Bombing the Hills

Now that we're getting passed the beginners level and into the intermediate level of mountain biking we're spending most of our biking up hill. The first time we were on the trials we rode the breaks hard not knowing what was coming. Now we're almost full speed bombing down the mountain. I'll try and throw a jump in here and there but I still have visions of face planting when I was a kid so I chicken out most of the time. Jumping can get hairy cuz the trails are only 4 feet across and any mistake means a big fall down the side of the hill. The aggressive factor goes way down after having kids but it's still a blast. Except for the 30 minute climb at the end of the ride to get back to the top. Even in the lowest gear this climb is brutal. Our goal was to climb this hill without stopping or having our feet touch the ground by the end of the year. We both did last weekend so that was our big accomplishment.

Early Bird

The last few weeks I've been working many hours and working late which cuts into Family time. So I'm going to try and change my schedule and start working at 4am - 3pm-ish. We'll see how it goes. Getting up is pretty hard these last couple days. Getting home and seeing Hayley for an hour before she goes to bed sucks. But it's almost as bad being home and super tired also so it's a fine balance between sleep and Hayley time. I've also slacked a bit on working out the last week but I did fit in a 9 mile run on Saturday. So far that's been my longest run in one shot. I'm going to attempt a helf marathon this spring and again in the fall to see if I improve on my time. Annnd I'm way off topic so this getting into work early is already showing it's effects.

Happy B-Day Mom, Ginger, Mike ...

So yesterday it would've been my moms birthday. One thing she didn't do was forget peoples birthdays. Me on the other hand, it's my specialty. I make a News Years resolution every year to remember peoples birthdays and to send them cards. So when Jen said it was moms birthday yesterday it hit me that I missed my sisters birthday earlier this month. CRAP!!

I have a plan from this point on not to forget. I'm going to enter all events on my Google Calendar and have it email me a week before. We'll see how it goes the rest of the year.

It's Wednesday!!

What happened to Monday and Tuesday. The week is flying by. The weather here is the best it's been since we got here. Daylight savings time is awesome. The extra hour of sunlight means I can do a lot more with Hayley outdoors when I get home. Hayley runs for the door as soon as I get home. I don't think she likes our apartment that much. She'd much rather hang out outside. If her shoes aren't on she'll run around the apartment trying to find them and she doesn't give up. After she finds her shoes and gets them on she'll bring my shoes to me if I don't already have them on. I've even got her trained as to which shoes to grab. I'll even switch it up on her to see if she understands. I'm amazed at how smart she is at this age. Although when I start thinking she's standing out we'll hit the park and see other kids her age doing the same things. So she's not standing out so much but she's a lot of fun to be around.

Shoes

Running five miles a day is killing my legs so I bought what I thought was a good pair of Nike running shoes. After a couple weeks running in them my feet were killing worse then before. I tried to tough it out thinking they just needed to be broken in but my feet got worse. They even hurt when I walked in them. So I went back to my rag tag shoes I was using before. The rag tags were getting to the point that they were falling apart so I decided to try again and buy a new pair. I went Sports Basement across the street. At first I figured they'd be way over priced but I gave them a try. I start checking out the shoes and a kid asked if I needed help. I told him I needed running shoes and I told him the Nike's I was wearing were killing my feet. He kind of laughed at the Nike's, apparently Nike's are bad shoes unless you get into the big money shoes.

He first had me take off my shoes and walk down this track. Then he had me try and a couple different kinds of shoes and run down the track with them. He made the comment that he couldn't see me running for more then a half mile with my stride. I guess I didn't realize there's a technique to running. So on top of selling me shoes he gave me a lesson in running. Apparently he was a big Cross Country runner and now he runs marathons. I bought the shoes for $80 and my feet felt a hundred times better after wearing them for a few hours.

So if you're ever in the market I highly recommend the Sports Basement. I'll be using them for all my sporting needs. It's a great store. Read some reviews for yourself.

Trails

Just some photos from last weekend.

http://picasaweb.google.com/chadwick1p/MtnBike

Delayed Weekend Update

Last weekend Jens mom was here so we spent the time doing touristy things. We had a short period of time to go mountain biking on Saturday and about 10 minutes into the ride I got a flat tire, and of course I have no clue where my pump went. This really put a damper on the day, so I had to walk back to where Jen and her mom were walking the trails. I changed my tire and proceeded to wait for Chad to come with his pump from his car. The flat tire cost us a good 30 minutes of riding. The trails were dryer then last time and it was warmer out. I'm getting braver going down the steep hills and I'm starting to throw in a jump or two. I keep envisioning landing on my face as happened when I was growing up. (which explains a lot)

After mountain biking we went to San Fran to see the Golden Gate bridge. After getting lost in San Fran all I could think about was "Why don't we have a GPS, they're so worth it" but eventually we found it by driving in one direction until we found some signs.

