Monday, March 30, 2015

Resurfaced From Eastern Utah



A weeks worth of pictures, time lapse video, Yeti 575, and lunch break trail runs from my Residential. More to process, both mentally and physically. I am headed for the gym and then to the Letterpress to work for Mr Dave while he and his family are on vacation.

Happy Monday And Thanx For Watching

Monday, March 23, 2015

Very Slow

Windy but so worth it!!

My Feet Afterwards











My cabin is on the far right end

The internet is way slow here…. I have a few more photos but I gotta hit the pillow…. Day 1 was checking in, meet and greet, and dinner

Day 2 of my Residential started with working on feet, sacrum, and C-7…. We had a 3 hour lunch so thats when I went for a climb…. 42:38 of climbing in fact…. Really concentrated on my hips and gluts…. Pumped with my arms…. Sweating like a crazy mad man…. It was in the 70's… Tomorrow I ride the Yeti 575

I will update when I have more time or a faster connection 

Friday, March 20, 2015

The Day Before I Head West



Almost hard to believe that my two year Ortho-Bionomy program is wrapping up w/my Residential starting this weekend. Its a wonderful feeling knowing that I not only set goals but have managed physically and financially to accomplish these task at hand. I don't even feel as if "Where did the time go?"

TRAINING:
Weight training has been awesome!! Cross Roads Gym downtown has these handy little tracking cards to fill out and help remind what weights, seat placements, exercises, sets, reps, etc and I filled mine out just after my December's Ortho classes. Obviously I knew my weight numbers would increase because I started with very low weights and concentrated on proper form and minimum of 15 reps per attempt. So by the 1st week of March I added weight to all of my "routine" per day and then just this week I added about 5- 15lbs to those numbers just to see how my body would respond. I was totally stoked because I only really experienced soreness in my triceps. Shoulders, back, bi, chest, & legs all felt it but didn't feel worked. Does that even make sense???
My water intake during my workouts have exploded immensely!!! Thats a good thing!! But running out of h2o is a bad thing!! That only happened on Monday and was quickly resolved. Kidneys are happy again.
The resort that is hosting our Residential was a workout room, no pool, no cell, but has WiFi. We will be outside ( just east ) of Moab Ut so I am taking along the Yeti 575!!! Oh Baby!! So my plan is to take advantage of the weight room there and stick with my morning calisthenics and stretching.
Shadow Boy & I are back on 2-a-days and he has been loving it. Some evenings I just haven't wanted to go but he gives me that look like OH PLEASE!! CAN WE PLEASE?!?!?! And I give in and we have a great time. Love That Boy Dog!!! My hips are rotating much smoother and my cadence has been improving. I find that when I am "daydreaming" I am exhaling my breath on my right foot strike. Then I bring back my game and focus up. Pretty cool.

Working World: 
Started working for Mr Dave at the old Letterpress last week. This is ONLY temporarily because I am just covering for his vacation time in April. I worked for Mr Dave for about 7 years and understand the language of die cutting and now the shop is supplied with a much higher quality paper which results in a finer running machines. Thats A Bonus!! The work, machines, and environment is all coming back to me rather quickly and Mr Dave was totally stoked.
The down fall….. STANDING ON PHUC-N CONCRETE SUCKS A$$!!!!!! My ankles, knees, and hips totally feel that walking, picking up, etc duties of working in the shop. SIDE NOTE: Shadow Boy comes down the hallway to see me and stops dead in his tracks. His eyes lit up as me smelled the familiar smells of the old shop. Shadow Boy came to me from Roice Hurst at about 3 months old and used to hang out in the shop with me. He knew where I had been for the day and remember the freedom of the chain link fence corralling him in during my shifts. He loved roaming around the big rocked yard while I worked inside with the garage door wide open for him to come and go for a quick drink of water because of all the marking he has to do. Its a Boy Dog moment!!!
Also, my baby soft hands have taken a beating throwing paper again. Meaning, loading the press. Although I have taken proper steps to eliminate injuries over the long haul. Like using the lift to hold the stacks of paper for better ergonomics to load the paper. I have been very conscious about NOT twisting and doing stupid sh*t to my knees or back. These are things I never to take into consideration back in the day. Thats Good!!
I will do a time lapse from inside the shop sometime in April.

