One of my good friends from Hobart was married near Boston this past weekend. Dan & Nadia's wedding was gorgeous. Set in a pastoral New England town and blessed with perfect weather, the ceremony was a great escape with friends we miss. We used every moment of the weekend to catch up with our friends and Sarah's family. 3 days is never enough and we're looking forward to a longer return trip in August. Save me some chowda till then!
CrossFit SW Regionals
I don't know how, but somehow I made the team. The gym Sarah and I belong to, Crossfit Works, put together a team of trainers and members to compete in the Affiliate Cup of the 2010 CrossFit Games. This Regional competition would determine which individuals and teams will go on to compete in the Games.
Our region includes Arizona and Southern California. If you know 1 thing about CrossFit, know that SoCal is the birthplace of CrossFit and there are some powerhouses that come out of there.
The teams had to be 4-6 people and have at least 2 men and 2 women. Our team consisted of 4 of the CF Works trainers (Jenny, Kate, Andres, & Mateo) and 2 members (Summer and I). We didn't have a lot of time to train together, but we all were excited to go hard and have fun.
The event was held at UC Irvine, a palmtree covered campus in Orange County. There were more Crossfitters in that athletic complex than I've ever seen before and it was awesome!
We competed in 3 workouts. We had fun, held our own, and finished midway in the field of 80 teams there to compete. Not bad considering some of the teams have been competeing together for years!
Here are some photos of the weekend.
Our region includes Arizona and Southern California. If you know 1 thing about CrossFit, know that SoCal is the birthplace of CrossFit and there are some powerhouses that come out of there.
The teams had to be 4-6 people and have at least 2 men and 2 women. Our team consisted of 4 of the CF Works trainers (Jenny, Kate, Andres, & Mateo) and 2 members (Summer and I). We didn't have a lot of time to train together, but we all were excited to go hard and have fun.
The event was held at UC Irvine, a palmtree covered campus in Orange County. There were more Crossfitters in that athletic complex than I've ever seen before and it was awesome!
We competed in 3 workouts. We had fun, held our own, and finished midway in the field of 80 teams there to compete. Not bad considering some of the teams have been competeing together for years!
Here are some photos of the weekend.
Trevor's Excellent Adventure Visit
My former college roomie, former post-college roomie, fraternity bro, beer-brewer, avid builder of all things, and good ol'buddy Trevor came out to visit. He even brought some home-brew beer with him. What a pal!
We had a blast hangin out. Burren loved him. She even left teeth marks as a sign of her affection (shes a puppy, its ok) How those healing by-the-way Tev?
Well first off, there is a massive rock promontory between Tucson and Phoenix. We had to climb that. Couple of hours, no problem. Here are some photos.
Next up we headed Southeast to the Dragoon Mts and Cochise Stronghold. The rocky outcrop served as the 15 year hide-out of Apache chief Cochise and his tribe. Today the area is a fantastic camping and rock climbing mecca. So thats what we did. Burren loved it too.
I never saw the Pauly Shore movie "Biodome", but now I've been to biodome, or in this case the Biosphere. Its run by the U of A for science experiments in climate change, agriculture, and terra farming. I think Trev and I agree that it is an engineering marvel.
When Sarah and I were planning our move to Tucson, Grandpa told me that there is a huge airplane graveyard here. Boy, is he right! There are over 4,000 planes in the "boneyard". Some are repurposed, some are dismantled and sold for parts or scrap metal. There are even more in the Pima Air & Space Museum that have been restored. For Trev and I, it was like meeting some of the characters from Top Gun.
Finger Rock is a familiar skyline feature of the Catalina Mts north of Tucson. The "finger" is around 6,500' in elevation and it's about an 8 mile roundtrip. We started at 3,000', and finished somewhere over 7,000'. It's a big steep climb that took our breath and gave us some great views.
The last outdoor adventure session of Trev's visit was an afternoon of sport climbing at hairpin turn.
Last but not least, we had fun taking Trevor out to some of Tucson's best Mexican eateries and more interesting watering holes! It was a great visit and I miss hanging out with my buddy. Till next time amigo!
We had a blast hangin out. Burren loved him. She even left teeth marks as a sign of her affection (shes a puppy, its ok) How those healing by-the-way Tev?
