CrossRoads Blog

I was thinking the other that it is amazing how in such a relatively short time, ‘getting out to the dirt and rock’ (i.e. trail running) has become such a huge part of my life. This was emphasized recently when I jacked my ankle but good, and could barely walk let alone trail run. For those who did not know – I decided one day I needed a change of pace from my normal running tracks at Thunderbird Park. So I headed over to Piestewa Peak. While it is a little busy, it is the perfect trail run for a downhill thrill, and one heck of a challenge to sputter up the thing. It’s only about 1.2 miles to the summit but has a 1200 foot elevation gain in that distance. The trail is pretty much all rock and quite narrow. However, you can pass someone so long as each person takes a side.

I had a good run up the hill. I would say half a ‘chug run’ and half power hike. Then was the fun part, an all out hump it - crazy man - run down. Sadly no sooner than maybe sixty seconds into the run down and an older gentleman decides to jump sideways as I was passing. This caused me to try to avoid landing all over him and I was forced to change mid stride. Next thing you know, he is apologizing big time and I am watching my ankle, or more like my whole lower leg, swell three sizes before my eyes. Worst, I was still one mile and one thousand feet above the car. I think it took me 45 minutes to get down from that spot versus the six or seven it should have. I spent the next few days doing the RICE method, using crutches and reading on the net everything I could on rehabilitation in the fastest time.

So this whole experience made me miss some days where I could not trail run, run at the gym etc. and I can’t tell you how frustrating it has been. I mean, heck, I have only been doing this for about a year but man-o-man has it become a big deal. I need it, like an addiction I think. I need that part of the day where you can plug in the headset, step into the heat, get sweaty and forget about everything else for an hour.

So, needless to say I will do everything I can to get back as fast as I can – push it, but not over do it that it cost more time. I need to be ready to run in the Komen at least with Kimberly. In addition to the regular runs, I will miss a couple of events that I had planned on doing.

That’s about it…. Just wanted to share my surprise really of how much things can change in one year. What was not even on my radar 14 months ago, is now something I am losing my mind because I can’t do…..

By Kimberly

The dance troupe that I am a member of, The Desert Flowers, were asked to dance at a party for Olympic gold medal winner Henry Cejudo. Henry is a wrestler that grew up mostly here in the Phoenix area and has a pretty cool story. The event was on September 14th and held at the new Westgate Mall’s Bar Louie.

The whole evening was setup as a fund raiser for Henry. His family is not well off and the focus was to help cover some of the expenses for the trips to China for all. Although the set up for our dance location within the Westgate Center was a bit strange - it is still always fun dancing with the girls. It was also nice to meet Henry who seemed like a very nice young man.

The troupe has several upcoming events. I will not be able to do all of them, but keep an eye our for our schedule and come see us sometime….

So I finally had a chance to test for my new belt at my Tae Kwon Do (Cho’s). I passed and I am now officially an Orange Belt. I like it much better than the old Yellow Belt as it seems a little more ummm.. manly. I had of course missed the last chance I could have tested as we were in Michigan for the Summer vacation. Because the next testing was 3 months down the road, this meant I had to basically keep focused on the same curriculum for those additional months. This is all fine as you can always improve on what you are doing, but I was for sure ready to move on to some new material.

It was a good testing for everyone. Kimberly took a bunch of pictures, including the one of me here. I had to use this one for the blog because I was quite impressed when I saw it. Not a bad leg kick for an old man there huh….?

Just back from the ‘Third Annual’ Vegas Bellydance trip. This year ended up being pretty relaxed and easily the most mellow of them all, which is probably a good thing. Kimberly was a little under the weather the whole time, and the event was at a smaller hotel so I think this all lead to the more subdued path.

We headed up a couple of days early. We had gotten some screaming deal offers from the Hotels (one good thing about a bad economy I guess) and so we stayed pretty much free at MGM the first couple of nights and then moved over to the hotel where the Bellydance events were located (umm… not quite the MGM by the way). The trip plan was to have a chilled out few days hanging at the pool and relaxing, get a couple of runs in on the Strip, have some good meals, and enjoy the Bellydance events.

When we arrived we found out it was Restaurant Week in Vegas which was way cool. Basically every top-end restaurant sets a price fixed menu for three or four courses and the funds go to charity. The net is you can eat at some of the best places for about half price. We were going to take advantage of this several nights, but ended up doing it only once, at Sea Blue. One of the main reasons is I had also wanted to get in a Rao’s dinner and they were not part of the event. So from a Vegas dining perspective this trip: Sea Blue was disappointing overall though parts of the experience were really enjoyable. Rao’s is as good as we remembered, and we got into one of ‘the rooms’. We had some amazing Sushi at a new place called Sushi Samba, and the best chocolate both of us have ever had is at Payard (across of Rao’s in Caesar’s Palace).

As we have been talking about, everywhere we go now we like to get a ‘run around the city’ in. For sure when in Vegas this means you have to take a run down the Strip. It was pretty cool, Kimberly and I threw on the iPods and ran from the MGM down to The Wynn and looped back. Lot’s of zigging, people watching and cool views - a great run. I liked it so much I did it (and then some) the next two days while she was at her bellydance classes. One day was one of my longest runs to date, darn near two hours straight.

We did get out ‘clubbing’ with Kimberly’s Troupe friends one night to ‘The Bank’ in Bellagio. But with Kimberly not feeling her best, and all a little tired from the long day, we called it a fairly early night. Most of the rest of the trip was hanging out at the pool and walking around (typical Vegas).