CLIENTS:
Scored another TWO young kids!! One kid about 13ish years old is a wrestler and tweaked himself pretty good. His father called me and gave me his justification why he HATES chiros, doctors,etc but heard that I do this voodoo stuff and wants to try it out. Plus, the referral persuaded him to give it a shot. We had a fantastic session and the boy was stoked. The boy never let his mind resist the Ortho and could track much quicker than I had anticipated. Thats Cool. The other young boy about 9 or 10 has been having shoulder issues. We worked together pretty well but he simply couldn't let his guard down. He trusted me but wanted to lift his arm if I started to work on his shoulder, things like that, they are very normal patterns I see show up in new clients old and young. The break through was when the mom told me about his shots. "Shots?" I asked. Cortisone shots last month. So very casually I asked the boy if he could remember the area where he got his injection. He point to the ac joint and then I left it alone and worked on his knee, feet, and balanced his pelvis. I then came back up to the opposite should and became familiar with how the glenohumeral joint worked in him. What is his ROM?? Then, very lightly, I MEAN VERY LIGHTLY, I went over the injection site and waited for a recoil reflex to show up over that site. And it did!! He totally looked at me with the biggest damn eyes!! No pain but he started crying right then and there. It was the proper release and I was very clam about explaining that its totally ok to cry and that he is safe in doing so. So then mom starts crying. The I started to tear up. She shared that the father doesn't allow this. I didn't share my past but I totally understood where they were coming from. I began to explain to them what Ortho was doing. All I was doing was introducing the relationship of how his body understood the injection. Its Ortho man!! It Works!! My training from broken bones, plates, and screws showed up in this session. PHUC-N BEAUTIFUL!!! The boy stood next to his mom and continued to roll his shoulders PAIN-FREE!! I made it very clear to him and his mother that if his shoulder bothers him to come in and see me. No Shots!! No Judgment!! No Pain!! Promise, I told him. He finally smiled. Kids do that when you reframe from making statements like," You know what you should do?" or " Would you just listen to me?" I really doubt that I will see him again for shoulder pain now that his body has released the trauma form his past experience….. i.e. …. That damn shot!! I can only hope that she will refer my name and Ortho-Bionmoy will continue to work its ways.

GOALS:
I don't have an real goals for this week at my residential. I mean I have issues that I wrote down but I don't know what to think about goals per say. Do I set a running for time goals during lunch??? Do I say that my goal is to use the resorts gym everyday??? Do I give up coffee for the 10 days???
I want to workout, I wanna hike in MOAB, I am very motivated but I just don't think goals are to be made at this time.
Maybe its because I will be without Shadow Boy!! Or…. JUST MAYBE… I should set some unrealistic running goals because I won't be carrying his water AND my water. Think about that…..

And the photo above is for ONE CRAZY PENGUIN!! She commented on my last post about giving the Boy Dog extra scratches from her. So here is he is, full of life, and missed tremendously over the next few upcoming days.

I hope to post from Utah, loads going on in my world, and thanx so much for stopping by. Enjoy the Spring Season, Stay Strong, & Hydrate Often.

Cheers

Monday, March 16, 2015

SLC Trip 2 Save $$$$

The Belly Up in Aspen ( w/fees ) were charging $75 damn dollars a night during the 2 night run of Umphery's McGee. Unfortunately, I am just not that rich even though I feel like a million bucks. So on the night of Pi, $22 to see Umphery's in Salt Lake City, $41 for the room, and $12 for parking. We were never charged for the parking, score!!!

Like I had mentioned, lets just rock, UM came out and blew the place apart. If you were a big hair 80's metal band fan, this was your kind of show. I don't believe that UM sang a song during the first 45min of the set. They didn't waste my time by asking in between songs " How are you?" and crap like that. They gave us our money's worth and just jammed out like rock stars.









 UM comes out and matched the house music and just ate up the song Goonville > Eat!! I was so stoke by this time!!! UM is considered a Jam Band. And thats exactly what we got. A Jam Night with UM!!!




They then popped 2nd Self > The Floor which was loud and ripped!! I pretty sure that Day Nurse was the 1st song I recognized!! Day Nurse > Water > Domino Theory > 2x2 to end the 1st set. And WoW!!! An hour and 37 min 1st set!!! YES




















Second set was more of the same, faster, harder, and just what I wanted. A true Umphery's McGee show!!














I went upstairs to have a look around but didn't stay for very long. It was just a bunch of drinking dudes and didnt capture my interest. The photo on the left is blurry but I think its my fav.








 Well, this one was pretty cool as well. Check Out Ryan's Green Pants?!?!?! Classic Or What












 Educated Guess was the opening song 2nd set and its totally impressive how these Jam Bands can come out and hit FULL THROTTLE!! So Dig That!!! Educated Guess > Dump City was righteous. Then comes Booth Love. I was worried at first because these are the songs I wasn't hoping for. But how wrong was I. Booth Love had an improv about 7min into it that makes my SBD purchase totally justified!!





