XJ

Getting lost.

2009-06-12T10:55:00.008-06:00

Out and about checking out the new neighborhood on the trusty cross bike.

Why snowbording will always be cooler than skiing.

2008-12-23T17:59:00.002-07:00

Gotta be the waddle.

Big Moon

2008-12-12T09:17:00.003-07:00

Anyone catch the moon last night? I ran out to check my mail and it caught my eye through the clouds. Something seemed different about the sky but I couldn't put my finger on it.

I heard this on the way in to work this morning. I Guess tonight it will be at it's largest.

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_11199195

"Those looking up tonight will see the biggest full moon the Earth has seen since 1993.

To best view the effect, look at the moon while it's on the horizon line, when "illusion will mix with reality to produce a truly stunning view," according to Tony Phillips, Science@NASA's production editor.

"For reasons not fully understood by astronomers or psychologists, low-hanging moons look unnaturally large when they beam through trees, buildings and other foreground objects. The swollen orb rising in the east at sunset may seem so nearby, you can almost reach out and touch it," he writes on the Science@NASA Web site.

The moon's proximity to Earth also will affect tides, pulling the tide higher than normal by between about

an inch and 6 inches.

Every month, the oblong lunar orbit brings the moon closer to Earth, but this month the moon is full just four hours after hitting perigee. That means it will be 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than any other full moon this year. The full moon at perigee won't occur again until 2016."

Seems like a lot of stuff is going on lately with the Venus/Jupiter/Moon thing just the other day as well. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/12/081201-jupiter-venus.html Though I wouldn't mind looking up and seeing nothing but storm clouds right about now.

Wheeler Cross - Series #10

2008-12-01T22:56:00.010-07:00

Another Saturday another Race.

I didn't get off to the best start with this race. It's a lesson I can't seem to keep in my head. I was there plenty early enough but was practicing a few sections of the course. It seems like the more racers there are the earlier everyone lines up for the start. Back of a pack of 52 or so because I showed up to the line late. I made up a few quick spots on the first off camber taking the lower line but I was still way back in the pack and it was slow city the whole first lap going through the woods.

Even though I didn't get to move up much this was a much different race than I have had in the past. From lap 2 to the end I had a group of 6 people following behind me the whole way. They all stayed pretty close together and I would gap them pretty good through the woods then they would catch me at the end of the longer straight aways. On a flatter less technical course there's no way I would have been able to hold the front as long as I did.

As a group we slowly passed up a few guys along the way but mostly it was a little race within the race. I held on till the last minute or so of the race and got passed by about 3 of them on the final straight away before the finish. I had a pretty good lead on the rest of them when I looked back last and let up more than I should have. At the last turn before the finish another racer tore past me before I even knew he was coming. I jumped out of the saddle and hammered it on the lower line of the off camber and was able to take the spot back before the finish. It's not like we were contending for some great position but I take the small victories where I can get em.

I probably could stand to learn a large bit about riding in groups. Right now as it stands I'm pretty much a solo racer just doing my thing and having fun.

Too busy for the Monies.

OK, I'm ready for my monies now..

Intermission: Payton playing in the leaves.

Back to serious business.

Maybe not. Time for father-son portrait while the handi-capable guy runs up the hill.

Thanks for the pics Marcus/Megan

I've been trying to be more careful putting down the bike post runup after knocking my chain off numerous times. Looks like I'm being way too careful after seeing this vid.

Intermission

2008-11-21T08:05:00.002-07:00

I was going to do a write up of last weeks race, but by the time I do that the next one will be done with. So here are some pictures instead.

Thanks for the pics Jennie

Brief:
A few tumbles. Lost some skin. Chain fell off. My favorite course layout thus far. I love run ups. Thought I did well. Turned out to be so so. Good times were had anyway.

Butternut Squash Soup

2008-11-18T22:01:00.004-07:00

Saw Alton Brown make this soup a few times and it's the season, so what the heck. Something new. Linkage

Squash after roasting.

Everything but the Heavy whipping cream.

Yum?

Pretty easy stuff only time consuming part is waiting for the squash to finish roasting. If I were to do it again I would probably peel the squash ahead of time and maybe quarter it before roasting. Scooping the squash out of it's skin while it was hot was kind of a pain. I go back and fourth with heavy cream in recipes I probably would have been fine with normal whipping cream or maybe even just milk.

Also I haven't made many soups of this consistency before and you really have to watch the temperature while it's cooking. Not so much because it will burn more because it will turn into a erupting volcano shooting 4 1/2 feet into the air. It really caught me by surprise because the stove was almost as low as it could go when things started going Pompeii in the kitchen.

Seems like I may be cleaning the walls/ceiling a little more than I should be after cooking. It's possible I may be doing something wrong...

Late Night Snacking

2008-11-10T23:17:00.008-07:00

Penne with Homemade Vodka Sauce

Common ingredients and simple to make. Both winners in my book.

The recipe calls for a cup of Vodka which is probably way too much for most people. I usually cut it back to 3/4 to 1/2 a cup.

Also I finally picked up an immersion blender today. After nearly painting the walls with scorching hot tomato sauce the last go round in the food processor I figured it was time. Definitely makes life much simpler without all the transferring back and forth and just being able to blend in the pot.

Recipe Link Do it!

Blah Blah Wheeler Cross

2008-11-03T20:10:00.004-07:00

Blah Blah long course
Blah Blah my back
Blah Blah excuses
Blah Blah missed the rain
Blah Blah fun as always anyway
Blah Blah I'll do better next time
Blah Blah uh huh...

Blah Blah two handed??

Blah Blah WooHoo!

Rainy Days

2008-09-20T17:35:00.008-06:00

Back to Big Cottonwood - Lake Blanche

Leaves starting to turn

A brief reprieve from the rain.

Off to PC for some good eats...

Wow it's almost that time already.

2008-09-17T22:14:00.000-06:00

Woohoo!

courtesy of Theresa's Picasa

Holy farmers tan Batman!

Little Cottonwood hike

2008-09-15T22:23:00.001-06:00

Shots from the hike up Snowbird last weekend. Not exactly the smartest hike I ever went on and my random and sometime reckless exploring almost caught up to me.

Looking up Big Emma

Below Mid-Gad. I followed parallel to Mid-Gad for half the hike up.

This is almost to the top of the last pic under Mid-Gad. I tested just about every rock in that pic and every one of them was loose. I spent about 20 mins trying to find a good route up it with no luck. I might have been able to scramble up it but the mountain side would have taken a beating and prefer to not damage things. So finally I gave up and was able to skirt to one of the sides eventually and find a better route.

Looking up Bassackwards

Road to Provo / Twin peaks

Looking back down from Road to Provo

Now this is where I got a little stupid. I decided to climb up the ridge above road to Provo not knowing what the top was like. Some pretty sketchy climbing and made some advances that fully extended me which didn't seem like a big deal going up, but coming down can be much more difficult. Even though it was in the back of my mind towards the end I ignored it and continued up. I finally reached the top and didn't get much in the way of pics because I was clinging to the rock ridge at the top and didn't want to risk compromising my grip. On the other side of the rocks in the pic it just dropped straight down into mineral basin. I was more concerned now with getting down than getting some decent pictures.

The howling wind wasn't doing much for my nerves so I took this vid pretty quickly.

I tried making my way back the way I came but it wasn't happening. After a lot of maneuvering I was able to make it to this valley to the west. There was a somewhat decent route down into mineral basin but it was getting late and I didn't want to hike down and back out if I could avoid it.

I eventually ended up finding a route down but it involved a ton of trial and error. A lot of climbing down finding out I was stuck then climbing back up and trying a new route.

Here is a shot looking back at the ridge. I went up around the middle in the rocky area between the trees. The way down was towards the right of pic.

Little more zoomed in

Yep that's the shadow of the Tram. It was late and already past time for me to be at dinner so I caught the easy way down like a slacker.

MANtage!

2008-09-09T22:41:00.005-06:00

Good find Eric

Mt Millicent, Twin Lakes, etc...

2008-09-02T23:23:00.013-06:00

Went to check out Brighton/Millicent area on Sunday. I have wanted to check out the ski resorts during the summer to see what they looked like sans snow and have kinda forgotten about it till now.

I started from Silver lake and made my way up past Twin Lakes where I had just missed Huck Finn

Site of many a failed ski jump attempts. (Lone Pine run I believe)

When I was last up here I asked one of the ski patrol what these things were. He told me they used to drop dynamite or whatever explosives they are using to do avalanche control nowadays. Could have been BSing me but seemed plausible enough. I ran across 3 or 4 of them on the way up.

The hike up to the summit of Millicent from the top of the Milli ski lift was like a giant granite rock pile. It was very rare to see dirt just rocks on top of rocks on top of boulders. Everytime one of the big ones wobbled as I scrambled over the top I couldn't help but think about Aron Ralston.

