New job with a fly fishing company.

Back from Bali, I picked up a job with Orvis as they just opened a store in Boulder. It is only temporary as it looks like we are moving to Seattle at the end of the month. I will probably try and transfer to the store in Bellevue as they off health insurance, 401(k), and of course a killer discount.
It has been fun as you never know who is going to walk through the door. Some people just want to see the new store. Some people are buying rods, reels, line, the whole kit. They have a great system of ordering from the catalog with a "bat phone" beside a computer. I call it the "bat phone" because you pick it up and customer service is at the other end, no dialing, just wait and they answer.
Today's mission is to learn the arbor knot. And hope that they upgrade their computer system from the DOS based 1989 system we are currently using!

New Year!

I found this post on TinyBuddha.com and had to repost it. It hits home for me. A lot of people seem to have resolutions and it made me think that I should have (or some). I am pretty happy with my life though. The only thing that has been nagging at me lately is that I want more of a steady income. The idea of getting a "real" job is beginning to be more appealing.But what is a "real" job. Is it a dollar amount per year? Does it require a certain level of education? I want a more steady income. But that might take away my opportunity to do what I want every day. I feel very lucky to no go sit behind a desk every day, 5 days a week and only get 2 weeks vacation. I know that I am fortunate to have good health and live what I consider an awesome life. So why do I feel the need for a more steady income? I think that I just want a job that makes me think. Using my brain instead of my hands might be better.

The whole post is a bit longer, but here are the parts, I like:

I don’t actually believe New Year’s Day is any different than any other day. I don’t believe a random point in the time measurement system we’ve created requires us to make a laundry list of things we need to change or improve. Today is in fact just another day, and tomorrow is one, as well. I don’t mean to minimize the excitement of the New Year, or any of the days we’ve chosen to celebrate for religious or honorary reasons. What I’m saying is that New Year’s resolutions often fail for a reason, and it’s only slightly related to intention or discipline.

Resolutions fail because they don’t emerge from true breakthroughs—they’re calendar-driven obligations; and they often address the symptoms, not the cause of our unhappiness.

Some resolutions are smart for our physical and emotional health and well-being. Quitting smoking, losing weight, managing stress better—there are all healthy things. But if we don’t address what underlies our needs to light up, order double bacon cheeseburgers, and worry ourselves into frenzies, will it really help to vow on one arbitrary day to give up everything that helps us pretend we’re fine? It’s almost like we set ourselves up for failure to avoid addressing the messy stuff.

Why We’re Really Unhappy

I can’t say this is true for everyone, but my experience has shown me that my unhappiness—and my need for coping mechanisms—come from several different places:

• I’m dwelling on the past or obsessing about the future.
• I’m comparing myself to everyone else—their accomplishments, the respect and the attention they garner, and their apparently perfect lives.
• I’m feeling dissatisfied with how I’m spending my time and the impact I’m making on the world.
• I’ve lost hope in my potential.
• I’m expecting and finding the worst in people.
• I’m turning myself into a victim or a martyr, blaming everyone else.
• I’m spiraling into negative thinking, seeing everything as a sign of doom and hopelessness
• I’m assuming there should be a point in time when none of the above happens anymore.

The last one, I believe, is the worst cause of unhappiness. All those other things I mentioned are human, whether we experience them persistently or occasionally.

We’ll do these things from time to time—and they’ll hurt. In the aftermath, we’ll want to do all those different things that every year we promise to give up.

We’ll want to eat, drink, or smoke away our feelings. Or we’ll want to work away our nagging sense of inadequacy. Or we’ll judge whether or not we’re really enjoying life enough and in the very act of judging detract from that enjoyment.

So perhaps the best resolution has nothing to do with giving up all those not-so-healthy things and everything to do with adopting a new mindset that will make it less tempting to turn to them.

An Alternative to Resolutions

Maybe instead of trying to trim away all the symptoms of our dissatisfaction, we can accept that what we we really want is happiness—and that true happiness comes and goes. We can never trap it like a butterfly in a jar.

No amount of medication or meditation can change the fact that we will sometimes get caught up in thoughts and emotions.

What we can do is work to improve the ratio of happy-to-unhappy moments. We can learn to identify when we’re spiraling and pull ourselves back with the things we enjoy and want to do in this world.

Instead of scolding ourselves for all the things we’re doing wrong and making long to-do lists to stop doing them, we can focus on doing the things that feel right to us.

This may sound familiar if you’ve read about positive psychology—I’m no posi-psy expert, and to my knowledge no one is since the industry is unregulated.

