Waterbar switchbacks to be exact. Tuesday I headed out to Golden after teaching lab to rock my world. The Chimney Gulch, Apex, and Grubstake trails are a great time. They are rocky enough to feel like I’m working on my technical skills, steep enough for me to feel like I’m getting a killer workout, an definitely have lots of switchbacks that are steep and sharp. I love days where I feel like a rockstar on the bike, and Tuesday was one of those days. I had to go home because the sun was pretty much gone, but I would have loved to ride all night! I figured I would make a little post to remind you and me about some technical mountain biking skills. It helps me to repeat these in my head.

Downhill

1) lean back. like the rappers love to sing about. If it looks scary, shift your weight back and let the bike do the work.

2)Stay loose. The tenser you are, the more likely you are to crash. Think of yourself as water running down the trail. The more relaxed and calm you stay, the smoother you will descend. Sometimes if it gets really technical on a downhill, I feel myself holding my breath. I will exhale forcefully in short breaths as I go down. I sound like I’m in labor, but it really helps.

3) It’s okay to brake. Use the front brake to control your speed, and the rear brake to control maneuverability.

4) If you’re going off a huge drop off, pull up on the bars. If you drop your wheel down and it’s too far, you will do a summersault and crash. I cracked my expensive helmet 2 years ago by making that mistake.

5) For rocky, technical sections– flat, down, OR up, keep your momentum. Do not slow down!! Did you ever have a gyro-scope as a kid? -remembering that the faster it spun, the easier the gyro-scope was standing? Or a top- the kind you spin on the table. When that slows down, it falls. Same deal with bike wheels. If you are going through a rock garden and you start slowing down, it will be harder to stay up. Although it sounds scary, blast through it. If it’s a flat or an up, PEDAL PEDAL PEDAL. It sounds silly to say “just pedal,” but you’d be surprised to see when you stop.

6) For steep turns, take the outside. You want to turn the least amount possible, so going outside will shorten your radius. And of course, if it’s uphill, don’t stop pedaling.

7) Brake BEFORE the turn, not in it. Same with driving… I see people driving down the canyons, braking in the turns!

Don’t be scared. The moment you think you can’t do it, you probably won’t. It’s amazing how clearing something you are scared of boosts your confidence…and you riding ability.

9) Don’t get discouraged. It’s okay if you can’t make it, or if you are riding slower than usual. It’ll come back! Just have fun. That is most important thing. A lot of people (myself included) get upset when the ride isn’t going your way.

This group is completely amazing. Rodrigo Y Gabriela. Wow.

http://www.myspace.com/rodrigoygabriela

As many of you know, my baby (ha) brother came to visit me this weekend. We had a total blast. We had our own tour de brewery and didn’t even get around to all the ones we wanted. So here’s the scoop.

There he is

Friday, I picked Brian up from the airport and fought the pre-rush hour traffic with all my might. No curse words were said…. We went straight to the Avery tasting room. It’s next to my work, so he met some of my coworkers and then we got to tasting. I didn’t take any photos on Friday. Sorry. Next, we went to Walnut Brewery, and then dinner at Gondo for the yummy bottomless pasta. Les came over and we watched The Big Lebowski, MAAAN! Love that movie every time I see it.

Saturday. I made my pancake special and we headed up to Ft. Collins. We went to New Belgium, Odell’s, and Ft. Collins Brewery. We took a tour of New Belgium. I am continually impressed with this brewery’s efforts. It makes ME want to go work there. They have been wind-powered since 1998, are employee owned, and are making a huge effort toward the green movement. They have something called Tour De Fat where a bunch of people go ride bikes in a parade. They give you a cruiser after working there a year, and they send you to BELGIUM, all expenses paid, after 5 years to experience the beer culture. They recycle and reuse a lot of their by-products. For example, they send all the grains to farms for cows to munch on. Also, they have their own water treatment plant for the best brewing. Go New Belgium!!

You are only allowed to sample four, so it was a hard choice with all those beers on tap.

