually that reminded me of a 'roided out version of this girl's ride.
The Vernon area is semi arid climate and all sorts of crazy wildlife lives in the area. Keith took us up to a nature conservatory that's funded entirely by donation so we could check out some of the exhibits and support the local conservation movement. It was rad! We were the only people there when we arrived and the two girls who were working were all over Violet!
The even busted out a gopher snake that was as long as Violet is tall and my little girl was brave enough to let it crawl on her hand. I was pretty impressed.
Met up with mom for lunch and pretty much relaxed in the heat for the rest of the trip. Lounged, ate, slept, repeat.
A highlight of the trip was hearing that my mom is planning to start riding her bike to work! I'm so pumped to hear it. We went to a local shop and picked out a super cool Trek 7 speed cruiser. It's 7km from her house to work and this bike should totally do the trick. I'll throw up a pic if she buys it. So pumped. Go Mom!
***UPDATE***
I just finished cleaning my bathroom and I don't care if they discover that five penguins die for every can they make: I will never stop buying Comet.
It wasn't until Sunday that I realized I had totally forgotten to do my push ups on Saturday. Some background: I stated doing push ups every day in January of 2009. I started with 10 a day and have added one to the number I do each week. I'm up to 41 push ups a day and Saturday was only the third day all year that I haven't done them and the first two were because I was literally too sick to get out of bed. So, needless to say I was pretty bummed. I swear that my pecs looked smaller.
Sunday we had all day so after breakfast we headed up to Silver Star mountain just outside of town before heading over to meet my mom for lunch.
Here's Violet crushing a bowl of berries.
Once again I found myself at the top of a lift line wishing I had my bike. It was crazy. We got there just before the lift opened and the mountain and village plaza were empty. Took a quick stroll out onto the mountain to check it out.
Beautiful views of the valley below:
Violet and I hopped up onto a trail that wasn't for hikers to check out a sick MTB bridge built over the path. The end of the bridge we are walking away from is a sick 25 foot 45 degree ladder with a super sharp banked turn at the bottom. It gave me butterflies to think about riding it.
The mountain was awesome and the views were incredible. I just don't know why I keep torturing myself by going to mountains without my bike. It's a sickness.
By the time we walked back to the village the lifts were almost open and the place was packed with tons of super sweet rigs including a girl rocking full armour and riding a bright pink dually that reminded me of a 'roided out version of this girl's ride.
The Vernon area is semi arid climate and all sorts of crazy wildlife lives in the area. Keith took us up to a nature conservatory that's funded entirely by donation so we could check out some of the exhibits and support the local conservation movement. It was rad! We were the only people there when we arrived and the two girls who were working were all over Violet!
The even busted out a gopher snake that was as long as Violet is tall and my little girl was brave enough to let it crawl on her hand. I was pretty impressed.
Met up with mom for lunch and pretty much relaxed in the heat for the rest of the trip. Lounged, ate, slept, repeat.
A highlight of the trip was hearing that my mom is planning to start riding her bike to work! I'm so pumped to hear it. We went to a local shop and picked out a super cool Trek 7 speed cruiser. It's 7km from her house to work and this bike should totally do the trick. I'll throw up a pic if she buys it. So pumped. Go Mom!
***UPDATE***
I just finished cleaning my bathroom and I don't care if they discover that five penguins die for every can they make: I will never stop buying Comet.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Whistler 2010, Summer Style
Hit up Whistler for the July 1st holiday with Jamie and Violet. We were hosted by the Visschers' who put us up in their sweet family pad. Yeah, that's a totem pole in the living room.
Here's the view from the top of the stairs. Totally roughing it.
There were three couples who went up with their kids and each of us was responsible for one meal over the three evenings. Trev and Jen were cooking up some beer butt chickens for dinner the first night we arrived. Meat cooked with beer? What's not to like?
One for me:
And a couple for the chickens:
Trev looking proud and protective of his delicious birds.
Hit it up with a little Slipstream ale and some corn and black bean salad. Good stuff.
The next day I was up early to get a little run in. The weather was really warm and I wanted to get going before it got too hot. The scenery was unreal and I wished I had brought my camera. I had meant to take it pretty easy but kinda clipped along instead. The first section of the run was downhill and the legs just kept going after that. Fitness isn't really there but it's coming along. I got lost following a trail map that I picked up at a take out BBQ place the day before and pushed it a little for the last couple miles.
After breakfast, decided to hit up the village and check out the parade. Olympic reps were there and I got a chance to hold an actual Olympic torch. I applied to be a runner but never heard back. This is as close as I'm going to get. Apparently, the torch runners have the option to buy the torch they run with and there are 14,000 Olympic torches made like this. Pretty sweet!
