Where did the time go?!?

So, long time, no blog updates ... but its almost showtime now for the big Primal Quest adventure race in Montana , so I wanted to put out a quick update.

The past several months have been more than busy for me. In addition to the "normal" stuff, I've been very focused on training for this race. Its big time - no room to slack off here - 500 miles, 100,000 feet of vertical gain, in 10 days or less. We'll be hiking/trekking, mountain biking, kayaking, rock climbing, rappelling, riverboarding - and trying to keep a decent balance of nutrition, hydration, sleep (which will likely be minimal), and of course safety. I've been doing a lot of the training with a pack that's weighted down, filled with whatever I could find that adds weight. Although I've gotten some strange looks, my friends have all been kind enough to go along with my crazy adventures. I've also been doing a lot of core work, "extras" as my coach, Lisa, refers to them. Definitely think that they have helped my overall fitness and highly recommend it!

So, a few weeks ago, I went up to Montana with Mike for a long weekend to see what the area is like. OMG - one of the most beautiful places I've ever been!! Seriously! Although I didn't get a lot of good pictures, here's a view that's pretty common:


While we were there, we went kayaking on the Yellowstone river. The scenery was spectacular in the area known as Paradise Valley - very appropriate name, except for one little thing that we encountered on the river. Ok, so it was about a billion little things. There were flies that were literally so thick that it was like a blizzard, except with flies instead of snow. They started to get "thick" about 30 minutes into the paddle, so much that I forced a stop to go and beg for bug spray at an RV park. Unfortunately, the bug spray did ZERO to deter the flies ... so, I begged to borrow a pair of pants that Mike had in his pack. To top it off, not only was I completely covered with bugs, they were mating all over the place. I about lost it when a mating pair landed on the lens of my sunglasses! To help with the visual and to show that I'm not exaggerating, here's the view of the flies in the back of the boat with Mike.

...and another view just of the bugs in the boat:


So, despite that little annoyance, it was just absolutely fantastic - did some great hiking, biking, and found some great local places to hang out and eat.

Since the race starts a week from Monday, I'm starting to taper a bit in my training and am now really focused on making sure that I have all my gear in place. Last night I tried on the gear that I will wear for riverboarding. (btw - riverboarding is kind of like going down a river w/rapids with a boogie board, except the riverboard is more substantial and has handles). The water in the rivers in Montana is going to be CHILLY! They're recommending a 5mm or 7mm wetsuit! Although I don't have that, here's my setup for riverboarding, in order of putting things on: shorts & shirt, knee & shin pads (the kind you wear for downhill bike racing), elbow pads, farmer john 3mm wetsuit, 3 layers of neoprene booties, dry pants with a latex seal at the ankles, insulated semi-dry top (no latex seal on the neck which would make me claustrophobic), neoprene hat, helmet, thick neoprene gloves - oh yeah, and fins over my neoprene booties. I would have taken a picture for the blog, but I couldn't stand to be in all that gear in my warm house for very long ... and I felt so much like the Pillsbury dough boy (or girl), except it was worse because its hard to walk in fins!!

...More updates to come before the race. :-)