Moab

We went to Moab in early September for some great mountain biking. Just finally got the pictures up and found this new flickr viewer so I thought I'd post them.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.
And here are some pics from Burning Man 2008 while we're at it.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.
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Mt Tallac

Megan, Nate, Greta and I hiked Mt Tallac a few weekends ago. It was a beautiful hike made especially pretty by the overcast sky and colorful sunset.

It was cold at the top but surprisingly comfortable for the rest of the hike.

And after it got dark, the nearly full moon reflected off the snow enough to make the hike down pretty easy albeit a bit slower.

More Pictures
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XTERRA USA Championships - Incline Village, NV

My theme song for this morning's race is Katy Perry's new song Hot n Cold  Yesterday was rainy and windy enough for XTERRA Nevada to be turned into a duathlon by swapping the swim for a 1.25 mile swim.  This morning was calm and clear, but quite cold.  Sounds silly but I was too chilly to do much of a warmup.  The water was actually pretty comfortable for the swim although my feet went numb and never warmed up until after the bike.  I tried to draft several swimmers but didn't have much luck so I was by myself for most of the swim.  T1 was probably my longest ever.  I put knee warmers, socks, booties, long sleeve jersey, glasses, gloves (huge ones) and my forerunner on after I spent at least a minute trying to get all the sand out from between my toes.  I felt great on the bike up Tunnel Creek and along the Flume Trail.  Hobart road was ok and I really started to slow on the last few climbs before the switchbacks. I quickly heated up on the climbs with all my gear.  I would have probably been fine with just my tri kit, but I got cold on the downhils and my feet never warmed up even with the huge neoprene booties.  Megan and Nate showed up to cheer me on which was great and motivating.  By the time I got to the run, the first pros had finished and the temp was perfect for running.  The running trail wound around Incline with a gentle ups and downs with several creek crossings.  I finished in 3:32, which I was happy with for my forth race in three weekends.  I'm ready to have a weekend off before Halfmax in two weeks.  I think I'm a bit over raced and under trained.
UPDATE:
Swim:

Bike:

Run:

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Virtual Mile

So last night I went to the Damonte Ranch High School track where I attempted running a few fast miles.  This coincided with a workout I did last year at about the same number of weeks out from my marathon so I figured it would be a good indicator to see if I'm on track to be in as good or better shape for the CIM.  Since I ran 3:14 at Bizz Johnson, I'd like to be in better shape this year to break at least 3:10 if not 3:00 at CIM in December. 
So I ran the first mile in 5:58, the second in 6:24 and the third in 5:50.  It felt pretty good but I was dissappointed to see that last year I ran 5:56, 5:48, 5:41. 
Good luck to Reid tomorrow in breaking the 5:00 mile!
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virtual mile

Another Reid is attempting to run a mile in under 5:00 this week. I've done that once at the Firecracker Mile 2007 in Truckee, CA (4:40). To join in the fun, I'll try for a fast mile on Thursday during my regular workout, although it won't be near 5:00.

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Paragliding off of Duck Hill

I had my first real paraglide flight on Saturday.  I flew off Duck hill in Washoe Valley around 11AM and flew for about 3 minutes to the LZ across East Lake Blvd. The picture is of Aaron flying earlier in the morning.  After a few flights at Mound House training hill, Ray, our instructor, gave me the ok to fly at Duck so we headed over there in time for Aaron and I to each get a flight. 
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XTERRA Ogden

I raced in my first XTERRA regional championship last weekend at Snowbasin, Utah. I set out this season to qualify for the XTERRA National Championship in Incline Village this Fall, which requires earning enough points in 3 races to be in the top 8 in my age group (25-29) and region (South West).
Swim:

Wetsuits were prohibitted for the pros since the water was 71, but since I freeze easier than I overheat I decided to wear my Orca S1. It was cool to line up right behind the pros. I had dreams of going out fast to get right on the feet of one of them that were quickly shattered at the horn for the mass start blew and there were suddenly tons of people on all sides of me. The way everyone fanned out along the beach at the start and then all headed straight for the first bouy made for lots of collisions. I was constantly bumping into people well into the second lap.
Bike:

Even though I'm much more of a climber than a downhiller, I was a little nervous about all the climbing on the bike. But I really enjoyed the bike course. The climb to the base of snowbasin was long but not all that steep (especially compared to the initial climb for XTERRA Tahoe City) and I was able to pass quite a few people until I finally settled behind a kid in the 15-19 age group. Looking back on it, I probably should have passed him and picked it up a bit, but at the time I felt like he was riding a good pace and I didn't want to bonk like I did in Tahoe City. After a few brutal sections at the ski resort, there was a long fun section of mostly downhill.
Run:

I chugged a bottle of Perpetuem and some gatorade at T2. Leaving transition my stomach felt too full but I wanted to make sure I had enough fuel for the 10k run with over 1000ft of climbing. After the first hill I got into a pretty good rythm and even tried to stay with a few female pros as they came flying by. As they slowly pulled away I tried to keep up a strong pace and prepare for the climb ahead. My watch said 6700 and I remember reading or hearing that the run went all the way up to 7600ft. I passed one guy around mile 2 who said, "Hey, you passed me at the same spot in Tahoe City". When the trail switched to fire road and started to gently climb I figured we this must be the beginning of the big climb. To my surprise I got to a spot where my watch said 7000ft just as one of the volunteers notified me that it was all downhill the rest of the way. Sure enough, I was at the finish line in several minutes with my watch reading 4.74 miles. It was a welcome surprise at the time but I probably would have raced better had I known ahead of time.
I quickly said hi to a few friends and then headed back to Nephi, UT for Megan's grandma's 80th birthday party.
I may have moved up to 7th place in points for my division, but I doubt that will hold up until Oct 5th. Standings
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It was Fun. It was Real. It was really fun.

When I heard that the Donner Triathlon had been canceled for this year. I was left scrambling to make weekend plans. The Death Ride and Downieville Classic mountain bike race were both on Saturday. But I decided to skip both of those and head down for a weekend full of triathlons in Ranch Seco, CA. Nate and I raced Tri for Fun on Saturday and Tri For Real on Sunday. Although we were among only a few to race both days I finished 2nd and he finished 4th in the 25-29 age group each day.
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Live from Rothbury 2008

Its day 2 of Rothbury Music Festival and I'm hanging out watching Widespread Panic at the Odeum, the biggest stage where 311 and Snoop Dogg played earlier today. Jakob Dylan was a great kickoff for today's shows. The venue is a big ranch with 4 main stages, a lake and a huge field for camping and parking. I swam in the lake yesterday. It was warm but very murky and shallow with a layer of plant growth just above the slimy mud bottom.
It stays light here until well after 9:30 so we're thinking that there might be a fireworks show around 10 tonight.
Can't wait to see Citizen Cope, John Mayer, Dave Matthews Band, and State Radio tomorrow.

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Race Results

Race Results
I compiled a spreadsheet with all of my racing results that I could remember and find since 2004. Most have links to the race results as well as GPS data from the courses if available. It also has my racing schedule for the rest of the season.
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XTERRA Tahoe City Race Report

