Nail In The Post

A 14 mile ride today. Cold and uneventful, otherwise. But nice to spin the cranks.

Precarious Steps

Nala on todays walk in a dry lake bed.

Hot Potato

The music stopped for Crocs stock today. Is the fad over?

I have a few investments and this one has been good to me. After making 45% return on it, I sold it at $72. Then I bought it back last week when it dropped back down to around $65 dollars a share. It climbed to a record high of $74, and I sold it at $72 a couple days ago.

Today it plummeted to about $48! You read that right, $27 drop in one day.

WHEW, dodged that one. I almost feel proud, but I just got damn lucky.

Todays slide was due to earnings not meeting some peoples expectations, even though they were pretty damn good. CROX has been blowing away everyone expectations and I guess the price reflected really, really high expectations. What this really means is the price actually reflects that people's expectations are to have their expectations blown away. If that makes any sense. Some people say the market contains the information of the true emotions of people, even though the people themselves think otherwise. Interesting phenomenon.

Lessons learned are, always watch your stock and the news surrounding it--and realize the emotional frenzy but don't get involved.

Training update

Kinda dropped the ball with Moab and all.

Weight today: 178 lbs.

The week of Moab Oct 1-7: ??? But we rode about 73 miles in Moab. I know I got over 100 miles for the week.

But the week of Oct 8-14: Hardly any riding. Just riding to work some between the crappy weather.

And Oct 15-21: One ride of 20 miles. But it was a good one. Blue sky trail with Devil's backbone. Very fun.

And last week I got a cold. However, feel better and rode today; 31 miles and first ride on the newly opened Dowdy Draw trail. Not too shabby..nice views and more trail is a good thing.

Dowdy Draw singletrack




Blue Sky trail Loveland/Ft Collins, CO.

The Fall

...or as the leaves are about to fall. I always have a heyday with my camera.

White Rim Postponed

Out of the whole week, the weather decided not to play fair for Thursday and it's going to be really windy. Yes, makes me a wimp. Rob is still wondering if his bashed knee is good to go anyway, but riding 100 miles in the wind, which is predicted to be 18 mph along with much stronger gusts, doesn't sound that pleasant. I have ridden the white rim trail before and wind is no fun with the blowing sand.

It's a deceptive thing with strong winds. You think you have a headwind half the time and a tailwind the other half so it washes out. But a side wind sucks too. So what you really have is a head wind 1/4 the time, a tail wind 1/4. the time and a side wind 1/2 the time. So 3/4 of the time is miserable.

Sunday, according to the forecast would be quite optimal, but we have other logistics that won't work out. Thus, we are going to re-consider doing it in the spring. A disappointing decision, but least we can still do other rides.

MTB Mileage Summary

September 24-30:

Monday, Tuesday rest.
Wednesday 67 miles
Thursday: 23 miles
Friday: 16 miles
Saturday 13 miles

Total 119 Miles.

Thursday is the white rim ride...all packed and ready. Leave Wednesday morning to scope it out, do a short ride and get food stash ready.

Oddly enough, Rob, who instigated this ride, fell on Sunday and ripped his kneecap open....requiring several stitches. His doctor said he was probably good to go and Rob's spirits are very positive.

Let the fun begin.

Gear so far minus the 2 bottles of Gatorade, two sandwiches, dried blueberries and the water in the bladders.



And the bike...all geeked out with fast tires, GPS, light, odometer, water bottles, a bell...and even anal beads. ;-)

Follow-up to yesterday

Yesterday was a long ride and a double header softball night. I was wired after softball and felt great.

I went to bed and slept hard. But around 4 am, I woke up having crazy dreams. I also ached like I was in a car wreck. This was in combination with being super relaxed, wanting to just doze off--it was a weird state to be in.

When I finally got up at 7 am, I ran for the meds. After downing a couple of ibuprofen and putting on the coffee., I crawled back in bed for another 15 minutes. I forced myself to get up thinking I was going to be pathetic all day.
After grabbing a cup of coffee I let the dogs drag me out for our daily walk. It was pleasant. My muscles loosened up. I started feeling alive again.

