The Big Digital (Finally) Visits Arches (Day 2 of 2)

After a slightly longer and much sounder night of sleep, we again got up bright and early. (When you're sleeping in a tent with no roof, or at least no rain fly, the sky gets light pretty early.)  We again ate some breakfast, packed up our stuff as Tandy, Julie and I wouldn't be coming back to the campsite again, packed some lunch, and the bikers started biking and the hikers headed into town, and back over to Arches.


How can you not take more pictures of this?

Our main objective for the day was to hike up to Delicate Arch, but we stopped first at Balanced Rock, a fairly iconic sight in itself.  And its nice and close to a parking lot, so we just hopped out and walked around it for a few minutes.


See? I was there.

We had saved Delicate Arch for the second day in case any of the bikers wanted to join us, and it was definitely worth the wait. There weren't as many smaller arches along the way, but it was definitely an interesting hike through some beautiful desert.  The hike is mostly uphill, but only a mile and a half each way, so not quite as far as we had hiked the day before, distance-wise.  The arch is kind of hidden until you get pretty close to it, but Tandy and Melissa showed us where there was a spot you could climb up to and look through a natural window and see it from the side.


From the sneak-preview spot

From there it's just a short walk up around the bend to where you can walk over to the arch. And it's definitely a scene worthy of immortalization on a license plate or something. :)  We found a nice spot to sit and eat our lunch and people watch for a while before actually making our way over to the arch itself. And there were plenty of interesting people to watch, from the lunging mustache guy to the flautist, and I even found a guy who I've worked on some projects with at work there. Small world.


Nice scenery for lunch

When we finally made our way over to the arch, there was a line of people waiting to get their picture taken under the arch. It was nice to see most people behaving in a civilized manner. A few couldn't seen to understand the concept of not getting in the way of other people's photos, but for the most part it went very smoothly. Of course, to fit the whole arch in, the people underneath are so small that they aren't really all that recognizable. :)

We made it!

Someone made the comment that Delicate Arch and Landscape Arch ought to trade names, and I would agree. Landscape Arch looks much more "delicate", and Delicate Arch is set in a more picturesque "landscape". Even if it is more "portrait" orientation. How's that for a printer page setup joke? :)

Eventually we had our fill of photos and headed back down to the car.


For some reason I really liked this "spiderweb" rock and the one next to it.

On our way out of the park, I stopped near the Three Gossips to get out and look around.  I'd been driving the whole time, and it was harder to appreciate all the beauty surrounding us while also keeping a vehicle moving down the road, so I figured I ought to at least stop for a few minutes and look around unencumbered with the responsibilities of driving. :)

Sheep Rock

I don't know if this one has a name, but I like the way this photo turned out

The Three Gossips

After finishing up at Arches, we headed south of town to what looked like a man-made reservoir called "Ken's Lake".  Nothing too fancy, but it was nice and cool and wasn't full of weeds or mud or anything.  We spent a couple hours there, playing around in the water until the bikers met up with us. They swam for a bit too and then we all had a great dinner at a place called Zax. I got the all-you-can-eat pizza buffet and definitely ate all that I could. :)

Then it was back on the road and back to Salt Lake, without too much incident. There was a brief moment when all the lanes of traffic had to merge into 2 at the point of the mountain and I had to do some quick swerving maneuvering to keep us out of trouble, but otherwise smooth sailing home.  Definitely a fun trip and I would be happy to go again. I'm sure there are plenty of other things that I have yet to see.

Even more photos available here.

The Big Digital (Finally) Visits Arches (Day 1 of 2)

I swear I've been meaning to go down to Moab and see Arches National Park for at least 3 years, maybe more, and the number of times I've been invited to go and have either already had plans or had something come up or whatever, is probably in the double digits now.  Anyway, this past weekend, after all those years of not going, I finally went! And it was amazing. Even with 100+ degree heat in the middle of the day when we were out hiking around.  I was giving my parents a hard time about not taking us there ever. They had both been with their own families but never got around to taking us. My dad said we just liked the accommodations better in southwestern Utah. And granted we did have some good times in St. George, so I can't complain TOO much. :)

Anyway, Thursday after work, Julie came over, and we loaded up my car and then stopped in Draper to pick up Tandy, and then we headed out.  Most of the drive down was pretty uneventful, though the full moon was spectacularly gorgeous and I enjoyed the scenery since I've never really driven down to Moab (I did go there twice in high school for football, once to play there, and once on a longer drive down to Blanding).  I've driven to St. George enough times that I'm kind of used to that drive and probably don't appreciate the red rock beauty as much as I might.  Anyway, the change of scenery was nice.

