I (heart) Tim

Recently I received a message from my very injured Canadian running coach, Kevin, describing the extent and impact of his running-related injuries. Here in New York, I have an American friend, Caitlin, who describes herself as a "running, swimming, biking, squash-playing, cooking, nature-loving, early-morning-rising" kind of girl. Caitlin has also recently suffered a string of terrible injuries. Only she can relay the series of events correctly, but I think it started with sciatica and ended with her in physio every other day for three hours at a time (I've been known to exaggerate, but this is no exaggeration), being treated for everything from a stress reaction in her foot to a bum hip. Because she's had to lay off the running (and even forgo a planned marathon this spring), cycling, and squash, her injuries have been the source of both physical and emotional distress. I can only imagine her frustration; the most serious injury I've suffered to-date is a swollen second toe -- apparently diagnosed as plantar capsilitus by my celebrity podiatrist (that is, a podiatrist to the celebrities of running), and which I will no doubt get to at some point in a future post -- and though I've had the occasional shin pain or sore knee or tight plantar fascia, I've never had to take a day off of running because of a running-related injury (which is quite amazing, all things considered).

Note: not my foot

It is therefore with much sympathy that I've been following Caitlin's injury rehabilitation. So when, a few days ago, I received an email from Kevin describing his litany of injuries and the associated sadness/pain/frustration/anger that goes with them, I thought Caitlin might like to know that she's not the only one out there who is suffering. I excerpted a part of his email to show to her, which included the following line: "I can't do ANYTHING without intense pain--inline skate, elliptical, cycle...even a 1 mile walk to Tim Hortons has me in tears (from the pain, but also from the hopelessness and powerlessness of not being able or allowed to even TRY at anything)." While Cailtin replied that she could most definitely relate to Kevin's pain and frustration, she added at the end, "I like that he walks a mile to eat donuts at Tim Horton's, hehe." But as any Canadian reader would have already understood, it's highly unlikely that Kevin was trying to walk a mile for donuts. Though I haven't confirmed this with him, I'm guessing that he was attempting the trek for the sake of Tim Hortons coffee.


Tim's is something of an institution in Canada. It's eponymous Canadian founder was a former NHL player for teams that included the Toronto Maple Leafs and the New York Rangers, but, for most Canadians today, Tim Horton's is synonymous with deliciously wonderful coffee. It has an earthy richness to it that goes down like a warm embrace in your belly, and, in my house, Tim's is all my husband and I drink. About two years ago, we began hauling it back with us to NYC every time we visited Canada, and we now try to buy a sufficient number of tins to hold us through to our next planned trip. (Canadian visitors to our humble abode are encouraged to bring a tin, too.) My family, who are also Tim's devotees, drinks several cups of the stuff each day. Last summer, on vacation with my parents in Ecuador, it was amusing to find my java-loving dad drinking only tea for two weeks: they don't have Tim's in South America.

While I normally enjoy my Tim's after my morning run and before heading to work, there have been an increasing number of studies over the last few months documenting the positive effect of caffeine on athletic performance. Apparently all one needs is about one mg of caffeine per one kg of body weight to see a beneficial effect on endurance and performance; five or six mgs/kg is probably okay, but nine mgs/kg can actually be detrimental. Since the average 12 oz cup of drip coffee contains about 200 mg of caffeine, that means I'm pretty much good to go with one cup of coffee before my run. So over the last few months, I have changed my Saturday morning long run routine to include rolling out of bed at 7 am to brew half a pot of Tim's (I don't have time to brew, drink, and let the "gastrointestinal effect" of coffee kick in before my weekday runs). Every 50-60 minutes during my long runs, I also typically ingest a chocolate-flavored Power Gel that contains 25 mg of caffeine (I recommend Power Gel, not GU, because the former has a 4:1 sodium:potassium ratio while the latter does not, and I've read that this is the optimal ratio for achieving optimal performance).

I can't say that the extra caffeine has had much, if any, positive effect on my performance, but I don't think it's harming it, either. I do remember a few long runs over the last few years, though, on which I was so tired that I thought I might be able to shut my eyes and doze off for a few minutes while still plodding along. I haven't felt that way this season, so maybe the caffeine actually is doing something. (This would make some sense, since I often run on Saturdays until 11:30 am, and by this time of the morning on any other day I would already have two cups of Joe -- excuse me, Tim's -- under my belt.) On the other hand, back when I was young and foolish and first started running routinely, I typically partied away my Friday nights and would roll out of bed hungover and on a few hours of sleep to begin Saturday morning's run. Over the last year, I've become a bit of an old fart, and I'm now pretty vigilant about 10:30 pm bedtimes on Fridays. So it may not be the caffeine at work, but rather the extra dose of prudence.

