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Mountain Man Tackle:

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Some pictures of Wyatt...

Pretty self explanatory...

College Football

So I watch quite a bit of college football. In fact, thanks to the DVR (and frequent rebroadcasts on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN U, Fox Sports Pacific/Atlantic/North/Southwest, Mountain West Sports and Versus) and ESPN.com I average 10 games a week. For some reason however, I have only been able to catch two Wisconsin games despite watching nearly every Air Force and Miami game.
A few of my thoughts on this season:
-The instant replay situation is out of control. It is employed entirely too frequently and rarely results in a reversal of the on the field call. Games are lasting too long, and the flow is disrupted way too much. Last week in the Notre Dame/Pitt game, I counted 7 reviews even though I was watching a rebroadcast that skipped through much of the third quarter and large portions of the first. The only call that was reversed was an initially incomplete pass that was scooped off the ground by a Pitt defender, but whistled dead immediately. "On review" it was ruled a fumble, but the defender could have easily scored a TD if it wouldn't have been blown dead. It was also one of the most questionable reviews I have seen yet this season.
-The number of dropped passes this year is the most I have seen. In the Wisconsin/Purdue game, Purdue QB Joey Elliot went 5 for 23, partially due to nine dropped passes. In the Florida/SC State game starting Florida WR Riley Copper dropped (two passes, in the end zone alone. These are just a few examples, but it is pretty bad this year.
-The "East Coast bias" Pac-10 coaches and fans like to whine about so much seems to be just the opposite. USC was overrated all season, and despite being BLOWN OUT by Oregon and Stanford, remains in the top 20 in all polls and even in the BSC rankings that coach Carroll is forever haranguing. Stanford's win over USC vaulted them to 14 in the AP poll and 17 in the USA Today poll, despite losses to unranked Arizona (6-3)and unranked Wake Forest who is 4-7! They also lost to Oregon State (who took USC to the wire losing 42-36), yet are ranked higher in all the polls. The Pac-10 seems to be riding the wave of emotion sports writers seem to still maintain for USC.
-Still don't understand the hype over Miami QB Jacory Harris. He makes terrible decisions in important situations (19 TD's 16 INT's) His stats are buoyed by the huge game he had against Georgia Tech, but they seem shockingly good when you watch him play.
-Don't even get me started on the Heisman "favorites" this year...

See next post...

Wyoming trout

Also stopped at a mountain pond in WY. Still had a double willow spinner bait tied onto the heavy rod. (Ran over the light action one over in IA, don't ask).
Figured (hoped)some Northerns might be in there so I was casting it and ripping in in pretty fast over the shallow weeds.
Not sure why this guy has so hungry. He looked stuffed full of food to me. Heavy and hard fighting fish, photos don't do it justice.

Nebraska bass

Stopped at a little lake near the NE, CO, WY border on the way home from IA.

Hello?

Hello me and you,
Just a quick one before I go to bed, but I plan on updating this at least once a week again. I haven't been ridding much lately, but I did do a ride/hike up into the peaks behind my house to check out the snow. LOTS of snow. I will report back with a report and pictures.

Missed my weekly goal

Well, I didn't hit my goal. I kinda off expected it, because my body was just not cooperating. My knee was aching really badly and for some reason the arches of my feet have been killing me. I really don't know what is causing it, but they hurt and are visibly bruised. It might be my bike shoes, the soles do not seem as stiff as they used to be. To top it off, I managed to pick up a killer headcold. But I did ride a lot of dirt and the rides were much more fun than the same old road route over and over.
Other than that, I am taking the day off of work today due to a fire which is burning near our house. Last night Amy and I went to Costco and as we were leaving we saw the huge plume of smoke. The road to our house was closed by the sheriff's department so we spent the night at Amy's parent's. This morning they were letting residents only in, and I decided to stay home just in case they evacuated. The fire is about a mile away and the wind is blowing away, but it is gusting up to 30 miles an hour and is shifting a lot. I don't feel any real danger from the fire itself, but I don't want to be stranded if they close the road or evacuate.

Quick one before bed...