I even rode to work...and oddly enough, it was an amazing feeling--so relaxing. I had no pain the rest of the day. I rode home, then rode to dinner, logging another 20+ miles and currently I feel wonderful.

Just don't give me any hills to climb.

Todays Big Ride

Today was my last serious ride before doing the white rim trail in a day on Oct 4, WRIAD as it's commonly called.

I rode as much dirt road and trail around Boulder as I could in the time I had...

67 miles in 5 hrs, 38 minutes average speed of 11.8 mph, trying to take it easy. I had a little more pavement than I would want. I didn't have serious climbs or technical. Maybe I should have done more climbing but was worried I didn't have time to find the big climbs. But my goal was lots of saddle time to assess my feelings after.

For breakfast, I ate an English muffin with egg and cheese and a Morningstar Farm vegi-sausage patty. It was yummy.

On the ride, I ate a turkey and wheat bread sandwich with swiss cut in half over two sessions. One was one about an hour into the ride and the other was and hour later. I also chomped on a Clif blocks pouch and a chocolate Gu. The rest was a water bottle with half Gatorade and half water and one 100 oz bladder of water only. A mile 50, I stopped at a station and got a 24 oz Gatorade and drank about half.

I found on the ride, I craved Gatorade over water. The weather was cool, near 70 F and water just seemed boring and empty. It almost made my stomach hurt and made me pee more than anything. I wound up drinking only two-thirds of my 100 oz bladder.

The sandwiches were filling while the Gu and Cliff blocks were overly sweet. I like the solid food aspect of my sandwich over the Gu and Blocks.

Just before mile 60, I felt like crap. Starting to feel worried about the prospect of 100 miles. But suddenly, maybe the food stuff kicked in--the Gatorade in particular. I felt a sudden euphoria and slipped into the zone where I felt complete bliss. I was ready, if I had the time, I would have just gone off to tear out 40 more miles with no problem.

But time running out and time to play two games of softball, I headed home and logged my 67 miles.

Down the throat, I gulped a chocolate milk, ate a small burrito, took a shower and started to feel like a wreck...thinking softball is going to kill me.

Surprise. I had two of my best games ever and feel as I type this, pretty damn good.

I'm suddenly so excited to ride the rim next week.

Off-road Bike Mileage for Sept 17-23

Tuesday: 17
Wednesday: 17
Thursday: 30
Friday: 28
Saturday: 12
Sunday 12

Total: 116

This week so far mileage is zero. White Rim is next week. The good is resting. The bad is feeling like I'm going backwards.

MTB Mileage Summary

September 10-16:
Monday: rest.
Tuesday: 16 miles.
Wednesday: 16 miles.
Thursday: 16 miles.
Friday 38.5 miles.
Saturday, group cruiser ride: 15.5 miles
Sunday: fast loop 12 miles.

Total = 114

The notable aspect was riding the Wild Turkey Trail at Heil Ranch. It just opened on Friday, giving us an extra three miles of wonderful single track in riding distance from the doorstep. Currently, I can do Heil Ranch from home with only 3 miles of pavement round trip over a 40 mile out-and-back ride. Not a bad thing at all.

Low Rolling Resistance Tires.

I'm trying out some new tires. I normally like wide, big-knobbed tires such as Kenda Kinetics, Kenda Nevegal, Panaracer FR 2.4, Geax Sturdy, and WTB Weirwolf tires. I do have a tire fetish and this is just a taste. However, I do like fat tires the most.

For the white rim event, I decided to go for the low rolling resistance idea. Past philosophy meant no knobs and skinny. I put some Hutchinson Python 2.0 tires on my Turner Burner and started riding. They didn't seem that much better on dirt, but on pavement, they roll like road tires. Certainly due to the center section being almost continuous.

After reading some nice reviews on fat low resistance tires, I got me a pair of Kenda Small Block Eight tires. Some folks love em. Some folks hate em. I need to make my own decision.

