2 Months

Two months from today is the FireCracker 50 up in Breckenridge. In some ways it is just another race for me in a season of 15-20 races. In other ways it is going to be a special event. When I decided to dedicate my race season to raise awareness about global warming/humans environmental impact I knew I needed a keystone event, an event people could rally behind and focus on. While I spend a great deal of time racing most people don't appreciate the efforts and don't have the time to focus their attention on a season of racing.

The FireCracker 50 is a unique event, very long by mountain bike standards, an event that requires extra focus and effort to succeed in compared to a "normal" 2 hour race. If I race great the 50 will take 5 hours, and could easily take 6 hours to complete. In some ways the extra effort required to ride well on July 4th is not unlike the extra effort we all need to put in to help reduce human’s impact on the environment. We all need to focus our attention on details to win the race. For the FireCracker 50 that has involved me spending more time on building endurance this year (4-6 hour rides as opposed to 3-4 hour rides), more time focused on hydration and food on long rides, more time riding on the mountain bike to be use to the bike. Parallel to that is what we can do to reduce our environmental footprint. Spending more time sorting through our trash to make sure everything that can be recycled is, spending more time and focus on the products we use and companies we buy from to ensure we support companies that support environmental awareness. For example I have switched food products during rides from Powerbar to Clif products because of Clif's environmental stewardship.

It's the little changes, the attention to details that will help the environment and help me finish the FireCracker 50 well. I have 2 months to dig in and focus on the race; I ask each of you to spend the next 2 months focusing on the details related to your environmental impact. Take a little extra time to protect the planet.

Six hours of riding

Damn I'm tired, busted out six hours on the bike today. I haven't put in that much time in probably a year and half. To make the ride even tougher I spent the whole time on the mountain bike. I figure if the FireCracker 50 is on the mountain bike I'd better get the body use to time on that bike.

I rode most of the time on the road today, but had two major off-road sections, climbing from Morrison to the top of Mt. Falcon (and back down) then a loop of Green Mountain, maybe a total of 2:00 hours off-road. Putting in those kind of miles makes me have some solid confidence for Breckenridge and other upcoming races. While I'm tired after riding I don't feel completely wasted, overall a good sign.

Long Week

It was a long week for me with little time to ride. I went to New York on Tuesday and Wednesday then headed up to Springfield, MA on Thursday for work. Between all the travel, trying to catch up at work and spending time with the family I didn't get a lot of riding in. Oh well, I'm taking tomorrow off and going for a 6 hour ride.

I did get a change to write my April newsletter, for those not on my email list let me know if you'd like me to send one.

Better get to sleep soon if I'm really going to ride that long tomorrow.

BIG TIME

I've hit the big time, made Sly Fox's blog role. As crazy as Cris is he sure gets a lot of hits. I've met Cris many times over the years, and been beaten by him at least once last year at Deer Valley. For all the new Utah readers I'm the slow brother in law of climb um as Cris calls him. Catch me at Deer Valley in June for an in person meeting, until then enjoy.

Education not Legislation

I’m off to New York this morning, flying of course, global warming be damned. Sometimes you need to fly; at least I guess you do, to get from point A to point B. But the time on a plane has some great benefits, like a few hours where communication is completely cut-off and I can work on whatever I want. I’ve been mulling over this entry/writing for a few days and just not had time to write it down, so I’ll take the time on the plane to get it written.

Part of the problem with trying to write is the issue of when do I have time to write? I tend to do most of my thinking while I’m out riding which very much limits my ability to write anything down at the same time. When I’m not out riding I tend to be working, which although in front of a computer hasn’t allowed much free time for composing recently or with Shay and Ade. Time with Shay and Ade may allow a few free moments here and there to write, but not a prolonged period of time to think. Maybe I’ll have to invent some sort of computer interface that will allow me to telepathically transpose my thoughts while riding.

But onwards, as Earth Day this past weekend, teaching Shay’s class about how they can protect the environment and meeting with Diana DeGette’s office the previous week have gotten me thinking about what we need to do to really make changes to the way we live in an effort to protect the environment. When I went to DeGette’s office there was a great deal of talk about legislating and requiring people to use electric cars etc. And while legislation may (and probably will) play a role in protecting the earth it is not what is needed at this time.

Legislation without education will lead to extreme opposition to the efforts being made and will ultimately fail. However, legislation coupled with (or proceeded by) education will lead to real change. When I was in front of a group of five and six year olds talking about recycling and how to help the earth not get sick I really felt that the kids were listening and wanting to help. Since that time, Seamus has been picking up liter on the streets, trying to recycle, and drawing on both sides of paper. Admittedly all small steps, but the little things we can all do to help the environment. In fifteen or twenty years (with continued reinforcement) will Seamus buy into and agree with legislation to protect the environment? Hell yes, not only will he buy into it he will require stringent legislation. He will require companies, the products he buys, to take environmental stewardship seriously.

The only problem with this is Seamus is just one kid, or at a max his class is only 20 kids, and it will take 20 years before they are in a position to effect change and we must act now. So we must accelerate education, not just for children but for adults. When I first started this effort I undertook a huge effort to read and educate myself. In a small way I hope to be teaching people through this effort, though I know my posts are limited at best for education content, but even if I can’t educate hopefully each of you will start thinking about the environment and take the time to educate yourselves. Since I concocted this idea in November I’ve learned what greenhouse gases our, Ade has learned what fossil fuels are, Seamus has learned that he can help make the earth not die. I’ve bought into the information I’ve read, I believe that at least in part humans are causing harm to the environment and that with our own efforts we can help to make changes, educate our friends and most importantly educate our elected officials about the importance of environmental issues so that the legislation they create is supported, strong and most importantly helpful to the environment.
I wish I had more time to help educate, and I will try throughout the course of this season, but each of you must make the effort on your own. I can recommend reading, starting with Al Gore’s An Inconevient Truth (or if you are lazy watch it). Other books include A Field Guide to Catastrophe, Bush Versus the Environment. Web sites from Environmental Defense, League of Conservation Voters, Natural Resource Defense Council, FightGlobalWarming.com, earthjustic.com and the Sierra Club all offer huge amounts of information. Take time to read and review, take time to learn and educate yourself and educate others. Then start making the small steps like Seamus has to protect the environment. Start to ride your bike, use canvas bags for grocery trips, next time a clerk offers you a bag turn it down, use a manual lawn mower, bring your own mug to the coffee shop, pick up the trash on the street, force your schools and offices to implement recycling programs. Finally once you feel comfortable with the changes that need to be made write your elected officials, harass presidential candidates, make environmental issues front and center in politics, but base the issues on facts and legislation on efforts that will work and help. Legislation will play a critical role in the end to protect the environment, but unfounded legislation (legislation that has no broad based support or understanding) will not work. So, what have you done to protect the environment today?

Earth Day

Tomorrow is Earth Day, so what does that mean? Not really sure, seems as if the event was started in 1970 by Senator Gaylord Nelson as a method to shake up the political establishment and make people aware of issues surrounding our environment (http://www.earthday.net/resources/history.aspx). Earlier this week I went to Seamus' school and talked to his class about the environment and what they can do to help protect the earth. His teacher is really into environmental protection and was happy to have a parent come in to build on her lessons related to Earth Day. She even has brought her own recycling bin in to school since the school doesn't "participate" in a recycling program.

I tried to keep my talk interesting and fun. Showing the kids every day things they can do to help, such as recycling, how they can reuse items, and what reducing means. I have to admit I was surprised and happy with how much a group of five and six year olds new. It was also a lot of fun to just be in class with Seamus, maybe just a little way to show him how much we care about school and the environment.

I think my big action for the upcoming week will be harassing Shay's school to get with it and start a recycling program. I know how much paper he goes through coloring, seems a waste to not provide recycling in all the classrooms. The way I see it is start them young and taking care of the environment will be second nature by the time these kids are adults.

Soccer

Seamus finally got in a real soccer game this weekend. It was pretty funny, the kids were pretty interested at the start, but as the game progressed things kind of fell apart. Kids would walk off the field mid-shift, start playing with the net, tackle each other, basically anything but play soccer. It was fun to watch though and Seamus seemed to have some fun.

Here is Seamus and his buddy Ethan mid game. Seamus had to come off the field and put his sweatshirt on under his jersey cause he thought it was cold. Don't know why he thought that, I got a sunburn on my head.

