« April 2008 | May 2008 | June 2008 »
May 31, 2008 / Saturday
Pinnacles National Monument
We continued our Whitney training this week with a hike at Pinnacles. Wake-up time: 6:30. Normally, this would be an ungodly wake-up for me, but a week of morning meetings has me thinking that's not so early after all. Went to bed early the night before and rolled right out of bed when the alarm went off. Piece of cake!
We entered the park through the East entrance and started our hike from the Bear Gulch Visitor Center. Up to Scout Peak we went, then up the steep and narrow part of the High Peaks Trail, which was pretty cool. There were steps carved into the rock along hand rails to help people along. We then descended along the Tunnel Trail, which, as the name suggests, included a sizable tunnel carved through the rock. Next, a pit stop at the parking lot on the other side of the park, followed by a visit to the Balconies Cave. I finally got to use the super cool headlamp I got for Christmas. :)
After the cave, we stopped for lunch, then discussed route options back to the car. A couple of us had boot issues, so we chose the shorter of the two routes and booked it on back to the car for a total mileage of 9.4 miles. Not quite as many miles as we'd hoped for, but a good hike nonetheless.
We talked to a nice ranger during our stop at the far parking lot. We saw her later at the visitor center, and observed the following exchange between her and a tourist...
Tourist: Excuse me, can you tell me where the monument is?
Ranger: You're IN the monument.
I guess the tourist had been expecting some sort of drive up and take a picture statue thing. I've been laughing about it randomly ever since.
As is tradition, I found an animal to count and name. I now present to you the list of lizards we encountered on today's hike:
- Lizzy - What else would you name a lizard?
- Scurry - I saw it. It scurried.
- Chase - I chased it down the trail. It scurried also, but that name was already taken.
- Zippy - This little lizard did not scurry. It zipped away.
- Godzilla - This lizard was HUGE. Godzilla huge.
- Stupid - We found this one with half its body sticking out of a hole. Loren slowly waved his boot at it, and instead of hiding in the hole it took off and ran in Aaron's direction.
- Spidey - It ran on a rock wall!
- Planck - I saw it on one of the planks of a wooden bridge. The extra 'c' is in honor of Max. You know, that guy with the constant.
- Venom - It was just hanging out on a rock wall, not caring that we were there. Cooler than Spidey. Way cooler.
- Stubby - This one was in the process of growing back its tail.
Oh! I totally forgot to talk about the scenery. The giant rocks (okay, mountains) there are awesome, and I was totally blown away by the whole volcano-that-moved thing. Plate tectonics FTW!
Meet Godzilla. It's not nearly as big as I remember it to be, but all the other lizards before it were really little!
• • •
I forgot to waah about my pains.
Pain 1: I tweaked my right ankle again. I did this during last week's hike, too. My ankles suck. They sprain easily, and I am paranoid about hurting them on uneven terrain. My last big sprain was on a backpacking trip. Off-roading by foot is dangerous!
Pain 2: After tweaking said ankle, I relaced my boots super duper tight, which after a couple miles, caused swelling and soreness in the tendon that runs down my leg and into my foot. Good job, me.
May 30, 2008 / Friday
Phrase of the Day
shower dance
What I would do every day if I had a radio in my shower.
- or -
Riverdance, in my shower. Hrm, I wonder how many I could fit in there.
- or -
What I did this morning in the split second between when I dropped my giant bar of barely used soap and when it landed where my foot would have been.
Phew!
09:00 AM | Phrase| Comments (0)
May 25, 2008 / Sunday
The Insanity Is Now Complete
Yup, I did it. I can now check Mt. Hamilton off my list of things to ride this year. It took me forever to make it up that hill, but I did, and even had enough left for a victory lap around the observatory. Huzzah!
I decided last night that I was going to go for it today. Mostly, it was because I wanted to make some progress on the list. March was the half-century, April the metric century, and May? I didn't have anything to show for May yet. How about Hamilton, me? Hamilton sounds good, me. Tired hiking legs be damned!
Believe you me, my legs were not happy about the climb. They were tired, tired, tired. But whatever, I rode slowly and pushed on. I made sure to bring plenty of food this time, and ate almost all of it: 3 GUs, 3 mini Luna bars, and 2 bottles of diluted Gatorade. I kept track of the time and made myself eat every 20-30 minutes, whether I was hungry or not. That seemed to work pretty well; despite some painfully tired quads late in the climb, my body felt just fine.
Mt. Hamilton is such a long climb. I had a lot of time to play the same song over and over in my head (I don't really have a choice in the matter; it just happens) and think, "This hurts. Why am I doing this?" To prove that I can, of course. I don't just want to think I can, I want to know it. And now I do.
My quads really did hurt after I passed Grant Ranch, but fortunately I found that I could offload some of the work onto the glutes by changing my pedaling technique. A few miles into the hurt, I rounded a corner and caught my first glimpse of the observatory. I knew there was still a hefty amount of road ahead of me, but that sight just put a huge smile on my face. I'd come far enough to see my goal, and I wasn't going to turn back for anything. I was gonna make it! Yeah! *grin*
Finally, I made it, and I realized I should have brought myself a special snack as a mountaintop reward. Next time, I'll remember to.
The initial descent was cold, as expected, but I was pretty well prepared for it. I zipped on down to Alum Rock Road, where Aaron was waiting for me with a fizzy grapefruit soda and other tasty treats. I completed my celebration of the ride with a Krispy Kreme and some Ovaltine. Oh yeah, that's good stuff.
• • •
Almost forgot: 36.8 total miles and 4800 feet of climbing. Gotta make sure I get the 4800 feet on here; it's a new record for me! :-D
May 24, 2008 / Saturday
Newtmania!
Woke up at 7 this morning to go for a hike at Sanborn-Skyline County Park with Aaron's friend Esther and her husband Loren, who are joining us up Mt. Whitney in July. 7 is early for me, but 4:30 is even earlier, and since that's when we're going to have to start the hike up Whitney, we might as well get some practice hiking in the morning.
I brought my poles, which were once again totally awesome on the uphill. I found them pretty useful on the downhill, too, once I figured out how I wanted to use them. The only downside is that they got a fair amount of exposure to trailside poison oak, so I have to be pretty careful with them. I don't know if I'm sensitive to urushiol, but Aaron is, so I guess I won't be jabbing him with the poles anytime soon.
Speaking of poison, we encountered quite a few newts on the trail, which I didn't know were poisonous until I got home and looked them up. Honestly, I thought they were cute, and even wondered if I could take one home as a pet. I tried to pet one, but my finger was numb from the cold, so it didn't feel like anything. Aaron tried to pick one up later on, and said it felt like a cold gummy bear. At least it felt like something; as it turns out, their skin secretes tetrodotoxin, that deadly pufferfish toxin that makes you numb in small doses and kills you at higher ones. Tetrodotoxin, at our local parks! Craziness.
As with the banana slugs at Portola Redwoods back in December, I decided to name each newt we encountered. The list is as follows:
- Crawly - I saw a newt. It crawled.
- Slow Poke - I saw another newt. It crawled slowly.
- Swimmer - Esther noted how it moved like it was swimming in slow motion.
- Stealth - I passed by it, stopped, turned around, and there it was, in the middle of the trail.
- Chicken - Why did the newt cross the road? Because it was a chicken!
- Newton - Newton the newt! Loren came up with this one.
- Roadblock - It just stood there in the middle of the trail. If we'd stepped on it I'd have named it Speedbump.
- Sienna - It was dark, like burnt sienna.
- Isaac - Sir Isaac Newt. Loren came up with this one too.
- Gordo - This newt was fat!
- Chocolate - Named for its color.
- Scramble - It was scrambling to get off the trail.
- Statue - It stood there totally still. This is the one I tried to pet.
- Burger - I didn't see it and accidentally flipped it with my pole. Aaron then tried to pick it up. Woops.
Speaking of burgers, we had lunch at Kirk's Steakburgers afterward, and finished early enough to go on another hike on our usual afternoon schedule.
