Yet Another Post

Wow.... this is going to be one of those, "Man... It's been awhile" post. Let's see...

1. Been riding less than I'd like (stupid snow).
2. Been on the mat a fair amount. Fighting some weirdness in the right hamstring/inner thigh. It's not been getting better, so I'm starting to think about taking some time off the mat.
3. Looks like I've got my long rides figured out for this year.

Not much else happening/ I've stumbled back into the music of Jim's Big Ego. Here's a sample.

The King Of Yoga

Well... not really. Although I do recall a person in the Led Primary series class today being sort of "stuck" on the floor in Garbha Pindasana like The King.

I'm Not Dead

Too much stuff going on and not enough time. Quick update.

• Did Cycle Oregon. The ride wasn't epic although suffering was involved. The beer and coffee was epic.
  
• Ramping the yoga practice up.
• Less than 1100 miles to go to make 10000 again this year.
• Riding spin classes is no substitute for riding outside.
  

I'll have a more detailed post, with images (and there are some good ones) from Cycle Oregon at some point... Now, I think I'll go for a walk.

Go West Young Man

Well... I'll be hopping on the airplane for Cycle Oregon next Thursday. I'm thinking that I'm good to go. I've packed everything with the exception of things that I can't until it's time to head for the airport. I think I'm there fitness wise, but it's always an unknown for me when I start doing real™ climbs. Not the faux ones we have here.

You know, like 10 mile long ones. Like on Day Three, Happy Camp to Lake Selmac. A nice little 54 mile ride with 5200 feet of climbing.


The only wild card in the whole deal is the weather. They've had an odd summer out there. More like the summer that Iowa normally gets, but didn't this year. That bit of weirdness makes trying to pack interesting™.

For example, there was the "epic" day on Cycle Oregon 10 when they went up Mc Kenzie pass. It managed to snow that day. They were busing people off the mountain. I wasn't there for that bit of "fun". The image to the left is of me when we went over it on CO20 in 2007. So, it boils down to bring lots of stuff that you hope you don't need to use.

My biggest challenge is going to be trying to ride well within my limits. It's going to be hard to dial everything back several notches. But if I can manage that, it should be fun and not a bunch of extreme suffering. I'll be riding with my friend Steve who lives out there. There is also a friend of a friend that I'm hoping to get a chance to talk to. This year, we are also going to be hanging with Camp Aloha. It's an informal bike club, but it should help to simplify the daily camp logistics. So... I should have a good little group of people to hang with.

Note From Steve: Oregon sucks... don't move here.

Yoga Notes: My practice won't go into complete hiatus with this trip. CO does daily yoga classes that are tailored to cycling. I've done these on my past trips there and it helps. Here's a link to the newsletter story about it. I figure on bending the instructors ear some given his cycling background.

In other yoga news, a few of us did a "semi-private" lesson to review jumping up/back last Friday. I have a few new things to try. I did try to work a number of them in during the class at the Shala. It's going to be a very long journey to get to the land of "magically float". I'm hoping that I'm not too sore tomorrow. But, if I am, I'm probably doing it right.

YogaSkillz Workshop Part II

Did the second of the workshops at the Shala yesterday. The temperatures were near arctic in comparison to last week. We had pretty much the same crew as last week. We worked on headstand, feather of peacock, and handstand. I still need to get the hips up over the shoulders. I'm going to have to find some time to work on this. All of this is "variations on a basic theme". That theme being: hips over shoulders over hands or in physics terms, the center of mass / gravity perpendicular to the floor. We do this all of the time... walking and standing are two examples. The tricksy bit here is that ones hands are on the floor instead of your feet. Back bending is up next.

Cutting Edge Research

Wow... Here's an interesting little paper. It's well worth the read if you have an interest in modeling infectious disease. The infectious disease in this study is Zombie-ism. Given my stumbling across this on the InterTubes today and the V3 class, I'm reprising a video I posted last year. Enjoy!



Note: One of my mathematician friends thinks that this will be a great way to introduce a standard model to his students.

It's Workshop Time

Did the Jump Up / Jump back workshop at the Shala this evening. It was well attended, I think we had twelve in the house. T'was interesting, as these things always are. I need to work on getting the hips up over the hands, then it's all easy. *lol* Anyway, in honor of the workshop...

The Perfect Temperature

Wow... It was a hot one at the Shala today. I think a number of us were sweating before we even walked in the door. The daughter said she knew it was going to be rough on the second Surya Namaskara A. I have some photographic evidence of things there today.


Before


After




I think it was close to a world's record there. A hot yoga class in the afternoon might be a good cool down.