Well first off, there is a massive rock promontory between Tucson and Phoenix. We had to climb that. Couple of hours, no problem. Here are some photos.
Next up we headed Southeast to the Dragoon Mts and Cochise Stronghold. The rocky outcrop served as the 15 year hide-out of Apache chief Cochise and his tribe. Today the area is a fantastic camping and rock climbing mecca. So thats what we did. Burren loved it too.
I never saw the Pauly Shore movie "Biodome", but now I've been to biodome, or in this case the Biosphere. Its run by the U of A for science experiments in climate change, agriculture, and terra farming. I think Trev and I agree that it is an engineering marvel.
When Sarah and I were planning our move to Tucson, Grandpa told me that there is a huge airplane graveyard here. Boy, is he right! There are over 4,000 planes in the "boneyard". Some are repurposed, some are dismantled and sold for parts or scrap metal. There are even more in the Pima Air & Space Museum that have been restored. For Trev and I, it was like meeting some of the characters from Top Gun.
Finger Rock is a familiar skyline feature of the Catalina Mts north of Tucson. The "finger" is around 6,500' in elevation and it's about an 8 mile roundtrip. We started at 3,000', and finished somewhere over 7,000'. It's a big steep climb that took our breath and gave us some great views.
The last outdoor adventure session of Trev's visit was an afternoon of sport climbing at hairpin turn.
Last but not least, we had fun taking Trevor out to some of Tucson's best Mexican eateries and more interesting watering holes! It was a great visit and I miss hanging out with my buddy. Till next time amigo!
Easter, Hiking & A Big Missile
My parents came to visit Sarah and I for Easter. We packed in a lot of fun. Here is the short version :)
We hiked in Sabino Canyon looking for geocaches, actually finding a cool recipe travel-bug!
We visited the Buses for Easter, the biggest Gillio/Bus family gathering in awhile, we really missed Phil & Kathleen & Grandpa & Grace!
We hiked halfway up Mt. Wrightson, around 1200' elevation gain!
We visited the last Titan Missile in existence, and Mom turned the key and pushed the button that could have started WWIII thus ending the world!
We saw Second City perform, and true to form we had front row seats and I was chosen to have a song performed about me!
And of course we had some wonderful meals! All of which I seem to have been too excited to eat because I didn't take any photos.
Thanks for coming to visit and the great times Mom & Dad. We love & miss you!
Joining the Circus?
Last Saturday Sarah and I spent our afternoon goofing around with a bunch of our fellow crossfitters. Our gym (Crossfit Works) rented a few hours of workout time at Gymnastics World in Tucson and we had a blast!
The skilled instructors led us through a long warm-up with stretching, tumbling, cartwheeling, jumping, and generally throwing ourselves around like 10 year olds :)
After the warm-up we were allowed to try any equipment we liked in the gym. Sarah headed right for the super-bouncy trampoline. She developed a mini workout of sorts and then moved on to some aerial stunts. Most of which (I apologize) were not captured on film. All of them were pretty sweet though!
I went swinging on the rings and then the bar. Below where I'm swinging there is a deep pit filled with foam cubes to absorb falls you take while attempting flips and whatnot. The fall into the pit was quite fun too!
Almost everyone spent some time learning the mechanics of hand springs, and while only two or so of our group actually landed any we all had a lot of laughs while trying!
The experience was a great rare treat. I think we were all sore in new places for the next few days:) Thank you to our coach Jenn for organizing the outing!
The skilled instructors led us through a long warm-up with stretching, tumbling, cartwheeling, jumping, and generally throwing ourselves around like 10 year olds :)
After the warm-up we were allowed to try any equipment we liked in the gym. Sarah headed right for the super-bouncy trampoline. She developed a mini workout of sorts and then moved on to some aerial stunts. Most of which (I apologize) were not captured on film. All of them were pretty sweet though!
I went swinging on the rings and then the bar. Below where I'm swinging there is a deep pit filled with foam cubes to absorb falls you take while attempting flips and whatnot. The fall into the pit was quite fun too!
Almost everyone spent some time learning the mechanics of hand springs, and while only two or so of our group actually landed any we all had a lot of laughs while trying!
The experience was a great rare treat. I think we were all sore in new places for the next few days:) Thank you to our coach Jenn for organizing the outing!
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