Please stop raining

My 4 days off have been less than productive.  Pretty much rained non stop.  Parts of the Ozarks are over 10" in the last 4 days.  Years past I would have loaded up & gone boating for 4 days.  Being a family man now that isnt really an option I'd use.  Plus add in the logistics of being a 1 car family.  Needless to say my boats still are covered in dust. No boating for me.

 I logged onto the Arkansas Canoe Club Forum to see what was happening & perhaps grab a ride.  After I figured out my username & password it told me I hadn't logged on since 11/24/2006.  Guess I'm a bit out of the loop.  Time to dust off my boating resume & find some people to boat with I guess.  If you read this & boat get a hold of me.  I'm rusty but have a few skills left.

I've kinda managed to dodge the rain & get in some runs.  I'd title this week of training as craptastic at best.  I ran home Sunday from work which wasn't too bad.  I was running with the knowledge that I had the 2012 F1 opener waiting for me on the DVR, which helped tons.  What was weird was my run time to work was exactly the same as my run time home.  Couldn't do that again if I tried.  Anyway run commuting was successful enough I plan on doing it some more.

Mon afternoon after I woke up went out as soon as I got up to try & stay ahead of the rain.  10 miles later I was dry but tired.  Kind of the beginning of the end of the week before it started.  Tuesday was a tempo run.  My normal tempo run is an out & back. Of course at the turn around it started raining. This did nothing for my motivation or speed.  Plus I had to wait for a damn train.  Not my slowest time but far from what it should have been.

Wednesday was supposed to be a 14 miler.  My legs were crap from the word go.  I almost bailed super early for 4 miles.  I kept my head in it & slogged out 10 miles.  The take away is 2 10 milers in 3 days.  Th e downsides are too many to mention.  The only real positive is that when I hit the driveway it started raining.  Which meant if I had kept at it for the whole 14 I would have had to run at least 4 miles in the rain.  If that happened how I was feeling would have meant a couple miles of walking. Which would have pretty much ate up the last of my moral for the week.

Today I woke up feeling all of my 90 years.  Hobbled around, zero motivation.  Amber went to the gym mid day so I had a reason too postpone running.  I managed to get my shit together enough to run 7 miles with 5x800m with 800m recovery.  Not the track workout I had wanted but still classified as my first "speed" workout of the year.

Watched Free Practice 1 on SpeedTv Streaming.  Not really much to learn besides McLaren is playing to Hamilton's ego setting him up for the fastest time over Vettel.  The Mercedes are fast & I'd be surprised if they didn't get a podium this week.  Bottas stepped in for a drive and out paced Maldando at Williams.  Saw that coming from a mile away.  Lotus is showing some pace.  Grojean was fast once again even with a wheel problem.  Sauber did their normal FP1. Don't be surprised with another double points scoring weekend; they are #3 in the constructors.  Ferrari is a big fat hmmmmm. HRT needs to throw in the helmet already.  I could drive my Volvo around the track faster.

Let it Rain, Let it Rain

Its raining a ton right now.  With predicted totals going as high as 9" by next Friday I'm itching for some whitewater.  Been too long since I've gotten the boats out.  These kind of totals mean Arkansas Creeking!  Hopefully I can get out next week for a quick trip down South.

I used driving to work last night to scope out a new route to work for riding.  I call it my rain route.  I have several ways to go to work but 3 of the 4 involve crossing Wilson's Creek.  Which floods pretty easy.  The rain route takes me right past one of the venues I'd love to hold a cross race at.  Maybe with all this rain I'll be motivated more for cross riding past it so much.

The weather is killing me

Crap like this has made me drive to work for the second day in a row.  I'll ride in rain but I draw the line at riding in severe thunderstorms.  The forecast for the rest of the week isn't looking any better.  Forecast is calling for upwards of 9" of rain in the next week.  I should be in Arkansas boating not at work.

Have managed to get in two quality days of running.  Hopefully I can keep up the good runs going into the duathalon series.  I do need to get in a 5K pretty quick to see where I'm at.  Next weekend I'm planning on hitting one & see if I've been making any progress. 

How to Weld A kayak

Pretty cool How To vid

Weld Your Broken Boat

Wet Sunday

Blew off riding Sunday for some core workout time @ Bear Creek in Omaha , AR. It was @ that weird in between level. Not blown out, but not primo. Did manage to find a few surf spots & even one hole to throw a loop. First loop I've been able to throw since my two year lay off from boating. It wasn't pretty but air time is air time when your upside down over the water. Saw the above big boy watching some of the surf action.

