Day 101...Silence Broken

Yes you are right...I have been quiet for a while.  It's been seven days since my last post, and that is way too long.  Things have been very busy lately, and I am having trouble finding time to put together posts that I think people would like to read.  Blogging takes time...and I am finding less and less of it that I can spare these days.  

My athlete training schedule is getting busier, and so is my own training schedule...not to mention the fact that I am now back in physical therapy three times per week.  Oh yeah...it seems as though I have plateaued in my ability to lose body fat, so that is taking a mental toll on my outlook on training.  Fortunately, I will be meeting with a sports nutritionist at Athletes' Performance Institute this Friday, to help with my eating plan for the remainder of my training.  This consultation is part of a sponsorship package from Athlete's Performance, that I feel very blessed to have been offered.  Please take a look at their website at www.athletesperformance.com for more information about what they do.  They also have a great membership based website...www.coreperformance.com that I would highly recommend to anyone trying to get back in shape or increase their performance. 

Whew...!  That was some good venting huh?  Thanks for listening!  And thank you to a devoted follower for doing what this blog was originally designed to do...hold me accountable.  After six days of silence, this faithful friend and follower sent me a little message, making sure everything was okay, and if there was anything he could do to help me.  Wow!  That was awesome...thank you!  It means alot.

Alright, I know I owe you all one or two more blogs on carbohydrates, but that is going to have to wait.  You see, it takes a fair amount of time to prepare my nutrition blogs due to the amount of research that goes into making sure that what I am putting out there is backed by research...and not just Wikipedia's content...but real, peer reviewed and evidence based research.  Sorry, I promise to finish up those CHO posts ASAP.

Today however, I wanted to share another video with you.  This one is a little longer than the last, but I thought you might like to take a ride with me on a downhill section that covers approximately two miles.  The camera really doesn't do justice to the experience, but it should give you a pretty good idea of what downhill riding (the type that I do) is all about...FUN!  

Okay, so let me set the stage for the video, with a couple of still shots of the area.  The first shot was taken on a ride last week, north of the area in the video...does that make sense?  Ok, good.  Hopefully you can click on the photo and look at it in a full screen mode, so that what I am saying makes sense.  The mountain range in the distance,  contains the trail system that the video was taken on.  This shot was taken from roughly 3-4 miles north of the area. 

The Deem Hills Mountain in the background...looking south.

Some pretty nasty, technical climbing...The Gravity Tax.

The second picture provides you with an example of how difficult the climbing is on the way up the mountain.  I call it "The Gravity Tax".  The Gravity Tax refers to the amount of work required to climb up to the top of a mountain.  What's the payoff you ask?  Pure adrenaline pumping, wide-eyed, bombing of the downhill section!  

The next picture was taken about halfway up the mountain, and shows you just how much more I had to climb to get to the top.  Two interesting things to mention about this photo.  First, look at the nest some little critter made way up high and safe in the arm of the Saguaro cactus...looks like a pack-rat nest to me...the first I've ever seen above ground.  Pretty smart little critter huh?  Second, the saddle in the mountain, just to the right of the cactus (if you enlarge it you can see a white dot...that is a person on the trail) is pretty close to the point at which the video was taken.

The descent begins on the north side of the mountain, and ends up swinging around to the south side, ultimately ending up at the parking lot where the climb began.  So, without further adieu...

I hope you enjoyed the ride!  Oh...sorry Scott...I didn't crash this time either!  Thank God!