It's Saturday morning. Laying in my bed, I look out my window to see grey clouds filling up the sky. I pull my warm comforter a little tighter to me as I notice the pine tree swaying from the wind.
It looks like a cold morning.
The last few weeks I've been trying to run every morning...but this morning I'm feeling tired and it looks too cold to run outside anyways. In my mind I question myself: "How long am I going to keep this daily running routine up anyways?", Am I going to run during the winter?" , "Won't I get sick if I run out in the freezing cold weather?". These are just a few of the things going through my head. Meanwhile, I turn on my side pulling the comforter with me.
This feels good where I'm at.
Eventually I did pull myself out of bed, put on my basketball shorts, red stinky shirt, socks, and my makeshift running shoes (Hiking boots). Yeah, I know hiking shoes are probably the worst shoes a person could run in....but it happens that these are more comfortable than any of my other shoes that I own. Just as I step outside my apartment door a gust of ice cold air nearly blows me right back into my apartment. Literally. Not only was it cold, it was strong.
I've been timing myself lately to trying to add a little excitement to my run. I do this by taking along my cell phone. It has a nifty stopwatch on it that once you start the time the screen stays lighted until you stop the time.
When I got down to the street I started the stopwatch and started my run. Not even a minute into my run I felt raindrops on my head.
Great.
Not only is it freezing cold outside, it has to rain on top of that. "Can't you get hypothermia running in the rain?" I thought. Oh well. Let's just get this over with.
Wait.
Did I just say: "Let's"? It's official. I'm going mad. Look what running does to the mental mind. I should just stop running altogether. Sure I'll get a big fat beer belly from not exercising, but at least I'll have my sanity. Let's see.....doh! There I go again.
Maybe I'm not insane. Let's....no....I'm going to analyze this myself. I have my mental self (Who would be in bed right now instead of running) and my physical self (who is running right now). So technically I can say "Let's". (I smile) So I'm not insane. Cool. Back to my run.
It doesn't take long to forget that it's raining. I'm running at a medium tempo which gets my heart pounding fairly fast. I start counting my strides as I run: "One, Two, Three, Four, One, Two, Three, Four". As I'm counting this song pops into my head: "Party like a rock star, Party like a rock star"....so I sing this over and over for a little bit. I just happens to have the same beat as counting so it works pretty good. My sister (Liz) kept playing it on her phone this summer...and that's where I originally heard it. I think about my sister for a minute wondering if she's going to do the Lake Powell Triathlon that we'd talked about doing. "I wonder if she's running or riding her bike to train. My nephew Steven mentioned he'd like to do the tri too if Liz and I were. About this time, I begin to push myself a little harder to run a little faster. Steven took first place in his age division at the Rush Tri up in Rexburg, ID.
I need to push myself a little harder.
I focus on the mountains in front of me. I notice there is a little snow in the mountains already. "That's awesome. I can't wait for winter" I think as I start thinking about snowboarding this winter.
If I haven't already lost you....this is a similar patter of thoughts that go through my head when I'm running in the mornings. Yes. They are random. But that's just the edge of the iceberg. Running is a great time to think. Not necessarily think about coherent things...but just a chance to think to myself.
Try it for yourself.
You may discover that your crazy. ;o)
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
The NOT so adventurous adventures of James
O.k....so I was getting ready to write a little entry into my blog here and noticed that all my blogs go under the Title "Adventures of James". This blog isn't really an adventure....more of a rambling...or Journal entry. So here we go.
I woke up this morning at 5 am to get ready to go down to Salt Lake City. A friend of mine invited me to sing a song that he arranged called "Praise To the Man" down at a morning fireside at the Church history building. I think that was the building. (It's the one with a big picture of the earth on the front of it) Over the last couple weeks we've gotten together a few times and rehearsed the song and then performed it this morning at 8:00 am.
There were about 12 people (6 guys, 6 girls) that sang the song. The overall performance of the group was great. Vaughn (the one that arranged the piece) asked people that he knew could sing, so everyone there had great voices. It was a nice experience....I love singing Sacred music. There always seems to be a spiritual strength that is drawn from participating in small things like this.
