Garden trip

Over the weekend, we took a trip to our local bouldering spot, The Garden. The Garden isn't necessarily a "secret" area, but new climbers or climbers who are simply new to the area generally have to work a bit to figure it out. It's not heavily trafficked, but we've been climbing there since last summer.

The rock is volcanic, but it feels more like granite or even sandstone. I love it.

This was my first trip out there in MONTHS. This area of Oregon is wet, and The Garden is basically in a rain forest at the edge of the Cascades. When it rains, it takes several days to dry out, and we just haven't had good luck until now. I'm sure we'll be there a lot this summer.

On this trip, we messed around on a few problems, and I got a project I'd been working on for the past few trips. It's lame that I had to project this thing. It's not that hard, but there are a few more powerful moves on it (for me at least). And every other time I've worked it, I've had my ever-present issue of beta-amnesia & tiring myself out. Anyway, check it out!

This is one of our first climbing videos that we made with our new camera! I'm so excited about ...just the fact that we have the ability to MAKE videos now. It's so much fun. Look for more from us soon!

Anti-cancer smoothie

Several weeks ago, my dad officially found out that he has Lynch Syndrome. I'll give you a cookie (or a smoothie - heh) if you've ever heard of that before.

No one has heard of it, so, the quick explanation is that it's a gene that causes cancer. We already pretty much knew that cancer ran in our family, and it was actually one of my doctors who told me we should be tested for Lynch specifically. His diagnosis wasn't a surprise.

I'll get tested for Lynch soon, but there's a 50 percent chance that I have it. And even if I don't, living an "average" lifestyle in this world at this time is basically a cancer sentence anyway.

I'm not too worried about getting cancer, honestly. Especially if I do have Lynch Syndrome, I'll be screened for cancer so often that there's no way any problem could go unnoticed.

And this smoothie is one of my secret anti-cancer weapons. It has all kinds of good stuff that fights off the bad stuff, and this is how I like to start most of my mornings now.

Ingredients:
•1 scant cup frozen mangos
•1 scant cup frozen berries
•1 cup orange juice
•1/2 cup fresh strawberries
•1 cup spinach
•1 Tbsp ground flaxseed
•1 tsp gogi berries
•1 tsp chia seeds
•1/4 cup almond (or other) milk
•1/2 cup nonfat greek yogurt
•1/2 a banana and/or avocado

Aaron makes fun of the long list of ingredients that go into this thing. He jokes that I throw everything in the entire kitchen into it. That's not true. But sometimes I substitute kale for spinach and if we have other fruit, sometimes I'll throw that in there, but this is the holy grail....

I mix the frozen fruit with the orange juice first to create a nice base, and then I add in everything else & blend until the mixture is super smooth.

I don't want to go too much into nutrition, but I have done research, and I can tell you that in moderation, everything in this smoothie is good for you. It fills me up in the mornings and keeps me energized until lunch.

I'm also not promoting this smoothie as a fix-all bandaid. You can't drink 16 ounces of this in the morning, have a bucket of fried chicken for lunch, a take-out pizza for dinner, never exercise and call it good.

I ride my bike to work almost every day. I exercise 5-6 days a week. And in my quest to be healthier in general, I've cut back on meat, alcohol, sodium & added sugar. ....and I still wouldn't say that I'm doing everything "right". My health and fitness is a work in progress. I try not to be too hard on myself. I allow indulgences. I'm happy! And I think that's the most important thing anyway!

October at Smith

We were lucky to spend two weekends at Smith Rock State Park this month! I hadn't been out there in months and months before that, which I think turned out to be a good thing. Smith Rock does strange things to my mental game in terms of climbing.

I let the crowds bother me. And the heat (even in the crispness of the central Oregon fall, the sun on those rocks is sweltering, still). But the past two trips have been really great, and I've made progress (and yes, sends)!

And I've been such a terrible blogger, I haven't even written about the new addition to our family that came in September: Charlie!!!

Charlie is a seven-month-old pitbull/lab mix. Here he is with Boone, cuddled up in the shade:

I almost can't handle how adorable they are. Charlie has a very sweet, calm disposition. He's sort of slow and lumbering. Much more thoughtful and accepting than Boone. They balance each other out well. They're both learning things form each other, and I love watching them interact.

We're hanging out at the Morning Glory wall and the Dihedrals mostly. Aaron's working a 12b called Latest Rage! Here's me this past weekend, after my send of Nine Gallon Buckets and before working my project, Cool Ranch Flavor. I was on Cool Ranch when we started feeling a few raindrops, which turned into a bit of a downpour and mass evacuation from the park. Eek!

