Me and the kids hit the bike park the last few days.
Made a video letting the wife choose the music, and daughters help with color transitions.
It was a lot of fun. The best part was the second day, SuperDan met us out there and he gave me some tips on dropping in on the steep, vertical walls that lead into the pools and elsewhere. The process is sort of terrifying.
First: Ride slowly up to the edge on an angle (the drop is too steep to go straight at it. (Unless you kick the rear end of the bike up, it will hang up on the cranks badly.)
Second: Shut off brain's self preservation mode and commit!
Next: do a tiny jump, point the front down and roll in and through.
It looks sooo easy in the vid, but I had to step up my game in a major way to get the courage to try this. Eventually I was able to do it on 20", 26" and 29" wheeled bikes. It didn't seem to make much difference. I think the 20" wheels get more handy as you start to catch bigger air, which I have no real desire to do.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Puffy Jacket
Not much of a post, but my bro in law just bought me my first "puffy jacket" for Christmas. Mountain Hardware Compressor.
I have not been following jacket tech, etc, and it rarely gets below 20 degrees here, so this was an eye opener. The thing is extremely warm, but what blows me away is how stinking light it is.
Wowzers, things have come along. This with a decent shell would keep me comfortable in very cold temps.
I have not been following jacket tech, etc, and it rarely gets below 20 degrees here, so this was an eye opener. The thing is extremely warm, but what blows me away is how stinking light it is.
Wowzers, things have come along. This with a decent shell would keep me comfortable in very cold temps.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Gnar Follow up
Here are a few vids I just uploaded along with some thoughts on my failure to complete this ride.
These first two are a good summary of Tom's Thumb. Honestly, I was having a great time despite the hike a bike. I was riding and walking well within my fitness, had nothing planned for the rest of the day and did not have to be home in 15 minutes to watch kids, so I was making the most of it.
Jason is featured here. He was hugely helpful in pre route planning for this ride, and a heck of a nice guy to bring up the rear with:)
This final video is just jabbering away into the camera while coasting, no hands down Via Linda St. Such an easy way to quit. I doubt I could ever have been a Navy Seal since they make it quite easy to quit the program as well.
The interesting thing is the why behind the DNF. I honestly felt okay, just done in the legs. I could have gone on, but it absolutely meant a lot of pushing on those last climbs. I think, in all honesty, I knew it would not be "fun," and that knowledge led me to bail out, get home a couple hours early, make the wife and kids happy, and enjoy a leisurely lunch and drive home with Chris.
I don't know if this is a healthy attitude, or a quitter attitude. In my particular case, I have a near pathologic need to see things through until they are done. This particular trait has come in very handy for many long term goals in my life and continues to serve me well. I almost never don't complete something I have set my mind on out of my nature. I don't like hanging threads. A good attribute gone wild.
Sooo, in this particular case, I think quitting while ahead is a sign of improving mental health and not the opposite. Completing a big ride like this is, in the big scheme, of little consequence. I am not belittling in any way those who completed it, but all we get out of it is personal satisfaction. It is okay to "fail" or be a little flexible on exactly what the goal of the ride is. I wanted to complete it, but really, I wanted more to just have fun, and, as Curious George says: "all the fun was gone" at the end of Sunrise. So in some ways, I am glad I finally took the B- grade on the test and went away happy. I hope it shows some maturity.
I think I would learn. I sort of want to be this endurance freak. I have always greatly admired endurance athletes. But honestly, my first love by far is riding technical terrain. I ride to keep fit and have fun, and it was great fun to get some miles, steep vert, and hike a bike into the legs after several months of just riding rolling rocks. Hell, I have sprinter genetics anyway.
What am I trying to prove by going further? I think you just can't take the "A" out of "Type A." It is like the progression of addictive types in triathlon. Start small and eventually an Ironman...why?
I rambled these thoughts to a well known endurance freak and very much liked his thoughts in return:
"The enjoyment in any of these long rides is not in the ride itself, rather in the fulfillment of a long-term plan of training, planning, sacrifice, and execution. Kinda the opposite of instant gratification, thus far more rewarding. But fun? Nope."
Exactly.
PS:
Here is a great video summary of the day.
These first two are a good summary of Tom's Thumb. Honestly, I was having a great time despite the hike a bike. I was riding and walking well within my fitness, had nothing planned for the rest of the day and did not have to be home in 15 minutes to watch kids, so I was making the most of it.
Jason is featured here. He was hugely helpful in pre route planning for this ride, and a heck of a nice guy to bring up the rear with:)
This final video is just jabbering away into the camera while coasting, no hands down Via Linda St. Such an easy way to quit. I doubt I could ever have been a Navy Seal since they make it quite easy to quit the program as well.
The interesting thing is the why behind the DNF. I honestly felt okay, just done in the legs. I could have gone on, but it absolutely meant a lot of pushing on those last climbs. I think, in all honesty, I knew it would not be "fun," and that knowledge led me to bail out, get home a couple hours early, make the wife and kids happy, and enjoy a leisurely lunch and drive home with Chris.
I don't know if this is a healthy attitude, or a quitter attitude. In my particular case, I have a near pathologic need to see things through until they are done. This particular trait has come in very handy for many long term goals in my life and continues to serve me well. I almost never don't complete something I have set my mind on out of my nature. I don't like hanging threads. A good attribute gone wild.
Sooo, in this particular case, I think quitting while ahead is a sign of improving mental health and not the opposite. Completing a big ride like this is, in the big scheme, of little consequence. I am not belittling in any way those who completed it, but all we get out of it is personal satisfaction. It is okay to "fail" or be a little flexible on exactly what the goal of the ride is. I wanted to complete it, but really, I wanted more to just have fun, and, as Curious George says: "all the fun was gone" at the end of Sunrise. So in some ways, I am glad I finally took the B- grade on the test and went away happy. I hope it shows some maturity.
I think I would learn. I sort of want to be this endurance freak. I have always greatly admired endurance athletes. But honestly, my first love by far is riding technical terrain. I ride to keep fit and have fun, and it was great fun to get some miles, steep vert, and hike a bike into the legs after several months of just riding rolling rocks. Hell, I have sprinter genetics anyway.
What am I trying to prove by going further? I think you just can't take the "A" out of "Type A." It is like the progression of addictive types in triathlon. Start small and eventually an Ironman...why?
I rambled these thoughts to a well known endurance freak and very much liked his thoughts in return:
"The enjoyment in any of these long rides is not in the ride itself, rather in the fulfillment of a long-term plan of training, planning, sacrifice, and execution. Kinda the opposite of instant gratification, thus far more rewarding. But fun? Nope."
Exactly.
PS:
Here is a great video summary of the day.
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