Summit
From the top you could see 5 lakes. Silver Lake, Twin Lakes, Lake Mary, Lake Catherin, and a Lake between the two that I haven't been able to find a name for.

Looking back at twin lakes

Lake Mary

Lake Catherine
I was planning on heading over to Mt. Wolverine but it started to rain so I thought it best head back down the rocks before they got too slick. In my hurry I managed to slip and mangle my wrist/hand up a bit. Of course it was on a really easy section when I let my guard down. And just for extra fun I didn't notice when I fell there must have been a thistle because when grabbed onto the next rock I realized my hand was covered in tiny thorns. That was an awesome little surprise. Took like 10 mins to get all those things frigging out.

Stopped on the way to screw around with macro mode

I know pictures of flowers and honey bees..., but these were from the rare sub species masculus virilis apis. Really it's true. Look it up.

Looking back at Milli from Silver Lake

360 vid from Summit.

Biking at Deer Valley w/ Jeff and Clark

2008-08-28T22:52:00.014-06:00

Another blog fragment...

This was the first trip for all of us to bike at Deer Valley. Clark picked the trail and I can't remember the name not that it matters because we didn't exactly ride up it. We ended up riding up the cat tracks and it wasn't exactly the most fun thing in the world. They were deceptively steep and and pretty monotonous.

A familiar site on this "ride"

Jeff stops to get his Zen on.

Eventually we found a point where the trail cut across the cat tracks and went from there.

A little more like it.

Funny thing happened shortly after where these pics were taken. (well funny to me) We pulled off to the side to get some water and I see another biker coming down the trail. He wasn't going exceptionally fast so I say "Hi." as he is coming towards us. Totally ignores me. So I try again as he gets closer, this time a little more forcefully "HI!".... Dude totally biffs it. Tumbles over his bike. It was like I was Muad'Dib or something for a second there and the power of my voice physically flung him. (Now there's a geek Sci-fi reference for ya)

I felt really bad and told him I was sorry. He was alright dusted himself off said hi and was on his way. Shortly after his father came along and said something about his son being fearless. ...I don't know to me it seemed like he might have a fear of strangers that make "Hi" sounds on the sides of trails but I hardly knew him so I could be wrong.

The rest of the ride was pretty decent, but not really proportional to lame cat track climb. When we made it down to the parking lot I saw this dude riding around on a beefy looking unicycle. I'm cutting down the dirt paths between the parking lot levels and I see him drop down one. I get up to it and it's really steep like I'm sketchy going down it on my bike on two wheels. I'm thinking no way did this guy do this on a unicycle. So I drop off and catch up to him and ask him if he just did what I thought I saw him do and he says yeah. So I ask him can you ride that thing on the trails and he says yeah I do it all the time and he gives me a little demo.

The hill is steeper than it looks. The dudes on a Unicycle!

What happens if you run out of momentum and can't pedal anymore? Oh yeah you just turn sideways and hop the rest of the way up!

Afterwards a little bummed about the Deer Valley ride I decided to hit up the Glenwild Loop.

Great Western Trail - Moose Encounter

2008-08-28T00:16:00.010-06:00

While cleaning up some of the junk on my Blogspot account I keep running into half finished blogs that I never posted. So rather than delete them I'll just post the pics with spotty commentary.

Pics of mountain bike ride up Great Western Trail starting from the top of Millcreek.

I think this is looking towards Park City?

Jorge working his way up the trail

No idea random mountain lake

I think this is Desolation lake..

I do remember on the way back down pretty close from the top I blew out my back tube. The valve separated from the inner tube and goo exploded all over the inside of the tire. Luckily I brought a spare tire. Unluckily I didn't put it in my pack and left it in the Jeep. I was pretty pissed off at myself thinking I was going to have walk back down after all that climbing. Fortunately Jorge had a spare, we swapped it out and I was back in business in no time.

About halfway down things opened up a bit and visibility was good up ahead so I started cruising at a pretty good pace. I tend to get tunnel vision focusing on the terrain of the trail and what's coming up next. I saw something in my peripheral about a foot off the trail and remember thinking oh look a horse. By the time it registered that it was a moose and it's youngin I was way too close. I hit the brakes and ended up stopping about 10-15 feet in front of them. The Mother kinda lethargically looks over at me, does a double take (very strange to see an animal do this) and they take off down the trail. I counted my blessings that they ran away instead of towards me and wrestled for the camera around my neck. I took a few pictures of the sky and ground before I got it together enough to get a few shots.

This was my second too close encounter with moose. I have some pics of the last time lying around somewhere that I'll have to dig up.

Guardsman's Pass

2008-08-25T22:53:00.004-06:00

Who'd a thunk it. The scoot made it up Guardsman's

I've really been slacking. I keep meaning to post but... then I don't. Ah well I 'll dig up a couple pics later.

Powell June 08

2008-07-20T22:44:00.010-06:00

Pics from Lake Powell trip with the Haroldsen's, Witkamps, and Forrest's.

Megan and Payton

Nick and Payton

Wendy and Payton

Me, Andrew, and Pay... er Marcus

ZZZZZ and zzzzz

Thoroughly Annoyed

2008-07-18T19:13:00.007-06:00

On the way home today my favorite new toy tries to reject me again as it has been for the last few weeks. I notice something on the running board that looks like oil while I"m at a red light. (Yay what now....) So I pull over and check out Bessy to see what's the matter. Somehow the fill/dipstick has come loose on Bessy and she has pretty much hemorrhaged all of the oil out of her system.

So I need oil fast and the closest place is K-mart. It's not particularly my favorite place to go but I don't really have a choice. I pop in grab a funnel and a quart of oil and head over to the cashier.

Cashier: That will be six blah blah sir
Me: (hand my card to the cashier. ... or my company card..)
Me: Frick can you cancel that before it goes through!
Cashier: Sorry sir it's already gone through, it's too late.
Me: Double Frick! Can I return the items and put the money back on the card.
Cashier: Sure, but you will have to take it over to customer service.

I've manged to go 5 years without using my company card by accident for a personal item. I have purchased a few thing for the company on my own card but not the other way around. Ah well at least I can get a quick refund and take care of it now. Right? So I head on over to customer service.

Me: Hi I messed up and charged these items to my company card. Can I return them and have the money put back on that card.
Service Dude: So you don't want them?
Me: No, i just made a mistake and I need the money back on this card. I will buy them again with another card, but the money on the refund has to go back on this card
Service Dude: alright we can return the money to the card.

Now here is where the problem comes in. There is a large stack of furniture items in boxes next to the customer service desk and the owner has returned. The owner is a strange sorta fella with big (seagull?)feathers tied to the back of his baseball cap. He begins to converse with the guy doing my return.

Feathered Hat Man: Looks like I ended buying more than I planned. I'm going to have to take the truck home and unload it before I can fit all this in. Can I leave it here for now?
Service Dude: No sir you can't leave it here. You have to take it with you.
Feathered Hat Man: I paid for it can't I just leave it here or somewhere and come back and pick it up.
Service Dude: No you can't
Feathered Hat Man: Really are you sure?
Service Dude: Yes.
Feathered Hat Man: That doesn't seem right can I please speak to your manager. (calmly)
Service Dude: You could but he will just tell you the same thing.
Feathered Hat Man: I would still like to speak with him. (calmly)
Service Dude: Yeah you would.
Me: *stunned* (What was that?)
Feathered Hat Man: please get the manager (surprisingly calm)
Service Dude: SIR YOU NEED TO CALM DOWN WE WILL GET THE MANAGER FOR YOU! (Think the opposite of calm and what can only be described as a war cry)
Me: *even more stunned* (Um er... Did I miss something. )

The Service Dude calls up the manager and then starts making more jabs at the customer and trying to act "tuff". I'm just in awe at this point. Now I see the till open and the Service Dude is starting to count out cash. Why would he need cash? I didn't need cash. Feathered hat man didn't need cash. Someone around here better need cash or he better be just stealing from the till.

Service Dude: Oh it's giving me cash? Here is your change sir.
Me: (why yes, yes it is giving you cash) Um I don't want cash.
Service Dude: ?puzzled look?
Me: Remember the whole reason I came over here was to get the money put back on the card.
Service Dude: Yeah but I have cash.
Me: (Mental clapping for him) I don't need cash. I need it put back on the card like we talked about.
Service Dude: I can't do that.
Me: (strange I thought we had a previous agreement) Uh, I may need to speak to the manager too.
Me: (prepare for screaming...)

So the manager shows up and the Service Dude tells him Feathered Hat Man wants to leave his stuff at the desk. The manager immediately says "oh yeah that's no problem at all just leave it here and let me know when you get back to pick it up". Wow how about that. Onto me.

