Back at It..

Well after some time away from the Blogger platform, was over at wordpress for a bit, I am back over here. No big reason, just streamlining. What is going on currently? What has changed or what am I using?  Here is a brief rundown..

Health:

I injured my shoulder (partial sheath tear to left supraspinatus tendon) just over 4 months ago at work and will have surgery on Tuesday. Since I was on probation I had to 'suck it up' until my probation was complete or else I would have my probationary period extended. The extension would make me ineligible to for the next promotional exam so I had to be careful with what I did.  I followed the physical therapy routine but this would cause me to have some serious pain at times and really affect my sleep so I have been taking it easy with physical  exercise.

This injury definately put a damper on my plans for getting in some skiing nad climbing in.  Just before the injury I purchased a pair of CAMP X-All Mountain Ice Tools for some leashless climbing. I just received them after my diagnosis and did some free soloing at Silver Cascade and suffered for it, ending the ice season.  I really like them and will do some work on the picks for next year, review and pick changes coming. 

Limiting my activity, increasing age and the desire to eat and drink caused my carcass to balloon to 208lb this year, my heaviest ever! Not something I am very proud of.  It is harder to get the weight to come off the older I get. I have adjusted my diet better and increased my activity level and the weight has come down to 196 right now. Would like to get rid of another 20 and will be tough with my upcoming surgery. Just going to be careful of what goes in the old pie hole.. 

Since I was limiting my upper body activities I increased my running and cycling.  I had purchased some Hooka One One Mafate trail shoes and was really enjoying them.  After putting about 250 miles on them I developed some pretty nasty medial pain in my left knee after a few runs. After several weeks of riding the bike I did the Jack Quinn's 5k on Tuesday nice and easy but woke the next day with a return of the pain. Going to new pair of shoes after a couple weeks of totally off and see what happens.

Equipment:

Aside from the ice tools I replaced my Yeti 575 (original model) with a Niner R.I.P 9 that was built-up by University Cycles in Boulder. I was able to get a pretty good deal since it was last years model and the new ones were coming out. Would love to have gone with the carbon model but the extra $$ is crazy and I need to take the weight off my carcass..

I looked at different models and some 650b bikes but decided on this one and 29 wheel size. Not the lightest bike in the bunch but it offered everything I wanted and I love the way it rides.  More details coming but a friend summed up the 29er wheel with this "Fat skis vs skinny skis" and I didn't feel the 650b offered that much more than a 26" wheel, especially for my (note the emphasis) riding style.  

The KTM 950 Adventure also found a new home. After only puttin a few thousand miles on it last year, including the trip of a lifetime down Baja with a good friend, I realized that it was just an expensive toy sitting the in the garage. My wife wouldn't ride on it and if I was spending a nice day riding the motorcycle I found myself wishing that I was out climbing, hiking or cycling on a day like this.  I find myself becoming more focused in my hobbies..

Upcoming:

I am now collecting gear to take up aid climbing.
Reverb seatpost.
Garmin 510
Food
Beer 
Other random shit..

I did get a new RoadId and was shocked when they refused to put "Make life your Bitch" as a quote on it.. Oh well I can be offensive.