Tour de PAC 12 - Stop 3 - Washington State University

Tuesday, June 23, 2014

Today I Can at Martin Stadium

I would have to categorize this ride as my favorite ride to date. All time. I have heard before how difficult it is to recruit at Washington State, it's too remote and too whatever else, so maybe I was in a mindset to be underwhelmed and that led me to the best ride ever conclusion or maybe it was just how amazing it really was. I'd like to think the latter. 

Me and a Cougar

I started out around 9:00 in Pullman and rode over to the campus, took a couple of pictures and fell in love with that campus, I think to some extent, I always do fall in love with the campuses, I picture them on game day as fall comes in all decked out in their school colors and school pride, tailgating with parents and alums and all the buzz that is a Saturday afternoon on campus because this is the year we might just win it all.

Martin Stadium

What I really liked about Washington State was how open it was, the gates were open and you could step into the stands and really get a feel for what the games are like. It is a compact stadium, right on campus, beautiful architecture and just very well done. It is definitely on the list of places I want to see a game at now, it just felt fun.

On the ridge heading to Snake River

Anyway, Pullman is rather small and it didn’t take long to climb out of town and up over a ridge that led to the Snake River, I had heard there were some nice rides from a friend that was a Vandal from the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho about 30 minutes away. As I got on top of the ridge, everything turned green, the grass was so thick, so lush, I felt like I was in Oz. It rolled along and the only thing that really got in the way was the wind, if you get that high up the wind is whipping along without much to slow it down. It was a Tuesday, mid-morning and I rode that ridge for 10 miles and saw 2 cars. It was so isolated, it was one of the things that made the ride fun, you felt like you were on your own personal track.

Me screwing u p the view
of Snake 'River

After 10 miles I connected with the Wawawai Highway which plunged off of that ridge and down to the river, it dropped 2,500 feet in 5 or 6 miles and I literally did not pedal more than 5 or 6 times on the way down. The wind was still blowing but because the road was winding you never could tell where it was coming from next. It was a country highway so it wasn’t in pristine condition so I was more or less terrified of a 40 mile per hour, out of control, crash over the rail so I gripped that brake pretty hard and did my best to relax. I gained a whole new respect for the guys that ride down the mountains in the Tour de France at just crazy speeds. I don't know if I would ever have the confidence to just fly down a track with a pack of riders like that.

 

The Wawawai Highway eventually just ran alongside the Snake River, it opened up as you rode down from the top and was unreal, huge hills and mountains on both sides of the river and once again no traffic. It was perfectly flat and in some spots there was no wind either even though it was blowing pretty hard out of the East, when you found those spots of winds they were really amplified but for the most part you could fly. The only down part of the ride was the chip seal. Chip seal is the bane of any cyclist’s existence. It is a rough surface that’s easy to put down and somewhat durable but it will shake your teeth out. We have a lot of it in Texas and the Trek Domane I ride was built to absorb rough rides, it made the ride much better than the Madone I almost took out instead. After 25 miles of riding along that river I met Linda in Lewiston Idaho and we set out for Canada.

It's SUPERHAM!!!

We are taking a few days off to vacation in Vancouver. If I ever do something like this again I won't ride and travel on the same day, it made for some long days and 3 or 4 hours on the bike plus 8 or 9 hours in the car wore us out. We won't have that again on the ride as I will put my bike down where I picked it up the day before, the drives for Linda will only be an hour or two and I won't really get in the car again until August other than to grab dinner or see a local site or two. Next up for the college campus visits will be the University of Washington on Sunday. I cross the border early Saturday morning and head to Oak Harbor Washington, a small town Northwest of Seattle on Whidbey Island. On Sunday I will ride down the rest of Whidbey Island and catch a ferry over just north of Seattle and from there I will cut southeast through downtown over to the University of Washington and then back west to where I will catch the ferry out of Seattle on Monday morning for the third day. Lots of riding in Vancouver, I will post a picture or two I am sure, until then, enjoy the sites from Southeast Washington and Pullman, home of the Washington State Cougars. #gocougs #gohuskies

Tour de PAC 12 - The Holy War, BYU to Utah

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Wind not out of the North

Today I Can!

Great ride through Provo but the GPS routed me up through a residential section of Salt Lake City that had a lot of construction. Additionally the wind was out of the North despite the fact that the wind is never out of the North in the summer in Salt Lake.

