Riding....nope, Running instead

This is me before our 4 mile trail run.

This is Joel before our 4 mile trail run.

Here is The Outdoor Crazies new bike rack and new "beast". My dad and I spent most of Saturday morning adding a hitch and bike rack to the Jeep. Well we also drank some coffee and ate some donuts too. It all worked out and now we have a 4 bike swagman bike rack. Awesome!

J-man before our attempt to mt bike.

These pics were of our attempt to ride. We thought we would try the other section at Allegrippis. But that didn't work. Too slushy and slippery!

Runnin' outta our mine!

This past Saturday was my first race of the year: a very unique 5K run, held in a limestone mine that has been converted into a storage facility for boats and RVs, as well as for the storage and destruction of sensitive documents. No joke. The entire race was held inside the facility, with the finish line located just outside the entrance/ exit tunnel. It was a pretty cool experience, something you won't find pretty much anywhere else. I ran in my VFFs, thinking that the entire course was concrete, as was eluded to on the website. However, about 1/4 mile into the run, we hit shale that didn't stop until the last 1/4 mile. And when I say shale I don't mean nice little pieces like you get on your driveway, I'm talking fist size suckers laying around waiting to a) trip you b) DESTROY your heels or c) trip you. There were a few people who did wipe out, one guy got taken out by a trailer hitch, and a few others by the changing terrain and lack of light to see the holes and divots. Don't think I'm complaining about this, it was to be expected. For heaven's sake we were running in a mine. When I would mention this, most people thought we were nuts because all they pictured was Indiana Jones rolling along beside me in a little mine car. A few of the other runners were smart and wore headlamps which would have definitely helped in discerning the topography in a few areas. They keep the mine at a constant 55 degrees, which was great for us runners to get a break from the thirty degree temps outside! As you can see to the left, little Bobby Fox also ran the race. He has been doing extremely well, bring up his pace and decreasing his overall time. Although this race, due to the slightly more difficult terrain, was not a PR setter. All in all, it was a great run and a very unique experience, bruised feet and all. I somehow managed to sneak by third in my age group, and got a piece of the rock... which is actually an accurate representation of the size of rocks I was talking about earlier. So hopefully we can get a group to go down and run next year. The registration was cut off higher than they originally estimated, but still under 500 for the fact that too many people sucking wind in the mine doesn't leave much breathing room. Sorry I missed the bike ride, looks like it was a blast! Ready for this snow garbage to be over with, I need to get out on the bike again. Cooper's Rock anyone??

The Calm after the Storm

After an 8"-10" snowstorm last night the sun was shining bright, I thought it would be a great day for a trail run and the woods did not disappoint. The snow was a little deep so it turned out to be a really good workout, but the scenery was spectacular. The snow resting on the tree limbs and the quietness of the woods was so relaxing and inspiring that I did a few extra miles. (Just for good measure) If you really want to clear your head and relieve some stress take a long walk or jog or mt. bike ride in the snow. Its the best. Enjoy!! 

Mud and Fun!

With the snow melted and plenty of wind we made our way to Huntingdon County to check out the trails at Alligrippis and we were not disappointed there was just enough mud to make things interesting but not too much that it was hard riding. We rode 14 miles and had a blast, the legs were a little tired by the time we got back to the parking area but the fresh air cleared the mind and burned the lungs. So we had to replentish with a McDonalds sweet tea, OOh its soo good! We took some pictures and video so I put them together so you could see some of the fun we had. We missed Adam today because he had a running race out by Pittsburgh. Hope you enjoy!



