Traveling in Japan was a completely unique experience. Not that we didn’t expect it to be unique, but we simply didn’t quite know what to expect at all. Well, we did expect to like it based on really good reviews from quite a lot of other travelers that had already … Continue reading
This post has been a long time coming and one that Matt and I think about all the time. What have we learned along the way while traveling with a baby? What would we do differently the next time around, or better yet, as we go along? I’m sure we … Continue reading
If you can’t run it, crew it! Crewing for the 2016 UTMB race was a great experience, yet one that I couldn’t find much information on when Matt was preparing for the race this year. I wanted to share information on how we crewed for Matt, what stations we went … Continue reading
Summary: Options: Very few. None in Les Houches and a few in Chamonix with vegan options; nothing strictly vegan Proximity: If staying in Chamonix, the few places offering vegan options are within walking distance Value: Good at Monkey. 11 Euros for a huge falafel wrap and 4 Euros for a … Continue reading
I am more prepared for this race than for any ultra marathon I have ever raced. I’ve run hundreds of miles on the course. I have done race-specific training like never before. I’ve been running with this god-awfully heavy pack of required gear for well over a month now. I’m … Continue reading
Common question. Something that is often on our mind. Something that is rarely talked about. Money and finance. How do we do it? First, this is a topic that I’m really interested in. Second. It is a topic that we think about and are working on constantly. Lastly. It is … Continue reading
-Where did you run? – specific routes or areas Call me lame, I ran the same route both nights we were in Geneva, both times around Lake Geneva. I was also blown away by the place. Perhaps it’s because we had just spent two months in Mexico and Geneva … Continue reading
Why we needed a mailbox solution We’re traveling indefinitely. We’re in our mid-30s with a kid. In the past we often used different friends’ addresses for receiving our mail, an option we’ve never really loved because our friends inevitably had to do work in taking care of our mail for … Continue reading
-Where did you run? – specific routes or areas Retiro Park – Within a half mile of our hotel and a determining factor in which hotel we chose for our two days in Madrid. We’ve run here before and finished a marathon in this area a few years back … Continue reading
-Where did you run? – specific routes or areas Right – In the hotel zone, you’re on a narrow swath of land with only two options, right or left. I went right (toward Cancun city center) on all but one of my runs. This proved to be my favorite of … Continue reading
Book Review: Daniels’ Running Formula by Jack Daniels I know reading books makes my life better. I was recently reminded of this when reading an article about successful entrepreneurs and how much of their days are often spent reading. I am diving into reading again and I’m writing about it … Continue reading
I love a good gear review when it comes to thru-hiking, so I thought it would be worthwhile to compile a list of our gear for our travels thus far, along with why we brought it and how it fits our needs. First, How We Travel With our thru-hiking background, … Continue reading
-Where did you run? – specific routes or areas Parque 2000 – I literally ran here for all 70 miles while in Queretaro. I ran the 4+ kilometers too and from our airbnb place in the central historic district on some of the days and on others we took an … Continue reading
-Where did you run? – specific routes or areas Trails just outside of town. On day one I ran with new friend David on a 5k loop just outside of town. There was minimal climbing, but that was on purpose because he was tapering for a 100k a couple days … Continue reading
Vibe of the city: Bustling nearly all hours, friendly, crowded, some pockets more laid back than others, where there are parks, coffee shops, vegan/vegetarian restaurants, and people strolling along down tree-lined streets. Why did we choose it: We always want to improve our Spanish, we have some connections to Mexico … Continue reading
-Where did you run? – specific routes or areas Chapultepec Park – This place is easy to find. Look on a map of Mexico City and you will see this huge green space on the West side of the city. There are lots of entrances and lots of parts of … Continue reading
Before deciding to go to Mexico City, we repeatedly had the thought, “What will we eat as vegans?” We assumed most street food and restaurants would be off limits and that we’d be doing most of our cooking at home. While we did in fact cook at home a lot, mainly because … Continue reading
First off, what the heck is a baby box? If you want to know the full story, read this, but the short story is that these boxes date back to the 1930’s when Finland’s government gave expectant mothers a cardboard box as a baby starter kit, and the baby could … Continue reading
In packing for an upcoming trip in which we’re trying to take as little as possible for ourselves and for Paavo, I’ve been thinking about what items helped us survive Paavo’s first 3 months of life, and what I’ve come to call my “newborn survival kit.” Before Paavo was born … Continue reading
War is a terrible thing and people fearing for their lives is awful. Last Days in Vietnam captured the feelings of the South Vietnamese during this time period and transmitted their feelings to me via this movie. Their faces were the heart of the story. Fear and desperation were clearly visible. … Continue reading
We finally watched the movie Wild. The inspiring aspect of the movie: I connected with the idea of going for a long walk, an adventure, and the outdoors to create a better life. I have never seen my hiking trips as a means of getting away from something but instead, … Continue reading
The end of the couple’s relationship, watching them both drift from each other and to someone else was the most impactful and meaningful aspect of this movie for me. I felt sad and upset, even though I understood how and why it happened. I wanted someone to be there to … Continue reading
