Wednesday, January 21, 2015

How to be a Crack Addict with a Crack Machine in 5hrs


You may be addicted to crack if you try to stick your body parts in parallel sided objects and then hang from them, day dream about Indian Creek, have noticeable scars on the back of your hands and ankles, are reading this article... A side effect of being addicted to crack is wanting to climb crack all the time. So you've searched the internet looking for someone to just lay out a crack machine, plain and simple, so all you have to do is build it or pay someone to build it. Well I think I'm a pretty competent Googler and I came up dry. Everything I saw was mounted to a wall or a garage or outside. I mean it must be nice to live somewhere you can do that but I move every year and live in a tiny apartment. I can't just go mounting shit on the walls.

So you're in this dilemma... You're a tiny but strong independent woman with essentially no nearby friends, no access to a climbing gym, and addicted to crack. The only solution is clearly to design and build everything you've ever wanted in a crack machine by yourself.

Here are my step by step instructions to success!

Step one: get stuck in the LAX airport for 7 hrs. It'll give you plenty of time to brainstorm ideas and use those years in engineering school to sketch up mocks.

Step two: second guess your abilities to build something from scratch with your lack of power tool knowledge and all around knowledge of building anything. (Other than software of course)

Step three: tell someone [like a man] about your idea so they can tell you your dumb and it'll never work. This will give you the fire and motivation to prove them wrong.

Step four: take off work. The weekends are precious and must be saved for real outdoor climbing.

Step five: take your designs and go to home depot. If your expect any one at home depot to help you your expectations are too high.

Step six: make cuts, buy all the supplies, carry around, and load into car all by yourself because I did ask for help and not a single worker was around. Remember its good training your going to have to unload it from the car by yourself at home anyways. Optimism.

Step seven: unload car. Make sure to carry all the loads up at least two flights of stairs. Again by yourself. Took me 12 trips to the car.

Step eight: your probably pretty hungry so eat a snack and high five yourself for being independent. While your at it call your dad or dad like figure because he's probably pretty awesome and will give you words of encouragement.

Step nine: start measuring make sure to be accurate and pick crack sizes your willing to stuff body parts into. I chose a 5.5inch 2inch and 4inch cracks.


Step ten: pre drill all of this holes all 52 of those holes. Preferably outside so you don't have wood chips all over your house.

Step eleven: stare at the boards and think of how nice it would be to have someone to do all this work for you.

Step twelve: time to assemble. Transport all those boards to the room they will live in because once assembled no way you'll be able to move it by yourself.

Step thirteen: stick everything together upside down by matching up those holes you just drilled and jamming lag bolts into them this actually goes really fast and you finally get to see your hard work pay off

Step fourteen: THE HARDEST STEP flip it over onto its legs... You'll probably be able to get it onto its side by yourself but all the way onto its legs... It weighs like 250lbs. Sooo rig some rope and lift with your legs, or call your climbing partner... Climbing is a partner sport so you have to have at least one friend.

Congratulations you are now 97% done.
The last step is to reinforce the boards because there totally going to bow if you don't.
Drill through all the boards and reinforce with a threaded pipe and nuts. I did about every two feet. The closer the better.
Tada! Buy some climbing holds and mount them on the outside now you have a full body workout and can satisfy your crack addiction day or night!
Anyways for a more serious talk about my crack machine feel free to comment or send me an email I'd love to talk your ear off about the details! Measurements, bolt sizes, lumber, etc...

Cheers
Naomi

Monday, January 5, 2015

Holy Wow It's 2015

I've been so terrible about keeping up with my blog. I have met so many awesome people and explored so many amazing places. 2014 was rad! I'm taking a deep a breath and instead of telling you all about how amazing Indian Creek was for Creeksgiving and Red Rocks and Zion were for Christmas and how great Yosemite is every weekend... I'll just say everything was rad that is all. Here is a photo from my first night in Zion taken away with how breath taking the view was. More to come in 2015 and maybe I'll be better at posting... maybe.


-Naomi

Sunday, November 9, 2014

Weekends in The Bay

Weekends away from the mountains are always hard. However it is nice to live in such a beautiful part of the Bay. Marin has some really great trail running with some really great views. I am getting excited about the prospect of running pain free very soon. Lots of icing, foam roller sessions, and rest. Except for the weekends... the weekends aren't meant for rest. Here is Muir Beach from a part of the trail this weekend.


-Naomi

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Chains Required

What a weekend in Yosemite. Took me about 8 hours to get into the park because the 120 had chain restrictions. The Subaru does not carry chains... yet. It was so beautiful to finally see snow falling even though I had to take a 4 hour detour. It doesn't matter how long it takes Yosemite is always worth it. Here is a shot from El Cap meadow after my epic drive to the valley.


Love always,
Naomi

Monday, October 27, 2014

Across the Golden Gate!

I had a fantastic weekend full of running, running, running and eat/sleeping. Will came up from Yosemite and I made sure he went home sore. We had an amazing run in Baltimore Canyon and King Mountain totaling about 8 miles of rolling hills and creek crossings with Lopi. Sunday we decided to lay down the hammer starting in Tennessee Valley at noon because the hottest part of the day is the best time to run right? We did a perfect 15.5 mile run around the Marin Headlands with an impromptu jog across the Golden Gate Bridge because why not.


I believe it is time to recover until next weekend....
Naomi

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

I'm Back! Kind of Like the Phantom Spires.

Life has been crazy. San Francisco has been a hard adjustment. The mountains though are unbeatable. I have spent the past 3 months exploring adventuring and loving the Sierras. Yosemite and Tahoe have some great rocks and I've only scratched the surface. I just recently bought a camera and have decided to start posting again with a photo or two from my adventures.



This is from Tahoe this past weekend. We camped at the Phantom Spires and climbed at Sugarloaf. The Phantom Spires, pictured here, actually have a cool story about them. It wasn't until a fire burnt all the surrounding trees that they were even discovered. Just think of all the hidden unclimbed rocks just waiting to be discovered!

Cheers
Naomi

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Me Racing What? Table Rock 10k

I decided to put my legs to the test and run the La Sportiva Table Rock 10k which involves a 2 mile climb where you gain 2000 feet of elevation... Talk about butt burner. I was convinced I sucked at running because of my years in cross country in high school racing 9 minute milers. Thus I have pledged to never race another 5k in my life... they are just to fast for my slow slow legs. Maybe I thought I'd be better at longer distances because its more acceptable to be slow. Thus here I am racing a 10k.

I went out and ran/hiked up the hill feeling meh and looking real slow. The second I hit the flats I was off picking people off left and right. Later looking at my Strava I realized I averaged under an 8 minute mile on the flat and rolling hills! What who I am? Then it was time for my favorite part... the down hill. I went down that hill like a bat out of hell... averaging in parts under a 7 minute mile on slick rocks and roots. All the sudden I was at the finish and people where yelling 3rd female! 3rd female! 3rd female! of course me still convinced I sucked at running was thinking "What jerks they probably say that to everyone finishing so that they sprint to the finish." Later realized I was in fact the 3rd female to cross the finish line and the 11th person overall and the 2nd in my age group! Again who am I? Not that chubby teenager in high school who couldn't even break top 50. Yea for confidence boosters. I may still suck at running but maybe I'm too hard on myself sometimes.
https://brazen.lap.io/event/2014-itr-table-rock/results?category=RACE-10K

Cheers
Naomi