Mountain, Cross and Shuffleboard Nats

Mitch

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I just found this thread now and I already put my house up for sale. Howdy neighbor !
Seriously this is a great thread and looking forward to following your journey. Wishing you and Art the best..
Keep the pictures coming.
 
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UtahJoe

Team Workhorse
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Are you sure that is a fireplace and not a brick oven pizza maker? Very cool!
 

pixychick

JORBA: Ringwood
JORBA.ORG
I have been writing mostly about the house in AZ, but the real selling point for this property was the location and yard. The typical retirement home in this area is close to a golf course and has an artificial looking stripped out yard. Probably b/c everyone is afraid of snakes and tarantulas lurking behind the bushes. This property has wonderful native plants, mountain views all around and is a close ride to the National Forest. Our friend that lives down the hill has already scoped out an old abandoned trail that leads to our neighborhood. ;)

At some point, we hope to put a patio area in our courtyard. It currently has a brick path and dried out grass, which I do not want to waste precious water by watering. We placed plastic over the grass in hopes of killing it for good. I guess we will have to transplant natives into courtyard too, as the roses and grapes may be dead by January. Our friend has been helping us by clearing walkways in the yard. The plants out there can be quite abrasive if they take over. Cholla thorns are actually barbed. If you get stabbed with them, they stay with you for months. Yes, everything out there has an attitude!

Back to the house: Art is now starting our kitchen cabinets. He is purchasing pre-fab, fold down style, so they will fit in a pod. He showed me how they work and they are awesome! CNC Face frames, doors, drawers and hardware are all separate and will fit into a pod once finished. Art plans to do our finishing. It saves $$, and gets him what he wants. I told him he should do his distressing with a bike chain. ;)

Racing: I ended up not racing Whirlybird. I have been tired and still struggling with my back a bit. It's nothing major, but it was enough for me to decide to do an easy mountain bike ride instead of a muddy cross race. Once again I'm on the fence for HPCX this weekend. I will probably opt for 1 day of racing and see how I feel. I don't seem to be feeling the race thing now, but I think I secretly hope if I go I may prove to myself otherwise. It is more important for me to like riding my bike than proving anything to myself racing right now. Racing will always be there, when and if I want it. This may seem weird, but racing is sorta habit. With so many other things changing right now, it may be a good time to break some habits and try new.
 

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pooriggy

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
This may seem weird, but racing is sorta habit. With so many other things changing right now, it may be a good time to break some habits and try new.

Breaking habits and starting new is the hardest part, especially as you get older. Its easy to stick with what you know. But challenges are good, it forces us to confront ourselves. Scary, yes... but also highly rewarding.
Nice to see you an Art busting out.
 

pixychick

JORBA: Ringwood
JORBA.ORG
I raced HPCX today and actually felt ok. I was a little slow out of the blocks, but rode 100% clean and held strong on the climbs. Considering that I have put little into my prep other than casual pixy style riding, I was very pleased to finish 3rd. What really got me stoked, was to see Art take the win in 60+! So, it was a good day for the retired folk.

At this point, we are about 75 days away from our departure to the west. Our house in NJ is almost ready for it's winter resident. Closets clean and my extra dishes are packed. I also was able to get a new computer and restore all my pictures from the external hard drive after my computer died. It has almost been a blessing to loose a bit of data not saved, as I have been procrastinating about deleting crap. Now it is gone. I should feel guilty for not backing everything up, but I feel free in a strange way. The timing on this seems about right.

I will admit that I lost some sleep about letting go of what was on my computer. I went through the "let go" process and it actually inspired me to start taking pictures again. I decided that anything that I captured previously, I could do better now, and if I did not have a camera, I could draw it or paint it, or capture it in my mind or in words. There are no limits to expression, and an empty canvas lies ahead.

:)
 

pixychick

JORBA: Ringwood
JORBA.ORG
Retirement has been moving along nicely. Art and I slept in until sun up: 7:30 this week. Feels pretty good to be living laid back.