I carpooled down with 2 of the girls (Kerabeth and Nikki). That was fun by itself because they're both hilarious. On the way back we stopped and grabbed a Jamba juice for breakfast....mmmmm....I liked it. I had a mango somthin somthin (I can't remember what it was) with Orange Juice. Nikki recommended it so I gave it a try and it was delicious.
After getting back, I headed over to a flooring store to try and catch the manager. I dropped a resume off last week and I was trying to do a little follow up...but he wasn't in. I'll try this afternoon again to see if I can catch him.
More later...........
I woke up this morning at 5 am to get ready to go down to Salt Lake City. A friend of mine invited me to sing a song that he arranged called "Praise To the Man" down at a morning fireside at the Church history building. I think that was the building. (It's the one with a big picture of the earth on the front of it) Over the last couple weeks we've gotten together a few times and rehearsed the song and then performed it this morning at 8:00 am.
There were about 12 people (6 guys, 6 girls) that sang the song. The overall performance of the group was great. Vaughn (the one that arranged the piece) asked people that he knew could sing, so everyone there had great voices. It was a nice experience....I love singing Sacred music. There always seems to be a spiritual strength that is drawn from participating in small things like this.
I carpooled down with 2 of the girls (Kerabeth and Nikki). That was fun by itself because they're both hilarious. On the way back we stopped and grabbed a Jamba juice for breakfast....mmmmm....I liked it. I had a mango somthin somthin (I can't remember what it was) with Orange Juice. Nikki recommended it so I gave it a try and it was delicious.
After getting back, I headed over to a flooring store to try and catch the manager. I dropped a resume off last week and I was trying to do a little follow up...but he wasn't in. I'll try this afternoon again to see if I can catch him.
More later...........
Saturday, September 1, 2007
24 Mile Bike Ride....on a Friday night.
I was going to go on a small 2 mile bike ride with my friend Jake after he got off work. He called and had to cancel because his wife wasn't feeling good. I decided that I'd still go on a little ride so I filled my camel back with water, put on my shoes and headed out the door. From Washington Terrace I rode down into Riverdale to the weber river trail. This was a nice paved trail that follows the Weber river...very relaxing.
This didn't take long and I looked at the pedometer on my bike and it read 6 miles. I was still feeling good so I decided to ride from Riverdale up 40th street to Harrison Blvd. and down to 27th. Once I got to 27th I headed east toward the mountain. That's where I jumped on the BST (Bonneville Shoreline Trail) and started heading south. 1 mile up is an great view of the Ogden Valley. (This was the place I was originally going to take my friend to.) The trail up to this lookout is a pretty good workout....but it doesn't take very long to get up. (between 15-20 minutes) So it's a good night ride. After looking out over Ogden for a while I got back on my bike and continued to ride south. Eventually, the trail took me to a section where I could have ridden up to Beaus canyone, or start to go down the trail. I headed down because it was starting to get dark....and I was feeling pretty tired. The trail popped me out just above the weber state football field. I rode up to 4600 and headed back to River Heights.
That was my ride. :0)
This didn't take long and I looked at the pedometer on my bike and it read 6 miles. I was still feeling good so I decided to ride from Riverdale up 40th street to Harrison Blvd. and down to 27th. Once I got to 27th I headed east toward the mountain. That's where I jumped on the BST (Bonneville Shoreline Trail) and started heading south. 1 mile up is an great view of the Ogden Valley. (This was the place I was originally going to take my friend to.) The trail up to this lookout is a pretty good workout....but it doesn't take very long to get up. (between 15-20 minutes) So it's a good night ride. After looking out over Ogden for a while I got back on my bike and continued to ride south. Eventually, the trail took me to a section where I could have ridden up to Beaus canyone, or start to go down the trail. I headed down because it was starting to get dark....and I was feeling pretty tired. The trail popped me out just above the weber state football field. I rode up to 4600 and headed back to River Heights.
