Occasionally, I'll write something poetic here. Steve

7/20/2008   By the way, my little blip below pales in comparison to what Beck and I have been watching Bob Sagor and Brian Wadman go thru today on the Ironman live website.   It's 7:30PM now and Brian and Bob have been competing in the Lake Placid Ironman since 7AM this morning.  Yup, that's right, 12 plus hours of fun in the sun (make that pouring rain).  They have been competing in something that I can only aspire to.  It seems out of the realm of possibilities to me. 2.4 mile swim;  112 mile bike ride and then run a marathon. I know I could handle the first two segments but the run would be a total bear for me.

Anyway, we just watched Bob cross the finish line at 12:19:54, finishing a stellar 4th in his age group.  Boy did he look happy.  Congratulations Bob.  You toughed out an event that to most is simply mind boggling.  Great job!

7/20/2008  Holy Smokes.......you know, I have a saying that certainly didn't come from me but came from someone with a very sharp mind, in regards to working out.  It's pretty simple and too the point.  "That which does not kill you......makes you stronger.   Well, I swear, the last three tough workouts that Beck and I have finished, knowing that they were going to be tough workouts when we started them came close, (for me anyway).  Becky just seems to keep on going .

Today, we did 4 loops of the Greenfield Tri on our bikes, pedaled home and ran the tri loop, starting from our home.  It added about a half mile to the tri loop but yikes.

 

As we started the bike segment, we had about a 1 mile warm up before we put the hammer down. That was on the bridge over Route 91 on Leyden Rd.  I started pulling away from Beck, (because I really think that's what I should be doing) and that's my challenge any time I do any of this stuff, (excuse me, exercise).  This is where the partner thing comes in, at least one of the times it comes in. Becky pushes me. If I happen to get out in front of her, I try to stay there, ( and that's no easy task) so it makes me work even harder.  Today, I stayed out in front  on the bike, as we both had a good ride. We passed many "newbie triathletes" that were working on their first Greenfield Tri.  Lot's of people working hard on the course, immersed in a training program put together by Chris Ethier of Bicycle World in conjunction with the Greenfield Rec Department.  It was great to see so many people challening themselves with a goal to help improve their fitness level.  Ok, now back to me and Beck....

 

The run is always my hardest part of the event and it proved that way today as well.   I started out feeling good for the first few miles but I reward myself with a walk thru a water stop every mile anyway.  It's something I can look forward to.  Before too long, my walks got longer and longer and Beck, doing what Beck does, pressed on.  I really am thrilled that she is as strong as she is.

A hot, humid day is not the best conditions to being doing a workout of this magnitude and by the end of the run, I was sputtering to myself....." jeeeez, this is tough".   By the time I got to the end, breathing like a madman, sweating like there was no tomorrow, humbled, once again by the event, I made my way to the Greenfield Recreation and Swimming area, (where the tri ends) and took a plunge, sneakers and all.  

 

Thank goodness it slowed my breathing down to an acceptable level.  Acceptable by me anyway. I also stopped groaning after the plunge! After the brief swim, we had a great 1 1/2 mile walk home.  The walk felt great.

 

Moral of the story.......goes right along with the motto of the Greenfield Triathlon......To Finish is to Win.   Boy, did I win today!  For any of you that might be contemplating a triathlon, I heartily suggest that you set your sights on one in the future.  It's a great multi disciplinary event that will certainly challenge you and is a great goal in anyones quest to stay or become more fit.  If you would like any input, feedback, comments or suggestions on how to start, talk to me and/or Beck.  We like nothing more than to create more triathletes.  It's a great event and a great way to keep in shape.

Our Hooverball event cannot pass without at least a few comments.  On Tuesday evening, July 8th our group of 8 TBS'ers can probably make note of the fact that they were the only ones in the world that were at that moment playing Hooverball.  After an hour of practice I don't think any one of us is ready to commit to the Olympics, (at least not this year) but perhaps.......

 

Anyway, Karen, Bob, Jiggs, Bonnie, Becky, myself, Nick and Jack all had a ball tossing the 4 pounder back and forth over the net. 

We all learned something.  It's not something you can dive for;  It's very difficult to try a fingertip catch just above the sand;  If you catch it in front of your face, try not to let it break your nose; It's really hard to catch if it gets sweaty (yuck!); .....the list goes on and on but I don't want to divulge too much valuable information.  Everyone had a great time but whether or not we choose to do it again is another story.  Actually, it probably would be another story.

