Stimulating

Well, it looks like I am going to be stimulated by Uncle Sam. In a good way.
We got a project at work that is being funded by some of that infrastructure money that was thrown out there. Good news!

Bueller? Bueller?

Well, what do you know, someone is selling their house.

Isn't there some kind of saying about people in glass houses throwing rocks or something?

Hump Day

Well, with another Wednesday on tap, I guess I had to go out and do me some mountain bike racin. It sure was fun.
I was able to secure 7th place. Again. I got that lucky spot on lock down.
I think there were about 37 dudes this time. I even enjoyed a brief 2 laps in first place, and then I did my classic little fade. Oh well, you can't win a race if your never at the front.

The ONE mud puddle on course was right before the start/finish area. I made it through it clean the ENTIRE race, until the last lap, when someone else must have botched the line and filled the clean line with water. Good times.

Lets see, it was also Memorial Day weekend. I had a wedding that was "Black Tie Optional". Apparently I grew up in a bubble, cause I didn't know what that meant. What it did mean however, was a mad dash to buy a suit the week of the wedding. Just so you kiddies know, BTO means suit or tux, not nice business, there is NO 'optional' about it.

Let's see, what else... When life hands you lemons, make some lemonade. Or in my case on Sunday morning, if life hands you some eggs, fresh tomatoes, spinach, artichoke hearts, capers, and feta and Monterey jack cheese...

...you BEST be making a delicious omelet!Yeah, I made that thing. And then I ate it.

Here is how pretty Boulder is in the spring when everything is green.

Here is how pretty Boulder is in the spring when everything is green
and I pretend I am pregnant in front of it:

Well, on that note, I think it is in everyone's best interest if I end the post now.


Oh wait, not over yet... They posted photos from the 12 Hours of Mesa Verde. Some how I evaded the camera guy in the ~7 hours I was out on course.

• Here is fun little sequence of me, and my great starting prowess.Just look on the left of the photo, you'll see me. One Two Three Four Five (Oh, I'm not in 4 and 5, but that is the mayhem that I am running from.)
• And HERE is me at the end of the first lap, going through the sweet tunnel. I look like a super hero with the super hero outfit, the beard, and the cape. (the cape is actually my vest, just in case your concerned. The beard and super hero outfit were 100% real however.)
  

The Pain Cave

Time for the Boulder Short Track Races to start up, Wednesday Night Worlds is among us. We'll see if I can't make myself throw up tonight! 25 minutes of pain, here I come. :-)


And to add to the mix, it's the roommate's birfday, so I am sure some drinking will occur post race. Her yoga teacher, who, for all intents and purposes we refer to as dreamboat, asked her if she could feel Saturn coming into her moon. That seems like reason to celebrate in and of itself.

EDITOR'S NOTE 5-21-09: TOOK 7TH LAST NIGHT OUT OF ~30. NOT TO BAD, BEING THAT I HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING HIGH INTENSITY THIS YEAR. LOST A SPRINT FOR 6TH, BUT THAT WAS PROBABLY A TACTICAL ERROR ON MY PART, WE PLAYED CAT AND MOUSE THE LAST TWO LAPS AND I SHOULD HAVE JUST RODE HARD.

FUNNY PART OF THE RACE WAS ME LOOKING DOWN AT MY GPS TO SEE HOW MUCH LONGER WE HAD TO RACE, AND SEEING THAT WE HAD ONLY BEEN RACING FOR 2 MINUTES AND 12 SECONDS. THE RACE LASTS 20-25 MINUTES. YEAH, THAT HURT.

Really?!!!

So, who remembers the Contra extra dude code on Nintendo? If you think you can master it, try it now for extra lives on my blog.

If you enter it right, the more buttons you press, the more 'lives' you get!

P.S. Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Enter.

P.S.S. You need to reload the page to get rid of your 'lives'. This is totally safe for work.

EDITOR'S LATE NOTE: APPARENTLY PEEPS DON'T LIKE RAINBOWS, UNICORNS AND SPARKLES AS NO ONE HAS COMMENTED ON THOSE YET. DO THE CODE, HIT A BUNCH OF EXTRA UPS OR DOWNS OR WHATEVER, HIT THE "CORNIFY" BUTTON AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE AND LAUGH AT HOW CHARMING MY PAGE GETS.

This is how the pros run it!

Gross.

Wyatt F@#$ing Earp

So, I harvested the beard that I had been cultivating since the beginning of January. And I ended up with this:

I think it is because of stuff like this that I got this blog review: "I’m a huge sucker for honest self-deprecation and you’ve got that in spades."

