http://www.strava.com/activities/113298243

I wore the UD vest today and carried my phone. I really hesitated to take a photo, b/c a photo just doesn’t do justice to this section.

This is the start of the steep climb up to Pittock Mansion looking back down the trail. Muddy today – and so much fun.  The forest really opens up looker’s left. Behind me is a brutal climb at mile 4. One of my favorites.

Nearing the top of the climb as I began to drop it into a harder gear and begin making my way down the other side, an old man walking with his adult son turned to me as I passed him and said, “Ohhh… look out… serious jogger here.” It was cute.

 

Portland was thrown into chaos last week with the bi-decade (is that a word?) snowstorm.

I was struck by the frenzy the snow caused that crossed all demographics. I took the kids sledding at Laurelhurst Park amidst teens huddled around in circles looking at their phones, older couples cross country skiing through the park and of course the little ones sledding down the slopes. Dogs running everywhere. It seemed like the entire city came out to play in the snow.

Saturday morning I took my old AT skis and skinned up Belmont and up to Mt. Tabor. There was enough snow to ski all the way from the top to the lower reservoir.  It was more of a novelty than anything. I took my son with me (below)… it was just like old times when we were both young men and used to skin up Sandia Peak in the sunny New Mexico spring to make  turns back down.

He has always earned his turns. The first couple of times he would follow my ski turns, then he realized he could tear straight downslope and catch me at the turn.

1:15 in. So good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05z1UHwYs0Q&feature=youtu.be&t=1m15s

The camper.

It’s a 2006 Fleetwood Evolution e1. They don’t make them any longer. When the economy tanked in 2008, many of the RV manufacturers closed up shop. I found this one used in Merced, California and drove down to buy it…long story.

I’ve done some some upgrades over the past 3 years – I installed a marine battery cut-off switch, ordered an LCD from China, routed one of the cabinets and installed it along with a momentary switch so that I can get a digital readout of the 12v system charge with a push of a button. It’s rad. A 15w solar panel in direct summer sun will keep the battery charged for as long as a week.

The issue is that it’s not the best setup for winter trips.  Specifically ski trips – when you want to hang out inside, maybe turn the heat on… make lunch, stretch out a bit.

While most Americans were eating mini-hotdogs and watching football. I skied all day.

 

I’ve been considering a Sprinter Van for a long time. A second vehicle to double as a weekend getaway RV. They seem straightforward to diy convert… so I may redouble my efforts to find a used one that is ready to convert.

Also saw one of these today:
http://www.tigervehicles.com/

Appears to be a lower-cost version of the EarthRoamer.

The most appealing thing about the Sprinters is that they look like standard passenger vans,  but the interior can be completely modified with no hint from the exterior.  Compact, small footprint, diesel. This is a recent diy (I was researching insulation alternatives to make it cozy for winter trips).

In 2008 after I turned off the lights at Clearwired I always used to say that the hardest part of the job was managing people. Brutally hard. I don’t talk much about what running a company was like. Most people with the entrepreneurial dream have no idea what they’re getting themselves into. Someone wrote recently that all those people who talk about failing fast and starting again – have never really failed. If they had, they wouldn’t be so quick to do it again. Tru dat.

There is the force multiplier aspect of management, if you can get a team properly tuned (to each other, to the work), but there is also the emotional work that goes into finding out how people are really doing.

“How are YOU doing?” “How is your life?”

Highs and lows, hopes and dreams, expectations for the future. What motivates and demotivates. People spend more time with colleagues at the office than with their spouses and families in some cases. I’m not saying that’s right or wrong, but in some cases it happens. People are unpredictable. The problems faced as a working designer pale in comparison.  It’s one of the reasons that I returned to an IC role.

I’ve had people tell me management is easy (those people were shitty managers  but didn’t know it).

I didn’t run today because I was doing manager work. And I was exhausted.

 

http://www.strava.com/activities/110036977

Well…it was a little weird.

My nutrition was off today (and yesterday). I think it’s  the pace of work right now (lots of morning meetings). This is pushing my 2nd breakfast out later than normal, causing blood to go to my stomach for digestion when I’m leaving to run. This in turn is making me feel really slow at the start of my run – the first 3 miles today. Ugh. (And we all know it’s not socially acceptable to bring a food bag into a meeting and just eat the entire time…unfortunately).

In reality, those miles weren’t that slow, they just felt like it.

I’ve run 3 times now since the bionic eye procedure – and kept sunglasses (yellow lenses) on for the first 2 runs. Today, with the temperature and the up – they were just fogging and I decided to pull them off.  Much better.

I took the SJ Ultra vest out for the first time today. Really just to see how it felt – I typically don’t carry anything on runs shorter than 10 miles – just a key and my iPad shuffle.

Today I carried :

• one full bottle in the front right chest holster – just water
• 4 Clif shots
• 1 Pedialyte ss mix packet
• 2 gatorade ss mix packets
• a fleece hat
• my Go-Lite shell (windbreaker)

Everything rode very smoothly. I was worried I would get a lot of bounce from the water bottle, but that wasn’t the case.  The load stayed balanced and I barely noticed it was there.  I did have music in, so I didn’t hear any water sloshing – which is a common complaint.

My only issue is with the nipple on the Ultimate Directions bottles – the suck. Literally. You have to pull the nipple out and then it has a valve inside that has to be compressed before water will flow…if I have to write a sentence describing how to drink water from a bottle – the design is flawed. I’ll use non UD bottles from now on. Or my old UD’s without the weird nipple. Nipple.

No chafing, no bounce – lots of storage and it carried very well.  The sizing is tricky (as many people state in other reviews).

My favorite section of this run is …. well I have 2 actually.  The first is after you cross the road descending from Pittock Mansion. Smooth with wide switchbacks – easy to run fast on not too steep a grade. And the other is ascending through Hoyt Arboretum – I had no idea there were giant sequoias in Forest Park. It’s amazingly beautiful – ferns, spruce, sequoias. Nice trail too.

Those sequoias are down the hill to the right… my running direction is up the hill to the left… of course.

 

 

The morning starts like this:
http://www.strava.com/activities/109587760

Then lunch (tons of meetings today, so second breakfast/lunch was too late):
http://www.strava.com/activities/109619949

And then home again:
http://www.strava.com/activities/109676711

I call it a full value day – it’s usually about 15 – 20 miles of human powered activity. I feel most human when I can get this kind of mileage in.  A longer lunch run is a bonus, but generally means more calories in throughout the rest of the afternoon.

Meet el Mundo.

El Jefe

This my daily driver – essentially the SUV of bikes. It’s a v4 Yuba Mundo frame, Surly Big Dummy fork,  Avid BB7’s front and rear. It weighs about 70 pounds dry (sans panniers). I built it 3 years ago.

Sometimes I think about adding an electric wheel assist and battery… but then it wouldn’t really be a bicycle any longer. I prefer the workout of pushing this thing home and riding it like a freight train into downtown every day.

I considered an adventure worthy of my time last spring – and never found the time.  Strapping the skis onto el Mundo, riding up to Timberline, skinning as far as I can, climbing Mt. Hood, skiing back down and then riding back home to Portland. It’s been done before – nothing new. Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps.