Yeah, it’s been a few months. Lots has occurred. Some the heaviest of heavy. I don’t mean to minimize any of these things, but I do need to get up to date so this is how it’ll go.

Rebecca’s Dad
On March 28, Rebecca’s father passed away after a long battle with cancer. I was lucky enough to be on the east coast for my donation so I adjusted flights (Gift of Life was great and handled the costs) and rushed up to be with her the day afterward. My first visit to Vermont (nice place, but I digress).

John was a gem of a man. Told a story like no other, loved the heck out of his wife and daughter, and gave the most thoughtful gifts ever (seriously, he had a dude craft me an atlatl). I was very fortunate to be able to spend some time with him during a visit he made to Portland last year. We got familiar and that means a lot. He will be missed and I wish I had more time with him; he was a renaissance man and had a lot to teach.

Work
I was hired full-time. I’d previously been a contractor for near a year. Paid vacation is sweet, but I’m finding the limited amount of it to be less than thrilling (I had A LOT of PTO at my last job).

The new job has been a bit of a blessing. Over the past year I’ve learned more than I did in the previous decade at the old job. Not a knock on my old job, but the cultures were very different; here we’re cutting edge, encouraged and given time to explore, and both lateral and vertical movement exists.

The biggest change has been getting back into coding. I’ve scripted my entire professional career, but it hasn’t been since college that I’ve written real code that is compiled and used for more than one-off things. That real code is Appium mobile test automation written in Java. In addition to coding for my own needs, I’ve gotten very involved in the community via Stackoverflow and am one of the top contributors on the subject. With my coding hands dirty, I’m even jumping into our mobile app codebase to fix minor bugs when it’s convenient. Don’t tell! I’ve also found HackerRank to be a great way to get my chops back.

Early this month we released our app. Nothing you can play with unless you work at one of our customers using Workplace Advisor.

Wedding weekend on Mt. Hood
Spent a weekend at an awesome little AirBnB in Rhododendron. I now want my own awesome little AirBnB (or cabin) in Rhododendron. Got a mountain bike ride in, had a great hike/run on Salmon Butte, and a great time at Zach and Natalie’s wedding at Timberline Lodge.

Road racing
I’ve made a conscious effort to not spread myself too thin this year. I’ve fared mediocrely in the Barton Park Road Race, a PIR circuit race or two, and a Tabor circuit race. I also discovered that my rear tire has been rubbing my frame under load for likely two years or so; certainly hasn’t helped me win anything. I had set a goal of upgrading on the road, but I’m finding I simply don’t have the ability to devote myself to it enough. Not gonna happen. Maybe next year?

Race for Hope
The annual visit to DC occurred again. This time, Rebecca went and we met her mother and step father there for a long weekend of being tourists. I think all had a load of fun. I was able to tour guide pretty well since I’m super familiar with town, but on the other hand I’d never really played tourist so it was a blast to see the city (and I do mean pretty much all of it) from a different perspective.

We had a good turnout for the actual event. 15 or so? We raised $1780 and this was our 8th annual race. Some friends came up from Virginia Beach and some new friend faces joined for the first time so it was great to see all the people.

The race was an interesting one. I’ve been running a bit more than usual (maybe 8 miles a week?) for the whole year, but didn’t get much focus other than plain old miles. I set an arbitrary goal of 6-minute miles (I’d run one such mile all year to verify I had that kind of turnover). At the start line I didn’t spot any clear favorites, but assumed someone would emerge. That didn’t happen. About a mile into the race I found myself in third, right on the leaders. By the 2nd mile, I was feeling incredibly strong and had taken over the lead. Super bizarre to lead a 3000 person event when you’re nobody special. I kept my pace up and it wasn’t until the last quarter mile that I was passed by a 17 year old who was capable of a 17-flat or so (I looked him up – he could have jogged and beat me… or he did). 2nd overall w/ a 5k time of 18:13. Nutty. I had a goal to place really well for Mom one day and this gets me close to achieving that, but with the right people not showing up and a little more speed under me, I think a win before I start to slow down is possible. That’s the new goal.

Of note, this was my fastest 5k as an adult (I throw out high school results because kids are superhuman). I’ve got the bike legs, my running is strong, I REALLY NEED TO DO SOME TRIATHLONS.

Weekend in Sisters
Dad and Karen came to town. I had a mountain bike race scheduled in Bend, but I got sick so we made a vacation weekend out of it instead. Visited Smith Rock, a distillery, rode up McKenzie Pass with Rebecca. A great time and the first time Dad had gotten out to the desert. I think he liked it a lot.

Gift of Life
I still don’t have any updates from my recipient. Apparently her country implemented a new rule that doesn’t allow for updates until six months. I’ll continue to wait.

I also hosted two donor drives (one at work, one with my bike team) and got another 16 people qualified and registered. I’m pretty sure my total number of registerers is now around 30. At that number, there’s a good chance one will become a donor!

Reach the Beach
My team got together to raise over $10k for the Lung Association. We also got to ride from Portland to the beach. I left from home so the total distance was 120mi. Spent the night at a badass house our sponsor provided us, ate a bunch of ice cream, ran up a dune the following morning, and that was that. For being my 2nd longest ride distance ever, it was pretty easy. Team will have that effect.