The kids were super pumped about the chance to see the Olympic mascots Miga, Quatchi, and Sumi who were rumored to be in the parade but they were late to show up and nap time forced us home before the kids all imploded. Violet and Theo (Trev and Jen's son) were pretty stoked to see some giant stuffed versions instead.
Whistler is known for the mountain but there are tons of gorgeous lakes up there as well. Owen (our host) busted out the Kayaks and took us all don to the lake for a paddle. Here he is with Violet after a spin around Alta Lake.
What a view. Hard to believe that we're only two hours from home. Life is good.
Violet was a little played out from all the sun so I went up to the alpine meadow with the rest of the crew to take a ride on the Peak to Peak gondola. It is the world's longest unsupported span of gondola in the world. The cable runs from Whistler to Blackcomb, 4.4 km over a valley between the two mountains. The unsupported length across the middle (distance between the two towers furthest apart) is 1.88 MILES. Yup, big ole gondola, two miles between towers, valley floor 200 feet below and 360 degree views. $40 to ride but it was worth it.
A pic from the gondola on the way up to the Peak to Peak. The lake in the back of the pic is where we were staying. You can see the village at the bottom. It's kinda tough to see but if you follow the gondola lines down you can see a building. That's the midpoint station and you can see some of the mountain bike trails shooting off from there and heading down to the village. Yes, from the midpoint to the village is all rolling down hill all-mountain goodness. And if you're feeling it, you can off load at the top and ride all the way down. Next time I'm bringing the dually.
And a crazy shot of the Whistler glacier from the Peak to Peak gondola. I stopped taking pictures after the first one when I realized that there was no way the camera could capture how majestic it all was.
Four days and it felt like two weeks. Thanks Visschers for a rad stay. Can't wait to do it again.
And for all y'all down south reading this: C'mon up and join us for a couple weeks this February and see for yourself! We're very friendly and your dollar goes a long way!
Here's the view from the top of the stairs. Totally roughing it.
There were three couples who went up with their kids and each of us was responsible for one meal over the three evenings. Trev and Jen were cooking up some beer butt chickens for dinner the first night we arrived. Meat cooked with beer? What's not to like?
One for me:
And a couple for the chickens:
Trev looking proud and protective of his delicious birds.
Hit it up with a little Slipstream ale and some corn and black bean salad. Good stuff.
The next day I was up early to get a little run in. The weather was really warm and I wanted to get going before it got too hot. The scenery was unreal and I wished I had brought my camera. I had meant to take it pretty easy but kinda clipped along instead. The first section of the run was downhill and the legs just kept going after that. Fitness isn't really there but it's coming along. I got lost following a trail map that I picked up at a take out BBQ place the day before and pushed it a little for the last couple miles.
After breakfast, decided to hit up the village and check out the parade. Olympic reps were there and I got a chance to hold an actual Olympic torch. I applied to be a runner but never heard back. This is as close as I'm going to get. Apparently, the torch runners have the option to buy the torch they run with and there are 14,000 Olympic torches made like this. Pretty sweet!
The kids were super pumped about the chance to see the Olympic mascots Miga, Quatchi, and Sumi who were rumored to be in the parade but they were late to show up and nap time forced us home before the kids all imploded. Violet and Theo (Trev and Jen's son) were pretty stoked to see some giant stuffed versions instead.
Whistler is known for the mountain but there are tons of gorgeous lakes up there as well. Owen (our host) busted out the Kayaks and took us all don to the lake for a paddle. Here he is with Violet after a spin around Alta Lake.
What a view. Hard to believe that we're only two hours from home. Life is good.
Violet was a little played out from all the sun so I went up to the alpine meadow with the rest of the crew to take a ride on the Peak to Peak gondola. It is the world's longest unsupported span of gondola in the world. The cable runs from Whistler to Blackcomb, 4.4 km over a valley between the two mountains. The unsupported length across the middle (distance between the two towers furthest apart) is 1.88 MILES. Yup, big ole gondola, two miles between towers, valley floor 200 feet below and 360 degree views. $40 to ride but it was worth it.
A pic from the gondola on the way up to the Peak to Peak. The lake in the back of the pic is where we were staying. You can see the village at the bottom. It's kinda tough to see but if you follow the gondola lines down you can see a building. That's the midpoint station and you can see some of the mountain bike trails shooting off from there and heading down to the village. Yes, from the midpoint to the village is all rolling down hill all-mountain goodness. And if you're feeling it, you can off load at the top and ride all the way down. Next time I'm bringing the dually.
And a crazy shot of the Whistler glacier from the Peak to Peak gondola. I stopped taking pictures after the first one when I realized that there was no way the camera could capture how majestic it all was.
Four days and it felt like two weeks. Thanks Visschers for a rad stay. Can't wait to do it again.
And for all y'all down south reading this: C'mon up and join us for a couple weeks this February and see for yourself! We're very friendly and your dollar goes a long way!
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