As I mentioned in my last post, I have been spending the last month getting in shape for a Grand Canyon hike. Last weekend, the time finally came to give it a shot. My good friends Jacob Hansen and Justin Prideaux and I drove up to the lovely Holiday Inn Express (too bad we didn't find anywhere to use our newfound, HIE-fueled brainpower) in Tusayan, Arizona on Friday night.
Saturday morning, bright and early, we arose and caught the shuttle bus to the South Kaibab trail, which descends from the South Rim to the Colorado River. On the bus, we met a guy (I believe his name was Tim) who was attempting to break the world time record for traversing the Grand Canyon rim-to-rim-to-rim. That's 42 miles and about 18,000 feet in elevation change, folks. And he was trying to do that in 6 hours and 30 minutes - roughly a 10-minutes-per-mile pace for about 1.6 marathons with 3.5 miles of elevation mixed in for good measure. Absolutely incredible - I am so curious to know if he made it ... or even survived it!
Of course, this makes a trip down to the river and back seem positively pedestrian. But of course, it really isn't - it's a pretty tough hike. It's 16 miles, and about 9,000 feet total elevation down the South Kaibab Trail, over the bridge, down the river a ways, back over the second bridge, and all the way up Bright Angel Trail. In fact, there are signs all over the canyon warning against attempting this exact thing:
We started our descent to the river at 6:50a, reaching the river at about 9:20a. We messed around at the bottom for almost two hours, taking a refreshing dip in the Colorado River and resting and fueling up for the long trek back to the top.
13 miles into the hike, three miles from the top, we felt great, but that last stretch was very tough, the last mile in particular. We got back to the top at 2:40p, completely and utterly exhausted, and were very happy to see Jacob's WRX. We spent the next hour in a jacuzzi at the hotel, followed by an enormous and extremely mediocre meal at the adjacent hotel's sports bar (Rays vs. Sox Game 6 was on). We finished up the night enjoying monstrous ice cream sandwiches in our room, watching the end of the game. I was out for the count at 7:00p, and I didn't wake up until 8:00a the next morning - probably the first 13 hour night I've had in 5 years.
I really enjoyed the hike and would love to do it again, perhaps next spring. What a beautiful place!
My friend Jacob Hansen has conned me into hiking the Grand Canyon with him later this month, so I figured I had better train a bit. Piestewa Peak is situated in North Phoenix, and from the top you can see the entire valley. The Summit Trail gains 1200 feet of elevation in 1.2 miles of hiking, averaging roughly a 19% grade - not a particularly easy hike.
Last Saturday I hiked it for the first time, and reached the summit in 30 minutes - not bad for a beginner. Today I hiked it twice back-to-back, the first time in 27 minutes and the second time in 31 minutes. Oddly enough, the second hike seemed easier since my legs were already numb and my heart was already pumping.
Here are some views from the summit, unfortunately taken with the camera on my cellphone:
And roughly one hour later, after reaching the peak for the second time:
It was an absolutely beautiful morning, with temperatures in the mid-70s and a nice breeze. It's times like these that remind me why I live in this desert!
Well, it appears my wife and I have spawned another offspring. Iris Olivia Dixon was born yesterday, 9/23/08, at 6:03p at our home in Mesa, AZ. She checked in at 7 lbs. 15 oz., and 21 inches long. Mom and baby are doing well, and her siblings were very happy to meet her. Welcome to the family, Iris!
At the risk of sounding like our wonderful President, I hereby declare that Mission #1 has been Accomplished. I set out last August to lose 55 pounds, and much to my surprise, I've actually done it. I started out a fabulously rotund 255...
...and dropped to a much slimmer 200 as of Tuesday, July 15, 2008:
That picture was taken last night after a brutal 20-mile bike ride from home to Mesa Community College and back (I'm taking night classes in an attempt to finish my degree). I biked the 10 miles one-way only to discover that the instructor was absent due to car trouble, and the exam I was supposed to take was now a take-home test. That's all well and good, but I was expecting to get a nice 90-minute break (not to mention 90 minutes to allow the Arizona sun to set) between the two legs of my bike trip. Oh, well - I made it home in one piece. But I digress....
I lost about 20 pounds last year, just by cutting out soda, trying to limit my portions a bit, and going to the gym twice a week or so, but by November I had fallen completely off the bandwagon. I remained somewhere between 235 and 240 lbs until a friend/co-worker turned me on to The Daily Plate (thanks Ryan!). I started tracking my food intake and exercise on April 8th, aiming to lose two pounds per week, and lo and behold, the remaining 36 pounds I had to lose are officially gone 14 weeks later (2.57 pounds per week).