But it doesn’t take an expert to know it feels a lot better to choose to nurture positive moments than it does to berate myself for things I’ve done that might seem negative—all while plotting to give them all up when the clock strikes tabula rasa.

New Blood Knot Magazine issue!

As always I am proud to be a part of the Blood Knot team. We just released our 3rd issue. Check it our here. My gear review is inside. Page 36 and 37 for anyone shopping for a chest pack!

Boulder Marathon.

Putting on a marathon is no easy task. A lot of people really came together to make it all possible. I worked for what feels like 4 days straight. It was the night before the race that was the most brutal. Building the finish line at 2 am so that we could put out mile markers at 4 am. I had to make sure that all of the aid stations were fully stocked by the time that the runners got there. I hate being on the course when the race begins, but it was necessary this year. I have a lot of changes that I want to implement for the Spring Half Marathon that we will put on in March. Most of the changes will make my life easier, but the runners probably won't notice.
I drove a lot of different vehicles over the weekend. We had cargo vans, pickup trucks, 17' trucks, and 26' trucks. U-Haul execs must be bored. They put fun facts on the side of every big truck, but they also play the U-Haul version of "Where's Waldo?" All the big 26' trucks with the pictures have a hidden U-Haul guy somewhere in the picture. Here are a couple that I found.

High flows, high peaks, low productivity.

This is not a good thing to see. It is the flows for Boulder Creek. It has turned into Boulder River. The water is the color of chocolate milk. I can't see the fish. Who knows what is going on below the surface. It is giving me lots of time to tie more flies and read fishing blogs. Of course there is a bit of work, getting Ben a cool new race suit, and CTT stuff always to be done.

I love colorado.

Coach Mark and I got a short hike up to Brainard Lake yesterday. It is an amazing place to camp, hike, hang out, and hopefully fish this summer. It was still snowy and the lake was frozen, but we saw very few people and were able to wear the dogs out.

They like the mountains.

My weekend.

USAT Hall of Fame!

Last weekend, in the middle of the Denver Golf Expo, we were invited to the Hall of Fame dinner for USA Triathlon. Thanks, Rudy Project. It was impressive to see the original race directors and athletes like Barb Lindquist and Pauly Newby-Fraser. I was surprised by the amount of religious rhetoric at the dinner (by the speakers) and I was surprised that the athletes weren't competing for themselves. They claimed to be doing it for God, because that is what He wants them to do. That seems like a good way to get out of feeling selfish. Too many families suffer when you have to train 40 hours a week. Either way, I felt very lucky to be there. It isn't too often that we get to have dinner at a place as fancy as the Broadmoor Hotel.

We have been swimming twice a week at the YMCA. They finally approved out financial assistance so we can afford to work out there. There is a masters class that they call something else. Tonight I was the only person to show up. I swam about 3,000 yards (meters?) tonight with the main set being 20X50's. The first 5 on 1 minute, the middle 10 on 50 seconds, and the last 5 on 1 a minute. It was hard, but made the laps pass by quickly.
I have also been watching the Endurance Films while riding my bike. It is a fun, sweaty, hour long workout that is always entertaining when it is snowing outside. Friday, we have our first lesson with Sit Means Sit dog training. They came to our house to show us a free demonstration and it was very impressive. We spent a few days with them previously and they have been wonderful. They even have payment plans! I will try to post updates as we progress.

Cold Blue.

A year ago I was complaining about sand flies at Nelson Lakes. It was an early New Years' Eve. This year, I am excited to have launched TropoDesignz.com and have a job. We headed up to Vail last weekend to work at a snowshoe race which was a lot of fun. We stayed in Silverthorne the night before. Thanks to my last job, we have accumulated some points to give us some free nights at the Quality Inn. We fished Saturday afternoon. I think that it was 8 degrees. It was amazing to see the fish active and rising in that freezing water.

I was surprised to actually catch something on a size 24 fly. (It is about the size of the tip of a pen.) Sunday, we got up early and worked at the race. They don't go fast, but apparently, they have fun snowshoeing.
I am not a fan of resolutions, but every time that I bike or run, I remember how much I like it. Getting paid soon may allow me to join the recreation center near our house. Then I can swim as well. Maybe it is time to pick races for 2010?!
It turns out that Santa is a Persian woman in New York! We got a check that is specifically to be used for the purchase of a KitchenAid. I am excited. One year ago while living out of my backpack, I never would have thought that I would have a KitchenAid!
And if you didn't receive a Christmas card, here is what they looked like:

Is it "blog worthy"?