Well, I missed 165 by about 15 miles. Not too bad, not too great. I finished up with 25 really hard, fast paced miles last night. I set my Friday to Friday goal at 170 this week. I rode an easy 9 miles today. Amy's triatholon is on Sunday....
Blathering,
sleepy,
3:30 am,
wake up in 3 1/2 hours,
dhfksl;fh;;lkd,

Getting close to 165...

So I have one more day left to hit my goal of 165 miles this week. The last three days I was thinking I was going to just miss it, but I only have 40 miles left. Whooo-hoo!! My ride plan actualy includes close to 40 miles of riding, so I will probably end up with almost exactly 165.. or I could add some extra exploring on the way into work, but that is doubtful because it is 11:38 and I am still awake and active because I just spent hours doing homework. My only non-working/riding hours of the day thus far.
I did squeeze in a three hour, easy pace dirt trail ride on my Surly 'cross bike. It was a blast to ride skinny little 1.25" tires on dirt and hit some fun, flowing and fast singletrack.
Anywise, I am off to the showers and then beddy-bye.
Bye.

I'm back

We just returned from Iowa. Amy and I flew into Milwaukee, rented a car and drove to visit family. We spent a ton of the time hanging out with my grandma, my sisters, their husbands and my niece. I went hunting with my brother in law and saw ten to twelve deer including some nice bucks. He passed up on all of them hoping for a larger buck, which never appeared. It was still a blast. I also toured the back roads in route to a nearby river which was high thanks to the thunderstorms from the night before, (I had forgotten how much I like lightning) but I did catch a petite smallmouth bass.
I have logged in 65 miles over two days of riding since Thursday. I also purchased a day planner and carry it everywhere I go to log my food, water and riding, as well as work and school notes. Having everything consolidated is so much easier than multiple notebooks, etc. and I am already staying on track more consistently. My goal by next Thursday is an additional 100 miles.
My geared bike’s rear wheel is shot so I have been riding the single speed exclusively lately. I love that bike and it is only about ten minutes slower than my geared bike over the trip to work. Only having one gear forces you to pedal at both extremes, slow powerful pedal strokes up the hill as well as high speed spinning on the downhill. If I can manage to make up that time, I will be more powerful as well as improving my cardio by upping my cadence. I think I will be spending a another few weeks on the single speed until I can afford to build new wheels, and swap most of my geared parts to new frame I have had for months now. It should be a better fit and ride, plus its lighter. I have putting the swap off because I want the parts to due the bike justice, and some of my current parts are showing some wear and tear and need replacement. Even at wholesale cost, longwearing, quality components are not cheap.

At school today

I tried to make it in to work early today and considering riding in the entire way, but I hitched a ride with Amy partway. It is nice to spend time with her because my riding and work schedule is so different than her work schedule. I ended up riding into work about 12-13 miles in 45 minutes, only to realize I had left my keys at home and no one was at the shop yet. It was fine because I used the time to study for a test I have tonight (which I should be studying for now) and also forced me to take the train towards school and then ride 5 more miles. I had planned on driving my car (which I left parked at work the night before) but this time my disorganization lead me to add miles unlike times in the past where it cut into my workouts.

Back to the books.

Report on last night's ride home

So I skipped out of 10 miles on the ride home last night. I have been scouting a route that cuts through the foothills between my home and school instead of going around them. It involves riding through land owned by a development company which they set aside to meet required "conservation" leases in order to receive huge tax breaks. In reality, as soon as the "conservation lease" expires the land will be promptly developed. To make matters even worse, the land (and the paved roads throughout) are gated and off limits to anyone. I finally gave them the figurative middle finger and rode on a paved road that basically runs due north to my house. While it was ten miles shorter, the climb was brutal, both due to the grade and my lack of planning. It ended being an elevation gain of about 1,300 feet in four miles. Add to that the ass kicking I gave myself on the 25 miles to school, and the fact that it was 7:00 pm when I left school and my last food intake was at 11:00 am and it equals me making noises similar to that of a pig shitting a football and fleeting feelings that crapping my pants was a distinct possibility. I actually stopped pedalling at one point to fart because I didn't think I could work both my leg and sphincter muscles at the same time. I also felt like I was going way, way to slow to make it home in the two hours I told Amy to expect me in, so I kept pushing. It turns out I made it home in an hour five or so over the 14 miles.
I am not sure if the threat of overtraining is becoming a possibility now or not. But at this point I am just happy in being able to push myself so hard. And I didn't work out at all today, so in this case I am sure I am fine.