Here's Seamus doing some sort of soccer thing early in the game. Sorry but no pictures of the blue shoes really turned out, I'll need to take a close-up next time.

I put in a 14 hour week of training, which for me is pretty big. I'm trying for another this week, but it may be harder given that a few people are out at work (means more hours for me) and Ade is going out on Thursday. Hopefully if the weather is good I can go big on the weekend again. I rode my favorite ride today, Lookout (twice) and felt pretty good. I decided next time I'll ride the mountain bike to Golden then ride the Chimney Gulch trail (which pretty much follows the road) up and down. It will make a 3.5 hour ride about 5 I think so it should help get me going.

Taking it to the streets

So today I went to the meeting at Congresswoman DeGette’s office on behalf of the LCV. Met with my neighbor Chris and the district manager (forgot his name) on behalf of DeGette. I wouldn’t say we were overly organized or influential in our meeting, but it was great to have an opportunity to express interests and concerns as constituents. Although the LCV is a huge, politically active group that allowed us to get our feet in the door, clearly this was a meeting of concerned citizens and not big money.

There were a lot of differing views, even within a group of people who theoretically have the same interest in the environment. A few people were very (overly perhaps) passionate, single minded and from my perspective not very realistic in their views. Most others were concerned and just want to express support for legislation and efforts to improve the environment. Issues ranged from alternative fuels to solar, to education (my topic/interest), to the economics needed to really move us forward. At the end of the day it was a good meeting, though the reality is given DeGette’s very favorable environmental record, though nothing earth-breaking in terms of legislation or action will evolve from the meeting.

So if I feel this way am I glad I went? Hell yes. I made a commitment to raise awareness on global warming and if I can let my congresswoman know I’m concerned then I’m making another small effort to raise the awareness. If I’m not involved and expressing concerns then can I really bitch about how our government is dealing with environmental issues? No. Will I go again, given an opportunity? Yes. Take the time this weekend to email your congressional representative and let them know you support current legislation entitled the Safe Climate Act and you expect them to pass the legislation. If you can’t ask the question what have you done today, then give an honest answer.

Riding

I’m trying to get in two big weeks on the bike this week and next, trying for about 15 hours per week. Given that the weather isn’t scheduled to be great this might be a little tough, but I really want to get in some long hour weeks prior to May when the racing season really starts. Once I start racing training a lot of hours becomes more difficult because so much time is spent recovering from the hard race efforts. Between the recovering from races and still needing to get in long rides in May and June to be ready for the FireCracker 50 this stretch is most likely my last block of consistent high mile and intensity work for awhile.

In an effort to get in the extra time I want I’m trying to etch out any riding I can. Both yesterday and today I put in 1.5 hours on the trainer before work (4:30-6:00), helped get everything/one ready for the day (making lunches for all of us, helping get Shay ready etc.) then ride into the office and ride home. This is getting me about an extra ½ hour of riding each day. If I’m lucky (and the weather holds out) I’ll do this tomorrow, and try to do a longer ride home maybe an hour or so, before a recovery day Thursday. This morning was pretty damn rough as the trainer didn’t seem like much fun when the alarm went off, but I managed to force my way downstairs and put in the miles. Then the ride in was a bit cold and wet due to rain last night. I guess this is the time to prove it if I want to race well this season.

Getting Ready

On the Global Warming front I’m getting ready to take it up a level and take on two new (short term) commitments. The first is meeting with a local politician (DeGette) with others from the LCV next Friday. This should be a good way to express concerns from real people not a PAC. Meeting will be really friendly, especially since my next door neighbor works for DeGette and will be at the meeting.

The second task I’m doing is teaching a session on environmental impact to Seamus’ class on the week of Earth Day. This should be fun as it is always cool to go into his school and see him and work with the kids. I’m going to go over ways the kids can recycle, teach them about how bike riding helps the environment and give some safety tips on riding, and an interactive session of planting organic veggies to explain how choices on food etc. impact the environment. I know it will be fun and his teacher is down with it, but who knows about other parents. You certainly put yourself out there when talking about issues that for some unknown reason (Bush) have become political. I really want to bring awareness to people on the environment, not piss them off; however, in this day and age all issues become political so I’m bound to piss a few people off. At least they get some free tomato plants out of the deal.

Today was cold and snowy at times, but I’ve hit my limit with riding the trainer so I spent 2+ hours outside on the road bike. Felt pretty good considering I’ve had a slight cold all week and was way to busy at work. I’m going to try to sneak in another ride tomorrow (Easter) to make up for the easy week, but if the weather is still shitty I may just skip the day. Although I need the training as it seems like I will be going to India again, probably in early June, which will really kill last minute training for the FireCracker 50. By that point I’d better have my endurance anyway so hopefully I’ll be able to ride an exercise bike some during the time I’m there to not lose to much fitness, then have about 2 weeks to fine tune everything. We’ll see though, I could just slack at work and not finish anything that is needed to go to India until after the 4th and then go, but that may not be the best idea to stay employed.

April Fools

Sometimes the blogging gets slowed down by life, sometime it picks up when there is more free time. Right now there really isn’t a lot of free time so infrequent posts are the current state. Saturday’s soccer game for Seamus was cancelled because of the snow last Thursday. I think the game could have been played, as it was warm and dry by Saturday morning, but I’m not in charge.

Just wait till you see pictures of him though, I bought him some sweet bright blue soccer shoes. One thing is certain he’ll be easy to pick out on the field.

I did a road race on Sunday, up near Boulder. I raced with the old slow guys (Cat 4 35+) and had a good race. Not really sure if slow is a great term for the race though as we did 22 miles on a rolling course (with about ½ of it on dirt roads) in less than an hour. I don’t have a cyclo-computer any more but my calculations have us at about 23 miles an hour. There were really no breakaways in the race, just guys coming off the back because of the constant pressure. I was in the lead group until about a mile from the end when I couldn’t respond anymore. I ended up in 13th place and was the first finisher outside the lead group. The race gave me a good indication that my fitness is progressing well and that I really need to work on the anaerobic side of things (short efforts of less than 3 minutes). While I often think these efforts aren’t key in mountain biking I’ve learned that I’m probably wrong. The start of the race, hard pushes at the top of climbs, trying to catch other racers all require this effort. In the past few years I haven’t spent much time working in this area, but I’m going to start adding some of this work in over the next few weeks.

Looking at my schedule I think the first mountain bike race will be May 6 up near Buffalo Creek. This is a location fairly near Denver that hasn’t had many races held in it although there are a lot of trails. One of the main reasons is the fires and floods in the area of the past 10 years. It should be pretty cool to race and see what is happening after all the disasters.

My company of the week (not really weekly) is Fed Ex, for what they are doing to help the environment. As I was leaving work the other day I noticed a Fed Ex truck on the loading dock that mentioned it was Hybrid powered, then I saw a sticker for environmental defense. FedEx is working with the Environmental Defense organization to develop trucks that are “50 percent more fuel-efficient (yielding a 33-percent decrease in greenhouse gas emissions) and produces 90 percent less air emissions of soot and smog.”

FedEx has also worked to redesign packaging materials, reduce emissions from planes and use more environmentally friendly printing methods on packages etc. All these efforts combined show a company that seems to realize that they do have an impact on the environment and can help keep it healthy.

Slacker

Well I've been slacking with posts recently, mostly because of too much work and very little free time. After a hard few days training at the end of last week I took two days off the bike (Mon and Tues) and rode an hour easy today. Commuting home (which really makes for 1.5 hours of riding) my legs still felt like hell, not a quick recovery. I hate to say it but this is the first year I can feel being older. I don't seem to recover from hard work as quick and to fully recover takes work (things like stretching and sleeping). Unfortunately for me those two extra items are harder to come by than they are to think about. I did get in a good stretch tonight and have another easy day scheduled for tomorrow so hopefully the legs will come around for the weekend.

I'm planning on racing a road race on Sunday, it will be a good test to see how the last block of training went. If the legs recover I should be alright, if they feel as bad as today it will be a waste of $30 for the entry fee.

Seamus has decided to try soccer again this season. We had his first practice last night, I must say I was impressed with his effort. Last spring he hated it and never participated. Yesterday he was following the ball and laughing. He even (accidentally) kicked the ball a few times. I hope he has better luck with it this year. If nothing else it is good to get him out and doing something active. I hope he actually gets more into it as he plays a little more, maybe even try to really kick the ball. His first game is Saturday and the season goes until mid-May, which means no Saturday racing till after that, but I'd much rather watch him play soccer any day. It is fun to see, especially when he is having fun and gaining confidence. Even in an hour practice yesterday I could see him feeling better about his soccer playing skills. I'm going to try to get pictures at Saturday's game to post.

