Training notes...

Lots of things over the last weekend. The wife went to Vega$ over the weekend so it was just me and the kid. I took him out to whiting where we rode about 12 or so miles (my cyclo-computer is broke). We hit Chuck E. Cheeses afterwards and wrapped up our weekend.


Training notes:

Tomorrow night will be blackstar again with ODC group. I want to try and knock this out in two hours.

Arcade notes:

I traded the Judge Dredd pinball for a Robotron and an Amplifone monitor. I think I got the shorter end of the deal, but I've lost love for the JD and My Precious needs a place to go in the garage-cade. The Robotron was one of the key last pieces of my collection and I'm real close to finally being done. Its my only Williams game, but I'll put the Joust/Defender/Stargate multi-kit in it, fix the bottom leg levelers and the collection will be 99% complete. It's nice to be able to be totally done with this, it's been an 8 year Journey to have the dreamcade done. Been through about 100 machines before I figured out what I like and don't like and what I have space/time for and not. I can now be very picky and just trade a game in/out as I get bored of it. Pretty much everything works. Now for some better arcade decor/interior design....

My Precious... Has arrived.

After a year and half of waiting for the right machine, at the right location, at the right time, at the right price, the planets aligned and I was able to get a Home Use Only Lord of the Rings pinball machine.

It was about 3/4 the price of a brand new one, so I basically had to wait a while until people got bored of their brand new out of the box machines. (This one belongs to my friend Justin from NaughtyDog) which he got at the end of 2004 straight from a distributor.

Anyway, my machine is a 1st run, Stern had 5 runs of these with about 4000 machines total produced. This is a longer run than The Simpsons Pinball Party which had about 3 or 4 runs since 2002. I had some doubts about owning a Stern and it's quality at first, but the ruleset is deep and the action is very intense. I think this one's a keeper, but I doubt I will own another Stern unless it is a Simpsons, or if Pirates of the Carribean is a smash hit when Stern releases it in the summer.

Plumbing sucks, I broke the kitchen faucet somehow and had to drop 150 on a new fixture, not to mention 4 hours on my back trying to get the damn thing installed without leaks.

I just got back from New Jersey from a conference with Lucent Technologies and it was fricken cold there. about 30-40 degrees. Something of note, the houses there have some very large property as compared to the postage stamp sized properties we have in Ca. I don't think I could deal with the cold for a whole season.

I need to get back on the bike.

More Training notes

The day after our Santiago Peak ride, I decided to take my nephew and son riding around Fullerton loop. Fullerton's a pretty quick 11 mile loop and we knocked it out pretty quickly despite the fact that I was towing my son on with our trail gator (tag-a-long). He's getting heavy, I think his 45 (or so) lbs, plus the 10 lbs tow bar, and his 20 lbs SOLID LEAD Specialized Hot Rock got the best of me.

Speaking of competitive nature, some dude on a Santa Cruz passed us up all hot and heavy (and rude-like) towards the end of our ride. So for the hell of it, I decided to stick with him with my son in tow. He couldn't shake us and kept looking over his shoulder as if to tell me to F off. After about a mile into it, he still couldn't drop me and my son. The route split and I decided to wait for my nephew and NOT take the muddy route. I could tell Mr. Santa Cruz was irritated because he kept glaring back at me, so a job well done. Mind you, I wasn't tailgaiting, but was just far enough back so he knew we were there. We headed back to the cars and our Sunday was over.

Monday, work
Tuesday, more work
Wednesday, geez another day of work.

Wednesday night Nino and decided to do Black Star Canyon to the Soccer Ball (dopler radar above beak's place). We hauled ass despite the fact Nino didn't feel so hot, but I was pushing the pace. It was pretty dark and desolate out there, not a single soul, no lights, cloud covered the moon, but the trail was pleasant. Nino came across some fresh Mountain Lion road kill, I seemed to have missed it because I was talking too much. Anyways, we knocked 15 minutes off our previous time point to point so it was a good improvement.

This Saturday, we will be doing the full black star / motorway loop. And then up Maple Springs to the main divide. this is the hardest 2/3's of the vision quest so it will be a good test. 6 weeks left to train....

Santiago Peak - we killed it!

Weather forecast this morning was supposed to be 50% chance of rain. So there was a decent chance ride wasn't going to happen. In fact, the ODC (outdoorsclub riding group) cancelled their ride in the morning. Nino and I didn't fret too much about it, the only thing that was going to stop us this morning was 1) snow or 2) 5 inches of rain. 6:30 a.m. Alarm goes off, not a cloud in sight. These weather people are just so good at their job . We were on the trail by about 7:20, it was long haul, but very clear and beautiful. 13 miles up and then 13 miles down without much undulation. We got to the peak in under three hours. In fact, on the way back down, there was only a single 1/4 mile section where there was any climbing left. Elevation gain was about approx 4500 ft. The peak was about 5700 ft, a whole mile up. I must say that as we got to the top, the air got pretty darn thin. Clouds started coming in quickly as we peaked and the rain came down as we descended. Overall, it was a very cold cold cold ride. Santiago Peak View from Modjeska Peak.

This is the first time I've felt good about my conditioning in three months.

Back in the saddle...

So I'm finally well enough and not embarassed enough (from the lack of training) to start posting again. Actually it was quite busy during the holidays so I wasn't able to organize my thoughts very well. I've still got some post nasal drip which is leading to some coughing but I'm about 90-95% where I should be. I've been on the bike again logging hard climbing miles of about 30-50 miles a week and my lung are getting to where they should be. I'm still not able to attack certain sections of climbs, but I'm getting through it. I'm also dropping weight again, but its tough to keep it off. I'll see if I can get below 195 in the next 8 weeks. Heh, I haven't seen 195 in about 12 years.

Tomorrow we'll be going up maple springs to Santiago peak up by the Radio Station and back down again. It'll be a long slow grind up there, but I'm looking forward to it.