 

If you're interested in seeing a few pics of the evening,

click there>hooverpics

6/28/2008   Yet another fun filled Friday Night Ride took place last night. A ride that centered around a "tur" theme.  About a dozen of us left from TBS at appointed time to spin our wheels for about 25 miles.  What a great way to end the work week.  Some of us bike......some of us do yoga with Erika......

Anyway, we picked some great roads last night.  Not much traffic and many of which had been recently paved.  Now the first "tur" event of the evening was when we ran across a turtle trying to cross Gill Road in Bernardston.  Naturally, being Body Shoppers and caring about life, we stopped to help the little bugger cross the road.  Kelly picked him up, proceeded to tell us exactly what type of turtle he was  and in gratitude towards Kelly for the good deed, he peed on her.  I must say, it's the first time I've seen that happen.  Ok, back to the ride.  We were on some lovely back country roads in some of our local small towns, passing Sarah and Erika's Ashvana Stables and shortly thereafter had to stop our lovely procession to allow a family of turkeys to cross the road.  Once on the move again, we were busy riding and socializing at the same time because that's what our Friday Night Rides are all about. Social time on the move.  Once again we finished up on the bike path from Turners to Deerfield and made our way home.  Wonderful ride with wonderful people.  Thanks to all who came.

6/22/2008  Stay tuned for Hooverball everyone.  Beck and I just got back from the volleyball area of The Greenfield Swimming and Rec area where we tried dabbling in something new to us.  It's called Hooverball.  We did a modification of the actual game but here's my take on it.  Wow!  I can see some potential here to have something for Body Shoppers to do that's in a group setting, fun and a great workout.  

Picture this:  Set up some teams for beach volleyball; (I say teams but this by no means has to be competitive.  In fact, I can see where it would start off as being a fun workout with no scoring).  Anyway, back to the volley ball aspect of the game.  You're set up on each side of the net.  Now replace the volleyball with a 4 pound medicine ball.  Throw the ball over the net and it's caught by the other team who then throws it back.  If it's dropped, by your team, the other team gets a point.  If it's thrown and doesn't make it over the net, the other team gets a point.  It's scored like tennis if you want to keep score.

Beck and I did it with a 4 pound ball.  Could be done with a two pounder or a 10 pounder.  Teams could be male or female or mixed.   If you're interested in doing this with us, let me know and I'll put you on a list of interested parties.  No commitment, just looking for interest.  

Again, this is a terrific core/upperbody /lowerbody workout

6/20/2008  Well our 25 mile Friday Night Ride turned into about a 40 mile ride due to circumstances.   I had it all planned out that we would meet at Montague Center for our 23 mile ride but did anyone listen.........noooooooo.

One by one, people said they would leave on their bikes from TBS to arrive at Montague Center for the 5:30 ride.  As it turns out, everyone road from TBS (or their homes) and we all met, sans cars, to go on the ride.  That gave most people an additional 10 miles already.  

The ride from TBS to Montague proved to be a little wet, (I was debating from the start if we should even go or not), and as it turns out, aside from getting a little wet in the start, the ride went great.  I changed the route up on the fly and our 23 miler turned into a 40 miler. Keep in mind, this only happened  because it's what everyone wanted to do.  It wasn't your typical FNR but then TBS'ers aren't your typical people either.  Hopefully we're all looking for that little bit of an extra workout out.  We'll have our FNR next Friday night as well.  Starting place TBA soon.

6/15/2008  B2B report.

Well the 2008 B2B (Brewery to Brewery Ride) is behind us now with nothing but sore behinds and memories to show for it. Hopefully it was the kick off to some more aggressive triathlon training for myself and Becky. That's what we're planning on. Of course, having succumbed to a sore "bottom end" after the 146 mile jaunt doesn't exactly make either one of us want to hop right back on our bikes. Going for a run today has been pared down to perhaps a walk as both of our bodies are a wee bit run down.

It all started innocently enough, with the planning aspects of driving to Boston, biking to Windsor, Vt., and driving home. We must have gone thru about 15 different scenarios before we settled on one that would work, with only one day left before the event. That planning itself took an effort of epic proportions. In the end, along came Ella. She saved the day, (or at least made it possible for it to happen). Ella came into Boston with us so that she could drive Bob’s car back to Greenfield. I have to tell you, if you haven’t had the pleasure of driving for a couple of hours with this particular group, I hope some day you do. It was just a plain hilarious ride in. Bob’s GPS with the female Australian accented voice only added to the fun.