Gotta get to bed so I can get up early to ride before work.

Going Green

So one of the most common questions I've been asked recently is "how do you go green?". Clearly there is the effort to reduce product usage, recycle, reuse, alternative commuting, but what else can you do? So I'm going to start to track down companies that are "green". This week I'm starting with Clif Bar (http://www.clifbar.com/), mostly because it is a cycling/sports related product so it seems to make sense.

Gary, the guy who started and owns Clif Bars is very environmentally friendly. A huge part of the company goals/mission is to create a sustainable environment. This goes from using organic produce, to sponsoring teams that are green focused, to buying wind energy credits. The best sample of Clif's dedication I've seen in practice was their cyclo-cross team at race last fall. These guys are elite (pro) racers, who spent time at races digging through trash cans to pull out recyclable materials that had been thrown away. Clearly the Clif sponsorship helped to dictate that and I'm sure increased awareness at races. Because of Clif's environmental focus I've switched all my riding energy products to Clif. I had been a Powerbar user for many years, but because of Clif Bars concern for more than just profit I've switched brands.

Speaking of Clif Bars, the management book Gary Erickson wrote (Raising the Bar) is a solid business read. If you're looking for a good management style book check it out. If you want a recycled version let me know and I'll send you mine.

I got in my first actual mountain bike ride in a long time yesterday. Rode for about 2 hours at Green Mountain. For those of you in the know GM isn't the greatest spot for riding as it is fairly nontechnical, but given the weather I was just glad to be on the dirt. Hopefully I'll be racing in the dirt in a couple of weeks, we'll see how things pan out, but I felt good and the training seems to be going well.

I'm tired

Another long day on the bike today, busted out a ride to Lookout, two climbs up and on the bad side two flats. The first happened about 15 minutes into the ride, the second at about 3 hours. All I can say about that is, good thing I have some new tires on the way. I’ve had a few flats recently and that is always the sign new tires are needed.

I’ve been trying to sneak in some reading on the scientific background on global warming, which given a day spent in LA waiting for one meeting, was provided in plenty. I actually damn near finished two books that day (Monday) as there was a lot of travel time with minimal meeting time. So what did I learn? The facts seem to show that no matter how you slice it the current increase in CO2 (and other gases) can’t (at least historically) be explained as a “natural” happening. What is showing to happen is an acceleration of environmental change caused by humans adding in greenhouses gases to the atmosphere by the ton. Back to a topic from a few weeks ago, recycling seems to be a simple way to help reduce our waste. But the question is what can be recycled? I don’t have the definitive answers here as many locations vary what is acceptable but here is a list of “standards”: newspaper, office paper, aluminum cans, plastics (1 or 2 on the bottom), canned food cans, junk mail, cardboard, cereal box (and the like) containers including toilet paper/paper towel rolls. What isn’t recyclable in most places includes plastic other than 1 or 2 (such as cottage cheese/cream cheese containers), cardboard milk/juice containers. Some times it may take a little extra effort to recycle items but in the long run it is worth the time/effort. One area I’ve been concentrating on is pop cans at work (far less convenient than the trash can at my desk) and paper napkins (only taking one). Hopefully these help, especially since I’ve been flying a lot recently which isn’t good for anything.

We’ve also tried to take care of a few things at home with waste/recycling, such as using clothe napkins every night, using reusable water bottles instead of “bottled” water and changing some cleaning supplies. I’m still waiting for a “big” change, but beginning to think that a lot of small changes may be better. So what have you done today?

Racing in March?

Since this blog is suppose to be about bike racing and global warming I'm going to highlight the bike racing thing today. Why? Well, mostly cause the season has kicked-off here in Colorado and I actually raced. Today was the first race of the year, part of an early season series of road races (crits, which are multi lap races on a short course) up in Boulder.

I decided to race yesterday after putting in some hard efforts and feeling not terrible. I figured since the week would be light in terms of riding hours anyway I might as well get in hard work. Now one thing to keep in mind with this racing in March thing is, I'm a mountain biker not a road racer and today's kind of race is fast, not particularly suited for an endurance guy like me. I knew the hard work would be/will be good later in the year though. The strange thing with the first race of the year is not having any idea what you'll do. I came in to today with low expectations since I haven't done any intervals until this week, I had just come off 6 days off, and while in Mexico I gained a lot of weight (10 lbs). All these things had me expecting to get beat good, no chance of staying with the leaders, which on a course like this (in the past) has been a miracle. Somehow today though I rode good. Stayed with the lead group the entire time, attacked once just to test the field and was in the sprint for the win at the end. Now road racers and mountain bikers have different strengths and one area mountain bikers are weak is the sprint, so needless to say I didn't do good in the sprint, but man was it fun. Far more important than the results was the information I gained today: yes the work this winter is paying off, yes there is room to go (no intervals yet) and finally that racing is still fun ( I knew this though).

The first race is also good on a social level, a few of my mountain biking brethren were at the race, Steve and Rob racing and Och hanging out cheering. It was good to catch up for a few minutes after the race, knowing I'll be seeing these guys all summer.

Next stop, LA tomorrow for the day then back to Denver late tomorrow night. I'll try to write some on Global Warming as I've been reading a lot about issues recently, but until then, what have you done today?

Mexico

I was a slacker in Mexico, didn't post because I didn't feel like hanging out in the hotel lobby to get wireless. We spent most of our time on the beach, but did go to Tulum for a day (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulum) to check out the ruins. Over the past 1.5 years I've been to Germany, India and now Mexico and have taken time to see some historical sites in all places. It is pretty cool to see the unique designs in each area and to see the skills of the craftsmen thousands of years ago.

Lent

So most of you know I'm not an overly religious guy, but don't forget four years of catholic high school taught me a thing or two that I still remember. Tomorrow is the beginning of Lent, which if I remember correctly (and according to the Internet) is a time to reflect, do good work, abstain from unnecessary pleasures etc. So, I'm challenging everyone to a global warming lent. I can't tell you what to give up but for my Catholic family the whole meat thing is a starting place. Many people contend eating organic, vegetarian diets helps reduce global warming. Other "easy sacrifices" to try over the next 40 days include recycling grocery bags, try to use the same bags each time you go shopping between now and Easter. Give up one car trip a week and walk to the corner store (do we really have corner stores anymore? Mine is 2 miles away, but I'll ride my bike).

I'm not really sure where I'm trying to take this, just asking each of you to make a minimal sacrifice now to better the environment, just until Easter and if it isn't too painful keep it up after. If any of you take me up on this challenge let me know, the most unique idea will win a prize (not sure what but in line with the uniqueness of the sacrifice).

Cheers, I'm starting to think of Mexico. Maybe I'll give up snow?

Hopefully a few of you are catching up on my blog since I sent out my last mass email. For those of you not on my email list, as part of my effort to raise awareness on global warming I've created a newsletter to keep folks updated. Since my technical skills are bad at best I haven't figured out how to post a link to a pdf online, so if you are interested in a copy send me an email (dmccune7@hotmail.com) and I'll send it out to you. This blog is intended to be a mixture of random rants on cycling, global warming and keeping family current on life. Over the past month or so it has been mostly global warming and riding if there are topics you'd like to see more about let me know and I'll try. Later this week the site shifts over to family focus as we are headed to Mexico for a week on the beach. For those of you in Colorado or Utah I'll post pictures from my beach chair, most pictures will have Seamus playing in the sand as I'm not planning on moving. The weather is expected to be in the 80's and after the winter we've had in Denver it is just what I need. I did a long road ride again on Sunday, 4 hours including a climb up Lookout. I rode Lookout 11 days ago after about a month + with no climbing and felt pretty stale. This time, even though I haven't done any additional climbing I felt a lot better, probably because I've done a few hard efforts in the mean time, trying to get my body in shape. I knocked a minute off my time on the climb from a week ago and posted my best time up Lookout ever (by 4 seconds). Hopefully this is a good sign that as I work towards race fitness for the summer I won't get worked over as hard in the Expert field. When I upgraded to Expert middle of last season it was a tough transition with a lot of back of the field finishes. I've been working hard to improve my conditioning so I can finish middle of the pack. Only time will tell, but I think improvements are at hand.