One year anniversary
Rebecca and I celebrated being together for a year by repeating our first date hike. I’m very grateful for the past year. Rebecca pushes me, pushes herself, we adventure a lot, we communicate incredibly well, we arguably do too much, but overall things are great. It’s been difficult to open myself up to someone new following divorce, but she’s very respectful and understanding of that, and has allowed me the baby steps that I’ve needed.

Biketown
Portland’s bikeshare offered a free month over May. I took advantage of it and despite owning a billion bikes, found it useful. Great for one way trips, great for not caring about where you’re locking your bike up. They also offer a few $1 incentives (parking at a hub that’s in demand or return a bike from outside a hub to a hub) that I took full advantage of. When it came time to buy a membership, I had a bunch of credit saved and they had a $20 off so my first year was basically free. The game is now on to accumulate enough credit to make every subsequent year free. With very little effort, I’ve $8 from June. Multiple that by 12 and I’ve pretty much gotten my free year. Good stuff.

A reader!
Every other year I receive an e-mail from a stranger who read my site and found it useful. That pretty much makes my month.

HI there Iammike,

I was desperate to repair my roomba and found your blog from over 2 years ago. Thank you, I have been on the phone with iRobot few times and they first wanted me to replace the charging station then send the roomba  across country for repair or buy new unit. I followed the compressed air ( my own lungs) instruction and now it seems that is the fix. Thank you- Vic

Ted’s Montana Grill / Denver visit #2 of the year
As has been tradition for a dozen years, we had to get burgers at Ted’s Montana Grill when a coworker left the [former] company. Brian was the last of “the crew” remaining until last fall. Last year we went to Boulder to mourn the rest of us, but this time we chose Denver. Same airport, same easy access, but a different Ted’s. I really wanted Bozeman, but flights were a bit too much for everyone. We got some great hiking in at Mount Galbraith and Staunton Ranch, had a burger and a few beers, and hit up the chalk festival.

McKenzie Frenzy
Every year my team spends a weekend at Paradise Campground to mountain bike the McKenzie River Trail and ride the McKenzie Pass on its last car-free days of the year. I always arrive a day or two before everyone else to get some extra miles in and it worked out pretty well this year as the weekend turned into cold rain, which I bailed for while still getting my miles in.

I didn’t do the pass, but I got that in already this year so no big deal. I did do an out and back on the trail, which turned out to take a heck of a lot longer than expected and a ride I cannot recommend; it’s generally considered a one-way downhill trail and for good reason. The trail creators and nature have made the route down somewhat smooth (there are a few unrideable sections in lava fields), but the other direction is anything but. TONS of walking and since I was alone and had let people know where I was going and when I expected to be back, some folks got worried. It turned out to be a monster ride.

A weekend off
I felt it was worth noting that I did have a weekend at home in the middle of all of this. It was nice.

Mount St. Helens hike
As is now tradition, I led a group up Mount St. Helens on June 20th (two years straight on that date without planning on it). This time we got 29 to the top! We were fortunate to have outstanding weather and great views. There were still some mishaps with folks getting lost, but with an earlier start we had collected everyone by 6:30pm.

Each year I’m learning something new about leading a group up this mountain. In another couple of years I’m going to have it down to a science.

I was able to get up in a really good pace and continue to be eager to do a speed run; based on my pace up the last pitch, I think I could be “competitive.” Soon. Mountains/hiking/running might be my 2019 thing.

Rafting the Arkansas River / Denver visit #3
Two days after climbing the mountain, I made my way to Denver to celebrate Chris’ 40th and tick off our annual canoe/rafting trip.

We spent three days camping on the Arkansas River with some hiking and climbing mixed in. The river has some amazing Class 4 and 5 sections on the final day (if you take the 3-day Mild-2-Wild with AVA). Pine Creek was probably the coolest section of whitewater I’ve ever been on. I would do that day over again a zillion times. The 1st and 2nd days were pretty relaxed and served as training, which is nice to have before getting dumped into the big stuff, but I could have done without them and with doing day #3 three times.

Yes, I did take a swim on an easy Class 4. I wish I could tell you what happened, but I blinked and was in the water. Got back to the boat with the quickness and was pulled out swiftly. No big deal. Luckily, I wasn’t the only swimmer on the weekend. 🙂

We had an amazing guide (Avery) who also happens to be on the US Women’s Rafting Team. Way cool. She’s strong AF and was outstanding throughout the weekend. These raft guides do a heck of a job. My helmet’s off to them.

I hadn’t climbed in many years, but I have been doing a lot of core and upper body work so I felt right at home. Also strong legs… I miss the sport and it may be a focus of my Year of the Mountains, 2019. I love that it’s half physical, half puzzle.

An added bonus to this trip was driving through Leadville. On the way back we took a stroll down the main street, grabbed our first good coffee in many days and a beer. I love that place and can’t wait to spend a week there in just over a month.

Mountain Biking!!!
This is what the year is all about, but I’m going to keep it short for now.

I placed well at Sisters Stampede cutting 7+ minutes off my time from last year, all my training rides have been way faster than last year, I did a single Short Track race in Cat 1 just to gauge things, did not finish last, and now I’m in the shit… A six hour solo race tomorrow, Tahoe in two weeks, and Leadville in six.

I was lucky enough to get a little sponsorship thing from our team sponsor, Bicycleattorney.com, so look for more on my mountain biking, prep, and these races in their own posts soon.