I'll leave you with Ryan Palo, a guy who can climb much, much harder than me. Here he is aiding his way up Scar Face to set up a giant top rope SWING at the top. You stand, tied in, on top of a nearby boulder and let your belayer pull you off so you can swing back and forth a few times. It looks like a blast!

Smith Rock IS a beautiful place. I'm too hard on it sometimes.

Fito, I quit you!

I have a confession to make. For the past.... year? (I don't even know how long), I've been an obsessed "Fitocrat". For those that don't know, I'm talking about the social networking/fitness tracking site, Fitocracy.

And after this weekend, I quit. Why this weekend? Well, because I'm SO close to leveling up, and if my projections are correct, it will happen sometime Friday or Saturday and.... look! I already sound like a crazy person.

Here's my profile page for the site:

Below this, my daily workouts are tracked and displayed for all to see. But not just my workouts. I've gotten to the point where I track every time I walk up stairs. Every walk I take to a different part of campus during work. Every bike commute (a little more legit, but whatever).

I feel obsessed. In a bad way.

I started "working out" when we moved to Alabama in November, 2012. There wasn't much to do there. We didn't know many people, and my job offered a discounted YMCA membership. I went to the gym a couple times a week and started running. I quickly got up to half marathon distances. We also ventured to the Birmingham bouldering gym on Thursday evenings and tried to climb outside as often as we could. And I felt AMAZING, and I wanted to keep going!

To ensure I got my daily workout in, I used a calendar and wrote a G, Y, R or C near the date to designate a day I'd gone to the gym, yoga studio, for a run or climbing. And then I discovered Fitocracy.

I love the internet. And my new love for fitness fit in perfectly with Fitocracy's goal, so I started tracking. On Fitocracy, you're awarded "points" for your workout.

For example, A recent, slow 8-mile run on light hills was worth 1028 points. That's a lot.

Two hours of climbing inside is always worth 777 points.

An hour of yoga? 234 points.

The more I used the site and the more I leveled up, the more I became more obsessed with logging points. I set a personal goal to get to 1000 points every day, which lead to the aforementioned logging of stair-walking. I worked out (with a rest day or two thrown in every week). But, on days where I went to a one-hour hot yoga class, I only earned 200-something points? And that didn't seem fair!

The points awarded for yoga is a highly disputed subject by my fellow yogis on the site. The Fitocracy Gods have decided that yoga is not as strenuous as lifting (which is the preferred Fitocracy workout ...Do you even lift, Bro?!).

The point is that it's all so arbitrary. I have been in yoga classes that probably burned thousands of calories, and I have been the typical "girl on the elliptical" burning maybe a couple hundred calories in half an hour ....but I still got the points!

The other thing about the site is that the longer you use it, the longer it takes you to "level up" because there are more points between each level. I'm finishing up 60,000 points to get to level 38 at the moment. Ugh.

Then there are the groups. Oh, the groups. In the climbing community, there is something we call "spray" ...which many Fitocracy climbers seem to have no concept of. It's bad form to talk about what grades you're climbing, but this is common place in the Fitocracy forums.

It's also common to post yourself in crazy Yoga poses. Bragging! I can't take the bragging! Yoga, especially is NOT about ego.

Everything on Fitocracy seems to be about ego. And points. And I'm just....tired of it.

I'm tired of doing those few extra pushups or situps just for the points. Not that they weren't good for me, but.... It's just been too often that I've done an extra set that I didn't really need to do!

I'd love to find a free tool (besides myfitnesspal, which I'm not a fan of), that more accurately tracks health and fitness levels. But I'm done with Fitocracy. After I level up. *cries*

Labor Day Weekend in Leavenworth

me on chunky, v3

Aaron on, The Hueco Route, the most fun v1 ever

And this is Gold Bar, where we did not climb. Because of access issues we didn't know about or didn't think to find out about. It was so beautiful, though....

Friday

We didn't leave Corvallis until about 6 p.m., so we ended up sleeing in the truck, in a Safeway parking lot.

Saturday

We made it to Leavenworth by about 8 and had coffee at the most adorable little Starbucks ever before we went out to Icicle Canyon, which is one of the main bouldering areas. We climbed until 12:30, when we went into town to watch some football and eat lunch. I had a grilled cheese and onion rings. Aaron had fish & chips, and we got to see our Hogs on ESPN U for just a little while. Then, we headed back to the boulders. We camped that night somewhere deep in the canyon. It was beautiful, but a little chilly and apparently a tiny bit rainy.

