And now Paleo is happening....

I've looked at the Paleo diet for about a year now and while I did think it was interesting it was clearly not something I was in the right time and place to consider adopting it.

In fact in that space I would have told you (correctly I think) that it is a bad approach for somebody with my goals and motivations at that time. I still believe that if somebody is significantly overweight any "diets" are not the best way to go. Learning how to eat clean healthy foods and making the mental shifts necessary to eat healthy and jettison all the terrible garbage from your diet is most important. A diet could bring you great weight loss success but if you did not pick up the tools necessary to be healthy as soon as that diet if over you are hosed....It's a fairly well established cycle and the "yo-yo" is pretty demoralizing as well.

But without contradicting myself I am in a different time and place right now with slightly different goals/motivations and the Paleo approach might be a good vehicle to get where I am going next. Once I am there the re-evaluation process will dictate.

I won't spend much time describing Paleo other than to say google it if you want and it's basically a diet of meats, vegetables, fruits, and nuts. It cuts dairy and grains because of factors like inflammation, digestion, and the idea that they were not foods around for us to eat WAY back in the day. Tons of controversy surrounds this diet as does tons of research. TONS of reading for anybody that wants to look under the hood.

Anyway, I'll be posting some food pics from time to time while I am on this leg of my journey and I can tell you that I'm very excited to spend the first 30 days with Paleo and see what my body tells me about it. As Always I'll share the good, bad, and ugly truth so no matter how it goes I will report on it.

Paleo Breakfast

Turkey bacon and eggs scramble with a peach.... how simple is that?





One BIG problem with the Paleo diet for me is the dairy as it relates to coffee. Lack of latte is lame. :( There are even schools of thought that say no coffee at all on Paleo but 1)I don't have any interest in living life without coffee. 2) If somebody seriously tried to stop me I would be like Joe Pesci in the bar scene of Casino.... For me a life worth living includes coffee and it's not negotiable.

Taking away my dairy makes me sad but you can still live... so for me coffee stays on the table no matter what diet plan is involved. ;)

Luckily the Italians figured out sometime around 1900 that a quick coffee made just for me would be a cool thing to invent....so they did and I will find a way to struggle and suffer past my lack of lattes the old fashioned way.

Oh man, how rough does this look?

Crazy injury report

Last week I had a perfect training week for where I wanted to be right now.

It went well and there were no complications...

Today I was sitting on the floor and for no reason I can figure my left ankle started to hurt. I thought it was strange because I wasn't putting any weight on it when it started to hurt. I went to get up and see if I could figure out what happened and it started crunching. It cracked about 8-9 times before it started to fold under and I realized I wasn't going to be able to stand up.

Once I made it back to the ground I felt a lot of anger along with the intense pain.

I was super pissed that I'd just damaged the hell out of my ankle somehow. It was tweaked in a sick way and I felt/heard a lot of stuff get crunched when I tried to put weight on it. My ankle has never made those types of noises before. :( I was also pretty worried because the last time I totally rolled my right ankle was about 12 years ago and it's never been 100% from that day on.

Realizing I was going to have to get up sooner or later I got up using the other leg. I tried to put some weight on the injured side and somehow or another....it was fixed. ?? The pain dropped down about 90%. As I type it's dropped off 95%.

I don't know what happened or why it's almost gone but it has me taking a day off and tomorrow we shall see how things are going.

Super weird.

Bum Rushed with conviction II

So it's happened to me again.

I never wanted to climb a 14er... I resisted knowing/learning enough about it to even think about doing it all the way up until I decided I HAD to do it. Looking back I suppose it's fear that tries to get me to veer away from the challenge I know deep down that I really do want to take.

Probably fear of failure is the biggie...makes me try to talk myself out of the thing before I have a chance to get obsessed with it.

So, on with the deal of the day...

