Blackdog

270 PCPP

2010-08-20T20:19:00.001-07:00

So I bailed out on the Point to Point. I just could not get past mile 35 without a serious bonk. I hate saying this but next year should be better. I am following a.training plan and I will continue to follow the program through the winter. I have been losing weight without dieting and should be able to continue as long as I follow the program.

I am writing this from my phone. So far the Droid X seems to work very well. My only complaint is that I.keep moving ape from page to page when I put it in my pocket. The phone works very well. The camera is not great but the video is excellent. Weird.

270 I am still alive. Just have not posted.

2010-08-11T15:17:00.000-07:00

I have been riding a fair amount. I have 1400 miles in on the mtn bike this year. I have worn out a set of tires, a rear hub, a cassette and a pair or two of shorts. Have not had much to blog about. I think Facebook takes all of my blog mojo. I had a few minutes today and found a very cool video over at XXC.com

JELENIA GÓRA TROPHY - CITY SPRINT from VELOUR on Vimeo.

Very cool and looks like there will be some skin in the game. Or loss there of.

283 Draper race video.

2010-06-02T11:47:00.000-07:00

I do not seem to be able to figure out how to embed the video.

So link over to Atomic Miles and check it out.

283 Bike

2010-06-01T20:32:00.000-07:00

During the race this past weekend I managed to mash my cassette. I guess a fat guy stomping on the pedals for everything he is worth while shifting gears can cause harm to the cassette. Who knew. Between the cables which were gummed to the point of making my forearms ache while shifting gears and my mashing skills. I manged to bend several of the cogs. Karl made the phone call and gave me the bad news. Oh well it is just money right? . I did manage to go out for a short ride tonight and it was amazing how much better the bike shifts.

My ride was cut short by a flat tire. I have been using a new sealent Caffelatex. The stuff works great for sealing a new tire on your rim but I am not sold on it's ability to plug holes. It seems to spew out of holes of the size a goat head produces. Guess where I live? Goat head central. Anyhow I went through a tire full of Caffelatex and it never plugged. I put in some good old Stans and it plugged up immediately. Given that Stans is less expensive I am not going to use Caffelatex any more.

How did my race go you ask? It went OK. When it was over I thought for sure I had finished DFL. Mike let me know that I actually was not DFL but had finished in 7th place of 8. It turned out that there was one racer who had not finished at that time and really I was 7th of 9. Anyhow I was 15 minutes slower than the group that I would like to race with so I have some work ahead of me. Honestly finding out I was not DFL was a win for me. It made me feel much better. I have no delusions of winning but I would really like to just hang with them from time to time. I am not there right now. That is the goal . Get to where I can hang.

282. Wedge told me about a 12 am to 12 pm race.

2010-05-18T21:12:00.001-07:00

I had a crummy Mesa Verde effort. After screwing up some moderately technical rocky sections I managed to go over the bars twice on the preride. Bruised my left knee and scraped up my shoulder and elbows. The next day riding my first and only lap of some very cool single track I was done. I could just not recover. I probably could have done another lap but not until 3 pm and at that point I just did not feel like going out again.

Because things did not go well and I want to prove to my self that I can do some long hours on a bike. I think I am going to do the 12 hours of Corner Canyon. I have not figured out when but the idea that Jim presented was a 12 am to 12 pm ride. Corner Canyon would be perfect for this type of ride. In a couple of weeks it will be very warm and riding from midnight to noon will keep the temperatures down plus the trail is not technical and it is a very fun place to ride at night. Another benefit of taking off at midnight is that there will be no one on the trail for the first 6 hours. I figure since I live very close and there is bike path from almost my front door to single track leading up Corner Canyon pitting from my house would be easy. My current thinking is that I will ride from the Equestrian center up Clarks, down Jamie's trail, up Canyon Hollow and then down Ghost falls and back to my house. This would be one lap. I have no idea how many laps I can do and would guess that a lap is around 13 miles. Clarks always hurts and doing laps up that thing is going to really hurt. This is probably just crazy but the idea of riding with head lamps and doing laps up there is intriguing.

Let me know if any of you are interested in doing it as well. I have a feeling there may be a couple of people out there that are insane enough to think this would be fun.

283 Cracks me up.

2010-05-14T08:08:00.000-07:00

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Back in Black - Glenn Beck's Nazi Tourette's

http://www.thedailyshow.com/

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor

Tea Party

280 Ride last night.

2010-04-21T20:09:00.000-07:00

So I have neglected the blog for quite a while. Between taking a spill and getting sick I did not get in much riding after the St George race. In the last three weeks I have been back on the bike but not quite as much as I would like. Kids, job and weather keep getting in the way. Last night I finally got out and rode Corner Canyon. Riding up Brock's there was only one small spot of mud. Unfortunately after the rain today I am sure it will take a few days to dry out. The lower stuff will be dry immediately but the upper stuff will be a mess. Someone has been up there trimming the trails. Most of the branches that were crowding the trails have been trimmed down and the trails are in very nice shape. On the way up Brock's at one point there was a view of Ghost falls. The falls are usually obscured by the vegetation. Brock's has some cool views of the other trails and the valley.

Hope things dry out shortly. Had a good time and want to start riding Corner Canyon as often as possible until the weather gets too hot.

280 Happy St Paddy's day.

2010-03-17T11:46:00.000-07:00

280 DFL

2010-03-10T07:46:00.000-08:00

Well the St George race is over. I set a new personal best for slow. I promise to do better next race. Meaning I will be faster not slower.

Someone just sent me this video. I am not much of a hand gun fan. I would not want one in my house. I have and will again hunt ducks and pheasants so I am not anti gun. I just do not like hand guns. I am sure someone will post hate replies. Oh well. Anyhow this dude is funny as hell and scares the crap out of me.

275 Have to move that nasty photo down.

2010-03-03T07:15:00.000-08:00

Sat and watched Stop making sense concert video the other night. With surround and some killer bass. It was awesome. I completely geeked out. If you get a chance rent it. Watch David Byrne. The dude is very talented and does some incredible aerobics.

The next video I want to find is Oingo Boing's Farewell tour. The video goes for about $150. I just hope they re-release it and I can pick up a copy for $20.

Plus it has some cool stuff from their early days. Man were they weird.

275 Thinking about buying a Mac

2010-03-01T07:33:00.000-08:00

I cannot decide if I should buy another PC or move on and get a Mac. The photo below may have me convinced to stay with the PC.

278 The new ride.

2010-02-27T08:00:00.001-08:00

I finally told Susan about the new ride. Unfortunately I ridden the new 6 only 3 times. And guess how far I have gone? Exactly no where. I do have a pretty sweet set up though. I can play Guitar Hero and pedal my bike at the same time.

275 I got in.

2010-02-15T08:04:00.000-08:00

I was hitting refresh every couple of seconds starting at 5 minutes to 9. I was the 19th person to get in today. I cannot figure out how 18 other people got in before me. I am on a fast Internet connection and I was clicking like a mad man. Glad that is over. Glad to have the opportunity to suffer, bonk and probably puke up the tailgate party from Thursday night. I am sure there will be some lingering ill effects of a Thursday night season opening game. I do not think the trailer will make it to that game. Tim and Tiff are always much better at tailgating than me anyway. I just show up bring some food and help clean up. They really deserve all the credit.

One other thought. I guess now I have to get serious about riding my bike. The first ICUP race is in a few weeks and I am as fat as I was at this time last year. I need to get my shit together. I will be on the trainer tonight for 90 minutes. I will tell Bob that I did 9 minutes when he says he lifted the Wasatch mountains on Facebook today.

273 Clothing Drive!

2010-02-05T13:34:00.000-08:00

273 I think this company is trying to steal my thunder.

2010-02-04T14:57:00.001-08:00

I think I am going to have to try to find a couple of these and compare.

273 Are you afraid of he Dark?

2010-01-31T18:27:00.000-08:00

Spent a few hours bottling my Stout today. I have a thing for Grolsh bottles. The cap is nice. It saves you the ugly problem of having the bottle caps fly off your beer if something goes wrong. That and they are just cool. By the way I have never had that happen to me. It usually only happens when the beer is exposed to extreme heat. So I did what any brewer should do and poured a little off the top and tasted my project. It has a nice roasted flavor similar to coffee. It was definitely unfinished and flatter than flat. I could not taste the creamy flavor you are supposed to get from the oatmeal but I am not concerned. It needs some time to age and carbonate. It will mellow in the next couple of weeks and will be Ok to sample in 2 weeks but will not be really good for about a month.

It is definitely dark.

278. Making Soup.

2010-01-17T16:10:00.000-08:00

So today I did something I have not done in probably 8 years or maybe more. I made beer. Making beer is basically just like making soup. If you can follow a recipe and make soup you can make beer. This will be a nice chocolate oatmeal stout in about 4 weeks. The first photo is my Batch Sparge. I am trying to get the sugars out of some oatmeal and other grains. This next shot is of the flavoring grains. 1 lb chocolate malt, 1lb black patent malt, 1lb roasted barley and 1lb of crystal malt. They are in the steeping bag. This is just like making tea. You have to be very careful or you can end up with tannins which are very bitter and do not taste very good at all.

This is just before I added the Flavoring grains and had just added the Malt extract. Basically it is sugar. It adds flavor plus gives the yeast something to feed upon.

And now a shot with the water from the flavoring grains. This is the point where it needs to be boiled for an hour. I added Amarillo hops for flavor. The last 15 minutes you add hops for aroma and Irish moss to clear the beer.

Once you have it all cooked you move it into this nifty 5 gallon bucket and try to cool it down as fast as possible. It always takes me forever to get it to cool down. Even in a sink full of water and ice it is still too hot to add the yeast. Hopefully in the next hour it will be cool enough to add the yeast.

Once the yeast is added it will ferment for about 2 weeks in the basement. It needs a place with no direct light and roughly a 70 degree temperature. At the end of 2 weeks I will have to clean all my old bottles or I could keg the beer. I am leaning toward bottling because it is much easier to transport bottled beer than it is to transport a keg. This is a beer to be shared. Showing up with a keg seems kind of weird to me.

With time to age it should be good to go in about 4 weeks if I bottle or 2.5 weeks if I keg. At this point I am in no hurry and wanted a nice heavy beer for after the 12 hours of Mesa Verde. I have made this beer in the past and it turned out really nice. The only problem was that it is a meal in a bottle. Lots of rich flavor but very filling. Remember the old Miller Lite ad's ? Well with this beer the argument goes something like.. Tastes great. Very filling. Tastes great. Very filling.

275 Ouch.

2010-01-02T16:59:00.000-08:00

Went for a 2 hour spin today. I have not ridden outside since November 9th. It has been too long. I have winter gear and I really should get out there and ride. As I sit here I hate to admit it but I am a bit sore. My legs hurt. I guess eating like a pig and swilling beer for the last couple of months has come around and kicked me right in the ass.