Anyway, we arrived at the Harpoon Brewery, picked up our ride packets and proceeded to the bar where free beer awaited us. (Do you see a theme developing about this ride?). Free beer in the beginning; Free beer at the end. No wonder why this ride of 650 cyclists sells out in an hour.

Ok after just a couple, we proceeded to our hotel with thoughts of supper on our mind. We dismounted the bikes from the car and started putting the wheels back on. I got to Bob’s bike and saw no quick release (skewer) on his front wheel, so I said, hmmmm, his bike must use a different system than the rest of ours. As it turns out, his front wheel was missing its skewer. Definite bummer. For those of you that know how to put the wheels on a bike, utilizing the quick release, you realize that this is not a good situation. No skewer, no ride. Well, after another hour or so, and traveling to a local bike shop, which was more like someone’s attic with a bunch of kids bikes in it, we found a skewer and Bob was back in business.

On to dinner……sleep and a wake up call at 5AM.

With the sun rising over the ocean we all awoke, assembled our bikes, mounted up and road our bikes a couple of miles to the start of the ride.

I must say, for me this is one of the neatest parts of the ride. Riding thru the streets of Boston at 6AM. Riding thru some old sections of Boston, riding past the State House, high rise buildings, sky scrapers all around, the ocean, it’s all just pretty special. We left in groups of about 25 riders separated by about 5 minutes. We managed to get thru Boston with out irritating more than a handful of people. (How dare we interrupt a pedestrian’s ability to cross the street due to this mass of bikes; how dare we make it difficult for someone to open their car door without a 2 minute delay). Some people!!!

Our ride took us about 50 miles prior to our first Sag stop. Beck and I were riding in various sized pelotons for the first 50 miles. The ride to this point was going great. I was downing my Accelerade (electrolytic drink) at a good rate; Beck was riding great (as always), and after about 10 minutes at the sag we were off and running again. Now about 70 miles in, after another big gulp of my Accelerade, I make the announcement to Beck that if I have to drink any more of this crap I’m going to throw up. So were in the area of Winchester, Vt and I knew there was a Rite Aid near by. We stopped and I went in for some water and Coke (to try and settle my stomach). While shopping, someone noticed by Brewery to Brewery bike shirt that I had on and said, cool, riding for beer. I said, “yup”, Boston to Windsor, Vt. He looked at me kind of stunned and asked when did we leave Boston, “yesterday”. I said, nope, just left at 6AM this morning. Looking more stunned, said , geez, you’re making good time. Yup, we were.

Anyway, I was now onto a diet of water, coke and salt tablets. I was home free. Of course we had about 70 miles left on the journey.
Beck’s foot was starting to bother her with a bad burning sensation on the bottom of her foot and my right quad was starting to cramp a little bit. This was not what either one of us was looking for but never the less, it was happening. It seemed like it took forever to get to the second sag which was 110 miles in to the ride. At the sag we were wolfing down cookies, pretzels, bananas, more coke and anything else we could get our hands on. Beck’s shoes came off as soon as we got there and we probably spent about 25 minutes there just chillin with another couple hundred riders that were most in various stages of distress. (Does any part of this sound like fun yet?).

Ok we took off on the last 36 mile leg of our journey. About 2 more miles in by left hamstring started cramping. I thought “crap”, this is not good. I tried to favor the left hamstring by not pulling up with my left leg and compensating by pushing down harder with my right leg. Of course, that’s using my right quad which was also cramping. I was needless to say a wee bit concerned, as was Becky because it was this same thing carried to more of an extreme that put me in the hospital several years ago.

We pressed on. Every time I started cramping, I popped more coke and more salt tablets but with about 15 miles to go we were both having our doubts as to whether or not I could finish. BUT, 15 miles to go after 130, I really, really didn’t want to stop. Again, we pressed on. Each time I got to a hill, my left hamstring would cramp and I would have to painfully dismount and hope that it subsided. One guy stopped in his van and asked if anyone needed food or water. As it turns out, he quit after 125 miles due to cramping. (That didn’t’ make me feel any better). Anyway, with Beck’s help, more salt, more coke and less hills for the last 10 miles, I managed to get closer and closer.

Finally we were in Windsor with only one more freakin hill to climb. It was my nemesis from last year. I actually bonked on this hill last year with less than a mile to go. At that point, Beck came to the rescue and brought me fluids so that I could finish. This year, I’d be damned if this hill was going to stop me. I was babying my hamstring as best I could but I could feel that tennis ball sized not forming about half way up. I took as much pressure off it as I could and made it. It was all down hill to the brewery from there. WE MADE IT!!!! No easy task and nothing I’d ever recommend anyone to do. With that said, hopefully some of you will join us next year.