That would be cool to get in that big fridge!

samples… delish

It was super crowded in there… can you blame people for flocking to samples of free, quality beer?

Pics of the brewery itself… I was calling it the “brewery tourey”

Odell’s is a lot smaller, but they make some of my favorite beers- 90 Shilling and Cutthroat Porter. Too bad Deschutes is in Oregon, because I love them too. Odell’s was a cool tasting room, much less “commerical” and townie. Ft. Collins was the epitome of a great, local brewery. They had this red beer that was killer and also their special tap for the month- a beer brewed in whiskey casks. It was interesting.

Odell’s:

Their tasting room

What you get.

What happens.

Ft. Collin’s tasting room

After brew-fest, we came back to my house, had some dinner, then headed out for some Halloween celebration in Boulder. It was a fun, crazy night. Pics….

What do you think? Should I go blonde? NOOOOOOTTTTT!!!!!!

Amateur poor star next door… or Quagmire.

Scandinavian bar maid. My name was Franzi. It caused quite the stir.

Jamie and my bro. (Jamie is my fellow TA. We struggle and give students blank looks a lot of the time. haha)

Jamie was the black knight from Monty Python. Classic!!!! He made this costume himself…impressive. He even has the arm. “Your arms off!” “No it isn’t!”

Me and Leslie. She was a fairy… or another idea was she was “all dressed up and nowhere to go”

Me and Chris (the guy that carved the chuck-o-lantern. He is now famous on someone else’s blog). Oops, I mean me and Indiana Jones. Jah Indie.

Hopefully the black knight doesn’t have any black magic.

pimpin’…yeah I guess your big sister kissing you on the cheek is not really pimpin, but you know he is.

Sunday was more a chill day, relaxing on Pearl St, went to Southern Sun for my favorite, local brews. And today he went home. It was great to spend some one on one time with my brother, it rarely happens. I’m going home to Albuquerque for the week before Thanksgiving. Yaaaay They only have a few breweries there though. That’s ok.

Saturday is my half marathon. I can run the distance fine, but the impact still makes the arches of my feet hurt, and also the tendon right under my gastroc. Eh well. I think I’m running a 15K in Albuquerque on Thanksgiving too. Then I will hang up my running shoes (well, not really..but no more races or actual training), and start training on the bike again. I am still going mountain biking my fair share despite all the running. In fact, I did some trails I usually don’t do last week- Hall Ranch in Lyons and Apex/Chimney Gulch in Golden. I’ve been so focused on going up to Nederland that I forgot about these gems!

Ok, I’m not sure how Chuck Norris jokes started, but they have always seemed to be omnipresent. there is even a guy at my mom’s church that looks JUST LIKE Chuck. I can’t pay attention at the Xmas sermon if chuck-a-like is hanging out next to us. Here are some great jokes. If you get tired of reading, scroll to the bottom for a funny picture.

-Chuck Norris once roundhouse kicked someone so hard that his foot broke the speed of light, went back in time, and killed Amelia Earhart while she was flying over the Pacific Ocean.

-Chuck Norris recently had the idea to sell his urine as a canned beverage. We know this beverage as Red Bull.

-If you can see Chuck Norris, he can see you. If you can’t see Chuck Norris you may be only seconds away from death.

-The chief export of Chuck Norris is pain.

-Chuck Norris’ tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried.

-Chuck Norris once shot a German plane down with his finger, by yelling, “Bang!”

-When Chuck Norris plays Oregon Trail his family does not die from cholera or dysentery, but rather roundhouse kicks to the face. He also requires no wagon, since he carries the oxen, axels, and buffalo meat on his back. He always makes it to Oregon before you.

-Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.

-The quickest way to a man’s heart is with Chuck Norris’ fist.

-What was going through the minds of Chuck Norris’ victims before they died? His shoe.

-Chuck Norris affects the price of stock quotes and land values. Wherever he is, prices drop due to the danger of a sudden catastrophe. He bought his own home for 30 cents and one roundhouse kick.