Well, with nothing else to do with the rest of my Friday, I decided to put on the super hero outfit and ride my bike. The legs are still feeling super heavy from last weekends race, so I decided to just take the camera, take some photos, and have fun (as if I don't have fun on all my rides). Plus, I had never rode with a mustache before.

I love old dead trees.
This one is on the Wild Turkey Trail.

MMM.... Tasty.
Stop and smell the flowers.
The following shots are from The Picture Rock Trail, the newest trail near Boulder.
This is the result of a cooperation of the County and many many Mountain Bikers.

It is Bad Ass.
Some self-portraits.
This was just a test shot, but turns out, it is one of my favorites.

How you doin?
Action shot.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, a video.
(If you don't want to hear my breathing and commentary, you should open this link in a new window, push play, wait till about the 45 second spot in the song, and then come back here and watch my video on mute)

Well... It's Saturday, I am going to go ride my bike again.
"Peace Out!"

Suckass

RANT WARNING

So, I am sitting at the airport, in what I would like to say as my least favorite city, Las Vegas. Southwest canceled my flight home. They called to tell me 1 hour and 20 minutes before the earlier flight left, which I totally could have made, if I would have known, but whenever I DO try to catch the earlier flight, they try to charge me the difference in fare to the full price. They bumped me to a flight that is 3 hours later.

So I ask the lady if they can put me on the Frontier flight that leaves 15 minutes after mine was supposed too. Her response "We can't, they don't take our money."

That's weird, cause I paid in US Dollars, and I know for a fact that Frontier also takes the US Dollar as payment.

So then I said that I only thought it was fair if I received a Southwest credit for the difference in fare, since that is what I would have been charged. That I would have been charged at that exact station. She told me that they can't do credits locally, only at corporate. And then she gave me a mailing address to send them a letter with a request for a credit. WHO IN THE HELL SENDS LETTERS THESES DAYS??!!! Didn't they hear that the cost of the stamp just went up 2 cents? So Southwest, you want my 2 cents? Do you really? Well, check your mail, cause it is on the way.

Oh, I also asked for some meal vouchers, since I was going to be here for an extra 3 hours. No Dice.

Did I mention that last time I was here (a month ago) my plane was delayed an hour and a half for 3 broken seats. The plane was only half full. Oh well, you live and you learn.

My Pee is Flourescent Yellow

So, did the ol' 12 Hours of Mesa Verde. Good times were had. The event blew up!!! Last year was the 2nd annual with around 200 folks. This year, the event was sold out with 420 riders. The reason is the race rocks. Hard. 16.4 miles of the most funnest singletrack around.

I only got a couple photos for now, will post more when available.

Getting the bike prepped:

Getting the body prepped:

And we're off.

The fun (for the spectators) thing about these races is that it starts with a run, in this case it was around the Goat and Sheep Barn. I am graced with long legs, so I am kind of good at the run part, I think I was in the top 5 at this point in to the race (roughly 2 minutes in). Ha.

A brief report of the race was 4 laps, 66.66 miles, in about 6.5-7 hours. Not bad. I got dehydrated, despite drinking a metric shit ton of water/energy drink*. So rather than hurt myself, I called it a race at around 2pm. That was my first time in heat this year, and my body didn't know what was going on. The guy's thermometer at the tent next to me said 90 degrees, but yeah.

I'll write more later.

*I drank a water bottle and camelback of water on my last lap and was still way thirsty! and the laps were around 1.5 hours.

Doing It Anasazi Style

So, I am headed down for my second dose of the 12 Hours of Mesa Verde tomorrow.
Last years post is here. I am doing it solo this year. Yay! So... starting at 7 am Saturday, until I am to tired to ride anymore, I will be riding this magnificent 16.4 mile loop: I think I have all my ducks in a row. I am not nearly up to 12 hour fitness right now, so yeah, just going to do what I can. I am gunning for 5 laps or so, and maybe 8 hours. Should be fun non-the-less.

This race will be followed up with a stay in Silverton, and a Brown Bear Cafe Breakfast Burrito Sunday morning. Epic!

It's nearly the weekend folks, get out there and get rad.

Half Full or Half Empty

Before you start here, I also finished the Desert Snow: Version2pointOh post below. Finally.

So, they always say, when you have enough time to do everything you want, you never have the money to do it. So, with that in mind, I made my last work trip to St George into a long road trip.

Usually I am in such a hurry to get to St. G. and back, that I can't ever stop and smell the roses. This time, I made it work out so that my planned trip to Logan could stretch into a road trip down south, hit the meeting on Tuesday, and have both bikes with me to see what kinda trouble I could get into on two wheels.

