Ski, Tree, and Summit Saloon

Yesterday was a busy day! As planned, we headed up for our first skate ski of the year. The coverage was decent from the Nordic Center out to the oval, around Easy Back, and Woody's Way. Enough to warm up, refigure out the V1 and V2, get some flow, and enjoy the snow.



Derek screwing around. Sure, it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt.



*Nobody got hurt in this instance.

In true honor of The Christmas Story...




Then we changed over to snowshoes and hiked around looking for "the perfect tree". The perfect tree is a true challenge...especially if you aren't buying it from a tree farm. We crisscrossed the forest pointing out different trees, comparing qualities and continuously pointing further up at a tree we thought was better. At what point do you call it a day and just settle for something less perfect? We finally decided on one. It's taller then what we set out to get. It measured in at almost 11.5 feet tall and very full, but hey, that's what we have vaulted ceilings for right? It has some bare spots but we love it.





Then we were off to the soft opening of The Summit Saloon and Stage. It's open to the public starting Tuesday at 11:00 but we got the sneak peak. It's very open and inviting inside and they have added a giant flat screen tv above the bar downstairs. The upstairs is large and will be great for music venues. Last night John (one of th e owners), played with his band, and then Rhyme & Reason played as well. There is a full bar and they have some great shots on the drink menu, including the Drake Park Duck Fart. hahahahah The list of beers on tap is extensive and I chose the Rogue Red, Full Sail's Amber, and Deschutes' Hop Trip. Some of my favorite appetizers were the basil pesto dip served with bread, and the jalapeno artichoke dip served with tortilla chips. Though, I will obviously be going back for all the things I missed. The menu is made up of salads, sandwiches, burgers, and then entrees like Sheppard's Pie, Fish and Chips, and pasta. Derek had a roast beef sandwich served open face with gravy on top, and I had the Fish & Chips. Both tasty. Can you tell I'm really excited about this place?

Sobriety Gum

Finally the weekend.

Lately I've been waking up around 2:30am and staying awake for 2 hours or so as random thoughts flip through my mind. Such as:

If I didn't have hands how long would it take me to swim across the pool? Just to check, I balled my hands up into fists and tried to swim today. It's hard.

An acupuncturist once told me that your organs each have their turn to rest during the night and whatever time I'm waking up could be tied to that organ functioning oddly. He told me the approximate times for each organ but I can't remember what they were.

I'm excited to skate ski this weekend. The first time out for the season is always pretty awkward but I love being outside and can't wait.

Not much else is happening in my world.

The snow is falling outside and I'm getting anxious to get out and skate ski. I had an MRI on my "good" knee on Thursday and find out the prognosis tomorrow after work. Luckily the conditions at the mountain aren't great yet so I don't feel like I'm missing anything...yet. The pool is always there for me. Yesterday I did a new workout. I'm struggling because I can swim for a long time and even do lots of intervals but I never feel tired like I would cycling. I am trying to work on speed but I feel like I'm not getting anywhere. I qualify for the medium speed lanes but I'd like to get faster... hey, you have to have a goal, right? I'm stuck at around 1:50 for 100m and I'd like that to be way faster. Anyway, yesterday after some warmup laps and drills I did a main set of:

8x50m on 1:12
8x50m on 1:08
8x50m on 1:12
8x50m on 1:04

between each 50m I felt like I had way too much time to recover so I'll cut those down next time.

Ho hum, that's about it. Hopefully I can get some pics next weekend when we head out to cut down a tree. Who knows, maybe I'll even be out on skis!

Sunburn?

I'm sure people thought I had a sunburn but it was more like a cold burn. I rode to the pool the other day but I couldn't find my full leg warmers and had to settle for knee warmers instead. That meant about 5 inches of skin on my shins open to the freezing air. I'm not sure the redness shows up that good in the picture.



Yep, it's winter.

My skin smells like chlorine

Basically no snow fell last night. Up at my house it looked like it might have snowed for a minute but the roads were like a slicktrack. I had an incredible urge to pull the emergency brake and spin in circles. Why at that point does my rational side have to kick in?