Just another view in Utah

No statue for Crankshaft

Had a pretty nice climb in the middle of the ride and the views of that part through Provo were great. When I was riding through the residential section of Salt Lake I couldn't help but wonder if the folks that walk out the door to a sunrise or sunset over spectacular mountains if they take them for granted, so I asked and sure enough they do. They said after a while, they don't really notice them anymore. 

Richard Burton of All My Sons of
Salt Lake City came out to support

Here is to not taking for granted what we get every day, whether it is warm skies, beautiful mountains or whatever you open the door to, take it in and enjoy it. Here is what I saw on the ride in Utah. 

Lavell Edwards Stadium
in Provo Utah

STATS FROM THE RIDE:
49.5 Miles
2,221 feet of elevation
3 hours and 33 minutes

Rice - Eccles Stadium
in Salt Lake City

TOTALS FOR THE RIDES
2 Rides
91.2 Miles
4,710 feet of elevation
7 hours and 1 minute ride time

Tour de Pac 12 – University of Colorado – Folsom Field

Lessons learned and things I saw on first ride in Tour de Pac 12

What a beautiful place to start the ride and what a great reminder that the best laid plans often don’t pan out. I didn’t get an email that was supposed to update me of a new start

After ride at Folsom Field. #todayican

point and therefore the ride started much later than planned. I had to jump into my ride right in the middle of the route I laid out. I couldn’t tell if the Garmin was picking up the route in midstream or another route and it seemed to lead me all over the place, when I thought I should be turning right, it told me to turn left and it took forever to get rolling.

#todayican at Mile High Stadium en route to Boulder

It was a great reminder because while on the way to Mile High, where the Broncos play football on Sundays, the Garmin told me to turn left and I could clearly see the top deck of the stadium stands sticking out on the other side of a building in the opposite direction it told me to go, as I went up the street it told me to turn again and I was not heading to Mile High, of that I was positive. After all the stands were sticking out of the building behind me now so I turned around and headed back, got back on the trail by the river and headed to my destination while my Garmin screamed OFF COURSE! OFF COURSE! OFF COURSE! I was certain it was giving me the wrong route or trying to lead me away from the stadium instead of toward it, after all I had been in Denver all morning and that pretty much made me the expert on where the Broncos play football. Since I rode the trail by the river I really could not see much of the landscape up along the road so I worked my way back up right where I thought the stadium was and that is when I found out that thing sticking out was not part of the stadium  but actually was a unique

River trail by downtown Denver

piece of architecture protruding from a museum I later learned. It was not even close to the size of a football field and several miles in the opposite direction from Mile High Stadium. In fact, as the pictures from my ride show, there isn’t really a top deck of the stadium that sticks out. Not only did I not know where the stadium was, I did not even know what it looked like.

What it reminded me is how I so often live my life, I’m pretty sure I know where I am going and that the man upstairs does not really understand the best way to get there even though He has a view from above that actually knows what is behind the next corner where I think I want to go and when I get warnings that I am off

Haunted Colorado State Capitol in Denver

course, I plow ahead and ignore those messages. I got a lot of those messages from a couple of Doctors that told me to lose weight or suffer the consequences and when canes and sore backs and high blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels showed up, I plowed ahead and just took more meds that put a different Band-Aid on my problem without ever stopping the bleeding. Thankfully in 2012 I listened and even though I did to that message I find it funny how frequently I still miss those messages.

Victor Davanzo with All My Sons Moving in Denver 

Colorado Rockies home field 

Enough of my deep thoughts though, how about some pictures from the ride, after all Colorado is a pretty state and a lot more interesting than my rambling. I got some good climbs in but I picked a route that would challenge me but not wear me out. I had a rough spot with the weather toward the end but I felt really good about getting up and down the hills and fighting through some wind. It’s on to Salt Lake where I am going to ride one of four state rivalry rides I am going to do, where I ride between two rival schools, this time it is riding from BYU to Utah. We are plowing through Wyoming now and cutting over to Utah and Linda is ready for me to shut up, hope you enjoyed my thoughts and the pics from the ride. 

