Remember Mountain Sport?

I heard there were some kind of games going on. If you are a long time reader you may know that I am a big fan of the biathlon.

In pursuing my vast interests I have come across some YouTube influencers that have rekindled my interest in archery.

Do you remember my Mountain Sport post? The new sport I invented? Way back in 2007.

“Mountain Sport” not among the top ten posts for this blog, in my opinion, but surely read by at least one person I can think of. That would be Charlie, the Running Archer.

Alois, from Charlie’s part of the world, has one of the top ten posts for this blog proving quality out weighs quantity.

I have no problem with people taking my ideas, dumbing them down, or perhaps on the rare occasion making them better. Mountain Sport does have the problem of where one’s arrows go if one should tumble their bike down the trail.

The reality is trail running events and mountain bike events are held together at the same venue.

I can imagine a running archery course being something like those obstacle course dogs run in those Purina Dog shows; something with a grandstand.

When you add a trail run or mountain bike to the mix, trying to draw from the biathlon, there is really only one way to do it.

From the mountain bike perspective, you would stop at a station and shoot your first target from the bike.

But how do you do multiple targets or a penalty lap? You dismount and run a lap, a circle of targets outward so no one runs into a crossfire. Like a handoff zone in track and field you have a zone you must shoot from for each target (or perhaps a jump off point where you must shoot airborne). If you miss a target you must come back around the lap until you have hit all the targets once.

One arrow for each lap for each target. No second shots on the same lap. ? Do you run laps in different directions? Maybe shoot three arrows at a single target from a single zone? Speed shooting.

It would have to be done in a time trial fashion to prevent congestion.

A trail run version is just minus the bike.

The bows used would be commonly known as the horse bow variety. Korean bows, Syrian bows, Tartar, Mongol etc. I caught onto these bows, and were truly drawn to them having some experience in archery myself, through Armin Hirmer on the YouTube. An excellent source for bow reviews.

My first bow was a very basic wood and fiberglass compound that eventually cracked.

I have a simple fiberglass compound bow now. I make up for the short draw length with a trigger device and have been known to hit a chipmunk. I never paid much attention to the weight or spine strength of an arrow, but Armin Hirmer has enlightened me on that topic.

Also it is very interesting to understand the maintenance of a true horn bow. Competition categories could include traditional or compound bow construction.

And from a survivalist, or prepper sense we should have some basic ideas on how to make our own bows and arrows. In fact before I discover the two aforementioned archery sites I was watching Kramer Ammons and his Shatterproof Archery; he builds bows.

Yes, the future is uncertain in my eyes, and potentially dangerous. Many a bush craft site will show you how to make a basic bo, string and arrows.

“You’re going to buy one of those bows now, aren’t you?” my wife grilled me as I watched so many videos, but I answered “No, maybe if we move out to a farm someday.”

Yes, I will be back on the mountain bike with a vengeance this coming Spring. I do not think it will involve carrying a bow.

I saw some ethnic/horse bows on Amazon… I used to think I would be near perfect but for my outbursts at other drivers on the road while driving. Then I started reading Amazon reviews.

I saw multiple reviews of this type of bow, negative reviews. They all mentioned the notches for stringing the bow were on the wrong side… Then it struck me.

The Korean bow would be the most pronounced of its’ kind. If it shaped like this, C, after it is strung it will appear like this, }. So the inside of the C becomes the outside of the curve when strung. So not only did the reviewers not comprehend the bow would be bent back to such a great degree they did not even research or have any former knowledge of the type of bow they were buying.

A sad commentary on what society has become.

Considering I am shadow banned lets see how many new subscriptions we can get for these guys the aforementioned websites. I’ve noticed bump ups when I have mentioned sites before.

Of course, looking to establish an Olympic event course with bows one could always try shooting horse bows from… horses.

Thank you for reading.

I forgot about the contest page I have been running for my last two posts. I will be updating the contest page and all my links in the near future for this blog and my others.

The $171 question: What were my three most favorite WORS races? (some may no longer exist as venues have changed) Check out the Charity Jackpot Page link in the sidebar to possibly triple the amount. 

