Fruita was most excellent

....but funny to look at the goals compared to reality. I was very ambitious.

Week of April 13-19

Miles ridden(goals vs actual)

Monday: 24, actual: 16
Tuesday: 16, actual: 16
Wednesday: 24, actual: 16
Thursday: 16, actual Snow = 0
Friday: 10 in Fruita, Actual: 13
Saturday: 15 in Fruita, Actual: 15
Sunday: 10 in Fruita, Actual: 4

But Fruita was really fun.



If you hit Fruita or the Grand Junction area, ride the Pet-E-kes trail up to near the Colorado Momument. Great hiking, running and biking trail. Ride up and take the Holy Cross trail down. Supreme riding.


18 road cannot be missed. Sweet smooth singletrack. It's like another planet. No really, it is like another planet. Do it again and again. If Disney knew of it, they would buy it and put a gift shop at the bottom.

Training Update

Weight 184 lbs. Despite the weight not dropping, I feel pretty strong on the bike. I still want to shed 15 lbs before we do the white rim. Mainly because I will be carrying all that water and gear.

Total mileage for the week: 88. Kinda surprising since the week was so wet. I managed to get a 24 miles one day by going the long way home from work, pull off 27 yesterday and 21 today--plus one 16 mile commute.

Our trek to Fruita happens at the end of the week but in the meantime, I hope to rack up some big miles on the predicted warm week ahead.

Goals:

Monday: 24
Tuesday: 16
Wednesday: 24
Thursday: 16
Friday: 10 in Fruita
Saturday: 15 in Fruita
Sunday: 10 in Fruita

Total: 113

All Your Cookie Are Belong To Us

Aka ethnic food laughs.

We went to get some food tonight. Some sushi and some Thai at a local joint that has both but also sells knick knacks and other food items.

I browsed and found these....could not resist. I had to know and experience them.



We take them home and proceed to munch on our Sushi and Thai food--yummy. The sushi was salmon and tuna plus some spicy Tuna Rolls. Very delicious. The Thai entrees were Pad Thai with chicken and red curry tofu. It was delicious as well.

So the moment of truth came. What in the world are the "Every Burger?" Gosh even the sound of every burger makes my mouth salivate from the anticipation of what looks to be a McDonald's single burger. This was in spite of me being full from the Thai food and sushi I just gobbled.

I studied the packaging before opening. The only other engrish, (er, uh, I mean english) words on the box were the ingredients and where it was produced, Tokyo, Japan. Ah ha, a Japanese treat. Ok, whatever.

Finally, after carefully opening the box and the silvery plastic foil, every single burger was revealed...ok only half of them, but I know every one of them are in there--it says on the box.

Yes, they are a tasty chocolate cookie treat. Very tasty indeed, despite being a burger.

Training Update

Current Weight: 184 lbs.
Last week mileage 57 miles.
Prior weeks mileage 46 miles.

The days are longer but I still can't get the mileage in due to wet days. I need to get 10 + hrs a week to get that fitness level desired for a great summer of riding.

My normal commute is 8 miles one way. If I ride a long offroad way home, I can add another 8 making it 24 total for the day. Two days of this a week is my goal starting next week since this week is forecast to be wet and messy most of the week.

New Mexico Kilos

Not quite a kilo but close. I just starting thawing my second one of these today.



It was February. Not a great time to be seeking chile. But it's available in frozen form--Roasted, chopped and peeled. Some of the better stuff I have had for not actually getting it fresh roasted and packaging it yourself. Bueno has been my past choice when resorting to prepackaged frozen. This place also makes outstanding tortillas.

In fact, I might start loading the freezer up with this instead of doing the annual trek in August. I still think it's legal to bring New Mexico green into Colorado, but since the restaurants seem to not do it, or know how to make decent food with it, I sometimes wonder.

Is Spring Here?

DST started today. Longer days. But will the weather be dry and warm? Let's hope.

This past week I rode 106 miles. It was a good week.---for winter. A very good week. I'm happy. But last I looked at the scale, I was at 185 lbs. Maybe I would be weighing in at 250 if I just sat in front of the TV or internet chomping on delicious food and beer. So in that perspective, life is indeed good.

The past two days had some great weather for riding. I want more of it. I want spring right now.

Hot Sauce

Yummm... spicy foods. No surprise when you realize that I grew up in Albuquerque, NM. I feel I am an expert on the chemical Capsaicinoids (Chile chemistry)

But I'm not an expert as a chemist, more like as a lab rat. I grew up eating chile. Some people call it chilli but in NM, they call it chile, or chile peppers. NM big jims are the best and define the NM chile experience.

Anyhow, as a consequence I like hot sauce and one of the common sauces I see here in Colorado is Cholula. I guess it's the most popular Mexican sauces.

When you have some sauce like Cholula, you will never use Tabasco again. Tobasco is like vinegar with some tongue burning potion. Never understood the attraction to it.

I use Cholula like ketchup...on my fries, on my eggs, on my goods everywhere. It's good stuff. Please Cholula, send me money for pumping your product to my five blog readers.

Yes I wrote all this BS so I could justify my photo....:P

A Taste of Spring

Cold weather in Boulder and suddenly 72 degrees on March 1.

Great day for getting a ride around boulder in.

Looking at Eldorado Canyon from the Dowdy Draw trail.

