Xtra-curricular

another day on the mountain

2011-02-26T08:03:00.000-08:00

Well, we had a storm blow through here this week and left some cold dry powder on the mountain! Had to go take advantage of it on Thursday.

It is quite unusual for us to get the dry stuff because most of the time it isn't quite cold enough. Today's saturday and it's sunny out so I'm staying away from the crowds at the mountain, but the forecast calls for more snow Sunday and Monday so I'm thinking my day off for the week will probably be tuesday.

One day a week off for the month of Feb... well worth it!

Shorter unedited less quality video's just to get them up on the web quickly. (also I submitted them to the Mt. Hood Meadows site for them to use, we'll see if they like em)....
http://www.youtube.com/user/xtracurricular2011

Here is a funny looking clip on Vimeo I shot also...
http://vimeo.com/20359202

Federal holiday

2011-02-21T09:38:00.000-08:00

My morning routine, typically goes like this. Wake up to the alarm clock (intentionally at least a 1/2 hour early). Typically my first thought is how many "snoozes" can I go through. Sometimes I get right up (days I don't go to work), but often I go through at least 2-3 snooze sessions. Once up, let the dogs out, start the coffee, hit the showers, get dressed, coffee, quick bite, dogs in, and out the door. Without rushing this takes me about 20 mins.

Well this morning was like no other, except as I grabbed my blackberry before I walked out the door, I had a fleeting thought of the Mt. Hood conditions page saying something about "join us this holiday weekend". I didn't have a holiday on my work calendar... but I looked it up on google and sure enough, Presidents day!

I can't keep the federal holiday's straight so I called my secretary, no answer, but didn't want to miss my standard monday morning meeting. So since my office is close, I jumped in the car to find an empty parking lot when I got there.

Shoot!! If I would have known I might have "joined' them today, instead I guess I'll continue working on the yard, which isn't so bad.

Video is up

2011-02-19T13:46:00.000-08:00

Allright,
My video is back up. playing with special effects like slowmotion, transitions, sound etc.
Here's the link Powder day

Pulled my video

2011-02-19T10:37:00.000-08:00

I upgraded to Mac's Snow Leopard OS so I could take advantage of some more video editing tools available in iMovie11. I had the 08 version and it didn't allow for much compared to the 2011 version.

I pulled my video off of Vimeo after I re-edited it. so... I am in the process of uploading a new one. (takes some time given the file size). I'll post once it's up.

Powder day!

2011-02-18T08:46:00.000-08:00

What a day wed. second week in a row I used some leave at work to go up to mt. hood meadows. We finally had a storm blow in leaving Mt. Hood with a couple of feet of fresh snow. I tried to pick my day in the hopes that it would be the first day they opened the top of the mountain. It remained closed for the day but there was plenty of fun fresh snow!!

I'm trying another website for my videos so we'll see how it works. Should be better picture quality (and my editing skills are improving). Here's the link. Powder Day

Funny thing happened on my way back home. I stopped at Sparky's pizza (awsome pizza!!) which is beginning to become a tradition after a day on the mountain. As I was sitting there with the place to my self, and this guy walked in that looked a lot like the Todd Hoffman from a show I started watching on discovery channel, Gold Rush Alaska.

He noticed I was eyeing him, and when he ordered I knew it was him. Kind of funny, didn't want him to feel uncomfortable so I contemplated letting him know that I recognized him. Had to do it though, I went to refill my soda, and simply said, "Hey, I like your show". And after small talk about his family and his interest in moving up there but his wife wasn't keen on the long winter thing he left.

His show had brought back some good memories. Growing up in the big city of Anchorage my parents bought an a frame cabin in a small mining town Hope Alaska. And by small I mean population 100 :-). Used to joke with my Mom about the city dump being a single dumpster in a gravel pit. Now this is a cabin, not a lower 48 house that you go to in the woods, a cabin. For most of my child hood it didn't have electricity, no running water, wood stove, propane tank oven. A real cabin. What great memories! thank Mom and Dad!

Anyway it was kind of cool to bump into the guy in a very normal, down to earth place. People are just people.

Sunday ride

2011-02-14T11:55:00.000-08:00

I had intended on running Saturday but skipped it with the justification that I would be joining L on one of her training rides.

I borrowed my brother's bike and headed down to milk farm country. It was a bit cold but we avoided the rain. 25 miles, took us about 2 hours, with some stops to check the route map, and correct course (only once).