Instead, we went home, where I am now battling the urge to nap. I can't nap; the sun is out! Daylight's a wastin'!
Here's Swimmer, doing the crawl:
May 22, 2008 / Thursday
Easy Dirt Dawdle
Took advantage of my extra flexible schedule this week and got a midweek mountain bike ride in at Fremont Older. (Why do I always ride there? Because it's practically down the street from me!) I rode easy to keep my glute happy, and realized that the big long steep climbs of last season aren't really that big or long or steep anymore. I dawdled up the peaks and didn't even break 190. (The HRM is back, hoorays!) Cool.
The trails were parched and cracked. No wonder the Summit Fire is raging today. I guess the wind gusts don't help, either. Seeing the Santa Cruz mountains burn makes me sad.
Still readjusting to dirt. How quickly I forget. I guess that means I need ride more. :)
04:35 PM | Mountain| Comments (0)
May 21, 2008 / Wednesday
Rosy Picture Of The Past
Day three of my website being down, down, down:
All systems functional?! Oh, on 5/13 they were. Gee, what a useful status page.
03:31 PM | Blog/Website| Comments (2)
May 20, 2008 / Tuesday
The Puck Goes In The OTHER Net
We tried again today, and ended up with an even worse outcome. Final score: 0-6. Ouch!
We did a terrible job of covering open members of the Line of Scoring... and Scoringness tonight, and they did a number on us. Our poor goalie!
I felt a lot better tonight than I did on Sunday. I'm finally getting back into hockey shape... just in time for the Memorial Day break. Darn this screwy schedule.
11:27 PM | Lollerskates| Comments (0)
May 18, 2008 / Sunday
I Think I'm Built For Sitting On The Couch
I arrived at today's game with a pulled right glute and right groin. I left with a pulled left glute also. Why are you so unhappy, body? What am I doing wrong? I'm falling apart. Help!
Not cycling or playing hockey during the week probably has something to do with it. I blame work. And genetics.
We played hard, I felt out of it, things didn't go our way, and we lost. Final score: 1-2. We get to try again in two days.
That is all.
09:15 PM | Lollerskates| Comments (0)
Waah
Some people like to whine (on, and on, and on) in person. I like to do most of it on my blog. This, of course, immortalizes me on the internet as a whiner (oh noes), but I look at it this way: It's human to whine. It's healthy to vent. Whining in person follows a push model; the person being whined at either has to sit through it, which is not fun and somewhat stressful, or tell the other person to quit whining, which will probably hurt their feelings. On the other hand, whining in a blog follows a pull model; if you don't want to hear my whining, you can stop reading. Simple as that.
So no, I'm not going to stop whining here. And it'd be great if more people started blogging. It'd save us all a lot of push model whine time.
This post brought to you by the three posts immediately preceding, which were nothing but whine.
05:05 PM | Blog/Website:Rant/Whine| Comments (2)
Soquel Demo Forest
Finally rode SDF yesterday, with a little bonus jaunt into Nisene Marks on the ride in. I was bummed that I had to leave Val's birthday party so early, though. I got there, gave Val her present, everyone else got there, and then I had to leave. I'd hoped to start riding later in the day, but I guess Aaron's friends had to get back in time for something in the early evening. Finding several free hours in four people's schedules, not easy.
I was pretty apprehensive about the ride going in. I haven't ridden on dirt since my race at Sea Otter; I pulled my right glute midway through the race, completed the race despite the pull, and it still hasn't healed yet. That, and after much gushing by more than one person about how difficult (or painful, depending on the person) SDF is and how I really shouldn't ride there, I'd crossed that park off (the top of) my list. And now, suddenly, it was on my schedule, before I really felt ready to pedal up a dirt trail. How the hell was I going to ride this thing? I seriously thought I wasn't going to make it out of there intact.
But I went anyway. I didn't want to, but I went. I don't know why. I rode slowly; after a month off I was unaccustomed to dirt, and I really didn't want to push too hard and worsen my injury. I think that killed our schedule quite a bit; sorry Aaron's friends about our late return. On the upside, I didn't eat it, but on the downside, I tried to push up a really short stretch of trail and immediately felt a twinge. Suck!! At least we were at the top of the first climb by then.
