I have been living in Portland for just about a year now. One of the big draws of Portland was how close it was to Mount Hood and we envisioned heading to this place every weekend. In reality we didn’t even go once the entire year. I wanted to start the year off differently though and celebrate it with a snow boarding trip. Despite the cost and the fear of it being extremely crowded given the fresh snow and weekend it turned out to be fantastic.

All the pictures taken for this post were made with my iphone. While I would have loved to have used my DSLR there, some times the best camera is the one you have with you. I use an app called AutoStitch which creates a panorama from a bunch of pictures. Most of the panoramas that I take use anywhere from three to nine pictures.

My girlfriend and I learned how to board together a few years ago. We go very sporadicly, so every time it feels like we have to learn the basics over again. By the time we are finish we feel like we know what we are doing but then the process repeats itself.

We don’t own a 4wd vehicle so we used a bus service to get to Mount Hood. This involves parking our car some place, then sleeping on the bus for 2 hours while the driver deals with parking and the snow. Once there we rented the boards and boots.

On my very first run my worst fear happened: I had no idea how to interpret the route signs and some how stumbled upon a run that was way above my level. I quickly lost momentum and found myself surrounded by trees in fresh, deep snow. When I tried to move myself I would sink into the snow. The weather was absolutely perfect though and I didn’t really care. At one point I found myself at the top of a very steep hill that looked very dangerous. I butt slid around and eventually realized that I was surrounded by similar tracks. Apparently I wasn’t the only person to recently be in the same situation. Eventually I pushed and hiked my way through the snow until I got to a clear hill and was on my way again.

After spending some time around the newbie coarse I eventually became more comfortable riding the snow board and decided to make my way up the mountain. After taking the above picture I was entranced by the beauty of the mountain, only to realize shortly afterwards that I was no longer holding my glove. I glanced over my shoulder just as it hit the snow. I spent the rest of the trip trying to memorize a route to my glove and planning how the heck I would get down there without my glove. I opted to use my inner fleece as a glove (which worked horribly) and had to make frequent stops to warm my hand. Shortly before reaching it though another boarder had picked it up and deposited it at the entrance. Thanks man!

Despite worrying about my glove I couldn’t help but snap the above panorama at Cascade Express.

Throughout the day I couldn’t help but appreciate just how lucky I was to be where I was - perfect weather and snow, tearing down a beautiful mountain. It was an amazing way to celebrate the end of an awesome year and the beginning of a new one.

I was actually confused this morning when I looked at my scale. I was expecting to see 161 or 162 and hadn’t expected to lose that last pound for another few days. Coming back from my last trip where I was consistently hovering just barely over 170 - loseit kept predicting my completion date as getting ever closer to the end of the year. This made me think more and more than it was unreasonable to lose 30 pounds in the time frame I wanted.

This past week I have had only one thing in mind with regards to my diet - eat whatever I wanted to as long as I was under budget. Loseit lists ice-cream as one of my favorite foods. This shows me that a large part of losing weight is really about managing how much you eat.

For the first few months I ran and exercised like a mad man, which made me feel great. Then when I was injured I didn’t have the luxury of knowing that I would be able to eat those 400-600 more calories thanks to my run. Loading up on calories can be incredibly easy - a bag of chips, some ice-cream, eating out. Bam - you just consumed more calories than your body can burn. So the important thing for me was learning to manage my portions and how much I ate.

Now comes another challenge - not putting it all back on again.

My ankle is beginning to feel good enough to run on again and I am starting to do more body weight exercises. I no doubt lost some muscle over the last year and half where I didn’t lift consistently so a part of me wants to try and put that back on.

For now though I am thrilled to be going into the New Year knowing that I was able to actually accomplish a weight loss goal.

Those last 10 pounds took quite a bit longer than the first. Because of this I almost feel like I have lost some perspective on how big a change it was for me. My self image increased drastically going from 180-170. The first 10 were rewarding but I couldn’t really see the difference, with these last 10 it is much more apparent.

I now have a BMI below 24.2, which means I am now at normal weight.

