The Tanks Take Flattop

Workout: kickass hike at Flattop - 2 hours

Well, I didn't actually make it all the way up. We were soclose. It was the first time I've ever cut a hike short when the end was in sight. However, it was the right thing to do. Let me start from the beginning.

Beauty shot. Dressed to the nines. Yes, those sunglasses were necessary-it was bright out!

After class I headed to Flattop knowing I could be turned back by a steep, slippery, dangerous road. I was actually more concerned about coming back down, though, and I really wanted to go up there so I kind of forced myself not to think about it. I don't have a cell phone right now (long story), so I wrote my mom a note saying "Come get me if I'm not back by 7:00." #planningahead Fortunately, the road was fine. Every square inch seemed to be saturated with gravel so I didn't slip at all. I wish the same could be said about my street.

Normally, I would have worn tennis shoes, but since I just bought stupid shoes, I wanted to test them out.

These look like something the Michelin Man would wear.

My thoughts? Ugh. These things are bulky. And heavy. More like bricks than shoes. Each step felt twice as hard as usual. And I would argue that my traction was actually worse in these than in tennis shoes, mostly because they were too damn big to fit in the niches I would normally use. However. My feet were warm. And dry. It's been a while since I completed a run/hike with warm, dry feet, and that was pretty awesome. I guess I'll keep them. Next time I wear kahtoolas.

Anyway, the views were great, and it was a beautiful day.

I went up those a couple weeks ago!

She loves kicking up snow with her nose.

Things were going great, until they weren't. Bailey's never been to the top of Flattop, but I decided to see if she could handle it. I was thinking it might actually be easier for her with the snow and this seemed true, for the most part. I was slipping a bit, but generally there were enough handholds and the drop was always small enough that I wasn't concerned.

We were literally feet from the top when shit got serious. Suddenly the steep path turned into a steep slide-a steep ice slide, to be exact. Someone had obviously slid down, taking all the powder with them and leaving a death chute in their wake. I could see just how close were were and started to go up when I saw Bailey slipping and realized that with my massive shoes, I was about to run out of places to put my feet. This was a problem.

Now, Bailey was on a leash, so there was never any risk of her falling to her death, and in fact, we wouldn't have fallen far. In all honesty, we probably would have been fine, and had I been alone, I would have sucked it up. But I wasn't alone, and Bailey didn't have enough experience for me to make such a risky choice. Even though it killed me, I turned around. I think this was the right thing to do. And hey, I've been up there literally dozens of times and we got most of the view anyway. What a grownup.

We had gone up the steeper, shorter way, but I wanted to extend our jaunt so we went down the other way.

WALL OF CLOUDS

That is downtown Anchorage. And the Sleeping Lady (you see her?).

Great little hemlock forest

The hike took around two hours, which is a full forty minutes slower than my typical ascent/descent. Snow/brick shoes make everything harder! It felt great to push myself, though, and the weather really was perfect. I've decided I like the mid-20s. A bit nipp(l)y, but very comfortable once you warm up.

As far as running goes, I ran down part of Flattop. Not sure that counts. I'm planning to run between classes tomorrow, though, so there's that. But how can I be expected to run when there are mountains to explore?!

Rowing and Tanks

Workout: 10 minutes on the erg (more like ugh), 30 minutes on stationary bike

Getting to the student gym from the locker room is so high school. The only convenient time for me falls right when cross country kids are heading out to practice, and the hall is crawling with the little bastards. Inevitably, they all (in my mind) go silent and stare at me while giving me a questioning look like "Seriously? You're not practicing with us, are you? The very idea!" Word is, they're pretty hot shit, and I won't argue with that because I don't understand college sports rankings (so many national champions, but champions of what? D3s? Dsmallschools? Didiots?). Needless to say, I'm somewhat intimidated by them despite having probably 5 years on them, or maybe because of it. It's terrifying. I wished I was wearing a sign that said "I'm not running today, but I swear I could if I wanted to!"

Anyway, I erged and biked for 40 minutes before heading off to take a test. It was a completely forgettable and totally average workout.

