Bike My Ride

Cleaning out for 2011

2011-01-03T17:23:00.000-06:00

After last year's post that, by the number of comments left, was sooo popular (0 comments, which is about what it is for every post), I've decided to write another end of year post, to summarize the frequent posting I have done over the year (14 total, just got past the 1 per month mark). Actually, I'm just cleaning out my computer, saved links, etc., etc. and thought I would post about some of the junk I've been keeping in my head and on my computer over the past year. I hope its an enjoyable read, probably won't be short.

As every other year, I tried to draw a line in the sand and say that I was going to get in better shape, lose weight, etc just like every other schmuck out there. I even created a post about it and promised to "step outside my comfort zone" and talk about my progress or lack of it. I managed to keep that up for a couple weeks, maybe. The good news is that I did lose some weight and have gotten in better shape. The even better news is that I am still at it. Fell off the good nutrition wagon over the holidays a little, but managed to keep exercising for most of it and have a renewed interest in it all.

Nashville had a flood. I took some pictures and helped some folks out....like everyone else in Nashville. That's a good thing, not really the taking pictures, but the helping some folks out. Good job everyone!!

I am still racing bicycles and managed to get fed up with being one of the lead guys for organization of the team. I think I'm over that now, but still don't enough time to work on it. I did manage to make it on a podium or two. I even soloed an Adventure Race and came in 3rd in the solo division.

Kids and family kept us busy. Work kept me travelling. That's the wrap up of the blog and personal stuff.

As I sit here and clean out bookmarks, favorites and other earmarks on the web, I can't find one thing that is interesting to post about. Here are a few things that are kind of useful, but not that interesting.

KeyRingThing.com: This site can take all of your club card barcodes and put them all on one card. Or you could just cut them down to size and tape them to a business card like I did.

Thank you! or Danyavad : How to say Thank you in many languages (that's Hindi)

Resolutions for the new year? I don't really have any. Yes, I have goals and some plans. They are the same things that I usually try. Lose Weight, get faster on the bike, be a better something or another. The difference in this year over past years is that I've actually made progress over the past couple of years. I've lost some weight, close to 50 lbs over the past two years. I've gotten stronger on the bike through riding more and be lighter. I think I've become a better parent and a better manager over the past few years. So, my big goal for 2011? I want to continue to be a work in progress. I hope everyone out there can do the same.

TDS (Totally Different Subject): If you are looking for a good book to read, check out "Born to Run". Even if you are not a runner, it's an interesting and fun read.

Keeping it all going

2010-11-18T21:41:00.000-06:00

When you start something there is some responsibility to keep it going, if its worthwhile, maybe even if it's not. It can be tough. If its an organization with several people involved it definitely becomes a living thing. It grows, it gets smaller, things change, faces change. As the person that started it you normally don't want to see the familiar faces change, you want the faces to stay the same, because that's what you are used to and some part of you feels that the original look is what it "should" look like. But, like most things in life, it has to change to keep going. If it doesn't change, it will die. You know somewhere in the back of your mind that one of the changes will probably be that your face won't be in the picture anymore, or at least not as prominent.That normally has to happen for an organization to keep growing and succeeding.

Why such a cryptic paragraph? I don't know, just something I've been thinking about over the past few weeks. My race team is changing, losing some big time contributers. I'm happy for them though, they are moving to a place they need to be to meet their goals and that is what is all about. Sad for the loss to the team though, but maybe it will turn out to be a good thing. We have several promising folks coming on board. We can also still focus on being a little more laid back for another year and growing the team atmosphere. It also has me thinking about the other projects I am involved in, particularly Scouting. I helped start a Cub Scout pack at NCS. My youngest son is getting closer to finishing up cub scouts. When that happens I will let someone else take over my committee chairman position, if I don't do it before then. I have been involved with that pack since my 12 year old was in first grade, he's in 7th now, so that's 6 years of continuous involvement. To to the above point, my involvement has been very heavy at times and in the past couple years not so much. Things change.

The same thought relates to my personal and work friends. Things change, as everyone knows, even though we want it to remain a certain way. That "way" is usually some perfect point in time that only existed for a few weeks, days, hours, minutes, but that's what we strive for, to get back to, or to have in future friendships. Then sometimes its time to move on.

So You Want To Start A Cycling Race Team....

2010-10-26T17:55:00.000-05:00

A little over a year ago I was looking for a team that I could ride with. A group of guys a little more organized and serious than my normal group of guys. However, I did not want to lose the loose group of 5 or 6 guys that I had started doing 12 hour MTB races with. Around this time I was invited to an organizational meeting for a cycling team that I knew a few people on. Meeting went well, I liked the vibe of the group that was there. I was pretty much ready to join up. Then one of my normal group came up with the idea of starting a race team, starting one that would be geared towards us. I instantly thought, "This sounds like a lot of work." I knew a local shop owner, very close to my house, so I went to talk to him.

I was totally prepared with an "elevator" speech to get my idea across to him quickly. The shop was busy the day I went in, so I just asked him if there was a good time to come back, I had something I wanted to discuss with him. He asked me what it was. I jumped into my speech, but only got the first two sentences out before he said, "Sure, let's do it." Or something like that. Point is, it seemed way too easy to get his support. He had already been thinking about the idea, but didn't have the time to get it organized and going. Seems like I did, or everyone thought I did.

Next step? We scheduled a meeting, invited some people, stood around in the shop and talked about it. People raised their hands when asked if they wanted to race, people raised their hands when they were asked if they could be committed to a team, people raised their hands when they were asked if they would purchase a race kit. And they did. Some raced a lot, almost every weekend. Some raced a little and some were in between doing what they could.

We didn't have people racing like we expected, myself included. Why? Life. We had a flood in Nashville. We had kids to take care of. There were business trips to be completed. There were Boy Scout trips to go on. Some just didn't realize what it would actually take. Some wanted to do other types of racing and didn't realize what that would take. Like I said, "Life". We did have some guys that raced a lot and reaped the rewards from doing so. A statewide award was won. A local series award was won. A TON of experience was gained by anyone that even came close to participating in a few races. Not only, in racing, but in the team experience. Organizing and running a team. What it means to be a part of a race team.

Now the year is coming to an end. The "normal" season is over and cyclocross is taking over. We have to start looking at the 2011 season and wondering where that will take us and what challenges we face. What will the team look like for the new year? Who will be there? Who won't? What kind of commitment are we going to see out of the members?