Then came a breather before they lit up the house with Search 4 > The Triple Wide > Hajimemashite > Hang Up Your Hang Ups!!!!


Can You Say….. Blown Out?!?!?!


I felt alive… This show was worth the 4.5 hour drive…. And only $22… We kinda robbed UM




UM finished off the set with Wife Soup and I was fired up. The crowd was in an UM frenzy for sure.












And as I predicted, UM played popular hits for the Aspen crowd and came to SLC for a rock show!! PHATT Bass rips, heavy ADD guitar influences, and a band that went for it with the long jam songs!!! EPIC!!!











This photo on the left is a prefect representation of the show. It was a complete blur!! The band was on fire!! A number of times, Brendan in the foreground here, shook his head of approval after a mini jam session during a song. I even saw the drummer Kris mouth the word NASTY to bass player Ryan.

THANK YOU UMPHERY'S McGEE!!! 




An early morning walk around DT SLC??? I was a little surprised by the STRONG showing of homeless laying around on the streets of DT. I have nothing against homeless but I was surprised by the groups of them on EVERY corner.




Just cursing on by….. Move Along…. HEY, No graffiti… Thats nice



Not clipping off sub 11 min walking miles here but felt good to get out and stretch the legs Sunday morning. Last week of training was outstanding if I don't mind saying so. I have added weight to almost all of my sets. Took the Midnight Racer out. Swam twice. Shadow Boy and I were back on 2-a-Days!! I paid my entry for the Lead King 25K and will finish booking my room this week. Along w/all my other phone calls. Booking the room became interesting as the Beaver Lake Lodge suggested that I book a Sunday night room instead of the Fri/Sat that I was thinking about. The Sat/Sun would cost me about $15 more but wouldn't have the 6:30am check out on the day of the race. What 2 Do??? These are things that won't be top priority just yet because this week is going to be crazy!! I have phone calls, clients, packing, checking in at The Letterpress, gym, and leaving for my Residential in Moab,UT. How do all of you moms do it?!?!?!
Shadow Boy is about to jump out of his skin so I need to call this a wrap. We are going to hit the low 70's today and 77F by Wed before a disturbance blows through the Grand Valley. Hope to continue taking photos this week and should be able to post again before I head out. As a recap…. I needed that SLC trip!! I feel strong!! Loved waking up this morning w/the Boy Dog's head on my pillow!! Cracked Me Up. Drinking More H2o, Stretching Throughout The Day, And Socking Up The Colorado Bluebird Days!!

















Thanx 4 stopping by and stay strong out there
Cheers

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Returning A Pair Of Sunglasses and How To Use The F Word


Old Grandpa Smokey Gets An Ear Scratched 
Yesterday was the first road ride on the Midnight Racer!! This little adventure started off as a simple drop off. A client of mine left her sun glasses in my office. She currently lives east of my old neighborhood in Orchard Mesa.

As you already know, road bikes are so different from commuters or mountain bikes. And damn are they energy efficient!!!

My mind raced around regarding other factors of road riding. Like how damn vulnerable I felt riding in bike lanes again. Not just wearing a very thin ( 67F ) jersey but noticing how quickly decisions are needed to be made. Events just come up much quicker at 25mph compared to 9 or 10 mph on the commuter bike. And those distinct sounds of little pebbles kicking out from under a 120psi slick tires. Its an atmosphere at this point, not a ride just yet.

The Park in my old HOOD

After safely maneuvering through the downtown streets of GJ, thankfully pretty uneventful, I was entering the River Trail next to the Botanical Gardens. The River Trail is flat and fast if nobody is near by. I didn't go for speed at this point but rather worked on my ROM and processed where my bones rotated in its socket. How my sit bones rested on the seat, how my elbows felt, its my first road ride for BLEEP sake.

Once I was up in Orchard Mesa my overall experience changed. OM has really changed a lot!! And I don't think for the better. Right away I realized that the bike lanes were dirty. No Biggie, but enough to notice or hear!! I began noticing all the cars parked in the yards ( or weeds ) and broke down vehicles on the street that obviously haven't been moved in YEARS.



One a good note: This land on the left here used to be an eye sore. Couldn't believe how beautiful it looks right now AND I NEVER WOULD HAVE PICTURED A HORSE ON THIS LOT!!! And the next photo is of a house that I always admired. The south side is all windows for passive solar set up and the north side is built as an earth-ship style.