Once we got to Moab, we still had another 45 minutes or so of driving left to do, on an unpaved, sometimes rocky road out to Forest Service land where Garrett had found us a campsite with a fantastic view. Of course, when we got there at 11:00 at night, mostly they just told us to be careful not to fall off the cliff. :) Oh, and the last 100 yards or so got pretty rough, and at one point I may have left a bit of my undercarriage behind. (I'm sorry, baby). I guess that's what I get for taking a sedan out into the wilderness. :)  Thankfully nothing started leaking and I've since driven a good 400 miles without noticing any issues, so hopefully I dodged a bullet there.


So much for "no trace" camping. :)

We got up bright and early Friday morning, ate breakfast, packed up some lunch, and headed out. Half the group (Garrett, Alicia, and Val) was there to mountain bike, and the other four of us (Julie, Tandy, Melissa, and myself) drove back into town and headed over to Arches.


The view from our campsite. Literally a few feet away from our spot.

On the recommendation of those who had been there before, we spent the day hiking around Devil's Garden, at the far end of the park. There's a fun trail that starts out fairly easy out to Landscape Arch, and then has some "funner" sections to get up to see a few more arches (Partition and Navajo), and then another decent hike out along a ridge to get over to Double O Arch.


Ready to get hiking

Landscape Arch. And me.

Hanging out at Partition Arch.

Just one of the many, many cool rock formations to be seen.

This one even had people inside it. :)

At Navajo Arch

The view from the ridge we hiked across

Stopping at Double O Arch. If you look close (or look at the larger version on Flickr) you can see some people up on top who had just walked across it as we got there. Not sure how they got up there.

I went down for a closer look, though you can't see the lower O well in this shot.

We found a shady spot there and ate our lunch (Julie went on without us to check out something called "Dark Angel" that she said wasn't worth the extra distance), rested for a bit, and then made our way back to the beginning and headed back into town.  Stopped for chocolate milk and candy bars before heading back to camp, dropping off my car, and piling the 7 of us into Garrett's XTerra for another bumpy ride up to a lake that he knew about. After being so hot all day, a swim sounded nice, but by the time we got there, it was evening and cooler and the sun was down, so I didn't get in, and I don't know if the others did either. I was pretty beat from our hike (We did a good 4 or 5 miles at least), and just ended up at the picnic table reading a book while the others explored around the lake for a few minutes.  We roasted some hotdogs for dinner and sat around the fire for a while, before eventually heading back to camp and calling it a night. Definitely slept good that night.

Y5K #14

Well, another week has gone by without any non-Y5K posts, but hopefully that won't be the case this coming week. Just got back from a great trip to Moab and have some photos to share at some point...Anyway, on with the jogging:

• Monday: Taking a week off definitely improved my pace today. :)  I dug down deep and picked up at the same level I left off, almost 2 weeks ago, when I did my last "for real" training run, 4 sets of 5 minutes jogging/1 minute walking.  And I ended up going 3.1 miles in 36 minutes, pretty good, considering that I walked for 16 of those minutes.  Anyway, I feel good about how it went, tiredness setting in about half way through set 3, but surviving pretty well to the bitter end without getting too delirious. :)

• Wednesday: Did another 5/1 split today.  Took a route that was mainly uphill on the way out and downhill coming back. Did 2.9 miles in 33.5 minutes. So still 20 minutes of jogging, but only 13.5 minutes of walking. Must have cut into my cool down time by finishing closer to home than usual. Also got a haircut right before and didn't consider that doing so would eliminate my most effective protection against sweat getting in my eyes. Doh! :) Oh, and then I went and played sand volleyball for a couple hours right after. Which was fantastic for my knees. :) In fact, I didn't have time to ice my knees and feet after either of my runs this week. Thankfully I don't seem to have any lasting knee pain.

• Friday/Saturday: I drove down to Moab Thursday evening after work, and got back late Saturday evening, so I didn't really find time to do any running, but I did manage to hike 4+ miles on Friday and 3+ on Saturday. So I definitely got my cardio in for the weekend. :) Unfortunately, my right foot seems to be a little worse off for the wear, and both of my feet are still a little tired and sore.  

I'm going out to Grantsville tonight after work for some more quality time with the grandkids, so I may or may not find time to run today. And looking ahead at the week, I'm feeling like I might be hard pressed to get much running in at all. Ah, life.  Guess we'll see what I can figure out. Maybe I'll have to take my running shoes with me down to St. George this weekend.

