Hiking in a Thunderstorm

I am sorry I didn't write about the 4th of July, or about the Art Show... I'll try to catch up on posts for those topics later this week.  For now, I want to write about today's adventure!

Bill, Will, and I decided to go on a hike this afternoon.  Helena was invited, but she didn't feel well and declined.  It is probably just as well, because I don't think she would have liked this one.

We drove up the Tibble Fork of American Fork Canyon past the Tibble Fork Reservoir and onto a dirt road.  When I say 'dirt' road, what I mean is a rough riding rocky off road adventure along sheer cliffs next to a raging river of death!!!  At least, that is what it felt like to me.  Most of the time there was not enough room for two vehicles to pass each other comfortably, and at one point we had to back down the mountain side to find a spot to pull off and let another vehicle pass us going the other direction.    I get mocked by my family for my fears of canyon driving, but I really can't help it!  Driving mere inches from a severe drop with no railing of any kind just freaks me out!  This was all in the Expedition with 4 wheel drive, of course.  We were well past the point that a civilized road car could handle.

After driving on some of the roughest road I've ever been on, and crossing the stream bed several times, we arrived at a point in the road where even the Expedition could no longer handle the terrain. At that point, we got out and set off on foot.

 Early on in the hike.  Everything is looking good!  The weather was nice... not too hot, but not cold either.

 Early on we noticed that in several places the trail had turned into a stream with all the melt water trying to find its way to the river.  This has been the wettest spring/summer season on record!  The fact that there is even still snow in the mountains is kind of amazing!

 The terrain may have been too difficult for our Expedition, but there were plenty of people with off road-ing vehicles up there.  This Jeep was at the tail end of a 3 car 'pile up' because a white pick up style at the front of the line had a flat tire and was on a steep incline.  The drivers of all three vehicles were trying to work out the best solution to the problem as we passed them by.

 Although there were a lot of people adventuring in off road vehicles this far up the mountain, there was only one other group of hikers up on this particular trail today, and we passed them coming down early in our hike.  Bill guestimates that only about .001% of people from the valley ever make their way up to these higher elevations on foot.

 This is not the stream.  This is the trail!  Normally at this time of year it would be dry.  The river is to the right and out of the picture frame.  By this point in time, I had given up trying to keep my feet dry and I just hiked straight up the water.  It was freezing, of course, being melt water, but it is surprising how little that mattered.

 The actual stream had turned into a 'raging river of death'.  Literally.  We never went any where near it because to slip and fall in would spell certain death.  Not to sound overly dramatic, but really.  It was deep, swift, freezing, and deadly!

 This was probably around the 8,500 ft level.  You can see that the snow is not gone.  These shadow drifts are about 5-6 feet tall.  It really amazed me to see so much snow still on the ground in mid July!  The air was cool, but not cold.  I was comfortable in my shorts and t-shirt.

 Hiking at high elevations can be challenging.  I got a great work out, but I also was surrounded by stunningly beautiful scenery!

 We were at about the 9,000 ft elevation here.  Notice the trail is a serious stream bed again, with a deep puddle to wade through.

 At this point I realized I ought to get some photos with me in them, so I started trying to fit myself into some of the pictures, too.  Photos of me are rare, because I am the family photographer.

 Oh, so beautiful!!!

 I had to take this shot to illustrate the amount of snow still on the ground!  That is a full grown tree, not a sapling!

 Not long after the last shot, we crossed over into the snow field and reached the base of the Snowbird Resort back country ski lift basin.  This is at about the 10,000 ft elevation.  It was getting cold (duh!  There's snow everywhere!) and had started to rain.

 Will had forgotten to pack a parka/rain jacket, so I let him use mine.  I found that if I just kept moving, I didn't get too cold, although by the time we made it back to the car, my hands were numb with the cold and wet.

 Bill took off ahead of us.  I think he was headed for the ski lifts and the tunnel that bores through the mountain to the front side of Snowbird.  However, Will and I were more than ready to turn around and head back to the car!  The rain was intensifying, and we started hearing thunder and seeing lightning!  It is probably not the brightest idea to be up on the mountain during a storm.

