High Mileage Vehicle

The Lesbaru hit 200k this weekend. The cruise control and power locks may have stopped working, but good lord I still love this car.

I'm Old

The Ragnar Relay went well for the first two legs, for the most part. They were hard and long, but I ran them in times I deemed acceptable. Unfortunately, the second leg, an 8.7 mile monster, was along a poorly graded road at night and I was transversing a slope for the whole thing, which resulted in my developing an IT band strain in my right knee. That meant that I couldn't run my third leg. I tried, made it about 300m before I had to stop and walk, and only made it about a mile of walking before I couldn't even do that anymore. I spent the rest of the weekend with my knee wrapped up hobbling around. My team covered for me, but it was really embarrassing, especially since they're all at least 15 years older than me. I'm the young one! I'm not the one who's supposed to be felled by injury!

Here I come, end of leg one...

And there my teammate goes. There are more pictures, particularly of gimpy me, but I'm waiting on the person who took them to send them to me.

Luckily it's turning out to be a pretty minor injury, despite the inability to walk for a couple days. My knee is getting better every day, at about 95% now and staying off it another week should do the trick. Also fortunate is that I don't have to run for the rest of the summer! It's all cycling now, gotta get in shape for the TS100 and collegiate racing season! Which is great, because running sucks!

Nasal Surgery: Success

Got my sinuses "roto-rootered" (as David put it) yesterday. Good times. Hopefully now I'll be able to breathe out of my nose like a normal person.

Let's do this!

Surgical clothing is just so stylin'.

Post op, just woke up from anesthesia, feeling what could only be described as "belligerently drunk".

Next week I fly up to Oregon and then immediately drive up to Blain, WA to run the Ragnar Northwest Passage Relay. It'll be a lot of fun, but what I'm most looking forward to is the end of training for it. I'm sick of this running crap, I want to ride. All signed up for the Tahoe Sierra 100 again and it looks like they're even going to improve the course this year, taking out some fire road and putting in more singletrack. Can't wait to hit it all on my 29er! And after that, I'll actually be around for some collegiate races this year, so I'll get to keep riding all autumn long.

After the relay, I'll stay in Oregon for my brother's wedding. Everyone's getting married! Craziness!

Placerita Canyon Take 2

So Placerita Canyon ended up being a more difficult ride than I realized. I took the GPS yesterday and discovered that it's 1800ft of climbing in 3.6 miles of steep, loose, exposed fire road in searing heat. That may explain why Carie almost died when we rode it the first time.

In any case, it's still a fun ride. The downhill is still oh-so-sweet. This being my second time out there, I did two laps. I may try to keep this tradition alive while building up to the Tahoe Sierra 100; each time I go out to Placerita, I do another lap. It was...hard. And hot. Hard and hot. I'm not in the condition I was late last summer.

View from the climb; Palmdale valley isn't so terrible from far away.

Brief rest at the top. Let my sweaty, tired, slack-jawed visage haunt you forever.

The new bike is magical. I love this thing. At some point I may try that trail that goes out just behind my bike over that ridge; only once I get bored of the descent I'm riding now, though. And that'll be a while.

The entrance to the singletrack. Finally some shade, just too late when I don't need it.

Once of the less well bermed turns. Seriously. I would swear that there are dirt bikes poaching these trails, the berms are so nice. I didn't see or hear any, so I'm not concerned; I just enjoyed railing turns.

I see a lot of this type of view in the summer. Yay exposed fire road!

Good singletrack cannot be valued too highly.

Thank goodness I live in a place with topography.

Am I the snake charmer or what? Not a rattler, looks like a gopher snake.

Descanso Gardens Take Two and a Half

Some fun from a weeknight mountain bike ride:

Never seen that warning before...but they do mean business. I'll get some pictures of the trail next time I'm out.

Well yeah, that's sort of the point.

PAT, I STRONGLY ADVISE YOU LOOK AWAY RIGHT NOW.

Cute little (3.5') guy just meandering across the trail. I started to switch my camera over to video and get a rock to throw at him to make him rattle, but he slithered over into the bushes and disappeared before I was ready. Probably for the best.

Bikes. And, uh, Bikes.

