After a long day of meetings in Colorado my boss and I went for a run along the Devil’s Backbone. This is my favorite run of all time.
We pounded out 4 miles in about 40 minutes. The elevation is brutal, 6,500 ft and you feel it every stride when climbing hills. I think the comparison would be to smoking a pack a day for the last 5 years. It probably wasn’t the best idea for me to pig out at Chili’s after. Fajita’s are so good! So are boneless buffalo wings! So are boneless Shanghi wings!
Last night Dave and I met up at Sand Canyon Cyclery for a work out on their new spin bikes. It’s called The Inside Track. To be honest with you, I thought it was going to be pretty lame. Well, it’s not, it is actually super fun and an incredible work out. It is absolutely perfect for bike geeks like Dave and very fun for more so geeky guys like me.
The room is set-up with 10 or so bikes and a big mirror. In front of the mirror is a stage with a bunch of high powered fans. The beauty of the set-up is the bikes. They are all heart rate compatible and have a super smooth spin. Once the entire system is set-up with instructors, etc I am going to check out a class. Good times.
With all of my depressing posts lately I thought I needed to lighten the mood. Just in case you haven’t already seen this, here it is again. The next time you see Dave ask him about the time I stuffed him the corner by the hotel room bed and beat the crap out of him because he was popping off. It was a great day for me and Brian Morales because Dave would never pick on us again.
I was driving to meet Brian Morales for lunch at Chipotle when he called and cancelled. Typical. I deceided to change up my lunch plans and got a Juice It Up instead. As I was driving back to the office I knew I had a few extra minutes and did a detour to see the fire damage. I stopped at a park that overlooked all of Whiting Ranch. On a normal day this view would have been amazing: clear skys, beautiful greens trees, and snapshots of my favorite trails hidden by the brush and wild flowers. Today was different though, the sky was filled with smoke and the beauty of Whiting Ranch was hidden by black ash with no sign of any living plant life.
As I walked back to my car an older woman drove up in her Camry and asked me how bad the damage was. I explained to her that everything in Whiting Ranch and along the Modjeska Grade was destroyed. Her response back was interesting. As she pointed to her house that was directly next to the fire break she said, “So by all of this being destroyed I’m able to still have my house. I’ve evacuated 3 days ago and I’m glad to be home.” We then parted ways.
The take away from this conversation for me was that people matter so much more than anything else. As sad as I am that Whiting is gone, I am so happy that this woman still has a home to live in.
I am proud to announce that there are a number of people that are actually choosing to read the blog on a daily basis. Most of the new traffic is due to the hard work that Dave has been doing with the Southern California Cyclocross Prestige Series race coverage. You can check out the race coverage by clicking below:
The last 2 weeks have been strange. One of the weeks was spent in San Diego at a conference for work. I got in one 30 minute run. This week was spent trying to stay indoors as much as possible because of the fires which equals zero exercise. On Sunday I leave for a work trip that will have me gone for 8 more days to Colorado and St. Louis. This will equal zero exercise.
I know myself well enough to understand this is not healthy for me. It’s obvious that I am already slipping into really bad eating habits. My typical style is to only eat healthy when I know that I am exercising. That’s a bad habit.
As I write this I am going to make a promise to all my friends that are reading this post. Starting today, October 26, through when I return November 5 I am not going to drink any diet soda. Only water and iced tea. If your reading this and thinking this guy is nuts, you’re right, but diet soda is a huge crunch for me when I am tired and on the road.
Tonight Dave and I are going to spin on the new bikes at Sand Canyon Cyclery. I think they are calling it Inside Track. I can’t tell you how excited I am to do this.