Y5K #13

Remember when I was planning on running a 5K sometime this year? Yeah... I kind of do, too. Just not so much this past week. :)  I mean, granted, the Ray Barrus 5K was on Monday, so that counts, just not for this blog post.  But that was all the running I did last week.  Wednesday night I went for a nice long walk, and I kind of planned on jogging on Thursday, but I decided to play volleyball instead (for 2.5 hours!), which left me with some tired knees and other various soreness, but doesn't really count as running.  Friday I went out to Grantsville right after work and Saturday I got back around 2 and just didn't find the motivation to go. 

Anyway, as of today I'll be back to work and hopefully not taking too much of a step back for having taken a week off from jogging.  Now I just need to find me my next race. Maybe something in late August....

Old book, New Book #36: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows -> The Hobbit

The first time I read HP7, it had just come out, and I was in Europe for a conference for school, and I bought it in Germany and read about 100 pages the night I bought it and the rest (another 500 pages or so) on my long flight home to Utah.  Perhaps due to the rapid manner in which I read it, or maybe because I was up for close to 24 hours, I was surprised at how much of the book came as a total surprise to me this time around.  Which made it a very fun read.  I won't say much about the plot, but it was definitely fun to have a nice month of light reading with Harry and his buddies.

Struggled a bit in finding a new book to start.  I mean, I did read a graphic novel (Neil Gaiman's Marvel history project 1602), but I don't know if that really counts.

Finally, I decided it was time to revisit another classic tale of magic and mystery, Tolkien's "The Hobbit".  With the Lord of the Rings movies coming out back around the turn of the century, I've more recently re-read those (though I may have failed to finished the last half of The Return of the King, I can't remember), but it's been years since I read The Hobbit.  I know the first time I read it, or more accurately it was read to me, by my mother (she used to read us books all the time, great mom that she is) and it was an edition we'd borrowed from our neighbors that had lots of still images from the animated film that used to show on the Disney channel, even though I later came to learn it was not a Disney film.  Anyway, with news starting to come out about the upcoming Peter Jackson live-action film version (and a 2nd film that supposedly fills the gap between The Hobbit and the LOTR films, or something like that), it seemed like now might be a good time to pull another classic down from the shelf.  Luckily, I still happened to have a copy on my shelf.

Fantastic 4th with the Fam

To sum up: I had a great time this past weekend being with family and celebrating the 4th of July.  It was Natalie's last few days in town before leaving for El Paso to start her career as a reporter, and George and his family were in town from Hawaii.  I went out to Grantsville Saturday evening after spending most of the day doing Saturday chores in Salt Lake (laundry, jogging, cleaning my room, library, TJ Maxx, etc). Later that night I went over to Kimi's parents' house to help set up tables and chairs for Sunday's festivities.

Sunday, new baby Cole Spencer Tripp was blessed in my parents' ward and then there was a fun lunch gathering at the Cole's house. (That baby has 3 last names!)  Good food and good company and lots of good quality "Uncle Jake time".

Austin and Elise had a great time in the big hammock

Elise still enjoys borrowing my sunglasses (the one on the right is from our family trip to Park City 2 summers ago)

Monday morning (the 4th), a bunch of us (me, mom, Natalie, and George) were going to run the Ray Barrus 5K, so I tried to get to bed at a decent hour. Was probably awake til 11:30 or so anyway.  In any case, the race went well (see here for a few more details), and somewhere there is actual photographic evidence of my running. (Kimi was at the finish line with her camera), but I don't have those pictures yet. Maybe if you're lucky they'll show up here someday.

For now the best I can do is this picture I got from Natalie's Facebook wall:


After the race (and about an hour of waiting and medal/trophy/raffle presentations), I headed home for a quick shower and then it was back over to the high school to watch the parade.  I mostly hung out with Austin, and he had a great time watching the motorcycles, fire engines, police cars, trucks, and even got excited about a "van car" at one point.


Austin watching the parade

After the parade, I headed back home, had some lunch, and then spent a few hours podding peas, while my mom was out doing the hard work of picking them. Eventually my dad finished up his duties at the park and joined in the fun.

Natalie and Cole

Around 4, George and family showed up and we had a delicious BBQ, followed by fun times with a slip-n-slide (though I think George got as much use of it as about anyone else), and about 10 boxes of "snaps".