Training Update

Week ending February 3:

weight 183 lbs
Riding 65 miles. Lots of cold toes this week.

Gym membership expires so no more spin classes :(
________________________________________________________

Week ending January 27:

Riding 48 miles
spin 45 minutes

Training Update

Week ending January 20:

Weight: 185
exercise: 45 min spin, 1:15 bike ride (14 miles)

Felt like I was getting the flu earlier in the week, so took the time to rest. It's almost exactly 2 months till the white rim.

Most Ironic Book Yet.

Yep, I must be an idiot for finding it...

But on the topic of "idiots" and "dummies" books, which the overwhelming amount of them keeps me away from box bookstores, seems to play on the nature of wanting something easy. People must be lured to buy them because they think they have some magic that will educate them on topics they have a hard time with.

Kinda like miracle diets you might say.

Gosh, speaking of, let me see if there is an idiots guide to weight loss....be right back...

What a shocker, there is..



and



and the real shocker is, dieting for dummies and the idiots guide for weight loss actually have reasonable advice...Not that one needs to buy it. They can find all the knowledge about exercise and healthy diet on the web.

Bust My Gut Update 13

Today's weight 185 lbs.

Training for the week.

Riding 5 days, total of 69 miles.
Spin Class 2 days, 1 hour each.
2 hr hike.

Food intake. Who knows? Good at breakfast and lunch. Lots of beer and eating out at night.

Todays hike included, ironically, part of a trail we ride all the time, Hall Ranch. We even ran into a fellow biker, who was hiking as well.

It's interesting how the deer are very tame on Hall Ranch trails. I have ridden by them on a bike while they are resting less than 10 feel from the trail.

What I have been waiting for.

32 GB mp3 player without a hard drive.

Sandisk view


Well I lied, I want more than even 32 GB but my harddisk iriver barely held my music, was bulky, finicky and had poor battery life. This is what I have been waiting for.

Since I got the iriver, I moved to a Sandisk e280 8 GB player. Small, compact and long battery life. I really like it but hate deleting and adding music.

The view not only has 32 GB of memory, it has a slot for and SDHC card and with an 8 GB card currently available, I can have a player with 40 GB that is compact for less than $400.

I can put all my music on it now....well almost.

BTW, by the time I buy, I'm sure it will be a lot less than $400. Way cheaper than Apples' offerings no matter when I jump.

And next year, I will probably be wanting the 64 GB version for sure...maybe even the 128 GB version. Seems silly, but it will be HD movie capable by then, and all I want is something for my music.

Weekly training update: 12/31-1/6

This weeks workouts included:

2 days of riding to work, 1:15 hours each for 32 total miles.
1 hour of spin class
2 runs totaling 1:05

Next weeks plan

5 days riding to work
3 spin classes
1 run or 1 bike ride or an xc ski day.

Bust My Gut Update 12

Just over a year ago I started my "bust my gut" posting over the winter to lose weight from a previous year of gaining weight when I worked too much and didn't exercise. My weight this time last year was 193 pounds.

I know fitness isn't all about weight, but in my case, riding a bike, I feel my weight happens to be an indicator of my fitness.

I had an ambitious goal of 170 pounds. Seemed so easy in concept since I weighed around that much in 2003. Well this is five years later.

I worked hard and made some progress and wound up at 178 lbs in October 2007, training to ride the White Rim in Utah. It might have been enough since I was fit, but didn't meet the goal of 170 lbs. But that is ok when you feel fit.

In November, I still tried to exercise; Ride a lot but not nearly as much as I wanted. Plus, there are all those holiday parties starting, food everywhere...Oh my. Then December arrived along with the cold, short days and the snow, followed by excuses.

Today, I am at 187 lbs!

The bad news is that it's 9 lbs more than last October! The good news it that it's 6 lbs than last year at this time.

I guess that makes the conclusion that I lost 6 lbs on one year! Fair enough. I wish I could count the calories in all the beer I had over the year and subtract it.

Analysis aside, here is the plan.

--White Rim in a Day March 20: First, we set a goal to do this ride again, but this time in March. Huge deal. Huge motivator. Pressure like this is good.

--Spin class: Three days a week. Spin is the most intense exercise I do, ever. Every time I do it, I feel like I can't make it past 10 minutes, but actually survive the 40 minutes afterward. I go away buzzed and feel the results the next day.

--Ride to work: I'm stopping making excuses for not riding in and actually riding in with ice on the roads. The key is having good clothing, fenders, and lighting to get home.

--Running: Yep, I started running for about 30 minutes on days I don't ride or spin. Running is actually fun when I lose myself in my mp3 player.

Good weather rides: If the ground is dry, I will have no problem riding at least an hour a day.

--Eating: Back to whole grain bread and not eating junk. I thought I was doing that, but the occasional taco bell slips in here and there, and my Wahoo's fish taco binge happens here and there, with their zillion calorie Kahuna Grande along with two margs racking up the calories. I also find myself eating big breakfast burritos for breakfast again. They are good and breakfast is good but lots of calories for breakfast is not so good.

What really works for me is the bonking breakfast. Get up, drink coffee, ride to work, then eat an early lunch. They say don't skip breakfast because it's so important, but I think it depends on the person. Once I get my weight down to a target, I will eat a decent breakfast because I feel so hungry if I don't. But early on I can skip it, and exercising with low blood sugar makes the body dig into the other stored reserves such as fat.

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.