The downhill (on the least difficult of the trails so I wouldn't die) was not bad. I suppose it'd have been more fun if I hadn't taken a month off the mountain bike. I did at least learn that it's bad to brake when your wheels are off the ground, since they pretty much stop and skid/jar a bit when they land. There were a few fun looking things there that I detoured around; my goal was simply to do the ride and go home in one piece. To that end, I was successful.
The ride back up to the car took forever, partly because I was even slower than before. I eventually locked out my suspension and just mashed up the steeper parts; mashing doesn't hurt the glute, except if I try to come off the saddle on the injured leg. I'm glad it wasn't so steep that I would have had to sit to maintain traction.
Made it back to the car, stopped at the Summit Store for drinks, and headed home. It was good to get my dirt legs back (I finally felt comfortable on dirt at the end of the final stretch), but boy, that was one uninspired ride.
Woke up this morning to glute pain and once again last minute bailed on the hockey clinic I'd wanted to go to. I think that officially makes me a flake. Boo, me, boo.
04:12 PM | Mountain| Comments (0)
May 16, 2008 / Friday
Project Management
It's not my cup of tea.
My boss is on vacation for a good portion of May, and I'm helping out with some of her projects while she's gone.* For the most part, this means project management. After spending this past week coordinating, organizing, communicating, etc., the projects seem to be moving along just fine, but I feel like I've gotten nothing done. I feel like I've just spent a week doing busywork. Blech.
I look at the past week and I think, where's the code? What new functionality can I show for it? What bugs have I fixed? I have no new code, no new features, and I haven't directly improved any part of the product. I've gathered, facilitated, reminded, delegated... and I haven't enjoyed any of it. Not one bit.
I'm looking forward to handing the coordination, facilitation, and uncooperative slacker beatdowns back to my boss when she comes back so I can go back to creating stuff.
* As much as I'd love for her to give herself a real break and not work while on vacation, she's actually still working from a full continent, ocean, and sea away. Ironically, it's making my new temporary job more difficult because we end up with repeat directives to people from different directions. That, and it makes me feel like she doesn't think I can get what needs to be done, done. Either trust me to do it, or don't tell me to do it at all. (That said, I do think it's more a matter of not being able to let go than not trusting me, but still, the two are related.)
03:02 PM | | Comments (1)
May 15, 2008 / Thursday
Cancer Donation
Let it be known that I will never ride for AIDS or walk for cancer.* Why? Because I don't like AIDS and cancer. Why should I do anything for them? Would I ride, walk, or run to raise money for AIDS or cancer research, or to support those afflicted with these diseases? Absolutely. But geez, people, your lazy grammar makes it sound like you're supporting the very thing you're working to cure! No, I won't give you money until you get it right!
So, Safeway checkers, quit asking me to "donate money to breast cancer." And PLEASE don't ask me what the checker tonight said to the lady in front of me: "Would you like to make a cancer donation?" I sure hope she doesn't have any to donate.
The next checker to ask me properly will (1) surprise the hell out of me and (2) elicit a donation.
* To be clear, since I'm complaining about people not being clear, I'm not opposed to the events themselves, but just the lazy way its supporters and participants incorrectly describe them.
11:03 PM | Rant/Whine| Comments (0)
May 14, 2008 / Wednesday
For Real This Time
I lowered my score! I really did! By more than a point! Same course as last time (and the time before that, and the time before that), but I scored a 51 this time. (52 if I count my one do-over, which I guess I should for consistency, but that's still way better than last week's 59.)
What changed? I went to the range this week to get my (back) swing right again. I've also come up with my latest reasonably sized list of things to keep in mind at the tee: (1) head still/eye on the ball, (2) relax, and (3) swing through the ball. My coworkers added: (4) don't worry about looking funny. Apparently, they agree with Aaron's observation that my swing looks funny, but they do think that it looks less funny that it did before I took my class. They think it has to do with hockey. I think it has to do with me. In any case, it doesn't really matter how funny it looks, as long as it works.