Head Over Heels Down the Hill

Joel and I had a good time in the woods today mt. biking. We got some good pics and some video. I am sure J-man will be working on that and you'll see his handy work soon. I think we did 14 miles. We were out for 2.5 hours or so, maybe a little longer. We did stop to take some pics and to just take in the scenery. It was a little muddy but really not as bad as we had expected. I will say, we were dirty when we were done though. I only crashed one time but it was a good one. I was hitting dips and catch some air and on the 3rd or 4th dip I went airborne and landed off the trail. I went down on my right hip, slid about 6 ft or so then went head over heals down the hill a ways. I think I knocked the wind out of myself but after that cleared I was ok. I don't think Joel was on the ground at all today. He was a little more clean than I was. The wind was pretty nasty in the parking lot and when we would crest the mountain top but other than that it wasn't a factor for us. The coldest part of the day was at the car wash in Hollidaysburg. We stopped there on Blair St. to wash our bikes off. They definitely needed it. All and all our 5-6 hour adventure was tons of fun. As we rode home in J-man's Jeep we were planning our event for next week. We are hopping to get a few more guys to go with us. Adam, Cory, this means you.

ALLEGRIPPIS HERE WE COME!!!

J-man and I are heading to Raystown at 10:00am. I could hardly sleep last night I was so excited. I haven't been on the mountain bike since January. We are going to have a great time.

Adam where are you?

Awesome Ride (Part 2)

This time of year is really hard to get a good bike ride in, by the time you get home from work, walk the dog and get ready to ride its almost 4:00 PM and it gets dark at about 5:45 PM. Brian doesn't get home till later than I do so that even cuts the amount of daylight down even more, so what I did was rode up Sugar Run and came down Horseshoe Curve to get a little more riding time. WOW! It was a cold decent down the Curve, when I got to B's he was just finished getting ready. What timing! As we take off to climb Red Hill the sun was already down pretty far in the sky and we figured we only had about 45 minutes to an hour so we had to make the best of it. As we start up Red Hill there was quite alot of traffic so we rode single file and B was at the front doing the pace making and I felt like Andy Schleck following Jens Voigt up the Col du Tourmalet. Haha! so we get probably get a little over half was up and I decided to give B a break and go to the front and pace a bit well we we got close to the top and B surprised me and attacked so I jumped to follow his attack and my chain skipped a couple gears and I thought it was off the chain ring but it wasn't . I recovered but he had a pretty good gap opened up, which reminded me of a race I did back a few years ago in Indiana Pa. We started and it was flat for the first few miles and then came the first climb as everyone started to slow as the climb started up I tried to change to my small chain ring on the front, my chain jumped and snapped and my race was over. I rode home in the broom wagon. Bummer! Back to the ride, I did recover and got B at the top but that was a good attack!! The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful but it was just great to be on the bike and have the warm temps. Hope you are enjoying our Blog as much as we like reliving the crazy outdoor moments!!

Awesome Ride

J-man and I went for a 1 hour bike ride, well he did more but we rode for an hour together. I needed that ride today. It felt so good to get out there and ride. The wind in my face was great. We got up to about 45 mph coming down Rt 36 into Altoona. That was fun. The highlight of the ride though was my attack on Mill Run. Right near the top I hit it and was about 5-6 bike lengths in front of Joel. He pulled an Andy Schleck and was having trouble switching gears to catch up. I guess it was the long hair or something. Anyway after about 10 seconds he caught me and took off. But for those 10 seconds I was awesome. Then my moment was over and when I finally joined Joel at the top I felt like puking. I really miss riding outside like that. I am looking foward to spring and summer getting here. I wish our ride could have lasted longer by darkness was upon us and we had to rap it up. I don't have much more to say than AWESOME RIDE!

RIP Beast

R I P 02-14-2011

This is a very sad week for a lot of us here in central PA. We traded away "The Beast". Here is one of the earlier picture of it. I had it for many years and prior to that Joel owned the vehicle. We had a lot of good times with this thing. The last adventure was our attempt to ride at Rails to Trails. Your 4 wheel drive did us good that day. I will alway remember the way the radio would cut in and out. And how the headlights were so dim you never know if you had them on or not. I will also remember there when it was near the end when the heat would sometimes work and sometimes not. And at the very end when the heat was no more. Beast we will miss you. Hopefully you find a new owner that will fix you up and treat you right. More than likely you will be parted out but you will always remain as one in our eyes, The Outdoor Crazies.

Sad Day

Today is a sad day in the lives of the outdoor crazies! "The Beast" was finally decommissioned as the crazies main mode of transportation. 



