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.

Crafty

When I was young, and it does not seem the case today, crafty was a word that could and would be associated with a negative connotation.

You know, like those crafty fellows of the Tour de’ Fraud, or rather France, with their custom cocktails of PED’s and the little electric motors hidden within the bike frames.

Or crafty could convey a softer implication of deception; like finding that the deal wasn’t as good as what that man with the slicker back hair told you it was.

I mean I can Ride Across Wisconsin (RAW) without registering and paying the Bike Fed a hefty fee.’ But I guess some people need to buy friends to ride with, if they cannot handle riding alone. It was last weekend. It’s over. But Metro Mountain Bikers still has their Odd Tuesday rides, and that wont cost anything to make some friends. Hoyt Park, this Tuesday.

Sorry for the long lapse in posts. I had a birthday recently.

I go to most Metro Mountain Biker meetings and hear of activities past and planned and though I have connected to all the recommended sites, it is all new news to me. Could there be some craftiness going on, or is it simple oversight, another word that can be perceived differently depending on context, that leaves a long time member like me out of the loop, and will definitely leave all new members out of the loop, because they will most likely not go to any greater extents than I myself have to make connections. And new membership, big numbers, appear important to the new generation of leaders rising to fulfill position and destiny.

Am I sounding a bit too much like I am on my writer’s blog right now?

Crafty may describe someone who can always get the best end of a deal. Metro Mountain Bikers has been dealing with Ball Park Commons, or The Rock, from their beginnings. A long awaited pump track seems to be agreed upon due to the work of Wheel and Sprocket’s representative. Not sure how much craftiness was required there or if it is simply the result of working together in good faith. Metro Mountain Bikers is considering holding a fundraiser to help with the costs.

Nowadays crafty appears to exclusively denote some skill in a craft. Trail building may be considered a craft and there are no better examples of skilled craftsman in that field than at Minooka Park in Waukesha. The trail maestro in this case likes to run what he calls Dirt Church, trail work days on Sunday. Nature is a wonderful cathedral and if your Catholic you can always go to church Saturday evening. Otherwise, watch for lightning.

I doubt Dirt Church a crafty way to undermine another’s faith, and there is no Cool Aid involved so I will deem it an otherwise wholesome event.

Aha! You cry. Now you are being crafty Phillip. You just want to open a door to tell us about your faith in the Second Coming, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, the third Adam. Pishposh, not the case at all but also a Cool Aid free organization.

The concept of me proselytizing here is just silly. I have a different blog for that. This blog is about my mountain biking, garden and crafts and anything else I decide it to be about. Another Cool Aid free zone.

Yes, nowadays crafty conveys a level of expertise in some craft or crafts; like making pizza. Wisconsin has three pizza farm to table operations in the southwest. They are in Cochrane, Galesville and Athens (actually I know of one other in the northeast of the state). Now that would make a great ride: Ride Across Pizza (RAP). You could work your way to the growing mountain bike trail systems of Wausau; Granite Mountain, the best Winter skiing in the state.

Here is an example of my wife’s craftiness. She restore this tiny dresser. Bought herself a sander and everything. I made sure she wore a ventilator.

My wife also cans. Something we used to do together but she never tells me when she is going to can anymore.

But she craftily got me to do the drawer pulls for her project.

I made new holes for the drawer pulls in the dresser drawer faces. I used an awl to depress where the holes should go in the jig so as the drill bit would not drift before it bit into the wood. Of course test that the pulls fit in the jig before using it on the drawer faces. A jig is a guide to ensure repeatable results.

Some may call my kombucha a craft. Just look at that SCOBY. The tea variety in my latest batch turned out just awful for kombucha. The kombucha tasted like cold bacon with emphasis on the preserving agents. So I let this batch go all the way to vinegar (hence the great thickness) hoping the taste profile would become something delightful or at least palatable. Otherwise my wife uses vinegar to clean things.

I got this hat for Father’s Day.

The $164 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.

Lights, Camera, Action

Loose the dogs of the peloton. The time has come. The season is near. Grease your machines and stretch your extremities and prepare for battle.

It is time for the annual Wheel and Sprocket Bike Expo.

But there is more!

The WORS Racer Handbook has been out for a while, and if you are not racing mountain bike on May 6th, the La Crosse Omnium is open for registration. I wont hold it against you if you are a road biker.

And do not forget about WEMS, though most due. They begin in less than four weeks.

The Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival, a September event, is of great popularity. It may already be too late to register.

Emery’s is already in sales mode, now through the end of The Bike Expo. They are more your road bike people. Known for not being big financial contributors to the Mountain Bike Agenda.

Registration for the Bike Fed’s RAW (Race Across Wisconsin) is open. The sooner you register the more you save.

Otherwise all local trails are closed. Do not ride wet trails please.

With my father approaching the end of his life here, I did not volunteer this year for the Metro Mountain Biker’s booth at the Bike Expo.

Catalogues; this one in particular brightened my Winter. They come from everywhere and according to the Nightly Business Report people like to look through them.

The yard and garden will be going through great transformations this year. I will be re-firing up our YouTube channel to cover my exploits here and on the mountain bike trails. And you may find some of our security video playback, particularly of our neighbor’s dogs peeing on our front yard trees and berry bushes, threatening the lives of our greenery.

The $163 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.

The State of Mountain Biking

The State of Mountain Biking is strong here in Wisconsin.

Not so for IMBA; International Mountain Bike Association.