The thunder and lightning were a little unsettling, and I admit we were faster down the mountain than we would have been without that extra motivator.  However, I felt like the weather conditions only added to the feeling of adventure and I really found myself enjoying hiking in the rain!

 Heading back to the car in the rain.  For part of the hike down, we watched the trail for Bill's wallet.  He thought it might have fallen out of his pocket!  Can you imagine losing your wallet on the mountain?!  You'd never see it again!  Fortunately, it turns out he never had it in his pocket; he had left it in the car.

 There were so many amazing and beautiful flowers on the mountain!  I limited myself to one photo, though, because I know that too many flower pictures are... well,,, too much!

 Back at the car!  We were really glad to get in out of the rain and dry off!

 Bill was a little disappointed in the hike because we ended up on the wrong trail.  We were going to hike to Pittsburgh Lake, but ended up on the Mineral Basin trail up to Snobird by mistake.  He felt badly that we never found the lake, but honestly, I had such a great time hiking through all that water with two of my favorite men in the world that I couldn't care less about the lake!

 I have to say that hiking in the rain was really a whole lot of fun!!!  For the first time I was able to hike down the mountain without my knee giving me trouble!  Years ago I damaged one of my knees hiking to the Mt. Timpanogos summit and it has never been the same since.  I hope it is due to all the marathon training I've been doing, because that means I can go on more hikes now!

Oh yeah.  On the way down the mountain I slipped once and fell to my knees.  I got my hands and video camera all muddy and managed to get a scrape on my knee reminiscent of all those scrapes I got as a little kid.  So now I have a band-aid on my knee and some slightly sore muscles, but lots of awesome new memories that make me happy and eager to go out again!

At the Pool

Yesterday, I went to the pool at 8 pm to get in my training laps.  I had a hard time maintaining the distances and kept stopping to rest before I really should have.  As a result, I ended up only going a total of 800m (1/2 mile) instead of the 1200m I was hoping for.  A couple of guys showed up who were happy to find out that I was finishing up my last lap, so they joined my lane in order to take it over as I was leaving.  They were training for a half Ironman!  Wow!

The pool is an awesome place to be in the evenings!  There are very few people there, the air is considerably cooler, and I usually don't have to share a lane.  And, of course, the view is pretty amazing, too!

 Here are a couple of better pictures of the leisure pool.  It closes earlier in the evening than the competition pool by about two hours.

Today the kids and I went to the pool with my sister, Kirsten, and her two little girls, Tori and Meg. Helena's friend, Megan joined us and Will decided to ditch us when a couple of girls he knew showed up.  I can't really blame him.  A 15 year old boy is certain to prefer the company of a couple of cute girls over his mom and other relatives!

 Tori had a great time wearing out Helena, Megan, and me in the pool, while Kirsten relaxed in the shade with Meg.

 Will in the hot tub.  This was before the girls showed up.

Helena and Kirsten were trying to get Tori to stand still long enough to get a picture of the two girls in their matching swim suits, but I am not sure they were ever successful.  Tori just couldn't stay still in the water!

Spin Class

Wednesday and Saturday are the days on my schedule that I am supposed to be cycling.  I'm not going to lie to you, it is my least favorite training exercise.  I know I have to do it, though, because it is the one part of the triathlon that I could really shave my time down in substantially! 

Today I decided to go try a spin class at the gym.  I have avoided these classes for a while now, because the last time Bill took me to one was a disaster.  Of course, that was over 2 years ago and I am a different person now than I was then.

When I told Bill I was going to the cycle class, he got kind of excited.  He rummaged in his closet and pulled out the cycling shorts I had given him last Christmas and told me to try them on.  It seems they don't quite fit him right and he was hoping they would fit me.  They did!  The fit perfectly, in fact. 

