All kinds of things

What a busy week. I was tubing Boulder Creek with some friends when a lady from out of town asked if we would make sure her daughter was ok in the creek. Her daughter (about 14) came with us up and down the creek. While she was away, her mother called the police and reported her missing. Police, firemen, paramedics, dive crews, all showed up to various parts of the creek to rescue the girl. Then she came floating down, all smiles. Everyone went home.
Then I went to a fundraiser for Ballet Nouveau Colorado. Also got more tattoos. It has been a busy week.

This was posted on my last blog entry:
"raisin bran might have more sugar but it it healthier for you and has many more vitamins than cocoa crispies."

I no longer have the Raisin Bran. Or the Cocoa Crunchies. But I went for a "natural" cereal this time vs Honey Nut Toasted Oats (too cheap for Cheerios). The "natural"cereal has no "artificial, colors, flavors, hydrogenated oil, or high fructose corn syrup".

When comparing the nutritional value on these new cereals, I was surprised to find the sugary cheap Toasted Oats had more Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Iron, Niacin, Calcium, B6, B12, Zinc, Riboflavin, and Thiamin. There was more fat, but less sugar in the "natural" cereal.

I am afraid that I am going to have to buy the cheapest, most unhealthy cereal I can find. (When local and/or organic fruits can't be found). I checked out the nonfat organic yogurt that typically mix with my fruit and granola. 29 grams of sugar per serving, but lots of calcium.

This begins a new question for me: Is it worth is, financially, to try and eat healthy? Think of the bikes, running shoes, coaching, I could afford if I ate thinking with my wallet...

Oh yeah and then today I went flying in my friend's helicopter. Here are a few reasons why I love Boulder. Flowers and Smart cars.

Hungry?

Have you ever wondered how Cocoa Puffs or Captain Crunch can be a part of a "balanced" diet? I thought that it might have something to do with the fact that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn't have any recommended daily allowance for sugar. So if you eat 7 cups of sugar for lunch, the FDA thinks it is ok.
This started when I was comparing the nutrition information of Raisin Bran and Cocoa Crunchies. The Cocoa Crunchies were a much better value, but I thought that they would be unhealthy. Turns out there are more calories and more sugar in the Raisin Bran. I am not worried about calories given my hobbies and even the sugar doesn't bother me too much, but I was surprised to find 24 grams of sugar in the RB and only 14 grams in the delicious CC.
Now according to our government who is should always be looking out for our best interest, I should be having 6-11 serving of bread, cereal, rice and pasta. If I eat 9 servings of Raisin Bran, that is more than on e cup of sugar. Of course it is ridiculous to eat that much cereal, but then I realized that one serving is only one cup. I probably have 3 servings at one time. So what if we switch to pasta? Well my Ragu Chunky Garden pasta sauce also has 13 grams of sugar per serving.
I am starting to worry about what I am eating. But of course this is all according the FDA. They are run by agribusiness executives. They want Americans to eat more meat. 2-3 servings of meat and 2-3 servings of dairy a day. That is a lot for me. But if I ran farms and was in charge of the FDA I would recommend the same thing to the 300 million + of us.

Mid week

Hiking, indoor soccer, swimming, volleyball, work, then a biathlon. What a hard few days this week. My body hurts. I don't like to sit down because I know I will have to stand up. I groan whenever I move. It is great. It started with indoor soccer. I had a lot of fun and look forward to playing again. Our team was a player short and my goal with less than three minutes left gave us the win. That felt pretty good. But getting out of bed the next day was tough. I swam to try and loosen some things up. It helped a bit, but then I played volleyball the following night. Things got tight so I went for a run this morning.
Then I remembered the Boulder Stroke and Stride. 1.5k swim and 5k run. It was my first time swimming in a wetsuit and I felt like there were rubberbands holding my arms back when I tried to bring them forward. The swim consisted of two 750 meter laps. On the second lap, a current appeared and slowed us all down. I thought I was crazy until I saw the results and everyone's second lap was at least a minute slower than there first. Mine included. My swim was a 25:36. The transition seemed to take forever. Tugging on my wetsuit with tired arms almost seemed like a cruel joke. I finally got it off, slipped on my shoes and Rydon's and took off. On the run I took off way too fast, tried to encourage everyone, and had a lot of fun. My run pace was 6:30 min per mile making my 5k run time 20:08. It was 47:04 of fun. The winner was a pro triathlete Kiwi named Brent Foster. I saw a dozen athletes with their names on their butts. Leading the race were a bunch of the Riptide Multisports Tri Team. They were pretty quick (ITU racers).
I am looking forward to a recovery weekend (working a lot) then getting my bike next week. Good luck to Bree in Japan this weekend.

