my 2010 plans

well so much for no chumpatizin' in 2010... starting off the new year with 2 back-to-back injuries doesn't make for much running but the last 2 runs have been pain free so hopefully i'm over the hump and on the road to full recovery.

i've also been distracted with work, which has included sucessfully putting on another race on orcas island and projects at the bear fight center (some of our work made the cover of the journal science for our discovery of water on the moon, not that i had anyhting to do with that project but i am using the same data for the projects i'm working on which is pretty cool).

i had also been waiting to find out about my hardrock fate(i always have a hard time training consistently when i don't have a goal race and a plan) to make my training schedule for the year. unfortunately i'm now 0 for 6 in the hardrock lottery and got my lowest placement on the waitlist to date(131) so that means i've pretty much zero chance of getting in the race usually the anyone over 50 on the waitlist doesn't have a prayer and #99 is lowest the waitlist has have gone down to and that was pretty much a big fluke. my personal waitlist history goes like this 57, 55, 39, 25, 40, 131. i got in on the day before the race the year i was #39 and about 3 weeks before the race when i was #25 every other year i wasn't even close.(even last year at #40 i was still 15 spots away from getting in!)

anyhow...enough with the excuses! so not all of my plans are set yet but here's a list of what i know and/or hope to do:

volunteer at chuckanut 50k
peterson ridge rumble 30k
volunteer and/or run capitol peak 50k
maybe sunflower trail marathon
maybe direct a new race in may
road marathon in may or early june
maah daah hey tour with the adventure running co
direct sun mountain in june
july in silverton for hardrock volunteering and filmaking and tour guiding
maybe white river or pct 50m
maybe direct a new race in august
maybe go for a speed record or two
maybe wild idaho 50m
maybe leadville 100m or where's waldo 100k
maybe direct a new race in august
direct cle elum
maybe direct a new road marathon in late sept or early oct
guiding the tahoe rim trail tour
plus throw in some big "fun runs" in the north cascades, cascades near st helens, the olympics, the kettle range and some work mapping trails in the gorge, marin headlands, arizona and arkansas. i should be pretty busy this year...

not much certainty in that "plan" but in the next couple weeks i'll start making some decisions. and i'm commiting myself to starting my marathon training(which is just a way to get back in shape for the summer) this weekend(although i don't have a training plan made yet but i've got someone who's gonna help me with that next week.) so no more chumpatizin' for me!

no chumpatizin' in 2010!

hey folks quick blog here before i go wax my skis--gotta get out and play more on the new snow! this will be ski number 7 in 6 days. only one run in that span though. that'll have to change.

i'm recommitting myself to blogging here on a much much more regular basis. in the near future i'll post some random ideas i have for the upcoming year...stay tuned!

happy new year!

knee update and twisp river fun short report

hey everyone

i just wanted to let you all know that the ol' knee was just fine today on the twisp river 60k! it ached a bit for the first 4 miles or so but then was totally fine the rest of the way--even when i "tested" it on a few steep downhills.

the run in general was a big success, 5 starters and 5 finishers. we all stuck together for pretty much the whole way and a had good time. great weather although a little hot (in the 80s) and super views from lookout ridge at 5000ft!

life in flux

hi everyone

i was reminded recently that it's been too long since i bloged, even though she has only blogged once (and only 6 measly words...) since i last blogged 2.5 months ago.

anyhow life has been topsy turvey since that last post and unfortunately so has my running. but as the title of my blog says "no chumpatizin'!" so no excueses...

although i do have a good one. my left knee has been hurting for the last 3 weeks, ever since the capitol peak 50 miler. i was only going to run the 55k but mid-race i choose to "super size" up to the 50miler instead. the reason i was only going to do the 55k was because i felt i hadn't trained enough yet this year to be ready for a 50. but i was feeling so good and felt like i had a shot at winning or atleast top 3 so i went for it despite better judgement. so since then my knee has been achy but usally not until after few(3-8) miles of running and never really painful just achy and abviously not right. i'm not sure what it is, it could be shoes with too many miles, maybe i have worn down all my cartilage, maybe i've torn or strained a ligament or tendon, or maybe it's not my knee at all but tight quads (or other muscles)...or maybe it's all in my head... anyhow it's definitely making for some sporadic and poor quality training.

another excuse is my life outside of running has been complicated, confusing, and disorienting while at the same time illuminating, changing, and liberating. it is what is and it's all for the best but it has created lots of indecision, distraction, and maybe procrastination. could i be any more vague...

also race directing can get in the way of good training. but it was fun and the race was a big success.

and my other two jobs have been keeping me busy too! bear fight is now paying me to be there which is super cool and soon the results of my first project will be published-- i'll be published!!

and i've decided to not renew my lease on my house. it's been a great house and it's in a really good spot and i was about to plant my first garden since 2004 but since alison moved out i just can't afford the rent by myself. so i just bought a giant tent and i'm going to camp (and house-sit some too) for the summer! i'll have two camps: one on the river just a couple miles up from where i've been living and the other up at 8000ft on tiffany mountain, which is about a 30 minute drive from town and a 2.5 mile run from the trailhead but it'll be we'll worth the "commute".

ok i know i said no excuses and no chumpatizing... so i'll try to stick to the positive which there is a lot (eventhough i often overlook it) and i'll keep my head up and hopefully my feet flying down the trails...

big week, good month

hi everyone

it's been a long time since my last post. december was ski month-- it got to the point where i was skiing nearly every day. but i wrapped up my ski season pretty early, for these parts, with an eighteen mile point to point ski on new years day.

january was going to start my running training for the year but other than running 20 miles at the birdle trails winter running festival i don't think i ran more than 10 miles in any one run. and i don't even think i ran that often. so in hindsight january became my "rest" month.

February turned out to be a decent month with consistent running every week. it could have been different though if i had let not getting into hardrock (again!) get me down. i'm 0-5 in the hardrock lottery (but did get in the last two years off the waitlist but not until right before the race). this year i'm not willing to wait and see. instead i've signed up for cascade crest 100 and it's been providing me with plenty of motivation all month. there's actually 5 other runners in winthrop who will be running a 100miler this summer so there's no shortage of running partners either! even though i've been consistent this past month i didn't do any runs over 20 miles until the last day, running 24 miles on snow mobile trails to get my mileage for the week up to 66 (and today's 7 mile run pushed me up to a total of 73). my mileage for the month was almost 200 miles and is just about perfect for me for my first month of the year.

i'm hoping to slowly build up my mileage to the point where i run a half dozen or so 100+ mile weeks this summer before i begin tapering for cascade crest. with more than 100 miles of groomed snowmobile trails, dirt roads and snowshoe trails i'll have no shortage of off-pavement running options until the trails start melting out in late march/early april!

new blog: rainshadow running

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

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.

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

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.

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....

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!

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.

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.

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.......

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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