I installed them tonight and will be trying them out this weekend. So far riding down the street they are buttery smooth. They are a lot wider than the Pythons but in the moab sand, I hope this is a positive thing--we'll see. I have read that wider tires do have les rolling resistance than narrow tires (due to contact patch causing less deformation) but there is extra weight involved. Tire pressure and all that other stuff is an issue of course. It's also balancing comfort. Getting beat up by 70 psi tires is not going to make one faster, or finish in an endurance ride.

The tires I ran before must weigh a pound heavier between the two tires than the small block eights or the pythons. Plus they have the rolling resistance disadvantage. We will see. Hopefully there is traction. So far the pythons have done really well. Better than expected on hard pack for traction. I worry about the sidewalls on rocky trails--they are thin and vulnerable. The small block eights have thin sidewalls but lots of side knobs to keep the rocks away.

On the white rim, there are not many rocks to tear sidewalls, but there is sand. One wants to float on the sand. Hopefully these do that but have some paddles to move forward. I encountered some sand riding the pythons and they did fine. The small block eights should do well too. In fact, I think maybe more knobs are better in sand than less knobs.

Small Block Eight 2.35" versus Python 2.0"

Week offroad riding

3 days at 16 miles = 48.
56 miles on Monday
11 on a thursday ride
20 on a saturday breakfast ride.

135 total...yay!!!!

However, the plan was huge ride today..but I busted my knee up on Saturday. :(

Taking today and maybe tomorrow off.

Dots Network

Near Nederland, CO.

A pic from tonight. Co-worker Allan, Working a tree and root move.



It's an 11 mile ride that is technical and is a very interval workout style--up--down--up--down. Works your mind too, on the technical aspect of off-camber rocks.

I fell and gouged my elbow...my first bike injury this year...Oh, poor me.

*knocks on the wood I still have from that amazing ride tonight*

But some of this trail might be on the chopping block to sell off to fund rural schooling under the Bush plan. It was shot down last year but has been slipped in the budget again this year. Get proactive. If you like bike trails, joing IMBA and your local bike groups. Send letters and be heard, not herd.

A great long ride today

Last long ride was all about bonking. This time, it was about eating. I pushed it a little too much on some early climbs but felt a lot better after mile 40 than last time. Breakfast was a egg and cheese on a toasted English muffin. On the ride I ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on oat bread after mile 15, then a gu 10 miles later, then some clif blocks at mile 35, then another go at mile 45. I should have maybe drank more water since I only used 80% of my 100 oz bladder, but I had to pee twice and didn't feel like water. I also got sick of the sugary taste and craved some cheese. Next long ride is a cheese burrito. I felt like a nap near the end more than anything.

End mileage was 56. I felt pretty good but still need some more miles under the belt.

Whether I could do 48 more miles, I don't know. I don't know how much for me is psychological and how much is physical pain and need of training. I'm sure it's some of each. The psychological part has a lot of do with what you expect starting and I expected 50 miles today, not 104.

Rode Counter Clockwise: East boulder trail, South Boulder creek trail, Marshall mesa trail, along Broadway, the Boulder creek trail, Four-mile canyon, Poorman road, Sunshine canyon rd, Foothills trail, Lefthand trail, Neva road, 55th, Coot Lake trail, to home.

Weight this morning 182. Weight after ride: 175. Ride time 4hrs 45min. Avg speed 11.7 mph.

Riding for Week August 27

Total miles: 115

Commuting: 32
Long local trails ride including work: 45.5
Heil Ranch: 7.5
Breakfast on Saturday: 17
Centennial Cone: 13

Long Round-the-city ride today

I'm a little discouraged about my effort to prepare for the White Rim. That day consists of 104 miles and 6000+ feet of climbing. That day is Oct 4.

Today, I rode a jaunt around the city trails, which included three short climbs. Initially, I felt really good--awesome and confident in fact. Mile 35 hit after climb two and I was feeling so fresh, I thought, "I'm ready!"

