ChrisG
Unapologetic Lifer for Rock and Roll
Don't forget the Niners and the Haro Marys.
James Pearl Thinks Blogging is Dead
- Thread starter Norm
- Start date
More data is boring.
I've been keeping it up, though there have been a few strained moments. I'll explain in a bit. I think the last training check-in, I had the 10 day block before the ski/work trip combo. We ended up doing 3 days/2 nights in Rochester, VT, where we hit Killington & Sugarbush. The first day was about the most ice I have ever seen. The second day was better until around 2:00 then it was icy there as well. Vermont needs snow. Then I went to MA for 3 days/2 nights and had a very productive work trip. So all-in-all, I was away for the most of 6 days, spending 4 of the 5 nights away. I came back from that with the scale saying 190.1 this morning, down 1.1 pounds from before I left. I prefer this method of weight loss to Utah's current approach.
That last block ended up being 11 days, not 10. We weren't able to leave early to ski on the Friday so I rode in the morning. The stats are as such:
11 days
8 work
3 easy
2 lift
2 long rides
4 races, 1 of which was shitty
2 Alpe days
0 MTB rides
Pretty much hit it all there, though 1 of those races was a dud. I'm finding that if I have a free day and don't know what to do, I often opt for a race. As you can imagine, doing 4 of those in 11 days is too much, as evidenced by the lousy race on day 5 of that stretch. Everything else was pretty good. I also did a race yesterday after driving back from MA, and it was mediocre at best.
I originally planned to work up to 4 hours, but I may be refocusing that to stick at 3 for now, and to raise the effort on that until I get to that 700 calories/hour burn rate. My last 3 hour ride was 195w and 2015 calories. I may just create a Zwift workout of 3 hours and set it at 200, and increase it 5w every week.
The Alpe rides have also been very solid. Set a new PR on that during the block.
I'm currently in another 9 day block, maybe 10. We're off to Vermont again after that, hoping the snow comes as forecast. Between now & then they're calling for 22-29" of snow from Stratton to Sugarbush, with Stratton sitting at 29" predicted. When we were at Killington, only 67 trails were open. As of today, 83 trails are open. They're predicting 10" at Killington overnight tonight. Hoping things turn around up there in the next week+.
I had a lobster roll yesterday.
I've been keeping it up, though there have been a few strained moments. I'll explain in a bit. I think the last training check-in, I had the 10 day block before the ski/work trip combo. We ended up doing 3 days/2 nights in Rochester, VT, where we hit Killington & Sugarbush. The first day was about the most ice I have ever seen. The second day was better until around 2:00 then it was icy there as well. Vermont needs snow. Then I went to MA for 3 days/2 nights and had a very productive work trip. So all-in-all, I was away for the most of 6 days, spending 4 of the 5 nights away. I came back from that with the scale saying 190.1 this morning, down 1.1 pounds from before I left. I prefer this method of weight loss to Utah's current approach.
That last block ended up being 11 days, not 10. We weren't able to leave early to ski on the Friday so I rode in the morning. The stats are as such:
11 days
8 work
3 easy
2 lift
2 long rides
4 races, 1 of which was shitty
2 Alpe days
0 MTB rides
Pretty much hit it all there, though 1 of those races was a dud. I'm finding that if I have a free day and don't know what to do, I often opt for a race. As you can imagine, doing 4 of those in 11 days is too much, as evidenced by the lousy race on day 5 of that stretch. Everything else was pretty good. I also did a race yesterday after driving back from MA, and it was mediocre at best.
I originally planned to work up to 4 hours, but I may be refocusing that to stick at 3 for now, and to raise the effort on that until I get to that 700 calories/hour burn rate. My last 3 hour ride was 195w and 2015 calories. I may just create a Zwift workout of 3 hours and set it at 200, and increase it 5w every week.
The Alpe rides have also been very solid. Set a new PR on that during the block.
