“If something burns your soul with purpose and desire, it’s your duty to be reduced to ashes by it. Any other form of existence will be yet another dull book in the library of life.” Charles Bukowski
Well it has been a good week. The weather the past few days has been beautiful. This is one of the reasons I moved to Colorado a long time ago. I do like to visit other places that have a lower elevation and a higher humidity, but that’s it. Just visit. Unless of course it was on the beach, say like Hawaii, or some place in the Caribbean. Now that would be pretty cool. To be able to live in both locations. Colorado for part of the year and the beach and “warm” ocean water for the other part. Some would say just move to the Pacific Northwest, but I never totally understood the appeal of the PNW. I have been there a few times and the forest are fantastic and the mountains beautiful. But I don’t think I could do the humidity, clouds, and rain for a majority of the year. I did grow up around water, whether it was in a pool or lake and did a lot of swimming. So that is another reason you would not find me long term in the PNW. The ocean water up there is cold. Too cold for me.
This picture was taken Sunday 14th, April 2019. Marvin at 8 and 1/2 weeks.
Marvin is growing as expected. Not sure how big he will be, but Janet and I are thinking some where in the 100 lbs plus range. Or maybe bigger? Lol. Puppy class is progressing along as anticipated. What was not expected is how he has changed in behavior from week to week. Thinking about it now in hindsight it does make a lot more sense.
This picture was taken Sunday 21st, April 2019. Marvin at 9 and 1/2 weeks.
At the very first class he was a little shy but now he is like one of the pack, running, jumping, playing with all the other puppies. Each week has been somewhat of a new experience to see how his confidence grows. Just like it would be in a human child but on a much shorter time frame. We are continuing with the socialization as much as we can.
This picture was taken Wednesday 1st, May 2019. Marvin at 11 weeks old.
He seems to be a very easy dog to work with in my experience. Pretty laid back most of the time. The only issue that is ongoing is the puppy bitting. But even as I write this, it seems like we have made progress in shifting his attention to chew bones and dog toys and less to his human companions. Lol
This picture was taken Tuesday 14th, May 2019. Marin, just one day shy of 13 weeks and already at 38 lbs. I can already see the adult dog he will be. Not sure what it is but he always seems to have a serious look on his face anytime I take a picture! Lol
Well I did not make the 50 miles in the Quad Rock again this year but I did do the first loop for 25 miles. It was a great run. The trail conditions and weather were much better than last year. Actually I don’t think you could have asked for better. Of course if you had tried to predict this on Thursday 9th, two days before the race, it would not have been easy. Rain and snow, and rain and snow. And did I say more rain and snow…. Lol.
This picture was taken on Saturday 11th, May 2019. Just before the start of the Quad Rock 50. Temperatures were in the 30 degree range and no wind. Here I am looking east towards Fort Collins. Clear skies can make fantastic running weather.
5 minutes before race start and we are all getting lined up. I am more of the plodder and not the gazelle. So to the back of the pack I go! Lol
Cold morning but a very nice afternoon in the high 50s and low 60s. Perfect for running. They did have to reroute some of the course to avoid a few very wet areas. Funny thing, I liked the reroute better than the original course. It did add a little more elevation gain/loss but not too bad.
Again, what a beautiful day for running the Quad Rock. This picture is looking South towards Denver.
As far as not finishing the whole 50 miles this year? I am not too disappointed. It is a hard route. Lots of ups and downs. 5000 ft plus of elevation gain and loss in each 25 mile loop. And as I have stated before, it is a little early in the year for me with the 50 mile distance. I was happy with my time compared to last year. This time I was about an hour and ten minutes faster or 6 hours and 40 minutes total.
This picture from the Quad Rock was about 20 miles in, close to the end of the first loop. It is looking West towards Rocky Mountain National Park. Lots of snow still up in the high country. The two large mountains in the back ground are Mount Meeker (13,911 feet) and Longs Peak (14,259).
A surprise that I got while running the revised route was to run the Westridge Trail in Lory State Park. As many times as I had been in the park this was the first time for me to actually run this trail. The views of Mount Meeker and Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park were beautiful. See the above picture. In my opinion, even if the lower valley trails were not wet, this was worth the reroute.
This picture from the Quad Rock is looking East toward Greeley, Colorado. The winds were such that most of the “brown cloud”, you can just make out in the distance, stayed there.
Well before I go I would like to thank all the volunteers and sponsors for supporting the race. Especially the volunteers. Without you this event would not happen like it does. Also this year I would like to thank the land managers for allowing the race to be run even with some of the marginal trail conditions. The conditions on race day were next to perfect but it would have been easy to cancel the event based on the weather occurring on Thursday. Thanks again for allowing us “nutcases” to run on Saturday in a very beautiful place. And last but not least I would like to thank Nick Clark and Brad Bishop (Gnar Runners Event Management) for putting on another fantastic event. If you would like to read and learn more about Gnar Runners and their future races, check out their web site: http://gnarrunners.com/
This picture was taken looking West with the morning sun shining on Arthur’s Rock in Lory State Park.
Well that is going to be about it for me on this Blog Post. The next race I plan to run is on June 15th. The Leadville Trail Marathon. I have done the half marathon in Leadville in the past but not the full. Should be fun?! Right?! Lol. So the training continues for working my way up to the bigger races in July and September.
Take care my friends and I hope to see you out there whether it be hiking, running, biking, or skiing. Adios amigos!!
With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon. In all those stories where there’s the guy with the pentagram and the holy water, it’s like, yeah, he’s sure he can control the demon. Didn’t work out. – Elon Musk
Everything that civilization has to offer is a product of human intelligence; we cannot predict what we might achieve when this intelligence is magnified by the tools that AI may provide, but the eradication of war, disease, and poverty would be high on anyone’s list. Success in creating AI would be the biggest event in human history. Unfortunately, it might also be the last. – Steven Hawking
With the increasingly important role of intelligent machines in all phases of our lives–military, medical, economic and financial, political–it is odd to keep reading articles with titles such as Whatever Happened to Artificial Intelligence? This is a phenomenon that Turing had predicted: that machine intelligence would become so pervasive, so comfortable, and so well integrated into our information-based economy that people would fail even to notice it. – Ray Kurzweil
This picture was taken on Tuesday 12th, March 2019. Here I am at the top or close to the top of Horsetooth Mt. park looking West. In the background you can just make out Meeker and Longs Peak. Longs sits at 14,000 feet. The day was very warm, as an approaching storm was moving into the state.
