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Post food came dessert, to which Cooper thinks he should have the majority. Here is a series of iPhone shots of Cooper demanding his turn.
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Thursday, April 30, 2009
Dinner out
After a couple days stuck in captivity, we ventured out last night to run some errands and to fill Jill's Wednesday night dinner with Sarah obligation. Costco, Sunglass Hut, REI then to Rock Bottom Brewery for some food.
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Post food came dessert, to which Cooper thinks he should have the majority. Here is a series of iPhone shots of Cooper demanding his turn.
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Post food came dessert, to which Cooper thinks he should have the majority. Here is a series of iPhone shots of Cooper demanding his turn.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Stabilized
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| From Get Well Cooper |
Jill went to the doc on Monday, and things went pretty well. They think they were able to set her arm correctly, without surgery although with a lot of pain. She's a really tough chick and took it in stride, but I could tell it was tough.
I've been running around like crazy trying to keep up with Cooper, keep Jill from doing things she shouldn't be and keep afloat at work. Its been an exhausting couple of days, but I think given my history of injuries and having Jill wait on me hand and foot that its probably my turn.
Yesterday, much to her delight Jill got a chocolate covered strawberry gift basket from my parents. Much to Cooper's delight it came with a balloon. He really loves it, so we tied it to one of his stuffed animals and he has been having a big time with it. So some pics from Cooper on his new favorite box with his balloon.
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| From Get Well Cooper |
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| From Get Well Cooper |
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| From Get Well Cooper |
Sunday, April 26, 2009
It started innocently enough
Weather has been a little iffy for the last couple weekends. Nice 70 degree days during the week, but some sort of precip on the weekend has been common lately. Today, we were openly defiant at the forecast and decided to get the whole family, puppies included out for a hike.
Up the canyon we went, not knowing exactly where we were heading but ultimately deciding on Lion's Gulch, a tried and true trail we've hiked many times. Coop needed a bottle and to get suited up in his new snowsuit so I took the dogs and headed down to let them play in the creek while Jill fed and suited Coop.
Baloosy was very happy to be out and about...
Soon after, Cooper and Jill showed up.
Up we went. Lion's Gulch is steep and rugged straight from the start
We kept pushing along, and then we got to the first run-off stream crossing. I made a makeshift rock crossing and we were pushing onward. However, the second crossing wouldn't be such a breeze.
The normal crossing spot was ankle deep and about 10 feet wide, so we started looking for alternate crossing areas. We found a spot with a big, stable rock in the middle of the stream that looked feasible to cross. With the help of a stick, I crossed without incident. I took of my pack, then started trying to help Jill get across.
She grabbed the stick, pushed off and then all hell broke loose. The stick broke, and Jill went crashing into the stream. I was trying to help her up but she calmly told me "I broke my arm", and she was evidently right. After a bit of trepidation, I got her up and out of the creek and her arm looked visibly broken. Not a compound fracture, but definitely not normal.
I grabbed Cooper, helped Jill get the Camelbak on backwards in a makeshift sling and we started out. We had a couple miles to hike out, and it was nerve racking to say the least. When we got close, I went ahead and loaded the dogs and Cooper then helped Jill get belted in.
Down the canyon, through Lyons and to the ER in Longmont. Dropped Jill off, took the dogs home, got Cooper changed and headed back. Diagnosis was a bit iffy, but they think its a clean break of both bones in her lower left arm. They put her in a temporary cast and told her to seek an orthopedic doctor ASAP. So tomorrow, I head back to the orthopedic surgeon for my 5 month checkup on my Achilles, and we try to see if we can get Jill on the mend now.
She's a tough chick, she'll be fine but I know she is frustrated. We just can't seem to keep everyone healthy lately. Hopefully the initial diagnosis is correct, and in 6ish weeks she'll be good as new.
Up the canyon we went, not knowing exactly where we were heading but ultimately deciding on Lion's Gulch, a tried and true trail we've hiked many times. Coop needed a bottle and to get suited up in his new snowsuit so I took the dogs and headed down to let them play in the creek while Jill fed and suited Coop.
Baloosy was very happy to be out and about...
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| From Shortened Lion's Gulch Hike |
Soon after, Cooper and Jill showed up.
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| From Shortened Lion's Gulch Hike |
Up we went. Lion's Gulch is steep and rugged straight from the start
 |
| From Shortened Lion's Gulch Hike |
We kept pushing along, and then we got to the first run-off stream crossing. I made a makeshift rock crossing and we were pushing onward. However, the second crossing wouldn't be such a breeze.
