John Lennon - RS 1 (November 9, 1967) How I Won the War Film Still

John Lennon was the first person to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Issue RS 1, dated November 9, 1967, features a film still of John from the Richard Lester film ‘How I Won the War’. In the photo, he’s wearing the military outfit and glasses of the character he played in the movie, Musketeer Gripweed. In the issue, Lennon is interviewed about the filming of ‘How I Won the War’.

As this blog is mainly a training and racing log, I figured I'd just lay the year out in numbers:

-----------------------------------------------
Jan: 252 miles (33,700')
Feb: 189 miles (33,500')
March: 488 miles (70,000')
April: 482.5 miles (72,700')
May: 439 miles (79,500')
June: 334 miles (49,000')
July: 279.5 miles (64,400')
August: 302.5 miles (50,100')
September: 237.5 miles (53,200')
October: 301.5 miles (44,600')
November 373 miles (52,900')
December 418 (52,250')

2010: 4,100 miles (655,850')
Avg: 342 miles (54,654')
-----------------------------------------------

Weekly Mileage and Vertical Gain, Jan to Dec.

42 (2,000')
85 (9,900) – Bandera 100k
40.5 (4,500') – Ghost Town 39 Mile
53.5 (8,100')
53 (9,600') – Trudge 22 Mile
25.5 (4,900')
34 (1,600')
--------------------------------- WS Build
51.5 (7,700')
78 (19,300')
113 (22,700')
100 (10,800') – Salida Marathon
117 (19,600')
100.5 (13,500') – Antelope Island 50k
116 (11,900')
107.5 (20,000')
110 (15,100') – Fruita 50 Mile
108 (18,500')
129 (14,700')
102 (19,600')
75 (15,000)
103 (20,200') – Jemez 50 Mile
116 (21,000')
100 (17,400')
------------------------------------ WS taper
75 (12,200')
52 (5,100')
120 (18,000') - WS 100 Mile
----------------------------------- WS Recovery
16.5 (2,600')
54.5 (15,400')
----------------------------------- Pikes Training
55.5 (11,500') – Barr Trail Mountain Race
80.5 (15,200')
72.5 (19,700') – Speedgoat 50k
91 (16,500')
----------------------------------- Pikes Taper
49 (6,100')
51.5 (11,000') – Pikes Peak Marathon
----------------------------------- Wasatch Training/Pikes Recovery
100 (16,500')
----------------------------------- Wasatch Taper
50 (7,700')
113 (29,000') – Wasatch 100 Mile
----------------------------------- End Season Rest
26.5 (6,100')
41 (8,000')
28 (4,000') – Bacon Strip 10 Mile
50 (6,200') – Silent Trails 10 Mile
---------------------------------- Marathon Build
81 (12,200')
74 (10,800')
86.5 (15,400')
80 (10,000') – Heart Center Half
91.5 (13,200')
102 (15,000')
76 (14,200') – T-Day 4 Mile
100.5 (6,700')
100 (11,500')
67 (10,750') – Stella born
106 (12,700')
---------------------------------------

More Numbers:

655,850 Feet climbed
54,654 Feet climbed per month (average)
12,612 Feet climbed per week (average)
4,100 Miles run
1,797 Feet climbed per day (average)
626 Miles Raced
342 Miles run per month (average)
124 Vertical miles run
78(.8) Miles run per week (average)
40 days off
36 Towers ascents
35 weeks at or above 10,000’ of climbing
26 Horsetooth summits
25 Races
20 Weeks at or above 100 miles
11(.2) Miles run per day (average)
10 weeks above 18,000' climbing
9 wins
8 Hard-top races & 8 ultras
7 Green Mountain summits
6 Races longer than 50k
5 Ultra wins
4 second place finishes
3 Races in Utah
2 Longs Peak summits
1 baby

[Video: A kind of deltaic 3D printer, printing variable landscapes into existence, from Riparian Rap].

I thought I'd end the year with this quick video of some riverine landscape modeling exercises built through the constant back and forth washes and cross-flows of a self-resurfacing deltaic 3D-printer—and then I'll see you in 2011.

(Video spotted via @clasticdetritus).

Since I've been back in Florida for about a week and a half now, I've come to a startling realization - Florida thrift stores are RIDICULOUSLY AWESOME. You'd think that by living in Brooklyn I'd be spoiled by all the secondhand stores that litter lower Manhattan, but nope - not true.  Most of the thrift stores in NYC are overpriced, over-picked, and just sort of sad because I can't afford anything blahhhhh.  In Florida however, the exact opposite is true.  The low cost of living and the elderly population here in FL really makes for an awesome thrift market and I just can't stop buying (and having allergy attacks for that matter, F U dust).  But anyways, because I have already filled my suitcase to the brim, I thought I'd focus my energy on something else and make a new grilled cheese that's inspired by all the vintage and retro things that I've found in the good ole' Sunshine State.