Well it has been a good 2 weeks. I was under the weather a little bit for the start of it but I am feeling better now. I divide my workout/running sections into 3 week intervals and the last interval I finished with about 138 miles ( 46 miles/week). Which might not sound like a lot to those of you that are running gods. For me, I might have pushed it just a little bit. To add to this, I missed my usual amount of sleep and being older it does not take much to create illness. My wife Janet reminds me of this a lot and it is probably a good thing that she does!! Lol
This picture was taken the very next day, Wednesday 13th, March 2019, and again not to hit an old cliche’ too much, “What a difference a day makes!!” Dang, I cannot imagine what it must have been like for the early settlers on the plains. You have this fantastic weather for a day or two and get lulled into a false sense of security. Then Kaboom! Snow and wind with no modern day warning. We were lucky in Fort Collins, we did not get the high winds and drifts that the Eastern Plains did. This view is from our front door.
I am between books at the moment, so no new book review this week. But I would like to reiterate my thoughts on AI. I really do think this is coming, rather sooner than later. I am pretty sure it will be the “General AI” that everyone is hoping for or fearing depending on your point of view. And by general I mean, something that thinks and reacts, for good or bad, as a human would. The current AI we have now is something a little less dramatic and world changing. Such as your smart phone, semi-autonomous cars and trucks, social media feeds like FB, personal data assistants like Siri and Alexa, entertainment such as video games and Netflix. The list could go on and on. It is already used in thousands of applications everyday and most of the time we are not even aware of it. I guess in some sense this technology has been world changing. But the difference to me is that you could decide to not use a lot of it and it would not make that much difference in your life. At least not at this time. So I don’t worry about it too much. Another name for this kind of AI is machine learning. The type of AI that I am concerned with is true “General AI.” Or if it helps to understand it better, something that is conscious or sentient AI. This would be a game changer and will make everything else seem like child’s play. Will it happen? Good question. I think yes. It will happen and sooner rather than later.
This picture was taken the next day after the storm, Thursday 14th, March 2019. And it shows again what I think is the best thing about the Front Range of Colorado. Even though the temp was in the high 20s, a lot of snow had already melted. This picture is looking West towards the mountains and the lake is Lake Sherwood in our neighbor.
I draw this conclusion from recent material that I have read, and from an old video on an AI conference from a few years ago, around 2015. It was taking place in Taiwan or it might have been Hong Kong. It was a round table discussion of some of the movers and shakers in AI at the time from around the world. I cannot remember their names, but they were from the tech industry and different universities. The one I remember best was a guy from Carnegie Mellon University. The talk was pretty lively around the table about when general AI might arise or even if it would. There was a lot of disagreement, some saying its way off in the future and some saying in the next 10 to 20 years and some saying no, it would never come to be. This guy interrupts everyone and says: “What you all have to remember is that there are “100s of thousands” of young people in the U.S. alone working on this very problem.” That single statement stopped everyone in their tracks for a moment. It just hung there in the air. Incredible. All I could think was, this is like the “Manhattan Project.”
This picture was taken on Sunday 17th, March 2019, looking West, across a local golf course, next to the Power-line Trail in Fort Collins. Just another beautiful Colorado Sunset.
Remember that the Manhattan Project was a secret research and development program to create the first atomic bomb. And it employed a 100,000 plus individuals to pull it off. It was a race with Germany at the time. They were ahead of us in R&D prior to the start of the project in 1939. Lucky for us and the rest of the world. We came in first. I believe that we are in another race. And this time it is to build the first “General AI.” At this point, my guess is that the USA, European Union, China and Russia are all neck and neck at the moment, with hundreds and hundreds of thousands of individuals all working on it from multi different countries.
This picture was taken Thursday 21st, March 2019. What a beautiful day it was in Fort Collins. Sixty degrees, very mild wind and clean air. Wow!! You don’t get too many of these with all three ingredients like this. Air quality being the number one reason why. Just beautiful. This picture was taken on the East side of Horsetooth reservoir looking North. The lake is low at this time of year, in another month or two there will be about 20 to 30 feet of water where I am standing.
This gives me pause and it should you too. It took fewer individuals to build the first atomic bomb than is currently working on AI. We are not in a world war like we were in 1940, but I do believe the stakes are just as high. Ask yourself: “How do you want this to happen?” Do you want a benevolent AI, that helps humanity to the next level of existence or one that is used to wipe out a countries neighbor, or one that is the all watching eye of a totalitarian state? In a worst case scenario it see us as inconsequential and decides to eliminate humanity altogether. I know you are probably like me wondering what you can you do about it? Another good question. The first thing is to educate yourself. And a good place to start is with one of the books that I last reviewed. It is well worth the read and Tegmark elegantly and convincingly puts into words why we should be concerned and what we can do to help make a difference. You can find the book on Amazon: h
Well that is enough of my soapbox for this blog post. I could go on and on for a while longer, but I think you get the zest. Please if you get the change to read the above book and I usually don’t recommend a book twice, read it. You don’t have to be an Astrophysicists to understand it.
This picture was taken last week on or around Wednesday, March 20th. Five weeks old and getting bigger!! Just waiting to meet the parents of this pup to make the final decision.
What an interesting two weeks with weather on the Front Range of Colorado, from beautiful warm days and cold nights, to a full blow blizzard. Spring is here in Colorado!! Lol. I hope that this blog post finds all of you in the best of health. Maybe I will see you out there on the trails or ski slope!! Adios my friends.
“Running isn’t a sport for pretty boys…It’s about the sweat in your hair and the blisters on your feet. Its the frozen spit on your chin and the nausea in your gut. It’s about throbbing calves and cramps at midnight that are strong enough to wake the dead. It’s about getting out the door and running when the rest of the world is only dreaming about having the passion that you need to live each and every day with. It’s about being on a lonely road and running like a champion even when there’s not a single soul in sight to cheer you on. Running is all about having the desire to train and persevere until every fiber in your legs, mind, and heart is turned to steel. And when you’ve finally forged hard enough, you will have become the best runner you can be. And that’s all that you can ask for.” ― Paul Maurer, The Gift – A Runner’s Story
“Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up.” ― Dean Karnazes
“The pessimist is not guaranteed a tomorrow. And, if tomorrow does come, the pessimist does not expect to feel better at the same point in the race…. indeed, it might feel even worse. So, the pessimist plugs on and accomplishes their goals today. And today is the only day that counts.” – Gary Cantrell
This picture was taken Wednesday 27th, February 2019. It was a couple of days before the weather really changed to a much more wintry mix. Still looks pretty cold out, but I think that the temps were in the 30s that afternoon. So not too bad for running. The photo is of Horsetooth Reservoir looking South towards Loveland. In this picture I am at the North end of the lake.
Well it has been another good two weeks!! Winter has made a comeback to the Front Range of Colorado and the mountains have gotten a lot more snow. That is always a good thing, both from a skiing perspective and from a water/moisture perspective. In Colorado we are considered a “head-water state”, meaning that the water we get only comes in the form of rain or snow from the sky. Nothing flows into the state. So the more rain and snow we get the better. It can be really dry here on the Front Range, but as long as the mountains get a significant amount of snow and rain, everything else can be irrigated. This snow/rain scenario also plays a role in fire season. I am hoping that this year will be better than the last. But you never know. Until long term weather prediction gets a lot better it is always a kind of guessing game.
