SEABASE vs STELVIO from YUHZIMI Ltd. on Vimeo.

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Mondial Du VTT Descente de Venosc caméra embarquée
Uploaded by 103TuRtLe.

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Ahh….the memories of a Saturday football game at college…

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In past years, I have found that it takes, on average, about an hour t shovel my entire driveway, including digging out the mail box.  And here is my story of 2 nights ago.

First, thing you need to know when shoveling is staying hydrated.  Just like any activity, you will get thirsty.  However, because of the cold, you really don’t feel like drinking.  It is important to keep your fluid level topped off.  I certainly do my best to stay hydrated while shoveling.  Sometimes its tricky keeping your beverage of choice at the appropriate temperature, but I have found this works best for me.

As you can see, the cans of PBR stay nice and cold.  I figured 3 would be about the right amount for the task, mostly because that’s all I had in my fridge.  If I would have had more, I would have drank more.

About 22 minutes into my shoveling adventure, the plow guy came and took care of the driveway for me.  Good thing too because it was starting to turn over to rain and I was getting quite wet.  Not that much fun.  How do I know it was 22 minutes??  Simple.  I had my heart rate monitor and GPS on me.  That’s how I know.  And yes, that is why I am a dork.  I was curious just how much I would walk during the adventure and just what my heart rate did.  And now I know.

You can see all the back and forth on the driveway.  I don’t shovel like a normal person.  To save me from having to pick the snow up, I use the shovel more like a snow plow, pushing it, which is why I walk back and forth so many times.  Sure, it might take longer, but what else do I have going on?  I am outside, walking around (sure, its just my driveway, but better than nothing) and not killing my back by picking up the snow..

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On my ride the other night, I found 3 large downed trees, so I equipped myself with a hatchet and a hand saw and out I went. Sorry for the blurry pictures, I forgot my camera and had to use my Blackberry.

Before:

After:

Not to shabby for a clean up.  I feel proud of my work.  I didn’t take a before picture of this next site.  Honestly, when I got there, it seemed like too much of a daunting task and I didn’t think I had enough time to do the entire thing.

Turns out I did:

These are some of the piles of Hemlock that I had to move:

If you look in the back, you can see the infamous Campycabra:

Even the Campycabra came in close enough to see what as going on:

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Last night, however, things have changed. Last night was the first time this year, actually in about 6 months, that I as able to ride dirt. And it was on the new team bike. And it was at night. Talk about a killer ride.

Trails are drying out quite nicely. The biggest issue we are having here is blow downs that have not yet been cleaned up. I hike the dog every night to clean trails, but there is only so much I can do. Luckily, there are a bunch of dedicated people here in the area who do a great job of maintaining trails.

Now, onto the bike. Gotta say I enjoyed it quite thoroughly. Ok, the frame. It certainly was stiff, where it needed to be. But it also soaked up all the bumps quite nicely. Sure, it is a hard tail, but GT did some nice things the way they laid out the carbon and use their triple triangle. Plus, the geometry was certainly racing, so the bike was quick and snappy. Mikey Likey.

The components. I liked the entire bike set up but the Shimano Shadow rear dérailleur. Because of the design of it, no B-limiter screw, it does not have a lot of slack in it. This means a lot of chain slap on the chain stays. This could also be because it is a long cage dérailleur and I have never liked those. Either way, there is a lot of noise back there and I don’t like it. God bless being a single speeder. Once I get the tensioner that I ordered, and build up my wheels, I will be saying bye bye to those gears.

Those are my thoughts so far from the 1.5 hour ride I did. I am sure in the next week of riding, I will have a few more opinions on it. As of now, I am super stoked to have been picked for the GT Dirt Coalition.

Here is the latest Garmin 705 Edge data from the ride:

The first Dirt Ride

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On the bike front, today was a rest day, so nothing too exciting except proping the feet up and taking it easy.  We did manage to get about 6 inches of snow last night into this morning, so that will ruin some things, but it is about that time in the season for me to just get out there on the roads, snow or no snow, and get done what needs to be done.  Tomorrow is a litle fitness test to see how much I approved through the past 2 months.  Another night on the trainer.  YEAH!!!

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One good thing about the snow. I can’t rake up the rest of my leaves this year. Guess it will have to wait until spring. ohh well. Then again, I now have to trade the rake for the shovel. Damnit…

Not a good sign:

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