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| Dirt bikes. I must confess that I am a bit obsessed with them. Riding one is so much fun for me. It can be a blast at any level. I guess maybe I also like the challenge of racing and increasingly challenging trail rides. My friend, Mike, and I go riding at a place up in the mountains in Pennsylvania, about a 2 hour drive from my house. We seek out difficult trails with lots of obstacles, tricky hill climbs, and try to ride them as fast as we can. It's fun to try different techniques for getting through the trails quickly. We've also entered a couple of races this year. I don't do motocross, the big jumps scare me. The races I enter are called Hare Scrambles, a race on trails through the woods, typically about a 10 mile loop. We do as many laps as we can in 2 hours. I'm still at the beginner level, I don't win. But, I don't come in last place either. They group the racers into classes and each class starts separately, about 2 minutes apart. The classes are assigned based on skill level (A, B, or C) and engine type/size, or age group. I ride in the class of 40-50 year olds. Often this is one of the biggest classes. A bunch of aging guys who like to ride dirt bikes. Seems funny, doesn't it? Sorry if this is boring. I have lots of interesting dirt bike photos on my Photobucket site (such as http://photobucket.com/albums/v122/diamondjake2001/Tower%20City%205-21-05/ )
Feel free to browse around in other albums while you're there. Let me know if there's any you particularly like. | | |
| I'm cleaning out my calendar of the past year and I thought I'd jot down some highlights:
Last Sept my house was hit by two hurricanes. In October we got a new roof & did major rebuilding put the house up for sale since I got a new job in PA. In November I moved to PA, Phil & Holly moved in w/ their grandparents. Sometime back there Doug moved in with friends in Gainesville. Vicky & Rob came up to PA in December.
In January: I went to Las Vegas for the CES show, went skiing with Robert & a church youth group. Oh, and our car died (the Mercury Sable station wagon).
February: I started going to MCI meetings (a motorcycle club), went to a motorcycle expo in NJ w/ Jim Nadolski, had dinner w/ Jim & Cindy, spent a weekend in W-B/Scranton area so Vicky could visit some friends there, went to Denver for Cablelabs.
March: Missed bike week due to a business trip to Europe (Belgium, France, England) and it was killing me. Must get down to bike week next year if at all possible. Went to HDTV Summit in Washington DC, also Japan.
April: Went to cable conf in San Francisco. Bought my KTM525. Robert went to FL for a visit before his graduation in May. Went riding w/ some guys from MCI. Short visit to NAB. Biz trip to San Jose & San Diego. Took Vicky to a Kelly Clarkson concert in Philly. Worked the Stumpjumper enduro w/ MCI.
May: Vicky flew to FL, I drove down a few days later & picked up Doug so we could all be at Robert's graduation (yay!). It was great seeing Phil & Holly & everyone else down there. Doug moved in with us in PA.
June: moved into the townhouse! Had another trip to Europe. Entered my first race in a very long time (two years). The RORR hare scramble near Cross Fork, PA. Didn't place all that well, but had big fun.
July: brother Bruce diagnosed w/ lung cancer  Went to Japan (had the hike from Hell  , Vicky went to Buffalo for a concert. I entered the HMDR hare scramble with my friend Mike, his first mc race ever. That's where my Xanga picture came from.
August: Vicky tried to get to Alaska for a cruise w/ her Mom & sisters. Airline delays caused her to miss the boat (maybe for the best?). I went to Colorado for a cable conf & went downhill mtn biking at Keystone ski area, very cool. The real highlight was the family reunion in Cocoa Beach. I have 17 cousins (my Dad had 6 siblings) and 15 of them got together for the first time in many years. It was really great. Photos are at http://photobucket.com/albums/v122/diamondjake2001/ (click on 200508_reunion).
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| "This is Bill Jones & Ted Smith reporting on the hare scramble dirt bike race in Port Elizabeth New Jersey."
"Ted, who is that coming down the trail now?"
"Lets see, why Bill that's PHDRDAD on his KTM525, a very powerful machine and he looks pretty tired as he starts his third 10 mile lap of the grueling course as we approach the two hour mark, and ... what's he reaching for?".