Sunday we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium which was pretty cool. There's a bunch of buildings that used to be a canning companies that have been turned into a big tourists area. The area is called The Canning District. It was pretty interesting to see and it would be fun to see it back in the day.

Let is snow

Heee Haw. I'm not in MN dealing with all the snow they're getting. Al and Kathy are in FL and they're huge snowmobilers. Talk about ironic. But I can't brag that much cuz it's a rain fest here. Rain rain rain all day and night. It's driving me crazy. I want 70-80 degrees with lots of sun. Someday I'll move back to FL so I can experience it.

Hitting the trails

We got a late start mountain biking but when we eventually got there it was awesome. The view is phenomenal. I took these pictures with my phone, one of these days I'll have to bring my camera. Most of my pics ended up blurry. The trails were a little slick and wet from the rain and snow we got yesterday. (haha it snowed in the mountains and we saw some snow on the trails) Here's a pic of me wearing what else, my Oakley's. Oakley's on the trail is actually bad idea. It gets so hot that they steam up the entire time.

Here's the best pic of the trail I got. Like I said the rest were to blurry. The trail narrows quite a bit in some spots also. It makes one think twice before gaining to much speed downhill. Tumbling down the side wouldn't be much fun.


The day came to an upbrupt end when Chad broke his peddle when we were just about to hit the down hill slope on the way back to the car. He ended up running up the hills and riding the bike down. Funny stuff cuz he was running up the hills faster then I was biking. I'm a little out of shape when it comes to biking.

Weight Struggles

So a while back I made a bet with Green-O as to who can lose the most weight. I started out of the gate fast losing 50lbs. Since I've moved to Sunnyvale I haven't been able to lose another pound. I've been working out pretty steady but I think my food intake has probably increased a bit. When I started this weight loss drive I didn't diet that much other then cutting out ice cream and not eating after 6pm. My body has caught on to me here. I run for a hour 4-5 times a week. I could use the excuse that I've just put on muscle and I'm still losing fat but the waist line doesn't lie. So I'm going to start trying to diet a little and cut my portions down. We'll see if that helps.

My current stats 195lbs with about 4-6 inches off the waist line.

An eye on the weather

Accuweather has been a popular site as of late. This weekend Jen heads back to MN so I'm looking forward to a full weekend of mountain biking. We've had so much rain of late the trails are probably a muddy mess but that's alright I'm totally up for getting dirty. So far this weekend is looking dry but it's supposed to rain on Thursday. I'll be disappointed if it carries over into the weekend.

I've also been watching Orlando, FL since my Brother and Sister with their families are heading there for vacation. So far it's looking pretty good for them. I'm a little jealous I'm not vacationing there this year.

Recoverying again

Before last year I couldn't remember the last time I had a non self induced stomach flu. After last week I've caught the stomach flu three times in a year. I think Hayley is a walking incubator. I'm not quite sure where she caught it, but she's been ill for about a week. I got it on Thursday. I felt it come on in the morning but I tried to tough it out and make it into work to no avail. Being sick is brutal for me cuz I have major caffeine addiction and not being able to keep anything down brings on the biggest headache ever. So I spent the entire day with a huge headache on top of the hourly ritual of praying to the porcelain god.

Friday I toughed it out and went to work with what felt like a brutal hangover. My head was spinning all day but a big dose if Advil and soda kept the headache away. My stomach was kept under control with a tablet or two of Rolaids.

But my misery can't top Hayley's. I feel so bad for her. She just can't kick these things. Hopefully it's just a childhood thing and she's able to fend it off better when she's older. So far she's inherited my immune system cuz Jen never gets these stupid flu's, colds, and any other virus Hayley brings home.

Trouble Sleeping

After feeling like I caught up on my sleep yesterday I ended up not being able to sleep last night. After tossing and turning from 12am - 2am I decided it was time to try and be somewhat productive and work. So I'm at work and I can't get anything done cuz the simulator is down and there's no admins here to fix. It's just great. I should've stayed home.

This weekend was a washout. It finally stopped raining about 2 pm on Sunday so we got in some biking on paved trails. Nothing like last weekend. Although it was tempting to slosh through the mud but uphill would've been tough. Hayley got to come with in the trailer. She gets excited to go now so it's kind of fun.