It turns out all I needed was a little accountability; having to enter everything I ate into a diary really changed my behavior. Yes, I still eat plenty of ice cream and donuts, but on the days I do I'll eat smaller meals or work out longer. I have also discovered the wonders of the banana and the apple, both very filling but lacking in calories. Of course, changing my eating habits was only half of the equation; I also spend a lot of time and energy at the gym, lifting weights, riding a bike, swimming, and playing basketball. It has been an incredibly positive change for me - I feel better, look better, and have had to buy an entirely new wardrobe. :)
Acknowledgments I could never have done this without: my lovely wife (for encouraging me), my friend Ryan (for turning me on to The Daily Plate; he's down 45 pounds himself), the author of this article, Krispy Kreme and Dairy Queen (for keeping me sane), LA Fitness, Mike at Mike's Bike Chalet, the folks at Kashi (for their excellent granola bars, my breakfast every day for the last couple months), my dad (for inspiration), Jacob Moffat (likewise), and my fellow Elders (for Tuesday night basketball at the church). I'm sure I'm forgetting plenty of people, places, and things - my apologies.
Onward and, well, downward So where to go from here? Much to my surprise and dismay, I'm still rocking a nice gut, albeit a substantially smaller one than I am used to. I have set a second goal of 185 pounds, which will put my Body Mass Index in the normal range (I'm still in the overweight group). I've adjusted my weight loss goal on TDP to 1.5 pounds per week (allowing me around 1900 calories a day - 1600 was getting pretty old there for a while), so hopefully I'll hit 185 sometime in September/October. Wish me luck!
My lovely wife talked me into determining which Disney princess I am and posting the results on my blog.
Strong and spirited. You're no one's girly girl; actually you are very determined person with a strong sense of self. Never let go of that! The only thing that equals your sense of self is your family, but the traditions of society can always be bent to protect something or someone you love.
That description is actually fairly accurate, especially the part about my not being anyone's girly girl. :)
Now, you go take it, and embarrass yourself on your own blog.
Ah, nothing like a lovely 110+ degree Saturday afternoon to get some work done in the garage. In fixing up my trusty M3 for the resumption of daily driving, I had to install new oxygen sensors, do a front brake job, perform an oil change, and install a new performance exhaust system. Well, I suppose I didn't have to do that last bit. :)
It took quite a while and it was miserably hot, but I sure had fun hanging out in the garage with my fellow grease monkey, my son Devlin. He is getting to be old enough to actually help, which is really fun for both of us. He fetched me tools, learned how to use the impact wrench and air compressor, put the new oil filter on, held the funnel while I poured oil, and he even used his enormous muscles to raise the car a little bit with the floor jack ... before giving up and having me do the rest.
So here's a shout out to my favorite little (grease) monkey - love you Dev!
If you're a baseball fan and haven't read Michael Lewis's Moneyball, shame on you. It's a great, quick read, and will change the way you look at the game forever. It follows the story of Oakland A's GM Billy Beane and his meteoric rise from a failure as a major league player to one of the top GMs in the game, all because he relied on complex statistical analysis rather than doing things the way they had always been done.
One of the coolest new websites in the political arena is fivethirtyeight.com (538 being the number of electors at stake in our wonderful country's horrifically goofy Electoral College). The genius behind the blog is Nate Silver, an economist and statistician that works for Baseball Prospectus. In the tradition of Bill James, he created an algorithm for predicting the success of baseball teams and players based on past performance. You can read about him in this Newsweek article.
With regards to politics, he did a phenomenal job of predicting the results of the Democratic primary contests by relying on demographic and census data, and weighting polls based on their historical accuracy. Anyway, if you have a close eye on the 2008 elections like I do, fivethirtyeight.com is a great site to keep bookmarked as we near Election Day. And bonus, Mr. Silver is an Obama guy like me. :)
The article is relatively comprehensive and very informative, especially if you haven't done much research on weight loss, or keep getting suckered into fad diets. I actually found this article just today, but unknowingly I have been living most of it for a couple months now based on information I had pieced together from sources various and sundry. And as a result I'm down over 20 pounds since April 8th (the first day I started with The Daily Plate), and over 40 pounds total since roughly last August.
If you tend to struggle like I do, hopefully with the help of this guide and a few simple tools, you'll have the same success I have had. And hopefully I can continue to as well. :)
No, really - I promise I can spell. I just got a little carried away there with regards to my new favorite website, The Daily Plate. It's a great little Web 2.0 concoction that allows the user to track the foods they eat and the physical activity they perform, with the goal of helping each user make more informed nutrition decisions.
Back in August of last year, I ventured back to the gym and started to shed some of the 255 pounds I had amassed (emphasis on mass) to that point. I lost a good 20 pounds or so over five months, but I lost motivation and started to gain it back. My friend and co-worker Ryan Logsdon turned me on to TDP, and I started tracking my food and exercise on April 8th. With the help of Ryan and my new best friend of a website, as of today I have dropped a solid 10 lbs in 3 weeks and 2 days. According to the CDC, I am officially no longer obese, just grossly overweight - yeehaw! :)
Follow my progress here, if you dare. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!
The Phoenix Suns joined the NBA as an expansion team for 1968-69 season, and since that time own the fourth highest winning percentage in the league. They have been very good on balance for a very long time, but they have never been able to bring home a championship. Even with two NBA Finals appearances (1975 and 1993), they couldn't quite win the big enchilada.