Personally I wonder what my commitment will look like in the end. At this point, after seeing some personal goals met (not all, but some) I am more committed to racing than ever. I need some more bigger successes this next year to keep me going and I'm willing to put in the time and work to get there. I may not win, but I feel I have the talent and ability to finish with the pack and make a contribution to the team.I know more important things may get in the way, family, work, etc. That's fine if it does. The point is to try. Try to start a team. Try to create something that will last. Try to succeed.

See you up the road.

The Nashville Flood: Clean Up (My Insignificantly Small Part)

2010-05-16T21:30:00.001-05:00

A few days passed, we got power back, then cable. We salvaged what food we could from our coolers. Began figuring out how we were going to make it to work. Watched the news to see if the boys would go back to school the next day. For the most part, going about our daily lives. It was different though, we did have to figure the above obstacles out, we did have to drive by houses that now had a watermark on them and belongings that were beginning to be piled up along the side of the road.

I wanted to do something to help out, but I had work. I considered just going on and not bothering with it, I thought there would many others helping, they won’t need me. It kept pulling on me to do something. Luckily there were several organizations that were organizing clean up efforts, including Bellevue United Methodist Church, my church. All one had to do is show up and someone would send you out with a crew to work. Doris and I went Saturday morning. She went first and I showed up directly after a bike ride. We worked for about 8 hours that day. Completely ripping out on condo in River Plantation. There were probably 5 units in this one building, when we were done you look between the studs and see the far exterior wall. A sad thing considering each one of these units was someone’s home. The next place we went to, had to have the same thing done, including a wood floor that had to come up. We spent the rest of the day there, then I went back on Sunday to finish the job.

There were tons of volunteers from all over. We spoke to a girl from Boone, NC. that was here with Samaritan’s Purse. One of the volunteers with us, had gotten some visiting friends from D.C. to come help the day before they were to return home. There were several companies helping out with food and supplies. Logan’s Roadhouse had a trailer set up to server food. Waste Management was there serving food. It was a good feeling to be working so hard and to be supported so well by so many. I know there were some neighborhoods that didn’t get this kind of support, but I hope they got some. Everyone really needed the help.

I only spent about a day and a half helping out. It felt good to try and help folks affected by the flood. Its pretty insignificant amount of time considering what the flood victims are going through and the amount of time other volunteers have put in. I’m still glad I was able to help that little bit and I hope that it actually did someone some good.

The Nashville Flood: The Flood

2010-05-16T20:51:00.001-05:00

Yes, I know I kind of repeated the title. No, I’m not going to take this real seriously. Yes, its a bad thing, but that’s how I deal with stuff sometimes, most of the time.

The rain finally stopped sometime Sunday night, after shutting our power off and destroying one Blackberry Tour (that could probably be blamed on me, but the rain seems to be a good scapegoat at this point). Monday was turning out to be a nice day. High of 81 degrees, a little foggy in the morning, and most importantly it would be dry. We started the morning by having breakfast at our place with the H’s. BH and I planned a bike ride to see some how some of our local riding roads looked, but not before Doris and I went looking for gasoline and ice.

We headed down Hwy. 100 thinking we would just go to Dickson like BH and I had the night before. Once we got to Hwy 96, we realized that would be a bad idea. They had shut down I-40 due to flooding. That’s right, I didn’t believe it myself until I saw some news footage. But huge sections of I-40 was under water. That’s why I re-stated the title a little. The flood didn’t really happen until after the rain quit. Traffic was being diverted off of I-40 onto Hwy 96. We could have made it to Dickson in about 30 minutes, but with the traffic, it would have taken us a couple hours to come back. We turned around and headed down the Natchez Trace hoping to find something in Leipers Fork. The Shell on the corner of Pinewood and Hwy 46 was open, although they had had about six inches of water in their store. They were real troopers, they had all kinds of obstacles, buckled floors, sporadic credit card service, but they kept their business open. We drove on down by Puckett’s grocery and they had even had water in their store. Not sure if it was from a high creek or river, or if it was just from water run off, either way they were open as well. The houses just down from there apparently go hit hard, because they were pulling all of their belongings out. This was the first of the personal damage I had really seen. Before it was just damage to roads and such. I was more in shock of the places that the water actually got to. I just never thought some of these places could/would flood. Apparently a lot of other people thought the same because they didn’t have flood insurance.

We followed Hwy 46 on down to Hwy 96 and headed back towards the Trace. Traffic headed towards Franklin was still bumper to bumper of course. Luckily we were headed in the opposite direction, however at one point were slowed by a land slide that took out half of the road. This was going down the hill right before you get to the Natchez Trace. We made it on home without any additional blocks.

I hooked up with BH and went for a tour on our bikes. We covered about 20 miles or so, but it was all within about 5 miles of Traceside. We would head down one road until it was flooded out, turn around and head down another. We went out the back Traceside onto Sneed, then turned right on to Old Natchez. That took us down to a flooded road just past Moran. We came back to Moran and went around by Alan Jackson’s house, just beyond that was a lake, the day before it was a soybean field. The road was underwater as well. The bridge at Sneed road was something to see. The water was still up so that it just barely passed under the bridge. Funny thing about that, that just now occurred to me. All of that water didn’t really make a sound going under the bridge, or at least I can’t recall it. The road on the far side of the bridge was washed out, not completely gone, but jacked up pretty good. The tour continued out through a couple of the subdivision closest to the bridge. A tornado had touched down here and there were many trees down. It seemed that not much was damaged from the tornado, several folks seemed to be drying their houses out though.

We came back over the hill to Temple road and went both ways on it. First to the right where we knew some houses had been flooded. This was when it really started to hit home how bad the damage was. I really could not believe that the water got this high and did not get into our subdivision or even to our house. This part of Temple partially backs up to Traceside. You can see by this picture that the water had already gone down quite a bit when we came by. There are probably 5 or 6 houses that got hit hard in the section. We have friends that live along this road and the water came up to their house but no further. It was good to know they were ok, but still tough to look at these other homes that were completely trashed. On down the road about a tenth of a mile past this house there were two pickups that looked like they were parked to block the road. SB (my friend that lives on Temple) told me that they came from elsewhere and were just moved down there by the water.

The other side of Temple was pretty much the same. The damage on that side of the road was to the rock walls that are all over the place here. They hold some historical value I’m sure and they are just cool to look at. Several had been knocked over by the force of the water though.

When BH and I returned, we had promised our boys that we would take then over to the YMCA parking lot which was flooded. We had been there the day before and ridden through it on our bikes just goofing around trying to make the best of being stuck. The water had gone down a good bit, but the road into the parking lot still had water across it and some good slick mud.

