Weight

I heard that putting a mirror in the kitchen is one tactic for losing weight. That is, you will think twice about reaching into the refrigerator when you see your chubby self giggling across the room. I find looking at old photos a source of inspiration to lose weight also. I spent four years in Korea getting to the studio most every night after working the early hours of the morning and doing volunteer activities much of the day.

I could use some quiet time too just to sit and reflect without disturbance.

Decreasing testosterone is a big problem for some as they get older. It is related to weight gain as endless advertisements for supplements suggest. Of course if you want to compete you cannot be using supplements of that kind but there are natural ways to increase one’s testosterone.

The WORS Treadfest is this weekend at The Grand Geneva Resort. One of my favorites, but I will just not be able to make it. Everything is topsy-tervy for us right now on many levels, most related to money, and I had not even thought of this class act of an event until just now.

Thanks to our new Roku (cheaper than a TiVo or paid TV) we have access to hundreds of free workout shows including  yoga and kick boxing. This will give me plenty of interesting exercise when the snow flies. Winter is the time my weight goes up. It always goes down in the summer. There are medical reasons for weight gain also. One relates to vitamin D which your body makes with help from the sun. So this Winter I will be focusing on vitamin D supplements.

The gym is always a place I should be going to all year, but can usually only get to in the Winter. I got there with a friend the other day and can still work up to and bench 185 lbs. more than a few times. Ideally a man, if he wants to call himself a man, should be able to bench at least 200 lbs. a few times, which I imagine I can still do I just didn’t want to push myself not having lifted in a while. A goal of double plates (2-45’s each side, 45 lb. bar) or 225 lbs. is what I try to maintain. Pushing beyond that is risking injury though I made a run for 300 lbs. and may try again to go for triple plates (315 lbs.) just to hit the standard. Even with losing the strength later muscle memory will serve one well in case of emergency.

Me and the raccoon had a face off the other day. As I entered the alley he ducked behind the telephone pole. Peering out from behind it he knew I knew who he was and he knew me. He turned away and scurried off between some buildings. He was obviously intimidated by my powerful frame.

I picked all the peaches this last Saturday. We had more than a third more than this lost in the great peach incident of 2012, when an entire branch snapped off under its own weight while the peaches were still green. I had to pick them as the raccoon and other critters were eating them, particularly at night. I suspect the raccoon had something to with the great peach incident. There is a reason they wear masks.

Routine

I need to get my routine down. My weight has dropped about three pounds a month from my Winter high. To keep it going down I will need to get that trainer I am always talking about. I need to get into a routine before the snow flies. I need to train for WORS next year. It is hard to compete when you don’t know the field. I need a good solid season of races to enjoy competing as I need to identify my nemesis, those better than me in order to target and defeat them. (I need, I need, I need) It would be nice to be the outright top of the field in my class but that may not be a practical goal. Of course if I can get my weight down to under 220lbs…. I am currently at 275.

And talking routines, what about them Olympics. I missed most any cycling coverage due to NBC’s poor overall coverage for those who don’t have paid TV. Why is it the consensus that everyone has cable despite statistics otherwise. And many of these claims of a cable only public are from the same people who make fun of the manmade global warming crowd by pointing to the mountain of statistic that contradict the global warmers.

But the routines that I really want to mention, that implant fearful images in my mind of man, are those of the synchronized swimmers. That heavy waterproof makeup looks outright scary. Then all the miscellaneous disassociated limbs dancing across the water? Two out of two adults agree (my brother and I ) that watching synchronized swimming is a leading cause of nightmares in small children.

After not racing in the Alterra Coffee Bean Classic my sites are set on next year. Forgot about and missed Sunburst Showdown but will more than likely be at the classic final in Sheboygan; The Wigwam MTB Challenge. Just as a spectator and enthusiast with a camera. The Subaru Cup is the premier event of the year and was this past weekend. I heard they had some Olympians there.

The baseball park developer, with his eye on Crystal ridge where Metro and Alterra has invested much in trails, is going to do an MTB and BMX park, along with snowboard course for Winter pleasures as part of his plans. (as long as they get rid of those soccer pitches) At least that WAS the word. Now the word is that our very accomplished parks director has been fired for fast tracking the plans without making the proper environmental planning with the DNR before hand. In other words, the County Executive just found out about it after the fact. I don’t know if that will frustrate the schedule and change the investors mind.

And trail work season is here. Metro will be scheduling many trail work days in the near future if any are interested. Something else I need to add to my routine along with some long trail rides. Metro’s Wednesday Night Time Trials have been very successful and have run going on fourteen weeks in a row, excluding the 4th of July. A new record. I need to get out there and get a timed lap in to compare with early next year after the mother of all training Winters I am committing to.

