Day 189: Hills

Update: 205.2 lbs, 50 lb Goal Reached Day 124. 7 lbs to 60 lb goal.

Something is wrong with my bike. I can't believe it, I've only had it for a few months, but I'm going to have to load it up in the rig, haul it down to the shop, and have a little chat with the fella who built it to see how we can resolve the issue.

The problem is, it doesn't seem to like to go up hills. If you've been following along for any length of time you know that I have a hill in my normal 12 mile loop, The Ravena Hill, that likes to beat me up. There are actually two hills, the one that eats me up for breakfast, and the one that I can make it up without too many problems...'the girl hill' as my wife likes to call it -- to point out just how much of a sissy rider I am. She's the Mick to my cycling Rocky....

Anyway, Ravena...she's been an evil hill temptress to me from the first time I laid eyes on her. Since I found out earlier this week that there will be 3000+ feet of elevation gain in our 70 mile ride in September, I've been focussing mind and body power on getting prepared for that ride. Nick thinks I'm pretty worked up about it, and well frankly, I suppose I am. So this morning, first thing I got out and decided I would attack some hills...and since I didn't have a ton of time before needing to be at the office, I just headed for Ravena and figured I'd run up and down it a few times...but Ravena had other ideas in mind.



Since I hadn't tried the steep side since the last time I went up it on my comfort bike, I figured I'd give it a shot. I've got a hot, fast bike, I'm 25 lbs lighter than the last time, I'm stronger, faster, tougher, with more stamina and endurance than the last time I almost popped my head off trying to make it up that side...so surely I could get up it...right? Wrong. Even on the easiest chainring, in nearly the lowest gear, I got 1/3 of the way up, and hit that same wall. Stopped. And I knew it was coming fairly soon on, and this time I had a new challenge...I was clipped in, and all I could see was me getting to the place where I had no leverage, and had to pick which one of three ways I wanted to fall down...left, right, or straight back down the hill!

Fortunately, from somewhere deep down inside, I dug down, heard the Eye of Tiger playing, knew the giant I was facing, and found the strength to push myself....and unclip my shoe. Really, that's all I wanted to be able to do at that point, just not fall over and slide back down that hill. I then found the strength to get off my bike, and do the walk of shame up the hill to where I could re-mount without falling down. Oh the shame. If you're following along, that is now: Ravena 2, Paul 1.

Since I had one defeat under my belt for the morning, I figured I'd better find a way to have some success, so I headed out past Brooklake, down the Wheatland hill where I can rip it up past 30 mph for a few seconds, and as soon as I hit the bottom of the hill, I turned around, and headed back up. I then went back to the 'girl side' of Ravena, went down it, turned around, and came back up. I repeated this process another time, so I could get two good climbs at both hills, for a total of about 600 ft of elevation climb for the morning. Nothing amazing, but I am still hacking a bit from my cold, so it was at least a little victory for the day.

Somehow I need to figure out how to attack that steep side of Ravena and make it another notch in my belt, but it's going to have to wait for another day...maybe even another month. For today I'm just happy to have the extra calories for Paddingtons tonight!

Hasta!

Day 188: Training For The Route

Update: 205.2 lbs, 50 lb Goal Reached Day 124. 7 lbs to 60 lb goal.

Following up on my last post, I got out the next day and did my 30 mile route on Saturday. The ride was pretty uneventful, and I felt great from start to completion. Was really beat the next morning, but that was probably a combination of the ride, and being up most of the night with a sick kid.

I finally tracked down the key points of the Portland Livestrong Challenge route, and mapped it out on Bikely.com so I could get a birdseye view of what we're in for come September 29. Here's a quick look at the map.



As you can see, we'll take off from the Nike campus in Beaverton and then head out towards Hagg Lake, make a loop around the lake, and essentially head back in after riding 70 miles. 70 miles, I'm still shocked that we're going to do it. That's like riding from Keizer out to Lincoln City, and then down to Depoe Bay. Or, it's about the same as taking off from Keizer and heading down past Eugene and almost to Cottage Grove. OR, (one last one) leaving from Keizer, heading north out of Oregon and making it past Woodland, Washington.



In addition to the length of the ride, I'm actually starting to get more nervous about the elevation of the ride. According to the notes, there will be 3000+ feet of elevation gain over the course of the ride, most of it in a 15 miles stretch. From the Bikely map, it shows somewhere in the mid 2000's of climbing...which is still no easy task. (Who knows if I pinput it correctly into the map.) My 20 and 30 mile routes have somewhere between 600-900 feet of climbing, and those are plenty un-fun for me as it is.