After nearly two months of not racing, I was excited about my second XTERRA race ever. I've been mountain biking a lot and was eager to improve on my performance at XTERRA Real in Folsom where I felt like I was in slow motion on the bike.
Summary: 3:06:13. 22/143 overall, 3rd in my age group.
Results
Pre race: I went to bed around midnight Friday night, staying up late packing for the race and cleaning the house since Megan was coming back Saturday. We got to Commons Beach about 7AM where I waited in line to check in while my sister and dad checked in for volunteering. I drank a Starbucks double shot on the drive up and had a Gatorade with a scoop of First Endurance PreRace mixed in about half an hour before the race. Checking in and setting up my transition took a little longer than expected, but I still was able to get in about a 10 minute warmup on the bike trainer in the parking lot. I wanted to warm up because the bike starts off with a 1.5-2 mile climb.
The Swim:
The water is low this year. At many tris, that just means a longer run up the beach or boat ramp. At Tahoe, though, this means that the first 100yds of water from the shore is 1 ft deep instead of 2 or 3 feet deep. They didn't announce the temperature but I would guess it was in the high 50s. I was comfortable in the water with my neoprene swim cap, ear plugs, and full wetsuit. We started about 150yds off shore where it just started to get deep enough to swim in. The long course did 2 loops and then headed in towards shore after rounding the 2nd buoy on the 2nd lap. I felt pretty good on the swim, although my lack of swim training the last 2 weeks surely didn't help. The last few hundred yards were tough because it was too shallow to swim normally but too rocky to be able to walk faster than you could swim. So I just modified my stroke to not go very deep an swam in until I was about 10 yds from the shore. I slipped on my Crocs and ran the nearly half mile which crosses a highway to transition. My transition was kinda slow, taking the time to put on socks and gloves. Next time I'm getting gloves that are easier to put on. Even though these ones don't have fingers or any straps, they still probably took me 20 seconds to put on.
The bike: I normally have nice GPS files to reference after the race as well as real time information about my HR and pace while I'm racing with my Forerunner 305. Since I lost it last Tuesday, I only had a watch for this race. Luckily someone wore their 305 on the bike course. This will definitely help anyone going up there to preride the course for next year. Just download it and have your GPS give you directions.
The first 1/3 mile was paved and pretty steep. Seems like a group of about 10 started the bike at the same time as me. I passed a few on that first climb which continued to 1.5 miles. I tried to keep a fast pace for the downhill section to the next climb where I felt I climbed pretty well. A guy that I had passed at the beginning caught me. I stayed with him for the rest of the first lap until we caught up with another rider. But then something happened and I started to slow down. I lost both of them and although the downhill section was OK, the rest of the second lap was terrible, getting passed by 2 or 3 people I had previously passed. After you finish the second lap there is a decent climb back to the junction where the run and the bike split. I had a bit of Perpetuem in T1 and 1 water bottle of watered down Gatorade on the bike so I think I had enough fuel and electrolytes. I guess I just went out too fast.
The run: I immediately noticed a tightness in my left gluteus as I started climbing up the hill. The run course was a lollipop with about 2 miles of climbing before a short flat section and then nearly all downhill to the beach at the finish line. I tripped on a root and nearly fell near the beginning of the dirt section. That is when I really felt that muscle in my butt tighten up. Not seeing anyone close enough to run down in front of me, I walked several of the steeper sections. Luckily the course was well marked because I didn't see a soul for the entire candy part of the lollipop (the loop at the top). Running downhill felt fine on my leg so I felt like I sped up quite a bit on the downhill. There is one last hill once you get back to the road that was definitely unwelcome. Running straight through the finish line and jumping into the lake is what kept my mind occupied for most of the run. And, man was that refreshing.
I didn't notice the smoke at all on the course but there was definitely a haze over the lake. You couldn't see across the lake when the race started. I hung out for a while on the beach while my sister and dad waited for all the racers to come in off of the bike. We left before they posted the results but I did win a 6 pack of Gu in the raffle. They had hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chicken sausage, watermelon, beer and soda for the finishers. I drank my recovery drink and the beer but couldn't get down more than a bite of the sausage.
My next race is Donner. I'd really like to have a fast bike and run at that race not only because of this race but because the last time I did Donner Lake Triathlon, I was disappointed in my bike and run legs. My bike time was OK, but left me destroyed for the run. 2006 time was 2:45:39. I'd like to be under 2:30 this year. 3 minutes off my swim, 5 off the bike and 8 off the run and I'm there.
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Boca Race

I was having second thoughts about riding last night in the Reno Wheelmen Boca Race because of the smoke, but I decided to do it anyway with some peer pressure from Nate. This was my best Boca race yet. I raced in the B's, got 4th and won the KOM. I think my HR was higher than I've ever seen it on that hill and my legs felt like they were going to fall off. Unfortunately, my Garmin Forerunner 305 popped off of my handlebars going over the Stampede dam and I couldn't find it when I went back to look after the race.
In the past I've thought that starting a break from the top of the KOM hill was a great idea, but I was barely able to muster enough energy to hang with the 6 other riders that quickly caught me after the top of the hill. I think if we had worked in a better pace line we could have pulled further ahead. I know there were several times that I fell off the back and would have been screwed had everyone else in the group been working together. But the would usually slow down a bit and I would be able to rejoin the group. Next time I want to try to organize the group a bit better so that everyone is taking short turns in a smooth rotation. Somehow I ended up in the front with about a mile left so I was in no shape to sprint when the first person jumped. I tried but my legs failed quickly and I found myself looking back and being satisfied that 5th place wasn't going to catch me rather than accelerating toward 1,2, and 3.
Kat was doing well until one of the last hills where she lost her chain. Nate focused too much on regulating his power rather than staying with the group, which put him in a bad position for the KOM. But we all enjoyed tasty treats at Jack in the Box on the way home!
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Xterra Tahoe City Pre-ride