Being the first day that I have no job, I wasn't sure what to do. There is always time to help out Mom. And there is always lots of work to do for the team. Ben kicked ass this weekend in Mexico and it looked like a fun race. I went for my 2nd run of the week trying to keep up with my offseason training. I am supposed to ride my bike 4 times a week, but I am a wuss when it is cold out side. I hate being cold

especially out riding my bike and I am a couple hours from home. So the plan is o ride on trainers. But I don't have a trainer yet. Craig said that he would drop them off yesterday or today, but he hasn't. Now he has rescheduled for Friday. It looks like I will be riding outside tomorrow. I need to get out anyway because it is supposed to snow this weekend. Maybe that will actually force me to pay for a membership to the rec. center.

From right beside the library. Downtown Boulder.

The car search continues. The occasional fishing is always happening. I am starting to think that I should only write blogs when something exciting happens in my life. But I think that everything is exciting. I mean I love living in Boulder. It feels like cars come second to pedestrians and cyclists here. I can run for an hour and use the paths, tunnels, and trails only having to run across one road. The library is fantastic. And free. Despite the body odor smell from some of the homeless people that hang out in there, the place is amazing. There are great restaurants, coffee shops, climbing gyms, or anything else within bike riding or bus taking distance. I could be in school making Roomba PacMan with these guys:

Update.

This blog is usually about all the cool things that I do. I am still not sure why I keep writing things here. Maybe it is for my own records in the future. Maybe it is so my friends far away know what I am going through. I like reading other people's blogs so that I don't have to call them to see what they are doing. It feels like Facebook for adults. The egocentric part of me checks my Google Analytics to see if people actually read this.
This week has been pretty crazy. A couple of days fishing Cheesman Canyon with Ed resulted in  two huge rainbows for me. (But only one picture.) I rode my bike a couple of days and realized that I like riding my bike more than I thought. My mother went into the hospital with severe cramps and ended up having a hysterectomy and colostomy. She was released yesterday and things seem to be going well for the recovery.
In two days I will be finished with my contract with Endurance Sports Marketing. Then I can go out and find another job. I am really looking forward to next year. Actually I am really looking forward to today. Moj will be studying so I will have a Sunday to mess around. That is not unlike every other day. Yesterday, we looked at a car in Denver that we found form Craigslist. Piece of crap. It was good to see it because it seemed too good to be true. That search will continue.
The off season training plan is to swim twice a week, run twice a week, and ride my bike four times a week. The bike is my weakest so I want to spend more time in the saddle. Hopefully I will have a couple of trainers for the snowy days. I also need to get a membership somewhere with a pool.
Until next time my friends, life is good.

Getting Chees'd.

I woke up early this morning very excited. My friend Ed was taking me fly fishing. We were headed to Cheesman Canyon. I love fishing new spots and especially places with the potential for big fish. Certain areas are designated as "gold medal" waters. This means that the water quality is high and the size of the fish is generally large! We fished my first "gold medal" water today. It was a couple of hours of driving from Boulder, but well worth it. There were lots of fish. they were eating. They just weren't eating what we put in front of them. It could be frustrating at times. It was fun to see so many big fish. They were spooked easily which made the fishing tough. I got lucky with one.

My fish o' the day.

I am not sure how big it is, but it rivals some of my New Zealand Trout. Is it a Brown or a Rainbow? I couldn't quite tell. Does it hit the elusive 20" mark? I am not sure. I didn't take a picture of it in my net that could have told me how big it is. I was very happy to land it. It took a lot of patience. I didn't try any of my own flies because the fishing was hard enough with flies that I thought would work.

Ed in the Narrows with Zipper looking on.

After the awesome day of fishing, I headed home and got some interesting news. I apparently am finished with my last job. I won't be going to Las Vegas to work and race SilverMan this week. Tomorrow will be the beginning of the rest of my life!

SOMA pictures.

Thanks to Red Rock Co. for putting on a great event! Thanks to Rudy Project for a great dinner this weekend. We bought our ski passes today. Now it is time for some winter activities! The resorts are opening and I am excited.

SOMA Half.