The normal crossing spot was ankle deep and about 10 feet wide, so we started looking for alternate crossing areas. We found a spot with a big, stable rock in the middle of the stream that looked feasible to cross. With the help of a stick, I crossed without incident. I took of my pack, then started trying to help Jill get across.
She grabbed the stick, pushed off and then all hell broke loose. The stick broke, and Jill went crashing into the stream. I was trying to help her up but she calmly told me "I broke my arm", and she was evidently right. After a bit of trepidation, I got her up and out of the creek and her arm looked visibly broken. Not a compound fracture, but definitely not normal.
I grabbed Cooper, helped Jill get the Camelbak on backwards in a makeshift sling and we started out. We had a couple miles to hike out, and it was nerve racking to say the least. When we got close, I went ahead and loaded the dogs and Cooper then helped Jill get belted in.
Down the canyon, through Lyons and to the ER in Longmont. Dropped Jill off, took the dogs home, got Cooper changed and headed back. Diagnosis was a bit iffy, but they think its a clean break of both bones in her lower left arm. They put her in a temporary cast and told her to seek an orthopedic doctor ASAP. So tomorrow, I head back to the orthopedic surgeon for my 5 month checkup on my Achilles, and we try to see if we can get Jill on the mend now.
She's a tough chick, she'll be fine but I know she is frustrated. We just can't seem to keep everyone healthy lately. Hopefully the initial diagnosis is correct, and in 6ish weeks she'll be good as new.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Cooper is ready for spring
Spring has sprung on the Front Range (or so I've been told), and Cooper is ready. He loves getting out for his daily ride around the neighborhood paths with the puppies. Rarely does he ever make a sound when he's out and about, its when you try to get him to sit still that you have lots of sounds...
Anyway, Jill took some pics of Coop sporting his sweet overalls that BK & Amy got him. Without further ado....
Anyway, Jill took some pics of Coop sporting his sweet overalls that BK & Amy got him. Without further ado....
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| From Cooper in Overalls |
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| From Cooper in Overalls |
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| From Cooper in Overalls |
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| From Cooper in Overalls |
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| From Cooper in Overalls |
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| From Cooper in Overalls |
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| From Cooper in Overalls |
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
The Power of Power
Let me preface this blog entry with this outright admission....I'm a huge data nerd.
I spend the better part of my days analyzing numbers, figures and statistics. When I drive I am predominately silent but in my head permutations of the quickest and most efficient route are always taking place. I've always had an obsession with time, speed, distance, etc...
For the first 10 - 12 years (Sarah will say 16) of my life, my sister Sarah manipulated me into doing all sorts of things by finishing her request with a simple "I'll time you!". Of course she never really did time me, but it didn't stop me from trying to achieve a personal best time.
Part of the reason I've always loved cycling is the endless amount of data and choices from that data it provides me. Am I faster spinning at 100rpm or should I push a big gear? Am I better off saving some energy on the climb and attacking the flats?
After several years of using a Polar heart rate monitor, last winter I took the plunge and bought a PowerTap for my road bike. In conjunction with that, I took advantage of my cycling team's sponsorship by TrainingPeaks.com and picked up a copy of WKO+ for the ultimate data geek indulgence. The difference between power and heart rate is easy to see. I heard it once described as the following "Heart rate is like using an axe, where power is like using a scalpel". I've always thought that summed it up well. You can see in my workout file from tonight how the power (Yellow graph) stays relatively constant but my heart rate steadily increases.
This particular workout is much harder than I expected. Its just doing an aerobic pace, but then every 3 minutes you do a "jump" to 175% of your threshold power. Its great for about the first 20 minutes, then the jumps seem to come quickly. Hard to keep pushing hard for 20 jumps too.
Last year, I put in hard, hard hours from January to April using the power meter almost every single ride. I targeted increasing my functional threshold, and when May came and the "good stuff" started opening up in the higher terrain I was stronger than ever. For the first time since moving to CO, I was killing the climbs and recovering faster after hard efforts. I was amazed at how much better I could target my work with the power meter than with a heart rate monitor. With the hear rate monitor, I think I often thought I was working harder than I was. With the power meter, with that big wattage number staring you down all the time there is no escaping it when you aren't laying down the power you are supposed to be putting out.
Once the weather got nice, I pretty much started just riding the mountain bike(s) without any regard to power or training or data. I spent the winter preparing to be strong all summer and now I was just out reaping the rewards. I'll never be someone who follows a training plan strictly, and you won't ever catch me changing my ride or turning down hard efforts because it doesn't fit my plan. However, I did do a lot more "recovery" rides last year and I do believe it helped me last year.
So fast forward to November of 2008...
