mountainFrugal Journal

Where are you and where are you going?
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mountainFrugal
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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

Post by mountainFrugal »

Thanks @mooretrees.

Visit in the summer for the best herping!

I think the benefits are temporary. It is really about helping to release the muscle tissue that has stayed contracted for whatever reason. This is usually caused by bad form from some other muscle group getting overused and then tightening up. This can then cause a cascading effect in your biomechanics. I think sports message can be helpful if you need help diagnosing what areas to work on, relaxing them, then doing the strengthening exercises and mobility/stretching exercises to keep that area in tip top shape. We actually have an amazing sports message therapist in town (she worked with USA track and Olympic team). I have not used her services yet, but my partner has for another issue. The message got her over the hump and then allowed her regular rolling and strengthening to work. So I think that learning various rolling and mobility exercises in addition to an occasional message targeting specific areas and getting specific advice about what groups to target is the best way? Do you have something specific that is tight?

@Slevin is the resident mobility expert. @Slevin care to chime in?

mooretrees
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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

Post by mooretrees »

I’ve got a long time tight hip which a chiropractor said was due to tilting. Consistent stretching doesn’t seem to do much and it’s a hard area to get to with my golf ball. I am not ready to pay for a massage so maybe I just need to go super hard core on the golf ball for a few days in a row? Open to suggestions and thanks for the hijack!

shaz
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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

Post by shaz »

@mooretrees have you ever had a physical therapist assess what is causing the tilting? Long term solution may be to strengthen something to fix an imbalance.

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Ego
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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

Post by Ego »

mountainFrugal wrote:
Sun Dec 04, 2022 6:38 pm
I think the benefits are temporary. It is really about helping to release the muscle tissue that has stayed contracted for whatever reason.
The week before last Mrs. Ego, my running partner and I all experienced wonky calf/quad injuries. My running friend was registered for the Ironman in Indian Wells today but missed it because he also developed a cold. Mrs. Ego and I could also feel colds coming on but they have since subsided. Call me crazy but I am convinced that the two are related.

A few months ago I connected a friend who sells pallets of drugstore returns with another friend who buys them to resell. One of them was so happy to have been introduced to the other that he gives me stuff all the time. A few weeks ago he gave me one of those percussion massagers. I have to admit, I would have never purchased it for myself but it works incredibly well. The one I have is made by Sharper Image and sells for about $75 on amazon.

Bicycle7
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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

Post by Bicycle7 »

It's great to see all the ways you are growing, learning and having new experiences expressed through your artwork and words. I imagine you traversing some beautiful desert landscapes on your runs!

I like reading how a full-suspension bike fits into your web of goals- learning how to work on suspensions after already mastering the basics. I'm at a place with bike maintenance that I have sold 3 bikes in the past year to reduce the number to 1 personal bike and my partner's bike. Both rigid frame basic commuters. This simplification of the fleet is giving me space to focus on skilling up at the very basics of bike maintenance.

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mountainFrugal
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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

Post by mountainFrugal »

I would second getting the physical therapists opinion and various exercises to start you in the right direction. We could likely find some exercises to help with tightness, but less so on how to diagnose what about your posture/stance/running form etc. without seeing it. There are some good resources out there for exercises to do to see what you might need to work on. Ready To Run by Kelley Starrett is one such general resource, but @slevin knows a ton so hopefully we can get a response or just PM him.

Message guns: they do work when I have tried them after a race, especially on calves! Partner stretching and message can also help isolate certain parts just as well though.

Message guns side story: My good buddy does electronics design and manufacturing. They had some parts that were being assembled in Shenzhen, China. He was over there when there was a big marketing push in the US for Theragun that was pumping like 100M of VC dollars into advertising. All the manufacturers in Shenzen seemingly all once and overnight had all their own designs and were pumping them out. If you look in the category on amazon there are nearly 100 indistinguishable products that all leeched onto this waste of VC dollars. All these products also have thousands of 5 star reviews meaning they are truly the same thing repackaged. You can find them online used for cheap now.

