DIRTY ATHLETE

Fruita Colorado Mountain Bike Pictures

admin — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 20:36:06 +0000

Fruita Colorado Mountain biking Pics

Zippity Do Da

Looking at Joes Ridge

Sweet Single Track

Watch out for big holes in the eroding trails

Fruita CO: Sweet Sweet Single Track

admin — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 20:17:01 +0000

I have whizzed through Fruita Colorado several times in the past years, heading east to west or west to east on I70. Not even knowing that some of the sweetest single track was hidden around Fruita.

Lately though I had been hearing about it and was determined to stop off for a ride the next time through. Well that day finally came and even though I only got to do a few rides, I realize this is a place I will be coming back to explore.

The riding there is amazing and you know its going be when there are two bikes stores in a town that has like four restaurants.

Fruita is not a big town, but it is a nice town, clean and friendly from what I found.

I decided to hit up a few of the classic single track rides there like:

Zippity Do Da

This is a roller coaster type of a ride, a lot of up and down. The trail is on the top ridge of the “mt” top. I don’t think it is quite high enough to be classified as an actual mountain, but when you looking over the edge, you find yourself high enough up that one false move would be likely the end of things for you. There is a reason this ride is considered a double black diamond here, it shouldn’t be ridden if you are a beginner rider.

It isn’t so much a technical trail as it is high and on a windy crumbling edge. It really was quite windy up there and there are some steep quick down hills that flow into a steep little uphill. The reason why you don’t want to ride this if your not ready for it, is because you may try and walk some of the trail, but that is a big mistake, for a couple reason: First there isn’t much room to walk and push you bike, your literally on the trails edge, several 100 feet up high and there are not many bail out options to get off the trail. Secondly, it highly damages the trail condition, because the dirt and sand there is very fragile and when you try to walk on the dirty, the trail crumbles away and off the sides.

Another easier and supper fun run to try out is kessels, really I don’t think there could be a much more fun and fast single track ride around. This is such a fun ride to do you will find yourself smiling all the way down.

Kessels Run

Kessels is fast and curvy ride, its definitely worth hitting up if your cruising through Fruita.

Overall

There is so much to explore in Fruita as far as mountain biking goes and different types of riding your have dirty single track on one side of town and more rocky Moab feeling on the other side. Another perk is the camping is free there! This may be going away soon if the laws change, lets hope not. I will definately be back for some riding in the fall time, when its not over a 100 degrees there.

More Fruita Colorado Mountain Biking Pictures

Map of Fruita Riding

Day By Day P90x Plan

admin — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:33:25 +0000

So Lately I have been thinking about restarting the p90x workout plan. Last time I got about half way through it and had to put it on hold, do to moving half way across the country.

Now I have been thinking about giving it the restart, my only debate is if I should wait until after summer is over and start it up in the fall, when there is less to do outside. But then that just sounds like an excuse to put off fitness.

Anyhow I’m still debating on it, i don’t want it to eat up too much of my mountain bike time, but if i can start getting up before noon I may have time for both.

It is a pretty fun workout, a few of my friends have been asking me which days of the week do you do each workout videos. So I decided to lay it out on here.

This is how Tony Horton lays out the Classic version of P90x

PHASE 1
weeks 123

Monday-Chest & Back, Ab Ripper X
Tuesday-Plyometrics (this is one tough work out)
Wednesday-Shoulders &Arms, Ab Ripper X
Thursday-Yoga X
Friday-Legs & Back, Ab Ripper X
Saturday-Kenpo X
Sunday-Rest or X stretch

Week 4- Recovery Week

Monday-Yoga X
Tuesday-Core Synergistics
Wednesday-Kenpo X
Thursday-X Stretch
Friday-Core Synergistics
Saturday-Yoga X
Sunday-Rest or X stretch

PHASE 2
Weeks 567

Monday-Chest, Shoulders & Triceps, Ab Ripper X
Tuesday-Plyometrics (this is one tough work out)
Wednesday-Back & Bicep, Ab Ripper X
Thursday-Yoga X
Friday-Legs & Back, Ab Ripper X
Saturday-Kenpo X
Sunday-Rest or X stretch

Week 8-Recovery Week

Monday-Yoga X
Tuesday-Core Synergistics
Wednesday-Kenpo X
Thursday-X Stretch
Friday-Core Synergistics
Saturday-Yoga X
Sunday-Rest or X stretch

PHASE 3
This month is a little different and a combination of phase 1 and 2. Make sure you check out which weeks you do what.

