The light is so good in the morning.....
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Mt Hood, May 21st 2005
We left Timberline Lodge at precisely 1:00 AM. The cold night air and the eager pace set me on the course for an asthma attack about 15 minutes after leaving the lodge. My chest felt like I had an elephant on it and my heart rate monitor was spiked at 175 even though I was not even moving! Then I had the sinking feeling that I had let my wife borrow my inhaler (she has asthma too) on one of our last trips. My fears were soon realized and I just powered through and tried to adjust my breathing. I am glad I did not turn around because the weather opened up revealing a beautiful star filled night and a nearly full moon to light the way. Except for a brisk wind that always seems to be in the mountains, conditions were perfect! Eventually the combination of slowing my pace and heavy pressure breathing relieved most of my asthma symptoms. At the top of Palmer the time read 4 am. 3 hours to go 3500 feet. Back in my prime I got to the summit in 3 hours so my conditioning is definitely still not up to what I would like. I realized at that point that I was falling way behind the rest of my party because my pack was starting to feel heavy (I was carrying extra clothes for everyone, 1 gallon of water, extra food, a bivy shelter, etc.) and my conditioning was not allowing me to keep up to the pace. I set my pack down and marked it with some wands and then set out with only 1 litter of water, my crampons stuffed in my coat and my ice axe. I quickly gained speed and just below the hogs back I caught up to and passed some members of my party. It was about that time we started getting reports from fellow climbers who were descending that conditions on the upper mountain were “sketchy” Indeed on the slope up to the hogs back the loose snow was suddenly very deep. You could not even probe you ice axe down to the last layer of ice. The angle of this slope was not too steep so we were not concerned about avalanche danger but the upper mountain (Hogsback and Pearly Gates) looked “sketchy” indeed as they were loaded up with tons of snow and their was at least 1 fracture line from a slab avalanche. After watching a brave climbing party get up the bergschund and then turn around we turned around and headed back the the car. As I took the “climbers” path down instead of the ski slopes I it look awhile to get back to the car but I made it back to the car around 9:30 (8.5 hour climb). Overall my thoughts about this climb are that 1, my conditioning is not there yet and 2, I cannot wait until my next climb!
Thursday, May 19, 2005
Hood 26 Hours from now.
Its 5/19/2005 and its been almost a month since my last post (confession). Last weekend the weather and avalance danger was too high to attempt Mt. Hood so rather than do Mt Adam's this weekend I am going to start my season by climbing Mt Hood tommorrow. The participants include my Mom, Sister and her "man" Andrew, Brother Alex and his "woman" Jen. We have a "slight" chance of snow and I feel pretty good about the fact that the snow has consolidated over the past week. This IS the standard route so I feel pretty comfortable about tommorrow's trip. Of course if the weather moves in or the conditions are not right....we turn around. To be honest effects of my wifes various medical conditions have been all consuming as of late so I have not made it to the gym or lost any weight for about two months after loosing 33 lbs. The good news is that I have been maintaining my weight and I think I am still VERY strong from all the training I did this winter and early spring. When Rob and I did the 16 mile hike my legs did not even hurt the next day, while Rob reported that he could not walk for 2 days. Things have improved with my wife so I think this climb will "kick start" me again and I will have a really great climb and be back in the gym on Monday. I WILL loose two lbs a week until my Fat Weight is down to my old college wrestling weight 225. Um...I weight 257 right now so I have 32 lbs to go. I have lost 33 so far so whats another 32! I will report back after the climb!
Monday, April 25, 2005
Long Hike!
Yesterday a buddy (Rob) from the Gym and I went on a long hike up to 7.5 mile camp on Eagle Creek. We must have passed everyone on the trail that day as we were going 3.5 to 4 MPH. Upon getting back to the parking lot, we regretted our decision to park a half a mile away where the parking is free. 7.5 Miles Up and 7.5 Miles Back plus 1 Mile round trip to the car = 16 Miles in 1 day and sore legs Monday Morning! Feeling good about the Hood Climb in 3 weeks. Getting stronger by the day.
Friday, April 01, 2005
The incredible shrinking man.
