the eternal student "¥

Sawtooth Relay 2009 - 62 miles!

Back in January I started training for the Sawtooth Relay, a 62 mile race with 6 man teams. The race is an incredibly scenic run from Stanley to Ketchum Idaho. We camped out at Sheep Trail campground amidst wet weather for most of the weekend, but it didn't stop the fun. I got to run legs 6 (Galena Summit) and leg 12 ( the finishing leg). Galena Summit nearly killed me as it is a 1400ft elevation rise over 5.35miles and in the freezing rain. I nearly broke down with a half mile to go but forced myself to keep going. Keep in mind this is at just over 8,000ft elevation so oxygen is a bit tight as well. I managed to do it in 53minutes, just under a 10 minute/mile. Not bad for an uphill freezing battle.
My last leg was the last leg of the race. I managed to do the 2.6miles in 18 minutes, just under the 7minute/mile pace I wanted to break back in January. At the end was a great party with grilled trout, beer, sausage, and strawberry shortcake.

Our team managed to finish in just under 9 hours. It was an awesome experience and I loved the competition. I can see why people run 5Ks and such. From what I've seen, runners have such great attitudes and mental clarity. Who wants to run next year?

And a great side bonus is that Lynn has now worked up to running 3 miles! I never thought I'd see the day when Lynn actually chose to run. She's getting ready for the Williamson 5K and is going to smoke her family.

Camping at Silver Creek Plunge

The first camping trip of 2009 was with Jeff and Ashley Larson at Silver Creek Plunge near Crouch Idaho. Definitely a place we will return to. Plenty of good camping spots on Silver Creek, beautiful country, and a hot springs if needed. I got a nice run in on Peace Creek Trail in preparation for the Sawtooth Relay this weekend.

Camping in a tent worked out great with the four boys. Check out our camping setup in the Flickr picture set.

Thanks Larsons!

I never thought I'd run this far.

The Sawtooth Relay is just two weeks away. As a final prep for the Relay, I ran 10.7 miles tonight with Zack and Ethan. Thanks to a 3hr nap this afternoon I did it in 109 minutes which is just over a 10minute per mile pace. I had never run over 5miles before and didn't know what to expect. I'm pretty happy with how I felt mentally and physically, although I will definitely need Tylenol tonight for my knees. I love how much of a mental challenge running is for the will. Most bodies can handle running, it's the willpower to start/keep doing that fails us. I don't see a full marathon in my future, but who knows? I never planned on running over 5 miles 6months ago.

Perkins Men

I was so ready to get out hiking for the first time this summer that I took the 4 boys by myself. Lynn had the day off helping Dani at a wedding. Rob (http://www.adventureiq.com) at our church was introducing people into geocaching. He had hidden a bunch of stuff near Idaho CIty and we had to go find it. We managed to find a few items before the boys got tired.
After geocaching we went for a naked swim in Mores Creek. I love Idaho because you can pretty much go to anybody of water and swim in it with no one harassing you or being worried about private property.

Balancing jars

Ahhh, with growing season right around the corner, I'm already thinkgin about what to can this year.

Whoever replaced my wife, I thank you.

Lynn was up at 6:30am today to go running. If you know Lynn, then you know that this is highly abnormal. But she chose to do this! This is the girl who can sleep 11 hours at a time, and then add 3 more hours to that after a quick bite to eat. She's looking better than she has in years and has been given a new discipline for eating and exercise. What's best is that it hasn't come from any annoying nagging or manipulation on my part. It's a free gift for Andy. It's all of her own will and from asking God for some divine intervention into discipline habits. I believe The Biggest Loser has also been a motivation for her. She can't stop crying during that show.
Surround yourself with the right people, church, humility, and big changes can happen.

Tubing at Bogus Basin

Good times tubing at Bogus Basin thanks to Aunt Donna. I can't believe the boys are already doing this kind of stuff!

Also see the pictures on flickr.

Juice Fast - Day 7 is the end

I've reached the last day of my juice fast and I have mixed feelings. I'm excited about eating again -especially good fried rice from Chiang Mai Thai- but am really enjoy the clean feeling I have. Here are some highlights I"ve had from my juicing experience.

-Nothing compares to fresh juice- either citrus or vegetable. Why is high fructose corn syurp in bottled juice again? We have now started making our own apple juice for the boys. Not that we won't buy sotre juice every once in a while, but it really isn't that much harder or expensive to make our own if you can find apples by the bushel at a good fruit stand.

-Discovered you can juice almost anything. As long as you have carrots, apples, grapefruit, or oranges as a base it should taste good. 1/4 lemon will balance any greens you may add.

-Centrifugal juicers are good if you want to juice occasionally and don't care about pulp content or maximaizng the amount of juice you get. We tried our neighbor's Hamilton Beach dollar ($40) just to see what juicing was like.

-The Champion masticating juicer is by easy to clean, easy to repair, and very versatile. Our's came from Craigslist with the grain mill attachment for $110. Now we can make juices, sorbets, baby food, grind coffee, make flour, you name it.

-Juicing fits my lifestyle. I love the idea of getting a crammed pack glass full of vitamins, antioxidants, minerals, and all source of other stuff you can't buy in a vitamin. It's cheap tasty and makes an easy lunch for me. Eating for me is an agony sometimes because I don't know what I want. With juice, I just throw everything in and I"ve got a great meal with minimal prep work or cleanup. I feel less guilty about eating junk food now because I know I can balance with a 3 day juice fast to clean out the toxins every 2 months or so. At the same time, I'm not as tempted by junk food.

-The spiritual side of the juice fast was difficult for me. I'M not as disciplined nor have a desire for the Bible as I want to. Hmm, does that sentence make sense? I definitely talked with God more and made a deliberate effort to invite the Spirit into my life and make changes. I made appeals for more meaningful relationships with my family, owning the house in 10 years for peace of mind and as a ministry base, and a vision for how to integrate engineering and the Gospel in a new way not seen before. I think a fast longer than 7 days would really bring me to new spiritual places. I didn't find the 7 day juice fast to be discomforting enough to take me out of my physical comfort zone and rely fully on God and comfort from the Spirit. Even as I write this, I'm still yearning for more direct evidence of the Spirit in my life.

-My normal weight is 150 lbs. Over the holidays I went up to 158 lbs. The first day two days of the fast I lost those 8 lbs. The rest of the days my weight would go from 145lbs in the morning to 150 in the evening. I believe I lost about 2-4 lbs the first time I did an enema on day 5.

-The fridge piles up with leftovers when I"m juicing. I'm a scavenger and clean up what the boys leave behind and Lynn won't eat. It hurt my heart to see food just sitting there.