Swim 33:43
T1 1:06
Bike 2:38:10
T2 1:09
Run 1:47:12
Total 5:01:21

While I am happy with my overall result, I feel like I made a lot of mistakes.
The swim was the most brutal swim that I have ever been in. I was kicked, hit, punched, slapped, pushed, and everything else that could happen. That being said I think that I violated quite a few people as well. It was a swim start and all the guys under 30 were in the same wave. It was pretty aggressive. I made my way towards the front of the pack, but it did no good. I had to stop to fix my goggles a couple of time. That never happens. The women started a few minutes before us and we quickly caught them. Then I caught the group in front of them. A couple times I ran into some massive person that was sitting still treading water and trying not to panic. My wetsuit was rubbing on my neck. That also never happens, I must have put the strap in a funny position. Another rookie mistake. I am such an age grouper.
The first transition went well although I have still never tried the flying mount. Mounting my bike, I put my foot on top of my shoe and somehow pushed it off the pedal. I had to stop and put my shoe on like everyone else. Come on Rory, get it together! I took off pedaling and realized that I had no liquids. No water bottle, nothing. I knew that at mile 9 there was an aid station so I just hoped to make it there. The bike was 3 loops. I started pretty conservatively because I don't think that I have ridden 56 miles at one time this year. At the aid station, I grabbed a bottle of Gatorade. While trying to take a sip and thank the volunteers I somehow managed to squirt the Gatorade up my nose and into my eye. I guess I was squeezing the bottle really hard. I was very thirsty! The first bike loop was faster than I expected. The course was flat and we had a bit of cloud cover so the temperature was perfect. The second loop went well except for my penalty. The three lanes came together to one lane with no shoulders. A dozen people came together and as we tried to get in front of each other two guys in front started talking and going the same speed. There was no way to go forward, back, left or right. The ref pulled up and gave at least 8 of us either drafting or blocking penalties. We were all yelling at these two guys to move, but it was too late. Whatever. The bike ended well and I was excited for the run.
The run started well with the first mile a 7:04. Mile 2 was a 7:10. I was hoping to run 8 minute miles, so this was feeling good. I know that my last two half marathons that I ran were a 7:10 pace. Then it all slowly deteriorated. 8:00, 8:30, blah blah blah. The last four mile were hard. I was definitely shuffling. I think that people were cheering for me because I looked like I was hurting.
Overall, I am really stoked about the time though. 5:01 is almost 15 minutes better than my last half. Of course comparing Kona to Tempe isn't really fair. I will post pictures as I get them!

AZ.

I drove a couple of days to make it to Phoenix. I actually drove past Phoenix to get past the utterly insane suburban sprawl that is Phoenix and all of it's incorporating towns. I am staying in Apache Junction. I thought this was interesting when learning about AJ on Wikipedia.
There are a total of 51 RV parks in Apache Junction. 1, the Lost Dutchman, is a state park. 9 offer wireless internet connection. Note that only two of these RV Parks have indoor plumbing, the rest rely on a network of outhouses scattered throughout the park.
I am glad that I chose one of the right places to stay! Thank you KOA. I rode my bike toward the Superstition Mountains thinking that it was a cool place. Turns out that the rumor is that there is a cursed gold mine that nobody can find. If you go looking you will probably die. Luckily, gold doesn't interest me that much.
With SOMA in a couple of days I am excited to get racing again. I am even more excited for the off season. We found an apartment in Boulder that seems to be perfect. It is across the street from an Indian restaurant and a fly fishing store. Could I be any happier? I just remembered that Silverman is 16 days away. I may have just told them that I want to enter. What am I getting myself into?!

LA Triathlon.

I was able to race the Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Triathlon presented by Herbalife. I should rephrase that. I participated in the race this weekend. Checking the results, I was not too disappointed. The only thing that I have to blame is my lack of fitness. My guess is that it might be a direct result of the lack of training. I did swim with Courtenay a couple of weeks ago, but apparently that didn’t carry over to this race. I felt like my arms weren’t pulling me through the water, but were just going through the motions. There was a little swell and plenty of people had some difficulty. I hate when people complain about conditions in the ocean. If you are scared, don’t enter a race in the ocean. Know what you are signing up for. There were plenty of lifeguards and I never felt like it was too dangerous. I was able to catch a couple of waves in at the end of the swim so that must have saved me about 4 seconds.
The bike wasn’t as exciting as I thought that it would be. I love racing in cities where everything is shut down. There were lots of volunteers, cops everywhere, and the plenty of people wondering what was going on when they woke up Sunday morning. We rode through Korea Town and ended near the Staples Center. My legs felt constantly tired and I am hoping that it was uphill most of the way. After all, we were heading away from the ocean. It looked pretty flat however.

The run was great. Except for one big hill. Up was bad, down was scary. I loved the run though. I never felt like I had any “pep” out there. I felt very flat the whole day. Like I was just going through the motions. I liked the run course because we got to run past a Disney building that I saw in the movie “The Soloist”. It was also fun because it was pretty close to an out and back and we did two loops. I like out and back courses. There is something that makes me happy when I know that I am on my way back. After the first half, everything seems easier, no matter what the distance is. I was glad that I got to do the race. We left LA a couple of days later and now I am sitting in the Honolulu airport. When I publish this, I plan on being on my lanai looking over the warm part of the Pacific thinking about how hectic this next week will be and how happy I am that I am not racing. I look forward to a full week with a few thousand friends.

