Monday, December 11, 2006
Running for the week of 3/12
Date - Scheduled - Actual
9/12/06 - 3.00mi - 3.00mi
8/12/06 - 0.00mi - 0.00mi
7/12/06 - 4.00mi - 5.00mi sprints
6/12/06 - 3.00mi - 3.00mi
5/12/06 - 4.00mi - 5.00mi
4/12/06 - 0.00mi - 0.00mi
3/12/06 - 6.00mi - 5.50mi
Week Totals - 20.0mi - 21.5mi
Year Total (since Nov 1) - 72.25mi
9/12/06 - 3.00mi - 3.00mi
8/12/06 - 0.00mi - 0.00mi
7/12/06 - 4.00mi - 5.00mi sprints
6/12/06 - 3.00mi - 3.00mi
5/12/06 - 4.00mi - 5.00mi
4/12/06 - 0.00mi - 0.00mi
3/12/06 - 6.00mi - 5.50mi
Week Totals - 20.0mi - 21.5mi
Year Total (since Nov 1) - 72.25mi
Thursday, December 07, 2006
The Grampians
As I said earlier, I needed to get outside and take a walk through the trees. So, I had a plan to go over to the Grampians west of the city to do some hiking and get relax a bit. A couple problems with this plan - A) I was exhausted from the week and I went to the pub Friday night, which caused me to get out of the city a little later than I would have liked and B) I had no idea where I was going. My thinking was that I was heading towards the mountains, they have to have trails, and there are information buildings everywhere and signs and whatever else I need.
I did have a map, although a very general one, and an idea of what the area is like. So, I drove down the Western Highway, past Ballarat, and into Ararat where I grabbed some lunch (yes it was that late) and gas. Ararat is a pretty big town for being in the middle of nowhere and not having much around it aside from the Grampians.
Next, I drove a back road to Hall's Gap, which was a pretty small town. There was a sign for some falls so I took a quick right heading up a mountain and quickly realized that I was in the middle of a recent bushfire. All of the trees were black from burning but the forest was very green from all of the vegetation that had started to come back. I found the trail that led to the falls but it was closed because of what the fire had done to it.
I drove further down the road and stopped at a huge information center where I bought a hiking book that I hope will come in handy in the near future. My next stop was at another waterfall but the trail for this one was open. I met some people from New Zealand on the trail, they pointed out a lizard to me but shared in my frustration of not seeing a wild kangaroo. We also talked about traveling and they gave me some places to go in New Zealand. We went our separate directions and I found the falls, which were strange because the there was no river or pond at the bottom (see pics on link), the water went into the ground and then became a river further downhill.
It was a long drive and I constantly see signs that say to watch out for kangaroos or koalas or whatever but I still never see anything no matter how hard I look - a sheep can look a lot like a hunched over kangaroo out of the corner of your eye when you're hopeful. But I passed a sign that said to watch out for the kangaroos and emus - now your talking. The mountains were on my right and fields were to my left and I was going a bit fast to see anything but off in the distance and through the trees I saw it and said, "that was an emu". I turned the car around and went back, he was far away and I didn't get a really good picture but it was certainly an emu. The only problem? It was on the other side of a fence. But there weren't any others that I could see and it didn't seem to be an emu farm. There was also a sign nearby that said treefarm but I can't be sure if it was wild so I gave myself half a point.
I got out of the mountains and back into farmland - mostly cows and sheep - the trees on the farms are amazing, I think I could take a picture of every tree in Australia because they are all so different and bend in every direction. I started hitting small towns, in one a guy on a 4-wheeler was herding sheep across the road in front of me. And I noticed in one town a small stone church that seemed a bit too expensive for such a small congregation but it was a nice church. Then I noticed other towns had the same thing so I took pictures of a couple of them. They were very interesting and if I knew how to take good pictures I could make a hobby out of taking pictures of small town churches and Australian trees - certainly not wild kangaroos because they obviously don't exist.
For pictures see link below:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=s8e95zp.bv6k0yx9&Uy=3j328w&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=365107020026_338993492109
I did have a map, although a very general one, and an idea of what the area is like. So, I drove down the Western Highway, past Ballarat, and into Ararat where I grabbed some lunch (yes it was that late) and gas. Ararat is a pretty big town for being in the middle of nowhere and not having much around it aside from the Grampians.
Next, I drove a back road to Hall's Gap, which was a pretty small town. There was a sign for some falls so I took a quick right heading up a mountain and quickly realized that I was in the middle of a recent bushfire. All of the trees were black from burning but the forest was very green from all of the vegetation that had started to come back. I found the trail that led to the falls but it was closed because of what the fire had done to it.