I had a great swim this afternoon - warmed up with an easy 400 meters, then did some drills for another 200 meters and then was the main set... 12 reps of 100 meters leaving every 2 minutes and 10 seconds. That means I start the timer and swim 100 meters. When I'm done I let the timer run until it reaches 2:10 and then repeat. So if I'm swimming fast then I get more rest, if I'm swimming slow I get no rest. It isn't a great speed by any means and I found myself easily completing those intervals. Next time I'll bump it down to 2:05 maybe...still seems like too much rest though. Just to give those of you who are metrically challenged a frame of reference, a football field is roughly 110 meters long. I followed it up with a few hundred yards of kicking and a few hundred yards of easy freestyle and backstroke.

You can't see it that great in this picture, but I caught a black widow at work.

What's in the bag?

We got a free turkey when we went grocery shopping so we cooked up a second round of Thanksgiving on Saturday. This was a new recipe and it turned out wonderfully! In case you forget or have never read Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, paper burns at 451 degrees so the key is to not turn the oven up past that temp or the bag will catch on fire!





It was another weekend of swimming for me, though I did ride my bike to the pool one day. Riding doesn't seem to hurt my knee too much...it's walking that does it.

Gobble gobble, pedal, pedal

We are fortunate to not have to travel far on Thanksgiving. We bundled up in our coats and hats (it was 28 degrees), loaded up our BOB trailer and rode over to our friend's house for a big dinner. The trailer was able to carry a case of beer, a pan of freshly baked herb focaccia, green bean casserole, and baked spinach artichoke cheese dip.

Turkylicious

Happy Everything!

Today I'm heading over to celebrate the day with some friends. We're bringing green bean casserole, freshly baked herb focaccia bread, and baked spinach artichoke cheese dip. YUM! I can hardly wait!

Today is a day off from swimming, but I did a long one yesterday so that I could eat extra today. I'm finding it easy to add distance and time to my swims but it's very difficult to add speed. I swam 3000 meters which is roughly 1.8 miles and then I did a bunch of kicking drills as well. Since it was FREEZING cold out, it was awesome to sit in the steam room for 20 minutes afterwards. When I walked outside there was steam coming off of me for the next 5 minutes!

Tomorrow is back to the pool, anyone want to join?

Breathless

My swimming is progressing and I have been able to add time and intensity rapidly. The other afternoon I swam half a mile, then did 3 X 100m 5 times. The first 100m was at a comfortably moderate pace, the second was a bit faster and the 3rd was all out as hard as I could go. Then I swam a super easy 100m for recovery and repeated the set 5 times. That left me breathless but I pushed on and swam another half a mile before relaxing in the steam room for 20 minutes. Feels good to get my heart rate up that high and challenge myself.

We had to break up a dog fight over breakfast. One of our dogs is a giant pig and the other doesn't eat much but still protects her food. With 3 pieces left she wandered off and then came charging and growling when the other snuck over to steal what was left. Actually, she snapped and got two puncture wounds in the piggy's face. Man, they are worse than kids! I couldn't get the beagle to hold still so I could take a better picture.

Attitude

There once was a woman who woke up one morning, looked in the mirror, and noticed she had only three hairs on her head. Well," she said, "I think I'll braid my hair today" So she did and she had a wonderful day.


The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and saw that she had only two hairs on her head. "H-M-M," she said, "I think I'll part my hair down the middle today" So she did and she had a grand day.


The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed that she had only one hair on her head. "Well," she said, "today I'm going to wear my hair in a pony tail." So she did and she had a fun, fun day.


The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed that there wasn't a single hair on her head. "YEA!" she exclaimed, "I don't have to fix my hair today!"

Attitude is everything.

I did a nice long swim yesterday...not so hard since it was raining out anyway and I didn't have to wish I was out riding.

Here is a pic of our 70's outfits for a party we went to Friday. Neither my pants or top are very flattering.

Just a thought

"Most people are too busy living life to ever put life in their living..."

~Doug Firebaug

I saw this quote the other day on a workout website and it made me smile. Sure, you can "live" everyday and just go through the motions, but are you really living? Makes you think, huh? Are you happy, do you do the things you want to do and are you inspired? Hopefully you answer yes.

I put in another long swim the other day after work. It's funny because I am a pretty self motivated person and there are always little tricks my mind plays on me to keep me striving for the best. Last night I was actually done with the distance I planned to swim but for the last 15 minutes I had been slowly gaining on the guy I was splitting a lane with. It was usually only 1 or 2 feet year lap, but just that little bit was like a carrot dangling in front of me (or a beer, or some nachos). So, I vowed to keep swimming until I caught him. Just that little thing kept me motivated and I eventually did catch him!