 Long live "The Beast"



Now the good news!!! Sunny today. The sun was shining and the temps were in the 30's so I decided on a bike ride. It was a beautiful day with little wind so I thought I would put in a pretty good effort and see how the bike legs were. I haven't been riding much cause I've been spending most of my time running getting ready for the Hyner Challenge. Went out to the loop and climbed Chimney Rocks road so I was out a little over an hour and I felt really good. I think I'm going to miss racing more than I thought I would.

Me in the 2006 Tour deToona
The early Years!

Crazy Windy!!!!

Brian and I decided to go for a road bike ride today. Big mistake!! We left Hollidaysburg and almost got blown off the road at the golf course so we decide to cut it short. Did a quick loop up brush mt. road to godfry lane, scotch valley road back to H-burg, for being 30 deg. it seemed about 15 with the wind, so the crazies were definitely crazy today!!! We plan on running tomorrow if anyone is interested!!!!



Pulled over by State Police Officer

Joel and I went for a 9 mile run after work yesterday. Well I did 9, Joel ran 3-4 miles before I joined him. We were running up Brush Mt Rd and got pulled over by the State Police. Yes the Police. I didn't know I could run that fast, fast enought to get pulled over. Wow! Well that wasn't actually true. He was passing by and decided to stop us and warn us about the dangers of that road. He said cars travel way to fast and we really need to just hop off the road and let them them pass. He didn't want us causing an accident nor did he want to see us lying there on the road injured. I apprecaite his concern and I appreciate that fact that he is out there protecting us and trying to keep us safe. Thank you! So as J-man and I continued up the road we were a little more careful with passing cars.

I thought the run went well. I did those 9 miles faster than I ever did and we weren't even near race pace. There were times I think J-man was power-walking because I had slowed down but we still had fun. He is a beast by the way, in case you didn't know that. Little guy, but definitely a huge beast when it comes to working out. I wore my VFF the entire time. They are great. I didn't have any trouble. They really help me keep the right running form. I always see to run flat footed with shoes but with my vibrams, I run the correct, more efficient way. My calves are a little sore today, but not too bad.

Weather conditions were great and we had daylight the entire time. You can tell spring is right around the corner.

Little something

Alright, so I'm not exactly a huge fan of tatoos, but this one is pretty sweet. Found it on one of my trips around the internet, putting off studying. Take a gander.

The Weekend

Another weekend has come and gone along with a few more running miles under the belt, well really the feet! just another week closer to the Hyner Challenge. Let me give you the scoop on the Hyner Challenge. It is a trail run/walk that is 16.3 miles long with 3 major climbs. If you look at the profile its either up or down so it not going to be a walk in the park. Brian, Adam and myself are already registered along with about 1000 other crazies. We are going to have fun but I know its going to be really painful. We have till April 16 to get ready but I don't know if you're ever ready for something like that. I'll describe running this weekend in 1 word "ICE". Brian and I ran on sat. and Adam Greg and myself ran early sunday morning. It was super icy both days we really had to be careful of our footing. Let me tell you a little bit about our friend Greg. he is an avid road cyclist and racer and his passion is cyclocross racing. We do alot of bike riding together and he has a pretty big engine to push you. Maybe we can get him more involved with the crazies because he fits in really well!

I hope spring gets here soon so we can get back in the woods for running and mt.biking I'm tired of the cold!!!




Brian and Joel before icy run!







Slept in

Sorry I missed the slippin and slidin yesterday. I had a morning meeting, meeting with my pillow. I'll be there next time. Sounds like you guys had a lot of fun and I missed it.

