Why are people fat?

So I've been tracking my calories for a few weeks now.  I've learned a lot.  At first it was all about keeping the total calories down.  Then it was about keeping the calories down and maximizing the energy out of them.  Now I'm adding a even more to the table and restricting my caloric intake further.  So what's this got to do with the title? 

Well today Joab(my youngest son) wanted to go to lunch.  So I thought I'd make it easy and just pick up McDonald's for the two of us.  I went cheap and easy.  Four McDoubles plain, two small fries and a one small DrPepper for Joab.  We ate lunch and then I got him back in time for recess.  I knew the calories in the McDouble were going to be bad.  However I didn't think they were going to be that bad.

Calories in a McDonald's McDouble = 340 calories
For reference a pound of 85% ground beef has 970 calories.

The fries made the calorie count even worse.  Yes I didn't need two.  That's totally on me and all my fault.  I didn't think they were going to be that bad.  Here is my point.  I took in over 1000 calories for lunch.  My total for a day is 1800.  The total time to get/prepare lunch took five minutes or less.  Cost for just my lunch was three dollars and eighteen cents.

My lunch was easy to obtain and relatively very cheap.  It was easy.  This was a normal meal for me before I started counting calories.  Eating a lot of calories is easy.  Very easy.  That's our problem.

Building the playground.

After finishing up Joabs bike we started building some indoor bike playground stuff.  We brought in a 15+ foot chunk of dead tree and added planks.  We added a new plywood top to our 16" landing platform.(It really is a landing platform...it's where Joab lands his remote control airplane.)  It's been said our planks were a little wide. Yes maybe they are.  However I SUCK at riding this type of stuff.  The main reason for building it is so we can get better.  We also brought in a huge tree stump section to play around on.  More pics later....

 

Joab nailed it first time.  Time to take a few inches off the planks.

 

Old school fun on the old BMX

Lots more stuff to come

Super almost super.

Well after a spending the better part of a weekend in the garage.  It's almost done.  Only thing left to do is fiddle with the rear der a bit more, add grips and fit to Joab.  The temp in the building wasn't bad but it was nice having the propane heater blowing up my back side.  It should be noted that installing a front der on a Superlight is a pain in the ass.  The brand new x5 der wouldn't fit.  One of the pivots was too beefy in the front and hit on the swing arm.  So I had to use the XT der that was given to me.  Finally got it on and working.  One down, one to go.

The new ride.

After looking thru Craigslist. Scouring cars.com and autotrader.com.  Driving thru many dealer lots, driving many vehicles.  This last Saturday as I was coming home from my son's cross country meet.  I stopped by the somewhat local(75miles away) Mazda dealer.  We drove thru the lot and they had a used Rav4 and a Highlander so I decided to stop and see what they were asking for them.  I talked to a dealer about the Rav4 and the Highlander.  Both were out of my price range for a used car.  I started walking around the lot and there it was.  A dark blue Mazda5 Touring.  The sticker price in the window was 12,999.  Down from 20,000.  That was a huge drop so I looked further.  It was pretty hail dented.  Early in July a big storm rolled thru and caused extensive damage to all there cars.  Some of the cars were fixed others just marked down.  This one had a $7500 mark down and $500 off from Mazda for being a 2010.  It had lots of room in the back, great gas mileage, roomy seating for four people, seating for six people if two of them are "small" people.  I could already see the bike racks on the top, back and a nice mounting board inside.  So I asked the dealer for the keys and took it for a drive.  It had a 2.5 automatic and was pretty zoomy really.  Handled really well.  Took it back and parked it.  Popped the rear hatch and folded down the seats.  I saw that he had another Mazda5 on the lot, also hail dented but with a window sticker of $10,995.  This was a metalic red Sport model.  No sunroof and a five speed manual instead of the automatic.  Other then that, just the same.  So I took it out for a drive.  Wow, what a difference the five speed made.  From a somewhat zoomy to a really zoomy car.  It was such fun to drive.  Even thou it looks like a shrunken mini van it was just a blast to take around corners and pull away from stop signs.  Brought it back to the dealership and told the salesman I really liked it.  I filled out paper work for a loan thru Mazda.  It was closing time and the finance people were all back east and wouldn't be in till Monday.  I had to work Monday and wouldn't be able to pick it up till Tuesday.  So for two days I debated, looked up accessories, looked up mods, read reviews, and waited.  Even with my "just ok" credit I got the 2.9% financing and I opted for the extended warranty of 10years and 100,000 miles.  I could have bought a used car, but for the price I got new.  Bike rack parts are being ordered as we speak.  Many pics to follow.

