Raw Bee

The cows are watching

2010-07-12T13:32:00.001-05:00

SynergyTT-136
Originally uploaded by robbiehalvorson

When I'm biking in Washington county I'm always noticing that cows, and horses for that matter, will stop and look at me as I go by. I wonder what they might be thinking. These guys were watching the Synergy time trail race near Stillwater, MN.

Hollywood Prop

2009-08-31T21:26:00.007-05:00

Last weekend Linda, as she often is, was watching a bad movie called Babylon AD starring Vin Diesel. Not to be confused with the excellent TV series Babylon 5. I found myself watching it with her when suddenly I noticed a prop that the evil Doctor was using while trying to read Diesel's mind. The shape of it looked awfully familiar to me. A few beats later in the scene and, sure enough, it's an obsolete Guidant product that I helped design back in 1997. The Zoom programmer was used to monitor and program the pacemakers and defibrillator we sell.

Here he is proudly showing off the Zoom programmer.

They modified the flip up display to cover the original touch screen. The original screen was much bigger then this one so I'd say this was a bad upgrade. They also added cables to what was the floppy drive bay - which is probably a better upgrade.

And lastly we have the evil Doctor in his classic 'I have you now!' moment with his trusty Zoom programmer by his side. From this angle you can see that they added a block to the back of the screen to most likely hide the product and company logos.

I'm not sure how a Hollywood prop department would obtain a programmer. I thought they were supposed to be returned to the company. It was fun to spot something I had a hand it, even if it was in a terrible movie. Why couldn't it have been the Matrix or Star Wars!

The end of RawBee??

2009-02-26T21:25:00.002-06:00

If you are following this blog, all 2 of you, then I apologize for the lack of attention. Since discoverying Facebook and Twitter I've found those technologies far easier and quicker to use then Blogging. I'm not sure what I will do with the blog but I don't see a log of current news being posted here but maybe I'll put up race reports. In the meantime, find me on Facebook or to a lesser extent Twitter.

I'm facinated with the Facebook trend. I've had an account for over a year but never used it. Then suddenly in December I got sucked into it by friends. It really has hit a critical mass. Personally I think it's the CB radio of the new century but I'll enjoy it while it's hot - good buddy.

Spinning at Now Sports

2008-12-16T20:59:00.008-06:00

Time again to find ways to stay on the bike indoors. The guys at work head to Now Sport at noon for some spinning. Now Sport has a nice new area set up for spinning and they very generously let us come over and use it all winter. They also have a trainer attached to a computer for doing virtual rides on a computer. I usually don't bother because I can do it at night at home just as easily. However it is nice to mix it up as well as hang out with other riders instead just being alone in the basement. Here is Frankster riding in the new workout area. That's his new bike that he has on layaway at Now until next season. Nice bike.

The bikes on the wall are owned by people that elect to store them at Now for the winter. That way they don't have to carry them in, I did. Plus it probably makes the spouse happier not having them in the basement.

Just like last year I participated in their virtual time trail. The contest runs the whole month and as of this post I was in 2nd place - of two people that have done the ride. But the first place guy is very fast and he's beating me by only 15 seconds. So I wasn't too disappointed. Here you can see me set up on the Trax training and the route I'm riding on the TV screen.

BSC at the dome

2008-11-13T21:08:00.012-06:00

Boston Scientific sponsors Gopher sports which is great. As a part of that sponsorship they get a certain amount of advertising at events. Last month I was asked by HR if I might be interesting in creating animation for use at the Gopher football games at the Metrodome. Hell yeah!

This is a still from the animation. Click on it to see the full resolution version. Be ready to scroll!

Right off I hit on the idea of the long strip being a blood vessel so I thought blood cells would make a neat backdrop to the text and logo treatments. I also tried more 3D cells but the more graphic cells looked better and didn't screen blood!

The display it would play on is one of those wrap around LED displays between upper and lower desks. I've usually seen them as continuous bands all the way around but the dome display was just stand alone with the bizarre resolution of 2400 by 40 pixels. By contrast, a TV is generally speaking 640 by 480 pixels. The whole piece only 17 seconds long and designed to loop for as long as they play it during breaks in the action. Its so wide that it's hard to put onto the blog. But is you want to see it, right click on this link and down load it. Then play it in Quicktime.

Here is a photo at the dome. The animation is the blue strip in the middle and just peeking in on the right.

OK, so I have to come clean on the photo. It's a fake. I couldn't find anyone to take a photo at a game so with a little help from some nameless Gopher fan on Flickr, I was able to find a random game photo. It nicely shows the display - just not the right message. No problem. Here's how I did it. Click on the images for a zoom in.

Here is the orginal. With a little color and contrast adjustment.

I saved one frame (this one) from the animation. Then scaled it down and warped it slightly to the curve of the stands. I was kinda luck that it's mostly flat to the camera so I didn't have to correct for perspective.

The new display does not look like its lit up so I had to add some glare and boost the saturation.

Much better. I also added subtle things like noise to the new elements and grunged up the edges. The CG elements were too perfect.

Bicycle Planet

2008-10-29T22:28:00.005-05:00

On this planet, unlike this planet, the inhabitants have made a clearing for cyclocross racing.

This was made in Photoshop from a whole bunch of shots at the Afton Alps Cyclocross race. Normal photos can be found on Flickr.

Bike Race Dogs

2008-10-26T10:51:00.008-05:00

I've been out to a couple bike races taking photos. I have photos from the Ham Lake Cyclocross race here, and yesterdays Afton Alps race here.

It occurred to me as I processed through yesterdays photos that I often end up with a really nice shot of someones dog. I don't know these dogs or their owners.

My photo tip to take away from this is that; even if you are somewhere to specially shoot subject A, always have an open eye to subject B, C, or D. They might end up more interesting then what you thought you were there to photograph in the first place.

UND Hockey Verses Mankato

2008-10-20T21:21:00.004-05:00

My good friends and neighbors Hal Propp and his son Connor invited me along to a Sioux hockey game in Mankato. Hal is a UND alum like me. The Mavericks have a really good team this year and had already beaten UND on Friday night. The Sioux looked a bit sloppy to start with but came alive in the 3rd period to win 4-3. Winning goal was scored with only 8 seconds on the clock. Ended up being a fun game. We had a ball.

I had some trouble bring my camera into the arena. At the entrance the security guard asked me if I was a photographer. "Well, no, I'm not a professional if that's what you mean". It was the 20-200 pro-grade lens that drew her attention. I didn't argue, much, and headed back to the car. On the way I passed the front doors to the arena so I figured, what the hell, why not try here.

I passed right through with the camera right over my shoulder. I guess I found the 'camera' entrance. Wink wink. I didn't want to push my luck so I stayed in my seat in the far corner where all the North Dakota fans were. It limited my view but it was better then the view from the car if I got caught.

More photos on Flickr

Oseola Duathlon Photo

2008-10-20T13:15:00.006-05:00

A nice shot from a Milwaukee photographer covering the race a few weeks back. Still waiting for the digital copy I ordered 2 weeks ago. Maybe me posting a hacked screen snap will draw his attention.

There are a few things that make it a great photo; The dynamic angle of the body as I'm about to turn is almost perfect. The dark defocused background really makes me and the bike standout. No sunglasses! You can actually recognize who the person is. Some of it's luck but a good photographer makes a certain amount of their luck happen by thinking ahead and being prepared. Nice job Fuad. Full disclosure; I did do a small bit of color and exposure correction on the screen snap I took from his race gallery.

This shot is just as I was heading out on the bike leg. The pylon in the left corner was only about 3 feet from the curb that we had to stay between. It was very tight.

Boston Scientifc Bike Club

2008-10-14T21:11:00.006-05:00

During the week I try to get out for a ride with the guys at work. Around 11:30 a random bunch of people get together for a 20-22 mile ride through the northern suburbs of St Paul. We gather in the parking lot after changing into our gear in the company locker rooms. It's usually a very strong group and it's always fun. Some of us have been riding together at noon for years. Today we had a larger group of 8 people.

On this day I decided to take along my Canon G9 and try my hand at riding and shooting. A feat that can be a bit unnerving. I mostly just shot away without spending to much time thinking about it. Better to watch the road and my mates with at least one eye.

This video is of the hill on Snail Lake Road. It's the last hard stretch before we cool down on the last mile back to work. Most of the time we treat it like the end of a race. Either we stay together as if we were a team trying to launch someone to the top, or it's everyone for themselves.

I have a lot more photos on Flickr. The loop we take, which we call the northern loop, takes us up into White Bear Lake then loops back through North Oaks. It's a really nice urban ride that takes us around a few lakes, along a golf course, and some nice long stretches to really hammer on. Here is the map of our route.

View Larger Map

New Bike

2008-09-28T17:19:00.004-05:00

I bought a new road bike!

Some time this Summer I decided that I was going to buy a new bike next year. I figured that gave me 6 to 9 months to look around and make some decisions on what I wanted.

The issue was accelerated for me when the right shifter on my Bianchi seized up. The mechanic told me it was a replace, not repair. Not good news but seeing as it was Fall and I would probably ride my Cervelo time trial bike on the trainer this winter - not a complete tragedy.

One day while I was at Now Sport, sponsor of my triathlon team, the owner, Paul, told me he had a used bike of the type I had my eye on. He let me take it for a few days, actually 4 days over a weekend. Now that is customer service. No money down or deposit. I just walked out.

The neat thing about the bike is that it was ridden for the Summer by a guy named Tim Mulrooney, Timmer to the racing community. Timmer was a sponsored rider on the Now Sport team. See, when you are really good you get bikes from your sponsor to ride. He went on to be the Rider of the Year (ROY) for the top division in Minnesota. The dude it fast. Here is a photo of Tim on the bike.

Photo from http://nowbikes-fitness.com/

So I bought!

It's a Litespeed Icon with Shimano Dura Ace components. It's made of Titanium. I haven't been on it more then a few times since I was getting ready for the 2 duathlons. But I hope to get some nice rides before it gets too cold.

Race Report: Oseola Duathon

2008-09-28T13:22:00.005-05:00

This duathlon was in Oseola, WS about 35 miles from home along the Minnesota Wisconsin board. I really beautiful area with rolling hills. Nice to look at, not so nice it bike on - more on that later. The distances were 3 mile run, 22 mile bike, 1 mile run. Usually the runs are the same distance but the longer bike followed by a quick run would be good for me.

I had to get up at 5:30am to get there and get set up by the 8:30 start. Way to early for a Sunday morning. I always pack everything up the night before so a) I don't have to pack in the morning, b) I don't forget anything or at the very least have the whole night to think what I haven't packed. We didn't have any milk for cereal so I had a hot dog!

At the race they had everyone preassigned to a rack spot. WTF? I always rack close to the exit but this time I was about half way back. So it wasn't terrible. The other bad thing was that the racks were set up in a grass/sand area of a park. Walking and rolling the bike covered them in sand. Not good.

The start was in 5 waves with me in the 4th wave. The first 3 miles went without much excitement. I was running well. Unlike last weekend we had to pass a ton of slower runners from the first 3 waves.

I transitioned fine, opting to carry my bike out instead of rolling it so as to keep the tires clean of sand. They sent us out out onto highway 35 that had a narrow shoulder. They had a lot of pylons that were only getting in way as I passed more and more people. I had to stay sharp not to hit one. It was far easier, and safer, to just ride out in the road lane. After 3 miles we turned off the highway. It's at this point that the race got interesting. We were into the hills.

I had seen the altitude profile on their website. I knew what to expect - sorta. The first climb would be the toughest with some nice descents after them. So I stayed aero and hit them hard. At the top of one I was caught by a guy. He said "this is not very fun!". He was right. I put him behind me after another mile or two.

More hills, more descent. Some at up to 40mphs! According to my GPS I was nearing 18 of the 20 miles so I started to add a bit of effort. Then I saw a big sign saying - 15 miles. Huh? Oops, I forgot that my GPS had recorded the first 3 mile run. Lucky for me the last 5 miles were mostly down hill so I was in good shape and really flying. Caught a few more people in the last 5 miles.

The second run was only 1 miles. I scanned the transition area and could only see maybe 10 bikes. Excellent. I run out with a guy on my heels. I stayed ahead of him for most of the run but he caught me as we neared the park and the finish. He jokes with me about finishing together and I asked if we should hold hands across the finish line. But he sprinted away in the final 100 yards. No problem, I noticed he was in the first wave. In race time I was actually 3 minutes ahead of him.

I was 10th overall. 1st in my age division. My bike time, which is always the most important for me, was good enough for 8th fastest. A very nice finish to my 2008 racing season.

Here is my surprising large and slightly cheesy trophy.

Race Report: Fall Classic Duathlon

2008-09-22T22:04:00.004-05:00

Finally, a race other then just time trialing. This is the exact same coarse I've done several times including last Spring. It was a beautiful Fall morning for a race. As I racked my bike in the transition area I noticed that the transition area was about half the size as in the spring. I guess a lot of people were done with multisport racing for the year. I'm just starting!

