Our first ultralight trip

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Sunrise on Tinkham Peak from Mirror Lake

Sunrise on Tinkham Peak from Mirror Lake

In May when Catherine and I were in Portland she brought up the idea of maybe doing some backpacking again but trying to go ultralight instead of dealing with the heavy gear we had before.  We went to REI down there and it just so happened they were having a huge sale the next day and there is no sales tax in OR so we jumped in and bought gear.   Finally yesterday we got a chance to use it for real aside from setting up the tent in the backyard and lighting the stove just to be sure we could do it.

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Cougar Mountain 5k

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photo by Takao Suzuki

photo by Takao Suzuki

It had been a few months since I’d run an event but I started running again lightly a few weeks ago and decided it was time to get back with my tribe and do an event.  The Cougar Series had already started and I wasn’t up for 8.2 miles so I signed up for the new 5k option which was mainly for beginning trail runners to get acquainted with the sport but heck, Eric Bone was running it too so I knew there would be a few of us who were not newbies.

The day was perfect, temps in the 50s at the start and the trails were in great shape since we’ve had no rain to speak of.  I opted to run in my Luna Sandals since it was such a nice day and I knew the 5k loop was pretty mellow with only 350′ of gain.  I toed the start line so I could stay ahead of a lot of the new runners and hopefully not have to pass on the single track at all.  We started and a few of us took off fast, Eric was cruising from the start like Flash.  The run started down the road and I was pretty much immediately in 5th place overall and ended up staying there.  I lost track of Eric before the single track turn-off but could still see everyone else in front of me make the turn.

The loop was easy enough, some single track, some road.  I got passed by a few of the longer distance fast runners but by no one doing the 5k.  On downhills I’d occasionally hear someone getting closer to me but then on the uphill I’d gain distance again.  I picked it up when there was about 1/2 mile to go but then realized I’d picked it up a bit early when I got to the real final stretch but I was able to keep going at that pace.   Crossed the finish in 26:59 officially, my watch showed 26:44 so I’m not sure what that was about.   Kept an 8:30 pace which is pretty good for me on a trail run, that was my old half marathon road pace when I was 20 years younger.  5th overall, and 2nd in my age group.    Eric, by the way, ran a course record of 19:44.  The Lunas did great, glad I chose to run in them and it was good to be back out there on the trails.    Next up, Rattlesnake 5-mile on next Saturday.   I originally was hoping to do the half there but there is no way I’m up for that climb yet.

Portland Paleo II

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I just cannot stay away from Portland, it is the only town where I can go out and eat without any worry about my crazy diet.   This last weekend I was down for the SIBO Symposium with my doctor and some SIBO friends and got to check out a new restaurant and a few old favorites from our last visit.

Departure Re-dux

IMG_6985On Friday night three of us walked downtown to go to Departure since it was a beautiful day and sitting out on the terrace just seemed like the thing to do. It was either that or go wait in line at Ox and hope we got in before we starved.    We ordered a LOT of food, tables full of food.  We ate for 2 hours non-stop.  It was great.  I think, if I remember correctly we ended up ordering:

 

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SIBO Symposium recap

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SIBO_Sympsoium_200What a weekend.   I got back last night from several days attending the SIBO Symposium in Portland and crashed hard all night after a few nights of too little sleep, too much sitting,  a ton of information and a lot of good food and fun times with friends.   I’m going to try and summarize what I learned and how it applies to my case in particular.

On Friday my local ND Christine Bowen,  my friend and fellow blogger Shari (sibobreakup.blogspot.com) and I did the drive down to Portland to start the adventure.  There we met a few friends from Facebook who were also attending the symposium.  We all stayed at the very funky Jupiter Hotel, the only hotel I’ve been in so far that gives you a free condom on your bedside table.

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“No evidence of demyelinating lesions”

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Good words to wake up to in email this morning.   I had my MRI on Thursday and the results are already in, no sign of MS.   It looks like all this weird arm/shoulder stuff could be cervical cord compression which makes sense given the state of my neck.  I’ll know more on Friday when I go in and discuss this but was just very glad to find out that I definitively do NOT have MS.  Huge relief.

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The Zen of shooting

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7978733_origI know that seems like a weird title but today I found out how shooting really is an act of Zen.  I went for another shotgun lesson at Seattle Trap & Skeet Club today with ClayBrakn shooting instructor Frank Neumayer since I knew I needed to become a better shot before fall rolls around and I’m back out in the field after birds.  On our last outing in March I sucked at clays but ended up doing OK on birds because my instincts took over.

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Stopping anti-microbials, focusing on motility

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After my test on last Friday which showed I had dropped to the lowest levels yet in my SIBO journey I met with Dr. Keller yesterday morning to discuss what to do next.   We started out reviewing my results and asking about my symptoms.  In general, most days my symptoms are way down.  Compared to last year at this time I’m 95% better, able to eat more, and have very few symptoms.  I had even eaten a bunch of semi-illegal food over the weekend in Portland, probably even getting glutened by accident on Sunday night, and felt fine.   In fact, I walked all over creation, ate restaurant food and managed to gain weight!    Hearing this she thought maybe it was time to lay off the anti-microbial herbs instead of beating this thing to death over the last few points on the graph.

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Portland Paleo

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IMG_6817Another great trip to Portland full of incredible Paleo food yet again.  This place amazes me, it is the only city I feel totally comfortable traveling to without worrying about what I can or can’t eat, it beats Seattle hands down for food options.   In February we ate at The Imperial, the restaurant of Top Chef 3rd place finisher Doug Adams, which was one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten and at Cultured Caveman which was good old Paleo comfort food.  This time we added a few other places to our list.

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Still have it after 20 months

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sibo_tests

My high numbers on all 8SIBO tests for the last 16 months

I had my 8th SIBO test yesterday at the SIBO Center in Portland while we are down here for a long weekend.  The good news – my numbers are down even lower than the test in February, in fact the lowest they have been during this whole strange trip I’ve been on.  The bad news – I’m still positive for SIBO.  I only have 7 points to go on methane to get to a true negative test at this point.   The frustrating thing is that I just did a protocol for 8 weeks that was shown to clear SIBO in 85% of cases and all it did for me was take a few points off each of my methane and hydrogen levels.

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