fhqwhgads

Take it to the limit. This weekend was brutal! I don't think I've ever been this tired on a Monday. Most of it endured Sunday. Saturday I read 'Cannery Row' by John Steinbeck, which the Hobstar sent for Christmas, and it was awesome! Just a great read. I can't wait to go back to Monterey and see if I can find all the places talked about in the book. Also, finished off 'The Climb' by Anatoli Boukereev and some Walt guy, which basically recounts the tragic events of the 1996 Everest Climbing season. After reading it I'm convinced Krakauer's a total tool. Sure he's a great writer, but what a fucking reject when it comes to honestly telling a story. Anything to make a buck I guess.

On to Sunday. Had ultimate in the morning and basically played savage cuz our captain had a bum wheel. First throw: hammer for a score, and that's the how the day went for ol'Josh. After the first weekend, playing sick, it was nice to get some appreciation from the team and in the end I got MVP for the day. Some days folks don't want to play hard, which means somebody's gotta take it up a notch. So, two hard games, each to 15, two wins and I was pretty spent. No rest for the weary! J (previously known as The Cartographer, but that's way too friggin long for me to write over and over) wanted to ride due to the amazing weather and we went for a 26 mile ride and about 3000 ft of climbing. Normally no big deal, but after ultimate; damn. A 40 mile ride was proposed, but I declined after the first summit. At the last summit it was clear I'd made a very good decision! I also made the mistake of switching cassettes the previous week. Yeah, a 12-21 and a double chain ring is not an optimal setup for climbing a Colorado mountain pass after a 3 hour speed workout.

Luckily I got to see the chiropractor first thing this morning. I've never heard him use so many exclamations! Everytime he'd move to a new muscle, "OH", or "Wow", or "This is probably gonna hurt". I'll have to hit the yoga hard this week to be ready for next weekend. Sucks getting old.

Old runners

This week has been too weird. Two of my best friends from high school contacted me this week. The Thurminator who I haven't talked to in over a year and Dust'n today who I haven't talked to in I don't know how long and had very sparse email with (real names protected for the innocent). It's too great to have friends that still remember you after all the years apart. Both old running partners and both, in their prime, faster than me. If that weren't enough the fastest guy I've ever ran with got me into facebook; El Corredor. I think he ran sub 2:35 at one point. Course he pretty much helped to end my running career, hijo a puta ;-P What kind of partner convinces me it's okay to jump from 50-60 miles a week to 90-100. One I more than likely convinced I could do it. I must somehow come off way better than I really think I am. I need to figure out what it is that I do because I'm tired of digging myself out of the holes I dig. The diggin's even harder with a foot in your mouth at every phrase!

Also realized I blab way, way too much and need to add more pictures. I'll work on it.

Earth Day!

FYI: yesterday was earth day and I hope everyone did something to show their appreciation for the place we live. I did very well till I got home from work; didn't drive, only used electricity I had to, and ate natural organic foods. When I got home though I burned a ton of electricity gaming and watching '300' and was too lazy to cook so ordered out and they used styrofoam, first and secondly about 5 times as much as they needed to. Add to that the emissions from the POS the delivery guy had and I don't know if I ended up with less an impact or not. Every day should be Earth Day though so all I can do is try better today!

Stay Green!

Work conundrum

So while I was away I got to think a lot about where I am in life and where I'm going. Until now I've always made it a point to never have a job I didn't like and always work for people I like and respect. Because the Tacoma job didn't work out I'm stuck wondering what to do. If I didn't have the mortgage there would be no question: bail. I think about though all the jobs that people do and don't enjoy and I wonder if I'm letting myself miss out on an opportunity to see if I can stick it out through a crappy situation. Not only stick it out, but turn the lemons to lemonade. In the end I think the attraction to an opportunity to test myself is too alluring. The other question then is do I still have the will to test myself with something that could potentially be very hard? Actually, I guess my current state of mind is what will make it hard. The rough part is the crutch I used to use to get through tough times is less reliable than it used to be. Sport has always been the thing that brought me back in line, but seems I can't get after anything adrenaline pumping without the body breaking down. The most recent example is climbing. My finger tendons are shot. My climbing's done for a couple weeks easy. I'm motivated to ride, but it'll be at least a week till I get a new post. Road riding just doesn't require enough focus to give me what I'm looking for. Ah well, se la vie.

Sun times?

Made it back to CO today. At least it was somewhat warm upon arrival. California gave me a teaser on Thursday; it must've been mid 80's in San Jose. The rest of the weekend only got above 50 if you were out of the wind in the sun. Perfect weather for riding.



