Sloth: The Man with the Hammer

[Shello]

Very rangerly indeed, soulds like an awesome trail.   Was that the same trail that bit your bike?   

 

I ended up eating out a sports bar once in Wisconsin near the MN border and there was a Vikings/Packer game on.  I should have known better.  It was obnoxious.  

[The Most Loathed]

I just felt this picture needed to be reposted. wow.

 

We're one day into shirtless-Kettlebells-in-the-yard season and already my neighbor is putting up a privacy fence. Should I feel insulted?

He's jealous. You've become the neighbor that women want and men want to be. Keep it up.

 

Have I ever been to the State Fair?

We got to the fair every year and I hate the food a little more each year. We tend to get breakfast at The Peg and then I usually grab something really basic for lunch and I really don't want any more than that. The weird foods feel like they are reaching for the outrageous and directly away from  good a little more each year. Which I find disappointing. I'd love to see some of the great local food trucks be granted some space in there.

 

Minnesota is a hard state to road trip from. 

I'm slowly learning thing. I'm finding flying to be well worth the money increasingly often.

 

I don't know the real name, TML calls them Halos, but I think of Halos as something different.

Do these slowly. Start with the bell upside down at one hip. Raise it to the opposite shoulder, go behind your head, let the bell dangle between your scapula giving a good stretch, back over the other shoulder and down to the other hip.

I call them ribbons because the path they trace is like an awareness ribbon. They do wonders for my shoulders.

I think my shoulders are in rough shape because I've been sleeping in such cramped quarters. Curled up tightly like a Hermit Crab in a too small shell. (I'm ready to be home.)

I find halos/ribbons are great for my shoulders too. You can do them with about anything. I first learned them with a plate but your sandbags would work well too.

[Sloth the Enduring]

Packers fans are the worst! (Disclaimer: I do not follow football of any variety) But seriously, they sound like snot bags (I want to say something ruder, but we'll keep it pg).

Sounds like this has been quite the vacation so far! You might need some time to recover once you return.

 

I don't follow football either, so I've never paid attention to it, but the last couple of days I've shied away from people in Packer's jerseys.

 

Yes, I've had a couple of days recovery.  I'd better hit it hard tomorrow.

 

Very rangerly indeed, soulds like an awesome trail.   Was that the same trail that bit your bike?   

 

 

It was a good trail even if it bit my bike.  They allow bikes on hiking trails up there, which gave the ride an old fashioned feel - trails built purposely for mountain biking have a different feel because they are built to withstand hard use and to handle erosion. I choose a trail that had fallen out of use because the bridge was out on purpose. I didn't want to come around a blind corner and run into an old lady with her binoculars and birding life list.

 

I cut out the spokes on the bad wheel and went to my wheel pile and found four fronts, but no spare rears.  The bike will have to be out of commission until I find a used wheel cheap.  There's no hurry; I don't need this bike until winter.

 

He's jealous. You've become the neighbor that women want and men want to be. Keep it up.

I don't know if it's related, but when we got back from vacation the lady who lives a couple houses down has a no trespassing sign posted.

 

 

 

 

 

I don't know man, it's a once a year thing and I kind of like going apeshit on the foods I never eat.  If you go to the International Bazaar, the Midtown Global Market has a stall where their vendors Take turns, you can get non-fair food there.

 

The foods trucks would be a great idea.  I don't know if you go to bars, but quite a few have a rotation of food trucks.  I hit Harriet Brewing every once in blue moon and eat whatever they have. 

 

6/28/15 - Sunday - Drove like Hell.  Did 350 miles to make it home in one day.  The kids and I were both a bit bonkers when we finally got out of the car, but we were all ready to be done traveling.  Mrs. Sloth likes these trips were you keep moving and see a bunch of different things, but next year I'm going to insist we go to one place and stay there.  No physical activity, ate lots of crap.

 

6/29/15 - Monday.  Burnt out, dead tired.  No physical activity except housework.  I gained four pounds on vacation, which was enough that I had to loosen my belt and my whole body seems softer.  I stayed active on the trip, but it was pretty random and I ate a lot of crap.

[Sloth the Enduring]

Formaat Vandag se is ter ere van Jakkals wat my vandag geïnspireer. (Today's format is in honor of Jakkals who inspired me today.)

Today I finally started to feel like myself again. I spent most of the day getting the house back in order and tending to my bikes. I accidentally pissed of my favorite coworker, the one who acts as my back up brain when the ADD is bad.

1. Meditation - no, I don't do that.

2. Exercise - 16.4 miles on the road in 1:04, easy to moderate pace. Another 7 miles incidental biking. No kettlebell or sandbags.