I guess it was a few years ago I read a story about the Bataan Memorial death March. Some lunatics gather up each year and locomote their bodies across 26 miles of disastrous terrain in 50mph sand storm winds, fun elevation gains and such other things to commemorate the actual Bataan death march where a "forcible transfer of 75,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war" took place on a 60 mile death march that lived up to it's name. Thousands died on the march...here is the wiki

So these years ago I read the story about the Bataan Memorial and as I was reading the account the reporter gave of it I thought to myself "this is something I'd never want to do". She told all about the conditions of the course and the heat...everything she listed gave me yet another reason to think she was crazy and why I would not ever do this kind of event.

And then there was a paragraph in her report that gave me pause.

She tells it (I'll explain in my words) that somewhere along the trail she has stopped to deal with a nasty blister problem and somebody asks if she is ok. She says that the blister is killing her, blah, blah, blah, and looks up to realize she is complaining to one of the survivors of the actual death march. Not the march she is in where there are aid stations every few miles and 12 checkpoints where a friendly volunteer will hand you a Gatorade...he was in the march where if you move to slow from dehydration/starvation/injury they just bayoneted you to death. Well I think there was humiliation and tears welling up when she realized the gravity of it all and some handshakes happened and she managed to push past the blister problem...

Three seconds after reading that paragraph and I knew that I was going to do the Bataan Memorial Death March before too long. Last week I booked reservations on a cozy little cabin in Las Cruces 3/19 - 3/21 so I can toe the line for the next Bataan Memorial Death March

I've now officially become obsessed with it.

My 14er summit bid for this year has been put in the hands of chance. Training will pretty much run concurrent so I will be in shape to climb if I get a chance to go to Colorado but getting away from the business is hard. Getting away twice is VERY hard and that is the reason I didn't get to do this march last time. I could not get away so soon after the Colorado trip. I say I couldn't but obviously I could if I "HAD" to (gun to the head and all)so it's always a question of making things happen...but the fact is that it's very hard for me to leave.
I will be ecstatic if I can pull off both. I really want to but if I can't do both my next big event will be the Bataan and then I'll get back on my next 14er. I have summit fever right about now that isn't going to go away until I get at it but this Bataan thing is pulling me with great force. I know that I have to do it now when the survivors are still around because it's just something I feel compelled to do for them. Just to be a number out there on that one day a year is such a small thing compared to what they endured.... I have to do it now.

So there it is. This marks the second time I was smacked upside the head with something I clearly didn't want to do...and then all of sudden I knew I had to do it. I can't wait until that nest thing involves me becoming fabulously wealthy instead of pain/punishment but here we go. All systems are go Bataan.

Anybody wanna meet me out there.....you can ya know? ;)

Major congrats to the champ!

I think most people that read my blog probably read Shaun's and/or know him but I lost my password to Feedburner and I honesty don't know who reads my ramblings... ;)

In case There is somebody that doesn't know it the fault will not be with me, but the one and only Shaun Taylor has recently crushed the world at the Worlds 24 hour bike race. He took first place in his category to secure his place in the history books of other such racers that have (like him) put aside all good sense and common knowledge of what the physical limitations of your body are. :o

Serious congrats to Shaun for being out there on the point because 1) somebody has to do it and 2)the rest of us like it to be somebody really kicking some ass....keep kicking ass my friend.

Now, in his own words.....the champ!

24 Hours of Adrenalin 2009

When does close count?

The saying goes that close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades but I'm going to expand that to include latte art.

I have a love/hate relationship with latte art because it refuses to fall in line and show me the shortcut to achieve it. I have not had the easiest time with my attempts at pouring art so this pour was totally unexpected for me when it came out pretty close...it's the skeleton of art anyway and the real stuff is only a few more turns around the bend.

This one was so unexpected that I didn't even check for a cup first and all I could get was this last second, way back in the cupboard, only clean, chipped up mug.

I'm posting it anyway because it's close....the closest I've been so far.

Look, I'm a struggling artist. :)

Today....I can pour this:




Some day.....one of these days....maybe this:

Operation hydration station

Last week my hydration strategy (pictured above) reached it's breaking point in the Summer heat. By the time I was 1/2 way into my route I realized I was going to have to conserve the approx 50 or so oz's that the two bottles hold. By the time I was done I was sucking the residual foam left behind by the electrolyte mix out of the bottles like I was stranded in the Sahara. :(


Enter my new system....ta da!