Oh Yeah.... I Have This Blog Thing

Wow... another blog hiatus. That must mean, I've had way to much other stuff going on. Let's see... I managed to survive RAGBRAI. It was a good one. I had lots of fun, as always.

The most fun occurred on the day out of Indianola. I rolled over to where the ShortBus was ensconced around 0730. Hung out and helped them break camp and get on the road about 0830. That consisted of a roll over to some local breakfast emporium that had a most lovely breakfast and several large screen tellys so we could watch Le Tour as we digested and sipped coffee. Then around 1045, it was a leisurely 20 mile roll to Milo, Iowa.

In Milo, there was a kick ass band playing, Crooked Mile. We got there with a little bit left in their first set and then hung out through their second. Lots of fun. This was the best band on RAGBRAI. We apparently didn't get there early enough to watch my dear friend Ms. Bets from the Whiners have them take the "Whiner Goddess Bitch" oath. I did see that on video over on Facebook.

Not much else of note to report. The best news is that my legs seem to have shown up. I haven't been going this well in ages. I'm hoping to be able to ride this peak through Cycle Oregon in mid September.

In the yoga world, Tapas had Sara Strother back for another workshop. That was good. I wasn't anywhere close to as wrung out as the last one (probably because this one was only an hour and a half long). Learned an interesting way to enter into Standing Hand to Big Toe (Utthita Hasta Padangustasana). Today's led Primary series class had me in full rain mode. Wow... was I sweating... check that... raining.

My friend and next door neighbor in the blog-o-sphere in McSmithlyville posted a link on Facebook to the most frighten yoga video ever. Not sure I should post it, but hey... it's the InterTubes

Happy Saturday

Well Cats and Kittens... I'm back from GITAP, a lovely little week long bike ride from State park to State park in Illinois. The highlight of the trip was the 60+ mph thunder storm that roared through camp last night. Woo Hoo! The tent stayed up and dry despite me having it pitched 180 degrees out of phase with respect to the the storm. I feel good.

Then it was drive Vito's van home and then dash over to the Healthy Living Fair, where I was part of Tapas Yoga Shala's demo. We basically did a scaled down class for the demo. Practicing under a tent, in the the heat, with an audience. Fun Fun Fun...

Tonight's Guitar Madness is dedicated to yesterday's t-storm. I was listening to this as I was flat on my back in the tent as it was raging... Ronnie Baker Brooks: Born In Chicago. I've seen his dad a couple of times and now I need to see him...

This Weekend

My oh... The fun-o-meter was full on this weekend. On Saturday, I did the QCBC Tailwind Century ride. The club takes a look at the wind forecast the day before and then pulls out a route sheet that should work. So... we hopped on the bus and went to Norway, Iowa. Got the bike off the truck and started heading home. I spent the day riding with a friend of mine, Laurel, who is training for an IronMan distance triathlon. We were rolling pretty well all day. Given that she wanted to do this with the same sort of nutrition plan she'd be using, it was kind of the same sort of deal for me. For the ride, I had 3 Gatorade's, 1 bag of SportsBeans, 1 PowerBar, 1 PowerGel, and I did grab 1 cookie from what the ride had for lunch. (Just about 1000 calories) All that for a ride of 112 miles with an on the road time of 6 hours flat and an elapsed time of 7 hours. I was a tired little teddy bear when I got home. Then it was rest a bit, have dinner and the mow the yard. From the HR data, I had an average HR of 120 and used up about 3500 calories.

The riding today was a bit more sedate. Did a cruise for a bagel and a coffee this morning before the Primary Series at the Shala. That went way... way... better than I thought it would. I was figuring that the abuse I heaped on myself yesterday would make things be "not happy". I also changed where I was practicing in the room. Given that the radiator wasn't radiating, I practiced next to it. It was a different perspective, but I really don't care for being next to it. Then it was head home and then out for another ride with the daughter. That was the first one of the year for her. She even made up the hill by the house without walking. She was pretty happy with that. She attributes her success from a bunch of work on the elliptical trainer at the Y this winter.

Now it's time to pack up for tomorrow and the ride to work.

On Fire

Well cats and kittens... This Z been schooled. Did the Hearts on Fire: An Anusara Radical Expansion Class at the Shala this morning. The class was led by Sara Strothers who practices and teaches in the Chicago area. This was definitely big city work. I was completely and utterly toasted and it didn't take 40 miles in a nasty crosswind to do it. That said, I'm quite glad that I did this. I learned a number of new things and perhaps more importantly a little more about how to approach my practice. We get the day off tomorrow from the normal Sunday practice and I'm thinking most folks that were in the room aren't too sad about that.

In honor of today's little exercise in flexibility, here's a something that's a bit out of character for my "normal" Saturday Night Guitar Madness posts, Joe Satriani doing Up In Flames, with bonus points for being shot in Tokyo.



