Paleo Vélo

We spent about two hours repairing this section of trail last Saturday as part of a trailwork event at the Crest Ecological Reserve. Five days later I take a hike with the wife and baby only to see what’s been made of our hard work.

Friends don’t let friends ride trails right after the rain.

When I don’t even have a $7000 coffee bike?

That’s a Moots, by the way.

The traffic sucks and there are way too many people in this state for my tastes, but with afterwork rides like this, much can be forgiven. Looking forward to the arrival of “winter,” which is in many ways our best riding season.

Hat tip to John Durant.

One of the things I’ve noticed about my occasional back problems is that they almost always go away when I am not sitting in the office all week. While some of this could be due to the stress of work, I think a lot of it also comes down to the fact that we were simply not designed to sit for 8 hours a day.

Since I have been working from home this summer, I’ve created a standing desk using a dresser to see if it would help. It will take some getting used to as my feet are just not used to standing so much, but it definitely keeps me a bit more alert. As an added bonus, I think I tend to spend less overall time on the computer as it’s just not as easy to fall into a web surfing daze when you don’t have a big chair to sink into. Back problems–gone–just traded them for sore feet instead!

Can Woody Allen’s Execucizer be far away?

I’ve been in San Diego for almost three years now, and only this summer have I started to hike sections of the Pacific Crest Trail, one of the true gems of America’s trail networks. What a loss on my part! My neglect is mostly due to the fact that bicycles are not allowed on the PCT. Though local riders will occasionally “poach” sections of the trail, I’ve chosen to simply steer clear of it.

But as I’ve become more interested in overall (as opposed to cycling exclusive) fitness, I’ve started to do a lot more hiking. It’s been amazing to discover remote sections of San Diego county at a different pace.

My “discovery” of the PCT has even prompted fantasies of doing an extended 2-3 week section next summer. Right now, my main limiting factor is that my feet need to toughen up. It’s hard for me to do much more than 10 miles without blister problems. Wimpy biker’s feet! Hopefully I can get that sorted out–taking my shoes and socks off for a bit every 3 miles or so seems to help.

It is frustrating just how soft our modern bodies have become. Reading literature from as recent as the 19th century, it seems many thought nothing of walking 10 or 20 miles to get somewhere, in part because that was the only way to get there.

It seems to me that any reasonably fit person should be capable hiking at a brisk pace for 8 hours without undue discomfort or fatigue. That really IS what our bodies were designed for. With a little more time on the PCT, I’m hoping to get to where a 20-mile day of hiking is as uneventful to me as 100 miles on the bike.

It’s been awfully quiet around here. After about two and a half years on the Paleo diet, it seems the novelty of it has worn off and this has just become how I eat. It’s what’s for dinner, to quote quote James Garner from the old beef adds. Not too much more thinking or work that needs to be put into it.

In some ways, it gets harder to blog about what has become so normal and quotidian.

Sadly, despite the simplicity and obviousness of staying healthy by eating real food, it’s hard to envision much of a turn around in most American’s eating habits in the near term. And there’s too much money involved in agribusiness and food product for our government or the scientific establishment to get it straight by keeping it simple. Meanwhile, diabetes and obesity are all but guaranteed to bankrupt the health care system. Each new breakthrough nutritional study rearranges a few of the deckchairs on the Titanic.

Oy vey. But at least the eatin’ around here is still good! Here’s one my wife whipped up last night:

Scenes from today’s mountain bike ride at Crestridge:

Going into it, I would have put my money on the rattle snake, but that shows you much I know. Long live constrictors!