That was my ride. :0)
Monday, August 20, 2007
Me doing a Triathlon?!
Triathlon #1(Bear Lake Brawl):
All the articles I've read about doing a triathlon talk about all the training necessary to participate. That's where this blog differs. I did nothing to prepare....yet still I conquered!
Ok...so I may have had a little training, but not the three months of daily training that I read about on the tri websites. I enjoy mountain biking. This summer I've usually rode between 2 to 4 trails a week. The distances have always varied...anywhere from 2 miles up to 40 miles. It all came down to how much time I had and how good I was feeling.
My sister has been home for the summer (she's a P.E. teacher in Vegas), and was talking about doing a 50 mile bike race. It sounded like fun so we both were planning on doing it....even though neither one of us did any hardcore training. That ended up falling through and that's when we decided to do a triathlon. Neither one of us had ever done a tri and it sounded like fun. I looked up on the Internet and found there was one taking place in Bear Lake in about 2 weeks. Not much time to train but we had the desire....so we signed up. The following 2 weeks we went on a few runs and decided to do a shortened mock tri on the upcoming Saturday before the real deal. We would bike the 13 miles then run 4.
We did the mock tri and felt pretty good about it. I think it took us around 1 hour 20 minutes. Not bad for us....we were still alive and felt like we could do the swim in addition to it.
The Swim (1/2 Mile)
Really the only thing that we literally did zero training for was the swimming section.
The morning came and the tri started with the swimming. I now know why they put swimming first: so nobody drowns! It took me around 20 minutes to swim a 1/2 mile. Wow. That part was harder than I thought. I quickly discovered that I'm not a strong swimmer. Since I'm one of the the only ones that read this, I can admit that I spent a whole lot of time on my back doing the elementary backstroke.
The Bike (12 mile)
The biking section was my favorite part. My legs were burning, but I didn't feel like I was going to kill over and die. Plus I passed quite a few people...which made me feel good. Especially after doing so bad on the swim. The whole section was relatively flat which made for a good ride.
The Run (3 mile)
I'll be the first to say it. I hate to run. Maybe my mind will change in the future, but for now I despise it. I dropped my bike off in the transition area and started jogging. My first thoughts after those couple of strides was: "I'm already super tired...can I really run for another 3 miles?" After I got over the feeling of being tired, I got into a rhythm running and just kept with it. When going on a couple runs the week before my sister told me not to stop while running or I'd cramp up....so I kept running and it worked pretty good. This section was also pretty flat.
All the articles I've read about doing a triathlon talk about all the training necessary to participate. That's where this blog differs. I did nothing to prepare....yet still I conquered!
Ok...so I may have had a little training, but not the three months of daily training that I read about on the tri websites. I enjoy mountain biking. This summer I've usually rode between 2 to 4 trails a week. The distances have always varied...anywhere from 2 miles up to 40 miles. It all came down to how much time I had and how good I was feeling.
My sister has been home for the summer (she's a P.E. teacher in Vegas), and was talking about doing a 50 mile bike race. It sounded like fun so we both were planning on doing it....even though neither one of us did any hardcore training. That ended up falling through and that's when we decided to do a triathlon. Neither one of us had ever done a tri and it sounded like fun. I looked up on the Internet and found there was one taking place in Bear Lake in about 2 weeks. Not much time to train but we had the desire....so we signed up. The following 2 weeks we went on a few runs and decided to do a shortened mock tri on the upcoming Saturday before the real deal. We would bike the 13 miles then run 4.
We did the mock tri and felt pretty good about it. I think it took us around 1 hour 20 minutes. Not bad for us....we were still alive and felt like we could do the swim in addition to it.
The Swim (1/2 Mile)
Really the only thing that we literally did zero training for was the swimming section.
The morning came and the tri started with the swimming. I now know why they put swimming first: so nobody drowns! It took me around 20 minutes to swim a 1/2 mile. Wow. That part was harder than I thought. I quickly discovered that I'm not a strong swimmer. Since I'm one of the the only ones that read this, I can admit that I spent a whole lot of time on my back doing the elementary backstroke.