This picture was taken Friday 1st, March 2019. Again this is Horsetooth Reservoir, but at the shoreline. In this picture I am looking West. The sun was just starting to set and the reflection off of the water was beautiful. Maybe it was the combination of light, clouds and silence. No lapping of waves due to the ice and to get to the shoreline you have to drop down off the trail and go down a little bit. Just beautiful. It was the quite before the storm. The next day the weather was very different as seen in the picture below. Lots of Mountain Bikers on the trail this day. Getting that last ride in before the ice and snow. Temperatures were in the 30s.
Running has been coming along nicely this year so far. No injuries and I do seem to be getting a little faster. I have three main ultras planned this year. First is the Quad Rock 50 in May. This is a hard run I think. I have done the 25 mile version multi times with the intent to do the 50, but I have either chosen to stop at the 25 mile mark or timed out. The location of the run is very nice for me because it is where I live and run. Just behind Fort Collins. It takes place in Lory State Park and Horsetooth Mountain Park. Very convenient. It is put on by the http://Gnarrunners.com. They always seem to do an excellent job every time I have competed. Weather can be a little iffy this time of year on the Front Range. Which in my opinion always makes the race a little more interesting. You can have mild temps with clear skies, heat and sun, cold and rain, or you can have snow. The best part, you can have all four in one day! Lololololol. Some might complain about this but I just see it as an added challenge. You make the 50 mile mark by doing two 25 mile laps. I am hoping that everything will come together just right so I can make the 50 this year!!
This picture was taken Saturday 2nd, March 2019. Wow, what a difference a day makes. I think we had 5 to 8 inches of snow and the temps were down in the single digits when I took this picture. Cold!! Oh well you make the best of it and as a instructor in a survival school once told me “It’s a character builder.” Lol This picture is of the Poudre River looking Northwest. You can see the bike trail on the left hand side of the picture. There were not a lot of people out on this day, but that came with the added benefit of solitude.
The second ultra planned this year is also put on by Gnar running. It is the Never Summer 100k. This one is located about 80 miles from where I live and is in the Cameron Pass area and the Colorado State Forest. I have signed up for this one a couple of times but due to other issues, injuries, work commitments, logistics, etc… I have not been able to even attempt it. Again I am hoping that this year will be different. The trails in the area are beautiful. Not a lot of development in the vicinity. Which has its own appeal. The race description from the web site says it best: “This is a mountain race in the truest sense of the term, with extended periods of high alpine ridge running, two alpine peaks, and five alpine lakes visited along the way. When above timberline, you will enjoy huge views of the northern Never Summer Mountains to the south, the stunning peaks of RMNP to the southeast, expansive vistas across North Park to the Park Range above Steamboat Springs to the west, and even north out to Wyoming’s Snowy Range.” If you want to check out more here is the link to the web site: http://gnarrunners.com/never-summer-100k/
This picture was taken Monday 4th, March 2019. It highlights what it is I love about Colorado. Two days later from the prior picture and the sun is out and shining. It is cold, in the teens, but the sun is out and trail is pretty much clear. I love this tree shot. Just the size and the shape with the sun shining on it. Beautiful. Lot of bikes out today even with the cold temperature. And of course a few brave souls out running.
The final ultra I plan for this season is again the Run Rabbit Run 100. I attempted the 100 mile distance last year but timed out at the 50 mile mark. It was a really good experience and I learned a lot. Up until last September (2018) I had only competed in one other 100 mile race. The Leadville 100. All my other races have ended at the 50 mile mark. In the Leadville, I did make it to Hope Pass but was short of the cutoff by 12 minutes and by the time I got back down to Twin Lakes, the distance was again 50 miles. In all, I think that I have done the 50 mile distance, on purpose or inadvertently, 6 times now over the last 7 years. I turned 57 this year and I am not getting any younger. So I want to get that 100 miler done. Lol. The people that put on the RRR in Steamboat Springs do a really good job each time I have competed. And I am guessing that it will be the same this year. Here is the link to the web site: http://runrabbitrunsteamboat.com/ The 100 miler is filled but I hear there are some spots open for the 50!
Well, the search continues for a new dog. We are now looking at King Shepherds out of Boulder. They seem to be a cross between Great Pyrenees, Alaskan Malamute and German Shepherds. Which makes for a fairly large dog with not as many genetic issues as the typical GSDs. This is a picture of one of the pups from the current litter at 3 weeks old. Big already!! Lol
Well this is going to be about it for me this week. I hope everyone has had a great weekend. These last few days I have felt a little bit under the weather and decided to take a few days off from running. But hope to be back in full form by Monday. Take care my friends and maybe I will see you out there on the trails or the ski slope!!
“If an AI possessed any one of these skills—social abilities, technological development, economic ability—at a superhuman level, it is quite likely that it would quickly come to dominate our world in one way or another. And as we’ve seen, if it ever developed these abilities to the human level, then it would likely soon develop them to a superhuman level. So we can assume that if even one of these skills gets programmed into a computer, then our world will come to be dominated by AIs or AI-empowered humans.” ― Stuart Armstrong, Smarter Than Us: The Rise of Machine Intelligence
“A powerful AI system tasked with ensuring your safety might imprison you at home. If you asked for happiness, it might hook you up to a life support and ceaselessly stimulate your brain’s pleasure centers. If you don’t provide the AI with a very big library of preferred behaviors or an ironclad means for it to deduce what behavior you prefer, you’ll be stuck with whatever it comes up with. And since it’s a highly complex system, you may never understand it well enough to make sure you’ve got it right.” ― James Barrat, Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era
“Why give a robot an order to obey orders—why aren’t the original orders enough? Why command a robot not to do harm—wouldn’t it be easier never to command it to do harm in the first place? Does the universe contain a mysterious force pulling entities toward malevolence, so that a positronic brain must be programmed to withstand it? Do intelligent beings inevitably develop an attitude problem? Now that computers really have become smarter and more powerful, the anxiety has waned. Today’s ubiquitous, networked computers have an unprecedented ability to do mischief should they ever go to the bad. But the only mayhem comes from unpredictable chaos or from human malice in the form of viruses. We no longer worry about electronic serial killers or subversive silicon cabals because we are beginning to appreciate that malevolence—like vision, motor coordination, and common sense—does not come free with computation but has to be programmed in. Aggression, like every other part of human behavior we take for granted, is a challenging engineering problem!” ― Steven Pinker, How the Mind Works
This picture was taken on Sunday the 10th of February, looking North. It was a cold evening and air quality was just on the edge of the acceptable range. Not much air movement due to no wind. You can just make out some of the brown cloud that plagues the Front Range of Colorado. It does make for a beautiful sunset. LOL. Still a nice run during the afternoon. Saw a couple of healthy looking Coyotes on this trail run. I am guessing that they have been feeding on the plethora of rabbits in the area.