George on the slip-n-slide

Elise going for a ride

Enjoying an ice cream sandwich

Throwing snaps

All the single ladies, all the single ladies

Finally, it was time to head back over to the park for the big fireworks show. Given Utah's new fireworks laws (which I can't say I'm a huge fan of), there were plenty of reasonably big fireworks going on for the hour preceding the "official" show.  I watched the big show from the back of dad's truck sitting next to Austin who was super excited to be sitting in his very own chair in the back of a "pickup truck!".


Hanging out by the tennis courts waiting for the fireworks

At least half the fun of the fireworks was watching them with Austin

After the show, we headed home, and the cherry on top of our great day was our first email from Elder Tripp since his arrival in Hawaii last week. Turns out he's on the big island, which makes me the only one of us Tripp kids who hasn't been over there yet. :)

All in all, a great day, and the only bummer was that I had to drive back to Salt Lake so I could be back at work on Tuesday morning.

Y5K #12

This was another exciting week of running (has it really been 12 weeks since I started tracking all of this?), featuring my 2nd 5K of the year, this time running with family in Grantsville on the 4th of July.

• Monday: Had originally planned to run right after work, but when my car's thermometer said "95" on the drive home, I decided to put my run off until it was a little cooler out. Ended up going around 9, and while it was cooler, it was also pretty dark for most of my run.  And the road wasn't super well-lit. Hmm...  Anyway, I did my first 5/1 jog/walk split, and, because the training plan only says to do 4 sets, I actually ran less than when I was doing 5 sets of the 1/4.5 walk/jog splits.  So I ended up doing about 2.75 miles (forgot to note exactly where I turned around) in about 34 minutes.  Had some of my typical lower back pains, but nothing too terrible.

• Went to Cherry Hill on Wednesday and Raging Waters Seven Peaks Salt Lake on Thursday, and I felt okay about resting a bit the week before the upcoming 5K.

• Saturday: Decided I ought to do...something to stay ready for my race on Monday, so I decided to just do a shorter loop around the neighborhood and still do 5 minute sets of jogging and see where that got me. I ended up doing 3 5-minute sets with a minute of jogging in between and then walked the rest of the way home. Ended up doing just about 2.5 miles in 29 minutes (which includes the 5 minutes of warm-up walking and about 7 minutes of cool-down walking.

• Monday: Got up bright and early (6:45) to head over to the Ray Barrus Memorial 5K, Grantsville's pre-parade race.  They drove us up to the starting line in a couple school buses. The first mile and a half was all downhill and then pretty flat up until all but the last quarter mile or so.  I ran all of the first mile, then took a 1-minute walk break while I drank a small cup of water from a water station.  Then I jogged the rest of the way down to main street and walked another minute there. Told myself I'd jog another 5 minute set before I walked again. Did that, and then told myself I could go a little further, so I did. (That seems to be my best strategy for lengthening my running sets: tell myself I'll run to a certain time or spot, and then once I get there, come up with something else to try for).  Walked one more minute and then jogged the rest of the way to the finish line.  So in total, I walked 3 minutes. My final time was something around 28:40.  They had a clock at the end, but they'd moved it from where I expected it to be and I didn't see at the end. Some guy was calling out times, but I still had my headphones on.  I figured they'd have the times all written down or something, but they didn't.  I DO know that I finished 148th overall. :)  They gave out awards by age category, and there were also categories for "larger" runners (Mens = "Clydesdales", over 200 pounds, Womens = "Athena", over 150).  My mom took 3rd in her age category. George took 3rd in the Clydesdales, and Natalie took 1st place in the Athena category, despite having had a heavy wooden table dropped on her toe last week, and not having had much time to train what with moving to El Paso and all. 

All in all, definitely a good week of running, even with skipping one run in the middle of the week. I was just happy to improve on my time from the last race and to feel like I'm getting closer to being able to run a full 3.2 miles without walking.  Guess I'm going to have to keep working at this running thing for a little while longer. Still feeling a little sore today from yesterday's race. Guess we'll see how I'm feeling Wednesday. Might be worth taking a day or two of just walking to recover a bit.

Y5K #11

I always hope that I'll manage to get up at least one non-Y5K post in between my Monday updates, but this week I've failed to do that. Oh, well.... Anyway, on with the jogging:

• Monday: I was pretty tired after work today and considered taking a nap first before going on my run. Finally just changed my clothes and made myself go. Did my second 1/4 walk/jog split. 3.02 miles in 36 minutes. For some reason it was a lot rougher than my 1/4 split on Saturday. Maybe because I was tried? I don't know. Lots of sweating. As usual.  But I did it. :) Oh, and I had to put my hand on the hood of a car that was considering running me over. So that was interesting. Someone waiting to turn right, but only looking left for an opening in traffic, found their opening right as I was running across the crosswalk (with the light). I could tell they weren't looking so I was aware that it might happen, but not sure what I would have done if they'd really gunned it. Glad it's a short story. Maybe I should have just waited on the curb? I don't know.