Cold Showers

I have not had a hot shower in over a year. A few hot baths, but most always followed by a cold showr.

Ever expanding inexplicable magnificence as the waters turn icy cold with the approaching Winter. So cold at times I don’t want to get out of the shower.

Sometimes it is so cold it feels like it is burning.

An icy shower is better than morning coffee; not blasphemy, an inconvenient truth for the weak of stature.

I hear you.

“Who takes baths?” some accuse, “Those tubs are so tiny. No one takes baths.”

Well… I do. Very seldom but I do.

It would be really nice to have a deep soak tub though…

A man too can dream.

For all those of you bad mouthing cold showers, cold water therapy, I believe that is the topic today, for all of you naysayers, I have two choice words.

Wim Hof

It is dangerous to promote unsanctioned health these days so I will refer to his work in this regard.

Yes Wim Hof is a person, a man.

As Wim Hof teaches, the cold exercises a vast micro-muscular system that regulates our arterial system. So all the tiny muscles rally to keep the cold out and the core warm. You may have seen images of Wim Hof hiking up Mt. Everest.

When combined with breathing exercises a conditioned arterial system can restrict the spread of a pathogen, keeping it from progressing through the body, as tested true in Wim Hof and his adherents.

Modern society is bent on degrading this micro-muscular system. We do not tolerate the hot or cold, heavy weights or even walking any substantial distances.

Weight lifting, as I see it, builds up pressure in the muscles you are exercising, so that the same tiny muscular system has to compensate to keep a steady healthy pressure through the rest of the body. People with good muscle mass general live longer.

Walking! There you go working all those tiny muscles in tandem. The whole system creates a rhythm to optimize the proper pressure for your heart, brain organs etc. when we are walking. All those muscles coordinated, synchronized. Sounds healthy to me. People do not live long after they loose their mobility, at least not without modern interventions.

I imagine the greater your muscle mass the more robust results this synchronization exercise creates.

So modern life is killing us all? By design? If money can be made.

Don’t get me started on the food.

There was a story some years ago about a cricket player who was struck just under the edge of his helmet. Pressure on an artery sent a sudden rush of blood into his brain causing damage. he died.

Not sure how fighters train to receive hits; train for a proper micro muscular response.

Does striking something with the sudden resistance at the strike, train the body to be struck? Or is it one of the necessities of sparring; to learn to take a hit?

Jump roping? No idea, but rebounding is very healthy in that it stimulates the proper and vigorous flow of the lymph system.

Walking, building muscle and cold therapy, I hope I have opened some eyes to the different ways one can work an unacknowledged system to become healthier.

I imagine High Intensity Interval training (HIIT) would also exercise the arterial system with its ups and downs. I will right a post on that but in regards to a different benefit.

Saunas, heat, red light, chromatic therapy? I will have some experience there to share in the near future.

Sleep is also very healthy and still my Achilles’ heal, as I do not see myself getting any significant sleep any time soon. I have gotten off my CPAP machine, not totally successfully, and will write about that in time this coming 2022.

Yes, this blog is back.

This is the story that made me a great admirer of Wim Hof.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holy Days, to everyone.

Thank you for reading.

Happy New Year!

Really, have a Merry Christmas.

Marlin 7; Dog’s Life

Image remake.

It has been a long time since I posted here; a long time since I have entered a mountain bike race or time trial.

I could not even tell you how long ago Trek changed the labeling of their product line. The bike that fits my current criteria is a couple hundred dollars more now than when first I looked into it last year.

That would be the Marlin 7. What the heck is going on with those shifters? The 1x drive train? I am intrigued.

My Trek 6700 is old and the constant tweaking it needs to ride well discourages. I converted it into more of a get around bike with basic pedals but…

I have discovered that I really do not enjoy riding without those snap-in peddles; previously known as clip-less. I even need them to enjoy my stationary setup.

From early on with that thing going round I believe we became immune. Since however I have been having blood sugar issues. After being low carb for so long I have to wonder if it is a long haul issue or something along these lines.

I got out on this ride last Summer despite the plandemic. It is all about peace

I should be doing some HIIT(High Intensity Interval Training); as it is excellent for raising insulin sensitivity.

