Fitness Is FUN!

[Frostfire]

14 July 2008
Okay, slacking on my log! On the 13th I went for a short bike-ride, but my ipod shuffle broke ( ) so no music, which equals no motivation for me so I went a grand total of 8 miles.

Today at work was lots of hiking, mostly level ground with some scrambling (and a little climbing, hee, hee . . .).

On a sad note, Sunday is my last day working here at Hueco Tanks and then, after camping for a few days, I'm moving again. *sigh* I hate moving , but it will be good. I'll miss the desert and I'm not looking forward to living thru snow again this winter, but it might be a nice change as well

[gms]

Good luck with your move! What part of Utah are you going to?

[vegcrow]

Eight miles is much better than zero! I rarely ride with headphones, too dangerous. If you want music, sing! That's what I do. Here's some good tunes to sing at the top of your lungs while riding in a pack of non-veggies:

Propaghandi
Nailing Descartes To The Wall/(Liquid) Meat Is Still Murder
I speak outside what is recognized as the border between "reason" and "insanity". But I consider it a measure of my humanity to be written off by the living graves of a billion murdered lives. And I'm not ashamed of my recurring dreams about me and a gun and a different species (hint: starts with "h" and rhymes with "Neuman's") of carnage strewn about the stockyards, the factories and farms. Still I know as well as anyone that it does less good than harm to be this honest with a conscience eased by lies. But you cannot deny that meat is still murder. Dairy is still rape. And I'm still as stupid as anyone, but I know my mistakes. I have recognized one form of oppression, now I recognize the rest. And life's too short to make another's shorter-(animal liberation now!).

APPARENTLY, I’M A “P.C. FASCIST” (BECAUSE I CARE ABOUT BOTH HUMAN AND NON-HUMAN ANIMALS)

Some of my otherwise brilliant and productive friends (like scoundrels and their flags) take final refuge in character assainations; they ignore the issue and deny the relation between our consumption and brutality. So you can go ahead and roll your eyes and marginalize me/socially penalize me: play on my insecurities. And you can feign ignorance, but you’re not stupid, you’re just selfish. And you’re a slave to your impulse. And I kinda thought we all shared common threads in that we gravitated here to challenge the conventions we’ve been fed by a culture that treats (living, breathing, feeling) creatures like (biological) machines. And if you buy that shit then how long ’till it’s me who serves as your commodity? Through (for example), institutionalized violence and opression of workers and women raped by sexism (and how about native americans?). Do you still insist on feigning indignance (aka: indignation) to reason? To collective self-interest? Tell you what- I’ll call you on your shit, PLEASE CALL ME ON MINE. Then we can grow together and make this shit-hole planet better in time. So why not consider someone else: STOP CONSUMING ANIMALS.

[Frostfire]

@gms: I'm moving to good 'ol Salt Lake City. Grad school, here I come! I plan to be there and settled by 1 August.

@vegcrow: great songs - it is not dangerous for me to use headphones because I am the only one on the road

[vegcrow]

The only one on the road? There isn't even wild life? That must get lonely. But I guess if you're riding outside and listening to music it's kinda cool. The one time I used music on a ride I put the headphone in one ear and kinda hung the other one around my ear and then played the music low enough that I could still hear everything around me. Music is a good motivator, but in most of my riding situations it's dangerous. I really wish people on the trails and roads I ride would leave the iPod home and pay attention.

[Frostfire]

Okay, okay vegcrow, you are right! There is wildlife on the roads (mostly bunnies, birds and snakes). And I should be safe out there

[Frostfire]

Phew, internet has been down out here for a few days, but its good to be connected again .

15 July 2008 - Tues
Lots more hiking and climbing at work . Started with another acent of West Mountain, followed by lots of ground-level hiking. After that, climbed around in the afternoon.

16 July 2008 - Wed
GREAT day of climbing at the "Groupie Alert" boulders. Lots of juggy climbs at my grade, and really fun ones, too. Climbed for hours, until all my water was gone and then some . Here's a pic from that day:


Yes, yes I am wearing my "skort", its fun to climb in 'cause it moves with me (I swear, its not just because its fun to wear . . .)

17 July 2008 - Thurs
Climbed at a crimpy area known as "Sign of the Cross". Super hard area for me. Crimpy holds & RA is not a good combination! Overall made my last two days off at Hueco Tanks really fun though .

That evening while I was running errands with my friend I had an hour to kill so went to the gym again, hurray! Did:

Squats
Pull-ups (5, 3, 3 at bodyweight!)
Dumbbell Bench
Clean & Press (with bar)

Kept it light and easy, but a little harder than last week. Pull-ups (palms forward) went really well, all this climbing really has had an effect .

[gms]

Great picture! I tend to forget there is a side to Texas that isn't FLAT

[Frostfire]

I tend to forget there is a side to Texas that isn't FLAT

Ya, this crazy state is so big, I've never been to the flat parts so I tend to think of Texas as being all mountain and desert .

Another photo from that day:

[JohnV]

Thanks for your support.
Enjoy your new scene!

[Frostfire]

Thank YOU JohnV

Just a quick update for my (lack of) training log. I've been out camping and such for the last week with minimal hiking and much more driving (blek). I'll post pics as soon as I can. But tonight, I am back in El Paso loading up my dad's truck to head out in the early morning tomarrow for the long 14 hour drive (Arg!). The lack of training, poorish diet (not bad really, but not great) and being stuck in a vehicle for so long has really got my RA up, but after tomarrow I should be able to settle into a new routine and I CAN'T WAIT!!! See y'all when I'm in Utah

[Mr. Cleetus]

good luck with the move and the new school!

[Frostfire]

Thanks Mr. Cleetus

Made it safe and sound. I already miss El Paso ( ), but I'm settling in nicely. I'll go into Salt Lake City tomarrow and hopefully while I'm running errands on campus, I'll make it to the gym for a workout. I'm also trying to find good places to go climbing around here, but there are some rock climbing gyms and I bet they will have lots of local info. Maybe I'll find one tonight . . .

Okay, some quick pictures from last week, here's me out hiking in the Guadalupe Mountains:


And in front of the entrance to Carlsbad Caverns the next day:


On the drive up yesterday, had a tire blow-out in the middle of no-where northern New Mexico, d'oh. Here's my dad changing it:


Good times!

[gms]

Glad you made it to your new home! I've been to Carlsbad Caverns and loved it. If you have time go out to Timpanogos Cave. I think it is out near Provo. We were driving out to Colorado once and stopped. You'll have about a 1000ft climb We're heading out to the Natural Bridge Cavern in the morning. Did you ever make it out to San Antonio for that?

[Frostfire]

Hi gms, never did make it far enough east to San Antonio, furthest I made it was Midland and Odessa, Texas. I definatly need to climb Mt. Timpanogos in Utah, I passed it driving in to town and it looked amazing!

31 July 2008
Great day, finally some activity! I wanted to time my commute to school so I jumped on my sister's bike (no car right now . . .). It took me 10 minutes to get to the train station. The train was only 1/2 an hour ride to Salt Lake City, then the light rail ride was ~15 minutes. Not a bad commute really for the distance I'm going.

While in SLC, I checked out a rock climbing gym (it was close to a light rail station, wahoo!). I paid a day fee and climbed for a couple of hours. I must say I totally prefer natural "real" rocks to gyms, what an odd experience climbing on plastic in an airconditioned building! After that I went home and the bike ride home was a little shorter (downhill).

Once home, my dad asked if I would mow his lawn, so I did. Took about an hour and was hard work! My back and shoulders are sore from that, and my forearms are all pumped up from climbing. Good times