The spin cycles are in a special room all of their own just off the weight room.  The door stays locked until a spin class is held, which means you can't just wander in there and use them on your own. They have toe clips, so it is a great opportunity to work on the pedaling techniques Bill taught me.

HOLY COW!  I LOVED IT!

Maybe it is because my cardio level is much better than it used to be.  Maybe it is what Bill taught me.  Maybe it is a little of both.  All I know it that with my feet attached to the pedals, I could focus on just creating a smooth circle with my legs and it was so much easier!  The class instructor had us doing sprints that would have killed me two years ago, but were just challenging enough to be fun today.

I will definitely make spin class my go to exercise every Wednesday evening!

Test Drive

Last Saturday, Bill and I headed out to do the grocery shopping.  It wasn't until we were both in the car that we realized that we were hungry.

It is a general rule that you shouldn't shop while hungry, or you'll buy all sorts of things that simply 'look yummy' to your hungry stomach.  So, we decided to stop for lunch first before hitting the store.  We were on our way to the store after lunch when it happened.  I noticed a car in a sales lot as we passed by.

A convertible Mustang.  For $11,900.

I started craning my neck to see it and made a comment to Bill that I sure would like to see that car up close and personal.  Before you know it, Bill has pulled a U-turn and is headed back to the dealership!

Oooh!  It was beautiful!  I have wanted a convertible for a long time and a Mustang would be perfect!  I am partial to Ford now in the aftermath of the auto industry bailouts.  Did you know that Ford never took a bailout?  I can really respect that, and I'd like to give Ford my business because of it.

When we got there we discovered that the dealership was closed for the day (it was a late lunch), but we did notice another convertible for sale...

A Honda S2000.  You can tell from the picture that it has been at the dealership longer.  This one was listed at $9,900.  It is a bitty roadster!  There are no back seats.

I was smitten!  I decided that I needed to test drive these two cars and maybe even take the plunge a year early and go ahead with my plans to get another car.  You see, we have known for a while that we will need another car next year.  Helena will be graduating and plans to move away for school.  We intend to send my Alero with her to college.  It is a good reliable car with decent gas mileage and will be paid off by then.  That would leave us with just the Expedition (which is acting up and will need significant work done on it soon) and three drivers in the house (Will is getting his permit sometime soon).  No good.

When I got home on Saturday, I started researching those two cars, make, model, year, and mileage.  I wanted to see if the prices on them were reasonable.  They weren't, but not in the way you might think.

The Mustang was listed at about $4,000 LESS than NADA recommends.  The Honda S2000?  The retail value for that car ought to be at about $21,000!  I KNOW!!! 

$21,000?!?  And they only want $9.900?

My initial thought was, 'what is wrong with this car?'  Still, I know the owner of that dealership and trust him.  I taught his children years ago and we bought the Expedition from him 10 years ago BELOW blue book and it has been a fantastic car for us.  It isn't often you hear someone say they trust a used car salesman, but there you go... I trust this guy.

So I went back to the dealership yesterday afternoon.  I took the kids with me because both of them thought the idea of test driving a convertible sounded cool.  As it happens, I wasn't able to test drive the Mustang after all, because the key to it got left at the other owner's house (someone he knows borrowed it Friday night and returned the key to his house).  So that left the S2000. 

As it happens, another interested party walked in just after I did, also wanting to test drive the S2000.  It was interesting that he tried to downplay that car to me, trying to convince me it wasn't the car for me, that the gas mileage on it was terrible, etc.  But, I was there first, so I had first chance at the car.  The other guy decided to go out to lunch and come back after I finished my test drive.

Here is where we find out about the secret of the deep discount on the cost of the car...

It has a salvage title.

I didn't know much about what that means, but after some research, here is a nutshell.  When a car has been in an accident, the insurance adjuster will inspect to decide whether to have the car repaired, or 'junked' as a 'total loss'.  Usually, if the cost of repair reaches anywhere between 50% and 75% of resale, it will be classified a 'total loss' and the insured will be issued a check instead of getting their car repaired.  The 'totaled' car can be bought and rebuilt, but has to have a 'salvage' title to designate its history.

