Snowshoeing on clouds, Corner Canyon

Corner Canyon was as pretty as I've ever seen it after the fantastic snow we got over the weekend/Monday. The snow is starting to melt/fall of the trees, but there for a few days it was an impressive site and the hike up Clarks Trail on Tuesday felt like walking on and through a fluffy cloud. You can see the volume of snow that clung to the trees in a few of the pictures, and they were boughed over really low across the trail in some areas.

Annie set a good pace, and Brock was getting heavy towards the top. When there weren't trees within reach to knock the snow off of, he was practicing ear cupping his dad.

Down near the bottom of Clarks, Salt Lake Valley and Draper Temple in background.

The winter wonderland that is Clarks Trail - Corner Canyon in the cold months.

Annie after having to wait for me and Brock to catch up - she makes for a good carrot to chase up the trail.

Followed up that night with the Tuesday night XC ski in corner canyon with a few of the conmen. It's a standing event weekly - 8:30 start time - all are welcome. The conmen put the hurt on me this week, I cracked at the top of Hog's Hollow and had to drag myself home.

On the topic of XC skiing - you can get a screaming deal on a full set up down at the old Sports Authority in Sandy - the one by the old Linen's and Things - $85 bucks for the full set up. Fischer Ski's, Fischer Boots, and poles.

Fear is the wildcard

I spent the latter part of last week in Dallas at some bank meetings with a few of our business execs, and you'd better believe that the tension/excitement levels at these meetings is pretty high quality in an economy like this. We had a few folks there who are pretty sharp cats, one of whom you might recognize from the occasional CNBC appearance or WSJ quote. Guys with a good macro view of the situation the country's in. Lot's of data, lot's of ways to interpret the fundamentals (data), and a few scenarios of ways this thing could play out. Will say that this one's pretty darn similar to previous rounds dating way back, in a whole bunch of ways. But it's very, very different in one regard in particular - Fear. Some of the fear is certainly warranted, some of it probably inadvertantly manufactured in various ways. But it set in pretty solid last quarter, and set in deep enough that we've now got a problem with negative feedback loops, fancy lingo for the risk of that fear overtaking the fundamentals and turning itself into a cycle of self fulfilling prophecy - and it got out of the barn.

My personal stance? In the words of a pretty damn good businessman I know - "Don't waste a good crisis" - and I think my grandpa, who's no longer around but from whom I used to ask for stories about the dust bowls and the depression, would have been pretty impressed with this one.

Best & Worst of 08'

Random highlights from 08' - This post will likely have several additions in the future as I remember funny or important stuff from the year.

Best performing investment - Health Savings Account, by a bunch. How ridiculous is that - but simple principal preservation win's big in 08'. If they'd raise the maximum contribution I'd dump more here. Cash flows from real estate holdings also held up fine, but did not keep pace with the paper loss of values.
Worst performing investment - Anything within earshot of the markets. I got absolutley killed here.

Jason's favorite new hobby - Cyclocross
Annie's favorite new hobby - Triathlon

Biggest Gut check:
Jason - continuing to dump precious capital into this market
Annie - putting her face in the water long enough to complete the swim legs of her triathlon events
Kylie - Muttin Bustin
Chesney - Muttin Bustin
Brock - No sense of fear yet, a prerequisite for a gut check. Maybe next year - hopefully.

Favorite race:
Jason - Xterra Tahoe
Annie - Spudman
Kylie - Xterra Ogden
Chesney - Xterra Ogden

Best race performance:
Jason - Xterra Tahoe
Annie - Spudman

Worst race performance:
Jason - Icup Solitude - DNF due to flat's
Annie - Daily race between Annie and the kids to see if they can make messes faster than she can clean up after them. 08' results - kids 350, Annie/Jason 15.

Most painful crash - Draper Cross practice
Most dramatic crash - Draper Cross practice
Most comical crash - Draper Cross practice
Most embarassing crash - Draper Cross practice
Yep - that one pretty much stole the show in the crash category.

Best race series/promoters -The Xterra crew

Best family trip - Tahoe

Sign our kids are growing up fast - Kylie reading Brock bedtime stories

Best new local fast food joint - Five Guys Burgers and Fry's

Most times we shoveled or plowed the snow accumulating in the driveway in one day - 4.

