O-tay!

Shut up and move yer feet

Last Saturday I planned a ride with Steve here in town, and we got excited at the conditions:  NOAA said the high would be 51F with a 60% chance of rain, and I thought "wow, it's gonna be warm!"

A forecast like that last October would have been met with dread. 

So Steve and I went off and climbed up to Mayday with a 9am start.   I rolled down 125 and 210 by Nighthorse Lake, while Steve continued on to Mancos.  I ended my ride a bit early, and left about an hour of rain free riding on the table.  Steve on the other hand, was not so lucky as he got dumped on coming down 160 through Hesperus.

This time of year, you just have to be ready for the opportunity to exercise in your environment and accept the challenges.  In past places, we'd travel every darn weekend to get to better climates or locales (mostly the case).  In Durango, I cannot say that I really have the motivation to travel elsewhere as this place offers up endless opportunities for outdoor fun.  We get year round outdoor activities and one just has to adapt through the seasons.  I'm running and cycling now, and mostly the skis are put away for the winter, but you never know.

The point is though it really doesn't matter how you do it - just shut up and move yer feet!

Billy White Shoes

 The legs were dead by Sunday for both Jeni and I, so we decided to head up to Molas for some snow shoeing.

 Worked our way up over 12k elevation and followed Arctic Cat tracks or made or own.

 My MSRs were perfect for the deep powder, but I'd like to come back again with the Katoolas for some snow running on the tracks.

 Lots of people are skiing the back country and really the only difference is how fast you come down because it takes the same effort going up either snow shoeing or skinning up.

A solid week left me only little riding over the weekend, but it's nice to have options.

How about some Zappa in your ear?  Don't forget Part 2.

Miles and Miles

Time for a little rest.

Nothing like a good Wharf Rat to set the mood.

Pedal, repeat, run, stop, run again.  Man these temps are warm right now!

First Run

Got in the first run of 2011 and with planning, it took place at Abiqui Lake - or more precisely on a nice dirt road paralleling the Rio Chama down in New Mexico.  It was really nice and with temps in the 40's and the concentrated NM sun it seemed quite warm actually.  I was in Santa Fe for some work and really wanted to give Dale Ball Trails a run, but the lake gained me about 10-F in temperature.

I download an application called Endomondo for the crack berry and this little free tool uses the gps in your phone and records your run time, speed, and distance.  You can use it for all types of exercise activities actaully - not just running.  For the run though it had a pretty cool voice feature that called out my distance and lap times (set up for 1-km). 

The run was not long - just 8-km and as expected the first run brought with it the shin splints.  Usually takes a couple of weeks to disappear.  The running is very efficient for me when I travel for work as it just got to be too much always dragging the bike and gear around. 

In!

Made it for the 1/2 Burner and 1/2 Growler! 

And I have not even tried to run since November.  Gonna be a great weekend!

The Divine Ratio

Or as Euclid said, it's the "extreme and mean ratio."  Man, in today's marketing terms that guy hit a home run, eh!

Conceding a long proof here - trust me and accept that the mathematics work things out to be a simple ratio of (1 + Sqrt(5)) / 2 = 1.618...., let's simplify and call the ratio of just 1.62.

Looking at this in terms of single speed, one could just simply ignore length (or diameter) and calculate the ratio of teeth in cogs - front to rear, as we normally do.

Thus the Colorado Standard of 32 x 20 would be calculated at "a (the larger) is to b (the smaller)."   Or, 32 / 20 = 1.6.  Close, but no cigar.  Divinity is at 1.62, or so says Jesus, Buddha, Allah, and L. Ron.

The Dave Harris (not quite yet a deity) especial of 33 x 20 would be 33 / 20 = 1.65.  He's a guy on a soapbox in Trafalgar Square with that one.  He might have some followers, but not quite enough to be considered a religion.

The gear I kicked ass on in 2007 was 32 x 19, or 32 / 19 = 1.68.  But it should be noted that if you look at this in relation to the Breckenridge 100, my teammate Mark Thompson set the time record on 32 x 20 (1.6 ratio) - it definitely was not me on 32 x 19 at the 1.68.

And as such in repeating things here, the "Divine Ratio" is defined (by others) as 1.618, or rounded to 1.62.

So take an arbitrary 34 x 21, or 34 / 21 =  1.619.  That is only the a to b ratio, however.  Lets try the (a + b) / a.

By adding the teeth, we have (34 + 21) / 34 = 55 / 34 = 1.617.

The 34 x 21 calculates to a nice close range very nearly at the Divine ratio of 1.618.  This is about as close as one can get!

(He might be onto something here.)

I'm only calculating number of teeth here, and as the equation has been proven for thousands of years - it's based on geometrical length.  Circumference is a function of diameter though, and teeth represent circumference so it should not be an issue.  But give me some time in the garage and I'll measure diameters of cogs to further investigate the phenomena.  As of right now, I'm thinking of dedicating 2011 to 34 x 21.

The Alley

Prior to racing the Steamboat Stampede, I signed up for the 25th annual Alley Loop in Crested Butte - another skiing marathon (42k).  Depending on your perspective though, the weather since the Stampede here in Durango has certainly not been kind to x-c skiing.  Sure the Nordic Center up on the mountain has been open, but the in town Hill Crest Nordic track has been closed and well that has taken skiing off the radar for me.  So with not having skied once in 3-weeks - I showed up at the Alley and found out the hard way that my preparation was lacking.

 I stayed at the Elk Mountain Lodge - awesome place, and I got the top floor room with a view.

 We started and finished downtown for the Alley.  They closed off the streets and packed and groomed snow.

 Similar to the CB100 mountain bike race, we went right through town.  Start and finish at The Brick Oven, of course.

This is a really a cool event with options of 1.5k, 3k, 5k, 10k, 15k, and 21k - in addition to the marathon. 

It's called the Alley because you snake through town before heading out to the Nordic course.  I finished the Alley about 75-mins slower than my Steamboat Stampede marathon.  Somehow my name never made it in the results and well, when you don't have a good day, why argue with the promoters after the fact if your name does not show up?  Ha ha.

Not having skied once in 3 weeks really was the issue as the form was off and I had to stop about a dozen times (didn't stop at all at Steamboat).  I could not step or glide like I expected and for 43 years the upper body has been trained for strength, not endurance.  I really felt a lot of fatigue and surprisingly this thing thoroughly worked me.  I could be wrong but it looked like the Alley was an easier course than Steamboat - or at least about the same level.

Getting smacked down is the exact reason WHY we do these kinds of things, though.   Man, I got worked, but I had a great time!  I'd really like to focus on Nordic racing, but it's hard to do in a town like Durango.  Our riding season opened early - or one could say, it never really stopped this year.

So that is what I did on Sunday.  Jeni has the Nordic jones and she went up to the Nordic Center and I biked up there from home.  A nice 30-mile ride with 3100-ft of climbing.  It was cold up there, but I got a ride home and that wrapped up a fantastic weekend.   Got to hang out with good CB friends like Huck, Irwin, and Laura.  Then came home to see Jeni and the cats.   I'll be back for the Alley in 2012 to redeem my self for sure.

WTFIMH

I've spent a good portion of my life pondering the thought "Where the f@#% is my hat?

Today has included one of those moments.  Has any one seen my Swix hat?