Service Dude: He want's the money on his card but I have cash.
Manager: Did you push cash or credit
Service Dude: Cash I think. Shoot I meant to do Credit.
Me: So can we just redo it and put it on the card.
Manager: No you can only do it once. Sorry it will have to be cash.
Me: *sigh* Maybe if you weren't busy yelling at the other customers in the store and.. (Uh frick that was out loud. Whoops...)
Service Dude: *giving me his best deer caught in headlight look* *puts my cash on the counter*
Service Dude: So um... do you want to buy these items again sir.
Me: *I slide the cash on the counter back to him*

I can see in his eyes that he now realizes how pointless and ridiculous he has made this whole exchange.

Me: Thanks. /sarcasm

Back in the Saddle

2008-06-15T23:11:00.001-06:00

After boycotting bike rides for the last few months I gave in this weekend and went biking up the Little Cottonwood Creek Trail.

Where did the trail go?

I guess in the spring the runoff crosses the trail for a little bit. It was probably only 3 to 4 inches but the ground was really sandy and you couldn't see what the terrain looked like through the water. A couple times I felt like I was going to lose it and really wasn't in the mood to take a bath mid ride.

Shot of the old mill ruins.

It was a scorcher of a day and sitting on the ledge over the water was like being in front of natures swamp cooler.

Granny gear baby! Yeah that's how I roll.

There's definitely a lot of work to be done to get my lungs and legs back that's for sure. I felt pretty good considering. I only noticed pain with my back maybe twice during the ride and felt great yesterday and today so that's a good sign. I even was thinking about hitting up the Glenn Wild loop the next day but the bike seat beat me up pretty good. I might have to shell out the cash for another WTB rocket saddle. That seems to be working well enough on the Optimo...

Anyway it felt good to be gliding down the mountain again. It's been far too long.

Silver Creek walkabout

2008-06-09T22:48:00.009-06:00

How nice would it be to have this as your backyard?

Zucchini thieves are everywhere!

Victory!!! ?

2008-06-09T21:28:00.003-06:00

After I don't know how many months of losing at racquetball to Larry I finally Won tonight. ... Well I won one game... out of four, but hey it's a start.

Unfortunately I also knocked him upside the head/ear with a racquetball harder than I have ever done to someone before. I was worried for bit when he was seemingly swinging at nothing for a while there. I was later assured that he wasn't swinging at nothing, but rather deciding which ball he should be swinging at.... He kicked my butt that game so he couldn't have been hurt too badly.

Martian Sunset

2008-06-05T20:32:00.001-06:00

Mars Rover shot Source (click for larger size)

I know this is exceedingly old in Internet years but I missed it the first time around.

What amazes me about it is that if I didn't know the source I probably wouldn't have pegged it for being alien. It almost looks like it could have been taken by anyone on vacation with their hand held digicam.

No crying now Marcus I turned off the autoplay...

Zoom Zoom ... putt .. putt

2008-06-03T19:09:00.005-06:00

Hmm

I've been toying around with the idea of getting a scooter lately. Save some gas money and have a little fun commuting to work on the side roads. Something with a little get up and go 150cc or so. I think wanting to ride a scooter might be built into my genetic code somewhere. *waves from scooter* Ciao!

It would probably be smarter to just break out my bike but my back hasn't agreed with that lately. Then again if that's the case maybe a scooter isn't the best idea either. ....ramble on.

New Weezer Vid

2008-05-23T17:02:00.003-06:00

Weezer showing internet YouTube geeks some love. Come on now don't act like you don't recognize the people in the video.

Full Screen Blogger editing. Grease it up!

2008-05-22T14:14:00.010-06:00

I was editing a post the other day and was just about fed up with the tiny little window blogger gives you to edit your posts. You could just do everything in HTML but I'm too much of a slacker for that.

I looked around and apparently at least one other person was annoyed by it as well. So if you use Firefox with two quick things you can be editing your blog in full screen.

First you will need (if you don't already have it) -- Greasemonkey
Greasemonkey allows you to customize the way pages look with Java script.

Then as luck would have it someone has already written a script to take care of this problem. -- Blogger large post editor script

There are tons of scripts out there to make browsing the web more enjoyable. There is always a danger when installing scripts made from third party sources so exercise caution and make sure it's from a source you trust. I usually just give the code a once over before I apply it to see if anything looks fishy.

Happy full screen editing.

Mount Olympus Trail

2008-05-20T23:04:00.004-06:00

I wanted to take the mountain bike out this Saturday but thought better of it and decided to head up Mount Olympus instead. I haven't hiked it before so I wasn't sure what to expect. The first third or so of it was kinda lame out in the open switch backs and tons of freeway noise. I was having a rough time of it too. Woke up dizzy and for some reason couldn't shake it all day.

Finally the trail headed up into the trees and it got a little better. Often the trail would disappear and turn into a stream.
Then I got up to where all the water was coming from. Some places the snow was still pretty deep 2 1/2 feet or so.

On the way up another hiker gave me some "useful" advice. "When you start going up to the peak from the saddle, you're going to see a large log in the middle of the trail. It's going to look like you go straight or right. Make sure you hang left. That's where most people mess up." Why thank you fellow hiker....

Well I found a big log in the middle of the trail on the way up to the peak. And it did look like I should keep going straight. What the heck seemed like a nice guy why not take some stranger's advice. The following are some reasons...

Uh no way you and your dog came up this fellow hiker man...
(that's not the aforementioned log in the pic.)

uh err ... alright

Are you friggin kidding me!

It's hard to tell from the thumbnails maybe you can in the bigger pics, I don't know, but I left hiking behind and it became more of a climb. I was a little annoyed but was having fun at the same time so no big deal.

Views from the top

City on front side.

Endless mountains on the back

The peak was pretty well covered in snow.

Video of 360 view
unfortunately the uploaded vid isn't super high quality but you get the idea.

It was a pretty fun hike the views from the top were pretty amazing. The beginning kinda takes away from it with all the noise of the traffic and seeing the highway. I generally like the hikes better that you can't see or hear the city from. Also I like to run up and down the trails when I'm in better shape and on the way down with all the stream beds you come through and the grade it was a little too sketchy for me. It is only 5 mins or so away though so that's a huge plus.

New Comp

2008-04-28T22:40:00.005-06:00

I've had a few requests for the specs on my new comp so here they are.

The run down -

Case: Antec P182
Power Supply: Corsair HX620
Motherboard: Abit IX38 Quad GT
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield
HSF: Thermalright ultra 120 extreme - Scythe S-FLEX SFF21F 120mm
Memory: 8GB G.Skill DDR2-800 (2GBx4)
Video: EVGA 8800GTS KO (G92 core)
HD: Western Digital SE16 750GB
OS: Vista Ultimate 64-bit

I struggled with the components for a few weeks and ended up with the above. It worked out really well and the only thing I feel like I had to sacrifice on was the Video card. Unfortunately there really isn't anything significantly better out there in a single GPU solution right now. Instead of spending a ton more for minor improvements in frames I figured I'd save some cash and see what the video card situation looks like next fall. Meanwhile I can play everything I have tried maxed out on my 2407FPW besides Crysis so I really can't complain too much.

I went back and forth with the power supply and HD for a while as well. I originally had a higher wattage PS, but it was just overkill so I settled with the HX620. In the end I chose it because it had plenty of power, modular cables, shallow depth, and it's quiet. As for the HD I really am a Seagate fanboy so it was hard for me to go with the Western Digital. I just felt it was slightly better than the Seagate 7200.11 . We'll see what Seagate does next next time around.

That's enough detail for now I suppose.

Clean, Quiet, and Cool.

To get some perspective on the size of the heat sync that fan is a 120mm

Greasemonkey

2008-04-28T00:02:00.004-06:00

It's been a while since I last fixed a car in a parking lot. Well I can reset that counter to zero. My Jeeps starter decided give up the ghost today.

It had hiccuped twice before over the last two months so I should have seen it coming and been proactive but I wasn't entirely sure what it was. Fortunately Autozone is open till 10PM on Sundays and I was able to get the part.

A ride and help from a few friends and I was backup and running before the night was over. (Thanks Corey/Marcus) Of course not before getting covered in grease, taking an electrical spark shower, and banging my head against the asphalt. But heh as my uncle always says you know you're done when you're bleeding or in my case just a little bit dizzy.

Ugg my aching frickin back

2008-03-23T23:18:00.002-06:00

For the last day and a half my back has been killing me something fierce. It hasn't hurt like this in years and all the sudden in the last week or so it came back. I'm not sure what fired it up. Maybe it's mad at me because I didn't go skiing this weekend. Who knows.

What I do know is that riding my bike generally gives me a temporary reprieve from the pain. I took my bike out for the first time in I don't know how long yesterday. I did a 6 mile loop or so and by the end of it I was all sorts of dizzy and seeing funny. I practically fell asleep mid-ride and barely made it back home. Pretty weak showing for the first ride out. The good thing is I did have relieve from the pain while I was out there but sure enough about an hour after I got done the pain was back an worse.