-If you spell Chuck Norris in Scrabble, you win. Forever.

-The following is a short list of things Chuck Norris cannot do: .

-If you make a list of 10 things Chuck Norris cannot do, he will appear at your house and perform them all. Your life may be forfeit.

-Chuck Norris once taught a class called “Ass Kicking 101″. There were no survivors.

-Chuck Norris does not hunt because the word hunting implies the possibility of failure. Chuck Norris goes killing.

-When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.

-Chuck Norris can slam revolving doors.

-The Big Bang was actually Chuck Norris roundhouse kicking God in the face.

-Chuck Norris has to maintain a concealed weapon license in all 50 states in order to legally wear pants.

-Chuck Norris Isn’t funny, stop laughing.

-Chuck Norris has an unbeatable poker face, concealed beneath an even more unbeatable poker beard.

-While a normal poker face conceals the emotion of its wearer, Chuck Norris’s poker face skips all that and just drives other players insane. As a result, the only way to survive a game of poker against Chuck Norris is to play online, and even then you still might go insane.

Play Online Poker

-When Chuck Norris sends in his taxes, he sends blank forms and includes only a picture of himself, crouched and ready to attack. Chuck Norris has not had to pay taxes ever.

-Chuck Norris was once on Celebrity Wheel of Fortune and was the first to spin. The next 29 minutes of the show consisted of everyone standing around awkwardly, waiting for the wheel to stop.

-Q: What’s 30 times Chuck Norris?
A: Oblivion.

-Chuck Norris doesn’t read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.

-In conversation, Chuck Norris often quotes himself, and then laughs about it.

-Chuck Norris has counted to infinity. Twice.

-February 29th only occurs once every four years because Chuck Norris wills it to be so.

-There is no theory of evolution, just a list of creatures Chuck Norris allows to live.

-Chuck Norris really likes the movie 101 Dalmatians. No one knows why.

-Chuck Norris once ate three 72 oz. steaks in one hour. He spent the first 45 minutes having sex with his waitress.

-In an average living room there are 1,242 objects Chuck Norris could use to kill you, including the room itself.

-There’s an old Chuck Norris saying: “He who has the Chuck Norris makes the rules.” It’s one of those nonsensical old sayings, since it implies that someone can “have” Chuck Norris.

-When Chuck Norris falls in water, Chuck Norris doesn’t get wet. Water gets Chuck Norris.

-Chuck Norris CAN believe it’s not butter.

-A man stopped Chuck Norris on the street and asked him to list 100 Chuck Norris facts. Unamused, Chuck Norris raised one eyebrow with such force that the man disintegrated.

-Chuck Norris is the reason why Waldo is hiding.

-Chuck Norris once picked a fight with a duck. The duck turned out to have several 10th degree blackbelts, and was the most formidable adversary Chuck Norris ever faced. Funny how random the universe can be.

-When Chuck Norris does a pushup, he isn’t lifting himself up, he’s pushing the Earth down.

-Chuck Norris can hit you so hard that he can actually alter your DNA. Decades from now your descendants will occasionally clutch their heads and yell “What The Hell was That?”

-There are no steroids in baseball, just players Chuck Norris has breathed on.

-If at first you don’t succeed, you’re not Chuck Norris.

I sent my friend Chris these Chuck Norris jokes, and he said, “Didn’t you know? I’m carving a chuck-o-lantern.” Low and behold. Enjoy.

“Mindfulness is loving all the details of our lives, and awareness is the natural thing that happens: life begins to open up, and you realize that you’re always standing at the center of the world.” - Pema Chodron, Awakening Loving Kindness

Do you feel like you have no time to get everything done? No time for yourself? I’m reading this book on active spirituality. I don’t meditate or journal because I never make time for it, although it is very useful to me. I find myself in other activities– playing guitar, running, cycling… but sometimes being still is good. You are not distracted by anything.

