UGH

Well I have not been blogging much lately because I recently shifted from "enjoying life/screw you thesis" mode to "holy crap I am never going to finish if I don't work my butt off" mode. Basically, this sucks. I am still trying to keep some perspective and enjoy time off now and then. I took all day Sunday off, even though it meant working until after midnight last night, and I'm glad I did. And, I think Chris and I are going backpacking this weekend, even though I should probably work. Screw it!!!

What really sucks is the past week or so I have had a lot of non-thesis work to do. I am still doing ~5 hours a week writing for the CMMAP website, and I finally got my butt back in gear with the AGU newsletter (hopefully will have an issue published in the next few days, requiring me to work late again tonight). Plus for some retarded reason I decided to "volunteer" (even though I will get paid a small amount) to help with a teacher's training course this July - I will be leading two one-hour long "extension activities" - one about latent heat and phase changes (we'll make ice cream with liquid nitrogen!), and one about climate change. It is neat stuff but I really do not have time for this.

I am also pretty upset about Tiger's health. I've had Tiger since I was 13, so more than half my life. He is my little buddy and I really love him a lot. He is the friendliest cat I've ever met and has a kick ass personality. But he hasn't been doing too well the past couple of months, mainly he is not eating. He's had bloodwork done, and urine and fecal analysis, and the vets couldn't find a problem from that. They suggested ultrasounds and x-rays, but it would be $450 (plus we've already spent >$300, and they would have to sedate him which could be risky with his health), so we opted out of that. We started giving him steroids two weeks ago and it was like a miracle. The Friday before we started I really thought he would die at any moment. He was hardly eating a thing and was very lethargic. He still liked to be around Chris and I but didn't have the energy to cuddle or be his usual persistent self. As soon as we started the steroids, he started eating again. We actually were psyched when we got home one day and he had knocked over the trash - the old Tiger was back!

Unfortunately that vigor was short-lived, and he is back to being tired and not hungry. Today when I stopped by the house I couldn't find him at first and I started preparing myself to find him curled up and off to a better place somewhere, but he was just sleeping in the closet. But it sucks!! I want him to get better but it is seeming less likely. What is weird is he doesn't seem to be in pain, just really lethargic (as you would expect for eating about 1 tbsp of food a day). I wish we knew what was wrong with him, but I have a feeling even if we knew the cost of trying to fix it would be prohibitive.

This is so depressing I think I might cry in the middle of the freaking Bean Cycle. So ... um ... funny Tiger story. For some reason he tends to run away after pooping. Chris and I have come up with several names for this over the years - the crap'n'dash, the poop'n'scoot, the shit'n'split. It is great but of course he hasn't been doing it too much lately. Well right after starting the steroids he did the crap'n'dash! Except, he forgot to leave all the crap in the box, so he had it hanging from his butt. I started yelling at Chris to pull it off, and he was like "WHY ME?". So Chris started chasing Tiger around the house with a paper towel trying to pull this turd off his butt. It was hilarious. Haha. :)

Well he's not gone yet so hopefully we still have some good times with him. Sometimes he still tries to lay on my face at night, and I don't even mind anymore. Maybe he will start eating again, who knows. Maybe we should up the steroid dosage. Just drug him up so he can float happily through the last days/weeks/months of his long and happy life. Here's to you, Fat Back!

10K Race Report

Last Sunday Chris and I ran in the Colorado Marathon ... 10K. It went pretty well. My goal was to finish in under 53:00, and I was really hoping for an 8:30 pace. My PR for a 10K is from the Loveland Lake to Lake Tri in 2005 - 52:14. I've been gradually working up my mileage, with my longest run being a few weeks ago at about 8 miles in 90 minutes. I also started working in some more speed work the last few weeks. So anyway, the first mile I ran too fast. Everyone else around me was booking it, and I figured I could keep up with them so I should run fast too. When I got to mile 1 in 8:10 I knew I needed to slow down! I gradually worked into a more even pace. My heart rate was in the high 160's to low 170's - right around 170 is where I tried to keep it. That is funny to me because it is so different on the bike. I am pretty sure I can't hold that HR for 50 minutes when I'm riding. But running it was a challenge but not impossible.

The last two miles were on the same course as the marathon and half marathon. People who were finishing the half were just flying by me, it was very impressive. I started to feel pretty crappy but kept up the pace. I was extraordinarily happy to see the finish line, and crossed in 52:47 - an 8:31 pace. Woohoo! :) Chris came in not too long after in 57:06 (my secondary goal was to beat him).