I rowed for a year and a half in college, a borderline-scarring experience only memorable because a) it introduced me to the concept of regular exercise, and b) the hilarity of playing flip cup in a ridiculous unitard at 4:00 a.m. before heading to a regatta is hard to beat.

This is as happy as it got. Don't be jealous of my photo editing skills.

Anyway, we spent roughly 5-6 months of the year in a room that was seriously called "The Sweatshop" killing ourselves on ergs. It was miserable. My pride kept me from quitting for a year and a half, and after I did, I couldn't even look at an erg.  Five years removed, however, I'm finally okay with it, and actually think it's a pretty good way to work your back and arms, provided you know proper technique. Ten minutes is plenty, though. Baby steps.

The bike was... the bike.......................... sorry, I just fell asleep typing that. I don't know that there is anything quite as boring as a reclining stationary bike... maybe standing in place?

After work I made a shameful purchase. Guys, I love minimalism. I think it's great. It's helped me a lot with my running and 9 times out of 10, I'll choose a thin, unsupportive, light, flexible shoe. However. I have to face reality and accept that Alaska gets snow. Lots of it. If I want to continue going on incredible hikes during winter months, I have to wear real hiking boots. And by real hiking boots, I mean tanks. Seriously. These things are intense.

Tank. Yes, that's a topo map.

They are, however, waterproof, and will allegedly keep my feet warm down to 25 below. I figured it was all or nothing, so instead of buying a kinda-sorta hiking shoe, I just went for it. I will continue to wear my beloved shoes as much as I can (running, shorter hikes), but when I'm going on big winter hikes, I'll wear these guys. I'm pretty sure that if I showed up to another hike in my tennis shoes I was going to get kicked out of my hiking group, or at least seriously mean-girled. Speaking of which, I've got another awesome one planned for this weekend! Stay tuned.

Random Shit Tuesday

Hey, a new shtick: Random Shit Tuesday! It's a blatant ripoff of HRG's Triple Tangent Tuesday, with an obscenity thrown in for good measure. It will likely never be half as interesting as hers, but meh. Here comes mediocrity!

• I need to stop looking at my blog. I think I've inflated my page view numbers by like 100. It's like, I look at my numbers, look at the blog (I dunno why, I'm an idiot, give me a break), look back at my numbers, see that it's omg gone up by one!!!!!!!!, and throw myself a party. Totally rational. Either it's all me, or (gulp), my friends have found it. I think that's highly unlikely but if that is the case, then I'm extremely embarrassed. My friends are not blog-friendly people, for the most part.

• I can't stop listening to this song. I like Mumford & Sons well enough (a lot well enough, actually), but I think it stuck with me because I saw this video by a badass ultrarunner. I guess that, given that "wandering" and "running" are sort of the same thing, and that I'm a hopeless athlete, my equating it with running isn't deep in the slightest. AT LEAST I TRIED. That's as deep as things get around here, folks. Get used to it. I also really like this song. Yes, Mumford & Sons again and yes, I realize Paul Simon did it first, but Jerry Douglas is awesome! I feel like in another life I would be a great dobro player (this is based on the fact that I know what a dobro is). And I think everything mishmashes well in this song. How's that for analysis?

• I got one of those "here's your training plan you didn't ask for!" emails from Runners World (is there no apostrophe in that name? Proper grammar what?), which reminded me: I need a training plan. Soon. It doesn't help that I'm not actually training for anything, and that I'm pretty sure the last real race of the season happened this past weekend.

• I signed up for a group run on Meetup. Everyone familiar with Meetup? The creepy internet dating site masquerading as a totally legit way to meet people with similar interests? Okay, scratch that creepy bit-it's actually pretty cool. I've done a few hikes with a local group via Meetup and all have been smashing successes (even that one time I ended up hiking alone with an older man who wasn't actually a "hiker" so much as a landscape photographer who moved occasionally), so hopefully this will have a similar vibe. I'm a much more confident hiker than runner, however, so I'm a bit nervous. I'm a solo runner out of necessity, but I like running with people. People I know, that is. Otherwise I'm worrying about farting or running too fast or breaking my leg mid-run but continuing to run on it because I'm too embarrassed to admit something's wrong. But hey, we'll see how it goes! Jebus knows I could use some more social interaction.