In an ill fated game of squash in San Antonio left me with a ruptured Achilles, and a derailed training plan for 2009. In what seems like a miraculous recovery, I was putting miles on my bike by the first of the year after only 6 weeks post-surgery. I'm on assignment in Calgary most weeks, so I decided to take advantage of the corporate apartment provided to me and shipped up my road bike and trainer up north.
This is where I've discovered how helpful the power meter is in not only helping me get back in shape, but also keeping me in check from going to hard too fast. I've started back slowly, doing very little threshold work until the last couple weeks but the fitness is starting to come back slowly. What is really nice is that I can quantitatively see where I am now versus where I was a year ago and target my training accordingly. Obviously I'm not doing much (any) sprint work yet, but my the rest of my numbers are improving steadily.
With power, the magic number is watts per kilogram. In other words, how much power can you produce versus how much you weigh. I'm still about 10lbs over where I need to be, but that is dropping all the time with the work as well.
Here is my best effort for a given time frame for last year compared to this year. You can see that with the exception of the sprint power (about 1/2 of last year's best), I'm not too far removed which is encouraging.
You can see that I've been doing a lot of endurance / base building and not a lot of hard efforts, but that will change soon.
I spend the better part of my days analyzing numbers, figures and statistics. When I drive I am predominately silent but in my head permutations of the quickest and most efficient route are always taking place. I've always had an obsession with time, speed, distance, etc...
For the first 10 - 12 years (Sarah will say 16) of my life, my sister Sarah manipulated me into doing all sorts of things by finishing her request with a simple "I'll time you!". Of course she never really did time me, but it didn't stop me from trying to achieve a personal best time.
Part of the reason I've always loved cycling is the endless amount of data and choices from that data it provides me. Am I faster spinning at 100rpm or should I push a big gear? Am I better off saving some energy on the climb and attacking the flats?
After several years of using a Polar heart rate monitor, last winter I took the plunge and bought a PowerTap for my road bike. In conjunction with that, I took advantage of my cycling team's sponsorship by TrainingPeaks.com and picked up a copy of WKO+ for the ultimate data geek indulgence. The difference between power and heart rate is easy to see. I heard it once described as the following "Heart rate is like using an axe, where power is like using a scalpel". I've always thought that summed it up well. You can see in my workout file from tonight how the power (Yellow graph) stays relatively constant but my heart rate steadily increases.
This particular workout is much harder than I expected. Its just doing an aerobic pace, but then every 3 minutes you do a "jump" to 175% of your threshold power. Its great for about the first 20 minutes, then the jumps seem to come quickly. Hard to keep pushing hard for 20 jumps too.
Last year, I put in hard, hard hours from January to April using the power meter almost every single ride. I targeted increasing my functional threshold, and when May came and the "good stuff" started opening up in the higher terrain I was stronger than ever. For the first time since moving to CO, I was killing the climbs and recovering faster after hard efforts. I was amazed at how much better I could target my work with the power meter than with a heart rate monitor. With the hear rate monitor, I think I often thought I was working harder than I was. With the power meter, with that big wattage number staring you down all the time there is no escaping it when you aren't laying down the power you are supposed to be putting out.
Once the weather got nice, I pretty much started just riding the mountain bike(s) without any regard to power or training or data. I spent the winter preparing to be strong all summer and now I was just out reaping the rewards. I'll never be someone who follows a training plan strictly, and you won't ever catch me changing my ride or turning down hard efforts because it doesn't fit my plan. However, I did do a lot more "recovery" rides last year and I do believe it helped me last year.
So fast forward to November of 2008...
In an ill fated game of squash in San Antonio left me with a ruptured Achilles, and a derailed training plan for 2009. In what seems like a miraculous recovery, I was putting miles on my bike by the first of the year after only 6 weeks post-surgery. I'm on assignment in Calgary most weeks, so I decided to take advantage of the corporate apartment provided to me and shipped up my road bike and trainer up north.
This is where I've discovered how helpful the power meter is in not only helping me get back in shape, but also keeping me in check from going to hard too fast. I've started back slowly, doing very little threshold work until the last couple weeks but the fitness is starting to come back slowly. What is really nice is that I can quantitatively see where I am now versus where I was a year ago and target my training accordingly. Obviously I'm not doing much (any) sprint work yet, but my the rest of my numbers are improving steadily.
With power, the magic number is watts per kilogram. In other words, how much power can you produce versus how much you weigh. I'm still about 10lbs over where I need to be, but that is dropping all the time with the work as well.
Here is my best effort for a given time frame for last year compared to this year. You can see that with the exception of the sprint power (about 1/2 of last year's best), I'm not too far removed which is encouraging.
You can see that I've been doing a lot of endurance / base building and not a lot of hard efforts, but that will change soon.
