Racin' & Shootin'

Yes, it was another mountain bike biathlon at Soldier Hollow. This report will be short because it's late, my allergies are killing me, and I'm tired.

I met Mark A. at the shooting range while we got the pre-ride briefing. I'm not a sprinter, but I tried to start faster and did a bit better, but still not even mid-pack hitting the single-track. The dust was bad, but at least the grass/weeds had been mowed in a 5-6 foot wide swath so the trail was easier to see and passing was easier.

I passed a few racers on the first lap. I had a 3-4 person wait at the range and missed one target, so one penalty lap.

Pushed the climb on lap 2 and passed 1-2 more riders. Hit all 5 targets. I got past Mark.

Pushed the climb again, but faded a bit. Missed one target, did the penalty lap. Mark was close behind me.

Tried to go hard for the last lap and did OK, but I was running out of gas. Decided the left-most target I'd used each lap so might be faulty so I switched up and missed 2 targets, did the 2 penalty laps. Mark passed me because he nailed all 5.

After the race my nose started running and I was sneezing like crazy. It was the worst allergy attack I've had in a long time.

I won some ShotBloks in the raffle. I drove home, ate dinner and took a shower.

It was still a fun event, but the allergy attack ruined it a bit. It was hot, but it didn't seem to affect me much. I'm going to bed.

Home Theater PC - Totally Geeking Out

For two years I have wanted to get a Home Theater PC (HTPC). I fell in love with the idea of having most of the features of a TiVo and all my media on one box connected to my TV so it's easy to access. The problem is, I never had the money to splurge on it. I had hopes for the economic stimulus check, but a lot of it went to pay off the credit cards after a bad year of medical bills and various other financial surprises.

I also didn't know where to start. There are some many ways to go about it and a myriad of components to choose from. I visited a local guy to see his setup, and that helped me realize that it wasn't such a daunting undertaking.

Then last week I spotted a low-end, but still decent PC on sale for $300. I called the store Monday and they had a few still in stock so I drove down and snagged one. What I got was a Compaq Presario with a Pentium D dual-core 1.8 GHz CPU, 1 GB RAM, and a 320 GB hard drive - loaded with Windows Vista Home Premium which includes Vista Media Center. Not bad for $300.

I got it setup, downloaded the latest patches, ran DeCrapifier to remove all the preloaded junk software, plugged in the old PCI analog TV tuner I had and started to play with Media Center. But the fun didn't really get rolling until the shipment arrived on Wednesday with the video card with S-Video output and the combo analog / digital TV tuner card.



I was giddy. That's right, I was having so much fun playing with this gadget I was like a kid at Christmas. Media Center looks gorgeous. I had fun poking through the menus exploring each feature. I recorded some TV programs, "paused live TV" and even rewound to see a play in a soccer match in slow motion. I copied my music to it and let it shuffle play. I put some favorite photos on it and watched a slideshow, to my music. Played a DVD. I'm still tweaking and figuring it out and having a ball.

Where it will really shine is when the Fall TV season starts and I can set it to record every episode of my favorite shows to watch whenever I want - it'll be nice to not have to be in front of the TV when they air.

A few complaints though. Changing channels is on the slow side (a few seconds) so channel surfing is sluggish, but the program guide (especially the mini-guide) make up for this - I surf the guide instead of channels - when I find a program in the guide that sounds interesting, I change the channel and check it out.

The guide is key, which brings me to my biggest complaint: no program guide for digital TV sub channels. Each station can have up to 4 sub channels (i.e. KBYU has 4, KUED has 3). Currently the guide only shows me program info for the first sub channel. If the government has it's way, over the air (OTA) analog TV will be shutoff February 2009 leaving only digital TV. That's only 8 months away, and Microsoft still doesn't fully support digital TV with a full program guide. Ridiculous. I hope Microsoft gets this fixed soon. If not, I might try some other media programs like SageTV.

So, yeah, I'm a geek who likes to play with techno gadgets. Tomorrow I hope to have the digital audio hooked up to my surround sound receiver to get 5.1 goodness.

Update: Yesterday I installed Lifextender to delete commercials from recorded TV programs. I checked the results this morning and it looks like it accurately detected the commercials and deleted them. Sweet.

Alpine Loop #5 For 2008

I was planning to take Friday afternoon off work and go on a Fathers & Sons camp-out with my youngest child, and only son, Kade. But he got sick Friday (had fever and slept all day) so I decided to see if I could get in a ride Saturday. Jolene had a morning mountain bike ride setup so I needed to stay home to make sure Kade was OK. But Mark A. had e-mailed out an invite for a ride Saturday around 11. We talked and I arranged to meet him at the mouth of American Fork Canyon to do the Alpine Loop.