3. Pleasure aka bits of happiness.

Watched a video that demonstrated blacksmithing.

Wrenched bikes.

Played with the boy.

The boy and I biked to a local venue and ate outside.

4. Website Forge

After watching Jakkal's video I was inspired to tackle the garage. I tore out a shelf that took up more space than the storage it gave. I threw out a bunch of old tires and other biking stuff. I sorted the scrap metal bin into a throw pile and project metal. I threw out crap that's been in the rafters since the remodel in the 70's. Put toddler toys on the curb. Reorganized. It took hours, but the garage is as good as it can get right now - I have access to my bikes and yard tools without having to move stuff around. I still don't know where I can set up my forge, but I created enough space that I think I can set the ShopSmith (woodworking machinery) I inherited.

Next steps: do something with the scrap wood (old fashioned burning party?), put old mountain bike parts on Mrs. Sloth's bike which allows for the great bike purge of 2015, talk the missus into purging some of her stuff, build a shelf for the benchtop tools, set up ShopSmith, set up forge. Make shit.

5. No spending - No.

More expensive meal than it needed to be for the boy and me.

I saw some aluminum water bottle bolts on sale, they'll make my bike 8 grams (~1/3 ounce) lighter. Frivolous.

Edit: My ShopSmith looks something like this, only with more stuff. It's an all in one woodworking machine. It has one motor that attaches to a table saw, band saw, lathe, drill press, disc sander and scroll saw. It's ingenius. But with the jointer, it takes up a whole wall of the garage and it has a bunch of bench top tools piled on top.

[Bearlee]

So did you make this video while you were on vacation?

 

[Sloth the Enduring]

So did you make this video while you were on vacation?

 

That was not me.  I always get excited when I see a bear.

 

7/1/15 Wednesday

 

I woke up early to go mountain biking and it kind of sucked.  My legs were thick, heavy, and dead - almost as if I were overtrained, which isn't possible.  I did my benchmark lap in 59 minutes - anything over 55 minutes is disappointing - and I crashed hard (no injuries) on an easy 18" drop.  

 

The bright spot was the handling on bike is so much better with the new fork on.  A bit of bike nerdery: the fork is taller than my old one which should slow down the slow speed steering and has a longer offset (distance the wheel sits in front of the plane of the fork) which should speed up the fast steering.  The net result is a bike that feels a lot more balanced and handles like a dream now.  With the old fork the bike handled too quickly when I was going slow and too slow when I was going fast and at around 8.5 mph it just handled like crap.

 

The Missus's gym had a blood drive and were giving out Valleyfair (local amusement park) tickets, so I gave a pint.  Bright spot: blood pressure was 114/78, that might be a lifetime low, 140/90 is typical and 125/85 when I'm doing well.  Lowish resting heart rate (64 bpm), considering it was shortly after my mountain bike ride, indicates I am not overtrained.

 

Garage project continues.  I sort of set up the ShopSmith and decided that it would be better to wheel pieces out to the patio to use because of a lack of light and fear of sawdust on the bikes and camping gear.  I tried out the chopsaw and bandsaw and made a balance beam for the kids out of scrap 4X4s.

[Elastigirl]

You are probably just fighting off some bug or something, good for getting in a bike ride anyway. Double woot on the blood pressure! Mine was running that low when I first went Paleo, but  now in the 130/85 range. Seems random though, since you just got back from vacation and eating crappy, but you did bike a bunch, so maybe that is the key. 

[Sloth the Enduring]

You are probably just fighting off some bug or something, good for getting in a bike ride anyway. Double woot on the blood pressure! Mine was running that low when I first went Paleo, but now in the 130/85 range. Seems random though, since you just got back from vacation and eating crappy, but you did bike a bunch, so maybe that is the key.

Actually I think my legs feel rough because of running the dunes. It was a week ago, but they never felt like they recovered. Poor sleep, crappy eating, and random exercising kept them from ever loosening back up. KB workouts will be light until everything is back to normal. BP might be random, biking hasn't ever been very useful at lowering it. I was wondering if the removal of dairy had something to do with it and, of course, being off work really decreases the stress-load. I should track BP again.

7/2/15 - Thursday

We all slept in and spent the rest of the morning with MIL who is going back to Florida until Christmas. I spent the afternoon poking at the garage project. I'm going to build some shelving tomorrow so that I can clear off the ShopSmith, hopefully I have enough scrap wood laying around and I wont have to buy anything.

Race Report

I went back to the weekly training race. The family came with and had a good time; they may become regular attendees.

