hey folks
just wanted to let ya'll know i've got another blog. i'll still be writing a ton on here as usual but to find out info on our races and training runs were organize check out rainshadow running
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
the latest and greatest
well the last few weeks have been up and down. running a lot then not. working a lot then not. making progress on race directing stuff then feeling disorganized and unproductive.
i feel like i'm making strides towards consistency now and that makes me feel better.
but in my good weeks i ran a lot including running the entire sun mountain 50k course while pushing my homemade measuring wheel. the course came up a little short so now i've tweaked the course to make up that missing mileage and re-routed the start to make it a little more runner friendly. that week i ran 90 miles which is great but then the following 2 weeks i barely ran at all and felt lethargic. the two weeks prior to the the 90 mile week were similar: a big week followed by a big rest week. the same kinda goes with work i seem to be more productive minute for minute when i working a lot but when i have a long stretch w/o work i seem to nose dive in productivity instead of just channeling my energy into the many other things that need my attention. it seems like when under the gun i can do it all but when there's some down time i'm just as good at being useless.
i'd ratrher find a balance. inetead of getting caught up in momentum, either positive or negative, i'd rather "stay medium" as coach jim zorn espouses. it's something that i could use in all aspects of my life, from racing to relationships.
anybody out there got any input on this? can anybody identify with this?
i just remembered brocks interview from the paper a few weeks ago where he said(i'm totally paraphrasing, probably horribly) he feels like after all the running he does he feels like he's earned a beer and an afternoon on the couch wathcing the game.
i feel like i'm making strides towards consistency now and that makes me feel better.
but in my good weeks i ran a lot including running the entire sun mountain 50k course while pushing my homemade measuring wheel. the course came up a little short so now i've tweaked the course to make up that missing mileage and re-routed the start to make it a little more runner friendly. that week i ran 90 miles which is great but then the following 2 weeks i barely ran at all and felt lethargic. the two weeks prior to the the 90 mile week were similar: a big week followed by a big rest week. the same kinda goes with work i seem to be more productive minute for minute when i working a lot but when i have a long stretch w/o work i seem to nose dive in productivity instead of just channeling my energy into the many other things that need my attention. it seems like when under the gun i can do it all but when there's some down time i'm just as good at being useless.
i'd ratrher find a balance. inetead of getting caught up in momentum, either positive or negative, i'd rather "stay medium" as coach jim zorn espouses. it's something that i could use in all aspects of my life, from racing to relationships.
anybody out there got any input on this? can anybody identify with this?
i just remembered brocks interview from the paper a few weeks ago where he said(i'm totally paraphrasing, probably horribly) he feels like after all the running he does he feels like he's earned a beer and an afternoon on the couch wathcing the game.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
you heard it here first...
for my loyal readers i thought i'd let ya'll know first...
there's a new 50k race(and 21k) coming to washington this april! created with those sun deprived westsiders in mind this "rainshadow" course will be very sunny(and fast! only ~4500ft of gain for the 50k).
stay tuned for more details about the SUN MOUNTAIN 50K and 21K on april 11th 2009
there's a new 50k race(and 21k) coming to washington this april! created with those sun deprived westsiders in mind this "rainshadow" course will be very sunny(and fast! only ~4500ft of gain for the 50k).
stay tuned for more details about the SUN MOUNTAIN 50K and 21K on april 11th 2009
Monday, November 10, 2008
look out running shoes...
wow! i did my first "real" mtn bike ride yesterday and i loved it!
i say real b/c it wasn't really my first ride but the other two were way too techincal that i walked the bike a lot more than i rode it. yesterday was way different--although i did have to put my foot down a few times-- i wasn't terrified the whole time and actually pedaled into some downhills instead of riding the heck out of the brake.
alison and i joined her work(methow cycle and sport. not winthrop phyical therapy or winthrop fitness or sun mountain lodge or housewatch or alison hanks l.m.p. yes alison has 6 jobs) buddies for a ride on buck mtn which just happens to be in our backyard. the 20 mile ride took us around 3 hours but that was with a lot of stopping. joe, alison's boss and a former pro rider usally does the loop in half that time. it was a long climb from the low point in the loop where we parked(just 2 miles from our house) to the ridge. after a few steep sections at the highest point of the ridge the trail mellowed out and alison and i were finally able to relax and have fun. it was great, weaving through sagebrush and dipping and rising and fun turns and great views. the snow was mostly gone and the trail wasn't too muddy. there were few rocks or roots or even fallen down trees to avoid. we just cruised. ofcourse everyone else was way faster and often had to stop to let us catch up but maybe it won't take us long to get better so they won't have to wait so much.
i say real b/c it wasn't really my first ride but the other two were way too techincal that i walked the bike a lot more than i rode it. yesterday was way different--although i did have to put my foot down a few times-- i wasn't terrified the whole time and actually pedaled into some downhills instead of riding the heck out of the brake.
alison and i joined her work(methow cycle and sport. not winthrop phyical therapy or winthrop fitness or sun mountain lodge or housewatch or alison hanks l.m.p. yes alison has 6 jobs) buddies for a ride on buck mtn which just happens to be in our backyard. the 20 mile ride took us around 3 hours but that was with a lot of stopping. joe, alison's boss and a former pro rider usally does the loop in half that time. it was a long climb from the low point in the loop where we parked(just 2 miles from our house) to the ridge. after a few steep sections at the highest point of the ridge the trail mellowed out and alison and i were finally able to relax and have fun. it was great, weaving through sagebrush and dipping and rising and fun turns and great views. the snow was mostly gone and the trail wasn't too muddy. there were few rocks or roots or even fallen down trees to avoid. we just cruised. ofcourse everyone else was way faster and often had to stop to let us catch up but maybe it won't take us long to get better so they won't have to wait so much.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
snow!!!
well the last two weekends i've been able to run above 7000ft with out hitting snow that's probably now over for the year. the last two days we awoke to rain falling on our roof but just 500 feet up the hillsides above it was snow. and thursday/wed nite it's supposed to snow as low as 1000ft(we live at 2000ft) so we'll surely get our first snowfall on our yard since we moved here!
mostlikely the lower elevation snow will melt the next time the sun comes out but going up to 7000ft without snowshoes might be a little tough on the the little piggies. i bet i'll still be running at 2000-5000ft for atleast a few more weeks. and then it'll be mostly treadmill and road running. maybe the backyard trails will stay snow free a little longer they only go up to 3600ft.
we'll see....
mostlikely the lower elevation snow will melt the next time the sun comes out but going up to 7000ft without snowshoes might be a little tough on the the little piggies. i bet i'll still be running at 2000-5000ft for atleast a few more weeks. and then it'll be mostly treadmill and road running. maybe the backyard trails will stay snow free a little longer they only go up to 3600ft.
we'll see....
Saturday, October 25, 2008
mtnlovin
i think i'm changing my name to mtnlovin
i've been running up at 6 and 7 thousand feet for the last couple weeks and there bearly any snow like less than 2 inches at 7400 feet yesterday. and the forecast calls for nothing but sun!!!!! look out mountains here i come.
http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?site=otx&smap=1&textField1=48.47806&textField2=-120.185
come visit!
i've been running up at 6 and 7 thousand feet for the last couple weeks and there bearly any snow like less than 2 inches at 7400 feet yesterday. and the forecast calls for nothing but sun!!!!! look out mountains here i come.
http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?site=otx&smap=1&textField1=48.47806&textField2=-120.185
come visit!
Sunday, September 21, 2008
time for a new post
well folks it's been a long time since i last wrote and not because i haven't had anything to say, it's just hard to find the time and i've had very little internet access especially for the last month or two when my laptop was outta commision.
but the events of the last two weeks has made me make time. i've ran my two best 50k performances ever and possibly two of my best races of any distance ever. first was last week at the 13th running of cle elum where i ran in the lead nearly the whole way and after getting passed with 7 miles to go i held on to finsih second and in the 4th fastest time ever. and then yesterday on tired legs i won the 7th annual baker lake 50k breaking the record by ten minutes!
i took opposite approaches at the two races. at cle elum i went out aggressive hoping to be stubborn enough to not give up the lead in the 2nd half wich was mostly down hill after the first 18 miles were mostly uphill. after the long uphill though my legs were too tired to make the most of the downhills and gary robbins of n.vancouver, bc flew by me like i was standing still. in hindsight maybe i should have saved a little for the downs but oh well... i'm pretty darn happy with a time of 4:37 on a course that few folks have gone sub 4:50.
at baker i wasn't even sure if i would race or just run for fun. so i decided to let other folks set the pace and if i felt good at the half way point i'd start to pick it up and try to pull away. about 12 miles into the run i moved in front of the 3 man lead pack as the former leader slowed to a walk on the biggest climb on the trail section of the race. i kept running and so did the other guy, shwan bussert, but about a mile or so after the first turn around i noticed he was falling back just a tad. also at about this time i was able to see how far back the chasers were and there about 3 guys withing striking distance, including chris twardzik (4th at cle elum) and terry sentinella(3rd twice at past baker lakes). so i took the oppourtunity to put some distance on everyone and opened it up for the 7 mile section back to the trailhead where we would turn back around and run 5 miles back on the trail to the 2nd turnaround. i wanted to have significant lead when i saw my chasers again-- i wanted them to feel like i was too far ahead to catch. but i only had left the turn around by a minute or so when i saw shawn and chris and the others were close behind him but i must have felt that that was a good enough lead because on the 3rd trail leg i let up a bit. and when i saw them again at the final turn around it seemed like they were less than a minute behind me. but that was enough kick in the butt for me and i went all out for the final 6.7 miles to the finish-- winning by almost 18 minutes.
i'm pretty excited about my times they're way faster than i expected and compared to times at other 50ks i've done i've made some major improvements. i felt like baker lake was probably a little easier and cle elum a little harder than washington's biggest 50k: chuckanut. if i was able to run the way i ran at these two races at chuckanut instead i'd probably run somewhere around 4:10 to 4:17 which most years would have put me in the top 5 of the washington's most competitive 50k a pretty stinking good place to be!
up next: race wise--probably hal koerner's new 26.3 mile trail race in ashland on alison's favorite trail there in early nov. and i want to get out and keep running new places in the paysayten wilderness and north cascades national park before there's too much snow.
but the events of the last two weeks has made me make time. i've ran my two best 50k performances ever and possibly two of my best races of any distance ever. first was last week at the 13th running of cle elum where i ran in the lead nearly the whole way and after getting passed with 7 miles to go i held on to finsih second and in the 4th fastest time ever. and then yesterday on tired legs i won the 7th annual baker lake 50k breaking the record by ten minutes!
i took opposite approaches at the two races. at cle elum i went out aggressive hoping to be stubborn enough to not give up the lead in the 2nd half wich was mostly down hill after the first 18 miles were mostly uphill. after the long uphill though my legs were too tired to make the most of the downhills and gary robbins of n.vancouver, bc flew by me like i was standing still. in hindsight maybe i should have saved a little for the downs but oh well... i'm pretty darn happy with a time of 4:37 on a course that few folks have gone sub 4:50.
at baker i wasn't even sure if i would race or just run for fun. so i decided to let other folks set the pace and if i felt good at the half way point i'd start to pick it up and try to pull away. about 12 miles into the run i moved in front of the 3 man lead pack as the former leader slowed to a walk on the biggest climb on the trail section of the race. i kept running and so did the other guy, shwan bussert, but about a mile or so after the first turn around i noticed he was falling back just a tad. also at about this time i was able to see how far back the chasers were and there about 3 guys withing striking distance, including chris twardzik (4th at cle elum) and terry sentinella(3rd twice at past baker lakes). so i took the oppourtunity to put some distance on everyone and opened it up for the 7 mile section back to the trailhead where we would turn back around and run 5 miles back on the trail to the 2nd turnaround. i wanted to have significant lead when i saw my chasers again-- i wanted them to feel like i was too far ahead to catch. but i only had left the turn around by a minute or so when i saw shawn and chris and the others were close behind him but i must have felt that that was a good enough lead because on the 3rd trail leg i let up a bit. and when i saw them again at the final turn around it seemed like they were less than a minute behind me. but that was enough kick in the butt for me and i went all out for the final 6.7 miles to the finish-- winning by almost 18 minutes.
i'm pretty excited about my times they're way faster than i expected and compared to times at other 50ks i've done i've made some major improvements. i felt like baker lake was probably a little easier and cle elum a little harder than washington's biggest 50k: chuckanut. if i was able to run the way i ran at these two races at chuckanut instead i'd probably run somewhere around 4:10 to 4:17 which most years would have put me in the top 5 of the washington's most competitive 50k a pretty stinking good place to be!