I have been burning vacation days for the past week. I hate to leave any on the table but I had to ditch one day. Bummer. While I was out I did get some house work done. Patched the hole in the room where the pipe broke and painted the room again. I think I have painted that room 4 times now. I am getting a bit sick of that room. Susan moved my trainer out of the basement bedroom and now I am in the official exercise room. It is complete with rollers, magnetic trainer and a treadmill. I am not very coordinated anymore. At one time I could ride for an hour on a set of rollers and barely even move right or left. Now I get on them and proceed to crash. And crash often. I think I need to ride rollers in a doorway and maybe with a set of training wheels. Susan thinks it is hysterical to hear me wad it up on the rollers and thinks that they are stupid. I am starting to agree.

While I was out I went to see Avitar. I really wanted not to like the movie. There is something about spending half a billion dollars to make a movie that bothers me. Well the movie was quite good and I will probably shell out the $12 to see it in 3D once the theatres are a bit less crowded. If you have not seen the movie I would recommend it and I will probably see it again. Now for a movie that I rented. District 9. What a steaming pile of dogie doo doo. I understand there were people who liked the movie but I am guessing they are the same people who enjoy having their toe nails smashed with a ball peen hammer. I made it about 30 minutes in before I bailed out.

Here is to hoping that the new decade is a good one.

272 My idea has already grown legs.

2009-12-03T09:37:00.001-08:00

BYU QB Inspires “Skate For Hate” Wednesday BYU QB Inspires “Skate For Hate” Wednesday

272 This too made me laugh.

2009-12-03T08:46:00.001-08:00

Maybe we can get some wrist bands. Red bands with Max Hall Hates Me printed on them. Then we can donate the money to fight Hate Crimes. Now that would be awesome.

272 This made me laugh.

2009-12-01T16:01:00.000-08:00

Tough weekend for football but Max Hall made it so much better. Too many funny things. This photo sums up my feelings.

272 Go Utes.

2009-11-27T10:06:00.000-08:00

270 Happy Turkey Day.

2009-11-26T08:12:00.001-08:00

268 I put Splash down today.

2009-11-23T18:20:00.001-08:00

She will be sorely missed. She was the best dog I have ever had the privilege owning. She was a great companion and the best pheasant dog I have ever seen. She hunted tirelessly and when I guided hunts people would argue over who got to hunt with Splash. She always knew where the birds were. She was special. She was one of a kind.

I do not know who wrote this but my Dad framed it for me a few years ago. It explains why I will always have a dog. A Blackdog.

Are You This Good?
If you can start the day without caffeine,
If you can get going without pep pills,
If you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,
If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles,
If you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it,
If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time,
If you can forgive a friend's lack of consideration,
If you can overlook it when those you love take it out on you when, through no fault of your own, something goes wrong,
If you can take criticism and blame without resentment,
If you can ignore a friend's limited education and never correct him,
If you can resist treating a rich friend better than a poor friend,
If you can face the world without lies and deceit,
If you can conquer tension without medical help,
If you can relax without liquor,
If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,
If you can honestly say that deep in your heart you have no prejudice against creed or color, religion or politics,
THEN, my friend, you're almost as good as your dog!

267 Splash is not doing very well.

2009-11-19T08:10:00.000-08:00

My field trial dog is not doing very well. She is 13 years old which is very old for a field trial dog. She is the best dog I have ever owned and I have had quite a few. She has 2 shoe boxes full of ribbons that she won over the years. She won a couple of trials which for an amateur like me is a very big deal. Over the years she ran miles and miles chasing birds and competing in trials. The running took it's toll. Most people have no idea what a trial is so the video below shows a blind retrieve. Basically a bird is placed at a very long distance and there are obstacles between the dog and the bird. The dog does not know where the bird is and does not get to see where the bird is placed. The idea is to line your dog up and get your dog to run a straight line to the bird. If the dog goes off line right or left you stop the dog with a whistle and then cast the dog with your arms to get the dog back on line. Both dogs in this video are in the hall of fame. The first dog is from the same kennel as Splash.

It will not be long now. I am trying to prepare the kids. My daughter is having a very difficult time with the reality that Splash will not be with us much longer. It is going to kill me and be very difficult on Susan. We have spent so many hours with her. I know the humane decision needs to be made I am just having a hard time making that decision. The cold weather wreaks havoc on her joints and she only moves out of her bed to eat and go outside. Going outside only lasts for a minute then she is back in bed. I do not think she has been out of her bed for more than 15 minutes during any day in the past month. The drugs are just not getting it done.

265 From one of the geatest bands ever.

2009-11-17T08:16:00.001-08:00

For years I went to all their concerts. I still cannot figure out why college Marching bands do not use more of their music.

267 Sunday Ride

2009-11-09T16:18:00.000-08:00

Sunday I took a little ride on Jamie's Mistress. She is a bit rough and getting a bit of a face lift. At the top of Clark's they have put in a rock garden. Which is a cool feature. I think it will keep people riding horses from venturing down the trail. The actual rock garden is probably 8 to 10 feet long and easily rideable today.A little lower I ran into the Sweco. The thing is much bigger than I had expected. Joe was working on one of the switch backs and has added a bunch of jumps and bumps on the side of the trail. The upper section of phase 1 is not exactly rideable right now but with a little work it will be shortly. I had not ridden the trail in 3 weeks and it is in much better condition now than the last time I ventured my way down.

Everything below about the top third of phase 1 is rideable and I did two laps just to get a feel for the trail. I rode down and they had started cutting in phase 3 so I took a little hike a bike and followed the trail as far as it is cut. It is going to be cool. I had no idea that we could have a trail this long in Corner Canyon. Eventually I linked in to Ghost Falls and went home. I spent over 2 hours spinning out the tailgate party. Good time even if I about lost it on the Marbles.

267 It is official. I have now gained back all 20 lbs

2009-11-04T07:21:00.000-08:00

Football season kills me. I have issues, some repressed and some very out in the open. I love this time of year. The tradition, the pageantry, the cool weather, the time spent with friends. Not to mention the food. Glorious food. Ribs, pulled pork sandwiches, chili, bratwurst, burgers 7 layer dip, cheese, crackers, pretzels and beer. Well all that great food has come back and bit me on my ever changing ass. I lost 22 lbs in about 30 days. I nearly lost my mind and then I went to Vegas and the eating started. Competitive eating. Not just I over indulging a little we are talking Fat Bastard chewing on a turkey leg in bed eating. I have gained back 20 lbs in under a month. This has to be a record. My name should be on a plack. Anyhow I know any chances of dieting are shot until the Monday after the byu Utah game. There are 4 games left. Two home games with tailgate parties and two parities where we will watch the game. Then there is Thanksgiving. And at Thanksgiving we have pie. Pumpkin pie and banana creme pie.

So here is the deal. I need something grand, something huge to stay motivated, to keep me on track and more than anything to keep me on the bike. So here goes. I am going to try to get into Leadville next year. If Leadville falls through then I will go and do the Butte 100. I will also probably try to do the PC Point 2 point. So I am sure someone just spit coffee all over the computer. How the hell is this fat bastard going to drag his sorry ass 100 miles on a mtn bike? Good question. As I see it I need to lose 60 or more lbs between now and August. I am not exactly sure how the hell I am going to do this but you can bet I will spend some time with a dietitian and this time one that understands riding a bike while dieting. I will also probably find a cycling coach. Again one that has worked with fat mo fo's and can keep me from burning out.

So that is the plan. By the way if you think I have issues check out this dude. I think he drank the whole thing. Whatever that was. Kids let this be a lesson. Mullets and alcohol do not mix.

260 Hash House a Go Go.

2009-10-22T08:50:00.000-07:00

If you get to Vegas you need to go to the Hash House A GO GO. The place is incredible. The food was very good and huge. And in that order. As you can see from this photo Susan is not quite sure what to do with the Pork Tender Loin Benedict. Susan took one look at my Corned beef hash and asked to trade. I barely finished half of the Benedict.

Aah the Corned Beef Hash. It was a thing of beauty. Susan did not even come close to putting a dent in this delight.
Oh and of course a bloody. Lets just say that someone needed a little pick me up after a late night of people watching on the strip.
It was so good we went back Sunday morning and had round two. I nearly finished the Sausage Hash.

255. Check out the new trail.

2009-10-15T08:57:00.000-07:00

Many thanks to everyone who has worked on the trail. Check out Jamie's video.

247 Lunch.

2009-10-09T18:55:00.001-07:00

This diet is tough. Susan helped me out by giving me too many steamed green beans.

248. I hit the plateau.

2009-10-08T19:30:00.001-07:00

Ever feel like you are looking at this scale in the morning? ME too. I had a couple of days where i did not lose any weight. Given that I am still eating about 500 calories a day I could not believe that I was not losing any weight. Luckily this morning when I got up I had dropped 1.5 lbs. I am sure my metabolism has shut down at this point but I am still hoping to get down below 240 by next Friday morning. Then I will blow it all to hell with my trip to Vegas. It will be good to be off the diet. I am losing my sanity because I have not been on the bike since September 11th. To say I am Jonesing for a ride would be an understatement.

250 New sport? Trail surfing.

2009-10-04T11:01:00.000-07:00

Jamie Erich and I did a bit of trail work on Saturday. I think we have created a new sport. Trail surfing. The new trail is still fairly rough so we took a 100 + pound sewer grate and attached it to the 4 wheeler. We connected a rope to the back end and Erich and Jamie took turns surfing the grate while I drove down the trail. It seems to do a nice job of smoothing out things.

The trail is still a bit rough but it seems to do a good job. We just need everyone to ride the trail and it should be in very good shape by spring. So if you get a chance go climb Clark's and then just before you go into the parking area turn almost 180 degrees left and go down the trail. I guarantee you will enjoy the trail even if it is a bit rough right now. To get back out just ride the old pipeline trail back up and then take the Brock's point connector over to Ghost falls and let er rip.

Have fun and let me know if you want to go surfing.

253. I booked the reservations.

2009-10-02T08:18:00.000-07:00

We are headed to Vegas to see Utah play UNLV on the 17th. A short two weeks away. Somehow I need to get down to 240 by then because the diet is shot and killed starting on the 17th. I need to lose a pound a day to get there. I think I can still do it. I have not been as good about dieting this time as I should. See my last post if you have questions. However I still think I can get down to 240. The 4 weeks starting on the 17th will be rough. Travel to Vegas and then having 3 home games complete with tailgate parties will make things interesting. Sundays are going to have to be Century rides if I am going to keep the weight down. Well maybe not but long rides for sure.

We are going to stay at the Tropicana. Susan really just wants some time by the pool and with our recently cold weather she is excited.

I on the other hand am looking forward to some of the food that Adam takes on in Man vs. Food.

I do not think that Burrito has a chance.

257 The diet took a major hit last weekend

2009-09-30T10:25:00.000-07:00

The diet took a major hit last week. Thursday and Friday were all day conferences with breakfast, lunch and dinner. I held out until lunch and then I could not take it anymore. The weekend was a big tailgate party that started early Saturday morning. Food, food, beer and food. Not exactly diet food either. We made spicy sausage sandwiches. They are one of the best things in this world. Colosimo's spicy sausages cooked in marinara sauce all day placed on a hard roll with provolone cheese and then covered in sauce. Man those things are good. Like scary good. There is something about the sausages cooked all day in the sauce that makes them even better. They are incredibly tender and the spicy flavor with the cheese. Well lets just say they are awesome. Anyhow I gained about 7 lbs in 3 days. I am back down to 257 and there are no tailgate parties until Vegas. Luckily that is not for 3 weeks. I should feel weak for breaking the diet but somehow it was worth it.

256 The one that got away.

2009-09-22T17:48:00.000-07:00

Putting the basement back together I found a photo from my days at the U of Arizona. That was one sweet bike. A Faggin. I kid you not that was the name of the frame maker. It was the sweetest steel frame ever. In those days Italian frames were the Sh*t. They were the best riding frames . The frames built here at home rode harsh. Aluminum was just starting to come into play and it was either really harsh or just dangerous. Lots of broken aluminum frames. The bike was all Campy Record with wheels I built for the bike. It had tubular tires and sweet fade bar tape. I sold the bike to a buddy of mine 13 years ago. When I sold the bike the wheels had a bit of a wobble and it did not shift very well. But I still miss the bike. It is the one bike I wish I had kept. I put a ton of miles on that frame. Thousands of miles. The year I spent at the U of A I probably put 4 or 5 thousand miles on that frame. Sadly is gone. He sold it. I wish I had known. I would have bought it back in a second.

257. Bonk

2009-09-20T12:45:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I spent several hours working on Jamie's new trail. Have I have mentioned before that it is cool? Well it is. The trail will be a lot of fun. A down hill XC trail. Down hill may be a bit misleading. The trail does drop significantly but it moves up and down and across Corner Canyon. Think of a trail like Johns in Park City but without all the annoying roots. That is the idea of the trail.

So yesterday Erich and I showed up and put in 4 hours working on the trail. The machine had been through and carved out path and we were filling in holes, digging out roots, putting in drains and raking out the trail. About 3 hours in I bonked. I know my diet is ridiculous and the minimal amount of calories (600) is probably just stupid but I did not expect to bonk. At about 11:00 I grabbed an apple out of my camel back and tried stop the bonk but it did not work. I walked off and found Erich and told him we had to go. I was in a world of hurt. Thought I was going to puke and was suffering as bad or worse than any bonk I have had on the bike. I hate that feeling you get just before you puke and I had it walking back up the 1.5 miles of trail to the top of Clark's.

Luckily I did not embarrass myself by tossing my cookies all over the new trail. I will save that for next year when it is finished. Erich an I headed home and I went to bed. I had Susan make me a bottle of Carbo Rocket. Which I was barely able to drink. This stuff has to be the easiest thing on your stomach that you can drink and I was having trouble. About an hour or so later I was good to go. Then I watched the Utah game and I wanted to puke all over again.

260 Basement is getting closer

2009-09-17T06:12:00.000-07:00

I am down a bunch of weight in less than a week. I think all the cycling I have done has boosted my metabolism. The diet will fix that. The last time I did this I lost 20 or so lbs. The first time I lost 35. There was some gain back in there but to date I am down more than 50lbs from my high. I need to find a photo of me from my days at the U of Arizona. I think I have a picture of me finishing the Tour De Tucson in about 1987 where I weigh all of about 160lbs. That is still the guy I see in my head. My goal is to get down to 200 lbs by about the end of February. This may be too optimistic. I want to ride in March and dieting and riding do not go together very well.

We are getting closer to finishing the basement. We bought a new couch, pool table and TV. I really like movies and I am going to finish this out as a home theater. We need to buy some window coverings and some sound equipment for the TV but otherwise it is just touch up work and it is done. I plan on putting in a bar with a sink and fridge as well but funds are running a bit low so for now we will have to walk up stairs to get drinks and snacks. With a little luck this should keep the kids at our house. I just like the idea of knowing what is going on and having them here makes Susan and I feel better.

263 Down 6 pounds so far

2009-09-16T05:57:00.000-07:00

Diet is going well I have not broken down and eaten anything that does not fit in the narrow parameters. Last night was tough though. Kids were eating ice cream. That stuff is like Kryptonite. I really dig the stuff. Especially Costco vanilla with ginger snaps under and crushed over the top. Man that is good. It is like heaven in a bowl.

So what is the over and under on my first break down?

269 Crushing the scale

2009-09-14T05:40:00.000-07:00

Poor Mookie. He had a gnarly growth on his ear and had to have it removed. He is very unhappy wearing the Cone. The growth was big and the Vet does not know what it was. They wanted to send it off to the lab and have it tested but I declined. I know it could be cancer or something but if it is I am not willing to do chemo on a dog. The results are ugly and the survival rate is horrible. Hopefully it was just one of those growths that dogs sometimes get as they age. Mookie goes back to the Vet today and we will see if she takes the Cone off. Mook's has tried everything he can think of to remove it himself . He has rubbed it on the fence, the house, the inside of his kennel and my favorite the railing on the deck. The Cone is smashed but it is holding up.

So I have been slowly gaining weight. My lack of chamois time has been catching up with me. Since the end of the Solitude series I have gained 7 lbs. I have decided to go back on my suffer fest known as the mother of all diet's. About 600 calories per day. Today's lunch will include 1/2 of a chicken breast an orange, and some steamed broccoli. The first couple of days usually make me a bit nutz. If you see me eating be sure to keep your distance I may get emotional.

265 BYU? Are you kidding me?

2009-09-10T07:24:00.000-07:00

So BYU is 1-0 on the season and already I have to suffer through the discussions of a National championship run. Can you say delusional? Some days I hate my office. Unbelievable. The arrogance is incredible. It is almost as if the Y's fans believe that teams will just roll over. "Ooh we are playing BYU we should just give them the ball and walk off the field". I predict you will see this "Quest for Perfection" spiral down the toilet much like last season. I would really like to see Tulane beat them but that is unlikely. Florida State, TCU and Utah will be tough games even if they are played in Provo(gawd I already know too much about their season). I predict that BYU loses 2 or even 3 of these games. Hopefully Florida State will take care of business and the arrogant horde will crawl back into their holes.

The NC talk would not be so bad if I were not completely out numbered. It is about 10 to 1 and feels like about 100 to 1.

Here is a hint. Maybe win a few more games.. Like maybe 10 before you start talking National Championship. Then you will not seem like you have been sniffing glue?

While I am at it I predict Utah finishes the season 9 and 3 and wins their bowl game.

PS. you can get the lovely tee shirt on Ebay.

265 I need one of these.

2009-09-09T20:10:00.001-07:00

The perfect Tail Gate rig... Well if it were Red.

264 Trail Work on Saturday

2009-08-31T16:32:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning we went and did a bit of work on Jamie's new trail. The trail is cut in from the top of Clark's down to the old Corner Canyon road. Total it is probably about three quarters of a mile. I rode it last night and it is going to be fun. Right now it is loose and bumpy but a bit more riding and maybe a bit of rain and it is going to be very fun. The trail winds around almost like a bmx track. Lots of berms and rollers and switch backs. This thing is going to be cool.

Last night I ran out of daylight and had to use the head lamp to get down. I had a good time and rode the new connector trail from Clark's to Brock's point and then down Ghost Falls and home. The ride took longer than I had planned but I was really in no hurry.

265 The Truffle Shuffle

2009-08-27T08:13:00.001-07:00

I have not spent much time on the bike in the past couple of weeks. I have been in a funk that I just could not seem to shake. I think my Corner Canyon rut has been killing me. Too many days of one hour straight up and 20 minutes down to the house. My leg has been bothering me and I just decided to take a break. I am sure the sore knee and hip have nothing to do with my ability to do the Truffle Shuffle. Cross season is almost upon us and while you will probably never see me line up I am sure I will be there to cheer/haze the riders as they pass. I found this video from DFL (something I am very familiar with). Cross dressing Cross racers. These dudes are sick puppies which is probably why I wish I could race cross. My leg would never handle slipping in the muck and I cannot run so no Cross for me. Check out the video. It looks like fun as long as you keep your distance from a couple of these dudes.

262 Performance.

2009-08-13T07:23:00.000-07:00

Since I have no clue what I am doing I will just post the link. This killed me. Stolen from drunkcyclist.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn29DvMITu4

262. Every now and again something just clicks.

2009-08-11T15:41:00.000-07:00

261 Night Ride

2009-08-03T20:31:00.000-07:00

Susan and I went for a night ride yesterday. I had forgotten how fun it is to go out at night and ride the trails. The perspective is totally different. I also had forgotten about all the deer running around Draper. I almost ran right into one while I was riding the trail to the Rodeo grounds. I am not sure how I would have explained that one. Bonneville shoreline trail headed toward Corner Canyon Road

Bridge connecting lower Corner Canyon to Bonneville Shoreline trail.

Upper Corner Canyon Road.

Susan had a bit of a mishap and had a slow speed over the bars incident. She is a bit sore and has a bruise on her elbow and hip. This time she has no idea how she crashed. I am not sure either. The place she crashed is fairly flat and had very few rocks. I hope I can talk her into riding at night again. Because this was fun. At least fun for me.

261 Photos from the Grinder.

2009-08-01T11:05:00.001-07:00

A few photo's from last week. Me picking up a necklace and a wool jersey. Nice Swag.

Luke Henry and his brother's Girlfriend

Gail Henry

Marc Driver, Gail and Luke talking about what the Whit Henry Memorial race means to them.

Having a some food and a beverage.

My ass is huge.

Skinny

Erich spent 2 or so hours making a pool in the river. It was a very popular place after the race. Shannon and Erich cooling off.

258 I actually won a race.

2009-07-26T19:15:00.000-07:00

Sort of. I was the only person entered in the 40 to 49 beginner class. I actually did fairly well though. There were 10 people entered in the beginner class from ages 10 to mid 50's. I finished in third place in the group. I was happy with that and I beat someone who works with my wife. It was nice actually having a couple of people to race with. At most of the races I have done this year I am out there by myself because I cannot keep up with anyone. The course suited me fairly well. The course was fairly short up hill climbs then down hill. Just enough time to recover before the next climb. The Solitude course helped me in this race. The Galena Grinder was steep then technical on the down hill side. There were several log piles you had to ride over and a lot of sketchy loose trail. Had it not been for the down hill side of the course I would have finished a couple of more places back. There was one person who would pass me every time the course went up hill then I would pass him back shortly after it would head back down hill. Thankfully the end of the race had about a mile of mostly down hill with a couple of short up hill climbs and I put a minutes or so gap on him.