The race started out fast with me being in the leading pack but sadly watching the others pulling away fast. It was hard to concentrate on my own pace instead of trying to pace with them. I'm just not a fast runner. After the first 3 miles I figured I was in about 18th place which I was happy with.

I had a little problem with mounting my bike but basically the transition to the bike went smooth and fast. Out on the bike course I was able to catch 5 people in the first 3 miles which contains the mostly challegening hills of the whole 13 miles. It took a while to get comfortable as my legs were still feeling the 3 mile run. But by about midway I felt like I was up to speed. I caught a few more people that I knew were going to be reeling me in on the last run. I needed to add a lot of time on them. By the time I got back to the transition area I was able to see the race leader heading out on the run. That meant he was only about 3-5 minutes ahead of me. Believe it or not I considered that great. See, the guy is a friend of mine as well as teamate on the Now Sport triathlon team. It also meant that I had pulled myself up to 5th or 6th place. Cool. I think I said "Hey Derrick" as we passed. Like we just happened to passing on the street.

I transitioned to my running shoes smoothing but I was not striding well. I was now paying for that extra effort on the bike. I was quickly caught by a couple guys then later on by 2 more. They just sprinted by with nothing I could do. Frustrating. By the last half mile I was completely alone on the park path. It a weird feeling to be by yourself like that in a race. It's always better to have someone to pace against even if they are creaming you.

I sprinted in alone for a 1:18 finish.

I finished 9th overall and was 1st in the mens 40-49. I turned in the the fastest bike time of the race, beating the overall winner by over a minute (he was the second fastest). That's great and all but both his running times were 4 minutes faster then me! Wow. A good race for me however I actually was faster on this course in the spring. I was hoping to better that mark.

Clearly I need to work on my running this winter. Which is fine because I really enjoy running more then biking. How ironic is that.

Here is a photo of my teammates in the race, Derrick Podratz (overall winner), Mike Davis, and me. Derrick will be heading to Italy to compete in the Duathlon World Championship. He's wearing his USA team jersey. All three of us won our catagories so we're holding up our gold metals.

26.11 mph

2008-09-11T19:11:00.010-05:00

photo taken by Clifton Hull.

The final Withrow time trail of the year was a good one. I recorded my best time ever on the course (30:51) but also my fastest ever average speed in any race - 26.11 mph!

The last race was also the largest of the year. Almost 90 riders. My result was good enough for 5th place which I was more then happy with considering the company of the 4 ahead of me. The interesting observation of the top 10 finishers is that only 2 of them were younger then 40. The fastest rider turned 40 this year and one of the top 5 is over 50! FYI I am 43

Take that you whipper snappers!

Little League All-star Game

2008-08-27T21:18:00.003-05:00

My one and only nephew, Mathew, was named to the Farmington All-star team. I made sure to get to the game. It started out looking like a blow out by the other team. Something like 8-0 after the 2nd inning. It was painful. But then Farmington started to come back and they were holding on defensively. Truth be told I was not convinced. But I'll be damned if in the last inning, as the sun was already fading on the horizon, Farmington was only down 1 run. Matt was up to the plate with 2 outs, and 2 on the bases. We could barely see the ball and just knew they were going to call the game soon. My sister was freaking out and wishing that it wasn't Matt that had to face this pressure. She had to walk away.

Whack!! He hit the ball just fair enough to get to first and drive in the tying run. It was then that the coaches decided to call the game. A tie was a perfect end to that All-star game. It turned out to be a really fun game. My nephew played really well and I was very proud of him. Let's hope he has a better career in baseball then his uncle.

A tip To All Rebel Fighters

2008-08-21T15:36:00.006-05:00

The best time to make your escape from stormtroopers is when someone asks to take their pictures. They can't resist hamming it up for the camera. Simply bust free of their grip and sock them with a upper cross. Works every time.

More stormtroopers photos and other pics from Siggraph are on Flicker. Siggraph is the big annual conference for all things computer graphics. On Thursday night they had a special showing of the new Star Wars: Clone Wars movie.

Star Wars Exhibit

2008-08-06T21:51:00.003-05:00

The Science Museum of Minnesota is hosting an exhibit of props and costumes from the Lucasfilm's archives. Linda and I took in the exhibit on a early Saturday morning in the hopes of avoiding the crowds. It worked. They add some displays about real robots, etc.. to rationalize the inclusion in a science museum. Whatever - its Star Wars!

My favorites were from the orginal 3 movies. Sure I have a 30 year connection to those movies, but really I thought the models were more interest. I could see a lot of the hand of the artist in the creation of the models. By the time the final 3 films came around, manufacturing processes like vacuum forming and stereolithography made creating spaceships of any shape and concept cheap and easy. In the 70s they mostly used plastic airplane and tank models in a process called kit bashing. So if you get a chance to looking really closely to the Millineum Falcon you can prehaps recognize a part from your favorite model.

It was on the Falcon that I made my favorite discovery. Right at the very front of the right side loading arm (yes, I know what it is) is a tiny Champion spark plug stick! Awesome! Who knew Han Solo used Champion.

Backyard Beauties

2008-07-27T21:40:00.006-05:00

Sorry, I'm talking about flowers!

Linda has done a great job this year whipping the yard back into shape after 2 years of minimal effort while she was in grad school. It's really paying off with all sorts of blooms. I don't always know the names of them. As the sun sets in the evening we get a great shot of the golden hour of which I've been trying to take advantage. The light hits the flowers just perfectly. While I have done some color adjustments in Adobe Lightroom, really, the colors were pretty spectacular right out of the camera. I shot everything from a tripod at fairly low speeds - 1/60th of a second and less.

Now that doesn't mean I didn't play around with the photos! The lead photo was heavily manipulated to get the strange moody look. The orginal is basically like the one here.

Here are a few more but there are more on my Flickr webpage.

Race Report: Withrow TT & More

2008-07-22T21:29:00.008-05:00

Since my last race report in May I've done 5 time trials. 4 on the 13.4 mile loop of Withrow and 1 7 mile TT at Black Dog in Egan. My last comment was how my first TT of the year was at that point already faster then any in 2007 and that I hoped it would bode well for 2008. I was right.

So far I've had a great Summer of racing. At almost every TT I've been able to better the last time. I finally have been able to average more then 25 mph and even came within 6 seconds of 26mph last week at Withrow. That is averaging 1.5 mph faster then last year. That's pretty good. The thing to remember about bike riding is that the faster you go over about 18-20mph, the more air resistance works against you. And it's exponental so the resistance goes up more and more.

If I had to come up with a reason why this year is going so well I would say it might be a few things. One, I'm much more comfortable (and thereby ride stronger) on my Cervelo TT bike over last year. I spend the entire winter pedaling it on the trainer in the basement. Two, I bought an aero helmet! Not sure that this is a big contributor but they say it's as good as getting aero wheels. Looks cool either way. Three, after attending the aero clinic in May I've really concentrating on applying what I learned to stay aerodynamic. The biggest gain is probably in staying aero while climbing hills.

Here we are lining up for the start of the time trail. That's me in the middle grinning for no apparent reason. Lining up next to me on the left is Anne Hed (wife of aero wheel master Steven Hed.) Behind me is Dave Holden (super fast triathlete, Hawaiian Ironman vet) and Derick Podratz (another fast triathlete who will be heading to Italy for the World Duathlon Championship).

Summer 2008

2008-07-14T22:14:00.001-05:00

summer2008-15
Originally uploaded by robbiehalvorson

Dog days of Summer have set in. It's getting hot in Minnesota and Sammy here has the right idea. Sammy is my Sister Dawn's pet beagle. We spent the 4th of July with her family as well as our folks.

Historical Crap#2: Surfing UND

2008-05-24T12:34:00.003-05:00

In the spring of 1987 I was itching to get out my windsurf so on a warmish afternoon I launched my rig on the English Coulee that winds through the campus of the University of North Dakota.. I've always wondered what motivated them to used the term coulee and not the more obvious creek. There was just barely enough wind to move along a short stretch of the creek, but it didn't matter really. It was just something that a college student would do. The fact that it had never been done made it all that much more enticing.

It wasn't an accident that a photographer from the Grand Forks Herald was there. My friends called the paper ahead of time. But we never thought I would be front page news.

At that time in my life I was huge into the surfer lifestyle which was a bit of a stretch for a boy raised in North Dakota. But never the less I had the surfer look which in the 80's meant loud neon colors. Dude! Plus, my surfboards were always on top of my truck all Summer long so people would know I was a surfer. This was right about the time that the movie 'North Beach' came out starring my new friend Laird Hamilton.

HIstorical Crap #1: Vintage Video Games

2008-05-19T21:16:00.007-05:00

For a long time I've been meaning to go through some very old boxes. As my wife can attest to, I'm a pack rat. I could argue that I'm nostalgic and a collector - but Linda is probably more right then I am. As I go through these boxes I plan to photograph and share some of my favorite things or those with stories. We'll call it The Historical Blog Archive of Robbie's Crap. Or simply Historical Crap.

The first box yielded 4 electronic games from the 70s. These were some of the first hand held video games made by Mattel. Because I was a collector, wink wink, I kept the boxes that the games came in. I even found the sales slips! I did a quick look on ebay and found a ton of them for sale. The boxed ones go for a lot more then the loose ones so thank you very much to the 12 year old me. I could potentially get $100+ for at least one of them because I have all the games, boxes, manuals, and packing material in excellent condition. And yes, they are all for sale.

Mattel Electronics Football
I got the first one at the K Mart store in Grand Forks, ND. The game was huge back in 1977. Every boy either had one or spent their time begging to play their friends. I remember teachers in Jr High taking them away from us in class when we accidentally pushed a button that would made that distinctive tackle sound.

Mattel Electronics Battlestar Galactic Space Alert
Space Alert was my next favorite. It was sort of a simpler space invaders but it was still hard to play. Obviously it was the theme that hooked me since it was 1978 and I was a huge Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica fan. I remember that I ordered this from the Montgomery Wards catalog. One vintage seller on ebay is selling this for $275.

Mattel Electronics Baseball
Mattel Electronics Basketball
The other 2 games I had, baseball and basketball, were not my favorites. I believe I got them as either birthday or Christmas gifts. I played them but I just wasn't a big fan of either sport. To this day sport games aren't that interesting to me.

Aero Clinic

2008-05-11T21:02:00.011-05:00

Early on Sunday morning I headed to Now Sports to attend a clinic sponsored by the triathlon team I joined. The subject was a talk about bike positioning and how to be aerodynamic. What I didn't know ahead of time was that it would be led by one of the world authorities on the subject, Steve Hed. That name won't mean anything to most people but you might have heard of his most famous customer and friend, Lance Armstrong. Steve and his company, HED Cycling has made aerodynamic bike wheels and parts for the top bike riders in the world. Along the way he has spent a lot of time in wind tunnels watching and learning what it takes to make the smallest hole in the wind. Pretty cool to have someone like that right here in Minnesota. And he's as nice as any Minnesotan gets. This is Steve with Amy Klosterman on her new TT bike with HED wheels and aerobars. Sweet.

Steve had Amy get on her bike and he walked through his critique and recommendations for her to become more aerodynamic. Most of this comes from how one positions the arms and upper body so you don't push a lot of air. Some of it's easy but often what is aero is not all that comfortable. It ends up becomes a balance of what can be done. Here is a closer look at the HED aero handlebars.

On of the more interesting recommendations was that climbing was the best area to try to work on to become more aero. Most people, including me, resort to standing up on the pedals to power up a hill. But if a rider could maintain the aero postion and manage the same power, that would result in the most speed. Hed designed the aerobars he sells with this in mind. His bars allow the rider to progressively move their hand position depending on the grade of the hill. The following photos illustrate these positions from flat to heavy climb.

This would be the typical aero position with hands at the ends. Note how flat Amy's upper back is.

Amy now moves her hand a bit closer to her body so that she can pull more with them for more power.

If she needs even more pulling power she can move her hand to the base of the aerobars. The HED arm pads are design to flip up to allow room for her hands on the crossbar. This position might also be used as a relax position on a longer ride where the aero position might get fatiguing.

Finally there is the wide position with the hands on the brake handles. This would be the position most similar to climbing on a standard bike. However notice how Amy still tries to stay low and aero.

As luck would have it I had my TT bike with me. One of Hed's employees, Dino, took a look at my aerodynamics as I spun on the trainer. I didn't have my biking shoes but he was still able to make some recommendation. He was telling me the same stuff that he would to top pros in wind tunnels. I felt like a ball of crumpled up wad of paper. But it was all good and definitely stuff I could incorporate. For the record here are his recommendations for me;

Seat down 1 cm.
Back position good (flat) but could be more rounded.
Chin as low as possible while looking down the road (not easy)
Knees into the top tube.
Elbows in to centerline more.
Do all these thing AND relax!