I took a few weeks off (including spring break) to recover from an intense few months of training in which I lost approx 20 lbs of my total 33 lbs weight loss. I currently have 65 lbs of fat and plan to gradually reduce that fat by 2 lbs a week for 16 weeks until I weight 233. I average about 200 lbs of lean body mass. This will get my body fat % down to 14%, exactly where I want it to be. Cutting Phase! My Goal is to be there by July 31st, 16 weeks from Sunday (4/10) and the weekend of my utlimate summer goal, the Middle & South Sister Traverse. 2 Mountains, 1 Day.
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
A word about my fitness program
First of all you have to figure out your Basal Metabolic Rate. This is the rate your body would burn calories if you did nothing but lie in bed all day. The easy way to figure out this is to take 10 times your ideal body weight. For me for example I take 220 lbs * 10 to come up with 2200 Calories BMR per day. When cutting weight you simply need burn more calories than you take in. For each 3500 calories that you burn beyond what you take in you loose 1 lb. When cutting weight I like to limit my calories to about 1800 a day (9 calories per lb of my 200 lbs of lean body mass) to create a 400 calorie deficit and then burn an additional 1000 calories per day through exercise. This creates a 1400 calorie per day deficit and if I do this 5 days a week I have a deficit of about 7000 calories and loose 2 lbs. I find that if I lower my calorie intake below 9 calories times my lean body weight I get sluggish, don't have enough fuel to exercise and also end up burning off muscle in addition to fat. I try to workout 2 times a day atleast 4 hours apart because exercise boosts your metabolism and doing more that 1 session in a day means that your metabolism is boosted for a longer time in that day.
Its imporant to never be hungry. You body trys to stay the same, so if you don't eat enough your metabolism actually slows down. In order to achieve this without insulin spikes (which cause excess blood suger to be stored as fat) I try to eat 5 smaller portions per day. I eat at 9 am, Noon, 3 pm, 6 pm and at 9 pm before bed. In addition I try to take in 200 Grams of Protein (1 gram for each lb of lean body mass) which is impossible to do without using protein suppliments such was Whey Protein Shakes. I also try to take in 8-12 glasses of water and limit food to low gycemic (i.e. low sugar) foods. Basically if I am finding myself eating something other than meat (protien), veggies or vegetables, I am carefull not to eat too much.
Low glycemic: apples, oranges, pears, plums, grapes, bananas (firm), grapefruit and low-sugar fresh fruits, oatmeal, brown rice, "Converted" rice, spaghetti and egg fettuccine (surprisingly),
whole-wheat pasta, bran cereal, other whole, barley, bulgur, basmati, Kashi and other whole grains, beans, peas (esp. chick and black-eyed), lentils, whole corn, sweet potato, yams,
milk (preferably low-fat), partial-protein carbohydrates such as yogurt and soy, and even "sugar"or maltose. in the form of fructose (found in fruits) or lactose (found in dairy products), but not as glucose
Remember: Suger raises insulin and when glucose stores are full, it helps store extra calories as FAT
High glycemic: fruit juice, white bread, most "wheat" bread (which is usually just white bread with a little fiber added), white rice, baked white potato, bagels, croissants, pretzels, graham crackers, vanilla wafers, waffles, corn chips, cornflakes, cake, jelly beans, sugary drinks, Gatorade, beer.
Note: high glycemic foods are often either white or highly processed.
Its imporant to never be hungry. You body trys to stay the same, so if you don't eat enough your metabolism actually slows down. In order to achieve this without insulin spikes (which cause excess blood suger to be stored as fat) I try to eat 5 smaller portions per day. I eat at 9 am, Noon, 3 pm, 6 pm and at 9 pm before bed. In addition I try to take in 200 Grams of Protein (1 gram for each lb of lean body mass) which is impossible to do without using protein suppliments such was Whey Protein Shakes. I also try to take in 8-12 glasses of water and limit food to low gycemic (i.e. low sugar) foods. Basically if I am finding myself eating something other than meat (protien), veggies or vegetables, I am carefull not to eat too much.