Just read an interesting article on US policy related to global warming (article), it is nice to see that the issue is finally becoming apolitical which seems to rarely happen. While policy change is important, personal habits can cause change/improvement at a quicker rate than waiting for legislation to be written, passed and implemented. So, what have you done today?

Saturday Morning Ride

Most of my riding comes pretty early in the day, either a 4:30 am trainer session during the week or long rides on the weekend where I hit the door about 7:00. Today I was a little later than that as a short ride was on tap, 2.5 hours. I set off to Cherry Creek resovior which is one of my usual haunts for rides, nice rolling terrain, limited cars and multiple loop options.

Besides being cold the ride was good, hardly any traffic, roads clear of ice and snow and a special treat at the rez, a pack of deer. Given that the resovior is really in the middle of the city I'm always a little surprised by the number of deer out there at times. This morning coming around a cornor there were 10 deer crossing the road. Pretty cool way to start the day.

Recycling

I’ve been thinking about recycling a lot recently as to me it seems counter-productive to helping the environment. I mean think about it, I throw a bunch of random stuff in my recycling bin (cans, bottles, paper etc.) with no concern. Someone comes, takes it away and has to sort through it, break the materials down to a raw state and reengineer into a new product. All of these steps along the way take energy which in most cases causes carbon or methane to be released into the atmosphere, which helps promote global warming. Damn, maybe we’ve been duped on this whole recycling thing. So I had to look into the benefits of recycling, and the good news is there are many benefits.

First recycling reduces the amount of garbage in landfills producing two benefits, less land used for industrial purposes and less methane being released into the atmosphere. The land is good as it allows (potential) for more plants, trees, farming etc. which all help offset greenhouse gases. However more important is that landfills create a huge amount of methane gas as the trash decomposes and breaks down. Therefore the less we put in landfills the less methane that is created.

Additional benefits of recycling include not having to use virgin materials to create products. Even if a new tree is planted for each tree cut down to make paper, cardboard, tissue etc. the amount of carbon removed from the environment is less than that of an older and larger plant. Using virgin materials dramatically reduces the benefits vegetation provides to the environment (learn some more about plants). The manufacturing of materials, either raw or recycled is fairly similar so the energy utilized is equal, therefore a net zero result from how much gas is emitted from using recycled materials.

So what does this mean? It means that recycling really does help the environment, by reusing materials and reducing landfill space and gas emissions. So, what have you done today?

Five hour rides and what is global warming

Well it’s been a hell of a week, thus the lack of updates. Two birthdays, lots of work, and finally a solid week of riding on the bike. I took a ½ day on Wednesday to celebrate (my birthday) and proceeded to bust out a 5 hour ride. The roads are still wet in a lot of places from all of our snow, but Lookout Mountain has been plowed and was mostly dry. I rode the climb three times and was definitely feeling it the last climb. It’s been about 2 months since I hit Lookout so it was nice to get in the ride, as Lookout is my favorite place to ride the road bike. I’ll need to get in a lot more rides like that to be ready for the FireCracker 50. I guess taking time off work makes for a busier week, but when there is already too much to do a long ride is worth it. Saturday was another busy day with my mom’s b-day, shopping for glasses for Ade and a 3 hour ride, but I must say those two long rides in one week felt good.

Now, on to Global Warming and what exactly is global warming? This question has been brought up a lot recently, I think due to the IPCC report released last week. To put it simply global warming is caused by greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane and others) being emitted. Greenhouse gases let light/heat from the sun in, which is nice, but then trap the heat in the atmosphere, not allowing it to escape back to space. Some heat trapping is good as it keeps the temperature livable on Earth, but too much is bad causing temperatures to rise and effecting Earth’s ecosystems (how we live with each other and other animals etc on Earth).

The problem with global warming is that we are helping to accelerate the emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases for numerous reasons. Some reasons are somewhat beyond our control, for example a larger human population on Earth now than at any other time. However, and most importantly, some are very controllable for example emissions of CO2 because of fossil fuel usage (think gas, oil, natural gas etc.). Now I’m not sitting here saying I don’t like having a nice warm house or a car to get to bike races in, but what I am saying is that we can each individually and collectively do a lot to reduce our CO2 emissions and reduce the greenhouse effect that is causing global warming. Now it is important to keep in mind that all these gases/causes of the greenhouse effect occur naturally, always have, always will. What is just as important, if not more so, is to know that the emissions of these gases have been accelerated by our actions.

So in layman’s terms greenhouse gases have always existed and no matter what we do will exist. This truth helps naysayer's with their argument that global warming is a myth. But the facts point to a very accelerated level of emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases since the Industrial Revolution (I know thinking back to high school history is painful so here is a link). Gas emissions have accelerated even more dramatically since the popularization of the car. But the good news is there is a significant amount that can be done to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, such as driving less, recycling, planting trees/flowers, using less energy (turn off lights, keep temperature lower in the winter, higher in the summer). So, what have you done today?

Scarlet Fever

Well I had planned on writing something on Friday, or at least Saturday, about the UN report on global warming, but life had other plans. I went down to Houston on Thursday for work and got home late Friday. No biggie, write something on Saturday, but Seamus had other plans. When I had left Thursday he said he was sick and “my neck hurts”. We figured just a cold with a sore throat, especially since that seems to be going around. Ade stayed home with him on Friday and noticed a rash coming on. By the time I looked Saturday the rash was bad, all over his groin, back and face. Needless to say a trip to the doctor was scheduled. Strep throat plus a rash outbreak on the body equals? Scarlet Fever. It sounds so 1800’s but I guess isn’t uncommon. A prescription of antibiotics and life is good, aside from the rest of Saturday being a day of complete lethargy for Shay.

The good news is after less than 24 hours he is back to himself and running around like a mad man. So finally a chance to read about and write about the UN report, reuters article on report. I have started to review some of the actual report http://www.ipcc.ch/, but there is a lot to read and digest. In any case highlights include (in layman’s terms) that it is highly likely human activity has caused global warming. To that I say no shit. Yes there are natural trends and warming cycles to be considered. I won’t even debate that we are in a natural warming cycle, but I will also say we are accelerating and promoting the problem. Carbon Dioxide emissions have increased from 310 parts per million in 1958 to 381 ppm in 2005, a significant increase. What has caused this, well I’ll venture to say car emissions (how many of us drive two cars a day?), wasted resources (plastic bags, ipods, computers etc.). While all of these items certainly make life convenient they do tend to waste. Since I don’t have to worry about my status in the scientific community I’ll say humans (Americans) have caused a significant amount of this global warming.

And now for the bad news, even if we drastically change our ways now the effects of our negligence will be seen for 100 years. One of the reasons global warming is a topic that is important to me is not because of how environmental changes will affect me, but how they will affect Seamus, and his children. I may not have much to leave Seamus when I’m gone but at least I can make an effort to improve the planet, or leave it only slightly more messed up than when I was around for Seamus. I wish the UN report had good news, and in ways it may, but overall even our best efforts will cause planetary harm for 100 years. Hopefully the planet responds like the human body and you can abuse it for awhile (think college) and then repair the ill effects later. Maybe the parallel to bike racing makes sense, crazy and unhealthy in college, but after because of all the riding pretty damn healthy. I mean I’d venture to say I’m in better shape at 36 (yea that hits this week) than I was at 21. Anyway sit down and read the report, then ask yourself what have I done today?

What have you done today?

Well the weather kind of cleared, finally, so I got out for a three hour ride on the road bike. It felt good to get in a solid ride, even if it was pretty cold at times. I went riding out east of town, around the airport. The riding is great with rolling hills most of the time and hardly any traffic. To get in shape for the Firecracker 50, and the rest of the season, I really need to get in these long rides to build up my endurance. Too bad next week is looking snowy and cold again, which will limit the riding. On top of that I’m heading to Houston on Thursday and Friday so I’ll have limited training those days.

I put a new link on the top of the site, for stopglobalwarming.org. This site was started by Laurie David, who produced An Inconvenient Truth and is married to Larry David who wrote and created Seinfeld with Jerry Seinfeld. She started the site as a “virtual march” to let politicians know that people are concerned with Global Warming. I’m not sure if a web site has the same effect as 100’s of thousands of people actually marching on Washington like the civil rights movement, but given the new era maybe it does. I mean think of the importance of the internet, at least two potential presidential candidates, Obama and Hilary announced their intentions on their own web site. Who needs the national media when you can film, produce and air your own message. Anyway, I ask each of you to take a few minutes and add your name to the march as www.stopglobalwarming.org. As I’ve been asking myself each day recently, what have you done to help protect our environment, something as simple as clicking on the web can help.