Not only do I more than double my available oz's I can stash one of the bottles in the pocket of the hyro-pack so I only have to hold one bottle at a time. This is great because on my 9 mile loop my thumbs get tired after a while from holding the bottles around the grips. Being able to switch hands and just hold one bottle should be a welcome relief. But in this heat I would not have been able to do the 9 because the 2 bottles simply isn't enough fluid to make it....no longer a problem.

I'm doing the dry run testing now and this thing is threatening to be super cool. I can load 2 liters in the bladder and stick that in the freezer for an hour or so before heading out. I drop 6-7 ice cubes in the bottles but the liquid is always lukewarm within 20 min. :(

So tomorrow when I get up I'm going to take my new hydration system out for a spin. It's kind of crazy what makes me jazzed these days because carrying water on my back is not something I would have imagined a few years ago would be exciting to me.

Flippin sweet!!

Hitting Alice Cooper in the nuts.

A total ramble fest.

Two things have been on my mind lately.

Hitting Alice Cooper in the nuts and randomly looking at gold medal winner Tera Lipinski's panties in a Target paring lot.

In other words strange things I have done....

The fact that I have done these things (or the doing of them) isn't what's on my mind...what is on my mind is that some stories can never properly be told. First off the more interesting a story is the more unusual it is and the less likely people are to believe it. It's the plague of not being a bullshiter in a world that loves to bullshit. When I tell you I hit Alice Cooper in the nuts it's very literally because I was the cause of him doing that specific flinch that only happens when someone is hit in the package. And by the same line...when I say literally it's because I know the definition of the word and use it the way it was intended....because I am straightforward like that. ;)

Anyhow, I would have figured my eyes were playing tricks on me when we rounded the corner and I saw Tera Lipinski bending over and her skirt hiking ALL the way up AND over her hips to have her pretty much moon the paring lot her full back panties. I could easily have figured it was just somebody that looked like her but not actually her if she had not been standing next to a black corvette with personalized plates Nagano 98. Whatayagonnado?

So it's not my fault that it was Halloween (making the story even less believable) when I threw something "TO" and I'll stress again "TO" Alice, he didn't see it and that is why it accidentally hit him in the nuts. He was not hurt for what it's worth and he was also wearing a cup that provided him the extra protection he didn't even know he would need that evening. I know he was wearing a cup because it was on the outside of his pants...and it was bright orange/red.

No matter...he was pissed! He tried to brain me with the 3/4 length cane he was holding but I was just out of reach. Haha Mr. Cooper. :)

My reason for mentioning these things is that I think I'm going to retire these two stories. Even as I've probably only told the Alice story 6 times and the Tara story twice They really fall under the category of you had to be there plus I don't think anybody believes they happened so why waste the breath? So I think this blog is going to be the retirement home for stories I don't want to tell anymore. A story is like a secret...the mischief is in the telling so this way I can get the story out of my head and into the great information stream. If I ever need it I suppose it should be here but I've go to do some spring cleaning of my noggin. I had a trippy experience last week when I was working out and a flood of convoluted memory information tried to present itself from the old storage file cabinets to the inbox and there was a transfer glitch. :(

I've got an uneasy feeling about what's whirling around in my head trying to get out but I'm sure that Alice Coopers package and Tara Lipinski's panties have nothing whatsoever to do with it...... My brain is probably stalling. In fact I know it's stalling. Makes me nervous that something wicked this way comes.

With any luck it will just pass, fingers crossed.

The netti pot

Damn you somewhat effective piece of addictive witchcraft!!