That about sums up the weekend. Sunnyvale in the winter isn't that exciting. The rainy season here is nothing like Florida's rainy season. When it rains here it's for 1 or 2 weeks straight. At least in FL it was for an hour or two a day and the rest of the day was fine.

What was that temp?

This week in MN alone makes it worth moving to CA. While it's high 60's here it's a little fridged in MN. I don't remember the last time I've had to deal with sub zero weather. I don't remember having any cold temps last year. Enjoy that weather Minny's.

Weekend Highlights

The highlight of this weekend was mountain biking through the mountains. Chad and I went to the El Corte de Madera Creek trails shown in the picture above. There were many places where the trails were about 3 feet wide with cliffs on both sides. Chad made the comment about 5 minutes into the ride that he wanted to start on something a little easier. It took us about 1.5 hours to get there twisting and turning and finally finding it. We rode for about 45 minutes and decided we'd hit it hard next time now that we got a good idea of what we're doing. Uphill was killer on the legs and it was hard to keep the front tire on the ground so needless to say we spent a lot of the uphill ride walking our bikes up. But next time it should be easier.

It was great to see the Colts win the Super Bowl. I wanted to see Manning and Dungy to finally win one. They've had some great teams but couldn't seal the deal. Next year I predict there's a .009% chance the Vikes will be there.

In need of some Voodoo

Since I got sick over Christmas I've had a lingering headache. I think I threw out my neck a bit and I didn't get a chance to see the Voodoo doctor before I got back to Sunnyvale. Sitting at my desk for 11-13 hours a day isn't helping either. Our chairs here are not that great compared with Eagan's. I might break down and see the Voodoo doctor here but my insurance won't cover it. I have a hard time paying the equivalent of a weeks worth of food for a neck adjustment. Maybe another Advil a day will fix it.

The Voodoo reference comes from my brother when I mentioned I needed to see a chiropractor. He said once you start going you'll need them for the rest of your life. There's truth to it but an adjustment does take my headache away for a couple weeks.

On Demand

According to Bill Gates life as we know it is going to change drastically. Well at least the way we view TV is going to change. Although I don't generally put a lot of weight on the words of Bill Gates, in this case I'm on the bandwagon. I'm certainly not claiming to be on the cusp of cutting edge technology but since I bought my iPod the way I view TV is totally different.

Actually, maybe it wasn't my iPod that did it but rather my wanting to listen to the KQ92 and 93x morning shows. Although I'm listening to them a day late I can pause, rewind, fast forward anytime I'd like. Listening to these Poscasts has me somewhat addicted to Podcasts now. I've tried to fill my iPod with enough Podcasts to get me through the work day. More and more video podcasts are being released and some of these video Podcasts are TV shows like "The Family Guy". Apple has it setup perfect for podcasts to charge money. I'd be more then happy to cancel cable if I can just subscribe to my favorite shows and I'd be more then willing to buy the AppleTV box to view these shows as well. I guess I'd be missing out on sports in real time but the Internet is going to take care of that sooner then we think.

I'd list my Podcasts that I currently listen to but it's been an experiment and after I have the list somewhat settled I'll post them. For the time beings check out the Podcasts the Ben listens too. I have subscribed to most of them to see what they're about.

SR-71 Blackbird >= Mach 3

All those days I spent bored wondering what to do and I never thought to go see my favorite jet that was on display less then three miles from my house at the Air National Guard museum. The SR-71 Blackbird was recently moved from the museum to the CIA head quarters for their 60th anniversary. I'm not sure if it will ever be back but I certainly missed a golden opportunity to see it. I read about it in the book Skunk Works and ever since I've been in awe over it. Now I'll have to travel somewhere to see it. Hopefully I can catch it at an air show or something while I'm in Cali. Check out a video of it on youtube.

Bath Time

One of Hayleys favorite activities is bath time. She'll run into the bathroom and stand next to the tub and repeat over and over "Bath".."Bath" while shaking her head yes. It's pretty funny. So why is this worth blogging... Last night during her bath she was playing around. Then her face got red and she "Pinched a loaf" in the tub. I knew kids did this but I never thought about it. Thank God I caught her in the act and I was able to stop her from playing with her turds. I cleaned and sanitized the tub and gave her another bath without incident this time. Hopefully we have no repeats of this event.

Go Colts!!!

The Colts vs Pats game last night was one of the best ever. After swallowing the Bears winning it was great to see the Colts win. Now if they can crush the Bears all will be well. I hate the Bears. They're the worst team to ever make it to the Super Bowl. Except for maybe the '85 Patriots.