Well it has been a great two weeks I think. The weather has been cold and snowy, off and on here on the Front Range, but not enough to really make much of a difference with running. The snow in the mountains has been wonderful and the best part, it has continued to come down. I have gotten in a couple of days of skiing and both of those days were great. Excellent conditions compared to last year.
This picture was taken on Thursday 14th, February 2019 while walking with Janet. We have heard owls in this area quit a bit, but had not seen one this close up. It was pretty cool to say the least to see the bird hooting. The whole body was involved in producing the hoot. It was easy to identify the species on this one. A Great Horned Owl. LOL. Looking at this picture now, I can see why the Native Americans and early settlers made up stories about these birds. It does look a little creepy. Again, a cold afternoon walk but the bike path was clear of ice and snow and with some wind, the air quality levels were much better.
As some may know we lost our white German Shepherd Neige, back last August. She had Degenerative Myelopathy. A genetically inherited malady that is a progressive, incurable disease of the spinal cord in dogs. Similar to ALS in humans. To say that we were heart broken would be an understatement. But as they say, time heals all wounds. So we have started to look again for a dog. I think that we are going to stick with the German Shepherd breed. But it has been hard to say the least. We have owned four Shepherds in the last 30 years and they have all suffered some form of the most common genetic aliments of the breed. Neige lived to be 12 years old and was definitely enough dog for two people. Meaning that we had not really looked at what is out there in the market place for a while.
Neige in better times. Doing what she loved to do. This picture was taken about a year ago, last March 2018. Thinking back, wondering if I was in a hurry that day? Could I have thrown her the stick a few more times knowing what I know now…. Time is a lot shorter than you ever realize…. Always loved and never forgotten….
So I have been doing a little bit of “dog” research and my conclusions, “It is all about genetic testing.” First if you buy from a breeder – then you need genetic testing of the parents to rule out some of the common genetic ailments. Otherwise it is just a game of roulette, no matter what the breeder tells you. And if you decided to get one from the humane society or shelter of your choice – then you need to do some, you guessed it, genetic testing. A little more difficult to do when the dog is from the shelter. But possible, just not convenient. I found it interesting that some of the shelters are now starting to do this on their own. They have found that it makes some dogs much more adoptable to know the breed mixes in the dog and (for an added cost) if they are susceptible to certain common genetic diseases. If you think about how much time, effort, and money you put into a family pet. Not to mention, they truly become part of your family. And in some cases a very significant part of your life. I think it makes sense to go a step further in the selection process and do the genetic testing. Especially now that the technology to do this is available and has come down significantly in price. For me, it just makes sense to do it. I know that this will be a little controversial with a few people and that is OK. I hope it generates some good discussion and consideration the next time you look for a dog. A good recent article on this subject is from WIRED magazine: https://www.wired.com/story/dog-dna-kits-reviewed/?mbid=email_onsiteshare
This picture was taken Saturday 16th, February 2019, looking North West in the late afternoon. I have to say it was a beautiful sunset. Cold, in the teens, with a little wind. In Colorado we get what is know as “standing wave clouds” and this is an example. They can make for great sunset pictures. The colors do not last for long but can be quit intense for a few minutes.
Now on a totally different note, I have started to listen to a new audio book called “Life 3.0 – Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence” by Max Tegmark. I am not very far into it yet but it really has gotten me thinking about A.I. and what that means for the future of humanity. Tegmark is a is a Swedish-American physicist and cosmologist. He is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the scientific director of the Foundational Questions Institute. I have read a previous book from him called “Our Mathematical Universe.” I am only a few chapters into the new book but I am already feeling that the true game changer for Humanity, good or bad, may be the development of an Advanced A.I. It might not even need to be “sentient” as in human terms to be this game changer.
We are becoming so complex as a society, billions and billions of people on the planet. There are some estimates that we will reach the 10 billion mark by 2030. With this many people we will have become, a true global community on a scale never known in human history, with all our usual human wants and needs. Resource allocation will not be something that can be left to chance. Housing, work, travel, food, medical care, security, energy, clean air/water, education, news, entertainment, social media, solitude, etc… will all have to be coordinated to a degree that we have never seen as a species. Second and Third world countries will continue to want to move up the ladder of prosperity and have all the things that you and I now take for granted. Just thinking about that, gives me chills. It will be a daunting task….. How will all this “complexity” be managed and coordinated? What “algorithm” will be sophisticated enough to help us deal with it all? My belief and others is that this increasing complexity of a burgeoning human population will give rise to a super intelligent A.I. Not a matter of if, but when. The big question that comes with this, is how do we want it to occur and who to manage it. Do we want society to become an Orwellian/Kafkaesque Dystopia? Big brother always watching, judging, today’s freedoms severely curtailed? Or the filling out of forms, after forms, after forms, after forms, in order to just buy a car, get married, go on a simple vacation, or even just traveling across state lines? Is there a better way?
Personally I don’t think this will take 100 years. I would not be surprised if it happened in the next 20.
A.I. or more importantly,the people that control A.I. will have the ability to push society to change, but will it be in the right directions. To give us more freedoms, to give us better and/or cheaper housing, work, travel, food, medical care, security, energy, clean air/water, education, news, etc… and advances in technology that makes today’s tech seem like rubbing two sticks together to make fire. This is what Tegmark talks about in his new book with the hope that he can get people from all walks of life involved in the discussion of A.I. His belief is that this will be one of, if not the “Monumental” question of the 21st century. I have not totally finished reading it yet but from what I have read so far, I felt it was important to put a partial review out. I highly recommend the book.
This picture was taken Saturday 23rd, February 2019. What a beautiful Colorado day! Sunny, cold but not too cold. Temp about 32 degrees F in the parking lot, and best of all there was some wind. So most of the brown cloud was gone. This picture was taken in Horsetooth Mountain Park looking South to South East. That horizon is at least 50 miles from where I am standing. Someday as we move away from fossil fuels, this might be the norm again and not just the exception.
Well I think that I am about done for this Blog post. I hope the last two weeks have been great for you dear reader. Remember your comments are always welcome. Take care and maybe I will see you out there on the trail or the ski slope. Adios amigos!!
“When complexity makes knowledge difficult to attain, we are organisms that substitutes knowledge with beliefs.”
“The uneven rate of change between biology and complexity causes a gap to occur.”
“We become susceptible to manipulation and ideology and follow false prophets.”
“Public policy becomes shaped by irrational beliefs, rather than knowledge of fact.”
Rebecca Costa
This picture was taken on Monday 28th of January 2019, the open space in question is between Fort Collins and Loveland. It is called Coyote Ridge Open Space. A very nice trail with few visitors for a Monday. On the weekend it can get pretty busy due to the fact that it is a connector trail for longer distances. The afternoon in question was beautiful with temps right at 30 degrees and a slight breeze.