Why did they come to my door?

I was sitting at home tonight, surfing the net, trying to find new links and information on Global Warming for the site. Mostly I was doing this because I emailed with Shay's teacher about a special classroom session on the environment associated with Earth Day. Ade had come up with the idea that I should teach something about global warming to his class. Well Miss H. is very excited about the idea, saying the Earth Day education is a huge favorite topic of hers.

Anyway, I do a lot of presentations to adults, but 5 year olds are not my normal audience, so I was trying to find information to start coming up with a session (plus I want to find some companies to donate swag for the kids) when there is knock on the door. Remember, no one comes to my neighborhood an knocks on the door unexpected, so I was a little surprised. In any case it is a guy from the League of Conservation Voters. Turns out this organization is committed to shaping the political agenda in the U.S. to focus on Global Warming. We talked for a few minutes about global warming and making it a key issue in the 2008 election. I told him I've written to my congress(wo)man, and presidential candidates. No cash to donate for the guy tonight, but he said just as important was spreading the word. I think I'm trying that. So check out their site at www.lcv.org (link on the side now too), and sign up to receive information and let people know you support making global warming a key issue in the 2008 campaign.

Still not sure why they knocked on my door, but pretty cool that he did.

Will the cold ever stop?

Well the weather keeps staying the same, or in some ways getting worse. It is three weeks into the year and I haven’t been for a ride on my road bike outside since December 17. That pretty much sucks. I should be riding 3-4.5 hours outside at least once a week in order to get in shape for the races this year, however; with the snow, cold, snow, cold cycle we’ve been under it’s tough to motivate (or even ride) outside that long.

This week I put in a total of 8 hours, real limited compared to what I would like to do but between not being able to ride home this week because of other commitments and bad weather this weekend I’ll have to live with it. In the past I’ve been able to handle multiple 2-3 hour days on the trainer. This year I’m struggling with 1.5 hours. Part of it is the tedium that comes from years of having ridden the trainer, but more importantly this year I think is there has been limited chances to break up the trainer work. By the middle of the week the weather report for the weekend is always showing cold and snow which causes me to hit the stark realization by Wednesday that I’ll be inside again and no long rides. I did mange 2.5 hours outside in the cold and snow flurries yesterday. I rode my mountain bike so the shoes I was wearing didn’t work with my shoe covers. By the time I got home I really thought I had frost-bite on my toes. I took off my socks and placed my feet in front of the fireplace for about ½ hour before feeling returned. I guess next time I’ll switch pedals so I can wear shoes that work with shoe covers.

The mountain bike season is still a ways off, but I am starting to think about racing. I’ll probably race a few road races in March to help get in shape; this will really be important if I can’t start to ride longer. Most of my races are about 2-2.5 hours, but the Firecracker 50 will take 5-6 hours. To finish that I need to get in at least six rides of 5-6 between now and July 4 and probably 2 dozen rides in the 4 hour range. This is not so easy when juggling work and family as well but somehow I’ll get them in. Races can help with it, especially 2 hour road races with an hour of warm up and cool down, makes for a really hard day that probably is as tough as a 5-6 hour ride by myself.

Until the weather breaks I guess it will just be more hours in the basement. At least this week isn’t looking as crazy with work and I should be able to commute at least two days and maybe even three. I know it won’t be more than that since two days require me to drive for meetings. Hopefully between commuting and a break in the weather next weekend I can get in a 12-14 hour week of training.

Global warming poses a dire threat...second only to nuclear weapons

Maybe I should change my homepage at work away from reuters.com, today is awash in bad news about the environment. Anytime you see a statement like, “Global warming poses a dire threat to human civilization that is second only to nuclear weapons," you have to take notice. I’d never even heard of the doomsday clock, and while the focus of the clock is on nuclear weapons, clearly they scientists involved realize other issues may be more likely to end the world than a single button.

State of the Union Speech

The following article was released today discussing the Presidents upcoming State of the Union speech and his new environmental policies Bush on Global Warming. While it is nice to see the President showing some concern about the environment, I would like him to really do something about it if he is going to take the time. It is interesting that the emissions standards in the US are less stringent than even those in China, yet all he wants to do is have voluntary standards. Add the President to the list of people to write about supporting legislation to protect our environment.

Congress

When it comes to changing the world with global warming which is more important, personal action or political action. As a post I read on a bulletin board (one of Ade’s) stated (rough paraphrase) it’s not about light bulbs it’s about the politics. I’ve been debating this over in my head since I read that, my first though on raising awareness was my personal actions (and each of ours independently) are more important than the politics behind the issue. To me, at least at the start, it is about light bulbs not the politics or legislation. Does that mean that political action is the wrong course? Is policy change the proverbial chicken or egg?

One of my thoughts with global warming was to introduce concepts, ideas, efficiencies that would most importantly help the environment, but also save people money, and not be overly divisive in terms of the politics. I personally don’t care what George W thinks of global warming, and my overall hope is that even if you do agree with him you can at least buy into some of the ideas I present on how to reduce your environmental impact. Politicians seem to have proven they can’t (or won’t) introduce (perceived) unpopular policy for fear of offending their voters, causing job loss for them (and global warming fits that bill now). Congress won’t act until stopging global warming are popular in all neighborhoods. So, if this is the case then light bulbs are the key, right? True, at least I thought for some time, and then I started considering when we as a country have made changes, specifically thinking about MLK jr. and the civil rights movement (thanks to Shay). Yes MLK was trying to change perception but along a parallel path he worked on legislation to protect civil rights. In the case of the civil rights movement neither efforts to change perception nor legislation would have worked independently. To truly effect the change America need both. So I wrote to my Congresswoman last night because global warming is that important. I’ll send letters to my senators, governors, mayor of the next few weeks as well.

I hope each of you will do the same. Ask, NO TELL, your elected officials you support legislation to reduce co2 emissions from cars, support legislation to increase gas mileage in cars, support government agencies buying hybrid vehicles, support alternative power options (wind and solar for example) and that you want the US Government to sign and comply with the Kyoto Treaty (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoto_Protocol).

Here is a link to get in touch with your congressional representative and senator http://www.webslingerz.com/jhoffman/congress-email.html.

Sunday Night

Well the cold and snow keep hitting Denver, sure makes getting in bike rides almost impossible. This weekend has been bitter cold, lows in the below zero range. The cool thing about the snow is winter activities are highly accessible, not that I usually do anything in the snow. I did go snowmobiling on Wednesday this week. The group of people I work with had a management team building session at Winter Park. It was pretty cool to be out on the snowmobiles cruising around in four feet of snow at 50+ miles per hour. A lot of the trails we rode were the same ones as the mountain bike races in Winter Park during the summer. It was pretty strange to be climbing up D2 at 25 mph, instead of struggling up it on the bike at 7 mph.

The Famed D2 Climb:

For the first time ever I actually had a chance to stop and enjoy the view on the trails around Winter Park. When you’re racing you don’t really have a chance to see all the beauty around you in a place like Winter Park. Since we were on a guided tour we stopped frequently and had a chance to look around and enjoy. I may have to go up to Winter Park this summer just to train/ride so I can have time to enjoy the views.

I was reading in Velo News this week about a new chain lube that Pedro’s has out; it is vegetable based (as opposed to petroleum) and therefore is environmentally friendly. I’m going to try and track some down or order some and see how it works. The concept is pretty cool and if it keeps the chain lubed in tough conditions I’ll switch.

A note on one of my new freaky habits to reduce global warming, recycling/reusing plastic grocery bags and how wasteful they are. First off is the pure volume of them every week at the grocery store, nine plus bags a week easy. Plus a couple more here and there every week for the mid-week grocery runs. There is no possible way to reuse that many no matter what you do. Over the years I’ve used them to carry lunches and as trash bags but still I always have more than I need. Then this week I read about how much energy it takes to produce the dreaded grocery bag. According to Laurie David (author of, and facts from, The Solution is You, and producer of An Inconvenient Truth) Americans throw away 100 billion (100,000,000,000) plastic bags a year. The petroleum needed to make 14 plastic bags is the same as the amount needed to drive a car 1 mile. Not sure about you, but from a convenience factor I’d rather recycle 14 plastic bags and drive a mile than the other way around. So anyway for the past few months I’ve been reusing the plastic grocery store bags a lot. I’ve used the same bag to carry my lunch for four weeks (versus in the past one a day) and have been bringing bags on all my shopping trips. Now I’m not completely off the plastic bags yet or only going to use the same ones forever, they rip break etc. but for every two weeks I use the same bags I figure I can drive one more mile, or just save the energy some. The added benefit and one Ade really likes, is that now we don’t have a cabinet full of plastic bags.