It is cycling season. Ski season officially ended when I put the thick summer coat of unscraped wax on the planks, put the cheat sheets on the skins, and stowed them all in the reasonably temperate closet. It is cycling season.

Alas, I'm fat and out of shape. Well, just out of shape. But I'm getting back into shape! With the new house, a whole new area to ride in has opened up to me, at least on road (so has mountain, but I'll get into that later). I discovered that it's only 2 miles from my house to the LA River Bikeway, which takes me directly to Griffith Park. In Griffith Park, I can ride big hills, medium hills, or little hills to my heart's content, all without dealing with cars. It's funny how fun road biking can actually be when you have the pavement to yourself. It's reasonably scenic there, too, as I get to ride by the observatory, the LA Zoo, the Hollywood sign, and just around a bunch of isolated nice hills. It's an incredible park. The only problem is that the equestrians have managed to get mountain bikes banned on all the dirt trails.

On its northerly "shores", the LA river has rebelled against its concrete enclosure and it's actually kinda nice. I see at least one heron every single time I ride by here.

On that note, however, there are plenty of other places I've found to ride that are close. Wilson Canyon with Carie was nice, but it turns out that Placerita Canyon on the north side of the ridge is way better. Sure, it's an exposed steep fire road climb in searing heat (that's just riding in SoCal, you get used to it, and if you're insane like me you learn to love it), but the descent is marvelous. It's not really technical at all, it's just fast, flowing, nicely maintained singletrack. Great berms for railing the turns. Amazing ride, only a half hour drive from home. In all it's a 12 mile loop, so I will probably be doing some 5-7 lap days out there in preparation for the Tahoe Sierra 100. I'm hoping to break 11 hours this year, we'll see.

Even closer is Descanso Gardens, a city park that features a lot more singletrack than it should (and mountain bikes are allowed!). While the loops are pretty short (~3-4 miles, 600ft vert), there are some great technical descents to be had there. There are some hilarious warnings in front of some of these trails; I'll get pictures of them next time I'm out. Even had a kit fox run across the trail in front of me at one point.

On the subject of mountain biking, I am loving the new bike. I am loving it even more since I converted my tires to tubeless. My riding buddy recommended this method to me and I followed it, though I was able to use a floor pump just fine despite their warning. 29er wheels are easier to do this with because you just use 26" tubes, which are plentiful and I already had laying around. All in all it only cost $15 for the sealant. With this, I dropped my tire pressure from 28/30 F/R to 24/26 F/R, and the difference is amazing. I'm riding a fairly low profile, low rolling resistance tire ideal for hardpack, but the things they grip stupefy me. While climbing up 20% inclines through moon dust, I just look down and am in disbelief at the terrain because they grip like they're on pavement. The traction on the way down is allowing my to ride descents without a second thought that not long ago would have made me walk. Cornering is amazing. Part of this is because they're 29er tires and the big footprint helps, but it was a noticeable difference after converting to tubeless. I'm not going back. Plus, with the super low pressure in the front, the ride is very smooth. Not just smooth for a rigid fork, but actually smooth by regular standards. As in 100mm travel fork on a 26" bike smooth. 29er plus tubeless = awesome.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, I've been exploring new trails so I've been paying more attention to where I've been going than trying to get the camera out. I'll get some more as I continue to ride through the summer. In good news, I won't have to spend August in Ohio after all, so my training for the fall mountain biking season will actually happen after all! As it turns out, there is a substantial amount of mountain biking in Ohio, though, which will come in handy next May-July, which I will be spending there.

MTBing Sylmar

Who's got two thumbs and the best girlfriend ever?

Yeah, you guessed it.

Because my usual network of trails burnt to a crisp last fall and then slid into nothingness over the winter, I've been looking for new places to ride. Something that's been on my list to check out for a while have been the very western edge of the San Gabriels above Sylmar, north of LA. This weekend Carie got back from Texas and needed some exercise to get the awfulness out of her system, so I used the opportunity to take her out riding. She's using my old mountain bike and not surprisingly it fits her way better than me. I'm using my new bike and love it, rigid carbon fork and all. The 29er wheels are amazing; it's hard to get used to them just rolling over everything even with a rigid fork.