The dealership owner told me that when he bought the car, it looked like it had been 'pinballed'.  In other words, the person driving it had lost control and spun out, damaging panels on every side.  He had it rebuilt, but was disappointed in the level of finish work on it, hence the discounted price.

Most people will steer clear of a salvage title.  You just never know if the frame has been compromised with metal fatigue unless you pay for an in-depth inspection.  Banks and credit unions won't lend more than 50% retail value on a salvage title, and you will probably never be able to sell it yourself once you buy it.

Of course, the dealer only wants less than 50% retail on the car.  Which means I probably could get a loan on it, if I wanted to.

I will admit, it was fun to drive!  It is a manual transmission and my shifting skills are a bit rusty.  Helena went with me on the first drive.  Man!  The inside of that car was claustrophobic!  I mean REALLY tiny!  The windows are super small, too.  It took me a few minutes to finesse the clutch and find the 'sweet spot' where the gears connect.  I will admit there was a bit of jerky performance at first (total operator error) that had Helena saying 'oh!  I don't like this car at all!'  But once I had the measure of the shifter, she started enjoying the ride and changed her tune.  Not enough to actually want us to get the car, though.  When we got back to the dealership, I popped the 'boot'.  I know in America we call it the 'trunk', but this little car felt so much like a British roadster that I mentally thought of it as a 'boot'.  Weird.  Anyways.  A pair of boots would be practically the only thing you'd carry back there.  This thing had almost NO storage space at all.

When I took Will out in it, we took down the top.

OOOOH!!!  I liked that!  It opened up my sight line tremendously!  The sun and the breeze were intoxicating!  I would definitely need to keep sunscreen in the car.

So.  I probably have you worried about me.  You are probably screaming at your computer screen, "DON'T DO IT!  DON'T DO IT!  NOT A SALVAGE TITLE!"

Don't worry.  I won't.

This is going to be the first car I buy that is all for me and only for me.  I am going to do it right.  That means no salvage title, and definitely some storage for groceries, at least!

So, what about the Mustang that first drew my eye?

It's a salvage title, too.  And a v6 instead of a v8 (apparently we want more power).  Harumph!

It was obviously not meant to be....

...yet.

Amish Quilt Dreams

This post is about one of my day dreams.

I am always reconstructing and redecorating my house in my mind.  There are times when you could come across me standing perfectly still and doing absolutely nothing in the middle of a room or in the yard.  At least, it would look like I am doing nothing, when in fact, my mind is in overdrive... moving walls, installing additions, selecting finishes and colors, and furnishings.  You should really see my house inside my head; it would blow you away!!!  It would be the cover story for This Old House magazine.

One of my daydreams is the ability to deck out each and every bed in the house with an authentic Amish quilt.  These beauties cost around $1,000 each, with the more experienced quilters products going much higher.  For instance, the design of the image at the top of the page is a traditional stitch pattern that has been done by many Amish women.  However, the cost varies depending on the stitch count.  A stitch count of 6-7 per inch would cost less than a 9-10 per inch quality. 

I love the idea of hand built traditional quilts in this mechanized world!  I think they are worth every cent they cost... I just can't afford them.  Is it crazy of me to want one of these hand built bed spreads when I know the same pattern could be programed into a machine and sold for a mere fraction of the cost?

It is for this same reason that I love my old house... 84 years of solid, OLD construction.  I just can't value new construction the same.  Not when I see so many unforgettable, cheaply constructed houses. Did you know that my house was a kit house?!  The original owner ordered the plans AND all parts from either the Sears or  the Montgomery Ward catalog!  Every single piece was shipped out to him in a rail container, then he built the house by hand.  Every scrap of lumber and brick were placed by the owner himself!  I seriously doubt the houses of today will stand the test of time like this old house.  None of them will have the unique history.  At least, not the tract houses that are such a prevalent blight in the suburban sprawl surrounding the old communities.

