Working, Traveling, Training, Exploring, and ADJUSTING to life in Baltimore Maryland

What I've been up!?  

The short version - Working, Traveling, Training, Exploring, and ADJUSTING to life in Baltimore Maryland. I'll explain in more detail in just a bit.. Firstly I want to begin this LONG OVERDUE update with some pictures:

TRAVELING FOR WORK PICS

Toronto - CN Tower, hard to miss when walking around the City at night.

Toronto - Railway and Downtown apartments buildings.  Architecture and green design are at the forefront in Toronto.

Passing through Niagara Falls on my way to Canada in the dead of winter. 

The ice covered falls in its glory.  Almost too cold here to enjoy it.

I'll be travelling to Portland for a week of conference and meeting the first of August.  I'll be spending some additional vacation time out there in Oregon to enjoy. Expecting to take some amazing photos on that trip!

NEW YORK 4TH OF JULY WEEKEND VACATION PICS

Celebrating 4th of July in NYC.  Fireworks were moved so we didn't get the view we thought we would get but it was still pretty good.

View from Roosevelt Island FDR memorial NYC

View of Long Island City from Roosevelt Island. 

Spent the day hanging out in Williamsburg Brooklyn and biking around the City. Getting a drink at a rooftop bar here.

View of the Manhattan from Long Island City. Surely a City that never sleeps.

No surprise here my place to be is here on the Beach. We biked out to Fort Tilden from Astoria. 

Evening view of the NYC on the 4th of July.

14 mile hike up at Minnewaska State Park.

At the top of the hike taking it in.

Cant do a hike without a little waterfall action.  After a long day of hiking this was just what was needed.

So I am now back on the East Coast.. for better of for worse

Besides the traveling and vacation I don't have the amazing photos like I used to have when I lived out west unfortunately. The Westcoast has so much more to offer to me and I miss it ;(  But living in Baltimore is going well.  It is by no means Portland Oregon, which I miss daily ;( but Baltimore is a very livable City and Maryland provides me what I need.  Baltimore has potential to be a pretty great City due to its location to the water, row houses (sustainable), shops/bars and tourist attractions.  People always say Baltimore has "potential". But between the lack of parks, trees, bike routes, running paths, coffee shops, the poor planning by the City level, a general dis-concern for trash on the streets and the abandoned buildings and what most people know Baltimore for - The drugs, crime and violence - it has a very long way to go!

I currently live in a nice big old row house in a quiet neighborhood about a half mile from the Inner Harbor and super close to just about everything. I can walk or bike anywhere.  Most of my time, however, is not spent at home. Time is spent either at work or in the parks, pools, and open roads running, swimming, and biking.  Luckily, the location I work is located just outside the City near the Patapsco River State Park-Running trails galore.  The area also has other running tracks and low traffic cycling roads in the area.  Just about every day I will train during my lunch break and train again after work all in this area-outside of the City.  Staying in the area after work also allows me to miss the bulk of rush hour traffic too!  Typically, once I do finally get home after 15-30 minutes of light traffic I run or bike another couple miles to the City gym, which houses an awesome outdoor salt water swimming pool for me to get all my training in. And then I run another 2 miles back home. :)  On the weekends I travel out to various areas in Maryland to bike and run.  My favorite place to go is coincidentally called the Oregon Ridge Outdoor Center.  The center provides a nice place to park before I go out on my 4-6 hour rides and allows me to get in quality brick runs.  It's about 20 miles north from where I live and the area allows me to get in as much cycling and running as I want on hilly (very hilly) country/low traffic roads.  One surprising fact for those that have never been into Maryland - It is HILLY.  Obviously not mountainous like cycling in parts Oregon, but it has the never-ending short choppy hills, which is great for training. Training on hills have easily made me a better runner and cyclist. Only problem is that running on hills the majority of the time has really put the pounding on my body and this requires that I rest more often in addition to doing more strength training. I try to test out new areas to run and bike every other weekend or so.  Sometimes I'll travel out to the hills of Frederick Maryland, Central Pennsylvania or to the Eastern Shore for a reprieve from the hills.