As it turns out, the hills out there are pretty with a great network of trails. Less rocks than I'm used to, but a lot of loose stuff and very challenging. Very sandy in many parts. We had a great time exploring and will be going back to ride more soon.

Very nice hills for riding in the Sylmar area. The wildflowers are going crazy this spring.

Blooming wildflowers! The "wet" winter has given us a very nice spring this year.

At this point, I will issue a PAT STOP READING NOW BECAUSE IT MAY CONTAIN SNAKES notice. If you are not Pat, please proceed:

This little guy was lying across the sandy trail apparently unable to get traction. Once he got to the leaves he slithered off just fine, but his little "dance" was so funny.

Mt. Baldy BC, 1/30/10

Sorry I'm late getting this post up; it's been a busy time. This day trip was so great that I still want to put a trip report up even over two weeks later.

Carie was still in Germany at this point. I still wanted to get some BC in because the snow, while plentiful, was a week old and I was sick of the crowds at resorts. Plus, I love BC skiing. I contacted Carie's friend Adam, AKA Nano-Man (because of his awesome, awesome vanity license plate) and we planned to head up to Mt. Baldy.

We managed to get on the road by 7am, unusually early considering my usual companions (*cough*). We stopped by Noah's Bagels on the way out and hit the trailhead nice and early. This was key, as it allowed us to get to the summit early enough to still ski back on nice soft snow instead of the icy crust it turns into when the sun leaves it. We get melt-thaw cycles like crazy down here in SoCal and it starts as soon as the snow is laid down. I've been caught out descending after the sun has gone down before and believe you me it's no fun at all.

The pictures will tell the rest of the story:

The day started out beautifully. We skinned up the service road, then once the long ridge traverse up to the ski hut began we put on the crampons (because 3 miles of steep traverse is not so fun on skins). This, by the way, is Adam, AKA Nano-Man. Also note snow-yucca.

The chutes at the top of the ridge. The nice thing about the Ski Hut Trail is that you're in view of what you're going to be skiing almost the entire time; it's good motivation.

When we got into the bowl and started skinning, a fog appeared almost instantly and visibility went to nothing.

There were times in the bowl when visibility was down to 20-30ft. Existing skin track was nice, but finding the ridge isn't hard in any case.

Once we hit the ridge at the top of the bowl, we were out of the cloud and the views were fantastic.

Summit celebration! I've been on this summit a few times, but I still have yet to see the damn USGS summit marker. I'll take the snow anyway.

More summit R&R. The verdict is in: skinning up the ridge is much more pleasant than cramponing up the chutes, and faster too.

The chutes above the bowl. We skied Zen Chute on the far right this time (there was more snow than in this picture). It was ~40 degrees, 15ft wide, decent snow. Easier than I expected. I was eyeing Dostie's Dare for the next trip up there, though.

Dropping in; this is the first time I've tackled any of these chutes. It's amazing how scary they look when you're standing at the top of them.

The snow at that spot was really good; about 8" of fluffy. It was wind-swept at the top and it was sun crust below.

Starting to breathe easier here; once you're out of the chute it's just a big, wide open 35 degree bowl waiting for you.

Adam dropping in.

Adam charging the Bowl. It was sort of a sun crust, but still fun to ski.

Adam took a video of me in the Bowl. At this point we'd descended about 1500' from the summit and had another 2500' of continuous descent back to the parking lot. When there's snow, this is such a great mountain.

All in all, a big day with 4000' vertical. Almost half of that is the summit, the chutes and the bowl. Then it's a long traverse down the ski hut trail which spits you back out onto the service road. Cutting the switchbacks in the service road provides a last thrill before the parking lot. Add in a trip to In 'N Out on the way back and it was a great day.

I uploaded the GPS tracking of the route (in case you missed it on my last post). The GPS is pretty sweet in that respect, letting me know exactly where I went and which switchbacks I cut on the way down.

Busy Busy!

I've been busy lately. I've been skiing like crazy, taking advantage of the short period each year when there's snow in the mountains near LA. I've got my quals sometime this week (last minute rescheduling going on) and I've been preparing for those. I found a new house and moved the stuff into it. I built up my new mountain bike. Carie gets home tomorrow! This weekend we're flying up to Bend for some skiing at Bachelor. There's a lot going on.