up next: race wise--probably hal koerner's new 26.3 mile trail race in ashland on alison's favorite trail there in early nov. and i want to get out and keep running new places in the paysayten wilderness and north cascades national park before there's too much snow.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
hardrock, this year and last year
hi folks
sorry again for not posting but i'll do what i can to improve.
i thought i'd take a second and let ya'll know that i'm now officailly in hardrock, actually it happend with a phone call from dale garland(RD) on monday. that's a whole 17 days earlier than last year when i got in off the waitlist the day before the race. speaking of last year i accidentaly wrote my race report for last year's run last nite so i figured i'd post it below. i'm leaving for silverton via portland sunday nite and hope to make it there in time for the trail work party on tuesday. this year the race will be held friday the 11th, you can follow my progress on their website at www.hardrock100.com
anyhow here's the report:
last year i was running great and 72 miles into the race i was in 3rd place and had run basically the same speed as karl and jurek for the middle 3rd of the race after taking it really easy for the first third. my plan had been to take it easy for the first 2/3 to 1/2 of the race and then try to move up into the top 3 by the end of the race but i changed plans on fly.
at the 28 mile aid station i ate too much too quickly and soon found myself throwing it all back up just a 1/2 mile past the aid station. lots of folks passed me while i was regrouping and as soon as i felt better i commited myself to passing the doazen or so runners who had left me behind. i felt really good and had passed all but one by the time i had made it to the next aid station. i soon passed him but now i was in race mode and set my sights on the next runner and the runner after that one and so on until i reached mile 56 in fourth place after passing about 20 runners.
here i decided to ease up and just hold 4th and wait to see if the battle between the top three would create any carnage. i soon found out it would, just after the next aid station i passed former winner mark hartell who was walking back to the aid station to drop out. but soon after that i started seeing the lights of runners below me not far behind and by the time i made it to the next aid station one runner was just 100 yards behind. not wanting to get passed so soon after moving into 3rd i flew down into telluride and hurried to get out of the aid station before that runner arrived. in my haste i neglected to eat anything at the aid station and mistakenly thought i had enough food in my pack to get to the next aid station-- i was wrong. i had 2 gels to get me to the next aid station 10 very hard miles away(those 10 miles took jurek 3 hours and others in the top 10 as much as 5 hours).
it's an understatement to say i bonked. i fell into a deep, dark, cold hole and never came out, perhaps you could say i black holed. i eventually arrived at the next aid staion and despite walking nearly every step of the way ther i was amazingly in a 3 way tie for 2nd place. karl was there and not looking good, he was in a sleeping bag and barely aknowledged my arrival and jared campbell had caught up to me just as i entered the aid station. the first runner out would be in 2nd place but i was no longer thinking in those terms, i wanted to eat and sit and get warm and nothing else mattered anymore... except finishing. eventhough it was only 18 miles to the finish it seemed nearly impossible to just get out of my chair where i was covered in blankets and surrounded with food, finishing became this dreamlike thing that one day i'd get around to doing.
thankfully the runner who had paced krissy to this aid station still wanted to run more and she dragged me back out on to the course. but despite the 75 minutes i spent at chapman eating and resting i still was in the blackhole energy wise aswell as emotionally-- after feeling so good and doing so well and being so close to running the race of my life i was now lethargic, unhappy and absoloutely unconcerned about my place or time. this combination of loss of motivation and vigor made for a painfully slow death march to the finish, i walked every step and often had to sit down every 10 minutes. the last 18 miles took me nearly 11 hours(the first 82 took me just over 23 hours). as i got to the last couple miles my spirits did brighten a bit but my energy levels never rebounded.
not having adequate food for the section between telluride and chapman definitely was to blame for a good portion of my problems but i feel like there must have been more to my plummet from 2nd to 25th than a lack of calories. and i think it boils down to two big issues: starting to race too soon(especially for my level of training that year) and my lack of control of my emotions. even though i was running fast and feeling good it was probably too much too soon and so i when i did bonk it hit me harder than if had been running much more moderately up to that point. and then combining that physical situation with my preponderance for big mood swings made for a "perfect bonk" of hollywood blockbuster proportions. earlier in the race i was euphoric as i picked off runner after runner later i was choking back tears as i approached chapman afarid i would quit and later still i non-challantly bid runner after runner good luck as the passed me during one of my many sit-down breaks as i made my way back to silverton totally demoralized. in hindsight i see that if only i could've stayed positive i could've regrouped in the aid station at chapman and still finsihed possibly in the top 5. instead my first running of the hardrock i'll remember as the run that i let slip away but hopefully learned a hard earned lesson or two.
sorry again for not posting but i'll do what i can to improve.
i thought i'd take a second and let ya'll know that i'm now officailly in hardrock, actually it happend with a phone call from dale garland(RD) on monday. that's a whole 17 days earlier than last year when i got in off the waitlist the day before the race. speaking of last year i accidentaly wrote my race report for last year's run last nite so i figured i'd post it below. i'm leaving for silverton via portland sunday nite and hope to make it there in time for the trail work party on tuesday. this year the race will be held friday the 11th, you can follow my progress on their website at www.hardrock100.com
anyhow here's the report:
last year i was running great and 72 miles into the race i was in 3rd place and had run basically the same speed as karl and jurek for the middle 3rd of the race after taking it really easy for the first third. my plan had been to take it easy for the first 2/3 to 1/2 of the race and then try to move up into the top 3 by the end of the race but i changed plans on fly.
at the 28 mile aid station i ate too much too quickly and soon found myself throwing it all back up just a 1/2 mile past the aid station. lots of folks passed me while i was regrouping and as soon as i felt better i commited myself to passing the doazen or so runners who had left me behind. i felt really good and had passed all but one by the time i had made it to the next aid station. i soon passed him but now i was in race mode and set my sights on the next runner and the runner after that one and so on until i reached mile 56 in fourth place after passing about 20 runners.
here i decided to ease up and just hold 4th and wait to see if the battle between the top three would create any carnage. i soon found out it would, just after the next aid station i passed former winner mark hartell who was walking back to the aid station to drop out. but soon after that i started seeing the lights of runners below me not far behind and by the time i made it to the next aid station one runner was just 100 yards behind. not wanting to get passed so soon after moving into 3rd i flew down into telluride and hurried to get out of the aid station before that runner arrived. in my haste i neglected to eat anything at the aid station and mistakenly thought i had enough food in my pack to get to the next aid station-- i was wrong. i had 2 gels to get me to the next aid station 10 very hard miles away(those 10 miles took jurek 3 hours and others in the top 10 as much as 5 hours).
it's an understatement to say i bonked. i fell into a deep, dark, cold hole and never came out, perhaps you could say i black holed. i eventually arrived at the next aid staion and despite walking nearly every step of the way ther i was amazingly in a 3 way tie for 2nd place. karl was there and not looking good, he was in a sleeping bag and barely aknowledged my arrival and jared campbell had caught up to me just as i entered the aid station. the first runner out would be in 2nd place but i was no longer thinking in those terms, i wanted to eat and sit and get warm and nothing else mattered anymore... except finishing. eventhough it was only 18 miles to the finish it seemed nearly impossible to just get out of my chair where i was covered in blankets and surrounded with food, finishing became this dreamlike thing that one day i'd get around to doing.
thankfully the runner who had paced krissy to this aid station still wanted to run more and she dragged me back out on to the course. but despite the 75 minutes i spent at chapman eating and resting i still was in the blackhole energy wise aswell as emotionally-- after feeling so good and doing so well and being so close to running the race of my life i was now lethargic, unhappy and absoloutely unconcerned about my place or time. this combination of loss of motivation and vigor made for a painfully slow death march to the finish, i walked every step and often had to sit down every 10 minutes. the last 18 miles took me nearly 11 hours(the first 82 took me just over 23 hours). as i got to the last couple miles my spirits did brighten a bit but my energy levels never rebounded.
not having adequate food for the section between telluride and chapman definitely was to blame for a good portion of my problems but i feel like there must have been more to my plummet from 2nd to 25th than a lack of calories. and i think it boils down to two big issues: starting to race too soon(especially for my level of training that year) and my lack of control of my emotions. even though i was running fast and feeling good it was probably too much too soon and so i when i did bonk it hit me harder than if had been running much more moderately up to that point. and then combining that physical situation with my preponderance for big mood swings made for a "perfect bonk" of hollywood blockbuster proportions. earlier in the race i was euphoric as i picked off runner after runner later i was choking back tears as i approached chapman afarid i would quit and later still i non-challantly bid runner after runner good luck as the passed me during one of my many sit-down breaks as i made my way back to silverton totally demoralized. in hindsight i see that if only i could've stayed positive i could've regrouped in the aid station at chapman and still finsihed possibly in the top 5. instead my first running of the hardrock i'll remember as the run that i let slip away but hopefully learned a hard earned lesson or two.
Monday, June 16, 2008
quick update from jamesland
hi ya'll
sorry for not writing in half a month but the combination of moving, running a ton, working a bunch and no internet yet in the new house has all added up to zero posts.
and this one is gonna be a dud.
this weekend was cool. john came to visit. i was up at alititude bunch. ran 10 hours sat. camped at 8000 ft w/alison fri nite, rode 60 miles sun with john and had fun.
more later.......
sorry for not writing in half a month but the combination of moving, running a ton, working a bunch and no internet yet in the new house has all added up to zero posts.
and this one is gonna be a dud.
this weekend was cool. john came to visit. i was up at alititude bunch. ran 10 hours sat. camped at 8000 ft w/alison fri nite, rode 60 miles sun with john and had fun.
more later.......
Sunday, June 1, 2008
my recent trails conditions report
i've been spending a lot of time on the methow valley
trails since moving here two weeks ago and i thought
i'd share with everyone the conditions i've found.
below is a list of trails i've ran in the last week or
so and their condition:
5/23 twisp river trail
from war creek camp to scatter creek trail. trail was
in good shape only a half doazen or so down trees and
the brush was not too bad but could use a triming.
creeks were high but crossable.
5/23 slate creek trail
from twisp river trail to ~6600ft
no snow until around 6400ft. great views. trail brushy
for the first half mile or so. one big tree down and a
couple more small ones.
5/23 scatter creek trail
from twisp river trail to ~5000 ft.
this trail get less sun than the slate creek trail so
snow level a was more than 1000ft lower somewhere
around 5000ft. i don't remember any significant down
trees or other problems.
5/24 wolf creek trail
trailhead to unnamed peak 8082 near gardner mtn.
trail in general was in great shape; a little brushy
in just few brief spots; very little snow for such a
deep valley. patchy snow started at 4200ft ended at
4600ft and stayed snow free until gardner meadows.
the south and east facing slopes of gardner mtn were
mostly snow free. the north fork ford was high and
fast but crossable--there's also a good tree to cross
over on just up stream 100ft or so i was told.
5/25 pearrygin creek trail
lower trailhead to upper trailhead
this trail has lots of potential for a great early
season trail(i was able to run in in early may aswell)
close to town but needs work i counted 84 down trees,
all but 10 or so in the highest mile or so.
thankfully most trees are small enough for a small
chainsaw but some will need a biggun. it also needs
some brushing out in key spots and the erosion matting
on the low end just above the creek is starting to
fail thanks to the cows walking on it.
5/25 pearrygin ridge trail
entire length
this trail is in pretty good shape and in a week or
two (when the rest of the snow melts off) will be
nearly perfect. there's 13 or so small down trees in
the first mile from the trailhead but after that i
don't really remember any more than 1 or 2. there was
patchy snow briefly just past the side trail to the
peak but then no snow at all unto the downhill to
beaver meadows. the snow was about 2ft deep for about
a mile and very slushy despite having snowshoes i sunk
in about 4-6 inches every step and had to re-tighten
the straps often. i highly recommend waiting for the
snow to melt quite a bit more before trying this
trail. there is also just as much snow or more on the
other side of the meadows but the meadows are snow
free.
5/25 blue buck trail
entire length
this trail is my favorite so far of all the trails
i've ran in the valley. there is snow on the upper
parts on about 1-2 miles on either side of beaver
meadow. but most of the trail is snow free and has
very few down trees.
5/25 lightning creek trail
first mile to jct with blue buck
trail is a little brushy but otherwise great.