Mm mm. The peaches are ripening. We lost dozens earlier when an entire limb snapped under the weight of the peaches. I am not talking two or even three dozen. It was a great loss but I am finally over it.

Phlox is growing to become my favorite flower. And it is not because it is spelled with a ‘ph’. It blooms earlier and more fragrant in the forest from my observations. I love the sight and smell, the pleasant surprise of phlox on a good trail ride. This is the best bloom we have ever had in our yard.

For those concerned among you, having heard Reverend Moon has been deathly ill on the news, Reverend Moon is steadily improving in his battle with pneumonia. A very serious battle to overcome at 92 years old. All prayers of well being are appreciated.

And always desiring to educate, to leave you my readers more informed and capable after reading than before, I have an important technique to share. Unless you are rich and have flying robotic fly zappers to hunt down those pesky pests you may have been tormented by flies landing inside a bowl or cup, supposedly protected from the swift retribution of the handy, doesn’t need to be changed, fly swatter. The dilemma is easily resolved if you follow these simple instructions. What you need is a quick double tap. The first very temporarily stuns the fly. The second coming in quick succession strikes as the fly is rising out of his formerly presumed safe space. If done right the fly will be dead before it hits the bottom of the concave implement of its own choosing.

The learning never stops!

Dangerous Times

Preparing for the Sport race at Crystal Ridge.It was not too bad today heat wise but the temperatures have been dangerously hot recently. I didn’t take a bottle with me when I went for a bit of a ride but I know where the Bubblers are. Yes we call them bubblers in Milwaukee.

A friend of ours from Japan lost her father earlier this year. He was hit while riding his bike. The host of Cooking with Dog (It’s not what you think), or rather the hosts master was also struck by a car while riding her bike. She was hospitalized for quite a long time and received many well wishes over you/tube and otherwise from around the world.

Alois too had a tale from Germany of a man who while riding his bike in the heat got a flat tire. It took him a long time to change it and without the breeze of the ride cooling him off he overheated and died. All thoughts go to Bubba. You can find a record of Alois’ flight here. I hear there are similar sites for cycling though I haven’t researched them as I have no GPS device anyway.

The cucumbers are coming and it will be a while before they stop.

And what about the women’s volley ball at the Olympic this afternoon. I am talking the team sport not the adult version. The United States against the Chinese and you know who I was rooting for. The Chinese had a women who looked like a man and she had to have her hair cut like a man also. We had Destiny Hooker dominating. The most attractive woman on the court with the longest hair. It would be out right unnatural for the Chinese to win, not to mention the whole good versus evil, liberty versus tyranny thing we got going.

Yes the United States beat the Chinese in three games on the sixth match point. I hope they make the gold. Not only did Destiny Hooker dominate but Megan Hodge also. They should be called Designated Hitter and Mega Hitter. I turned the Olympics on during the rowing this afternoon. Right after the cycling coverage had ended. Ugh!

Another shot from the Alterra Coffee Bean Classic. Beware the heat. A few weeks ago when it was 108 Fahrenheit outside and I was working my deliveries. The soles of my shoes became so hot on the pavement they softened and split open.

And the Winner is…

Lane number 5, or four, depending on which end you count from as the first cucumber vine has reached the top. I bought some welded wire mesh, the type they use in concrete slabs, to create this trellis for our cucumbers. It was on sale so it cost me less than $10. We secured it with some tent stakes and Misao added some lateral support with some string lines to keep it from falling over. These photos are about seven weeks apart. The mesh is four feet by eight feet. Sometimes I just sit outside and watch the cucumbers grow.

Soon we will have plenty of cucumbers pouring in, but it is the Olympics that everyone is focused on now. Those opening ceremonies sure were strange and outright socialist (un-American for those of us on the other side of the pond) but you can’t say it wasn’t well orchestrated in terms of theme. The torch lighting is really what makes everything stand out and they did a good job with it, accenting the theme they were trying to convey. The scale was surely grand enough. We have come to expect bigger and more extravagant every Olympics but that has been replaced with simply a grand expression of the national identity the corresponding Olympic committee  wants to convey, which is all one should expect.

The peach tree is heavy with peaches. Does that mean I boo when any Chinese win an Olympic event and cheer and laugh when I see a Chinese athlete fail and embarrass themselves in front of the whole world? …Are those Chinese gymnasts under age?

I have not seen any cycling coverage of the Olympics yet. Maybe I have to get up earlier, or maybe they are being ignored for some reason beyond my comprehension or simply because the British have some real competitors in the events. My wife was watch the gymnastics last night and one young lady did very well. I looked up to catch part of her performance and asked my wife “Is she British?” My wife answered, “Yes, look at her teeth.” …True story. So much for the National Health Service.