Again, very pleased to see this house is still in great shape!!

The rest of the HOOD is a damn shame. Weeds, undesirable neighbors, undriveable autos, and owners consuming resources. I shouldn't judge but I am willing to bet that they have at least one 42 inch TV in their living rooms.





Stoked to see that this lot is still untouched!! On the other side of the tress, straight DOWN, is the Mighty Colorado River. The views from this lot are spectacular and I spent one or two 4th of Julys in this lot. The house on the left is new and looks to be well taken care of. That makes me happy. The house on the right has a for sale sign out which means the old folks have passed or moved into a "home", this makes me sad. They were the tinkering type of couple. Always outside and always waved to me as I rode by in the morning.


 And this place was always outstanding!!! Not a very good shot but this place screams Colorado!!!





 A photo of the Midnight Racer at the Spanish Trail Monument Marker high on Eagle Rim Park. Such a sweet bike, love the views, and this was just another Colorado Bluebird kind of day. At this point, I had dropped off the glasses, made my way through a disgusting neighborhood, rode through my old hood, almost had a collision with a teenage driver that didn't realize the school bus was stopping and they had to pull into the bike lane to avoid rear ending the BIG YELLOW school bus with FLASHING RED LIGHTS, and last but not least…… NO FLAT TIRES!!!



This is pretty cool, a marker map of the views from the park. I am so pleased that its not covered in graffiti.






Like the graffiti at this skate park. This skate park was being built back when I lived in OM. I rode my old GT mt bike on the dirt sections as it was graded perfectly before the concrete pouring. When I was working a night job at the Letterpress, I would ride in this skate park under a blanket of stars.








Loads of memories when I saw this park. Really good memories for sure. Now its nice to hear kids playing with their squealing voices of joy, moms putting their kids in the swings, and a little kid learning how to control a bike with training wheels. So Cool





So these teenagers in the photo, they all knew the F word. Just uneducated to how its to be used properly. Like…... Used as an adjective, Steve is doing all the phuc-n work. Noun, I don't give a phuc. Adverb, Jill talks to phuc-n much. As part of a word, ab-so-fucking-lutly. And as a complete sentence, Phuc The Phuc-n Phuc-RRRR's. Well, the teenagers classed this up by sprinkling in a SH*T or Mother in there.

How about fraud, He got phuc-d at poker night. Dismay, Ah phuc it. Aggression, Don't phuc with me A$$ face. Trouble, Guess we are really phuc-d now. Dissatisfaction, MY FAVORITE, I don't like what the phuc is going on here. Incompetence, he's a phuc off. Dismissal, Why don't you go outside and play hide and go phuc yourself. Difficulty, I don't understand this phuc-n question.  


I took this photo of a guy that was just standing next to the drainage railing. He was creepy!! I mean creepy. After this photo, putting away the GoPro, my legs went for a stretch. Didn't really BURN the quads but I hammered down the pedals for a good section of the trail. My mouth sucked down oxygen and my legs burn it up. It felt fast, it felt freeing, and Midnight Racer rides so smoothly over the concrete slabs. Most of this is in my mind but my legs felt stronger than this time last year. Its the bike but damn I felt like taking flight.
My morning routine is still coffee, calisthenics, walking the Boy Dog on our no excuse loop, yogurt and granola, commuter bike to the gym downtown, & working muscle groups. MON- shoulders/triceps TUES- back/bi Wed- chest Thursday- back/bi Fri- shoulders/tri. Some weeks I hit chest twice or take a breather on the shoulders. I have been adding more weight to each exercise at different times. Plus, keeping most of the routine at 12-15 manageable reps.

Shadow Boy Watching Over Me
So ride hard, ride smart, love your animals, stay hydrated, & keep looking up.

Cheers

Monday, March 9, 2015

Sunny Colorado



The Boy Dog In Slow Mo. Sometimes I find it hard to believe that Shadow Boy is 9 years old when he acts like this. This is our routine everyday, twice a day. Shadow Boy DOESNT miss a meal!!!