Race Report: Oakdale Duathlon

2008-05-11T20:28:00.004-05:00

Last Fall I competed on this very same course in the Fall Classic Duathlon. This year the race was bigger and the competition was faster.

This Spring I joined the Now Sports triathlon team. Some of my teammates were also in the race so we all racked our bikes together and hung out. In the past I was usually at races alone so having buddies to talk with was really nice. It makes the waiting around go fast as well as modivation to do well for the team.

The beginning 3 miles started with a big separation by the fast group of men. I elected to run with that pack of about 12 but I was in the 12th position. I was cruising along just fine.

After a flawless fast transition I was out onto the bike course. As I've pointed out it the past, I know the roads very well because they are close to home. I really felt great on the bike so I was just pouring it on. I past a lot of people along the entire 13 miles. At one point about half way I thought that perhaps I was going too hard and that I might need to save something for the final run. But the body was strong so I gunned it.

2nd transition went fine and now I was finally in the home stretch. And a good stretch was what I was needing. My calves started to tighten. Oh no. Last Fall my gluts tighten, now this. But quickly they loosen - thank god. A few of the guys I had passed on the bike were now catching me. They were all really good runners that had been in the starting group of 12. It always happens to me so I just jealously watch them sprint away from me. I hope they felt the same watching me bike past them! The hardest one to watch was the guy that caught and passed me in the final 100 meters. Damn, he was in my age bracket as well.

So in the end I was 34 overall, 7 of 22 in the 40-49 age bracket, and, best of all, 5th fastest cyclist in the whole race. I'm happy overall but clearly if I could inprove my running I would be highly competitive. Definitely need to work on running this summer.

Race Report: Withrow TT

2008-05-06T13:57:00.001-05:00

I attended the first cycling race of the year. It's the same once a month race that I've done for the last few Summers. It was postponed a day due to rain on Tuesday night. But Wednesday was really nice with a favorable northwest wind. That direction helps push us through some of the rolling hills on the course.

I usually rest the day of the race but because it had been delayed, I hadn't been on the bike for 3 days. So I decided to go for a short ride at noon on the day of the race. However, as usually, a light ride with the company group soon became a hard ride. But the legs felt good and I was ready to race.

This year the organizer decided to send us off 2 at a time instead of individually every 30 seconds. The guy I started with was a very strong rider and it turned out that we were about equal. He got off to a fast start but I then caught and past him. Then we went back and forth a few more times. At the final turn we were still together but now we are catching bunches of slower riders. At one point I had the outside line and had to accelerate to make sure the other guy didn't get in front of me and force me wide or slow down to stay out of his draft (which is forbidden in TT races). Once I got around the group of 4 rides I give it all I could for the final mile to the finish. I was able to stay ahead of my starting partner.

The results were posted later that evening and it turned out that my neighbor Jeff Ingham took 1st place and I took 2nd out of 40 riders! My start partner took 3rd. It was my best TT ever. That's a good omen for the first race of the year.

Race Report: Get in Gear 10k 2008

2008-04-27T21:50:00.001-05:00

Once again this is the first race of the year. I was going to race in a duathlon but decided to run the Get in Gear instead at the last minute. Unlike previous years I wasn't looking at the race as any kind of fitness indicator for the spring. I just wanted to run a race I really enjoy.

Or I should say usually enjoy. Saturday morning turned out to be cold and snowy of all things! The wind was also howling out of the west. Fun times.

The first part of the race I was mildly sore in the legs which took 2 miles to loosen up. I think I need to do more warm up in the future as this has happened in the past.

The only part of note was when we approached the Ford Parkway Bridge for the final leg to the finish line. The 25mph wind was coming right up the bridge so I scoped out a big guy to draft. It was working until the guy really started to slow as he climbed the rise of the bridge into the wind. So I decided I needed to pass him. As I stepped out of his wake I was hit by the wind like a hammer. No wonder he was slowing! I did my best to sprint up to the next person, then the next. It sorta worked but I was really tired once we were back in the trees in the park.

In the finishing chute I was at a sprint. Suddenly I'm being hit on the shoulder by someone I passed. Turned out to be my friend Dan Lund. What a surprise.

In the end I ran the race strong and felt fine. But my time was a full minute slower then last year. Part of that was because of the conditions but I was also simpler slower as well.

Finish time of 47:41. 438th out of 1800 cold crazy runners. My friend turned in a nice time of 46:37.

Paper Making Class

2008-04-13T20:05:00.007-05:00

In honor of our 6th wedding anniversary, Linda and I took a Japanese paper making class at MCAD. As with a lot of Japanese things, there is a long history and tradition in paper making. We learned how to beat the fibers and screen out the gossamer thin sheets. We then explored various techniques of dying and coloring the sheets we made.

We made a lot of paper in the five Saturdays we attended. We also made a giant 4x6 foot sheet which took the help of the 6 people.

Probably the most interesting thing I learned is that rice paper is a complete myth. Rice actually is not fibrous enough to produce paper. Most all Japaneses paper is made from a few different plants similar to cat tails or reeds.

20 Years Ago Today...

2008-04-10T14:05:00.002-05:00

Today is my birthday. Big deal, everyone has one. But what is neat is that I had recently discovered that a piece of artwork I've had since college was actually a birthday gift. It's hard to make out but in the upper part of this photo is the date 04/10/88. It was given to me by my dear friend Jackie while I was in my senior year at UND. We used to call her 'Bunnie'.

And this is the artwork itself. Jackie is still making art that can be seen here.

How To Decorate with Photoshop

2008-03-24T20:53:00.007-05:00

We plan to use the hallway of our newly finished basement to show off vacation photos. The walls are about 12 feet on one side and 7 on the other. I've had trouble deciding how many frames to order and what color. Since the wood is all maple in the house I considered maple frames but I also thought black frames would look nice with photos.

So I turned to Photoshop to help me. First I photographed the hallway. Yes, that is the wall color!

Next I went to americanframe.com to get a framed photo. I have used American Frame many times for custom frames and have had great luck with then. Very inexpensive way to frame. The website has a neat ordering system where you can upload your artwork, then try out their frames so you can decide color as well as matting. Slick. After I picked out a frame I liked I simply did a screen snap into Photoshop as below.

In Photoshop I was able to position and copy the photos onto the wall. For those Photoshop users out there, I used the vanishing point tool to make sure they followed the perspective of the wall. Note that the farthest frame is smaller then the foremost. A slight emboss was added to give the frames their thickness and lastly a drop shadow behind to match the spotlight direction.

Here are the maple frames on the wall. It was pretty clear to me that the black frames were much better then the maple. The lighter wood on the green wall wasn't as striking.

As a final touch, just to see how realistic I could make it, I added some lighting to the otherwise flat black frames. Since the frames were added digitally they didn't get the same spotlight variation that the wall did. Not to mention the ambient green color bouncing off the other wall. The following images shows where the photos would be and the lighting that will fall on it. This was done by making a copy of the wall layer, masking out all but the frames then reducing the transparency of the new layer till there was a slight coloring on the frames. A very subtle effect but one that the eye would notice.

Here is the final composite. Note that the light and coloring on the frames is now more accurate.

Below is the Photoshop layers of the project. Each group was a different framing consideration.

My Web Anniversary

2008-03-19T21:59:00.002-05:00

Today I had to check to see when a few DVDs from Amazon order would arrive. They make it very easy to do. The information is all very accessible and always a breeze to use. I love Amazon but I had no I idea just how long my love affair has been.

I found an area of my account that had a record of every purchase I've made. Curiosity sent me to the very first purchase which amazingly was 10 years ago today, March 19, 2008. What are the odds of finding that when I did!!

According to the order I bought a book on Sumo. But my memory is that the first thing I bought was a CD. More then likely this database was created around 1998. Amazon was founded in 1994 and went public the next year.

Lunar Eclipse

2008-02-20T21:29:00.006-06:00

Tonight there was a total eclipse of the moon. They say it won't happen again, at least here in Minnesota, till 2010. I've never tried photography the moon so I figured I'd give this a shot. Ha! pun!.

It was a crystal clear night however it was also only 1 degree out so I decided to try shooting from a window. I did go to the trouble of opening the window for each shot thinking that I would avoid the distortion of the glass. But now I wonder if I just introduced distortion of all the heat waves I was letting out!

The experiment was so-so. None of the shots were very sharp but the exposures were fairly ok. The left most exposure was of the complete eclipse. I had to drop the shutter speed from 1/250 to 1/4 ofa second just to get anything. It was only then that you could see into the shadow. All the detail was always there in the previous shots but was overwhelmed by the bright side.

Shibuya Panorama Revisited

2008-02-01T21:23:00.001-06:00

I just had to go back into this panorama. So much of what makes this corner so cool are all the huge video screens. I think there are 3-4. But the pano doesn't really show them. The overexposed one on the right, called Super Lisa, was kind of unavoidable but the monster one right in the middle, the Q-Front, is barely noticeable - and its 3 stories high! It was bad timing that there wasn't a feed when I snapped the 3 shots for the panorama.

But looking through all my photos of that evening I came across a shot with a decent exposure of both screens. So I just had to go back in. The Super Lisa monitor was simple. I cropped out the screen area on the original and scaled the image to fit. A little color correction and it was done. The Q-Front was a little more tricky because of the grid running through the image and the building. But actually the grid helped me register the 2 as I scaled down the image on a separate layer. Once in place I used a little math to do the combining. I set the image layer blend mode to Add which takes the pixel value of the top layer and adds it to the pixel value layer underneath. So white (256) + black(0) = 256 (white). So what happens is that all the black of the image at a value of 0 does not get added to the original wall color. No need to do a ton of erasing. Neat huh?
One last thing I had to do was to go into the added images and try to match the noise. It's a little weird to think about adding noise but if you looked really closely you would notice the videos being smoother then the surroundings. That can tell the brain that something funny is going on.

To me this now better captures my experience of Shibuya even thou it is not a photo of a real moment in time.

Shibuya Panorama

2008-01-31T21:57:00.001-06:00

Another panorama from Tokyo. This time in the trendy area of Shibuya. This corner is the Time Square of Japan making it probably the second most over photographed spot next to Mt Fuji. But for good reason becuase it is so cool. Never the less it's one of my favorite places and deserving of a place in my blog. This was another set of photos that I had forgotten about and had never assembled until now.

Here is a google map of the area. The blue marker is where I was standing.

View Larger Map

Tokyo Panorama

2008-01-26T19:06:00.001-06:00

I've been spending some time reviewing and cleaning out my digital photos. With Lightroom it's a pleasure not a chore. I discovered some shots from Tokyo that I never got around to assembling into a panorama. Worked out anyway because now I have good software to do it.

This shot was from the top of the Mori Building in Roppongi. A beautiful new tower. Just to the left of center is the Tokyo Tower. A well know Tokyo landmark that, yes, is a ripoff of the Eiffel Tower. In the distance is Tokyo bay. You can just make out the Raindow Bridge that crosses over to Odaiba.

As you can see it was a hazy day which always leads to dull low contrast photographs. Yet with Lightroom I was able to easily extract enough contrast to make a decent, thou not great, shot. To give you an idea of where I started, here is what the center shot looked like unprocessed.

Japanese Food in St Paul

2008-01-22T21:22:00.000-06:00

Seems like Sushi resturants are popping up everywhere in the Twin Cities. Recently a new one named Giapponese opened in Woodbury near our home and I'm told another one named Akita Sushi and Hibachi is on the way. These two join Sushi Tango which opened last Summer in Woodbury. What is going on?

For the last year Linda and I have been very happy with Murasaki in Stillwater, MN or would make the trip into downtown St Paul to Sakura or the St Paul location of the long time favorite, Fujiya. I don't really consider myself a huge sushi lover. I'd rather have a bowl Japanese noodles or Tempura if given the choice. But I will also happily eat sushi from Target for a fast lunch so I'm no sushi snob.

We've already eliminated Sushi Tango from our list. The service was terrible 2 of the 3 times we've been there. There was nothing spectacular about the sushi or the courses like tempura to over come the apathy of the wait staff. Too bad as it's the closest to our house.

As I said before we really like Murasaki. It's a no thrills restaurant with a good selection of Japanese dishes and good sushi. It reminds me a lot of typical family owned restaurants in Japan. Although I'm pretty sure no one there is Japanese. Hey, that's ok.

The new kid on the block is Giapponese. We went there a week ago and have already been back. I love this place already! It's a hip place with a mod decor. They don't have a big selection of Japanese hot dishes (not as in Minnesota hotdish silly!) but the sushi is excellent. Monday we sat at the sushi bar which is something we never do. I guess we like to look at each other when we eat. Well this time we sat at the bar and got to interact with the sushi chef who, yes, is actually Japanese! But the best part about Giapponese is that they serve Japanese beers on tap! I've never seen that anywhere in North America let alone Minnesota. BTW they also have Fat Tire on tap which is also something you don't find around here. I'm really pulling for Giapponese to make it.