In classic Currie/Josh style we showed up for our 9am Friday race at 9am. Unfortunately the time required to get to registration, find out where they went, and then go to the race start left us pretty stranded. I forget what I was doing (most likely on the crapper), but Currie somehow talked our way into the Sport Class 20 miler at 7:30am Saturday. This was a little more than I was prepared to race, but since Currie had never really ridden a tough 20 miles we thought it best to have a chilax day with it. It was mostly fire roads, but where it was technical the sand made it that much more so. I realized real quick I've spent way too much time on the road the last few years. At least I didn't cause any major traffic jams and there were a few! Things were pretty uneventful till at about mile 12 I landed too hard off a jump and snapped my seat right off the post. If it weren't for the saddle bag I would've had a very interesting finish. Yep, it's time for a new ride.




The next obstacle was Currie and some pretty overwhelming leg cramps. Somehow he'd managed to drink all his electrolyte bottle, the rest of my water, and most of another electrolyte drink and still had cramps! The body is a mysterious thing. It really says a lot about how much a little training can do. Next year, we're definitely going to put in a little more time.

Outside of our race the Sea Otter was pretty impressive. Every kind of rider I could ever imagine was there: roadies, downhillers, BMXers, XCers, young, old, clean, dirty, the entire gambit! Every company, website, bike manufacturer, food maker were all there and all were willing to let you try out their stuff. It was pretty sweet. Even Eight may've been impressed. We spent most of Friday and a little time post-race and Sunday at the event, but there's only so much to look at.

Spent the rest of the time chilax'n with the curries. We tried watching "Walk Hard, the Dewey Cox Story," but it was bad enough that we couldn't finish it. Sunday we watched "Juno" and it was just as good as advertised, although different than I expected. As always with the Currie's ate some really good food. The newest Currie wasn't letting Bevo perpare any masterpieces, but on the California Coast it doesn't seem to matter. We hit a little taqueria Friday night and they gave us wild rice instead of some greased up, bleached white rice. Saturday was Thai food. Little Bella Currie was under the weather Sunday, so Bevo sent Currie and I off to this sweet restaurant down in Big Sur for breakfast. We were practically hanging over the ocean and could see forever into the blue. Pretty amazing. I was sad to go, especially knowing I probably won't make it back for a while.

Pandora

For those who don't know Pandora is pretty much the coolest music website I've found. Doc Engelmann introduced me about a year ago, but only recently have I really taken advantage. Basically, you enter a band you like and it makes a playlist for you. You can say yeah or nay to the songs it picks and it'll figure out what you like. Pretty sweet. For each band, or flavor of music it'll make a station and you can share your stations with your friends. If anybody it hooked in let me know where you are in it. I'm at lamestar21.

End of the season?

Went up to Copper Sautrday to enjoy the last weekend of business. I can't believe they're shutting down! They'v easily got enough snow to go another month. The plans to go came in a hurry and like most plans that get organized that way things didn't work out well for this coffee lover. As of Thursday the westside mafia and the The Captain and his friend had committed to going. The big reason to go was to catch George Clinton and the P Funk. Most everyone else had a pass and wasn't stressing getting there late, putting in a few runs, and then seeing the show. Not having a pass and having only gone 3 times prior this season I wanted as full a day as I could get and left out early. Just after buying my ticket Soandso calls and she's bagging. A good reason, but she's baggin. She also relates Bockenheimer is bagging because he's going to Vail Sunday. No worries, it's The Captain and his friend and they're supposed to roll in about 11. I finish a run about 11, grab a pint, and hunker down from the cold and listen to the opening band. I send a text and turns out they're already carving it up somewhere on the hill. Nice. I'm ditched twice in the same day. I polish off another pint and head for the double blacks; the board had been friendly and I was hitting some good stuff earlier so figured I'd turn it up a notch. I quickly found out how much reaction time disapates after a few adult beverages. After that I don't think I could ever drive even buzzing! I think I'll keep a pair of running shoes in the truck so I can sober up if necessary. In the end the show starts, it's as good as it can be considering I'm there alone. I did get an obligatory text from The Captain and listened to two songs by them, but in the end bailed because the snow was dumping and I-70 with, in the winter, with Colorado drivers is not a good place to be.

Sunday, the ultimate season was back on and it was pleasure to play without hacking mucus all over the field. Played much better having only 1 turnover per game, two huge D's, and most importantly wasn't scored on. Also found out sunscreen has expiration dates. After lunch at Famous Daves (conveniently blocks from the fields) I went up to Boulder for a hike with The Cartographer. The hike was good, conversation was good, and the dog minded. If that wasn't good enough we ate at the Dushanbe Teahouse, which was pretty amazing! Meals from everywhere and the goal was to have one from each continent. Failed, but it was fun trying; we got Africa, Asia, North America, and South America.