Focus, be patient, relax, etc. When do I get to go back to try to break 50? *bounces impatiently*
May 11, 2008 / Sunday
I'll Chug An AMP To That!
08:51 PM | | Comments (5)
Hungry Half-Century
Can you say BONK? How about Major BONK? I set out to ride my usual easy ~35 mile Portola Loop and wound up tacking on an extra 15 miles plus a climb up Alpine Road. The good news is I did this because my knees felt great. (The glute still hurts, but screw it, I'm sick of babying it.) Unfortunately, I needed more food than usual and was hungry the entire ride. Total food consumed: two GUs, one mini Luna bar, and a soy latte from Peet's. The latte was too little, too late. The last 10 miles were torture, but I made myself ride them because I wanted the mileage. Final stats: 50 miles and 2041 feet of climbing. Alpine Road was super pretty. I feel like crap now, but it was totally worth it. ;)
Made myself a blackberry lassi when I got home. Now it's time for a hot shower. I'm so bonked I can't even keep myself warm. Brr...
• • •
Back from my shower. A couple other notes:
My HRM is working again. I did a final test to decide whether to send it in to Polar for repairs and it magically started behaving. Why am I not surprised?
I was so low on heat I lost circulation to my fingers. They were numb and white. I stood under the hot water and swung my arms until my fingers looked normal again, then did it twice more because they kept draining back to white. I think they're finally okay now. And to think last weekend I was having trouble with too much blood going to my fingers. Hello? Circulation control? Where'd you go?
May 10, 2008 / Saturday
Different, But Same
Played the Las Positas 9-hole for the 3rd time on Friday and left with yet another 59. My putting was much better, but I could not hit the ball to save my life. I attribute that to too much thinking on the backswing, which I tried to change on Thursday after Aaron said it looked like I was doing it wrong. My change was disastrous and I tried to change it back, but didn't quite succeed.
I guess this means more time at the range for me. Speaking of which, I noticed that I was blowing through cash a lot faster than usual. (I try to put everything on my credit cards so I can keep a lazy eye my spending via the monthly balance.) Where was all my cash going? Into the range ball machines.
Fore!
Teh Suck, That Was Me
Oh my, I'm out of shape. Two weeks of not much more than golf, tennis, and ice cream will do that to you, I guess. I had no ice legs and no stick handling today. It was ugly. I would very much like to not feel this crappy at my next game. Thus, I'm getting off my fat ass (really, it feels larger today than it did two weeks ago) and back on the bicycles. More riding, more lifting, more skating, more activities that require more than just walking and swinging at a little white ball. Tennis is good, but there's not enough time to play competitively when I'm just out hitting with my coworkers. In any case, I quite dislike sucking, so I'd better do something about it.
We outshot the other team 25-22, but lost 2-5. They scored less than a minute into the game, and racked up their 5 goals in only 12 shots. Ouch.
10:07 PM | Lollerskates| Comments (0)
May 08, 2008 / Thursday
Tennis Basics
It's been interesting, working out the rust. I don't look like a n00b out there; I look very obviously rusty. My swings have decent form, but bad timing. I have the right idea behind my shots, but can't quite execute. It's amazing how many simple things I have to relearn.
The biggest thing is that I can't expect to be able to do what I used to. Last week, I figured out that I had to hit everything at partial strength; full strength would just launch the ball over the baseline. Patience, me, patience.
Last Saturday, after watching me rip a bunch of backhands into the net, Carolyn noted that my racquet face was closed. Well, whaddaya know, I was aiming the ball into the net. Go figure. Too much racquet turn getting into the backhand grip. I opened the racquet face up a bit and all of a sudden the ball started landing in the court. Thanks, Carolyn!
Today, after about half an hour of hitting with my coworker, I figured out that I should be making contact with the ball ahead of my body on ground strokes. Suddenly, my forehands had more pace, spin, and accuracy. Now, to get the timing and footwork down so I can actually hit the ball when it's in the right place.
I have to keep reminding myself to keep my eye on the ball. I'm particularly bad about it at the net, which more often than not leads to pathetic volleys. It's sad, really, given how much I loved volleying. I hope to love it again someday.