5/30 lookout mtn trail and ridge trail
entire length of mtn trail and most of ridge trail
all of the trail we ran was snow free. we would've
gone all the way to black pine lake but ran into a
bear cub when we were almost there-- seemed like a
good spot to turn around :) just a few down trees on
the ridge trail which by the way was not always easy
to follow other wise both trails are looking good.
5/31 wolf creek trail(again)
entire length-- made it all the way to n. gardner this
time! great views!!!
a lot of the snow had melted since last week and by
next weekend there will probably be zero snow all the
way to gardner meadows. the trail seemed a little
more brushy this week and will probably get worse
until trail crews or volunteerrs get to it in june.
but overall it's still in great shape and getting
better as the snow melts away. horses may find the
last tree or two tricky up in the old burn before the
meadows otherwise the 6 or so trees won't slow anybody
down.
that's all i've got of recent reports. if folks see
things differently or have reports form different
trails please share!
if you've got any questions or if you'd like to run
trails with alison and i we'd love to have folks join
us send me an email jvarner1313@yahoo.com we normally
run for an hour or so in the evenings on weekdays and
then on the weekends we run 4-12 hours.
trails since moving here two weeks ago and i thought
i'd share with everyone the conditions i've found.
below is a list of trails i've ran in the last week or
so and their condition:
5/23 twisp river trail
from war creek camp to scatter creek trail. trail was
in good shape only a half doazen or so down trees and
the brush was not too bad but could use a triming.
creeks were high but crossable.
5/23 slate creek trail
from twisp river trail to ~6600ft
no snow until around 6400ft. great views. trail brushy
for the first half mile or so. one big tree down and a
couple more small ones.
5/23 scatter creek trail
from twisp river trail to ~5000 ft.
this trail get less sun than the slate creek trail so
snow level a was more than 1000ft lower somewhere
around 5000ft. i don't remember any significant down
trees or other problems.
5/24 wolf creek trail
trailhead to unnamed peak 8082 near gardner mtn.
trail in general was in great shape; a little brushy
in just few brief spots; very little snow for such a
deep valley. patchy snow started at 4200ft ended at
4600ft and stayed snow free until gardner meadows.
the south and east facing slopes of gardner mtn were
mostly snow free. the north fork ford was high and
fast but crossable--there's also a good tree to cross
over on just up stream 100ft or so i was told.
5/25 pearrygin creek trail
lower trailhead to upper trailhead
this trail has lots of potential for a great early
season trail(i was able to run in in early may aswell)
close to town but needs work i counted 84 down trees,
all but 10 or so in the highest mile or so.
thankfully most trees are small enough for a small
chainsaw but some will need a biggun. it also needs
some brushing out in key spots and the erosion matting
on the low end just above the creek is starting to
fail thanks to the cows walking on it.
5/25 pearrygin ridge trail
entire length
this trail is in pretty good shape and in a week or
two (when the rest of the snow melts off) will be
nearly perfect. there's 13 or so small down trees in
the first mile from the trailhead but after that i
don't really remember any more than 1 or 2. there was
patchy snow briefly just past the side trail to the
peak but then no snow at all unto the downhill to
beaver meadows. the snow was about 2ft deep for about
a mile and very slushy despite having snowshoes i sunk
in about 4-6 inches every step and had to re-tighten
the straps often. i highly recommend waiting for the
snow to melt quite a bit more before trying this
trail. there is also just as much snow or more on the
other side of the meadows but the meadows are snow
free.
5/25 blue buck trail
entire length
this trail is my favorite so far of all the trails
i've ran in the valley. there is snow on the upper
parts on about 1-2 miles on either side of beaver
meadow. but most of the trail is snow free and has
very few down trees.
5/25 lightning creek trail
first mile to jct with blue buck
trail is a little brushy but otherwise great.
5/30 lookout mtn trail and ridge trail
entire length of mtn trail and most of ridge trail
all of the trail we ran was snow free. we would've
gone all the way to black pine lake but ran into a
bear cub when we were almost there-- seemed like a
good spot to turn around :) just a few down trees on
the ridge trail which by the way was not always easy
to follow other wise both trails are looking good.
5/31 wolf creek trail(again)
entire length-- made it all the way to n. gardner this
time! great views!!!
a lot of the snow had melted since last week and by
next weekend there will probably be zero snow all the
way to gardner meadows. the trail seemed a little
more brushy this week and will probably get worse
until trail crews or volunteerrs get to it in june.
but overall it's still in great shape and getting
better as the snow melts away. horses may find the
last tree or two tricky up in the old burn before the
meadows otherwise the 6 or so trees won't slow anybody
down.
that's all i've got of recent reports. if folks see
things differently or have reports form different
trails please share!
if you've got any questions or if you'd like to run
trails with alison and i we'd love to have folks join
us send me an email jvarner1313@yahoo.com we normally
run for an hour or so in the evenings on weekdays and
then on the weekends we run 4-12 hours.
Monday, May 26, 2008
oil again-- a reply to my last post
hi everyone.
i thought i'd post this great reply to greg palast's article by glen anderson from olympia. he writes on a major issue regarding oil prices that greg left out--peak oil. i have no idea which factor is the major role but i'm sure both are playing big roles in what we spend for gas. moral of both articles is reduce your gas and other fossil fuel use drastically and start moving in another direction.
glen anderson wrote:
Usually I agree with what Greg Palast writes. This article unfairly singles out Obama for a problem that has persisted for many decades. Most of Palast’s article is about the decades-long problem, but he cites only minor parts of the root causes. He blames oil companies and politicians for artificially constricting supply. That’s only a tiny part of the problem.
Certainly U.S. imperialism is a major problem in the world. But Palast’s article blames U.S. imperialism and artificial constraints on supply for the entire problem of sharp oil price increases. His article – just like mainstream news media and mainstream politicians – ignore the real driving force: Peak Oil. A relatively few of us have been trying to publicize the Peak Oil crisis since 2004, but the public, politicians, and news media – and much of the progressive activist community – have avoided dealing with it. Now the crisis is upon us, and folks STILL are avoiding the real issue.
The harsh reality is that oil is a finite resource. Mother Nature spent hundreds of millions of years creating it underground. Industrial society has extracted half of that in only about 160 years. Any given oil well becomes less productive as it ages. At the aggregate level, the total of all the world’s oil wells have reached their peak productivity, and now they simply cannot pump as much as in previous years. Meanwhile, demand is still growing. The law of supply and demand forces prices up.
Oil production in the U.S. peaked in 1971 and has been declining since 1971. After a hundred years of exploration and extraction very little new oil and gas is being found anywhere in the world.. Global oil discoveries peaked in 1962 (40 billion barrels) and discoveries have been declining ever since 1962. Now we are at the 1910 level of oil discoveries (10 billion barrels). The oil companies are investing less in exploration because they KNOW very little is left to be discovered. The Republican Party’s proposal of using our tax dollars to subsidize oil companies’ exploration is wasteful. For many years the oil companies have known about the coming peak oil crisis and the vast increases in oil prices, so they would have invested money in exploration, but they didn’t because they KNOW hardly any oil is left to be discovered.
·The last major oil discovery was in 1976 – more than 30 years ago.
·More than 70% of the present supply of oil in the world was discovered before 1973.
·Today, for every barrel of oil discovered, the world consumes FOUR barrels. This is NOT sustainable!
We don’t “produce” oil. Mother Nature produced it. We just extract it from the ground. The Peak Oil crisis is a geological reality. Neither “the market” nor technology can fix it. There is only so much oil. Peak Oil is a geological reality. We can’t ignore it or wish it away, any more than we can ignore or wish away the global climate crisis.
The early ‘70s OPEC embargo was a temporary disruption based on a political controversy. The crisis we face now is different from the OPEC oil embargo. Peak Oil is a geological reality – a hard limit. We are somewhere near the peak now. We might have peaked in 2005 or 2006. Existing wells are pumping all they can, and practically no new sources exist (without counterproductive economic and environmental costs).
The harsh reality is that the world will have to get by on less and less oil every year – and at higher and higher prices. The Peak Oil crisis will affect EVERY aspect of modern society, economics, and lifestyle.
The U.S. government is already fighting wars for oil in Afghanistan, Iraq, Colombia and – to some extent – in Venezuela. More oil wars are on the way.
The U.S. has been the world’s major user of oil, but other nations are industrializing rapidly.
▪On China’s east coast the sales of cars are increasing 80% per year.
▪Shanghai and some other Chinese cities have BANNED bicycles in order to make room for more cars.
▪China recently passed Japan as the world’s #2 oil importer.
Oil has been the cheapest and most convenient energy resource ever discovered by humans. For 200 years industrial nations became accustomed to a seemingly endless supply of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas). The US in particular designed our industry, transportation, and many other aspects of our society around the assumptions that oil would always be available and cheap – and that growth is necessary and can go on forever.
Over the coming years, prices for gasoline and everything made from oil will spike. This will cause economies to crash.
Transportation of people and goods will become much more expensive. Large-scale agriculture (based on fertilizers and pesticides made with oil and natural gas) will stop being cost-effective, so global food production will decline. Some experts predict that hunger will kill billions of people in a few decades.
We’re importing more and more of our oil from other countries – especially countries that are politically unstable. Wars for oil will ravage the globe. Indeed, they’ve already started as the US tries to conquer Afghanistan to build a pipeline and tries to control the oil of Iraq, Colombia, and Venezuela. The U.S. foreign policy is very much bi-partisan. Both big political parties have shown they are willing to kill for oil.
The Peak Oil crisis will yank us out of our familiar world of energy growth and transplant us into a world of energy decline. We’ll enter uncharted territory. We’ll need to adjust our mental frame of reference to this new reality. We’ll need to rethink and redesign modern society. Government and the public have resisted the radical changes that are necessary.
Frankly, the odds are against us, but some solutions are possible – but only if we can generate the political will – and only if we start immediately!
We need to slash our oil consumption drastically, and we need to slash it immediately!
Most of the commonly offered painless solutions are not realistic.
For example, ethanol costs MORE than gasoline and causes MORE air pollution than gasoline. Making ethanol from corn is driving up the cost of corn and other grains for hungry people around the world. But even if we devoted the ENTIRE U.S. corn crop to ethanol, it would provide less than 6% of the U.S.’s oil needs. To make ethanol from sugar and other crops, Brazil is clear-cutting jungles and causing environmental damage and the loss of plants that consume CO2.
Frankly, there are NO good solutions.. NO solutions that are cheap or painless.
We need to slash our oil consumption drastically, and we need to slash it immediately!
The Peak Oil crisis requires a RADICAL change in the whole U.S. economy and way of life. Think on the scale of the massive changes during World War II.
The sooner we start, the sooner we can adapt to the new realities. We can’t fool Mother Nature. Either we deal with reality, or reality will deal with us!
Last September I conducted a workshop on Peak Oil that laid out the problems and engaged participants in generating practical solutions that we could start implementing at the local level. The workshop also addressed the feelings of fear, denial and powerlessness that prevent people and governments from confronting the Peak Oil crisis effectively. The workshop was very well received, and I’d be happy to conduct it again if people are interested.
i thought i'd post this great reply to greg palast's article by glen anderson from olympia. he writes on a major issue regarding oil prices that greg left out--peak oil. i have no idea which factor is the major role but i'm sure both are playing big roles in what we spend for gas. moral of both articles is reduce your gas and other fossil fuel use drastically and start moving in another direction.
glen anderson wrote:
Usually I agree with what Greg Palast writes. This article unfairly singles out Obama for a problem that has persisted for many decades. Most of Palast’s article is about the decades-long problem, but he cites only minor parts of the root causes. He blames oil companies and politicians for artificially constricting supply. That’s only a tiny part of the problem.
Certainly U.S. imperialism is a major problem in the world. But Palast’s article blames U.S. imperialism and artificial constraints on supply for the entire problem of sharp oil price increases. His article – just like mainstream news media and mainstream politicians – ignore the real driving force: Peak Oil. A relatively few of us have been trying to publicize the Peak Oil crisis since 2004, but the public, politicians, and news media – and much of the progressive activist community – have avoided dealing with it. Now the crisis is upon us, and folks STILL are avoiding the real issue.
The harsh reality is that oil is a finite resource. Mother Nature spent hundreds of millions of years creating it underground. Industrial society has extracted half of that in only about 160 years. Any given oil well becomes less productive as it ages. At the aggregate level, the total of all the world’s oil wells have reached their peak productivity, and now they simply cannot pump as much as in previous years. Meanwhile, demand is still growing. The law of supply and demand forces prices up.