• Wednesday: Stepped up (again!) to 1/4.5.  Did 3.3 miles in 39.5 minutes. Sweat like a mule. Ran the last 4.5 minutes just on pure rhythm. Was worried I'd wander into traffic during my cool-down. Thankfully I didn't. But I felt pleased with my accomplishment. :)

• Saturday morning: Went with pretty much the same route as last Saturday, but this time with the 1/4.5 split (last weekend it was just 1/4), and a result I was able to go a little further, which I always enjoy because I get to explore more (one of my favorite things about going on my runs is getting to know the surrounding neighborhoods better).  I was even in such good spirits by the end that I told myself I could probably run for 5 minutes on my last leg. (granted it was mostly all downhill, but still). So I just didn't look at my watch and told myself I'd just run til I got to a landmark and see where I was. And I ran for just over 5 minutes that leg. So I felt good about that.  All in all, I did 3.47 (almost 3 and a half!) miles in just under 40 minutes (A total of 23 minutes jogging and 17 minutes walking -- don't forget in addition to the 1 minute rests between jogs I walk for 5 minutes of warm-up, and then however long it takes me to get home when I finish the last leg of jogging).

So there you have it.  Running the Ray Barrus 5K in Grantsville a week from today.  Not sure how best to prepare for a race week, but I plan on running today after work and stepping up to the last level on my training schedule -- a 5/1 jogging/walking split.  I'm not sure what I'll do after that, as I assume I'm probably not going to successfully run the entire 3.2 miles at the 4th. Maybe I'll just keep stepping up in 30 second increments until I can do it? I don't know. Definitely not a professional at this point.  I can say that I've been very pleased with the training schedule I've used and that I've so far managed to avoid any serious injuries and have been able to stick to the schedule, which has kept me from getting discouraged.  Anyway, guess I'll let you know how things go with the race whenever I get around to posting after the holiday weekend.

Y5K #10

Another week of running come and gone and for the most part it went really well:

• Monday was definitely a "score one for mental toughness" day.  I was really tempted to just take another day off for "recovery" from Saturday's 5K, but somehow I talked myself into going, because I knew that whatever day was the first day would probably be just as tough.  Anyway, for variety I picked a new route, or at least not one I've done since I started training.  Unfortunately this new route goes west from my house which means it starts out downhill and finishes with the uphill portion.  I decided it was okay if I at least didn't take another step up on the training schedule and just stuck with the 1.5/3.5 split that nearly killed me last time. :)  And despite the last two jogging legs really being rough, I managed to gut it out.  Wondering how I'm ever going to do a 1/4 split. Guess we'll deal with that when we get there. Oh, and I went 3.08 miles in right around 35 minutes.

• Wednesday, my feet were kind of bugging me, but I sucked it up and headed out for another 1.5/3.5 split and I just ran straight down 13th until it was time to turn around.  A little bit boring maybe, but I wasn't feeling too creative.  Did have to jog in place a few times while I waited for lights to change. That's part of why my usual routes are my usual routes, no waiting for lights.  But I'm starting to go far enough that it's trickier to avoid any traffic lights.  In any case, the run wasn't fantastic, and I felt tired earlier than usual, but interestingly enough the last leg wasn't as bad as it was on Monday. So I guess I might still be making some progress.  The real question is: Can I step up to running for 4 minutes straight with just 1 minute of rest in between? Oh, and I did 3.04 miles in 38.5 minutes.

• Saturday was a day that I feel really good about. Why? Because I finally stepped up to 1 minute walking/4 minutes jogging! I've been putting it off for a long time because it just seemed like I was already getting worn out at 1.5/3/5 and just 1 minute of resting time between jogging sets seems so short.  Anyway, I decided I'd give it a shot today and it went well. I'm sure it helps that I picked a route where I'd be mostly going downhill on the 2nd half and I did purposely try to pace myself a little on the jogging and just take it easy. I'm not very good at running at a slow pace so I tend to get worn out from the running if I just run in a way that feels most natural to me.  So, it went pretty well. I ended up doing basically 3.2 miles (3.1971 according to my map) and I forgot to check the time when I finished but it was probably somewhere between 36 and 38 minutes.  Anyway, I'm stoked to have been able to step up to this next increment.  After this my training schedule always has 1 minute walking breaks, just the jogging sets get long (4.5 minutes, 5 minutes, etc).