Money Pit: Although we are still in NJ, the AZ renovation planning has been moving along thanks to FaceTime. The electrician starts tomorrow to bring our box up to code. Windows and wall removal plans have been set into motion. Art and I plan to replace the wall beam ourselves. Art has found a source for log beams and is confident that we do it, just us two. I will start push ups tomorrow in training ;).

Our new kitchen cabinets and drawers are ready to go on a pallet. Doors and face frames are in the works. We have decided on knotty alder wood with wrought iron hinges and hardware. Art feels they are locally correct. Any future wood will be reclaimed, if we can find them semi local. The western states have some good supplies of reclaimed lumber.

Hot Flashes: I will give this next section a header, so that you can skip if you want. I'm sure a bunch want nothing to do with it, but it is something that so many women suffer through. I am always cold and actually thought that hot flashes might be nice. These sudden hot spells may result in ripping my shirt off Brandi Chastain style to avoid a sweat, but they never seemed too bad. However, after loosing sleep many nights and sweating so much that it resulted in daily leg cramps, I found them to be not as great as I hoped. I would cramp in my sleep, on the bike and during stretching. After some research, I decided to cut back on coffee leaving me both groggy and dehydrated. Thankfully they have leveled off the last few weeks. I am really enjoying drinking my morning coffee once again!

Speaking of hot, another upgrade we may need to face when we get out to Az is our heating and cooling in the house. We currently have 2 pellet stoves for heating and 2 old rusty but working evaporative units. We may want to look into options for solar as well. Solar rebates run through 2015, so we should not drag our feet too much.
 
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pooriggy

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Art and I plan to replace the wall beam ourselves. Art has found a source for log beams and is confident that we do it, just us two. I will start push ups tomorrow in training ;).

Can't you go down to the local Quick Check in AZ and get a day laborer? My wife and I would kill each other if we had to work together...actually she would kill me because I'd be busting on her all the time.
 

gtluke

The Moped
The irony of selling a woodworking business and then buying a house you heat with sawdust that you have to buy.
 

pixychick

JORBA: Ringwood
JORBA.ORG
Marty's Race Saturday: On Thursday I did not feel like racing, but somehow Art talked me into it over dinner. Since I was not feeling "pro", I entered master men instead. What can I say except that there are times when I really feel master and not pro. Not all races give women that choice, so I took my spot in the mens class.

I did not ride much all week and could blame it on rain but lack of lack of motivation may have been a bigger part. However I did get out on Friday for 50 minutes to do a few hill sprints so that I did not have a heart attack in Saturdays race. I'm kind of glad I did that, because we got lost going to the race and We missed our warm up. I arrived in just enough time to get my number, ride up and down the road once and hop on course for a spirited half lap before my start.

The start was perfect b/c the 60+ master men do a very realistic start and I could hang on to keep motivated. Eventually the women came by and with each one, I got a bit more motivation which was a big help for me to keep going. I was not liking the looks of seeing 2 laps to go, but the lead 50+ racer came by and I was relieved to be on my last lap. It ended up being a good training race. I hope I can stay in this to make it to nationals.

Back at the AZ house, our friend was weeding in the yard and found a 6 tiered water fall. The water line and pump were broken, but I suppose anything can be prepared. I am loving all the surprises and can not wait to get back out there.
 
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pixychick

JORBA: Ringwood
JORBA.ORG
... and the surprises keep coming with this house. Yesterday the electrician called and said he found another splice from the main power. He is short on length to bring it to code with the existing box position. He plans to dig up some of the slab in front of the house in hopes that he can pull the power line out and gain enough length to connect into the new box on the outside. If this does not work, we are looking at a new line 3 ft under ground about 100 feet. ... not good:(.

In the mean time I have a few more pictures. I have only been doing a few pictures a week, b/c they will run out before I get back out there.

1. electrical box and slab

2. 1200 sqft master suite. This space is crazy large. We plan to live up here during construction this year, but we may change this in the future.

3. one of the pellet stoves that will keep us warm at night
 

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pooriggy

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Another splice??? was this one going to supply power to the Hekawi tribe from F-troop? I wonder how much money that electric co. is losing with all these rogue off the grid types out west.
 

UtahJoe

Team Workhorse
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Good luck with the electrical stuff, hope it works out.