Before you say anything about safety and not playing in the flood water cause its got bad stuff in it, let me tell you my reasoning….Well, ok, I don’t really have any reasoning, other than boys will be boys and we like to play in mud, on our bikes, whenever we can and it makes us happy, it was worth the risk. The boys had been cooped up for a few days and needed something. Yes, we wrecked, fell down in the mud, etc. Yes, Moms and wives were not thrilled when we returned. All of this points back to a very good time being had.

What do you have to do when you get a few males together on bikes in the mud? Have a race!!! Very friendly, not very competitive, just fun and I thought the beginning looked cool when they all hit the water. Will is just fooling around at the end. Good times were had by all.

During all of this. The flood waters were still rising around downtown. The Opryland hotel had been evacuated the night before. We were having a good time but knew that we would be helping to clean up soon.

The Nashville Flood: The Rain

2010-05-09T21:12:00.002-05:00

I wasn't sure if I wanted to write anything about the Nashville Flood of 2010. I’ve had some weird feelings about it, from ambivalence to wanting to take a week off to help people out. I haven’t felt like writing about it until today in church, also I've noticed that pretty much everyone else is, so I thought I should jump on the 'ole bandwagon.

SATURDAY 2010.05.01

Like a lot of people when the rain started on Friday evening or Saturday morning, whenever it was. We didn't think much of it. Yes, we knew it was going to rain a lot and we knew what the weather guys were telling us. But honestly, it rarely pans out to be as bad as they say. Saturday we went about our usual errands. This Saturday included getting my 12 year old a cell phone. That's a whole different story. We did this in a torrential downpour. After lunch Doris and I split up, she took her Mother to run a few errands while the boys and I went to REI, so I could pick up some gels and such for an upcoming race. Normal stuff. We had seen some water across the road in front of Ensworth school, but it look like the drainage ditch was blocked and it was gone when I returned from REI.

Saturday night was pretty normal. Some friends were supposed to go to a wedding reception, but the Dad had to go pick up their eldest son at a Scout camp due to the water. The Mom was going to head on to the reception but got turned back around the Cool Springs area due to flooding on I-65 and around the mall area. Still did not think anything of it really. Yeah, the Harpeth is rising and will probably go out of its banks, yeah the drainage ditch in the back is pretty full. It will stop tomorrow.

Sunday 2010.05.02

Still raining. Internet goes out. Power goes out. Sometime around 10 am that morning. We invite our friends over to eat with us, because we have gas appliances and they have electric. This continues for every meal through Monday evening. Sunday night we decide we need ice to keep food cold. About the time the power went out we had seen enough news on TV to know it was going to be pretty bad.

That night after dinner, BH and I head out to try and get over to Bellevue Center. We had been seeing the 100s of emails come over our neighborhood email list. We knew that Hwy 100 was closed as well as Old Harding. I thought there was no way that McCrory and I-40 was actually closed. Come to find out it was, but not directly by water. A tree had come down bring power lines with it. We turned around and headed West on Hwy 100. We knew that Franklin got hit pretty hard, so we headed towards Fairview. No power in Fairview, so we drove to Dickson and got a ton of ice and filled his truck with gas. Back home, we emptied our fridge and filled the coolers with food, hoping we had saved it.

After all that the only thing left to do was go to bed. No power, nothing much to do.

The things I noticed about Saturday and Sunday. You really do need to have an emergency plan, kit, etc. We were never in any real danger, but we didn’t have power, which meant no computers. I had gotten my phone wet while walking the dog at some point and it tanked. All of this meant I had no way of calling anyone at work. I keep everything electronic so I don’t remember many peoples phone numbers. A hardcopy list of a few phone numbers would have been nice. I figured out a few people that could me what I needed for work on Monday, but you need to have a back up plan. Flashlights are a very good thing, even better are flashlights with good batteries.

Communication is key, but it needs to be the good stuff, you know factual. We had communication from everyone in the neighborhood via our Blackberries’ email. Only you couldn’t tell what was truth or rumor. At some point someone was telling everyone to fill their tubs up with water, because they were going to turn the water off. That never happened and probably did more harm than good as it caused about 300 homes to start running their water full blast for several minutes. It is difficult, but if you are in an emergency situation and have information to share, try to make sure it is accurate.

Verizon cell phones were the only ones that worked continuously throughout the flood. Not sure what they are doing different than the other guys, but “Good job!”

It Was Hailing Like Hell

2010-04-28T21:05:00.002-05:00

Some people do a lunch time run, I do a lunch bike ride. I take an hour and try to do a hard ride. Tuesday the 27th was no different. I took off from the house down Hwy 100 climbed up the Natchez Trace side of Hester Beasley, then hopped over to 96 which took me to the Natchez Trace. Climbed the on ramp, best time ever (Thanks Les W. for you climbing clinic, apparently it paid off). As I neared the top it started to rain, there had been clouds and spots of rain all morning so I was expecting to get a little wet. I started down the hill towards the bridge and it started raining hard enough that I was soaked instantly. The hail started just as I got out on the bridge, it hurt but I thought I could get across the bridge and get under the little sign thing at the parking lot on the other side fairly quick if I kept riding. The further I got out on the bridge the worse the wind and hail got. So bad, I couldn't control my bike. I made it about 3/4s of the way before dismounting and running for the other side. I'm thankful there were no cameras because I do not believe this would have been my most graceful effort. As I ran into the parking lot and got under the signs little roof, I noticed there were two Williamson County Sheriff's cars parked right beside me. Neither officer asked if I needed help or offered a dry place for me to sit down, not even in the back of the car. Nice!! A few minutes of waiting and the hail went away and left me with a decent sprinkling of rain. I did my best to get home as quickly as possible. There was added motivation from a few lightning strikes that seemed nearby. What did I learn from this near death experience (that's what I'm classifying it as anyway)? Nothing, nothing at all. I actually glad I went out. Normally I would have wussed out due to the possibility of rain. I didn't and had an exceptionally good trip on the bike, performance wise. Almost getting blown of the Natchez Trace Bridge, not so "exceptionally good."

Totally Different Unrelated Subject.