Erich had a more rough ride. He had to move up to the 15 to 18 sport class. They rode 18 miles and he broke a pedal half way through. I looked at the pedal and the spring broke so I hope I can get a new set of egg beaters on warranty. Erich was doing fairly well until the pedal broke and one of the kids who placed said he passed him when he was walking up a hill.

Shannon and Jen showed up for the race. Shannon finished second in the pro marathon class and was top 5 overall. There were some amazingly fast experts who did the marathon course. 45 miles and about 3000 feet of elevation change per lap. Major props to those guys. That course was tough and I think I probably could do one lap but no way I could have done 2 laps. They were flying at just over 2 hours per lap.

259. Grumpy

2009-07-22T21:21:00.000-07:00

So my day was not going well and I was in a shitty mood. I am surprised no one told me that I was a jerk. I know if I had opened my mouth one more time it was probably going to happen. How did I fix my crappy mood? I went to the Wednesday Solitude race. I was still in a crappy mood when I got there. I tried my best to hide it but I was doing a pretty poor job. Once the race started the bad mood was gone. I entered the pain cave, which by the way has teeth, and did not crawl out for 75 minutes. They changed the course and had us go up the paved road and then ride the course backwards. The climb hurt the flats hurt and the down hill hurt. At one point I started hearing things. I kept hearing phantom racers who were not there coming up on me fast. At one point I thought I saw a racer in the shadows about to pass me. I managed to finish but the last mile was fairly sketchy. I went off the trail twice and nearly crashed about a hundred times. On my second lap while going up the paved road someone asked me why we do this. I told him I must hate myself. The race hurt but at least I am not grumpy anymore. Tired and beat yes. Grumpy no.

Tomorrow Erich and I are off to do the Galena Grinder. It is the memorial race for my friend's son. It will be good to see Mark and Gail. I am sure the race will be interesting. From what I know it is very similar to Solitude. High altitude, rocky and rooted. Still it should be fun. I will take a few photos. I just hope the pain cave does not bite my butt too hard.

264. Weight

2009-07-15T07:56:00.000-07:00

So my weight has been floating between 260 and 272 in the last week. I am not sure what is going on. I have been trying not to eat out so much which I think is helping plus I had been riding quite a bit as well. The problem was last week on Friday going up Corner canyon I had nothing. I could not get my HR above 140 and was in major misery. Granted at 6 am I have never felt good going up Corner Canyon. For some reason this keeps happening. About every two weeks I seem to go through this thing where I have to back it off and take 2 days off the bike. I am not riding all that much compared to most of the guys on the team but I seem to flirt with some form of burnout regularly. So far this year I have about 900 miles and about 90 something hours on the bike. By Bob standards this is nothing and I think he hit these numbers in February. For me it is quite a bit given that I have less than 10 road rides this year. I know I am getting faster, even though I am slow overall. It is just weird. I feel OK and kind of crummy all at the same time.

Sunday we pre rode Solitude. The course is fun. I had never ridden the upper loop. The loose double track should be interesting. I think I scared a few hikers. One nearly to death once I started going down hill. Again moving fairly slow but I think the sight of 260 something lbs of cyclist coming around a corner kind of freaks people out.

Not sure what to do about the weight. I have held it in this range since April. It has to go down. I thought the weight was on the way down Sunday when I stepped on the scale and saw 260. Then on Tuesday morning it was 267. Today 264. I put in a hard effort on Sunday and I wonder if my body just swells up after big efforts? I have no idea. I took off Monday. Yesterday I was going to ride at 6am but Erich did not want to go and that was enough of an excuse for me. Tonight I will race the Solitude Mid Week and will not DNF even if I have to drag the bike for 2 laps.

263.. Pay it forward???

2009-07-09T13:00:00.001-07:00

This should get interesting. Bobby Fresh made me do it.

I like this idea, plus I like free stuff.
Here’s how it works. The first five people to leave a comment on this post will get something handmade from me. But in return, you have to make this same offer on your blog and make something for five other people.If you want to play, copy the text below onto your blog and leave me a post:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make. Whatcha get is whatcha get.
2. What I create will be just for you, with love.
3. It’ll be done this year (2009).
4. I will not give you any clue what it’s going to be. It will be something made in the real world and not something cyber. It may be weird or beautiful. Or it may be monstrous and annoying. Heck, I might bake something for you and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that’s for sure!
5. I reserve the right to do something strange.
6. In return, all you need to do is post this text on your blog and make 5 things for the first 5 to respond to your blog post.7. Send your mailing address - after I contact you.
I reserve the right to make you whatever I want. It will not be virtual, it will be an actual object.

263. I love these. You cannot make this stuff up.

2009-07-08T08:27:00.001-07:00

Straight off of KSL.com

Free '92 Jeep Wrangler...

Midvale, UT 84047 - Jul 1, 2009

...with proposal and wedding ring. That's right! Act now on this one-time offer. All you have to do is date and marry me and you can be the proud owner of a 1992 Jeep Wrangler (along with a 1970 woman). Jeep has a lift, safari top for the summer/hard top for the winter, rear locker, 33" tires and (new this year) an 8000 lb winch. Not only do you get the Jeep, but you get me. And boys, I don't come stock. I am FULLY LOADED! My add-ons include: a great sense of humor, an affection for "garage nights" (that means working on stuff in the garage), an amazing work ethic, temple-worthiness, an appreciation for sports, the ability to live well within my means, logical reasoning skills, a "work hard so you can play hard" mentality, and I'm great with kids, too!Terms and Conditions:1. Marriage must last a minimum of 5 years. 2. Jeep cannot feel neglected - trips to Moab required - but it's a package deal. You take the Jeep, you take me!3. Honda 400EX included in lifetime package.4. Honeymoon required.

3 pictures of the Jeep. Only one photo of some one's future Wife. Act quickly you single guys. There is a set of 33" wheels and an 8000lb winch on the line.

264 The Dragon Fly did it.

2009-07-06T18:45:00.000-07:00

My wifey went boom.

Last night we all went for a ride. Erich and I went up Bonneville to Corner Canyon Road then down Ghost Falls and up Clark's then down the new trail. I think it is called Canyon View or Brock's point. Anyhow Susan thought we were nuts because it was so hot. She rode up Clark's and down Ghost Falls. At the end of Ghost falls on the main road just before the single track a dragon fly flew into her face/helmet, she lost concentration and went down. This is the worst of it but she also has some abrasions on her hip and her elbow. Can you say Ouch?

It is classic road rash. Nasty burn. Not much bleeding but it is oozing and is just a painful mess. I feel bad for her. Last night she did not get much sleep.

I am always amazed by how big of a mess road rash makes. Susan wore Capri's to work today and the ooze soaked through the knee of the pants.

After seeing this I am going to go hairless. Yes I am going to shave the tree trunks. The only good thing about Susan's abrasion was that she did not have to clean hair out of the road rash. I have seen hairy guys go down on the road and seen the infections and the pain that comes with having your skin peeled off. So next time you see me it will be sans hair. Even if I am not the hairiest dog in the pack. I do not want to deal with the hair when I eventually go down

That or I am just looking for an excuse to shave my legs again.

267 The trail to be named later

2009-07-03T17:59:00.000-07:00

Erich and I did a little trail work today. Jamie has put together a very cool trail in Corner Canyon. We probably put in about 100 yards of new trail today. Jamie, Corey, Dana, Bill, Erich and myself met at 8 am and walked down to the new trail.

This is a little hard to see but it will end up being a jump. Next time we go up I will bring the single speed with some bmx pedals and we can take turns crashing into the scrub oak.

Trail we put in today.

Again a bit hard to see but someone on a horse had been on the very soft new trail and punched some holes. Not a big deal but Jamie is going to put up some tape to try to keep people out until it gets worked in and is a more durable.

268 What??

2009-07-02T10:04:00.001-07:00

OK.. Straight from the War of the Roses. Dog People should marry Dog people. Cat people should marry cat people. No self respecting dog. No less a Blackdog should ever tolerate this. I know what Mookie would do. Get all scratched up by the cat.

268. Sufferfest

2009-07-02T09:17:00.000-07:00

I have had kind of a long week and I have more miles on my saddle than in any previous 7 day period all year. Saturday I rode 100 miles in the MS. 100 miles that looks like 13 minutes on my Garmin because somehow I must have bumped the on/off button while traveling and the battery was dead. There is nothing like riding a century and not knowing how fast you are going or how many miles you have gone. Oh ya and to the douche who said to me "How would I know" when I asked how many miles we had to go.. Look at your F ing cycle computer you dick. With stops and lunch I finished in 6 hours 30 minutes. I had planned on riding with some guys from work or hooking up with the Revo group but that plan was shattered when our Corporate affairs person saw me going to the line and grabbed me to be in a photo. Great 270 pounds stuffed into a 200 lb Lycra bag which will now be on display for my everyone in my company to see. Not a good image. Anyhow the group I planned on riding with went off at 7 am and I was left to fend for myself. I found someone who I have ridden with in past years so I thought this will work out. Just before we leave his wife says something like. Hey I will be in the hotel room if you want to cut the ride short. Hmm guess what happened? Cannot blame the guy Hotel alone no kids. So I rode 70 miles trying to jump on any train of riders I could hang on with. It seemed like every time I got in on the right group going the my pace they would pull into a rest stop. After a while I gave up and rode it alone.

Saturday night I found an old friend from College and we decided to ride together Sunday. We rode 40 miles. I had nothing. I averaged 17 mph including the rest stops but every time the road went up hill even slightly I had nothing. I would have done the 75 mile route but Karl wanted to get home early and when we hit the canyon we had a 20 mph head wind and that pretty much made my decision.

So Monday my legs feel like someone has just dropped a bowling ball on the top of each thigh. After work I decide to just go out and take Mookie for a ride to the holding pond at the bottom of Corner canyon. When we get there it is empty. Mookie proceeds to drink my whole watter bottle but we spin around for 30 minutes and I generally feel much better.

Tuesday I pull Erich out of retirement. And get him to ride with me. We rode up Clarks and around Corner Canyon. Nice ride nothing too hard except Clark's which is always hard for me. Erich crashes which is nothing new. His elbow, Knee and shoulder are scraped up. The kid always has scabs on his knees and elbows from riding. Or should I say crashing. Susan wants to wrap him in foam.