At the end, Beck and I dismounted, laid our bikes against a tree, found Bob and headed to the beer tent. Thank god, sanity once again was ours. We stunk; were sweaty; tired but smiling like there was no tomorrow. Beck was quickly shoeless again and my cramping had subsided and other than being a bit tired, our bodies felt great.

Now, one of the scenarios that we ended up using for our ride home was with Bob’s son Eli. Eli had taken my car up to Burlington, Vt on Friday because he had a meeting scheduled for there. Eli currently hails from Minnesota but flew in for the meeting. Anyway, his plan was to end up in Windsor at the Brewery and bike back to meet his dad along the route, then bike in with him. Luck was not with Eli that day. After being on the bike for about 2 miles, he broke a spoke, making his bike useless. Bummer. He proceeded to bring the bike back the our car and thought, “gee, the car looks crooked”. Upon closer inspection, he found the rear tire to be flat. It just wasn’t Eli’s day. He was stranded at Harpoon Brewery with no place to go. (Of course, then it dawned on him that it wasn’t such a bad place to be stranded as he waited for us to come pedaling in).

All in all, every one of us had a great weekend, one that I wouldn’t trade for anything. Fitness and fun all rolled into one with the summer only having just started.

Cheers,

Steve

---

5/2/2008.  I was talking to Lou Ekus today and he was just beside himself regarding his success to this point on his weight loss and how it has already benefited him.  Let me drop back a minute and refresh you on who Lou is.   Lou and Leslie Ekus are involved in a life changing experience.  They have started a fundraiser that they have billed as "Lose to Gain", that is benefitting the Friends of Children out of Easthampton.  They are looking to raise up to $10K for the Friends and at the same time they are looking to lose weight and embark on a healthier lifestyle than in the past.  As of last week, a mere 8 weeks into their program, they had lost a collective 45 pounds between the two of them.

Now, back to Lou.   Lou has been on several meds over the years and due to his weight loss to this point has been able to stop some of the meds, lessen the strength of some of the meds and is being watched by his doc to perhaps stop another medication within the next month. Lou was totally excited about all of this as I was for him.  

I have heard this before and I'm sure I will hear it again.   Living healthier, often allows you to lessen you meds, (of course under doctors orders).  Great job Lou and Leslie.  Keep up the good work.

5/2/2008  Well I hated to bail out of another scheduled ride for the week, (that's two for two this week), but my senses got the better of me.  I just got back from an early afternoon run and that clinched it for me.  It was damp and cold.  It wasn't the sweet smell of flowers and manure that so often accompanies our rides that was in the air but the smell of woodsmoke from everyone trying to stay warm.  Between the dampness, the smoke and my cold hands, common sense got the better of me.  I look at our Friday Night Rides as fun events, and that's where I now draw my line.  No fun......no event.   Hopefully things will look brighter next week. 

Signed:Your fairweather ride leader.

4/26/2008.  So many positive things going on in our TBS community it's hard not to write something up.

Last night was our 2nd Friday Night Ride of the year.  A dozen riders came to either push themselves or have a recovery ride, (it totally depends on the level you're at).  Anyway, we had 12 riders all having a great time on what turned out to be a beautiful ride.  A bit of a rough start as two of our riders met the pavement unexpectedly but in both cases, bounced back up and pedaled on.  Oh, what the heck.   A bike ride with an incident or two gives everyone a bit more to talk about on the ride.

Anyway, our ride ended up taking us south along the eastern banks of the Connecticut River and once crossing the Sunderland Bridge, north along the western banks of the Connecticut River.  Needless to say, both directions were just plain wonderful in the beauty they offered.  We passed the old Sycamore tree in Sunderland that was around during the days of George Washington but didn't get our tree hug in that I like to do when passing it.  So it goes.

Once thru Deerfield, we picked up the brand new bike path that leads from the East Deerfield Train yard to our starting point at Unity Park in Turners.  The bike path itself is wonderful.  No traffic, scenic....what could be better.  Anyway, we all had a terrific ride and made our way home with no other incidents.....oh wait, we did have a rider go down part way thru.   More battle scars of the road warriors.  

 

Today, Beck and I had a wonderful but tiring 11 mile run with a few other hearty souls and after taking a few hours off decided to go for a bike ride.   Ouch!  We're pooped now, but we did accomplish a few things along the bike ride.   I carried with me a waist type water bottle carrier but I carried a can of yellow "road marking" spraypaint.  I was planning on marking the route that many TBS'ers will be taking next weekend on our semi-annual Run for the Coffee. (For the uninitiated, thats where we run from TBS to McCuskers in Shelburne Falls for a cup of coffee.  Oooooooooh, it's a cup that never tasted as good.

