Hudson Valley

The New Paltz Regatta

May 8, 2013 By Joe

Since New Paltz isn’t Newport, I’m usually met with confused looks when people ask what I did this past weekend and my reply is, “I went to the New Paltz Regatta“. I think most don’t even realize there’s a river that runs through town, let alone enough crazy people to spend all the time and energy making a water craft that may or may not even float when it’s finally dropped into the Walkill, only to paddle it a quarter mile and often have it fall apart by the time it reaches the finish line! It’s a great day that begins with a parade of all of the “boats”, as well as music, food and tons of people. I didn’t get too many shots of the parade, and since it was so crowded in town, I was buried in the woods during the race. Here are a few of the shots I was able to grab.

New Paltz in 5

April 28, 2013 By Joe

New Paltz is an amazing town. I’ve probably said something to this effect before on the blog, but, there have been plenty of weekends where I get home on a Friday and don’t get back into my car until Monday, all the while being able to hike, bike, eat, drink, shop and see live music within a comfortable walking distance from home. Often I’ll wander around town with my camera, looking very touristy, especially on the high traffic weekends. There’s such an interesting mix of people and things to see in such a small town, like a roving troubadour playing guitar along the rail trail yesterday, that I feel the need to document it a little more than I have been. Since I usually shoot landscapes, this is a nice change of pace and a great way to show others some of the beautiful things I see around here every day. Here are 5 shots from the past couple of weekends — New Paltz in 5!

Local New Paltz bluegrass band Yard Sale playing at In Good Taste

Festivus Games

April 17, 2013 By Joe

If you told me a year ago that I’d be competitively weightlifting, wearing wrist straps and a belt, in an effort to clean and jerk 165 lbs while people cheered me on, I wouldn’t have believed you — and that’s just a piece of what I did this past Saturday. I’ve been doing Crossfit for a little over a year now. The last post I wrote about it was actually close to a year ago, when the box that I go to, CFMH, had their one year anniversary. Some months after I started, when I began to see some results and got comfortable with double unders, my coach said, “soon you’ll be going to a competition”.

Of course I immediately dismissed this. Me? Compete at Crossfit? I could barely Rx the daily workouts!

Festivus is a crossfit competition geared towards novice and intermediate crossfitters and was taking place at a box near me, Crossfit Orange. I signed up (intermediate!) not knowing what to expect. I’ll save you the suspense, I came in last place. While that stings a little bit, it really doesn’t bother me. I have to remember to keep things in perspective. Literally a year ago I didn’t know what a clean and jerk or a thruster was, and then on Saturday I was able to clean and jerk 155lbs three times in 45 seconds. That’s an amazing accomplishment, and my collarbone has the bruises to say so. It was a long day, but filled with friends, food, exercise and beer (the CFMH tent could have been mistaken for a tailgate at a football game). Now I have a goal of clean and jerking 200 lbs by the end of 2013, let’s see if I can get there 🙂

Also, for those curious, here are the descriptions of the 3 WODs we did:

1. 12 minutes to establish a 3 rep max ground to overhead. All 3 reps must be performed within a 45 second time period. Athletes may snatch,clean & jerk, clean and push press or any other method that takes the weight from the floor to a locked out position overhead. — I got 155 lbs up within the first few minutes and tried to get 165 up a few times, but would fail on my third rep.

2. 21-15-9 Row for calories, thrusters and burpees. 10 minute cap (men’s intermediate weight, 75 lbs) — I completed 2 rounds of this by the time the 10 minute cap hit.

3. Death by 10 meters. At the top of the first minute, sprint 10 m, then rest the remainder of the minute. At the top of the second minute, sprint 10 m twice, then rest the remainder of the minute. Continue adding another 10 m sprint at the top of each minute until you can no longer make your sprints within the minute — I completed 15 rounds and died in round 16 with 14 laps.

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