Well it has been another two weeks and I am going to say here that life is pretty good at the moment. Got some skiing in and that is a very good thing. I think it had been over a month since I last went. Not sure what that was about but it happens. The trail running the last couple of weeks has been fantastic here in Fort Collins. It has been cold but not like Midwest Cold. Wow! We have not seen temperatures like that in a very long time. There is some thought that this is related to Global Warming. I know that it does not seem that way but when you start looking at the science, some of the dots start to connect. I guess in the end, time will tell as the research continues. One of the things to remember is that weather and climate are two different things even though they are related.
Another picture from Monday the 28th of January 2019. The sun was out and just starting to set. It was in full force on this rock ridge. It really brought out the colors in the rock. Totally different from the picture above. Same area but a different open space called Rim Rock Ridge. Both are right next to each other.
I am reading a new book that is called the Watchman’s Rattle by Rebecca Costa. I became interested in her when I watched a TED talk by her. It has to do with Societal Collapse. It actually came out in 2012 and I believe that this is her first book. A more recent book by Rebecca is called On the Verge. I did not get this one because it is not on Audio book and I am way behind on regular reading. But I plan to in the future. In her first book, she comes up with some interesting ideas about what happens to a society when technology out paces the ability of the residents to keep up. I think the book is much more relevant now than it was back in 2012. In particular this last election with the Evangelical Christians, Flat Earthers, Anti-Vaccination people, Anti – global Warming individuals, the lets “Bring dirty coal” back people, and the list could go on and on. She makes the case that as complexity makes knowledge more difficult to attain, or as my wife likes to say “Overwhelming”, we as humans start to substitute knowledge with beliefs. And she makes the argument that this is what has happened to ancient societies that collapsed like the Mayans, the Romans, etc…
Costa is a Sociology-biologist. She based a lot of her research on Dr. Richard Dawkins 1976 book “The Selfish Gene.” In her book she uses the term Super-memes which are any widely accepted information, thoughts, feelings or behaviors. And she feels that they have the capacity to compete with each other just like genes do in Darwin’s theory of natural selection. Another words they compete in a sense to become accepted in our minds and our society whether they are true or not. There is an actually study of memes, called Memetics. Check it out on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memetics
I had no idea. Costa calls them “super-memes” when they get to a point that they block us from the very solutions we seek to all the complexity we see in the world. Another name that she uses for this blocking is “Gridlock.” It occurs or you can know that it is occurring when there is opposition across the board to any meaningful solution to a major problem. Thinking about this, the first thing that comes to my mind is “Gun Control.” It is a complex issue and you see a lot of “irrational opposition” to any attempt at fixing the system. It is as if people are more comfortable rejecting remedies rather than advocating solutions.
This picture was taken on Thursday, January 31st. I just loved the shape of this huge cottonwood tree. The weather was warm enough for me to ride my bike on Thursday, above 50 degrees for me. This picture was take on the Boyd Lake Trail.
Another example of this blocking, I think, is in Health Care. Again, before the attempted and partial repeal of what has become known as “Obama Care,” I heard from individuals on both sides of the fence. Some that hated it, because their premiums went up and others that loved it because they could now actually get insurance on their preexisting conditions. But with the current congress and president, it has become gridlocked. It will be interesting to see after the next elections if anything is concretely done or just a kind of band-aid fix. Again nothing really going anywhere. One size that fits some but not others, back to a mish-mash of plans that really don’t address the issues or cover people adequately.
This picture was taken on Thursday, February 7th. It was at the Loveland Ski Area which sits right at the Eisenhower Tunnel off of Interstate 70. It was a beautiful, sunny day. Much warmer (25 degrees) than when I left Fort Collins (12 degrees) that morning. There was a little bit of wind but that did not really show up in force until later in the afternoon. Most of the terrain for the ski area sits at around 11,000 feet.
I could go on about her book but I think I will leave it for now. I do recommend it. Remember it was written in 2012 and some predictions in the book she got right and a few she got wrong; somethings did get fixed and some are still broken. I think if I had read the book back in 2012, I would not have appreciated it as much as I do now. Interesting to say the least.
On a similar note, I had a interesting, short FB exchange with a family relative on whether something she was posting on FB was true or not. When another friend of hers called her out on it and showed her where a fact checking service said it was false. She went off about how the “fact checking service” was wrong. And that the “fact checking service” was infiltrated by “liberals” and that was why she could not trust them. I was kind of dumbfounded for a moment. This is an educated woman that used to teach school to kids. I could see it…., if it had come from one of my uneducated or partially educated “hillbilly like” relatives. But no this was from an educated one. Oh well what can you say to that… Obviously I won’t be spending the holidays with her…. Lololololol.
This picture was taken taken Wednesday 30th, January 2019. It was at the trail head to Reservoir Ridge Natural Area in Fort Collins. I had just finished a trail run and the sunset was just stunning to say the least. This is my favorite picture of the last two weeks.
Before I finish here, I would like to pass on a quote by the author Neil Gaiman. I came across it several years ago and I wrote it down just because it seemed a little strange to me at the time. This was a few years before the 2016 election. I did not really understand it then, but I think I do now. So it is important to share it with you, especially if you decide to read Costa’s book or you are like me trying to make sense of the “craziness” that has griped our country.
“Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and adventures are shadow truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes and forgotten.” Neil Gaiman
Well that its for this couple of weeks. Take care, be safe out there fellow trail runners. Always be looking for that “Special Cat.”
“Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don’t need to escape from.” – Seth Godin
This picture was taken Thursday, January 17th. Not a lot of snow this year. This is a great trail run / road called Tower Road in Horsetooth Mountain Park. If you start at the bottom it gains about 1700 feet in just over three miles. So it is a good cardiovascular workout.
Life is good and I really cannot complain too much at the moment. Damn I turned 57 this January and I have to ask myself where did the time go?? I mean were did it go?? LOL! It seems just like yesterday when I was turning 25 and moving to Colorado.
This picture was taken Friday, January 18th, it is in an area called Prospect Ponds. They are old gravel quarry sites. After the quarry is closed, the states requires you to only fill in part of the open pit mine, but the rest can be filled with water to create wildlife habitat. There are a lot of these types of ponds in the open spaces around Fort Collins. The Poudre River and the bike trail is just on the other side of the picture. The photograph was taken looking west.
I ended up here in – a – round about way. Even before I got out of High School I was pushed and I mean that quite literally, pushed into applying and going to nursing school. At the time I really had no idea what I wanted to do. But my dear mother, felt that the best way to get me out of the house (this is what I have come to believe) was not to give me an option to procrastinate. Oh no – no lollygagging for you young man. Get your nose to the grindstone. And I have to give her a little leeway on this because High School academically was a complete waste of time for me. And I am not sure if that was the High School at the time or just where I was socially and emotionally. When I got to college, I took to it like a fish takes to water. And I did extremely well in College and Nursing School. But of course when you are pushed into something, I have found you come to tolerate it, but you don’t really find a passion for it. And that was my case from day one. As soon as I finished nursing school, I started working on a 2nd degree in Wildlife Biology. Which led me to thinking about a masters in Forestry. Which eventually led me to Fort Collins and Colorado State University.
