Break Time

2800 feet of elevation gain in 3 miles.

So I've started two new activities recently. The first is a Bi-Monthly Hike. The first hike was on January 2nd and myself, one of my brothers, one of my brothers-in-law, my future brother-in-law, and one of my sisters hiked up Siphon Draw to the top of FlatIron (not my picture - I forgot my camera).

Um, 3 miles one way, piece of cake, right? I was actually a little disappointed that we weren't going to break into double digit mileage and thought ahead of time, "Well, you can always run another two or three miles when you get home." Well, six hours and after one mile of rock climbing up and one mile of rock climbing down later, I came to the conclusion that maybe mileage isn't everything. I was sore for almost a week.

At the suggestion of my brother-in-law, we will be hiking to the top of Picacho Peak in March.

Future 2009 hikes include Mt. Humphreys, Reavis Ranch, Four Peaks, and Brins Mesa.

The second new activity is cycling. Not necessarily brand new, but new within the past two years. I bought my tri-bike almost three years ago, rode it for a year, then decided that I didn't like riding it as much as what I could be doing instead (i.e., running). Well one of my brothers decided to drag me back into cycling. So we compromised. On Saturdays, we now run 10+ miles and then bike 20+ miles. It's been a lot of fun. He tells me that cycling first, then running would be a different story, but for now, I don't believe him.

Before I forget dear readers, I thought you'd like to know that Liz likes it when I spend at least half of the day walking around the house in my cycling tights. I try and try to go get cleaned up, but she keeps making me food or asking me to stand on chairs and get things down or move this or move that. Gotta please the pregnant one!

And now back to our regularly scheduled news of war, famine, pestilence, and economic hardship (in that company, economic hardship sounds downright pleasant).