 

Anyway, each time we got to a turn for the run, I whipped out the old can of paint and proceded to mark the road with an arrow.  I felt like a criminal each time I did it, (and probably would qualify as one) but got the job done.  90% of our route is marked for our 13 mile run for the Coffee.

After completing the marking however, the next step was to pedal home.   Yikes.......my legs and Becky's were not real thrilled about tackling many more hills, so we opted to bike into Colrain and take Colrain Mountain back to Greenfield.  Well, that was a joke.  It worked but man it was not a pleasant journey. A pleasant interruption to the ride though was when our youngest called up and said he just proposed to his gf.  Better yet, she said yes!  We were thrilled and it made the remaining hills kind of vanish as we were now riding on a high.  We did make it back home after a time where we just crashed on the front porch and watched the world go by.

The moral of the story........STAY ACTIVE!   Yup, it may poop you out by the end of the day but I promise you, you'll sleep well.

Steve

4/22/2008  Lot's of things happening today that were, well, positive.

This morning, I had a wonderful chat with Lou and Leslie Ekus.   Our losing dynamic duo.   They had what was potential a tough week last week in the Lou had business to attend to in New Orleans, (did anybody say food), and Leslie headed up north to be with family. 

Lou and Leslie have discovered the power of two and to be separated was a challenge.  Ok, so what's the power of two?  Well, simply put, it's the buddy system.  If you want to be more consistent with an exercise plan, there is one simple way to insure that happens.  Buddy up.  Find a partner.  It's a sure fire way to be more active.

I remember in a former life when I used to do what I and a friend called 5 at 5.   It was an arrangement we had to run 5 miles at 5AM, prior to going to work at Lunts.  I vividly remember many times in the dead of winter when I'd roll out of bed and pray that he wouldn't come.  I'd get dressed, (just in case) and looked out the street and just at 5AM, sure enough, just like freakin clockwork, here he comes.  Crap!   Oh well, I thru my coat on and out the door I went and you know what, I was better off for it.  It was funny that I was telling my running partner this story and he said, yeah!, I feel exactly the same way when it was my turn to go to his house.   Anyway, that's a prime example of the power of the buddy system.   You just don't want to disappoint your partner (and at the same time, you don't disappoint yourself.  Oh, how I digress.  Back to my Lou and Leslie story.

Lou was telling Becky and myself that he found the perfect workout while away from home and away from a gym.   The hotel/conference center that he was staying at had escalators and at 6:00AM, he found his way to the down unit, (all by himself) and spent the next 30 plus minutes walking up the down escalator.   Kudos to you Lou.  You went to New Orleans and could have gained weight but instead came back a pound lighter than when you left.   GREAT JOB! And great job being creative with your own gym.  We're proud of you both!  Our losing dynamic duo.  Keep up the good work.

 

Ok, now on to the rest of day for Becky and me.   We got home from work at about 3PM and were about as motivated as a pair of snails.  Sleepy snails at that.  Well, once again, my 20 minute power nap took care of me.  I woke up  when the phone rang, (it inevitably rings when I'm taking my power nap) and I definitely felt better.  Not motivated but better.  

The thing is, Beck and I scheduled ourselves to do a cycling hill workout with any takers at TBS so we got into our gear and headed back to TBS.  To our pleasant surprise, we ended up with 8 cyclists that wanted to do a serious workout.  We headed up to Leyden road and did hill repeats on Leyden Rd, hill.  I was proud of all of them.  A beautiful spring day and these people opted to up their fitness level by pushing themselves to their limit for about 90 minutes.  Kudos to you gang.  You're all better off for it.  More fit.....healthier.....stronger. 

We got back to TBS around 7:00PM, chilled with Lynnette, (our newest Personal Trainer) and headed home.  This last paragraph again spells out the power of the buddy system.  If Beck and I had not committed to bike with a group we probably would have bailed out on the hill work.  Because we commited to be there, we knew others were counting on us and we new we needed to be there.   We are all better off.

4/20/2008   Whew!  Thank goodness the weekend is over so I can go back to work and rest.....Just kidding.  I usually keep busy at work too.

Anyway, what a weekend.

It started out on Friday.  After walking home from work,(a move both to save wear and tear on the car and to up our calorie burn), Beck and I found ourselves looking forward to our first Friday night ride.  If I remember right, being home for a few hours allowed me to take a 20 minute nap.   Ooooh, I so need my power naps.