Beautiful lakeside park outside downtown Denver

STATS FROM THE RIDE:

Ride #1

Saturday, June 21, 2014

41.7 Miles ... 2,489 feet of elevation 

Colorado Football

To Date

41.7 Miles ...2,489 feet of elevation 

Total rides 1

Pulling up to Folsom Field

doing the airplane thing on my bike

 

Folsom Field in the Summer

10-net 1: These Are Not Steps

These 10-nets that I have been writing about are not steps or stages that you pass and do in succession. As I have said over and over again, this mentality is a lifestyle. This is not a diet with a start and finish; this is a new approach to how you live your life. The 10-nets are beliefs that are enacted in my life on a day-to-day basis. Some days I focus more on specific ideas, but they are all part of my daily routine.

So if you choose to take the “Today I Can” mindset, then remember, I have no formula or routine specific for you. I have no “eat this specific food and do this exercise program today” to get you healthy. My recipe is this: Each day I try to make the right decisions about what I put in my body and when I exercise,  and if I succeed Today, I will start again tomorrow. Today I Can be healthy, and so can you.

10-net 2: Evict the Icants

Everyone has heard of the Minions, the little yellow guys that hung around with Gru in Despicable Me, right? Minions are more than just yes men, they are YAY men. No matter how bad an idea Gru has, they literally go bananas like it's the best idea in the history of ever! Steal the moon? Hell yeah baby, let's do this thing! All we need is a shrink ray!

The Icants are the exact opposite of Minions, they are the little guys that live in my head and tell me I can't do things. Oddly enough, they gain strength from my weakness, from my failures, from me quitting and most often from me not even trying.  I think it's something that all of us that have suffered with obesity can relate to. “I can't fly” because of the looks other passengers have when I get on the plane, they might as well stand up and scream “Dear Lord NO! Please don't let the fat guy sit next to me!” Even though I've lost a lot of weight the Icants insist on still screaming the thoughts people aren't thinking when I get on a plane. They love it when I can't and they are the kryptonite of Today I Can.

A couple of weeks ago I rode in a rally called the Richardson Wild Ride, but I did not adequately prepare for it. I rode too far the night before because I thought everyone was going to keep an easy pace. When we got going it was obvious nobody remembered the talk of an easy pace and we all roared off like we were going to win the thing, my legs weren’t fully recovered, we hit the hills and I fell off the back end after a couple of climbs. Immediately I returned to the kid in junior high who finished last in every track meet, I can’t keep up with these other guys, I can’t do this, I can’t climb as fast, I can’t ride this fast and I ended up being right. Not because I wasn’t physically ready but because I said those two little words that are one of the key ingredients of every missed opportunity. I said “I can’t”

As I prepare to leave for my coastal ride, there are a lot of Icant’s that say a lot of lies, but there is one that speaks the truth. I can’t listen to them. I know I can do it. I’m sure there are lots of you with Icants that are keeping you from being all you were created to be. Before you can, you got to shut up the Icants, they are tougher than big hills, big winds, or high heat.

10-net 3: Encourage Others

You could be the final push for someone to get healthy. I don’t share my story and my success to brag, or remind myself of what I have accomplished. Quite frankly, I don’t view this success as my doing, but something that was a product of faith in the Lord and a tremendous amount of support from others. I could not have done this if it wasn’t for people pushing me to start. So I share my story, because if one person sees my story - and the dramatic change that has occurred in my life - and is inspired to make a change in their life, then all this is worth it.

Maybe this story has inspired you to make a change, then continue to spread the word! Share my story, and share yours! Maybe this message isn’t meant for you, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t share and encourage others. If you know a person that needs to make a change, be the one who steps out and challenges them. They may resent you for it at first, but one day they will thank you for. Get out there and encourage others to make a change!

10-net 4: Find What Works For You

There are two different sides to healthy living, and those are diet and exercise. Dieting is pretty straight forward. If you are deciding between a burger and fries, and chicken and veggies, you know what the right choice is. But even in dieting there are many options, whatever you choose to do, stick to it, don’t let the diet expire.

