I took a small hiatus from blogging for several reasons. First, I had lower leg injuries and so I had to take a small hiatus from running while things healed up. Second, the new semester is fully underway and I am slammed with school. The first week of the semester wasn't too bad but since I have had about 5 assignments in my high-temperature thermodynamic and kinetic class. This is a great class and I am really enjoying all the lectures and assignments. It is nice to finally have enough background education under my belt to finally see how igneous processes really behave in nature and what actually drives them, so many of my questions are becoming so much clearer now. That being said it is the type of course that requires a good chunk of time to fully understand the concepts. I also am TA'ing again even though I didn't think I was supposed to. It is actually good because I love teaching and we could use the cash but it does take another 7-10 hours a week. I will be spending several days training on the SEM (scanning electron microscope) and next week will be in Vancouver analyzing some experiments. This will be busy for sure this semester I really need to find a balance so I can keep running.
Last week I was still running on bad legs and attempted a go at Mount Doug. I started out and within 3 minutes turned around to go home, but by the time I got home my legs were feeling better so I turned around and ran to Mount Doug. I got to the base of the mountain and my legs said "NO MORE". I tried running home but that didn't work either, so I stopped off at a nearby friends home and called Vye for a lift home. That is the first time I have ever had to do that. I decided to take 5 days to let the legs heal and alas today they felt great so I decided to run Mount Work the 450 meter tall mountain in the picture above (Photo by Daniel Fergusen). Work is a fantastic training ground for the rough terrain trail runner. It has rocks, puddles, elevation and roots. It is my idea of the perfect running terrain. You can really feel the legs being worked on the way up and down and the lungs scream the whole time. It is the type of playground that really improves fitness rapidly and was the exact type of change my running regiment needed.
This was a great run and really reinforced the fact that I am built (or just mentally built) for steep rough terrain and not long boring roads and flat trails. I enjoyed the steep rocky ascent so much that I was sad when I ran out mountain to run up. I must admit I am a little out of hill climbing shape but I aim to remedy this right away. My previous few months have been spent taking it easy on fairly flat and boring runs and perhaps these boring runs have killed some of my motivation, but today as I was cruising down this muddy technical trail I fell in love all over again and I am recommitted to focusing on my trail running even if it means driving to some trails to increase my variability and reduce boredom. I can't think of anything I would like more than running for 24 hours in rough (and more importantly mountainous) terrain. I feel that I excel in the mountains and my strong legs and light (albeit wiry) upper body is a good ratio for handling the grinding climbs and thrashing descents. I am now going to focus more on time spent in rough terrain than distance. I feel when I am worried about distance I shy from the technical stuff because I can't cover as much ground in the same period of time, but now I really don't care, running the mountains is what I am passionate about. If you can't tell by this post I had a marvelous time grinding up Mount Work today. A song came on that I have previously discussed this Spring, but since it lit a fire for me as I started a really technical and rocky portion of trail it seemed to be the theme of today's work out. The song is by IAMX and is the song that the album is named for "Kingdom of Welcome Addiction". This is a great song with strong buildups and a powerful melody and beat that seems to propel me over the rocks and through the ankle deep mud. I highly recommend this album and felt it the best of 2009 like I assumed it would be back in Spring.
I am including an album version of the song and also a little gem I found on youtube. The Secret & Dark acoustic set in Berlin is great but in this version of the song there is a (presumably drunk) fan who gets so carried away in the music that her singing actually overpowers Chris Corner and finally at 4:45 Janine from the band tells the girl to "shut up" after several previous failed polite attempts to quiet the crazed fan. I think this was hilarious to watch. Don't get me wrong, I love people who get into their music, and even I (with my horrible voice) have found myself singing at the top of my voice in various venues, but the point here is to use tact when choosing the volume of your singing at each show. If you are in a large arena or stadium venue, then by all means belt it out, you can't even hear your own voice, but in an intimate acoustic venue perhaps a smaller voice that the band can out-sing is perhaps better than trying to outperform the artists. Just a funny side note to a great song and band -- I wished I could have seen this show live.
2 comments:
It sounds like you are going to have a jam packed next couple of months with school and TA'ing as well, you also have your family, and then running. This songs sounds quite cool, however just an FYI, for some reason I get an error message on your first video (the non-live one) saying: "This video contains content from WMG, who has decided to block it in your country." I love the last video when they tell that girl to shut up. That was QUITE funny i must say. That song I could see running to as well. VERY powerful.
I threw in a new album version since apparently the first one only works for Canadians. Hopefully this one works because the album version is great!
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