Wednesday rolls around and we have decided to do the rest of the Solitude series. Long story short I Dnf'ed. I have never been so happy to get a flat tire. Last night I had assumed my rightful place in the universe. DFL in the sport class. I was climbing the single track (crawling in the granny gear) towards the roundhouse and psssst. I hopped off the bike and Stan's was blowing out of the puncture like crazy. I think OK great here we go. Flip the bike over and try to get the tire inflated. Somehow I bought threaded CO2 cartridges. This is something that is a big mistake when you cannot see straight and no longer remember your kids names because you have no oxygen left in your body. My inflator will actually work with a threaded cartridge but this took some thinking and clearly I could no longer think. After about 3 minutes of trying to get the inflator to work it occurs to me that the cartridge is threaded and I see the head has threads and I can just screw it into the head. Now the thing works. I have watched all the Fast guys pass me and offer encouragement. I am thinking unpleasant thoughts about the skinny fast guys and how they would all look if they were thrown in the river. ( I really harbor no ill feelings toward the skinny fast people other than evny) The tire inflates but immediately blows sealant allover and goes flat again. So at this point I know I am going to DNF because there is no way I want to push the bike across and down the mountain. So I use my last cartridge, jump on the bike and immediately head down the paved road to the base. I can hear the hiss every revolution of the wheel and I just know it will be flat any second. Amazingly it finally seals and I coast down with about 5 lbs pressure in my wheel. This is my first ever DNF. Well at least the only one I can remember. I always finish so I felt just a little bit guilty because I did have a tube and I could have gone that route. But to be completely honest I was not feeling it unless it was misery.

I guess there is always next week.

268 Thrilla for the Garage Gorilla.

2009-06-21T15:25:00.000-07:00

Check this out. This has to be one of the coolest garage gadgets ever. And yes we have way too many bikes. I counted 13 at the house today. Only 12 of them belong to us. Geez. I never throw anything away, or donate anything . I think it is probably about time to thin the heard. Anyhow check out the Garage Gorilla. It is awesome. Maybe too awesome Susan wants one more. Push the button and it raises the bar holding up to 220 lbs of garage stuff. With the work we have been doing in the basement it has been tough going for the garage. This definitely will let me park one car back where it belongs in the garage. Viola we have a bunch of bikes off the ground and out of the way. The only draw back that I can see is that you have to install the thing. Which by the way was not too difficult but it was not that easy either. I hate working on ceilings. My garage has about a 12 foot ceiling so it makes it even more difficult. Anyhow now that it is done I would do it again and I would be willing to bet Susan has another one for me next week. On that note I think I am headed out for a ride.

272 Texas the land of cologne.

2009-06-18T20:27:00.000-07:00

The guys in Texas like their cologne. Imagine High Karate, Old Spice and Mombo on every person you walked past. That was what it was like on the River Walk in San Antonio. Susan usually likes cologne but the high temperatures and the strong smell from every guy we passed was a bit much. It was hot and I am not sure if they were looking to mask something or if they really like the stuff. Either way it was really strong. I am usually oblivious to smells but you could not miss this. At some point it was funny. Anyhow the River Walk in San Antonio is really cool and I would highly recommend walking the 3 miles.

I did not take any photos of the water park. We found very early that you would need to be wet to survive the heat so taking photo's was the last thing we were thinking about. The Schlitterbahn is very cool. The park is all river water. The water coming from a spring fed river that is connected to the park. If you like water parks this is the place. I thought the trip would give me some time to recover. I underestimated the effects of climbing stairs for 3 days. You see water parks have lots of stairs and the Schlitterbahn is built on a hillside. We spent 2 days in temp's above 100 with high humidity. Luckily most of the time at the Schlitterbahn was spent in the water. But any time we were not in the water we were climbing stairs. It was sort of like being on a never ending stair stepper. We opened the park at 10 am and closed it both nights at 8 pm. I was only mildly sore after the first day the second day was more of the same. I did not really suffer until we went to Sea World. That is where we were in the water much less and the temp's were again above 100. I hit the wall at about 2 in the afternoon. We spent some time seeing "Shamoo" and the sea lions. Sea World also has a water park. We hit their park and cooled off. I have to say that I enjoyed the Schlitterbahn much more than Sea World. The whales and the Sea Lion's were cool. And I would do it again. I would probably just do it during a time of the year when it is a bit cooler.

Erich finding out what happens when you try to bring Gatorade into the air port.

Photo from the River Walk.

Another shot of Erich getting frisked.

Seal Posing

Here fishy fishy.

Another photo from the River Walk.

265 Dawn Patrol

2009-06-09T06:43:00.001-07:00

Lovely photo. My camera phone thinks 5 am is way too early to ride too. I felt like dirt. Rode Corner Canyon. No surprise there. Trails were tacky and in very good condition. I thought it may be muddy. Today I could not get my heart rate up out of zone 2 at all. 10 miles and 1900 feet pf elevation gain. Did the whole ride with a heart rate under 145. The average HR was 114 Low 61 and high 143.

I fly out on Saturday morning to go to the Schlitterbahn in Texas. It is one of the worlds largest water parks. A few days of chasing the kids around a water park should fix my wagon. I will take some photos.

263 Ride today and some photo's

2009-06-06T21:14:00.000-07:00

I did the tour of Corner Canyon today. I rode up bst to corner canyon road then down the new multi purpose trail which is fairly rough and loose. Then up Clark's down Ghost over to Bst again and down Lizard road. Man there were lizards everywhere. I was trying to keep my HR below 140 and I was fairly successful except going up Clark's and up the Wall. This was the first time I have ever cleaned the wall. I usually spin out or something. This time I went immediately to the Granny gear and was able to spin on up. Today was Draper Trails Day so there were some runners on the trails. They were pretty well done by the time I headed up but I did see a few runners and some family's out hiking the trails. One group was walking through the poison ivy over by Ghost Falls. I bet they are hating life about now. It ended up being a fairly big day of climbing with over 4000 feet. I wanted to go to Park City but Erich is still hacking his lungs out. He stayed with me until we went down the new trail then he and Susan went home. I am not sure he should have gone with us He has a fever now and I hope this does not set him back even more. He has lost 10 or so lbs and is really thin.

It is hard to see from my camera on the cell phone but the new trail has tons of roots sticking up all over and is loose on the edges. It needs lots of people to ride it slowly to buff it out and get it into better shape.

Mr. Skinny telling me he is going home.

This week was Alyssa's birthday. She wanted a new bike and the shop had an 08 model. She was thrilled especially when I tattooed it with several hibiscus stickers.

The infamous valve. Somehow it blew up. I probably did not let the glue set up enough before I turned it on and one of the joints failed. Major bummer. I have no idea how long it was running but I did not have to dig it up. The water did that for me. It was a quick fix. It better hold this time.

This is from 2 weeks ago. Erich and I went on a road ride and at about the 2 hour mark he bonked. He needs to find something he can eat on the bike. That and he needs to get in some miles. Lacrosse hurt his endurance and he needs to build it back.

266 Son of a.. Miserable scale.

2009-06-04T11:37:00.001-07:00

I am not sure what I am doing wrong. I am watching what I eat and keeping my calories under control and still slowly gaining weight. My cycling has been a bit interrupted in the past week but I still had 2 hours Saturday 3 hours Sunday and then the sprinklers blew up again and my Daughter had a birthday so I missed 2 days of riding but I should not gain weight. I told Drew about my gains yesterday and he was very nice and said muscle is heavy and you are building muscle. If only that were true. The only muscle I am building is table muscle and it looks like I have a keg for a midsection.

Last night I did the Round Valley Race. Since I had no idea where I was going I entered with the beginners. After the first lap I just could not finish the race and wanted to do the second lap which is the same as the Sport class. Anyhow when I finished I told them to change my category and that I did the 2 laps. I am slow and I apologize to any of you that I slowed down but I think I was able to ride on the right and step out of the way fairly quickly. I do not think I hindered anyone too much. My lap times were a bit slow at 25 minutes per lap and I finished in just under an hour by my computer. I am sure I will be a bit faster next week. Erich skipped this one because he has been sick for about 10 days now. He hates going to the Doctor but he really has no choice and he is going today. He tells me he wants to do the PC Point Point race in September. He has not ridden hardly at all this year so he needs to get better and get in some miles.

262 Lost in Park City

2009-05-31T17:37:00.002-07:00

I have no idea how but I managed to get lost about 4 times today. I rode for 3 hours and saw everything from the highway 40 to I15 to Downtown Park City. I started out trying to preride the Round Valley race course. I ended up following someone and they led me to some single track so I went ahead and rode from Round Valley to Park City's Main street. I think I was on the Prospector trail. After riding back I decided to look for the Round Valley Race course which from what I can tell is not marked. I rode all over that place. At the end I took a right turn when I should have turned left. I ended up by exit 2 on Highway 40. Thinking there would be a road that would allow me to connect back I headed again the wrong way before finally figuring out that I would have to double back go on the other side of 40 and ride back up. Oh and I almost got hit by some bozo who made a right hand turn in front of me going into the Home Depot parking lot. It was their fault but I had my head down and was just pedaling when they turned in front of me so I should have been paying attention. I just missed the back side of the pickup. I would have been madder and probably done something stupid but I was too tired. Probably a good thing.

262 lbs and holding

2009-05-22T13:10:00.000-07:00

I really wanted to be in the 240's by now. It is time to focus on my diet again. I need to figure out how to drop another 20 lbs and still be able to ride. My thoughts are that I will have to start writing down everything I eat and keeping my calories at or under 2000 per day. That probably seems like quite a bit of food but for a guy who is 6 3 and weighs 262 lbs it is a deficit of about 1000 to 1500 calories per day. Depending on my activity level.

Last night I rode the Draper Race course with Mark. Since Mark owns the Clark's Time Trial page I donated my slowness to his blog. 23:10 which is the slowest time ever recorded. This will give me some good motivation to knock the time into the acceptable sub 20 minute area in the next month. The weight really kills me going up hill. No surprise there. I held my heart rate between165 and 170 the whole way up.

Erich did Clark's and I am not completely convinced but he said he had a time of 13:23. I think he really was about 14 min plus because he and I are showing about a one tenth difference in mileage. Either way it was much faster for him and not bad for a 14 year old kid. He still swears the fastest he has ever done Clark's was chasing my dog Mookie up the trail. Maybe we will have to have a challenge. Who can beat Mookie? My money is on the dog. He is nuts. 70lbs of muscle, heart and not much in the brains department. I still do not think he feels any pain. He has to be the world's most simple creature. Plus if he felt like he were going to lose I bet he would just jump in your lap, knock you over, lick your face and run up the trail. And then wonder why you would have the audacity to yell at him.

262. Group Ride of the Draper course.

2009-05-20T11:41:00.000-07:00

Last night I went out with the Revolution group and rode the Draper course. Ed has it very well marked ( it was marked earlier in the week but some bozo's had taken down the pink flags) and I have to say the course is a blast. I suffered quite a bit trying to keep up with the group but even though I could not breath at all I loved it. This course is Fun. I had no idea that a bunch of the trails were even there. I do not know how it will race and I suspect it will be very difficult to pass. Some of the switch backs are loose and one of the switch backs on Ghost Falls it is sloped down hill so be careful or there may be a fair number of up close and personal meetings with the terra firma. If you are racing you will want to pre-ride. I will probably do the ride again Thursday night if anyone wants to go with me shoot me an e-mail. Just remember I am the ClydeSnail.

