Grand Opening!

Day one of my blog. This is intended to be an avenue for me to share my new found love of adventures, including climbing, camping, cycling, training for a marathon and trail running. No telling exactly how it will develop or how often I'll post - you'll just have to stay tuned. Welcome!

In this inaugural post, let me briefly describe my summer.

- Backpacking and Climbing in CO: I spent the last week in May on an awesome trip out to the Rockies, my first trip out west with the Vanderbilt Outdoor Recreation Program. During the week we rock climbed at Lumpy Ridge in Estes Park, Jurassic Park, and on North Table Mountain in Golden. The rock, weather, and climbing were incredible. As a fairly new climber, I learned a lot and experienced many firsts: I climbed my first multipitch route (Left Book at Lumpy), belayed a leader, cleaned an anchor, and even led (an easy but great 9 bolt arete at Jurassic Park). Here I am almost a month later and my fingers are still peeling from all the climbing. Climbing so much was actually not the original plan. The trip was initially more of a mountaineering trip. We camped at Battle Mtn near Long's Peak for 2 nights. After all the snow the Rockies have received, the hike up was surprisingly dry. That all changed the first night though when we received several inches of snow, completely changing the scenery - an awesome sight for this FL boy. We attempted the Key Hole route on Long's the day after the snowfall. We were decked out with ice axes, crampons, harnesses and ropes, helmets, shades and we needed it given the large amount of snow on the mountain and the limited experience of the group. Not everyone needs so much gear though. We encountered one tourist headed for the route solo in his frozen solid blue jeans, cotton socks, and school style back pack. He followed us for awhile since he didn't know the way but soon turned around because we were going too slowly. It was a rescue waiting to happen in my opinion. We did not summit, unfortunately, due to a late start, slow progress, and some altitude sickness with some barfing in the snow. Still, though, being on that mtn was incredible. Right after you pass through the keyhole, you must traverse a very steep slope around the mountain. We chose to rope up. I was the second person to go out and had the privilege of kicking many steps in the deep snow. I tell you, jabbin that ice axe and stomping into several feet of snow is tiring! The view of the surrounding peaks and the gorge below was stunning. All in all the trip was a one of the best experiences I've ever had and certainly the most adventurous. And on top of having fun on the peaks and the crags, I got to hang with my roommate in Pueblo.

-Recent News & Endeavors: Besides the three weddings I am attending this summer, one of which is my sister's, I have hardly been doing anything. My typical day has involved some sort of exercise and a whole lot of internet browsing (mostly pertaining to gear). Much of that browsing has been research into trail running and marathon training. That's right, marathon training. No, I am not really a runner, but go big or go home right? I grew playing football and baseball. In high school I played 4 years of football, 2 years of middle distance track (10/11), 1 year of baseball (9) and 1 year of basketball (12). Since I didn't wind up playing QB for the Gators (stiff competition from Tebow, you know), I took up cycling after graduation. I've raced around the southeast for two seasons with the Vanderbilt University Cycling Club with some mild success. Recently, though I've just had the desire to get back to the simplicity of running, so I am. The marathon idea was put into my head by a college buddy though. So here goes. I started running regularly the first week of May and am following a generic plan by Hal Higdon. The marathon is the annual Harpeth Hills Flying Monkey Marathon in Nashville. The 26.2 is based entirely in the beautiful Percy Warner Park, which is an awesome ride on a bike, and will make for a great race. Oh yeah, it is very hilly - 3500ft of elevation change. In fact the website used to openly state that this would not be a good first marathon. Oh well, I won't be the first. I'm really more interested in trail running though, so in my training and after the marathon I will be running the trails.

The plan:

-do the Higdon plan with some modification

-run the 11mi StumpJump in Chattanooga, TN - Oct. 4

-run the Monkey Marathon - Nov. 23

-run the trails

-maybe run Mountain Mist 50k in Huntsville, AL - Jan. 24

So far:

- 73.6 mi

- New Shoes: Asics GT2130 for the road & Brooks Cascadia 3 for the trails

Sorry for the long post. I will try to update this regularly with my running progress, other adventures, and shoe reviews.