Me surfing

Curtis Claybaker

JayDog fresh off his bachlerette party. He was a little hung over even if he wouldn't admit it.

Roper Nick

Terry Price.

Brother Don Price.

Pinball Wizard

Last night I got the Vidyah from my little boating excursion to the Upper Richland last month. Watch me be a pinball.



Not the line I wanted but it worked...some what. Hard to believe that's Arkansas & its less than 3 hours away. A whole other world.

5 Days till CX

First "unofficial" CX race was at 12:01 this morning. That is registration for CX Nationals. Once again I got up in the middle of the night to try & get a good grid spot. As soon as it opened 5 people were registered. It took me less than 45 seconds to register & I was 13th. I have a pretty fast Intraweb connection but damn thats ridicuoulus! Oh well 2nd row is good enough.

Sore as hell this AM. Didn't get home from boating yesterday till almost 10pm, thats after leaving @ 7am. Not complaining though because I got to run Upper Richland for the first in over two years. Premo level at 5.0 dropping to 4.30. Took my creek boat since I thought we were going to hit the steep stuff but some last minute additions to the crew saw us doing Richland. After some quick bartering at the put in I left the creeker on the car & snuggled into a nice play boat for the day.

There were photos & video shot so as soon as I have them I'll get them posted. There is video of me being only one of two of our motley crew to run one of the hardest rapids on the river. Not super clean but I'll take it in a play boat. Its a 3 section rapid. Cleaned the s-move in to ride the pillow into the slot. Got pushed right of a hole I should have punched, but lost a little too much speed. Then should have slid left through a trough of water to miss a root wad but speed loss made me nudge it, leaving me bracing on my left side hard(no shoulder pain after a super hard brace so that was good). Then rode the green water out letting out a big "whoop"!

Hiked up to the Twin Falls to look at them. Lots of water pumping off them. Classic Tim Ernst Photo Op. Wish it wasn't such a hassle to get a boat up to them or I'd have run my second 20 foot water fall.

Tubulars are almost all glued up(1 set glued, 1 set stretching, 1 set in transit). Bike is built but needs a little fine tuning still. Barrier work starts this week in preparation for Hermann. Then its full bore into CX mode.

17 Days till CX

Holy Crap its getting close & all I can think about is getting wet.

All day today @  work it was all I could think about was going boating.  Luckily I was insanely busy rewiring 3 control cabinets.  10 hours flew by.  Otherwise I would have gone nuts checking guages.  Don't get me wrong Cross first & fore most but a guy has to cross trane right?  

I even hit the trainer so hard last night Amber got to witness my body telling me to harden the F up. 

 

Yep dry heaves followed by a near pass out.  I've got it in my head to do all my intervals (except secrect cx ones) on the trainer for consistancy via the wattage.  It'll either work or it won't.

Google caused quite a stir with Chrome.  I have it @ home & work.  Haven't got to play too much with it yet.  Did manage to get it to hang up tonight though.   I think it may be more flash than anything.  Will take a lot to get me to convert from Firefox.  But I will give it a chance.  I'm definetly one to try new things  ie intervals on the trainer, wattage, all crazy talk just a few years ago.

18 days till CX

First is anyone besides me bothered by the fact that Hamilton is now the US Road Pro Champ? Irks me. Yes he's done his time, but he's not man enough to admit his wrong doing. Pony up, admit it, & I'll have a little more respect(not much, but a little). I'm taking 3 days off next week to follow the ToM. If he's a last minute addition I think I'll make a giant hypodermic needle with his name on the side. Then stand on the side of the road all down the course. Then on Wednesday chase him up the hill with it during the TT.

Pate is the peoples choice for US Pro Champ anyway. The guy is the perennial bridesmaid at US Pro. I really want him to get the stars & bars soon. I loved his off handed remark about doping control @ US Pro's.

I read the live feed on Sunday as the race was going. Huff tore it up! On the front all day. Just wish he would have placed instead of that DNF. But hell he earned that DNF. Now he has to rest up to get ready to take on Cavendish. Speaking of Cav did anyone watch the Tour of Ireland coverage? He made the fields look like a bunch of cat 5's when he took off. Also on the ToI. If Magnus Backstedt has a JoB next year I'll be shocked. Dude has done nothing but DNF this year. His job at the ToI was to lead out Julian Dean. He never made it past the 1 K to go without totally blowing up. David Millar did more of a lead out.

My ToM plan is to watch Euro style. Watch it go by, hop on back roads till I get ahead of it, then stop & watch it go by, & repeat till the finish. I need to figure out how to listen in to the race radio. I found the spreadsheets with ETA's, etc that the UCI uses.