Lots of rubber.

About a week ago, I was riding my bicycle home when I saw someone had written something on the sidewalk about cycling nude. This caught my attention, but not quite enough to stop and read the whole thing. If I had, I wouldn't have been so surprised to see the 60 naked people partaking in Boulder's fifth annual Naked Bike Ride yesterday. Here is an article from the Daily Camera. Boulder has quite a few naked events. This one however was supposed to spread awareness about America's dependency of oil, or something. I don't think that events like this help to make people ride bikes instead of drive, but I think that I would have participated. I was too busy tubing in Boulder creek though.
Bouderites, have lots of interesting ideas. I have a friend that lives in the nearby mountain town of Nederland. "Mountain people" are known to be different. Nederland is where the true hippies go when they don't want to live in the "city" of Boulder anymore, but still reap the benefits (Whole Foods, organic restaurants, local beer). This friend of mine told me that I was a 7. I am a little more confident so I argued that I thought I was better than a 7. Then she told me that she meant my Enneagram. Crazy hippies.

Why bother?

I am going to try and keep track of my workouts on here. I need to find a race soon. I want to feel like I am training for something. I am so used to having an upcoming race, or at least on off season. Life is becoming more real. I have a bank account, filed my taxes, and received a box of checks this week. I also picked up my FREE bus pass and library card. I am quite excited about that.

Monday: Ran 4 miles
Tuesday: Swam 3K yards
Wednesday: Volleyball for a couple of hours
Thursday: Swam 2.3K yards (asked for my bike to be shipped out here)
Friday: Ran 4 miles and swam 2.3K yards

Someone recently asked me why I have a blog. I sometimes wonder about bloggers. I read a lot of athletes blogs. I think that it is a good way to know what is going on in my friends lives. It made sense for me to have a blog while traveling, but I wonder if anyone cares what I am doing now. Then I found this article in Scientific American (despite that I consider myself half American and not scientific at all) that told me that blogging is good for me. So now I blog for that reason.
Completely unrelated, I found some pictures from hot springs near Chiang Mai, Thailand. Kids boil eggs in the water, I refused to eat them.

a LONG bike ride

My friend Tricia is going on a long bike ride. She will be pedaling from Texas to Alaska. The ride is raising money for cancer and giving hope to people that want to ride a bike or beat cancer. The riders must raise at least one dollar per mile (4,500) that they are riding, but not only that, they are volunteering in cancer treatment centers and local cancer awareness events in the cities where they stop. I am excited that they are riding through Boulder, so I will get to see them in action. For more information, please see their website at www.texas4000.org. Tricia also has a blog at leavingsecuritybehind.blogspot.com. She is another Ironman, ultra runner, and inspiration.

Busy week.

I have taken a week off of exercising after the Bolder Boulder. It is a weak move on my part. I gave myself a million excuses. Now I am a full fledged member at the local YMCA, so that has inspired me to swim. Also, I have to say that reading people's blogs (my addiction) has helped me a lot. People like Ben, Bree, Rachel, and Mark all make me want to be fast. Their enthusiasm is what drags me outside when I feel lazy.

I have been busy working (waiting tables), designing web sites, and coolest of all, promoting Rudy Project. This weekend, I was able to "work" at the Elephant Rock Cycling Festival. The enthusiasm that people had for Rudy Project really blew me away. I knew that I always liked their sunglasses, but seeing so many people have so many good things to say about their stuff truly impressed me.

Web site development has always been a hobby, but now I am able to help out some friends. I would like to announce the completion of a few sites that I have made.

Sue's Hale is a vacation rental on Kauai.
Scarred For Life is a tattoo shop in Boulder.
Marion Summerer is a pro triathlete living in Honolulu.

Anyone else need one made?