Low glycemic: apples, oranges, pears, plums, grapes, bananas (firm), grapefruit and low-sugar fresh fruits, oatmeal, brown rice, "Converted" rice, spaghetti and egg fettuccine (surprisingly),
whole-wheat pasta, bran cereal, other whole, barley, bulgur, basmati, Kashi and other whole grains, beans, peas (esp. chick and black-eyed), lentils, whole corn, sweet potato, yams,
milk (preferably low-fat), partial-protein carbohydrates such as yogurt and soy, and even "sugar"or maltose. in the form of fructose (found in fruits) or lactose (found in dairy products), but not as glucose
Remember: Suger raises insulin and when glucose stores are full, it helps store extra calories as FAT
High glycemic: fruit juice, white bread, most "wheat" bread (which is usually just white bread with a little fiber added), white rice, baked white potato, bagels, croissants, pretzels, graham crackers, vanilla wafers, waffles, corn chips, cornflakes, cake, jelly beans, sugary drinks, Gatorade, beer.
Note: high glycemic foods are often either white or highly processed.
Friday, March 25, 2005
The Beginning
This is a place for me to post summaries of my outdoor adventures including photos.
I got started in the outdoors as many do as a boy scout in a very active troop that went hiking, camping, backpacking, and navigated canoes down local rivers. In eighth grade I went on a long backpacking trip to the Philmont Scout Ranch (http://www.philmont.com/ ) in New Mexico that opened my eyes to how much I like being outside. After graduating from High School with a 4.0, I attended Pacific University where I was very active in the outdoor program ( www.pacificu.edu/outback/ ) after hurting my back in a match that effectively ended my 14-year career as a wrestler. Having always been an athlete, I needed to find another physical pursuit that would match the intensity, training and discipline required to be a wrestler. I found mountaineering and backpacking to be just such a pursuit. One summer I hiked the entire Oregon section of the Pacific Crest Trail (500 miles, 33 days) and the next summer I went on a 6-week road trip backpacking and climbing in Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon.
Throughout college, I guided fellow students on hiking, mountaineering, rock climbing, rafting and sea kayaking trips. It was the best jobs I have ever had and the job that has paid the least financially! After graduating from college with a computer science degree, I got a job at a construction accounting software company called Bidtek. As a bachelor living alone for the first time with a real job, I had some interesting but generally lonely and depressing times for about a year and a half. The thing that always kept me sane was that I had a backpack packed and ready to go in the back of my car so that when Friday afternoon rolled around I could head for the hills. It was also at this time that I really started focusing on fitness and racking up different climbs and routes throughout Oregon and SW Washington. In perhaps the best shape of my life, in one season I climbed Mt Hood, Mt Adams, St Helens, South and Middle Sisters. In the case of South Sister, it was the 14th time I had reached that summit and on Hood, I set my personal record of just over 3 hours from the car to the summit.
Just before we switched over to the new millennium, I got a call from an old friend and my future wife. Just 6 months after I had all but given up looking for her on the internet, she found me….on the internet ( http://www.classmates.com/ ) We had met riding the bus together when we were eight, been friends in high school but never dated and obviously never forgotten about each other. When you get married and have children your previous life ends and your new life begins.
The first order of business in my new life was finding a new job. While the Nasdaq had already crashed down from its 5000 point height, there were still stories all around me of people getting Dot Com rich. My first venture in this arena was a company called Handyman Online Inc. We matched (over the net) qualified contractors with homeowners looking for work to be done. I started the week after my honeymoon and the business folded up 9 months later a victim of trying to expand (with VC money) faster than its customers arrived. My stock options became….worthless. Next up was wine.com where I was intrumental in developing software to handle the fulfillment of orders that did not come fast enough. After 14 months, the Portland office was closed which was a convienient way of laying off most everyone and my stock options were rendered…..worthless. Wine.com is now based in the bay area and if you would like to use my software, just go to http://www.wine.com/. Next I went to my third startup in as many years, QuikTrak Inc. ( http://www.quiktrak.com/ ) and developed our product called Revoquest. I remain there today as the Database Administrator and we are not a start up any longer! The advantage of working at startups is that you are building something new and having to wear many different hats. The disadvantage of startups is that you are building something new and wearing different hats all without much support. The result is long 50 – 100 hour (yes I have worked 100 hours in a week) work weeks including weekends. The end result of 4 years in this environment was that I was tired, I had gained 50 lbs, I felt like I had not got to see my family (my wife and two girls) very much (although I was doing a great job supporting them financially) and I was physically unable to climb big mountains.