The Bike (12 mile)
The biking section was my favorite part. My legs were burning, but I didn't feel like I was going to kill over and die. Plus I passed quite a few people...which made me feel good. Especially after doing so bad on the swim. The whole section was relatively flat which made for a good ride.
The Run (3 mile)
I'll be the first to say it. I hate to run. Maybe my mind will change in the future, but for now I despise it. I dropped my bike off in the transition area and started jogging. My first thoughts after those couple of strides was: "I'm already super tired...can I really run for another 3 miles?" After I got over the feeling of being tired, I got into a rhythm running and just kept with it. When going on a couple runs the week before my sister told me not to stop while running or I'd cramp up....so I kept running and it worked pretty good. This section was also pretty flat.
My 2nd Triathlon Experience (Rush Triathlon):
Having done 1 triathlon before (The Bear Lake Brawl...6/30/07), I had a general idea what I was getting myself into. My training was pretty laid back, but I was glad just to be doing some type of training. I did better on going on longer bike rides and getting out to run, but I still did nothing for the swimming section.
Swimming: (1/2 Mile)
Really the only difference between this time and last time was that I knew what I was getting into. It didn't change the difficulty of it at all...I just didn't feel as nervous the second time around. I may have swam slightly faster this time around but I couldn't tell because the time wasn't recorded on the charts. This time as I was exiting the water I found my nephew who hadn't been out of the water very long and he was throwing up by his bike. After throwing up he kept on going and eventually placed overall 1st place in his age category. Pretty cool.
The Biking: (13.8 Mile)
The biking this time was different. a little longer and much more challenging on the terrain. There was one long hill right at the beginning then rolling hills after that. The hills seemed to hinder any progress I made on the flats. I'd pass bikers on the flat stretches and then I'd get passed going up and going down. As a side note which I failed to mention in the first tri entry....I rode my Mountain bike in both tri's since I don't own a road bike. This slowed my down quite a bit.
The Run: (3.1 Mile)
Like I said before....I hate to run. I learned a huge lesson on this run: REVIEW YOU TRAIL MAPS BEFORE YOU RACE. I ended up running an extra 1/4 mile because there was a section that crossed paths of the sprint runners and Olympic runners...there were no people around to tell me I turned the wrong way.
This trail was also very difficult. There was a massive hill climb that seemed to take forever. Keeping true to the no stopping rule my sister told me about I passed a lot of people on the hill even though I was going slower that a turtle! I didn't see one person that was running or jogging up the hill. They had all stopped and were walking up the hill. Very hard hill.
Good times....Good times!
Having done 1 triathlon before (The Bear Lake Brawl...6/30/07), I had a general idea what I was getting myself into. My training was pretty laid back, but I was glad just to be doing some type of training. I did better on going on longer bike rides and getting out to run, but I still did nothing for the swimming section.
Swimming: (1/2 Mile)
Really the only difference between this time and last time was that I knew what I was getting into. It didn't change the difficulty of it at all...I just didn't feel as nervous the second time around. I may have swam slightly faster this time around but I couldn't tell because the time wasn't recorded on the charts. This time as I was exiting the water I found my nephew who hadn't been out of the water very long and he was throwing up by his bike. After throwing up he kept on going and eventually placed overall 1st place in his age category. Pretty cool.
The Biking: (13.8 Mile)
The biking this time was different. a little longer and much more challenging on the terrain. There was one long hill right at the beginning then rolling hills after that. The hills seemed to hinder any progress I made on the flats. I'd pass bikers on the flat stretches and then I'd get passed going up and going down. As a side note which I failed to mention in the first tri entry....I rode my Mountain bike in both tri's since I don't own a road bike. This slowed my down quite a bit.
The Run: (3.1 Mile)
Like I said before....I hate to run. I learned a huge lesson on this run: REVIEW YOU TRAIL MAPS BEFORE YOU RACE. I ended up running an extra 1/4 mile because there was a section that crossed paths of the sprint runners and Olympic runners...there were no people around to tell me I turned the wrong way.