I really only have another week and a half of training and then a couple rest days before the next 5K. I'm curious if I'll be able to jog the whole thing. I've heard it's pretty much all downhill so that will be a nice help.  Guess we'll see. If not, I may have to find a 5K to run in August or something.

All Grown Up! (Part II)

As I mentioned previously, my youngest brother, Ben, just entered the MTC last week for a few weeks of training before heading off to Hawaii to be a full-time missionary for the church.  And my only sister, Natalie, has now officially accepted a job as a reporter for a news station in El Paso and will be moving there in the next few weeks. Kind of crazy.  In any case, prior to both of them taking off, we managed to get together for a sibling dinner (Sorry we didn't invite you, Geo) and a movie. 

We hit up the Cheesecake Factory, and even got cheesecake! :)  And then we went to an opening night screening of X-Men: First Class that I thought was definitely a worthwhile choice.







The next week, Natalie had to head off to San Francisco to win more national awards for her broadcasting prowess, so it was just me, Ben, mom, and dad for the Ben's setting apart and for the actual drop-off in Provo.  They've sped up the dropping off process since I was there, and there's no more "watch a movie and cry together" portion anymore. You just drive in the gates, they direct you to a number on the curb and you unload. And off they go. For 2 years. Kind of surreal.

Before getting set apart

Packing (and watching the NBA Finals)

Taking some last minute photos before heading to the MTC


Hang Loose!


Heading out

I know from experience that when it comes to missing people, I'm really not very good at missing them in the moment that they're leaving. Generally I miss them at some unknown point in the future when I wish they were around.  So, so far I've managed to avoid getting to teary about Ben and Natalie ditching Utah for warmer pastures (I was going to say greener, but I think El Paso is probably not so much green as it is dry), but I'm sure soon enough I'll find myself wishing they weren't so far away.  Good luck, guys!

Y5K #9

Well, another week of running has come and gone, and this one, I guess is slightly more significant because at the end of it, I ran an official 5K. Well I didn't RUN the whole 5 kilometers, but I ran a lot of it and... well, I'll just let you read about it.

• Despite some overcast and windy weather, I managed to get out and run Monday after work.  Since I'd taken nearly a week off (ok, 5 days), I chose to just go with another 2 minutes walking/3 minutes jogging split and I managed to crank out 3.1 miles in 37.5 minutes. Just out of curiosity, I just looked at some of my old times/distances and had to chuckle because back in week #4 I did 2.9 miles in 28 minutes, doing 3 minutes of walking for every 2 of jogging. So while I'm glad that I've managed to stick with this running thing so long, I guess I shouldn't get too cocky about the progress I'm making. :)

• Wednesday's run was noteworthy for a few reasons. For starters, I went 3.3 miles in about 40 minutes.  So it was my first time actually crossing the 5K limit.  I was doing a 1.5 minutes walking/3.5 minutes jogging split, and man, the last 2 jogging legs were killer. The last one especially was a mental toughness moment. As I was walking that 1.5 minutes between legs 4 and 5, I was wondering if this would be my first time not sticking to the training schedule. But somehow I managed to put the thought of time out of my mind and just focus on a spot out in the distance and keep my legs moving. Even when it meant running a red light at Vine street when the light was against me and I thought there was no way I'd be able to keep going if I had to jog in place while I waited for the light.  Anyway, hopefully my body can make progress and next time won't be quite so tough.  I guess at this point, next time is probably the 5K I'm doing Saturday morning, so I guess we'll see how that goes. It'll be my first time running a specific distance rather than just a fixed number of minutes. I wonder if that will make it easier or harder. Hmm...

• Saturday was kind of a big day, at least within the scope of these Y5K posts. :)  I drove over to Wheeler Farm (it's about a 3 minute drive. Mostly I drove so I could put stuff in my car, but also in case I was exhausted afterward and was unable to walk home) for the Utah for Congo Women 5K. Julie, who is running the Wasatch Back Ragnar next weekend came with me and kept me company on the run.  Meili was the one who had invited me to the race, and while she was too busy selling raffle tickets to run, her daughter, Syd, wanted to give the big kids race a shot, so she ran with us for almost all of the first loop around the farm.  When she was tired we walked, which was good rest for us as well. I didn't really look at my watch or try to stick to any kind of training pace. Just jogged when I could and when I got tired told myself I could go a bit further. And then usually Julie would suggest we walk about the time I was ready to walk as well.  My final time was surprisingly good (at least surprisingly good to me): 30 minutes and 03 seconds. Of that 30 minutes I would guess that we probably walked about 7. Give or take.  Anyway, I spent most of the rest of the day lounging around and took a little bit of time to put some ice on my knees and ankles, and hopefully I don't end up suffering too much. At the time of this writing (early Saturday evening), I'm feeling pretty good.