So in what some (including me) would call a desperate move, they went out and got their own big enchilada, Shaquille O'Neal. Trading the versatile Shawn Marion and the useless Marcus Banks, they landed a 4-time NBA Champion, who has taken every NBA team he has played with to the Finals.
For the first time this season, I'm really excited about this team. There was just something wrong, be it the well-chronicled spats between Marion and Amare Stoudemire, the lack of hustle for whatever reason, or all of the close games they have lost to good Western Conference teams. If Shaq is truly as motivated and determined to succeed as he says he is, the Suns have a legitimately good shot at a title. And Steve Nash seems to really like the move - he says he was "pumped up" after speaking with Shaq on the phone yesterday.
Motivated Shaq + pumped up Nash - whiny Marion - Amare having to guard centers = a happy fan, and hopefully one (more) big enchilada.
This is copied/pasted directly from the comment I left (he he) on the politicaLDS blog this morning. It should give you a rough overview of my political beliefs and also my main rationale for my support for Barack Obama:
Hello all. It's great to see a bunch o' Mormons having a political discourse that doesn't consist exclusively of the placing of Willard (yes, that's his first name) Romney on a diamond-encrusted pedestal.
I am Rachel's husband, and while we do share quite a few political views, we arrive at them very differently. I am generally a cynical, untrusting person, but I am not a political cynic. Rachel is generally a trusting person, but is very cynical about politics. I believe the American governmental system is nearly flawless. Mind you, the government itself isn't flawless - far from it - but the Constitutional system we have is truly amazing. The proof is in the pudding; it is the most tenured consecutively running democracy (well, it's actually a republic) in the history of the planet. The Constitution provides ways to fix the problems that the people who swear to uphold it create.
I am a big supporter of Barack Obama. I have supported him for over a year now, starting way before it was "cool". I have donated to his campaign, and have volunteered to canvass for him. I truly feel he could be the transformative leader this country desperately needs. I find it extremely impressive that he has been able to be financially competitive with Hillary Clinton, despite not taking any bribes (if you call them "donations" you're kidding yourself) from corporations or lobbyists. In this regard, Clinton is just another politician, though I do generally like her and her stances on most issues.
You see, the bribes are the problem. I believe that most (perhaps all) of the problems this country currently faces can be attributed directly or indirectly to the big money in politics. It will take someone in extreme power (like a president) to take a stand on this issue, and once and for all give the power back to the people by enacting true campaign finance and legislative ethics reform.
It's all about the favors that are inevitably requisite when one take someone's else's money. I want my candidate to owe a favor to nobody but the people, as it should be.
My wife Rachel is now a participant on a new blog, politicaLDS, devoted to the discussion of politics among members of the LDS church. Shockingly, they have been able to round up a whopping *three* Mormon liberals to duke it out with the conservatives. Good discussions are going on over there already, and it just started. I'm sure I will be a frequent commentor/commenter/commentator (you decide - the dictionary hasn't yet), so stay tuned. I'll post my first comment from that blog here so you have a better idea where I stand and what gets me riled up. :)
Muse is a band I had heard a few times in passing; I had perhaps seen a music video or two, but had never really dove into their music despite positive initial impressions. Thanks to the wonderful Pandora music service, I heard another of their tunes recently and decided to give them a shot.
Absolution is without a doubt one of the best albums I have purchased in a very long time. Muse is fronted by the incredibly talented Matthew Bellamy, an excellent guitar player, self-taught pianist, and captivating vocalist in the Thom Yorke/Jeff Buckley vein. The band's style is sort of a progressive hard rock, mixing in heavy doses of electronica and romantic-era piano, specifically Rachmaninoff. This album centers on the end of the world, but somehow comes off as an uplifting, energetic work that is just a blast to listen to. Highly recommended stuff!
also in the rotation Watershed, Opeth Vulgar Display of Power, Pantera Viva La Vida, Coldplay
Saturday morning, bright and early, we arose and caught the shuttle bus to the South Kaibab trail, which descends from the South Rim to the Colorado River. On the bus, we met a guy (I believe his name was Tim) who was attempting to break the world time record for traversing the Grand Canyon rim-to-rim-to-rim. That's 42 miles and about 18,000 feet in elevation change, folks. And he was trying to do that in 6 hours and 30 minutes - roughly a 10-minutes-per-mile pace for about 1.6 marathons with 3.5 miles of elevation mixed in for good measure. Absolutely incredible - I am so curious to know if he made it ... or even survived it!
Of course, this makes a trip down to the river and back seem positively pedestrian. But of course, it really isn't - it's a pretty tough hike. It's 16 miles, and about 9,000 feet total elevation down the South Kaibab Trail, over the bridge, down the river a ways, back over the second bridge, and all the way up Bright Angel Trail. In fact, there are signs all over the canyon warning against attempting this exact thing:
