so much for that

So often we make plans. Honestly though, how often does everything go exactly according to that plan? All too frequently there are unforeseen circumstances that will alter or ultimately foil our plans. If you know me, you know my stance on this. Well my plan of doing a two week juice fast was abruptly brought to a halt today in the middle of the woods.

I may have been better off sleeping through my alarm and missing the bike event altogether. Had that happened I wouldn't have had this wonderful learning experience. Ha. Stage one, no problems. Not a lightning fast time by any means, but fairly quick considering my skill/endurance level combined with my lack of knowledge for the course. Stage two is where the wheels started to fall off. Not literally, yet. Completed all but a quarter mile of the stage in reasonably quick fashion, when I caught a rock the wrong way and got pitched off my bike. Due to my superb falling skills I escaped with a slight bruise on my elbow and shoulder, sweet. I've fallen plenty of times though, so that didn't bother me very much. Stage 3, sequenced in a few words. Many rocks, followed by boulders, followed by not 1, not 2, but 3 flat tires. I had 2 spare tubes with me, which is rare as I usually only have one, but it wasn't enough. Just not my day it seems. Walked stage 4 with my busted bike and midway through started feeling very lightheaded and a bit nauseous. Had I finished the 'event' in the time I'd expected, I would have been back to the car in plenty of time for my next meal. Mmm, juice. But since things weren't exactly working out as planned, I found myself hiking these trails (4ish miles in bike shoes for someone with horrible ankles.. so fun!)feeling very weak and malnourished. Luckily I had a bag of almonds in my backpack which are always there for when I ride. Instead of forcing myself to not eat and possibly passing out in the woods, I decided that it was an appropriate time to break the fast. Damn those were some delicious nuts. So my energy came back nearly instantly, tossed the bike back over the shoulder, and hiked through the transport stage to the final stage, 5. I walk up and the guy at the start of the stage, Rob I believe it was, kindly offered me a tube. Thanks! This perked me right up as stage 5 is the most fun of all of the stages, lots of downhill, some sweeping turns, all the good stuff. And, wait for it.. I flat, for the 4th time of the day, after maybe a quarter mile at most. I hiked it down the hill with a giant frown on my face, and finally arrived back at the lot where I thoroughly enjoyed a free hot dog. I figured with my horrid luck on the trail I better stay for the raffle as I'm sure to win something! No, not the case, ha.

All in all the day could have been worse. I could have actually gotten hurt when I fell. Also, without my plans being shattered I wouldn't be enjoying a delicious burrito from Cali Burrito right now. 

Tossed together a quick clip. I wish the fall would have at least looked cool on film. Oh well, as the saying goes.. Sometimes you eat the bar, and sometimes, the bar eats you.

juicing day 3

Day 3 of the juice fast is underway and I can say that my body is starting to realize what I've been doing to it. Last night I had a hell of a time falling asleep. Luckily, once I finally did, I was out cold till about 6 this morning. My headache from yesterday has also carried over into today. Not going to do much physical activity today beyond walking a few laps around the block. Tomorrow is the Endurorama bike event in Bethlehem which I'm very much looking forward to. I'm interested to see how my body is able to handle 9ish miles of biking with nothing but juice to fuel me.

just juice

 So today is the 2nd day of the juice fast I decided to do. The plan is to do 2 weeks of nothing but juice and then go from there. So far I've not gotten physically hungry, just mentally. I could really go for some Cali Burrito right about now. Yesterday I concocted a green juice consisting of kale, broccoli, parsley, peppers, celery, and granny smith apple. Today was much more fruit based with banana, strawberry, grapefruit, blueberry, tomato/grape tomatoes, and a few peppers. Both varieties are quite delicious in my opinion, which is making this experiment slightly easier. My hope is that this fast will beat me up, clean me out, and open my eyes a bit more to the benefits of juicing so that I can continue to use it moving forward.

First race!!

Saturday was my first bike race! The race was held 'On the Rocks' at French Creek State Park. I finished in front of a few and behind a few, ha. I'm just glad I finished though. 8ish miles of very rocky terrain. Considering my preparation I'd say I did extremely well. Tested my limits to say the least, and only came away with one scar from punching a tree on the way by. Props to my awesome friends for coming out to support me!

home sweet home

5 min to race time

 Will and I went out for a ride after the race was finished and filmed a bit. Try and spot the chipmunk!

jordan footy

Put a clip together with a bunch of the footage from what we've come to know as 'root hip'. How can such a small trail feature be so much fun? I do not know. So we usually hit it a few times and obviously film quite a bit as well. Even Cooper(Tices dog) has a blast running back and forth on this section of trail!

trexler footy

NBD!

Today I went up to Fitness Central, and walked out with this!

Tony also got a new bike today which you can see along the left edge of the photo. So we went down the street to Jordan to test out the new rides, joined by Tice and Cleaver who met us there. Little rain when we got there, but then it stopped and held off for the rest of the time. Solid ride for sure. Wiped out a few times, but I'll chalk that up to the slick roots from the rain, and getting used to these big ass wheels!

mandatory bridge break

 Tony and his new ride

tice

myself

cleaver. check out the smile on his face! riding an old beat up bike with no suspension. how can someone smiling that hard not have his own bike!?! get it together dude!

Psyched on the new bike, looking forward to getting the race season started. Going to post up a video with some footage within the next day or so from our ride today. Until then, peace!!

brain pain

So today I woke up with a very intense migraine. Extreme light and sound sensitivity, pressure in my eyes and temples, and every step I take feels like my brain is bouncing off the inside of my skull. Not a great way to start the week. Ate an orange and a slice of PBJ toast for breakfast and am going to just lay around until this awful feeling subsides.

On a lighter note, my brother and I went out and played 15 holes at willowbrook this past weekend, which was my first round in quite a long time. All things considered I struck the ball fairly well, and even made a long putt for birdie on number 15. My brother made a birdie on the par 3 6th as well. Without footage it's fiction! Enjoy

A tribute to my first MTB

So roughly month ago is when my old bike died. I took it for about a 5 mile lap on the appalchian at the lehigh gap(The video clip is so long that I'm the only one that'll probably ever watch it). It was definitely the most epic ride I've had to date, and not even on a designated bike trail. I even went over the handle bars once as I was creeping down the mountain. Turns out that practicing handstands has actually helped with something, as I was able to take two steps on my hands and catch myself, ha. Walking up that trail to get to the George W lean-to is challenging enough. Attempting to ride up it is a whole other story. A lot of times you have no choice but to hike-a-bike.

breather at the lean-to

Thumbs up for 30+mph winds, and a new windproof jacket(that was normally 140 bucks, and I got for 60). Oh yea, and the scarf/facewarmer/green thing, which I snagged for 3 bucks. Came in very handy, made it much easier to breathe.

crawling down the section next to the lean-to

another

trail name: Freestyler

Last Summer sometime, Will and myself were up on the same trail hiking, when out of nowhere I hear, 'Coming through!' from behind me. Shocked, I turned around and stepped off the trail, some dude just zooms by me on a mountain bike, hammering the pedals and just kind of bouncing, almost floating over all the rocks. 'What a maniac!' It was probably a week or so later I bought my bike. Within 2 months, I was now the 'maniac' riding those same trails. I was somewhat oblivious to the fact that riding there, especially the way I was, was completely destroying the bike. Dual suspension or not, it had no chance.

nishiki and nissan at craigs cabin

So after about 5 months of owning a bike, I had it completely totalled. I bought it at Dicks sporting goods, which turned out to be a great move. I have a 2 year warranty that if anything goes wrong, I take it there, they fix it no charge and off I go. The guy at Dicks was tired of fixing it, so he just gave me a new bike. I plan to beat it up also, and get at least one more bike by the time my warranty is up.

as promised..

OBT

The Orange Blue Team was 4 deep at trexler today, check out the photos! Video clip in a day or two.

Mount up.

Having a seat after climbing out of HP3. Tony kicking mud off his new boots.

Face full of mud conditions, although 40 some degrees is chust fine by me this time of year.

Also hit up the hollow for a few quick laps/jumps afterwards. Just over 6 miles on the day.