That's me. #171. It's Who I Am.

I had my number pinned on the back of my shirt (in the front was going to annoy me), so they didn't get my time. I took them Julie's time card and asked if they could fill one out for me. Her time was 30:02 and she finished a hair ahead of me, so she adjusted it to 30:03.

• Sunday, in the hopes of keeping my muscles loose after Saturday's run, I convinced Julie to join me for a stroll. We went for a walk along the Jordan River Parkway, and may have overdone it just a tad, as we ended walking just about 3.2 miles, if my calculations are correct. 

Overall, a pretty full week of walking and running. The next race on my training radar is the Ray Barrus Memorial 5K that takes place in Grantsville before the 4th of July parade. Natalie and George are planning on running it, and maybe even my mom, so that should be fun. Hopefully if I stick to my training schedule for the next few weeks I can run even more of this one (maybe even the whole thing?). Guess we'll see. Hopefully I can at least get out and run tonight after work so I can keep in the habit even with one race under my belt.

Old Book, New Book #35: Brain Rules -> Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

I finished Brain Rules over the weekend.  It was a fairly quick read. Partly because the material wasn't too dense -- very pop science-y, partly because some of it was stuff I was familiar with already, some of it (ok, maybe in large part) because I took this book with me to Orlando and got plenty of good reading time in on the planes.  But it was well-written and easy to follow.  A quick summary: the author looks at researcher in 12 different areas of brain science to come up with some suggestions for how we can improve education, business, and learning in general.  As I said some of it was stuff I'd read before, particularly the part about a lot of our learning happening when we sleep, and how not getting enough sleep can seriously start to impair your brain function.  But there were also some good and interesting points about holding people's attention and interest when presenting information that I thought were particularly interesting and useful.  And a bunch of other stuff too.  Anyway, it's interesting to see both how much know, and how much we still DON'T know about how the brain works.

Given that my life has been kind of crazy lately, I haven't really gotten a good start on my next book yet, but I've decided that now would be a good time to re-read the last Harry Potter book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It came out when I was in Europe a few summers ago, and I purchased a copy there (hence the British cover art below) and read pretty much the whole thing on the long flight home (minus 100 pages or so that I read the night before we flew home).  I think reading so much so fast, while in the process of being up for nearly 24 hours straight, resulted in my not remembering much of anything that happens in it. When I saw the Part 1 movie that came out last year, I was genuinely surprised by much of the plot. 

Anyway, seems like it might make for some nice summer reading, if I ever end up with some downtime between all the family stuff, weddings, missions, and other summer partying that's currently going on. And I've got until July 15th if I want to finish it before the 2nd movie comes out. So that seems doable, right? :)

Y5K #8

Slightly shorter post this week, since last week's post came on Tuesday and included Monday.

• Wednesday was a nice night for a jog, overcast but not too cool.  Tried out a new route from my house, that was mostly uphill on the way out and then downhill on the 2nd half.  Felt like I was struggling a bit, but I managed to stick to the 2 minutes walking/3 minutes jogging that I was supposed to do and ended up doing 2.98 (almost 3!) miles in 37 minutes, so I felt pretty good about myself afterward. Next up: a 1.5/3.5 walk/jog split. Man... seems like the key is just to not expect to ever stop running and get into a rhythm. Now if only I could explain that to my feet and legs. :)

• And then...life kind of happened and I didn't get a run in on Friday or Saturday. Between dinner at the Cheesecake Factory & X-Men First Class (it was great by the way) on Friday night, and then the temple, Les Mis, a BBQ, and swimming on Saturday, I really hardly had a moment to spare except around 11:30 on Friday night when I briefly considered going for a run, but then realized I needed to be up at 7 the next morning and it just didn't happen.  So, hopefully with a little more free time today I'll get out and run again tonight after work.

Oh, and the first 5K I signed up for is this Saturday, but I don't really plan on running the whole thing. Hoping to be able to keep it to just another training run with a mix of restful walking thrown in. Guess we'll see if I get swept up in the experience of actually running with other people. Hmm... stayed tuned for next week, I guess.

