I Think I'm a Hypocrondriac. I Hope.

Let me explain. I sit in a closed office building all day long as most people do. I don't know why they can't make them with windows that open. Probably something about a controlled environment or something. Anyway, we're now heading into that time of year when people start getting sick and as it happens the woman that sits in the desk next to me is sick. She's been caughing and sneezing and blowing her nose for 2 days now. I keep urging her to call her doctor, or better yet, go home. But yet she stays.
I've been doing my best to steer clear of her. But there's not much to do when there's only a thin partitian between us. I've washed my hands a million times. I'm careful not to touch my eyes or mouth. Yet as I sit there and listen to her, I start feeling worse. My nose starts running. I've blown it a couple times and wonder, "is it allergies or am I catching her cold?". Then I think my throat is getting sore. I go in search of Airborne. I take my vitamins. I start feeling my head for a fever. I feel closterphobic with all the contained germs flying around with no excape. I find myself holding my breathe when I hear her sneeze or cough. Like that's going to save me from catching it. I call Marc and tell him I'm not feeling well. I start to panic. Finally she goes home. But I'm left trapped with the contamination.
Now I'm home. I'm breathing more freely. I'm going to go for a run and see how it works out.

Only Me

Ok, this happened last weekend. But I still it's still worth telling. Last weekend we attended a wedding in Philly. After the ceremony we headed to the reception where there were cocktails, dinner and dancing. The dancing area was in a foyer. It was a large space with some small tables around the sides to sit or drop some stuff on. We (me and Marc, his 3 brothers, their wives and his parents) had taken over one table. We piled all our stuff on it as we moved about.
All was good until I leaned on the table. I was a little tired and watching something so I leaned back on the table and felt the table move, just slightly. So I stood back upright. A few minutes later I leaned again, only to feel the table move again. At this point I felt the table needed further investigation as I didn't remember it being on wheels. I turned around and put 1 finger on the table and pushed it, expecting it to roll. Yeah, that's not what happened. As soon as I pushed on the table the one side went crashing to the floor. This caused all of its contents, including a couple candles in which had been burning for hours, several purses, wraps, and about a dozen or so of filled or empty glasses, to go flying. The table completely collapsed. It made a loud noise, not to mention all the screams as people were covered in drinks and hot wax. Yeah, I caused a scene.
Shortly after Marc walks back over to see the chaos and asks what happened. I tell him the table collapsed. He asks who did it. I say me. He just looks at me and shakes his head.

I love cross. I love cross. I love cross.

Usually I can't wait for Spring. Everything comes back to life, the sun shines a litter longer and it slowly starts to warm back up. Also, it's because it brings on Summer. My favorite season. I love Summer and usually never want it to end. It goes by so fast and before you know it, it's gone.
This year was no exception. Except, I kept finding my mind wandering to Fall and cross season. As June approached it got stronger. By July it was unbearable so I went out for a run. Yeah, that only happened once. So hot, and way to far off to put myself through that kind of torture. Yet, my mind still lingered.
Last week Marc took my wheels in to get glued. It's getting close! Went out and tooled around on my cross bike. Not quite the same as a mountain bike. I found this out quickly as I sped down the the normally very smooth mtb trail, only to touch the brakes, then grab them, then to white knuckle them while screaming and swerving just in time to avoid a tree. Yeah, that's when I remembered cross brakes are to scrub speed, not to actually stop. Ugh! That was a close one. It'll take me a bit to get myself back to used to it. But it'll come.
One more month!

Frisbee Love

Brought home this giant Frisbee from OR. Marc laughed at me, but I knew Riley and Layla would love it.Riley usually let's Layla have her way, but not today.
Layla's so excited she's practically flying back to me to have it thrown again. (notice not one foot is touching the ground)

SLC

After a great night watching Dave, Amy and I headed home to finish packing and lay down for all of 2 hours before heading to the airport. I call it lay down because is 2 hours really a nights sleep? Anyway we headed off to Salt Lake City, Utah to see Marc finally and bomb around the Outdoor Retailers show. After a very sketchy plane ride we arrived safely in Utah to find a very ill Marc. That sucked. But it was great to see him none the less as it had been 17 days since I had seen him. He was off riding from Portland to Salt Lake City for the Conservation Alliance while I was home working. Somehow I think he got the better end of that deal. Mmmm, after the bike trip was over for him, he still had to work the show for a week, so that's we headed out to visit him and hang out.