I'm currently in another 9 day block, maybe 10. We're off to Vermont again after that, hoping the snow comes as forecast. Between now & then they're calling for 22-29" of snow from Stratton to Sugarbush, with Stratton sitting at 29" predicted. When we were at Killington, only 67 trails were open. As of today, 83 trails are open. They're predicting 10" at Killington overnight tonight. Hoping things turn around up there in the next week+.
I had a lobster roll yesterday.
That's saying a lot since you're from the Midwest.
I'm from dirty Jersey but the ancestors? Yeah, Hatfields and McCoys shit.
Coming back from a ski trip in Utah and going to work Monday is not the easiest thing in the world.
That's where we are today. In 2 days, this Wednesday, we get on a plane and fly to Aruba. This is not my doing. Every year our company sends everyone to some destination - usually Aruba or the Bahamas - and this year it lands on this coming weekend. We'll be there Wednesday through Saturday. While it was not my doing, and I generally am not a beach person, I am more than happy to let someone else send me there right now. It'll be a relaxing 4 days coming off the heels of a very tiring 6 days of skiing, and an 8 day trip.
I cannot say enough how amazing it was out there. I am sure we'll be back. Maybe not next year. Or maybe next year. Who knows - time will tell.
Today I find myself in the throes of wanting to ski more, or go biking. I rode the trainer today and it was a total drag. I was pretty motivated through most of the winter but that has run out. I was done with my meetings today at 2:00 and had this thought that I would ride for 3 hours today. In theory, I am still going to do that Rattling Creek race on April 2nd. So I should ride a bunch. Yeah, so anyway, 1:20 later and I was done with that idea. Before I even got on, I said 2:00 instead of 3:00. After an hour, I said 20 more minutes was plenty. My legs are still tired from the trip. But my brain is also tired from the winter. I am ready to be outside.
This coming weekend is DST, which will give us all a chance to ride after work again. And every week it'll be another 10 minutes of daylight which is good. I'm ready for it. I should be thinking more about this race in April. But I'm not really. It'll either work out, or it won't. After Aruba I'll think a little bit more about how to go about it. I think I'll be fine with the 3-4 hours it should take. It will just be a matter of making sure my nutrition is good (enough). I'm considering going with just a hip pack for this. But I need to see how the aid stations are laid out. TBD there.
Someone asked me which bike I will ride and it is clearly the Orbea, entirely because I have not done any yearly maintenance on the Pivot and it's in need of suspension maintenance across the board. I need to send in the dropper and fork, at the very least. I think I did the shock more recently but I'll need to look it up. I did finally ride the Orbea a few weeks ago and the fork was like butter, as opposed to the Pivot which is maybe more like cottage cheese at this point.
In any event, I'm ready for spring. It has not been a harsh winter here which, quite frankly, makes it suck a bit more. I would prefer there be some snow than these crappy winters we get here these days. Regardless, I'm all-in for the warm weather and the longer days.
Also, I hit my first A goal of the year while in Utah with our 12th day of skiing this season. In all, we have gone 15 times in 3 states (UT-6, VT-5, QC-4) at 10 different resorts. It's been a great year and as much as I would love to ski some more (one of my C or D goals was to hit 16, which we did last year) I don't see it as likely that we go again. It's really hard to follow that Utah trip with anything around here.
This trip sort of marks the start of 2023 for me. Up until now, I was biding my time through the winter. Now it's time to open things up.
That's where we are today. In 2 days, this Wednesday, we get on a plane and fly to Aruba. This is not my doing. Every year our company sends everyone to some destination - usually Aruba or the Bahamas - and this year it lands on this coming weekend. We'll be there Wednesday through Saturday. While it was not my doing, and I generally am not a beach person, I am more than happy to let someone else send me there right now. It'll be a relaxing 4 days coming off the heels of a very tiring 6 days of skiing, and an 8 day trip.
I cannot say enough how amazing it was out there. I am sure we'll be back. Maybe not next year. Or maybe next year. Who knows - time will tell.