This morning I laid in bed hoping that when I got up the pain would be gone. No dice. Can't sit, can't stand, may as well bike. I knew it was stupid. It's kinda like when you were a kid and you got Poison Ivy/Oak and you knew if you scratched it was going to be worse later, but you said screw it and did it anyway just to feel goof for a little bit. Or not....

This time I headed straight up 45th. I don't know why I thought that would be a good idea after the ride yesterday. By the time I got to the top my lungs and legs were on fire, damn cross bike only has two rings. Suppose that keeps me from wussing out too badly.

I stopped at the Mt. Olympus trail head to relax for a bit (recover...) and snapped a few shots of the beautiful telephone wires and such.

I have been meaning to do this hike since forever. I just am not really drawn to it, but it's right there and I feel like I should have done it by now. Maybe this summer......right.

Anyway I tooled around a bit got passed by a few road bikers (grrr...) and headed home. Sure enough an hour or so later the pain is back extra strength. Ah well it was a nice day out what are ya gonna do.

The BigDog Quadruped

2008-03-18T23:21:00.002-06:00

Check out this partially quadruped robot. Very cool/disturbing in that it has a lifelike quality to it.

:35 Kicked and is able to stay up.
1:25 Keeping it's balance on ice

I know I'm going to have nightmares about this thing chasing me sounding like it does at 3:02

Source: Gizmodo

How not to ski (Brighton)

2008-03-16T22:38:00.007-06:00

Powder days are nice because you can take the opportunity to get a little stupid and the consequences aren't quite as severe. Last weekend I was playing around at the terrain park at Snowbird and was getting somewhat comfortable going of the jumps. So I figure why not try and get some air on the mountain. Well.....

As you can see flailing your arms about while you're in the air doesn't appear to do much. At least I'm getting a laugh out of myself while I"m rolling down the hill.

If at first you don't succeed...

Fall Fall again.

I was able to get the flailing under control but no luck with the landing.

I knew what I can see in the video now in that I was leaning way far back for the landing. At the terrain park the landing is setup perfectly for you and then the ground levels out nicely. On the side of the mountain it just keeps going down down down. It's not the jump itself that's getting to me it's not knowing how the landing is going to turn out and I abort mid air. Just something I need to push myself until I get comfortable with it. Start smaller and get the landing down I suppose.

The Easter Bunny Hates You!

2008-03-05T08:57:00.001-07:00

It's getting to be that time of year again.

Camera phone pic of the day.

2008-03-03T08:18:00.001-07:00

Cor off Milly lift at Brighton

The Canyons

2008-02-25T01:01:00.006-07:00

Decided to check out a new resort this weekend so Corey and I headed up to The Canyons in Park City.

They have kind of a strange setup there in that you park soooo far away from the actual resort. Then depending on how far away you are in the parking lot you can take a ride on the back of a trailer to the this gondola loading station. Which then takes you up to the resort. .... then you take the slow double chair from there up to the slopes and work your way over to wherever you need to be. Not a huge deal I suppose but you sure as heck better not forget something in your car because you will spend half a day going to get it and coming back.

Fortunately there was some cool scenery on the way up. A moose parked itself on the side of one of the runs and was just hanging out under the bushes.

The first thing we ran into was the terrain park. Definitely the best parks I have seen in all the resorts thus far minus a half pipe (though we did find some natural ones later on). Tons of rails and boxes to play on if your into that. And 2 sets of 3 massive jumps in a row if you head through both parks. I'm a little weary of most of the stuff right now but I'll play on the boxes and little jumps now and then. Corey on the other hand scoped out the big jumps and worked his way up to getting some pretty decent air the 2nd time through.

By now I'm getting antsy for some speed so we head off to explore the rest of the mountain. The way the resort is setup it can take up to 4 lift rides just to get where you want to be which can get frustrating if you do don't know the mountain. I checked the map and set my sights on Ninety-nine 90 express lift.

We made our way there and at the top saw a trail to hike further up. A few people at at the lift said it would be worth it so we decided to head up and were greeted with this at the top. A little overly dramatic but amusing nonetheless

We dropped off the left into a bowl that I can't remember the name of. Not far from the top was jump that Corey launched off of.

The run down had some decent powder and some fun through the trees action. I wasn't really keen on repeatedly hiking up the hill and I was starting to get a thirst for speed again. We tried heading down lower east face and fright gully but they were pretty run down and all moguled up so we moved on

We made our way all the way to the far end of the resort at the Dream Catcher lift. There ended up being some good runs over here but by now it was getting late in the day. I was kind of annoyed that it took so long to find stuff that wasn't all skied out or flat so I found my amusement elsewhere.

Now we get to the funny bit...

Corey is listening to his tunes and I'm trying to get his attention without much success. So what do I do? I start cutting him off at every turn like a punk :P He finally realizes I'm doing it on purpose and he take his headphones off. Now he is understandably annoyed and says something about how he is going to start doing it to me. I mouth off something about alright if you can catch me jokingly and head down the mountain. I look back and see he isn't joking and precede to just bomb it straight down just barely carving edges occasionally to stay in control. Mind you I'm still pretty new to this skiing thing and don't technically know what I'm doing, but things seem to feel right. I'm thinking to myself there is no way he is behind me but then I hear him speed check behind me.. and then again a few seconds later. Holy crap... I cut off slightly right to a narrower steeper run and precede build more speed than I ever have before. I go to weave slightly to the left and catch the inside edge of my left ski.. What the... my brain didn't tell my leg to do that... I lift it slightly so I don't wreck and am on one ski for a second then try to go left again and catch it again. This time I'm not so lucky my body whips around and I hear POP! as my left ski releases then I slam to ground seemingly not losing any speed a second later.. POP! the other ski rips off. Then one pole then the other. I'm still cruising down the mountain face down head up the hill and don't appear to be losing much speed. I slam my boot tips into the ground and I'm finally able to slow down and come to a stop. I look up the slope and see my gear spread out in authentic yard sale fashion.

I start to head up the hill and now I'm laughing so uncontrollably that I keep falling down. Fortunately Corey had backed up and he is helping collect my gear as he makes his way down. He give me my skis and makes sure I'm alright.
Corey: Drew.
Drew: Yeah?
Corey: You know what that was?
Drew: *shrug my shoulders*
Corey: Karma!
Drew: *Oh Snap!* (sorry Marcus it had to be said.)

All in all it was good day. I was a little obsessed with finding the best place to be and wasn't enjoying the journey as much as I should. Though in the end we got in some good runs, I got to test out my DIN settings, and Corey got to put me in my place. Good Times.

Total Lunar Eclipse

2008-02-20T10:22:00.006-07:00

If you haven't already heard there is going to be a Lunar eclipse tonight.

More Info - NASA

Hopefully it clears up

Ugg... what time is it?

2008-02-15T20:42:00.003-07:00

Ugg it's 8:30 and I'm just getting home from work. I'm starting to fall into the bad habit of working 9-12 hour days again this week. Somehow I get lost in what I'm doing and the stress and lose track of time.

My cousin has been going on and on about how great Orange box (http://orange.half-life2.com/) is for the last few months so I finally gave in and picked it up on the way home. Mindlessly blowing away baddies usually helps take my mind off things. Hopefully it does the trick.

Pro at Cooking

2008-02-11T23:45:00.001-07:00

Well I thought this was pretty random. Jennie was just talking about making pasta from scratch and I ran across this in a computer forum of all places.

Strangest cooking show I have seen yet. Crazy Canadians.

http://www.proatcooking.com/index.html

Slacker

2008-02-11T23:29:00.000-07:00

Ski Ski Ski. Well I guess I'm pretty well hooked with the new hobby. Since mid December I don't think a week has gone by that I didn't ski once or twice.

I've been slacking with the writing lately because I keep putting things off and saying I will do it later and by the time later comes the memory has already faded. Part of the reason for the blog in the first place was to help with my bad memory ah well.

I'd try to make up for it with a bunch of pictures but since my camera is out of commission all I have are a few from the camera phone.

Taking the tour.
Overcoming fears.

Corey in the air as usual.

learning by example.

Crazy powder day at DV

I almost wasn't going to go that Sunday because I was beat from Brighton the day before. It was the most unbelievable conditions I have experienced yet. The lift lines were non existent and if you weren't skiing fresh tracks that was pretty much your own fault.

The massive amounts of snow had me worried at first because I was still quite weary about my ability to ski in powder let alone this much. Well when you're skiing in powder often up to your waist you're forced to learn pretty quickly. After a couple of runs with some help from Eric I was loving it. It almost felt like water skiing or something just leaning back bouncing back and forth with the snow flying past your face. Amazing.