The jury is still out on whether my pre-run cup of Tim's is actually helping me to run faster, further, or stronger on Saturday mornings. It does, however, provide a good incentive to get out of bed on a weekend morning. And I imagine that, God forbid I should ever end up as injured as Caitlin or Kevin, walking to get a freshly brewed cup at the nearest store will provide a good form of cross-training -- especially if I have to walk all the way to Canada!

Bass Boat

Have you seen our bass boat colors? They're a black base coat, slathered with helical flake so the color changes depending on the angle you're looking at it. They are my favorite of our new rim coatings. Take a look at this video, made by our fearless leader's son, Garrett.

Maseno Project II at Best of Italian - April 23rd

Maseno Project II is a charity fashion tour organized by the famous top model Mimmi Boa that aims to help a RL orphanage in a small village just outside of Maseno in Western Kenya.

In RL the Maseno Project is called the "Nest Rescue Center" (see http://www.nestrescuecenter.org) and is a self-funded community based project. They help support destitue orphaned children, and in special cases--blind, deaf and disabled children. Can you help provide some health care for them. Last year about 400K L$ were raised, this year we have raised more than 450K L$ yet and have a lot of shows scheduled through early May.

The staff of Best of Italian want to help this worthy cause; so, please join us for the Maseno Project Show, and be generous. Wonderful "one of a kind" outfits are to be auctioned . You can help RL children of the Maseno village; while gaining an original specially designed ONE OF A KIND outfit or gown. So mark the calendar for Thursday (April 23rd, 2009, from 13.30 SLT) and come join us, we await you! Don't forget!

To attend the show, tp to: http://slurl.com/secondlife/BEST%20OF%20ITALIAN/75/128/24

More informations can be found on these sites:

http://www.affaritaliani.it/economia/fundraisingnoprofit280309.html

http://www.slnn.it/piazza_italia/maseno_project_ii_al_best_of_italian.html

http://www.slnn.it/piazza_italia/moda_eleganza_e_charity_al_best_of_italian.html

http://lucianapinazzo.blogspot.com/2009/04/maseno-project-ii-al-best-of-italian.html

http://alicemastroianni.blogspot.com/2009/04/beneficienza-maseno-projec-ii-al-best.html

http://laura18streeter.blogspot.com/2009/03/lionskins-releases-zulu-skin-at-300pm.html

http://mamijewell.wordpress.com/2009/04/04/lionskin-at-azul-maseno-project

http://mamijewell.wordpress.com/2009/04/19/maseno-project-fashonshow-auction-today

http://iheartsl.com/2009/02/18/maseno-project-ii

http://aleidarhode.com/2009/02/18/maseno-project-ii

http://slnewspaperextra.blogspot.com/2009/03/maseno-project-in-second-life-helps-in.html

http://slgosee.ning.com/profile/mimmiboa

http://lucianapinazzo.blogspot.com/2009/03/elegance-sl.html

http://lucianapinazzo.blogspot.com/2009/04/parte-anche-litalian-international.html

http://lookelitemodels.wordpress.com/2009/04/18/look-elite-models-for-maseno-garments-of-hope-ii-2009

Estes Park: Balanced Rock

I had originally planned on climbing a summit this week to knock out one more smaller summit before doing the 14er this Saturday, but with so much snow in the mountains still and my next summit being Flattop Mountain at 12,324 feet in elevation with 2,849 elevation gain and 8.8 miles round trip, I thought it might be too much of hike to do with the trail all being still under snow. I’d get plenty of snow hiking in this weekend hiking up that 14er.

Felix was interested in hiking today, so this morning we met up and narrowed down our options before hitting the road. We wanted to do a longer hike at lower elevations to avoid most of the snow, so Rocky Mountain National Park was out, since most of the trails start at higher elevation. We narrowed it down to the Lumpy Ridge area, just east of Rocky. I still haven’t done the hike from Cow Creek TH to Bridal Veil Falls, but since this trailhead starts on a dirt road which was probably going to be all muddy and slushy, we chose to the hike to Balanced Rock starting at the Lumpy Ridge TH, that‘s the one I was going to do last time I was here in March but ran out of time and only made it just a bit past Gem Lake.