 

Shortly after nap time, Beck and I took off on our pre-Friday Night Ride, ride.  We did what we affectionately call the "Puffer Pond Route" that takes us from Greenfield to Montague to Leverett to No.Amherst, (Puffer Pond) and plopped us back at the FNR start at the Sunderland Elementary School  with about 15 minutes to spare.

 

From there, we were thrilled to see that there were about a dozen riders lined up and ready to go.  What we didn't plan on was another half dozen or so coming in over the next 20 minutes.

Anyway, that's what indeed happened.  We started out about 15 minutes late, which for Beck and I, made a bigger difference than it did for the rest of the riders.  (More on that later).  We started out together and aside from a dropped chain, we kept our ride together for about 12 miles.   At that point, we were spread out by just a little bit but it was enough for the front of the group not to see the back of the group.  (At this point, I was doing what I often do and that's lead the group from behind).  Kind of tough if you think about it but it's the way I do it.  It's one of my ways of slowing the ride down.  I figure, if the people in front don't know where to go, they'll wait.  Wellllllll, in this case, I was wrong.  A couple of the group thought they would take their best guess and continue on........as it turns out, their best guess was off the mark.   In comes Kelly.  Apparently, Kelly decided to give chase and from what I understand, caught our stray riders in order to tell them they went the wrong way.

 

No problem, they were local boys and found their way back to the group before too long.

However, now I was feeling the undertones of mutiny on the ride.  I had to make a decision to continue with my ride as planned or break from the planned ride and try and keep the group together.  Well, this was our first FNR of the season and I didn't want to set the precedent of changing the ride midstream, so I didn't.  I pushed on and we all finished the ride unscathed.  Whew!, My record is still intact.  Oh, wait, there was the time(s) when we needed the ambulance to come.....ah, that was a few years ago, it's been a long time........

 

Ok, so we finally made it back to our starting point.  It was a typical wonderful ending to a wonderful FNR.  One issue was though that Beck and I had to ride back to Greenfield and darkness was waning.   We started out with our companion Karen who was going to be picked up by her husband Bob and left her off in Deerfield heading up Route 116.   Shortly thereafter, sure enough, it was getting dark out.  Bummer.  It's amazing what adrenaline does to you when you're on the edge.  Well Beck and I were on the edge.  It was getting darker and darker.   To make a long story short.....we made it home. (You probably guessed that because I wouldn't be writing this otherwise).  Anyway, on the last part of the ride, Beck did somthing that I hate when she does it.  I asked her how it was going......no answer!  That's never a good sign.   When Beck is being active, but not having fun.......hmmmmmm, that's just not a good thing.  It must mean I (or we) pushed the limit) again.  I've been there before and it's usually not a good place to be.  Again, in this case, we made it home and "life was good again".

Next up for our busy little  active weekend was an LSD run the next morning.  Oh, in case you don't know the lingo, LSD stands for Long Slow Distance.  We had a 10 mile run planned for the Turners Falls/Deerfield bikepath and I was thinking, yikes.....will my legs be ready for that.  Well, as it turns out, they were and we all had a great time running along the bike path.  If you have not been on the new bike path that runs from Deerfield (in back of the train yard) to the Gill Montague Bridge you should give it a try.  It's very scenic, running along the canal and crossing the Connecticut River over the old railroad trestle is just plain beautiful.

 

Ok, lest I carry on any more, suffice it to say that we took in a concert by CAKE on Saturday evening in Middlebury VT.  Cake is a band that you'll often hear in Beck's spinning classes. We headed back Sunday morning and  made it back soon enough to bike with a couple of wonderful friends.  We were zipping around the hills of Ashfield and Conway and sucking in the great country air.

 

Again, yes, I'm glad tomorrow is Monday.  I can't take much more of this "active relaxation".

4/15/2008   Happy Tax Day TBS'ers.    Glad that's over with.   In celebration of Tax Day, 6 TBS amigos decided to do some hill training on our beloved Cave Hill Rd tonight.  The temp was only in the mid 50's so I didn't expect a crowd but there were 6 hardy souls that did the hill training tonight.  Judy, Karen, myself, Becky, Ray and Nick were all in attendance for a serious calorie burning session.

We had a misfire to start with as just before we hopped on our saddles Karen said, "oh crap". Now most bikers would know what that meant, but for the uninitiated, it meant a flat tire.  Sooooo, we were going to be off and biking.....after a quick fix.  Maybe not so quick.  As it turns out, Karen's particular tires are a bit of a bear to change but persistance, (and the desire to have Karen be able to suffer with the rest of us), paid off.  The tube was changed and we were off.

