Desert Adventures with Dippo

Hey Everyone,

Below Wilson shares with us his latest adventure, some great photos and a few new work out ideas from a soon to be coach, no spoilers though:

I spent the last week down in Southern Utah.
It was fantastic!

My week started out by paddling Westwater Canyon on the Colorado River. Westwater is quite
possibly the best (non dam-released) whitewater in the country in October. From there I stuck around
Moab for several days, and I hiked, ran, and relaxed for several days.
At the end of the week I headed down toward Canyonlands National Park for some solo
adventuring. My first day down there I climbed Cathedral Butte on the Southern edge of the park (to see
those pictures check out summitsunday.blogspot.com). The next day I headed down into the Salt Creek
Wash (in the Park). The day involved about 16 miles of hiking and running, several ancient Puebloan
ruins, a slot canyon cave, and “The All-American Man.”
Here is a smattering of photos from that day.

Notice the “pac-man ghost” in the upper left

Hoodoos!

The All-American Man (USA USA USA!)

Current Ski-Team members, Spencer, and those of you who still harbor athletic goals should stop
reading now as I am about to talk about two awesome master-blaster workouts.

The first I call the “Sunset Showdown”

Park your vehicle approximately 1.5 miles away from an awesome viewpoint.
Wait until the sunset is 10-15 minutes from peaking (I’m sure that NOAA can help with sunset times)
Sprint as hard as you can to view said sunset
Stop and enjoy view for just a little bit too long
Realize that it is about to get dark (be sure to not bring a headlamp)
Sprint back as hard as you can, knowing that if you don’t find your car immediately you may not find it
until morning.

The benefit of this workout is that it keeps you honest – no one sandbags their way through it. I also find
additional benefit in the adrenaline and stress matching real race conditions, because let’s be honest we
will be arriving to the starting line within 2 minutes of our start for any given race (unless you are Chris
who has already floro’ed his skis and lined up for next years Birkie).

Who do you think won this workout… me or the sky?

Workout two “Natural Bridges, Natural Intervals”

This workout is tricky in that it is only really designed to work at Natural Bridges National Monument
(though suggestions for adaptations are certainly welcome).
Natural Bridges has four main attractions: The bridges Sipapu, Kachina, and Owachomo as well as an
overlook of the Horsecollar Ruins.

The workout involves running to Sipapu and back, drive to the Horsecollar overlook trailhead –run
out and back, drive to the Kachina trailhead –run out and back, and finally drive to the Owachomo
trailhead –run out and back. This workout has two main components. The downhill sections challenge
your quickness and agility. The climb should be full on lv 4/5 burn. While the total sum is only around 4 miles of on time, those four miles do involve around 1000 ft of vertical (oh yeah and you get to see some pretty spectacular sights… or sites).

Depending on how you are feeling you should probably be considerate of the other tourists as they
may be providing you with encouragement and showering you with praise (I was asked *Insert German Accent* “Are you some kind of professional” as I passed one such tourist… duh).

These photos hardly do the place any justice, it is really spectacular. That said, there is very little
exploring to be done in the immediately surrounding area.

Sipapu (The second largest natural bridge in the world)
You can get all the way down to the bottom, but this is the better photo.

Kachina (The “youngest” of the three bridges)

Owachomo (I couldn’t physically orient myself in such a way that I could get the whole bridge into the
photo without being about a quarter mile away)

Now that I have thrilled you with a story of adventure I have to reveal some terrible news.

This winter I will be working for Bates College as the assistant nordic ski coach.

I hope I’ll still be invited to alumni functions.

Bates Blows,

Wilson