In the meantime

For the past two months my job has been looking for a job and "training" although I haven't solidly decided on what, yet. Portland marathon is the possible "It" event. Looking for a job is interesting in a time when every other news piece is about the rising costs of gas and food, lack in consumer confidence and so on. I have been keeping at it I think something good will be coming my way. I should know where my next paycheck will be coming from with in the next week and a half... fingers crossed. Aside from the job search I have been keeping pretty active. I did the "Reach the Beach" fundraiser ride for the American Lung Association. That was the weekend of May 17th.... the only hot weekend we have seen so far this year. The year has been crappy as far as weather goes and to think of it as 2008 being almost half way over really bums me out. I keep putting outdoor stuff of waiting for the weather to get nicer. The day of RTB, it was 95 degrees... so I can't complain, right? Considering all my training rides had been in mist, cloud cover, and 58 to 65 degree weather... my body was not ready to do 100 miles at a 19mph pace in blazing sun and 95 degree weather.T'was toasty and there were a lot of sun burns to be seen. At the rate that everyone was sweating, it was a chore to keep the sun block on. It was one of those rides where I was glad we weren't spending huge amounts of time at the aid stations... on a day like that, I wanted to keep going and get into the cool weather at the beach which when we got there, did not disapoint. The ride itself is beautiful and despite my snarling about it, I really enjoyed it. I rode with Bernd and Brian, and some other guys I met that day. We were all up to the challenge and 100 miles did seem to fly by. When we got to Pacific City, within minutes of arriving, Bernd and I waded out in the ocean... the very, very cold and refreshing Pacific! My legs were so tired, however that I was afraid I might get washed out to sea and there wouldn't be much I could do to fight it. After devouring sandwiches, chips, and beer that Bernd's wife was so kind to bring for us all, she drove Brian back to his car in Amity and me back to mine in Tigard. I made one last pitstop at Burgerville and then headed home to crash. I have since continued on with my running, riding, and gym workouts. Now I have to start my swimming. I keep saying that.

I went hiking on Memorial day - we went up to Larch mtn where we encountered snow... so we hiked around in the snow for a bit. After Larch mtn, we headed down the columbia river gorge scenic highway to Elowah Falls http://www.waterfallsnorthwest.com/waterfall.php?num=1374&p=0. It's a short but steep hike and worth it when you get to the falls. Because of the snow melt on Mt Hood and all the rain we have been getting, the water run off is very powerfall because there is so much of it. When crossing the falls to get to the other side of the trail, we got soaked and the power of the falls created such a wind that it would take my breath away. The water fall was thrilling... the power and the sound of the water is very charging.

This last weekend I did a 40 mile Velo ride on Saturday. I ran Sunday morning and then hiked Dog Mountain with some friends http://www.localhikes.com/Hikes/Dog_Mountain_0000.asp. The hike started off sunny and windy as we high tailed it up the path to catch the couple that we were supposed to start off the hike with. We had a good clip and were both sweating profusely to trudge up the steepness of the path. When we got to one of the clearings, we looked up to see dark clouds speeding past the summit... a good indication that we weren't going to have much of view at the top and that it was going to be pretty cold. We caught up with the other couple, and as we approached the summit we all started putting windbreakers on and fighting the wind during the last part of the ascent. At the top I changed into a dry (not soaked by sweat) shirt, put on gloves, and inhaled a power bar, as five minutes at the top had us all chilled, rattled by the wind and ready to head back down. We took a different path down that was sheltered from the wind and then further down in to the tree line, we were completely sheltered from the wind and warmed back up... nice. All in all, I wonderful hike and one I plan to do more this year.