The back story is that I got a very good yoga DVD and the instructor is very insistent that for his class you only breath through your nose. I didn't realize how bothersome my allergy/sinus problems were until I got upside down and tried to breath exclusively through my nose....I lasted about 5 seconds just like Christoper Hitchens when he had himself water boarded. :o

Because I hate to take medicine and I've known about the netti pot I did a little searching and found that people tout it as a fantastic miracle cure. Tons of stories about people coming off of medications they were taking for years and years...really impressive results. So I picked one up and started testing...

Initially it was frustrating and uncomfortable. Nothing like watching youtube vids of people from 7-70 making something that looks easy - look easy and then almost gagging yourself silly with eyes watering and salty mucus water going down your throat. It was pitiful. Eventually I figured it out but there are still some issues for me.

When I pour into my left nostril the first 3 seconds trigger a distinct sensory memory of drowning. I went under water twice as a kid and would not be typing today had somebody pulled me out both times. I think in that moment when your lungs finally have to breath and you take in water that is a very specific felling and it gets cataloged in your brain. The first 3 seconds of the netti and I tell you...my brain says "you are about to die". Luckily I can reason that out but it happens none the less. And it's embarrassing, cuz again kids form 7-70 are laughing it up.

Anyway the good news is that the netti does clear out the nasal passages and it is having a clearing effect of higher portions of the sinuses and there is all manner of popping in my ears caused by what I think is a venturi effect. So breathing by nose is notably improved.

Bad news: breathing is like drugs that make you feel good. If a little is good more is great! So here I am hitting the netti sometimes a couple few times a day trying to get maximum breathing so I can be superhuman... but no. It clears the lower portion of the sinuses but it's not exactly a miraculous amount and the section under my eyes over to my temples is laughing it's ass off..it is humored that I'd attempt to slay it with mildly salty water.

So it's mixed results. Mixed but I am addicted to this stupid process now even if it is less effective than I wanted, only a partial cure, and every day I have to poke a mental wound and feel a second or two of terror over it. It does help me breath better and it is clearing out portions of my sinus cavity so that it better than nothing.

I'm glad for what it does but I hate this thing. :-

Edit - 2 year olds laugh it's so easy.

1,003 shots of espresso

1,003 shots or espresso or life imitating art….latte art.

A long post….. and possibly a coffee/life connection that non coffee geeks might find wacky but here it is anyway.

As we enjoyed the last 3 shots of espresso at my buddy Shaun's house in Sugar Land, TX last week there was a team of movers packing up his life in the background for his move back to Canada. The snowy, snowy tundra impacted cold...COLD, bitterly cold (landscape dotted with igloos cold) Canada. ;)

As they movers packed we did the math and over the last 2 years we had enjoyed over 1,000 shots in that kitchen (each) and then it was the final 3 before they packed up the espresso machine and taped the lid on the box closing the book on the team Sugar Land espresso experience.

As we talked and the reality came to light that we were drinking our last coffee together the coffee didn’t really matter anymore for 2 reasons:

1) Neither one of us considers coffee something that can be locked down or captured in any one spot. Coffee is always changing from the second you roast it until the second it’s gone minor and major things are happening that are taking it along it’s evolution and the ebb/flow is the journey…taking what it gives and continuing down the path is the only way to truly accept coffee and increase your chances of enjoying it on on higher levels.

2) Over 1,000 cups of coffee you sort of get to know somebody. There are more than a few words spoken and conversations had along that time. I think we spent time talking on average 5 days per week in person and sent harassing texts/emails to each other just about every day. We shared family b-days together, a few BBQ’s, one crazy whirlwind blitzkrieging trip to the windy city for a live UFC event Shaun dragged/forced me to go on. ;)
Some random times at a noodle house or pizza and beers at the brew pub..those types of things. My family watched his family grow as the boys got older, bigger, and more entertaining each day. We became really good friends.

So as the coffee left the room #1 above left me in a fine place even knowing that some days we had truly WORLD class espresso in that kitchen. We had so many outstanding shots that outstanding was just normal. We had some shots that were above outstanding and a few that were what I think of now as shots of a lifetime. They were that good and you would think a coffee fanatic would be upset about that going away but because I am in for the ride and journey of coffee it didn’t bother me much that a new chapter was ahead. What bothered me was that #2 above was undergoing some significant changes…bringing me to my point.

