Amazing to look back at this

Bust my gut project

195 lbs when I started.

This morning I weighed in at 178 lbs.

17 lbs less--nearly 10%.

Yes, it's been a long time and a lot of frustration but it's paying off and I feel good. I had ambitious goals then and didn't achieve them but I kept pushing and tweaking my routine.

Notable is that is was harder than I thought. I recall when I was younger, this was easy and everyone reads all these plans on how easy it is to lose pounds a week. It's not that easy once we get older. This is the most important thing I have learned based on my lifestyle.

The 10 pound in ten days plan is for suckers sending money to temporarily dehydrate themselves while making a salesperson rich.

The two pound a week plan is for dreamers or extreme and lucky people.

The one pound a month plan is for real people devoted to it.

Like I said, you also need to realize if you have lost weight successfully in the past, it's not that easy now--you need to up your game now that you are older. It's harder. You are older and slower and the hill is steeper and longer. Sorry for the bad news, but you cannot live in fantasyland. Reality is painful and unavoidable.

I seemed to be at 184 lbs for the last six months but suddenly had a breakthrough. Part was keeping my bike mileage at 100+ miles a week but other things were making unsweetened iced tea at work and keeping moving when I was not riding. They key I found was keeping happy...for many people food is happiness under stress and if you can find a zero calorie substitute, you win.

What is really important here is that not only have I lost the mass, I have increased my endurance and fitness to achieve a long term goal or riding the white rim in a day without killing myself. Long term goals are very effective and important.

I still have a goal of 170 lbs and I plan to achieve it by August.

White rim is in October.

Sorry Sandisk

I love my 8GB sansa and was excited about the new 32 GB Sansa View for more expandable storage.

Adventures of Lidarman: What I have been waiting for.

But I did some research and found that there is no way to change the battery. Sad. Other players like the Zen are less expensive and yes, you can change the battery. I use mine every day and wind up killing the battery in about a year. I have changed the battery in my iriver and feel close to needing to change it on my Sansa 8GB.

Thus, I have changed my opinion on Sandisk so much, I am looking at other players and I sold my 100 shares of stock (SNDK--luckily I sold a while back and didn't lose my azz but now it's so cheap maybe I will buy it back :P ).

Of course this is a moot point if I wind up buying a new player before I kill the battery every time. Most people probably do this.

I still like your cheapo and reliable compact flash cards though....the ones I use for all my photos.

Bike Week Begins in Boulder

To kick it off, the cruiser swap was happening at the Farmers Market on Saturday.



It was so exciting to see all the wonderful bikes.



A couple of were adopted by this household. Here is one of them.



Wednesday is Bike to Work day with breakfast stations everywhere. For more information go here. Some call it the "Tour de Breakfast." whereas we hit as many as possible on the way to work. One of my favorites is the Premier Credit Union at 55th and Arapahoe, which has great breakfast burritos. Rumor has it that there is an excellent one (at least it was last year) on Gunpark Drive in Gunbarrel.

Owls

There is a family of great horned owls at Twin Lakes, Boulder, CO. An owl has been seen at twin lakes in the past, but recently there is a nesting owl, along with it's apparent mate--with babies as well.

One of the owls caught here.




The other proud parent



One of the babies



The other one

Mileage summary for the week

Total miles (mostly offroad): 135
Longest ride was Home to Heil and back via dirtroads: 37.5 miles.

Riding Update

May 12-18:
Didn't record but near 80 miles

May 19-25:

157 Miles including Rabbit Mountain from home, 43 miles. Interesting how I feel on any given ride. I started out thinking I would do Rabbit, then Hall Ranch and back, but even though Rabbit is an easier trail than Hall and my total mileage was 10 Miles less than riding Hall from home, I was struggling. Some subtle mental aspect with the wind and a slight chill crept up on me.

Peak Oil

With the focus on the global warming being the big thing in the news, many people might not have heard the term "peak oil."

I have been watching this and trying to decide if I should be worried.
life after the oil crash is clearly an alarmist site but there is a lot of factual information there. One can discount it but one might want to make sure they at least keep an eye on it once in a while.

Here is what worries me.

-Fact is there is a finite amount of oil in the ground...unless the abiogenic oil theory of oil is true--unlikely but possible.

-Oil demand is growing due to India and especially China ramping up demand. People want cars here and there are a lot of people in both places experiencing more prosperity.

-Peak oil theory says we might have or will soon peak in the production, which means after the peak, it's being depleted faster than it's discovered. Prices are expected to skyrocket.

-Prices of oil ARE skyrocketing. There is debate as to why but if the market is correct, it might be a good indicator that peak oil has hit. People say speculation but maybe it's a foreseen speculation. The bubble might pop but then bulge right up again.

-I ride my bike to work, saving about a gallon of gas per day, but oil affects everything, so I can't just do my part and not drive to work. Energy prices effect all other prices.

-Senator McCain made a slip recently that we were in Iraq for oil. But this follows a game theory scenario that requires us as a oil dependent country to position ourselves to control oil, once peak has passed and the situation is critical. A conspiracist theory for sure, but it's also a game theory solution and game theory is a very valid field of mathematics.

-Progressive countries like Sweden are shooting to be oil free.

On the other hand, if you inflation adjust gas prices to those in the past, the price now is around the same price as in 1982. Thus, there might be some factor that is causing this that will go away. At the time is was the Iran-Iraq war. Prices might finally be catching up to what they should be. Maybe we were just getting a huge break for the past 20 years.

The question I ask myself is whether I should worry and act somehow or ignore this behavior as overreactions by the world? Say all this hype is true, and gasoline will be $10 a gallon in 5 years. What will happen? In Holland, the price in US dollars including the weakness versus the Euro is about $12 a gallon.

Training Update

Last two weeks

April 28 - May 4

103 miles

May 5 - May 11

128 miles including Riding Hall Ranch from the house which was 53 miles in under 4.5 hours. This included 3000 feet of climbing and mostly offroad riding. It was a great metric for riding White rim since it is almost exactly half of the 104 mile white rim trail which also has 6000 feet of climbing. When I rode into Lyons at mile 34, I felt really good, then I had a beer at Redstone Cyclery and my energy levels plummeted. The last 19 miles was brutal, especially since I had a head wind and a time constraint. However, I didn't take the shortest rout back, I took the most mentally stimulating route back.

If I had to do white rim tomorrow, I think I might be able to do it--as long as I don't have that beer in the middle.


The route:




Some of the experience along the way.

Free Music

Well sorta...you have to like Nine Inch Nails and give Trent Reznor an email addy. I'm sure this is an experiment in viral marketing, but really there are no catches other than giving out an email.




Get 'The Slip' here

Training Update

After a sweet trip to Fruita, this week was "get on the cranks" for me. I was really motivated. Why? I just felt motivated. I had a great time in Fruita, rode strong, I guess it motivated me. It motivated me and seeing my friend Rocket Rob spin up the hills motivated me too.

Summary
Monday: 16 miles
Tuesday: 31 miles
Wednesday: 26 miles
Thursday: 16 miles
Friday: 16 miles
Saturday: rest
Sunday: 38 miles (Heil Ranch from Boulder via North Boulder trails and dirt roads to Lefthand Canyon road).

I think the total is 143 miles! Yay me. Off-road miles mostly too.

Rocket Rob in Fruita

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.