Note: I really wanted something with ninja's but I couldn't find anything I liked.

Relieve stress, yoga will

The pointy haired guy in Dilbert was suggesting yoga as a way to relieve stress in yesterday's strip. That reminded me of this strip that was in my Dilbert calendar a few years ago. You can use this handy web page to do translations into Yoda Speak. Speaking of speaking like Yoda... Apparently the 21st of May is Talk Like Yoda day. I'm not sure that this will surpass International Talk Like A Pirate Day, but it's at least a close second.

One Post Fits All

My oh... Today's led Primary Series class at the Shala had me in full drip mode early on. I'm thinking that the folks surrounding me might have been thinking about starting to fill sand bags to deal with the sweatage. My rug was completely damp when I folded it up after practice. *lol* We had a whole bunch of folks in the room today. We were missing the Iowa City visitors, I suspect the weather yesterday was the cause of that. We were also missing a couple of regulars. Which means we had some new folks, which is always a good thing.

Now I need to get into recovery mode and maybe to a ride in. The snow is pretty much gone where the sun has been hitting it. The ride into work tomorrow morning isn't looking like it will be something approaching "circus act", as I had been fearing.

Then it's off to the Redstone Room to see Railroad Earth this evening. I'm hoping that I'll be able to make most of the show. I had a great time the last time these folks played there. I just need to keep in mind when my alarm goes off for the ride into work. Doors are early, so that should help.

Stuff

Well... After two hard days at the Shala, I'm starting to recover. Yesterday was the normal off the hook V3 class. Some things I can do, something things I can't. I find it very easy to tell the difference. Then it was a little rest and back for the Primary Series 2nd half workshop. I was hurting at the end of that. The left leg was going in and out of cramps, so I elected to sit out the some of the walk through. I did find it useful and learned a number of things.

Then this morning, as I was looking for the directions to where I was going in Iowa City, I discovered that I was going to be early. About seven days early. Good thing I noticed. So... it was a mad dash to get out the door for the led Primary Series class. Man... my arms were not being happy. The right one basically decided it was done being useful after Utpluthee. The next vinyasa wasn't pretty. Then I hung out for the Student Conference. It was informative and interesting.

---

In musicland, I've just stumbled into Jonathan Coulton. There are number of songs you can listen to. I find Code Monkey amusing.



And here's a cover that's also amusing

Captain! We're Having A Power Fall-off!

Where's Mr. Scott when you need him? Man... I'm sitting here 3+ hours after today's V3 class at the Shala and I still am whooped. I did the 90 minute spin class at the gym this morning, after Round One of me wielding the snow shovel. Then it was to the cafe for a latté and muffin. Then back home for Round Two of snow removal. A brief recovery and then it was off to the V3 class. We did a number of "interesting" things, as usual. By the time we got to Urdhva Dhanurasana, I believe my arms could be best categorized as toast. I managed to get myself home and passed a snow plow as I turned up the street. It was now time for Round Three. I don't believe that the snow will be answering the bell for Round Four, but you never can tell. Right now, I'm hoping to crawl into bed early tonight. Not sure how much sleep I may get tonight because of major work stuff happening overnight. We'll see. I'm hoping I am recovered enough to do the Primary Series class tomorrow and maybe a little bike ride.

Bent Hair!

Did the Cy-Yo class at the gym this morning. This is the normal Saturday morning gig for me. Kathy L. was teaching and we did her "interval" bit. Nothing close to true intervals, but I can deal with it. Didn't go too hard and the HRM data backs that up (118bpm average for the 90 minutes). The yoga segment helped stretch me out a little bit. Then it was off to the Cafe for some coffee with my wife. *smiles*

Got home, relaxed a bit, and then it was off to the Shala for the V3 class. This didn't seem as hard as past ones, perhaps I'm just getting numb. This was the 24th day in a row for my practice. There were a few things that came back from the V2 class on Wednesday and the V1 class, aka private lesson, on Thursday. But, I was still working and sweating. I'm going to have to start working on Adho Mukha Vrksasana (Handstand) given that we are practicing it in every V3 class and I'm getting tired of skipping that. I'm going to give it a whirl against the wall before I give it a go in V3 class with a spot in the middle of the room.

I'd thought about stopping for a coffee on the way home, but elected not to. Had some lunch and when I went back to hang my stuff up from class, there was a box sitting in the desk chair. From Stumptown! The Hairbender had arrived! So... I decided to fire up the Silva and grind up a double. It's way good stuff. Now I just have to keep myself from having two or three more. I'd really like to sleep tonight.

More Coffee!