Oil production in the U.S. peaked in 1971 and has been declining since 1971. After a hundred years of exploration and extraction very little new oil and gas is being found anywhere in the world.. Global oil discoveries peaked in 1962 (40 billion barrels) and discoveries have been declining ever since 1962. Now we are at the 1910 level of oil discoveries (10 billion barrels). The oil companies are investing less in exploration because they KNOW very little is left to be discovered. The Republican Party’s proposal of using our tax dollars to subsidize oil companies’ exploration is wasteful. For many years the oil companies have known about the coming peak oil crisis and the vast increases in oil prices, so they would have invested money in exploration, but they didn’t because they KNOW hardly any oil is left to be discovered.
·The last major oil discovery was in 1976 – more than 30 years ago.
·More than 70% of the present supply of oil in the world was discovered before 1973.
·Today, for every barrel of oil discovered, the world consumes FOUR barrels. This is NOT sustainable!
We don’t “produce” oil. Mother Nature produced it. We just extract it from the ground. The Peak Oil crisis is a geological reality. Neither “the market” nor technology can fix it. There is only so much oil. Peak Oil is a geological reality. We can’t ignore it or wish it away, any more than we can ignore or wish away the global climate crisis.
The early ‘70s OPEC embargo was a temporary disruption based on a political controversy. The crisis we face now is different from the OPEC oil embargo. Peak Oil is a geological reality – a hard limit. We are somewhere near the peak now. We might have peaked in 2005 or 2006. Existing wells are pumping all they can, and practically no new sources exist (without counterproductive economic and environmental costs).
The harsh reality is that the world will have to get by on less and less oil every year – and at higher and higher prices. The Peak Oil crisis will affect EVERY aspect of modern society, economics, and lifestyle.
The U.S. government is already fighting wars for oil in Afghanistan, Iraq, Colombia and – to some extent – in Venezuela. More oil wars are on the way.
The U.S. has been the world’s major user of oil, but other nations are industrializing rapidly.
▪On China’s east coast the sales of cars are increasing 80% per year.
▪Shanghai and some other Chinese cities have BANNED bicycles in order to make room for more cars.
▪China recently passed Japan as the world’s #2 oil importer.
Oil has been the cheapest and most convenient energy resource ever discovered by humans. For 200 years industrial nations became accustomed to a seemingly endless supply of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas). The US in particular designed our industry, transportation, and many other aspects of our society around the assumptions that oil would always be available and cheap – and that growth is necessary and can go on forever.
Over the coming years, prices for gasoline and everything made from oil will spike. This will cause economies to crash.
Transportation of people and goods will become much more expensive. Large-scale agriculture (based on fertilizers and pesticides made with oil and natural gas) will stop being cost-effective, so global food production will decline. Some experts predict that hunger will kill billions of people in a few decades.
We’re importing more and more of our oil from other countries – especially countries that are politically unstable. Wars for oil will ravage the globe. Indeed, they’ve already started as the US tries to conquer Afghanistan to build a pipeline and tries to control the oil of Iraq, Colombia, and Venezuela. The U.S. foreign policy is very much bi-partisan. Both big political parties have shown they are willing to kill for oil.
The Peak Oil crisis will yank us out of our familiar world of energy growth and transplant us into a world of energy decline. We’ll enter uncharted territory. We’ll need to adjust our mental frame of reference to this new reality. We’ll need to rethink and redesign modern society. Government and the public have resisted the radical changes that are necessary.
Frankly, the odds are against us, but some solutions are possible – but only if we can generate the political will – and only if we start immediately!
We need to slash our oil consumption drastically, and we need to slash it immediately!
Most of the commonly offered painless solutions are not realistic.
For example, ethanol costs MORE than gasoline and causes MORE air pollution than gasoline. Making ethanol from corn is driving up the cost of corn and other grains for hungry people around the world. But even if we devoted the ENTIRE U.S. corn crop to ethanol, it would provide less than 6% of the U.S.’s oil needs. To make ethanol from sugar and other crops, Brazil is clear-cutting jungles and causing environmental damage and the loss of plants that consume CO2.
Frankly, there are NO good solutions.. NO solutions that are cheap or painless.
We need to slash our oil consumption drastically, and we need to slash it immediately!
The Peak Oil crisis requires a RADICAL change in the whole U.S. economy and way of life. Think on the scale of the massive changes during World War II.
The sooner we start, the sooner we can adapt to the new realities. We can’t fool Mother Nature. Either we deal with reality, or reality will deal with us!
Last September I conducted a workshop on Peak Oil that laid out the problems and engaged participants in generating practical solutions that we could start implementing at the local level. The workshop also addressed the feelings of fear, denial and powerlessness that prevent people and governments from confronting the Peak Oil crisis effectively. The workshop was very well received, and I’d be happy to conduct it again if people are interested.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
our gas prices are linked directly to war profiteering
below is a great article from an award winning journalist and new york times bestselling author. i highly respect his work. here's a brief intro to what he says here-- war in iraq = less oil = supply vs. demand = higher prices at the pump =more $$$ for big oil companies. obama and hillary both have plans to tax the profiteers.
ok i let greg palast fill you in on the details and remeber if you're not pissed off you're not paying attention!
Obama's Secret War Profiteering Tax
May 24, 2008 By Greg Palast
http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/17717
I can't make this up:
In a hotel room in Brussels, the chief executives of the world's top oil companies unrolled a huge map of the Middle East, drew a fat, red line around Iraq and signed their names to it.
The map, the red line, the secret signatures. It explains this war. It explains this week's rocketing of the price of oil to $134 a barrel.
It happened on July 31, 1928, but the bill came due now.
Barack Obama knows this. Or, just as important, those crafting his policies seem to know this. Same for Hillary Clinton's team. There could be nomore vital difference between the Republican and Democratic candidacies. And you won't learn a thing about it on the news from the Fox-holes.
Let me explain.
In 1928, oil company chieftains (from Anglo-Persian Oil, now BritishPetroleum, from Standard Oil, now Exxon, and their Continental counterparts) were faced with a crisis: falling prices due to rising supplies of oil; the same crisis faced by their successors during the Clinton years, when oil traded at $22 a barrel.
The solution then, as now: stop the flow of oil, squeeze the market, raise the price. The method: put a red line around Iraq and declare that virtually all the oil under its sands would remainthere, untapped. Their plan: choke supply, raise prices rise, boost profits. That was the program for 1928. For 2003. For 2008.
Again and again, year after year, the world price of oil has been boosted artificially by keeping a tight limit on Iraq'soil output.. Methods varied. The 1928 'Redline' agreement held, invarious forms, for over three decades. It was replaced in 1959 by quotas imposed by President Eisenhower. Then Saudi Arabia and OPEC kept Iraq, capable of producing over 6 million barrels a day, capped at half that, given an export quota equal to Iran's lower output.
In 1991, output was again limited, this time by a new red line: B-52 bombings by Bush Senior's air force. Then came the Oil Embargo followedby the 'Food for Oil' program. Not much food for them, not much oil forus.
In 2002, after Bush Junior took power, the top ten oil companies took in a nice $31 billion in profits. But then, a miracle fell from the sky. Or,more precisely, the 101st Airborne landed. Bush declared, 'Bring'm on!' and, as the dogs of war chewed up the world's second largest source of oil, crude doubled in two years to an astonishing $40 a barrel and those same oil companies saw their profits triple to $87 billion.
In response, Senators Obama and Clinton propose something wrongly called a'windfall' profits tax on oil. But oil industry profits didn't blow in on a breeze. It is war, not wind, that fills their coffers. The beastly leap in prices is nothing but war profiteering, hiking prices to take cruel advantage of oil fields shut by bullets and blood.
I wish to hell the Democrats would call their plan what it is: A warprofiteering tax. War is profitable business - if you're an oil man. But somehow, the public pays the price, at the pump and at the funerals, and the oil companies reap the benefits.
Indeed, the recent engorgement in oil prices and profits goes right back to Bush-McCain 'surge.' The Iraq government attack on a Basra militia was really nothing more than Baghdad's leaping into a gang war over control of Iraq's Southern oil fields and oil-loading docks. Moqtada al-Sadr's gangsters and the government-sponsored greedsters of SCIRI (the Supreme Council For Islamic Revolution In Iraq) are battling over an estimated $5 billion a year in oil shipment kickbacks, theft and protection fees.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the surge-backed civil warring has cut Iraq's exports by up to a million barrels a day. And that translates to slashing OPEC excess crude capacity by nearly half.
Result: ka-BOOM in oil prices and ka-ZOOM in oil profits. For 2007, Exxon recorded the highest annual profit, $40.6 billion, of any enterprise since the building of the pyramids. And that was BEFORE the war surge and price surge to over $100 a barrel.
It's been a good war for Exxon and friends. Since George Bush began to beat the war-drum for an invasion of Iraq, the value of Exxon's reserves has risen - are you ready for this? - by $2 trillion.
Obama's war profiteering tax, or 'oil windfall profits' tax, would equal just 20% of the industry's charges in excess of $80 a barrel. It's embarrassingly small actually, smaller than every windfall tax charged by every other nation. (Ecuador, for example, captures up to 99% of the higher earnings).
Nevertheless,oilman George W. Bush opposes it as does Bush's man McCain. SenatorMcCain admonishes us that the po' widdle oil companies need more than80% of their windfall so they can explore for more oil. When pigs fly, Senator. Last year, Exxon spent $36 billion of its $40 billion incomeon dividends and special payouts to stockholders in tax-free buy-backs.Even the Journal called Exxon's capital investment spending 'stingy.'
At today's prices Obama's windfall tax, teeny as it is, would bring innearly a billion dollars a day for the US Treasury. Clinton's plan is similar. Yet the press' entire discussion of gas prices is shifted towhether the government should knock some sales tax pennies off the oil companies' pillaging at the pump.
More important than even the Democrats' declaring that oil company profits are undeserved, is their implicit understanding that the profits are the spoils of war.
And that's another reason to tax the oil industry's ill-gotten gain. Vietnam showed us that foreign wars don't end when the invader can no longer fight, but when the invasion is no longer profitable.
Greg Palast is the author of, 'Trillion Dollar Babies,' on Iraq and oil, published in his New York Times bestseller, Armed Madhouse.
ok i let greg palast fill you in on the details and remeber if you're not pissed off you're not paying attention!
Obama's Secret War Profiteering Tax
May 24, 2008 By Greg Palast
http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/17717
I can't make this up:
In a hotel room in Brussels, the chief executives of the world's top oil companies unrolled a huge map of the Middle East, drew a fat, red line around Iraq and signed their names to it.
The map, the red line, the secret signatures. It explains this war. It explains this week's rocketing of the price of oil to $134 a barrel.
It happened on July 31, 1928, but the bill came due now.
Barack Obama knows this. Or, just as important, those crafting his policies seem to know this. Same for Hillary Clinton's team. There could be nomore vital difference between the Republican and Democratic candidacies. And you won't learn a thing about it on the news from the Fox-holes.
Let me explain.
In 1928, oil company chieftains (from Anglo-Persian Oil, now BritishPetroleum, from Standard Oil, now Exxon, and their Continental counterparts) were faced with a crisis: falling prices due to rising supplies of oil; the same crisis faced by their successors during the Clinton years, when oil traded at $22 a barrel.
The solution then, as now: stop the flow of oil, squeeze the market, raise the price. The method: put a red line around Iraq and declare that virtually all the oil under its sands would remainthere, untapped. Their plan: choke supply, raise prices rise, boost profits. That was the program for 1928. For 2003. For 2008.
Again and again, year after year, the world price of oil has been boosted artificially by keeping a tight limit on Iraq'soil output.. Methods varied. The 1928 'Redline' agreement held, invarious forms, for over three decades. It was replaced in 1959 by quotas imposed by President Eisenhower. Then Saudi Arabia and OPEC kept Iraq, capable of producing over 6 million barrels a day, capped at half that, given an export quota equal to Iran's lower output.
In 1991, output was again limited, this time by a new red line: B-52 bombings by Bush Senior's air force. Then came the Oil Embargo followedby the 'Food for Oil' program. Not much food for them, not much oil forus.
In 2002, after Bush Junior took power, the top ten oil companies took in a nice $31 billion in profits. But then, a miracle fell from the sky. Or,more precisely, the 101st Airborne landed. Bush declared, 'Bring'm on!' and, as the dogs of war chewed up the world's second largest source of oil, crude doubled in two years to an astonishing $40 a barrel and those same oil companies saw their profits triple to $87 billion.