From here on out, I'm going to try to hit the longer routes more often, as well as try to find some routes with some climbing...ugh. At the end of my 30 mile route I wondered if I could turn the corner and ride it again...that'd be 60 miles--nearly the distance of the LAF ride in September. It didn't seem totallly impossible. I'm also thinking about driving up and taking a look at the actual route at some point, just to see the site of my future punishment. Less than two months away now, and I'm actually getting kind of excited about it!

Hasta!

ps - Mac announcements at 10 am PST time today...be sure to tune in!

Day 184: Good Gravy, 3000+ Feet!

Update: 205.2 lbs, 50 lb Goal Reached Day 124. 7 lbs to 60 lb goal.

"The hills are alive...." with the sound of one big sweaty mexican trying to climb some hills. Or at least will be in about 59 days. That is roughly the time left until the LAF Challenge, which I just found out is gonna be tougher than I thought.

I was trying to find a route map for the Livestrong Challenge this morning and stumbled across a blog entitled 'Return to 100: Livestrong Challenge,' which had a posting about the elevation for the Portland ride. At least, I think it's about the Portland ride, but this guy clearly lives in California, and rode a challenge down there last year...but the elevation map says Portland on it. Anyway, I also went to the official site and saw that over a 15 mile stretch we'll be climbing 3000+ feet during the ride. Sweet Fancy Moses. I think the most I've ever climbed total before was about 1000 feet, and that was over twice the distance.

As I continued on reading Keijiro's blog, I found the post recalling his experience of last years ride. Gotta say, it gave me the sweats just a bit -- dehydration, cramping, medical teams telling him he may want to get on the bus and ride back -- everything I've worried about in the back of my head, not knowing what to fully expect from a 70 mile ride. Keep in mind, the longest I've gone before is 30 miles, and in the past 3 weeks I've only been on my bike about as many times due to Summer Golf Fest '07. I realize now I'm going to have to seriously man up and get back to training if I intend to come back alive, and with a sticker that says 'yes, hard to believe it, but Lopez actually finished all 70 miles.'

In my morning of terror as I read this version of the challenge, I sent a link over to the other half of the Flying Torellis, and Nick proceeded to tell me that it couldn't possibly be as bad as the time he had an impromptu army hike of 25 miles, unpreparedly in cotton socks that ended up being soaked in blood when he was done, with blisters "the size of potato chips." I didn't ask if he meant little Frito sized ones, or ginormous Wavy Lays sized ones...but in either case, it still sounded pretty brutal. His point was that somehow, someway, we'll dig down and gut it out, and live to tell the battle stories to anyone who will sit still long enough to listen. And I know we will, I just don't want my finish to look like something that only the producers of Everybody Loves Raymond would come up with, rather, I want it to look like some feature spotlight at the end of a SportsNight episode.

So, time for some serious training. Two months to go, I can do this! At least I think I can, and either way, it's gotta produce some good laughs for the future.

Hasta!

Day 182: Moving Again

Update: 205.2 lbs, 50 lb Goal Reached Day 124. 7 lbs to 60 lb goal.

I'm sitting in Starbucks here in North Salem seeing how long I can just suck down the bandwidth before they kick me out. I had a meeting this morning, another one coming in a few, and possibly a third this afternoon. I don't think my brown butt can take these hard chairs for that long though, so I'm sure I'll bail before they have to ask me to leave

Well, it's been a touch and go kind of couple of weeks, but I can finally say we're moving again (and by 'we' I mean all four cheeks and a couple of chins), making forward progress. I'm down a pound today from my lowest previous point, weighing in at 205.2. Wow, that's like saying I'm just about 5 lbs away from 200...and man, that's gonna be cool.

We golfed with a client yesterday and after 18 he turned and said 'Go again?' Next thing you know, I'm teeing off on the number 1 hole for the second time that day. Let me just say, 36 holes of golf on 3 hours of sleep is a chore. I know the nay-sayers will come out saying I have nothing to complain about, and honestly, I'm not really complaining - just saying I was plenty beat by the end of the afternoon. I had hoped for a slim window to open up where I might be able to sneek in a nap, but I was on grill duty last night, and then we had to get out to pick apples, some really fragrant flowers and stop off at two different households to drop off our ill-gotten produce. By the time we got back, it was time for nighty night.