Sunday

We started out early and spent the whole day in the Mad Meadows area. No big sends due to the sharpness of the granite, and unfamiliarity with the rock and the area. We wanted to climb in Gold Bar on Monday, so we decided to drive and camp there that night. When we got there, we found the road to the boulders closed. And after a little research discovered that the land is owned by a timber company, and while the road is closed to vehicles, it's open to hikers....

Monday

What we didn't realize is how long the hike was. Aaron thought there was a shortcut, but after about a mile of hiking, we discovered there wasn't, and that it would take at least another hour - maybe two - to get to the boulders. We gave up and came home early. I don't feel too sad about it. It was our fault for lack of planning. I'd like to go try again sometime soon. Gold Bar is closer to us than Leavenworth, so it might be possible before it gets too cold and wet.

As if this wasn't enough, I had another adventure on Tuesday. I'm SO tired today, but I'll write more about that later. :)

The Garden

It's a secret garden with secret boulders. And, for one day last weekend, a Callie, an Aaron and a Boston terrier.

A v5ish in what I'm calling "the front area". We don't know!

Boone looked on. (See all the ferns?!)

I worked it too!

And then we all got tired and went home. Which was not difficult, because this prime bouldering spot is only an hour from our front door. <3

Smith Weekend

This weekend, we hung out at our new home crag, Smith Rock. It was our second outing there. Last time, we hit up the more popular areas, and since those areas get really busy on the weekends, on Saturday we set out with a game plan: visit one of the least popular areas of the park, the Marsupial area. According to our guide, it had some great climbs!

The reason it's not popular? The approach. It's long, and much of it is on talus.

I hate walking on talus. This weekend has prompted a recent purchase of some new approach shoes (which I thankfully found on sale...)

Boone was a trooper at least.

Aaron can often be found like this...

And here's a shot of our new favorite area.

Despite the tough hike, I really want to go back to this area! I think my first 5.11a might be there, along with some fun 5.10s.

The thing I can't get used to about Smith, which is still causing me some anxiety (which is something I've battled for the past year, spot climbing) is how glassy all the holds feel. I don't like the jugs that much because it feels like you might just slip off of them.

Because my hands are small, I feel much better suited for the tiny crimps on the harder climbs, but since I'm not confident in my strength/ability on the tougher grades, I was a complete top-roping wimp this weekend, and that needs to end.

Next time, I want to head over to the Rope de Dope block to get my confidence up. After that, I think I'll work on Wedding Day, a 10B. I don't think it'll take me too long. The crux is to the first bolt, which I did this past weekend.

Right now, like I said, it's just about building confidence and endurance, so I can get through the crux sections with composure and keep going.

Saturday night, we slept in the truck because we were too tired from all the hiking to put up the tent. We left before noon on Sunday after being shut down by heat and exhaustion. A not-so harrowing end to a seriously harrowing weekend.

Shamrock Run

On Sunday, me and 34,999 other people in Portland ran in the Shamrock Race. I participated in the 15k with my good buddy Dave. Rebekah did the 8k, and Aaron did the 5k. We all did great and had lots of fun.

I've never done a real race before, and I'm glad the Shamrock was my first because it was a blast! The 15k route went through hilly, downtown Portland!

The hills made finishing the race (in the upper half of participants, might I add), all the sweeter.

Smith

We spent our weekend spot climbing at Smith Rock. We didn't climb anything too crazy...just tried to get a feel for things & find our bearings.

It's so beautiful, and there are so. many. climbers. EVERYWHERE. AND they're all super nice. It's awesome.

We camped on Saturday. Cold camping. Cuddly camping.

I know we'll be back there soon, and I'm glad. It's a beautiful place.

Debateably it's even more beautiful than the meal we had on the way home.

We were so, so impressed with Three Creeks Brewing in Sisters. We were starving at the end of the weekend, and still had a long trip over the pass. The meal was:

•Tillamook Cheese dip with garlic bread & pears
•A crazy burger for Aaron, a burrito bowl for me
•Marionberry Cobbler with homemade ice cream

Until the other day, when I saw some marionberry-flavored Tillamook yogurt in the fridge at work, I thought Marionberries were a thing Portlandia made up to be funny.

Upon further Wikipedia-based research, it turns out that marionberries are native to Oregon. In 2009 there was a proposal in the state legislature to make marionberries the official berry of Oregon. BUT, the proposal didn't pass...because everyone was worried about making the other berries feel bad (and you know, hurting their sales).

This is where we live now.

