Here’s a break from traditional posting:
I love photography, especially lightning shots. But lightning photos are so hard to do right. Getting a flash in a frame is not the hard part, the hardest part for me is focusing your lens the right distance. In this case I think I had it right but I must have touched the focus ring sometime before the second photo. Both are actually kind of cool as photos go, but they could have been better.
This was the first one: not spectacular, but how often do you see a glowing cloud? Notice that the focus is decent in the first photo.

the second one had potential, but was fouled up by human error…

As for training: maybe a power skate workout tomorrow with Topher and Pat?

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The training group ran part of the Taconic Crest trail today. Unfortunately I forgot my GPS so I don’t have a cool map but I did get a few good photos from the ridge above route 2. (+1 from my 2.5 hour bike on tuesday.)

I really struggled today probably because I didn’t eat enough. I ate a bar beforehand and then was starving by the end of the run. I have weird metabolism lately though–I can be completely full at the end of a meal, but be searching for food two hours later. This is especially troubling at work, where there is not always healthy food around every two hours. (by the way, designing this website is what’s been keeping me busy. It’s also going to pay for new skis)
Love Justin Freeman’s new post…hilarious.

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As promised.

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An overcast day in Lanesboro turned into a foggy, rainy assault on Mt. Greylock today. The 3 10:00 minute level 3 intervals we planned were made pretty intense by the rain. Topher, Pat, my brother and I along with some others toughed out the epic conditions and summitted in well under an hour and a half. The intervals felt really good even though Topher pulled away in the last few meters of the last interval. Intervals like that that are with people always give me the hunger to race and remind me why Im in this sport. Pictures of the summit will be online tomorrow.

-Ian from WordPress for iPod

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I find it sad (and I think you will too) that it’s the summer after my senior year in high school and I can’t find time to sit down and write (or post pictures.) So I’ll start with some pics. On June 13 during reunion weekend I had been working for about two weeks at the college preparing for reunion, but I hadn’t seen any of what was actually going on. So I took a run around Williamstown to check out the festivities. I got some cool pictures of the area at dusk. The last three pictures happened on the way back from a run/rollerski in the rain, when we saw a gigantic rainbow right above us on the road.

Pretty cool. The other thing that kept me busy was taking pictures of fireworks and sparklers which are pretty sweet too.

Hopefully now that I’m past Reunion I can work on my real jobs: doing some web work for williams, listening to chill summer music, skiing, and taking sweet pics.

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One thing we do every summer with the training group is benchmark ourselves. Every first week of training includes a medals testing routine, usually involving situps, pushups, box jumps, and pullups. Today I worked till 4:30 and then headed over to Topher’s house with my Fluid recovery drink in one bottle and water in another. We started out fairly easy, with a :40 minute run, then moved into the testing.

Testing runs in a specific way for all the exercises: do as many as you can for one minute, then rest for one, then do as many as you can for another minute. This way both raw body strength (mostly the first timed amount) and endurance (the closer your two numbers are, the better) can be measured. I was happy with most of my exercises, save one…because I’ve never been good at push ups.

I did not have the most situps, but I was okay with that since the guys who were beating me were like eighth and ninth graders with short torsos and no weight on their arms…:) no offense to them. However my situps were the most consistent (I can’t remember but i might have had a difference of 7: 48-41 i think?) We’ll find out in Matt’s next email to the group.

Pushups were also more consistent than most of the group even though I didn’t have the highest total.

What I really love are box jumps. My personal best is 73 in one minute, so my goal was coming relatively close to that for both minutes today. I had 61 and 64 consecutively even though I tripped and had to stop a couple times because we were doing them on tree trunks instead of boxes. I was happy that I was able to get more the second time because that shows my endurance is still in excellent shape after not doing intervals in a while.

Pullups were fairly good as well. I think I got 4 and 2 at the beginning of last year which was just pathetic so being able to hit 7 and 3 was a whole lot more reassuring. Not at all where I want to be for arm strength, but showing signs of hope.

I’m really looking forward to the 1k uphill double pole time trial so I can compare last year’s times. I feel like there’s a void in my life from not skiing, so getting out on rollerskis consistently again will make me happy.

I have been looking at FasterSkier’s rollerski reviews and they could not have come at a more opportune time for my buying convenience. Here’s what I plan on buying: The Pro-Ski Roadline Tech. They’re reviewed on FasterSkier here: http://fasterskier.com/2009/06/pro-ski-roller-ski-reviews/ and there is a FasterSkier YouTube review video available here.

I also am planning to buy a new set of wheels for the Ski Sketts since they are quite good skis, but the wheels aren’t quite the speed I’m looking for.

I’ll post when the new stuff is all ordered.
Ian

PS: Here’s a link to yesterday’s run: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/6949792

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Went rollerskiing yesterday for the first time. Did 28 double pole 30-30 intervals up Petersburg pass. Felt good but heart rate was low. (Yeah its not MotionBased anymore…it’s Garmin Connect) Maybe it’s because of the fast skis. I need to drag those things through dirt for a couple of hours… just kidding.

But seriously I need slower ones. I’m waiting for all the rollerski reviews to come out on Fasterskier.com then possibly selling mine to a deserving junior skier and getting nice new ones for the first time ever. Stay tuned.

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I couldn’t restrain myself; when I saw the road yesterday I just had to climb Mt. Greylock on my bike. It was so worth it. I regret to say that this is only the second time I’ve ascended the roughly 2500 ft. from the reservoir to the summit, but that’s because I got into cycling a little late and the road has been under construction for three years. The views were excellent and I even got a glimpse at my distant beloved white mountains. Check out some low quality pictures.

Here is a long overdue portion of the blog, a MotionBased link:
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/invitation/dashboard.mb?episodePk.pkValue=8340981

the reservoir

beautiful houses near the entrance to MtG State Park

the hopper valley

the summit from fitch overlook

adams

they say that Mt. Greylock is 9ft short of being considered an “official” mountain by USGS. i think the tower makes up for that though. it still is the highest point in massachusetts

they also say you used to be able to see Boston from here until there was just too much smog. you actually can see the white mtns though, if you look the right way

the famous Mt. Greylock tower. I once climbed up to the light room, when i was in about 6th grade, and i was the highest person on land in massachusetts!

Thanks for viewing!

Ian

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I wasn’t planning on it, but after running easy for about half an hour on the track yesterday at Weston Field I decided to get the 3000m test over with. While it disappointed me that my time was 11:45, I reminded myself that I am not, nor will I ever be, a runner and moved on.

Today I think I’ll take a long bike ride and move on from yesterday’s pain. I heard a rumor the other day that Mt. Greylock was open again so yesterday I took a trip a short ways up Notch Rd. and discovered that the rumor was true! After 3+ years of construction here is the final result:

A random thought: during bike season someone pointed out how they thought my calves were enormous and I had a sudden epiphany that I’m a perfect victim for compartment syndrome: a nordic skier with big calves and bad foot circulation. Lets hope that I am wrong.

Another cool photo: http://nezzysblogski.blogspot.com/2009/05/supertour-sprint-finals.html

later guys
Ian

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