So, for now, the Amish quilt dream is only that... a dream.  Perhaps someday I'll be able to splurge and finally get one.  I'll have to put it on my bucket list!

Skin color

What a misnomer!  The color of one's skin.  It really should be 'skin colors' because there are just SO MANY colors found in flesh tone.  And I am not talking about colors from one person to another.  I am talking about the colors in ONE person's skin.  It is boggling and daunting to try to mix together the correct tints and hues of reds, yellows, and blues to come up with the right highlights and shadows to represent just one person's skin.  And do it without making the skin look muddy instead of luminous.

GAH!

I am not that happy with today's work on the painting.  I worked on Matt's arm and shirt today.  The preliminary work on the shirt is okay, but the arm.  Grrrr.  The arm is frustrating me.  I have gotten to an acceptable stopping place with it, but I am still not happy with the results.  Maybe tomorrow will be a better day for art?

Weeds

Our yard is over run with them.  Gah!  I HATE weeds!  Unfortunately, ignoring them does NOT make them go away.  I know.  I tried.

So, yesterday I watered one section of weeds to make them easier to pull today.  That is my new strategy.  water... then pull.  But only the section that was watered the day before.  When I finish that section, I am free to abandon the rest of the yard until another day with a guiltless conscience.  I figure that by the time I make it around the entire yard, the first section will be in dire need of attention again.  Phooey.

Neglected Artwork

I have a confession.  I have had the same picture stuck on my easel now for over... um..... I think 3 years?!  It sat in the same unfinished state for so long because I was really not very happy with how meticulous I was being on the background and I just lost interest in it.  I have done a few other things off of my easel, but those were mainly example artworks for my students and I don't really count most of those as serious efforts.  But lately, I have had several painting ideas floating around in my head and I need my easel back.  So, it is time to revisit this artwork and finish it.

 I am going to rework the background into a more painterly, impressionistic looking style, and I think that will help it out.  It is a picture of my two boys one Sunday morning putting their ties on.  I thought it would make a good subject matter in a sort of Norman Rockwell sort of way.  This is being done in soft pastels, one of my favorites!  Technically, pastels are considered a drawing tool, but I can't help but think of it as a painting.

 Will

 Matt

The reference photo was taken years ago, when Matt was a teen and Will was still in Elementary school.  Now Matt is 23 and married, and Will is going into high school and will get his driver's permit next week!  Ahhhh!   Time goes so fast!

I'll post more updates as I continue to work on this one!

Summer Solstice

I always thought that the solstice would be in the middle of the summer.  Apparently I was wrong!  The solstice marks the beginning of summer and is the longest day of the year!  Of course, around here, summer begins June 1st and lasts through August (and often well into September temperature-wise).

Last night Bill went on a bike ride.  When he came home, he brought me a gift...

... He had picked a handful of wild flowers for me on his ride home!  The last time he did that for me was years and years ago when the kids were little and we lived in an apartment in Pleasant Grove!  I love the wild flower bouquets from my husband much more than some store bought hot house flowers because I know that he went out of his way to pick them for me himself.

 Today I swam laps for my training workout, then came home to pick weeds out of the yard.  That is an eternal job.  Phooey!  After working for about and hour and a half, I came in for lunch, then headed back to the pool with Helena.  She wanted me to spend the day with her, and I happily agreed.  After all, this might be my last summer with her, depending on what her life looks like after she graduates next spring.  We only spent an hour or so at the pool before heading back home because her sinuses are bothering her so badly.  The cotton wood is floating thickly in the air and it is wrecking havoc with her allergies.

I joined her in the back yard for a picnic lunch (for her, anyways, I already ate lunch) and decided to take some pictures because the sky was so VERY blue and it felt like such a perfect summery day!  So, here are some of the pictures I took!

Right now, Helena is off babysitting and Will is off hanging out with his friend, Dallan, so I am home by myself again in a nice, cool, peaceful house!  When Helena gets home again, she wants me to go back to the pool with her again. 