We spent most of the day weaving in and out of the Aspens and Pines and even took a little hike up to Ontario Bowl. If you are going to explore and experiment this is when you want to do it. Anything is fair game it seems when there is so much padding on the ground. The legs were all but shot after the second run but the conditions were so amazing I just couldn't stop.

I think the day ruined my perception of what a good ski day is. Lets just say the word Epic was thrown around a lot. Epic

If only it always looked like this.

Taking a breather

Mr. Hughes Trail guide, Instructor, Motivator (If calling me names when I fall down is motivation)

Ontario Bowl

Crazy bike

2008-01-12T00:20:00.000-07:00

Utah based.
http://delta7sports.com/product.html

Hmm maybe if it had a Carbon Lefty.

Good Stuff

2008-01-11T22:27:00.000-07:00

Goodbye Canyon Sports

2008-01-10T23:34:00.000-07:00

Hello Bandit B2s and Falcon 9s. (They're good people but I'm tired of renting.)

Can hardly wait to try them out this weekend. It will be interesting skiing with a boot that actually holds my foot in place.

I think my camera finally kicked it so I threw up some lame stock photos. Bah.

Skiing Brighton

2007-12-29T23:35:00.002-07:00

Been too worn out to write much lately ...and still am so here are some pics from Brighton today.

The snowboarding cousin Corey.

Storm rolling in.

Goggles and balaclavas are for sissys........... and smart people.

Day two Alta

2007-12-16T23:52:00.000-07:00

Headed up to Alta today for my second stint of Skiing. I decided to take the beginner class to make sure I was doing things right and wasn't going to be developing bad habits. Unfortunately the class turned out to be very very slow paced. It felt like the first hour and forty-five mins could have been covered in about twenty or so. The instructor was nice enough and the class was geared toward moving along as fast as the slowest learner, but I kept holding out hope that things would pick up.

I started to get some benefit in the last few mins of the class when we start working on turning. Yesterday I was having a real hard time turning in different directions and would just stick with one side go straight then slow down by turning to the same side again. The technique that seemed to work best for me was leading with my outside ski and digging in just slightly before turning the inside ski.

The class had ended and it was too late to grab a pass to head up the mountain so I just started looping the grizzly tow (bunny slope..). As I worked at it I was able to get my skis more and more parallel and use the snow plow less. I was having a hard time getting the second ski turned around and I noticed I was kind of sitting back on my skis. I started F-in the turns and it became a lot easy to get that second ski around.

I was getting pretty comfortable with things and would ski in to the rope tow area with a little more speed each time. One time I got a little out of control and biffed it right at the bottom and to add insult to injury as I was getting up the handle came by and smacked me upside the head and knocked be back down. I thought I lucked out and no one saw, but when I looked back the lift operator was practicaly falling out of his chair laughing... ah well what do you do.

By the time things were closing up I was able to get down the slope without using the snow plow and just using my turns to keep my speed under control. A little bummed I didn't get to do any real runs, but I think it was worth the time spent to build a descent foundation before heading up next time.

King of the bunny slope...

Skiing Snowbird

2007-12-15T23:46:00.000-07:00

Gave skiing a shot for the first time today. It's about time after living in Utah for 15 or so years.

Wendy and I met up with Jorge, Julio, and Linda at the "bunny slope" and everyone gave me some initial pointers on how not to die. Snow plow...keep your legs bent.... falling down is a better alternative to going off the side of the mountain. The usual stuff.

The first time down I was feeling pretty hopeless just plowing it the whole way the best I could and trying to avoid killing the little kids around us. After a few more runs and encouragement from the others things were going a little better. Jennie showed up to slum with the Newbs at Chickadee for a while and offered up some colorful phrases to help with the memorization of basic rules/techniques. Gave it a few more runs, knocked Wendy down once by "accident" and decided it was time to head out to the real runs.

Jorge, Drew, Jennie, Wendy,and Linda

We headed down Ski School Lane and up the Wilbere lift to make our way to all the green runs. When we made it to the Gadzoom lift we found out that most of the runs over there were closed so we did big Emma / Miner's road/ and school lane a couple times. Unfortunately we got started late and didn't have time for much else.

By the end of the day I was feeling pretty good turning and stopping to the right. I was having the most trouble switching sides. So I could go right slow down and stop right but going back and fourth left to right I was struggling with unless I was plowing it.

I'm not sure how I feel about Skiing just yet. It was a lot of fun, but I was getting frustrated not being able to maneuver how I wanted. Can't expect miracles the first day I suppose.

Going to give it another go at Alta tomorrow and will probably take a lesson to help things along.

Yep that's fear in my eyes.

Marcus' Kitchen / Family Room

2007-12-13T00:16:00.000-07:00

Monday: Work
Help Tile
ZZzzzZZz

Tuesday: Work
Help Tile
ZZzzzZZz - tiling nightmare - zzzZZzzzZ

Wednesday: Work
Help Tile
ZZzzzZZz

ThurZZzzzZz

Grown Man in Pantyhose

2007-12-11T15:13:00.001-07:00

More pics from Saturdays race.

Shouldn't I be turning here?

Snowshoeing up by Willow Lake

2007-12-10T00:01:00.000-07:00

Slept in too late to meet up for Skiing so I figured I would salvage the day with some snowshoeing. The legs are thoroughly fried now.

Cyclocross Fort Buenaventura (6th race)

2007-12-08T23:53:00.000-07:00

Move it Slacker! ( Thanks Steve W)

Race 6 for me. End of the series this year.

First time racing at the fort and was looking forward to the great run up I had heard so much about, but it was nowhere to be found. I like the run ups because I'm usually able to make up some time with them and it's a nice change of pace mid race. There was however a new obstacle I haven't come across in a race yet, a 6-8 inch log across the trail.

I started the race out strong working my way quickly to the top 7 or so. When we came to the log I thought I would try to hop it but when I saw two riders up front crash I lost my nerve and carried the bike. I tried to work my way forward but I just didn't have any gas in the tank and slowly started to drop back. This is pretty much how most of the race went. My mind was screaming GO! and my body was saying NO!

The next time around decided to just start hopping the log and was able to make up some time there. I swear every other time I went by the thing I would hear the person behind me scream as went crashing down to the ground. Even though I made a little time hopping the log I was losing a lot more of it taking the curves way too gingerly.

In the end I finished 12th.

I guess there were two things to be learned from this last race. I definitely need to pay more attention to my diet pre-race. I just spaced it and hardly ate anything before the race, I think a banana and a few swigs of my Bolthouse chai sugar bomb on my drive up is all I had.(yep breakfast of champions). Secondly I have been riding a little too cautiously since I crashed a few races back. I have been reluctant to push the limits since and I just need to get over it and stop holding back.

Even though the race didn't go as well as I hoped it was a blast to finally do some cross racing in the mud. I feel like I'm just getting started and the season is already over. On to the next addiction I suppose.

True Story

2007-12-06T12:55:00.000-07:00

One Christmas, Santa was having a really bad day. The local elves union was up in arms over their contract and were threatening a walk-out. Mrs. Clause was pissed that Santa was never around to appreciate all of the hard work she had been doing around the house. Santa decided he needed to go home, sit in front of a fire and relax.

When he got there, Miss Clause was all up in his face and wouldn't let down. Then, there was a knock on the door. It was Rudolph. He said the reindeer were sick and tired of Santa not upgrading to the new lightweight sliegh and they were joining the elves walkout. Santa slammed the door and threatend "The next person who knocks on that door is gonna get it!"

At that time, there was a knock on the door. Santa flung the door open and there stood a tiny little angel. The angel had been searching for the perfect Christmas tree for Santa's house all day long, until it found the perfect one. The little angel asked, "Santa, I was wondering where you would like me to stick this tree?"

And that is the story of how the angel atop the tree tradition began.

Eh it's old and used but still makes me laugh.

Night Rider

2007-12-05T00:17:00.000-07:00

Buca di Beppo Pre-ride =

Cyclocross Wheeler Farm - BlizzardCross (5th race)

2007-12-03T23:51:00.000-07:00

Race number five at Wheeler.

Woke up Saturday morning saw 3-5 inches of snow on the ground and wasn't sure what to think.
We race in this right?
How is this going to work?
Just in case I gave Jorge a call to see if he knew if the race was on. I knew I was going out to play in the snow one way or another I just wasn't sure if I would be wearing Tubbs or Sidis.

Sidis it was.

I showed up at Wheeler still apprehensive about the whole thing. There were a few people but nobody had their bikes out. I took care of registration got my bike and headed out for a quick half lap before the race started. It was going to be interesting that's for sure.

The race started and it was just a mess everyone trying to get up in such close quarters with the slippery conditions. I sort of waddled forward half on my bike until I found an opening and was off. The first lap was kind of a controlled fishtail as we carved out a trail for the rest of the race.