Although technically in Minneapolis there is also a new sushi spot just north of the U of M campus called Obento ya. I met a few friends there for dinner. The unagi was cold and they had no beer license. That place is dead to me.

If you haven't been to a sushi resturant you may want to learn a little from this video before you go. If you've every been to a real Japanese restaurant you will find it very funny.

Haleakala Panorama

2008-01-19T22:14:00.001-06:00

Another panorama on top of the volcano. The last one I swear. Panoramas seem to always be horizontal so I decided to try a vertical along the valley bottom. When taking pano photos it's important to shot in fully manual mode so that the exposures will be the same across all photos. With this shot I had to balance between the bright sky and background with the dark foreground. That is another reason why shooting in RAW is great because I can play around with the exposures once I get back home instead of trying to get it right on the spot.

Haleakala Summit

2008-01-18T12:45:00.001-06:00

After my epic climb up the mountain, I pulled out the camera equipment to record the strange and beautiful landscape. It's hard to believe I'm on the same island. It's more like being on the Moon.

On the extreme right edge in the far background you can begin to see the sloop of Moana Kea on the big island.

This panorama is facing north into Haleakala valley. According to the pamphlet the volcano crater has long since eroded away. What we now see is a valley dug into what used to be the top.

Biking up Haleakala

2008-01-17T21:29:00.000-06:00

After a few days of biking around the west side of Maui I was finally ready for my ascent of the volcano, Haleakala. This was one of the reasons I rented the bike in the first place. I had read a few ride reports and decided that I would give it a try. Worst case I just turn around and coast down. The plan was for Linda to meet me at the top with the car. I wanted to spend time on top of the volcano instead of riding down. It's not the interesting.

Haleakala is the largest mountain on the island at a towering 10,000 feet above sea level. It is not uncommon to get snow up there. The neat think about climbing Haleakala is that you can do just that, go from the sea to the top. It's a total of 35 miles to the top at an average 5-6% grade with a few up to 8-10% just to keep you awake. The road has a nice shoulder most of the time up to the national park. Inside the park is a little bit more challenging.

I arrived in Paia (same town where I met Laird) at about 8am. I was running a little late so I skipped sticking my foot in the ocean as many do before going up. Besides I didn't want to deal with the sand between the toes for the next 5 hours. I had my camera along with 2 water bottles, 4 pop tarts (couldn't find any powerbars), dried mangos, cell phone, ID (to identify the body, just in case) and some money for the entry fee to the national park at the top. Like every day in Hawaii, the day was sunny and warm - with little wind, which was a bonus as it's always blowing on that side.

For the first hour I wound through pineapple groves that were being harvested. Then it was into the ranching area with lots of fields with cattle and horses. It took a while to get used to pedaling along in a very low gear and crawling along at 10mphs. But I was comfortable and I knew this was about patiences.

Along the way I saw that someone had spray painted the vertical distance on the shoulder. Soon I was starting to see 1500 ft, 2500 ft, and so on which really made me feel good. I was wearing my GPS which also measures altitude. It was only off by about 50 feet. Amazing! In hindsight I was watching the vertical more then the distance in miles. I guess that was the hurdle for me. My neighbor Jeff can testify to my no-love for climbing hills.

At around 3000 feet this is a well know market. It's a good place to take a break off the bike to fill the water bottles and maybe buy a snack. I spent about 10 minutes here.

After the market the terrain started to get more mountain like. The foliage was changing and beginning to thin out till it started to look like Ireland. At this point I was also getting into the cloud layer which added to the moores feel.

I had now been pedaling for 3 hours and was half way up the mountain at 5000 ft. Surprising to me was that my legs felt great. It was my lower back that was starting to stiffen. I was taking more 'photo breaks' all the time. I decided that the park entrance at 7000 ft would be a good place to finish as I just didn't see myself riding for another 3 hours. I called Linda on my cell to tell her my revised plan. It turned out that they were already on their way and only 3 miles behind me. Perfect. They soon passed me on the road and 15 minutes later met me at the park entrance with beer and Doritoes. I love my family. We loaded up the bike, I changed into some clothes, then we spent the rest of the afternoon at the top. It was a clear day at the summit of the volcano. We could clearly see the snowcapped tops of Moana Kea and Moana Loa on the big island of Hawaii. I took loads of photos.

I didn't reach the top, on bike anyway, but I'm still thrilled and proud. 3:40 total time, 25 miles, 7000 vertical feet. Given that I had done only a couple 3 hour rides all year and only 1 hour trainer workouts for the last 3 months, I thought I did great. There were long stretches where I was all alone along the road. The Maui countryside was so peaceful and beautiful. It's something I will always remember. I highly encourage any bike ride to give it a try when they get to Maui. Don't make it about getting to the summit, make it about the ride!

Here is the route in Google.

View Larger Map

Hawaii 08: Biking Kapalua

2008-01-14T21:40:00.000-06:00

While on Maui I was able to rent a great road bike for the week from West Maui Cycles in Lahaina. I highly recommend them. I picked up the bike, strapped on my helmet and headed right out the door. There is really only one road to ride any distance on the west side of the island so I headed north. The road had a nice wide shoulder but was fairly busy with cars and trucks through the resort areas.

It didn't take long to get out into the jungle. The road followed along the ocean through fields of sugarcane and pineapples - and gorgeous golf course grounds. There were plenty of turn out to stop and take in the views. It's Hawaii - I took my time.

On the guardrail of one hairpin curve were these 4 strange furs. They caught my eye so I doubled back for a look. I couldn't decide what animal they were - possibly boars? They were still wet so since there had been no rain that day, they must have been tended to by someone.

Just past the weird furs I was faced with an impassible road. Impassible in that I didn't think I could climb the 22% grade of the road! After crossing the steam, a sharp left turn planted me smack in front of this huge long climb. I figured I would put my head down and give it a go. You can make out the road on the far side of the bay in this photo.

I was doing well until about 3/4 of the way up I looked back to check for any cars. The angle of the hill I'd already climbed scared the hell out of me. Not because of what I had yet to climb. No, I was frightened by the idea of having to go down it later on! So I stopped right there figuring I didn't want to coast/fall any farther then I had to. The road was so steep that when I put my foot down it started to slip down hill. I composed myself, let my heart rate come down from 196 (I'm not kidding. I have the data), then started to walk down the hill. Yes, I wimped out and walked. I wasn't going to risk a fall way out there while on vacation. When I got closer to the bottom I mounted up and coasted to the bottom near the truck pictured above. There, I found another biker waiting for there companion. We joked about that hill for a while then I headed back south to my condo in Kahana. A great first day ride in paradise.

Only 23 miles round trip but about 2000 feet of climbing according to my GPS. It was only a taste of the climbing to come later in the week.

Hawaii 08: Laird Hamilton

2008-01-13T18:00:00.000-06:00

I continue to meet legends of fringe sports like my ride with Andy Hampsten last April. This one tops Andy thou and may go to the top of my met one of my heroes list. You can keep your Brett Fauvre and Dale Earnhart Jr, I met Laird.

Laird Hamilton is a legend among surfers. He is the modern king of big wave surfing - and I mean scary big. We were sitting in a coffee shop in Paia, Maui - a lazy hippy town on the north shore, - when all of a sudden Linda nudges me and says "Hey, that's Laird Hamilton!" If you've ever seen him in the American Express commercials or the cover of various sport magazines, there is no missing his 6-2 physic, or tousled blond brown hair.

Go rent 'Riding Giants' if you want to see Hamilton in action. I'll be re watching my copy when I get home. Or better yet, rent the 80's classic surf movie 'North Shore' where Laird played the arrogant bad guy, Lance Burkhart. Yes, I own that as well. I love that movie.

Hawaii 08: Musubi

2008-01-13T13:27:00.000-06:00

Linda and I just spent the last week on the island of Maui in Hawaii with her sister and family. I will be posting various adventures in the coming weeks.

When in Hawaii I have always made a point of having spam musubi. It is a local food that I stop short of calling a delicacy. As you can probably make out it's a pad of rice with a slab of spam and finally wrapped up in nori like a sushi roll. It's served warm - as in heatlamp warmed. I can usually find them simmering next to the hot dogs at the 7-11 stores.

Musubi is also the name of a Japanese food but what makes this a uniquely Hawaiian treat is the Spam which the Hawaiians have loved every since WWII. There are lots of Japanese influences in Hawaii.

Sutro Bath Lilly

2008-01-04T17:07:00.001-06:00

Linda and I spotted these lilies while exploring the Sutro Bath ruins in San Francisco. They didn't seem all that remarkable until I got home and worked the photo over in Lightroom. I tried a few different looks including black and white but this one looked the best. There is something about the yellow that really draws me in. And the leaves are also intriguing without being the center of attention. I struggled with the background blossom. At first I wanted a vertical orientation on just the foreground but the white of the background flower felt distracting. So I decided to simply include it completely with a horizontal. luckily the leaves on the left create a nice diagonal up through the main flower and saves the composition.

Got Scurvy?

2008-01-01T21:50:00.001-06:00

This plant was everywhere along the coast of California. It's called an ice plant and was planted along Californian highways to avert erosion. According to Wikipedia it's extremely pervasive and it's now a bit of a problem. It looks rather alien and the big mats of it make it seem like it's invading. Maybe it is? Anyway I loved the vivid colors, in particular the buds that were turning yellow and red. Our seal guide, Ed, told us that sailors, in a pinch, would eat them to avoid scurvy.

Lighthouse Planet

2007-12-30T17:32:00.000-06:00

This is the same lighthouse as in my previous post only I have distorted it into a sphere. It's a fun technique that I recently found on the web. I've been wanting to try it and the lighthouse seemed a good subject. Mostly it's a Photoshop trick using the filter Polar Coordinates to curve the photo around on itself. Then it's just some digital cleanup.

Lighthouses always seem so sad and lonely. I can imagine this lighthouse being far away from every other planet and manned by a lone person dedicated to keeping the skies safe. If you look really closely at it, or in the original, you will see that the person is Linda's sister Sharon. Can you find her?

There are a whole bunch of these on Flickr - although this is my only one.

Pigeon Point Lighthouse

2007-12-30T15:56:00.001-06:00

After looking at the elephant seals on Christmas Eve, I stopped at a nearby lighthouse. Since it was such a nice day I was hoping to get some great shots of the lighthouse. The Pigeon Point Lighthouse is no longer in use (probably due to satellites and GPS) and is in serious danger of falling down. Luck for us it looked sturdy enough. An interesting fact is that it is named after a ship and not the obvious assumption of the bird. I guess it is true of many light houses up and down the coast.

It was late afternoon when I shot this so the colors were really starting to pop. It was also neat that there was a observation deck built out on a rock on the ocean side. It offered a great spot to be able to shot back towards the builds and the coast with the sun behind me. I can't think of a better time and place to photograph this landmark. I felt luck to be there.

This is another panorama of 6 photos. The black area at the bottom is where I did not shoot photos. So the bottom curve could be considered the rotation path of the camera. The exposure of the sky across the whole pan was too difficult to match in the stitching software so I ended up masking out the sky and replacing it with a gradient based on colors in the original sky. It's very close to the original, just more even. Click on the image for the larger version.

Elephant Seals

2007-12-25T15:22:00.000-06:00

Linda and I are in San Jose, CA for Christmas. We are staying with Linda's sister and her family. On Christmas Eve we spent the day out on the Pacific coast at Ano Nuevo State Park checking out the elephant seals. The seals are there for mating season. It was a bit of luck for us because they are only there for a short time. I guess we were also lucky in that it was unusually sunny and clear. We had reserve tickets for a guided hike out into the park reserve. I was surprised how close we were able to get to all the lounging animals. All of them were mostly just sunning themselves and not doing much. But they were still impressive to see.

Virtual Time Trial

2007-12-01T17:11:00.001-06:00

Now Sport in Arden Hills held a virtual time trial contest at their store. It's just down the road from work so some of my work biking buddies go over there at noon for their winter training. For some it's a better option then trying to get on the trainer at home with kids, etc., drawing on their time.

For the TT everyone would bring in there own bike, then the guys at Now would set it up on their computer training system. The system puts a load on the wheel to simulate the ride that we see on the TV. There is a computer bike rider that represents me. So as the computer biker went up a hill I could feel the pedaling get heavier. All I was missing was the wind! Although you can see that they had fans so at least I could stay cool.

The TT was about 5 miles long which amounted to about 12-14 minutes for most people. As you can see in the picture as I was finishing, it really gave me a workout! According to the final results, I finished 4th. Its fun to see that 4 of the top 6th are people I ride with at work including the top 2. Paul at Now Sports plans to do the virtual TT more this winter. I do my own trainer work at home in the basement but it can be boring. Stuff like this is good motivation to keep training.

First Snow Caught with New Camera

2007-12-01T13:50:00.000-06:00

Today we are getting our first real snow and it's really whipping around. A good old fashioned Minnesota snow storm.

