My Values

Let's start it off slowly, cause it gets pretty dense here soon.

This is how I try to live:

• Brush your teeth (floss implied)
• I feel making this a routine is not only good for oral health, but can be used as a beginning and ending point to your day, symbolizing when it is time to sleep or act.. zen etc..
• Don't eat fast food (donuts)
• Seriously though. There is nothing good about that. Don't want to get hurt? Don't eat fast food/donuts. If you want to be harder than soft, don't eat fast food/donuts
• Don't drink during the week
• The less you drink during the week the better. Don't drink during the week. Hopefully the shit you have to get done on the weekend (aka charging) will require you don't drink one more day during the weekend, as to avoid hangovers. The subtitle to this value is avoid hangovers.
• Eat well
• Plenty  more to be said about this later.
• H2O 
• Half your body weight, in ounces. (1 nalgene = 32 oz, for me 3 bottles takes care of it. Totally doable) Hydrate or die
• Do Yoga
• Strength, balance, stretching, body awareness. Bonus points for Bikram. There is NOTHING bad about yoga.
• Run
• Climb
• Strength, balance, stretching, body awareness. Bonus points for trad/alpine. There is nothing bad about climbing.
• Eat 1 salad/day
• Boom. Veggies, check. Eat it raw, keep it simple, don't put bread on it.

Values, etc.

If you haven't already poked around (read every page start to finish) Killian Jornet's blog,
http://www.summitsofmylife.com/#/home

you should stop, and do so right now. Watch his videos, read his values.

That being said, Killian's list, as well as a feeling of inspiration when I am able to healthily push beyond limits and achieve what I believe to be pretty fantastic [feats]. I got inspired by witnessing firsthand the possibilities when one puts in the work in the right places, and grows physically and mentally. It is very confidence inspiring when the fruits of your labor are present in such an obvious way.

What I am saying is that after a (minor) knee injury in high school, followed by 4 years of some of the most physically demanding activities on the planet, all accompanied by poor nutrition and alcohol and tobacco use, my body - while still physically capable - was ripe for failure. The realities of training for a 50k trail race changed all of that. Living by myself, without training partners to constantly compare oneself to, I had to just make sure that my shit was on lock. I did it all - studied books on nutrition and training, listened to podcasts on nutrition and ultrarunning, worked out before and after running, recovered with sports nutrition products and sauna sessions. Running on trails, up hills. Drinking less. Eating right.

So here we are. This is as much for me as it is for anyone else. I started taking notes in a word document, inspirational things, nutrition information, running stuff. I thought why not just put it up, and add to it as I like?That way anyone can get in on it. I tried to cite it somewhat, if not just to separate it from what I may have just made up...

This is what worked for me. I know everyone is different, and that I must have ok genes and biomechanics, and a somewhat resilient body. I think a lot of it can be generally applied though.  Ok I'll shut up now.

Our National Parks; Words of Wisdom.

(http://www.tower.com/our-national-parks-john-muir-paperback/wapi/101910353)
"When an excursion into the woods is proposed, all sorts of dangers are imagined- snakes, bears, Indians.  Yet it is far safer to wander in God's woods than to travel on black highways or to stay at home.  The snake danger is so slight it is hardly worth mentioning.  Bears are a peaceable people, and mind their own business, instead of going about like the devil seeking whom they may devour.  Poor fellows, they have been poisoned, trapped, and shot at until they have lost confidence in brother man, and it is not now easy to make their acquaintance.  As to Indians, most of them are dead or civilized into useless innocence.  No American wilderness that I know of is so dangerous as a city home "with all the modern improvements."One should go to the woods for safety, if nothing else.  Lewis and Clark, in their famous trip across the continent in 1804-1805, did not lose a single man by Indians or animals, though all the West was then wild."
(21)

"Walk away quietly in any direction and taste the freedom of the mountaineer.  Camp out among the gras and gentians of glacier meadows, in craggy garden nooks full of Nature's darlings.  Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.  Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.  The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.  As age comes on, one source of enjoyment after another is closed, but Nature's sources never fail.  Like a generous host, she offers here brimming cups in endless variety, served in a grand hall, the sky its ceiling, the mountains its walls, decorated with glorious paintings and enlivened with bands of music ever playing.  The petty discomforts that beset the awkward guest, the unskilled camper, are quickly forgotten, while all that is precious remains.  Fears vanish as soon as one is fairly free in the wilderness."
(42)

 

In the end all you got is your accomplishments, and if you can make
them as a leader of honorable men, then that says quite a bit about you... And what could really make you feel better about yourself at the end of the day?

A new day

It's a new day, with new priorities, body and mind

 

and time to get my learn on   

 

one in five

Smiff rock

kara, squeezing juice out of the rock

daniel, providing a strong belay

click twice.

daniel; the belay is on

sore neck after that weekend, such good fun!

observing the good climbing going on

oh what a beautiful moorrrrrnnniiinnnngggg!

cool guy shades, belay status

get it!!

yea! another weekend reiterating the indisputable benefits of being a part of the outdoor recreational community.  winning!