First FULL IRONMAN 10 weeks away

Few things make me happier than being outdoors.  Triathlon training gives me a perfect excuse to be outside all the time.  Now that I have time in my life to train and deeper pockets I've decided to race the inaugural IRONMAN MARYLAND (formerly called ChesapeakeMan).  It will be my first attempt racing a full Ironman distance.  It is is late September, which gives me plenty of time to prepare.  I will more than likely be racing other triathlons before that date, but besides a SPARTAN race in August nothing is on the schedule yet.  The Ironman will be in Cambridge, MD (similar to the Eagleman 70.3 Ironman I've done a couple times).  I've trained on the course a couple times now and it is as flat as flat can get, similar to that of good ole Virginia Beach.  Its pretty wild to think that besides the Wildflower Triathlon I did a year ago with the Oregon Tri Team, I haven't raced a triathlon since 70.3 World Championships in Las Vegas September 2012! I never stopped biking, running and swimming!

Training is going pretty great and I am finally getting back into race condition.  Ironman training obviously requires a lot more swimming, biking, and running time and mileage than 70.3 training.  Generally on the weekdays I focus on one bike or run speed session/day and one bike or run active recovery session/day plus a strength/stretching session plus a solid 75-90 minute swim session four times/week. Weekends I focus on endurance... logging 6-9 hours of cycling over the weekend plus 1-2 hours of running transitions off the bike each day.  Right now intensity is fairly low for the run transitions after long bike sets.  I'll speak in more detail about my training in a blog to come, that will hopefully answer some questions people had for me and reveal some secretes to staying injury free. Speaking of injury,  I do have a nagging issue with my hip flexor currently, caused by all the pounding hill running, I assume.  I find as long as I keep them loose and stretched in addition to continually strengthening I can avoid debilitating injury.  I've also been taking a day off from training when they get bad or I just feel very tired. One thing I have started doing is resting more.. I'll take about 1 day off a week plus 3-4 days straight off per month.  The Ironman distance endurance is pretty much there, I want to focus on speed and swim improvement the next couple months.

Senior Stormwater Design Engineer

I've now been in my new position for about four months.  Everything is going great, really great, I couldn't really expect it to be much better.  I am luckily to work for an awesome and supportive green tech company and I'm enjoying my leadership role. I love that I have a career soley dedicated to protecting water quality. Most of my business is in the Canadian provinces as the government has committed to investing in protecting streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans from the pollution runoff from development. Without boring everyone too much with talk of water quality engineering I'll just show some pics and move on.  I still kick myself sometimes for not being able to find a position like this in Oregon, but all is not lost.. the main office is in Portland :).

Stormwater filtration device "Jellyfish FIlter". This particular filter is about 1/4 the size of the typical filter length as these were for a shallow catch basin installation. Look how much pollution they capture!

These filtration units can get massive and expensive. I visited one of our manufacturing plants in Quebec and took a picture our 10' diameter unit, not even our biggest one, and it hold roughly 16 filter cartridges.  The filtration cartridges remove over 80% total suspended solids, down to 1 micron particle!

 Travelling for work as been a new experience.  I've since been to Montreal and Toronto a number of times now.  We do a lot of business in the Calgary Alberta and Vancouver BC areas as well!  Favorite place to travel so far has been Montreal.  Beautiful area with a European vibe, great food, outdoorsy people and beautiful women!  I'll be out to Portland for team meetings and the STORMCON conference the first week of August. Super excited is an understatement.

Training and Life in Baltimore post coming up next...

Catching Up On Life

Wow it has been a while! Things have been ultra busy with graduate school and living the college life. I am currently on Spring Break, and while all of my friends are visiting California for break I am tucking deep in to my 'triathlon training camp'.  But before I get into any triathlon talk I want to throw up some pictures and whatnot.

I finished another quarter with all A's and high Passes.  This quarter was extremely time consuming with: 

Bike Economy Studies, Reports, and Presentations

GHG Emission studies and calculations and reports and presentations on the future of Sustainable Electricity 

Writing my thesis paper on stormwater quality treatment at Hayward Field and the University

Programing software that simulates scenarios of what the future landscape will look like based on Climate Change Impacts and Planning Decisions.