15 minutes later we found ourselves at the base of Cave Hill Rd in No. Leverett.  A marvelous place to be, with the Peace Pagoda at the top of the hill.

We all did our first repeat, some wondering just how long the hill was and pushing thru.  Repeat number one was done.  Now the downhill.  Yippee!!!!

Ooops, what goes down, must got up and that we did.....3 more times.  It was about 45 minutes of great hill training and I'm sure we're all better off for having done it.   We made our trip back to our starting point, figured out that "yup, we all wanted to do it again", and said our goodbyes.

Sooooo, for those of you that really wanted to be there but couldn't, for whatever reason, there is always next week.  Beck and I figure that until the Swiss Farm Ride, we'll try to have a training ride each Tuesday night.

Possibilities for next week are Leyden Rd into Leyden....Smead Hill into Shelburne or maybe even a flat tougher ride.   Time will tell.  Keep your eyes on the Website. I'll post the ride as soon as I figure out what it's going to be.

Congrats again to Judy, Karen, Becky, Nick and Ray for all taking the extra time out to not only improve their cyling skills but also to improve their health thru fitness.

4/13/2008  I know many of you have missed the Farside Calendar when coming into TBS.  I know I have.  The calendar we have at the front desk right now falls woefully short of humerous.  In fact I think other than offering the date, it falls woefully short of anything.  So, with any luck, you'll have a new Farside cartoon on our homepage everyday.   Enjoy.

3/29/2008   Beginners Day has been and gone and I'm thrilled that we had some new people come thru our doors.   As you probably all know, it's not easy taking that first step thru the door.  Once in though......a ha.....it's not all that bad.   Several of our classes brought smiles to the people that were trying them for the first time.  I must say, even the people in my spinning class were smiling, (or was that grimacing?), naw, I had it right the first time.  They were smiles from people that found out that Spinning isn't necessarily the bad ass workout some people think  it is. Just like taking that first step into the gym, it's that first step into the Spinning room that's the toughest.  Once there, you'll find it very doable.   Anyone can do a spinning class, to different degrees and that's what's great about them.  You can have an Olympic caliber rider sitting right next to someone that's never been on a bike before and they can both get a great workout in, to their own ability.

Then there was Dave.   One of the many wonderful people I have met at TBS over the years stopped me and said, "man, you're here on Saturdays too?"   I assured him that I do have a life other than TBS but at the same time told him that I have met so many wonderful people by working here and have gained so many friends while being here that even though it's "work", it's the friendly, positive atmosphere I find at TBS that helps me enjoy the "work side" of my life.

My little chat with Dave reminded me of a time many years ago when I was working at Lunt Silversmiths. 

As businesses do, Lunt's had hired some consultants to come in and see if they could work on the "mental side of the office workers", to help us be happier I guess.  Anyway, I remember being in the room with a group of my co-workers, (AND THE CONSULTANT), when he asked us, "tell me how you relax".   When he got to me, I said "I relax by going for a long bike ride after work" and he said, "no, how do you really relax"........some people just don't get it!  I think he wanted me to say I close my eyes and meditate for 20 minutes. I guess you might say, enjoyment and relaxation is in the eyes of the beholder.   To me, I love to be active and I thoroughly enjoy all the friends I've found over the years.  Cheers to all of you!

3/28/2008   Well, the weekend for me started innocently enough.   A concert on Thursday night in Concord, NH, drop Becky off at at personal training workshop in Peterborough on the way home on Friday and teach a spinning class at 5:15PM.   I started out Thursday with nothing but the best intentions.  Then the proverbial "stuff" hit the fan.  A snow storm that I'm sure everyone wanted about as much as they want to have a blowout on their bike going down hill at 40+MPH.  You get the picture.....nobody wanted this storm. 

 

Needless to say, our drive from Concord to Peterborough was....shall we say.....a real adrenaline rush.....especially when I found myself, Becky and our car, in opposite lane. Thank my positive attitude in life that there wasn't a car coming in the other direction. 

 

Well, we finally arrived in Peterborough, and Lynnette, who was coming from Greenfield,at the same time arrived about 5 minutes after us, with stories of her own.  Putting our two rides together prompted me to say, "ok, I would be just plain stupid for trying to get back to Greenfield for a 5:15 spin.  Those of you that know me, also know that I don't take things like that lightly.  I agonized over cancelling the spin I was supposed to lead but when Lynnette asked, "what would you tell another instructor to do, if they were in the same situation", it became clear to me.  Just cancel the class.  In any case, I apologize to all of you that were signed up for it.  I hope some day, some how, I will make it up to you. 