The video is from my new Canon G9 camera. It's a point and shot but has some nice pro-sumer level features. Most importantly is that it shots RAW photos, something that, right now anyway, you can only find in the Digital SLR cameras. I'm also excited about having some limited video capability. Now that Blogger suports video uploads (hosted by Google Video) I should be able to shot just enough video for blog sort of content.

Dave Badman

2007-11-25T19:58:00.001-06:00

My old friend Dave Badman was in town to install a piece of artwork at a financial office in Arden Hills. Dave asked me to help him because some of the parts were very heavy. There are about 8 parts that needed to be mounted on the wall and bolted all together. Dave and his welder Mark did an amazing job of engineering to get everything to fit. The photo doesn't do it justice. The grinder markings give the panels a shimmering quality that is almost 3D and seems to be in constant motion.

Ever since we finished art school at the University of North Dakota, Dave has run a very successful jewelery design business in our hometown of Grand Forks, ND. In more recent years he has gotten into large metal installations like the one above. Last year he designed a stainless steel and copper fireplace front for our basement.

Panoramas: Boston Sci. Campus

2007-11-20T13:11:00.001-06:00

Here is another panorama shot. This time on the campus where I work. This building is our training center and is one of the newest additions to the company.

There are 7 photographs shot in portrait orientation. They were assembled in Realviz Stitcher, cleaned up in Photoshop, then color corrected in Lightroom. I could have done the adjustments in Photoshop but I wanted to test out the connection between Photoshop and Lightroom for created images verses straight out of the camera photos. Plus I'm getting to like adjusting in Lightroom rather then Photoshop.

The second pano has a Lightroom black and white effect applied. I thought it was cool.

Click on the images to get a gainormous size version.

MN State Cyclocross Champ

2007-11-17T10:16:00.000-06:00

On Saturday I went to what is considered the last bike race of the year here in Minnesota. I went to shot photos as I don't do cyclocross - yet anyway. Cyclocross is a hybrid of road and mountain bike racing. It involves obstacles that require racers to sometimes get off their bikes and run up stairs or over barriers. Each race is different. Its a great event for spectators because it's a circuit race (allowing you to see the racers over and over) and you can be fairly close to them. You can yell encouragements right in their ear! Or, as in the photo above, offer them shots of whiskey!

I have 80 photos on Flickr but the above one is my favorite. I only got the 3 shots but they were perfectly timed (accident, not planned) to convey the moment.

A guy I ride with at work, Frank Rowe, was also there taking photos. Frank has some nice shots that can be found on his blog here.

Weekend; Lumberjacks

2007-10-23T21:27:00.000-05:00

Linda and I spent the weekend in northern Minnesota near the town of Fergus Falls. We were at our friends cabin to help the take down some trees. It's an abandoned tree farm of pines. All in nice neat rows. The trees are generally unhealthy because they are overgrown. So every 3rd row has to go to save the rest.

Some of the pines will be used in the floor of a new cabin to be built. So Jon hired a guy with a portable saw mill to come and cut the trees down to planks. The whole process was fascinating to watch. The machine would take a length up to 20 fee long. Then itwould cut down four sides with a bandsaw to square it up into a beam. After that it was a matter of cutting 1 inch planks from the beam. It took a bit of time to do - about 4 logs per hour.

More Flickr Photos

Race Report; Twin Cities Marathon, 10 Miler

2007-10-18T20:44:00.001-05:00

Last year I did the full marathon. It was a thrill but I wasn't interested in doing it again. Mostly it was the amount of training involved and the cut it made into my bike training. So this year I decided to do the 10 mile race held at the same time as the marathon. We ran the same last 10 miles as the marathoners and finished ahead of them.

It was already 70 degrees at 7 am when the race started. A strange day for Minneapolis but just fine for me. I like the heat. The race started at the Metro Dome in downtown Minneapolis. Linda dropped me off along with my neighbor Angela who was also going to run the 10 mile. Angela also met up with her running partners from work (Medtronic, the race sponsor).

We started in the last wave of 3 which turned out to be a big mistake. All of us were faster then those people so we spent the first part of the race ducking and weaving. It was like trying to run at the half time of a Vikings game. Crazy.

The race was really nice just like last year. Lots of cheering spectators and a beautiful route through St. Paul to the state capitol building. I ran really strong and felt great the whole way.

I finished with a time of 1 hour and 15 minutes which beat my goal of 1:20 by 5 minutes! My average pace was 7:32 per mile. My friend Angela, who I left after about 500 meters due to all the weaving, finished just behind me at 1:20. An awesome finish for her first running race.

The photos at the top were ones I pulled down from a profession photo service that was at the race. If you are so inclined, you are order photos of me here. They are really expensive in my opinion.

Montalcino Panorama

2007-09-30T22:05:00.001-05:00

Here is another panorama from Italy. This time from the top of the castle in Montalcino Italy.

Race Report: Fall Classic Duathlon

2007-09-22T20:12:00.000-05:00

I haven't done all that much racing this Summer. The usual time trial once a month and a couple 10K races. Nothing all that interesting.

Saturday was a great morning for a duathlon - 3 mile run, 12 mile bike, 3 mile run. It's the very same course as the spring time Oakdale Duathlon. Sunny, almost no wind. I had arm warmers but ditched them at the starting line as it started to warm up. They had 2 waves to spread people out. I was in the second wave of all women and all men over 39.

Within a few minutes after the gun I found myself in 5-6 place and going fast - around a 6:20 pace! Yikes, thats fast so I'm already worried about flaming out. I watched my HR closely and let the leaders pull away a bit. Hoping to catch them on the bike. At mile 2 my left glut starts to tighten but I worked through it and it went away. Little did I know, not forever.

Transition goes well and I'm off on the bike. At this point I'm starting to catch the back end of the first wave. As we exit Lake Elmo Park Reserve, we head right up a hill that's about a 1/10 of a mile long and very steep. Lucky for me this in my neighborhood and I ride that hill every weekend. I know how to ride it AND how to handle the slight climb recovery at the top. A big 'home court' advantage I felt. The rest of the ride was spend watching out for and passing the first wave. I was passed by one one guy that looked really really fast.

At the second transition I had assumed we would enter from the far side but it was much closer so I was not ready. I was still in my shoes (normally I slip out and pedal on top of them). When I jumped off the bike my cleaks took me for a slide on the smooth asphalt. Wee!! I didn't go down but man that was scary.

As I started my last 3 miles my glutt tightened up again right way. Far worse then before. I was really hobbling and thinking I wouldn't make it. But I decided that I would walk if I needed to. After a full mile it started to loosen and by the 2 mile mark I was back to full speed. By this point in the race we were so spread out the few people were around me. One guy that I know was over 50 past me. He had been ahead of me on the first leg but I passed him on the bike. Damn, I was hoping to get enough time there to cover my run. He was a fast runner.

I finished the race very stong and sprinted in alone. The guy at the line told me I was somewhere around 25th. Later in the day I saw on the website that I was 1st place for men 40-49. I was 2nd of all the second wave (behind the 50 year old dude). My effort was all on the bike as I was the 8th fastest there out of 134 finishers. Full results here.

Of course I always have photos. This time thanks to the Linda. The best one is me pointing to where I had ditched my arm warmers. Looks like I'm doing a disco pose.

Flickr Photos

Drawing Class Final

2007-09-13T20:38:00.001-05:00

The drawing class is over now. The last assignment was an extra one that Iain would do individual critics of. The assignment was to do another self portrait but now with the knowledge of the last 10 weeks. I definitely applied things I learned about proportion and drawing the volume of shapes. I'm not sure that it looks any more like me by I like the second drawing more. The following is Iain's comments;

Rhalvorsten: Quite a transformation from your first sketch, Robbie, which I just hunted down among the Challenge One submissions! Your first portrait was actually full of charm, but structurally distorted. This one is much more structurally sound and proportionally correct, but it has lost some of the warmth of the first portrait. This often happens whenever we’re learning something new. You can’t use your old tricks because you’re learning a new way of doing things, but you haven’t learned the new stuff yet so that won’t help you either. If you persevere, though, the new skills will inevitably kick in, and the moment they do that, you can draw on all your old tricks too. The net result is that, seemingly overnight, your drawing ability takes a huge leap forward. That’s where I think you are right now: poised for the leap into Stage Two. Where do you go from here? Keep working on your new skills—proportion, balance, anatomy and lighting in particular. As those become stronger within you, your natural ability at expression will find a solid support from which to leap. By the way, your desire to sketch and keep a sketch book is the best news of all! Beyond learning to draw, there is a challenge a thousand times more terrifying, and that is WHAT to draw. Your sketchbook—a collection of things drawn for the pure love of drawing them—will show you the way. Keep it with you and sketch in it always, and know that one day, when you need it most, it will remind you who you are, and what you need to say with your drawings.

Iain's word to me, and the other 5-6 people who did the extra work, are very motivating. Not only is he an amazing artist who is inspiring just to look at, but he is also a gifted educator.

Race Report: Heart of the Summer 10K

2007-08-21T16:08:00.000-05:00

I did this race with Linda although she opted for the 5K walk. I did the 10K race then after that I decided to walk with Linda. the temp that morning was cool by my standards but I could have done without the jacket I guess. The photo was nabbed from a site selling prints.

By the time we were done with the walk I was very sore. Almost 10 miles of exercise and the last 2 miles was in the drizzling rain. But it was fun to be with Linda. I can't remember my time on the 10K but I do know that I wasn't all that happy.

Drawing Class Update

2007-08-20T22:29:00.000-05:00

I'm nearing the end of the online drawing class I have been taking. Only one week to go. In the last few weeks it's been difficult to keep up but I think in all I only missed 1 of the 10 assignments. I haven't been exposed to anything dramatically new - it is a basic class after all - but it has been a great experience and really forced me to draw. Why a moose? I have no idea. I found an image of a moose in google while searching for something else.

The above drawing is a contour drawing. The purpose is to use just lines to form the volume of the subject. It forces the artist to think in terms of shapes and volumes instead of trying to reproduce the lights and darks. It's an excellent exercise and one that I will continue to explore.

The Springfield Halvorsons

2007-07-30T13:20:00.000-05:00

This is Linda and I as we would appear on The Simpsons.

Over at the official Simpsons movie website, anyone can create there own likeness (or a loved one) using their neat little flash app. Very cool!

Italia: The Vatican

2007-07-26T21:38:00.002-05:00

90 of the 455 photos I took in Italy are now up on Flickr. This one is another panorama I made from 8 photographs. The original is huge!

This view is of St Peter's Square and I am standing in front of St Peter's Basilica. The wikipedia entry has a panorama looking the other way. Funny.

We spend most of our last day at the Vatican touring through the museum. And by museum they mean through the halls of the Vatican itself. The place is gigantic and each corner reveals more art, sculptures and frescos. We stood in line for 1.5 hours in enter then probably another hour snaking through the halls to the crown gem of the Vatican - Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel. I was in awe of it. The room was packed with people looking straight up. I managed to take a couple photos before the guards started yelling "No Photo". I saw the signs but thought it was no flash but they weren't allowing any photography or even video. Not sure why. So I feel a little bad but never the less got to take home a memory. The room is much darker then the photos give the impression of. I lighted them quite a bit.

Italy: Siena

2007-07-16T21:55:00.000-05:00

Our first full day in Italy was spent in the medival town of Siena in Tuscany. Siena has a famous horse race twice a year called the Palio. We were luck enough to be there for the Summer event. It's a big deal for the Sienise and a source of great pride for the winning team. I'll defer to Wikipedia for the full explanation. It's worth a read.

Unfortunately we were not able to actually see the race since it started at 7:45 in the evening and that would have made us late for the last train back to our villa. But since the race is only 3 minutes long we didn't feel like we missed all that much. The party lasted all day and in fact had been going for a few days. The town was packed with tourist but not uncomfortably so.

This photo is of one of the jockeys. Each horse was lead into a square for everyone to admire. The handlers mostly just pushed their way into the crowd and it was up to us not to be trampled by his noble steed. Ironically I have no photos of the horses themselves!

I've got more photos of Siena here on Flickr.

Italia Trip

2007-07-12T22:47:00.002-05:00

Linda and I returned from Italy a week ago and I still haven't gotten any photos onto the web or blogged about it. I have 400+ photos. It's a real problem deciding which ones not to post. But to start with here is a panorama I took of the Tuscan town of Montepulciano. It's composed of 5 photos. (Don't forget to click on the photo for a large version)

Montepulciano might be my favorite spot we visited. Typical of most towns in Tuscany it occupied the top of a tall hill (or small mountain depending on your view). We parked near the left side of the photo and ended up walking all the way through town to the right side. Fun little shops lined the narrow main street. Linda bought a couple purses and I found a neat leather bound sketchbook that are supposedly used as props in the Harry Potter movies. It looks very medieval and sure to contain magic!