Last but not least Leadership in Critical Conversations in the workplace (and life).

I had fun and really look forward to this coming quarter as it will be less intense, which will allow me time for other things (not partying ahaha).

THIS IS A PICTURE OF MY BACKYARD ON A CLEAR WINTER DAY. IT'S THE WILLAMETTE FOREST.  I DON'T GET TO GO INTO THE MOUNTAINS A LOT, BUT THAT WILL CHANGE AS SPRING AND SUMMER ARRIVE. SURROUNDING EUGENE ARE ROLLING MOUNTAINS AND OAK PRAIRIES.

I TRAVELED OUT TO MOUNT BACHELOR A COUPLE TIMES.  HERE I AM AT ONE OF THE PEAKS, OR AT LEAST THE HIGHEST PEAK AT BACHELOR.

SNOWBOARDING OUT IN OREGON IS INCREDIBLE.  I COULD LITERALLY STAY OUT HERE FOREVER. THE TWO PEAKS IN THE DISTANCE ARE APART OF THE 3 SISTERS MOUNTAINS.  I CAN'T WAIT TO HIKE THEM IN THE SUMMER!  BEND, OR IS SUCH A BEAUTIFUL PLACE AND MY NUMBER ONE PICK TO MOVE TO IF I CAN FIND A JOB OUT THERE.  OUTDOOR REC IS CRAZY THERE, NOT TO MENTION THERE IS SOMETHING LIKE 16 LOCAL BREWERIES THERE.

THIS IS SAHALIE FALLS.  THE WATER THAT FEEDS THIS RUNS FROM THE 3 SISTERS MOUNTAINS.  WE GOT LUCKY AND GOT HERE ON A BEAUTIFUL SUNNY DAY IN THE WINTER.  YOU CAN'T TELL BUT WE ARE STANDING ON 3-4 FEET OF SNOW.  LAVA ROCK SURROUNDS THE AREA.  THE WATER IS THE BLUEST YOU WILL EVER SEE. THE RAINBOWS ARE COOL TOO.

MORE OF SAHALIE FALLS.  IT IS IN THE WILLAMETTE FOREST. ITS ABOUT 90 MINUTES FROM ME IN EUEGENE.  ANOTHER GOOD SPOT RIGHT NEAR BY IS THE COUGAR HOT SPRINGS!

THIS IS TAMALITCH POOL, JUST DOWN THE ROAD FROM SAHALIE FALLS.  ITS A GLACIAL POOL FED THROUGH WATER THAT TRAVELS IN LAVA TUBES AND FEEDS THE POOL FROM UNDER.  IN THE WINTER IT IS REALLY DEEP, THE WATER COLOR IS A BIT DARKER THAN USUAL.  THERE IS A BEAUTIFUL RIVER THAT IT DUMPS INTO. TO GET HERE YOU HIKE ALONGTHE RIVER FOR A COUPLE MILES.  I CAN'T WAIT TO VISIT IN THE SUMMER AND JUMP IN!

THERE ARE A LOT OF GREAT CONCERTS THAT COME TO EUGENE.  THIS IS BONE THUGS N HARMONY. FIRST TIME SEEING ALL FIVE OF THE GUYS LIVE AND PROBABLY MY FAVORITE CONCERT EVER.  BUT I'VE BEEN TO MANY OTHERS LIKE IRATION, SOUND TRIBE SECTOR 9, EXCISION, MATISYAHU, AND NOT TO MENTION TECH N9NE IN A WEEK FOR MY BIRTHDAY!

SOME OF THE CRAZY KIDS I HANG OUT WITH.  WE HAVE ABOUT 5 BARS THAT WE REGULAR HERE IN EUGENE. LOCAL BEERS ARE ABUNDANT AND REALLY TASTY!

So on to Triathlon...