I arrived and met Steve (Mark's brother) - with Mark rolling in right behind me. We chatted for a bit and then headed up the canyon. As usual for Saturday, there were a lot of cars, and also a high number of bicycles. We climbed the lower canyon at a pretty mellow pace. But where it turns steeper near Mutual Dell, the effort went up to keep the pedals turning. Mark and Steve are strong climbers and I was able to stay with them until after the Timpooneke turn off. Then I started feeling Thursdays Alpine Loop ride in my legs. I trudged along OK, but didn't have much zip. I rolled into the summit a few minutes behind Mark and Steve. I told them I wasn't up for Cascade Springs today, but they were welcome to go for it. We decided to go down to Sundance.

With all the traffic, we took the descent mellow - and it was still very enjoyable. Swooping through the curves and taking in the beautiful scenery.

At Sundance we stopped to get some more liquids. Mark and I scooped water from the stream and dumped it onto our heads to cool off. Mark said a woman passing by looked totally disgusted upon seeing me do this. I don't know what she found offensive: me splashing "dirty" stream water on me, or me contaminating the stream with my "dirty" head. With urban types you never know what weird misconceptions they have about nature.

Mark and Steve want the full Alpine Loop experience so they went down with me to Provo Canyon so they could climb back up over the top. I has tempted to join them because it's such a fantastic climb, but I got cooked enough from the climb up the other side so we parted ways and I just went down Provo Canyon. There was another cyclist who descended with us and he and I put together an 2-man pace line. I thought about going down the Provo Canyon parkway trail, but I didn't want to go slow, even though the highway is noisy from all the cars and not as scenic.

I made it back home, ate a late lunch then worked on the brakes of the van - getting it ready for the long drive and from STP.

Lingerie Utah Valley Style

With it's large Mormon population, Utah (Greatest Snow On Earth; A Pretty, Great State; Where Ideas Connect; Life Elevated) has it's societal quirks. And I feel safe in saying that Utah Valley is the epicenter of Mormon culture which sometimes exhibits itself in unusual ways. Case in point:



A few years back Dirty Jo Punster, a lingerie and adult novelty store in Spanish Fork, put up some billboards, with the above design, along the freeway as advertisement. I believe they were the first of their kind in Utah Valley. I didn't read anything about it in the paper, but I know it caused a stir in this very conservative community.

Then a few months ago I saw this billboard along the freeway on my commute into work:

Husband & Wife
Tasteful - Comfortable - Clean
Lingerie & Romantic Gifts

I laughed out loud in the car. It just seemed goofy. The message I got is, "we just want to add a little tasteful, comfortable, clean spice to our sex life, but we don't want to be dirty".

And what's with comfortable? Is that really a problem with lingerie and "romantic" products? I guess it depends on your kink(s), but just seems to be a strange thing to advertise.

But I fear for this fledgling business as their website is gone (here's a cached copy). Perhaps the target market wasn't large enough (or brave enough to walk in the door) to keep the store afloat?

This just in: I called (who wouldn't want to dial 756-LOVE ?) and they are still in business (time)! The woman who answered the phone explained that the website is down while it gets a makeover. It was fun doing a bit of investigative journalism.

BONUS: Since I'm on off topic, how about more. When I searched the web to find out if an old Ken doll we found in my grandmother's stuff was worth any money as a collectible, I came across Keeping Ken (www.manbehindthedoll.com - nice URL!). The About Me page is classic. Here's an excerpt:

ME Hi my name is Jef Beck and yes, consider Ken® to be a best friend. His world is pretty exciting, and I tag along like a good accessory should. I'm becoming a growing statistic with male collectors by collecting Ken®. After all, it's half the challenge, and not too hard to try to complete the entire collection. Welcome to a little corner of the super highway I have created for my buddy. I have to thank my partner Jim for letting Ken® move in with us. His patience with this whole project has been one of complete understanding. Also thanks to my cats Casper & Jaspar for their understanding as well. Like everyone that is caught up in all this collecting, I'd like to hear from you too. It may be a question about Ken® or something I left out about him.

Alpine Loop For Breakfast

If pain is weakness leaving the body, I have a lot of weakness.