I got a later start than I wanted to but finally got up to Tahoe City around 4PM to ride and run the course for next weekend's race. I came armed with the topo map from the website (link). Unfortunately, I left my Forerunner 305 at home so all I had on the bike was my bike computer to tell me distance traveled and riding time. I'm not sure where T1 will be.
I parked at SaveMart and rode down to Common's beach. There is a bike path that runs parallel to the shore that I took but it ended in a staircase, which I carried my bike up to Dave's Board shop and then crossed the street to Grove street.
The next section climbing up to the start of the dirt road was pretty straightforward although there are several streets off of Grove and Pioneer that you could turn right on. Once I got to the dirt, it was about a mile climb to the junction where both the bike and run course intersect. There is about 100yds of paved road at this junction. I took the first right and tried to follow tire tracks for a while, checking the map every so often.
My first major wrong turn came at a T after passing the green water tower. There are bushes in the middle of the junction and I went right instead of left. So far the trail has been easily ridable dirt road with very few obstacles. Next was a right turn followed by a left turn. Since the 100yds of paved road, it has pretty much been flat or downhill.
The road to the left shoots up and the bottom part is somewhat rocky making this the most techinical part of the ride. It is a pretty steady climb starting steep and mellowing out a bit before 'T'ing into another road where I went right. Very shortly after that turn there is a left turn onto the first singletrack of the course. I would have probably missed this had there not been some leftover chalk on a rock at the turn. This single track climbs for about a mile before hitting another road where you turn right.
This next section is where I had the most problems. There was more chalk on rocks but it was hard to tell which way it was pointing and since at this section, the paths nearly cross, it was a bit confusing. The map shows one water tower that you ride out to and then turn left before passing it. Before I got to that water tower, I passed another water tower painted black with blue writing by the North Tahoe Cross Country team. The trail that I was pretty sure was the right one had a felled tree across the road shortly after passing water tower on the right. So thinking that that couldn't possibly be the right way, I backtracked and found another trail that went around the water tower and got me to where I needed to be up close to Dollar Creek. I rode down that road and stayed right. The road goes up for about 150 yds and then there is a singletrack trail that veers left so I took that.
It turned into a well maintained trail that was raised up a bit and looked to be made from type 2 base. This trail ended at a triangle shaped with wood suggesting that you could go either right or left. I chose to go right but later found out that the trail I wanted was straight ahead. Taking the trail to the right had me heading further North than I wanted to go and I'm guessing I ended up on the Tahoe Rim Trail for a bit. I finally turned around and really got myself turned around when I somehow ended up going straight or taking a left turn which put me back by Dollar Creek.
Once I figured out what had happened I finally got on the right trail to Antone Meadows. The trail around Antone Meadows was flat singletrack that was pretty easy to follow. I started to feel a little low on energy but by the time I got back to the spot to start lap 2 I felt okay so I did another lap. This could have had something to do with seeing a huge porcupine about 5 ft off the trail as I rode by. After the second lap, there is a pretty good climb back to the 100yds of paved road. I'll definately need to save a bit of energy for that.
Overall, the course has about 4 significant climbs and is not very techinical. There aren't any really sharp turns and there aren't any sections that go straight up and straight down like at XTERRA Real. I think that this course favors riders conditioned for steady-state efforts.
The run was basically a few miles up on road and singletrack followed by a few miles down to the finish. The bottom section is the steepest and it mellows out a bit after about a mile. I made a few wrong turns on the run as well which made it exciting because it started to get pretty dark. I think as long as I can move up the hills at a decent pace (10min/mile?) and have enough in my legs to coast fast down the hills (sub 7min/miles), I'll do well.
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Wildflower Triathlon

This was our third year in a row traveling to Lake San Antonio, CA for the Wildflower Triathlon. I did the Olympic distance in 2006 and the Long course (Half IM distance) last year in 5:53. This was my first A race of 2008 and I wanted to do it in under 5:30. Nate, Kat, Patrick, Megan and I drove down on Friday and camped in the park both nights. Nolan and Brad also drove down with us. Sabrina, Daniel, Mandylee, Graham, and Katherine rolled in early Saturday morning as well.
The Race:
I felt great on the swim. The one thing I focused on was waiting until later in the recovery part of my stroke to start the pull with the opposite hand. A few times I consciously thought about this I noticed myself speed up in relation to other swimmers. Swimming with the masters class at Sports West has certainly helped my swimming a ton and helped me take 8 minutes off of my swim this year. They said the water was 65 degrees, which felt great. I probably would have been comfortable in a sleeveless wetsuit instead of the full suit.
This was only my second ride using my new PowerTap power meter. I hadn't done any tests to set up my power zones or anything so I used it more to just record the data than to actually pace myself on the ride. I basically tried to stay under 320 watts while climbing and between 200 and 250 on the flats. Nasty Grade was shorter than I remembered so I probably could have pushed a bit harder up that hill. There was much less wind this year than last but I was able to shave my bike time down to 2:42 from 3:04. After a quick review of the power file, which had my pr:HR at 7% (cardiac drift) I didn't have the muscular endurance fitness I would have liked, though. This is probably just from lack of long training rides.
It was night and day difference on the run this year compared to last year. Last year I ran the first few miles and then had to walk/run most of the rest of the race and finished the run split in 2:05. This year I drank about 900 Calories of Perpetuem on the bike as well as some Gatorade and 5 Endurolyte pills. I alternated drinking Gatorade and water at the aid stations on the run. I felt so much better this year and ran the half marathon in 1:44. I did get a blister on my right inside arch about mile 5. I probably should have taken the time to put on socks and also more of a trail shoes instead of the Asics DS Racer. My total time was 5:11:12. It's crossed my mind to shoot for under 5 hours next year, but I'm not committing to that yet. Here are some fun little animations of me beating myself. I wore a GPS unit each year, which tracked my location, speed, and HR throughout the race. These show this year's race versus last year's.
Dot Race for the Swim
Dot Race for the Bike
Dot Race for the Run
(requires Internet Explorer and Adobe SVG)
Thanks, Megan for cooking dinners, listening to triathlon talk all weekend and pushing my bike up the hill (even if you made me carry it on the steep part:)).
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MotionBased Activity from statute guest: 2007 Bizz Johnson Marathon