I'm glad I'm actually using my impulse buy tennis racquet. :)
11:46 PM | | Comments (2)
May 07, 2008 / Wednesday
Back To Basics
At the driving range today (I've been to way more driving ranges than hockey rinks lately, sigh), I was working hard at hitting the ball consistently and failing. What was my problem? I ran though the big long list of things I'd learned. Did I need to relax? Was I standing the correct distance away from the ball? Was my grip not correct? What was it, what was it?
Then I overheard a really really good player coaching someone nearby. "Look at my head," he said as he demonstrated his back swing, "it doesn't move." I looked at his head. He held it so still through the entire back swing that not a single hair moved. I know because I was focusing on the spikey gelled tips.
Amazing! I was inspired. I guess when they say to keep your eye on the ball they mean for you to do it with your head in the same place. I focused on doing just that, and whaddaya know, it worked! I hit every ball solidly after that.
So screw the big list. I'll take it one item at a time. Head still. Eye on ball. Darn, that's two items. Okay, then, two items at a time. Head Still. Eye on ball. Rinse. Repeat.
Inconsiderate Thoughts About Inconsiderate People
I heard about a motorcycle accident on the radio this morning, and I thought, "Oh no," followed by, "I hope it's one of those inconsiderate rev-happy assholes with the Harleys across the street."
Those of you who don't follow me on Twitter probably don't know what I'm talking about. Let me fill you in. There's a house full of quality people just a stone's throw from my apartment. Every morning around 7:45 and 8:00, a couple of them leave for work on their Harleys. They start the bike, rev the bike, set off car alarms, and then take off at full throttle. The first Harley serves as a grating alarm; the second as an equally grating snooze alarm. Sometimes, when they come home on their Harleys in the middle of the night, they like to announce their return to all of us with a few revs in the driveway. And in the summertime, they enjoy driveway gatherings with friends where they listen to music from their Harley radios. They're quite generous about sharing their music with the rest of the neighborhood. Quality people, yes they are.
Anyway, back to my reaction to the news report this morning.
My third thought was, "Gosh, what a terrible thought," followed by, "I hope I never cause anyone to think something like that about me."
It was that fourth thought that prompted me to write this post. If you ever find yourself wishing some sort of horrible fate upon me (getting run over by a lane striper, being swallowed by a Super Mario grouper, ending up on the underside of a giant meteor, getting abducted by aliens, etc.), it means I'm doing something really wrong, and you should definitely tell me. I'll fix it, or try hard to. And if I don't, it probably means you're too late, and I've already been abducted (and replaced) by aliens.
Maybe the aliens are on their way, after thought number two above. I hope they're the bug-eyed green kind and not the birth-out-of-your-abdomen-screaming kind.
09:17 AM | Rant/Whine| Comments (2)
May 05, 2008 / Monday
Mission Peak
I finally did Mission Peak, but not on a bike as I'd expected. I made it up there on my feet. My feet! And why? Because Aaron had this crazy idea about hiking up Mt. Whitney this summer. He went as far as to get a permit to do so, and that permit date (July 2nd) is rapidly approaching. We need to hike more, and NOW.
This crazy idea has been something of a boon to my gear addiction. It was the perfect excuse for a sweet technical day pack (Gregory Z30) and a pair of nifty ultralight hiking poles (Leki Thermolite). This crazy idea has been a boon to REI, too.
I haven't tried out the backpack yet, but I did take my new poles on today's hike. I'd wondered whether they would do more harm than good (after all, it's more weight to carry), but I really do love them on the uphills. It definitely keeps my legs fresher and helps me keep a nice rhythm and pace. They keep me from getting bored and walking slooowly, too. (Yes, I find hiking boring. No wheels, no edges, yawwwn.) The jury's out on whether I like them going downhill; I didn't have a chance to figure out how to use them in that direction since I let Aaron borrow them. He hates downhills, and seemed to find the poles helpful. I'll count that as a yay up and down.
