Funsters - Tilt Shift video!

Have you ever heard of a "tilt-shift" video?? Nope, I didn't either until Mr. Brown turned me onto this very-cool video of kayakers in the Susquehanna River at the Holtwood Dam. Tilt-shift is a style of making the animated figures in the video (in this case, kayakers in water) look like tiny litte minatures. It's awesome. WATCH IT HERE. Yes, Mr. Brown aspires to surf the Holtwood waves someday just like the guys in the video. He's my hero!

And another funster -- the radio announcer people this morning were announcing a contest where you could win a "Vera Bradley purse!" And I said to Ricky, "what's a Vera Bradley purse??"" And we laughed... then we started joking, "man, if they were giving away an NRS kayak Gear bag, or a nice biking Gear bag, we'd be all over that contest, wouldn't we??" I'm so non-fashion oriented. I guess the Vera thang is a women's fashion in-style thang??? HA!.

Bouncing Off of Rocks

I had forgotten how nice dual suspension really is until yesterday. Contemplating what bike to ride for the bigMichaux 40-miler, I opted to take the dual sus out for a practice run and by George, there's nothing like a little extra cush when putting on the miles in rocks. My old, tired, flabby ass really enjoyed the extra little softness. I think this baby doll will be the bike for 40 and 50 miles of rocks (Rattling Creek is a 50-miler). The 12-hours of the Farm will be hard tail time. While riding this bike, I was thinking of the ultimate bike for rocks -- titanium, 29 inches with tubeless tires, and dual suspension. I'm sure some of you bike weenies know of just the bike that fits that bill -- please tell me! Would it happen to be IF? Another company?

And the ride in Weiser on Saturday? I screwed up the day before and planted 400 onions, 100 strawberry plants, 40 broccoli plants, and prepped the potato patch. When I woke up, my wrists would hardly bend. Needless to say, at mile marker 25 on the bike, I could hardly hold onto the handlebars anymore and had to call it quits. Now if I wouldn't have been rock hopping for 20 miles, maybe, just maybe, I could have gone longer and further. But fate has its way and my wrists said knock it off after playing in rocks for 3 hours. But have no fear, all the major digging and planting is now done -- so next weekend will definitely be the 30+ miles -- the required 75% of the destination race - the final long ride before May 3 (I'm planning to cut the long ride in half the weekend before the 40-miler to "save" myself for May 3).

Homemade and Natural Energy Gel

I found this recipe a year or more ago and have loved it ever since -- even more so now that I'm more "aware" of local and sustainable food consumption (and less processed foods). It's got all the good stuff you need to go the distance -- carbs (in the honey), calcium (molasses), protein (soy), magnesium (molasses), potassium (molasses), and sodium (salt). And here's my original post on it. I use non-GMO soy protein. Yes, its processed! But until the glorious day I can grow my own soybeans, dry them, and grind them into flour, I gotta use the processed stuff.

Enjoy!

Gel with Protein - fills one 4 oz gel Flask
6 Tablespoons honey
5/8 teaspoon blackstrap molasses (I LUV this stuff and have been eating it for years. Its full of calcium, potassium, carbs and iron -- two tablespoons a day right out of the jar will cure all that ails you).
6 3/8 teaspoons soy protein
1/16 teaspoon salt
1-3 Tablespoons water (to get it to the consistency you like).

Gel without Protein
7 1/3 tablespoons honey
3/4 teaspoon blackstrap molasses
1/10 teaspoon salt

