Grinding (Grouse And Poker)

For those of you who are not from the area, the Grouse Grind is a gruelling hike that takes you basically straight up the face of a local mountain. We have a lot of sickos in this area, so it's a very popular spot when it's open from late spring - early fall. However long and steep it is, I assure you it feels much worse. But check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grouse_Grind#Grouse_Grind if you want the official stats.

Anyway, yesterday Rachel calls me up and says I shouldn't decide right now but would I consider doing the grind with her tomorrow (today) after work. I can honestly say, there are not many things I can think of that I would rather do less. I mean, sure, the usual, I don't know, give myself a million paper cuts type things. But for honest to goodness, reasonable, ordinary things? Grouse Grind is low on the list. But you know, she is carrying my offspring (and my offspring's penis) around in her stomach, and I'm away a lot, and she doesn't really ask me very often to do something like this. So I consented, and round about 5:30pm I was driving dejectedly up Cap Road.

I did the Grind for the first time last year. I am a slow hiker, it turns out. Not that I expected different. But it took me about two hours (Wikipedia says the average is 90 minutes, but my uberwife can do it well under an hour). Despite swearing I would never try it again, I did attempt it a couple weeks later when Tyler was in town and wanted to do it. I got a DNF that time, as I felt strange and bailed about a 1/4 of the way through (Rachel later pointed out that it was probably because I hadn't eaten or drank anything that day before starting my hike mid-afternoon). Tyler, conversely, strolled up the thing like it was nothing. Fucking young people.

Anyway, this account is already getting too long. Suffice it to say I made it up again, this time in around 90 minutes. Have to admit it's pretty satisfying to chop 30 minutes off the previous PB. I guess the workouts at Mixx aren't a complete waste of time. It was still hellaciously hard, and that's definitely as sweaty as I ever get, but I guess it was easier than last year. And holy smokes, if you want to be impressed, check out my pregnant wife only slowing down cause I need a break. Well, I'm impressed anyway.

As for the other grinding, the poker. Man, what a hard way to make easy money. It's been trying psychologically lately. Going on close to a month of just about break even. Typical pattern is a ferocious downswing over a couple days followed by a long slow recovery. It's not disastrous. I haven't come close to having to taken money out of real life and put it in poker, and with the exception of one week I've still been pulling the rakeback offline weekly. So even in the midst of this stagnant period there's some decent real life income. But at the same time, these very long break even stretches tell me that my game overall isn't good enough. If I was beating the games by a less marginal amount, I would still have downswings but they would be shorter and less frequent. Which is obviously the goal. Quit sucking. IMO, I am now good enough to make a living playing poker. But amongst people who can say that, which is a very small % of overall poker players, I am sure I am in one of the lowest percentiles, skill-wise. So I'm good enough, but barely. I'd like to become average amongst the good-enough's. That's not too lofty a dream, is it?

Anyway, after two/three absolutely brutal days, I booked a 12 buy-in winning day today. That's pretty big. Feels like a LONG time since I had one of those, and so all is right in pokerland for the moment. But fear not, gentle reader. That does not mean complacency will set in. I'm pretty motivated right now to rise at least a few percentile over the coming weeks. You know I'll keep you updated.