Climb three ended and suddenly, I was feeling a little worn. At mile 40, I just wanted to get home. I was running out of steam really fast. My ass was starting to burn from the saddle.

Home at mile 45.5...and I downed a chocolate milk. I felt the burn in my legs thinking, "I can't do this again, no way."

I got on the scale and weighed 6 lbs less than this morning...lots of water loss. I wish it was fat, but tomorrow, as in the past, it will be back.

The last meal I ate was a a six inch sub at lunch with a bag of chips (around 550 calories) and I didn't eat breakfast. I did have a goo mid ride but that is only 100 cals.

I think part of my problem might be that I didn't eat during the ride, relying only on stored energy. Great since I'm trying to teach my body to metabolize fat and lose weight, but bad because it freaks out when that is all it has. Thus, I might have been riding too hard, especially on the climbs for that mode of energy burn. Fat stores are made for survival, not to bust ass on. When you body needs fuel and there is not enough blood sugar and not enough fat, it consumes muscle.

Next long ride, I will be taking the approach to eat often and push the mileage rather than burn up my body. I need to start shifting my goals from losing weight to using energy effectively and eating effectively.

No matter what, I need to gain the confidence that I can push through the mileage in October when the day comes. This is the phase of mental training.

Riding for week of August 20:

Total 107 miles

Tuesday Boulder city trails, casual 20 miles.
Thursday, Home to Heil Ranch, Heil Ranch, back via dirt road and other trails, 40 miles.
Friday morning, Ride errands to downtown, 13 miles
Friday, Hall ranch from town, three laps of loop, 17 miles
Sunday, Hall ranch from town, three laps of loop, 17 miles

The Feeling of Getting Fit

It's been a long time since I have been this fit. Perhaps 2003, when I was riding all the time, riding hard, and years younger.

Then the injuries started....recovery, injury, recovery, then work got really busy. Burnout, big time.

Finally this year, I got a breather and motivation. It started slow with the cold and snowy winter, but I finally got in the groove.

I have been riding hard for the last two months...I mean really hard. Riding to work every day, riding long rides when I can on weekends. Putting lots of miles and hours.

It's starting to pay off. Fifteen pounds less weight than December, 2006, I feel like I can almost ride forever.

Last night I went on a ride at Hall Ranch. My last ride there was in May or June and I felt like even in my lowest gear, I was dying on the climbs. I felt the pain in my legs. My heart rate was pegged. My eyes were burning from the sweat pouring off my forehead. I was breathing so hard, I got a runners stitch. I was so ashamed that I was once really fit and wound up like this.

In contrast, last night felt weird. The climbs, even in my middle chain ring felt buttery smooth. It was like I was paralyzed yet had control of my legs. I wasn't fast mind you, but I could feel myself move forward and up constantly without any sensation of pain. No heavy breathing. I was sweating, but not profusely--just a shiny coating covering my skin. It kinda felt magical, a sort of bliss. It was like my mind was completely free to think and listen to music on my mp3 player while I rode the escalator to the top.

It made me high.

Three laps on the loop, a ride around to the other parking lot, and 17 miles later, I joined everyone for beer at Oscar Blues.

What a memorable ride. No wonder it's an addiction.

Bust My Gut Update 11

I should rename this to "training for the white rim-in-a-day" ride.

Last update was here:

Bust my gut update 10

Besides trying to ride more to get back in shape, a buddy and I (Rob for those who know) decided we are riding the 104 mile white rim trail in CanyonLands, Utah in one day the first week of October.

Thus I have been riding a whole lot more--training you could say. My goal is over ten hours a week and over 100 miles a week offroad, working up to 15 hrs a week and 50 mile plus rides on weekends.

I am riding a lot more easy, but long rides. Hours and Hours on the trails. Lots of mp3 music pounding my eardrums while I pound the pedals.

But the good news is I feel great, down to 179 lbs and after a ride today dehydrating even though I drink a ton, I weighed 176 at one point. I would love to hit 170 before the ride date.

But forget the weight loss idea. I rode today, 40 miles and when I was done, felt great. Not sure I could do it again...nor do it again and then do 24 miles more after that...But that is what training is about.