Shadow cracks me up!!! This is how I found him after our morning trail run on Saturday. Love how that eye is giving the," I will get up if food is the option." I was in and out for most of the day doing chores in the back yard….. INCLUDING WATERING THE TRESS…. I then came in and found him in THIS position!!! Notice the white tip tail up and over the arm rest. Classic





Training: Last week was encouraging for me. All of my lunch breaks were spent at the gym. I only had about 50min of real time at the gym during an 1 1/2 lunch break. I hit each muscle group and kept the breaks very short. My heart rate must of been way high because I could feel my beat throughout my rib cage. Damn, it felt GR8!! I brought over the dumbbells to the lat pull down machine to immediately switch to curls and triceps kick backs. Pretty crazy to bust out three exercises with little rest in between. Sure makes the 60min fly on by but quite rewardingly!! Another burn was the adductor and abductor machine and then mixing in squats on the BOSU Ball. Talk about screaming quads!!!  And those little stabilizer muscles started shaking like a beginning rock climber.


Time Change: I love the time change!! I wish we could just stay on this time!! Any WAY… For the change I had to BBQ on Sunday afternoon. And both dogs loved it!! I fired up the Q at 4pm and the dogs thought it was only 3pm. Lets just say, everyone won!!!

Umphery's McGee: This weekend UM will be in Colorado. Thursday and Friday concerts are at the Belly Up in Aspen CO. But those damn bastards in Aspen think everyone has $$$$ to blow at will. When UM started playing the Belly Up, the tix were like 35 bucks, the 2011 run was fabulous. When the tour was announced I couldn't believe my eyes that the tickets were $65.oo damn dollars. Then find a room for the two night run and parking??? You A-Holes!!! That means that I am making the Salt Lake City run on Saturday to see UM at the Depot for 22 dollars. Thats right!! The room ( Radisson ) is $48 and the $22 dollar tix for the price of just a ticket in Aspen. The Blue Z and I were kicking the idea around of heading up to Aspen Thursday night and seeing if we could pick up a cheap ticket after the show starts. We will see about weather because the higher elevation is looking at snow on Friday and our crazy Colorado weather patterns make it impossible to predict this far out. But I will be stoked to see the boys again and hope that they will play all the radio popular stuff in Aspen and bring out the rock in SLC.



Midnight Racer: Shadow Boy isnt to happy about this but I pulled out all the road bikes from the WINTER shed and added air in the tires. Only the tandem was really low. The Midnight Racer look most excellent!! Dusted her off, added about 60 pounds of air, and the chain was in perfect shape. We will hit 65F by Wed before the "storm" on Thursday/Friday. I will fit in a road ride everyday but its going to be challenging for sure. Will be hitting the gym, moving river rock today and tomorrow for the neighbor lady, and checking in with Mr Dave at the Letterpress. But I have light on my side!!! I wanna ride the road bike because I am way curious what the power output in my legs. I just gotta think I will be stronger and I wonder if I will notice the quick fibers from this winter in the gym. Will the cardiovascular system match the output???



Ortho Classes: Thursday and Friday ended my 9th week of classes and we ended on a high for sure. The last two classes were all about relationships. NOT THAT KIND!! The relationship between the Kidney and the Bladder, Heart and Lungs, Liver and Gallbladder, etc. I worked with a woman from Denver that is very in tune and I experienced my first delayed tracking. We were working with our Vegas Nerve that runs bilaterally out of the base of the skull and ends just below the xiphoid process. I could feel her move through my system but it was like 3-4 seconds behind. She was bringing me back on line, like she says she is under my clavicle, I was still coming down my neck. Sheri told us that its totally common and to keep note of that because we might lead our clients which has its benefits but can also be confusing as well. Totally makes sense to me now because I felt it. I have been calling up Kidneys for awhile now but have never brought in relationships to and from. Its awesome!! The vibrational quality totally changes and I could so tell when I was missing a piece. Meaning, there is a shift when you "finish" or "fall off " the Pericardium Sack around the Heart. That was so cool!!! Sheri address how pleased she is with our progress and expressed how our level of practice is soaring along. She covered more of what to expect during the Residual coming up in about two weeks and how we will be deepening out skill level. Cant Wait!! Another break through was the referred pain zones in the body. Such as, the upper right shoulder is linked to Liver and Gallbladder with a Pancreas thrown in. I have had clients before that have shoulder issues and we have worked neuromuscular routines and Ortho but never thought about balancing organs. How Cool Is That!!! What Else Is Possible    

Last but not least…. CONGRATS PACKERS FANS…. I am not a G Bay Fan…. But I love to hear about players taking a pay cut to stay in town…. All of those years of holding my breath knowing that the late Tony Gwynn could sign a MEGA deal but never did and stayed with the Padres…. Randall Cobb could have signed BIG $$$$ with the Raiders but chose to stay with Rodgers and the Cheese Heads in Lambeau…… Thanx Cobb…. I will keep in eye on you guys this year