We should be packing...

Instead we are enjoying Mango Margaritas courtesy of our fancy new concoction maker!  This sweet new set-up is an early wedding gift from our friends Pat and Jen - thank you! This sucker can crank out a pitcher of frozen drinks in about 10 seconds flat, it is pretty impressive.  Did we mention that it runs on an 18 volt battery?  That's right, we have a blender that is higher voltage than our power drill.  Look for its party debut in <2 weeks.

On another note, Melissa has acquired a new bag of coffee beans.  Matt works with someone who roasts his own beans weekly.  Nothing better than enjoying an amazingly fresh cup of coffee every morning.


Now that we have a couple cocktails in us maybe will will start to pack.  Probably not...

Weather in the Tetons

For those of you coming to our wedding and wondering what the weather has been like in the Tetons lately:

http://www.tetonat.com/2010/06/when-the-clouds-part/#more-13128

Needless to say, weather conditions may interfere with our plans to climb the Grand while in town...

Ode to Mud and Horse Poo

First I need to say that I love the idea of multi-use trails.  I think it is great that we have trail systems that hikers/bikers/horses/ORVs can use, but I have to admit - I am not particularly fond of sharing the trail with horses.  It isn't the people or the animals, rather it is the condition they leave the trail in and the large quantities of poop that are left behind.


Let me share... this past Saturday the sun appeared for the first time in 2 weeks,  it was glorious.  Given the lovely weather Matt and I loaded our bikes and headed to our local trail system (Capital Forest).  We departed in the same direction, me on foot and Matt on bike to complete 80 minutes of our respective activity.  Upon completion of that we meet at the car and I acquired my bike to join in the fun.  Not so fun... After 80 minuets of running hilly, muddy, poop encrusted trails my legs had a HARD time making the transition to biking.  None the less I didn't want to be a weenie and give up, so after a couple of miles when Matt asked what I wanted to do I quickly said "lets keep going".  About a mile later I ate my words.  The trails were in AWFUL shape.  I wasn't having fun.  Why do I want to spend my Saturday afternoon peddling through mud that is so deep your foot gets swallowed on the down stroke?  No thank you, not me!  Back to the car we went.  All in all it was a good day, I had a great run and the mud and poop factor wasn't too awful.  The other trail we took for the later bike ride, well, it was bad...


Onto Sunday.  Given my new training schedule I am supposed to do back to back long runs over the weekend.  Sunday also happens to be a running day for Matt, so we head back to the trails.  The difference was that sun wasn't out, not even close.  It has been dumping rain since early Sunday morning.   Driving to the trail head we noticed signs for a "Spring Ride", uh oh, this might be bad.  Drive a bit further and we start to see a lot of large trucks and horse trailers drive by us.  "Well at least the ride appears to be done".  We get to the trail head, lace up the shoes and head out. 


Within 10m we are greeted by giant steaming piles of poo.  This in and of itself isn't so bad, however, when you mix it with the terrible, awful rutting of the trails, well, it makes passage a bit more tricky.  I ran for 25 minuets before I gave up and headed back to the car.  The trail was in such horrible condition that it made it difficult to run for more that 10m at at time.  The horses do a number on the trail, words cannot even begin to paint a picture of what the conditions were, but I will try. 


Picture running in a lovely, hilly area where you are pretty sure you shoe is going to get sucked off and lost forever is giant holes of a watery mud/poo mix.  If you accidental miscalculate your step and land in the aforementioned mix it comes up past your ankle and leaves you struggling to continue your forward movement.  To add insult to injury not only are you aiming to avoid the mud pits, you have to dance around the poo as well.  Sometimes this leave you with the decision on which you would rather go though, poo or mud.  Really it doesn't matter, you know the mud mix has some poo waiting for you in it...


There you have it, the reason for my current horse frustration.  All the people I have come across that have been on horses are very nice and I have no ill will towards them.  I just wonder if they realize how much damage their pastime is causing?  Maybe waiting until the trails are a bit drier would allow all users to enjoy the area more?  That being said, I realize that each user group is going to have a different set of complaints.  I suppose I should just suck it up and be happy that I have such a great resource so close to home!

Couch to 50K Plan

When I  moved west I was very excited about the trail running/ultra community that is present in Olympia.  There are a ton of great trails minuets from our house, for both running and mtn. biking.  We also have an abundance of options if you want to run an ultra.   I have yet run one, however, I have it in my head that I REALLY want to do one.

That being said I (Mel) have signed-up for the Cle Elum Ridge Run 50K on September 18th.  The course should prove to be challenging, there is 6000' of elevation gain.  My current running status can be summed up in two words - couch potato.  Meaning I have 3.5 months to go from 0-50k.   For anyone interested this is my training plan:

50K Training Schedule
Week Of	Week	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Miles
21-Jun	1 CD	0	2	2	2	0	8	6	20
28-Jun	2 CD	0	2	2	4	0	10	6	24
5-Jul	3 CD	0	2	2	4	0	12	8	28
12-Jul	4	0	2	4	6	0	14	8	34
19-Jul	5	0	4	4	6	0	16	10	40
26-Jul	6	0	4	6	6	0	18	10	44
2-Aug	7	0	4	6	8	0	20	10	48
9-Aug	8 CD	0	4	8	6	0	10	8	36
16-Aug	9	0	4	8	8	0	22	10	52
23-Aug	10	0	4	10	8	0	22	10	54
30-Aug	11	0	4	10	8	0	24	10	56
6-Sep	12 CD	0	4	10	6	0	10	8	38
13-Sep	13	4	3	2	0	0	50K ultra	0	55

As you can see I will be taking Monday and Friday's off while doing longer back-to-back runs over the weekend.   I have a history of getting stress fractures when increasing my mileage during road runs,  my hope is that doing all the long runs on trails will allow me to train injury free for this event.

Goal: To train for and finish the race injury free

Happy Birthday!!

Today is a big day, my best friend and her husband welcomed their first child into the world.  I cannot wait to meet her.

Wedding planning

Kudos to all the folks out there who have planned and executed big fancy weddings, I honestly don't know how you did it.  We are currently in the midst of taking care of final planning and preparation for our upcoming wedding (read: we are finally planning our wedding).  For most people this entails flowers, food and the like.  For us - it is all about the equipment.  Getting married may be the reason we are going to the Tetons, however,we have some big plans for outdoor adventures while we are there.  Below is a tentative list of things we need to pack for the wedding:

1. Wedding dress
2. Suite and tie
3. Keg of beer and cider
4. Puffy jacket - if you are coming you may want to bring yours as well
5. Rain gear
6. Tent * 2
7. Sleeping pads
8. Awesome 20 degree Feathered Friends down sleeping bags and geoducks
1. I love my geoduck, it is the most luxurious outdoor item I own.
9. Cookset
10. Touring bike * 2
11. Panniers
12. Mountain Bike * 2
13. White water kayak and accessories
14. Fishing stuff
15. 70 m rope
16. Ice axe and crampons 
17. Helmet
18. Rack
19. Harness
20. Shoes (climbing, approach, sandals)
21. Guide book(s) and maps
22. Large volume backpack
23. Day pack
24. Skis (weather dependent)

There you have it, this is most of what we intend to cram into our car for the drive to the Tetons.