First month of 2012 is in the books

Allison climbing "Face Off" (5.12a) at the Overlookfrom BlogPhotos

The week started out a bit frustrating when I discovered my right knee was a bit swollen on Monday morning after an 11 mile fast pavement run Sunday afternoon. Given that, I didn't run all week. So zero miles last week in the running department. But the swelling was gone by Wednesday and it feels fine after 12 miles of running this week so far. The swelling is a symptom of a torn meniscus I know I've had in my right knee since 2007. Not sure where the tear came from but I found out about it after I ran the Hardrock 100 miler in July 2007 and the Leadville 100 three weeks later. By mile 70 of Leadville my knee looked like a cantaloupe. It was a long, slow last 30 miles that night/day. I saw two knee docs after that incident and the first one, Auge, was ready to cut immediately. The second opinion from Dr. Lubowitz of Taos Ortho was more conservative and I went with that. I took it easy for a month or so and hadn't had any issues with my knee since. So I'm hopeful my increased mileage and hard, fast pavement running was the impetus this time and it won't recur any time soon. We'll see. Otherwise, a standard week at work and home. Wednesday was a day to celebrate at work when we completed the migration of all employee email accounts from our cyrus servers to the Exchange servers! Wednesday night was a fun night of bouldering at the SF climbing center. Friday night Allison and I watched Ides of March and found it to be an excellent movie. I had no idea what it was about going into it so it was a complete surprise. Saturday morning enjoyed the unseasonably nice weather with some rock climbing at the Overlook before going home to wait for a new mattress delivery between the hours of 2 and 5pm (that didn't show up until 6:30pm!) It was worth the wait though and we're digging the new mattress.

Nat on "Thorazine Dream" (5.11+)"

Sunday was another fun day of rock climbing at Diablo Canyon near Santa Fe. I'm in full-on projecting mode of "Clovis Hunter" a very cool 5.12b in the Solar Cave there. I gave it three attempts on Sunday falling once above the most difficult crux. And it was a shit-show full of entertaining value for the onlookers. I was trying to clip high on the fifth clip and fumbled with the clip like a complete noobie climber. It must have looked way sketchy for the crowd. Embarrassing. But I gave it 100 percent each time and really enjoyed the climbing. The biggest news is that Allison and I purchased airfare to Spain for two weeks at the start of April. We're psyched! Going to be tourists and check out the new sport climbing mecca of northern Spain. Way excited! Now to work out the rest of the logistics for the trip. Got any suggestions?