When it comes to exercise it is crucial that you find something you enjoy. For myself it was riding. You get to ride in races, wear cool flashy jerseys, and riding a bike is very entertaining. For my wife, she hops on the treadmill an hour a night. She doesn't run in big races or marathons because that’s not her. She turns on Netflix and just runs for an hour in the privacy of our own home. You have to find whats going to work for you. If you want to ride, I’ll help you get set up with a bike and get you spinning. If you wanna run, my wife will do the same. Maybe you want to swim, or rock climb and hike, or do interval training and weightlifting. What specific exercise you do doesn't matter to me! Just get out, get active, and get fit!

10-net 5: You Can't Do It Alone

"But it's called Today I Can! Why do I need help??"
Because, hypothetical stranger, accountability is essential.

In October of 2013 I was featured in an article in the Dallas Morning News and I talked about weight loss and my road to a healthy lifestyle. In that article I talked about my good friend Doug Walker, and referred to him as my "Fitness Mentor". Doug was key in helping me get to where I am today. I am not a very athletic person, but he is, and when I first started riding he could have left me in the dust. But instead he dragged me around and patiently held back with me, always challenging me to work a little harder than I would have challenged myself. He is actually going to be joining me in the later part of the Tour de Pac 12, helping me stay motivated, and doing what he does best, challenging me to push harder.

Another man who I get the pleasure of riding with is Ozzie "The Wizard" Buckler. He too helps me stay motivated and rides with me at least once a week.

These two men have been essential in my road to health, especially when I was first starting out. Exercise is hard, and quite frankly it hurts sometimes, and if you're going it alone, it's pretty easy to say no to yourself. But it is hard to say no to someone standing in front of you saying "time to ride". It wasn't a constant battle for me to stay at it, but on the days that it was, having someone there to keep me going was crucial.

Find someone to keep you going, and if you need someone, I'd be glad to help.

10-net 6: Don't Be Afraid to Call an Audible

The road to a healthy lifestyle is not easy, and obstacles will arise. You could be running and sprain you ankle, pull a hamstring, or maybe even just get sick for a couple of days. For myself, I rode into a curb, flew over my handle bars, and fractured my wrist. I could not put pressure on my wrist for 6 weeks, which meant I couldn’t ride outside. In the past, this would have been the end, I would have been defeated, and stopped riding. But I didn’t do that. I called an audible, hopped on a stationary bike, and simply road in my house. Not only did I not let this injury halt me, it actually helped me figure out a great alternative for when there is inclement weather.

When obstacles arise, do not get defeated, call an audible and overcome it. Its not always going to be easy, but I pray you keep pushing, because its so worth it.

10-net 7: Goals are good!

Now I know this may seem counterintuitive to the “Day One” mentality, but having something to strive for is great! But you should strive for the right thing. My objective remains the same, make good decisions today but somewhere along the way, I decided I would ride from Vancouver to Tijuana so I started to think about and study what my daily exercise routine would look like if I was going to do that and what my diet will look like heading into and during the ride.

When people go on diets they say “I am going to go 10 days without eating a cheeseburger” and then they celebrate by eating a cheeseburger. If that's the reward, I want it now, what do I do to get it faster and what can I do to get two? Your goals should be in line with the habits you are making and the reward should be something that fits in with both of those as well. I want the reward of a new bike after I ride the wheels off my old one is a goal and a reward that doesn't get in the way of my daily routines or potentially get caught up in the details of being real tangible. It does line up with what I'm doing.

Eliminate prescription drugs, get your blood pressure down. Run a marathon, run two! My wife’s goal for 2013 was to run 1,000 miles, and she did! Pretty tangible goal but she's not like me, my goals are generally to ride more this weekend than last weekend and if I don't I just reload for the next weekend. When she did that she didn’t stop running, she continued, I might not react the same but this weekend is always coming up and last weekend is always something I can improve on. So Aim high? Dream big? Absolutely but not at the expense of living in the now.

10-net 8: Maintain a Day One Mentality

The Day One mentality is how I operate. Each day is day one of my diet and exercise routine, it ends today. A life style is not a “10 day juice cleanse” or a “30 day work out program”, it's a fundamental change in what you do today. When my family went on a 21 day cleanse diet, I finished the 21st day of the cleanse, and started again on Day 22. My new start date is today, my end date is something I simply don't focus on. If you put an expiration date on healthy eating then your healthy lifestyle is destined to expire! You are living to reward yourself by doing something that, in reality, is not rewarding. 