2010 Turner 5 Spot

Well this is my review on my first new bike in over 10 years.  So if it's a little jaded I'm sorry.  I spent most of the summer questioning what bike I would like.  I wanted a do-all full suspension bike.  Early in the summer I picked up a very used 1999 Specialized FSR enduro.  Ended up upgrading the fork twice, and adding a new rear derailer.  Great bike, just a little dated.  I rode three or four other bikes at the Specialized event.  I really really liked the Epic.  Felt like a lightly suspended version of my Dekerf HT.  I rode a ton of bikes in the parking lots.  Read specs for hours.  Reviews for even longer.  Eventually I ordered the 5 Spot.  I saved a good chunk of money by getting a 2010 model.  The differences were small between the 2011 and 2010.  None of the changes really offered me any benefit for my style of riding.   After waiting a few weeks my youngest son and I went and picked it up.  We took it out for some cross country riding only a few minutes after getting it.  The next day we took it to the slopes of Keystone for a day of gravity riding.

 The bike was amazing.  Climbs great and keeps the rear tire planted on the ground.  It goes down just as well.  I haven't ridden it enough to dial in the suspension.  The shock isn't working with all it's travel yet.  I need to play with it more to figure out whats going on.  Right now I'm just comparing this bike to my Dekerf, the FSR, and my old GT LTS.  It pedals a lot like the FSR but moves thru the travel much much better.  Pedals more efficiently also.  As with all things....More research is necessary.

Turner and Garrett OR The Last Run

I'd been waiting for this weekend for awhile now. I've been waiting to buy a new bike. I started by getting together what I thought I wanted. Test rode some bikes, read hundreds of reviews. Visited dozens of stores. Talked to twice as many mechanics and sales people. Changed my mind thousands of times. Finally I just Called Dave at Redstone Cyclery and ordered it up.
I had to wait about two weeks for it to come in and get built up. The second week was the toughest. Honestly there were nights I couldn't sleep. I made arrangements to pick up on Saturday so we could go ride up at Keystone for there last lift day of 2010. Saturday morning we got up and went to Jake's Football game. It was 43degrees and very foggy. Great football watching weather, bad bike riding weather. Dad said it was just in Nebraska and that Colorado would be fine. So we sat and watched Jake's team obliterate Gering, eat a bit of celebratory Oya and hit the road.

We made it up to Lyon's in record time.(but not too fast) Dave had the bike ready and waiting. A brand new, shiny red, 2010 Turner Five Spot. We added some pedals, adjusted the sag and he explained some of the "new tech" to me. There's a lot that was new to me. No rotor bolts, 15mm threaded axle, propedal settings, etc.. I knew some of the suspension set up, but it's a lot different doing it then reading about it. We bought a few new bits for bikes and a fine pair of Old Chub socks, then headed to Hall Ranch trail. Got to the trail head and suited up to ride. I couldn't wait to get the bike on the trail. We had to wait just a little while for Joab to adjust his new grips. Once that was done we were on our way. Other then the horses, Halls was a blast. I few thru rock sections I wouldn't have thought about doing on the Dekerf or FSR. Afterwords we hit Oscar Blues for the required post ride meal. If you have never eaten at Oscar Blues your doing yourself a huge disservice. Great service, food and BEER! We came down out of the hills and stayed the night at Motel 6 in Fort Collins. Great place to grab some zzzz's.