Shit, mustn't lose audience, need pretty Alaska photos!. Here are some from a hike I did a month ago. We camped in the rain and I was deathly ill for a week. Apart from that, though, it was sick. I get the feeling that photos don't count in the blog world if they aren't taken the day they're posted. Whatever. It was this or nothing.

The most miserable river crossing anyone has experienced EVER, and that's putting it lightly.

Updated to add: So, Meetup meetup didn't happen. Too much shit to do! Soon though.

I thought it was funny that we were entering a forest.

Another rainy day. I'll take it over New York hell/heat/humidity any day.

Back to Powerline

ANOTHER BEAUTIMOUS DAY (yes, that's a Honey Boo Boo reference-I'm all over that show, leave me alone).

Who am I? I'm supposed to be a bitter harpy. Mean Jean. I guess it was just Puke York. Maybe I'm not such a downer after all!

Like I said, today rocked. I pulled out my trusty running shoes (Merrell Pace Gloves, which have largely replaced my beloved but slightly less practical Run Amocs. I'll talk about them some other day. By the way, I'm not trying to sell you Pace Gloves or anything, I just figured you'd wanna know what they look like. Stylish as hell, that's what) and headed over to Powerline.

On Monday and Wednesday I'm finished with work/school at 2:15, so they're good days to head over to Flattop for some more intense, or at least time-consuming, workouts. I wasn't expecting snow since it had all melted down where I live, but I was pleasantly surprised to find a fair amount of the white stuff. It was nice, too, not wet and sticky.

I had a very short-lived "shit" moment where I questioned my decision to wear my Pace Gloves. They're great shoes, but their kryptonite is water, or more specifically, wet rock. Sounds like a huge weakness, but it's actually not been much of an issue, even since I moved back to Alaska. I decided to give it a go and figured if I had any problems, I'd just stop and walk. Fortunately, it was smooth running! Wet rock is the biggest issue; wet everything else seems to be fine.

Oh, you'd like some pictures, you say? Try to contain your jealousy:

I could stare at this for hours. Well, I could if it wasn't mostly blocked by mist. But that's cool too.

I'll give you 1 fake internet dollar if you can spot the moose on the hill. I figured this was as good a turnaround point as any.

I headed out for 2.5 miles before turning back. It felt a lot harder than when I did it last Wednesday, probably because of the snow, and for a the first two miles or so I was struggling. In the end, I powered through, and on the way back I felt much better. I want to say part of my fatigue was due to the fact that it's slightly uphill heading out, but I wouldn't know because MY GARMIN IS A PIECE OF SHIT. Seriously, it's so ridiculously inaccurate when it comes to elevation. I present my evidence:

Last Wednesday's run. On a slightly unrelated note, couldn't Garmin adjust the axes JUST A SMIDGE so all my hard work doesn't look so pathetic?

Today's run.

These two runs WERE DONE ON THE EXACT SAME TRAIL. The only difference is, today I ran farther. Yet somehow I gained 300 fewer feet. Whatever. I don't need big elevation numbers to feel like a badass (yes, I do), I just think that $250 should get you consistent data.

I wanted to keep going, but a little voice started nagging me about not being an asshole and quitting while I was ahead. My goal is 15 miles this week, so I'm going to stick with it, maybe.

My splits, you ask?

197 feet my ass.

You know, slow as usual. But hey, 5 miles is 5 miles is 5 miles.

It was relatively clear when I started running, but the snow started coming down while I ran. The muffled silence of snow falling is so peaceful. It was amazing to run through. By the time I got back to the parking lot, it was pretty hazy.

Hazy. You don't get too many people when the weather's not perfect.

Hey Anchorage! It's down there, I swear.

Again, this run was awesome. It's precisely the reason I missed Alaska so much. And the snow was great on my skeleton! Nice and bouncy (and difficult, much more difficult).

Return of the Jedi (or, alternatively, Snow)

It snowed again! Too cool. First snows are the best (even if they technically aren't first snows). One of my favorite things is walking the dog in the morning, coffee in hand, on snow-covered roads that haven't yet been disturbed by cars/other people. Basically, a Hallmark card.