Looking toward the snowy peaks of Rocky Mountain National Park on this beautiful spring morning

It was a beautiful morning, the temperature in Fort Collins was supposed to get up in to the low 70’s today, it would be in the low 60 here in Estes Park. Just a few minutes in to hiking toward Gem Lake, it was obvious that there would be snow up here as well. There was lots of water on the trail near the trail head. At times the trail itself was a flowing stream a few inch deep, from all the snow melting snow at the higher elevations. The mountain peaks still had a lot of snow on them too. We continued to climb the trail, after a while the water turned to slush, then to snow on the trail but not too bad.



As always, I really enjoy the cool rock formations along this trail



Gem Lake



Past Gem Lake the trail disappears, covered by snow

We arrived at Gem Lake, there was no ice on it at all now. Just as the other times I’ve been here, as you get to the north side of Gem Lake it becomes very windy, the wind continues for a bit, then stops. From there we descended toward Balanced Rock. As we left Gem Trail it was evident that no one had hiked here since the new snow fell. There were no foot prints in the snow, so we had to figure out where the trail actually was. I had my Rocky Mountain National Park map with me, a few times we stopped to look at it. Even though I’ve been on this trail before, there were two places where it was a bit confusing to where the trail was. There was a quite a bit snow here now approaching the north side of Lumpy Ridge, way more then when I did the whole loop around the Lumpy Ridge in February. The trail went down and up and finally we reached the “Balanced Rock” sign. From here it was still another mile before we would reach the end of the trail at Balanced Rock.



Prairie Crocus mean that Spring has arrived in the mountains

They were so small I almost missed them, small purple fuzzy flowers growing right next to the trail. In order to write about them here in this post I had to figure out what they were, I have no clue about flowers, so I Googled “rocky mountains purple fuzzy spring flowers” and found out they were Prairie Crocus. lavender-purple in color, with yellow centers and fuzzy leaves and stems, which protect the plants from cold temperatures and snow. The fact that these flowers are were blooming, meant Spring has finally arrived in the mountains.



Black bear tracks along the trail to Balanced Rock



Getting to Balanced Rock meant going down in to a gulch and climbing back up



The trail to Balanced Rock is not as frequently used as the one to Gem Trail, at times it's hard to find the trail

We continued along the trail toward Balanced Rock. But with no foot steps to follow in the snow the trail was hard to find at first. We just made our way south, not much further after passing the sign for “Balanced Rock” we came upon some prints in the snow. I have never seen bear prints before, but there was no mistake, these were black bear prints. I told Felix that if I was hiking alone today, I might have turned around at this point., even though the tracks were heading in the opposite direction. We followed the bear tracks for about a quarter of mile, the bear was walking the trail. It was amazing, such a large area, he could have chosen any path but he chose to walk the hiking trail. I hope he wasn’t following his next meal.



Balanced Rock



This looks like a pussy willow

After a while we made it to an area where the trail was a little sketchy again. We checked the map again, but it was hard to say where the trail went. After examining the contour lines on the map we agreed that the trail continued in to the gulch so down we went, still continuing the bear tracks but only until we reached the bottom of the gulch. The bear tracks went off in one direction and we continued in another. The trail was easy to follow here, it traveled up again. We started to pass many rocks that could have easily been “Balanced Rock” one looked very much like Napoleon’s hat. But the trail still continued until there was no mistake, we here and this was the “Balanced Rock“.




Heading toward Gem Lake, lots of snow here



Looking northwest from the trail at the snow caped summits



A short stop at Gem Lake on the way back



I like the way the pictures come out in the afternoon at Gem Lake

It was time to take a lunch break. Unfortunately, the clouds were rolling in now and when we stopped hiking it got very cold. After resting and eating for about 20 minutes with some warmer layers on it was time to start back. The way back was easy, we just followed our foot prints in the snow and later on we followed our foot prints and the bear prints. I couldn’t help but keep turning around to make sure we weren’t being followed.



The rocky and wet trail coming back down from Gem Lake



A storm morning in, the weather changes fast in the mountains



Just below Gem Lake along the trail sits this rock with a hole in it called Paul Bunyan's Boot



Signs along the trail

We climbed out of the gulch and continued back to Gem Lake, parts of the trail continued to climb again and I could tell I was getting tired, needed to take more small breaks. We arrived at Gem Lake again, I think Gem Lake photographs much better in the afternoon, then in the morning. There were a bit more clouds now toward Rocky Mountain National Park and more snow had melted off the trail since we hiked it this morning. I’ve been on this section of trail from Lumpy Ridge TH to Gem Lake now 5 times, and I have to say that those “rock steps” are just not fun for me to hike. Going up them, is hard but on the way down my knees really start to hurt, since they are kind of tall. I much prefer a steep dirt or rocky trail to these giant rock steps. We made it back down to the parking lot in less then 6 hours. The round trip distance ended up being 7.6 miles.