Oh, and here is the cool thing, I haven't figured it out exactly yet, but I was able to pay for the gas and everything based on what my work would have spent on flying me down there and getting me a rental car. Muy beuno.

So, first up was Logan. It rained and snowed there most of the time. But I was able to squeeze in one of the old classic road ride loops, just a 40 miler out around all the farm land. I kinda take the road riding here in Boulder for granted. I'll leave it at that.

From Logan, I made a brief stop in SLC to have dinner with the mom. She had just finished running a trail marathon (26.2 miles) on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. In the Rain. A week after she ran a 25 miler in Fruita(1 2). Which, in turn, was 3 weeks after running a 50K (~32 miler) on Antelope Island. SHE IS AN ANIMAL!!! Just to get you up to speed, running a marathon distance on a trail is MUCH harder than on the road. You know, cause it is dirt and there are hills.

Here are some photos of the Antelope Island race at the end of March. (I never did a write-up on that trip.)

The Mom and I prior to the race.
I was eating a bagel.
My mom at the start.
And me running the last little bit with her.

Ok, now back to the current post. After Logan and SLC, I drove on down to St. George, just in time to spin out a quick mountain bike ride. I didn't have any clue where there were trails, besides the area where I did a race back in the day, so, I phoned a friend (my younger sis) and she helped guide me to the area. I was able to hook up a few fun single track trails in the hour or so I had before dark. I also was able to catch an awesome sunset. I didn't have the camera on the ride, so you only get the shots from the car.

Then it was the meeting Tuesday morning, and then a little drive out to Hurricane, grab a map at the bike shop, Over the Edge Sports, and then hit up Gooseberry Mesa. This is on the must do list (0r it should be) for every mountain biker. It is pretty technical, has slickrock, singletrack, and the views are alright. I thought I was going to be riding out here by myself, since it was Tuesday, and I don't know if it is cause of the economy or what, but it was surprisingly busy. (Ok, I saw maybe 5 people on the trail, but there were a lot of people camping out there.
Here are the shots from the ride:

Mmm... Gummy Bear break!
Black Beauty resting in the shade.
The Fun.

The road out to the mesa was almost blocked by a tumbleweed drift.Total ride time was 4 hours and 55 minutes... and only 26 miles. The guy at the bike shop was right, don't think about mileage out there. It is a lot of work on the technical trails to get a lot of mileage.

From there, I made the voyage due east on I-70, trying to make it to Fruita. I made it to the Goblin Valley turn off, just shy of Green River before I had to pull over and sleep for the night. I found a nice little spot, about 5 minutes from the interstate, and slept in the back of the Xterra.

I drove the rest of the way to Fruita Wednesday morning, ready to get on the bike again. After agonizing over what fun trail to ride, I instead decided on a parking lot, and would just ride and decide on the fly. I ended up at the Loma Exit Trailhead, and went from there. This was my first time in this area, and I pretty much had a shit-eatin grin on the ol' bearded face the whole time. This is what dreams are made of... well, at least mine.

Looking down on Horsethief Bench Trail:
I am pretty sure this trail is Handcuffs.

I think it was Les Stroud (Survivorman) who said something along the lines of: Look back often, to see where you came from. I did a quick search for the exact quote, but can't find it. Although I can't remember it, I really like it. I think it is applicable with most things in life. Well, anyways, this is looking back at the trail I just rode on:Me, almost done with my ride, with sweet helmet hair, almost out of water, and NOT AT WORK!

Here is a half-assed pano of the trails, with the mighty Colorado. You may have to look close but the trails are there.

Trails were (in order riden) Rustlers Loop, Mary's, Horsethief Bench, Mary's, Steve's, Handcuffs, Lion's Loop, Troy Built, Lions, Mack Ridge, and home on Mary's. Total tally for Wednesday was 5 hours and 1 minute, and 34.5 miles. It was exactly 45 minutes longer than my water supply lasted. And I finished a little bonky, but that pizza sure tasted good.

Well, there you have it. I have not proofread any of it yet, so take it easy on me.

Quote of the day.

"...I would like to see more people riding bicycles. 40% of U.S. urban travel is two miles or less, and 90% of those trips are made by car. It’s summer time, and for the price of 15 tanks of gas, you can buy one nice bike that runs on burritos."
-Stevil Kinevil of How to Avoid the Bummer Life

I couldn't have said it any better!
All my bikes run AWESOME on burritos!
Oh... and gummy bears. Proof:

This is from my latest little trip.
Hang with me, I have a few long-awaited write-ups in the works for the weekend.