Ironically Metro Mountain Biker’s joining with IMBA in the recent past, cast a wide attractive net for membership. Metro Mountain Bikers is flush with younger up and comers, movers and shakers, that will push local mountain bikers to newer and greater heights.

Mountain Biking will be great again.

WORS and WEMS, the mainstay of mountain bike competitiveness in our state are hanging on strong with solid participation numbers. Though attendance may be down for these events, it is only due to the rise of High School Mountain Bike Leagues driven by NICA.

My mountain bike has been domesticated. I still need to change the pedals, if they will come off. If I ever race again it will be on a new bike.

Mountain Biking is primarily a family event and only so many races can be attended annually. A percentage of past WORS participants with children in High School have been putting their energies towards the High School League events. But fear not. They wont be in High School forever. Eventually they will be racing WORS because they have no reason to leave, there are plenty of great jobs rising in Wisconsin. No drain of any kind here.

Maybe an idiot drain, but that shouldn’t include mountain bikers. The beer in Wisconsin is too good.

Minooka Park, with paid parking, is overrun with High School mountain bike teams on certain nights. The demand for good trails is higher than ever.

Magnificent trails are being designed. Minooka is a high benchmark for our state; built by loving hands.

The current trend is to pay for professional builders to design and build fantastic trails in short order. No more weekend gatherings of club members toiling with hand tools to cut paths of enlightenment through the wilderness. It is all mechanical equipment driven.

Returning to the irony, the increase of funds that makes local trail building possible may be attributed to the IMBA name, that wide net. But IMBA has been making some bad decisions that are driving members away; like supporting the government’s stand to deny access to mountain bikes in National Parks. IMBA also stands against any e-power assisted bikes on trails. This is a growing issue. There are several levels of power assistance for bicycles of all types.

The velodrone In Kenosha has been plagued with issues. A crack in the new construction, no funds for painting the track, and when all that was resolved seasonal thunderstorms highlighted the fact that proper drainage had failed to be included in the design, producing a small lake. I could go on, on how poor design of every type infests our lives and points to the downfall of civilization as we know it, but I digress.

Cyclocross rolls quietly on as a shoulder season activity.

All the fervor is now with Fat Bikes for Winter riding. Grooming cross country ski trails for fat bike riding seems the obsession of the up and comers. They ridicule the funds spent on cross country ski trails for a dozen skiers, or at least for the dozen they see.

Of course you cannot mention Fat bikes, 4” wide treads, without mentioning Wisconsin being awe struck by the Hugh Jass Fat Bike Series.

The economy may have had an influence on the perceived decline of the number of cross country skiers (and mountain bikers). Now the economy is coming back in line along with a Winter Olympics. Ski on.

Did you know that all the ski venues and facilities for the Olympics were built by the late Reverend Moon? And still owned by his family.

It’s the economy stupid. A famous line, and though I joke about Colorado’s legalization of marijuana contributing to the downfall of IMBA, headquartered in Colorado, the economy may have played an even bigger role.

IMBA now provides only membership management services. They offer other services on an ale carte basis.One of the first services they dropped, as they suddenly went from way black to way red in their finances, was insurance.

I made the association, at one Metro meeting, between insurance costs and Obamacare, Obamacare hence the reason for IMBA’s decline, and the room went silent.

The Wisconsin Bike Fed appears, according to the irate tone in response to a question posed by me to a Bike Fed representative, to have no interest in overseeing integrated bicycle access in road design as the communities around Foxconn have all been in the process of redesigning their roadways.

Though Metro Mountain Bikers have been talking about installing a pump track locally for at least three years, not one has materialized.

So the State of Mountain Biking is strong in Wisconsin, stronger than any other cycling sport, though not perfect.

God Bless you all. God Bless the United States.

The $162 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.

T'is the Season

Does Christmas begin too early? Would our culture benefit if we celebrated Halloween only on the 31st? If we waited for Thanksgiving to pass before playing Christmas music on the radio? What if we were to celebrate all twelve days of the Christmas season?

Absolutely all that stuff would make all things civil and spiritual better.

The whole downfall of our civilization began when children began collecting Halloween candy on days other than Halloween. Think about it. What kind of message is that?

Black Friday? Now we have Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday. But ending it all with Giving Tuesday, before Advent begins sets the season right.

This coming Sunday is the First Sunday of Advent, but before the Holiness begins, the Santa Rampage will rage upon us all this Saturday.

Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus,… but not just one. Did you really think one Santa could delivery billions of gifts in a single night? …silly girl.

The Wisconsin Bike Fed is holding a special event for some special Santa’s. The ride begins at 9:30am at a retail establishment fittingly named “Cranky Al’s”. (They have donuts) Santa’s will be rambling in from multiple locations and then streaming off from the “Lakefront Brewery”, where the ride ends.

These are not your mall Santa’s, taking requests and preparing gifts for good little girls and boys. These are the coal bearing Santa’s, the ones you do not want coming to your Chimney.

Yes, Bobby, Cindy and little Billy, not everyone receives a gift for Christmas. In fact out of over seven billion people in the world only 3.141592653 billion actually receive gifts for Christmas (and lots of pie). All others receive the black stuff and I’m not talking goods accumulated on Black Friday.

So take care little Billy, you and your tiny little friends. If Santa should ride by on a bicycle and offer you a gift, turn and run. Run Billy run. You are far to young to be drinking beer.

Merry Christmas to all, and I mean you! Each of you!

The $161 question: What were my three most favorite WORS races? Keeping the same question. Check out the Charity Jackpot Page link in the sidebar to possibly triple the amount.