So, no golf today...gotta get some work done. I actually got out and did a quick loop today, which was amazing. The weather was perfect. My legs weren't too sore from riding the day before....heck, I hadn't ridden for most of the week before. Somehow, I'm going to need to get some miles logged though...September is coming quick, and I'll be at the starting line of the 70 miler with very little proper preparation.

That's it for me, gotta list a mile long to finish today. Tee time is 6:30 in the morning, so no time to dilly dally!

Hasta!

Day 180: Someone Back The Truck Up!

Update: 208.2 lbs, 50 lb Goal Reached Day 124. 10 lbs to 60 lb goal.

Yeah, you read that right, I marched right back up to my 50 lb goal, and I'm not afraid to post it.

I'm not going to go on and on about this, because I know I end up leaving these guilt ridden posts behind, but let me just say that from last Monday forward, I have not been very diligent. I've not been logging all my calories, and just kind of ballparking it - mostly having good success, but also knowing that I had some pretty crazy food days in there. So rather than detail it all out, let me just give some highlights to the week that bumped me up two pounds from my lowest point so far:

Monday: Girls Enchilada Night - This wasn't for me, but after having just a few small pieces of pizza at Paddingtons with Greener, I then came home and proceeded to pound down a few churros, two cheese enchiladas, some lime frosted cookies, and an iced latte. And that was from around 9 to 1 in the morning.

Wednesday: Airport Day - Wasn't too bad, but we did stop at Chilis. Even though I ordered the Tilapia, I also had some Texas Fries off the girls plate, and then had some fries off of another plate, and half of a childs chocolate milk. Then got caught off guard with a surprise pizza night at church, so I had both Italian casserole AND a couple slices of pizza. Another day I put down too many calories.

Friday: Calamity Janes - I didn't order the 1 pound burger, but the Texas Tornado (or whatever it was that I ordered) with sausage and other fixin's on it, certainly wasn't a low calorie option. You can see some great pictures on Kristi's Random Thoughts page, and even see some more of the food we hurked down. I drank about half of one of the kids Oreo milkshakes and finished all of the burger and all of the fries on my plate. (That's C-dubs monstrosity at the top.)

Saturday: Leftovers - No real plan for the day so I ended up having frozen pizza and chips mixed in with birthday cake and other not-so-great things. I don't even remember...by Saturday it was all turning into a blur.

Sunday: Muffins and More Pizza - Those dang Costco muffins - 600 calories each. I think between the muffins from the birthday party, and the ones in class in the morning, I had 1200 calories in muffins alone. Then for dinner last night, more leftover frozen pizza, and some cucumbers. Yeah, I tried to do *something* healthy.

Today I'm back on track so far. If I can keep it up, I may just finish with some sort of normal day, and then hopefully can get back to a normal pattern again. Last week was easily the most ugly of my effort so far...and if I only go up two pounds out of it, I'll be ok with that.

Hasta.

Day 175: Oh Momma, Golf.

Update: 206.2 lbs, 50 lb Goal Reached Day 124. 8 lbs to 60 lb goal.

Note: I fully expect a few 'I don't feel sorry for you,' responses, but mine is a story that needs to be told.

I've been playing golf for 26 years, but pretty much at a casual level. A couple years ago, we only got out twice the entire season, but on other years we've played a couple times a month. My business partners and I like to take a trip over to Sunriver once a year and do a couple marathon days of 36 holes on the courses over there, which include the amazing Crosswater course, but still I have never felt like we've been golf fanatics. This summer however, may reach an entirely new level.

In the past two weeks, from Tuesday to Tuesday, I think I've played 13 rounds of golf...yes, 13. Out of those 13, only 5 were 9 hole round, all the others were 18 holes. Three of those rounds were played with 3 hours of sleep or less because the tee times are at 6:30 in Woodburn, and I basically have to be up at 5 to get ready and go. Two of those rounds were played in the same day, one in the morning with one group, and one in the evening with another. Most of the rounds are played at our 'home course,' The OGA Course in Woodburn, but I also had rounds at McNary, Meadowlawn, and Salemtowne. (I also had a round in at Battlecreek with the other two Lopi Bro's, but that was outside the two week blitz I'm specifically talking about here. We also just missed a round at Mallard Creek in the past two weeks.) And mixed in with the actual rounds, were a few trips out to the Windsor Island driving range.