3/25/2008   Lou and Leslie Ekus, Lose to Gain report.

I had the pleasure of spending some time with Lou and Leslie today, discussing life, changes in their lives, the progress their making and why they're making progress.   As of a few days ago, at the end of their first three weeks here at TBS, they had lost a combined total of 20 pounds.  13 for Lou and 7 for Leslie.

 

They attribute the weight loss to proper eating and an increase in their activity level.  I agreed with them.  No off the wall diets, no brutal workouts, just eating the right foods in the right amounts and exercising at the amount that allows them to continue without getting hurt.   Slowly, as their workout logs show, they are increasing both their amount lifted and their cardio time.

 

I truly feel that one of the most important aspects to leading a healthy lifestyle is adhering to the above and being consistent at it.  Again, if you look at their workout logs, you will see that to be the case.  Exercising most days of the week. Lou's log.    Leslie's log

 

As well as having had one of our Personal Trainers set them up on their program they also had one of our staff nutritionists work with them on proper eating.  Lo and behold.......it's paying off.  They're happy and we're happy with their success.  Keep up the good work guys. If any of you reading this would like to sit down and discuss how you can follow suit, we'd be glad to sit with you.  Use the "contact us" button on the left hand side of this page to drop us a line and we'll be contacting you within 24 hours.

 

If you would like to be a part of the Lose to Gain, "Friends of Children" fundraiser, please sign up at the front desk.

3/22/2008   Bald Mountain Hike report:

3/18/2008

Yipee.......Beck and I went on our first bike ride of the season today.  The most challenging thing was trying to figure out if we were going to  bike or not.  I know you have all been there.  It's that motivation......couch.....dilemma that crops up more often than not.  Anyway, Beck and I were walking home from work and I know it was on both of our minds.  Hmmmmmm, just barely 40 degrees and partly sunny.  Let's see now, to go out for a ride means putting on several layers, dusting off the helmet, finding our calientoes, (little footies to keep our toes warm), our skull caps, pumping up the tires etc, etc, etc.  

 

Finally part way on our walk home from work I asked Beck, "So what do you think?".  Her response, without even asking me what I was talking about, "I don't know, what do you think". So for the rest of the walk  it was "should we go or shouldn't go".  Well I'm happy to say the shoulds won.  Lance would have been proud.  As you can see, that battle happens to us too.  It's always easier to not move than it is to move but we know, (and you know too), what's the best thing for your body. 

I hope when you have those little mental struggles, the shoulds win for you too.

Our 15 mile ride was great!  Heck, it was just great being out on our bikes. 

The moral of the story......When in doubt........move.

Star date, 3/8/2008.
I'm running on a really good TBS high right now and I wanted to share it with all of you. It's 8:00PM on a Friday night and I just got back from two fabulous classes at TBS. Mind you I wouldn't be sitting here writing this if the classes didn't have a positive affect on me.
Anyway, first up was a 5:00PM class of Tae Kwon Do led by Bob Markey and Julie Orfier. I have a little martial arts background but I haven't dabbled in it for probably 25 years, so I entered the fitness room not really knowing how it was going to go. Also, over the past 25 years, some pain has found it's way into my body......shoulder pain......hip pain.....you know the drill, the older you get......and it becomes pain management after that. Anyway, I thought, gee, am I really going to be able to do this? Well, as it turns out, not only did it go well, I felt more loose than I have in a long time. Awesome.
Now couple that to the fact that there are two instructors and not many students, the instruction quality is just top notch. If any of you are at all interested in the martial arts, I suggest you check out one of the last two classes of this 4 week series. I only hope that we can entice Bob and Julie to keep going with this program. It is, yet another terrific workout!!!! Steve

Ok, after the Tae Kwon Do class I stuck around for Erika's Yoga. Wow! The room was packed. Her reputation is building. If it builds too much more, we're going to have to get a bigger room. Anyway, Erika has a knack. She brings Yoga down to Earth for us mere mortals and she makes it fun. Fun, and absolutely beneficial to all of us with tight muscles out there and I'd wager that is about 95% of TBS membership. As we age and continue to be active, we get tight, no doubt about it. Again, Erika makes Yoga fun and it truly has helped me have fewer pains in my joints. If it helps me, I bet it could help you too.

I urge you to check out either one of these classes or both. Great way to spend the first part of a Friday night. Steve