Sunday Morning Ice

It was a gorgeous morning this Sunday when I moseyed off the hill to meet Joel at his place for a short run. One of his cycling buddies accompanied us onto the slippery roads around Hollidaysburg; it made for a nice time. A small storm system moving through yesterday left all of the roads iced over. My fiancée, her two friends and I got stock on I99 for two hours yesterday afternoon while we were on our way to visit a running store over in State College. We managed to get by unscathed, but we witnessed over fifteen separate accidents, one of which included a tractor-trailer jackknifed the whole way across the interstate. I don't regret trying to venture over the mountain, I only regret that once the salt truck came through, we turned back and headed home. However, we weren't waiting three more hours to travel fifteen miles. People are entirely too freaked out by ice. Oh well, there's always next weekend. Even given the ice slicked roads, only one area of our run was real bad this morning. Somewhere about halfway through the run we had to turn left up a small hill and head into the center of town. When we got to the street, it was covered by roughly two inches of solid ice. I, thinking we were going to turn around, stopped, but Joel being the beast he is made his way to the sidewalk and used the railing to pull himself up the hill. Greg and myself followed suit, and finished the run slipping and sliding around corners as we went. All in all, it was a good, easy, enjoyable run, and a great chance to run in our VFFs. Hopefully Greg makes a return run, and we can keep adding some members to the Crazies.

Hope you enjoy the game today! Go BLACK AND GOLD!! Till next time.

Morning run....need coffee

I was going to try a 12-15 miles today but didn't sleep well at all last night. Our little one was up all night for some reason. So that option is out for now anyway. I'm headed out here shortly to Joel's for a road run. It is about 25 degrees and icy out. But we should be ok on the road. We did a trail run the other day and the ice on top the 4-6 of snow made it pretty hard to run. So we are trying the road today. Might go with FiveFinger, haven't decided yet. I might just go with my New Balance sneaks. I going to eat a quick breakfast and drink some coffee and then head out. Gotta have coffee!

The Skinny

Sorry I've been absent up till now, but it's week four of the Spring semester and my first round of tests have been keeping me preoccupied. So here's the skinny on me. I'm a last semester senior studying Forensic Science at Waynesburg University in Western Pa. I'm the latest addition to the Outdoor Crazies, with two official outings under my belt, both of which involve mountain biking in winter time, an activity that I wasn't even aware was legal with four inches of snow on the ground. I began my foray into the outdoors two years ago when my now fiancée and I purchased two Pelican kayaks and started doing trips to Shawnee Lake and Canoe Creek to relax on the weekends, and eventually did some day trips down the Raystown branch of the Juniata River. So I guess kayaking is my first love. I was happy with that for a while, there are enough kayaking stories to fill up pages on here but maybe I can get into that another night. This summer I moved to Ocean City, Maryland to work with the police department down there for my summer internship. While I lived at the beach, I actually stepped foot in the ocean a total of four times in four months, not because I hate water or the beach mind you, but gas prices, my gas sucking Blazer, and an engagement ring pretty much kept me close to home in Willards, a mere sixteen miles from the beach. (Honestly though, OC is a freak show. Why anyone vacations there is beyond my comprehension.) However, my frugality paid off when I bought a diamond and she said yes at 5 a.m. on top of Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park in Maine. Also, it led to my favorite pass time, or addiction as my family and friends say: running. I would come home from working my twelve hour night shift and not be able to sleep, so I would throw on my Asics Gel trail runners on and go hit the highways and back roads of Maryland and border towns up in Delaware. This is also when I started biking, riding thirty or so miles on the weekends to do a little geocaching around the area (I'm a bit of a geek I guess), or to visit friends over in the city without wasting much needed gas. It actually paid of threefold, because I lost the majority of my 130 lbs, trimming down from 310 to 180 lbs and a size 44 to a 34. I don't say this all to brag or anything, in actuality I despise talking about it, but it's a huge plus to getting active and starting my love affair with the outdoors.

I've also been trying to branch from strictly road running into trail running, and adding variation by training my feet and calves to withstand a little abuse with barefoot running. I started running in my Vibram fivefingers, fell in love with them, and have been converting fellow runners and non runners to their awesomeness. I would like to transition to strictly barefoot by summertime, but we'll see how that goes.

So there it is, my beginnings that eventually led me to hook up with these other two individuals who are as stupid... er... adventurous as myself. I'll post a little more tomorrow, but for now I've gotta get some sleep, got a 5 am run and 8 am breakfast with the woman. Until then, take it easy and enjoy the day!

Birthday

No special plans, a long run and work! Real exciting!!

Happy Birthday Joel

Make sure everyone wishes the J-man "Happy Birthday" today. Any special (crazy) plans for today?