In response, Senators Obama and Clinton propose something wrongly called a'windfall' profits tax on oil. But oil industry profits didn't blow in on a breeze. It is war, not wind, that fills their coffers. The beastly leap in prices is nothing but war profiteering, hiking prices to take cruel advantage of oil fields shut by bullets and blood.
I wish to hell the Democrats would call their plan what it is: A warprofiteering tax. War is profitable business - if you're an oil man. But somehow, the public pays the price, at the pump and at the funerals, and the oil companies reap the benefits.
Indeed, the recent engorgement in oil prices and profits goes right back to Bush-McCain 'surge.' The Iraq government attack on a Basra militia was really nothing more than Baghdad's leaping into a gang war over control of Iraq's Southern oil fields and oil-loading docks. Moqtada al-Sadr's gangsters and the government-sponsored greedsters of SCIRI (the Supreme Council For Islamic Revolution In Iraq) are battling over an estimated $5 billion a year in oil shipment kickbacks, theft and protection fees.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the surge-backed civil warring has cut Iraq's exports by up to a million barrels a day. And that translates to slashing OPEC excess crude capacity by nearly half.
Result: ka-BOOM in oil prices and ka-ZOOM in oil profits. For 2007, Exxon recorded the highest annual profit, $40.6 billion, of any enterprise since the building of the pyramids. And that was BEFORE the war surge and price surge to over $100 a barrel.
It's been a good war for Exxon and friends. Since George Bush began to beat the war-drum for an invasion of Iraq, the value of Exxon's reserves has risen - are you ready for this? - by $2 trillion.
Obama's war profiteering tax, or 'oil windfall profits' tax, would equal just 20% of the industry's charges in excess of $80 a barrel. It's embarrassingly small actually, smaller than every windfall tax charged by every other nation. (Ecuador, for example, captures up to 99% of the higher earnings).
Nevertheless,oilman George W. Bush opposes it as does Bush's man McCain. SenatorMcCain admonishes us that the po' widdle oil companies need more than80% of their windfall so they can explore for more oil. When pigs fly, Senator. Last year, Exxon spent $36 billion of its $40 billion incomeon dividends and special payouts to stockholders in tax-free buy-backs.Even the Journal called Exxon's capital investment spending 'stingy.'
At today's prices Obama's windfall tax, teeny as it is, would bring innearly a billion dollars a day for the US Treasury. Clinton's plan is similar. Yet the press' entire discussion of gas prices is shifted towhether the government should knock some sales tax pennies off the oil companies' pillaging at the pump.
More important than even the Democrats' declaring that oil company profits are undeserved, is their implicit understanding that the profits are the spoils of war.
And that's another reason to tax the oil industry's ill-gotten gain. Vietnam showed us that foreign wars don't end when the invader can no longer fight, but when the invasion is no longer profitable.
Greg Palast is the author of, 'Trillion Dollar Babies,' on Iraq and oil, published in his New York Times bestseller, Armed Madhouse.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
weekly training log 5/19 to 5/25
GOALS:
run 5 of 7 days
run 2 big days this weekend
do some long downhill pounding
MON 5/19:
day of rest after a monster the day before
TUE 5/20:
alison and i ran nice and easy on chris and dave's wonderful trails in their yard. 3mi 0:40min
WED 5/21:
one beer turned into three real quick at the winthrop brewery!
THUR 5/22: ran an hour with dave and alison around the "yard".
FRI 5/23: short run before work 2 miles 20 minutes.
SAT 5/24: 27.4 miles 6000+ elevation gain up the twisp river trail and the slate and scatter creeks see alison's blog for the whole story. 7hrs
SUN 5/25: 8hrs 26 miles 6000+ ele gain up the wolf creek trail in the lake chelan sawtooth wilderness. i got to nearly the top of gardner mtn turned back at un named peak 8082 instead of making the traverse to the top.
MON 5/26 monday doesn't really count for this week but since it was memorial day weekend and every year i shoot for a huge weekend and i usally start my last minute cramming for hardrock in june i'm going to add it here. 11 hrs 30-33 miles and again 6000 ft of gain. this time i went up the pearrygin creek trail and ridge trail(alison ran with me until just before the peak) then i ran back towards the house on the blue buck trail(the coolest trail i've ran on
WEEKLY SUMMARY
~60miles 16 hours
it was a great week and i definitely got all my goals
run 5 of 7 days
run 2 big days this weekend
do some long downhill pounding
MON 5/19:
day of rest after a monster the day before
TUE 5/20:
alison and i ran nice and easy on chris and dave's wonderful trails in their yard. 3mi 0:40min
WED 5/21:
one beer turned into three real quick at the winthrop brewery!
THUR 5/22: ran an hour with dave and alison around the "yard".
FRI 5/23: short run before work 2 miles 20 minutes.
SAT 5/24: 27.4 miles 6000+ elevation gain up the twisp river trail and the slate and scatter creeks see alison's blog for the whole story. 7hrs
SUN 5/25: 8hrs 26 miles 6000+ ele gain up the wolf creek trail in the lake chelan sawtooth wilderness. i got to nearly the top of gardner mtn turned back at un named peak 8082 instead of making the traverse to the top.
MON 5/26 monday doesn't really count for this week but since it was memorial day weekend and every year i shoot for a huge weekend and i usally start my last minute cramming for hardrock in june i'm going to add it here. 11 hrs 30-33 miles and again 6000 ft of gain. this time i went up the pearrygin creek trail and ridge trail(alison ran with me until just before the peak) then i ran back towards the house on the blue buck trail(the coolest trail i've ran on
WEEKLY SUMMARY
~60miles 16 hours
it was a great week and i definitely got all my goals
Sunday, May 18, 2008
we made it!!
we are now in winthrop! we got here last night just in time for the sunset. it was a beautiful evening and warm but not too hot. a lot of snow has melted since we were her two weeks ago and a lot of must have happened in the last few days since all of the rivers and creeks are swollen and in some cases running over their banks. i can't wait to see how high we can go now with out hitting snow on the trails. oh and the wildflowers, which were just getting going when were last here, are now in full force.
we'll spend the morning unloading the uhaul into our temporary storage shed. most of our stuff will wait in there for 2 weeks until we move into our place on june 1st. in the meantime we'll be staying with our winthrop guardian angels chris ballard and dave fulford.
it was hard to leave olympia. i was there for nearly six years which is the longest i've lived anywhere since leaving st mary's county where i spent my first 18 years. the people there had become like family. i hope they all come to visit.
we'll spend the morning unloading the uhaul into our temporary storage shed. most of our stuff will wait in there for 2 weeks until we move into our place on june 1st. in the meantime we'll be staying with our winthrop guardian angels chris ballard and dave fulford.
it was hard to leave olympia. i was there for nearly six years which is the longest i've lived anywhere since leaving st mary's county where i spent my first 18 years. the people there had become like family. i hope they all come to visit.
Friday, May 16, 2008
weekly training log 5/12 to 5/18
GOALS FOR THE WEEK:
run 5 of 7 days
~60 miles
have fun in oly before leaving!
MON 5/12
too busy to run
TUE 5/13
too busy to run
WED 5/14
too busy to run
THR 5/15
finally ran, legs felt like they hadn't ran in 4 days, and i went to the fish tale before hand and that upset my stomach while running but by the end of the run i felt great. 4.5 miles with the fabulous olympia trail running group! 0:35 the party afterwards at dave mora's house on the water was a ton o fun! and everyone was so nice... i'll you guys so you beeter come visit!
FRI 5/16 nope!
SAT 5/17 nope!
SUN 5/18
finally a chance to run! alison and i ran from chris and dave's and retraced the route i ran with the cannucks(chris and dave's to davis lake and then along the low ridges to sulivan pond) from there alison took the road back. i took the road further up past the upper trailhead for pearrygin creek to the paerrygin ridge trail head after about 45 mins i hit snow but i kept going another 15min before turning around somewhere near the peak side trail at about 6200ft. from there i headed back down ot the creek trail and ran that down to sulivan pond. it was getting late and i was beat so i just took the road back. the run ended up taking me 8.5 hours for 34 or 35 miles and i did the last 30mins or so in the dark. it was tough and hot and should stoped more often for water but i loved it! winthrop is too cool.
WEEKLY SUMMARY:
39 miles and 9 hours
totally wiffed on meeting my goals except the having fun part i was a great last week in oly and a great start to life in the north cascades
run 5 of 7 days
~60 miles
have fun in oly before leaving!
MON 5/12
too busy to run
TUE 5/13
too busy to run
WED 5/14
too busy to run
THR 5/15
finally ran, legs felt like they hadn't ran in 4 days, and i went to the fish tale before hand and that upset my stomach while running but by the end of the run i felt great. 4.5 miles with the fabulous olympia trail running group! 0:35 the party afterwards at dave mora's house on the water was a ton o fun! and everyone was so nice... i'll you guys so you beeter come visit!
FRI 5/16 nope!
SAT 5/17 nope!
SUN 5/18
finally a chance to run! alison and i ran from chris and dave's and retraced the route i ran with the cannucks(chris and dave's to davis lake and then along the low ridges to sulivan pond) from there alison took the road back. i took the road further up past the upper trailhead for pearrygin creek to the paerrygin ridge trail head after about 45 mins i hit snow but i kept going another 15min before turning around somewhere near the peak side trail at about 6200ft. from there i headed back down ot the creek trail and ran that down to sulivan pond. it was getting late and i was beat so i just took the road back. the run ended up taking me 8.5 hours for 34 or 35 miles and i did the last 30mins or so in the dark. it was tough and hot and should stoped more often for water but i loved it! winthrop is too cool.
WEEKLY SUMMARY:
39 miles and 9 hours
totally wiffed on meeting my goals except the having fun part i was a great last week in oly and a great start to life in the north cascades
Friday, May 9, 2008
last weekend
first off last weekend was great! alison had to work until 5pm on friday so we didn't get to winthrop until 10:30 after everyone but chris had gone to bed. chris had stayed up to see us and to show us our luxuary accomadations for the weekend, the drive wore me out and i went straight to bed. in the morning we got to say hi to the canadians who were also staying with chris for the weekend, sally marcellus, rob lang, rob francen and mike ogrady before heading over to the twisp river pub to sign up for the 21.7 mile sunflower race. at the start i got to see some ultra/hash friends FC, maggot and english channel and other running friends like dan probst and hopefully new winthrop running buddy erik brooks. the race went well for me for the first 17 miles when the long down hill to the finish began. but i had ran the flats and uphills at such a fast pace just to stay in chase pack led by erik that when it came time to take advantage of my strenghs on the downhill i couldn't do it.(the first guy was way out in front so we were racing for second place) so instead of taking 2nd place i was passed twice in the last few miles to drop to 5th. oh well i tried hard and i don't think i'd do anything differently...well maybe road shoes would've been better than the inov-8s i was wearing-- there was lots of road and none of the trail was technical.
after the run was a nice awards ceremony(alison got a ribbon for 2nd in the 19 and under category(a misprint on the back of the ribbon) and i think nearly everyone won some thing in the random prize thing-- i got a nice biker bag. we met some new folks and then went home to clean up to go meet our new landlord and to checkout the place. it was nice and i wish i had pictures to show of it(i'll try to get some up sometime soon). but the place is a 2 bedroom cabin built by our landlord who added some artful iron work touches to the place like the creative loft railing and the lamp shades. there are animal trails leading right from the back yard up to official trails that are endless and there is a nice little river across the street in the front yard and planty of room for gardening.
after meeting with jerry who was super nice we met up with everone plus a few others at a campsite just outside of twisp before laving to go to a talk by an expert on development in rural communities. it was an interesting thought provoking talk followed by q&a. his arguement was that development and growth cannot be stoped and if you live in place that is growing then planning and cooperation with developers is the only way perserve the quailities that you cherish in yuor community. as one of the methow valleys newest residents i am sympathetic to this stance. i'd feel hypocritical if i were to move to a place and then shut the door behind me. it would be like if i got into hardrock and then lobbied for a change in the rules to keep my spot secure for further years while not allowing any new runners a chance to enter the race. so my approach must be one of comprimise, people can come to the methow but it should be on the terms of the people that live there and on the terms of the carrying capacity of the environment not one of isolationism or the opposite which all developers want, unchecked growth.