Warmest Year Ever = Global Warming

I hope I'm not stealing this, but I do work for Reuters so feel somewhat justified:

SALT LAKE CITY (Reuters) - The year 2006 was the warmest in the contiguous United States since record keeping began 112 years ago, due in large part to an unusually warm December, U.S. government weather forecasters said on Tuesday.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) preliminary forecast released in mid-December forecast 2006 as the third warmest year on record.
NOAA said in a written statement that no state was colder than average last month and five states had their warmest December on record -- Minnesota, New York, Connecticut, Vermont and New Hampshire.
The average temperature in the United States in 2006 was about 55 degrees Fahrenheit, or 2.2 degrees (1.2 degrees Celsius) above the average temperature recorded from 1901 to the end of 2000.
The warm start to the winter was tied partly to the "rarity" of Arctic outbreaks across the country because of El Nino, NOAA said.
El Nino, which is Spanish for "the little boy," is an abnormal warming of water in the Pacific Ocean every three or so years that can wreak havoc with global weather patterns. It usually brings warmer weather to much of the United States.
Weather forecasters said another factor in the record warmth was a long term warming trend some have linked to increases in greenhouse gases.
"This has made warmer-than-average conditions more common in the U.S. and other parts of the world," NOAA said. "It is unclear how much of the recent anomalous warmth was due to greenhouse-gas-induced warming and how much was due to the El Nino-related circulation pattern."
NOAA began keeping records in 1895.
© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved

The week in review

Well it has been a tough four day week back at work after nearly two weeks off. Between getting back in the flow of work, announcing my global warming/cycling goal for 2007 and yet another snow storm in Denver I’m a little surprised I’ve had time to think.

I’ve been inundated with reading suggestions on environmental topics and thus far have just started to read some of the titles I’ve been sent. The first book I’ve started is Natural Capitalism (http://www.natcap.org/), which has as a hypothesis that the business world is changing from an industrial revolution to a more environmental focus. Basically it says business can be successful, profitable and use fewer resources if it is arranged correctly. I’ll follow up with more on this as I dig in deeper, but thus far the logic and theories seem sound. I also read an article sent to me by my friend Bob (who was one of a few to recommend Natural Capitalism) written by Thomas Freidman in the NY Times (12-31-06) that says green energy sources can become as cost efficient/cheap as current sources with scale. He discusses a few new Wal-Marts that have been built green and feels the more green Wal-Marts the more scale green energy solutions will have. Since my job is consulting with companies on how economies of scale effect their pricing the logic in the article sounds like a report I’d write on mutual fund pricing, so get out there and buy some energy efficient light bulbs.

On a practical note with the energy efficient light bulbs, here are some practical numbers for you. I bought a four pack of spotlight energy efficient bulbs this weekend for $13.00; normal bulbs would have been a little less than half. But the good news is the energy efficient bulbs are suppose to last three to four times as long, creating a cost savings already, and are suppose to save me over $100 on my energy bill during their life span. This is a practical and cost efficient way all of us can go green. As your light bulbs burn out switch over to low wattage/energy conserving bulbs and get the two fold benefit; help reduce your energy use and (maybe) more importantly save money. On other green notes this week I’ll give you a rundown on easy and free (or better yet money saving) choices I made this week that help reduce waste. Commuting home on the bike two days this week for a reduction of at least 16 miles of car driving. Why do I say at least? Well Ade and I carpool in on the morning commute (so she can leave early and pick Seamus up after school) so in practice if I didn’t ride home and drove instead my driving reduction would be 32 miles. A key thing to remember with the commute this time of the year (and my low total) is that most roads are still ice-packed so riding isn’t easy, but sure is fun. Check out the commuting bike in all the glory: lights, fenders, wide knobby tires, this bike rocks in the snow.

Second easy and money saving green tip of the week, a reusable coffee mug. Cups of coffee, too many to remember (yes I have a strong coffee addiction) but at least eight or nine. For each cup I save between $0.10 and $0.25 depending on the coffee shop. Now I’m going to buy the coffee no matter what so saving the money is a nice benefit. The coffee shop I frequent most sold the cups (travelers) for $2.50 originally, that’s been paid back many times and no wasteful disposable cup every day.

The snow didn’t keep my riding down very much either. I put in 11 hours of training this week, including 4 hours of the weekend on cold and snow-packed roads. I wanted to ride about 13-14 hours but couldn’t bring myself to ride the trainer in the basement. If the conditions stay the same I guess I’ll have to soon, but for now a few less hours in the snow will have to do.

Strange Days

Well first I must say I'm surprised with the amount of positive feedback I've gotten after sending an email to family and friends telling them of my plans for 2007. It's always good to know those around you buy into what you are working on. It's also interesting that one of the (bike) blogs I frequent had two posts centered on global warming recently. Check it out at http://whittingham.blogspot.com/. Maybe bike racers are just a bunch of liberal freaks.

I've also had a lot of questions about how, why and what I'm really going to be doing to increase awareness on the environment and global warming. First off, as many of you know, I'm not an expert on the matter, nor do I have any scientific background. I've just been reading and realized there seems to be a real issue and maybe I can do a little to help. So how am I going to help? Well the blog is one step. Through this I can begin to create a discussion on global warming and provide links to help people further their knowledge and form their own opinions. For those of you unfamiliar with blogs check them out. There are blogs on every topic of interest and give you insight into peoples lives. Hopefully from checking this one out (and others) you can find some useful information. The best part about blogs for me is spelling is optional, call it poetic license.

Second, I'm making changes in my lifestyle (kind of) to reduce my waste. Things like recycling grocery bags, using energy efficient light bulbs, buying products that are in recyclable materials are some of the examples of things I'm doing. Also commuting by bike, which has a two-fold benefit the first, is allowing me more time to train for racing and second a significant reduction in co2 emissions.

So overall the plan for getting started is to provide people with some ideas on how they can reduce their waste, provide practical input on what I've tried, provide people with some resources to investigate global warming on their own and finally to try to help fund groups that help protect our environment. Oh yea, I'll be racing bikes too and hopefully giving a glimpse into what it takes to try to race a bike with some degree of success while being married (Ade), raising a kid (Seamus) and working.

Related to the riding I rode home from work today, the first time since our two big snows. The first few miles heading out of downtown weren't very bad but as soon as I hit the neighborhood it was rough going. The last two miles took as long as the first five. None of the streets had been plowed and it was an icy pothole filled route to the house. The good news is the fenders I bought today worked great and I was totally dry when I got home. Hopefully the roads clear up more, especially by the weekend so I can get in some long rides.

2007 Race Season Plans

I’ve been racing mountain bikes in and around Colorado since 1996, and during the late 80’s as a junior I raced on the road. In all that time I’ve been racing for myself with no compelling reason to race other than the personal enjoyment, commitment and challenge of racing. For the past couple of years I’ve been racing for COMotion Sports in Colorado. The team is the four time Mountain States Cup team champs in cross-country. Racing on COMotion provides a greater reason for racing than racing as an individual, as there is no way the team could win the season series without every racer on the team being committed to the goal of winning the team title. But the fact is that cycling, even on a team, provides way more personal benefits than it does a greater good purpose.

I don’t know if it’s because I’m getting older or more concerned with issues beyond my own little world that I’ve decided to have my 2007 race season have a greater cause than just racing. I know part of it is the result of a friend of mine, Bob, who raced an IronMan triathlon in September. He dedicated his race to a local homeless shelter and helped raise funds to support the shelter. Bob’s good will and effort to make his race more than a personal benefit got me thinking. It has taken me a while to determine what to dedicate my race season to and how best to benefit a cause.

My first thought was to dedicate my season to children’s health care, working to raise funds for a local children’s health organization. I figured I could steal another page from Bob and have a key event to sell people on, and then tie a fundraiser to the event, probably a silent auction. However, my biggest concern with this was really being at the mercy of others to donate money to the charity I picked. While I know people would be willing to help it just wasn’t what I was looking for. I wanted to pick a cause that was meaningful to a lot of people, but also a cause that I could help without forcing people to donate money. I may know a lot of people, but most of them don’t have a lot of extra money to donate to a charity.