How do we find more time? the book makes this suggestion, and I’m going to do it to. For a week, write down everything you do during waking hours and how much time you spend. Our perception is that we are busy busy buys. Add up the hours you spend on each activity each week, whether it be emailing, watching TV, showering, talking on the phone, etc. I think it will be enlightening to see where I could easily make time. I know personally that I spend way too much time on my computer chatting with friends online, checking email, etc. Let’s do it together!

The rest of this discussion will be carried out on my other blog. invigorateyourself.blogspot.com. There a link to it on the side too. This blog, which I haven’t mentioned much on here, is to give information on health and fitness…body, mind, and spirit.

“Mindfulness is loving all the details of our lives, and awareness is the natural thing that happens: life begins to open up, and you realize that you’re always standing at the center of the world.” - Pema Chodron, Awakening Loving Kindness

Do you feel like you have no time to get everything done? No time for yourself? I’m reading this book on active spirituality. I don’t meditate or journal because I never make time for it, although it is very useful to me. I find myself in other activities– playing guitar, running, cycling… but sometimes being still is good. You are not distracted by anything.

How do we find more time? the book makes this suggestion, and I’m going to do it too. For a week, write down everything you do during waking hours and how much time you spend. Our perception is that we are busy busy busy. Add up the hours you spend on each activity each week, whether it be emailing, watching TV, showering, talking on the phone, etc. I think it will be enlightening to see where I could easily make time. I know personally that I spend way too much time on my computer chatting with friends online, checking email, etc. Let’s do it together!

So much so, I decided to rehash my running days. The last running race I did was almost exactly four years ago, Duke City Marathon. Looking back, it is still painful. I trained for 6 months to run a 3:10-3:15 and was trained up to do it. Day before the race. I wake up with a very painful pulled muscle deep inside and underneath my right buttocks. And what did I do? Run the marathon the next day… if you want to call it that. I was in a heck of a lot of pain, but was too damn stubborn to quit. Adam came looking for me on his bike because I was 30 minutes past due. That was the transition point to bike racing. From there on out, I gave up running, and turned to two wheels.

So randomly, I decided to run a half marathon in 2.5 weeks. November 3. I’m not really ready and have only been running once a week for an hour. So let’s see what I can do. I’m hoping to somehow pull of 8:30/mi… seems like a long shot, but what is muscle memory for? The reality is it will probably be more like 9 minute miles… I will have to sweep my pride under the rug. I can get fast again…maybe. or maybe I’m just a wimpy cyclist.

I finally saw Transformers tonight. That movie is so sweet. If you haven’t seen it, it’s totally worth it.

*taken from MSN

Still stalling on going green? Procrastinate no longer.

We give you 13 ideas for saving energy around your home that involve little or no installation and barely a bump in your routine. Individually, they cost less than $75. Collectively, they can save hundreds of dollars a year in household energy bills and thousands of pounds of carbon-dioxide emissions.

You have every reason to follow these tips and not a single reason to ignore them. Get cracking, folks.

1. Take a flier on fluorescents. They no longer buzz, flicker or turn faces blue, and they represent one of the brightest ideas yet for cooling down the atmosphere and your electric bill.

Compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) approximate the glow of incandescent bulbs and use 75% less energy. If every U.S. household replaced just one incandescent bulb with a compact fluorescent, the emissions savings would be comparable to taking 3 million cars off the road for a year.

Don’t let the price of CFLs — as much as $7 each — turn you off. The lights not only last 10 times longer than incandescents but also save up to $60 in electricity per light over their lifetime. Some utility companies subsidize the energy-sparing lights, reducing the tab to $2 or so.

* A bright way to cut your power bill

Not every CFL produces a warm, candlelight glow. To achieve that effect, look for one with a Kelvin temperature of 2,600 to 3,000, says Donn Davy, a home-energy consultant in Novato, Calif. Fluorescents that operate at higher temperatures provide hard, white light better suited for task lighting. Most compact fluorescents are spirals or U-shaped tubes, but you can also find them in bulb form. Some of the newer lights adjust to three levels or work with a dimming switch.