the next day i went on one of my favorite runs ever! the cannucks came to the methow to run all weekend to train for the swiss jura stage race this summer. they ran all three days they were there. i volunteered to formulate and guide the sunday run (monday they were going to run the rattler course with chris) it looked like there was still too much snow on a lot of the trails to be able to get the ~25 miles and ~5hours they were hoping for with out using some road and cross-country sections to connect some shorter low elevation trails but since their race would have a good deal of road they were fine with the plan. so at 9am we drove over to the pearrygin creek trail trailhead. we did a 10.4 mile loop from there using the gravel road that parralells the trail. the trail had quite a few down trees and it looked like fire crews had used part of the upper trail as a fire break but other than that it was a fun fast downhill run along the creek. from the loop we ran back to chris' mostly by following animals trails as we made our up and over four big hills/little mtns with the last and highest at 3750ft. there we watched as a handful of paragliders launched off the side of the mountain. we droped steeply down to the road to davis lake. at the lake we took a dip in the lake before making the last climb up and over the last mtn between the lake and chris and dave's house. the run was filled with great views to the south of the sawtooth range and the north cascades and it even had 4200ft of gain in just 20 miles and the feeling of freedom was awesome which came from being able to just run where ever we wanted thanks to the sparse vegetation. after the run were treated to soaking our legs in chris' chilly "pond" and smoothies and scrambled eggs! then alison hit road needing to be back home in time to get the house ready for alison's massage clients(as part of our preperations to move mid month alsion moved out of her studio at the begining of the month to sve money).
it was a great weekend and only made me more excited about our move coming in just 8 days!!!
after the run was a nice awards ceremony(alison got a ribbon for 2nd in the 19 and under category(a misprint on the back of the ribbon) and i think nearly everyone won some thing in the random prize thing-- i got a nice biker bag. we met some new folks and then went home to clean up to go meet our new landlord and to checkout the place. it was nice and i wish i had pictures to show of it(i'll try to get some up sometime soon). but the place is a 2 bedroom cabin built by our landlord who added some artful iron work touches to the place like the creative loft railing and the lamp shades. there are animal trails leading right from the back yard up to official trails that are endless and there is a nice little river across the street in the front yard and planty of room for gardening.
after meeting with jerry who was super nice we met up with everone plus a few others at a campsite just outside of twisp before laving to go to a talk by an expert on development in rural communities. it was an interesting thought provoking talk followed by q&a. his arguement was that development and growth cannot be stoped and if you live in place that is growing then planning and cooperation with developers is the only way perserve the quailities that you cherish in yuor community. as one of the methow valleys newest residents i am sympathetic to this stance. i'd feel hypocritical if i were to move to a place and then shut the door behind me. it would be like if i got into hardrock and then lobbied for a change in the rules to keep my spot secure for further years while not allowing any new runners a chance to enter the race. so my approach must be one of comprimise, people can come to the methow but it should be on the terms of the people that live there and on the terms of the carrying capacity of the environment not one of isolationism or the opposite which all developers want, unchecked growth.
the next day i went on one of my favorite runs ever! the cannucks came to the methow to run all weekend to train for the swiss jura stage race this summer. they ran all three days they were there. i volunteered to formulate and guide the sunday run (monday they were going to run the rattler course with chris) it looked like there was still too much snow on a lot of the trails to be able to get the ~25 miles and ~5hours they were hoping for with out using some road and cross-country sections to connect some shorter low elevation trails but since their race would have a good deal of road they were fine with the plan. so at 9am we drove over to the pearrygin creek trail trailhead. we did a 10.4 mile loop from there using the gravel road that parralells the trail. the trail had quite a few down trees and it looked like fire crews had used part of the upper trail as a fire break but other than that it was a fun fast downhill run along the creek. from the loop we ran back to chris' mostly by following animals trails as we made our up and over four big hills/little mtns with the last and highest at 3750ft. there we watched as a handful of paragliders launched off the side of the mountain. we droped steeply down to the road to davis lake. at the lake we took a dip in the lake before making the last climb up and over the last mtn between the lake and chris and dave's house. the run was filled with great views to the south of the sawtooth range and the north cascades and it even had 4200ft of gain in just 20 miles and the feeling of freedom was awesome which came from being able to just run where ever we wanted thanks to the sparse vegetation. after the run were treated to soaking our legs in chris' chilly "pond" and smoothies and scrambled eggs! then alison hit road needing to be back home in time to get the house ready for alison's massage clients(as part of our preperations to move mid month alsion moved out of her studio at the begining of the month to sve money).
it was a great weekend and only made me more excited about our move coming in just 8 days!!!
weekly training log 5/5 to 5/11
GOALS FOR THE WEEK:
recover from last weeks race
run 5 of 7 days
mileage ~60miles
MON 5/5
no running but i did bike to and from work
TUE 5/6
no running again but i biked to and from work
WED 5/7
i ran 6.5 miles in 0:53 mostly on roads
THUR 5/8
ran to and from the thur nite run from downtown. 9 miles 1:15
FRI 5/9
12 miles with alison in the cap forest wilderness 2:05
SAT 5/10
12 miles at wynoochee lake in the olympic forest ~3hr. there were tons of blown down trees, brush and washed out bridges. it's too bad this low elevation trail doesn'r get some maintenance b/c it would be a fantastic early season run and i took a short cut cutting out the upper 8 miles or so plus the humptulips trail and the s. fork of the skokomish aren't far away to make a a really big fun fun.
SUN 5/11
elwah river with alison and karen and george wiggins 24 miles ~5hr? this trail is in great shape and asbsoloutely no sign of snow, brush or down trees!!!
WEEKLY SUMMARY
well i made all my goals and i felt real good-- my legs were a little tired by the end of the sunday run but other than that all is well. the elwah was the highlight of a real good last full week living in olympia. sat nite we went up to seattle for mike adams' surprise 40th b-day party, that was a blast! bring on the north cascades!!!!
recover from last weeks race
run 5 of 7 days
mileage ~60miles
MON 5/5
no running but i did bike to and from work
TUE 5/6
no running again but i biked to and from work
WED 5/7
i ran 6.5 miles in 0:53 mostly on roads
THUR 5/8
ran to and from the thur nite run from downtown. 9 miles 1:15
FRI 5/9
12 miles with alison in the cap forest wilderness 2:05
SAT 5/10
12 miles at wynoochee lake in the olympic forest ~3hr. there were tons of blown down trees, brush and washed out bridges. it's too bad this low elevation trail doesn'r get some maintenance b/c it would be a fantastic early season run and i took a short cut cutting out the upper 8 miles or so plus the humptulips trail and the s. fork of the skokomish aren't far away to make a a really big fun fun.
SUN 5/11
elwah river with alison and karen and george wiggins 24 miles ~5hr? this trail is in great shape and asbsoloutely no sign of snow, brush or down trees!!!
WEEKLY SUMMARY
well i made all my goals and i felt real good-- my legs were a little tired by the end of the sunday run but other than that all is well. the elwah was the highlight of a real good last full week living in olympia. sat nite we went up to seattle for mike adams' surprise 40th b-day party, that was a blast! bring on the north cascades!!!!
Monday, April 28, 2008
weekly training log 4/28 to 5/4
MON 4/28
super low energy today at work. i don't know what's up i ate alot and went to bed early and barely ran yesterday. ??? so i'm not going to run today. alison and i decided friday to go back to winthrop for another race(this time the sunflower 22m) and to check out the place we're hoping to move into in a couple weeks.
TUE 4/29
biked to and from work and cut the grass but i had no desire to run despite the nice weather-- again was super low energy at work.
WED 4/30
today i ate a lot more and had more energy at work but by the time i was home i was poop'd. i tried to run anyhow but quit after 2 miles. i hope i don't have the "never ending" sickness that has been circualting all year. biked to and from work.
THR 5/1 biked to work and to the run and back to town after. the run went great! i had lots of energy and felt strong on the climbs and had fun. 4 or 4.5 miles 0:34
FRI 5/2
no running today
SAT 5/3
sunflower 21.7m 2;40:22 5th overall 4th in my age group(30-39 is no picnic)
for the most part felt good and ran fast but the last 4-5 miles were hard on me and i slowed down quite a bit, maybe i was still feeling the race 2 weeks ago or just as likely is that i haven't been training enough for a fast 20+ mile race.
SUN 5/4
20 miles 6 hours with the cannucks(sally marcellus, rob lang, rob francen and super mike o'grady) who all ran the sunflower also and were also staying at chris and dave's paradise ranch in winthrop. we did a mix of dirt road, trail, animal trail and ridgerunning on the opposite side of the methow river from the sunflower course. my legs were initally tired but after the first climb i felt great and stayed that way it was one of my favorite runs ever and will surely become a regular route once we move out there in less than 2 weeks!
WEEKLY SUMMARY 48 miles 9.5 hours
the week started out real crummy but by the end of the week i was feeling great save for the last 1/4 of the race.
super low energy today at work. i don't know what's up i ate alot and went to bed early and barely ran yesterday. ??? so i'm not going to run today. alison and i decided friday to go back to winthrop for another race(this time the sunflower 22m) and to check out the place we're hoping to move into in a couple weeks.
TUE 4/29
biked to and from work and cut the grass but i had no desire to run despite the nice weather-- again was super low energy at work.
WED 4/30
today i ate a lot more and had more energy at work but by the time i was home i was poop'd. i tried to run anyhow but quit after 2 miles. i hope i don't have the "never ending" sickness that has been circualting all year. biked to and from work.
THR 5/1 biked to work and to the run and back to town after. the run went great! i had lots of energy and felt strong on the climbs and had fun. 4 or 4.5 miles 0:34
FRI 5/2
no running today
SAT 5/3
sunflower 21.7m 2;40:22 5th overall 4th in my age group(30-39 is no picnic)
for the most part felt good and ran fast but the last 4-5 miles were hard on me and i slowed down quite a bit, maybe i was still feeling the race 2 weeks ago or just as likely is that i haven't been training enough for a fast 20+ mile race.
SUN 5/4
20 miles 6 hours with the cannucks(sally marcellus, rob lang, rob francen and super mike o'grady) who all ran the sunflower also and were also staying at chris and dave's paradise ranch in winthrop. we did a mix of dirt road, trail, animal trail and ridgerunning on the opposite side of the methow river from the sunflower course. my legs were initally tired but after the first climb i felt great and stayed that way it was one of my favorite runs ever and will surely become a regular route once we move out there in less than 2 weeks!
WEEKLY SUMMARY 48 miles 9.5 hours
the week started out real crummy but by the end of the week i was feeling great save for the last 1/4 of the race.
movin'
yup the cats outta the bag. alison and i are moving to the endurance sports paradise, winthrop, wa on the east side of the north casdades. there are tons of great trails for running, xc skiing, mtn biking, etc. plus road biking and bc skiing and rafting/kayaking. the house we're probably moving into has a small river in the front yard and trails in the backyard. come visit! we'll be there in 2 or 3 weeks!
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
weekly training log 4/21 to 4/27
MON 4/21
no running today. worked then had a board meeting afterwards. legs no longer felt sore from the race on saturday. biked to and from work.
TUE 4/22
3 miles 0:30ish cooper crest out and back with alison and arlo. biked to and from work.
WED 4/23
10 maybe 11 miles in 1:20 with alison. we both felt good.
THR 4/24
5 miles group run
FRI 4/25
12 miles of course marking
SAT 4/26
helped at cap peak 50 then did olympia's arts walk with alison and her mom
SUN 4/27
3 whopping miles on the treadmill!
WEEKLY SUMMARY
33 miles for a week after an intense race i guess the mileage is ok but i wish i had done the 20ish mile run on sunday i had wanted to do.
no running today. worked then had a board meeting afterwards. legs no longer felt sore from the race on saturday. biked to and from work.
TUE 4/22
3 miles 0:30ish cooper crest out and back with alison and arlo. biked to and from work.
WED 4/23
10 maybe 11 miles in 1:20 with alison. we both felt good.
THR 4/24
5 miles group run
FRI 4/25
12 miles of course marking
SAT 4/26
helped at cap peak 50 then did olympia's arts walk with alison and her mom
SUN 4/27
3 whopping miles on the treadmill!
