The Spanish term Mesa Verde translates into English as “green table”.  On the second day of our Labor Day holiday trip to Southwestern Colorado, I went with Amy, Hugh and Donna to Mesa Verde National Park.  You may not recognize the park’s name, but you’ll definitely recognize the image of the Anzsazi cliff dwellings.  Mesa Verde National Park features numerous ruins of homes and villages built by the ancient Pueblo people, erroneously referred to as the “Anasazi” until recently. 

Spanish explorers seeking a route from Santa Fe to California in the 1760s and 1770s were the first Europeans to reach the Mesa Verde region, which they named after its high, tree-covered plateaus. However, they never got close enough to see the ancient stone villages, which would remain a secret for another century. Occasional trappers and prospectors visited, with one prospector, John Moss, making his observations known in 1873. The following year he led eminent photographer William Henry Jackson through Mancos Canyon, at the base of Mesa Verde. There Jackson both photographed and publicized a typical stone cliff dwelling. In 1875 geologist William H. Holmes retraced Jackson’s route. Reports by both Jackson and Holmes were included in the 1876 report of the Hayden Survey, one of the four federally financed efforts to explore the American West. These and other publications led to proposals to systematically study Southwestern archaeological sites. They did not lead to action for some years.

As concern grew over the archaeological well being of Mesa Verde’s ruins, and those in other nearby sites, the area was established as a national park on June 29, 1906. As with all historical area run by the National Park Service, the park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966. It was designated a World Heritage Site on September 6, 1978. The park was named with the Spanish for green table because of its forests of juniper and piñon trees.

The park is huge, covering 81.4 square miles over 4,000 known archeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings that date from 510 AD to 1350 AD.  The weather was cool with dark clouds hanging over us but we decided to just do the famous Cliff Palace tour which is believed to be the largest cliff dwelling in North America.  Though the steep steps and vertical ladder climbs were tough on Donna’s knees, it was an extremely enjoyable trip and I highly recommend it if you’re in the Durango, CO area. 

On the way down from the mesa, we hit an epic rainstorm and it made the drive a little tricky with visibility about 20 feet.  The GPS came in pretty handy as it helped us know when the turns were coming.  You can see more pictures in my Flickr photoset.

Though I hadn’t ridden outside sine June 26th, I decided to make a run at the North Cheyenne Canyon climb.  I’ve previously written about this HERE, HERE  and HERE.

Though I’ve lost about 100 pounds since I first tried it last year, I’m still surprised that I’ve been able to knock almost 5 minutes off my PR.  Oddly, tonight’s climb felt the slowest of all my efforts though I did notice that I stayed above 7 mph on the super steep section (usually drop below 5 there).  Initial attempt:  24:44.  New PR:  19:39!

The conditions were ideal, about 60 degrees with no wind and I literally climbed into a cloud which cooled me off even more.  When I had set out for a ride, I hadn’t even though of doing NCC but then I realized that I’m unlikely to see weather like this until November. 

While working on my bike tonight in my home office in the basement, I saw something scurry by my feet. I thought it was a lizard (we’ve had a few of those which we’ve caught and released) so I went upstairs to get Amy and the lizard box (a big, clear Tupperware container). When I came back down and shined the flashlight under my server rack (yes, I’m a hardcore geek), I saw two little beedy eyes staring back at me.

To make a long story short, we waited him out and he quickly ran under a bookcase where I was able to trap him. The rest can be seen in this video. Yes, I’m a big baby and could not bear the thought of killing him or putting out one of those inhumane traps. Luckily he was saved. The whole escapade lasted about two hours.

After this video was shot, we took him out front and released him. He scurried away and will hopefully be safe.

Taken 6/26/07, I was about 260 pounds

Taken today, 193.0 pounds.

I can barely recognize the top picture but it has given me motivation to get on the bike right now, at 8:55 pm.  Even at 193 though, I’m still about 20 pounds overweight for my height of 6′ 1″.  Sorry about the scruff, I would have shaved but I was testing out my new camera and was shocked to see myself.

Though I MUCH prefer cycling over running, I was never really bad at it and have now added it to my routine to give my ass some time to recover from the bike and to burn calories a lot faster.

Using the Bodybugg (God, I hate that name) has been a real eye opener for me in terms of my caloric burn.  For example, you can clearly see that I burn significantly less calories on the bike (even while riding for hours at my lactate threshold) than I do while running (at a pace I can easily sustain for an hour).

 
At my LT, I’m burning approximately 10 calories per minute (2 rides here).

 
When running, I’m burning about 15.2 calories per minute.

While this isn’t surprising, I’ve learned that running can be a real help when trying to maintain a 1,000 - 1,500 calorie per day deficit.   I needed to take today off the bike so I went with Amy down to 24-Hour Fitness and ran on the treadmill for an hour (30 minutes at 165+ bpm) and it went pretty well.  I’m not really a gym person but finding flat roads to run on here is just about damn near impossible.  It’s not the uphill that kills, it’s the downhill.

So far, so good on the weight loss front.  After a two sketchy weeks, I’m finally starting to drop.  About a year ago, I was 269.5 and I checked in this morning at 217.0.  Goal weight is 180 by the last Sunday in July and 170 by the end of this year.  After that, I’ll just want to maintain and work on my power output (more on using a power meter this week) and getting back into racing next year.  My motivation is a little different than most peoples.  Instead of wanting to look good, fit into certain clothes or be healthy, I just want to go faster up hills.  I’ve already got decent power output and if I can change the "mass" part of the equation, I can be competitive again.