I will go out and water the garden now. we have finally got some rain on a regular basis but the heat and drought of this summer have been tragic for our farmers. You can see the river off the Hoyt Park trails in the picture. When the area was a dump many many years ago, they say people would drive out on this little dam and wash their cars. Some mountain bikers like to ride over the river here though this is the first time I’ve seen the river so low that I would consider riding across myself.

Alterra Coffee Bean Classic: The Video

Starts and the O’Malley Woods rock garden.

The Olympics have started. The mountain biking will all be at the end. $30 to watch the Olympics live over the Internet. Actually $29.99, but that is $29.99 too much for me.

Happy Birthday

The Alterra Coffee Bean Classic in Franklin, Wisconsin was the day before my birthday. Today is the day after my birthday and tomorrow is Alois’ Birthday. Yes, Alois is not my evil twin nor I his. Though I am sure he would make a fine twin brother. Happy birthday Alois!

I arrived in time for the Sport Class starts. I wish I was in shape to race but I wasn’t. I race to compete and if you can’t compete…

It was a bit hot Sunday for the WORS race. The brief rain from two days before was not enough to keep the dust from flying.

Crash! Lucky the National Bike Patrol was on hand.

I hiked part way up the ski hill. The bikers look like ants.

I looked for a new place to get pictures this year. and settled on the rock garden in O’Malley’s woods.

“I hope you didn’t get that.” he said.

The WORS sponsors change over time. Kinetic is now a sponsor rather than CycleOps; a reputable company. Kinetic runs the warm up tent now. Does it make a difference who sponsors the event? Yes, especially if they are cheaper. I would like a very high end trainer with virtual courses and Internet interaction but don’t think I can afford one. I absolutely need a trainer this year before Winter arrives if I am serious about contending next year and it will have to be a more basic model at the lowest price possible. Not sure what that says about Kinetic.

This may be the final WORS race at Crystal Ridge if negotiations with a baseball facility developer do not go well. A gentleman has come in with a large bankroll to build baseball diamonds on much of the site and has four fields fully booked for next year from April. WORS had some 800 competitors on Sunday.

Now that Metro Mountain Bikers is part of IMBA there are greater opportunities to produce world class facilities for mountain biking. If they can build and run these places successfully out in the wilderness I don’t know why they wouldn’t be a hit in more populated areas. Especially in an area where racing is so prevalent.

I have strung my video together and will get it up in the near future. The pictures (I have a lot) will eventually get up on Flickr though they want money now to have so many photos up. I will try to see if I can get back to their free service by reducing the number of sets I created if I can ever access the sets. …Maybe I’ll just pay them.

It sometime takes up to two hours or more to prepare a post for this blog if I have pictures. My political blog is a minimum of five hours to produce a post and my professional blog hours upon hours. I can produce a post for my other blogs within an hour. Then I have the books I am trying to write.

War of the Worlds

Yes, we attended our nieces wedding some ten days ago but that is not the war I am referring to. On our trip to the wedding we had to pass through this alien environment and every blade was spinning, a rare event. Visible from ten miles away and eleven miles deep these windmills made me dizzy and gave me a headache by the time we got through this Stretch of Indiana.

And I am not making reference to the Tour D’ Fraud”, sorry “France”, that started this weekend either. NBC has extensive Internet coverage that you can pay $30 for. I just want to know how much you get paid for pretending to take a picture and then causing a crash taking out half the field like last year. NBC is ramping up their Olympic coverage showing many of the qualifying events.

I actually enjoy watching bicycle race coverage and it is not just for the crashes like with NASCAR. I saw the mountain bike course for the London Olympics over a year ago. Built for the camera with manufactured features that didn’t come about natural.

The lilies also resemble those monstrous machines from Orson wells “War of the Worlds.” And if you are a regular reader you may know that we have seen the first two hours of the Tom Cruise version maybe five time, but have never seen the end. So when we got back to our hotel after the wedding reception “War of the Worlds” was on TV and we got to see the last two hours. Perhaps a good omen that their marriage will make it to the end. ‘A’ omen, not “The Omen”. Just want to make that clear since we are talking movies and all. It sounds like the happy couple will start a family in the not too distant future. We certainly will never be baby sitting for them but that’s only because they live so far away, ..only.

Wedding cake!

We actually found a tourist attraction in Indiana on our way home, if you can believe that, after we met Elvis’ cousin in Louisville. Fair Oaks farms has good ice cream and extremely over priced cheese priced by the half pound. I guess they have tours during regular hours.

The exercise routine is lacking. I get plenty of exercise in other ways but haven’t ridden much. I will not be in shape for The Alterra Coffee Bean Classic though I will be getting some photos. They say coffee prevents skin cancer. Seems a fit for riding.

Alois has been taking to the skies. Nice photos Alois. Thanks.