Here's a little quiz for you. Think you know what the healthiest thing is at a fast food restaurant? Think that "wrap" you are going to order is the healthiest thing out there? Try this quiz. Livestrong Fast Food Quiz

2010 Cheaha Challenge

2010-04-20T20:37:00.004-05:00

04/19 195.6 lbs 29.1 %

I got a last minute opportunity to participate in the 2010 Cheaha Challenge this year. Something I did last year the day after the 3 State 3 Mountain Century, but got pulled off the course due to a tornado. I also got the rare opportunity to do the 102 mile course with my friend Bill. It even gets better because I had a Saturday full of mountain biking.

My lovely wife took me to meet one of my mountain biking teammates, so that I could ride with him to Fayetteville, TN so that we could spend some time pre-riding the Dirt, Sweat, & Gears course. A race that will be held May 15. We did about 1.3 laps of the course and called it quits so we could meet Bill in Murfreesboro.

Bill and I headed towards Anniston, AL about 2pm Saturday, hoping we could get there in time to pick up our ride packets and catch the pro level Men's and Women's criterium races. We made it with time to spare even with slow drivers hendering our plans and road construction trying to halt our arrival. We persevered and made it to the Noble Street festival at 5:30 pm. Got our ride packets and met up with some of my Trace Bikes teammates who had a spot on the side of the crit course. This all gave me a chance to hang out with them some and watch the races.

The races. If you have never seen a pro level race. You should. Its exciting. I thought it was every bit or more exciting than a NASCAR race. That might get me shot, where I'm from, but its true. The Women's race was first, then the Men's. The Men's race averaged about 30 mph around the .7 mile course in downtown Anniston. They were cooking!! You could feel the wind off of them as they passed by. It was a pro-level race, but Rahsaan Bahati was the only name I really recognized.

The Century. We got up really early Sunday morning. Left the hotel and promptly went the opposite direction of where the ride start was. All my fault. I realized it about 15 minutes down the road, made a u-turn and made it to Piedmont, AL in time to eat breakfast and line up for the start. They started us off to "Sweet Home Alabama" per tradition. The ride was well organized as always with great rest stops. The folks really get into the rest stops and the themes. The one disappointment I had was that there were no podium girls at rest stop #3. They normally have a Tour De France theme and have podium girls. Riders can get their pictures taken standing on the "podium". This year it was a hippie theme. Oh well. Damn hippies.

I won't bore you with every detail of the ride. We had perfect weather. Good roads, for the most part. A well organized and supported ride. It was just a good time. I didn't really get any good pictures. One from the start and one with my fat belly in a cycling jersey. I see no need to punish anyone so I have left them off this posting.

According to my Garmin, I burned 9, 487 calories on the 8:41 ride. I managed to not overeat at all on the way home or at the after ride dinner. Apparently it paid off.

It was a mighty good plan

2010-04-13T22:39:00.001-05:00

Getting started on this whole weight loss thing, got me to thinking. A very dangerous thing and you are about to read about it…I hope. Usually I get a pretty good start on tracking my calories and maintaining a goal of a certain number of calories per day. Then I hit that one day that it all falls apart. It could be a business lunch or even worse a business dinner. It could be the afternoon at the ball park without a plan for eating and overdoing it at the concession stand. is there anything better than a ballpark hotdog or burger? Or like last night it could be a simple trip to McDonalds because we don’t have enough time in between my son’s busy schedule to come home and eat.

Here’s how it goes down. I have healthy eating on my mind, and think I will get a salad. I walk in the door go up the counter and order two (not one, but two) McDoubles (that’s a double cheeseburger with only one slice of cheese for the inexperienced). Something in me just keeps me from saying, give me a salad. Which isn’t the greatest of choices at Mickey Ds. I’m in a hurry and I fall back into the same habit of buying something I can eat with one hand while driving down the road, even though I don’t have to. They make it convenient to over eat. One McDouble is 390 calories which means two equals half of my caloric goal for a day and they are not much bigger than the palm of my hand. Can you say calorie dense?

This scenario goes for any restaurant, not must my son’s favorite. Even if they do offer healthier items, how healthy are they? If you look at the salads on a fast food menu, most are, actually, pretty decent as far as calories go, even after you add dressing, if you choose wisely. However the sodium in the salad and then the dressing will go take you through the roof. My point is, you have to be on your guard constantly. You have to read the labels, watch the nutrition sheets, etc.

Something else that makes it difficult to watch your nutrition? The food industry makes it difficult to not overeat. In his book, “The End Of Overeating”, David A. Kessler, MD gives example after example of how the food industry traps us. They engineer food using Sugar, Fat and Salt to make it more palatable. They process it down to make it easier to swallow. All of this causes “hypereating”. We eat until we can absolutely eat no more. Until we are physically overloaded with food, instead of stopping when we are just content.

The point of all of this rambling???? It is very wise if you are planning on trying to lose weight, make a lifestyle change so that you lose weight, or however you would prefer to phrase it, to have a plan. A plan to workout so that other parts of life do not get in the way or get put aside. Most importantly I think its important to have a plan to eat. A plan that fits in with what is going on in your life. A plan that is detailed enough that you know way ahead of time that you are going to order the SouthWest Salad with no chicken and use only the Vinagrette dressing even though it does have a ton of sodium. You are going to order that salad instead of the cheeseburger. You are going to practice ordering that salad before you walk into the restaurant. You are going to have a plan and stick to it.

Try something different

2010-04-12T22:02:00.001-05:00

This is posted a little late, but it’s taken me a while to get the courage up to post it. - ADG

I’ve been trying to lose weight for, on and off, over a year and really haven’t made much progress. I did lose 25-35 lbs when I started riding bicycles again about 2 years ago. Then gained 10 back. I sit at 200.1 lbs as of 3/29. I want to get my weight down. I want to have a leaner look. I am going to go way out of my comfort zone to try and accomplish this.

I am going to follow 5 simple rules to reach my goal.

1. Be specific:Lose weight and body fat. Get down to 172.0 lbs and 13.5 Body Fat % with a BMI of approximately 24.

2. Be Realistic: I want to lose 1.5 - 2 lbs per week. This will put me at my goal weight on 8/16/2010 (my birthday. Not planned, just worked out that way). Body Fat is a little trickier to calculate.

3. Give Yourself a Deadline:8/16/2010 for ultimate goal of 172 lbs. Monthly goals below.

Date Weight BF %

3/29 200.1 28.3

4/05 198.6 27.5

5/03 192.6 24.3

6/07 185.1 20.3

7/05 179.1 17.1

8/02 173.1 13.9

8/16 172.0 13.6

4. Keep Track: Tracking on this blog, twitter, Facebook and my workout log. I’m tracking my calories and workouts at LiveStrong.com as well. That’s where I figure out how much I actually eat during a day and how many calories I burned during a work out. OR…in the case of 4/1, how bad I screwed up.