264 Ghost Falls.

2009-05-16T21:18:00.000-07:00

I skipped the race today. Not that I really belong there anyhow. Mostly I am afraid of slowing down the other racers and that is not fair to them. I am getting faster but I am just plain slow. I am a bit bummed about the changes to the Draper race next week.I had planned on racing but I think I will skip the race. I love the course, however there is almost nowhere to pass and I am not going to hold everyone up. The Solitude/Round Valley series starts in a bit more than a week and I am going to sign up for the entire series. Erich will miss the first race and another one in June when we all go to the Schlitterbaun water park in Texas. Other than those two events we will be at all the races.

Today I rode up BST north down Ghost Falls then up Clark's and down Corner Canyon Road. Fun ride. I would have gone down Ghost Falls again but I ran out of day light. Pretty good day of climbing. My legs are Toast.

262 Kids

2009-05-11T15:48:00.000-07:00

So this is where Susan is today. Seems nice. She said she wishes I was there. I think she is enjoying the time away. Susan is at a conference in Orlando and because she has a bunch of points she gets to stay at the spa and have treatments meals whatever. I on the other hand am at home with the kids. I also have a fairly nice list of Honey do's. Starting with installing a back flow valve on the sprinklers. Draper is requiring a valve which was $175 plus parts. So far I am up to about $250 for this valve plus I get to pay $50 per year to have it tested. I am so excited. Yesterday I spent half the day fighting with the thing and broke a pipe. The pipe that I broke as luck would have it is giving me trouble and leaking. So tonight I get to see if I can do some more damage and break the thing further.

After several hours I gave up and made Dinner(Chicken covered in cheese on top of pasta). As I was making dinner Erich gives me this line. I bet I can eat my dinner and still beat you to the top of Clark's. Game on. I am slow and Fat but you know what I would have killed myself to beat him. So he says you ride BST and Corner Canyon road up to the top of Clark's. He will ride straight up Clark's when he finishes his dinner and says he can still beat me. Oh ya and he will ride the single speed. Kid is getting cocky. I left immediately. So anyhow I turned myself inside out. I went up BST fast (for me) and then hit Corner Canyon road and really turned the screws to it. I did not puke but only because I skipped dinner. So I pushed through the top of the road and kept waiting to see him but I never did. When I started going down Clark's I made it past the fence at the top and down a couple of turns and there he was. He said he puked a couple of turns earlier.

Made me feel much better about my wife hanging out at the spa. I would not have missed this for all the pampering in the world. Ralph... I mean Erich is a bit more humble but not much.

262 HRM is fixed.

2009-05-07T16:04:00.000-07:00

Looks like the HRM is fixed. Now the user error at the start of Clark's is another issue. I hit the stop button and missed the lap button. You can see this at about 3 miles.

I tagged along with the Revolution shop group last night. Fun ride but I am beat. Rode up Clark's then up Jacobs Ladder a mile or so and then down Ghost Falls. Fun ride. I had never been down Ghost falls. That will become a regular part of my ride. I am not so sure about riding up Jacobs Ladder though. Too many tight switch backs. My heart rate has dropped quite a bit. This may have something to do with my recent hours riding. My schedule looks something like Monday rest day, Tuesday 1 hour ride, Wednesday 1.5 hours, Thursday 1 hour, Friday Rest day, Saturday 1.5 hours and Sunday 2 hours. All of this with a couple of intervals and a sprint or two thrown in for good measure. So far I feel like I am getting in better shape but I am still slow. Hopefully I can take off a few lbs and I will gain some speed. At least that is the plan. Right now I am trying to decide if I just ride and eat right or if I go back on the diet. I know if I diet I can drop 20 lbs in about a month. The problem with the hard core diet is that riding is very difficult. I guess this is something I have to think about. Right now I am leaning toward not dieting.

262 Heart Rate Monitor problems

2009-05-03T17:31:00.000-07:00

My hrm has gone off the deep end. After wussing out on 5 mile pass yesterday I went for a ride. I spent over half of the ride in zone5 at about 180 or so BPM. At least that is what it is showing. Knowing this was incorrect because some of the highest rates were coasting down hill and even doing some easy pedaling it would not go down I went home and borrowed Susan's chest strap and now it works fine. Guess I will have to buy a new chest strap. Check out the graph. If only I had the heart and legs to run like this.

262 Where is everyone?

2009-05-02T09:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday at 2:30 I looked out the window behind my cubicle and this is what I saw. Where is everyone and why does my desk look like everyone dumped their work on it? Seeing the combination of my desk and the parking lot I did what any rational guy would do I delegated the piles on my desk and went home.

262 Clarks

2009-04-28T22:11:00.000-07:00

I rode Clark's today. I forgot how tough that climb can be. It took me 25 minutes and I stopped once and spun out a couple of times. Definitely not worthy of UtRider's Time Trial page. The bottom couple of turns are a bit rough but the rest of the trail is in very good shape. I on the other hand I am not in good shape nor do I have good technique. There is nothing worse than spinning out when you are climbing. I went down once an the other time I just missed the jewels. Anyhow the ride was fun even if I tipped over once and froze on the way home. The great thing about Clark's is that I can ride from my house and it is almost all dirt. I have never ridden Ghost Falls so Thursday I will probably climb up Clark's and go down Ghost Falls. Photo is from the bridge at the bottom of Clark's using my phone camera.

260 A few photos from the basement.

2009-04-26T11:14:00.000-07:00

As you can see I am getting closer to finishing the tile work. I am down to the last 3 rows. Susan wants it done yesterday so I will try to do a bit every couple of days. There is not much room to move so this will be slow going. The final row is small and will require measuring and cutting each tile to match the drywall. Alyssa wants to have a sleep over as part of her birthday party so I need to get it finished by June. I should be able to get it done. I am just a bit tired of working on the basement. It is so close I just need to buckle down and get er done.
This shows what was finished Yesterday.

Thise are where I started at the beginning of the day. I was able to put down about 55 square feet. Today my shoulder is a bit cooked and I am not going to do any more until it feels a bit better.

259 Bad Snake Day

2009-04-19T16:17:00.000-07:00

I have run into two of these things today. I do not like snakes. Riding up Corner Canyon on BST going north to CC road there was a rather big one of these. About 4 feet long. I thought it was a rattle snake when I first set eyes on the little monster. He was stretched across the trail sunning him self. I almost crashed trying to get out of my pedals. The evil looking bugger would not move either. I had to walk the bike off the trail to get away. Yuck. I do not like snakes. Then I go home and E is mowing the lawn and has just broken the lawn mower for the second time today and as I am walking down my stairs to the back yard there is another one of these little buggers at the bottom of the stairs. I almost stepped on him. Geez. I can go years with out seeing a snake and today 2 in one day. Susan and the kids think this is really cool. They would love nothing more than to hold one of these in my face and watch me squirm. Gotta love family. I looked this little guy up and he is a Bull Snake. I am hoping the one in the yard goes and visits the neighbors on a permanent basis.

260 BBQ and the Red and White game

2009-04-18T20:12:00.000-07:00

BBQ was great today. We smoked six racks of Ribs and went to the Red vs White game at Rice Eccles today. Good fun great food and friends. The ribs fell off the bone. They actually could have been done a bit less. The Rub and sauce were great.

The game was fun. It ended in a tie. To me it looks like Terrance Cain will be the new QB. Loukes did not look to have the same arm. Loukes is probably a better runner though. They will have to fight it out between now and September. I hope this is another good year. Last year was amazing. Undefeated season beating Bamma in the Sugar Bowl. No one showed the Utes any respect but the team proved they were deserving of another BCS bowl . I think the U will be fairly good. The D is solid but the QB is the big question mark. That and losing Louie Sakoda will hurt. I still think they can go 9 and 3 and then win their bowl game. You can hold me to that one.

260: I think I have figured out my training program.

2009-04-17T12:23:00.001-07:00

I think I have my training program figured out. I am going to do something close to this program. It is a bit late to start now so i will have to modify the program by about a month. Check it out. It makes sense to me but I have no idea if it will actually work. Now if the weather would just help a brother out. This weekend is shot though. The U plays in the Red n White game Saturday. I am going to spend tomorrow smoking pork and sipping a beer or two. Doing Ribs right takes hours but I have it down to a near science. If I remember I will try to take some photo's. The ribs will take about 4 hours in the smoker. We will probably do a Pork Roast as well. Man is there anything better than Pork. My weight has slowly gone up a couple of lbs. No riding and eating what ever the hell I feel like is adding to the scale.

The weather is supposed to improve. I will do a long ride for sure Sunday so hopefully I can get back into the swing of things. I am going to have to diet again shortly but not the 500 calorie monster that I was doing a few weeks ago. Probably more like 2000 calories and watch the fat and keep carbs in check. Anyhow Someone sent me the SS FAT GUY photo and I had to add it to the blog.

259 Electric personality?

2009-04-14T06:11:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I went for an easy recovery ride. 30 minutes on the bike path. My heart rate monitor keeps showing these bizarre spikes. I have done some research on the web and the best I can come up with is that it is related to our dry climate and static from my jersey. Funny thing was that yesterday I was wearing a cotton tee shirt. I know that I was not going hard. I was trying to keep the HR below 150 and I get spikes for no reason. I also get them on Highland Drive by the prison/Bluffdale exit. I think it is aliens or maybe the little black helicopters flying over the Point of the Mountain.

258. Ouch

2009-04-12T16:39:00.000-07:00

For some reason my heart rate monitor goes nuts every now and again. I know I was going hard today but not over 200 beats per minute hard. E and I rode around to Alpine and then over Suncrest on the mtn bikes. I retrospect it would have been smarter to ride the road bikes.

We saw Andy H and Drew on the way home. Somehow I bet they were about to do the same ride. I could not tell who else was with them. I could not pick out Lucy and Rhonda but I am sure they were there. It was all I could do to waive at that moment. I went home crashed on the couch.

259 So I am not pregnant.

2009-04-11T21:37:00.000-07:00

My last entry I talked about how I had gained 11 lbs in 3 days. Lucy pointed out that I may be pregnant. Thanks. I am glad to say that I am not pregnant. What a relief. That would really suck. I think what happened is that I just went hard enough to hurt myself a bit and my body kept a bunch of water. I have been dropping about a pound a day since Wednesday. I was around 259 this morning and I have not been dieting. It may even be a bit less. After the race I rode for 2 hours Sunday then rode for 30 min on Monday then 45 min hard on Tuesday. I took Wednesday and Thursday off. Friday Erich and I rode for about an hour until it started to rain. The little snot enjoys the hell out of making me suffer. I rode as hard as I could to try to beat him to the gate on Clark's. He beat me by about 5 minutes and he left a couple of minutes after I took off from the house.

Corner canyon was wet but very ride able. There were a few muddy spots but they were easy to ride around. The bikes did get a bit muddy though. I may do a bit of trail work on the road. There is a small stream of water that is making a mess. 5 min of work should be able to divert the water back into the stream.

