Two Posts in One

It is now late April and I haven’t raced my bike yet this year. For me this is a pretty slow start to the season as I usually do a few road races in March and April to prep for the season. In many years there is also a mountain bike race or two to be had by this point (actually I guess the races have been there just not me). Right now it is looking like the first race will be the Front Range 50 on May 9th. I had hoped to sneak in another mountain bike race prior; just to get the legs going but the drive to Nathrop next Saturday is seeming less and less appealing so I’ll probably just spend time training.
The Front Range 50 will be the first of the ultra races I’m planning to do this year, though I think it will be on the short side with a fairly untechnical track and no real huge climbs it will be fast, hopefully 4 hours or less. I do think it will be a good race to get my feet wet for the longer distances and see if the practice I’ve been doing with on the bike fueling pays off in a race.

On a totally separate note, Earth Day was earlier this week, April 22. Keeping in mind the original focus of this blog, environmental awareness, and a big step was undertaken at my work. For years (at least the 11 I’ve worked there) the company has bought and supplied paper plates, bowls and cups in addition to plastic silverware for all employees. There have always been a few people who bring in their own reusable products, but mostly people have relied on company provided one use products. We recently started a stewardship committee in the office to try and improve our corporate image, impact etc. Well our first big effort was launched on Earth Day. We got rid of all paper and plastic kitchen products and bought every employee in the Denver office their own reusable plates, bowls, silverware and mugs. While there has been some grumbling about the change I was very surprised with the amount of positive feedback. Thinking back on all the energy used to create the products used in our kitchen only one time then put in the trash is scary. This change will clearly limit our trash output and long-term reduce our environmental impact. I think it is a pretty good step to being a business that compares about more than the bottom line and am glad I was able to be very involved in getting the change made.