Recently Rick mentioned his morning group ride schedule with Thursday being a ride over the Alpine Loop. Aaron asked if he could come along and Rick affirmed so I figured it was an open ride. I would have asked too, but one of my many weaknesses is sleep so I didn't want to commit to getting up early to ride. The Alpine Loop is one of my favorite rides, but I'm not a morning person. I figures if I were awake at 5:45, I'd probably go. Commitment is another of my weaknesses.

Amazingly I was awake at 5:30. And as I lay in bed, two parts of my brain groggily considered the options:

1 "I could just go back to sleep - ah, sweet restful sleep!"

2 "But the Alpine Loop is fun, and all the other guys are getting up to ride."

1 "Fun? How is it fun?"

2 "Sure, it makes me breath uncomfortably hard and my legs get tired and sweat drips down my face, but the scenery is nice and there's just something satisfying about making it up a long climb. OK, I don't know why it's fun, it just is. Some things should just be taken on face value and not dissected and analyzed."

1 "Sounds like some form of insanity."

2 "Maybe fun isn't sane. But I need some fun or I'll go insane for sure. I need to pee."

1 "I don't know why I bother trying to talk sense into you."

2 "Well, I'm up so I might as well ride."

1 "I'm going back to sleep."

Yes, I know, with my gift for dialog I should be a writer.

I left my house in Orem around 5:45 and headed north. No wind, 70 degrees, quiet - perfect for cycling. Why don't I ride in the morning more often?

1 "Because you stay up too late, moron!"

I arrived at the mouth of American Fork Canyon at 6:20 and was greeted by a nice wind coming down the canyon. Climbing AND a head wind - nice. I waited patiently, then went over to look at the stream, then rode down to see if I could see cyclists coming - hey, here they come! Dan was first. He lives in American Fork and said the wind was bad. We chatted a bit and then the big group came and we jumped on the back.

The 10 minute rest was just long enough for my body to assume I wasn't going to riding anymore so it was shutting things down. Jumping onto the back of a group that was warmed up and rolling kind of hurt. After a mile or so I was warm again and rode stronger. The pack had broken up and I tried to leapfrog from one rider to the next. I caught a couple riders just before the flat below Tibble Fork. I'm not a fast climber when it gets steep, but on the flatter stuff I can't help but crank up the speed. Elden called out "Kris is off on a break". I shook my head - I'm just taking advantage of the mellow grade. After a while I looked back and I was towing a line of riders. Well, that's cool - I'm usually just one of the guys in the pack following a wheel.

After the turnoff for Tibble Fork it turns steep again. I went a ways and then dropped down into the small ring. Elden and two other guys passed me. I kept in contact with the two, but Elden, rolling his single speed road bike, was gone pretty quick.

The rest of the ride was a solo grind. I coated the top tube with drops of sweat. But I did glance away from the road several times to admire the beauty of my surroundings. Simply gorgeous.

At times I'd close the gap a bit on the two guys ahead of me, other times I'd lose ground. I arrived at the summit about 30 yards back from them. Here's most of the gang:




Once most everyone had arrived, we went down - some back down American Fork Canyon, myself and others went down the Sundance side. It's very curvy and I flowed pretty well through the turns, but hacked through several of them clumsily. Still, a very fun descent. After Aspen Grove I tucked low and let loose the speed to catch up to Jon. I followed him through the switchbacks down to Sundance where we got behind a big delivery truck. Jon made a bold move to pass the truck - I chickened out and tailed the truck all the way down to Provo Canyon. We rolled a fast paceline (30 mph) down the canyon as one of the Omniture guys did a monster pull. back into Orem I said goodbye as I split off for home to shower, eat and head to work.

I very much enjoyed the ride. Who knew mornings could be fun?

Solitude Race - Executive Summary

I'm a travelogue guy. I tend to give all the details, usually in a not-so-entertaining, matter-of-fact way. So let me spare you the blah-blah with this executive summary:

Carpooled with Mark. Cooler than the valley. I toppled into a hole. Saw a moose. 3 snow patches. Endoed crossing one. Pre-ride lap felt good in middle ring. Tried to start out fast, just can't. Climb in small ring hurt - gasping for breath, rode slow. Some bad etiquette - racers who stall and don't get out of the way. Downhill rougher than I remembered, but kind of fun. DH guys ripped by me. Couldn't stay with Andy. Jim climbed hard and stayed with me on DH - we finished together. After race talked to KDay and met teammate Greg. Chocolate milk good recovery drink. Won shorts in raffle. Went home.