This picture was taken Saturday, January 19th, this is a shot of the Poudre river looking South East. During spring run off the river would be full from bank to bank and flowing fast. This might look like a lot of water but in reality, at this time of year, the river is barely flowing.
Funny thing, once I got to Colorado and really had access to the outdoors and open spaces around Fort Collins. School did not have quite the same importance as it did before. Plus it did not help that the wife wanted kids and anytime you add that time commitment in, well school really does drop to the back burner. The nursing job paid the bills and it allowed me to have what is called perpetual “Peter Pan Syndrome.” I highly recommend it. I think that J.M. Barrie might have been on to something.
This picture was taken Sunday, January 20th. A very beautiful, but cool, afternoon in Fort Collins. This pond I believe was an old irrigation pond, but is now part of Pine Ridge open space. The small lake or pond is know as Dixon Reservoir. Horsetooth Lake sits on the other side of the ridge on the right.
Now, 31 years later and still living in Colorado and Fort Collins. I find that I enjoy the outdoors even more. I still work at the day job to pay the bills but only about 2 days per week or less. The rest of the work week, I am writing, drawing, painting, occasional sculpture, reading, exercising, and doing a little meditation. And Life is pretty good. But if I had to do it all over again with what I know now? I would change one thing. I would have practiced becoming a writer from day one. The only job that all you need is a word processor and an internet connection. How cool is that. Oh well, I get to write now and I try to practice each and everyday to get better.
This picture was taken on Friday, January 25th. In this photograph I am looking east, the lake is Horsetooth Reservoir, and you can just make out the North end of Fort Collins. Here I am trail running at Horsetooth Mountain Park.
One thing I have learned over the years but did not realize it until much more recently is the quote by Seth Godin. And I will repeat it here: “Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don’t need to escape from.” And that is so true. Now don’t get me wrong, there is nothing mistaken with traveling to see new places, people and things. Exploration of our wonderful world is a fantastic thing to do. But heading towards the “beach” or the “bar,” each year or weekend so that you can “escape” from work and your usual life….. Never seemed quite right to me in hindsight. Always thought I was a little weird when friends told me about their beach or bar adventures of drinking and partying, it never seemed appealing. About a year ago, I came across Seth’s quote and it just clicked. It was a true A’Ha moment. Sometimes it is hard to put into words what you are feeling or thinking, but then someone comes along and does it for you. And it just clicks into place.
This picture was also taken Friday, January 25th, and what a difference a week can make. The first picture in the blog post was in the same area and no snow. A week later the road was snow packed all the way to the top. It got me to thinking that if we got a really good snow in Fort Collins this road would be a great skimo work out. You could skin all the way to the top and the road is wide enough to ski it all the way back down. That would be pretty cool.
Well I think this is going to be about it for me. I hope you have had a great January. I know that I did, even turning 57. My wife tells me to just be happy with making it that far! LOL!
Maybe I will see you out there on the trails or the ski slope. Take care my friends. Adios!!
“Run for 20 minutes and will feel better, run another 20 and you might tire, add on 3 hours and you’ll hurt, but keep going and you’ll see and smell and hear and taste the world with vividness that will make your former life pale.” Scott Jurek
“It hurst up to a point and then it doesn’t get any worse.” Ann Trason
Life is good and I cannot complain too much at the moment!! Ed B.
Really love that quote. It is my own, but I am not partial. Just that, it is my reality. As I have gotten older everyday that I wake up and become mindful of taking a breath…well that is a good day.
Looking West towards Cameron Pass
I have been in Steamboat Springs since Tuesday Night. Nice place to just hang out. The drive from Fort Collins to Steamboat was beautiful. The Aspens are in their “changing color” mode and the views were a little extra special around Cameron Pass. Really hard to do it justice with the pictures.
Steamboat itself is an interesting place. After multi visits here over the years, you start to appreciate the “mountain towns” that were actually a thriving community before they became ski area destinations. There is a little more of a solid feel to them than just a tourist trap so to speak. It has the feel of a much bigger town in some respects but still, I think, maintains the small town atmosphere. By 8pm at night, most shops have closed up, except the bars. Which can be an inconvenience or depending on how you see it, refreshing. Even in summer it is a bustling place. Just the amount of traffic on highway 40 (Main Street in town) can be daunghting.
From the base of the ski area
From mid way up Mount Werner
Main Street in Steamboat looking East
Yampa River in Steamboat looking West
Well the Run Rabbit Run 100 went pretty well. We had great weather. A little hot at times, but clear skis for the start of the race. Not like last year with the smoke from surrounding wildfires. The Silver Creek fire did flare up again but luckily the winds were in the right direction to keep the smoke south of Steamboat this year for the 100 mile race.
Looking South from I-40/Hwy 14
From the bike trail in Steamboat
This year, the race for me ended at the 50 mile mark. I timed out. But even with this, it was a great race. This is only the second attempt for me of 100 miles. I timed out 2 years ago at the Leadville 100, again at the 50 mile mark. I learned a lot this weekend. Simple things like running through the woods in the night, staying warm after running 35 miles, what you can eat and not eat, and the proper utilization of drop bags. All of these things sound simple enough but when you are in the thick of things they can all add up to mean the difference from a “death march” type race, to one that is a lot more enjoyable. I have to say I felt pretty good after running the 50 miles. Sure I was sore but I did not feel like I needed the ER. Lol
Before picture!
After 50 miles and 18 hours of running!
I have now done the 50 mile distance 6 times in the last 5 years. 4 times for an actual race finish and twice while attempting 100s. I guess the 100 mile will have to wait another year. My wife Janet is always good to remind me that 50 miles is nothing to put down. As she has reminded me more than once. 50 miles is still 50 miles.
Looking down from Fish Creek Falls Trail during the run
Long Lake, second aid station on the run
This race is consider a “hard” 100 miler and I do believe that it lived up to its reputation. The added Fish Creek Falls Trail section was beautiful, especially the downhill section until the relization hits you that you have to turn around at the bottom and run/walk back up, add in alot of heat for the day and well… you get the picture. I believe I consumed about 10 liters of water for the day. During the night when the temps dropped into the 40s, the aid stations at Summit Lake and Billy’s Rabbit Hole were outstanding. Well organized and very helpful with a palpable energy from the volunteers. I can tell you they truly made a difference in my race. The “potato soup” at both stations was fantastic. All and all the race was what I expected it to be. A class act when you consider that it is all volunteers that are making this happen. I hope to be back next year.
Before I go I would like to give a big thank you to the Race Committee, and all the volunteers. Without you this type of event would not be possible. THANK YOU!!