Latest From the Hanger

Some green light of the lidar's laser.



Chrome propeller cone.

Lidar Test Flights

This week the NOAA Twin Otter aircraft is in town and we are flying our new ozone profiling lidar doing system tests and making some local measurements.

The Twin Otter




Me taking notes




Dodging storms



Red Rocks Amphitheater

Cheap Sponsorship.

Too bad I'm not making money on this...

Bike To Work Day

Although I commute to work daily, the end of June is bike week and the Wednesday of bike week is bike to work day. What is special about this day?

BREAKFAST STATIONS.

Aka, Tour De Breakfast.

In years past, it was a game to hit as many stations as possible on the way to work, trying to find the best one. The first year Whole Foods opened, they won with made to order omelettes and a full spread of fruit, coffee and juices. Nobody has lived up to that since.

However, my favorite, for the past few years is Premier Members Credit Union, who serves breakfast burritos. Oh yummy.

Good Mountain Biking In Colorado

...Gosh. Lots of peeps on a ride near Estes Park...

The bikes of poseurs, posing! ;-)



....but there was some riding by the poseurs.

Bolder Boulder

The 10k Memorial Day road race, attracted about 50,000 amateur runners this year. The weather was great, a little warm, but great for being outside and experiencing a huge event like this.

On the elite side, there are winners:

Edna Kiplagat





....and Ridouane Harroufi who came from behind in the last minute to pull off a spectacular win.



Then there are the sufferers. It's hard when you train so hard and give it all.

Centennial Cone Glow

Renee and I rode Centennial Cone Park near Golden Colorado today. It was fun except for our friend Dan almost chopped off his finger with his bike disc brakes. This happened in the parking lot before the ride...

Otherwise, it's a great trial if you like smooth and long extended gradual climbs and descents. Nothing technical to note.

Lots of good views too.

I'd say check it out and make sure you either do it weekday or on an even weekend day. it's on an alternating hiker/biker schedule.

Centennial Cone

End of the Rainbow

Always fun there.

Fruita = Fun

The gang headed to Fruita, CO this past weekend to exercise the rubber and it was a joy. The trails were packed and perfect. Although the weather was on the edge of sketchy, it worked out for us. We had a wonderful time.



Renee and Kim on Horsethief Bench.



Michael working on a slab.

playas play with lite

...or something like that.

I gotta say that photography is about capturing light...and there are lots of controls on the camera to modify that. The aperture of the camera..the time you expose the image, the speed of the film, or in digital, the sensitivity of the image sensor.

...And then there is the other side of the story--the light source.

Gosh, that equation has even more variability. You can modify the number of sources, where they are, what they are pointing to, the intensity of each, the color of each, ...and prolly more things.

just using a couple of flashes has changed the way I look at this mess.

Spring in full bloom

The tulips are poking out....erotic isn't it? ;-)



...and the things that keep me on the trail are getting some use.



...I'm not even mentioning how fun the bedroom is :P....

Yay spring!

Bike modeling

My spring time post...

So Pathetic

The current Terror Alert status is



..Which it has basically been since the Alert Status has been invented--except for a couple of occasions (when it was ORANGE).

Here is the history of the alert status changes.

August 1, 2004 - Advisory - Homeland Security Advisory System Increase to Level ORANGE for Financial Sector in New York City, Washington DC and Northern New Jersey.

May 30, 2003 - Advisory - Homeland Security Advisory System Lowered to National Level YELLOW

May 20, 2003 - Advisory - Homeland Security Advisory System Increase to National Level ORANGE

April 16, 2003 - Advisory - Homeland Security Advisory System Lowered to National Level YELLOW

March 17, 2003 - Advisory - National Threat Level Raised, Statement by Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge

Here is the chart for Terror Alert Status.