The hike up took 75 minutes, which included time for me to complain about being hungry and then stop to eat. It was moderate to steepish, boring but short enough to be over quickly. The poles helped a ton on the extra steep section just before the summit; I just scrambled up on all fours. Up top, it was incredibly windy. And cold. And windy. Waah.
On the way back down, we encountered a bunch of cows. They were eating. Some of them pooped. Some of them mooed. I tried to take a picture of a pooping cow but failed. Just as well; Aaron thought that pooping cow pictures would sully his camera anyhow.
Near the bottom of the hill, I noticed that my fingers were plump (plump for me, at least). It was difficult to make a tight fist (is this how people with really fat hands feel?), and the fleshy pad on the final joint was puffed up, which reminded me of alien fingers. Just color me green! I think I'll use my poles on the next descent; it'll keep my arms from swinging and my fingers from getting fat.
I'm reading up on the Whitney climb. It doesn't look too bad, except for the fact that the peak is at 14,505 feet. My legs burn just walking my snowboard to the ski lift line in Tahoe; hiking up a mountain at an even higher altitude is going to be interesting.
May 02, 2008 / Friday
I Lowered My Score!
After six weeks of golf lessons and range practice, I finally got a chance to try out my new skills on the course. I headed back to Las Positas with a coworker at lunch today. This is where I last played before starting the lessons. Did the lessons lower my score? Yes. By how much? One point.
Um, yeah. One point. But it was a much different round than last time. Instead of tumbling the ball down the fairway, I actually got good lift on the ball a decent number of times. So what did me in, then?
1. Brain overload. I have so many points and tips to keep straight in my head now that it's hard to remember to do it all. This unfortunately resulted in my lifting during the swing, hitting the top of the ball, and watching it tumble forward a few feet. Now repeat that a bunch of times. What a waste of strokes!
2. Not enough focus. Boy, does that do a number on putting.
3. Actually being able to lift the ball. While that's much prettier than tumbling the ball down the fairway, it also means that if I hit the ball too hard or aim it wrong it lands way out of position. Also, I'm realizing that I'm more prone to losing balls now that I can knock them every which way. I'd better go buy a pack of cheapies. I can't tell the difference between those and more quality balls yet anyhow.
It wasn't all bad, though. After all, I *did* lower my score; 59 is 2x par minus THREE! That's a new low. Also, for the first time, I finished every hole in under 10 shots. Hey, it's all about the small victories.
I quite enjoyed being out on a course after so many weeks of range practice. There's a lot more to think about given the layout and hazards. On the 8th hole there was a steep sand trap in front of the green, and after much debate I actually selected the right club to clear the bunker, land on the green, and remain in place after landing. *petselfonhead*
Speaking of clubs, I totally dig the new 7-wood. It launches balls straight and high. Best $20 7-wood ever! I didn't have a chance to play much with the 9-wood; I'll have to spend some time at the range to get a better feel for how much distance I get with them.
Used the sand wedge once; got out on the first try. Nice job, pretty bronze club!
The Instructor Grip is now my default grip, and as she'd suggested, it eliminated the wicked slice I'd started to develop. Aside from one minor slice off the tee and a 5-iron hooked fairway shot onto adjacent airport grounds, everything flew nice and straight. That is, if you factor out aiming deficiencies and inability to launch.
I'm totally going for a 58 next time. ;)
May 01, 2008 / Thursday
Way Cheaper Than A Hockey Stick
"I need a 7-wood," I said yesterday to my coworker, "and I don't want to pay a bazillion dollars for it."
I paused, and then exclaimed, "I bet Craiglist has just the club for me!"
I opened a browser window, navigated to Craigslist, and did a search for "7-wood". Up came the results: "Nike T40 7 and 9 Wood - $50 (dublin / pleasanton / livermore)"
Ooh, a 9-wood. I bet I need one of those, too. And look, it's close by!
It took more coordination than I thought was necessary, but a little over 24 hours later I am $40 poorer and two fairway woods richer. I can't wait to try them out.
• • •
On a related note, I finally picked up a sand wedge on Tuesday. It's pretty and bronze. :)