The second lap is when things started to get a little more interesting. We were able to build up more speed with the trail semi carved out so if you started to slide it was much harder to correct yourself to avoid going down. I ended up losing it when we hit the single track for the second time. With all the snow it was more funny going down than painful. I got back up and found a pretty good groove and steadily moved up the ranks throughout the race. My key points for passing became the hill on the backside of the course where a lot of people were getting off their bikes and the run up(Even if I was pushing like an old man with his walker). The race for me became about staying upright and capitalizing on the mistakes of others.

Towards the end of the race, maybe the third to last lap or so I caught up to another rider but was never able to find a good opportunity to pass. We had dug out a pretty good trail by now so if you strayed from it you had to work harder to maintain your speed and risked sliding out. I hung on and waited for the run up and made my pass but got hung up on my shorts trying to mount my bike (first time that's happened) and stumbled and had to mount again, but the other racer had already gotten up and in front of me. So I was stuck behind him again. I tried to make a pass off the main trail heading up to the announcer's station and was just fishtailing all over barely keeping up while putting in a whole lot more effort. I started veering uncontrollably towards the lap counter/truck on the side of the road and had to all but stop to avoid it. I made a couple more attempts to pass but they all proved too risky. I ended up just riding his wheel till we hit the run up again where I was finally able to get by.

Ended up with 16th and I'm pretty sure I was able to avoid getting lapped for the first time. (Or I did an extra lap...) So I met my goal of cracking the top 20 even if it was under unusual conditions. I started out the day worried about how things were going to work out and it ended up being one of my favorite races so far.

Loving every minute of it

Thieved from Steve Wasmund

Stuck around to watch the rest of the races and hoping to get some good pics. Like a genius I brought the camera but left my compact flash in the computer at home. Doh!. Luckily there are plenty of pics and a movie out there.

All the following races were great to watch. The speeds ramped up and in turn unfortunately so did the crashes. The coolest race I thought going on was the Men's B race. Connor O'Leary was leading most of the race, but Chris Sherwin was hell bent on closing the gap and came very close a few times. Connor tripped up pretty good at the end of the race and struggled to get back on his bike until he finally just gave up and ran his bike into the finish. Just awesome to see those two going at it.

Only one more race to go. Regretting starting so late in the season, but better late than never right?

Boo on exercise bikes

2007-11-29T00:06:00.000-07:00

Well I was a wuss tonight and didn't want to brave the cold so I decided to head down to the gym and at least get some riding in on one of the exercise bikes.

The thing was just horrible. The only adjustment it had was the height of it's massive granny seat. I had to hunch over it at this awkward angle and felt totally cramped and uncomfortable. It also offered two resistance modes: wet concrete or hamster hopped up on speed. I gave it 35 mins before I gave up. I figured maybe I could salvage things by getting in some barrier work but noooo... the employees weren't too keen on me carrying the thing around and asked me to leave. Good riddance I say!

I see a bike trainer in my future. Centrifugal, Fluid, Magnetic,Wind, Rollers who friggin knows maybe I just need warmer clothing.

If at first you don't succeed

2007-11-28T21:47:00.001-07:00

3rd times a charm...

The Italian in me won out again and I went with the Prosciutto. I'll give the Jamón Serrano a shot next time Wendy.

Cyclocross Wheeler Farm (4th race) update

2007-11-25T19:45:00.000-07:00

Race 4 at wheeler farm.

As per usual I showed up at wheeler early to check out the course layout. It was something like 24 degrees out and I could only find one of my full length gloves. I tried to tough it out with my cutoffs but that just wasn't happening. Fortunately Jorge was nice enough to loan me his extra pair until my uncle was able to show up with some before the race. The course was different from the previous layout in that there were tons of turns and not much single track to speak of. They mixed things up by putting an extra off-camber section before the usual switchback off-camber area. With what time was left I practiced this area to make sure I wouldn't have issues during the race with it.

My starting position at the lineup wasn't exception maybe front of the back third or so. Things started off as usual traffic jam without much opportunity to move forward. Turns out it might not have been such a bad thing I wasn't more toward the front. Shortly after the race started there was a crash and Jorge unfortunately got caught up in it and went down.

Nothing really spectacular happened in this race to talk about. I fought my way up a few positions, but was feeling drained after the second lap. I took the corners a little slow because things were dry and slick, but always got out of the saddle to pick up speed after. Whenever I felt like giving into my fatigue it seemed I would hear someone say my name and it kept me honest. For anyone who was out there cheering it was much appreciated.

The last race I had this endless supply of energy to tap into and for some reason this race I just felt like I was running on empty the whole time. The last two laps was just a struggle to finish and keep from heaving. My head was pounding and I could hardly keep my eyes open. I just wanted to lay down and sleep.

In the end I finished 24th out of a field of 43 (37 finishing). So I moved up 5 places from the last race. Only two races left to crack that top 20. One thing is for sure, I gave everything I had this race. No regrets there. I think what hurt me most is I didn't get much saddle time in to train before this race and I ended up paying for it.

I stuck around to watch the Womens A race and pretty much the only thing keeping me conscious was Kai dragging me around the spectator area like his toy. Not sure which of us was on the end of that leash. I wanted to stick around for the other races but I was all but dead. I headed out and crashed hard for the rest of the day.

Cyclocross Wheeler Farm (4th race)

2007-11-24T01:23:00.000-07:00

Ug too worn out to post tonight, will edit in the morning.
Here are some blurry pic/vids my uncle took in the meantime.

Blurry Racer

Almost taking a fall

Too tired to carry the bike anymore...

Happy Thanksgiving

2007-11-22T04:29:00.000-07:00

Hope you all have a great turkey day!

(close enough)

Ug the time bandits came again and robbed me of my night. This is second time in less than two weeks now. I was up baking bread around 10 and I lay down on the couch for a minute while waiting for the things to rise. Cut to 4am, I'm not not sure what's going on and a dough monster is trying to take over the kitchen. I'm just glad it wasn't in the oven.
I was hoping to get a ride in last night but the body just isn't listening to reason. Hopefully I can get down to Wheeler today and make up for it.

Domination!

2007-11-19T12:15:00.000-07:00

How many posts about shoes are you allowed to have and still call yourself a man? ...I'm growing out the beard just to be safe.

49s in stock and 26% off. SOLD!

I was planning to give them a try tonight, but a friend needed help digging a ditch so I got covered in mud instead. You have to have your priorities in order right?

Here's hoping they last at least 4 months...

Cyclocross Clinic

2007-11-15T19:58:00.000-07:00

Well last Cyclocross clinic was today...

I tried out a new technique for dismounting before the barriers. Putting my right leg between my left leg and the bike as I dismount. For some reason I was having a real hard time releasing my left foot from the pedal this way. I feel like I can't turn my foot to unclip which is strange because supposedly it's suppose to make you release more easily. I gave it 15 or so tries, but I think if I was to try it in a race right now I would end up like a pretzel on the ground. Practice makes perfect I suppose and it's going to take a lot of it to get this down.

For the laps I was feeling really sapped before we even started. I was able to keep up well enough but it didn't feel like people were pushing as hard today as usual.

I'm really bummed that the clinics are over, but attendance was down to 3 and it's hard for people to get down there that early so it's understandable. Ah well I'll figure something else out.

Eggbeaters or Razorblades?

2007-11-14T00:35:00.000-07:00

Man I have really destroyed my left shoe in a short period of time. I was hoping that they would hold out for at least the rest of the series, but I did a number on them this last race.

Maybe I should learn how to get on a bike properly without missing the pedals. Crazy talk I know.

I guess I'm going to be in the market for new shoes soon and possibly pedals as well.

Night Rider Brrr

2007-11-13T23:40:00.000-07:00

Things are starting to get chilly outside, making it a little harder to push myself out the door to ride. Once I got cranking away my personal heater fired up and it was even harder to make myself come back in.

I can quit anytime I want... really I can... *twitch*

Cyclocross Wheeler Farm (3rd race)

2007-11-11T22:41:00.000-07:00

Third race and back at Wheeler farm. I showed up at Wheeler an hour early to check out the course layout. The course was setup going the reverse direction as last time and there was a whole section to the north that wasn't incorporated into the last race. It was dry so there were a lot of sandy areas and some areas with hard pack and loose gravel on top. I ran through a few practice laps to identify the areas I might run into trouble with. Unfortunately I picked up a goathead my third run around and got a flat even with Stan's in the tires. Jorge was nice enough to lend me his pump and things sealed up nicely but I was concerned about it happening in the actual race. I took one more spin around before it was time to line up for the race.