This weekend I'm off to California. I'll have to find some time to do some wrist curls; Eight is proving to be the much better face climber and I need some spider grip. I think I talked about that before so I'll stop before I ramble anymore.

catch up

First things first; I was asked to explain where each of the pics in the previous post were from. The first is Currie and I after the first Bearable adventure race, which took place at Bear Creek lake Park on the outskirts of Denver. This has since turned into an annual tradition for me. The second was from my first weekend after permanently moving to Denver. It's on the Arkansas River between Buena Vista and Salida; possibly the most commercialy rafted stretch of water in the country. Hobstar was the wingman and basically had to carry his whole side of the boat. Bobbo is in the third pic trying to finish before the snow really hit Golden Cliffs about 15 minutes from my place. The team in the next pic is my from my first Denver ultimate frisbee league team. Currie really got me into the sport and the quality of play in Denver is higher than anywhere I've been. The last pic is me on the job in Loch Vale, which is in Rocky Mountain National Park.

The next big thing was I finally got to play league ultimate sunday. I'm pretty excited. The fundamental ability of this team is higher than any I've ever played on. We've got the same huc problems most teams have at the beginning of the season, but still managed to win both games. I am, by far, the weakest link on the team. It should provide a nice learning environment as long as I can remember I'm not a total scrub. Expectations are high.

Climbed with Eight on Tues. I've really got to work on grip strength. I can do pullups all day, but can't hang long enough to do much. Took a big whipper leading a 10b traversing, roof route. Eight only got up half the moves. Promptly thereafter Eight flew up a 5.11 face route. I was convinced there was no way it was an 11; couldn't even do a few moves of 10b? I hopped on next and only got the first move. Fingers are useless. Seems I've always got at least one idle hand at work so brought in the grip strengtheners. After climbing we tied one on at the local pub and I got to have one of the most fun conversations I've ever had. Eight is by far the coolest climbing partner I've ever had.

idleness

For those who had any question about it; working weekends for people you don't like is not fun. I'm putting an end to this next week. No more am I working for an asshole who's chronically underfunding projects and scapegoating people. For those who just got an image of a greasy choir boy in thier heads; no worries it's not him. As I'm passing the time thought I'd blog and add some pics to remind that summer is almost here and Colorado has everything I need. Be sure to note a tired Currie, a giddy Hobstar, a cold Bob, and the Denver ultimate 2005 fall league undefeated champs.

Snuggin

So Eight had told me about this Irish pub downtown that hosts a 5k every thursday, with no entry fees, free food at the end and if you come 10 times you get a free wicking t-shirt! I'm thinking there's NO way they can get away with that so last night I went to check it out. Soandso came down to allegedly just have a fun run because she'd never done one before, but really it was to provide a little moral support because of some heavy stuff I'd been dealing with. In any case, great pub and the story from Eight was totally legit. Must've been about 100 people and apparently it was an off night. I made the mistake of starting early and the guys who looked like goats turned out to not be and I was pretty much left to find my own way. Luckily got passed at a stoplight and this dude was about the same speed. It was really just a group run, no official start, clock, or anything just a lot of good folks out, living healthy and doing something they enjoy. Wouldn't you know it we were next up inline for the food after and they ran out. Ah well. Soandso got The Captain to come down and we went out to a Mexican place that was having a tequila sampling night. Oh, Yes! Free shots of $60 tequila. Perty nice!

The Sea Otter Classic is coming up soon and I think I'll be ready. The real indicator was on Monday and I went down to the gym for a little pickup hoops. I only play about once a year during The Madness so I can't really dribble and can't shoot outside 18 ft, but that's not what wins pickup. The fun never ends when I show up to a court in business socks, some old canvas shorts and a crappy, holey long sleeve shirt. All the kiddies with their super shoes and nylony clown shorts. I always get picked last and always go undefeated. Was able to call an oop on the first play and the guard just looked at me quizzically. I called it again the next time down and he tossed me one about head high; what am I gonna do with that? Only after I followed a miss with a little tip in did I get any real love. The first game I took it easy thinking my lungs wouldn't be able to hack the pace. At the end I realized I wasn't even winded! The next game I went hard; hussle, hussle, hussle and ran the kiddies out the gym. It was gravy from then on and it only got better after the 4th game and I called it a night. I always would finish some ballin to see how high I could get on the rim. Honestly, I haven't touched it in about 5 years. Got all the way up to the palm. After 4 games! Yeah, I'm pretty stoked about getting fit again.