Once again I got a late start. SlothGirl had her EKG and that took longer than I thought. I got there in time for a 2 mile practice, which is not long enough to call a warmup. Again my legs felt heavy and overtrained.

I got a poor start, but when I looked down the first hill I was pretty much dead center. They rearranged the race course and made it a lot harder. It seemed like the first 2.5 mile were all uphill and the last mile was all downhill (which isn't possible). I really wanted to get off and push the bike uphill. After the first lap I considered DNFing, everything just hurt, but with TML and BearLee returning I didn't want to disappoint them (really, that was part of my thinking).

About a mile into the second lap I took a corner too fast and shouldered a tree hard enough to bounce me off my bike - I racked my kettlebells hard, if you catch my drift. I soft pedaled while I considered crying, eventually I was able to go hard again and I tried to finish strong. I came in 32 out of 47 - 13 people passed me on the course, I don't think any of them should have been able to.

The Slothlings entered the kid's races. SlothBoy rode his bike all over until the 3-4 year old race when he staged a sit down strike. SlothGirl loaned her bike to a girl in the 5-6 year old race, she's nice she came in last, but she was mostly racing 7 year olds with geared bikes.

He looks ready.

She put the pipe cleaner antenna on because she likes bugs.

[Bearlee]

It's awesome seeing you getting the next generation motivated. Hopefully the biking will stay with them for life in some form or another. So was it you didn't want to disappoint me or you were worried about the heckling from the peanut gallery? Naw really I understand the group think, that's what got me back or kept me from going (however you want to phrase it). Any ideas for projects with the ShopSmith and are you putting a forge in addition to the ShopSmith?

[Sloth the Enduring]

I enjoy the heckling, it keeps me honest.

Originally I got into woodworking because I wanted nice furniture. A few problems, my skills are crap, the house is too full for practice pieces, and nice wood is expensive. So I'm not really sure what I'll build. I have an itty-bitty forge I built in a metal working class, but I have no where to set it up. Yet. I'd like to build tools and weaponry with the forge.

[Elastigirl]

Woot for finishing the race.

 

Do you know any one else around you who woodworks and is fairly talented at it? My husband is lucky enough to have a brother who is very good at it. So when he is working on something, he can ask his brother for help. He built a gorgeous set of nesting table for our living room. He subscribes to a magazine which has all sorts of ideas.  He also makes fancy wood frames, which are great for gifts. Cool boxes, Christmas ornaments, book ends are some other idea. I showed him your Shopsmith,  and he was very impressed.

[Jakkals]

Formaat Vandag se is ter ere van Jakkals wat my vandag geïnspireer. (Today's format is in honor of Jakkals who inspired me today.)

 

 

Baie dankie, I feel extremely honored by this. 

 

It is nice to have a clean workshop. 

 

I've never seen a Shopsmith, except in pictures. They seem to be useful.

 

I enjoy the heckling, it keeps me honest.

Originally I got into woodworking because I wanted nice furniture. A few problems, my skills are crap, the house is too full for practice pieces, and nice wood is expensive. So I'm not really sure what I'll build. I have an itty-bitty forge I built in a metal working class, but I have no where to set it up. Yet. I'd like to build tools and weaponry with the forge.

 

I've always thought it would be very nice to have a very small workshop and just make Christmas decorations. I just think it is inappropriate for a Grinch to make them.

 

I would like to see the forge. Making knives and tools is fun, and small enough so that it doesn't take up too much space.

[The Most Loathed]

Race Report

.... After the first lap I considered DNFing, everything just hurt, but with TML and BearLee returning I didn't want to disappoint them (really, that was part of my thinking)....

Hopefully you weren't too mad at us after the incident with the trees. I'm glad you pushed through and it sounds like it was well within your capacity,

[Sloth the Enduring]

Woot for finishing the race.

 

Do you know any one else around you who woodworks and is fairly talented at it? My husband is lucky enough to have a brother who is very good at it. So when he is working on something, he can ask his brother for help. He built a gorgeous set of nesting table for our living room. He subscribes to a magazine which has all sorts of ideas.  He also makes fancy wood frames, which are great for gifts. Cool boxes, Christmas ornaments, book ends are some other idea. I showed him your Shopsmith,  and he was very impressed.

No, I don't know any woodworkers.  We have a couple of woodworking retail shops in town and they offer classes with good instructors - Mpls has the publisher of at least one of the minor woodworking magazines and their editors and authors teach - but it is hard to arrange time away from the family.  I have to prioritize.  ShopSmiths are a bit looked down on by a lot of woodworkers; I think it's the jack of all trades stigma, but it suits me and I'm excited to finally get it working.