Hospital boulders

We took our first trip to the Hospital boulders this weekened. The Southeastern Climbers Coalition recently purchased them, but they still need donations! There are some amazing features out there.

I'm so glad dogs are allowed on SCC property! I hate not being able to take Boone to Horse Pens 40 - our usual bouldering destination. Our plan was to camp at Sand Rock (north of the Hospital boulders) & head back down to Steele on Sunday to climb there. Since Boone was worn out, he would have been fine in the car. But, it rained and rained and rained ...and it was the worst camping night of my life.

Sand Rock was lovely when we got there. But the waters came and the wind blew. Aaron made us a nifty little roof out of a tarp to cook under. We ate dinner in our tent and promptly fell asleep, waking up to this:

We ate bagels and watched The West Wing on the iPad by the fire until we mustered enough energy to pack up the camp. We ended up hitting up the gym in Birmingham on Sunday instead as well as Taziki's and Mountain High Outfitters.

There are times I feel like roughing it. I'll happily let my phone die and focus on where I am, and how beautiful it is at the time. This weekend wasn't one of those times. ;) But that's OK. I still had a great time.

I hope you had a great weekend and are facing a great week ahead.

A run review

Here's the timeline of my running life...

1987-2008
I hated running

fall 2008
After graduating college the previous spring and no longer walking around campus, I decided I needed to re-join the 'ol rec center & get on a treadmill. I started out doing a bit of weight training and treadmilling 2ish miles a few times a week

Oct. 2008-Sept. 2009
I lived in California and Michigan and took a break from all exercise (except my TaeBo workout DVD & Wii Fit)

Sept. 2009
I moved back to Arkansas and had a treadmill available in my apartment complex. I went back to it, and at some point in the winter of 2010, I ran my first 4 miles on a treadmill and never ran further than that.

Spring 2010
I started running outside occasionally and finally got over my fear of running in public. I bought my first pair of Brooks running shoes - replacing my cheerleading shoes from high school (yeah...).

Spring 2012
By now I was pretty serious about climbing and yoga, but I felt like I need a better cardio workout than the elliptical/treadmill in the gym. I finally lived in a nice run-able neighborhood, so I started running "for real". In March, while home in Arkansas for a wedding, I ran 5 miles, which I now view as a turning point, because I kept upping my mileage from there. I'd always had a side stitch, but during this five mile run and the several 3-4 milers before it, I figured out how to breathe correctly - finally.

Summer-Fall 2012
I pushed through the heat, and at one point in July/August, I was running an average of 25 miles a week. Not too shabby for someone who always "hated" running, right? My top distance during this time was 14 miles! I'm still not too concerned about speed, and can't get over the fact that I'm doing this.

Winter 2012
OK, now it's confession time. We're up to the present, and ...I'm scared of the cold. I am. I've never liked it. I don't like being outside when it's cold. When Aaron made me boulder outside last year when it dipped into the 20s, I was miserable...

Even worse, I like to run in the morning. I get crazy side stitch if I try it in the afternoon. I think my digestion, on average, is a little slower than most people's, maybe? And whatever I've eaten for the day really messes with me. I prefer to run on a mostly empty stomach in the early morning when there also happens to be less traffic and beautiful sunrises more often than not. But do you know how cold it is at 5 a.m. right now?!

So, for the past several weeks, I've been in the gym. To make my dreaded elliptical sessions a little more bearable, I've started watching episodes of Parks & Rec on my iphone while I work out. But, last week in Florida I went on my first outside run in awhile.

I came back inside realizing how much I'd missed that feeling of pushing myself. In the fall, I was toying with the idea of buying new shoes. I knew I'd need to eventually. After my run last week, I found the pair of Brooks PureFlows that I'd settled on, on sale for $72. Sold.

They arrived yesterday, and I took them on a run this morning. In 39 degrees. You know, 39 degrees is nothing when you layer up and go fast. I wore two pairs of tights, a long sleeved tec shirt, Mountain Hardwear jacket and a running headband that covered my ears. It was the perfect amount of clothing for my 6-mile run.

Running in the PureFlows compared to my old, worn down Cascadias felt like running on clouds. I know I need to break them in slowly, but I'm really excited about them now.

And I'm not scared of the cold anymore. In fact, I think running in 39 degrees probably feels better than my hot, sweaty, humid summer runs. I'm just a stupid, Southern girl I guess.

But, after today, I'm going to be a stupid Southern girl getting her run on at least twice a week.

near cooking fail

This week, I read only one book: Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter. First of all, if you haven't seen it, The cover of this book is amazing. It takes place in Italy …and Hollywood. And England and Scottland and Idaho. You get to travel in this book …you get to devel into people's lives and really experience them. This author has a true talent. I recommend her first book as well, The Financial Lives of Poets.