Today I find myself in the throes of wanting to ski more, or go biking. I rode the trainer today and it was a total drag. I was pretty motivated through most of the winter but that has run out. I was done with my meetings today at 2:00 and had this thought that I would ride for 3 hours today. In theory, I am still going to do that Rattling Creek race on April 2nd. So I should ride a bunch. Yeah, so anyway, 1:20 later and I was done with that idea. Before I even got on, I said 2:00 instead of 3:00. After an hour, I said 20 more minutes was plenty. My legs are still tired from the trip. But my brain is also tired from the winter. I am ready to be outside.
This coming weekend is DST, which will give us all a chance to ride after work again. And every week it'll be another 10 minutes of daylight which is good. I'm ready for it. I should be thinking more about this race in April. But I'm not really. It'll either work out, or it won't. After Aruba I'll think a little bit more about how to go about it. I think I'll be fine with the 3-4 hours it should take. It will just be a matter of making sure my nutrition is good (enough). I'm considering going with just a hip pack for this. But I need to see how the aid stations are laid out. TBD there.
Someone asked me which bike I will ride and it is clearly the Orbea, entirely because I have not done any yearly maintenance on the Pivot and it's in need of suspension maintenance across the board. I need to send in the dropper and fork, at the very least. I think I did the shock more recently but I'll need to look it up. I did finally ride the Orbea a few weeks ago and the fork was like butter, as opposed to the Pivot which is maybe more like cottage cheese at this point.
In any event, I'm ready for spring. It has not been a harsh winter here which, quite frankly, makes it suck a bit more. I would prefer there be some snow than these crappy winters we get here these days. Regardless, I'm all-in for the warm weather and the longer days.
Also, I hit my first A goal of the year while in Utah with our 12th day of skiing this season. In all, we have gone 15 times in 3 states (UT-6, VT-5, QC-4) at 10 different resorts. It's been a great year and as much as I would love to ski some more (one of my C or D goals was to hit 16, which we did last year) I don't see it as likely that we go again. It's really hard to follow that Utah trip with anything around here.
This trip sort of marks the start of 2023 for me. Up until now, I was biding my time through the winter. Now it's time to open things up.
Cassinonorth
Well-Known Member
Are you lining up tomorrow?
Nope. Miss #1 of 2023. Have fun!
JDurk
Well-Known Member
Damn. Was looking forward to seeing you.
Yeah, maybe I'll sit down and talk about the last 5 weeks of life. Some good, some less good, nothing world shattering. But adding everything up and it's just not in the cards for this one. Good luck tomorroow!
The September Blog Project - #1
I want September to be awesome. July & August were less than amazing for me. A lot of that was due to the weather. Some of that was due to work. Some was getting sick. As a very popular TV show suggested, it was something or other like a series of unfortunate events, even if no lemons were involved. As a side note, May & June were amazing. It was probably the best spring in recent memory and I felt great on the bike. Not so much for the 2 months after that.
I have no travel in September. At least - nothing is planned at this point. It's been a long time since I went to sleep and woke up in my own bed for an entire month. I will break that on October 1st but on this, the first day of the month, I have nothing on the radar. I also know it's been a while since I did anything on the blog here. With work being so busy, and travel being what it is, it's sometimes hard to sit down at the end of the day, or at any point in the day, and write anything. I will try to do this for the next 30 days, then probably stop again the 1st of next month.
Life in September is usually governed by the kids going back to school. For those of you who've been on this journey with me all these years, I present to you the first day picture of the child who is going on her last first day of high school. Hard to believe we have 2 seniors in the house. Note that Zac is not in this picture because he went to school at 5am to secure his parking spot for the year. Elmo Shrug.
Today was a great day. So my September started out really well. I met up with Kirt for a few hours this morning and we did this work at CR. Given the fact it was not 250 degrees, I felt totally fine when we were done. It's been a while since I did anything outside and didn't feel obliterated by the heat. I rode at CR solo on Tuesday and it was one of the most humid, disgusting days of the month. Today was fabulous. I think more than ever, the heat really put a beating on me this year.