I'm not a fish

With my knee in a funk right now I've increased my pool workouts so that they are currently replacing all my riding! It's tough because I don't have fun swimming like I have fun riding. Swimming actually feels like a workout. Still, I put in three solid days of swimming this past weekend. Saturday I did a long distance day and just swam freestyle laps for an hour. Sunday I mixed it up and threw some backstroke in, but still did an hour. Monday I did some intervals. Intervals are always tough, but a really crucial part of working out. Intervals were always some of the toughest training days on my bike. You basically are trying to get your heart rate up to a REALLY high rate. You are working so hard that everything around you is a blur and even though snot may be dripping out your eyes, you can't do anything about it because you are so beat. You swear your watch is skipping chunks of time when it beeps warning that the rest period between sets is over. Glamorous huh?

I actually don't know my max heart rate for swimming. Different sports yield different heart rates. Cycling it's 184 but I've never been able to come close to that using a cross trainer eliptical at the gym and I bet it's even lower swimming. Up until this point with my pool workouts I've basically just always done straight laps. I don't entirely know what I'm doing when I try to design a swim workout but I read up a bit on the internet and after a good long warm up I swam 3X50 meters descending my time for each 50 by 2 seconds. I rested 20 seconds then and repeated 4 more times. By the last 3 50's my arms were dead tired. Then I tacked on a 25 minutes lap swim and did another interval for good measure. This one was "fun" too. I swam as hard as I could for one length, then two easy lengths, swam as hard as I could for 2 lengths and then did one easy length, then as hard as I could for 3 lengths and took a break before repeating and then cooling down.

If you have read all through this and are still awake you get a reward....Derek and I went for a short walk the other night so he could practice taking pics. It was a beautiful evening out.

All is not good

To mix it up I've been going to a kickboxing aerobics class one night a week. This is the first aerobics class I've ever been to! I can't do some of the moves because of my bad knee but I just improvise. Anyway, I rode there the other night and it's a darn good thing I had my thermal vest on because when I left it was freezing. What I didn't remember though, were my warmer gloves. I like the feeling of cold nights...especially coming from a hot sweaty gym. I took back roads all the way home so I think I only encountered 1 car, making it very relaxing and quiet. The next day I was out walking at lunch and took a step and felt a horrible pain in my "good" knee. I couldn't walk on it at all and it was bad. I massaged it and it kind of went away. Later that night it got worse, swelled, and became pretty painful. It's been that way for a few days now and I'm very frustrated. I have always been a very active person and to be limited is really tough.

So of course it's a 3 day weekend and I can't ride. Grrrrrrrr.

Da Beach

Here are some more pics from our beach weekend.





You can't visit the beach without taking sunset photos.





I think it must be pretty annoying to live here along the bay because these guys were barking constantly. They seemed very territorial and fiesty. Whenever another one wanted up on the platform to bask in the sun they would bark and yell at it until it quit trying. Too funny.

Beervana

Interesting show on OPB tonight.

Beervana

Beach Bums

We spent this past weekend at the Oregon Coast - stayed in Newport. We brought our cyclocross bikes and went on a big adventure loop on Saturday. We rode through Waldport along the 101 down to Yachats and then made a left and rode along a winding country feeling road about 10 miles before making another left and beginning a brutal climb up and up and up into the trees. It lasted forever and we thought for sure we were lost. But eventually we popped out in a big logging area and then descended a lifetime back down to Waldport. It was a great loop with little to no car traffic once we got off 101. It's been awhile since I've ridden along the coast and I forgot that salty wet tangy taste you get if you ride with your mouth open and inhale. We stopped a lot along the way and took scenery pictures though it was too dark back along the climb to get much. Here are some of the best from that ride.







Here's the Waldport Bridge

Bend Bella Cyclists

Happy Post Sugar Day!

The Bend Bella Cyclists are meeting tonight at 6:30 over in the conference room at Deschutes Library in Bend. We’ll have Gina Miller from Fresh Air Sports talk about how she got involved with that organization, what do they do, who it is for and tips for staying in shape for the winter. We would love to have new faces at the meeting...you don't have to be a member to come and listen.

Playing in the Forest

Another pretty good day of riding. It's hard to see the trail in places because there are so many pine needles blanketing the ground.

Best Headline of the Day

Scientists Find Oldest Living Animal, Then Kill It


The team from Bangor University in Wales was dredging the waters north of Iceland as part of routine research when the unfortunate specimen, belonging to the clam species Arctica islandica, was hauled up from waters 250 feet deep.