The hard truth is I haven't legitimately trained in 10-12 weeks.  The toll of the triathlon life was heavy.  Triathlon is a very very lonely sport.  Training to be a professional triathlete made me miss out on a lot of things in life like friends, love, and hanging out and just having a beer or eating a burrito (veggie) at 3am and sleeping in!  I needed to breakup with triathlon to enjoy life in other ways.. sometimes unhealthy ways but fun ways! All I did for 2 or 3 years was work and train and race.  Having said all that, I loved being in elite triathlon shape and the way it made me feel and being outside all the time.

The break from training so hard was needed though. All I could think about was training and I wouldn't let myself give time to important people like I should have adn I regret that.

Also, overuse injuries were building up.  My shoulder was a bit injured from overuse as I was sore from time to time after swimming, and my right foot was still giving me problems even after the shots I received.  My injuries started last May 2012 after winning the Half Ironman in Charlottseville.  My foot was not healing and it was causing other problems in my run stride.  I would come home from every long run with foot pain.  I raced through 70.3 World Championships over-trained, tired from travelling and hiking, no rest, no recovery, and just unprepaired.  I was in the best shape of my life going into World Championships, but I didn't rest my body enough to utilize that fitness.  Lesson learned!

Currently I am all healed with no injuries.  Rested is an understatement, obviously...

I did not exactly plan to dive deep into the college life as much as I did.  I didn't think graduate school would be so demanding of my time outside of class either.  There is a reason why there aren't many elite triathletes that go to school and race at the same time.  Also I am broke as a joke, triathlon is crazy expensive!  I finally joined the Triathlon Club here at UO a month ago.  The majority of the kids on the team have never actually done a triathlon. The club unfortunately doesn't offer much in regards to training partners. The team is not very competitive and the direction is not great and I have no time to fix the team or help coach. I also have no time to go to training meets either (I am hoping that changes this coming quarter).  But, nontheless I get great deals on races, like I get to race Wildflower on May 5th for free and travel is free, well free minus the steep club fees that cover things like uniforms and whatnot.  

I guess I just revealed that I am racing Wildflower.  How can I do this when I have gained 10+ pounds over the winter and haven't swam in 12 weeks? I am not exactly sure, but it involves focus, eating extremely healthy (no beer) , training my brains out, and pain and pain and more pain.  I started up training again the first day of Spring Break.  I am so out of shape!! This is all relative to the way I was in August-September 2012 at the peak of my condition. But I feel like I am starting all over. Especially in the pool.  I could barely swim 200 meters without getting tired my first day back.  And my stroke feels like shit.   I have been biking on the indoor machine in the UO rec center as well as running here and there, but nothing specific for a long while.  I am not completely starting over. But for the races coming up..

Racing Wildflower will be more about putting my ego aside and enjoying the experience of the historical race event.  Wildflower is the mecca of triathlon also known as the Woodstock of triathlon. Me and the team will be camping out there for a couple nights.  Also, my triathlon buddy tells me Long Course Duathlon Nationals  are at the end of April in Washington.  If I can get my ass in decent shape I will also race that.  

I can only train so much (my body can only handle so much training) and I cannot expect to get back into shape like I was in September over a month.  Oregon is an amazing place to train for triathlon and I will use the environment as motivation this coming spring and summer.  The sunny days have finally arrived after 3-4 months of darkness and rain.  My bikes are getting all tuned up and I cannot wait to explore my new environment for everything its worth (as long as I have time).  I hope to surround myself with people that love training as much as me by getting more involved with the Team and the Cycling Shops.  It all just requires time.  After three or so years of dedicating my time to work and triathlon, I now know I need a more balanced life and if that means I cannot be a professional triathlete one day then I am okay with that.  I need to balance classes, studying,  my relationship, spending time with friends, and triathlon all together to be happiest.  This is certainly not a rare conundrum I need to deal with as many athletes struggle with this balance.  I just hope I can stay motivated to get through the rough training ahead of me.. I know what I need to do, it's just a matter a making a few sacrifices to make it happen.

So much to do, so little time. This spring quarter is going to go by fast and I want to enjoy every minute of it before I graduate in the end of June!