Pins and needles

Two days ago I had my first acupuncture treatment. Everything went as intended, felt a little sore yesterday, and still some strange sensations today going from my left foot to my left hip. Not sure exactly what to make of it, I'll take it as my muscles starting to wake up finally. She informed me that the muscles in basically the whole left side of my body have been thrown out of whack due to whatever the hell is wrong with my back. Feels like a giant marble sized knot in the muscle directly adjacent to my spine. A good portion of those muscles have remained in a contracted state and some have lost the ability to relax or release. This has created imbalances from my ankle to my shoulder on the left side. Just another challenge to overcome, I suppose. I'm confident that all the changes I've made and continue to make are going to lead to me striking some form of balance. With any luck that'll take place soon, I mean golf season is right around the corner.

Just a stretch, man

Every so often I'll be hanging out with some of my friends, or sometimes people I've just met, and I will spontaneously do some form of stretch or pose or movement. This often results in comments like, 'what are you doing?' or for my fellow achievers 'what is that, yoga?'.
My reply will vary depending on the moment and movement, but often times it is just that simple, its just a stretch. So often we are confined to the same types of postures, namely sitting. It's good to get outside of that zone of just sit or stand all the time and actually stretch. Stretch it out. What it is, I'm not sure. I do know that after taking an interest in stretching, I've started regaining the range of motion in a few of the joints where I'd lost it. It doesn't have to be any set pose, or sequence of poses like yoga. It can be whatever feels right just to get the blood circulating to those areas that are so easily neglected by our societies obsession with sitting. Specifically the hips, legs and back. I started doing a morning and evening stretch session and it has helped drastically. Sometimes it will be a 5 minute neck and back stretch in the morning, or maybe 20 minutes of yoga postures at night before bed.

So instead of asking what I'm doing, next time just join in the stretch :) Namaste.

Will and I and took in a solid sunset up at the Hilton, aka the Lehigh Gap.

New House!

First post from the new house! My brother, Tony, and I are officially moved in to our new place in Whitehall. Still lots of things scattered all over the place, but we are slowly making sure everything gets to where it needs to be. Went to BJ's with Mom and Grandmother(aka Ahbee) and stocked up on just about everything you could think of. Here are a couple of photos from the move!

first load in Dad's Suburban. It is unreal how much stuff that truck fits, whats more is how good it runs with 180k miles on it! Thanks for letting me borrow it Old Man!

new room. Tony and I flipped a coin for this room actually. It already had the orange curtains though, so naturally I won the coin flip.

James came through HUGE helping me out. Thanks again man!!!

(when moving, always call the pickup truck guy)

load number 2: bed, TV, and golf clubs

took a 1 min nap after the bed was set up, then got right back to work.

load 3: dressers and mini fridge

new room + furniture

Panera for lunch and a well deserved break.

load 4 and still smiling: dirty laundry, cooler, and both of our bikes

Laundry/Gym/Bike storage/Golf Practice area

Took another break, and went to Metro and Johns with Mom and Keith! Hole in the wall bar where an 80 year old woman has been cooking, for 30+ years. 2.50 for a cheese steak!

 myself and tonist chillin amongst it all

Just about sleeping, 2nd to last load, tonys bed then finally his dressers after that.

Dad, myself, and Tony getting his bed set up.

Kitchen

Dan, Tice, Tony, Will and myself hanging out after a longgg day.

A gigantic thanks goes out to everyone that helped make this possible!! More photos and info to come as we get this all sorted out. 

weekend wind down

Will and myself skated Willing park in tamaqua yesterday. Small park, has a nice box and small pyramid, couple of quarter pipes. Simple yet fun, especially considering it was my first time skating anything but my cruiser board for a long time. Before I could go though, I had to stop at homebase to get my new setup. Talked with Po and caught up a little bit, also got some sick new nikes. Got home, set up the board, and left to meet Will. I was slightly excited to go skate, as this picture will tell you.





Was very happy with how the session turned out. Did tre flip over the hip, took a few tries but did it. Even had a couple of ledge tricks still in the bag, crook and back tail both first try. Muscle memory is a funny thing. They can forget too though. After skating and really firing a lot of fast twitch muscles, my legs are quite sore tonight. It's been a long time since they'd done that sort of thing. Its a different sore altogether then what I was getting after cycling or lifting. Going to continue skating very carefully and use it as a way to make my ankles stronger. Not taking risks or jumping down stairs anymore, thats for sure. Here is a few photos we got from the goPro. More pics to come once I upload the mark II pics.

my k grind

will 5-0 180



and why not end with a clip from the good old days of when I was hucking myself down stairs or off of whatever else I could find.