outdoors as identity? not really.

The first time I did Whitney, I didn't really get nervous about it. 

I was just kind of...on Warrior Cats Forums and listening to T-Swift until we got out of the car. I mean, I don't think the internet was that good, but I was at least trying. 

Then we hiked, I ate a crapload of food, got back down to the car, went back online. On the RP: "sorry I was gone all day, was on a hike to the top of a mountain!" then back in business. 

Then we got some pizza I think? 

IDK. It wasn't a big deal. I've always been an anxious person, but I did not worry about Whitney. 

But in Utah, there's a ton of outdoors-as-identity types that have basically caused me to overthink it so badly. You've got to be THE HIKER, THE OUTDOORSMAN, and I'm just...not. 

Sure, I can be described as outdoorsy. Outdoorsy nerd is an archetype and it's probably one of mine. But I think of myself as: Writer, artist, developer, IT guy, gamer, musician, engineer, coaster enthusiast, multi-fandom nerd. I also love to run and lift, and hiking is good as some cross-training, plus it's just something my family loves to do so why not? 

When I was 18, I was completely fine, and I'm actually in even better shape now - objectively - than I was back then. So, there is nothing really to worry about. 

Anyway, back to work (since I am doing 4-10s, this schedule is NOT for me long-term though, holy hell I do not like it) and then back to the nerd-life. Not much about it has changed, except I'm on Reddit in addition to forums, and I am slightly more organized. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dream jobs list

Image
In addition to Research Engineering, this: Is exactly what I want to do, if I don't decide to bridge next into cybersecurity or embedded. I would just work here and never leave until my writing took off. Or even just not leave even when it does.  Fully remote and at the intersection of tech, math, code, physics, and art. Also, I use Adobe's software on a daily basis.  If by a miracle I got an interview, well -- I'd be studying out the wazoo for it. 
Read more

Hobble Creek Half: The slow passage of time marches us towards our inevitable death

Image
or, how I almost died alone in a Honey Bucket porta potty (to be fair, if you are not alone in there that is kind of weird) and lost 3/4 of a summer Saturday and 1/4 of Sunday to dying in various toilets but at least got my Elite 100 medal hell yeah See, I couldn't PR because I had to finish in 6:21 pace. For the memes! * So, in June I ran the Timp Half. No issues. 1:23:55. Course PR. I slowed down after the initial smooth downhill out of the canyon, as designed. I felt a calf cramp coming on, so I slowed down just a tad, was fine, and didn't have to plod my way to the finish line. Runtastic Events always does a great job.  Then on Saturday I ran the Hobble Creek Half in 1:23:09 (so 7 seconds off my PR) and almost died. In fact, I am currently still dealing with the after effects of whatever just happened to my body.  Let us see exactly how the wheels came off:  It was BREAKFAST. Yeah, I screwed that up.  What I had: * 180 mg Crystal Light Energy * 1/4 Bucked Up...
Read more

St. George Marathon: 3:08, but at what cost? 💩 (TMI alert)

Image
I don't know who's carrying the boats, but I'm carrying the logs. 💩💩 This was my second full marathon, having run St. George last year in 3:34. I only tapered for a week and I never stopped lifting except for the day before. I knew I was capable of going much faster than 3:34 overall and that's what I set out to do this round.  This training cycle peaked at 62mpw and had a lot of lifting, but not as much as I'd like. Usually I did 1 speed workout per week and maybe threw in 1-2 fast miles for my long runs with the rest at fairly comfortable conversation pace. My longest training run was 22 miles.  We drove down Friday (I took the day off work and slept 9 hours, hallelujah.) Saturday, probably slept 6.5-6.75 hours, but woke up a LOT. I did core in the morning for about 5-10 minutes just to get the system up and running and also vanity. I wore my favorite Big Cottonwood 2025 tee with my Revel bib clips.  The start line was freezing. I did manage to work on all of my...
Read more