I think now that life might be interesting to look at as coffee… if anybody reads this that is not a coffee person try to hold your eye rolling for 2 seconds and see if it makes sense anyway.

We knew from the day that the Taylor’s got here they would only be in town for a couple years. Why then was it such a bummer to see them go? Immediately the thing that came to mind is how we should have dome more BBQ’s, more get togethers, and made better use of the “friend time” available. Next thoughts were about future events that would not be possible and that part really blows. In life it’s like we want to keep trying to capture things and lock them down but in reality it is like the coffee. Life is consistently changing from the moment we are born. If we could somehow embrace (more fully) the times we have in the moment and as things change we understood (more fully) that change is just change. Something different is next and something different after that and the next really interesting “cup” is around the corner form that. In many ways you can’t get to the next great points if you don’t take the winding path. All you can do if you resist is:

Stay home
Fight change and remain stagnant
Drink Folgers forever
Live life in a fishbowl
Convince yourself that xyz is “the best blend” of coffee
Convince yourself there is a “the best” of anything actually.

If change in coffee is the path to new experiences in the cup life looks a lot like that to me right now…

2 years ago Angie and I were not considering a vacation to Canada and we were unaware of the natural wonders that igloo dotted ice ball held. ;) Now we will plan that trip as our next vacation.

In order to travel to Canada we will need passports….getting passports will make us consider other places we can suddenly travel that we had never considered. There are 10 trips inside the US I wanted to do and if things had not worked out the way they did we would probably have done those trips and not ever considered Canada.

Am I saying Canada “better” than the other trips we might have done? Pay attention to the above… :- Who knows and it isn’t the point.


Good luck the Shaun, Doreen, Evan, and Keegan as you roadtrip across the US back up into the great white north….we need your address when you settle in and we will be up to visit (at a time when the snowdrifts have melted).

The push to Bierstadt

This is the final 3 months (approx) to the lead up training for this years 14er attempt. I considered a lot of things in selecting Bierstadt this time and the most important are:

I am only considering class I or II climbs before I get more experience/training.
I don't want to put myself in a position to make safety decisions at altitude where pride and ego are involved. I'll decide before hitting the trail that a class III route is beyond my capability right now rather than think at 13,700 "If I can just pass this one tough section I might be able to make it". I'm not ready for technical passes yet.

After the shelf road last year :O I wanted a trailhead with 2WD access. Our next vehicle will be a 4WD jeep or Land Cruiser...something like that and tougher access trailheads will be easier to access. I didn't love having to go back on the shelf road after Handies when we could have taken a serious short cut if we only had a proper of road mountain vehicle. 2WD access this time. :(

Angie is going to take a crack at bagging her first 14er peak and Bierstadt offers something that others might not. Not far from the trail head most of the route is visible to you straight to the summit. I think that will be a big psychological advantage to see everything ahead of you have the ability to make constant evaluations/calculations.

Bierstadt is a 7 mile round trip hike (plus some extra if you hike down and back up to gain an additional 200' elevation) and I will be doing that...not sure if Angie will bother or not but I'm doing it to make sure I have the official 3,000 elevation gain. It's probably a minor detail really....but I'm doing it. ;)

Training shifted into (OMG, THERE IS ONLY 12 WEEKS LEFT TO GET READY) mode yesterday and I the focus from here until the trailhead is going to be walking, stair climbing, walking with a pack, stair climbing more, walking some 9mile and 14 mile hikes, more stairs, and more walking with a double weight (50#) pack. I will try to mix in some core and upper body when I can but time is short now and I will be more prepared this time because I know all too well how hard it is to show up under trained.

Bierstadt by all accounts is a little "easier" than Handies and I will be better trained, more prepared, and will execute my climb 10X's smarter than I did to bag Handies so I think it's going to be a fun day on the mountain when we hit it barring the one thing we never get to control the weather. I want to allow a back up day in the itinerary in case the weather is bad so that we have a second shot if needed.