Tomorrow should be a longer ride as long as it stops raining. I want to ride into Alpine and come home over Suncrest. Lets hope it stops raining because if it does not stop raining I will be stuck in the basement laying tile. I have about 100 sq feet left and I really do not want to set any more. It has to get done but I would rather go for a ride and then find an excuse not to do it in the afternoon. If I do end up laying tile I will add some photo's. It is getting close.

264. I am old but at least I am slow!

2009-04-06T15:15:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend I entered my first race in 20 years. I forgot how much they hurt. Check out the heart rate. After being crushed by pretty much everyone Stupid Bike sees me suffering away for the last half mile. Tells me that there is someone in my class about 30 seconds behind me. The guy immediately catches me at the top of the last hill. After hearing about every 3rd word Bob said I set off to catch this guy. I got to him just before he pulled off the course by the Finish line. Heart Rate 183. Guess he was not in my class just pre riding? Then again he looked like he could have been. Clydesdale's are are not the toughest group to pick out of a line up. I had a good time. The course was fun and so was everyone at the race.

Sunday we went for a ride and I had nothing. I really mean nothing. Stupid Bike had to come back and look for me. He and Ken feared that I had taken a massive soil sample. Which has been known to happen. I took a turn headed the wrong way and and had to find my way back to the main trail. Thanks for checking on me I am just slow. I rode 14 miles Sunday. Boo made it 17 and the rest of the group probably rode 30.

If you noticed my weight on the Title I gained 11 lbs in 3 days. How is this even possible? I think I must be sick or something. Hopefully it will go away in a day or two. I did eat BBQ, several Bagels a few Cinnamon Bears covered in Chocolate. But 11 lbs? That is like 38500 calories not to mention the couple thousand that I burned off riding. If this continues I will need to change sports. Think Sumo.

253. I bailed hard this morning.

2009-04-03T08:47:00.000-07:00

I started out my morning making lunch for Lyssa and you know what the Doritos were just too much for me today. So far I have had a hand full of Doritos and a Big Steak Breakfast Burrito from Del Taco plus 2 cups of coffee and some creamer. I do not think I will go completely nuts but I have started to slide down the slippery slope.

We are headed down to the Cholla tonight. Since I have decided to eat I think that I may even ride in the beginner 40 plus class. If the Clydesdale's are only doing one lap then I will hit the big class. At 254 I am still 34 lbs over the weight minimum. Sunday Boo and I are going to go ride Gooseberry. It will be the first time he has ever ridden slick rock and the first time I have ever ridden the Goose. Somehow he still just makes me too nervous when we ride anything near cliffs so I have stayed away from Moab. From what I understand this will probably scare the crap out of me. You know the typical 14 year old who has the attention span of a gnat? Well that is him. When he was about 8 we were riding on a bike path that had a raised wooden section. It was about 3 feet off the ground and about 4 or 5 feet wide. Well he rode right off the edge on one of the turns. I asked him what happened and he said he was looking at his foot and just went off the edge. Lucky for him it was just soft wet goo where he went over. No harm other than some muck stuffed in the helmet vents.

I will probably still diet next week but I was off the program starting Tuesday so this is not the end of the world. I lost 29 lbs in the last 35 days. I will keep posting my weight on all of my blog entries and hopefully I will have some cool photos from the race and Gooseberry.

257 Still losing weight?

2009-03-27T17:42:00.000-07:00

So I guess it is good that I am still losing weight. It has really slowed down though. I went from losing 1.5 lbs a day down to losing about 1/2 pound per day. At 257lbs I figure I am somewhere between "Big Daddy" and "Roseanne". When I started all this I was King Kong carrying Oliver Twist so it has gotten better. Last Friday I weighed in at 261 so I guess that losing 4lbs is not too bad but I really had expected more. I have no intention of quitting and I will follow the diet through to the end. My last day in this 40 day period will be on April 7th. Anyone interested should be able to find me at Sweet Home Chicago Pizza or maybe Lone Star. Either way you will see a sight to behold and I would not recommend getting in the way of a Fat Man who has starved himself for 40 days. Things could get ugly. I have been craving pizza and burritos and not necessarily separately. Somehow a Lone Star Chili Verde and a Kitchen Sink Pizza sounds really good. Maybe a nice large picture of something light like an Oatmeal Stout to wash it down. I am so screwed. Honestly I will probably eat a something I should not but I am hopeful that I will not have the problems I am suffering through on the bike once I get some food back in my system. Last time I put in an hour I came home and felt awful. I immediately had to lay down and then I slept for 2 hours. When I woke up I still felt like road kill.

OK Whine over. I am done.. Time to shut up and tough it out.

258 MS150 route

2009-03-23T18:24:00.000-07:00

Looks like they have posted the route. I think it is the same as last year. Though I am not sure because I started late and finished late. I just followed the notes on the road and well rode. Saturday I will ride the 100 mile route. Sunday we will probably ride the 75 mile route. There is also a 40 mile route that may become more appealing. You never know how you will feel the day after riding a century. I have done several and each one I usually bonk at about 80 miles no matter what I eat or how I hydrate. This year I am determined to ride it fast. If I can ride it in under 6 hours I should be able to avoid the bonk. Or at least that is my thought 3 months ahead of the ride. My company does the ride and my wife and son want to do the ride as well. Susan will probably ride 40 miles on both days. Then again she is stubborn and may decide to ride the whole thing. It will depend on the number of miles she can get in by mid June. Hopefully I can ride with the Revolution guys. I will probably have to ride with my company on Saturday but Sunday I should be able to don the blue flame jersey and ride with the team.

259 Plateau?

2009-03-22T16:20:00.000-07:00

So Saturday morning I weighed myself and I still weighed 261. This is 3 or so days with no weight loss. To say I was disappointed is an understatement. So I sent a text message to my dietitian. Sheri sends me back instructions to eat nothing but 6 apples. Have you ever tried to eat only apples for a day? If so you know the hell it is to get past the 4th apple. I never made it.

The other issue I was having was ..well being"regular". She had a solution for that too. "Smooth Move Tea. I drank the tea as prescribed at 9 pm and you are supposed to wait for 8 to 12 hours. Well this stuff should not be called "Smooth Move". I can think of several better names. Morning Sprint, Morning Thunder or Super Cramp would all be better names. I hope to never go through that again.

The good part is that I woke up Sunday morning weighing 2 lbs less than Saturday and somehow I would bet tomorrow I will have lost weight as well.

Saturday Susan and I went for a ride up corner canyon. It was very windy. I have never thought of the wind much when I ride a mtn bike but I did on Saturday. It was blowing hard in our face most of the ride. Corner Canyon funnels the wind and you can really feel it. It was nice to get out anyway. My heart again hit 180 so I have adjusted my max heart rate up to 185.

261 Erich's new ride

2009-03-19T17:17:00.001-07:00

Check out Erich's new sled. It is fairly wild looking. That seat post is plenty long. The bike was a great deal. I picked it up at the end of last year when Cannondale was blowing them out. I knew he would need a new bike and they were shaving 35% off the price. I had to pick it up. Now that it has been set up for him we will start riding on the weekends. Boo will have lacrosse for about another month so he will be a bit out of race shape but should be able to ride back into an acceptable level of fitness. Plus the lacrosse should be good cross training.

My weight loss is slowing. I have been a bit disappointed with the scale lately. I had been losing about a pound a day and now it is down to half a pound. Today I actually gained a pound. I have been very good about the prescribed diet. I have not cheated at all so I am not sure why things have slowed down. 5 lbs in a week is not bad I just had been expecting more. Today, for example, I have had 8 oz of chicken a cup of grilled onions and 2 oranges. This is just not much food and I would think more weight would have come off. I have not been riding as much as I should. Maybe I will do 30 min per day on the trainer on days where I cannot get outside. If something does not change I will not make my goal of 245 by the end of this 40 day period.

264 Tough Weekend.

2009-03-16T05:52:00.000-07:00

Saturday I worked on my basement for most of the day. I finished the landing and probably 50 sq feet of the big room. Lots of cutting. When I had had enough of that I took Erich over to the bike shop and Ryan spent some time fitting him to his new Scalpel. The thing looks weird. Any bike he rides looks weird. The seat post is through the roof and then it has a riser neck as well. His torso is just too short to fit very well. His torso would fit a medium and his legs would best fit on an XL. Anyhow he is now set. Once Lacrosse is over he will start riding more often. Saturday night we went over to the in laws. It was Susan's dad's 75th birthday. We had a big meal of Steak and potato's. I had half a steak which was probably 2 to 3 times as bigger than what I should eat. I did my best not to go over board. No cake or ice cream.

Sunday I had to go to work for a few hours to get caught up. Then I treated myself to some more tile. I laid another 50 sq feet in the big room and called it. Erich and I went and rode Corner canyon that afternoon. I figured since Erich had not been on a bike since September he would have no cycling fitness. I was wrong. He tells me he never used his granny gear and felt really good. I have no idea because I never saw him again after the start of BST going north. I rode BST up to Corner Canyon road and then the top of Ghost falls and rode back down CC and up to the equestrian center where I ran into the Hypio's. They were out doing a road ride. Erich went over Corner Canyon to Clark's and then turned back and went down Ghost Falls. He said it was muddy and technical. I expected him to be covered in mud. He was a bit muddy but not too bad. I guess he had to walk through a few patches of snow.

I am going to have to rethink my maximum heart rate. I hit 184 going up corner canyon. I though my max was around 178. In the past 3 years I have never hit 180 and in the past two weeks I have been over 180 a couple of times. Weird. Lose weight and your heart beats faster? I guess so. That or my Garmin is not reading things right.

The dog in the above picture is my old field trial dog Splash. She is 12. I have a shoe box full of ribbons that she won. Definitely the best dog I have ever owned. The painted toe nails are my Daughters idea of a good jab at me. Painted toe nails on a hunting dog. Just not right. I think Splash is humiliated.

This made me laugh today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ9TTCTyid4

266 I may be losing it.

2009-03-12T09:46:00.000-07:00

I think I must have some form of deep seeded self loathing. I am torturing myself with Food shows on TV. I am sure some shrink would have all sorts of brilliant observations about this. Last night I watched a bizarre show called Man V. Food. The show is about Adam Richman and how he travels across the country eating food challenges that restaurants have for their patrons. Last night Adam almost consumed a 7 pound breakfast burrito. It was amazing and it looked so good. I was sitting there almost yelling "I could eat that. You big pansy quit sweating and eat". I was so hungry I think I could have actually chewed on the TV. Today things are going much better. You have to love dieting. The suffering is Divine.

Tonight Erich's team played Northridge. They won 5 nothing. On Tuesday they played Orem and won 6-2. They may be better than I had thought. They still need to focus on passing and catching. I wish I better understood the game. Maybe one day.