I drove further down the road and stopped at a huge information center where I bought a hiking book that I hope will come in handy in the near future. My next stop was at another waterfall but the trail for this one was open. I met some people from New Zealand on the trail, they pointed out a lizard to me but shared in my frustration of not seeing a wild kangaroo. We also talked about traveling and they gave me some places to go in New Zealand. We went our separate directions and I found the falls, which were strange because the there was no river or pond at the bottom (see pics on link), the water went into the ground and then became a river further downhill.
It was a long drive and I constantly see signs that say to watch out for kangaroos or koalas or whatever but I still never see anything no matter how hard I look - a sheep can look a lot like a hunched over kangaroo out of the corner of your eye when you're hopeful. But I passed a sign that said to watch out for the kangaroos and emus - now your talking. The mountains were on my right and fields were to my left and I was going a bit fast to see anything but off in the distance and through the trees I saw it and said, "that was an emu". I turned the car around and went back, he was far away and I didn't get a really good picture but it was certainly an emu. The only problem? It was on the other side of a fence. But there weren't any others that I could see and it didn't seem to be an emu farm. There was also a sign nearby that said treefarm but I can't be sure if it was wild so I gave myself half a point.
I got out of the mountains and back into farmland - mostly cows and sheep - the trees on the farms are amazing, I think I could take a picture of every tree in Australia because they are all so different and bend in every direction. I started hitting small towns, in one a guy on a 4-wheeler was herding sheep across the road in front of me. And I noticed in one town a small stone church that seemed a bit too expensive for such a small congregation but it was a nice church. Then I noticed other towns had the same thing so I took pictures of a couple of them. They were very interesting and if I knew how to take good pictures I could make a hobby out of taking pictures of small town churches and Australian trees - certainly not wild kangaroos because they obviously don't exist.
For pictures see link below:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=s8e95zp.bv6k0yx9&Uy=3j328w&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=365107020026_338993492109
Monday, December 04, 2006
Running for the week of 26/11
Date - Scheduled - Actual
2/12/06 - 3.00mi - 0.00mi
1/12/06 - 0.00mi - 0.00mi
30/11/06 - 3.75mi - 0.00mi
29/11/06 - 3.00mi - 0.00mi
28/11/06 - 0.00mi - 0.00mi
27/11/06 - 3.75mi - 3.75.00mi
26/11/06 - 3.00mi - 3.00mi
Week Totals - 16.5mi - 6.75mi
Year Total (since Nov 1) - 48.75mi
It was a rough week due to moving and work was just horrible but I'll get back in it this week when I go for 20. I'm already on my way with a 5.5mi run yesterday.
2/12/06 - 3.00mi - 0.00mi
1/12/06 - 0.00mi - 0.00mi
30/11/06 - 3.75mi - 0.00mi
29/11/06 - 3.00mi - 0.00mi
28/11/06 - 0.00mi - 0.00mi
27/11/06 - 3.75mi - 3.75.00mi
26/11/06 - 3.00mi - 3.00mi
Week Totals - 16.5mi - 6.75mi
Year Total (since Nov 1) - 48.75mi
It was a rough week due to moving and work was just horrible but I'll get back in it this week when I go for 20. I'm already on my way with a 5.5mi run yesterday.
I want money, hoes, sex and weed
Last Friday I had to take a trip to BFE Australia to find the closest FedEx pick-up office - actually it was only about 25km west of the city but you run out of city real quick once you cross the river and it was surrounded by what I guess is farmland but it was very brown and very wide open and could be described as a whole lot of nothing. While driving through the "metropolis" of Deer Park I saw a beat up car next to me (Honda maybe) with a huge sticker across the back window in six inch high letters that said "THUG LIFE". This made me laugh out loud but after some thought I came up with three possibilities of why this was on this guy's car:
A) This dude's a poser.
B) There's some sort of underground gang world in Deer Park and he wanted to advertize that he was a part of it.
But, really, I think the answer is:
C) I found TuPac!!!
Then I was thinking that maybe I'd run into Biggie down her but then realized that, obviously, he'd be on the other coast, probably on some cattle ranch outside of Perth or something.
A) This dude's a poser.
B) There's some sort of underground gang world in Deer Park and he wanted to advertize that he was a part of it.
But, really, I think the answer is:
C) I found TuPac!!!
Then I was thinking that maybe I'd run into Biggie down her but then realized that, obviously, he'd be on the other coast, probably on some cattle ranch outside of Perth or something.