5. Make It Public:This is the uncomfortable part. I will be posting my weight, calories and workouts to Twitter, Facebook and this blog. Not wanting to overload social media with mundane numbers from my life, but it does put me out there and makes me more accountable for what I’m doing.

I hope you will watch me as start this. I encourage everyone to make comments, poke fun, give encouragement, whatever as I go through this process. I hope the blog posts and other social media posts are not boring and will be beneficial to some folks. The other part of the plan is to discuss everything I do. Changes in eating habits, obstacles I face, etc.

To answer some questions.

- Yes I stole the idea from http://www.fatcyclist.com/. If you don’t know about or haven’t read this blog, you should. Good stuff here. I am not ashamed of stealing the idea from him, impersonation is the sincerest form of flattery…or something like that.

- Yes, I am afraid I will fail and make a big fool of myself. Wont’ be the first time.

- No need to worry. I do not intend to post any before pics.

- I am doing this because (pick one or all)…… I want to. It will make me fast on the bike. It will make climbing hills more enjoyable. I want to be healthy, so I can run and jump around with my grandkids (its a big deal). I want to look in the mirror and feel better about myself. I’ve got a Mickey Mouse shirt I said I wouldn’t wear until I was down to at least 190 and I really like that shirt. I want to buy new clothes. I like the idea of being the skinny guy. I can’t afford to buy that many new lighter bike parts, losing weight is way cheaper.

Starting Over, same 'ole thing

2010-03-11T22:43:00.002-06:00

Like I bitched yesterday. I was in pretty good shape last year, but now can't seem to manage a decent pace on my bike. I remember this feeling, from when I started riding again two years ago. My weight is up (albeit falling now, thankfully). What happened? It's really like I'm starting all over and not just biking other areas of my life as well. I hate this.

I signed up to race this year and now I don't even know if I've got in me to complete a few laps at a 12 hour MTB race or have the entry fee. I'm just rambling. I'm just wondering when it gets easier and I don't have to work at every single thing or have an obstacle constantly come up to block me.

What is this "sun" thing?

2010-03-10T20:09:00.002-06:00

Got out for a quick ride in the warm weather today. I don't think there was actually any sun when I was out though. Legs felt like concrete. Why was I averaging 18-20 mph last year and now can hardly manage 14? And I've signed up to be on a race team. I've sunk back to where I started and it bites. Too fat and too slow.

Trying to get fired up

2010-03-09T21:23:00.001-06:00

Another one that should have gone up in January, then should have been followed by another and another and ….

It’s cold here in Nashville. I understand that it is colder else where and we probably don’t know what “real” cold is, but for me its cold. I’m sure someone from “up North” will explain how I don’t know what cold is and how they do, but for me, for now, its cold in Nashville, TN.

I’m trying to figure out what races and rides I wan to do this year and what could possibly work for the Trace Bikes Race Team. I’ve been pulling together events from the Tennessee Bicycle Racing Association (TBRA), several other bicycle related websites, old posts, and then of all places, my brain. I’ve come up with 77 events across road and MTB disciplines for 2010, not including cyclocross (weirdos. When I say “weirdos”, I mean, I’m jealous because I suck at it).

I’m posting the events I want to do over to the right. Just in case someone cares, but mainly as a reminder to me and just another way to keep me fired up about racing when its cold outside. Did I mentioned its cold in Nashville?

Cleaning Out Part II

2010-03-09T21:22:00.001-06:00

This is a post that was supposed to go up on 01.04.2010, or close to then at least.

Cleaning Out Part II (Andy dumps a bunch of links from crap he’s saved on the internet and tries to pass it off as a blog post)

I’m not feeling too well. Not well enough to deal with work, but well enough to be bored. You know what that means, I will actually be contributing to my blog today.

I’ve been cleaning out a lot of stuff after my latest rebuild of my laptop. Today, I’ve decided to clean out my feeds in Google Reader. I’ve saved a fair amount of stuff that I always thought I would go back and read later. Ha!!! I’ve also got a bunch of feeds that I don’t really pay attention to. Who cares about a little hotel up in New Foundland (actually, me. We’re planning a vacation up that way for the summer) or the “Evolution of Security”, which is the TSA’s blog. I have to give it to these guys, as soon as a new post goes up, there are a million comments waiting to point out everything wrong with the post, the TSA, and the way they handle airport security. I say give them a break. I travel a lot and I’ve never had one bit of trouble out of them. Why? I follow the rules and know that there are going to be delays. They have to check everyone, so it takes longer….I’ll save this rant for another post, maybe from an airport.

Speaking of travel maybe this is the sort of thing I should weed out. But, really, who doesn’t like haggis, you’ve got to be just a little curious.

US haggis fans rejoice - 21 year old ban on haggis imports lifted

Scanning Mementos

Now I have moved onto cleaning up a pile of paper sitting next to my computer on my desk. I came across a drawing that my youngest son did and gave to me. I save these, pretty much all of them. He draws A LOT. Would it be rude, insensitive to scan this and keep it electronically? I do like the idea of the holding and looking at the actual paper that he touched and put his thoughts on to, but, in case I haven’t mentioned it, he draws A LOT. I’m thinking that selectively scanning some of these wouldn’t be a bad thing and keeping the ones that really special.

Catching up, cleaning out

2010-01-03T09:48:00.001-06:00

Normally I spend the week before the beginning of the new year cleaning out my computer, email, etc. This year that didn’t happen as planned, mostly due to me having plenty of time to do it and using it unwisely (as it pertains to cleaning out my computer). Wisely in the fact that I hung out with my wife while my kids were at my parents and we accomplished a few things, but not much and that was just about perfect.

I’m cleaning out some today though with the goal of staying on top of it all in 2010. I fully realize this goal with go in the crapper within 2 weeks, but I’ll try. Its nice to think I could actually read all of my emails, rss feeds, facebook, twitter, feedly, keep up with workouts, nutrition logs, etc every day and still spend time with my family and do my job.

Here are a few links I am finding that I have either saved for some reason or am just now finding.

First, this one caught me this morning on Facebook. Bunch of morons. It’s a page called “There’s a perfectly good path right next to the road you stupid cyclist!”. It’s a page of people that apparently want cyclists to get hurt while riding on the road. They have the normal reasons of we don’t pay “road tax” (I’ve got three cars at the moment and probably drive them more than most), Bikes are registered ( I’d be happy to register my bike, maybe people would shut up then), yada, yada, yada.