Times we lost one of the kids in a store - 2. Times they intentionally lost themselves by hiding from us - 2. Times they got a butt kicking for it - 2.

Favorite time with the kids - Friday night slumber parties with mom and dad - kids pick the movie and cook the popcorn.

Favorite time with Annie - aside from the obvious, picking up new hobbies together, and all the comedy we get for free with being parents.

Don't breath the air

One of the con's of living where I live in the winter is that I dig/shovel/plow probably 4 times as much snow as I would if I lived in the valley. One of the pro's of living where I live is we dodge the inversion problem that the Wasatch Front has. Usually.

This air sucks. Am getting the urge to get out on the road bike with these warm temps - but am pretty sure the intake of this crap while breathing heavy isn't good. We're usually spared from this stuff at 6'200 feet where the house is, but not this week, it's creeping up late morning/early afternoon. This is what the Salt Lake valley looks like before I head down the hill to work around 7:45 am.



Utah County ain't no better

If I do go ride, I've either got to do it in the morning before this stuff creeps up, or I'm wearing one of those bird flu masks you see them wearing over in asia during outbreak scares, and doubling that layer up with a painters mask.

In over my head

I've got some friends who are also conmen, and have caused me to cave to the peer pressure of throwing my name in the hat for the Leadville 100 Mountain Bike race in August. What are the implications you might ask? There are a few big ones. Namely:

• I won't enjoy riding my bike as much this year. Sure, at the end of the year I'll look back and say it was the best year ever, but I'm going to have to abandon being content with comfortable on rides and spend some time suffering a little or a lot if I hope to be conditioned for this thing. Those who have ridden with me know how ridiculous this will sound - but I'm putting it out there - if I'm driving clear to Leadville to ride my Bike up and down that big mountain for 100 miles (most I've ever ridden in a day is 25-30) - if I'm really going to subject myself to that, then my intention is to do it in less than the 9 hour mark.
• I'm going to need the support of my wife and the conmen. Annie's already on board, and we've had preliminary discussions on how I can fit the training work it's going to require (a lot) into our schedules - she's been totally supportive of what's shaping up to be a pretty selfish calendar towards me this year - thanks babe! As for the conmen - will probably just need them to keep calling me the same names they've been calling me to trick me into doing this in the first place.
• If I'm so unfortunate as to land a spot in the race, ruining my poser strategy of sending a check and hoping my name isn't drawn - it's a lottery - then the endurance cycling trifecta may be back in play for me this year - unlikely, but maybe if bullets 1 and 2 go dramatically better than expected we'll give it a shot.
• My race budget for the year is growing. We're turning a few of the races into mini vacations for the whole family - the kids are total outdoors junkies and some of this years race locations lend themselves nicely to quality family getaways. I've already set aside the funds as there's a good chance income will be a little less this year than years past.
• Serious, consistent conditioning starts tomorrow. Here goes Hell!

Bash winter tri report

It was a balmy 7 degrees when we lined up at Soldier Hollow this morning at 8:30 - stayed right about there for the entire race. Knocks the Tahoe Xterra race off the podium for coldest event I've participated in. It was a bit of a scramble morning, pulled into the race about 15 minutes before the start, ran and checked in, set up the bike and skis in transition, and tried to get a 5 minute warm up jog in while they were going through race announcements. Race highlights as follows:

• Run - 2 laps around a 1.4 mile groomed trail of snow. No problems with traction in standard trail shoes, but learned the hard way on one occasion that getting within a few feet of the edge of the groomed stuff increases the chance of punching through - found myself knee deep for about 4 steps, mangaged to stay on my feet, and didn't get close to the edges again. Went about as fast as I could without blowing up - which doesn't mean it was fast, but it was an ok run for me. The calves took the brunt of the extra work that came from the half inch or so of compression you'd get planting your feet in the snow, I'm pretty sore tonight. Finished maybe front 1/3rd or midpack.
• Bike - The trail stayed in relatively good shape after the foot traffic - couple sections of stewed up stuff that I actually dismounted and ran through after a few seconds of trying to pedal it with minimal bite. Low tire pressure (estimate I had them down to 15-20 psi) and exagerated outside/inside/outside lines on the turns were critical in keeping the bike tracking where you wanted it to go. Made up some ground here, but it was as much a balance contest as it was a race you could really attack, and was a little disappointed I didn't gain more ground. Would find out shortly though that it wouldn't have mattered.
• Ski - Knew within about 30 seconds of being on the skis that I was dead. I'm still figuring out the traditional XC skiing, and the skate skiers that came from behind flew by like I was standing still. It was pretty impressive and there were a lot of guys there that had pretty big engines. I quickly found the grooves cut for the trad skis and found that they helped a lot - I still tend to get my skis pointing off target so the grooves kept me going straight up the trail. Couple of good downhills where I was able to work on my XC speed scrub skills - refining which part of my body creates the most drag when I lay down, and think I accidently figured out I can use an elbow to facilitate cornering/turns. Total of 4 lay downs, 2 each lap, and only lost control on one which resulted in getting poles and skis a little tangled and the standard disorientation associated with not being sure which way your facing when you come to a stop. The other 3 were smooth and effective for a guy that can't baby step the turns at speed and hasn't figured out how to check speed while staying upright. I've got a good speed governor built into my ski technique - my race data reflects a pretty sharp drop in heart rate during the ski leg, where I lack the skill to go fast enough to keep it high. Gave up plenty of ground on the ski - as expected, but was really surprised/impressed with how fast some of the guys/gals were on the skate skis.

Fun race overall, and fun to mix it up and add something a little different into mix. Can't say that I can't wait to line it up again in 7 degrees though.

Dirty fun

The pictures pretty much say it. Day 1 of the St. George trip was fantastic - Zen, Barrel, and then down Bear Claw Poppy until mud turned us back. It was a small premonition of the bogging we'd find ourselves doing 10 miles out from the car on day 2. The riding was great, no one had a major crash, no major injuries unless sore backsides count. The only carnage was with Eric B's new to him bike that had a few issues and the mud's victimizing Pat's rear deraileur which ended up in his spokes.

The mud dried out with 4-5 miles back to the car and we finished the trip ripping some fast, fun 1 track back to the car, all grinning ear to ear.

Traditional features of the trip with this group include:

• Erik R. showing up at departure with the delicious treat bag his wife always sends with him - Thanks Jess!
• Banks claiming the attic for his sleeping space at the cabin. (Banks rode strong this trip!)
• Riessen riding some insanely technical stuff that I was scared to walk down/up/around. And Bright riding the same on his new to him 29er.
• We did our customary expedition work, packing the bikes down into a wash to try and ride them out - this section almost cost a team member an appendage.
• Typical mechanical issues - Pat happened to know his way around a bike pretty good which was welcomed by all of us whenever these issues would strike.
• Ben & Jerry's from the Chevron station after day 1.
• Breakfast at the Pioneer in Springdale with a few takers on the Buckwheat Pancakes
• EB picking up the scent of the car about 4 miles out, triggering his punishing, relentless 1 track time trial all the way back to it.

New stuff:

• The discovery of a new species - the hairless (for the most part) sasquatch that ran around in the brush with only tennis shoes on to celebrate the end of 2 days of great biking.

May post some video and photo's later. Good times in the sunshine!

09' Race Calendar

Just posted the 09' event/race calendar. I've got some buddy's floating the idea of doing the endurance cycling trifecta - namely Leadville, the Brian Head Stage Race, and then LOTOJA (all within 5 or 6 weeks). I'm publicly removing myself from that lofty ambition - not yet sure I can even handle one of them, although I'm going to try the MTB stage race.

Tomorrow's cyclocross race looks to be a cold and slick - staying upright and uninjured may be a victory in and of itself!

That was bigtime

Proud day for the White house watching the Utes convincing win tonight - Congrats to the team for making a statement, capping off a fantastic season, and forcing some healthy discussions within the college football system.

Also - kudos to Chris Hill for locking down coach for a few years before tonights game - good business lesson - if you've got good folks in your org., don't hold your hand until they force it. Coach Whit probably would have been a little more expensive tommorow morning than he was a few days ago when they showed him the love with the big raise and extension.

Never been more proud to be a Utah Man!