I decided I needed a cause that I could personally work on to provide benefit, a cause that is meaningful to everyone, and, if I am lucky, a cause that I can raise a few bucks for throughout the 2007 race season. On one of my flights to India I saw the movie Al Gore put together, An Inconvenient Truth, and learned considerably more about our environmental impact on the world, global warming. The more I thought about this cause, the more it made sense to me to dedicate my season to educating people on how they can help reduce emissions that cause green house effects. The bike, a great alternative transportation source to reduce CO2 emissions, made sense. I also found out there are significant actions everyone can take at home to help reduce their environmental footprint, whether it be recycling grocery bags, turning lights off or driving a little less. I also found a significant number of non-profit organizations that are working to reduce educate people about the environment, educate people on global warming, and legislate to reduce our impact on the environment. I decided educating and making people aware of our impact on the environment was a cause I could fully support, hopefully help bring a little attention to the issue and potentially raise funds for an organization focused on reducing our environmental footprint.

To truly focus on racing and dedicating my season to educating people on environmental issues, I’ve decided to not race on a team in 2007. My thought is, the less competing efforts I have to make, the more I can focus on the parts of bike racing that I’ve decided are important to me this season. I’ve decided to race the Firecracker 50 mountain bike race in Breckenridge on July 4th for a goal event. The purpose of the goal event will be to give me and anyone who cares to follow my efforts something to measure the success of this project. Near the time of my goal event I will attempt some fundraising effort with all donations going to the Environmental Defense organization. I plan to continue racing a full mountain bike schedule through the summer, but will use this race to focus attention for those not use to the world of mountain bike racing.

My goals for the 2007 related to educating people on our environmental impact are:

Begin to provide people information and resources on the effects of global warming
Raise $1,000 for the Environmental Defense to help research and educate on issues related to humans environmental impact
Educate people on the ease and benefits of using the bike as a means of transportation

I invite each of you to follow me on my journey throughout the year where I will provide information on ways everyone can easily reduce their environmental footprint and keep you apprised on my preparations for the Firecracker 50 at http://devinrides.blogspot.com/ and, if you like, to donate at http://www.firstgiving.com/devinmccune.

Thanks,

Devin

About two months

Well, it's been two months since I last hit up the blog. Keep meaning to write something but time is at a premium these days. Since I got back from India I've been working damn near every day on the software development project I went to India for. Unfortunately for me the project hasn't been going to well lately and we are now past our delivery date and fighting to get stuff done before the end of the year. Oh well soon that will end.

I have managed to fit in a minimal amount of riding and even raced a cross race last weekend in Boulder. The race was part of the USGP of Cyclo-cross and it was crazy. I raced in the 4's and finished 82nd out of 140+ starters. The speed was crazy and it was a tight and twisty course. The race was a hell of a lot of fun and now that I've got a cross bike am going to fit in a few more races.

On a note I don't normally hit on in this blog, hell yea November 7. I waited in line 1.5 hours to vote. Not sure how crazy voting was in other places but in Denver it was freaking insane. Only two more years of Bush then the real work of correcting his time in office can begin. In a strange connection I'll have big news on my racing for next year that is very related to politics. I know that seems pretty confusion, but stay tuned and find out. I'm just beginning to put things together. I hope to have basic details ready in about a week.

And on a final note, I'm usually highly skeptical of racers who claim to be clean after missing tests, or being found positive; however, two recent cases have me very confused. I don't know http://jasonsager.com/blog/ personally, nor do I know Bart very well at allhttp://bartmangbikestowork.blogspot.com/ but these cats are getting a bum rap. Bart has been racing in Utah with Eric for years, I've seen the guy at races, hotels and parties over the year and I don't even think he drinks much less takes the juice. His family is some of the most solid people I've met racing and a suspension for him is f**ked up. Get someone like Vino out who missed at test in Spain and went on to win the race, not a guy like Bart who was an alternate and showed up after finding out he needed to be tested. Neither Bart or Sager are making a living or getting rich off this sport and to be honest they are middle of the packers. No doping going on.

Stay tuned...Sometime the winter is more fun than the racing season.

About two months

Well, it's been two months since I last hit up the blog. Keep meaning to write something but time is at a premium these days. Since I got back from India I've been working damn near every day on the software development project I went to India for. Unfortunately for me the project hasn't been going to well lately and we are now past our delivery date and fighting to get stuff done before the end of the year. Oh well soon that will end.

I have managed to fit in a minimal amount of riding and even raced a cross race last weekend in Boulder. The race was part of the USGP of Cyclo-cross and it was crazy. I raced in the 4's and finished 82nd out of 140+ starters. The speed was crazy and it was a tight and twisty course. The race was a hell of a lot of fun and now that I've got a cross bike am going to fit in a few more races.

On a note I don't normally hit on in this blog, hell yea November 7. I waited in line 1.5 hours to vote. Not sure how crazy voting was in other places but in Denver it was freaking insane. Only two more years of Bush then the real work of correcting his time in office can begin. In a strange connection I'll have big news on my racing for next year that is very related to politics. I know that seems pretty confusion, but stay tuned and find out. I'm just beginning to put things together. I hope to have basic details ready in about a week.

And on a final note, I'm usually highly skeptical of racers who claim to be clean after missing tests, or being found positive; however, two recent cases have me very confused. I don't know http://jasonsager.com/blog/ personally, nor do I know Bart very well at allhttp://bartmangbikestowork.blogspot.com/ but these cats are getting a bum rap. Bart has been racing in Utah with Eric for years, I've seen the guy at races, hotels and parties over the year and I don't even think he drinks much less takes the juice. His family is some of the most solid people I've met racing and a suspension for him is f**ked up. Get someone like Vino out who missed at test in Spain and went on to win the race, not a guy like Bart who was an alternate and showed up after finding out he needed to be tested. Neither Bart or Sager are making a living or getting rich off this sport and to be honest they are middle of the packers. No doping going on.

Stay tuned...Sometime the winter is more fun than the racing season.

Pondicherry and a must read offering

We went down to Pondicherry today, a seaside town about 70 miles south of my hotel. Pondicherry was a French outpost and many buildings have a French influence. The town is a popular vacation spot, maybe because it has low tax rates on beer and wine. We walked around and saw the main temple in town, many statues and the lighthouse. Seemingly a mellow trip.

On the way back to town we saw a group of people coming on to the road in some sort of festival/offering to a god. We pulled over and luckily I had my camera in hand. As the first people walked by everything seemed normal, then we noticed that a person was being taken care of (the center of attention) by others. We then noticed that he had what appeared to be two large fish hooks attached to the skin in his back. The hooks had a common rope (Y shaped) that led back to a truck. This guy was literally pulling the truck with the skin on his back. There were three of four young men all doing this, each with their own vehicle. Balaji and my driver had never seen anything like this before (although they had heard of it). It was very strange and clearly the most unique thing I've seen here and maybe ever. More pictures of today at http://www.flickr.com/photos/76469514@N00/sets/72157594277408087/

Touring India

So today is Saturday, no real post for yesterday. I've spent most of Thursday and Friday actually working my ass off. Kind of makes sense, given that is why I'm here, but I'm not going to travel half way around the world and not take in the sights. I may not be sleeping, working a lot and getting fat from eating but oh well. Today will be a little more of a photo dump than anything so enjoy.

We went down to Mamallapuram which is a little south of Chennai. On the way down we stopped at a crocidile refuge that helps save crocs all across the world and houses over a thousand. I told Shay I was going to fight one, so I kicked the ass of the one in the first picture. The town is known for carvings in large rock formations. This next picture shows some of the carvings in the rock, along with me and Balaji who I've been working with and has kindly been a great tour guide. Here is a carving of a two monkeys cleaning each other, given that Ade and her mom are together today this is especially funny to me. Here is a link to a heap of photos I've taken http://www.flickr.com/photos/76469514@N00/sets/

Indian Traffic and no Sleep

Well I got my luggage this morning which was nice. Finally feel cleaned up and ready to go. On the drive over to the office I learned a little about the area my hotel is in, primarily that the area was affected by the tsunami in 2005. There is still an area near the hotel where “temporary” housing is being utilized while long term fixes are being made. It is strange to see an area that was affected, given that the hotel is probably 30 vertical feet from the ocean and 500 yards away. If anyone hears about an earthquake in the Pacific while I’m here call me so I can evacuate.