I was tired for a lot of this past week, and I slept a lot because I needed to. I love it when that can happen. But, because of that, we skipped dinner some nights, which is an odd thing to do. On Tuesday, Aaron made turkey burgers. But other than that, there was not much cooking to speak of. Hopefully as of today, I will be back on the bandwagon.

Friday was a great day. Aaron had a pretty easy day at work, so he had time to surprise me with flowers. :) I suggested we make stir fry, because I needed to use the peppers I had, but he said it could wait, and let me pick a restaurant for dinner. It had to be Indian, of course. And it was delicious. I had my first dosa in a long time. Yum.

We saved the stir fry for camping on Saturday. I spent the morning relaxing and watching TV in bed, and at about 1 p.m., we headed up to Sand Rock to camp and climb …and eat this delicious skillet of food. It seriously disappeared in minutes. For some reason,w e usually default to the idea of chicken when we camp, but the steak I had was already cut into stir-fry strips and made a delicious camp meal. We didn't build a fire since it hasn't rained in weeks.

Sunday, we tried to start out early, but by 8 a.m., the sun was already hot and beating down on us.

Boone was not amused, but we tried to keep him cool by finding good routes to climb in caves…

That's Aaron on a great route called Dreamcatcher. I climbed "Lichen This," "Oyster" and "Tarzan," and I didn't want the weekend to come to an end.

On the way home, we stopped in Birmingham at a great dog-friendly restaurant called Rojo. I think it's an instant favorite, and I have a feeling we'll be headed there after future trips when we have Boone with us because the queso & sandwiches were delicious!

My new obsession for the week is Bunheads, the new ABC Family show. I watched episode 3 on Saturday, convinced it was episode 1 for some reason …and now I'm going to have to buy the first two on iTunes to catch up before the fourth episode airs. It's by the creators/writers of Gilmore Girls, which means it's brilliant and hilarious. I recommend to all!

weekend adventure: beg'd borrow'd & steel'd

Summer Heights High came in the mail last monday. I'd been contemplating buying the genius Australian series for a long time. I watched it for the first time when I was living alone in Michigan in the summer of 2009. It lifted my spirits considerably. I watched it again once I'd moved back to Arkansas just because I'd loved it so much. It was cheap with free shipping on Amazon, so that's pretty much what I watched all last week when it was gray and cloudy.

I came home from work each day last week to the kitchen. I cooked: chicken and veggies; a casserole Aaron's mom used to make with ground beef, mushroom soup, vegetables & cheese; eggplant/zucchini parmesan. I used to be terrified of frying things, but now I think it's really fun!

There was even a freak thunderstorm in Montgomery on Friday evening which caused an evacuation of the indoor pool I was swimming in at the YMCA. …Something about the water pump being outside?

The weather on Saturday was perfect, though, as we headed up to climb at an event called Beg, Borrow & Steel. I described it to friends as a "rock climbing party," though we didn't do much of the "party" things like jousting & a belly flop competition …or drinking except for the little bit of beer Aaron put in his water bottle.

We climbed almost 10 hours straight on Saturday with breaks for lunch (hotdogs, so I snacked on jerky & oreos) and dinner (BBQ & salad!), we woke up on Sunday and packed up. Aaron climbed a route and a half before declaring he was done. I wasn't even going to try….

We went for a swim in the beautiful river and left at about 10, making it to the Chipotle in Hoover in time for lunch at Chipotle! We picked up a few things at Mountain High - a new, purple, narrow neck nalgene for me …my dream water bottle. I also fell in LOVE with a pair of Merrell shoes that hardly exist anywhere in my size… and we got some Pink Berry for dessert before making it back to Montgomery.

I was so happy to see Boone! I hate leaving him, though we'd had a local dog walker feed and walk him twice while we were gone. We unpacked and made a quick trip to the dog park before spacing out on the couch for the rest of the evening.

I posted photos from the weekend and from the rest of our time in Alabama so far, since I hadn't done that yet. I actually haven't shot too many photos with my "real" camera. I'm a pretty good instagrammer, which you should know if you follow me on twitter.

The photos I have taken make me happy. This weekend, especially was a good time of reflection. It's easy to let the work week get you down, but we really do live in (near) a beautiful place. I'm thankful for that, and for being able to climb and hike and swim. So, I'm heading into this week with good energy and lots of water. Can't beat that.