We went our separate ways and had lunch, then we met up again - this time with D joining us - and we rode around and tried out our work. We also cruised around the park talking about what's next. I'm hoping to use every Friday morning in September to help working on the park. I know this is a lofty goal given the nature of things. But we can try. In any event, the day was still glorious and the ride was great. In all, it was a great way to start the month.
As it turns out, blogging isn't entirely dead.
I want September to be awesome. July & August were less than amazing for me. A lot of that was due to the weather. Some of that was due to work. Some was getting sick. As a very popular TV show suggested, it was something or other like a series of unfortunate events, even if no lemons were involved. As a side note, May & June were amazing. It was probably the best spring in recent memory and I felt great on the bike. Not so much for the 2 months after that.
I have no travel in September. At least - nothing is planned at this point. It's been a long time since I went to sleep and woke up in my own bed for an entire month. I will break that on October 1st but on this, the first day of the month, I have nothing on the radar. I also know it's been a while since I did anything on the blog here. With work being so busy, and travel being what it is, it's sometimes hard to sit down at the end of the day, or at any point in the day, and write anything. I will try to do this for the next 30 days, then probably stop again the 1st of next month.
Life in September is usually governed by the kids going back to school. For those of you who've been on this journey with me all these years, I present to you the first day picture of the child who is going on her last first day of high school. Hard to believe we have 2 seniors in the house. Note that Zac is not in this picture because he went to school at 5am to secure his parking spot for the year. Elmo Shrug.
Today was a great day. So my September started out really well. I met up with Kirt for a few hours this morning and we did this work at CR. Given the fact it was not 250 degrees, I felt totally fine when we were done. It's been a while since I did anything outside and didn't feel obliterated by the heat. I rode at CR solo on Tuesday and it was one of the most humid, disgusting days of the month. Today was fabulous. I think more than ever, the heat really put a beating on me this year.
We went our separate ways and had lunch, then we met up again - this time with D joining us - and we rode around and tried out our work. We also cruised around the park talking about what's next. I'm hoping to use every Friday morning in September to help working on the park. I know this is a lofty goal given the nature of things. But we can try. In any event, the day was still glorious and the ride was great. In all, it was a great way to start the month.
As it turns out, blogging isn't entirely dead.
The September Blog Project - #2
We went to Nox this morning. Nox with an X. Nockamixon with a C-K. This is the 37th different park I've ridden this year, across 8 states. This is the first time I've been to Pennsylvania in 2023, which is odd given how close it is. I'd like to get to Trexler again before the year is out. But you know, plans.
The ride was good. We met Capers & Carson, plus a few others. It was nice & cool this morning. Another glorious fall day. Enjoy it while you can. And don't look at the weather next week.
On the way out we stopped at that cow ice cream place. I think that's why Carson wanted to park at that boat launch lot. Just to see if I would be able to drive home and not go there. No worries, there was no chance of that. The cow was on the radar last night. When we got in the car after the ride, I announced that's where we were going. No argument from D.
I mowed most of the lawn this afternoon, before the heat goes back up to MELT next week.
Then I did a bit of trail work. I have put the "A" line aside this year and have focused on the B line, which has always been the better line. Right now I have 3 jumps, a jump/drop (it's having an identity crisis) and the berm (which has melted considerably since last year). I added some dirt to the jump/drop because I think I want to convert it to just a jump. I think the drop isn't right for the flow.
Then I worked on D's bike, which keeps trying to commit suicide. Today most of the spokes in the front wheel backed out, so it was dangerously loose. Ok, maybe that wasn't today. More than likely it was due to the Stratton & Killington DH days. I had to take the tire off to true the rim up, as it was pretty bad. I then replaced her back tire because it had a hole right at the rim that wouldn't seal. I tried to let Stans do its thing, but my experience tells me that this never works out. So I just replaced it.
I mounted both tires back up then took it for 2 laps of the back yard trails. It survived, so I called it a win.
Another glorious September day.
We went to Nox this morning. Nox with an X. Nockamixon with a C-K. This is the 37th different park I've ridden this year, across 8 states. This is the first time I've been to Pennsylvania in 2023, which is odd given how close it is. I'd like to get to Trexler again before the year is out. But you know, plans.