Kirland and last WA races.

We are now in Los Angeles. The only thing nice that I have to say about it... well we are leaving in 3 days. I can't wait to a) get out of here b) go to Hawai'i. We drove for 3 days straight to get here, have been busting our butt at work and tomorrow I get to race the LA Tri.

This is from the sprint in Kirkland a couple of weeks ago. I was laughing with my new friend Cody. He used to be stationed on O'ahu so we got to talk about Hawai'i while racing. I think that it made me faster, but he still beat me. I like talking to people while racing. Sometimes they like it too.

The following week, I ran a half marathon. Here is the only (bad) picture that they took of me. I think that every race should have plenty of photographers and a coffee truck. I don't drink coffee, but they make a killing at every race where they show up.

Leaving Nor Cal.

I got to finally meet The Lorpeedo at Vineman. He even agreed to do water patrol with us in Kona this year. I have stopped reading the news. Or watching it on TV. Not that I have a TV. I do wake up early to watch Le Tour when we are in a hotel. Now we are on our way South. Back to Newport Beach. I hope to get some more bike riding in. I did a couple of hours yesterday.

 

Here is my view from the bike yesterday.

My leg hurts from indoor soccer still. The limp is gone, but it is still tender. I even got a little swim in a the Vineman course. I can't wait to start racing again. It looks like our next race will be at the Santa Cruz sprint. Time to drive.

Going back to Cali.

I love road trips. I guess that is my life. Leaving Colorado was sad, but exciting. I can really see myself living there in the future. We drove North to Wyoming, turned left on I-80 and haven’t looked back. Wyoming was pretty and boring. Utah was the same. The mountains were very nice before we arrived in Salt Lake City. I would like to visit there in the winter. It has been pretty uneventful since then. We arrived in Reno and checked in to the Atlantis Casino. I am not a fan of casinos, but Reno sucks and we didn’t want to walk around the town. This place was within our budget and added some excitement to our road trip. Lots of people smoking cigarettes, drinking, and the constant clang clang clang of slot machines. It’s like I can see the life draining out of these people. Suck in the nicotine, wash it down with a beer, and throw more money away. Time to move one. I will admit, we put $20 on black at the Roulette table. We lost. Now we drive to California.
[update] After 3 days of driving, we made it to California. Vineman was hot. Looked like a fun race. A tree fell on a couple of triathletes while they were on the bike. Bad luck. Joe Gambles broke the course record which was exciting. The guys running Vineman are cool people. I got to hang out with Conrad Stotlz for a bit at the Avia booth. Turns out Avia doesn't hate us. After the race, we drove towards the coast. We had dinner in Guerneville. We were a couple of the few straight people there. Looking for a place to stay, a lot fo the places were "gay friendly, nudity allowed". Not that I am opposed to either one, but after a long day of work all I want to do is relax. We drove to the coast and we are loving it!

Last weekend in Boulder.

It has been a couple of weeks in one place. I am not sure if I am ready for the "normal" life. Sometimes the idea of having a place to live seems really nice. But the idea a car payment, rent/mortgage, insurance, and repetition are still further away in the future. I think it is the repetition that scares me the most. Although I think that my training would be much better if I had a "normal" job.
We are heading out West in a couple of days. We won't be back in CO until November. So it was time to get some deeply discounted gear for the winter.

I am ready.

The transition area at the race.

This weekend's race was the Boulder Peak olympic distance triathlon. It is a popular race in the U.S. It was cool to see Craig Alexander wandering around enthusiastically cheering on the people racing.

 

My banana bread.

I was also able to use the bread maker at the house where we are staying. It has been fun. Theresa is awesome. Craig shops at the bread discount store. I didn't know that it existed either until we went today.
One last thing. If you like fishing, check out the monster Brown Trout picture that I just put on Fishy Steve's website! Insane. www.FishySteve.com

Wildflower

Rudy Garcia-Tolson.

Wow. Leaving Yosemite, our next event was Wildflower. What a great, crazy, busy, fun few days. I got to see Terenzo Bozzone, Chris Lieto, "One Arm" Willie Stewart, Andy Potts, Luke Bell, Rudy Garcia-Tolson, Sarah Reinertsen, and many more heroes race.

Me and Luke Bell.

Mojdeh cheering on Terenzo Bozzone.

We are back in Buellton where we are having transmission trouble again. Tomorrow, they might tell us what is wrong. Then we are going to Tempe, Arizona for a week.