Podcasts

Nothing exciting has been happening around here lately. I can't seem to hurt myself, or find any other interesting blog content. So I decided that I would tell you about some of the Podcasts I have been listening to. Stuff You Should Know is one I recently discovered. It is recorded by howstuffworks.com. It is just two researchers that pick a topic, research it, and then do a radio type show about it. They have covered everything from exorcism to underground cities. You may not be an expert on any one topic they cover after listening, but you would probably be able to hold up your end of a conversation about it. I really enjoyed episode that they did on OCD. If the shoe fits............ Another Podcast I enjoy is also put on by howstuffworks.com. It is called Stuff You Missed in History Class. The two hosts pick a topic from history, do the research, and then report back. I have enjoyed learning about history from all over the world. Some of it has been pretty obscure, but interesting regardless. My favorite Podcast is still The Dirt Bag Diaries. It is an outdoors Podcast. It is sponsored by Patagonia. If you are interested in listening I highly recommend Steve Bohrer's episode. I have a link in an earlier post on this blog. When I am bummed because I haven't been running, climbing, or just outside in a while I listen to it and it puts things back into perspective.

Climbing

Last Thursday Ryan, our friend Allison, and I all had the afternoon off so we went climbing on Mount Lemmon. This is Allison leading Party Pooters and Ryan on the belay. I had to tilt the camera slightly to get them both in the frame so tilt your head 45 degrees to your left .

Here is Ryan top roping an unnamed in the guide book 5.10 that shares anchors with Party Pooters. This is the hike out of the last place we climbed. It really is steep.

Good Ideas

Yesterday while Amy and I were trail running we came across this guy. Amy ran right by his head. Fortunately he was to cold to strike. I got a stick and moved him off the trail. I have decided that having Amy run in front of me is one of my better ideas. Now if I can just figure out how to get her to carry my water.

Your Advice is Needed

http://www.javelinajundred.com/page.php?12 Please visit the above website and either talk me into it, or out of it. I'm not sure which I want. The voices are giving conflicting opinions.

Preliminary Review

I thought I would show my Forerunner 305 next to my Polar RS100 and a Timex Ironman watch for size comparison. I don't think that the picture shows how much bigger the Garmin is. It is quite a bit thicker and the watch actually comes down on the inside of my wrist. I have used on about 6 or 7 runs now and can give a preliminary review. So far the things I don't like about it are size (it needs to be that big unfortunately), and when set up for 4 fields on the screen it doesn't show heart rate or the battery meter. I really had to look for things that I could consider negatives. The things I like about it are being able to have ET, pace, distance, and time of day (for those times when I need to be somewhere at a certain time) all on the screen at the same time. I like the ease of use. It makes sense how the menus are set up, and ask anyone who knows me I really struggle with that type of thing. I haven't used some of the advanced features yet, but the manual is simple to follow. Having the GPS is my favorite part. It only takes about 30 seconds to find the satellites. Much faster than my handheld. It has not lost contact even on a cloudy day. I have not tested it in a wooded area or canyon yet. I had been using a mapping program on the web to determine the distance of my runs. It turns out that what I thought was a 4.1 mile run is actually a 4.46 mile run. I was always disappointed with my pace, but just buying and using the Garmin made me over a minute faster per mile because I was being short changed on distance. I wish all gear purchases could make me better like that. The Garmin shows that I burn more calories than the Polar did. I think this is a non issue because it is just a number, and I know that I eat to much. In short this is my second favorite piece of running gear. My first is still my Cascadias, and yes that is them in the background.

Steve Bohrer

Meet my friend Steve. Twenty years ago Steve and I would have been called pen pals. With all of the modern technologies we have now I feel like I know Steve personally. I first found Steve through his podcast that was featured on The Dirt Bag Diaries.

http://media.libsyn.com/media/thedirtbag/The_Shorts_--_Balance.mp3

The Dirt Bag Diaries is sponsored by Patagonia and is a great podcast for outdoor minded folks. While listening to Steve's podcast my first thought was "This guy is me", and my second was "he is definitely a member of the church". I decided to try to contact Steve and tell him how much I enjoyed his podcast. I e-mailed Fitz Cahall who is the host of the Dirt Bag Diaries and he put me in touch with Steve. Steve made the mistake of contacting me and is now stuck being my friend.

Steve lives in Idaho Falls and works for the Department of Energy as a radio chemist. He has a bachelors from Utah State in Soil and Water Science and a masters in Soil Science. See another intelligent friend. I must be smart if you judge me by my friends.

Steve is a trail runner, climber, skier, hiker, backpacker, mountain biker, and gear connoisseur. Connoisseur sounds much nicer than junkie. I am convinced that we are twins separated at birth. I always knew I was adopted. Steve is modest and claims that he "is just out there to have a grand experience". I have a feeling that this is an understatement seeing as how he won the men's division of the Vaquero Loco 25k trail race. Leaving his nearest competition cramping on the side of the trail.

Steve does all of this and is still a wonderful dad to his six kids. He takes them on adventures that they will remember forever. This weekend he took them on a ski hut tour trip. He takes them climbing at the City of Rocks, backpacking, digs snow caves, slacklines with them.............boy am I jealous.

Readership

Is anyone still reading this blog?

New Toy

I have been running with a Polar RS 100 heart rate monitor for over three years now. It has been threatening to die for about a year. The screen would occasionally go blank, it would loose whole days, and sometimes it would say I was dead. I really did like it, but to fix it was going to be a minimum of $50. It retails for $100 new so I just couldn't see putting the money into it. Not to mention that I wanted a Garmin Forerunner 305.

All of the Forerunners have been extremely expensive since they came out, and by the time the model was old enough that I could afford one it would be outdated. The 305 has all of the features that the new 405 has without the glitchy bells and whistles. The 305 is well tested, and the best part is that I was able to find one for a third of retail. It is just a little clunky looking compared to the 405.

I spent several hours this past weekend reading the manual........ twice. I have a fair handle on it now. It has some functions that I probably won't use, but I may change my mind in the future. I mainly wanted it for the GPS function. It will help me keep my training log more complete with exact mileage and pace.

So far it does exactly what I want it to do, it is easy to use, and after a few minutes I forgot about wearing a VCR on my wrist. It really is big. As I get better at using it I will post a full review.