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mountainFrugal
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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

Post by mountainFrugal »

Bicycle7 wrote:
Sun Dec 04, 2022 8:27 pm
that I have sold 3 bikes in the past year to reduce the number to 1 personal bike and my partner's bike. Both rigid frame basic commuters.
Thanks! Really getting the repairs down and regular maintenance on bikes that you regularly use is the best way to learn. Always shoot to keep it tuned up, the chain cleaned, etc. It will then translate to any other repair skills you eventually take on.

mooretrees
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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

Post by mooretrees »

Thanks for the thoughts on my hips. Will pursue PT.

What is the EDC mean for sketching? I read it as everyday carry but that doesn’t seem right :lol: .

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mountainFrugal
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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

Post by mountainFrugal »

mooretrees wrote:
Sun Dec 04, 2022 10:23 pm
I read it as everyday carry...
That is exactly what it means. :). Instead of carrying a pistol in a man purse, I carry my art kit in my man purse.

Gilberto de Piento
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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

Some people think of "everyday carry" as all the items they carry every day, not just a firearm. See https://www.reddit.com/r/everydaycarry for examples. Think gun, phone, knife, pen, watch, etc.

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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

Post by jacob »

Golden oldie: viewtopic.php?t=4820

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Slevin
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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

Post by Slevin »

mountainFrugal wrote:
Sun Dec 04, 2022 6:38 pm
Thanks @mooretrees.

Visit in the summer for the best herping!

I think the benefits are temporary. It is really about helping to release the muscle tissue that has stayed contracted for whatever reason. This is usually caused by bad form from some other muscle group getting overused and then tightening up. This can then cause a cascading effect in your biomechanics. I think sports message can be helpful if you need help diagnosing what areas to work on, relaxing them, then doing the strengthening exercises and mobility/stretching exercises to keep that area in tip top shape. We actually have an amazing sports message therapist in town (she worked with USA track and Olympic team). I have not used her services yet, but my partner has for another issue. The message got her over the hump and then allowed her regular rolling and strengthening to work. So I think that learning various rolling and mobility exercises in addition to an occasional message targeting specific areas and getting specific advice about what groups to target is the best way? Do you have something specific that is tight?

@Slevin is the resident mobility expert. @Slevin care to chime in?

You’re on the mark here. Massage, heat, needling / acupuncture, and using tennis balls or lacrosse balls to do myofascial release / trigger point massage all are going to work to temporarily remove muscle tightness / contraction. If you are injured, this can super important so that you can actually lightly work the injured tissue (the name of the game is increasing blood flow many times throughout the day). If you this is a repeating pattern or one area is simply just “locked up”, it’s probably a biomechanics issue where you need to readjust one or many parts of your body to slowly increase range of motion around the area. With a good system, being lucky, and having very consistent practice this could take a few weeks, or up to several years (some of my issues are coming up closer to a decade now tbh) when you are just “missing” prerequisite motor patterns / kinesthetic awareness that is needed to access a range of motion.

So once you’ve gotten a bit unlocked from an injury, it’s time to slowly work on exercises that strengthen in the end ranges of motion. We don’t really have a complete consensus for best practices for building mobility for everyone (and it’s somewhat always a personal game of what works best for you after trying out many different types of sets / reps / training volume / etc and what you can stick to as well), but the trend that has worked for me is a slow tempo in the eccentric, fast tempo on the concentric, for 15-25 reps, 2-3 sets (2 sets at 25, 3 sets up to 20).

Now to me hips are hard to diagnose because “hip issue” could literally be a hip issue, but it could also be a lower back issue, upper back issue, psoas issue, quad issue, hamstring issue, hip flexor issue, or a combination of several of the things down any one of those chains. I need more context clues to even start to be able to give some ideas of what to start trying and seeing if it’s making any progress.

Also @Ego you have your calf thing covered, right? That one is pretty simple, just need slow calf raises from a raised surface (stair, weight , stool, whatever) that lets you get the heel / ankle 30-60 degrees below parallel. With the injury, do both legs at once and lean up against the wall or a railing to remove weight from the injured leg. External rotation of the foot will focus on the interior head, internal rotation will focus on the outside head more. Putting the knees over the toes will focus more on the soleus (lower calf). Remove enough weight you can do 25 reps with NO PAIN, do this a 2-3 times today, increasing the intensity when you can without introducing any pain. Shaking the area can and will likely improve healing time (if you want to know more I can find some vids or take a few myself).