Unlike the previous two races I tried for a better starting position instead hanging out in the back. When the race started I tried to move up quickly but the course was congested, as we headed into the single track it was complete traffic jam. I was actually commenting to the guy in front of me about it right before he lost it in sand. I was about 1 foot off his wheel and somehow managed to get around him by taking a few branches to the face instead of going over him. The course opened up again and I made my move as we neared the main staging area. I took the inside corner and passed a pack of 8-10 people and managed to get by another 2 before we hit the off camber switchback area. Things got a little jammed up there but the course opened up again shortly after.

Things were going well I was steadily moving up through the ranks and passed a few more racers on the cement section of the course. I had my eye on my next target as we went over the duck bridge(?). I saw my chance and started to make a move, then disaster. Nothing looked familiar. I was so focused on making a pass that I hadn't realized the guy in front of me made a wrong turn and I had followed him. I slowed to a stop before we intersected with another part of the course but this guy just kept on going. I turned back and when I finally made it back to where I went off course it was like trying to merge onto the freeway from a dead stop in the sand. My heart sunk a little bit each time a bike road by. When I was able to get back on course I ran into the same problem as with the start of the race with traffic jams through the single track.

I slowly started to work my way back up whenever the course widened. We headed towards the single barrier and I knew the course was going to open up again. I got reckless. I mounted the bike and quickly jammed on the peddles out of the saddle as we rounded the corner. The road was loose and I laid my bike down hard before I could get free from the peddles. I landed funny on my right arm and 3 of my fingers were completely numb on that hand for most of the race. It was stupid, I shouldn't have been up like that on a loose corner. I put my left shifter back into place and was off again.

I was making a little progress but felt like I was playing leap frog with some of these guys as it was 3rd time I had passed them in the race. As I entered the off camber section I caught a glimpse of Jennie on the top half and she said something about me needing to pick up the pace. I mumbled something unintelligible I'm sure and dug down to pick things up the best I could. I headed into the double barriers and dismounted way early and ended up running 6 steps or so before I even reached them. When I went to remount I thought missed my pedals but when I tried again I realized I had knocked the chain off. I moved out of the way of the other racers, put my chain back into place and headed off yet again. By now the race was almost over and I did what I could to salvage things.

I really let the first mistake of going off course get the best of me and made a lot of reckless decisions trying to catch up. In the end I finished 29th of the 38 that finished the race (4 dnf). A little disappointing as I was hoping to break the top 20 sometime soon, but as always it's a blast just to be out there racing. Three more races left to learn from my mistakes and improve.

Cyclocross Clinic

2007-11-09T07:46:00.000-07:00

Showed up to the clinic and things are starting to get pretty sparse with the time change. I'm glad they're still holding them because it's when I'm able to learn the most about my progression besides actual races.

My barrier work felt pretty sloppy. I didn't knock anything down or trip up, but my remount wasn't very graceful and I knocked my chain off once. Still not quite sure how that happened.

I ended up doing 4 laps around the park and that's where I came to realization I have no idea what my body is telling me even though I thought I was finally getting a grasp on it. The first two laps I was able to keep up with the group pretty well and there was never a huge gap like the previous times, but by the end I was pretty shot.

Darrel started off on a third lap and I raced out to catch up to him. By now I'm completely shot and I think my body is about done. Then Ali passes me up right before the big downhill. I gain a little ground on our gap with the run up and just ignore what I think my body is telling me. By now Ali has caught up to Darrel and they're probably chatting it up and I'm just dying, my legs are burning and my lungs feel like they're going to explode. I figure if I'm going to burn out I may as well do it at the clinic. I gain a little ground on them going through the woods with the off camber section, but otherwise it's just a struggle to keep them in view. It's funny to think that I'm completely maxed out and they are probably putting in minimal effort. We get back and it's getting a little dark but I ask Darrel if is he's up for another lap and we go around again. Same pain the whole way but things never get worse.

I thought I was getting a good idea of what kind of pace I could keep up and if I feel a certain way when it's time to back off a little to prevent using up all my juice. After last night I'm not so sure of those things anymore. I know I have to take every opportunity to ride with more highly skilled people that's for sure.

Racquetball - Marcus v Drew

2007-11-08T12:30:00.000-07:00

No ride tonight instead Marcus and I had our bi-yearly racquetball match.

First game was pretty neck and neck the whole way. I picked up a 4-5 point advantage towards the end then Marcus stepped it up and surged ahead for the win M15-D13.

Second game I was getting stomped on. 0-6, 6-10, 8-13. I managed to shut down Marcus for a couple of rounds and pulled ahead 14-13. Next Rally I hit a pretty good shot that died in back corner and started to celebrate early when Marcus made a miraculous save. Serves me right for getting ahead of myself. Fortunately I was able save some dignity and take the win my next up. D15-M13

I was denied a Tie breaker game, but hey we had two really good games and I'm just happy to be out there playing. See you in May.

Night Rider

2007-11-07T00:40:00.000-07:00

13:40 for the first part of my ride. I hit the main traffic light both ways and it messed everything up. By the end I was tasting metal in my mouth so I was definitely pushing some limit ....... or maybe I need to start looking for a new multivitamin.

The main thing I wanted to get out of timing a section of my ride was some accountability. There are just too many variables for it to be any kind of an effective gauge. I'm not thrilled about training indoors so I'm just going to make sure to keep up the intensity and not turn things into a joy ride.

New Chainring

2007-11-05T23:00:00.000-07:00

One thing I didn't mention about the race on Saturday is my shifting started acting up again. The problem was mainly on the smaller chainring. No matter what gear I was in the chain would hop when I started to cranking down hard. It was so bad that I just didn't use any of the low gears because it was so unpredictable. Fortunately Heber was a flat course, but I want to get this sorted out before Wheeler Farm next Saturday.

The problem started when I purchased the bike and I had a large portion of the components "upgraded". The main change happened because in order to go to the Ultegra line the 9 speed gear had to be swapped out for 10 speed. Bessy(sure what the heck.) didn't seem to to appreciate this and has been rejecting her donor components ever since.

I took the bike.. er Bessy into the shop today with my head down and let them know I was still having issues. Ryan wanted to swap out the small ring and was nice enough to do it on the spot so I wouldn't have to be without my bike. I went from having a 50/34 to 50/36 I lose a little low end, but hopefully I'm not spending too much time down there anyway.

I just got back from testing things out up and down 45th and the shifting seems to be as smooth as you could hope for on the small ring. I'm still having some slight issues with down shifting on the big ring where I have to drop down an extra gear and come back up for things to lock in. I might mess with it tomorrow when I'm more awake, but at least things aren't hopping around for now.

2nd Cyclocross Race

2007-11-04T22:53:00.000-07:00

Second cross race first cross race on an actual Cross bike. The race was held at Heber's Fairgrounds and was quite a different experience from Wheeler farm. Wheeler had elevation changes, off camber single track, and a runup. Heber was flat and hard packed course for the most part. The first cross race I saw was here and it was a complete mud fest. Yesterday it
was like that mud had hardened into concrete with unforgiving bike tire sized grooves cut into it.

Scoping out the course
I met up with Jorge and went for a few practice laps to check out the course. There were three areas that caught my attention. The first was a barrier set that came right after a 180 turn. I hadn't practiced for anything like that and wasn't sure how to really deal with it. Second a long stretch of the hardened concrete dense mud with the grooves cut into it. Being on the Cross bike with the thinner tires I felt really uncomfortable about catching a tire and coming to an abrupt halt ending in an involuntary dismount. The third area was an S turn through a sand pit, another uncharted territory for me. In the practice runs I was having a hard time going through without unclipping my feet to stabilize myself and hoped it would go better in the race.

The Race
At the line up I took a spot at the back still being unsure of myself and not wanting to get in anyones way. I figured if things went well I would be able to move up through the ranks and it wouldn't matter that much. I quickly found out this was a mistake. I found myself not having anywhere to go and having to coast in lot of areas because at even the slightest technical spots there were huge bottle necks.
The course finally opened up a bit on the long stretch of rutted hard pack. Just as I was picking up some speed I caught a glimpse of someone doing what I feared in my practice runs. It looked like they got caught up in one of the ruts and went down pretty hard. As I got closer to the rider I noticed it was Jorge and slowed up a bit to make sure he was ok. He was already getting back on his bike and said he was alright so I pushed on. Throughout the first lap I continued to get bound up in choke points whenever I was just feeling like I had a chance to move up and then had to drop back again. One positive thing I was able to take from this was watching the other riders lines through the sandpit. Following their leads I was able to make the turns without clipping out to stabilize.
On the second lap I finally saw an opportunity and made my first pass on the second set of barriers. It was a slow spot for some riders, but there was also room for me to get by unlike most of the other areas where I caught up to people. I was able to take advantage of this two more times throughout the race. I was only able to make a pass in one other area on the inside track of a turn. After that I pretty much just went hard enough to keep my position and followed another racer without making a move. I was concerned about running out of energy and think I got too comfortable. The end of the race caught me a little off guard and when I crossed the line it felt like I had a lot left to give. At Wheeler I was completely spent by the end of the race and there was nothing left. I just didn't feel like I gave it my all.