I should be sleeping better too but…

I get little more than four hours of sleep, if that, at a time these days. We all know that sleep is a big healer. Run three businesses and add an authoritarian local government breathing down your neck and sleep is not something to count on.

Oh well.

Bureaucracy has been keeping me away from the truly important and needed work on my property.

A brain on bureaucracy is like a brain on drugs.

Malicious, incompetent and depraved. This they are not bothered with apparently.

A bit discouraged by my blood sugar dilemma, and seeking spiritual enlightenment (always), I did a long fast a few months ago; over 72 hours. I believe such fasts are essential from time to time for health. Now that the farmer’s market season is well underway it works well for me to get in a 20+ hour fast a couple times a week.

Our home, the part the city has issues with.

What will the future hold for this blog?

New peddles and shoes?

A new bike or perhaps just a new saddle?

During the lockup I bought myself a ukulele…

I have some interesting finds in health and fitness techniques.

I have been doing the cold showers for nearly a year now. It must be almost a year. Alls I remember thinking was, “Why didn’t I start this when it was hot out?”

I have given up on the gym membership paradigm.

Getting off the CPAP. Is it possible?

Breathe.

Stay tuned.

Thanks for reading.

Check out this star studded line up.

Breathe.

And try praying.

Be nice.

More Gym

Lack of sleep and exercise, along with plenty of stress, have kept my health in question. But I promised to complete my opinions on gyms last post.

Has it been five months!

I know however what you all really want to know… “What did you get for Father’s Day Phillip?”

A book.

I am no convict but I find this book extremely valuable. Personal body weight training is superior to all strength training but that doesn’t necessarily negate the value of a gym membership.

There are body weight training rigs at the gym of which I am currently a member. The typical bench press is still a good bench mark, no charge for the pun, to measure one’s strength.

Most of us have little room for such equipment at home.

Before we get into it Emery’s of Menomonee Falls is having a fat tire demo day and sale on Saturday November 2nd. Register Here.

You can exercise outside all Winter with a fat Bike.

If you are into Cross Fit, and have the room in your home, like my brother does with his humungous basement, you could save your high cross fit gym fees and spend them on your own equipment. All their workouts are available for free online. But people like simple so they pay.

Nine Round is another outfit of continually changing routines.

If you don’t want to be training alone in your basement, facing your own thoughts, or you just do not have the room in your home a gym membership is valuable if you use it.

And in regards to room, Chuck Norris’ Total Gym is a great space saving body weight training rig. Varying versions range from $300 to nearly$4,000.

The gym of which I am currently a member, Xperience, has a wide range of training opportunities and a minimal membership provides value pricing.

You are paying for the social aspect and the support that brings. I am sure the camaraderie is more important for some than for others.

Blast closed down, from what I read not because of profits. They shut down their gyms that had no local stake holders. From the poor facility conditions of their Hawley Road location it is apparent to me that without an onsite investor the buildings are not cared for.

Planet Fitness commercials always mention 'locally owned.'

Using a club’s class selections is a must. Yoga classes are always around and are a great next step to body weight training. Body weight training is said to be superior as it strengthens your tendons and bones far better as well as creating a better nerve response and improved balance. The movements are the epitome of natural.

Xperience has saunas and heat therapy is very beneficial for your health. The showers can run very cold for the benefits of cold therapy taking a strain off your home water bill.

The tanning rooms are 15 minute standing ultraviolet. There are some benefits to limited ultraviolet exposure.

Infrared is a highly regarded healing light, three kinds, and an infrared room would make an nice addition.

Another improvement would be a merit based weight room.

I saw some one off gyms on YouTube talk about their University weight training set up. So if you had a couple set ups in a private room, a room where to enjoy its benefits you would have to take a class and meet minimal standards, you could improve lifters’ experience.

The standards would include not only training in proper techniques but also the etiquette of allowing others to work in. You could have a set order or progression of exercises that could change daily. Anyone who has taken the required one time class, an opportunity for the trainers to connect with the members and collect a small fee, and meet the performance standards can walk in and work in smoothly with those already working out.