Then there is the obligatory “Top 10 Mind Hacks for Making Your Resolutions Stick [Lifehacker Top 10]” If you make resolutions, which I didn’t this year, then this might be for you. some good thoughts on assisting in making them become habits. Seems to mainly pointed at the dieting, weight loss crowd, but could be used elsewhere. Like world domination.

Then there’s this:

DIY Magnetized Coffee Sleeve Doubles as Third Hand

Got to build one of these…

http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Most-Useless-Machine/

I find this intriguing and it would probably be helpful to me, but I probably won’t set it up. http://lifehacker.com/5195999/portable-ubuntu-runs-ubuntu-inside-windows

I think that’s about it. Going to work on some basketball with Will and get a run in at Warner Parks, too cold to ride the bike. Hopefully will be able to get some new wider tires on the mountain bike today. Get some other cleaning done and maybe finish the day up with some yoga.

Tomorrow…WORK!!! :-|

Stretching

2009-11-29T19:27:00.001-06:00

I am stiff as a board. I was able to ride Friday and Saturday, both 2 – 3 hour rides with a fair amount of climbing in both. Yesterday a catch in my back that made me limp the rest of the day. Today, stiff as a board. I know the solution, I don’t like the solution. Its boring it takes up time, yada, yada, yada. I’m going to start it though. I’ve been research stretching exercises. A lot of these I already know, but thought it was worthwhile to post them here for someone that might read this, but mainly to reinforce the fact that I need to do them on a daily basis.

This coming week I am traveling, so no riding. I will run a little and concentrate on stretching.

Hamstring Stretches – This to the about.com website. There are 4 different stretches for the hamstring in this one article.

IT band stretch/strengthening – A video on “building a better knee”. Click here for the link to the Runner’s World article.

Core strengthening – Some stretching and something else I need to work on. I’ve done this one before for an extended period and it really helped.

Boulevard Bolt 2009

2009-11-28T11:01:00.002-06:00

Signed up for the Boulevard Bolt a few months ago on a whim, with my wife and oldest son. My brother signed but ended up deciding not to do it in favor of cooking a glorious meal for the our family Thanksgiving feast. So, my youngest son benefitted by getting to participate in the Boulevard Bolt as a 47 year old.

We did not train. We showed up way too early. Me and the boys fought. Towards the 4 mile marker we had a complete break down with our youngest saying he would die if he kept walking. I ended up saying I would never do it again. We didn’t even walk across the finish line, instead going straight out and to the car.

Here’s a few things I know, but forget and my wife calmly pointed out to me at an appropriate time later in the afternoon. 1. Boys argue, especially brothers. They do now, they will later. They will do it over anything and everything and always at the wrong time. They will let nothing go. 2. You (meaning me) are a boy. You cannot let anything go. 3. They will work it out or get bored of the argument and move on, eventually. Hopefully I have learned these lessons this time and will remember them next time…NOT!!! I won’t remember them when I need to, but I will try.

Another thing about this race. I told the boys we would just go and have fun. I need to remember my fun and their fun are two different things. Three different things: My fun, Parker’s (11 years old) fun and Will’s (7 years old) fun. I didn’t really push the pace, although I think I was walking too fast in the end, but I should have, uhh, taken more time to smell the roses. OR point out and laugh at the funny costumes. The huge houses. Make games of a goal to reach to get them to run a little more or just enjoy it a little more.

The race? It’s an event put on by two churches on Belle Meade Boulevard to help the homeless. 8100 people signed up to participate this year. That’s a lot of people. The race starts and you just stand there and wait until enough people are moving ahead of you. The gun went off and it took us a few minutes to cross the start line.

We walked for a little bit until thing spread out some. Then started to jog. We probably made about a mile before we had to stop and that’s the way it continued pretty much for the first half. The second half we slowed down and walked more. It took us about 1 hour 30 minutes to complete the course.

Are we going to do it next year? I think so. I want to, if everyone else does. I would like for us to better our time next year, but have more fun doing it. I think that’s very doable. I just have to remember a few things. :)

Red River Gorge Classic (The Fig)

2009-11-23T22:44:00.001-06:00

Post is old. This race happened on November 7, 2009.

This past weekend brought what has become an annual trip. We traveled to the “big city” of Slade, KY to compete in “The Fig” Adventure Race. I competed with Andy J. and Casey C. this year as a three man team. First time I had raced with Casey C. We all got along just fine and seemed to be decent fit as a team.

The Fig is always an interesting race. The director always give you a curve ball of some type. This year it was the layout of the course. Instead of doing some type of loop, we were bused about 40 miles from the finish line to start the race. In my opinion this proved to be a mistake. It meant there was no way to short cut the course, if you were injured or had to pull out. At best, you would have had 30 mile bike ride through hilly countryside before you could get back to your car.

The race started on a little bit of sour note. We ended up skipping the first check point because we couldn’t find it. We searched and searched, but no luck. We were told to skip it if we didn’t expect to be in the top 10. We are normally in the top 5 for this race, so we decided to go look for it. That made it even more aggravating when we couldn’t find it, but finally had to decide to move on and not waste the time.

We had a scary moment near the rappel. We came up to it from a different direction than what the director had meant for racers to use. So we had to pick our way up a cliff, we thought we had made it to the top and were almost there. What we had made it to was an isolated peak with no way to go anywhere else. The climb left us exposed especially the climb down and no one liked that. After that experience I had to call it on the rappel. I don’t like rappels or heights and the combination had be a little freaked. We all decided it was probably best to move at that point anyway. Later we found out there had been a 1 hour wait at the rappel.

From there we had a pretty good go. It was a long hike to the first transition point, but the in between check points were all relatively easy to find and it all went smooth. Transitioning to the bikes was a welcome change. We knew we had a hard climb out from where the bikes were, but we all just wanted to get off our feet for a while and do a different kind of effort. We covered about 10 miles on pavement on the bikes before things turned South and I mean in a bad way not directionally.

Once we left the pavement it wasn’t that bad. We were going along a jeep road with a bunch of creek crossings, mud holes, etc. This was all really fun during the daylight, but that was about to go away. Once it got dark the creek crossing were not near as fun. The road turned up and got really steep so we were walking the bikes more than we were riding. It also meant the checkpoints were almost impossible to find, so we moved into survival mode so we could at least complete the race and not get disqualified. We kept pushing up the hill over some rock ledges and ruts that we could not believe any type of vehicle came down or went up, but there was plenty evidence that they did. Eventually we topped out and the road improved enough to ride and not long after that we came out on a maintained dirt road, which took us to a paved road. From there it was probably 15 miles back to the Finish line. We had to ask directions a few times through the town of Beattyville, but we eventually got to the finish line.