Bierstdat will be my 2nd 14er and turning the corner to the heavy training is bringing the excitement now. In addition to training I've started planning the nutrition, water options, I will be getting a new pair of shoes soon, we will start going over gear and making lists now... It shifts from the future to the now. Big fun!

Big fun!

Drinking Kopi Luwak

Yep....

I'm sitting here drinking the legendary Kopi Luwak as I type.

Most people are probably aware of this bean and think of it in the terms Angie described it... "that poop coffee".

The Civet Cat (a distant relative of the Mongoose) eats ripe coffee cherries and passes the coffee beans undigested. They say undigested anyway but this coffee has a slightly unusual look when green so the process has done something to the beans for sure and I suppose the stomach acids have etched the beans or something but anyway...

The bean roasted up great and there were no bad odors wafting around and if anything the roast was uneventful. Completed roast was slightly mottled but no biggie.

After 50 hours rest my first taste....

Dry aroma: different! Mostly cherry is what I get but it's like cherry pit more than fruit. My descriptors are what they are and often they don't even make sense to me why they come out like they do, I just don't argue as I have learned to trust them so... dry aroma cherry pit.

Wet aroma: interesting....leather rope. Really tasty smelling leather rope for sure and if you are not a coffee person just ignore that and pretend I said very dark chocolate. :)

First bit into cupping spoon: wild!! it has an almost golden look to it. A golden tea sheen of sorts in the spoon...trippy. Slurp.... it's good! Man am I happy that it's good.

First few moments with the cup: A well bodied cup doing everything I would figure from a Sumatra/Indo cup but with an unusual acidity. It's making the roof of my mouth a little tingly. This is a pleasant cup.

Mid cup: Great body, earthy, and that acidity thing is really wild...still tingling. I am trying to give attention to the journey this bean took to get to me. Not just the digestive part but it's just been a really long journey for such a limited supply to get from a coffee cherry that caught the Civet's eye a zillion miles away to my cup in Sugar Land, Texas. Amazing really.

As the cup cools I am coming back to that leather rope vibe and it is starting to dominate along with some decent chocolaty notes and the acidity is either facing or I just can't pick it out anymore from the deep body of this cup.

Final thoughts: I feel lucky to have the opportunity to sample this legendary coffee. It is rare, expensive, often counterfeit, and probably just as often poorly prepared. Watching this bean go from green to my cup I know it was as close to perfect as an be expected. I look forward to trying this bean as espresso, single origin and blended, French Press, AeroPress, Iced, and vac pot to experience it as fully as possible while it is here. I just tasted the last sip of this rare bean and I did note that acidity again but either muted now or I can't grasp it anymore I just can't tell.

And that is all for now.....Kopi Luwak...wow, that was epic man....simply epic!

Ankle crank

I was messing around with some Parkour yesterday and now my ankle hurts. ;(

To be fair to Parkour I was doing some ultra low speed pre-beginner Parkour.

As an aside, I thought people freak out when I do the unthinkable (put my kayak in the water at the parks) but they go into melt down mode when you start jumping up on rocks and maneuvering about park benches, trash bins, and brick decorative steps....they look nervous about it. Hahaha.

Anyway, I did not twist m ankle or have any awareness that there was a problem until 90 min after I was done frightening the neighborhood. I was making a cup of Chai tea and got hit with a pain out of nowhere....an injury pain not a sore pain. DAMN IT!!!

I can't dig on any leg injuries right now and my last shoulder injury lasted about 6 months and my last knee injury keeps me concerned still. I'm not sure it's 100%

I'm still walking on it just fine and only had 10min of limping so I might manage it ok. Guess I'll stick with core/kettle bell today, try to get the kayak on the water tomorrow, and save the stairs and 50# pack for later on in the week if my ankle repairs itself. Parkour, maybe in 4-6 weeks. :) Advil in the am, Fish oil in the afternoon, ZMA at night...see if I can turn it right around.

Injuries Suck