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mountainFrugal
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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

Post by mountainFrugal »

Thank you for the great response @Slevin! It was worth the short wait and I am glad I was not too far off in my initial thinking.

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mountainFrugal
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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

Post by mountainFrugal »

Image
We did a little golden hour sunset/moonrise tour this evening to celebrate the full moon. My partner charging and putting down some tracks as per usual. Jupiter rising in the top left.

bos
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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

Post by bos »

stunning picture. I love the scale compared to your what-i-assume partner in the left corner

ertyu
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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

Post by ertyu »

Agreed, it's beautiful

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mountainFrugal
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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

Post by mountainFrugal »

Thank you both! We live in an amazing place and love exploring it.

Edit: I shoveled the driveway yesterday with my avalanche shovel. It is small, light, and efficient for moving snow in fast strokes. Moving snow, especially dense wet snow, can be a good cardio workout. It took about 70 minutes with ~25 strokes per minute. I ramped it up for 15 minutes on the snow plowed portion of the driveway. Heavy wet snow compacted is similar consistency to actual avalanche debris. If someone is buried and did not hit anything on the way down, you have about 15 minutes to find and dig them out for 90% survival. At 1 hour, that is flipped to 10% survival. I have done this a few times for practice. Every season I am reminded at how completely worked I get moving snow as quickly as possible.

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mountainFrugal
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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

Post by mountainFrugal »

Image
# 2023 GOALS

I am going to get paid to do illustrations, sketchnotes (like this), and create content in the new communications role. I want to have all the content that I create point back to my portfolio or website in someway to gradually build a funnel for commissions etc. My goals this year are very "making" focused. I will package some of results and outcomes into zines for sharing online or to get printed and sell on my art website. I am going to be giving the artist thing a full go. Make shit, put it out there, make more shit, put it out there, practice to level up, make more shit, put it out there. GET SOME!


# MAKE
1000 action poses from imagination -collected at the end into a zine.
100 perspective sketches
Finish inking and coloring my 32 page comic
Pen/ink/watercolor/gouache technique - individual prints and printed zine

## Trout
Environments Zine
Food Zine
Life Cycle/Behavior Zine
West Coast Watersheds Data Zine

West Coast Trout Watersheds Plant Zine
West Coast Trout Watersheds Weather Zine
West Coast Trout Watersheds Fire Cycle Zine
West Coast Trout Watersheds Snow Cycle Zine

# THINK
Science Paper Sketch Notes + Zine Collection
Science Interviews Zine
Environmental Data Viz Zine
Open Source Science Software Package Play Zine

# LIVE
My partner and I's theme this year is food. We are also getting hitched.

## Food systems zine
Illustrated cookbook of common recipes
Focus on hot peppers for cooking, fermenting, pickling.
Mexican and Indian food deep dives.

Van systems zine
Travel Zine

# EXPLORE
## 2023 Fly fishing zine- Various road trips

Nordic ski zine - design sketching
Bike repair zine - design sketching
BC Ski zine - design sketching
Primitive tech zine - design sketching
Trail Running Zine - design sketching
Animal Tracking Zine

AnalyticalEngine
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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

Post by AnalyticalEngine »

Love this idea. The zine thing seems very cool because it combines non-fiction with creative illustrations and writing. Plus the non-fiction aspect encourages the exploration of many new things in life! Looking forward to seeing what you come up with for the final products, and how you manage the business of selling them!

bos
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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

Post by bos »

I really enjoy the trout topic In most cases, if you discover a niche, you can easily find a market for it because not many people offer products or services within that niche. I remember once sketching a Yamaha XT500 from the 1970s. The sketch wasn't particularly good, but people really liked it and even asked for prints. This was likely because a small number of people are very passionate about those old bikes.

I have the feeling this can be the same with for example trouts.

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