500,000 ft challenge – Page 3 – Cartwheels and Cake

A very boring post on math.

1,366.12. That’s the magic number you get when you divide 500,000 by 366. Which is mildly important because 500,000 is the number of feet of elevation I’m trying to gain this year, and 366 is the number of days I have to do it in (thanks Leap Year!).

So, as today is the 62nd day of the year, I’ll multiply 62*1366.12 and that gives us 84,699.44. Happily, my total gain for the year so far is 92,698 ft. That means I’m about 8K ahead of schedule (yay!). It also means I’m less than 8K away from reaching my first 100,000ft. … Continue reading

Some updates!

It’s been a bit of a whirlwind month. We were lucky enough to host one friend for the past three weeks, and two additional friends for a long weekend overlapping that time. Much fun and merriment ensued, along with quite a few outdoor activities.

I was able to sneak in a few solo hikes:

And I ~~dragged~~ brought my friends along a few too:

But not all our fun contributed to our elevation goal:

11,394 feet

Today’s ride bumped me to 11,394 ft of elevation gained on my bike for this week (this week being Monday-Sunday). That’s my second biggest week of elevation gain solely from my bike, the first being Cycle Oregon in 2016 when I did over 28,000ft…

Considering it’s the third full week in January, I’m feeling pretty good about that. Also sore ?I’m definitely feeling sore.

Today we completed the ride that sent us home turned into miserable popsicles just two weeks ago. Many things were the same: it was still windy, (albeit a little less so down low, but more … Continue reading

The 500,000ft challenge

Well. I suppose it’s time to share this year’s challenge. Not that every year needs a challenge. But I like the idea of having something to get me out of the house when it’s either cold, hot, windy, raining, snowing, or really any situation where the couch and my pjs just seem WAY more inviting.

Paul and I talked about our goals for the year, which included some biking (more on that in a moment), hiking (we’d like to do some 13ers and 14ers), skiing, and rock climbing (indoors and out). But how to make a challenge that involves all … Continue reading

Cycling, snow, and tummy aches

I seem to tagging a high number of this new year’s posts as “mishap”, a fact that has not been lost on me out in woods or on the roads. I AM learning from them. But each one is a bit painful.

This last round happened on Saturday.

We had the idea to bike up to Ward (at about 9K ft) via a new route (route 7, to be exact). The steepness was a little gentler than our other two routes, and we could do it as a loop ride. We’d start with 12 gently rolling miles out to Lyons, … Continue reading

Cycling, sunshine, and tummy aches

Apparently it’s Wednesday. I’ve been confused about the day of the week for the past three days. But no matter. It was a beautiful, sunny, and warm (58 degrees!) Wednesday.

Unfortunately, my tummy has been quite unsettled for the past three days. I sort of wonder if all the cold air from the past couple activities has contributed to it’s out-of-sortness. But it was SO nice out, that despite feeling a bit blah, I really wanted to get out.

The deal I made with myself was that I’d go very slow, in order not to suck in so much cold … Continue reading