I should give a detailed trip report of my day trip last weekend skiing Baldy Bowl, but I just don't have time at the moment. What I do have, however, is the GPS tracking data, complete with elevation profile, courtesy of a very awesome Christmas present from Carie. It was an awesome trip and I'll post pictures sometime soon. It's a burly day trip with 4000 vertical feet, but that continuous ski all the way back down to the car is oh-so-worth it.

I also have the GPS data from the little day trip Jason, Casey and I did near Mt. Rose on Lake Tahoe on January 31st. Pretty nifty, this new toy! Next I'm going to take the raw data and manipulate it in Matlab to get the slope angle profile! Because I'm a nerd!

New Year Goals

Jeannie just posted a somewhat cheesy list of her goals for the aught-ten. Like a good romcom, however, her post contains an inspirational life-affirming message hidden there in the cheesiness. In addition, it was cute and entertaining. This is pretty much as close as I get to flattery, Jeannie, so you should enjoy it while it lasts.

Anyway, my point is that her list inspired me to write down my own goals for this year and how I'll achieve them:

Physical
1. 3 Backcountry Trips
How: Harass Jeannie into meeting Carie and me in the Eastern Sierra for 3 weekends, one per month as long as there's enough snow
2. Ski or Hike At Least Once per Weekend in Winter and Spring
How: Self-explanatory, but not having internet at the house should help.
3. Climb San Gorgonio
How: Wait until spring when there's minimum of snow and Dry Lake is still a lake, most likely May. Prepare for mountain acclimation with BC trips and other hiking and skiing, at least three times a month.
4. Finish Tahoe-Sierra 100 in less than 11 hours (shave 1:30 off last year's time)
How: Build up lighter bike, train like mad all summer. At least 50 trail miles per week, and 15 hours on a bike per week starting in May. 5 hours per week on a bike starting in April.
5. Qualify for Collegiate MTB Nationals at Northstar
How: Same training plan as #3, race two non-collegiate races this summer to get cat upgrade, and race all collegiate races (including Super D to improve my descending) possible before nats.

Career/Mental
1. Pass Quals
How: Schedule them in early February with my committee and just do it.
2. Publish a Paper
How: Initiate collaboration with computational colleague and perform emission measurements on my discharge, finish measurements by April, submit by August.
3. Get the Prestissimo of Beethoven Sonata #1 in F Minor, Op. 2 No. 1 reliably up to speed, learn the rest of Beethoven Sonata #1 in F Minor, Op. 2 No. 1 and Rachmaninoff Prelude in C Sharp Minor, Op. 3 No. 2
How: Practice 20 minutes every day, with at least 5 minutes devoted to scales and arpeggios. Post videos at least once a month of progress on new pieces.

Interpersonal:
1. Be more agreeable and nicer
How: Limit myself to 10 minutes of arguing per day. Say at least one nice thing to everyone I see during the day.
2. Be closer to my family
How: Send at least one e-mail per week updating my family on how I'm doing. At least one phone call per month.
3. Be more supportive and appreciative of Carie
How: Can't share it here or else she'll know what's coming and not be surprised.

Also, I found a great new house in LA for Carie and me. It's up on a hill in a quiet place with a garden and nice views; it's perfect. I'll be moving in this weekend and settling for a while after that. Hurray for no longer being homeless!

Christmas Markets!!!

I needed a post to get that blob of raw ground beef out of my view because it's grossing me out, so here's a picture of the Freiburg Weihnachtsmarkt from Thanksgiving weekend. I was at the Paris Noel Fete whatever last night on the Champs D'Elysees and have some pictures, but I forgot to upload them to my computer this morning so you'll have to wait. Christmas is a pretty magical time in Europe and I love Christmas markets, not to mention mulled wine/Gluehwein/vin chaud. Nothing like hot wine and fatty food to make the dark and cold even nicer!

Yay Christmas!

Messed Up "Food"

What I am about to show you is bar none the most disgusting thing I have ever seen on a plate in a restaurant, and I ate it. Brace yourself, this is not for the faint of stomach. I've eaten frog legs, snails, and even freaking pork knuckles here, but none of those could prepare me for what I ate last night. I present you with Tartare:

They didn't even sculpt it into a nice shape or anything!