Pedal vs Paddle

During the past two years, Rick has really been getting more into the whitewater paddling thang...not as hardcore as Sam Mummert and a couple others (Class IV and V paddling -- things like the Upper Yough, the Tippy top Yough, going over waterfalls, etc.), but getting out at least twice a week in Class 2+ like the Dauphin Narrows, the Lehigh River during all their releases, or a handful of other local whitewater trips like the Nescopeck or Red Mo. There's nothing Rick would like more (I think) than for me to have the same enthusiasm as him for paddling, but my heart is still in bikes, while Mr. Brown's passion heads to the water. Thus, the ever-so-slight dilemma each weekend -- he wants to paddle, I want to bike. We're trying to meet half way, but even that's getting a little hairy now -- he wants to whitewater paddle even in higher water, I want flatter, low water - mainly because I'm still a little apprehensive after flipping twice last fall on the Lehigh (not fun). I want to ride long rides with climbs and rocks, he likes short ones that he can coast as much as possible. He has the appropriate boat for the appropriate water -- I have the appropriate bike for the terrain. He gets very excited about upcoming river runs, I can't wait for the big Michaux ride May 3 and a couple others this summer. He talks about nothing but boats. I dwell on bikes, garden, and our food system. He studies websites on water levels and rain forecasts, I blog. Sooo... how does hubby and wifey meet half way? I want to paddle with him...but more flatwater. I think (???) he wants to bike, but not as much. Oh the drama.

I'm Sick

May 3, 9:02 am. And if you don't quite get it, try this. It's so I don't have to ride every long weekend fun ride alone. I'll have some sick friends to enjoy it with.

Week Two of the Marathon Mountain Bike "Training"

Beauty of a day for riding, huh? I just realized I can't call it "training" any more... that makes it seem like work -- riding I HAVE to do. So I'm calling it my weekly "fun rides" -- a day to get out and simply enjoy. My goal is to go slow and smile the whole time. Screw the concept of "training."

I made the trek to the RCST trails in Weiser extra early so I could get home to the garden. 7:15 am was the start time with the notorious Ironmine snowmobile trail climb. Yes, I took the gears today knowing I'd be climbing. I purposely did a 25 mile "inner" loop of the Rattling Marathon Course, to see if I'll be able to build up to doing the entire 50 mile loop in August. (Will I you ask? after today's ride?? I'll let you know after the next ride or two - the rocks HURT). After I climbed Ironmine, you do a short piece on Wolf Pond fire road, then hop on Rock's Ridge West singletrack. Ouch. After that, another short piece on Wolf Pond fire road and back onto Rock's Ridge East. Double Ouch. I'm thinking to myself, "self, how hard could 1 mile of a rocky trail really be? It's not far at all!" My ass is paying the price with this ride. I noticed a HUGE difference between the titanium hardtail and the aluminum hardtail. I like the two-niners, but the geared aluminum hardtail is very painful in rocks. I may have to go to 26 inch dual suspension for the rocky rides with climbing. The ride ended with the 2nd rockiest trail at Rattling Creek -- Wolf Pond. Yet another mere mile, how hard could it be? I walked the rocky sections -- that's how hard at the end of a ride after not really riding a whole lot yet this year. It took 3 hrs, 35 minutes (stop it! I know its slow - I'm old. I can be slow). That's a little more than my planned 10% increase from last week, but I guess I'll have to deal now, won't I?

I kept thinking 'bout the 12-hour Relay at the Farm, and how much I'm looking forward to doing it. I really, really wanna do the race, and Kuhn doesn't have any rocks at the farm, so I think I'll be fine for it on the aluminum geared niner hardtail (I don't think I can do Kuhn's on the singlespeed -- there's a bunch of short steep sections -- too many for 6 hours). The relay is 12 weeks away -- plenty of time to build up to 6 hours if I keep up my weekly, long, get-out-and-play fun rides. I'll try to do them all in the woods -- screw road riding (unless Ricky Brown goes along to take the boredom out of them).

Our Empty Y

The Northern Dauphin County YMCA in Elizabethville expanded (courtesy a federal Community Development Block Grant), but we still pretty much have the place to ourselves on a Saturday afternoon. Rick took pics because when his brother was visiting from Orlando last year, he was a little surprised when he saw the blue mat was the extent of the stretching area (it was in a much smaller, crowded room at the time). So Rick's sending him these pics to tell him what he has to look forward too the next time he visits. Its really nice to now have choices....including TV cable! (BTW, we're down to 3 channels since 33 and 15 went digital). I'm not quite sure how we lived without the leg machines... and cable!