Only after researchers cut through its shell, which made it more of an ex-clam, and counted its growth rings did they realize how old it had been — between 405 and 410 years old.

Another clam of the same species had been verified at 220 years old, and a third may have lived 374 years. But this most recent clam was the oldest yet.

"Its death is an unfortunate aspect of this work, but we hope to derive lots of information from it," postdoctoral scientist Al Wanamaker told London's Guardian newspaper. "For our work, it's a bonus, but it wasn't good for this particular animal."

Silence

Shhhh, listen closely...do you hear that? Nothing...that's what I heard Saturday as I stood alongside Mrazek Trail way up in the forest close to Happy Valley. It was a cool afternoon and in the shade of the towering trees where sunlight hadn't warmed the ground for a few hours, it was downright cold. When the wind started it came from way up high in the tops of the trees and it spread slowly, bringing with it a soft hushed hawwwwwwwwwwww kind of sound. I was slightly damp with sweat after having ridden up singletrack all the way from town and the chill felt kind of good.

Manzanita EVERYWHERE!



Spooky! The flash lightened it up back in there but this section is dark.



Time for a snack break.



After the round of rain and snowmelt the mountains got, the berms have packed down and are so much fun.



Derek on a little rock.



I always have so much fun riding my bike. Almost equally as fun is eating afterwards, we cooked up a big batch of monterrey jack, corn and roasted red pepper risotto. DELICIOUS!

-8

It was a chilly ride at lunch today. I didn't plan for it to be quite so cold when I left in the morning - thought it would warm up a bit more than it did. I got about 10 minutes into the ride and decided to swing by the house and change out my wind vest for a thermal vest! Brrr! Tonight it's supposed to get down to -8 celsius...that's 17 degrees!!!!!! Sorry for the lack of pictures, i haven't been in the picture mood for some reason. This weekend I hope to get some good rides in both days and I'll dig the camera out for those.

Hope your Friday is a good one!

Night Ride Time

I went mountain biking after work yesterday...hit the trails at 4:40 and got almost 2 hours in before it was too dark to see. Next time I'll have to hook my lights up so I can extend the ride. It was as fun as usual. I hammered up to Phil's Helipad and then turned around and came all the way down before adding on a shorter loop. Good little ride. This morning when I put my gloves on to ride to work they were still damp with sweat from the night before. Ewwwwwwwwww!

Have a good Wednesday wherever you are!

WOW! I saw this on the LA TImes website: Twelve firefighters are trapped atop a ridge off Santiago Canyon Road in Orange County after flames jumped the road. The blaze roared up the hillside and prompted the crew members to deploy their fire shelters. They were surrounded by burning brush, but they made it out alive. "We just remained calm, everyone did," one firefighter said after he was checked out by paramedics. All of the firefighters were treated at the scene and did not want to go to the hospital.

San Diego Fires

San Diego is on fire again. It was only 2003 when the last big fires ravaged the area. I'm hearing they are worse off this time. Bonnie, Jen, Andi, Mark, Lisa....hope you are all ok and drop me a line when you get a chance. The lines are all tied up but I'd love to hear from you.

Weekend Recap

I was half kidding when I woke up Saturday morning and saw Derek peeking out of the blinds. "Did it snow?" I asked. IT HAD!

Here's a dog eye's view.




Sunday it was bright and sunny and we took to the trails. I'm not religous but damn, there has to be somebody to thank for what an awesome day it was. If you haven't ridden a mountain bike through the forest lately I don't know if words can do the experience justice. The trails were hardpack from the recent rains and snowmelt. There was just such an energy out there that causes a smile to takeover my face even as I sit here now at a computer. Taking a corner at high speed as you lean into it and bob and weave with a bit of snap is electrifyiing. It's you and a bike having all that fun out there together.

Make Like a Tree

and leave!




Derek took these while waiting for me for after work yesterday.

See you in a Hundred Years

I'm talking about the book. I just finished it after checking it out on a whim. It's not for everyone, but the thought of doing something like this is appealing to me. It's a simple story of a husband and wife who quit their jobs and move to rural Virginia and attempt to spend a year living life as it was circa 1900. Good read and I give it two thumbs up.

It is finally raining which is GREAT news. I didn't ride to work since I'm still on the fence with this sore throat/sinus thing. What I did see yesterday after work though, was amazing. A guy was riding up Brookswood towing a canoe behind him! I wish I could have gotten a picture of that.