The ride was good. We met Capers & Carson, plus a few others. It was nice & cool this morning. Another glorious fall day. Enjoy it while you can. And don't look at the weather next week.
On the way out we stopped at that cow ice cream place. I think that's why Carson wanted to park at that boat launch lot. Just to see if I would be able to drive home and not go there. No worries, there was no chance of that. The cow was on the radar last night. When we got in the car after the ride, I announced that's where we were going. No argument from D.
I mowed most of the lawn this afternoon, before the heat goes back up to MELT next week.
Then I did a bit of trail work. I have put the "A" line aside this year and have focused on the B line, which has always been the better line. Right now I have 3 jumps, a jump/drop (it's having an identity crisis) and the berm (which has melted considerably since last year). I added some dirt to the jump/drop because I think I want to convert it to just a jump. I think the drop isn't right for the flow.
Then I worked on D's bike, which keeps trying to commit suicide. Today most of the spokes in the front wheel backed out, so it was dangerously loose. Ok, maybe that wasn't today. More than likely it was due to the Stratton & Killington DH days. I had to take the tire off to true the rim up, as it was pretty bad. I then replaced her back tire because it had a hole right at the rim that wouldn't seal. I tried to let Stans do its thing, but my experience tells me that this never works out. So I just replaced it.
I mounted both tires back up then took it for 2 laps of the back yard trails. It survived, so I called it a win.
Another glorious September day.
Gene
The Dancing Machine
Definitely/ probably a silly question, but is that your backyard? Or a portion of it?
The 3rd picture is. Not the first 2.
The September Blog Project - #3
I'm sitting down a bit later today, so this may be a short post - we'll see.
The day started a bit after 9:00 at the Iron Gate -> Stephens. D and I joined Stef, Dan, Glenn, Coyote, and xDave for a good loop of the park. We did 11 miles in 1.5 hours, or thereabouts. I think it was more or less a standard loop of things but I don't ride here enough to remember. I always find it weird that there are some trail systems in New England that I have ridden 3 times and know completely, where a park like this I have ridden countless times and remember almost none of it.
We ran into Gene there, see this post for more info on that. It was the 2nd hand injury we had to tend to on the day.
We later had a conversation on the board about RV, and I let my frustration get the better of me but I'm leaving the comments there. I'm going to reach out to the super again Tuesday and maybe we'll get a green light to do something. Or I'll just start going out there and trimming back. Action > words?
Then I mowed the rest of the lawn. Did I beat the MELT? I'm, not sure about that.
Finally we had the Utahs over for dinner and Bear couldn't get enough of Mrs. Utah. D and I have been talking recently that we need to start having people over for dinner again. If we're on a texting basis, and you want to have dinner, shoot me a text. We'll work it out.
I'm sitting down a bit later today, so this may be a short post - we'll see.
The day started a bit after 9:00 at the Iron Gate -> Stephens. D and I joined Stef, Dan, Glenn, Coyote, and xDave for a good loop of the park. We did 11 miles in 1.5 hours, or thereabouts. I think it was more or less a standard loop of things but I don't ride here enough to remember. I always find it weird that there are some trail systems in New England that I have ridden 3 times and know completely, where a park like this I have ridden countless times and remember almost none of it.
We ran into Gene there, see this post for more info on that. It was the 2nd hand injury we had to tend to on the day.
We later had a conversation on the board about RV, and I let my frustration get the better of me but I'm leaving the comments there. I'm going to reach out to the super again Tuesday and maybe we'll get a green light to do something. Or I'll just start going out there and trimming back. Action > words?
Then I mowed the rest of the lawn. Did I beat the MELT? I'm, not sure about that.
Finally we had the Utahs over for dinner and Bear couldn't get enough of Mrs. Utah. D and I have been talking recently that we need to start having people over for dinner again. If we're on a texting basis, and you want to have dinner, shoot me a text. We'll work it out.