WEEKLY SUMMARY
33 miles for a week after an intense race i guess the mileage is ok but i wish i had done the 20ish mile run on sunday i had wanted to do.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
The Rattler Trail Half Marathon Report
well... i felt like if i could run the way i knew i could i might win the first race in the MVSTA's trail series in winthrop, wa on the eastern edge of the north cascades. it's not a big race, 55 starters this year, and rumor had it the runner who had the two fastest times in the past 3 years wasn't going to be there. but last year's winner in 1:34 was there and so was a guy who got 4th in 1:40 and you never know who might appear from nowhere and steal the race. but i hoped i would be that person.
the nite before the race it was windy, cold and snowy. we awoke to a warmer than expected 29 degrees and a dusting of fresh snow on the higher hills. we drove over to the start and mingled with locals and friends from the other side of the mountains. the race director yelled go and me and one other fellow led the group up the hill to the trail. after a quarter mile as i hit the trail the other guy already had more than a few steps on me but i didn't worry-- it was way too early to start racing. besides from my reconnessaince the day before i knew how tough this first 4 mile loop was and was content to use the intial miles as a "warm up". i never looked back but i seemed to have just as much of a lead over the rest of the pack as the leader had on me so i tried to keep him in sight but settled on "my" pace and just ran.
at the end of the loop i droped my hat and longsleeve shirt and grabed my water ultimate directions bottle with two gels tucked in the handy pocket with barely a pause. i estimated i was 20 seconds back after running 28:40 for the first 4 miles that included the only substanial snow on the course. in my opinion the next section of the course is the best, the route makes it way up to the canyon ridge only to drop down into a valley before regaining the ridgline for the rest of the way to the bottom of the canyon at mile 9. after climbing back up to the rigde for the 2nd time i had caught up the leader who i later found out was last year's winner and local author erik brooks. we ran together, with him a few feet-yards ahead, on the rolling ridgline with views of the big snowy peaks of the nearby north casacades and okanagon mountains, he offered to let me pass but i was content to catch my breath and wait until a little later to make my move. as we approached the end of the ridge the trail plunges down to the mile 9 aid staion on valley floor. here erik stepped aside to let me go by, i guess he too had noticed i was taking the downhills a bit faster than he. i joyously ran, jumped, slid and hurdled my way down the steep, rocky and narrow path. just before the aid station the trail levels somewhat, here i pushed the pace intent on holding on the slight lead i now had. i ran thru the aid station giving thanks and not taking anything.
after the aid station the course makes it way back up the canyon on an abandoned road far below the ridge we had just traversed. it's a gradual but steady climb with long straight stretches so i knew erik would often have me in his sights so i implored myself to run as fast as i could. maybe 20 seconds after passing the aid station i heard them cheer so i knew erik was close enough that if he just ran 5 seconds per mile faster than me for the final 4 miles he'd catch me. afraid to look back i just put my head down and motored on. two more times i'd pass specators on my way to the finsih and neither time did i hear them cheer after i had gone by but i didn't let my guard down and ran harder and harder as i approached the finish line.
i crossed the line in 1:34:43 just 13 one hundredths of a second faster than erik had last year. i expected him any second but instead he finished 3 minutes later. i had felt great and focused the whole race and the weather which had been predicted to be horrible actually turned out great with blue skies mixed with clouds and temps in the low 40's.
alison finished 11th overall, 2nd female and first in her age group. the lead woman ran away with the race which left alison in a 4 way back and forth battle for 2nd which she also took control of on the last descent with her superior downhill ability!
chris took 3rd in her age divison, bettered her time from last year and felt like she could've gone faster!
we hung out at the finshlline until nearly everyone was finished and then headed into town to claim our winner's loot, alison and i got a sweet handmade mugs for winning our age groups and i got a matching plate for 1st overall made by a local potter.
after that we went across the street to the lost river winery for a wine tasting where chris graciously bought alison and i a bottle of their finest for our accomplishments!!!
the nite before the race it was windy, cold and snowy. we awoke to a warmer than expected 29 degrees and a dusting of fresh snow on the higher hills. we drove over to the start and mingled with locals and friends from the other side of the mountains. the race director yelled go and me and one other fellow led the group up the hill to the trail. after a quarter mile as i hit the trail the other guy already had more than a few steps on me but i didn't worry-- it was way too early to start racing. besides from my reconnessaince the day before i knew how tough this first 4 mile loop was and was content to use the intial miles as a "warm up". i never looked back but i seemed to have just as much of a lead over the rest of the pack as the leader had on me so i tried to keep him in sight but settled on "my" pace and just ran.
at the end of the loop i droped my hat and longsleeve shirt and grabed my water ultimate directions bottle with two gels tucked in the handy pocket with barely a pause. i estimated i was 20 seconds back after running 28:40 for the first 4 miles that included the only substanial snow on the course. in my opinion the next section of the course is the best, the route makes it way up to the canyon ridge only to drop down into a valley before regaining the ridgline for the rest of the way to the bottom of the canyon at mile 9. after climbing back up to the rigde for the 2nd time i had caught up the leader who i later found out was last year's winner and local author erik brooks. we ran together, with him a few feet-yards ahead, on the rolling ridgline with views of the big snowy peaks of the nearby north casacades and okanagon mountains, he offered to let me pass but i was content to catch my breath and wait until a little later to make my move. as we approached the end of the ridge the trail plunges down to the mile 9 aid staion on valley floor. here erik stepped aside to let me go by, i guess he too had noticed i was taking the downhills a bit faster than he. i joyously ran, jumped, slid and hurdled my way down the steep, rocky and narrow path. just before the aid station the trail levels somewhat, here i pushed the pace intent on holding on the slight lead i now had. i ran thru the aid station giving thanks and not taking anything.
after the aid station the course makes it way back up the canyon on an abandoned road far below the ridge we had just traversed. it's a gradual but steady climb with long straight stretches so i knew erik would often have me in his sights so i implored myself to run as fast as i could. maybe 20 seconds after passing the aid station i heard them cheer so i knew erik was close enough that if he just ran 5 seconds per mile faster than me for the final 4 miles he'd catch me. afraid to look back i just put my head down and motored on. two more times i'd pass specators on my way to the finsih and neither time did i hear them cheer after i had gone by but i didn't let my guard down and ran harder and harder as i approached the finish line.
i crossed the line in 1:34:43 just 13 one hundredths of a second faster than erik had last year. i expected him any second but instead he finished 3 minutes later. i had felt great and focused the whole race and the weather which had been predicted to be horrible actually turned out great with blue skies mixed with clouds and temps in the low 40's.
alison finished 11th overall, 2nd female and first in her age group. the lead woman ran away with the race which left alison in a 4 way back and forth battle for 2nd which she also took control of on the last descent with her superior downhill ability!
chris took 3rd in her age divison, bettered her time from last year and felt like she could've gone faster!
we hung out at the finshlline until nearly everyone was finished and then headed into town to claim our winner's loot, alison and i got a sweet handmade mugs for winning our age groups and i got a matching plate for 1st overall made by a local potter.
after that we went across the street to the lost river winery for a wine tasting where chris graciously bought alison and i a bottle of their finest for our accomplishments!!!
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Democracy Now!
today while listening to the independant news program Democracy Now! on my local community radio station KAOS 89.3 i realized that i should use my blog to spread the word about this great program. this news program covers the stories you rarely if ever see covered by the mainstream news outlets like fox,nbc,abc, cbs, cnn, msnbc, npr, ap, new york times, washington post, etc. but it is these stories that are so important to our lives and to functionality of democracy. you can listen to the program on your radio(check the website to find out when and on what station it plays in your town) the old fashioned way or on your ipod or stream it from the internet.
today's show was good as always but a lot of the topics really appealed to me specifically because they were issues that i deal with personally. since it's tax day the first two segements revolved around our tax dollars and war spending. next was a segement on torture(the aclu is calling on congress to start an investigation into the bush administration's authorizing of torture). the last two were on portland and how it's a great city for bicycle communting and on the dali lama's visit to seattle.
i try to bike(or run) to work or to do errands or to go out around town but i don't do aswell as i should. and although i'm not a disciple of any religon or religous person the dali lama does have lots of good things to say so it's always good to hear that people are embracing his message. and who(other than bush and co.) isn't opposed to torture!
but i guess it was the first two segement that really were after my heart. the first one was about a couple that has been resisting war for 30 years by not paying their income taxes, i too have been doing the same for the last 4 years. in the second segement host Amy Goodman interviews us congressperson Jan Schakowsky about the press confrence that she and some other representatives are holding today on the cost of the war here is a small part of the interview:
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about what you’re going to say today?
REP. JAN SCHAKOWSKY: Well, we’re going to, on Tax Day today, show that the Iraq tax bill for the average family of four is $16,500 per family of four. It’s only one way of expressing how much the war costs, of course, but the dollars are pretty significant, and most people understand that. In fact, 89 percent of Americans believe that the cost of war has contributed to the US economic problems. And certainly, it’s been a problem for them in their own families.
AMY GOODMAN: And how do you calculate the cost of war?
REP. JAN SCHAKOWSKY: Well, we looked at what the total bill is to date, over half-a-trillion dollars, and just divided it out among the families. And that’s a lowball number, because we aren’t considering the other costs, including the care of veterans, all the healthcare costs. So it’s really a modest number that, you know, could go into the trillions of dollars for the whole country.
today's show was good as always but a lot of the topics really appealed to me specifically because they were issues that i deal with personally. since it's tax day the first two segements revolved around our tax dollars and war spending. next was a segement on torture(the aclu is calling on congress to start an investigation into the bush administration's authorizing of torture). the last two were on portland and how it's a great city for bicycle communting and on the dali lama's visit to seattle.
i try to bike(or run) to work or to do errands or to go out around town but i don't do aswell as i should. and although i'm not a disciple of any religon or religous person the dali lama does have lots of good things to say so it's always good to hear that people are embracing his message. and who(other than bush and co.) isn't opposed to torture!
but i guess it was the first two segement that really were after my heart. the first one was about a couple that has been resisting war for 30 years by not paying their income taxes, i too have been doing the same for the last 4 years. in the second segement host Amy Goodman interviews us congressperson Jan Schakowsky about the press confrence that she and some other representatives are holding today on the cost of the war here is a small part of the interview:
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about what you’re going to say today?
REP. JAN SCHAKOWSKY: Well, we’re going to, on Tax Day today, show that the Iraq tax bill for the average family of four is $16,500 per family of four. It’s only one way of expressing how much the war costs, of course, but the dollars are pretty significant, and most people understand that. In fact, 89 percent of Americans believe that the cost of war has contributed to the US economic problems. And certainly, it’s been a problem for them in their own families.
AMY GOODMAN: And how do you calculate the cost of war?
REP. JAN SCHAKOWSKY: Well, we looked at what the total bill is to date, over half-a-trillion dollars, and just divided it out among the families. And that’s a lowball number, because we aren’t considering the other costs, including the care of veterans, all the healthcare costs. So it’s really a modest number that, you know, could go into the trillions of dollars for the whole country.
weekly training log 4/14 to 4/20
MON 4/14
no running today but i did spend three hours doing trail work up in capitol forest.
TUE 4/15
alison and i ran the 8 mile lost (in the mud) valley loop in capitol forest 1:14
felt sluggish at first but by the halfway point felt great and stayed that way. alison suggested that i may need more carbs in my diet--i;ll give it a shot i've been feeling low energy on too many runs lately and besides i love to eat!
WED 4/16
more trail work toaday in cap forest. and i ran 3 fast miles(sub 7's).
THR 4/17
nice and easy 4 mile run with the group at priest point including the cliff. hopefully the legs will be ready for a fast 13 miler this saturday. winning times the past 3 years at the rattler have been in the mid to low 1:30s.
FRI 4/18
after the nearly 5 hour drive to winthrop i nearly imeadiately after arriving went over to the rattler course to run the only part i hadn't seen yet, the first four miles. i took the camera(i'll add pictures later) and took my time covering the distance in just over 40 minutes. there was snow patches up on the higher part of the loop that i post-holed thru. other than that and the decent amount of climb it wasn't any harder than i expected but still i figured it would be one the harder parts of the race especially since lately it's been taking me 3-4 miles just to shake the rust off the legs. the rest of the evening was fun hanging out with alison and chris at her house just a couple miles from the race course.
SAT 4/19
rattler trail 1/2 marathon 1:34 (1st place)
everything felt great after finally "warming up" around mile 4
SUN 4/20
alison and i explored some of the winthrop trails. we took our time for about 10 miles and 3 hours.
WEEK SUMMARY:
42 miles 8ish hours
if you win a race it must have been a really good week
no running today but i did spend three hours doing trail work up in capitol forest.
TUE 4/15
alison and i ran the 8 mile lost (in the mud) valley loop in capitol forest 1:14
felt sluggish at first but by the halfway point felt great and stayed that way. alison suggested that i may need more carbs in my diet--i;ll give it a shot i've been feeling low energy on too many runs lately and besides i love to eat!
WED 4/16
more trail work toaday in cap forest. and i ran 3 fast miles(sub 7's).
THR 4/17
nice and easy 4 mile run with the group at priest point including the cliff. hopefully the legs will be ready for a fast 13 miler this saturday. winning times the past 3 years at the rattler have been in the mid to low 1:30s.