Friday I got in a pretty good MTB ride, first one in quite awhile. Little dry & dusty @ Sac though don't think that will last with all the rain predicted. Enough rain to make me think I might get to do some cross training in the water this week. I hope it rains a ton since I'm tired of feeling like I'm dieing everyday with my allergies. I got in a tempo ride on the Frisco trail yesterday & between the dust & the pollen I felt like death warmed over the rest of the day. Sat on the couch & read the rest of the day doped to the gills on allergy meds.

Shady Rapids

Late this afternoon I got out for some park & play at my favorite local white water spot Shady Rapids (sometimes called Big Rock) on Bull Creek. Yesterday I picked up a demo boat & was all set for some fun. I'm not used to being comfortable in a play boat but after all the inflatable stuff was blown up I was snug & comfy. Good thing I have a bomb proof roll because it would take an act of god to wet exit aka swim out of this thing.

I met 4 other people including one of Hogan's cousins Mikey Owens. Hogan tell him to get a shorter boat already that damn thing he's paddling is so 2002. Good time with just enough water to throw some ends & spin till I got sick. Really I did get sick & felt like throwing up. Getting old sucks. I guess I'll have to start taking motion sickness pills before boating in the future. I also rang my bell like it was the freaking Liberty Bell. I still have a headache several hours later. Water level dropped a little on me & a place in the hole where I had been flipping got super shallow on me. Thank god for Kevlar helmets.

More heavy rain in the future Yeah!

I Like Water!

Hogan don't put those sand bags away yet. Next 10 days we're supposed to get 6" of rain! Oh Yeah!

Hailstone Pics

Hailstone pics courtesy of Terry Prater. There in reverse order. I'm the paddler with yellow blades & the blue & gray baseball helmet turned backwards.

The Hailstones

Yesterday I go to paddle the crown jewel of Ozark White water, the Hailstones. Depending on who you ask its the first 12-16 miles of the Buffalo River. Not a hard river by any stretch. Just non-stop rapids the whole way. Luckily it was nice & warm. I've got the sunburn to prove it. The canyon that the creek flows through is nothing short of spectacular. What is really cool is the total isolation from civilization. The only sign of man you see before the take out is Tim Ernst's house poised on top of a cliff about 3/4 of the way down. We had a big group of 12 of us. A little unmanageable but still a good time. The group size did pay off when one of the open boaters stuck his boat in a cave. Took us about 30 minutes to get it unstuck. Level was just under 5', next time I do it I want it to be closer to 6'. I didn't have my camera but several of the others did. Once I track down some pics I'll post them.

The Flood of '08

Tried to boat yesterday but was denied by the creek going out of its banks. Like every other creek in the area. According to the Today Show this AM the James River has gotten so big its flowing through downtown Ozark? Shane must be freaking out now he has to fight not only the Finley but the James too. I think the Today Show might need to check their facts. The James is at near record 30' though. Hopefully that puts Hogans compound out of the flood plain? He should have some spectacular photos to share.

Tomorrow with a little luck I'm going to paddle one of the crown jewels of Ozark Whitewater the Hailstones. I've been trying since I started boating to get on it & haven't done it yet.

The radar for the last two days has been freekish. It looks always the same. Just rain & more rain.

I forgot to mention that when I was coming home from Arkansas yesterday I passed by Busiek & the new walk over bridge was UNDER water!

Cross Training?

6-8" predicted for central Arkansas over the next 2 days. Perhaps its time to dust off the creeker(vid from Tenn I'm 4th over the falls) & elbow pads for some steep & shallow runs in Arkansas!

Where to go? @ about a min in a guy pins on a rock. 4 years ago I helped save a guy from a certain drowning on that same rock.

If I go I'll be sure to post some vid or pics.

Good Weekend

It was a pretty good weekend because this started living in my garage on Saturday.

Saturday night I celebrated with a bottle of Sixth glass. Which made the weekend get better.It took less than 24 hours to take it off road to test the 4 wheel drive.

Because of this the weekend got better.

For the first time in over two years I got to go boating! Shoulder was fine. Temp was cold but I was dry and warm. Thanks to my dry suit & the seat warmers in the Volvo.

The off season is almost here

All this rain coupled with a newly healed shoulder has put visions of boating in my head. Hopefully the rivers cooperate & stay up so Monday I can dip my paddle for the first time in almost 2 years.

Current Bull Creek gauge. Its a go for now. Keeps those fingers crossed.
Bull Creek Taken the last day I went boating 11/28/005