Here are some of the changes/improvements my racing strategies for ultra distance trail races have undergone this past season. It’s a constant game of minimizing suffering, maximizing performance, and setting myself up to get the most from my abilities on race day. I’m sure there will be plenty more changes, … Continue reading
Who doesn’t love a good gear review? Here are my thoughts on most of our big categories of gear after the gauntlet known as the CDT. I haven’t included every little item but rather the stuff people might be interested in getting for themselves, or the stuff that I think … Continue reading
It’s that time again, when we go comparing trails. Now that we’ve at least walked in all the states along the CDT, I would say it’s fair for us to give a little insight to the uniqueness of this trail by comparing it to others. I will probably miss some … Continue reading
What do we eat while living in the mountains for over three months at a time? How do we do the vegan thing while living the trail life? These and more, answered in this final edition of our “Trail Geek Eyes Only” series of CDT trail preparations. As discussed in … Continue reading
A whole new world! That is how we can describe CDT prep relative to all our other hikes when it comes to maps and technology, maps from necessity and technology from personal objectives. Both are new realms for us when it comes to hiking, both areas have required lots of … Continue reading
Another major planning item for our 2013 CDT thru hike has been planning our resupply strategy. We have decided to send ourselves food for the entire trail so we are not reliant on stores along the way for obtaining food. First, we want to make sure we’re eating reasonably healthy … Continue reading
After seven combined thru hikes between the two of us, and countless hours of trail talks about what we would do differently each time, we are now organized and hopefully better prepared. In our little “For Trail Geek Eyes Only” series, we’ll be covering the important CDT planning topics that … Continue reading
Along with some adventure books, I’ve also been reading some popular non-fiction as well and all three of my most recent reads have a tall order in common: tell a convincing, scientifically backed story that is readable for normal people – like me. They each succeed in varying degrees. In … Continue reading
After working with Julie to self publish her two books, Between a Rock and a White Blaze and The Trail Life: How I Loved it, Hated it, and Learned from it, I finally dove in and checked up on some of the competition. Also, after paying seemingly ever-increasing Kindle prices … Continue reading
So, we have kind of a big adventure coming up this summer, the Continental Divide Trail. It’s around 3,100 miles (we’ll get to that in a moment) from Mexico to Canada through the Rockies, passing through the states of New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana. It’s the last jewel … Continue reading
I thought about this post a lot while I was out hiking, as we were constantly evaluating our gear in terms of its functionality and weight, and always talking about ways to get lighter without losing much of that functionality. In the end, I think we could go lighter on … Continue reading
Another reason we hiked the Colorado Trail was to test out a few new resupply strategies. In past hikes, we’ve simply resupplied from stores along the trail rather than send ourselves mail drops, and after resupplying from a gas station for the nth time on the AT last year, we … Continue reading
Sitting in a coffee shop in Boulder, I feel well-removed from the trail even though it’s only been a few days since we finished. I plan on putting up a few posts that are more review-type posts of the trail, our gear, our food and the towns along the way, … Continue reading
I haven’t had any book reviews since sometime back in January during Marathon Madness when we had loads of time on our hands and read a decent amount. But the drought has ended here in Guatemala with two enjoyable stories, one which I have been encouraged to read for a … Continue reading
For anyone reading my book reviews over the past few months, you will notice a general theme in my book selections: I am reading books with themes that fit my current list of Projects. I have read about sailing, running, India, parenting, and hiking. So with this motivation in mind, … Continue reading
After Shantaram and my sailing book, I had somewhat of a reading drought. Julie had the Kindle for over a month reading Shantaram and I wasn’t ready to move on after such an ensnaring story. And then we made it back to Findlay where we have our physical books stored. … Continue reading
Our time on the East Coast has provided me with time to finish off books, most recently, David Seidman’s The Complete Sailor. While there may be an audience for this book, it wasn’t for a novice like me that doesn’t have a boat or isn’t currently on the water taking … Continue reading
Shantaram: A Novel by Gregory David Roberts was both the best novel I’ve read in a long time and the longest novel I’ve read in a long time (942 pages) and I am excited to share my approbation for such a well told story. The story is a first person … Continue reading
With all our time to plan, read, exercise, and relax here in Mexico, it’s now time for Matt’s Book Reviews, #2. The second book, Nurture Shock: New Thinking About Children by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman was a major improvement from my first book on the Kindle and one that … Continue reading
Julie and I are getting so tech-savvy since quitting our jobs. We purchased a smart phone with a cool wi-fi hotspot tethering feature. We purchased this awesome netbook computer that we type all our blog entries on. We bought an awesome Sony Bloggie HD video recorder and camera that only … Continue reading
It is time. I am going to compare my experience thus far of hiking the PCT vs. the AT. Each person that finds out we hiked the PCT always follows up with the question, “How do they compare?” It’s a very good question and one that I answer in my … Continue reading
Early on in the hike, Tatu Jo aptly named us Team Sherpa, because we tended to have big packs and carry lots of stuff. While we did carry a lot of stuff, we trimmed down our packs over time and re-named ourselves Team Sherpa Lite because our packs, while still … Continue reading