Monday, April 20, 2009
I heart CO
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| From Cooper in Orange Hat |
Yep, its really the place for me. Sure it was a bit nerve racking to scurry around Calgary on Thursday trying to get my flight moved up to get home to avoid what did turn out to be a monster storm (they got one right), but once home on the Front Range I am truly home.
At our house we got rain, and lots of it. Mountains got as much as 5 feet of snow, and most areas around the metro got quite a bit of snow but we stayed just warm enough to keep it falling as rain. Snow would have been nice, but any moisture is good.
Then after 48 hours of rain/snow, yesterday the skies opened up and its 65 degrees and spectacular. In fact the next 5 days appear to be the perfect CO spring weather that I live for. 70s, sunny and an invitation to get out.
Ski season is over, bike season is here. Hiking/backpacking will follow soon after that, but the 4 feet of snow that RMNP received will delay that a bit...
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| From Cooper in Orange Hat |
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| From Cooper in Orange Hat |
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Lost but not forgotten pics
When I don't take the pictures, I tend to forget about them. Last night while looking through pics for our 2008 blog cover I stumbled across some pics that I never got posted up. Some random pics...
Coop decided to crawl into the stroller compartment
Coop decided to crawl into the stroller compartment
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| From Weekend Roundup |
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| From Weekend Roundup |
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| From Weekend Roundup |
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| From Weekend Roundup |
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| From Weekend Roundup |
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| From Weekend Roundup |
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| From Weekend Roundup |
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| From Weekend Roundup |
Sunday, April 05, 2009
Return to regular & being a closet roadie
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| From Weekend Roundup |
The big storm that was predicted fizzled this weekend, but the weather was pretty dismal. Couple that with the three of us still recovering from our round of stomach virus, and we had a pretty lazy weekend around the house. Cooper seems to be back to normal, which is really good news. Its tough to go back to having him waking up at 3am when you are used to 8pm to 7am sleeping.
So some random pics from around the house, with Cooper continuing to cheese it up for the camera every time.
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| From Weekend Roundup |
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| From Weekend Roundup |
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| From Weekend Roundup |
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| From Weekend Roundup |
Then we filled up the tub a bit and let Cooper splash around in it
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| From Weekend Roundup |
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| From Weekend Roundup |
When I got my corporate apartment in Calgary, I decided to ship my road bike up there so I could ride the trainer Mon - Thurs. That was a great move, and really helps the week go quicker but surprisingly I found myself missing the ease and convenience of having a road bike at home. After selling my Honda 250r quad that had been sitting for years, I had some spending money and decided to use part of it to get another road bike for her in CO.
After quite a bit of deliberation, some test rides and some sizing I decided on a Specialized Tarmac. Change in model and change in size, dropping from a 58cm frame to a 56cm frame. The sizing feels much better and so far I'm very pleased with the ride, although I didn't really get much of a chance to ride it yet. More to come on it, for now some pics posing out by the tree that I use to take pics of all my bikes.
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| From Weekend Roundup |
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| From Weekend Roundup |
Friday, April 03, 2009
Friday outing to the car show
Jill, Cooper and I headed to Denver today. I had lunch with my MarkWest buddies, while Sarah, Cooper and Jill had lunch. After that, we headed over to the Denver Auto Show to check out some new family trucksters for Sarah's expanding family. Cooper had a big time crawling around in all the cars, and even found one that had a special feature....not a cup holder but a Coop holder.
Kid is becoming quite the camera ham. He sees the little infrared light go off and he immediately starts cheesing it up.
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| From Cooper at the Car show |
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| From Cooper at the Car show |
Kid is becoming quite the camera ham. He sees the little infrared light go off and he immediately starts cheesing it up.
Thursday, April 02, 2009
8 months
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| From Cooper at 8 Months |
Coop turned 8 months yesterday amongst all the fooling happening in the world. Seems crazy to think he is already 8 months old, doesn't seem possible. The last few days have been a dismal at times, Jill, Cooper and I have all been fighting some sort of stomach bug. Just in the last day or two have we all started to turn the corner and get over this stuff. Coop is playing more, sleeping better and back to laughing again.
Some pics from the freshly 8 month old kiddo...
Coop feeding himself some little cereal things
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| From Cooper at 8 Months |
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| From Cooper at 8 Months |
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| From Cooper at 8 Months |
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| From Cooper at 8 Months |
After his normal feeding, he got a little bit of his mom's strawberries and whip cream
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| From Cooper at 8 Months |
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| From Cooper at 8 Months |
Then he spent the rest of his night standing and walking around the chair that was pushed out from the table
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| From Cooper at 8 Months |
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| From Cooper at 8 Months |
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| From Cooper at 8 Months |
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