You are seeing correctly: that is in fact 1/3 lb of raw ground beef on a plate. Raw doesn't even begin to describe it; the last time this meat was warm it was alive. It was served chilled. I still don't believe I ate that, but I have proof.

All done!

Unlike the pork knuckle, I was not misled with this one. I asked the French people I was with what Tartare was, and they explained that it was uncooked ground beef. I asked several, just to make sure I was hearing right. The non-French at the table all thought this was disgusting, but most of the French were actually ordering. I thought, why not? This is something I would never be able to get at a restaurant in the states, and I'd always been a little curious as to what raw ground beef tasted like.

For your information, it tastes exactly like you think it does. The surprise is that taste isn't actually as bad as you think it is. It's certainly not delicious; the same meat would certainly taste much better cooked. It is, however, entirely edible, especially if you smother it in sauces and things. It was most noticeable later, because it sat in my stomach like a bloody brick. I'm pretty sure my digestive system has absolutely no idea what to do with it.

In their defense, this supposedly isn't actually French, it's from Crimean Tartars (thus the name). The Russians insisted there's nothing like this in Russia, but that it's possible that the Tartars eat this stuff because they're weird like that.

French Food: Line by Line

Like most of you, the quality of my life depends greatly on the food I am eating. Here are my thoughts on French food:

Snails:

Basically, they're oysters with a funny aftertaste. Edibility depends quite a bit on the preparation and seasoning. Cooked in lots of butter and garlic these are almost as good as oysters, without lots of seasoning they're pretty bad.

Verdict: If you can't get oysters and really need some shellfish they'll pass if they're cooked in butter and garlic. Otherwise avoid.

Frog Legs:

I tried these at a Thai restaurant. The French guy we were with just shook his head and told me to enjoy my chicken. He was right: these are chicken with more bones. Without the extra small bones, I would have been hard pressed to distinguish it from chicken. That said, it was every bit as good as chicken and totally worth it for the novel factor.

Verdict: Worth trying once because it's novel, but outside of survival situations I don't really see a reason to choose them over chicken.

Pork Knuckles:

I got these on accident. I thought I ordered a big, juicy piece of pork, but after a few minutes of picking through bones and fat I discovered there was actually no meat in there. There wasn't even very much fat. It was sorely disappointing to say the least.

Verdict: Avoid, unless you like picking through bones for no meat.

Steaks:

If you were to order a steak "bloody" in an American restaurant, it would still be more well done than the French steaks. When I sear my steaks before grilling, I cook them more than the French do before serving. Also different from American steaks is you don't get to specify; they will not cook it more no matter how much you want it. E.Coli concerns aside, this makes their steaks very dependent on the quality of the meat. A good piece of meat will be delicious, a mediocre piece will be edible, and a subpar piece will be terrible. And the meat varies, even from the same source.

Verdict: If you can stomach practically raw meat, ordering a steak is rolling the dice: could be great, could be awful.

Crepes:

'Zin little pancakes, filled with delicious things like Nutella, sold for cheap everywhere. I don't see a downside.

Verdict: Win.

Croissants:

I love croissants. Delicious buttery flaky goodness. They're fresh and cheap here.

Verdict: I'm willing to forgive the French for being French solely because they invented croissants.

Bread:

French bread is far and superior to its American counterparts, but I'd put it behind Germany. In France, bread is supposed to serve as a vessel for cheese, whereas in Germany they make it for itself and it's delicious with nothing but a little bit of butter (more delicious with lots of butter, of course). Like Germany, France shines in the "fresh bread" department, with bakeries (Boulanger) everywhere. Fresh baguettes are fantastic; lightly crispy with fluffy interiors. After a day they're pretty ho-hum, but it's not too hard to keep a fresh supply. They're cheap, too.

Verdict: Good and inexpensive, though generally requires accompaniment.