I obviously had to get outside to enjoy the new snow, so pops and I headed out on a jaunt. Honestly, I had actually wanted to go running, but I can't turn him down when he wants to go hiking! I can go run tomorrow.

Views were pretty awesome, even though we stayed at lower elevation:

Derg!

Weird mist stuff. And trees, lots of trees.

We already saw this, but I figured I'd post it again because it was totally necessary for you to see it slightly more close-up. 

Golden grass! That's Anchorage down below

I can't wait for it to be late enough in the season that those damn bears hibernate so I can go running on these trails without worry. They're nice because they're trails with totally reasonable amounts of elevation gain (we did about 4 miles and gained 750 feet-it really didn't feel like we were ascending much at all), you get a decent view, and the dog doesn't have to be on a leash. Wins all around!

So this past week's running was less than admirable. 10.77 miles. Yep. Hardcore.

• 3.77 miles at/up Flattop, 606' gain, 10:45 avg
• 4.5 miles on Powerline, 436' gain, 9:45 avg (incredible run, btw. Powerline's a gem for running. This was also great because I didn't feel like I was running hard at all yet averaged 9:45. For me, that's like breaking the sound barrier)
• 2.5 miles of intervals on the school treadmill, boring as hell and slightly achy shins. Had to call it at 2.5. 9:45 avg maybe? I dunno, who cares? Bueller?

Surprisingly enough, that pathetic number's more than I thought I had run. I need to work more on consistency. I'm able to get out there during the week, but I've been bad about running on the weekend. That's almost entirely due to the fact that in the battle between mountains and running, mountains almost always win out-a totally first-world problem that should resolve itself once more snow falls and avalanches become a thing. I also need to stop being an asshole and running 3 days in a row. Gradually, Jean, gradually.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to head out for a run on Powerline. I did 4.5 miles there a couple of days after my last post and it was sick. This time I won't have to rush back to my place to study for a calc test, so we'll see how far I make it. One of these days I'm making it to the pass. There, I've said it. It's happening. Time and date TBD.

Goal miles for this week? This is based on nothing, but let's say 15 miles. That follows the 10 percent rule, amirite? Well, almost. It definitely follows the 10-50 percent rule I just made up. If the Jean of 6 months ago knew present Jean's weekly mileage... I shudder to think of it.

Flattop

So, the last three days have been eerily similar. And by eerily I mean "I planned them that way." They played out like this: walk Bailey (dog!!); rake lawn for an hour or two (I swear, raking the lawn is harder than running, and you can quote me on that. I'm pretty sure that were there enough leaves to continuously rake year-round, I'd have a six pack); eat everything in sight, head to Flattop (or, "Mount Flattop," as fat people/tourists call it); cavort the shit out of Mount Flattop with Bailey; other stuff.

You probably think that sounds boring, and you're probably right. You're probably also thinking I sound like a loser. I'd say you're right about that too! But hey, I haven't been back in Alaska that long and I'm desperate to be in the mountains, alone or otherwise. No biggie. And the raking's more a favor to my parents for, you know, housing me and and providing for me while I'm dirt poor.

Anyway, Flattop's pretty nice. Let me demonstrate:

This was yesterday. Hey dad! Yes, that's Flattop-don't make me point out which one.

It looked exactly like this all weekend: perfectly misty, cool, and with a threat of rain (but no actual drops!). Oh yeah, the snow's gone. Bummer.

I go here all the time despite being surrounded by many other mountains because it's almost entirely above tree line and I don't have to be on constant lookout for moose/bears/tourists (wait, that last one's a LIE-this place is crawling with them).

Today's trip was actually a run and not a hike. See, running! What did I say? I still do some of that. Getting a stress fracture was tough and completely derailed my running, but odds are you've had one too and don't want to hear the totally-interesting story about how I wore a boot and swam for six weeks and have spent the past few months getting back into it.

I'm on my way up but have stalled at a pitiful weekly mileage of around 12 miles. Maybe less. I got a little too big for my britches a few weeks ago and decided I should be running 25 miles/week, so that's what I did. Great job, Jean, great job. Double your mileage and add speed/hill work in there all at once, and start running 5 days a week instead of 3. At this rate, you'll be up to marathon distance in like three weeks!

