Types of Fun

Nick and I about to spend a few cozy nights snuggling with Watkins... 

This was a post I had forgotten about and had just left as a draft... but after a radiolab episode and reading another blog, I decided to come back to it.  Written back in May...

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My second summit of Shasta in day... 

The past two weekends were really, really fun.  The trans-Yosemite tour (SLAY) with Alexis & Stefan was amazing.  We just lucked out on the weather, conditions, and everything just seemed to come together for us to provide a beautiful experience.

This past weekend... I got to ride my bike.  Which is always fun.  But after 16 hours on the saddle, things were getting a bit uncomfortable.  And while you are riding 16+ hours with a friend (Sigman), you start asking yourself... "why are we doing this?"  Granted, it was Sigman who was doing more of the questioning... but it was definitely on my mind too...

... and it's a good question.  I told him, "it's FUN.  Everything is fun... it just depends on what type of fun..." and here's are the basics.

Type 1: Fun planning it, fun while doing it, fun looking back on it, and would probably do it again.
e.g. skiing pow, canyoneering, unicycling, mountain biking, playing soccer... most of my activities are Type I to me. 

Type 2: On the border of fun while doing it... but after a night of rest, recovery, eating, and drinking... you realize it was actually pretty fun, and you'd probably go back and do it or something similar again.
e.g. Big wall climbing, a hard 300k+ ride, a long trail run, skiing Shasta twice,   

Type 3: No fun, a complete sufferfest... you'd never do it again... unless you are an uber masochist, you never plan for a Type 3 adventure.  A Type 1 or 2 adventure morphs into a Type 3 adventure when things go wrong or when the unexpected happens.  BUT... these are the adventures that get retold and have the longest lasting impressions.  Just ask Aaron Ralston or Krakauer.
e.g. running a marathon w/o any training, getting flipped on a double kayak in the gulf of California, fully committed on a chossy run-out climb with a dark cumulous cloud rapidly approaching..., or from what I've witnessed labor would probably qualify as Type 3.

Activities requiring abundant gear... like kayaking, rock climbing (especially aid or bigwall), skiing, mountain biking... have a greater risk of going from Type 1 to Type 3 fun with a quick mistake, gear failure, or accident.

In all honesty, most of my adventures are Type 1 or Type 2.  I haven't had a Type 3 adventure in a loooong time... but I sure do miss em.  There were times on my 400k that I wasn't having much fun.  My stomach was churning a bit towards the end, my legs felt like rubber, and my wrists hurt from riding... but riding 250 miles in one go was fun.  I had a good time... and I'm glad to know that I can do it, so I can look back to that experience when I decide to do longer rides like a 600k, 1000k or 1200k.  Some folks say that the 400k is the toughest distance as it's too short to catnap during the ride.  I'm not sure about that, but I'd like to find out.

I forget who actually taught me this concept of types of fun... but I'm guessing whoever it was listened to Fitz.
http://www.dirtbagdiaries.com/fun_divided_by_three
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Speaking of Type III fun... holy moly... really?
http://www.radiolab.org/story/runners/

And here's a blogger that can actually write, describing her motivation to do Type II/III adventures, in a more poetic fashion.
http://www.wilddefined.com/2013/05/why-pain-is-good.html