When all was said and done I ended up coming in 6th to last (4th if you don't count the two who didn't finish) so I gained a little ground on the last race depending how you look at it. I liked this race a lot more because I was actually racing in the same area as other races and fighting to gain positions (in the beginning anyway) and at Wheeler I was mostly racing by myself alone in the woods.

Training/Goals
The night before the race I had practiced doing barriers and I think it really payed off the next day. This next time around I need to work more on my pacing and do a couple 40 minute rides to get comfortable with what kind of effort I can sustain without burning out early. In one of the next two races I would really like to crack the top 20. I'm not sure how realistic this is because I don't know how far behind the other racers I am in terms of time.

Overall I think it was a pretty good second experience that I learned a lot from. Next week it's back to Wheeler and it can't come soon enough.

Midnightish Ride...

2007-11-02T00:31:00.000-06:00

The bike was calling to me so I had to go out for another ride.

The work that Revolution did on the shifting is like night and day from what it was before. Previously I was having issues with any non- extreme high or low gears. All the shifting was much smoother and I didn't have to go back and forth to get things into gear. I can't tell what I think of the new brakes yet, but they sure are squeaky. The Shimano's that were on it previously were almost completely silent. I guess it will be a lot more obvious if I chicken out on the high speed turns among other things now... oh well.

I timed the first part of my ride again and came in at 13 minutes. Roughly 1 minute faster than on my Rush. I was surprised by this because I felt like I was booking the whole way and it seemed faster than that. I guess it's a pretty short distance and it would add up over time. In a 45 min race that would put me over 3 1/2 minutes ahead of where I would be if I could maintain it.

Cross Clinic

2007-11-01T22:45:00.000-06:00

Well the second cross clinic was tonight and I'm glad that I was able to get in even if it's late in the game. Unfortunately after the time change they will be starting them earlier and I don't know if I will be able to make them after that.

Barriers
I dropped the seat a Cm and I was able to mount the bike with a lot less effort and more comfortably today. My main problem seems to be overcompensation. I am more jumping the barriers rather than running them and I'm doing the the same when I mount the bike. It's more of a hop rather than sliding into place. I know I'm doing it because I'm worried about taking out the barriers and myself so I'm overdoing everything and it's taking that much more energy.

Laps around the park.
I started in the back rather than getting passed by everyone. The first steep downhill turn went a lot better, that thing scares the crap out of me but at least this time I felt in control of the bike. I lost a bit of ground there but was able to recapture a lot of it on the run up. When going through the side sloping single track this time I was able to keep on the bike and maintain a slightly better speed. Towards the end people were starting to pull away again, but I was able to keep them in sight well enough to know where to go. The next two laps were pretty similar to first which is good because last time I completely lost everyone and was on my own.

Overall I think things went pretty well for the second go round at the clinic. I never had to get off my bike except for the run up each lap. Last time there were two places that I just ran out of steam on and had to get off the bike. My lungs felt a lot better and the burn was more in my legs this time. Barrier technique still needs work hopefully I will be able get some practice in before Saturday.

I'm still miles behind the others but the minor improvements were encouraging.

Be Prepared

2007-10-31T07:45:00.000-06:00

Bike in the shop

2007-10-29T23:45:00.000-06:00

I took the Optimo to the shop today to get the new brakes put on and hopefully get the kinks worked out of the slipping. I was talking with one of the mechanics (Carl?) and he seemed to think it was a pretty common with 10 spds and the Ultegra line and up. Supposedly the higher end the line the more adjustments that can be made and it isn't uncommon to break things in and then adjust things to get them where they should be. I read something similar about the Dura-ace line so it sounds plausible enough, hopefully I will know tomorrow.

No cross bike so I had to take Rush out for a spin tonight. It's amazing how cushy the ride is on that thing. After riding the Optimo for a week I had gotten use to not having shocks and it made it that much more noticeable having them back. It really made me want to go out and hit some trails. Hopefully I'm not totally beat up on Sunday and I can maybe hit up some PC trails.

I wanted to get a rough time to compare with when get my other bike back. There are traffic and traffic lights to contend with so it's always slightly different. The first part of my ride took 14 mins. I'll compare tomorrow night when I get my bike back from the shop.

Another great exit

2007-10-27T23:50:00.000-06:00

Just got back from a Halloween get together at a friends house and managed to make another graceful exit. I'm going up the stairs in my socks when I hit the tile and slip and fall into a doorway. Fortunately, as always there are plenty of witnesses to see this waiting at the top. I blame it on all the mini Reese's peanut butter cups and apple cider I was hopped up on.

I hit right where the humerus and scapula come together. Felt like I pulled the thing apart and now I have this lovely numbness in my hand and sharp pains with slightest movement. I figure a couple of handfuls of Ibuprofen should do the trick and just hope the thing doesn't fall off in my sleep.

Chain Slippage

2007-10-27T23:46:00.001-06:00

I was taking my bike up some pretty steep inclines today and was running into a lot of problems with the chain slipping/jumping. When I would really start pushing hard on the pedals the chain would sporadically jump off the cogs. The only way I could prevent it from happening was to have things in the highest/lowest possible gear. Anything in between and I would run into issues. This caused me to almost biff it a couple times because I would instantly loose all momentum on the steep inclines.

When I upgraded the bikes components we had to change out the cassette and one of the rings to get things to work with the Ultegra gear. Unfortunately it doesn't look like the setup is working out as planned. Hopefully I can get things fixed next week when I get the new brakes put on.

I ended up riding to the top of 4500 where they are working on the bridge this weekend. Here is a shot of part of the old bridge that was moved to the demolition area before I arrived. I waited around for a bit hoping to see them start to move the other half of the bridge, but it didn't look like that was going to happen for while.
Info on the technology to replace the bridge
Animation of the whole process

Midnight Ride

2007-10-26T00:30:00.000-06:00

Well all the typing about riding made me want to ride again and there aren't any cars about so what the heck.

I road about a 4 mile loop (according to google maps anyway). I'm use to riding my Mountain bike and it felt pretty effortless in comparison. It's amazing I have gone this long without ever riding a road type bike.

I should probably start timing myself to gauge if I really am making any progress.

New toy... Now to learn how to use it.

2007-10-25T22:09:00.000-06:00

After giving Cyclocross a try for the first time last weekend on my mountain bike I decided to pick up the right tool for the job

A proper Cross bike.

After going back and fourth and looking at a few options I finally settled on the Cannondale Optimo 3. I had looked at some other bikes like the Ibex X-ray, but decided against buying my first Cross bike online and headed down to the lbs and I'm glad I did. I ended up swapping out a bunch of components and they were really helpful with advice and letting me try out various parts on the spot. I took the bike for a brief spin that first night and everything felt a little awkward having not ridden a road bike before. I did like the speed though.

The first decent test - cyclocross skills clinic

I get to the park and the barriers are setup and people are already riding. No problem right I just did this last weekend at the race.

First run I knock over the barrier because I misjudge my ability to brake with the new cantilever brakes. (still used to discs) No worries. Next time around I clear the barriers alright, but trying to get back on the bike isn't as smooth as on my Rush. I feel like I have to jump up rather than slide onto the seat and can't get the peddles in the right position to quickly click in. Unfortunately I showed up late so I didn't have much time to work improving barriers for now.

On to the lap around the park. No one seems eager to go so I end up following right behind the instructor. This is my first off pavement ride with the bike and it feels pretty good to begin with. We get to the first steep decent with a turn and I feel like I'm on a runaway train and I'm not liking my angle for braking on the hoods. I get control of the bike and we head up to a dismount and ascend a decent sized hill. I get up the hill and I'm feeling like I'm getting the hang of it right before everyone begins to pass me, it's all I can do to keep the last rider in view so I know where to go next. We do another lap with pretty much the same results except I'm either further behind and end up making up my own route back because I've completely lost my way.

By the time I get back to the staging area half the people are gone and I'm realizing just how out of shape I am in. I knew I had been slacking this last year but I didn't realize quite how far I had fallen. I go to pack up and take off but see the barriers are still up and decide to give them a couple more tries. Things aren't much better this time around and I'm thinking I might need to drop the seat a little or something. On my last remount I feel like I pulled something so I decide to call it quits.

Before I leave I thank Ali and another rider for setting things up and such. I say bye and go to ride away, trip up on my pedals and.... Timber! Son of a... shoot me now. I can hear the pity in Ali's voice when he says "Happens to the best of us." Ah well making a graceful exit is usually too much for me to ask.

I figure doing the blog will help me keep track of my progress with the cyclocross, skiing and whatever else I end up trying out this year. I can only go up from here, right?