But if you look at the chart, there is blue and green below them. If you think about what blue means, "General risk of terrorist attacts" That basically sounds like normal. But what is normal? Aren't we in a normal situation now? Why didn't they use the word "normal"...why "general?" Then there is green. Low risk of terrorist attacks. Has there really been a low risk of a terrorist attack since the word "terrorist" was first used?--long before this chart. Green almost sounds like it's impossible, especially when someone defines blue as "general." WTF? I guess green is used in the movies.

I think this is a perfect example of bureaucracy and pointless waste.

Besides, how many people check the chart on a daily basis or before they fly--to see how safe it is? Maybe it should be on the weather channel?

"Honey, it's not going to rain today and the terrorist alert is blue, so your drive to work will be safe today."

BTW, I think they changed the red one a little. I remember it saying terrorist attack underway or something like that--no really!

Bust My Gut Update 10

Well some progress finally.

Original weight in November when I started this was 194 lbs.

Current weight as of today is 188 lbs.

I have been riding my bike a minimum of 4 days a week to work and at least one weekend day for the past 3 weeks. The other major thing I have been doing is skipping breakfast on most days. Yep, skipping breakfast. The usual problem that people think is when you skip breakfast is that you are so hungry you eat a larger than normal lunch. Well I'm usually starving at lunch but still try to eat a salad with my meal or as a meal.

The positive thing here is that I feel good and feel some acceleration happening in my progress. Once I hit that point, it's easy to be motivated, and things start falling into place. The nice weather is certainly helping.

I set a goal of 5 lbs lost by April 1 and it appears I will not only hit that mark(I already have), I might even lose 7 lbs by then.

Goals
April 15: 184 pounds.
May 1: 181
May 15: 178
June 1: 175

I'm also considering ramping up my bike ride time to 15 hrs a week to really improve my riding conditioning. Right now, it's around 7 to 8 hrs a week of steady riding. Racers usually put in 15 to 20 hrs a week to get into peak conditioning. Upping my riding time will increase my calorie burn to another 5000 a week or almost 1.5 pounds of fat per week. Thus, I would be in a mode where I would actually have to eat more food.

Now that is some exciting stuff.

Some Utah and Arizona Fun

I love the Southwest.

San Rafael Swell, UT


Moab, UT


Grand Canyon, South Rim, AZ


More here

The Bust my gut Bust!

So back in November I started the bust my gut project with a goal of 170 lbs by March first. What a disaster. I lost a pound.

What happened: (not excuses, but observations).

--I ate too much.
--I didn't exercise enough. I let the poor weather be an excuse.
--I drank too much booze.

I feel like a gave myself a big slug in the (big) gut. I committed to doing this, and posting the progress here with hope it would motivate me and help others see what devotion can do. But I failed and actually made this look like a really difficult task. Well it is a hard task, and the older we get the harder it is, it seems.

However, I'm certainly not giving up. I think what I will do is change my goals.

First, I won't make losing a 25 lb goal over three months. I will make smaller ones. Since it's the first week of March, my goal will be more short term. 5 lbs by April 1st. That is just over a pound a week, much less aggressive than the 2 lbs per week I had before.

The good news is the time is changing and the weather should be improving, making the probability of me riding my bike to work much higher.

Renee told me about this article she read in Men's Journal about why people exercise and don't lose weight. It was very interesting and included:

• Overexercising can cause one to eat too much after and put those calories right back in the body.
• When we overexercise, we tend to feel tired, then sit on the couch rather than move around, thus we offset the gains in exercise with sedentary activity.
  

I went to Utah and Arizona on a 10 day bike trip hoping I would get some good exercise in. Well I did! But I ate out and partied with people and put a lot of empty calories back in too. Thus it was a good thing I was riding or I might have gained a few pounds instead of maintaining what I have.

**pushes the reset button***

Here we go...............

Hoar Frost

The world was white this morning, as everything was covered in the beautiful layer of hoar frost.

Chair

Browsing some of my pix from a Taos trip in 2004, I kept looking at this....

Snow breeds desperation...

Sifting through photos of the past, ones that represent warm, but warmth in a way that has similiar suffering of the cold snow I have been slogging through lately. It might be insanity to wish such a thing.