Brey-la-la and I spent Thursday running all over the show. It was crazy. It was held in this giant convention center in downtown SLC. It was like a giant mall of everything you like. Only thing is, you can only look, you can't buy (tons of swag though). Every possible outdoor type thing was there. It was great. We went into sensory overload.

Friday we headed out to Park City. Figured we'd get out of the city and into the mountains and do some riding. Oh and mountains they were. First we had to rent bikes, no problem finding them, just some problems getting them set up and they were tanks. Then we got a map and took off up the trail. I say up the trail instead of on the trail because that's what it was. The trail head was a very steep climb, which leveled out a little into a lesser degree, but still quite steep and we just kept going up and up. It was never ending. We switch backed a zillion times onto steeper and less steep sections, but still climbing none the less. At one point we passed a woman on her way down and I asked if we were near the top. She just looked at me with this look of utter exhaustion and amusement and laughed and kept going. I thought this was a bad sign, but proceeded on.

Then a couple guys came from behind and Amy took off with them. I was with them shortly as they were catching a breather, but then off they'd go and I'd be alone, climbing. At the next trail break they were waiting for me and Amy says they're headed to SLC and they'll drive us back. It's an 18 mile downhill into the town, all we have to do is get to the top. I reluctantly say ok, but warn them I'm going really slow as the elevation was kicking my ass, besides me not used to climbing this much. We take off again. Now we have to head up a very steep power line trail with loose rocks. I couldn't even ride, I had to get off and hike. At this point I was beyond hurting to pure pain and misery as I was breathing to almost the point of hyperventilation just trying to get some oxygen. We later found out we were above 10,000 feet. Yeah, since I live around maybe 500 ft above sea level, 10,000 was not good.

I get to another break, Amy waits with me and stays with me from here out. We are still climbing, up and up. We finally get off the power line and head into another set of trails, still climbing. As we reach a clearing, and the top of a ski lift I look up and see we still quite a bit to go to the top. There was no way I could go up anymore. I told Amy. She was disappointed, but agreed to head back as we had lost our guides by this point as well. At this point I finally asked her what time it was was to find out how long we had climbed. I try not to look at time as it just messes with my head. Turns out we climbed for 2 hours! Amy climbed a little less time as she had to stop and wait for me numerous times. But 2 hours of climbing, that's insane! We turned around and then headed back down. Only took us about 45min to get back down. It was beautiful. I did get to look around more on our decent as I could finally breath. We met a really nice woman out on the trail with her 2 dogs. She races road hill climbs. More insanity!

Here is where I can finally see the top of the mountain. Also the point where turned around as I realize there's no way I can get up there.
This is only part of the way up, way near the begining. That little town we're looking down on is Park City (and where we sterted).

Friday night we all went to the Keen party in SLC and they premiered a clip of the Conservation Alliance documentary of the trip Marc was on. It was cool. Saturday back to the show and more swag, then after the show was the Bouldering Championships up on top a parking garage. It was really neat to watch.

This is inside OR. These dogs are sporting life vests and fetching all kinds of water toys.

DMB

I'm going to see Dave Matthews tonight with Brey-la-la. I'm so excited! Most people I know don't really care for him. Some actually cringe at the thought. But I like him. He puts on a great show.

Funny Business In The Woods

Got up early and met up with Ethan and Jan for a ride at Iron Hill. I don't usually ride there due to all the creepy people that lurk in the parking lots and woods looking for hook ups. But with the race coming up, that's where people are riding, so I figured what the hell, I'll be with people.
Lap 1. Rode with Ethan and Jan. I felt bad as I wasn't having a particularly great day and was kinda dragging ass. Jan on the other hand was feeling spunky. So as we were about to head out for another lap I decided I'd go off by myself and just do part of the lap as I had to pull off soon to get home.
Lap 2. All is good for the first couple sections. Ride them cleanly, knowing the lines I want this time. Then as I am coming up tissue trail, all by myself, I spot 2 guys on the side of the trail. One is facing away from me and standing with his hands over his head like he's being frisked. The other has his pants around his knees, holding his junk, staring right at me the whole time as I ride by. He's didn't even try to pull his pants up or cover himself. Let's just say I was a little taken back by this. I didn't say anything, not even hi. I mean really, what do you say?
I got back to the car and luckily there were several cyclists there. This made me feel better. I got my stuff together and went home. That was enough Iron Hill for me.