This trail was also very difficult. There was a massive hill climb that seemed to take forever. Keeping true to the no stopping rule my sister told me about I passed a lot of people on the hill even though I was going slower that a turtle! I didn't see one person that was running or jogging up the hill. They had all stopped and were walking up the hill. Very hard hill.
Good times....Good times!
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Clipless Pedals for Mtn Bikes
The Story
Last weekend I purchased Shimano PD-M520 clip in pedals and some shoes. Since I've owned my 06 Specialized Rockhopper comp, I've debated getting clip in pedals but have never purchased them because I always think of other things to buy instead.
Long story short...I was going to hike the Grand Canyon with my sis Liz but ended up buying the pedals and shoes instead. (She decided to buy them first, so I just followed her) So rather than pay for gas and other expenses to go to the canyon we bought ourselves some new toys.
Replacing the pedals was fairly easy...clicking the shoes in was not quite as easy...riding with the pedals......that was interesting. I started off with one pedal. Piece of cake. I clicked in with both pedals and started riding around feeling pretty confident. It didn't feel much different. Liz was riding around on hers too...clicking in and out just getting a feel for it. I decided to "pop-a-wheelie". Earlier on in the week I'd been riding around with my nephew Steve J. and we had been seeing how far we could pedal with just our back wheel on the ground. This is what inspired me to try and pull this off. I pulled the wheelie and pedaled a little too hard. I let go of my handle bars and forgot for a brief second that my feet were still attached to the bike. I landed right on my behind. Ouch! That was an immediate note to self....don't try wheelies with click in pedals.
Street Riding
My own opinion (so far) about the pedals is that they're awesome for street riding. My sis and I rode 40 miles on pavement this last weekend with the clipless pedals...and they performed great.
Trail Riding
I'm still forming my opinion about this. I've been on trail rides so far: 1)Logan river trail and, 2) Green Canyon trail. Technical areas make me more paranoid because I start thinking about clicking out before I even hit the terrain. I think the more terrain I ride the more comfortable I'll get. Downhill seems to be even better. When I hit rocky patches my feet don't slide off like they normally do. One thing I've really enjoyed about the pedals is that it makes bunny hoping even easier....for example: at the Green Canyon trail there were logs placed into the trail to help prevent trail erosion. These small logs were fun to hop over. Very cool. Better riders wouldn't need the clip ins to help them hop over the logs...but having them makes it so much easier.
Conclusion
I like the clipless pedals. There's a definite learning curve to getting used to them. I'm still trying to figure them out. Even on my ride tonight I thought about putting my old pedals on. I'm still sitting on the fence with the pedals....but I can see the definite advantage to keeping them on. I'm going to force myself to become more confident in them on the technical terrain.
Ride On!
Last weekend I purchased Shimano PD-M520 clip in pedals and some shoes. Since I've owned my 06 Specialized Rockhopper comp, I've debated getting clip in pedals but have never purchased them because I always think of other things to buy instead.
Long story short...I was going to hike the Grand Canyon with my sis Liz but ended up buying the pedals and shoes instead. (She decided to buy them first, so I just followed her) So rather than pay for gas and other expenses to go to the canyon we bought ourselves some new toys.
Replacing the pedals was fairly easy...clicking the shoes in was not quite as easy...riding with the pedals......that was interesting. I started off with one pedal. Piece of cake. I clicked in with both pedals and started riding around feeling pretty confident. It didn't feel much different. Liz was riding around on hers too...clicking in and out just getting a feel for it. I decided to "pop-a-wheelie". Earlier on in the week I'd been riding around with my nephew Steve J. and we had been seeing how far we could pedal with just our back wheel on the ground. This is what inspired me to try and pull this off. I pulled the wheelie and pedaled a little too hard. I let go of my handle bars and forgot for a brief second that my feet were still attached to the bike. I landed right on my behind. Ouch! That was an immediate note to self....don't try wheelies with click in pedals.