I do the Lake to Lake in 7 weeks, so who knows how fast I can be by then :). It is exciting to see some of the fruits of my training. Today Chris and I ran up Maxwell (the "hill" behind the stadium). It took 24:50 to get to the top from Overland Trail. So we'll see how I can improve on that, but it was definitely a butt-kicking type run.

That's it for now. Tomorrow I am pretty excited about watching the Collegiate Cycling National Championship road race. It is awesome to have the country's best young cyclists racing a mile from my house (on some of my favorite roads)! GO RAMS! :) It is a little weird/sad to not be racing this year but I am mostly just fine with watching instead of racing!

Here is a picture of Chris from the race. Luckily there isn't a picture of me b/c I probably looked like an angry wreck.

2008 Backpacking - Trip 1 - Wild Basin

Over a couple of pints at the Fort Collins Brewery in January, Chris and I made an oath to go backpacking at least once a month from April - October this year. After all, we moved to Colorado to explore and enjoy the mountains, and we only did one measly overnight trip last year.

So, two weekends ago we got started with a two day trip in Wild Basin, on the south side of Rocky Mountain National Park. Saturday's forecast called for a rain/snow mix so we slept in and didn't actually hit the trail until about 1:00. The trail technically started at the Wild Basin ranger station, but we had to hike about a mile on the road since it was still closed (unnecessarily) for winter.

We hiked along the North St Vrain Trail, which was a not too difficult grade to start with and passed a handful of waterfalls. Some were completely ice-free, while others were covered with snow still. Ouzel Falls seemed the most impressive, it was mostly just ice clinging to a cliff, but some water was also cascading between the ice and rocks. Very cool, and I got the impression that at any minute all the ice could break free in a tremendous crash. Early on, there were wild turkey tracks all over the place and we finally saw one of the awckward creatures bobbing around the woods.


Ouzel Falls

I say the trail was not too difficult but we actually did not hike very fast. Partially because of the sightseeing, partially because of the snow (we finally had to put on the snowshoes after about 2 miles). Overall, it took us about 3.5 hours to hike the 4.5 miles to our campsite at 9650 feet. Once at camp we set up the tent and sat down for "lunch" (at 4:30). Also I had insisted on getting cheesy bean and rice burritos at Taco Bell in Estes Park, so Chris' stomach wasn't feeling too well. Oops.

Anyway, after sitting for about 10 minutes, I realized it was very cold, and was only going to get colder, and we had all night to sit around and freeze. Oh yeah, when we got to the campsite, there was a pair of coyote-like tracks through the site. It was pretty cool, and I actually wasn't too nervous about camping there (last year on our one camping trip I hardly slept at all because I was paranoid about a moose we had seen earlier charging our tent). We thought there was a small chance the tracks were from a wolf, because they seemed kind of large, but that is not very likely since there are not very many documented wolf sitings in Colorado.


The tracks that went through our campsite. The black MSR label is 4 inches across, for scale.

Chris and I hiked a little farther up the trail toward Thunder Lake to stay warm. We didn't go to far because I left my watch at the campsite and we didn't want to get caught in the dark. So by 6:30 we were back at the site. The next two hours dragged by. We quickly got into the tent to conserve heat, played cards, talked, and finally made some delicious ramen. By 8:30 it was time to sleep! I wore a ton of clothes to bed, including two pairs of socks with toe warmers. But, it paid off b/c I actually didn't get that cold, even though I am pretty sure it couldn't have been above 10 degrees.

Sunday morning we avoided getting out of our warm sleeping bags until 9:30. I was kind of cold when we got up, but we broke camp quickly and once we had been hiking for about 15 minutes I felt better. When we were planning our meals, I had thought I would want a warm breakfast, but I really just wanted to get going to warm up. I have learned that moving around is the best thing when you are camping in the snow!


Our campsite Sunday morning.

We returned to the car via the Finch Lake trail, which we headed on after passing Calypso Cascades. The trail gradually went up and eventually got into a burned area. Sad for the trees, but the views were amazing! Chris likened them to what you see from Trail Ridge Road, except we were the only ones there to enjoy them. We could see the mountains along the continental divide up the valley, and straight across from us were Longs and Mt Meeker. This was definitely the highlight of the trip.

The downside was we lost the trail and it was very very steep. We were hiking across the steep part, not up it, but we still had to face uphill to get a good grip in the snow. At one point, we had to slide on our butts down to get back on the trail. I provided an excellent example of how not to slide down a mountain, with my arms flailing, until Chris yelled at me to use my poles to self-arrest. It was pretty exciting!



The pictures do not do it justice.

The weather Sunday was perfect, too, so overall it was a great day of hiking. We were pretty tired by the time we got back to the car, but were also pleased with our first backpacking experience of the year. Can't wait for the May trip!