Cheese:

The French do soft cheese very well. Camembert, Brie, and literally a couple hundred other varieties are all available. In reality this is more like 10 varieties, because so many of them are so similar that it's a little disingenuous to call it a different variety of cheese just because it came from a different place. They are all very good, though, especially the soft bleu cheeses if you're into that sort of thing. They don't make much hard cheese, but they do import enough from Germany, Switzerland, and Italy that you'll not be left wanting.

Verdict: France ain't the "land of wine and cheese" for nothing.

Wine:

Cheap and very good. I can get a bottle of '05 Bordeaux Reserve for less than 5 euro. France is like the wine section at TJ's, only better.

Verdict: Boo-yah!

Beer:

The French think that Dutch beer is actually good and drink imported Amstel and Heineken almost exclusively. Ew.

Verdict: Epic fail, but compensated for by the wine.

Overall:

The French say that they will eat anything that moves. This is usually good, though sometimes it's painfully obvious that there's a reason no one else eats it. It's a great place for carnivores, cheese lovers, wine lovers, pretty much anyone who likes well-made food. Like all of Europe the food is a little expensive for Americans, but it's worth it. Though they're snobs about their food being superior to everyone else, they still have readily available foreign food of pretty high quality as well. Beer lovers should either learn to appreciate wine or head east.

Verdict: My tongue and stomach have been pretty happy here.

How a MAN opens wine

Leverage? I don't need no stinkin' leverage!

Tour Eiffel on Armistice Day

I'm fairly sure it's legally required for all American tourists to visit the Eiffel Tower if they ever find themselves in Paris for any duration of time. As a regular rule follower I felt compelled to obey, so on my day off because of Armistice Day (November 11th, more on this later) I paid the steel giant a visit. In addition to the goofy photos that everyone who has ever visited the Eiffel Tower has taken without fail, I attempted to take some pictures that were not in every Japanese tourist's album. I took the stairs up to the second floor (about half way up the height of the tower, where the four legs meet), but alas they required me to take an elevator to the very top. I had to dodge and pass many a wheezing tourist on the stairs, with many French tourists lighting a cigarette while doing so (they were probably perplexed why their lungs weren't working so well and needed the nicotine stimulation to ponder it).

Spotting the beast through the foliage for the first time.

Champ du Mars, the park attached to the Tower (formerly a military school with equestrian ground to train cavalry), from the first floor of the tower (halfway up the south pillar).

Champ du Mars from the second floor, where the four pillars meet in the center

Champ du Mars from the top of the tower. The haze is not smog (for a welcome change!), the top of the tower was actually in a cloud while I was up there.

The Grand Palais something or other across the Seine from the tower, one of many palaces in Paris with a very similar name, from the first floor.

Same Palais from the second floor.

I think you get the drill by now.

On this loevely fall day 9105 km was still too close.

That's right; I peed at the top of the Eiffel Tower. Sadly not off the Eiffel Tower, but I'm pretty sure I would have gone to jail for that.

The spire at the top from the top floor.

Yeah, you knew it was coming. Do I look nonplussed enough? I was really going for the nonplussed look.

Wednesday was also Armistice Day, the celebration of the end of WWI, or as I like to call it, the day the French celebrate their last military victory as well as their central role in causing WWII. The French people who heard me explain this to the Russians I work with didn't think that was funny. At all. The Russians have no idea what Armistice Day is, because apparently there was some more important thing going on in their national history in 1918 than the end of WWI, though I can't imagine what that would be.

The Etoile de Charles de Gaulle at the end of the Champs d'Elysees with giant French flag. The giant Tri-Color isn't usually there, that was just for Armistice Day. I should note that this arch was built to commemorate one of France's last major military victories, which was during the Napoleonic wars (maybe I'm a little to hard on the French? I mean, our last real slam dunk military victory was in 1945; perhapsI should take it a little easier on them? Nah...)

A scene from the Champs d'Elysees, one of many pretty streets in Paris and a fairly famous one. The Tour de France finished on this street every year, among other things.

Aww, maybe if they put their flags together people will forget that they've invaded each other numerous times! I have to admit, they do seem to get along pretty well these days considering.

A lovely fountain. Don't let the blue skies in these pictures fool you; this was the first reasonably sunny day I've had since being in Paris. I'm not complaining; I am absolutely loving the clouds and rain after being without it in SoCal for two years.