Love the pics...If I had a 1200sqft bedroom my wife would have two 400'sqft dog beds, and 2000sqft of laundry on the floor
 

pixychick

JORBA: Ringwood
JORBA.ORG
Last week somehow got lost again. I hardly rode my bike and although I did get to Crossanado, I ended up not racing. The course was awesome, but I had zero energy and could not get my heart rate ever 135. It was also the first cold day, so I was out of sorts and decided to support Art and not think about myself. Enough on that.

I got out in the woods today and it was beautiful. I set out on a recovery pace ride which made it a very enjoyable no pressure ride. Most may think I am crazy, but I did the Skylands Trail and Renegade backwards in Ringwwod as a recovery ride. I enjoy slow, efficient and techy. The pipeline guys were out planting trees and I am glad to see that Ringwood is returning back to a park like place and not a construction site. I got thinking about Ringwood and all the trails, new and old. I think that it would be nice to see a race return back there. .... just saying.

Not a whole lot new to report about the Az house, but we are almost all packed here on this end. Art taped out a 16x8 foot rectangle on the floor in his warehouse to be our sample pod. We worked most of Saturday moving our stuff to the staging area and it is now almost half filled with stuff we are bringing out. Art still needs to pack his tools, ladders and the kitchen cabinet doors. If there is any room left, we can bring a bike to two ;).

1. todays ride on the new trail
2. pretend pod
 

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pooriggy

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I got thinking about Ringwood and all the trails, new and old. I think that it would be nice to see a race return back there. .... just saying.

+1. That sounds awesome, I'd love to get back there to race.
 

pixychick

JORBA: Ringwood
JORBA.ORG
So last week, once again, not feeling great on the bike. I have no idea why I am so tired all the time, as I have been sleeping better and getting 9 hours on average. I am trying not to feel old and keep telling myself that perhaps it is just that time of year. I realize my 50% is still better than sitting on the couch or permanently retired. I was reminded of this yesterday when a member of my local riding community passed away. Life is short and we all have to keep things rolling as we can.

Racing: With rain on Thursday, Art and I decided to skip our usual White Clay ride the day before Fairhill. We drove down the night before because I had an early race. I slept well but woke up with a super stiff back. I stretched for over an hour so that I could get on the bike to race. I really felt out of shape out there. I could barely hang on at the start but worked through the crappy feeling until I accepted it. I worked up maybe to 7th but felt my back getting stiff again. It was hard for me to jump the barriers b/c of the tightening hamstrings.

Super fun course, but I think I am beyond done for the year. Have not really discussed with Art yet, but I am planning to do support only at Nationals this year and try to spend the balance of the season not making race plans. I also bowed out of the team I was thinking of doing for 24HOP in Feb. I just can not think about racing right now. I just do not have the energy.

I actually got out for a hike last week with some injured riders. That was a nice change, but I still felt tired. Only a few more warms days left, so trying to make the most of them. Although I may be quite slow right now, I am going to try and post up some group rides before I leave for AZ. However, I may lay low for a few weeks first.

As for the AZ house: we ordered some replacement windows last week. They should arrive about the time we get out there. We have an install date, where a concrete company will cut and modify a few openings for the windows. We have decided to only do a few at a time as they relate to each project.

1. This is our upper patio off the master.
2. Ramapo Lake during my hike.
 

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Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
So I rode my bike past White Woodworking on Friday. Small world, eh?

I have thought a bit about an XC race at Ringwood, and I get mixed responses. Usually, like many things, on both sides of the coin. From "awesome" to "F that you can only ride the 1 loop". Of course LM is the most well-attended race of the year, so...

Sorry to hear about the hit the local community took. I myself have been feeling much more mortal these days. As Facebook shows me more and more of the people I grew up with looking old & gray, I realize that my childhood is kinda past.

Randomly, do you think series racing kills the sport long term? Short term, it draws numbers. Long term, I wonder if people start to feel an in/out mentality towards it. Either you do them all or not do them all, and the series becomes the thing as opposed to the specific race itself. Think about Nittany. The course sucks. Yet 1200 people sign up for it.
 
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