Well... With no end in sight to this weather phenomena called "winter", I'm coming close to running out of home roasted coffee. Normally, I roast on the deck since coffee roasting produces a fair amount of smoke. The roaster that I am currently using, a first generation iRoast, (link & picture is for the iRoast2) doesn't care for ambient air temperatures under about 65F. This "winter" thing sort of puts the home roasting on hiatus. So... I've ordered some coffee up from Stumptown in Portland, OR. I have two bags of Hairbender coming my way. They roast tomorrow and then ship via USPS Priority mail. This is one espresso that is reputed to be "tricky". We'll see... I've had it before when I was at the Division Street store in Portland. If you are in Portland, it's worth a stop.

I'm also almost out of green coffee. To solve that problem, I've also ordered up some more green coffee from the best source of green coffee on the planet, Sweet Maria's. The UPS man will not be happy when he gets to heft a 31 pound box of green coffee on to the front porch. I have the following heading my way:

• 20 lbs of Espresso Monkey (my current favorite)
• 10 lbs of Espresso Workshop #1 - The Ophiolite Blend
• 1 lb of Espresso Workshop #2 - Auriferous Espresso

The Ophiolite blend has been getting very good reviews on the Home Roast list that I read. All of this should keep my stash from going to zero. That would be bad. The Auriferous is very new and I haven't read much about it, but I figured it would be good to have some to try.

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Did the V2 class at the Shala after I got home from work.

Note to self: Legs tired after bike ride home featuring "bonus" miles. Makes yoga class harder.

If this was step down from the V3 class, this edition was a baby step down. I'm thinking that my arms and sholders will be going "Ouch!" in the morning. We'll see. One thing is certain, when my head hits the pillow tonight it's going to be "Bam! I'm sleeping!".

This Is So Not Right

~set whine mode on~ There is something like a 50 degree difference in the temperature today vs. yesterday. If yesterday was a "normal" January day, I would be out riding in shorts today. This is just plain wrong. ~set whine mode off~

Woke up, fell outta of bed, did not drag a comb across my head (that would be pointless), had breakfast, two lovely double shots of Espresso Monkey, and hit the door for the gym. Did the CyYo class. Ninety minutes on the spin bike followed with 30 minutes of really basic yoga. The spin part went well. The data out of the heart rate monitor said I averaged 127 bpm for the 90 minutes. I'm not sure why it was that high. I didn't think I was going that hard or maybe I'm getting sick. I'm hoping for the former.

Stopped for a latté at the library and then headed home for a snack, a short nap, and then it was pack up and head off for more yoga in the V3 Class at the Shala. Just four of us today. Ann apparently has been visited by the Bad Flu Fairy - Get Well Soon! There were a number of things in class that went well. And then there were the things that just made me smile with the absurdity of the thought of me doing it. I was also being amused at hearing and seeing the steam coming out of the radiators. I suspect that the boiler has been turned up to full power given the arctic weather of the past few days. It's going to to be an über toasty one tomorrow! After class, my upper back was really feeling it.

On the way home, I checked out the river front bike path and decided that given it's snowy state and my lack of energy, it would be lunch followed with a nap instead of a bike ride. I'm already seventy miles short of last year at this time. This really isn't a worry since I did most of my miles for January last year in the first half of the month. Given the mid range weather forecast, I'll be back ahead in a week or so.

Death March Of The Penguins

Man... it's like cold out there. I've had the bike in the garage yesterday and today. It will also be there tomorrow. I've had a number of folks ask me if I've been riding. *lol* I'm not that crazy. But... if you want to see crazy, here's a little bike ride that I have no, nada, zero, zip, zilch plans to ever ride. It's the Arrowhead 135. It's your basic (ha!) ultraride. You have 60 hours to ride the 135 miles. Sounds easy, eh? Oh yeah... it's on the 1st weekend in February. It starts in International Falls, MN (aka Frostbite Falls) and goes to Tower, MN on the Canadian border. The temps there are such that it makes the current -15F a bit on the warm side. Here are a couple of blog post from the Surly Blog:

• 2008
• 2007 (My favorite)
  

Surly is a little house brand of Quality Bicycle Products. My single speed, pictured above, is a Surly 1x1 that I absolutely love. A lot of folks use the Surly Pugsley for the Arrowhead. All of their stuff is well made, well thought out, a great value, and made of steel.

So... Instead of riding yesterday, it was two and a half hours on the spin bike at the gym followed by a yoga class (flow) . Today there was no yoga, sadness *lol*, at Indigo, so it was take the mat to the gym, knock out the Primary Series through Navasana, then two hours on the spin bike. It's looking like more quality time on the spin bike tomorrow and Happy Hour at DSY. It's suppose be be -29F tonight.