At the end the day we stopped at a cafe to have a glass of wine. We ended up staying for dinner as well. I was so busy sketching in my new sketchbook that I forgot to look at the menu. Our very friendly waiter said that he would take care of me. I was game. What I got was a pork shank that was the best thing I eat all week. Now, I rarely meet a pig I won't eat but this pig knee was truly amazing - tender and meaty. It was the only thing I ate!

Drawing Class

2007-06-26T20:41:00.000-05:00

Last week I joined an online drawning class with a group called Pixel Corps. It's being taught by Iain McCaig who is an incredible artist most noted for working on designs for Star Wars. The way it works is that Iain puts up a video intro on some aspect of drawing, after which we have 4 days to work on the drawing, then put them up on a website that only the class member can see. Everyone can look at and critique if they want. On Thursdays Iain picks out a few to critique to the whole group. We will go for 10 weeks.

It's a beginning drawing class so I expect the lessons to be basic. But basics are good and having a reason to make me draw is really good. It's also a chance for me to work with a tablet and the computer. I'm going to do all the drawings digitally on the computer using a Wacom and Sketchbook Pro.

So far we have done a self portrait and this week we worked on balance. The particular drawing excercise above was to balance things on top of a bucket on a stick. We also had to make a figure balanced then unbalanced. I'll post more about the class as it progresses. Hopefully we'll see an improvement.

San Francisco, CA

2007-06-17T16:08:00.001-05:00

The week of June 10th I was in San Jose for 4 days. I had 2 days of work meetings. One afternoon we quit early so they could take us to Fisherman's Wharf. Most people stuck around there until our dinner reservations at 8pm, but I elected to rent a bike. My goal was to bike across the Golden Gate Bridge and take lots of photos. Mission accomplished! It was extremely windy and down right scary on the bridge. But it was a gorgeous evening and despite having an average bike with no clip-in shoes, I made it to the top of the bluff overlooking the bridge and downtown San Francisco. I started the ride somewhere on the shore close to my head.

Once I caught up to my colleagues at the restaurant, I found out that they all took a boat ride out to the Golden Gate around 7:30pm which was about the time this photo was taken. So more then likely they were on the boat under the bridge in the photo!

6/07 Race Report : Withrow TT

2007-06-12T18:47:00.000-05:00

The June time trial was back in the old location that we've used in previous years - unlike last month. The concensis with members was that the roads aren't really that much worse then usual. It was a warm night with a slight SE wind. Great night. There were almost 60 people there which is a really big turnout.

The graph about is the elevation (green), speed (blue), and heart rate (red). Not surprising the speed and elevations are inverse to each other. Speed goes down while climbing hills. What is more interesting is that my heart rate peaks quickly at about 172 bpm then only varies a few beats each way despite the climbing. In the final 2 miles my HR went up to 189 because I really poured it on.

I had a really good result. I nearly beat my personal best over the last 2 years when most everyone else was slowing down. I placed 11th out of about 50 people. Pretty happy with that.

Garmin GPS

2007-06-09T07:47:00.000-05:00

I bought a new training tool, a Garmin 305 GPS. It is able to track my pace, location, as well as heart rate and some other stuff. I have a 2 year old Timex GPS but it doesn't have nearly the features and is not all in one.

I took it to the TT last weekend but I couldn't set it up in time for the race so I decide to not let it distract me. There will be other races to use it on.

The following image is a screen capture of the computer graph downloaded from the unit. It shows where on earth I was, my speed, and in this case the altitude. Look closely at those numbers. Yup, I was going 400 mph at around 20,000 feet! On the way back from a trip to California, I turned on the unit while we were in a holding pattern for 45 minutes. I was bored. The oval in the bottom corner (yellow) is where we did 5-6 turns before heading north then south again to the MSP airport.

Race Report: State Time Trial Championship

2007-06-03T11:45:00.000-05:00

This race took place in St Peter, MN which is about 50-60 miles south west of Minneapolis. A typical quaint Minnesota town. My neighbor Jeff and I carpooled in my Element to the race.

A time trial, or TT, is an individualized race against the clock. This was the first time that I raced in a sanctioned race. Most bikers are licensed by the Cycling Federation but they also allow other people like me to buy a one day license for the race. However we are only allowed to be in the lowest category called 'Cat 5'. Not really a problem for me - I just want to race.

This race was 40K or around 24 miles out and back on the same country road. There is really no story to tell about TTs other then trying to tempo ones effort so you are going as fast as you can but making sure you won't use up all your effort too early. It's a real mind game of enduring pain to a certain point.

The race went very well for me. I felt like I was working hard and had enough left to ride the last 4-5 miles really hard. At one point I had a guy pass me while I was doing about 26mph. He was flying. I looked him up in the results and he ended up being one of the fastest. My finishing time was just under an hour at 59:18. I was pleased. Jeff finished ahead of me at 56:10. Here are all the results.

After I finished the race I grabbed my camera and took some shoots. They are on my Flickr page. There is a great photo of a guy from work that I ride with during the noon hour. Nelson Zamora. Nice work Nelson!

Race Report: Get In Gear 10K 2007

2007-05-23T21:33:00.000-05:00

This is a bit out of order as I did this race back in April. I blogged about this same race last year. This year the day was quite different in that it was a gorgeous sunny morning. Other then that it was almost the same race. Strangely so.

I entered the race feeling very strong. I had a good winter of continuous training and after all the marathon training last Summer I assumed I would be faster then last year. The goal was sub 7 minute miles. At the first mile marked I was already 15 seconds behind where I wanted to be. Not good but understandable with so many people. At the second mile I was once again 20 seconds off on that mile. Clearly the race was not going my way. There was nothing special about the rest of the race other then I was able to really gun the last half mile and passed a ton of people. I finish with a time of 46.28.

The real surprise, and frustration, was that mile for mile I ran almost the same race last year, in the rain and supposedly in less shape. My take away is that I need to work more on speed. I've done a lot of work to build my aerobic conditioning but I haven't been much time doing intervals or just running fast.

Riding with Andy

2007-05-13T19:35:00.000-05:00

The duathlon ended up not being the highlight of my weekend in Grand Forks. On Sunday morning I got to ride with retired pro racer Andy Hampsten!

Andy was in town to help move his Mother who has been an English Professor at UND forever. Plus, the city of Grand Fork had a ceremony to name their new bike trail system after Hampsten. But the best part of the weekend was that the local bike shop organized a fast 30 mile ride with Andy which was meant for more serious bike riders. I had no idea about any of this until Saturday afternoon. Riding with him would be equivalent to a tennis player having the chance to volley with Andre Agassi.

There were about 30 people at the ride. Some came from as far away as Winnipeg. There was nothing fast about the ride (15mph average) thou after about 10 miles there were only maybe 15 people. I talked with Andy for at least 20 minutes about Italy which Linda and I will be visiting in July 07. I told him about my race FU and asked him if he ever got lost in a pro race. He said 'Oh yeah!'. He tried to remember which one but couldn't. I was surprised to hear about the lack of course marshals or signs and how the pros sometimes just go where the crowds are standing.

The neatest part was telling him that his Mom had purchased one of my photographs from my senior art show way back in 1988 when I graduated from UND. He said that she had bought many student artworks over the years and that they filled her house. Part of the move that he was in town for was that all her kids had to choose artworks to take back home. Was mine still there?

I was beside him as we climbed over the highest hill in Grand Forks county (an overpass). I made sure that I got just a wheel length ahead at the top. So, yes, I out climbed Andy Hampsten.

Andy is a really cool likable guy. A great memory.

Race Report: Dewey Kvidt Memorial Duathlon

2007-05-12T19:45:00.000-05:00

I love this photo. I assure you that the ambulance was not following me!

I opted to do this race instead of the Oakdale Du because it was in my hometown of Grand Forks, North Dakota and I hadn't been back in a while. Plus it would be a small race on pancake flat roads. It ended up being a crazy race.

The first 3 mile run was uneventful. It was hard to judge my place because they were running a concurrent 5K run on the same course. At the first transition the foot racers went to the finish and we turned left to the transition area. I was very pleased to see a majority of the people in front of me head to the finish. But then the fun REALLY started.

Once I got my bike in hand I went for a flying mount which I had never practiced on the new Cervelo. I landed right but I missed the pedal and was weaving all over - or at least it seemed I was. I recovered and was off.

Two miles into the 15 mile bike was a 20 foot patch of gravel where they must of done some construction (they had warned us about it). I grew up on country roads and that little patch managed to represented the worst of every one of them. It was washboard and loose gravel. Luckily I had ridden over it the night before so I was ready with a line through it. But it was really really scary. I did fine.

Then it was 6 mile straight out with only a highway overpass crossing as a distraction. I passed a few people then at a railroad crossing the race volunteers yelled that there are 4 people ahead of me. Excellent!

After a few more miles I finally see the leader coming back so I start looking for the turn around which must be ahead. I started to see a lone man standing in an intersection up ahead. As I get closer I'm waiting for some kind of indication to turn around. But he just looked at me so I blew passed him because clearly that wasn't the turn around, right? One mile past him I start to approach a huge tractor pulling a plow that is spanning the whole road. Oh crap. But I figure everyone else had to deal with it. France has mountains, North Dakota has tractors! I'm wondering if he even notices this speck coming up behind him. Luckily, he started to pull over for 2 cars coming from the other way. I jetted by and gave the farmer a wave. At this point I can see probably a good 2 miles down the road and I don't see anything along the road - and I mean nothing. A sinking feeling takes over me that the guy back 1.5 miles was the turn around. I turn around.

Now I'm really pissed and completely frustrated. Why did that guy let me go by? Where was the sign or pylons? I'm pretty much soft pedaling and swearing. I was trying to decide whether I should even bother with the last run. But then I think about the crazy things that can happen to the people in front of me; flats, the train crossing (they warned us that a train 'might' be coming), and that gravel patch. So I once again cranked it up and was off. At the turn around there were now plenty of people making the turn. Were they just smarter then me? Maybe. I estimated that I tacked on an extra 3 miles total and I think I passed many people for the second time. The rest of the way was fine including the scary gravel which I didn't even slow for this time.

Off the bike and onto the last 3 miles of running. I caught a bunch of people and got to high five the leaders as they were just finishing. Cool guys. I was talking with them before the race.

Ended up 2nd in my age bracket. Not sure about overall as they haven't posted it yet.

And as a good lesson, one guy in front of me did flat on the gravel and he might have been in my age bracket. So never give up.

It was still fun despite the FU.

My buddy Dave, whom I stayed with in Grand Forks, was my photographer. As usually, more photos are on Flickr

Honorary Degree

2007-03-19T13:44:00.000-05:00

Will the honors ever stop?!? A few weeks ago I received an honorary masters degree from the prestigious Kellogg business school.

So really, this is Linda's MBA school. They invited all the spouses or partners, to join the students for a weekend. During one of the events they gave each of us partners these Masters of Understanding degrees in recognition of the support we give. Very thoughtful. But hell, as far as I'm concerned I've got a MU from one of the best business schools in the country and I'm going to put it on my resume! (not really)

If you should need some understanding I'm available for consultation.

Japanese Language Proficiency Test: RESULTS

2007-03-08T21:49:00.000-06:00

I passed! やった！

I'm really really amazed. As I wrote in my previous post, I didn't think I had a very good chance at passing this test. 50/50 at best. But I ended up doing exactly what was needed to pass. As suspected the listening part was my worst of the 3 at 50%. But the writing/vocab was totally shocking - 93%!! The grammer part was also good enough at around 80%. Overall I got a 70% and needed only 60% to pass. I'm very proud of this test because it's so official. This is the Japanese governments indication of skill. Now for the humbling part, this is by far the easiest of the 4 tests. It's kindergarten. The next step, level 3, is not just a little harder but is probably more like 2-3 times more difficult.

The scan is of the test results but I also got a very nice certificate, suitable for framing.

Hockey Quiz

2007-03-04T16:19:00.001-06:00

When I was a kid we would alternate choosing people for a pickup hockey game. I rarely went early in those drafts. So which one of these 2 teammates would you take first for your team? There is no illusion here, Finley is 6'7" and Bina is almost a foot shorter at 5'8" as well as being around 70 pounds lighter. Both are defenceman where size counts yet 'little' Robbie Bina has been a dominant player for the Sioux this year and has so far racked up 25 points to Finley's 7. So, who would you pick now? Not so easy. Of course I've got to go with any guy from Grand Forks named Robbie. Duh.

On Saturday, March 3rd, 4 of us went to St Cloud, MN to watch our UND Sioux beat St Cloud in the last game of the year. The smallish arena afforded me a good chance to get some closeup photos of the action. I have them on my Flickr account.

Best Wife Ever?

2007-03-03T10:09:00.000-06:00

Thursday and Friday we got a good old fashion Minnesota snow storm. It was great! I think at home we got about 18 inches of snow in two waves. Just enough in each case to force us to blow out the driveway twice. But that's ok because the snowblower is one of the funnest things about winter - if not the funnest! I've been a little disappointed in the last few year with the lack of blowable snow. Here is a shot of Linda getting in on the fun.