269 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

2009-03-09T19:47:00.000-07:00

On the way to Vegas we stopped and rode the Desert Rampage course. It was good to see Drew and the gang. I have not ridden an xc course in quite a while and I had forgotten how tough some of the climbs can be. I only wanted to ride for about an hour so we thought the course would be perfect. Anyhow riding on 500 calories a day is probably not a great idea. I had no energy at all. Susan wanted to stop a couple of times and I could not have been happier. Anyhow we rode the course in a little more than an hour. I think it would be a course I would enjoy racing some day in the future. I may see where I am at and think about either racing the Clydesdale or the 40+ beginner class for the Cholla. It will all depend on my ability to ride and not eat for a while. When I finished I was on the verge of bonking. Even that night and into the morning I was feeling the effects of the ride.

We made it to the Lacrosse tournament. Boo is on the JV team. He is a bit small for contact sports. He looks ok in the pads but he is over 6 feet tall and only weighs 130 lbs. Their team lost all the games but played better in each game. All the kids on his team came from different teams and different schools so it is not a surprise. They will win games this year. The tournament was really just to get them to work together. The one thing that they did not have any problems with was hitting. They clobbered the other teams. Too bad they have not figured out how to score points.

It is just wrong to go to Vegas and not eat. There are plenty of good resteraunts and I packed all my food. Sure made for a cheap trip. The only money I spent was at Trader Joe's. I picked up 12 bottles of wine. I am more of a beer guy but a nice bottle of Red is always nice. Hopefully after I have lost the weight I can enjoy a bottle with Susan. Then again this is probably why I am fat.

274 Photo from last summer.

2009-03-04T09:03:00.001-08:00

Here is a photo from last summer. I think it is the only time during the 100 miles we rode that day where Boo actually pulled. What are the odds of someone clicking this photo? By the way I do not think I am getting much draft off him. Now when he was sitting back that had to be good. Think of the advantage of drafting off someone who is 6 3 and 300 lbs. Of course the down side is I can only go about 20 mph. Oh well.

I think this is around 75 miles when I finally gave up and had to noodle in to the finish. He jumped on the back of a train going about 25 mph and finished 30 minutes before me. By the way the kid eats about twice as much as I do.

276 lbs. Corner Canyon is mostly dry.

2009-03-02T07:43:00.000-08:00

I went for a short ride up corner canyon to almost to the bottom of Clark's trail. It is still closed. The rest of Corner canyon is fairly dry. A few spots were slightly muddy but nothing really. Riding a single speed is intense. I had to stand up and hammer and thought I was going to die. You can probably see from the graph that I had to stop a few times to catch my breath.

The diet is going well. I had 4 oz of Cod last night with some steamed broccoli and an orange. Oh and I almost forgot I had a piece of melba toast for a treat. The weight is coming off so I really cannot complain. I am headed down to Vegas on Friday morning for Erich's Lacrosse tournament. Packing food for a trip to Vegas seems wrong. I really want to eat at Emeril Lagasse's restaurant Delmonico or his New Orleans Fish House. This cannot happen. My calories for a week would be shot in one dinner. I am addicted to the food network and there is something about his style of cooking. Can your momma make a rue?

Can I admit this? I may have to turn in my man card. Quick change the channel to the DIY network.

Does this jersey make me look fat?

283 and holding

2009-02-26T17:47:00.001-08:00

The diet starts in earnest tomorrow. The first three days are a gorge. Eat everything you want. Tonight I am going to hit Crown Burger. It will be the last decent meal I will eat for 40 days. I am not sure why they want me to pig out for 3 days but it worked last time. Tomorrow's diet. Four ounces of chicken an apple and some green beans for lunch. Dinner will be similar. Four ounces of fish, broccoli and an Orange. The first two days were really tough last time. I know what to expect so toughing it out should not be too bad.

The dietitian tells me to be very careful with riding. I fear that bonking will be all too easy if I ride more than an hour so the rides will be short. I will post some photos of the basement after this weekend. The tile is getting much closer. Only about 200 sq feet left. 200 of 900 is not too bad when I put it in context.

283 Started the Diet again today.

2009-02-24T08:31:00.001-08:00

I dread the diet. 500 calories per day is just not enough. Then again I need to get down to 240. I will keep you posted.

I am trying to decide if I am going to do the pre ride for the race on Friday. Ty from Revoluion is leading the pre ride. Erich has a Lacrosse tournament so maybe I will do the ride on the way to the tournament.

Good Luck to the team and break a leg Boo.

286

2009-02-21T20:49:00.000-08:00

I went for a ride today. Took out the single speed. I am not sure if a 40 something fat guy should be riding a SS but hey it is simple. I think I am faster going up hill on the SS. It makes you stand up and grind it out rather than noodling up the hill in your granny gear. I will have to test this somewhere or post a comparison from Motion Based. As you can see my heart rate hit the 160's a couple of times. I figure my max heart rate is around 178. I could have gone harder but the hills were short. Thank God.

I have decided to list my weight on the blog. Little shaming is good for you? I got the idea from http://www.fatcyclist.com/ . I guess he lives somewhere near me. Fatty is not really much of a fatty any more. The guy is probably more than 100 lbs lighter than me. Right now I want to give the excuse that I am taller but lets be real. 6 feet 3 inches is not all that tall and realistically I will still be fat after losing 40 more lbs. I need to get down to around 210. This seems to be a moving target. I had thought 220 would be good but the more I think about it even 220 is too heavy.

I am starting my diet again on Tuesday. I hope to drop 40 lbs in the next two months. I started at 310 back on Dec 5th. So I am down 24 since I started. Too bad I pigged out and gained back 13 lbs in the last 40 days. I have to stop the yo yo. I only wish I still weighed 273. I will be there again soon.

Finishing the basement

2009-01-25T19:33:00.000-08:00

I have been working on my basement since about July last year. I have paid to have some of it done and done some of it myself. Sometimes I am too handy

for my own good. My wife knows that I have the ability to lay tile so I have been tiling for about 2 months. Basically just on weekends. Somehow I was talked into laying about 900 square feet of tile. The first couple of weeks were miserable. The bathroom was really

difficult. I had to make a million cuts. Then I worked my way out into the hallway. Again a million cuts. Finally I am in the big room. I still have quite a few cuts but I lay 10 pieces to each cut so it is going much faster. Hopefully I will be done in a couple of weeks.

The diet is still in the maintenance mode for about 3 more weeks. Then I will hit it hard again. The exercise room is up and running but I have been too busy to use it. Monday will be 30 min on the trainer then Tuesday 45, Wednesday 1 hour, Thursday rest and then start over.

277 And holding

2009-01-22T16:35:00.000-08:00

Fighting the weight is no fun. I am holding at 277. Right now I am just trying to maintain the weight loss. Three weeks from now I will hit the diet hard again. I plan to get down to 245 by the beginning of April. I set up the bikes in the basement. Ready for some indoor training. Outdoor is not even possible. The inversion is like mud soup. Today I swear you could taste it. Here is a photo of my Dog Mookie mugging me on the chair. I have no idea why I am holding a lacrosse stick. Another photo of the new exercise room.

2009-01-16T11:51:00.000-08:00

A photo where I am trying to hide behind a seriously skinny girl. Ryan and the crew are on the side of the trail. I am hiding behind Alana (I think that is her name) Sort of like a bear hiding behind a sapling. Anyhow I am at least 40 lbs smaller. Now can I keep it off and take off another 30? This could get interesting.

Still no photos.

2009-01-12T12:50:00.000-08:00

I am down from 310 to 273 today. I keep thinking I need to take photos but I cannot bring myself to take the pictures. Anyway I am going to go on a maintenance diet for 5 weeks then go back on the diet. During the maintenance period I will ride the stationary bike and try to drop a few more pounds. This is tough but I am happy losing 37 lbs.

Scale scale where is my scale.

2008-12-19T14:26:00.000-08:00

I decided to diet again. Shortly after the last post I dropped the diet and gained everything back. Two weeks ago I started again. I am at 290 and down 15 pounds. Some how 220 does not seem that far away. The charts say I should weigh 190. Cannot figure that one out. Anyway I am doing fairly well but still having some difficulty. Maybe I should post a photo or two. I will see what I can find. I may go go crazy but I am determined this go around. I said that the last time too.

Riding to work

2008-06-18T07:03:00.000-07:00

I started riding to work this week. About 18 miles each way. Man I suffer on the hills. The ride takes me about 1 hour and 20 minutes. The ride home yesterday was hot. 96 degrees is miserable on a fat guy. I ran out of water just past the point of the mountain. My legs pretty much quit and I had to do the walk of shame going up a short steep hill to get back to the bike path in Draper. Man it is embarising enough just wearing spandex at 295 lbs let alone being the fat guy pushing his bike up the sidewalk. That will not happen again. I think I need to make sure I eat something about an hour before I go home and also drink a water bottle at the same time.

I saw Kung Fu Panda last night. My wife said the the Panda reminds her of me. How's that for a complement?

Fred Flintstone is just big boned

2008-06-09T07:30:00.001-07:00

I have to say I really hate dieting. Man I would kill for a bronto burguer. Work has been particulary difficult. I hang with a bunch of prople who can either eat anything they want or do not care and just eat everything anyway. They are all giving me a load of crap about my eating habits. I probably deserve some of the abuse. I have gone to the fast food diet during the week. Some nutritionist will love this but I eat an Egg McMuffin and a large coffee for breakfast. I have a grilled chicken sandwich for lunch. Dinner is usually soup and a sandwich. Dinner is my big meal around 600 calories sometimes a bit more. Anyhow Egg McMuffin 300 calories, Grilled Chicken 360, Soup 200 calories and sandwich I am guessing is about 400 calories. So I am around 1200 calories for the day. Weekends I am trying to keep the calories under 1500 but there is no specific foods just what ever I can find that seems fairly low calorie.

Cycling has been difficult. Riding and not eating are a great recipee for losing weight and also a great recipee for feeling like dirt. I can ride 30 miles and not feel too bad when I am eating. But now that I am not eating 30 miles feels like 29 miles of hell.

This morning I am at 295 lbs so I only have 75 lbs to go.

By the way that is not me in the Fred costume. I feel like and I wish I were as svelt as that dude but it is not me.

Shrek on a diet

2008-05-30T12:22:00.001-07:00

Spent the past couple of days getting ready to move my office to American Fork. I view it as missionary work. I need to convert some of those zoob freaks to the dark side. Football is only three months away and I am already jonseing for a game day fix.

The diet is going fairly well. I have been able to keep from alinating myself too badly and only had one day over 1500 calories. I weighed in at 301 this morning. Only 81 to go. That is depressing. Another day another pound. What more can you ask.

Boo moved up a class this week in the ICUP. I usually do not push much but I told him he needs to move up and race sport/expert 13-15. He rode pretty well but still finished 7th out of 7. Looking at lap times if he had raced beginner he would have been in 3rd place. Not so good for the team but better for him in the long run.

Check out those biceps.