"Cha Cha Changes"

This whole blog could be an editor's note:

So I'm gonna make a fully legit blog that deals with cycling, triathlon, rock climbing and whatever. But I'm also gonna keep up this blog. Why? Cause this is more of my personal blog where I keep the stupid things that come across my mind. Just call me the Gertrude Stien of blogging. . . . a blog is a blog is a blog. Honestly, I think the personal blog will be the fun blog. We'll see about how this serious blogging stuff works out. I may come running back to this blog.

In other news: I think some beers should have a symbol if they have more than 10% alcohol. This not a complaint. It is just that I would like to know when I'm cracking open a 10%+ alcohol beer. For instance after rock climbing this evening I had a beer with some chips and salsa. I grabbed a Troegg's Mad Elf. It is 11% alcohol. Not exactly what I need to be grabbing at 10:30 pm.

More Rock Climbing

I just got back from the Philly Rock (Climbing) Gym. Frustration was the theme of the evening there. My "suck switch" was turned on, and the dial was cranked way up. The gym was super crowded which leaves me less inspired, and I was really tired. Being out till 1 in the morning and having beers for last night's dinner probably wasn't helping. I stuck to the routes I could do and then made next no progress on the relatively harder routes. Other than progresing through harder and harder routes it is very hard to judge improvement in rock climbing. I'll be back there Sunday night.

At the risk of getting a little too serious, I'll list a few things I know would lead to some definite improvement in my rock climbing abilities.

1. Sit ups. At times the only thing keeping you on the wall is your core strength. Hanging up side down from an overhang with nothing but your fingers and toes holding on. There is some serious core strength being demonstrated.
   
2. Flexability. This is probably one of the most underated things anyone can do to improve fitness.
   
3. Lessons. There are somethings that I can't learn unless someone flat out tells me. Also it is great to have someone yelling at you while your going for the next hold.
4. Arm Strength. Forarms and Tricepts are huge in rock climbing. Popeye would have been one hell of a climber!!! I usually finish the night on the strength wall, trying to improve forearm and hand strength.
5. Footwork! This is probably what needs the most work for myself. You can have your foot on the correct foot hold, but it will also matter how your foot is on that hold. Just placing it there will not help you get to the next handhold. Pointing your toes. Twisting your foot. Taking care to place your feet correctly definitely helps.

Only 2 of the 5 items had anything specifically to do with rock climbing. Maybe I can work on these at home a little, but first I would have to put down the beer.

Another Bday Poem

I once knew a boy named Andrew
who made funny faces to pooh
his face would turn pink
then something would stink
change his diaper is all we could do

Happy Birthday Andrew!!! Work on those pooh faces son!!!!

Travelling . . .

I'm gonna be out of the office for a few days next week. Heading down to Miami and then to Hollywood (FL). It should be a good time. Who knows maybe I'll learn something?

And in other news . . . I booked my trip to Belgium last night. Thats right kids. I'm going overseas. Hopefully, they're making enough Belgium Ale for me. I should call ahead and make sure they stock up. I gonna try to sample most of the fine Belgium Ale that can't be found here. YEAH!!!

Bouldering Improvement

I hit up the Rock Gym after work. It was nice to see some definite improvement in my bouldering skills. I did several new routes and was able to make somewhat decent attempts at routes that I thought were previously unatainable. These problems are going to be soon within my abilities. My forearms get really pumped because I don't exactly use the most efficient form and I rely alot on my height to get me through problems.

The real negative from rock climbing at the gym is that I am a "death gripper". I grab the handholds with too much force. These leads to an excessive amount of callouses and blisters to appear on my hands the day afterwards. Rough hands are not sexy.

On a side note, Two burritos do not make great pre-rock climbing dinner.

Hibernation

My hibernation period has started. Getting fat is gonna be fun. But don't think that I'm getting fat without a purpose. Oh no. I've rationalized this hibernation. I figure a little physical and mental rest will do my training some good. Think of it as starting with a blank canvas. I need to be a large block of stone that Michealangelo will turn into "The David".