Everything's bigger when you're a kid

As I've been mapping all my runs lately (quick plug for Gmaps Pedometer), and seeing how far I go in about 40 minutes, I was reminded of being a missionary and how we walked everywhere and how I always told myself that when I got home from Argentina, I'd try to walk more instead of driving everywhere, because really it doesn't take THAT long to walk somewhere. 

Now, I can't say I've stuck to that in the least (things are much further away in American than they are in Argentina, because everyone here has a car), but yesterday I started wondering how far away things are in my hometown of Grantsville, and how everything there still seems like a long distance because when I was a kid everything seemed really far away.  So I went to my handy distance mapping site and looked at how far I'd be running if I was doing my jogs in Grantsville rather than in my neighborhood in Salt Lake.  And frankly I was really surprised. The Handy Corner that we used to ride our bikes to for cheap candy and video games, is only a mile and a half from my house. It really seems farther away. Maybe because of all the open spaces between our house and there. I don't know.  Anyway, since I'll be running a 5K there for the 4th of July, I think it'll be really eye-opening to see how far 3.2 miles will get me in Grantsville.

The Big Digital Hits the Oregon Trail and Avoids Coming Down with Dysentery

So, essentially 12 hours after arriving home from my work trip to Orlando, I hit the road again. This time for pleasure, rather than for business.  My good friend Jon, who you might remember from other Adventures of the Big Digital, was getting married in the Columbia River temple, in the Tri-Cities area of Washington state.  My friends Alicia, Matt & Marti (Matt & Marti are married) had also decided to head up to attend the wedding in person, so we loaded up in Alicia's Maxima Murano and hit the road around 3:30 in the afternoon.  Our destination for Friday night: La Grande, Oregon, where Alicia's aunt had a home where we were able to sleep for the night.

As we drove through Idaho and Oregon, I realized that I'd never been to the western side of Idaho. I mean, I've only been to the eastern side a handful of times (Lava Hot Springs, Bear Lake, EFY at Ricks, on the way to Yellowstone), but this was my first time seeing places like Twin Falls and Boise.  Along the way we saw several signs indicating that a certain town featured an "Oregon Trail Interpretive Center". While we didn't actually stop to see any, the running joke was that it was probably just a room with a bunch of old Apple computers where you could play the video game. :)



Anyway, despite a bit of rain, we made it safely to La Grande, and headed to bed.  I was awakened bright and early (emphasis on bright) by the sun shining in through the window whose blinds I had failed to properly close the night before.  Given that my window was on the east side of the house, the rising sun found me and got me up for the day in plenty of time to take a quick jog through town.

After a shower and some repacking, we hit the road again, crossing through the beautiful Blue Mountains and dropping down into some nice farmland. Eventually we reached the Columbia River that marks the border of Oregon and Washington, and not too long after reached our destination: a Courtyard Marriott in Richland, Washington. (FYI: the other 2 cities that make up Tri-Cities are Pasco and Kennewick).


Driving through the Blue Mountains

After checking in to one of our two rooms, we found where Jon's family was staying and happened to catch a glimpse of him and Elisha, his bride-to-be getting some pictures taken.  After that we took a short walk along the river (the Columbia River again, apparently it loops back) that looked to be pretty swollen with spring run-off and carrying a fair amount of debris.


The Columbia River

Soon enough, we headed over to the temple for a very nice sealing, and then some quick photos afterward.  At this point it was nearly 3 and we hadn't had lunch yet, so we found an Olive Garden nearby and stuffed ourselves.  Then back to the hotel for a nap, and then off to the reception only a few hours later for more festivities, including a full dinner, which was maybe a bit much for one day.

The Columbia River temple

Getting artsy while we waited for the couple after the sealing

The new couple!

The reception was held at the Moore Mansion in Pasco, outside on the lawn and it was a perfect evening to be out. Not too hot, not too cool.  In addition to the dinner, there were some speeches, a guitar solo from Jon, an uncomfortable (for Alicia) boquet toss, and some dancing.  Finally the new couple hit the road, and we headed back to the Marriott for a some time at the pool/hot tub.  Eventually we called it a night, knowing we had a long day of driving ahead.


My road trip crew


Picture with Jon


First dance

We drove the full distance back from Tri-Cities on Sunday, and really not too much to say about it. We were all so full from the day before that, after a brief stop for breakfast goods at WinCo, we made it all the way home without even stopping for food. I finally got around to eating again at 9:30 that night.

I was very grateful that the next day was Memorial Day and that I didn't have to be at work.  It was nice to sleep in and just relax, and start catching up a bit on things that I'd neglected while I was gone.