Street Riding
My own opinion (so far) about the pedals is that they're awesome for street riding. My sis and I rode 40 miles on pavement this last weekend with the clipless pedals...and they performed great.
Trail Riding
I'm still forming my opinion about this. I've been on trail rides so far: 1)Logan river trail and, 2) Green Canyon trail. Technical areas make me more paranoid because I start thinking about clicking out before I even hit the terrain. I think the more terrain I ride the more comfortable I'll get. Downhill seems to be even better. When I hit rocky patches my feet don't slide off like they normally do. One thing I've really enjoyed about the pedals is that it makes bunny hoping even easier....for example: at the Green Canyon trail there were logs placed into the trail to help prevent trail erosion. These small logs were fun to hop over. Very cool. Better riders wouldn't need the clip ins to help them hop over the logs...but having them makes it so much easier.
Conclusion
I like the clipless pedals. There's a definite learning curve to getting used to them. I'm still trying to figure them out. Even on my ride tonight I thought about putting my old pedals on. I'm still sitting on the fence with the pedals....but I can see the definite advantage to keeping them on. I'm going to force myself to become more confident in them on the technical terrain.
Ride On!
Green Canyon Trail (Aug. 9th 2007)
Green Canyon Trail Location
Logan, Utah
Go as far East on 1900 North....This will take you right up Green Canyon. (e-mail me for better directions)
The Trail
What a great trail! My nephew and I bypassed the 3.7 miles of dirt road and went strait to the singletrack trailhead. We traveled a total of 4 miles (2 up 2 down). The trail itself had quite a bit of vegetation overgrowth throughout the trail making it difficult at times to see rocks and roots. Terrain was fairly easy until 1 and 1/2 miles up. Then it got fairly technical with an increase of rocks and roots.
One sidenote about this trail is that the majority of the trail is a rut. This just adds another aspect of the trail. The rider needs to take caution to always watch is pedal position to avoid hitting your pedal on the side of the trail.
Time
Overall this trail took us less than 1 hour to complete at a medium pace. From 1400 North in Logan allow about 15 minutes to get to the trailhead...and the reverse to get out.
GREAT TRAIL...GO RIDE IT!
Logan, Utah
Go as far East on 1900 North....This will take you right up Green Canyon. (e-mail me for better directions)
The Trail
What a great trail! My nephew and I bypassed the 3.7 miles of dirt road and went strait to the singletrack trailhead. We traveled a total of 4 miles (2 up 2 down). The trail itself had quite a bit of vegetation overgrowth throughout the trail making it difficult at times to see rocks and roots. Terrain was fairly easy until 1 and 1/2 miles up. Then it got fairly technical with an increase of rocks and roots.
One sidenote about this trail is that the majority of the trail is a rut. This just adds another aspect of the trail. The rider needs to take caution to always watch is pedal position to avoid hitting your pedal on the side of the trail.
Time
Overall this trail took us less than 1 hour to complete at a medium pace. From 1400 North in Logan allow about 15 minutes to get to the trailhead...and the reverse to get out.
GREAT TRAIL...GO RIDE IT!
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
1st Blogger Blog Ever!
Ladies and Gentlemen!
Welcome to my life adventures. I look forward to sharing my hiking, biking, camping and other outdoor adventures!
Logan River Trail
I rode this 7 mile trail Monday....
Sardine Canyon
On Saturday my sister Liz and myself rode our bikes from Hyrum to Brigham City and making the ride a great 40 mile ride.....
I'll expand on those two rides on in my next blog.
Thanks for stopping by!!!!
Jamez
Welcome to my life adventures. I look forward to sharing my hiking, biking, camping and other outdoor adventures!
Logan River Trail
I rode this 7 mile trail Monday....
Sardine Canyon
On Saturday my sister Liz and myself rode our bikes from Hyrum to Brigham City and making the ride a great 40 mile ride.....
I'll expand on those two rides on in my next blog.
Thanks for stopping by!!!!
Jamez
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