My approach is not complicated, I simply hope to make the right decisions today when it comes to what I put in my body. Today is my day one, if that works out, I will try it again tomorrow. Today is your day one as well, you just need to decide of what. 

10-net 9: The First Step

The most important step in any journey is the first one, and my story was no different. And my first step was quite literally a step. I had to start exercising, but I could only walk, so that’s what I did. And I started eating healthy. I decided to have a piece of chicken instead of a cheeseburger, and steamed veggies instead of fries. Those first steps were hard, but they became easier, and they eventually became habit. Those steps turned into gears on a bike, and thousands of miles ridden, but I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t take my first step.

The path to truly changing your lifestyle starts with the first step. If you are contemplating that first step, I hope you will take it. I pray you will take it. If you know someone who needs to take that first step, then talk to them. If you need help taking your first step, talk to me, talk to a friend.  Its hard, but its worth it. This is so much better than a cheeseburger.

10-net 10: Shake It Up!

Two years ago I was caught in a rut. I thought that I was destined to live out my days with my sedentary lifestyles. But I was wrong! As the greatest rock band of all time, The Cars, sings in their song “Shake It Up”, “Dance all night, get real loose, you don’t need no bad excuse”.

Shake It Up - The Cars

Now, I am not going to lie to you and say that I heard this song and had a “lightbulb” moment. I did not hear the legendary Ric Ocasek sing those words and exclaim “THATS IT! I should shake it up! I don’t need an excuse!”. In reality, I love the song, and it is very applicable to my story.

For years I lived by excuses. I had many of them too. I was too busy with my company to exercise. Riding my bike was too dangerous. Or my back hurt too much to work out. But in reality I did not want to change the way I had been living my life. For people who struggle with obesity and over eating, even the thought of a healthy lifestyle can be quite a “shake up”. In the end though, if you want to get healthy you have to “Shake it up”. You have to break free of a sedentary life style and get active, and get healthy.

Shake it up! You have no excuses, believe me. This is so much better than a cheeseburger.

The 10-nets of Today I Can

It’s June 11 and that brings us to our final countdown, the 10-nets of Today I Can. These are the things I really hope to convey on the Today I Can ride. Each of these are a work in progress for me. I hope I have communicated that I am not Lance Armstrong, I’m not even Doug Walker, I’m Ford Baker, the accountant. I struggle to get up hills, my legs hurt after long rides, and my back hurts if I pick up something heavy. Heck, I’m 50! I must pee 3 times a night now and at least 50 times a day.

The point is that these are not just a list of ten things you check off and then are done, they are changes we make on the inside, in our perspective on life. We won’t ever be done, we are too big of a mess to start with. In reality, I always feel like I’m just beginning. Each ride teaches me something about myself, reminds me of something someone tried to convey before but I wasn’t paying attention. I have to be careful here because I know if I read this ten years ago, I’d have already quit. I am wired for short term projects with a definite start and a definite end.

This wouldn’t appear to have that but that is where I would be wrong. Several years ago, I started down this one day at a time path just trying to figure out some of the side effects my poor decision making skills had generated. I used what I learned about me there to deal with my food issues - first in how I could change my eating habits, then how I could use my tendencies to workout and ride a bike, and then how I could change my desire to eat food that made me feel better to eating the food to made me fuel better. I still don’t have it all figured out, I know that now. I still have to ask God for help to make good decisions in what I eat and drink, and that I exercise and stay safe, but now I have seen that I can add and that I pay attention to the signs He sends. Those tendencies of mine cringe at the long term prospects involved with goal setting, but note that none of the things I found out were long term goals when I started, they were by-products of just trying to make good decisions in what I ate today, to exercise today, to ask God for help today.

Tomorrow it could be start being on time, be more organized, or stop using so many swear words. I don’t know for sure, that’s why it always feels like the beginning; today He may teach me something I never thought about before or he may reiterate something that I ignored before. Who knows, but it will be on to a start of something new, a new beginning. This starting each day with a new beginning has helped me progress way more than when I thought I knew what my goals should be and ran my life myself. I had goals and passed tests and did all kinds of things but in reality, I was getting further and further from where I wanted to be and I was getting there fast.

So check back in over the next 10 days and then follow along with my ride but more importantly realize that today is the day you can #getmoving. And by all means, share this feed with others, if not you, then someone you know might be the one He has me doing this for.