FRI 4/18
after the nearly 5 hour drive to winthrop i nearly imeadiately after arriving went over to the rattler course to run the only part i hadn't seen yet, the first four miles. i took the camera(i'll add pictures later) and took my time covering the distance in just over 40 minutes. there was snow patches up on the higher part of the loop that i post-holed thru. other than that and the decent amount of climb it wasn't any harder than i expected but still i figured it would be one the harder parts of the race especially since lately it's been taking me 3-4 miles just to shake the rust off the legs. the rest of the evening was fun hanging out with alison and chris at her house just a couple miles from the race course.
SAT 4/19
rattler trail 1/2 marathon 1:34 (1st place)
everything felt great after finally "warming up" around mile 4
SUN 4/20
alison and i explored some of the winthrop trails. we took our time for about 10 miles and 3 hours.
WEEK SUMMARY:
42 miles 8ish hours
if you win a race it must have been a really good week
Monday, April 7, 2008
weekly training log 4/7 to 4/13
MON 4/7
no running today. but i did get a great massage from alison which i belive to be a very important part of training!!!
TUE 4/8
literally i ran my errands today. 7 miles 1:20 felt good. i'm getting excited for the race this weekend.(editors note: the race isn't unitl next weekend! we had i written down wrong on the calendar)
WED 4/9
today i did more hiking than running. i first scouted out a portion of the capitol peak 50mile course for down tress and other things that might need attention befoe the race. i ran a 5.5 mile loop and found the snow to be 3-12 inches deep for most of the trail and i found about 20 down tress all bunched together near a road access so i drove back to that point on the loop and then hiked around and got all the trees. i'm guessing my total mileage for the day to be about 8 very slow miles. then later i biked home from downtown to add a little more exercise.
THUR 4/10
out and back on the bike to evergreen to use their computer(mine has been broken all week but should be back on it's feet later today)
thursday nite group run at priest point park
FRI 4/11
alison and i ran the out and back to cooper crest right before hoping in the car to go down to portland for her firend's birthday. i also biked to and from work.
SAT 4/12
22 miles in the gorge(5:30). alison and i ran on pct on the washington side. alison turned around right before the snow which started at about 2000ft and became steady at 2300ish and between there and 3600 got as deep as 3-4 feet in places but it was pretty solid so usally i only sunk in 3-9 inches. it was a beautiful clear warm(almost hot) day definitely the hottest day around here since last summer. on the ridge where i turned around i was able to see mt adams and mt hood which were super close by and mt rainier off in the distance.
SUN 4/13
30 miles on bike with a 3.5 mile run in the middle of it with jim.
WEEK SUMMARY
48.5 miles 10-11hrs
again not a big week but pretty consistent(ran 6 out of 7 days). legs felt better this week than last but still a little more tired than i would like them to be with so few miles. but the long run on saturday felt good so that's a good sign i guess.
no running today. but i did get a great massage from alison which i belive to be a very important part of training!!!
TUE 4/8
literally i ran my errands today. 7 miles 1:20 felt good. i'm getting excited for the race this weekend.(editors note: the race isn't unitl next weekend! we had i written down wrong on the calendar)
WED 4/9
today i did more hiking than running. i first scouted out a portion of the capitol peak 50mile course for down tress and other things that might need attention befoe the race. i ran a 5.5 mile loop and found the snow to be 3-12 inches deep for most of the trail and i found about 20 down tress all bunched together near a road access so i drove back to that point on the loop and then hiked around and got all the trees. i'm guessing my total mileage for the day to be about 8 very slow miles. then later i biked home from downtown to add a little more exercise.
THUR 4/10
out and back on the bike to evergreen to use their computer(mine has been broken all week but should be back on it's feet later today)
thursday nite group run at priest point park
FRI 4/11
alison and i ran the out and back to cooper crest right before hoping in the car to go down to portland for her firend's birthday. i also biked to and from work.
SAT 4/12
22 miles in the gorge(5:30). alison and i ran on pct on the washington side. alison turned around right before the snow which started at about 2000ft and became steady at 2300ish and between there and 3600 got as deep as 3-4 feet in places but it was pretty solid so usally i only sunk in 3-9 inches. it was a beautiful clear warm(almost hot) day definitely the hottest day around here since last summer. on the ridge where i turned around i was able to see mt adams and mt hood which were super close by and mt rainier off in the distance.
SUN 4/13
30 miles on bike with a 3.5 mile run in the middle of it with jim.
WEEK SUMMARY
48.5 miles 10-11hrs
again not a big week but pretty consistent(ran 6 out of 7 days). legs felt better this week than last but still a little more tired than i would like them to be with so few miles. but the long run on saturday felt good so that's a good sign i guess.
Monday, March 31, 2008
weekly training log 3/31 to 4/6
preface:
ok so i'm not sure if i'll stick to this exact format but i'd like to track my weekly and daily training online not to show off but to actually keep me from chumpatizin' myself. i often get hurt by racing too much or too intensly with out doing the proper training first-- it's a mixed blessing to be able to not run a step for 3 months and then run a decent time at 50k right off the couch. so hopefully by broadcasting my personal training life to blogworld i'll be more consistent with my training.
prolouge:
after dnfing at plain this past september i began to train for 2008 with hardrock specifically in mind(like every other year since i first found out about that wonderful race). alison bought me a copy of jack daniel's book and i started following after running a couple 5ks to determine my fitness level. i did a pretty good job of sticking to the daniles plan with an april marathon as my target race(note: until further notice hardrock will always be my ultimate target race and all other training and so called target races are merely part of a bigger hardrock trainign plan) until i got sick this winter. it was the same thing that everyone seemed to be getting but i seemed to get it worse, i eventually went to the doctor it was that bad. anyhow it kept me from running for three weeks and then when i felt better i raced too soon and had a setback with a few more weeks with little or no running. and then it orcas time and i was doing the race director thing way more than the race runner thing. and then there was one little thing after another and the next thing i knew it was almost april and i was barely running much less in prime shape for a road marathon. so i switched gears and decided to do diez vista instead and not race it just run it for training. but now i don't even want to do that. i have had two very good running weeks the last two weeks but that's just two weeks. so instead i'll do 13 mile trail race two weeks from now and keep slowly building towards hardrock in july. ok with that said....
MON 3/31
0:30 mins 3.5 miles mix of road and trail legs felt good despite all the running the last two weeks.
2:00 20-25 mile bike ride
0:30 5 mile bike ride to and from massage
TUE 4/1
rode bike to and from work total mileage: 5
ran 30 mins cooper crest out and back legs felt horrible so i only ran 30mins instead of an hour. legs were tight, tired and painful-- pain in achilles and left shin went away after 15 mins.
WED 4/2
ran 1:22 about 9 miles with alison. mix of trail and road. legs were very tired but no pain. i had thought about doing the track workout out but that would've been silly.
THUR 4/3
i had to work late so no group run for me. it was probably good to have the day off from running eventhough it was definitely a hard 12hr day of work.
FRI 4/4
i think i ran just an out and back to cooper crest 30mins 3.5 miles.
SAT 4/5
did the hells loop with herb which is 16 miles i think. i felt pretty good and did it in 2:34 which is pretty decent considering the mudslide and all the down trees.
SUN 4/8
ran 7 miles in an hour with alison at millersylvania in the morning. my legs felt better than they had all week --pretty much back normal. and then in the afternoon did 30 mins/3.5 miles with joe(out and back to cooper crest). felt real good on that run too.
WEEK SUMMARY: 46 MILES
well for my first blog week i guess i did ok. the prior two weeks were pretty big with multiple 2-a-days for the first time in my running career. with the low mileage this week i think my legs have bounced back now and will be ready to race next weekend.
ok so i'm not sure if i'll stick to this exact format but i'd like to track my weekly and daily training online not to show off but to actually keep me from chumpatizin' myself. i often get hurt by racing too much or too intensly with out doing the proper training first-- it's a mixed blessing to be able to not run a step for 3 months and then run a decent time at 50k right off the couch. so hopefully by broadcasting my personal training life to blogworld i'll be more consistent with my training.
prolouge:
after dnfing at plain this past september i began to train for 2008 with hardrock specifically in mind(like every other year since i first found out about that wonderful race). alison bought me a copy of jack daniel's book and i started following after running a couple 5ks to determine my fitness level. i did a pretty good job of sticking to the daniles plan with an april marathon as my target race(note: until further notice hardrock will always be my ultimate target race and all other training and so called target races are merely part of a bigger hardrock trainign plan) until i got sick this winter. it was the same thing that everyone seemed to be getting but i seemed to get it worse, i eventually went to the doctor it was that bad. anyhow it kept me from running for three weeks and then when i felt better i raced too soon and had a setback with a few more weeks with little or no running. and then it orcas time and i was doing the race director thing way more than the race runner thing. and then there was one little thing after another and the next thing i knew it was almost april and i was barely running much less in prime shape for a road marathon. so i switched gears and decided to do diez vista instead and not race it just run it for training. but now i don't even want to do that. i have had two very good running weeks the last two weeks but that's just two weeks. so instead i'll do 13 mile trail race two weeks from now and keep slowly building towards hardrock in july. ok with that said....
MON 3/31
0:30 mins 3.5 miles mix of road and trail legs felt good despite all the running the last two weeks.
2:00 20-25 mile bike ride
0:30 5 mile bike ride to and from massage
TUE 4/1
rode bike to and from work total mileage: 5
ran 30 mins cooper crest out and back legs felt horrible so i only ran 30mins instead of an hour. legs were tight, tired and painful-- pain in achilles and left shin went away after 15 mins.
WED 4/2
ran 1:22 about 9 miles with alison. mix of trail and road. legs were very tired but no pain. i had thought about doing the track workout out but that would've been silly.
THUR 4/3
i had to work late so no group run for me. it was probably good to have the day off from running eventhough it was definitely a hard 12hr day of work.
FRI 4/4
i think i ran just an out and back to cooper crest 30mins 3.5 miles.
SAT 4/5
did the hells loop with herb which is 16 miles i think. i felt pretty good and did it in 2:34 which is pretty decent considering the mudslide and all the down trees.
SUN 4/8
ran 7 miles in an hour with alison at millersylvania in the morning. my legs felt better than they had all week --pretty much back normal. and then in the afternoon did 30 mins/3.5 miles with joe(out and back to cooper crest). felt real good on that run too.
WEEK SUMMARY: 46 MILES
well for my first blog week i guess i did ok. the prior two weeks were pretty big with multiple 2-a-days for the first time in my running career. with the low mileage this week i think my legs have bounced back now and will be ready to race next weekend.
here we go!!!
my first blog... i'm sure there will be a day that i'll look back on these first few blog entires and be amazed at my innocence and ignorance of the blog world. but oh well here we go!
i don't think i'll write a huge thing about what my blog is about because i really don't know what it'll end up being. i like how tony krupicka does his weekly and daily mileage and run details. and i like how devon crosby "stills nash young" helms blogs (including great photos) of all her delicous meals. and i like how alison brings up big heavy topics for everyone to ponder. so i guess i'll try to steal everyone's methods and make them into my blog.
oh and the title comes from King of Kong the documentary on the battle of good vs. evil in the pursuit of the world record in donkey kong. the line comes when the good guy is about to give up and let the bad guys win: steve, the good guy, is talked out of "chumpatizin' himself" by mr awesome. it's the best line in one of the best films i've seen in a long, long time-- you should rent it or buy it (i watched it three times in the theater and a bunch on dvd) check out the movie's website at: www.billyvssteve.com
ok everyone hold on tight and don't chumpatize yourself the blogging has begun!
i don't think i'll write a huge thing about what my blog is about because i really don't know what it'll end up being. i like how tony krupicka does his weekly and daily mileage and run details. and i like how devon crosby "stills nash young" helms blogs (including great photos) of all her delicous meals. and i like how alison brings up big heavy topics for everyone to ponder. so i guess i'll try to steal everyone's methods and make them into my blog.
oh and the title comes from King of Kong the documentary on the battle of good vs. evil in the pursuit of the world record in donkey kong. the line comes when the good guy is about to give up and let the bad guys win: steve, the good guy, is talked out of "chumpatizin' himself" by mr awesome. it's the best line in one of the best films i've seen in a long, long time-- you should rent it or buy it (i watched it three times in the theater and a bunch on dvd) check out the movie's website at: www.billyvssteve.com
ok everyone hold on tight and don't chumpatize yourself the blogging has begun!
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