If only I could have run a bit faster in the last few miles, I'd be booking my trip to Boston right now. Instead, I'm trying to help my legs recover so I try for 3:10 again in a few months. I guess the good thing is that I have motivation to keep training consistently. And I feel that even though my HR was much higher (176BPM vs 171BPM average) than Honolulu, my body is in much better shape after this race. I was able to run 2 miles on Monday and almost all limping had subsided by Tuesday.
Results
8th overall, 3rd in 25-29M age group.

2007 Bizz Johnson Marathon

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Countdown to the Bizz

I’m running the Bizz Johnson Marathon this weekend. I’ve been training for the race since June but didn’t bother to sign up early so I ended up having to pay the exorbitant $225 race fee for signing up after it was already sold out (I know, I know). I was able to lessen the initial shock by making a deal with the race director.

Firstly, I recognize that the $225.00 is a crazy; It for the cry babies that want in at any cost – not you...But the race is sold out. You can pay a $150 penalty fee for a total of $225 for waiting. There are no transfers and ID’s are checked at bib distribution. We take into account the runners will drop out when we calculate the total numbers of spots. Win the race overall or break 2:49 and I will return $150 of the $225.00 entry fee. Eric Gould

It’s looking like 2:49 is out of the question and winning the entire race doesn’t look too good either since there will be hundreds more people this year than any other year. But I do think I have a good chance at qualifying for Boston (3:10:59 or less). Thanks to all that have run with me or encouraged me. I owe a special thanks to Megan for having to put up with my sometimes inconvenient running scheduleJ

Reid

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new PR

I set a new PR on the huffaker hills course on Monday.

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/race/dot.mb?sortOrder=55&pks=1958313,1694966,1553067,1685628,3719244,3918061,4042652   

 

I noticed a weird thing about the dot race when you have all 7 runs turned on, my run from 2 weeks ago is ahead of today’s run nearly the entire time.  But when you just enable the latest two runs, today’s dot passes the dot from 9/10 about halfway through. 

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Prosper loan

My friend signed up with Prosper and has a loan to be funded. Click Here to bid on it
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Prosper

I joined Prosper in March and have been lending money since then. Initially I thought the interest rates that people were paying were high and wasn't sure why anyone would borrow through Prosper. But when I began to compare these rates to the alternatives (credit cards, payday loans, etc.) I believe it actually can be a great deal for a borrower who has a few extremely high interest loans to pay off.

There are definitely risks. The company has only been doing these loans for about 1 1/2 years. Also I am concerned a little bit about people defaulting on loans a year or two down the road. It seems like people are more likely to be current on payments soon after they get the loan, but it might not be as big of a priority later on. To mitigate these concerns a bit I only invest a small portion of my income in Prosper loans on a regular basis. I've also tried to spread my risk by balancing loans with high interest and poor credit scores with ones with lower interest and great credit scores.

If you are looking for returns greater than 10% (my average so far is 16%) and want to potentially help other people out, you might want to check out Prosper.
And if you are looking to borrow money, this might be worth checking out as well.
Click here to join:

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Pyramid Triathlon

Pyramid Lake Triathlon pics

After our camping plans fell through for the weekend, I signed up for the triathlon. The course was fast and fun. The race started pretty close to on time. I normally would have a map of the GPS points recorded by my Forerunner 305 but I realized halfway through the swim that I forgot to put it. I guess I'll have to do it again next year :) I like races about this long because they don't leave me hurting for days afterward. I got 2st in my division and 8th overall (age groups, overall).
Jim and I went kayaking toward Warrior Point after the race, forgoing the free BBQ up the street from the race. And I even got in a bike ride with Megan in the afternoon.
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