Weekly Average

Well, the first week of my resolutions have drawn to a close, and though I didn't write an update yesterday I weighed 165.6, and this morning I was 165.8. So, my weekly average can be calculated as 165.2, which is about what I expected since I assumed to be started at 165 and needing to lose 5 lbs. So now I had better get down to business, and drop at least a pound per week. I am in a head-to-head weight loss competition with my brother Fras, so hopefully he has been eating lots of chocolate cake.

Yesterday I had a great 2.5 hour roller ski along the Burke-Gilman, I was super tired by the end of it. It felt like the bearings in my skis had slowed down by the end, but this was more likely probably just due to be being tired. Today I will either go ski up at Hyak, or go to the climbing gym. Other exciting news is that we just signed up for weekly deliveries of organic produce through New Roots Organics. Each week they deliver a box of seasonal organic produce, from local sources when possible. I think it will be fun to be surprised each week and try out some fruit and veg that we might not otherwise have sampled. Take a look in your area and see if you have something similar, there seem to be a number of these services in different cities.

Too much Thai food!

Last night Roanne and I met Jen and Chris at the art museum and then went for dinner at Wild Ginger. It was really good, a little too good as the scale told me this morning!

Weight: 166.6

That's why we're tougher than them boys

Yesterday I went skate skiing at Cabin Creek in Snoqualmie Pass. It was pretty icy due to freeze thaw cycles, which made the skiing much more difficult than on previous outings (and reminded me that I am still a pretty bad skier). I had planned on doing 50km to try and build fitness for some longer ski races that I plan on doing later in the year, but after a few km I found myself lamenting the bad conditions, considering going home early, and reminiscing of the perfect dry snow back in Salt Lake City. After a few minutes of this I suddenly thought of a quote from Steve Peat in the mountain bike movie Seasons: Peat is being interviewed in his home country of Great Britain during the winter, as he gets ready to head out on a muddy training ride in the pouring rain. The interviewer notes the terrible conditions, and asks him if he feels as a disadvantage to riders who do their winter training in places like Spain with more favourable conditions. Peatie just laughs, shrugs his shoulders, and says "No, because that's why we're a lot tougher than those boys!". So, inspired by Peatie, I sucked it up and clocked in my 51.7km (as measured by my GPS) which involved about 5 repeats of the trails (they didn't have all the trails groomed).

Weight: 164.6
Body Fat: 6.7%

Vegetable Lasagna

Yesterday I baked a delicious roasted vegetable lasagna, as part of my new years resolution to eat less meat. It was really good, probably because it had equal parts cheese to vegetables. I also managed to squeeze in two physical activities, I went for a 1 hour roller ski in the late afternoon, then in the evening I rode my bike to Stone Gardens, climbed for an hour and half, and then rode back. After the climbing session I drank some chocolate milk which is an amazing recovery drink, I felt like a rocket on the bike ride home. I also had a good weigh-in this morning, back in the 164 range. I think I am going to head out for a nordic ski at Cabin Creek right now... ah, the joys of unemployment, maybe I should scratch life resolution #5!

Weight: 164.4
Body Fat: 6.0%

Rainy and warm

This morning it is rainy and warm here in Seattle, I wish it would get colder so they would get some snow (or at least no rain) in the mountains! I keep hearing on the news that the rest of the country is in a cold snap, I wish we had the same! Hopefully the skiing stays reasonable. Last night I rode my rollers for an hour while watching my new 2009 Giro d'Italia video (thanks Rosie!), then did a core workout before going to bed. Today I am split between going to the climbing gym or doing a roller ski, I think the former will win out since it looks pretty miserable out there. A slight uptick on the weight front this morning, but I think it is small enough that it can be attributed to additive white gaussian noise (AWGN).

Weight: 165.4
Body fat: 6.2%

2010 New Years Resolutions

Welcome to my new blog! The subject matter of this blog will just be my life, so if you are not related to me then there is a good chance that you won't care about anything I write here (actually, I guess that might hold even if you are related to me!). Most of the posts will probably be about cycling, skiing, or climbing (depending on what time of year it is), but some posts about trivialities such as careers, home improvements, and our ten kids might also find their way in here. Anyways, I thought that a good way to start would be with a post about my new years resolutions (there are quite a few of them), so here we go. I have subdivided them into sport resolutions and life resolutions.

Sport Resolutions

1. Redpoint a 5.13 sport climb. This is a long term goal of mine, so it will most likely happen in the fall. I have sent a few 5.12d's so if I can get into climbing shape then this will take a bunch of work but it shouldn't be that much of a stretch. My climb of choice would probably be Chronic, a classic 5.13b out at Little Si.
2. Onsight a 5.11 trad climb. I would like to get better at trad climbing so that I can do some more classic multi-pitch routes.
3. Upgrade my road racing license to Category 3. I really like road racing, but for some reason I am terrible at it. I would like to say it is because I am tall and have poor aerodynamics, but Tom "Boom Boom" Boonen is 6'4" and he doesn't seem to have problems winning races.
4. Do the Leadville 100 mountain bike race. This is mostly dependent on gaining admission through the lottery system which seems like it might be difficult, especially with the publicity the race has received recently with Lance Armstrong's participation and the movie "Race Across the Sky".
5. Do a 50km nordic ski race. My first race of this length was the American Birkebeiner last year, and while it doesn't look like I will be able to do that one again (we have tickets for the marathon nordic ski at the Winter Olympics, held on the same weekend as the Birkie) there are a couple of other options including the Gatineau Loppet in Quebec and the Ozbaldy held at our local ski area of Cabin Creek.
6. Do the Spearhead Traverse ski tour in Whistler. This is a backcountry ski tour that I would like to do with my brother Fras, it is 35km long with about 5000 feet of climbing. Our plan would be to try and do it in one long day to avoid carrying camping gear.

Life Resolutions

1. Weigh 160 lbs. This resolution is largely motivated by sporting considerations, performance in most of the things I do in my free time (which I have a lot of right now, see resolution #5 below) is improved by being lighter. Right now I am about 165 lbs, so I would like to lose 5 lbs and stay that way. I think 160 lbs is my ideal weight, but for reasons such as #2 below I am usually closer to 165 lbs.
   
2. Only eat dessert on special occasions. I really like dessert, and I quite often get stuck in a pattern where I want to eat a lot of it every day. I think #1 above will be easier to achieve if I can discipline myself to only eat it occasionally. Special occasions can include birthday parties, dinner at a restaurant, and vacations.
   
3. Shop at the local farmers market. This is something that I have always meant to do, but have never quite gotten around to. I think there are a lot of benefits to eating locally grown, organic produce, and farmers markets seem like a good way to do this. The only difficulty is that they are usually held smack in the middle of prime leisure time, from 10am-2pm on weekends. This makes it hard to get there if you want to spend the day at a bike race or skiing.
   
4. Only eat meat once a week. Roanne and I just watched the movie Food Inc, and it reinforced a lot of things I had read previously about the damaging effects on the environment of raising meat. Most things I have read also indicate that eating less meat is better for your health, so this seems like an easy choice. I do like meat and don't want to stop eating it entirely (e.g. I still want turkey at Christmas), but I think a good way to start will be by eating meat no more than once per week.
   
5. Get a job. I haven't had a job since I left my position at the University of Utah to move to Seattle, and while I have kept busy with working on renovating our new house and various leisure activities (climbing, skiing, and cycling), I feel like it is time for me to once again be a contributing member of society.
   
6. Read one book per month. Normally I am pretty good about reading books, but during the last year we had a lot of things going on and for some reason I didn't get as much reading done as I would have liked.

So, those are all of my resolutions. This posting is as much for my own benefit as it will give me something to refer back to throughout the year and see how I am doing. Hopefully by the end of 2010 I will have fulfilled all of them, and throughout the year I can write updates on my progress. For the weight goal, I will post my morning weight here every time I write a post so that I can keep myself honest. We have a Tanita scale that also measures body fat, and even though I have read that they are not every accurate, I will post that figure as well and see how well it correlates with my weight. So, thanks for reading (if anyone got this far) and have a great 2010!

Weight: 164.2
Body Fat: 5.8%