Trailhead elevation at Lumpy Ridge: 7,920 feet
Gem Lake elevation: 8,830 feet
Balanced Rock elevation: 8,240 feet
Total elevation gain: approx. 1,500 feet
Distance from Lumpy Ridge TH to Balanced Rock: 7.6 miles round trip

ST3 is back! Ride to Fossil Creek Reservoir

This afternoon I went t pick up my ST3 form the dealer. The good news -the bike is fixed and is running beautifully. The bad news - apparently I paid over $1,000 for another dealer to totally screw up my Ducati. (More on that in another post).

I was finally going to be reunited with my ST3 this afternoon. I felt a little nervous driving to the dealership. Was the bike really going to be fixed this time? I drove the to car to Loveland to Northern Colorado Euro, about 9 miles from my house. Mike was going to drop me off here tonight, so I could drive my car back home.

As I was paying for the service, I heard my ST3 start up in the back of the dealership. The tech was taking it for one last test ride. I came around the corner and I saw the ST3 parked, ready for me to take it home. I have to admit I was a bit apprehensive about riding it again. Mostly because I haven’t ridden street in a while and I felt out of practice and because the ST3 is a physically large bike for me, heavy and harder to ride than the 954RR. I haven’t ridden the ST3 since last year… that’s 10 months! I had honestly forgot how it sounded, how it handled, how it shifted and how heavy it felt. Would I still even enjoy riding this bike?

I geared up, started it up, sat on it and backed it out of the parking spot. Without the side cases and things inside them, the bike is just a bit taller. Plus, I had a brand new back tire installed last year on the ST3 - new tires also make the bike taller. During that same time Mike had also installed new sprockets and chain on the ST3. This was the first ride with the new back tire, chain and sprockets.



What a sweet looking road through the Fossil Creek Reservoir Open Space south of Fort Collins



Same as above but zoomed out



It was a strange feeling riding the ST3, new - but yet familiar. The bike is definitely more top heavy then my Honda and heavier overall. The seating position is also so different on the ST3 compared to my 954RR. On the Honda I’m sitting on top of the bike, the instrument cluster is just below me, the wind screen is slightly below and in front, and the clip-ons are just under me slightly forward. With the ST3 I’m sitting in the bike, the clip-ons are in front of me, the instrument cluster is way up front, almost like in my car, and the wind screen is even further away. I can't reach the spot of the windscreen where it meet up with the front plastics just above the instrument cluster - that's how far way it is. There is definitely more bike in front of me on the ST3, and that adds to the feeling I get of it being a “large” bike.





Fossil Creek Reservoir, playing with colors in Photoshop

The ST3 was totally out of gas, so my first stop was a gas station. Then a ride on some of the roads south of Fort Collins. Within a few minutes, the new to me bike started to feel very familiar. After all the ST3 and I, we’ve had a 26,720 mile history over the last 3.5 years. That couldn’t possibly be forgotten in 10 months. The more I rode the ST3, the more I remembered how much I used to love riding it. The sound of the motor, even with my stock exhaust, is just beautiful. The bike flows effortlessly through the corners, the power - and there is plenty of it - and that torque. One just can’t help but accelerate hard, just to decelerate, to hear that beautiful grunt that the bike makes. That’s a sound that an in-line-4 will never make.



I wanted to have the ST3 and me together in a pic but there was nothing to put the camera on - I messed up on this shot, I'm totally blocking the ST3 - it's actually parked right behind me on that road



Fossil Creek Reservoir located on Carpenter Rd south of Fort Collins

On the way to the dealership I passed an open space I’ve been meaning to check out to ride my bicycle at, as I passed by it the curvy road at the Fossil Creek Reservoir open space grabbed my attention. Once my tank was full of gas, I headed back there to check out it out. There was no one here. On a beautiful day with mid 70’s temps, I was alone. Amazing! The speed limit in the park was 25MPH and the curvy road is a short one. As always, the ride isn’t just about the ride for me, it’s also about seeing new places and capturing the beauty of the area, the scenery around me becoming the back drop for the machine that brought me here, the pictures are the memories that live after the ride is done. And today’s ride would be one that I will remember even though, it was short and insignificant when comparing it to some of my other rides.

Trigger, our beloved shop dog is no longer with us. She went to meet her maker. She will be missed by all who ever knew her. She meant alot to Velocity USA, and will be missed immensely, rest in peace.

Duke Best BMX WHEELS

Velocity's New Duke Best BMX Wheel sets are now in stock 36h Front and rear, White non MSW.