You get to the gym and you want the bench press but one guy is using it and wont let anyone in until he finishes his sets. Yeah it happens. So people end up on the cardio equipment.

I took on three times the work I was planning to with my microgreens business so haven’t made the gym most of the summer. I am easing into the body weight training with mostly squats and leg raises. 

As the market season winds down there will be a lot of reallocation of resources going on.

The best way to make money is to save money, so weigh your options for fitness and health.

Don not be a HENRY.

Whatever happened to those racquet ball clubs?

Competition is out of vogue. Hand ball or similar such facilities represented class; unwelcome in a society without class.

Saying you had no class used to be an insult.

The $168 question: What were my three most favorite WORS races? (some may no longer exist as venues have changed) Check out the Charity Jackpot Page link in the sidebar to possibly triple the amount.

I have to revamp this charity jackpot page.

Multifaceted Healing - or - The Gym

Only a few moments remain to register for the La Crosse Omnium. They even have a Facebook page, so 2018.

I enjoyed volunteering for the Bike Expo. Those of us taking down the display had a great time chewing the fat when we were done. It is a very nice easy social organization that Metro Mountain Bikers thing.

After returning from Vegas, staying away from the obvious carbohydrates but eating a typical American diet otherwise while I was there, I came to realize that my blood glucose meter was off by 20% in the wrong direction. Was that tingling in my toes a symptom portending doom or psychosomatic?

Here is one of the best meals I had at IPEC, taking back to my time in Korea. I was well aware that most of all the recipes for those dishes included sugar. Grapefruit is actually good for glucose control.

At the Vegas airport I was back to a good attempt at keeping the keto diet. I couldn’t find any low carb offerings at any food vendors, even those with names of famous chefs, but had to hit the mega news stand to find dinner. The cheese blocks the uptake of oxalates from the nuts. Cashews are full of zinc.

So I find myself worse off sugar wise and having fallen short in taking my supplements, sleep and exercise. Diet and intermittent fasting are only two prongs of my multipronged attack on diabetes.

The low carbs keeps the blood sugar low and the intermittent fasting (eating only within an 8 hour or shorter window every day) allows your body to get itself into healing/regeneration mode. Digestion consumes 80% of your bodies energy.

Of course you need good lengthy sleeps to heal also. Something I am still not getting.

Diabetes.You all have it. You just don’t know it yet.

Supplements; a blood glucose control formula is readily available and along with a Chromium supplement reverses type 2 diabetes for some.

Minerals that you are most likely lacking, if you are pre-diabetic or worse, are zinc, magnesium, and potassium. You can get those through diet or supplements, a trace mineral supplement is a good idea and will supply a little extra zinc. Lamb meat is loaded with zinc.

I have been taking magnesium citrate for a long time and am lucky I have. Some early symptoms typical of type 2 diabetes I never experienced. It also relaxes the muscles at the end of the day.

D3 with K2 are great for lowering blood pressure and opening and softening up those arteries. I think that has to do with reversing calcification. That is sunshine and grass fed and grass finished beef.

The B vitamins: the health condition strips you of them. An unfortified nutritional yeast can supply them. Its’ cheesy flavor is good on a salad. B1 is a big one. It can block the development of those sticky proteins created when your blood sugar is too high, leading to all the severe consequences, and is essential for rebuilding your neuro pathways. Benfotiamine is the supplement you want.

If you have blood sugar problems you have had liver issues for a long time already. Milk thistle is good for that along with choline.

Then I need my exercise to increase my metabolism. Building muscle mass and decreasing fat helps defeat the type 2.

Xperience fitness is very scalable. I am paying for an interval training program but have had little time to attend the classes. Interval training is the most healthy exercise. That is exercise rest exercise, Like push, relax push, or in other words exactly like a bike ride where you peddle than coast. Bicycling is no doubt a large reason my health is not much worse today.

I need more sleep and exercise.

Of course I may have avoided all this drama if I had not lived off vending machines for a good portion of time I went back to college for my degree. But High fructose corn syrup was still in its infancy as were GMO’s.

Lucky me.

I will have to expound more on my gym experience next post.

Sorry.

