Having a dog makes you more of an adult. Right?

In an effort to feel more like real adults the Yellow Skirt and I  got a dog. I assume some, if not all of you already know this, and have seen her introduction of Franklin. I thought he deserved some time on my blog as well, seeing as he is now taking up a good chunk of time in my life. 

@ Carousel dog park

@ Stroud Water Research Center (research field sites)

@ the Farmhouse (my office)

Here

Franklin has been a welcome addition everywhere he's been. Although I have to say that on our shorter-ish training runs (8 miles or less) the first 5 or 6 miles he tries to take the lead which results in a good deal of leash-tugging and heel-yelling. Someday he'll get it, but for now we're glad he's happy to run with us. Here's a little video I took on a cross training day out on the MTB on our favorite trail to run on:

Here

Canadian Light Source

I spent this past week in the blooming metropolis of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (say that 10 times fast, go ahead) working at the Canadian Light Source with a couple colleagues of mine. It's one of 42 synchrotron facilities in the world, and a great resource if you manage to get your proposal for time on a beam line accepted. For those not familiar with synchrotrons, they are basically huge rings that have particles injected into them and these particles are then accelerated to near the speed of light using nifty magnets. Because the particles are going so fast, and by a law of physics, they off-shoot very bright light (x-rays). This bright light is very useful for chemical analysis - like what we were doing.

We analyzed some soil samples from part of the Christina River Basin Critical Zone Observatory project that we are currently working on. We took the samples, mounted them onto silica wafers, and then shot them with the radiation. There are some special sensors there which give you information on the chemistry of the soil on a molecular scale that tells you what kind of elements are in the soil. We were looking at carbon and iron, specifically. The analyses that we performed were C(1) NEXAFS and STXM, and they both gave some cool, interesting results. It was cool to use STXM for the first time, because it allows you to image a single particle of soil (that's pretty tiny). I know this sounds exceptionally thrilling, and that's because IT IS!

Being out of town meant 3 things: 1) I would miss the Yellow Skirt, 2) I would eat out for every meal, and 3) I would critique the town I was in. So here are the results from #3: Saskatoon is quite pretty, with the Saskatoon River flowing through the middle of town. There is a great trail system (Meewasin) that gets a lot of use, that runs along the river. I used the trail as a refuge from the lab and a place to keep up on my marathon training. On my 7 mile run, a senior citizen blew past me - she had to be 55+ and weighed in at all of 90 lbs, but she left me to eat her dust. I was significantly humbled in my running ability. 

Finally, my impressions of Canada are as follow:

1. The scientists and staff at CLS were great to work with, and the facilities were exceptional.
2. Tim Horton's is a big deal there - I don't get it. They don't accept Visa and their bagels were awful.
3. Pandora, the internet radio station, is blocked in Canada - 2 thumbs down.
4. They use debit machines everywhere - including bringing them to your table at restaurants. It weirded me out, but I can see the merit. 
5. Instead of merging left, like you do here in the good ol' USA, you squeeze left. Crazy Canucks.

And I haven't ridden my bike in almost 2 weeks, I hope I remember how. 

No Mountains Mountain Biking

Ever since we made the move to the east coast in May, I have been waging a war within myself. The battles have been between two sides, mostly. One of the sides is the side I have known for quite some time - the side that likes to go out on two wheels, find singletrack, get lost, get muddy, and get happy. The other side is the side I don't know as well, although I have been forming strong ties to it as of late - the side that prefers skinny tires to fat, single-file to singletrack, and shaved to hairy.

The fact is that the mountain biking in Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania just isn't as good as it is in Utah. Doesn't take a skilled deductive logician to figure that one out. I mean, there are no mountains. And that which the locals refer to as mountains are foothills at best with no scenic vistas to renew the soul and invigorate the burning calves after a long climb. Nope. None of that. What you see when you mountain bike at my new local trails are trees, and lots of them. Don't get me wrong, I am all-for trees and all of their oxygen-producting photosynthesis, but riding through a never-ending supply of maples doesn't have the same impact on me as seeing the majestic limestone face of Mt Timpanogos or the anticline of Provo canyon. Not to mention these trails range from sea level to 500 ft above it, not exactly topographically thrilling.

So to combat the boredom my first few months of mountain biking brought, I turned to the skinny tires. I have to say, I am impressed! Now, the roads out here are a mess - but a beautiful mess. The twist and turn and wind and bend, taking you through fields and forests and covered bridges and along side rivers, streams, the Chesapeake, and even the Atlantic. Again, for the most part the roads stay pretty flat and work in some rolling hills, but if you ride long enough you can claim some good climbs.

Road biking here in the mid-Atlantic is winning me over. But I never set out to be a roadie. I only bought my road bike to train for mountain biking when the trails were too wet or snow-covered. Thus the war within - do I give in and shave my legs, thereby becoming a self-proclaimed road cyclist? Or do I push through it and try to find the good in the "mountain" biking around my new dwelling place? I'm not quite ready to give up mountain biking, and I don't think I'm quite ready to bust out the smooth legs yet either (at least partly because I kind of like how the wind feels blowing through my long leg hairs). So I guess I will keep doing both, and the war will wage on, maybe even lasting a decade or more - but who would want to stay in a war for that long?

So, for now, I will keep riding skinny and fat tires, and just try to find more places like this one, that I rode through at Fairhill Natural Resource Management Area in Maryland on Monday. Not a bad view, not a bad ride.