There are a few contributing factors to the Summer Golf Fest that I find myself in these days. Business partners with annual passes who golf, a wife who's just taken up golf after 16+ years of wedded bliss, and friends from in and out of town who all also love to get out and "ruin a good walk," as Mr. Twain so accurately put it all those years ago. Don't get me wrong, it's a great situation to find one's self in, it just kind of hit like a hurricane all at once.

If someone would have told me 16 years ago that some day my wife would not only go out, gear up and play a round with me in the morning, but then say "you deserve to go out again tonight to focus on your own game since you helped me with mine today," when a friend suggested a second round for the day...I would have never believed such a fantasy existed in the real world. As a result of all this golf nonsense, I've shot some of my best rounds in my life, including an 85 at the OGA course..which rivaled the 83 or 84 I had about 15 years ago, and a 3-over round at Salemtowne on Sunday. Those are clean scores too, every single stroke counted, and penalty strokes appropriately alloted - I'm sure my previous 83-84 had some Mulligans or 'winter rules' helpers along the way.

Anyway, today we have our oldest baby coming home from Texas, and our youngest baby has his 3rd birthday - and getting lots of cool Transformers, I might add. No golf scheduled for today, or even for tomorrow, as of yet. My bike misses me, and the feeling is mutual...I gotta get out and put some miles down, so perhaps I'll get out and do a quick loop after posting. Either that, or crawl back into bed and catch up on some sleep...

Hasta!

Day 165: Random Thoughts From The Beach

Update: 206.2 lbs, 50 lb Goal Reached Day 124. 8 lbs to 60 lb goal.

Once again, I find myself apologizing for the lack of updates for the ol' bloggie -- I may just need to realize that I will not be able to give 100% every day, especially when I keep getting so many dates for golf before the sun rises. But I'll try as best as I can.

I got to spend the day yesterday with about 40 of my closest middle school student friends, and staff, at the beach. It was raining in Salem when we left, and raining when we got back, but not a drop over in Lincoln City, so it was just perfect weather. But even after 18 years of working with kids, I still am amazed that I can continue to learn things on a simple day trip. In no particular order, some more random thoughts....

Bus Drivers Can Be Funny - We have a few in-house drivers, but when you need to lease a bus and driver combo, you never know what you're in for. We often times get drivers who just want it quiet and boring for the kids. Yesterday we had a driver who had a few safety rules, but then proceeded to drive like Earnhardt Jr. through the Van Duzer to make record time for a bus from Salem to Lincoln City and back. In fact, I'm getting kind of car sick just typing this up. Anyway, after using a megaphone to track our driver down on the beach when it was time to go, we shut the bus doors and hit the open road.

At the point where we crossed the famous 'stinky part' of the road between Rickreall and West Salem, the bus driver offers to tell some jokes over the loudspeaker, and we decide to give him a shot at Last Comic Driving. He proceeds to tell a couple jokes about legless deer and happy pitbulls, and then pulls out a classic. As we're all trying NOT to breathe in too much he says, "whew! smell that dairy air!" I won't spell it out for you if you can't sound out in your head how genius that line truly is. Well worth whatever we paid for that lease...I grew up not too far from there and had to drive through Stinkville more times that I care to remember, and I'd never heard that one before....nice. Bus Driver - 1, Passengers - 0.

Bus Drivers Can Be Resourceful - We were a little shy on some utensils and supplies. Since we all traveled on the bus together and had no car, we had no way to make a quick trip to Safeway for more stuff. Not only did Mr. Dairy Air pull through with some L.A. backstreet buck knife for me to use in my cooking, but he also drove the beast down to the local market so we could stock up on enough supplies so the kids wouldn't starve. Thank goodness for the bus driver! Bus Driver - 2, Passengers - 0.

Bus Drivers Don't Know Squat About Jellyfish Stings - Well, I can't entirely support that last statement, and since he was taking a long walk on the beach when it happened, he was really no help during the infamous J-fish Sting of '07. Just when I think I really can't have something new happen when working with kids, someone goes and gets stung. Now, I won't go into all the details, but after a few phone calls to a half-nurse, a paramedic, and a friend handy with Wikipedia, I basically had to hand a plastic cup over to this young fella and inform him how urine can help relieve the pain of the sting. I never really imagined I'd ever have to explain to a mid high kid how to go about applying that kind of a method, but there I was explaning away....yeah, good times there. Anyway, everyone made it out alive, and I have a new story to tell as I grow old. Bus Driver - 2, Wikipedia - 1.

So, there you go. If you're heading to the beach, a bus driver can be a friend indeed. Just don't count on them if you're going to be messing around with the local wildlife.

Hasta!