The $167 question: What were my three most favorite WORS races? (some may no longer exist as venues have changed) Check out the Charity Jackpot Page link in the sidebar to possibly triple the amount.

I'm So Excited

By this new age of blessing and prosperity for all mankind?

Yes. But also by the Bike Expo, just days away. It has been going for 35 years.

And let us not forget Spring and life in general.

Woo hooo!

And I just returned from Vegas, a spiritual retreat. It would be hard to mountain bike this terrain.

But I hiked it!

Woo Hooo!

I will be a volunteer at the Metro Mountain Bikers’ booth at specially select time. We are going all out. You have to stop by and take a look at the display. Ask questions.

Be inspired!

WORS is a magnificent organization for all levels of mountain bike competition.

You could even purchase a bike or biking related accessory at the event. Wheel and Sprocket, the sponsors of the Bike Expo, are the number one business advocates of mountain biking in our community.

Emery’s is also having a sale, for even a week longer. They claim prices lower than the expo. They have always been good to me so I will throw them a plug.

But it is really exciting to get down to the State Fair grounds with all those people.

The season is just beginning!

Woo Hooo!

And how can one not be excited over the fall of veganism!

Yes, people’s interest in veganism is increasing. Their interest in watching it implode upon itself.

You just have to check out the growing carnivore movement. It is by far the healthiest diet for most.

Woo Hooo!

Which diet kills more animals?

Go Bobby!

Did you ever wonder what will happen to that time traveling car from “Back to the Future?

Lost on the bottom of an ancient ocean.

The $166 question: What were my three most favorite WORS races? (some may no longer exist as venues have changed) Check out the Charity Jackpot Page link in the sidebar to possibly triple the amount.

Millennials; The Other Baby Boomers?

I bought some Blue Cheese stuffed olives at Fresh Thyme a while back. They cost $7.99 a pound. The Blue Cheese, we always capitalize Cheese in the formal here in Wisconsin, cost $18.00 a pound.

So how much did the olives cost?

$7.99 a pound.

Those wedges of Blue Cheese made from raw milk that you can get at Trader Joes… to die for.

Now I have upset the vegans, the Millennials, those other baby boomers, who if not vegan, sympathize deeply with vegans. I brought up olives and combined them with an animal based product and implied death. Yes the likes of the vegan and many Millennials vehemently seek out things, no matter how mundane, to be offended by.

I only write of what I know.

All Millennials exist as an extension of the baby boomer generation, a generation which vilified their parents and past institutions, or rather everything that came before that gave them the wondrous lifetime they have enjoyed. A lifetime advanced in comfort beyond all others in all of history is truly something to fret over.

Rejecting all that has come before is sort of like aborting a baby before it is born. Oops, I’ve offended again. Let me rephrase with a more sensitive metaphor. It is like castrating your father before you are conceived. Which is great as long as he is a white man.

To the generation vilifying meat and declaring herd animals a source of global warming and a detriment to our environment and ecology I have one reference that proves you all the fools, unless you already know that you are spreading lies (which makes you outright liars unfit for position and status in a world seeking righteousness), and that is The Savory Institute.

Yeah, we had millions upon millions of Bison (you know, herbivores like cattle) grazing the plains, creating grass root systems that burrowed feet upon feet into the ground sequestering carbon, holding water and bringing abundant life, but we wouldn’t want to go back to that. (mob grazing: see Savory Institute) We should lay the plains bare and cover them with soil depleting GMO soy or corn with its accompanying glyphosate so we can all enjoy that delicious rich and flavorful tofu drizzled with high fructose corn syrup.

The parent’s of the baby boomers had no problem envisioning our potential future in many an artistic endeavor, a world where we are entitled only to eat soy, plankton and bugs. They knew where it would lead. Soylent Green is people.

We, the common man, are the bugs.

Now the Millenials that built the company selling Soylent are surly offended by my Soylent Green reference, to which I respond, “You named your product Soylent fools!”

A complete disregard for the past reference. I find hope only in that many share in my target of ridicule. And do not get me started with Analog Watches.

…They are not analog. They said so themselves on The Nightly Business report.