Although the Cows are cool to look at, there were some downwind portions of the ride that helped us pick up the pace to get past.

It was a lot of fun, and a great way to get some exercise in.

Quick post today. It's snowing on the mountain so planing on taking another wed off to catch some powder.

Sunny day at Meadows

2011-02-10T21:44:00.000-08:00

Ok, quick post this morning before off to work.

What an awesome day on the mountain. Sunny with a little bit of fresh white! Lindsey and I had a blast.
I'll write more/edit this post later but wanted to publish a little better movie before I headed out for the day.

I haven't found a way to load a quality video yet. I've had to create a youtube account and post it there because this blog won't accept the file size.

The full version of this is over 300MB, the you tube video is configured as a mobile video and is close to 90MB. Its a bit grainy so I'm looking to find a website that will host large videos that I could link to. (this looks really great in HD!!) If anyone has any idea's let me know.

Here's the movie... skiing in the sun!

Blazer game last night

2011-02-08T23:08:00.000-08:00

So, Monday's at work are all day meeting days. Literally all day. We do this because staff tend to travel during the week(or go skiing:), so we cram all the face to face stuff into one day.

In my last meeting of the day (3:30-5) I get a call from a friend of mine. "Wana join me in my companies box suite for a Blazer game tonight". Of course! but my girlfriend was planning on baking enchiladas to test out the oven. (it's been on the fritz for about 3 years). "I'm 90% in, let me check and I'll call you back in 5". She's awsome! Green like given, she might have been more exited for me than I was.

What a great game, awesome suite and good company. Blazers beat the Bulls and Aldridge hit his all time career high. I hadn't been to a game in years and I had forgotten the energy of the live crowd.

Got home late, and slept like a rock. The mountain got some snow and tomorrows suppose to be sunny, so taking a vacation day!

Tough Run, but I got'er done

2011-02-05T12:35:00.000-08:00

Well I finished my long run for the week but it wasn't easy.

So far my favorite place to run is about 20 min. from me, around lacamas lake.

I love it because it is a trail and so there is little asphalt or concrete to run on. Also it is relatively flat in total but a good variety of undulation to keep it interesting. Another great thing about it is that it has 1/4 mile marks along the way.

So as usual, I started out about 30min to an hour later than i had planed. Hands were cold for the first mile and by about mile 4 I had the sleeves off my jacket running in my vest.

I think this was the earliest I hit my second mental wall on a long run. Usually I hit an initial, what I think is a physical, wall about 1/4 way into a run and then the real one somewhere in the last 1/4. I seem to always hit the first wall, but on shorter runs sometimes the second wall doesn't come.

Anyway, today I felt low on energy even though I ran the pace I wanted to (8.5 mm). I was trying not to watch my pace on my watch too intently in the hopes that it would mellow me out and also to test if I was able to feel a pace rather than monitor it.

At the half way mark I had a hard time turning around. I stopped to stretch for a min. and as I started out again I began to dread the return trip. The first quarter mile back that evil voice in my head started to say ever so kindly, "its ok if you don't run the whole way" "you can walk the last mile" "take it easy you don't really need to do this today". Well not really sure how but my body didn't listen and I just kept plugging away. (thank you ipod)

With 2 miles to go, I ran into a small race that had been organized for the day for part of the trail. This guy came hauling around a corner at me and then another, and another. I think it was a 5k and 10k. Now those guys are runners! I was about a 1/4 mile out from their finish when the first guy I saw coming at me earlier came flying past. By the time I got to their finish line their race time said something like 16 min. I'm sure that guy was running sub 5's!!!

I glanced at my watch and noticed that I was running 7:30's from the energy of being with the racers! Slow down Matt.

Anyway, I made it back finishing 7.5 miles in just over an hour, took a cool down walk around Round Lake with my dog J and now want to take a nap.

Since I'm playing with video's here's one shot from my ipod of the trail. Dad you may remember this.

Testing out ski gear

2011-02-04T22:47:00.000-08:00

All right, so I took the afternoon off from work after obsessing about the weather report and headed up to Meadows to take my new pair of skis for a whirl. I was very anxious to ski these because even though a lot had changed when I bought my last pair of ski's almost 10 years ago, I've been hearing that the new technology is pretty awesome and fun.

Here is a pic of my old ski's next to my new ones.

The Bandit XX on the right were considered a "mid-fat" which essentially meant they were wide under foot but not the widest widest at the time. They measure out at about 76mm under foot and when I got them they pretty much changed they way I skied powder, crud completely.