 

Baie dankie, I feel extremely honored by this. 

 

It is nice to have a clean workshop. 

 

I've never seen a Shopsmith, except in pictures. They seem to be useful.

 

 

I've always thought it would be very nice to have a very small workshop and just make Christmas decorations. I just think it is inappropriate for a Grinch to make them.

 

I would like to see the forge. Making knives and tools is fun, and small enough so that it doesn't take up too much space.

I used to carve spoons from firewood and I'd fantasize about moving out to the woods, carving spoons on my porch, and selling them over the internet.  (I quit when the city got a biofuels plant and the foresters quit leaving big maple logs laying around for us wood scavengers.)  I'll post a picture of the forge tomorrow.

 

Hopefully you weren't too mad at us after the incident with the trees. I'm glad you pushed through and it sounds like it was well within your capacity,

If there's anyone to be mad at, it's myself for never learning to ride a bike properly.  The race was within my capacity, but I just couldn't push myself to ride hard - mental issues maybe.

 

7/3/15 - Friday

Took the day off, puttered in the garage, played with the kids.  Nerd Night - socialized, drank, played Dead Panic.  It was confusing TML, you should have been there to walk us through it.  I think I got a returned game, when I took it out of the cellophane there was a food stain inside, the cardboard pieces were punched out and it was missing an important piece.

 

7/4/15 - Saturday - Happy Independence Day!

Played with the kids, nothing else of note happened.  The kids turned the TV on - it was the first time it's been on since we got back - but PBS kids wasn't on and it went right back off.  Hopefully they'll forget about it again.  We got into bad habits over the winter.  SlothGirl is running a fever, so we skipped fireworks.

 

15 miles mountain biking, legs still hurt.  At the trailhead I made conversation with a guy about my age, mostly about our favorite trails.  I got to practice socializing and I'm the change I want to see (friendlier trails).  After a long while he finally had his gear ready and I started freaking out that he'd want to ride together so I said a hasty Haveagoodrideseeyoubye and sprinted off.  The funny thing is I have been looking for people to ride with; everyone I used to ride with has gotten old and quit riding.

 

Critter report - I saw a big, black shape run off the trail, I got excited for a moment, but it was only a big Tom turkey.  I came around a blind corner and almost ran over Bambi, the thing just about had a heart attack trying to get up and run off the trail.  

 

Second hand bear report via Facespace - Last night my cousin (Indian way) was sleeping in his hunting/fishing shack.  Around one in the morning he woke up to a bear staring at him through the window.  He and his dog went outside to scare it away and it ran up the nearest tree and barked piteously for the next two hours.

[Bearlee]

OMG I just found this. I'm trying to figure out how to get up there because school starts two weeks before the fair starts .

 

http://www.mnstatefair.org/fun/new_food/

 

I'm having a problem trying to figure out what to eat also and how to eat as much as I can.

[cn3wton]

Hey there friend, trying to catch up with everyone.

I recently broke out my game of Thrones board game and my friends and I love it. We usually just play risk, so it was a welcome change. I'd definitely be interested in finding more board games like it. There are no dice, b7t you still have units to move and the goal is conquering 7 keeps. It's pretty cool.

Hope all well!

[Emma]

I live in frickin' sonoma county. Known for foodies and gourmet restaurants. What do we have at the fair? Corn dogs. Jambalaya. The most exotic thing I could find was mac and cheese with bacon. Not even fried twinkies! No fair! (okay, totally didn't mean that pun, but cool.) Your fair food is soo much better.

 

Pouting over here

[The Most Loathed]

 Nerd Night - socialized, drank, played Dead Panic.  It was confusing TML, you should have been there to walk us through it.  I think I got a returned game, when I took it out of the cellophane there was a food stain inside, the cardboard pieces were punched out and it was missing an important piece.

 

I've not placed dead panic but I played it's progenitor Castle Panic, it looks like they're mechanically similar. If I recall it comes down to having the right cards at the right time more than anything else.

[Sloth the Enduring]

OMG I just found this. I'm trying to figure out how to get up there because school starts two weeks before the fair starts .

 

http://www.mnstatefair.org/fun/new_food/

 

I'm having a problem trying to figure out what to eat also and how to eat as much as I can.

I was going to post that on your thread when I got to a real computer.  Be careful or your wife will be poking your belly again.  You should also be warned that the food won't look that good in person.

 

Hey there friend, trying to catch up with everyone.

I recently broke out my game of Thrones board game and my friends and I love it. We usually just play risk, so it was a welcome change. I'd definitely be interested in finding more board games like it. There are no dice, b7t you still have units to move and the goal is conquering 7 keeps. It's pretty cool.