Like my millennial brother says, “It’s about the story, not the substance.”

What world do you seek? Who are you making rich as the world rots from within, from the sugar and carbohydrate saturated guts of the common man?

I could go on, but I transgress into the realm of one of my other blogs.

Of course I generalize yet declare myself absolutely relevant in all my views. It makes for a better story.

The future of mountain biking, at least here in Southeastern Wisconsin, rests upon the Millennials not being the other baby boomers; they who reject those that have come before, those forbearers who actual knew how to build and built with hand tools many of the trails we all enjoy around the Metro Milwaukee area.

Actually… they are all baby boomers.

I am scratching my head.

A few Millennial members of metro envision that all the local ski hills being surrendered over to mountain biking, with its berms and other build outs on slopes, because there just won’t be any more Winter snow here in ten years.

Hey! It was said in a public meeting. It is approved for public consumption.

This is from our first blow of snow, when we reached near record cold temperatures. It is much higher now. No puns intended.

The new up and coming leaders in Metro Mountain Bikers have great vision, hope and even drive. They will take the club far, but how?

A group from Metro took a trip to  Arkansas a little while back. Great mountain biking, with various biking amenities having been established there on the corporate dime.

The corporate dime? Why?

Because Arkansas is investing in the apparent new and upcoming industries, the technology industry, and they need to attract the Millennial worker, so they need the amenities that the millennial demands. I am not sure why anyone would want to attract the Millennial worker other than that is what is currently available, but that is the way it stands.

So bicycling amenities in Arkansas of every type are being invested in, funded by various corporate interests. I heard the trip was mind blowing, simply fantastic.

With FOXConn coming to the region a similar need for top rate amenities will drive corporate dollars into bicycling features and trails.

The Rock, in Franklin, I believe understands this and in order to attract an influx of young up and comers to buy their properties they are developing (Ball Park Commons). They are more than happy to build a long awaited and hoped for pump track amidst their development.

Everything is about socializing to the Millenials and a vast pump track next to an umbrella bar is perfect for that vision of the future.

Those taking up the mantle of leadership in Metro Mountain Bikers are well accomplished individuals, in profession and life. No video game slackers in the bicycling community. Not sure how they would vote on any marijuana referendums, not that they are users. I simply question their sensibilities.

My remarks here are driven by a sense of discord I felt this Summer between the old and new in the club. A discord that seems to have dissipated, so all is looking good for a future where professionals will be paid to build trail with machines.

Look for many new and improved trails in the near future, including Glacial Blue,  and Port Washington trails.

With the decline and fall of IMBA a consolidation of clubs has occurred. Fat Kats is now under the Metro umbrella. I’ve written of Fat Kats unethical behavior in the past. Of course that was long long ago, when there still was a race is Sheboygan.

When I first started in mountain biking I used to win raffles all the time.

But who cares about being ripped off in a raffle by a spur of the moment case of bad judgment driven by bigotries society refuses to address, unlike racism, when we are all being poisoned with highly refined sugar and carbohydrates, not to mention the associated chemicals all to ensure big pharm gets their share of the money grab.

It is outright criminal on both the corporate and government bureaucratic level.

Will any of us survive after 5G when they can target are brains to be cooked from within? Seriously, 5G is military tech, whole new tech not a 4G upgrade, designed not only for communications but to be weaponized.

I guess our baby boomer overlords do not trust their own spawn.

The Lacrosse Omnium is putting out the e-mails early this year. If you do not receive them and are planning your Summer already click here for the RAW (ride across Wisconsin) details.

The Omnium La Crosse premiere event always looks awesome, though I have never had the chance to watch it in person.

Next month I will be evaluating gyms and my Winter time gym experience.

Yes, I am newly resolved to post here monthly. If I do not post here at least once a month there will definitely be a post on “Poker Facades” or “From the Inside” in compensation. Hope to have this blog redesigned soon also. Actually, I missed January and have two posts tonight. Is it still the 27th?

The $165 question: What were my three most favorite WORS races? (some may no longer exist as venues have changed) Keeping the same question. Check out the Charity Jackpot Page link in the sidebar to possibly triple the amount.