If I'm not working out what will I be doing? Chillin, Livin, whateva. I'm still gonna rock climb, just because I enjoy it and it doesn't really stress me out. I stink at it way too much for me to be concerned with the result. I'll be in Florida for a week, so that will take up a big chunck of my hibernation! If you want party with the Leave The Fan On auther, now is certainly a good time to do it. I may hop in the pool before hibernation ends, but I view hibernation mainly as a break from cycling. Considering I haven't swam in almost a year, I have no need to take a break from that.

When does this hibernation end? I have that scheduled for Dec. 18th. Then I will begin base training for what I hope to be a succesful cycling season. Followed by a return to an Ironman triathlon. I already feel the pain train.

OMG!!!

I have 15 minutes to post this blog or I will lose the 30 day blogging challenge!!!

I'm thinking about hiking the entire hosreshoe trail over Christmas break. It is a 130 trail that connects Valley Forge Park to the Appalachain trail in Harrisburg. How many days do you think I can do it in? Do I have any takers on 6 days? That would be 20+ miles per day of hiking.

hmmm, maybe I should actually think these things through before I go post them willy nilly on my blog.

Bienvenido a Miami!

Thats right Kids, I'm going to Miami (South Beach)!!!

What will I being doing there? God only knows at this point, but this time next week I'll be packing my bags. I'm staying a block off of Ocean Drive, so it should be no problem finding somewhere to go. At worst, It rains for the two days I'm there and I sit at a coffee shop drinking coffee and reading. At best, it doesn't rain and I chill on the beach for 2 days.

Anyone been to South Beach? Got any sugestions of places I must see? Let me know!!! Don't be afraid to share. I'll take my camera in case there is anything worth sharing while I'm there.

I figure I'll take in the night life while I'm there, but I'm not sure how much will be going on there considering it will be a Tuesday and Wednesday night. I've been listening to some Dirty Vegas and Paul Oakenfold to get myself pumped.

After my two days on the beach, I'm off to a conference in Hollywood, FL, which should be educational as well as inspirational.

On a lighter note, I'm in full on fat mode. Thats right kids, cut up those gym membership cards with me! (You would think that I would try to get a beach body together for Miami. Forget That!!!) It is time to pack on weight for the winter. I'm even secretly hoping for just a really brutally cold next few weeks. I want nothing but sub 40 degree weather and clouds. Throw in a little snow just for fun. It is time to hibernate. I've got the beer. I've got the chips and salsa and I've got the commitment! I'm getting fat and no one is going to stop me!!!

Who says I can't cook?

I had a whole bottle of salsa last night, and tonight for dinner, I'm having some more chips and salsa!

Longs Peak (part one)

With my increasing interest in mountainering, I felt I would recount my lovely experience with Long's Peak Mtn. For those who don't know Long's Peak is the only 14,000 foot mountain in Rocky Mtn National Park. To summit Long's Peak in one day you will experience a 4,500 foot altitude gain and hike over 16 miles.

With a little coaxing, I had convinced my brother, sister and sister in law to attempt to summit Long's Peak Mtn in one day after 4 days of car camping in Rocky Mtn National Park. We plan to wake up at 3:00 am, and start hiking around 3:30 to summit before any possible afternoon thunderstorms could fall upon us. I am really pumped to summit.

We wake up. Grab our bags. Make sure we have everything and start hiking. Since it is still dark out, we hike via flash light for the first few hours. As we climbed up Longs Peak, I can remember seeing the sun rise over the park, as we worked our way up the mountain. Who knew what sun and the mountain had in store for us later?

After about a few hours of hiking, we were making regular stops to stay hidrated and fuel up on the trail mix and pretzels we had brought with us. Everything seemed to be going very smoothly. At one stop, I noticed that we forgot the 7 peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches that we made the previous night. Our calorie intake is going to be shortened significantly. I remember thinking that we should turn around at that point. Go hang out in Estes Park. Anything but this. Summiting this mountain was not going to take place without those sandwhiches, but my desire to summit kept my mouth shut.

We make it to the timberline. Everyone is fine. Walking up the mountain at a steady pace, we are focused on the goal. We make it to the outhouse that marks the split in the trail from Chasm Lake to the Summit of Long's Peak. We take silly photoes of each other in the outhouse. It seems like it should not be a problem summiting this mountain, even though we still have more than 5 miles from the summit.