We're almost to Friday...hang in there!

Edison - Lava Lake

Here's a fantastic ride we hadn't done yet this year for some reason. Trail conditions can get really dusty but after the recent rain and snow up towards Bachelor I had a feeling there would be no dust Saturday. "Highway" 45 just opened back up after having been closed all summer for repaving and widening. We had to follow the pilot car down to the snow park.



The ride winds through lava rock fields and tree cover. The soil was a nice damp, tacky surface. In the shaded sections it was cool but the sun would always find a way to welcome us back and shout with glee while we hunkered down for the climbs and let it fly on the descents. I love this ride, hell, I love most rides.










This might be the last weekend we ride comfortably at that elevation - rain and snow are in the forecast for the coming weekend.

Just to throw it out there, this coming Saturday is Biketoberfest. If you're looking for some way to help all these trails out, come join COTA and even get some free food! It's not a huge time committment and it's a great way to give back. If I can ditch this ridiculous sore throat I now have, I'll be there for sure.

First Pumpkin

My nephew Cameron took his first trip to the pumpkin patch!



It was the best fall weekend yet. I didn't upload the pictures from my ride but I will tonight. Hopefully some of the magic of the trail came out in them.

Politics Anyone?

It isn't often that you'll see much political content on my blog but I thought this might interest some of you. Maybe you've seen it, maybe not. It's a site where you can go through a couple of pages of statements on different topics. The statements were made by presidential hopefuls and after you check which ones you agree with on however many topics you care to go through, it tells you who you're top choices should be based on how many statements you matched with each candidate. Pretty interesting. Have at it. My Election Choices

No hands!

Do you remember as a kid when you first learned to ride with no hands? Remember how cool you were? I still feel cool whenever I ride no hands. It's a very useful skill to have when you're trying to get your jacket off and shove it in your pocket, or take your arm warmers off or whatever. Yesterday on my ride home as I was coming through my neighborhood there was a group of little boys practicing riding with no hands and I had to chuckle to myself as I pedaled by. I should have stopped and taken their picture.

Welcome to the color. The weather was PERFECT for my lunch ride and I had a great time out there.

Why

Why can't people get that the more people that ride their bikes to work, or walk or skateboard or whatever, means there are less cars waiting in traffic?

"I don't think encouraging cycling is going to reduce congestion or significantly change the transportation makeup of our cities," says Randal O'Toole, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. "There really is very little evidence that any of (these efforts) are reducing the amount of driving. They're just making it more annoying to drivers."

WOW

Hop Trip!

I stopped by Deschutes yesterday to have some Hop Trip beer. It was just as good as I remember it from last fall. I think overall, the seasonals in fall/winter are better than spring/summer so there is a lot to drink these coming months.

It isn't all about drinking though. Aside from the strong winds, it was a good day for a bike ride. Hopefully I can get some more rides in for the next few weekends - I love the forest this time of year. The cold temps are gone and we're back in the 60's now.

Derek got some of his pictures published here. It was getting dark so he said it was hard to get some good shots.

Hope everyone has a nice Monday!

Friday fun day!

Fun Bend City Code fact of the day:
Except in an authorized parade, no person shall lead, ride, tie, or fasten a goat, horse, cow, sheep, swine or similar animal in such a manner as to permit it to remain on or go along a parking strip, sidewalk area, or public pathway.

Autumn is a blur.

Happy Wednesday

Not much new going on for me. I raced a storm home last night. The wind was out to get me and it would hide until I got into the open away from everything and then it would rush up in a hurry like there was an emergency or something. I like stormy skies with the different colored clouds and character.



I felt a couple spits but nothing major and I pulled into the driveway breathing heavily.

Tomorrow night is the big Bend Bella Cyclist meeting and I hope we get a good turnout. I prepared a slideshow with pictures of different rides we did this past season - should be fun.

Happy October

BAM, just like that September is gone and here we are in a new month. I've been scraping together some rides the last couple weeks at lunch and after work. At least at lunch it's sunny and I can appreciate the leaves and fall colors. After work though it just gets a bit chilly out.

We spent last weekend in rainy Portland visiting some family and breweries. Hey, breweries can be like family. I'm extra excited to get over to Deschutes ASAP to try out my favorite seasonal Hop Trip. YUM!

I see snow on Bachelor and lots of it!



WOOHOO!