When I was thinking about which ingredients to use, I wanted to pick foods that reminded me of the old days but also were making a reemergence in the hip restaurants of my neighborhood in Williamsburg. So I decided to use kale, beets, and 'shrooms, because let's be honest they're on almost every menu in the 'burg...


Ingredients:
-2 slices of white mountain bread
-1/2 cup of goat cheese
-2 tabs of real salted butter
-2 tbs sauteed kale
-2 tbs sauteed oyster, portabello, shitake mushrooms
-2 tbs diced roasted beets
*I didn't include the exact recipes for the kale and 'shrooms on this post, but feel free to refer to the hyperlinks that I've connected above if you're unfamiliar.*

After you've got all your ingredients ready, go ahead and dice up a few slices of the roasted beets. I only had red on hand, but it would be absolutely beautiful if you had some yellow beets as well. After you've cut them up, stir them in with the goat cheese. I chose this sort of geometric cut because I think it sort of gives a fun vibe and the mixture sort of resembles those old retro jello salad dishes that were so hip in the 60's and 70's.


Once you've got the beets evenly stirred up,  spread the goat cheese and beat mixture evenly onto both of the slices of bread.


Then put a layer of the sauteed mushrooms on top of one of the pieces of bread. I love mushrooms so it was hard to pick just one to use, so I just said eff it and used a mixture of oyster, shitake, and portabello mushrooms and sauteed them in butter with salt and pepper over medium/high heat for about five minutes.


After that, you'll want to put on the kale.  This was my first time cooking kale and it was actually really easy and super delicious.  I basically used a recipe I found on the food network and modified it by chopping up some organic bacon, frying it for a minute, and then drained some of the fat but left a little for the kale to soak up for flavor.  Once the kale was in the bacon grease (I bought a bag of the pre-cut/pre-rinsed stuff), I stirred it up, salted, peppered, and vinegar-ed it, and added some chicken stock, covered it and let it cook down for like 15 minutes, and it turned out really swell!


At this point, all the ingredients of the sandwich have been used so it's time to put on the top piece of bread, OH BOY!


Like some of the grilled cheese's before, this sandwich is pretty big so you'll want to follow the "big grilled cheese rule".  Add a pad of to the pan, start to melt it on medium heat and put the sandwich on top of the melted butter.  Then place another pad of butter on the top of the sandwich to let the heat start to melt it.


Then when it's ready to be flipped (once that pretty golden brown crust develops) you'll want to smear the melted pad of butter that was on the top and flip it carefully.  I didn't have a problem with the ingredients falling out because the goat cheese sort of glued everything together but if you do - just basically reassemble and keep going!


When it's like that on both sides, it's time to take it off the skillet and eat it!


If you're feeling nostalgic for a time that myself and probably most of my readers weren't even alive for where Elvis was the only king that mattered, greasers and screamers were the bee's knees, and a hipster wasn't defined by riding a fixie or for one's taste for Pabst Blue Ribbon then this is the perfect treat for you!

xoxo,

GCS

Stereotype Helsinki wishes you a happy new year with a grandiose 9 hour playlist of the best tracks of the year.



The playlist consists of 129 tunes from the best albums of the year and beyond and the track order is lovingly organised with care.



It's calm, it's wild, it's fun, it's sad, it's big, it's small.

It's lush and delicate, it's energetic and raw, it's warm and it's cold.



But most of all we hope it feels as good to you as it feels to us.



Listen to the best tracks of the year below or listen and subscribe to the playlist with Spotify.



Photoart by Christopher Schreck.

Yesterday was the 20th Towers session of the year, so to cap of a great season on the hill, we set out to conquer the infamous beer mile. Traditionally done on a track, we figured it would be much more exciting and generally more hardcore if we did it on the Fort Collins Trail Runners' track: The Big Hill.

The route went from the Nomad intersection to the Loggers intersection, which according to various GPS devices is exactly, or just a touch over a mile with 700 feet of vertical climb. To add to the general epicness of the event, we received our first real snow dump of the year in the 24 hours prior, and it was still coming down as the silliness got underway, oh and the thermometers were reading a chilly 10 degrees.


There were three race divisions among the 10 assembled runners: men, women, relay. Competing in the boys' race were myself, Pete (who had been playing up his drinking prowess for weeks), Alex, Slusher, and Bryan; in the girls' race Celeste, being the only entrant appeared to be the odds on favorite; while in the relay, the remaining girls (Marie Helene, Mary, Ean and Jennifer) would run the course together taking turns on the beer-consumption aspect of the race.