And a reminder that without the support of the sponsors this event would not be possible. Thank you to: Altra, Honey Stinger, Black Diamond, IceSpike, Smartwool, Wyndham Vacation Rentals, Tailwind, Ultimate Direction.
Well that is about it for me this week. Hope to see you out there on the trails!! Adios amigos!!
“The pessimist is not guaranteed a tomorrow. And, if tomorrow does come, the pessimist does not expect to feel better at the same point in the race…. indeed, it might feel even worse. So, the pessimist plugs on and accomplishes their goals today. And today is the only day that counts.” Gary Cantrell
Well it has been a good week so far. Got to see some of the family this week and that was a really good thing. I have not seen my sister Cathy in a while and anytime they are up visiting their son in Denver (my nephew) I want to take the opportunity to see them. Even though the visit was brief it was good to see them all.
My wife Janet and Richard (my nephew).
My daughter Cathryn and my two great Nephews, Ford and Henry.
My sister Cathy and myself.
And of course, the proverbial group picture.
Not pictured is my nephew’s wife Laura and my brother in law Rick…somehow, they escaped all the pictures? Thinking about the two great Nephews gives me pause and I wonder where has the time gone. And that does make me feel a little old. Older than I want to be. And what is that about? I want to live as long as I can and as healthy as I can. To be able to truly enjoy life when I am 100 and older. I don’t want to be confined to a Nursing Home. I am a believer that there is some really smart guy or gal out there right now working on the longevity questions and how to extend life indefinitely. But not just indefinitely but to be healthy and fully functioning at the same time. My oh my how that would change things??!
If you are a true believer in one of the worlds mythologies (religions) then how would you wrap your head around this? I mean really, how would you and still believe? If it became possible in the future to not die of old age? To stay alive as long as you want barring any kind of incurable disease or trauma of some kind. I don’t think we as a species have thought much about this. But with that said, some have, especially some of the wealthiest individuals in the world today. They have put a significant amount of money into this research. As an example of a few: Larry Ellison (Cofounder of Oracle), Paul Glenn (Venture Capitalist), Dmitry Itskoy (Russian Multimillionaire), Peter Thiel (PayPal and Facebook fame), and Sergey Brin (Google Cofounder) to just name a few. This give me the belief that in 20 to 30 years, or maybe sooner, we may have some real progress in longevity. I have heard that the first kid to live over 150 years of age has already been born. Can you imagine spending 30 to 40 years in one area of work and passion but then being able to switch to a different field entirely. Spend the same amount of time and then switching again and again and again. Wow! Of course, with all that there would be some big adjustments in current life. Retirement? Religion? Environmental? Family? Sociology? Psychology? etc.… To just name a few. But maybe this would be the best motivation for humanity to move off world and maybe even to the distance stars? Some might see a reason why this research needs to be curtailed but for me I don’t see these issues as problems, but challenges for humanity. From the Trees, to the Plains, and then to the Stars….
The futurist and inventor Ray Kurzweil believes that we are approaching this point. His belief is that the emergence of A.I. will usher in this Golden Age of Humanity. That what seems impossible now will become common place. That A.I. will create what he calls the Singularity. A rapidly developing and accelerating technology growth, an explosion in technological progress that happens overnight. Now before you start doubting this, you should check out a web site called: https://phys.org It is a “churn site.” It does not publish its own data but short synopsis of research that is occurring around the world. In almost every field. And it shows when it was published. And every day it changes, sometimes hour to hour. It’s the sheer volume of information in different areas of research that is published each and every day that gives me chills just thinking about it. I believe that Ray Kurzweil has it right when says we are fast approaching a time when a break through in technology will seem just like magic.
It is like we are on a mathematical curve that approaches an asymptote, the y value changes become larger and larger in relation to x. Almost to the point that the line described is becoming vertical. Kurzweil thinks this will be when we truly create AI or Artificial Intelligence and then, well then, all things become possible in short time frames we never thought imaginable. Have a problem…. get an AI to work on it and bingo solutions appear where there seemed to be none. Wow! It would be truly amazing if things work out this way. Just unreal and if you are still in your 50s or younger and reading this…well you might live to see it happen and more?!
Now some see the immortality question from a little different angle. They see humanity becoming immortal by embracing Transhumanism. And to some degree this has already happened in several areas of medicine. This can be thought of the blending of human and machine so to speak. If you have any of the following then you could be considered Transhumanist: cataract replacement with artificial lens, joint replacement with mechanical parts, an artificial heart valve, implantable penile prosthesis, pacemakers, even amputees from the last middle east conflict that use advanced prostheses. All of these can be considered Transhumanism. And as technology move forward, my guess is that we will see much more of this, no part of the body will be off limits. My personal opinion is that it will be a blending of human and machine that will truly allow us to be immortal.
Well that is probably enough for this week. In the word of Gary Cantrell, there is no guarantee for tomorrow. Not yet anyways. So, I need to get out and do some training for the next Ultra attempt. It is June 2nd in Golden Gate State Park. Called the Dirty Thirty. Check out the website: http://dirty30.org/ It is a 50k or about 32 miles. Here’s hoping to no mud, but of course it is an Ultra and in the mountains. So, you never know what you are going to get. Take care my friends… Have a great Holiday weekend.
“Life is good, bad, beautiful and ugly…but it is all experience, so drink it up and guzzle it down my friends, for it is all we are given.” EB
Well another good week. RAN the Quad Rock 25 and not the 50 last Saturday and that was an experience… This was my forth time to run the 25. And each time it has been different. This year was no exception. True to course the weather did not fully cooperate…. Yes it was cool (good for running), yes it did not rain hard (just a light mist), yes there was really no wind, and all of this was fantastic for running…. but it made up for these by giving us runners and spectators a taste of MUD…. REAL MUD!! Not quite the “Wrath of God” type of mud but close to it.
I have never had the experience of running in mud like this for a long distance. And what I learned: It is one thing to just run a mile or two in mud but quite something else to find it on about 40 percent of the course. Now I am probably exaggerating a little bit because when you are out there in it…. Well it just seemed like it was everywhere.
Think of chocolate cake icing about 3 to 6 inches deep. Slippery, somewhat sticky to real sticky, and did I say slippery… you get the trail conditions. Halfway through the first 25-mile lap I was already thinking that one lap of this Mud Fest was enough. I am a “slow runner” and my best time for this course is 6 hours and 10 minutes. This year’s mud slowed me down enough that I finished the first lap in 7 hours and 30 minutes. An hour and 20 minutes longer…. Oh well, that is what I am blaming it on. It is all EXPERIENCE.
A big THANK YOU to all the volunteers that hung out in the cold and wet. Without your help and dedication this would have been a much less enjoyable race. And a shout out to GNAR runners for putting on the Quad Rock. As always, they put on a great show, no matter the weather. Will I be back next year?? Absolutely!! Will I be shooting for the 50 again?? You bet!!