Last year, things started changing. The Revoquest product matured and had an adequate customer base, so we could start hiring additional people and I was able to scale back my work week to 40 to 50 hours a week. In addition, I finally got fed up with my lack of exercise and got back into the gym. The result has been a re-emergence of the old Abram and thus my reason for creating this site. Over the past few months I have lost 33 of the 50 lbs I gained and started getting outside again. I will use this site to document my outdoor adventures and my journey from a overweight computer programmer back to a hard core outdoor athlete. I plan to share with you the news from my adventures (including photos), and information about my training plan.
I got started in the outdoors as many do as a boy scout in a very active troop that went hiking, camping, backpacking, and navigated canoes down local rivers. In eighth grade I went on a long backpacking trip to the Philmont Scout Ranch (http://www.philmont.com/ ) in New Mexico that opened my eyes to how much I like being outside. After graduating from High School with a 4.0, I attended Pacific University where I was very active in the outdoor program ( www.pacificu.edu/outback/ ) after hurting my back in a match that effectively ended my 14-year career as a wrestler. Having always been an athlete, I needed to find another physical pursuit that would match the intensity, training and discipline required to be a wrestler. I found mountaineering and backpacking to be just such a pursuit. One summer I hiked the entire Oregon section of the Pacific Crest Trail (500 miles, 33 days) and the next summer I went on a 6-week road trip backpacking and climbing in Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon.
Throughout college, I guided fellow students on hiking, mountaineering, rock climbing, rafting and sea kayaking trips. It was the best jobs I have ever had and the job that has paid the least financially! After graduating from college with a computer science degree, I got a job at a construction accounting software company called Bidtek. As a bachelor living alone for the first time with a real job, I had some interesting but generally lonely and depressing times for about a year and a half. The thing that always kept me sane was that I had a backpack packed and ready to go in the back of my car so that when Friday afternoon rolled around I could head for the hills. It was also at this time that I really started focusing on fitness and racking up different climbs and routes throughout Oregon and SW Washington. In perhaps the best shape of my life, in one season I climbed Mt Hood, Mt Adams, St Helens, South and Middle Sisters. In the case of South Sister, it was the 14th time I had reached that summit and on Hood, I set my personal record of just over 3 hours from the car to the summit.
Just before we switched over to the new millennium, I got a call from an old friend and my future wife. Just 6 months after I had all but given up looking for her on the internet, she found me….on the internet ( http://www.classmates.com/ ) We had met riding the bus together when we were eight, been friends in high school but never dated and obviously never forgotten about each other. When you get married and have children your previous life ends and your new life begins.
The first order of business in my new life was finding a new job. While the Nasdaq had already crashed down from its 5000 point height, there were still stories all around me of people getting Dot Com rich. My first venture in this arena was a company called Handyman Online Inc. We matched (over the net) qualified contractors with homeowners looking for work to be done. I started the week after my honeymoon and the business folded up 9 months later a victim of trying to expand (with VC money) faster than its customers arrived. My stock options became….worthless. Next up was wine.com where I was intrumental in developing software to handle the fulfillment of orders that did not come fast enough. After 14 months, the Portland office was closed which was a convienient way of laying off most everyone and my stock options were rendered…..worthless. Wine.com is now based in the bay area and if you would like to use my software, just go to http://www.wine.com/. Next I went to my third startup in as many years, QuikTrak Inc. ( http://www.quiktrak.com/ ) and developed our product called Revoquest. I remain there today as the Database Administrator and we are not a start up any longer! The advantage of working at startups is that you are building something new and having to wear many different hats. The disadvantage of startups is that you are building something new and wearing different hats all without much support. The result is long 50 – 100 hour (yes I have worked 100 hours in a week) work weeks including weekends. The end result of 4 years in this environment was that I was tired, I had gained 50 lbs, I felt like I had not got to see my family (my wife and two girls) very much (although I was doing a great job supporting them financially) and I was physically unable to climb big mountains.
Last year, things started changing. The Revoquest product matured and had an adequate customer base, so we could start hiring additional people and I was able to scale back my work week to 40 to 50 hours a week. In addition, I finally got fed up with my lack of exercise and got back into the gym. The result has been a re-emergence of the old Abram and thus my reason for creating this site. Over the past few months I have lost 33 of the 50 lbs I gained and started getting outside again. I will use this site to document my outdoor adventures and my journey from a overweight computer programmer back to a hard core outdoor athlete. I plan to share with you the news from my adventures (including photos), and information about my training plan.
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