Beers were placed at quarter mile intervals up the hill, and a finish line was marked off in the snow at the Loggers signpost. At the top, Pete described the quarter mile penalty lap (a further quarter mile of running up the hill) that would be mandatory for anyone who blew chunks.

From the gun, Pete managed to live up to his pre-race talk by getting his first beer down a good ten seconds before Alex and I. By the quarter mile mark, I had pulled within five seconds of Pete, who appeared to be in a spot of early trouble. Despite some thunderous belches, I was finding that the beers were going down well, and that the running-with-a-gut-full-of-beer part was actually not too bad. I out-drank Pete by a landslide on beer number two, and headed out for the halfway point with a clear lead.

Official photographer, Mindy, was manning the third aid station (with perhaps the brightest headlight known to man), and she had an appetizing line-up of beers on offer. I was probably halfway done with my penultimate beer by the time the second bead of light appeared on the scene. To mine and Mindy's surprise, it was Alex, not Pete, followed soon after by Slusher. There was chatter of rainbow arcs and snow tigers at the second aid: Pete was clearly in trouble.

With the third beer down and a big lead, it was just a question of keeping the frothy mess down during the big half-mile climb to the finish. Ean was at the final beer station, camera in hand, and let me tell you that last beer was a true pleasure. As I was finishing up my 48th ounze of frothy Coors nastiness, Alex pulled in with what looked like a commanding lock on second.

Belching all the way, I crossed the Loggers finish line with my lunch intact in a standard-setting 18:25. Alex crossed in 19:50, breaking the 20 minute mark comfortably. Third overall, in perhaps the most impressive performance of the night, was Celeste who had posted a strong back half to overtake her husband Slusher between beer three and four.

Indeed Slusher ended up being edged out by Bryan for fourth in an exciting slow-motion sprint for the finish. The relay team posted an impressive sixth-place finish and then we all hung around at the top waiting for Pete to finish off his penalty quarter and claim his wooden spoon.

The descent on the cushy carpet of snow, in a semi-inebriated state was quite the ride, and more than a few spills were taken by most.

För första gången på många år blir det ett riktigt lugnt nyårsfirande. Bara vi två (tre) och en trerätters middag. Lite alkoholfri skumpa vid tolvslaget - om jag orkar håla mig vaken tills dess, jag har blivit extremt kvällstrött - och bara mys. Fast vi skippar mysbyxorna, lite fin vill jag ändå känna mig.

Årets sista dag började vi genom att sova riktigt länge. Därefter åt vi frukost och åkte sedan ner för att kolla in sylvesterloppet. Martin hade lite funderingar på att springa, men eftersom vi sov så länge så blev det inget. Jag avundades alla som slirade runt i snön och hejade på Eva som sprang på en supertid! Någon gång ska jag också bli sådär häftigt snabb.

Min nya kompis!

Over the last decade, the use of anchor acronyms has become quite popular. For awhile, it seemed like everybody had a different acronym for the "ideal" anchor. Following are a few examples of anchor acronyms:

RENE

Rumor has it that this term was initially coined by an east coast guide. As I am unable to independently verify the truth of this, I'm going to keep his name out of this blog. In any case, the preceding acronym stands for:

R - Redundant
E - Equalized
N - No
E - Extention

"Redundant" simply means that there is more than one element involved in every aspect of the system. "Equalized" means that the all the weight is evenly distributed. "No Extention" means that if one piece fails, the anchor will not shockload other parts of the system.

John Long's How to Rock Climb series added an element to the acronym. In his books he began to use SRENE. The RENE part remained the same, but he added the "S". This stood for "secure" or "strong." In other words, are all the pieces strong and secure?

The 2008 AMGA Single Pitch Instructor manual added another letter to the acronym. In this recent publication they made the acronym, SERENE. The new "E" stood for "effective;" as in, was the construction of this anchor quick? Was it well-placed? Does it do the job without too much equipment or fuss?

Popular books like Freedom of the Hills, Rock Climbing: Mastering the Basic Skills, and Alpine Climbing: Techniques to Take You Higher have gone a completely different route. Instead of SERENE, they use ERNEST.

E - Equalized
R - Redundant
N - No
E - Extention
S - Secure/Solid
T - Timely

The only real addition to this particular acronym is the "T" for "timely" which could well equate to the "E" for "effective."

When all is said and done, it doesn't really matter which acronym you prefer. It doesn't matter as long as your anchors are RENE, SRENE, SERENE and ERNEST...

--Jason D. Martin

I have mentioned several times that by some crazy twist of fate, I joined Flickr at the beginning of my cookie journey.  It was there that I met some of the most talented, kind, giving, AMAZINGLY gifted people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing, so, for my last post of the year, I thought there would be no better way to end it, than introduce others to the amazing talent that I have had the privelege of learning from and with over the past two years.  These artisans are truly among the best!