Arrived, under goal

I am at school right now. I am not sure exactly how long it took because I couldn't find my stopwatch, but based on the time I left and the clock at school, it looks like 1 hour 30. Not too shabby, especially since I had to change a flat!
I went at a quick pace, and added a bunch of sprints to stoplights, both to avoid sitting at them wasting time and to build my acceleration. It really worked me. The last portion of my ride is a long false flat that is really a gradual uphill. I spotted another rider a couple miles distant and poured on the juice to try and catch him. I ended up within 30 yards before I had to turn left, while he continued straight. It really helped to finish stronger than I would have otherwise.

Off to school

I skipped the ride to work today (I have Tuesdays off, but I was going to pick up some extra hours) but I still have a 48 mile round trip to school. I am going to time the ride and use the MP3 player to distract myself from the pain that sometimes occurs when I try to make it under a certain time limit. I am shooting for an hour and twenty minutes on the way there and one hour fifty on the way home. I have a half hour to get ready so I need to pack a change of clothes, hit up the ol' toilet, charge up my light and fill water bottles now. I'll report back.

No rides in the last three days. I attended a wedding on Saturday, I wanted to ride into work, work for a half day and take the train to meet up with Amy. But the train was canceled over the weekend for rail maintenance. Luckily I noted this valuable info the night before, thus driving in to work instead. Sundays have lately become my days off the bike and it remained that way again. Today I was all set to ride into work and then ride home, but realized my shoes were in the car, parked at Amy's parent's house. I thought I could jump to the backup shoes, then remembered pillaging a cleat from them last week. I was upset that I was disorganized and missed a ride, but at least I remembered two minutes before Amy left so I carpooled to the train station.
I will no longer be able to leave things in my car, I am selling it. I had planned on buying a cheap motorcycle and saving up my car payments for awhile. But I may be buying a nice roadbike instead. Banning (the shop owner) offered me a spot on the race team, which would also mean a free carbon frame. I would still have to put a few hundred dollars of parts into it, but they would be at wholesale prices and could be paid off interest free over a few months. This off course means I would have to start having to taking my riding rather seriously. I wouldn't have to change my mileage by a huge amount, but I would need to stick to a regular training schedule. Of course if I have no motorcycle, then well...
I worked out a schedule:
Mondays I would ride at a hard pace into work (1 hour 20 is my best time right now, 25.5 miles) and them hard home (1 hour 40 thanks to climbing the hills.)
Tuesday is my day off and I normally don't ride much lately due to school, but I would add a long mountain or road ride of 3 hours or more at a moderate pace.
Wednesdays I would drive my bike into work, but leave it there and ride home at an easy pace. I think it will be about 2 hours 10 a night.
Thursdays I would ride into work at a moderate overall pace but turn certain sections into mini sprints or climbing each hill as fast as possible to keep my time within 1 hour 35. Then I would drive my bike to school (Or pedal) an d then home (or if pedalling, have Amy pick me up after her workouts).
Fridays would be an easy ride into work, taking about 1 hour 50. Then I would probably have Amy meet me for dinner or a ride home. I took Friday nights off for years and it is hard to ride or workout still.
Saturday i would leave open to either the motorcycle or a ride at "Saturday pace."
If I have a motorcycle, I would still have to pedal every other Saturday. "Saturday pace" varies and depends on the other bike traffic. There are always more rides on my route than normal, but sometimes I still only see riders on the opposite side of the road. But sometimes I see four or five riders and end up chasing them down. And I never like to be passed. Saturdays on the way home are the same, but I generally back off the pace, but the other riders out seem to be doing the same.
That adds up to a weekly total of 230 miles plus another dirt ride or 40 road miles if I don't end up with a motorcycle, which is actually pretty close to the amount of miles I should be riding to compete at the level I want to.
Anywise, I need to get some sleep and ride in tomorrow morning and then off to school.

This looks like a fun course...