Fluorescent lights contain small amounts of mercury. In some communities, you’ll need to dispose of them as hazardous waste.

2. Vanquish the vampires. Remember James Thurber’s story about the aunt who worried that electricity was leaking out of the wall sockets? She had a point, of sorts. Appliances that include a clock or operate by a remote, as well as chargers, “are all sucking electricity even when you’re not using them,” says Dale Bryk of the National Resources Defense Council. Of the total energy used to run home electronics, 40% is consumed when the appliances are turned off.

The obvious way to pull the plug on so-called energy vampires is to do just that — pull the plug. If you don’t want to keep rebooting your PC, you can reduce the juice to it by putting both the monitor and the computer itself in sleep mode when they’re not in use. Computers operating on snooze control use about 95% less electricity than those running on full power.

To get yours to nod off, go to the control panel, where you will likely see “sleep” or “hibernate.” The sleep mode powers down the computer, whereas instructing it to “hibernate” effectively turns the PC off while preserving your applications. Both modes let you resume work where you left off.

If your computer powers down by default, you can adjust how long it waits before going to sleep — say, from 30 minutes to 15 — or set the monitor to power down first. Don’t bother using a screen saver, which neither preserves your screen nor saves energy.

To get all your devices on the same nap schedule, plug them into the Smart Strip Power Strip ($31 to $44). The strip senses when your computer or TV is asleep and electronically unplugs devices that depend on them, such as a printer or DVD player, until the controlling device wakes up.

3. Harness the wind. Once you’ve cleaned up your own act, help clean up the power grid by buying so-called green energy — electricity generated by wind or solar power or a blend of renewable resources. You’ll pay about a half-cent to a few cents more per kilowatt-hour for green-powered electricity compared with electricity generated from nonrenewable resources.

If companies in your area haven’t yet gone with the wind, you may still be able to pay a small premium on your utility bill to support green power elsewhere. Or you can subsidize it separately, with so-called green tags or renewable-energy certificates.

To find certified renewable-power sources in your state, as well as programs that sell green tags or renewable energy certificates, go to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Locator or to Green-e.

4. Insulate your water heater. The newest electric water heaters have plenty of insulation. But if you have one built before 2004, wrap it in an insulating blanket (under $20) and save 10% — about $30 — annually on your water-heating bill.

5. Cover the hot tub. Hot tubs lose heat even with the top on. Float a thermal cover ($26) under the hard cover and cut energy use by one-third.

6. Service the furnace. Have your furnace tuned every two years, and you’ll save about 1,250 pounds of carbon dioxide and 10% on your heating bills.

7. Turn down the heat. For every degree you lower your home’s temperature during the heating season, subtract 5% from your bill, according to the Alliance to Save Energy. An Energy Star programmable thermostat ($70) saves more than twice its price within a year.

8. Set the washer to cold. Use cold water to wash your clothes and save 50% of the energy you would otherwise use for hot water. Set your dryer on the moisture sensor, not the timer, and cut energy use by 15%.

9. Dim the lights. Install light dimmers, which cut electricity use by the same percentage that they lower the light.

10. Stop drafts. As your father would say, don’t heat the great outdoors. Put weatherstrip around the frames of your front and back doors and save about $30 per year in energy costs.

11. Lower your water temperature. Set your water heater at 120 degrees. If your heater does not have a temperature gauge, dial down until the water feels hot, not scalding. (Before going too low, make sure your dishwasher has a booster heater, which gets the temperature back to 140 degrees, necessary for proper cleaning.)

12. Insulate pipes. Wrap precut pipe insulation around exposed hot-water pipes, including pipes traveling through crawl spaces.

13. Use timers on lights. Install occupancy sensors or timers on lights in areas you use only occasionally and for exterior lights, which tend to get left on during the day, says Crissy Trask, a green-living consultant in Spokane, Wash. Occupancy sensors start at $20 per switch, light timers at $7. Anyone with basic wiring skills can install them.