It was actually towards the end of October that I saw hints of being this low. After major runs or tennis I would be in the low 170s. I figured with the way I was going I would be in the 160s in no time. Then a couple of weeks ago (to this day) I did something really dumb and ran on a strained ankle. Two weeks later and that ankle is still hurting because of it. Then I went on a near week long business trip that really tested my dieting resolve. Mid-way through that I caught a cold - which I have spent the week fighting off. So the last couple of weeks have put a major damper on my weight loss. I would guess the last 3-4 pounds that I have lost have been exclusively because of dieting, which is odd to me because I have relied so much on exercising for the first 16 pounds.

Today means I only have 8.8 pounds to go before I reach my goal of getting to 160. That number looks way smaller than 20 did a month and a half ago but it looks huge when you consider that I will be attempting it by New Years - especially during the holidays.

Part of my motivation for doing it before the New Year is so that I will be able to go into the new year knowing that I am already at a good weight. So instead of having to make yet another New Year’s resolution of having to lose weight I can make something else - like putting weight on (muscle), or even just maintaining my weight.

Knowing how hard it was to lose these last 10 pounds makes me question if it is even possible to lose another before the year ends with Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up. We’ll see how well that goes.

I was in Montreal for the past week to attend Unite 2010.

This is the first time that I have traveled to Canada, so add one more country to the list of new countries I have visited this year.

Montreal felt very European to me with its architecture and cobble stone streets. This contrasted greatly with the people who lived there. At one moment I could be sitting next to a group of people speaking perfect English as they discussed video games, then in the next I would be surrounded by people who only spoke French.

I am not used to being so well treated on a company trip. I am used to sharing cheap motels with co-workers as we tested how many we can pile in a single room. For this trip each of us were setup in 4 star hotels in the middle of Old Town Montreal, just a block away from the [Notre-Dame Basilica of

Overall Montreal was a beautiful city with nice people and great food I just wish I didn’t get sick mid-trip and was able to appreciate it more.

The Gorge is absolutely stunning right now. The water levels are high and the trees are filled with oranges and yellows. If you can find a dry enough day as I was lucky enough to this weekend then you need to do yourself a favor and make your way out there before all the color disappears.

This was my first hike in my Vibram Five Finger Trek shoes and it was a breeze. They handled the rocky uphill climb with ease and were still comfortable after I waded into the cold water to get the shots that I wanted.

It was good to see a healthy amount of photographers out with tripods (I counted about ten). I don’t think people realize how much better their waterfall shots will be if they use one as it is nearly impossible to get a sharp shot that has that silky water effect that can only be achieved by having a shot that is exposed for 1-2 seconds. One guy had a $3000 camera and was convinced he didn’t need to use my tripod when I offered it because he felt that his expensive camera would be enough.

Towards the end of our stay in Zurich Switzerland we decided that we wanted to find a good view of the city. The local city information guide recommended that be board a tram and take it up to the zoo.

It was already late in the day and the zoo was closed, so when we arrived there was no one else around. For a moment I was worried that we would be stranded. Around where we were there was no obvious view.

Eventually I struck up the courage to try and ask a local if he had any idea where we might find the view that the guide had referred to. He didn’t speak a bit of English but after a few silly gestures from myself - a huge smile formed on a his face and he knew exactly what we were looking for.

A short walk past a simply amazing field of sunflowers revealed a spectacular view of the city. From there we could see the Alps in the distance as well as the beautiful city in its entirety.

Zurich is a very expensive city to do anything in, but for the price of a tram pass we were treated to a very special view that I feel few tourists are treated to.

Such a beautiful city.

In just over 3 weeks I have made it 1/3rd a way through my goal of losing 30 pounds and weighing 160. I woke up this morning after refueling with my cheat day to weigh 180.

It hasn’t been easy - but it has been fun. During this past month I have logged more miles running than ever before. According to Nike+ I have logged about 20 miles in the past week alone and lowered my 5k time below 30 minutes. Not bad for someone who only recently completed the Couch to 5k program about 10 days ago.

For the next 10 pounds I plan to incorporate more weight training with kettle bells as well as some jiu jitsu training. This past month has been all cardio and I fear that I might plateau if I don’t mix it up.

When I was in high-school I used to run on the cross-country team. It was a way for me to train in the off seasons between baseball and wrestling. Eventually I actually became decent recording my fastest 5k time at around 19 minutes, which translates to about a 6 minute mile pace.