Triathlon Learning Curve

So.  I am signed up for a triathlon.  I thought I should probably learn some more about just exactly what I have gotten myself into.  Here is what I have learned so far...

I found lots of helpful resources on runnersworld.com.  For instance, I discovered a training calculator for runners.  You plug in your best time for one of the standard distances and it will calculate what your time would be for all the other standard distances.  By example, my best time for a half marathon is 2:33:13.  Based on that calculation, I would run a 5K in 00:33:20, and a full marathon in 5:19:27.  The calculator also posits the best speeds for various different training  runs to improve my time!

So, now I know what speeds I should be doing in each of the three different types of training runs; speed forms, VO2 intervals, and tempo runs.

Speed forms:  These help increase speed.  Duh.  It is an interval workout involving one minute of high intensity speed running, followed by 3-4 minutes of recovery jogging... repeated about 6 times for a 30 minute workout.  I did one of these today and it felt great!

VO2:  These workouts are done to deliver the maximum amount of oxygen to your muscles possible.  They are 4-5 min. of moderately intense speed running (not has fast as the speed form), you have to be able to sustain the speed for the entire time, followed by 4-5 minutes of recovery jogging, repeated 3 times for a 30 minute workout.

Tempo:  These are workouts at your race tempo, or the speed you can maintain for at least 20 minutes non stop.

All of this will help my running and overall fitness.

I have also learned a thing or two about swimming in open water.  For instance, I need to work on my technique to get more rotation and better extension on my stroke in order to get good breaths in the waves.  Also, I need to practice lifting my head slightly to the front periodically as I swim so my goggles peek out of the water to see where I am going!  This is called sighting and is critical when swimming toward a destination in open water.  When sighting, it is better to first pick a tall object that aligns with the buoy, because when you are in the water, you might not be able to see the buoy you are aiming for because the water swells may obscure it from you.  So, if you know it lines up with something higher up that you can see from the water, you will know you are heading in the right direction!  Wow!  I am really glad I learned that trick!

I also learned that open water swims most often cause a momentary panic in many racers because of all the other bodies thrashing about in the water near you.  I don't know if that will happen to me, but it is good to know about it and be prepared, just in case!

I watched several YouTube videos about transitions.  They have been called the fourth event in a triathlon, because they can be stressful if not thought out and executed well.  Basically, a transition is the time it takes you to move from one event in the triathlon to the next event.  There are two transitions; swim/bike, and bike/run.  The swim/bike transition seems to be the one that is most technical.  Most of the videos I saw dealt with getting a wet suit off before getting into biking gear.  I won't have to worry about that, because I don't plan to race in a wet suit.  The lake's temperature in late August will be plenty warm!  However, there were lots of helpful tips about how to lay out your gear in the transition area to make the transition as smooth and speedy as possible.  I think I will need to practice a transition before the race.

Something Bill mentioned about biking struck me, as well.  He has shoes that clip into the pedals of his bike.  I don't.  I was just going to wear my running shoes on the bike, too.  However, he said that biking without clipping onto the pedals only uses 1/4 of the muscle power I could be using.  Without the clips, I can only exert downward force on the pedals as they complete the front of the rotation.  If I had my shoes clipped to the pedals, however, I could exert an UPWARD force on the back rotation as well!  In fact, I could be using my muscles all the way through the pedal's circular rotation.

So.  Do I go buy myself some biking shoes and the right kind of pedals?  The shoes cost about $100!  Ouch!  I would need to do it soon, if at all, because I would need to train in them.  I already intend to buy some tri shorts.  These are specially designed compression shorts that wick water away, dry quickly, and have a thin pad in the seat for the biking leg of the race.  They are worn in all three events.

Oh.  And the most disturbing thing I discovered is that mp3 players of any kind are strictly FORBIDDEN during any portion of a triathlon!  Of course, that is fine for the swim, and even the biking... but it will be sorely missed while I am running!