As we continue on, I start to feel a little fatigued which quickly turns into very fatigued. It would be a long painful day . My brother notices that I haven't spoken in over 5 minutes. An obvious sign that something is wrong. I eat some trail mix. (At this point it makes me want to gag.) We solider on.

We make it to Boulder Field. It looks exactly like it sounds, a giant field of boulders. We stop. I eat an apple and some pretzels. I am better almost instantly. Amazing what a little salt will do for you. Scrambing over the boulders we make it to the Keyhole. The keyhole is small opening that leads to the other side of the mountain and shows you Glacier Gorge which expands for several thousand feet below. (too be continued.)

Cross has made it big?

A nice article about cyclocross in the NY Times!!!

Why Limit your breakfast?

Do you limit your breakfast? Do you sit there and eat toast or cereal because a long time ago that is what someone told you, you should be eating for breakfast?

Me? I am not hindered by these inferior thoughts of what breakfast can be. I will always be having my cup of coffee with breakfast. There is no doubt in that, but cereal or toast? You have got to be kidding me. What is wrong with a nice turkey sandwich for breakfast? Especially when that breakfast takes place at around 10 am. I say have a sandwich. Don't be hungary for the next few hours waiting for lunch. Just make your breakfast a little more manly.

What are you listening to?

Want to figure out what you are listening to? Well, if you use Itunes and you should be, then check out your 25 most played playlist or just list your library by play count either does the trick. Here is mine, in order from most played to least.

• Just Pretend, The Bens
• New Slang, The Shins
• Bruised, The Bens
• Caring is Creepy, The Shins
• No Right Angles, Ben Lee
• The Sound of Settling, Death Cab for Cutie
• Stop!, The Bens
• No More Shoes, Stephen Malkmus
• Start Again, Death Cab for Cutie
• Animal Midnight, Stephen Malkmus
• Xfire, The Bens
• Don't Panic, Coldplay
• Kindling for the Master, Stephen Malkmus
• Soul Meets Body, Death Cab for Cutie
• Blacking Out the Friction, Death Cab for Cutie
• In the Waiting Line, Zero 7
• Father to a Sister of Thought, Pavement
• Witch Mountain Bridge, Stephen Malkmus
• Expo 86, Death Cab for Cutie
• Young Pilgrim, The Shins
• Range Life, Pavement
• Frontward, Pavement
• Tiny Vessels, Death Cab for Cutie
• We're All In This Together, Ben Lee
• Addiction, Kanye West

Why am I crazy for The Bens? Because their EP was the first album I bought off of the Itunes Music Store. Hence it has a really high count on my play list.

Keeping up "The Big Mo!!!"

In these transitional moments, is when I can get in danger of losing "The Big Mo!"

What is "The Big Mo?", momentum!!! Cyclocross season is over for me, with the exception going and watching nationals, and cyclocross worlds. But I still need to maintain my fitness, and keep up the staying fit momentum. If I spend too many days not working out, I'll just get lazy and it will be really hard to get going again.

So what is the next big fitness challenge? The 4.4 mile swim across the Chessapeake is really the next biggest challenge. I have not regularly swam in over a year. So it is going to take some time, to get my form back together and then to build my swim fitness. The most important training is going to take place the next few weeks. Rebuilding my form so that my swim stroke is efficient and quick will help me get through the 4.4 mile swim much quicker. I should probably look up some drills on proper swim form and hip rotation. Fun Stuff. I can't wait to smell like chlorine all winter!!!

Statistics?

So I was thinking about writting these 2 blogs a day. Thats right kids, you haven't forgotten that I am in the middle of the 30 day blogging challenge. 2 blogs a day. I'm cranking out more crap than you kids can shovel.

I am going to try to find a way to figure out how much I've written without having to go back and count everything. I would love to know exactly how many words I've written, and how many words per blog I average. Stupid stuff like that. I am sure there could even be better stats, like topics versus words written.

I imagine that my averages are fairly low. These blogs don't exactly take me all day to write and most of them are silly. Such as the Turkey Day Hiaku I wrote yesterday.