It was never easy and I never enjoyed it.

I remember starting every race without imagining what it would be like to finish it. I simply put one foot in front of the other and kept pace with a buddy until I could see the finish line - then I would sprint across it like a mad man and puke my guts out.

I kept it up a little bit in college but over the years simply gave up on it. I think around 5 years ago I was still able to run at an 8 minute mile pace. Eventually though my knee began to hurt when I ran. Without a doubt my pains are a result of years of playing tennis aggressively. There was a point when I was playing almost daily that I couldn’t imagine there being a ball that I wouldn’t try to track down and return. One day though something clicked and since then there wasn’t a hitting session or run that wouldn’t end with my knee swelling up and me being barely able to walk for a day.

I asked a doctor what could be done. He looked at my knee and determined that there wasn’t anything toren but there was a build up of cartilage that would require surgery to remove. His advice: give up tennis - it simply wasn’t worth going through surgery when my knee was only aggravated when I played tennis.

As you could imagine this didn’t sit well with me - after all tennis is something that I love. It did force me to evaluate what exactly it was about tennis that caused my knee to hurt. My conclusion was that it was caused by the constant pounding, starting and stopping that occurs during tennis - all of which is felt by my knee. Tennis shoes have an immense amount of padding on the heel which only encourages you to drive your foot harder into the ground.

The more my knee hurt that more I hated myself for not running over the years. I missed the days when I used to be able to fly across a field faster than the wind. Now the very thought of it would cause my knee to ache.

My running stride in the past has always been very long. Where each stride I would drive my heel into the ground and bound off of it like a deer. I used to want to replicate the covers of running magazines that I saw when I was a kid. Running shoes by their very nature encourage this type of stride despite how un-natural it is. Try it for yourself - take off your shoes and go run across a field. You will find that you will naturally land on the balls of your feet.

The human foot is the result of hundreds of thousands of years of evolution and yet a couple of decades of marketing by shoe manufacturers have convinced people that it is flawed and that they should be corrected. It was this line of reasoning and the book Born to Run that lead me to buying the craziest looking shoes that I had ever seen - Vibram Five Fingers.

I had put off buying a pair for well over a year. First because they aren’t exactly good looking, and second because I had a perfectly good pair of running shoes. The selection of these expensive running shoes were the result of going to a running store and having my stride recorded and analyzed so that I would have the perfect running shoe for my feet. Compared to any other shoe that I had ever had - running in these felt great. The only problem though is that whenever I ran fast, I would go into my comfortable stride that involved driving my heels into the ground which would lead to my knee hurting and me regretting my decision to run.

The basic point of Vibram Five Finger shoes is to replicate what it is like to be barefooted while still having the excellent traction and durability of a Vibram sole. I went with the KSO (keep stuff out) trek model. Vibram makes a model that is geared specifically towards road running, but I wanted something that I could take on trails while still looking some what inconspicuous. The average VFF has wild colors that I think most VFF enthusiasts appreciate because they love the attention that they bring. I just wanted to be able to run pain free.

It has been about 10 days since I got my pair of VFF. During that time I have logged 21 miles and ran more consistently than I have ever before - or been able to in the past. It feels awesome to wake up and actually want to be able to run again instead of dreading the pain that would follow.

My stride has changed drastically. I have been trying for the past year to run on the balls of my feet, but VFF make it so much easier. Instead of long strides I now take short, quick steps that land below my center of gravity rather than in front of it.

The result of this new way of running is that my stride is way more economical than it used to be and my dropping 5k time is proof of it. I now feel like I can run longer and faster than before. Best of all my knee doesn’t hurt at all after a run or even a weeks worth of runs. I have gone from running on average 15 miles a month at the beginning of the year - all which ended in pain - to over 50 this month alone.

I have years to make up before I will be able to run at the speed that I ran in high-school but thanks to Vibram Five Fingers I feel like it is possible that I will be able to. As an added bonus in the last month I have lost 10 pounds as a result of running again. I still have about 20 pounds more to go until I reach one of my goals of the year of getting down to 160 but thanks to my new found love of running I am feeling lighter and healthier than I have all year.