Next morning we were up early because we needed to pick up Joabs Christmas present. My trusty Droid took me straight to the spot. I handed over the cash and showed Joab his Christmas present. A banana yellow size small santa cruz superlite. It needs a few bits(whole build) but come next season it'll be ready. We made a quick stop at Starbucks for a little pre-ride coffee. Made a quick drive up to Keystone, enjoying the fall colors the whole way up.

 Got to the super secret parking spot(according to Mike)and Joab jumped out and ran do the stream that runs in front of the slopes. By the time we had gotten back to the car Mike was there. We set up the bikes, chit chatted and deliberated on if we should wear a long sleeve shirt for a run or two. It was warming up fast so I decided not too. We went and picked up our lift tickets and then had a look thru the bike shop as we waited for the lifts to open. Once the lifts started spinning they took mostly the hikers to the top, before the Mtn.Bikers. We got to the top in short order. The weather was much much better then the weekend Joab and I come up and did one run. Sunny and warm. Well with out wasting much time I almost automatically injured myself. I laid the bike out in some loose gravel and opened up my left knee pretty well.

 I picked myself up and dusted off before I could really start feeling the pain and headed down the trail. Me crashing that quickly shook Joab up a little bit. Kid has a heart of gold. Kept asking if I was ok, if I needed to stop, was I ok, do we need to bandage it, so on and so forth. I just let it bleed and periodically rinsed water over it. Turns out my Turner's color matches my blood! We rode the rest of the day with out a crash. We had one little incident with a idiot that thought Joab should be on a easier slope. Again that rattled him a bit but he was fine after a bit.

 Next to last run I pinch flatted and ended up walking to the gondola to go get back down. We replaced the tube and went up and took one last run. One wouldn't believe coming DOWN a mountain would be so much work. We packed up and headed home. We got off in Georgetown and picked up some snacks and caffeine. The minute we got back on the interstate traffic locked up. Took us a hour to go 5 miles. Joab was a chatter box till Sterling. Then like a switch being flipped he was silent. Everything from the day finally caught up with him. It was a great time. Something I can't wait to repeat next year.

Not just another weekend.

Well we had one heck of a weekend. Joab(my youngest) and I both headed out Friday to Fort Collins and spend the night there. Staying the night there let us get a early start on Sat morning. We rode some cross country in Lyons, CO.. Hall Ranch was a blast. Very rocky, but fun. Joab had a cold and was very very stuffed up so we only did a few miles up and then came back. I picked up a new disc front wheel for my Dekerf and a couple pairs of lock-on grips. I can't say enough about Dave at Redstone cycles. He is the kind of person who you want to spend money with. If you ever get a chance to stop in and just bs with the guy, do it. We then headed out for Avon, Co. I put a trade together with a guy off of Craigslist. Avon is in the middle of the mountains. It has been quite awhile since I've been thru the mountains. Wow...I gotta do that more often. What a blast. Guy I was trading parts with was great doing biz with. Another positive Craigslist experience. Wheels are brand new and the fork is in good nic too. Then out of the blue Joab says he wants to ride some more. So we look over our options and head over to Keystone to see if we can catch a lift up. Neither of us have ever done lifts before. So this was a first. We get there and three guys are riding to there cars on big DH rigs. I walk over and ask when the lift is closing and they say it closes at seven. A quick thanks and were on our way. We jump on the gondula and ride up. We stick to the green trails and wow, what a blast. We end up getting soaked on the mountain. The rain starts coming down and won't slow up. We stop a few times to try and stay dry. Finally the rain stops and we fly the rest of the way down. It took us two hours to come down and Joab wanted to go again at 6:15 in the afternoon. That would have put us in the dark for half the mountain. We leave with dreams of coming back. Thanks a ton Keystone, those trails were a blast! I settle into the drivers seat and point the van home. A quick stop in Idaho Springs for a pizza from Beau Jo's Pizza. Joab was wiped out and didn't let his head leave the seat until we got home. Thanks a ton to everyone who made this great day happen!

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