How am I going to do this? Well, I might have to write a computer program to do it. Uh Oh. Someone might actually be using their degrees. (notice the plural, i'm not bragging i'm just saying.) If I could figure out how to connect to the database that stores all these blogs, I'm sure a few simple queries could generate all the stats my little heart desires. In fact, I would be really surpised if Google didn't offer a simple API to run these queries. That would be kind of sweet, and I could crank out this little project in an hour or two. I'll let you know how it goes.

All rightie, Have a Happy Turkey Day!!!

Cycling Trainers

I am about to purchase a new cycling trainer. I am choosing between the CycleOps Fluid 2 Trainer and the 1 up USA bicycle trainer. Do beleive Consumer Reports has info on cycling trainers? No shit. Unfortunately, I am not about to pay for their precious little report. I've got you people!!!

I see alot people rocking the CycleOps Fluid 2 trainer at races. So obviously it must be a trusted trainer, but my boy Matt rocks the 1 Up USA trainer. He likes it and it seems very reliable. His recomendation means just as much as the horde of people using the CycleOps Trainer.

One big thing the 1 Up USA bicycle trainer has going for it is that is made in the USA as the name would imply. I have read the propoganda from the 1 Up Usa web site. Now the CycleOps webiste is definitely more professional. There is even PhD guy telling me that I will be more competitive through using this trainer. ( I would like to belevie the competitiveness has more to with spirit than with science. Although science always helps. To strengthen my arguement please watch Rocky 4, but I digress.)

I'm sure either trainer would be fine, and I am more torn now having written this. So if you have experience with either trainer let me know. I'ld like to order one this week.

A little Turkey Hiaku

I love Turkey Day
Mashed Potatoes and Stuffing
Losening my belt

Pre Race Report PA Cyclocross Championship.

Well, this when I would normally post a pre-race report for the PA State Cyclocross Championships, but you won't be finding that here.

Why? Cause I'm too much of a wus to race the B men catagory. Seeing how I am currently getting my ass handed to me in the men C race, how am I going to compete in the men B race? It just ain't gonna happen. The men C race is not really an option for this race because it lasts only 30 minutes and takes place at 9:15 in the morning. Did I mention the race takes place in Carlisle, PA ( a 2 hour drive)? My time is worth more to me than that.

So do I wake up at 5 am to race or do I step up to the plate and race the men's b. As much as I love embarassing myself, the b men race is not really an option, so I am probably going to stay at home and chill. Maybe I'll get some left overs and make myself a nice turkey sandwhich.

Biggest Party Night of the Year?!?!

In the northeast, the night before Thanksgiving has been crowned the biggest party night of the year. So where are we partying?

I might call up some people and see whats going on. But on the other hand, I might just go hit up the climbing wall. Get in some bouldering before I stuff myself with Turkey. Really crowded bars were never really my scene with only a few exceptions.

Cyclocross worlds (here i come)

Thats right kids, I'm planning a trip to see Cyclocross Worlds on January 27 and 28 in Gits, Belgium. It should be a rocking time. Belgium beers, surrounded by a bunch of people who only care about cyclocross, and watching the world championships! BooHay!

There are even a few racers from the MAC Cyclocross series that are going over, so it will be fun to see a few familar places in a foreign land.

But this is where you kids come in!! Anyone out there ever been to Belgium? What to do in Belgium once the race is over? I'm staying in Brugge for 3 nights. I've bought some books but personal accounts are always much better. If you have some suggestions let me know, even if you have only heard or read that such and such is a good time.

But the fun doesn't end there. You wouldn't think that I would just go see worlds and come back here do you?! hellz no. After Cyclocross worlds, I'm spending to 2 nights in Brussells and 3 nights in Paris. Thats right, I'm bolding going where I have never been before! With the last name of Gardiner, I figure I should go see my roots.

I'm not really sure what I'm going to be doing in Brussells or Paris. Once again, suggestions are welcome. I would not be surprised if Belgium turned into a brewery tour. Part of me just wants to hang out and doing nothing. If that makes any sense. Go enjoy some food, talk to some people. Drink some wine. Act like it is no big deal that I am in Paris. I'm sure I'll end up staring at a few paintings when I'm in Paris.

When I figure out exactly what I might be doing I'll let you kids know.