Weeks 9, 11

Weeks 10, 12
Monday-Chest, Shoulders & Triceps, Ab Ripper X
Tuesday-Plyometrics (this is one tough work out)
Wednesday-Back & Bicep, Ab Ripper X
Thursday-Yoga X
Friday-Legs & Back, Ab Ripper X
Saturday-Kenpo X
Sunday-Rest or X stretch

So this is the plan to follow if you are doing the Classic version of P90x!

Making Homemade Pizza

admin — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 20:06:09 +0000

I love love love homemade pizzas, there so delicious and much better than anywhere I can buy one from. Sure it takes a little more effort, but so worth it. There is nothing better than delicious pizza after a long work out.

When I make pizza, I don’t use any special pizza pans or stones, in fact, I usually just put the pizza on tin foil or directly on the oven rack.

I rarely make two pizza crusts the same and for as long as I can remember, I’ve never used a recipe. I make pizza about once a week and I continually try to make the next crust better than the last. Unfortunately, I’m not always successful, but I’ve never been disappointed with the results. Trust me, it’s really hard to screw up a pizza; the only thing you have to watch out for is burning it, or using too much sauce.

The Crust

Here is a simple crust I start with, but feel free to add and subtract ingredients as you see fit. It doesn’t really make a difference what you use, as long as you have liquid, yeast, and flour and the proportions are somewhat close. I’ve made hundreds of crusts without measuring a single ingredient, it’s really not a big deal.

Start with one cup of warm water (or hot or cold…or whatever you want! Everyone has their own opinion on this, but I’ve tried them all and I don’t notice much of a difference) I also substitute beer, milk, or almost any other liquid, for some or all of the water. You can use any type of flour you like; I like 1/2 white and 1/2 whole wheat. Some people add honey, brown sugar, eggs, butter, and just about anything else you can imagine, so try throwing in something extra, so you can tell people you have a “secret ingredient”.

Basic Crust

1 Cup Warm Water (or milk or beer…I’ve even used diet coke and it turned out pretty good)
1/4 Cup Olive Oil
3 Cups White Flour (or combination of any other type of flour)
1 Package Active Dry Yeast
1 Pinch of Salt
1 Pinch of Sugar

Mix everything together in a large mixing bowl, except the flour. Just use a fork or whisk and make sure it’s mixed fairly well. Let the mixture rest for about 1/2 hour before you start adding flour. Add the flour a little at a time and keep adding flour, until you can no longer stir it with a fork. Dump the rest of the flour onto the counter and plop the dough down in the middle. Knead the dough (continually fold it in half and press it together) for about 10 minutes until it’s smooth and pliable. Add more flour or oil as needed.

After you’re done kneading the dough, you should be able to easily shape it into a ball, then let it sit for an hour before forming into a crust. I don’t always wait an hour and sometimes I leave it in the fridge for a night or two, but letting it raise for at least an hour will make it easier to form into a crust. Keeping it in the fridge over a night or two will give the crust more flavor, but just make sure you seal it in a plastic bag.

When you form the dough into a crust, it’s best to stretch it, rather than roll it. That’s why you see pizza makers tossing the dough and using their fists and fingers to stretch it when they catch it. Spinning, tossing, and catching the dough is fun, so go ahead and give it a try! Your first few times, you’ll probably drop it or poke a hole in it, but just fix it by pressing the tear back together. I usually just lay it on tin foil (sprayed with non stick) and press it with an outward motion to stretch it into a square about the same size as the sheet of tin foil.

After the crust is shaped and you’ve fixed all the holes, pre-heat your oven to 450 degrees.

The sauce

I usually take two or three Roma tomato’s, a basil leaf or two, a little onion, a garlic clove, and a slice of pepper, (as hot as you like) and put everything in a blender and press pulse a few times until it’s finely chopped and mixed, but not blended. Drain off the extra water/liquid and spoon the sauce directly onto the uncooked crust. This is where you need to be careful not to over do it. You should cover the entire crust, but just a thin layer. Start with less for your first pizza and then add more if you think it needs it next time.

Toppings

Now it’s time to add the cheese! This is everyone’s favorite part of the pizza. I like fresh mozzarella that I cut into small squares (1 cm square) and spread about an inch apart on the pizza, but normal shredded mozzarella or or other Italian blend will work just as well.