Now! The Rossignol Super 7!! This is 117 under foot and have what they call Rocker and Traditional Camber (Camber is a whole other topic that I'll pass on for now). I had done my homework (talking with others, reading websites and magazines) but I hadn't taken them them for a test ride, which is highly recommended when buying new skis. Rossignol sold out of the 2011 models so they released 2012 models this week and I was lucky enough to grab a pair.

The other picture is a shot of the graphic on my new skis for my Mom. They are frog themed and I thought you might appreciate that. :-)

Ok, so I hadn't skied this kind of ski yet, and felt like I had taken a bit of gamble. This type of ski's primary purpose is powder not hard pack or ice due to their shape and width (slower getting them on their edge). The Pacific Northwest has had quite a sad January for ski weather (it's been warm and even rainy, so much so, that Mt. Hood has lost over a foot of its base). We haven't seen fresh snow since around Christmas!!

So even though the evening forecast called for above freezing temps, strong winds, fog and mist I headed up because I had to try out the new sticks, and night tickets are much cheaper than full day.

Well when I got there I got a much more accurate weather report from myself. 45mph gusts, full on rain, and temps around 40!!! As I watched people coming into the lodge dretnched to the bone begging for refunds drenched to the bone I contemplated not even going. After some time talking to the local staff I reminded myself that the whole purpose of coming up was for the $29 night lift ticket and told myself that I'd do 3-4 runs, 5 tops. (I even asked jokingly if I could pay 5 buck a run). They actually offered me a garbage bag poncho to wear!

Well, after a couple of hours (and a lot more than 5 runs) I was ecstatic about my new skis. Even laughing out loud as I finished some steep lines all by myself. I didn't even notice that my Burton coat had kept me completely dry, even though I looked like I had been standing in the shower.

So before leaving I ran to my car for one last run before it got too dark to try out my new helmet cam (thanks Lindsey). It was such nasty weather and and being so anxious to try out yet another new toy, I rushed setting it up, so the camera is pointed way to low. It's a terrible video but they'll get better as I work out the bugs. This is a run down 2 bowl, and what looks like dirt, is actually material that has fallen off the trees since the snow has melted so much :-( didn't hurt the skis at all :-)

I'm also playing with video sizes and editing so please be patient with me.

All and all a great day! I am so happy with my ski's they do much better then my old ones even on the icy hard pack. And they it felt like I was water skiing in the slush! My new Burton coat kept me completely dry and the camera was a kick to play with.

Tomorrow is my weekly long run in the morning around the lake and then Sunday are plans for another return to the mountain. (I hope we get at least a dusting from this storm)

As I get ready for bed, I had a memory of getting my first pair of ski's from my parents for Christmas when I was in 7th grade. Elan's with Geeze bindings. I actually slept with them that night. Should I go grab my new Rossi's from the garage before I crawl in bed....

...AND WE'RE OFF!

2011-02-03T12:48:00.000-08:00

All right here we go. First post on this blog. I have been thinking about a way to share some of my extra curricular activities with friends family and others and thought I'd give blogging a try.

A little about me...
I'm nearing the 40 mark (only a couple of years to go), and would consider myself decently active. There was a fairly lengthy period in my life that I gave up most of the things that I enjoyed trying to reach achievements that I thought others or myself would be impressed with (i.e. Career, property, relationships etc). It wasn't completely terrible (achievement in some things is apart of growing up and necessary) but without even knowing it I was totally consumed by this.

By the time I was 35 I was 260lbs, living a desperately empty life. Generally my life consisted of getting out of bed reluctantly, dragging myself to work, eating anything greasy with the hope that it would make me feel better, going home and sit on the couch to watch mind numbing TV while I drank and ate until it was dark enough to retreat into my bed. I had given up on any healthy hobbies, the only physical activity I did periodically were sad attempts at golf periodically and I had even moved to carting around the course rather than walking it.

Lame!!! Just thinking about it bring backs shivering emptiness drenched in fear!

Fast forward almost 2 and a half years late and I'm 40lbs lighter, running races, skiing again and generally loving life.

I have found that the xtracurriculars are vital to my enjoyment while being a human being on this planet. I hope that after some time I can look back at this blog and be reminded of all the stuff that I have done and hopefully share some of those times with you.

Currently I'm preparing for a the first running race of the season and I just got s new pair of skis and a go pro camera to film some first person videos on the mountain.

Man it's good to be alive!!!