Well on a different note this week, I noticed that I have been using an app on my phone to track my calories and food choices among other things, called Lose it! I have been using the app for about three to four years now. And for me, this is a long time to be using the same phone app. Wow! Now you would think my first thought would be I really like this app. But you would be wrong…my first thought was “WTF” – Where did the time go!! The “really like part” came as the second thought….
Now, you may be wondering if I have been that “anal” to log every calorie and food choice since I first started using the app…. The answer is no, a resounding no, but at the same time it has really helped me to see trends in how and what I eat and where I could do better. It can tell me how many calories for the day or week, what are the ratios of fats to carbohydrates and protein. And one that I have really started to pay more attention to but is not directly related to nutrition. That one is sleep. A good way over time to see what your averages are for sleep which can lead to better recovery after those long trail runs.
One of the best features with this app is that it syncs with several other programs. As an example: It syncs with Strava, which syncs with Movescount (Suunto Watches) so that my exercise data transfers over in calories burned for the day. It has helped me to lose about 20lbs since I started ultra-running. When I turned 50 I was right at 183lbs. Then over the course of a year I lost down to about 155lbs but became stuck. I stayed at this weight for about two years. I would gain a little bit, then lose a little bit. A kind of Yoyoing back and forth. Which became very frustrating.
Then I discovered the Lose It app. Which allowed the better tracking of calories and helped me to drop another 20 lbs. But, it was not just about the tracking of calories that helped, it was the amount of protein, fat and carbs and the ensuing “change of habits” that really helped. One of the things that astonishes me now and still does at times, is the amount of food you can put away if you are not being a little more mindful. As an example, I would come home from work (working night shift) and think nothing of adding a “small snack” before going to bed. When I started tracking this, the small snack was anywhere from 500 to well over 1000 calories!! Do this a few nights every week and it adds up…. Way up…. It also can give you calories for various types of day to day activity or you can add it after looking up calories burned for a specific activity. There are also informational sections of the app about food and nutrition.
The developers have recently added one on genetics called embodyDNA. If you have already had your DNA sequenced by Helix, the National Geographic sponsored one, then for an extra 50 bucks embodyDNA will use it to let you know things about DNA-based insights on BMI, Low Fat Diets, Saturated Fat, Sugar, Exercise and Nutrition. Also, possible sensitivities like lactose tolerance, gluten tolerance and caffeine metabolism. I think if you want to get serious about your nutrition and create a food environment to let your body run as efficiently as possible this is one way to do it. Here is the link to the Lose It! Website: http://www.loseit.com/ and the embodyDNA site: https://embodydna.com/
Check them out and let me know what you think!! Well that is all for this week. See ya next Friday. First Columbine Flower for the yard bloomed a few days ago. Always beautiful.
Well it’s has been a good week. Lots of resting and waiting and wondering what ifs!!?? The Quad Rock 50 is on Saturday. Did I do enough training, did I do enough specific training… hill work, long steady distance, Aerobic Threshold, Lactate Threshold, and Aerobic Capacity, etc.…. Did I do enough so that I can finish?? Again, I think back to the Ajahn Brahm quote:
“Doing a task is usually easy. Thinking about a task makes it hard.”
So true and add to this the weather change that could be an issue on Saturday AM. Colder and wet? 10 days ago, the forecast was going to be 75 degrees and dry, but now as the time approaches it looks like the best models show a low in the 40s with a high in the 50s and rain? Oh well at least it will be cool but I would prefer not to run in the rain. The muddy trails add some issues but I think this is something to get use to. The unpredictable nature of Ultra Running in the mountains. I do know that once I am doing it……then all this thinking, thinking, thinking and more thinking becomes academic… I am out there doing it.
One of the books that I have read this year is by Matt Fitzgerald called RUN – The Mind-Body Method of RUNNING BY FEEL. I liked the book a lot. For me there were some very useful sections. Chapter 10 was one those. It is titled Anger, Fear, and Speed. Specifically, it was the section that talked about the “Fear of Failure” and the anxiety that it induces. I used to think that the anxiety I experienced days before an event was a bad thing. I would spend countless hours in the days leading up to an event trying to find ways of lessening the anxiety. Not really facing it. And the anxiety would get worse, to the point that I would talk myself out of running. Even after spending countless hours training and planning.
Matt helped me to see the anxiety from an Existentialist view. It is just a symptom or sign that you are challenging yourself. The anxiety is about you pushing yourself into this situation. It is a call to work through the anxiety, fully embracing it, instead of taking the easy way out and just trying to make it go away. By facing the anxiety, the challenge of the race, the pain, you strengthen the core of who you are. It is a chance to step up to what sounds impossible, run 50 miles in my case, and make it possible. The opportunity to move beyond where you are now and become who you see yourself as being. To become more authentic so to speak. And you do this by facing the anxiety, struggling with the anxiety, wrestling with it, and in the end make your decision to race. Success or failure, win or lose, does not really matter, it is that you went to the “abyss” and returned a different person.
On another note I have been working on getting the garden planted. Always a little iffy at this time of year. Colorado weather this time of year can be a little schizophrenic. Warm and dry one day and cold and snow the next. Last year we had a late spring snow. That caused me to have to replant a lot of things. Usually if the forecast is good through Mother’s Day then you are good to go. Last year I believe it was after Mother’s Day that it snowed. I am risking it again this year but except for the rain and cold on Saturday it seems that the temps will stay above freezing.
Tomatoes and peppers
Strawberries
Blueberries
Raspberries
Blackberries – hard to see them with all the other vegetation.
I moved all of the garden plants to the front yard this year. Not enough sun in the backyard when the Ash tree is all leafed out. So hopefully we will get a good crop of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and strawberries. I also planted several raspberry bushes and black berry bushes. So, it will be interesting to see how it all grows this year.
More peppers with cucumbers and lavender and you can just barely see catnip.
I did plant more lavender this year to attract more bees and winged insects. The catnip plant is coming back with force again this year. I had to prune it back multi times last summer.
The Yarrow and Russian Sage is starting out nicely too.
Well that is the start of the garden this year. As things progress or not I will post more photos. I am hoping that I can coax it along and get a pretty good crop. Now I know it is a lot easier to just go to “Whole Paycheck” or one of the Farmer Markets in Fort Collins to get vegetables. But there is something satisfifying about growing your own food. My parents for several years had a garden and I remember picking peas and green beans as a kid. Maybe that is part of the draw? I am not sure. Or maybe it is just my way of being different… putting it in the front yard for all to see?? Never liked mowing grass and if I could I would cover the entire yard with raised garden beds. I am sure that the homeowners association would love that… Oh well I think that is it for me this time. See ya next Friday.
One last picture….How I feel about running right now!!
Life is good, bad, beautiful and ugly – but it is all experience, so drink it up and guzzle it down my friend, for it is all that we are given!!