I went for a run this morning on the beach. It was just as the sun was coming out. I saw a snake in the sand, a crab and numerous local fishermen.

Some people were just throwing nets out to sea as waves came in hoping to catch fish. Not sure if they had any luck at all. There were also a good number of people out in small boats. The boats more resemble a canoe from my perspective. I don’t know how people could go out, fish and control their boats with the waves crashing in on them. Given the number of people out fishing it must not be to dangerous.

Driving in this town is crazy, well I can’t really say driving since I’m only a passenger, but the rides I’ve been on are pure chaos. First, the cars/driving is on the reverse side, like in England. Second the roads all seem to be narrow, approximately one lane; however, traffic goes in both directions. Third the various size and types of vehicles are varied: trucks, buses, cars, rickshaws, cattle, bikes, motorcycles and pedestrians all travel on the same road at the same time. Fourth, there are apparently no traffic signals in India, I’ve as yet seen a stoplight, stop sign, yield sign at all. At seemingly random points on the road there are barricades placed about 50 feet apart from each other, creating a “S” shaped obstacle for traffic to navigate through. What the purpose of these barricades is for I haven’t figured out. They all have signs that tell the driver they are entering an “accident prone zone” but the only reason I can figure for these being accident prone zones is because of the barricades. When traffic wants to pass one vehicle (or person, or whatever is slowest) pulls to the left while the faster vehicle passes on the right, if traffic is coming it pulls over to its left, unless it is a bigger vehicle or a crazier driver. I’ve yet to see any accidents, but honestly don’t know how given how crazy the traffic is.

It's now 5:30 am on Friday and I've been up since 2:30, after getting to sleep about 11:00. Today is going to suck. I guess there is something to jet lag. Hopefully I can leave work early today and get an afternoon nap in and try to get on some type of schedule here.

India - Day 1 pictures

I finally have some pictures loaded onto the site. Chennai is the 4th largest city in India with nearly 10 million people in the area, yet along streets it is common to see cattle walking, or even pulling wagons. This is right along side the cars, bus, trucks etc. on the street.

The hotel I'm staying at is located where a Dutch fort was in the 1700's. There are still little remants of the fort on the hotel property.

And yes, it is a resort hotel. Here is the view from my room (looking east). The building in the foreground is the poolside bar at the hotel pool and in the background you can see the ocean. And a special picture for Ade, the auto rickshaw, three wheels, no doors and crazy drivers (well actually all drivers here are crazy but that's another story).

India Day 1

Well I made it to India, but I’m still waiting on my luggage. I just made my connection in Frankfurt to Chennai due to a 2 ½ delay leaving Washington DC. My flight from DC landed about 10 minutes before the one flight per day (from Frankfurt) was about to leave. Thankfully the airline literally held the plane for three of us coming from DC. We got taken off the first plane and bused to the other plane so we wouldn’t have to deal with the crowds in the airport. At that point I pretty much had no hope of getting my luggage to Chennai with me, but at least I didn’t have to hang out in the Frankfurt airport for a day.

I landed in Chennai at about midnight Tuesday/Wednesday and got to my hotel at about 1:30. Of course I couldn’t go to sleep; one cause it seemed like the middle of the afternoon to me and two because I had to wash the only clothes I had available. I finally fell asleep around 2:30 and was awake by 6:30.

I’ve not really had a chance to look around much yet, but it is clearly a different world here. Cattle walk on the main highway, trash is everywhere and I can clearly see the class distinction between those who work and others. I had heard there were two classes in India; the educated and the service class. There seems to be one missing, the poverty stricken. I was taken to a small temple this morning to view it and there were about ten women and young children begging for change. To an extent they were unrelenting, but clearly they had/have nothing and even a little change would have helped them. Not having any local currency yet I couldn’t help.

My luggage is suppose to arrive tonight and be delivered first thing in the morning. I hope so cause right now I’m starting to stink and don’t have the energy to try and wash jeans by hand tonight. Hopefully I can get an internet connection to post this at some point. Well the internet is working, but I can't get pictures to download, hopefully tomorrow.

Pictures

For some strange reason I have some pictures this week. The first couple are from my office, not normally a great place to take pictures but on Monday or Tuesday of this week (I can't remember the day) we had a huge thunderstorm roll across town. I work on the 22nd floor and our office takes the entire floor so you can see the storm as it moves across town. After the rain a cool rainbow came out that you could see from my desk.
Here are some pictures of Shay from last weekend when we had a b-day party at Snowmass with Ade's family...damn that kid likes sweets. Well it looks like these pictures won't load, I'll try another post.


I also tried to take some pictures this morning when I went for a ride. I left the house at about 5:20; well before sunrise so none really turned out...but here is a close-up of me. Even though I'm taking a few days off work the riding is still early in the morning. Ade still is going to work and someone needs to be around to watch Shay. I registered for the last Winter Park race today. It is on Saturday and will be my last race of the season. It is a great course and should be fun. Then it will be trying to stay motivated to train for a couple of weeks knowing there is no race around the corner. If I can ride through Labor Day and leaving to India I'll be set, after that I can start the off-season and not feel like it is starting too early. I'll probably be wanting to start training again in mid-October since I'll be done so early, but who knows maybe I'll really try to run the Denver Marathon (or 1/2 marathon) and won't have time to think about riding. I guess that will depend on if I actually start running prior to (0r even while in) India.

Harassment

So I'm at work this morning and getting harassed because my blog never talks about work, big deal right? At least that's the way I look at it, but I'm told since the name of the blog is "working racing and family" shouldn't I mention work, at least once in awhile. But really who cares about my job, I sit around and make sure people get projects done on time, talk with clients, and currently am working to ensure some software we are developing gets done on-time and correctly. That's about it, Readers Digest version.

Cruised up to Snowmass for the NCS finals over the weekend. Good racing and hanging out. Ade's family was all there so we had a birthday celebration for Seamus. He was pretty amped for presents and cake. On Saturday Eric raced and threw down a solid race in the pro finals. Finished the day 9th and the series in 18th (I think), not to bad on the series given he missed the east coast races.

I raced on Sunday and had another ass-kicking in Expert. The course was brutal after an all night rain much of the course was nearly unrideable. Lap times were 15-20 minutes slower than in the MSC race a few weeks ago on the same course. At one point there was a single-track climb that became about a 2km run. It sucked but I held on and finished 14th out of 19. I lost a lot of time on the upper technical section of the course, especially on the 1st lap. On the second lap I was getting chased by some people and managed to hold them off in the last 2-3km which was mostly downhill. I was pretty happy to maintain my position given how bad my dh skills suck at times.

Today is Seamus' last day of day-care. I'm taking the rest of the week off with him, then he starts kindergarten on Monday (also his real b-day). Should be a big adventure for him. It will be interesting to see how he handles the transition.

What do I have to do Yesterday?

That seems to be how things are going for me at work now, I'm constantly trying to get things done just as they are due, or a little later. I guess I can only blame myself as I accepted a couple of last minute, quick turn-around projects from clients. While I'm not directly working on the projects my staff is in more of a panic mode than normal and asking a lot of questions and needing additional help. This would all be fine, except for the fact that I've got stuff I need to get done too. Which begs the question, "why am I writing a blog update at work?" And of course the logic to answer that question is, because I want too.

The past week has been stressful outside of work as well. My grandma died last week, and while expected still sad. Add to that another round of trying to get pregant (Ade not me) that didn't work and it surely hasn't been easy street. Hell, I barely even rode last week because of everything going on.

I did go up to Winter Park to race on Saturday. Got my ass beat again pretty good. I was riding in a group of 4th-12th for most of the first climb then just ran out of gas. Wouldn't have been that bad, except for the fact that we had two laps. I ended up in 12th but lost a lot of time to the people who finished 4-11. That group was all within about a minute of each other, a few minutes down on 1-3. I finished about 10 minutes down on the group of 4-11. Unfortunatly it is a little late in the season to really improve repeatability at LT but I know that is what I need to build up on for next season.

It seems weird to be thinking of "next season" already, but the reality is I'll race three more times max this season, then take two weeks off the bike completly when I go to India in the beginning of September. Even though there are a few races after I get back I know the fitness level will be so low it won't even be worth trying to race so I'm shutting the season down after the last Winter Park race. If anybody needs a back of the pack Expert on their team for next season let me know.