Hope all well!

I'm glad you're back; I hope all is well with you too.  The game looks cool.  I've never been a gaming nerd, except for a bit of D&D, but I'm starting to get into it.

 

I live in frickin' sonoma county. Known for foodies and gourmet restaurants. What do we have at the fair? Corn dogs. Jambalaya. The most exotic thing I could find was mac and cheese with bacon. Not even fried twinkies! No fair! (okay, totally didn't mean that pun, but cool.) Your fair food is soo much better.

 

Pouting over here

No fried Twinkies?!? Why bother going at all?

 

I've not placed dead panic but I played it's progenitor Castle Panic, it looks like they're mechanically similar. If I recall it comes down to having the right cards at the right time more than anything else.

It was a new game for all of us and it took a while to get us up the learning curve.  We enjoyed it though.  Next time we need a cleric paramedic.

 

7/5/15 - Sunday

11 or 12 miles mountain biking, recovery ride pace (~65%).  Legs still aren't cooperating.  I went to the trails with the intent of practicing some skills I've never developed - I've gotten good enough to do endurance racing in the MidWest and no better.  I puttered around the skill park for a while practicing skinnies and going up and over rocks.  I hit the trail and sessioned a small section with a series of small jumps.  If I actually caught air you'd need a micrometer to measure it, but I weighted and unweighted the bike at the right time.

 

There's a two foot drop I always ride around.  It's well within my skill set, I've done bigger by accident, but it freaks my timid self out.  I was determined to ride it.  I walked it, I visualized it, I rode up to it and stopped short five times.  Finally I rode it!!!  And I crashed, proving  that my life isn't a made-for-TV movie.  I'm not sure what happened; I think I freaked out in the air, hit the front brake, and went ass over tea kettle.

 

It looked kind of like this:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwN88WN8NAY

 

I spent the rest of the day up at the Stepson's.  The garage project will wait for another day.  And the picture of the forge will have to wait too, sorry Jakkals.

 

I came up with  training template for the rest of the summer.  Basically mountain bike a lot, riding will be by feel.  Add in KB presses, chins, and inverted rows three days a week.  Also get-ups and push ups in the warm up and swings and goblet squats if I don't ride on a training day.  I'll be following a H/L/M format a la Enter The KettleBell, although my hard days won't be super hard.  My first KB day after this malaise will be Tuesday.

Monday: ride

Tuesday: KB Hard + ride

Wednesday: ride, easy/recovery/ or skill practice

Thursday: training race

Friday: KB Light + ride

Saturday: ride

Sunday: KB medium + ride

I doubt I'll ride in the rain.  Schedule will change for racing.

[theseus]

That's a nice-looking riding schedule. Are all of your rides MTB rides?

[KB Girl]

Looks like a solid plan! 

 

When you have to recover from your vacation for a day or two, it was a really good one  

[Sloth the Enduring]

That's a nice-looking riding schedule. Are all of your rides MTB rides?

It's more of a best case scenario than a schedule. I'm a teacher, so for the next five weeks I have extra time to play with. The big unknown is sleeping as I have to get out of the house before the kids get up.

I only go out for an hour or two; I'm not putting in the big miles like you. Most of my rides are mountain biking, plus commuting type rides that I usually don't track. Around here the trails close when they're wet, on those days I'll do an easy road ride on my single-speed cyclocross bike.

[Sloth the Enduring]

Looks like a solid plan!

When you have to recover from your vacation for a day or two, it was a really good one

Thanks. I was loathe to write it down because usually as soon as I do I'll flit away and start something new.

[Sloth the Enduring]

See four days in and I'm already not following the plan. I blame Canada.

7/6/15 Monday - I think I took the day off and puttered in the garage. IIRC it was raining.

7/7/15 Tuesday - the air was thick enough to see and hard to breathe. My allergies were acting up, compounded by the smoke from the Canadian wild fires meant I took an easy day. 17 road miles in 1:10.

7/8/15 Wednesday - a really bad breathing day. It was like something was sitting on my chest or breathing through a straw.

I went to my home trail just for a single lap. After 25 years I've finally figured out how to steer a mountain bike. It's all in the hips baby. I practiced that and set a big PR on the main loop even though I was riding easy.

I tried to do Kettlebells after the kids went to bed, but I just couldn't breathe and quit.

[Bearlee]

See four days in and I'm already not following the plan. I blame Canada.

 

Too easy of a setup to pass by.

 

 

You can change M.A.C. to Minnesotans Against Canada.