About Brian

Here's the good stuff on me - I'm Brian Kephart and I am one of the members of The Outdoor Crazies. My background is pretty much in high school sports. I played football and was on the swim team. After high school and colllege, I did the normal lifting and running on the treadmill at the Y. That was ok but I would lose interest and stop for a while then I would gain a few pounds and get back to it. I really did this on and off for years. I even added swimming to that mix. But just couldn't keep interested too long. Until 2 years ago, I decided to do P90X. I loved it. I still love it to this day. I had done that for about 6 months when I heard J-man (Joel) talking about the Tour and cycling in general and that really sparked an interest. I decided I wanted to try it. So the J-man and I searched for a road bike for me. He helped me find one. It's a Giant OCR3 - gray and black. I got in to riding in the Fall of 2009. I have loved it ever since. I did miss riding outside that winter though. So in fall 2010, I decided to buy a mountain bike. I have a Specialized Hardrock Sport 29 - brown and white. I love it. My thought was to ride on the road in bad weather. A heavier bike with wider tires should allow me to accomplish that. But little did I know we would end up in the woods riding for hours on the weekend. I had a passion for riding and J-man feed that passion by sharing the same interest and going along with me. As my wife would say, he created a monster. And more recently I got into running. Pretty much anything outside, regardless of weather, I'm there.

I love my family and do my best to put them first. In my spare time I try to to outdoor activities, any activity. Family always comes first. Craziness comes second. Hopefully we can keep you up on the crazies stuff we do and get into and hopefully out of.

Sundays Slippage

We decided we were going to go mt. biking on Sunday so we thought we would go to the Alligrippis trails by Raystown Lake. (Those trails are awesome!!) So we load all the bikes on "The Beast",(Thats what we call Brians truck) and headed to Raystown. We can always tell if its going to be a good day by the radio in "The Beast" if it plays it going to be a good day, if it cuts in and out its not. Well, I think it only played about 2 minutes the whole ride so we knew we were in trouble. When we got to Alligrippis we couldn't even get into the parking area because of the snow, so Brian had to put "The Beast" in 4-wheel drive. NOT A GOOD SIGN!!! We get out of "The Beast" and assess the situation. No problem we can do it. Well, 50 yards into the ride the woods said no you can't! We loaded the bikes back on "The Beast" and started home trying to decide what to do now the day is still young and adventures to be had. So we decide on flat rails to trails we would be passing right by the trail head at Alexandria. So that's what we did, and we had a blast even though we fell alot. The snow was soft and inviting so it was to bad when you took the plunge. I was really impressed with BUCKNAKED he just got new clipless pedals and started using them on this ride. He can tell you about that decision! I made a video to let you see how much fun we had. Hope you enjoy!          

 DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!   THESE ARE PROFESSIONAL CRAZIES ON A CLOSED COURSE (WELL NOT REALLY BUT IT SOUNDS GOOD!)

The Name

Our name came about by all the times we heard "Your Crazy" from our families and friends, especially when we would go out mt. biking in snowstorms or when we go trail running in our barefeet (well almost) vibrim five fingers or road running when its 0. So there you go we're always told we're crazy so it must be true!

Welcome

Welcome to our blog. We be blogging about all the outdoor fun "The Crazies" do. Let me give you a little backround of the crazies. I'm Joel Noal I live in Hollidaysburg PA, I used to be a cat. 3 bicycle racer till May 1, 2010 when I crashed and broke my back at the Turkey Hill Country Classic bike race. I am very fortunate I don't have a spinal cord injury.  I spent 3 months in a back brace and now I'm pretty much back to normal except with 8 screws and 2 pins in my back, so no more racing for me.(just fun stuff) Brian Kephart is my neices husband and I kind of got him started in cycling and Alyssa (my neice) said I created a monster. He can give you all the good stuff on himself because he'll be blogging along with Adam Mcginnis. Adam is the newest member and has the most inpiring story of weight loss, maybe he'll share it with us. We are going to try to blog about all the different activities we get into. Mt. biking, trail running, road riding, road running, etc. Hope you enjoy!