Well, all that did was give me shin splints, which I hadn't experienced since I halfheartedly tried to run track for a week in high school. Shit. I did the smart thing, though, and immediately decreased my mileage. Now I'm running around 3 miles 3-4 times a week and hiking (and raking!) on the other days. It seems to be working out well. The worst part of all this is that my muscles are actually quite strong, and I think I could bust out 10 miles pretty easily (to be clear, 10 Jean miles, so slower than hell), but my skeleton or whatever just isn't feeling it yet. Whatever. Having to limit my mileage in Anchorage is much easier than in New York, since I can just go for a hike somewhere that isn't gross, smelly, and hotter than hell.

So my run. It was really steep. Did you get a good look at that first picture? No? Here's another one:

 IT GETS WORSE. MUCH WORSE.

Steep. I decided I was going to run up it, and actually, I did! Mostly. There were a couple of times where I thought my heart was going to explode so I pretended Bailey needed to stop and sniff something so I could get my breath somewhat under control. According to Garmin, I gained 475 feet in like .6 miles. I'm not great with elevation gain, but I assume that's a lot. It sure as hell felt like it!

I looped around after heading up about a third of the way and on the way down, I got a slight pain in the arch of the foot I injured in May so I stopped, stretched, and walked the rest of the way down. I have a huge issue with downhills, mainly my inability to run them.

Once I hit reasonably flat ground, I started running again. The stats for the run?

Not awful. Don't worry about my totally irrational lap distances. I'm not dumb.

My average moving pace was fine. Once I hit reasonably-flat-but-still-not-really-flat-at-all ground my pace was actually kind of okay, especially given that I wasn't trying that hard.

My aim is to get in 3-4 miles on the treadmill at school tomorrow, but who knows... my hamstrings are pretty beat from three days of Flattop, so mights be they need a break.

Renaissance

In case you missed it, last week on "my house is cooler than your house (subtitle: but actually, I live with my parents so you're cooler than I am)," it snowed. A lot. And it was so awesome.

(footnote: home is Alaska. Anchorage, to be exact)

Except for a brief 6 days last Christmas, I hadn't seen snow since winter '11. I love snow (don't quote me on that four months from now when I'm ripping my hair out because there's TOO MUCH SNOW). Fortunately, I was supposed to go hiking with the group I've been gallivanting around with, so it promised to be a great day. And holy shit, it was.

It started with this:

Hi snow... and mountains... and strange but artsy-fartsy iphone sun effect.

Can't complain about a day like this!

Seriously, insult this-I dare you.

No one had been up here since it had snowed, so it was insanely pristine. Plus, no wind! Rare for this area. Once we hit the pass, a couple of us decided to go up, up, up.

Well, turns out tennis shoes are for dumb assholes who won't admit they are unprepared/unequipped for winter hiking. I was totally fine hiking up to the pass, but once we started the ascent, it became abundantly clear that they weren't going to cut it. I was stubborn, of course, and it took me a while to admit I needed to turn around, but in the end it was the safe choice. Gold star, Jean!

The fact that the view was kickass from all sides made it easier to admit defeat.

I can't stop. It was TOO AWESOME.

Hey, it's me! Just posting this to prove it happened, not because I'm, you know, vain...

We decided that some peak had to be bagged, so we ended up going up something with a gentler slope. It was sick. That's Anchorage down there, by the way.

This was an incredible day, and although I was pretty damn tired when we finished 8 1/2 hours later, my legs felt totally refreshed the next day. Refreshed enough that I headed over to Flattop for some major elevation gain. I'm PISSED I didn't bring a camera for that outing since it was another amazing day, but we'll get plenty of those this winter.

----

On a totally unrelated note, remember that time I lived in New York? Well, that's over. Obviously. And remember that time I signed up for a marathon? Well, that's over too. Only I didn't actually run it. Stress fracture! But these are stories for another day.

I'm hoping to get this blog back up and running (see what I did there?). The way I see it, now that I live here all I have to do is take pictures of my immediate surroundings and post them-you jealous lower-48ers will come flocking in droves, I'm sure.

Tomorrow we talk running!