"Ted, he is reaching for his Camelbak to get a drink, you know you have to stay hydrated during these long events and ... whoa!"
"Wow! Bill, did you see that?"
"I sure did, Ted." "I guess he didn't anticipate those bumps and accidentally goosed the throttle which sent him into that tree and sprawling on the ground"
"Bill, did it look to you like his leg went out at an odd angle?"
"Lets look at the instant replay in slow-mo, Ted"
Fade to black
It looks like I won't be riding my dirt bike for a little while. I injured my knee in a race last weekend (it was not on TV and there were no commentators, would be funny if there were). I came in 8th out 10 in my class even with the crash. Had I not crashed I probably would have been 5th or 6th. I keep getting a little better each time. The injury will set me back a little, but the Dr. says it is a relatively minor knee injury and just to take it easy, give it time and gradually add more activity to help the recovery process along. It is sore but I can walk on it ok. It gets stiff if I stay in one position too long. Oh well, if you want to play, sometimes you must pay. The good news is, I've lost a little weight. I've gone back to the low-carb diet and it seems to be working. I still have a long way to go, but I can get into some pants I haven't been able to wear for a while. Yippee. | | |
| Howdy from Japan. I've been here since last Wednesday, I go home this Friday. Monday was a Japanese national holiday and I had an interesting (scary) experience I decided to share. See below Dear Reader for the gory details ...
It is very frustrating to me that I was completely physically overwhelmed by a hike in the mountains on Monday. The weather was hot and humid so I was sweating profusely almost from the start. However, sweating a lot is pretty normal for me. I had two bottles of water with me so I figured I'd be fine. When the trail got steep I'd start getting winded and would have to stop to catch my breath, but not too bad initially.
Further on I started to feel the quiver in my lower quadriceps indicating that they might start cramping. The trail just continued to have quite steep ascents followed by steep descents really working the legs. It just got progressively worse for me. We were too far to turn back (more than halfway to the end) and it was getting late in the day so we couldn't stop or we'd be out there in the dark. My legs started cramping badly. At one point my legs were giving out and in trying to get up a very steep section (basically like tall irregular rock 'stairs') I had to stop every few steps to try to catch my breath and get my heart to stop pounding. Paul had gotten some distance ahead. He was suffering with severe pain in his bad knees (no cartilage, from sports in school) and could not stop or they would stiffen up and freeze.
At the worst point Paul was pretty far ahead, but I was a mess. My legs were crampling severely, my heart was pounding, I couldn't catch my breath, I felt sick to my stomach, and was getting light headed. I started wondering if this day might end w/ me getting carried off the mountain on a stretcher. I decided that I must lay down for a few minutes. I didn't know how far ahead Paul was, but assumed he'd eventually stop and wait for me, or come back looking. I felt really bad. After a little while I heard Paul call my name and I responded telling him I felt sick. He asked what I wanted to do. I knew we were too far up for him to go down and then try to send help back. I didn't really want him to have to go the rest of the way alone. So I got up and told him I'd keep moving, but slowly and he could go ahead. He said "what if you fall & hurt yourself?" I noted his good point and we proceeded together, him following me. I got a bit of a second wind but my legs continued to cramp on and off. We finally came out at the end.
What did I learn? Don't be afraid to back track, you never know how much worse it can get up ahead. Also, don't assume that when the guide book lists a hike as 3-5 hrs and easy-medium rating, that it will actually be either of those. When you're weak and faltering, focus on Jesus, I was singing praise songs in my head to help me keep going ... "Every day, it's you I live for, Every day, I follow after you, Every day ..." Man, I miss playing that song w/ the NCF worship team.
I also learned that I really need to work at getting back in shape. From the hurricanes last year, the move to PA, last winter's cold weather, and the new job I have really lost a lot of my physical capacity. At the Melbourne Art Show in 2004 I ran a 32 minute 5K. I know that's pretty slow, but I'm sure I couldn't even come close to that today. Kids don't take your youthful endurance for granted. So that's my story. I hope you learned something from it. Photos from the hike are at:
http://photobucket.com/albums/v122/diamondjake2001/20070718_jpn_trip_2/ | | |
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