Proximal Phalange, Left Hand

Ring finger, middle joint; my first real damage. I was working on a bouldering route at the House of Pain™ when I matched my left hand to my right on a fairly small hold, and loaded up my body's weight on to the ring finger of my left hand. It made a noise that reminded me of a dog eating a chicken and I hit the crash pad.

I am wondering right now if it's broken, dislocated, or just all torn to crap, and I've taken some Ibuprofen. As you can see it really isn't swollen all that much, despite a fair amount of pain -- so maybe I am just a wimp.

I did continue to climb with it for about an hour. I might regret that.

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Tabata This

Well -- over at Peninsula Crossfit last night I did a workout called "tabata this" which involves 8 each of 20 second intervals followed by 10 second rests. 8 sets in a series of as many squats, rowing, pull ups, sit ups, or push ups that one can do in 20 seconds. Score is the lowest number of all the sets in a given exercise. After each exercise comes a one minute break.

I think "tabata" is an Andromedan word meaning "to cause pain to." Eight sets of sit ups with a score of seven might come from a series of 8, 9, 7, 8, 8, 8, 7, 8 or 63 total sit ups. A score of 4 like mine in the push ups, for example, absolutely indicates a total of at least 32 over 8 sets (4*8=32), but doesn't reflect the actual total, which could be much higher. 10, 8, 7, 7, 7, 5, 4, and 4, for example, totalling 52. If you had asked me before last night if I could do 50 push ups ... I would have said "No way."

Jump-fest with Peninsula CrossFit

Went out with Saul and did a little workout on Saturday. Saul's Saturday workouts are free -- so be sure to check one out.

Focus: Cardio
Warm-up: Jog 800 M then 5 x FlowFit
Skill/Specific Warm-up: Review KB swings

WOD:

2 rounds for time:

50 M Broad jump or bounds
25 Push-ups
50 M Lunges
25 Kettlebell swings, 1 pood
50 M Bear crawl
25 Sit-ups
50 M Frog hop

ok -- so -- I'm in pain. But I did manage to complete my first 5.10a route over at the house of pain™ yesterday despite uncooperative fingers from crawling across 100 yards of astroturf.

Phoenix' Seven Summits

That's Phoenix behind me. From the top of Camelback Mountain. Photo compliments of the Happy Hiking Buddy -- © 2005.

Described here, the seven summits. Simple problem; climb each of Phoenix's seven summits. No sweat. Easy. The farthest of the lot is 7 miles to the top of South Mountain and back. I've already done Camelback.

But that's pretty casual. Just to make things interesting, let's do it all in a single day, especially since I am not really close by.

Here are the details:

Shadow	1 mile	440 ft climb	Moderate
Lookout	1	475	Strenuous
North	1.6	614	Moderately Strenuous
Shaw Butte	5	670	Moderately Strenuous
Piestawa Peak	2.4	1190	Strenuous
South	7	1310	Strenuous
Camelback	2.3	1300	Strenuous
	20.3 Miles	5999 feet uphill

Seems like it might make for a compelling hike. Some time in March, while it's still cool. Care to join me?

Bikathalon Training

Who knew.

Snowshoe Thompson

Here's a story about Snowshoe Thompson, who frequently walked across the Sierras. I like the bit about carving snowshoes for the rescuers.

Work ... Work ... Work

There's a story somewhere about a wild boar hunt, which included some shoe stealing. Anyway -- these are the replacement shoes. Merrell Overdrives. in beluga and black. Gore-tex, Vibram soles and scotch reflective striping. 1 pound 11.5 ounces. Hopefully they will take the same beating as my Merrell boots.

Pinnacles -- near the Top

The Climbing Guy took some pix of our hike to the Pinnacles.

Wireless Camp

It's true. Wireless, in the campsite, via someone elses shared wireless connection. It is a better world after all.

It's About the Weather ...

When you have it this good, it's hard to complain. Rumour has it that it will cool down on Friday -- to 70. Drag. Another rumour is that there is a bike ride scheduled this afternoon with the happy hiking guy.

Anyway, I went out for a short hike from the campground this morning. Turned into about 6 miles including the Blevins loop and the Wind Cave trails. Very cool.


Morning sun moonscape.



This bee hive at the top of the wind cave trail.

And all these (22) people going up to look at them.

Blevins trail with the Superstitions in the distance.

Desert Check

Outerwear? Oh, you know -- shorts and a t-shirt.

ummm ... 6 liters of water, raincoat, long johns, wool hat, first aid kit with ice pack, map, compass, gps, headlamp, flashlight, light stick, batteries, gatorade, margarita power bloks. Outerwear.

That's the Pass Mountain in the background ...


What is this bird?


Phoenix's brown cloud oozes toward me -- threateningly.

wtf?

I was wondering what limiting customer spending has to do with controlling fuel costs ...

Condor Sighting

I did want to mention that on my trip to the Pinnacles, I did see a California Condor. I just saw it briefly ... mmm ... so there are no pictures.

More Pix from the Pinnacles

Machete Ridge




There's a little tunnel down there.