Jersey Design Process

2007-02-17T10:33:00.000-06:00

In 2005 I took it upon myself to design a biking jersey for our club at work. For years before that we had talked about how cool it would be to have one but, as always, nobody wants to do the work. I finally decided that if I did it at least I would like it enough to wear it. Being that most of the club riders are engineers, it was probably best in the long run that I stepped up.
The first image in this post is from the concept phase. What it shows is how I played around with the corporate color scheme (green with orange) on the body and sleeves - trying to find a nice balance without being too green. I'm not a big green fan.

In the concept phase I came up with 2 candidates. One design was more aggressive then the other. I figured I would let the group decide on which one to use. The next image is of those 2. Which one would you vote for? As I recall it was a pretty close race but the more conservative design won. Not all that surprising.

Next I sent the design to Voler to be printed. They took my computer file and combined it with their template. The 3rd image is the resulting artwork that was printed. What is very interesting about their process is that this artwork has all the sizes on it. If you look closely you can see the outlines of all the sizes starting with the x-large on the outside, then large, medium, etc... It's a very cleaver way to cut down on the amount of unique printing.

The jersey was a big success and I ended up ordering around 150. When I started out I was worried I wouldn't even get the minimum order of 25 jerseys!

You can see me wearing the jersey here.

UltiMed Animation

2007-01-24T08:31:00.000-06:00

Last Summer I did a freelance animation project for a contract engineering company. It was to demonstrate a new product they designed for the dispensing and disposal of syringes. A version of the animation has become a part of the company homepage. UltiMed

They messed around with the timing of the animation and slowed it down - which makes it slightly jittery. I often run into this. Customers are always concerned that the viewer will not 'Get it' unless it's really slow. Yet one of the benefits of animation, and particularly web animation, is that viewers can stop it, rewind it, and generally watch it until they 'Get it'. I believe the concerns comes from a TV mentality where you get to see something once and then it's over.

Notebook Sketch

2007-01-18T12:48:00.000-06:00

At work I was recently asked to visualize a new device concept. It was sort of an odd looking design that led to my comment that it was like putting Frankenstein's head on Tyra Bank's body. That in turned lead to my notepad doodle. I kinda liked it so I decided to show it here. I always have a notebook by me to take down information as well as sketching. I have a stack of old pads that are like my visual work diary. It's fun to look back at them.

Did Frankenstein ever smile? Maybe he would have if given a better body.

One on One Bike Shop

2006-12-31T19:40:00.000-06:00

Just before the Christmas shutdown at work, 3 co-workers and I visited this bike shop in downtown Minneapolis for lunch. We went to see the photos of Caroline Yang who is a local shooter that has been to the Tour de France for the last few years. Her work is really terrific. There is something about her colors that explode off the page. I hope to talk to her someday and see what she is doing in post because she must have a color recipe.

As if the photo shop wasn't enough, I was told before hand that I must see the basement of these place. You see, this location has had a few different shops but they have all had some kind of bicycle interest. As such they have collected a huge mass of bikes. There must be thousands of them just stacked on top of each other up to the ceiling. As you can see from a few of the photos I have.

My absolute favorite bike in the pile was an old kids bike with the banana seat and the monkey hanger handlebars. There were a million of them in the 70s. Well this particular one had a Pabst Blue Ribbon beer theme! I couldn't get a good photo of it because it was buried but you can see the embroidered seat. It also had a big metal plate with the logo between the top and down tube. It must had been some kind of company promotion. But to kids? What's up with that? If it wasn't $300 I would have bought it.

Pheasant Hunting

2006-12-24T13:31:00.001-06:00

PheasantHunt_08
Originally uploaded by robbiehalvorson.

OK, so I'm catching up on some old news.

Just after Thanksgiving I was invited along on a pheasant hunt in LeSueur, MN. It was Linda's brother in-law, nephews, Linda's Dad Billy, and a bunch of others. I was really looking forward to it because it was my first ever hunting trip. I never was interested in hunt however I did think that pheasant hunting might be fun because it's usually a nice time of year and the hunts walk around most of the day. Unlike goose and duck hunters who have to hunker down in the wetlands or deer hunters that sit motionless in trees.
I did carry a shotgun for a time and took aim at a bird. But I never fired. I was try for the perfect shot instead of just blasting way. I realized that I was having just as much fine shooting my camera so I switched back to the camera for the rest of the day. I have all the photos on my Flickr account. Pheasant photos

Japanese Language Proficiency Test

2006-12-04T13:04:00.000-06:00

For about a year I have been taking a class in Japanese once a week at work. That plus the 10+ years of dabbling in study lead to me deciding that I should take the JLPT this year.
The test is give once a year at various locations around the world. All on the same day mind you. As luck would have it, they give the test in Chicago not far from where Linda is pursuing her MBA. So it was really easy to drive down to Chicago and stay with her. While she was studying I was cramming for the test. The one snag in the plan was a snow storm in Chicago that forced us to leave quickly Thursday evening instead of the planned Friday departure.

There are actually 4 tests given depending on the takers skill level. I took the easiest one; 4. The test was 3 hours long and had three sections, vocabulary, listening, and grammar and was 100% in Japanese - no English. I knew going in that the listening would be very difficult and would be my worst section. So I really had to do well in the other 2 to compensate. My prediction came true, out of 16 question in the listening portion I completely understood 3 and partially understand half of the rest of them. But that was not unexpected so it didn't throw me off. I thought I did near perfectly on the vocabulary which also includes reading the kanji characters. At the beginner level we are expected to know about 100. I easily pass that part. The grammar part was more difficult but I only guessed on a few.

The results won't be in till March which is totally ridiculous. We answered on those computer score cards with the 'fill in the dot with 2H pencil' format. They should have been able to scan them at the door instead of waiting 3 months. Weird! A passing grade (which all anyone is looking for) is 60%. I feel I have about a 50/50 change of just barely passing due to the listening part. I did the math. If I get 85% or greater in BOTH the other sections I will pass.

So the fair question to as is; why? Why take the test. No, there's no true need at work, though I have worked with Guidant's marketing department in Tokyo. It IS considered an official test so there is some value on a resume. That is if I apply to a Japanese company that even knows with the JLPT is. No, mostly I just want to see where I'm at with the language and to motivate my study. If I don't pass I won't be totally disappointed - or surprised for that matter. I always assumed it was a long shot to pass.

Either way, I'll post the results in March.

All New, Sorta

2006-11-26T21:53:00.000-06:00

Tonight I spent some time looking at my blog and blogging in general with blogger.com. They have added some nice features that I wanted to take advance of like labels. The new features need to be on their servers to work so I've switched the URL as well as all the files to blogspot.com. If you are reading this you've already figured that out. It also didn't really make sense to have it on mnmaya.com. I only had it there because I own the domain.

I also decided that it was time for a format change. I like the simple design but I'm not convinced it's the final one. Any thoughts?

Halloween 2006

2006-11-06T21:43:00.000-06:00

IMG_2837
Originally uploaded by robbiehalvorson.

What I'm watching on TV

2006-10-28T18:26:00.000-05:00

TV is important - at least to me. I watch a lot of TV but in the last few years I've tried it make it good TV ( good to me) and not just mindless surfing. Have a Tivo makes it easy. It records all the things I like and allows me to watch on my time. Tivo might be the greatest innovation ever.

So here is my list of the 'can't miss' shows.

Battlestar Galactica
The reimagination of this 70s show might be the best on TV right now. And that not just me saying that. They have created a compelling and believable scifi world with people that act and react like real people. They take chances and you never really know what might happen. BSG is exactly why I'm drawn to scifi. What is also very cool is that the creator, Ron Moore, makes a commentary of every episode that can be downloaded for free. Its a fascinating looking into the making of the show.

Lost
What I like about this show is the mystery. I hope it all means something.

Heroes
This is a brand new show so I don't have much history with it but in many ways it has combined what I like about Battlestar Galactica and Lost. A big mystery, scifi themes, and believable characters that I'm already engaged with after only 3 episodes.

There are other shows on the Tivo like 'Dog the Bounty Hunter' and 'The Simpsons' but those three are the ones that I make a point to see.

Animation Examples Online

2006-10-14T18:21:00.000-05:00

I recently noticed that a lot of animation I did at work last year has found it's way to the internet. They were all done for a CD that is given to patients to help them understand their condition and the heart in general. It was a great project and, from what I heard, well received. It's fun to finally share some examples because most of what I do is considered confidential and is not on the internet.

The fact that I didn't even know they were on the web is not surprising. Once I create them I rarely if ever get to know where they are used and if they were even successful. Sometimes I find out that they have a life beyond there original intent which is always gratifying to me because that means it was valued.

The whole library site

My favorites (animations, not conditions :-) ) are:
Heart Failure
Sudden Cardiac Death
Atrial Fibrillation

Techy notes;
The animation was created in Maya using the vector renderer for the simple cartoony look. We opted for that over a more realistic look because it seems less shocking. It's also impossible to have one cross section of the heart that shows all 4 chambers. Most illustrations are greatly contorted for clarity. The animation was exported as Flash animation and in some cases was actually tweaked in Flash. Even though it's 2d, by using Maya I was able to use much better animation controls thereby giving the heart more realistic and accurate motion. I've looked at a lot of heart animations on the internet and I think these have some of the best motion.

Marathon Statistics

2006-10-12T10:53:00.000-05:00

Before the race they had these wrist bands with the mile by mile pace you would need to complete the race in X amount of time. I had the 3:50:00 band. Today I was comparing the splits I recorded with my watch to the band when I realized it would be easier to type them in. So here is each mile, the 3:50 pace time, my time in bold, and my per mile pace. It's interesting to see when I started to lose the pace which was at 18 where I lost a 2 minute lead on the pace. It continued to slip for the rest of the race but I already knew I was going to beat my goal of 4 hours. So I was giving into my legs need to slow down. Mile 24 was pretty bad.

There were 3 mile markers that I somehow missed.

1) 0:08:47 - 08:42 8:42
2) 0:17:33 - 16:44 8:02
3) 0:26:20 - 25:04 8:19
4) 0:35:07 - 33:24 8:20
5) 0:43:54 - 42:00 8:35
6) 0:52:40 - 50:41 8:41
7) 1:01:27 -
8) 1:10:14 - 1:08:13
9) 1:19:00 - 1:16:41 8:27
10) 1:27:47 - 1:25:06 8:25
11) 1:36:34 - 1:33:44 8:38
12) 1:45:21 - 1:42:27 8:42
13) 1:54:07 - 1:51:17 8:49
14) 2:02:54 - 2:00:23 9:06
15) 2:11:41
16) 2:20:27 - 2:18:14
17) 2:29:14 -
18) 2:38:01 - 2:36:55
19) 2:46:48 - 2:46:16 9:20
20) 2:55:34 - 2:55:46 9:30
21) 3:04:21 - 3:05:16 9:29
22) 3:13:08 - 3:15:02 9:45
23) 3:21:55 - 3:25:20 10:18
24) 3:30:41 - 3:36:18 10:58
25) 3:39:28 - 3:45:00 8:41
26) 3:48:15 -
Finish 3:50 - 3:55:46

Race Report; Twin Cites Marathon

2006-10-03T07:56:00.000-05:00

This was the big one.
This was the race that I've been training for all year. The one I sacrified many of my weekend bike rides for. Last Spring I decided that, if I could run 10-12 miles by April, I would enter the marathon for the first time. Even though they let in 10,000 people, the race fills in a couple weeks starting in April. So I had to decide then. I made the decision and got in.

The basic training for a marathon is to run normally then have one long run per week that gradually increases all summer till just before the race - then tapers off. Because I still wanted to participate in triathlons I had to juggle the 3 sports and do the long run on Sundays. As the runs on Sunday got up into the 12-15 mile range I really starting to not enjoy them. Usually running is my favorite over biking and swimming but it just gets boring to run for 2-3 hours. I bought an Ipod shuffle so I could listen to a few podcasts. That helped a lot.

The week before the race I did very little per the training guides I had read online. It was very hard not to, but the experts say that by that point you are as fit as you are going to be. Any more training won't help and the rest will help you more on race day. I believe that now.

Race day started at 5:30am for me. Because Linda was at school, I had to have my neighbor Kirk take me to the race. I owe him big for getting up at 6am on a Sunday! The race started at the Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis. There were 10,000 full marathon runners plus another 5,000 for the half marathon. It seems half of the people were lined up at the restrooms. I suppose mostly because people are excited and/or nervous about the race. Luckily, I didn't need a bathroom because I'm a cool seasoned runner - plus I made sure to go before I left.
At the starting line the weather was perfect if not slightly cool for my tastes. It was around 60 degrees with clear blue sky at 8am when the gun went off. It took me almost 5 minutes to reach the starting line because of all the people. Everyone had a electronic chip on their shoe so that when we crossed a sensor at the beginning and end, our time was recorded. In the race were official people that ran exact paces. If you stayed close to them you would know exactly when you would finish. So for example, I started right behind the 4 hour pacer then passed him then the 3 hour 50 minute pacer. As long as they were behind me I knew I would finish below 4 hours. Neat huh!