I'm not sure what it was, but I felt I should have been able to climb faster. A little frustrating. But it was good to see so many folks and chat. I left feeling kind of, eh. Maybe I'll try another Solitude race just to see if I had an off day, or I simply stink at MTB racing.

Update: The (2) people have spoken in favor of more details. So I'll bring the "falling into a hole" story out of the comments:

I was pre-riding and going slow around a hole (probably dug for the base of a new lift tower) when my front wheel hit a clump of grass and stopped and I tipped toward the hole (since that was where I was looking - doh!). I unclipped and stuck my foot out into air as I toppled over and into the hole. Mark said I just disappeared. The hole is 5-6 feet deep with a vertical side where I fell in. I banged my forearm, but nothing big. When I came to rest I started laughing. It was just so comical. The cartoonesque foot trying to stand on air, toppling over the edge, leg flailing to find something solid to break my fall, landing in soft dirt, getting untangled from the bike. Pretty funny and embarrassing crash.

Fat Cyclist TriathAlon

Jolene and I had a great time at the Fat Cyclist TriathAlon. (I'm pretty sure the extra "A" was added by Elden to poke a little fun at the many Utahns who say it that way.)

We left home a little later than expected and ran into a parade in Pleasant Grove that slowed us down. We arrived late, but just in time to jump into the group photo and leave with the group for the mountain bike ride.



I've never gone up Hog Hollow, and while it's an old dirt road and not single-track, it has some charm. It's a long climb with a moderate grade. The fast guys went off the front and I rode with Bob and then Mark at a decent pace. Elden had to take a call at the bottom, and sure enough he caught up to me. For a while I thought it was Mark pushing the pace, but then turned to see it was Elden. As Elden passed I gave him a pinch - payback.

At the top we headed east to climb up to Jacob's Ladder. I've done this climb 2-3 times now. There a hillside where three trail split and the rejoin near the top. I decided to be a little daring and took the middle "harder" trail. It worked me a bit, but I made it. The group stopped at "the saddle" so riders could decide if they wanted to continue on to Jacob's Ladder or go down "the chute" to Sliding Rock.



Jolene and I did Jacob's Ladder, but it was more loose and rutted than that last time I rode it. I told Jolene it's was a spicy decent, but she could handle it. But with the worsened condition of the trail, I hoped she wasn't going to be mad at me for my mild opinion of the trail. She made it down OK and had a smile on her face - I was glad. She rode with Lyna, Bob's wife, and they seemed to have fun together.



Ghost Falls was next after Jacob's Ladder. Some took the flowy new trail (cut a few weeks ago), other took the steeper old trail. The shade was welcome as it was a hot day (in the 90s).



Next was Clark's trail and I was finally able to ride it in my middle ring this year. After my success doing it on my road bike on Thursday in that tall gear, it would have been shameful to go back to the small ring. But it still hurt.

At the top we had to climb back up the same way we went to Jacob's Ladder, and I was already feeling pretty smoked. Mark and I decided to just roll easy in the small ring. But we did take the right "hardest" route up the hill. We still had some moxy left.

At the saddle we regrouped and then descended "the chute". Mark and I were a bit nervous about this downhill since Elden noted that every single one of the guys he rides with has crashed on this descent at least once. So we hung off the back so we could go slow. Mark rolled it fine, and he's only been riding mountain bikes for 3 years. I rode it all without putting a foot down, except when I had to stop for a rider in front of me. But it's a treacherous, rutted out, old dirt road and I could see how just one small slip or mistake and you're going down.

At the end of the chute we had a short uphill to Sliding Rock. I was so looking forward to cooling off in the stream here. This was the second event of the triathAlon. There's a natural slide down the granite rock where the stream flows into a pool below. This event was judged so I brought a costume to enhance my performance (does that make me a doper?). On my first slide I buckled at the waist when I hot the water and cracked my tail bone on a rock on the bottom (it's still hurting a day later), so I learned to stay flat. Dug was true to his word and went down head first (several times) and even convinced Elden to do it. Here are some photos of the event:











After the water event, we biked back to Elden's house for brats (bratwurst). Fish is a fantastic cook and he boiled and grilled those brats to perfection. We enjoyed the brats on a slice of Kenny's home/hand-made bread - delicious. Jeff had some tunes going and we all relaxed, ate, talked and enjoyed ourself.

Elden raffled off some goodies and I won a nice Gary Fisher 29er jersey that I gave to Jolene to go with here 29er Gary Fisher Sugar. She later won some Fat Cyclist socks and gave them to me.



Thanks, Elden, for creating and hosting - we had a great time!

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