Kirby. Cubby. The Cubs. The Kirbster. Big Bidness. Big Guy. Big Twubbles. My Boy.

When the time had come for his very last car ride, he let me pick him up and carry him out to the car without even the slightest whimper (those with Bassetts know this isn’t normal) and he walked casually into the veterinarian’s office, even waiting patiently for me to hold the door for him. While we waited for a room, I silently wished he would become completely incapacitated or start barking at the other dogs, showing some life. Instead, he sat calmly between Amy’s legs, occasionally looking at us with the eyes that won us over a little over 3 years ago.

A million thoughts raced through my head, memories of the good times we had and my thoughts on death and what happens in the end. Our only goal was to end his pain which he was clearly in. While he was walking on his own, he hadn’t had a bite to eat or even a sip of water (Kirby had a serious drinking problem) and he hadn’t just been himself in weeks. I spent the majority of this week lying on the floor with him (still doing my conference calls at work) and he had finally let me look into his eyes for long periods of time. I saw sweetness and pain, pain he didn’t deserve.

Amy and I stayed with him while Dr. Sunderman injected h a powerful sedative followed by an overdose of a narcotic. He calmly fell asleep on his side next to Amy and I on the floor. His heart stopped about 30 seconds after the narcotic was administered. No movement whatsoever. And then he was gone.

We would have done anything to make him better- any amount of money, any amount of time. He was our child. His quality of life was the most important thing however and Amy and I could not fathom dozens of trips to the vet, surgeries, medicines and immobility. The cancer was too aggressive and we were out of time. He deserved better. We rescued him from an abusive family and someone who abandoned him. Though maybe he rescued us. He gave us better days. He deserved to be free of this pain. And now he is.

Thank you so much for finding us, big guy.

Wherever it is we we pass from this physical life, I hope to see this again

GPS Data from our Route on Google Earth

In the Colorado Springs Cycling Club, there are three nutballs that are always the most competitive and always finish first. Steve, Josh and myself. We’re all about the same age, the same stage of life and share the same passion for going fast on a bike. With the exception of Josh (who crushes EVERYONE on the climbs), we have the same physical abilities.

A few weeks ago, while ignoring ride instructions at a club ride, we hatched the idea of going to the summit as hard as we could from Barr Camp. Today was the day.

We covered the 12.68 miles in a total time of 4 hours, 54 minutes, 3 seconds and a moving time of 4:04:09. The weather was perfect but we were a little alarmed when we got to Barr Camp and a woman said the temp on top was 15 degrees with a 25 mph wind from the west. Screw it we said and trudged on in our shorts and long sleeve t-shirts.

Interestingly, all three of us had difficulties keeping up at various times on the course. I struggled and was dropped on the 2 miles after Barr Camp but felt the best the higher we got. Not surprising since I’ve always done extremely well at altitude and generally get better as a race goes on. In an incredible display of timing, Amy appeared in my truck to pick us up at the top and take us back home.

I’ll spare you the rest of the banal details but would say this was the most fun I’ve had since moving to Colorado back in March of 2007. It was a lot of suffering but in fine company and great scenery.

I don’t have any group pictures, just memories to hold, that grow sweeter each season, as we slowly grow old (big points for knowing the song and artist!).

Due to the pace, we didn’t talk much and took almost no pictures except our camera phones. Here are the pictures off mine:

This was our first glance at the Peak

The Shelter at Barr Camp

Me at the Barr Camp Shelter

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. 

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 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.

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.

I logged in last night for the first time in about 40 days and cleared out all of my invites.  This is how many I’ve received in less than 24 hours and I only have 15 friends.  I used to think they were cool until I learned that people just send these invites to everyone which detracts from their value, at least for me.  When I learned that Scrabulous is a person to person game, I played.  Maybe social networks just aren’t for me.  Maybe I’m just not social enough.

Here’s the thing though, I feel guilty for not “accepting” the invites or not sending anything out in return.  Maybe I’m weird but the last people I want to bother are my friends (even though I don’t consider and invite a “bother” if that makes any sense).  I understand that Facebook just wants to make their site as sticky as possible but at some point, in become more of a hassle than a benefit when you have a bunch of friends.  When sending an invite to someone, the default should be to invite just a single person rather than your entire address book.  I want to use FB to keep tabs on what’s going on in my friends’ lives, not hassle them to death.

I had to write a very tight piece of code for work tonight and I remembered that trance keeps my ADHD at bay. So I loaded up a new directory of new tunes I’d recently downloaded and found an absolute gem that I’d forgotten about. My code got done, tested, and checked into SVN but I can’t get this track out of my head.

Check it out:

Burned with Desire by Armin Van Buuren

And don’t make fun of me

I was so exhausted tonight and had laid down but it was futile- this song gave me new life and I wanted to share.

Or so I thought….

Back on May 2nd, I went in to see the doctor about another flare up of my acute insomnia. As a normal part of the check-in process, I was weighed but I knew I was the heaviest in my life so didn’t even look at the scale. I went back in today (for the insomnia again) and was weighed. Though I knew I’d gained about 1 1/2 pounds in the past couple of weeks, I was anxious to see how much I’d blew the old reading out of the water. The numbers showed 228.9. Hmm, about 5 pounds more than I expected but I still must have crushed it. I asked the nurse what I weighed the first time I came in. She said 218.2. Surely she was mistaken. I asked to see the chart. I told her their must be some error, the first reading was wrong. She checked and said no, that the scale they use is extremely accurate and is re-calibrated every single morning. She casually said that I’d gained 11.7 pounds in the past 6 months. I sank in my chair.

In the past 6 months, I’d averaged 1,038 miles on the bike per month (approximately 280,000 calories alone), walked several hundred miles with Amy and the dogs, cut out all soda, watched what I ate and GAINED 11.7 pounds. IN THE SUMMER. Before starting to exercise, I was working on the road, completely sedentary and eating fast food for every meal.

Amy thought that there must have been some mistake. Either their scale was wrong the first time or it was today. I called their office back and was assured by a different person that the scale is in fact calibrated every day and that it was a $8,000 scale and extremely accurate. How is that possible? How could I have gained all that weight with all that activity? Was the (rather expensive) $130 scale I purchased in May lying to me the whole time? I don’t know what it is but it has certainly destroyed my motivation.

I guess I’ll have to double everything. A 2 hour ride on the trainer will now have to be a 4 hour ride and 4 days off a month becomes 2. I’ll also have to pick up running. Crap.