All and all always a fun race. We had a tough time of it, but not so much that we won’t go back next year.

More Racing Crap to Consider

2009-11-22T21:24:00.001-06:00

I’ve mentioned before that I want to start racing this next year. That plan is coming along nicely. At least the part where I will be on a team, the training part is just coming along.

I was talking to one team and things were looking good. I was able to ride with them. Really liked the members that I had a chance to talk to. Enjoyed the whole thing. I was even wanting to join them and I think they were willing to have me. Then some other folks that I ride with often, came up with the idea they wanted to be on a team, but didn’t like the options that were already out there. I proposed the idea of starting our own team with a bike shop that doesn’t currently have a team. They liked that idea, so I’ve started working on that. Its coming along pretty well. More on that later.

My training is coming along. Its been mostly base building and doing things off the bike. Trail running has been the thing. I took a few weeks off, went to Disney, was a bum for a week and then just jumped right back into working out. Probably not the best way to go about it. I thought I could just go out and run 4 miles and feel fine afterwards. Apparently there’s this new idea that you need to stretch or something like that. After the first day, I could hardly walk up the steps in my house. It has gotten better and my times are back down to what they were last year, so all is well. Well almost.

I’ve managed to put on 10 pounds since sometime during the summer. Disney didn’t help here either. I am just now really getting started on losing it. Last week I started counting my calories again, this week I have continued that and have been somewhat successful in staying within my goal of 1400-1500 calories per day.

I’m rambling and I know it. I guess my thought here is self serving. I’ve already put in a good bit of time on this racing thing and I just hope it pays off.

Disney pt.2 The Bad

2009-11-22T21:23:00.001-06:00

Continuing on with overdue posts. I have to point out a few bad things about Disney.

DISCLAIMER

- Some of these are meant as mostly a joke, you figure out which is which.

- Most of these are viewed from my perspective only. Which means they may not even register as an inconvenience in your world.

The Bad

The Dining Plan – I had a love/hate relationship with the dining plan. For some reason it was hard for me to figure it out initially. Parker was not a kid, he was an adult, that made a difference. The love part, they brought you plenty of food. The hate part, you guessed it, they brought you plenty of food, including a big dessert for everyone, every single freaking time. The other bad thing is you had already paid for that dessert so you felt like you had to eat it.

The Gift Shops – I knew it was like this. I understand why its like this. I just don’t like it. After every ride, show or whatever you had to walk through a gift shop. At first this was tough to get through with the boys, but even they were able to ignore it after a while.

Kim Possible – At Epcot they have this “game” that’s tied in with the Kim Possible TV show. You use a cell phone, go around to different countries and find clues. The clues do something cool, when you point the phone at them. Usually really cool stuff. It was slow though, it took F-O-R-E-V-E-R. The first day we did it, it really got on my nerves. The second day, it still got on my nerves. The boys did enjoy it though and thought it was fun, so all was good.

It really was a great trip. Will we go back?

Maybe.

Disney pt. 1 The Good

2009-11-06T12:10:00.001-06:00

In my continuing “Catching up on all of the blogging I should have done while these things were going on” series, here’s a two parter based on my recent trip to Disney World with the family.

I won’t bore you with an analysis of the 8 times we did the Pirates of the Caribbean ride or the 7 times we did the water ride at Animal Kingdom. I will just give you a summary of the trip, short and sweet…at least its starting out that way.

Getting there. Because of how we did our airline tickets ( I had a free ticket) we ended up on two different flights going to Orlando. Which I have to say was kind of fun, a little bit of an adventure. Going different ways and ending up at the same place. All of that went off with out a hitch and we met up in Orlando on time and breezed through Disney’s Magical Express that took us to our hotel.

The Hotel. We stayed at Disney’s All Star Sports Resort. It’s one of their value resorts. It was a nice hotel, very clean. Had all of the stuff you would expect with a hotel, along with a restaurant, a big pool, and a football field with big X’s and O’s on it. Normal stuff.

The Parks. We did them all, twice. We did all of the rides we cared about at least twice. We did do “Pirates” like 8 times and enjoyed it every time. We did do “Its a Small World”, once, and…well we did it. All of the parks were fun. Animal Kingdom was probably our favorite (speaking only for the adults), it seemed a little more laid back and less “theme parkish” than the others.

Summary. The boys loved it. Doris and I loved it. Fall break is one of the better times to go. We never waited on a ride more than 30 minutes. Most of the time less than 10 minutes. Fast Passes and going on someone’s birthday is the BOMB.

MS-150

2009-11-04T20:12:00.003-06:00

It’s been a while since I posted. What can I say? I’ve been busy!! Work, work, work, then a 10 day trip to Disney. Then some more worked mixed with a lot of procrastination.

Doris and I did the MS-150 a few weeks ago. It was Doris’ first group ride, first cycling event, and first ride of 50 miles or more. She did 60ish miles on Saturday and 60ish miles on Sunday. She did it like a champ to. We were passing people all day long. We were a part of the Harpeth Bike Club team.

Our core group consisted of myself, Doris, Bill H., and Chris J. This was Chris’ first event as well and pretty darn close to being his first time on a bicycle. Doris, Chris and I were doing the short route, while Bill chose to do the long route.

The ride starts from Page High School in Franklin and winds it way through Shelbyville and on into Lynchburg, TN. The first day we had excellent weather and just a little wind. There was some traffic but not too much and we had support of the local law enforcement at major intersections. The course overall was flat, there were maybe two real climbs. One in the beginning and one at the very end. It would be the only one that Doris had to stop at before she climbed it, she didn’t walk, just took a break for maybe 5 minutes, then motored on up it. The second day there were no stops.

Chris had a rough day of it. Less than 10 miles into he wrecked and broke one of his cleats. So not only was this the first time he had been on a bike, it was his first time riding with clipless pedals which the cleat to one was broken. He rode this way, until about 7 miles before the finish line for the first day. The guys from REI were at the last rest stop and they gave him new pedal cleats for his shoes. Good going REI!!! The cool thing about all of this is that he had these problems and he still finished the first day. Chris J. was definitely my hero for the ride.

The MS Society puts on a good event. Once we got to the finish line, we checked in and they took our bike to store it. Then we gathered our tent, sleeping bags, and clothes off the truck that transported it down there. Then we set up our little camp along with everyone else from Harpeth Bike Club.

That evening they loaded us up on buses and took us to a huge picnic pavilion owned by Jack Daniels that overlooks Lynchburg, TN. Pretty neat. They had food and drinks for us. We hung out ate too much and then listened to a lot of info about the MS Society and watch some awards be given. Then got back on the bus, back to the camp, and went to sleep.

I don’t remember what time we had to get up the next morning, but I do remember it was early. We had to get up, break camp and get our stuff to the loading area for the truck. Get breakfast, which wasn’t that great. Then get our bikes and get on the road.

The trip back was a good one. It was cloudy and threatened rain the whole time, but there was little wind. The big uphill at the end of the first day was the big downhill at the beginning of the second day, so that was a good start to the day. We picked up a new riding companion in Pat C. It seemed the first day was about completing a goal and the second day was more about enjoying the ride. I thought it was fun either way.

The closer we got to the finish line the more it looked liked it would rain, until finally it couldn’t hold back anymore and the rain started coming down. It never got horribly bad and wasn’t enough to get you wet until the last 5 or 10 miles maybe. We made it in without getting too wet and had dry clothes waiting on us when we got there. So not too bad.

It was a great event, made even better because I got to share it with Doris. What made it even better than that was she got to accomplish a goal.

MS-150 – To Jack and Back – TOMORROW!!!

2009-10-02T19:22:00.000-05:00

The MS-150 – To Jack and Back charity ride is tomorrow. While I have been anticipating this ride, its kind of snuck up on me. Doris is riding it and we have been training for it. We’ve talked about it pretty regularly, including a ride we did two nights ago. I guess my mind just hasn’t been thinking about the actual “when” of it. It’s tomorrow.

Disclaimer: I am looking forward to this ride. I am looking forward even more to the fact that I get to do an event with my lovely wife.

I’m dreading this ride. Not the actual ride, but the logistics of the ride rather. First, I had to raise money. That hasn’t really bothered me in years past (I’ve raised money for this thing 3 years in a row, and this is the first I will actually get to ride.), but this year it was a pain. I don’t know why it bothered me, it just did. Maybe because few people could/would donate. Economy and all that. I had to deal with a less than customer service oriented person about a check that my Mother had written and how to get that into the donation pile. This happened at early packet pick up. A very minute detail of a problem that wasn’t even a problem really. For some reason, in Andy’s world it was and has stuck with me. I got my t-shirt in the end. The last thing is packing. I do a lot of overnight stuff that involves packing, so it shouldn’t be a big deal. For reasons unbeknownst to me, its a big deal this time. I’m worried about not having something, I rarely do that.

By now you are saying to yourself, “Andy, do you ever do anything but complain?” According to my friends, no. According to me, well, maybe.

I am looking forward to this ride for the similar reasons as I mentioned above. The volunteers are all great and most everyone has gone out of their way to make the riders happy. I enjoy overnight trips, especially when it includes my bicycle and/or my wife. This time it includes both, what could be better? It’s supposed to be a beautiful day tomorrow and Sunday for the return trip. So it will be two days filled with riding bicycles with my wife and other friends, eating good food, good weather, camping, more sitting around and talking about bicycles, more riding with my wife and other friends. The only thing that could make it better is if the boys were going with us. Maybe in a few years they will want to join us. I’m sure I will still be complaining about insignificant details of the ride then as well.

DINO 12/24 Hour MTB Race

2009-10-01T20:25:00.001-05:00

Hopefully this will be the first of several posts I’ve been meaning to get out. I just found out that someone else, at least looks at my blog from time to time. Every time I hear about someone looking at it, it inspires me to write more. Luckily I just did a race so I have some to write about.

Our normal group of riders had decided to take on a 24 hour race called the DINO 24. We would carry two teams. AJ had his team fairly well nailed down between some friends from Chicago and some one he met online from Nashville. This would be the fast team and as it eventually worked out the only 24 hour team. My team went through a few changes and ended up with only 3 members, so we opted for the 12 hour option.

The race starts at noon and finishes at midnight for the 12 hour option. We decided to drive up on Friday. It was about a 5 hour drive and we didn’t want to drive 5 hours then have to race right away. The Chicago contingent was already there and found us the perfect camping spot. A straight short walk to the Start/Finish line, a great view of the lake, extremely close to the parking lot, most importantly, just a few steps away from the bathroom.

Getting there early gave us a chance to get to know everyone. Get camp set up and hang out for a few hours. The weather was excellent!!

The race start was a little odd to us, actually the whole timing of the event proved to be a unique experience for us all. The race started at noon, so when we woke up on Saturday morning we had nothing to do. This does not work well for this group as it could open us up to getting into trouble by doing something stupid. However, this morning one person went off to pre-ride the course and a few of us decided we could go into town and get breakfast. Good move. More hanging out, more fiddling with bikes, etc. Then all of a sudden we were running a little late. “Late” meaning we only had 25 minutes to walk across the parking lot to the Start versus the 30 we had planned on. We managed to make it and start on time though.

The race director

informed everyone that for the start they would have to remove either a front wheel or their seat. Run about 50 yards, re-install and take off. It was a pretty interesting way to start the race. It slowed us down a bit as we it seemed to put us in the middle of the pack to start with. DS, the starting teammate, seemed to take his time getting his seat on. This made a ton more sense than my, “rush as fast as you can and really screw it up”, method. But probably not as exciting. DS came in with a lap time of around 1:15 and that’s where he and I stayed for the race I think. MC was a little slower, but he also took a long night lap and had a couple wrecks in the process, so we forgive.

We were all able to find what we were looking for though. That’s right, the FINISH line and a pot of taco meat (on possibly the cleanest camping stove I’ve ever seen. What’s up with that TP?)

In conclusion, it was a great weekend spent with good friends, some old

and some new. Neither team came close to the podium, but we didn’t really care. The hanging out, shooting the bull, making fun of each other, etc. was enough for us.

Daddy - Gone to the House

2009-09-19T23:34:00.002-05:00

Daddy went home on Friday. Or at least to my brother's. He's doing very well.

Date	Weight	BF %
3/29	200.1	28.3
4/05	198.6	27.5
5/03	192.6	24.3
6/07	185.1	20.3
7/05	179.1	17.1
8/02	173.1	13.9
8/16	172.0	13.6