After the cheese, you can add any ingredients you want. Generally, I use simple fresh ingredients, such as red onion, bell peppers, banana peppers, mushrooms, garlic, tomato, and spinach. There’s no need to cook most veggies, but make sure you pre-cook any meats, such as sausage, bacon or hamburger. Sometimes I like to pile the toppings on until they’re falling off the edges and sometimes I don’t use any at all, so just do whatever you like and have fun with it. I usually add a light second layer of cheese on top of the toppings and a little oregano and ground pepper.

Cooking

Put the pizza in the oven (on your pan, stone, or tin foil) for about 10 min. at 450 degrees. I like to use tin foil, because half way through cooking I can pull the foil out and let it cook directly on the rack for about 5 minutes before taking it out. This makes the crust a little crisper on the bottom. Check it frequently to make sure it’s not burning. The pizza is done as soon as the cheese starts to bubble or turn brown. Depending on how thick your crust is and how many toppings you have, it will take between 5 and 20 minutes before it’s done, so just watch it closely until you have a feel for how long it takes.

When you take it out of the oven, you need to let it set for about 5 minutes before you cut it. I cut it with a pizza cutter, knife, or pair of scissors, depending on what happens to be clean at the time. So if you don’t have a pizza cutter, don’t feel like you need to buy one.

Have fun with it, and don’t worry about how it turns out, because no matter how it looks, it will still taste good!

No related posts.

Teva Games Bouldering Comp

admin — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 19:54:56 +0000

I got to check out the Boulder Comp for a few minutes at the Teva Games…..The wall was sick, I would love to do this event next year.

Biking Vail Mountain

admin — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 19:43:49 +0000

So While we were at the Teva games, we wanted to do a little mountain biking up Vail mountain. We hit up a couple bike stores to ask them what we could ride, unfortunately no one seem that interested or excited about any of the rides open on the mountain. The best suggestion we got was….” well you could ride the fire road up to Eagles nest and back down.”

The reason being, is because most of the good rides on the back side of the mountain weren’t open, due to the snow. Also I guess some of the area is closed because the animals, like moose and elk, are coming down from the winter to eat and they are not to be bothered. Which all makes sense, but slightly disappointed, because I wanted to ride some sweet single track.

A long climb up the single track is what I settled for and I guess it was nice to get a solid climb in. The bike store had a simple bike map to follow up the mountain, there really were only a couple paths you could ride up. It was nothing like Park City’s map which you could stare at for the half the day, plotting your route.

We took Gitalong trail up, which was a gradual climb and got a bit steeper towards the end of the trail when you got closer to eagles nest. We climbed on Saturday and it was gorgeous out, sunny blue skies, nice weather. As we got closer to Eagles nest though it got super windy and you could see why the backside would still be closed, there was a ton of snow left up there near the ridge and in the trees.

We took Liondown, back to the the village, it was a pretty easy fire road most of the way. At the very end, it turned into a little bit of single track, that was actually super muddy because the Xcoutry mt bike race just ended. It was fun though, to at least get a little single track.

It was a pretty long ride and some great climbing and views.

Slopestyle Comp Vail Colorado Teva Games

admin — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 20:15:55 +0000

Teva Games Slopestyle Championship from Dirty Athlete on Vimeo.

Teva Games SlopeStyle Comp.

Slopestyle Comp Teva Games

admin — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 20:11:31 +0000

This is a sweet video I captured at the Teva Games SlopeStyle Comp.

Teva Games Slopestyle Championship from Dirty Athlete on Vimeo.

Freeride Duel

admin — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:55:54 +0000

Two dudes battling it out in the Teva games 2009 freeride duel. This was a pretty sweet comp to watch, at the event I think the only thing that could have made it better is if there was some sorta of set up where you could watch it from above.

This course was set up a narrow stretch of street and mainly you could only see what was write in front of you, missing some of the sweet jumps on down the stretch.

Everyone was gathered round, leaning there heads and blocking views. Watching from above would give you a lot more action and a view of the whole course, maybe even just setting up some bleachers on front of it would have been nice. Still sweet though!

Hybrid Free Running

admin — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:47:21 +0000

Here is another sweet pic I had of one of the the guys doing a back flip from Hybrid Free Running at the Teva Games 2009.