The race itself was mostly uneventful. They make the claim that it's the most beautiful urban marathon and I totally agree. We wound our way through Minneapolis, around several lakes, along the Mississippi, then into St Paul, up to St. Pauls Cathedral, then finally to the state capital. I don't think there was ever more then a block without spectators and usually the streets were packed with people. I've run for 20 years and never seen anything like that. An amazing amount of support.

As for me I had a fairly good race. My energy level was good throughout. I took my gu packs every 6 miles and at least a little water at every water station (around every 2 miles). Around 15 miles my legs started to ache and my motivation started to fall. My parents were at mile 17 which was fun and lifted my spirits a bit. Soon after that I popped a couple Advil I had for the achy legs. I had anticipated that. It made a big difference as I crossed the Mississippi at mile 19. From mile 20 to 23 was mostly uphill and is usually a big challenge for most this late in the race. Revived by the Advil I was able to keep my pace up and powered up the hill. I passed a lot of people near St Thomas University. However I paid a bit for that because at the top of the climb near Snelling Ave my legs were really starting to get heavy. But with only 3 miles to go I struggled on. Reflecting now I was more having to overcoming the mind then the legs. It was very difficult because it's easy for me to talk myself out of uncomfortable situations especially when I was already ahead of my goal. But I pushed on. Miles 24 and 25 were a blur. Linda was along the last 500 feet cheering me on. I was able to sprite the final half mile to the finish line and crossed at 3 hours and 55 minutes. A sub 4 hour first marathon!

I felt fine as I walked through the exit chute but there were other runners littered across the grass. I later learned that many people had a problem with the heat although I though it was fine. I in fact wore a jacket for the first 10 miles and was glad I did. It just shows how everyone is different and you have to adapted the training, and racing, to your own needs.
All in all I'm glad I did it however I have no interest in doing another marathon. It was an amazing experience but I would much rather do the triathlons were I can be moderately competitive. I love running but just not that far. I will probably continue to run an occasional 10 mile but no more 15-20 milers!

My REAL First Animation

2006-09-20T21:46:00.000-05:00

In a previous post I talked about my first animation. It actually wasn't my first. The first piece we did in that class was a simple 10 second animation done the old fashion way on an animation stand. We had to draw everything then place each drawing under a camera, snap a shot, advance the camera one frame, then repeat. It was terribly boring even with just 60-70 drawings to photograph - imagine doing thousands. I think the lesson was to show us why computers are the way to go.

For a long while I only had a video tape of the whole class and the 4x6 cards I drew on as a flip book. But recently I scanned everything into the computer and used After Effects to assemble and make adjustments. Much easier then the Oxberry.
Down load Fisherman.wmv

Tokyo #14; Shinjuku Alley

2006-09-20T21:17:00.000-05:00

This shot was taken in a narrow back alley of Shinjuku, Tokyo. There were many restaurants crammed in along the way. Roy pointed out one that is famous (or infamous) for serving all sorts of gross things. I wanted to stop in but I was overwelmingly out voted. I didn't notice at the time, but I love that the obasan (old lady) stuck her head out the door as I snapped the shot.

Wakeboarding

2006-09-18T21:27:00.000-05:00

A nice shot of my friend Jon Freeland on a wakeboard. We were at his brother Jason's cabin this summer. I didn't make it up on the board but did manage to drink lots of beer.

Big Storm Photos

2006-09-18T20:33:00.000-05:00

On Saturday night there was a big thunderstorm that roared through the area. A tornado destroyed part of a suburb about 40 miles away but only skirted us. However it put on quite the light show for us at about 11 pm. Linda commented that it was like the movie 'War of the Worlds'. She was right - the sky was almost constantly ablaze. I couldn't resist, I grabbed my camera and headed for the patio. I set up the camera on my gorillapod and did some 2-4 second exposures. I mostly just continually shot for about 5 minutes. I guess the most interesting thing about this particular shoot was that I was still in only my underwear!

I had to really do some tweaking to make the exposure work but I really like what came out. Out of about 50 shots there were only 6 that had any sharp lighting and these were the 2 best of the 6.

Martin Zellar photos

2006-09-09T22:10:00.000-05:00

Friday night we went to a free concert in the back lot of a church in our town. It seems like Minnesota churches (maybe elsewhere?) have gotten onto the idea of raising funds by putting on concerts and selling beer. Obviously it's working. The band was Martin Zellar, a somewhat famous local singer know for the former band Gear Daddies. If you've ever been to a hockey arena in North America, you've heard Martin Zellar's singing on the 'Zamboni Song'.

I took the chance to try out my digital camera and telephoto in the difficult conditions of shooting with available light and using no flash. As a rule there is actually a lot of light hitting the performers despite the dark surrounding. I tried various combinations of ISO settings and F-stops. As suspected, an ISO of 800 was about right. Martin's black shirt wasn't too hard to separate from the background. Actually I had to do very little post work. I used the beta version of Adobe Lightroom to make some slight adjustments. I'm really liking Lightroom and can't wait for it to be sold. I've used it to organize and tweak my photos all Summer. My only gripe is that the adjustment values have little correlation to the numbers I know from Photoshop. But the ease of tweaking exposure, etc, makes up for it somewhat.

All the photos turned out great. It was hard to pick out the best.

VO2 Max Test

2006-09-09T20:08:00.000-05:00

VO2 Max is the measure of the maximum amount of oxygen volume a person can use during hard effort like running, biking, etc... I guess it would apply to anything that makes you breath hard. I had a chance to be a guinea pig at work for a demonstate of the test to measure VO2 max. The lead tester is also one of the cyclist at work - a damn good one as a matter of fact - so he was the one who got me involved.

To start they had to hook me up to a 12 lead ECG to monitor my heart rate (HR). Then they placed a facemask on to measure my inhaling and exhaling as well as the amount of oxygen (O2) I used. After getting everything strapped on a got on the stationary bike and started to warm up as the got the computer set up. Everything was recorded in realtime and present on a projector in front of the class. Oh yeah, I was in front of about 15 employees in that sexy little shirt! The mesh was to hold all the electodes in place as we excersize. Believe it or not before I slide it on it was about the size of a large sock!
The test began with a light resistance on the bike then increase every 30 seconds by 40 watts. That started to get hard after about 7 -8 minutes. Since I couldn't talk, they would show me a chart and I would have to indicate how difficult it was; easy, hard, very hard, etc,... The idea was to go to my absolute limit before I quit so that I'm at maximum heart rate. BTW there was a nurse there to monitor my blood pressure just in case. With my legs barely able to turn the pedals and lungs about to busting, I finally called it quits.
The test products a bunch of graphs and charts that I only half understood. But the bottom line numbers were that when I max'ed out at 440 watts my HR was at 184 and my VO2 max was 55 ml/kg. They told me later that that is 150% of what would be predicted for a 41 year old male (about 38 ml/kg).

Minnesota State Fair

2006-08-27T11:13:00.000-05:00

Saturday was Boston Scientific Day at the fair. We got our 3 dollar discount tickets and yellow Boston Sci T-shirt so that hopefully a wandering company person would give us a prize. Neither of us won, surely because there were seemingly thousands of yellow Boston t-shirts. They were everywhere you could look. Linda and I both had people as us about whats up with all the yellow t-shirts. Some even wanted to know where we got them! This year I made sure to photograph everything we ate.

Ironically this year we really didn't eat as much as usual. The big item we were looking for was the hotdish on a stick which probably needs some explaining for some who are reading this. Hotdish on a stick is meatballs and tatertots covered in batter and deep fried. 1.) Hotdish, a uniquely midwestern term for cassaerole, often containing cream of mushroom soup. 2.) On-a-stick, many food items at the fair are served on a skewer like a corn dog for the ease of eating and walking. Now it's the theme to have every food on-a-stick. I liked it better then Linda despite the way she is chowing down in the photo.

In order here is the food we ate; Deep fried cheese curds, Sweet Marthas chocolate chip cookies and all-you-can-drink milk, a gizmo sandwhich, and finally a vanilla and strawberry shake.

No trip to the fair would be complete without a trip to the dairy building to see the Princess Kaye of the Milky Way sculptures made from 100% butter. Each finalist in this beauty contest gets to keep her likeness in butter.

On the way out of the fair I grabbed a huge bag of kettle corn to take home. This place makes it fresh in this big kettle. I love this salty sweet treat.

And finally, after a long day of walking and eating, we felt just like this guy, the largest boar pig in Minnesota. I think he weighed around 1000 pounds.

Tokyo #13: Station of the Future

2006-08-24T21:20:00.000-05:00

This subway station looks like it could have been a set for 2001; A Space Odyssey. It's obviously quite new. The walls are glossy and signs are all very graphic and high tech looking. Like the movie it shows a hopeful future - for public transportation.

Race Report; Heart of the Summer 10K

2006-08-21T12:17:00.000-05:00

My company is a major sponsor of the race so I was able to register for free. Can't beat that. It was a 10K race (6.2 miles). The night before I started to get a slight cough and sneeze nose so I was skeptical about the race. As it turns out we are into a major ragweed bloom so allergy suffers are doing just that - suffering. However the race went really well.
At start time I was getting my watch ready when, BANG!, the start pistol went off. I think the suddenness surprised everyone. Usually there is the typical "Welcome, yadda, yadda, yadda". I didn't get my watch set right till mile marker 1 but I got someone to yell out something that sounded like 6:15. Excellent! I continued to clear my thoat for the entire run but otherwise felt really good. I was with a group of young people that maintained a steady pace. I was averaging about 7 minutes per mile so I was feeling good about my goal of sub 44 minutes. On the final lap (we did 2 laps around Lake Nokomis) I saw a big group of people gathering along what I thought was the finish line. So I started to really pour it on. Well, it turns out it was the start of the 5K race. My finish line was a quarter of a mile past it. Oh, no! My heart rate was way up and I was feeling the pain. But I backed off just a little, lowered the HR a few beats, and managed the last stretch. Into the chute I can see the finish clock already at 43:30. 30 seconds left! Can I do it! Yes! I cross at 43:40. A personal best in 10k racing. And with an allergy flareup!

Results: (the overall is only the men not everyone, weird)
overall place: 119 out of 311
age division place: 20 out of 42
gender place: 119 out of 311
time: 43:37
pace: 7:02

Race Report: Withrow TT, Aug

2006-08-21T09:20:00.000-05:00

Time again for the monthly time trial in Stillwater. Same course as before. This time out I was more conservative and felt much better on the course. In the first 4 miles I caught the person 30 seconds in front of me and past him. After the 3rd corner, now heading into some good rolling hills, he had caught back up to me and was just behind me. Drafting is not allowed in time trials or triathlons so I was bugged that he was right behind me and staying there. To be fair, he might have been the 15 feet behind me, which is the rule, but it sure felt like he was closer. I backed off a bit and yelled at him about drafting but he didn't feel he was wrong. Who knows who was right. I was annoyed so I sped up to clear him. Now we are starting to catch the guy that's 60 seconds ahead of us and we pass him. 30 second man finally passes me. Then for the next 2-3 miles it's cat and mouse for the 3 of us. At one point I was behind one and boxed in from the side by the other. I decided to sprint clear of both of them but wasn't able to maintain the lead. My heart rate has been around 190 by this point. On the final corner the 30 sec guy is finally clear ahead of me and I make one last push past the 60 second rider and stay there till the finish. My finish time was mostly likely better then the other 2 because I had caught them.

In the end I probably worked harder and rode faster because of the 2 riders then any time I might have lost because of them. At 23.55 mph it was my fastest time of the summer but not my best ever. Steve the organizer took pictures of everyone as they started out. It was a good chance to look at how aerodynamic we all are. As you can see above, my back is hunched over which is bad for aerodynamics although fairly typical of normal road biking. A good aero position would have my back almost parallel to the ground.

After the race there was a raffle for prizes donated from Now Sport. I won a small bike pump.

Tokyo #12: Big Buddha

2006-08-20T22:05:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I've been a little light on the tourist attractions. Here is one of the big ones - literally. We traveled about an hour south of Tokyo to the seaside city of Kamakura to see the 37 foot bronze statue of Buddha as well of some large temples and shines. We once again walked way to much. We bought a map of the area and figured it was an easy walk from one place to another however we found out it was drastically not to scale.
After Kamakura I decided to take us a like farther south to the island of Enoshima. The weather started to get kinda rainy so we only stayed of a short time before making our way back to Tokyo. A long day.

Tokyo #11: Miss Okinawa

2006-08-17T06:57:00.000-05:00

While walking about in Shinjuku we came across Miss Okinawa. She was very pretty. So were the other 3 Miss Okinawas which made us wonder if they were really pageant winners or just hired beauties there to promote the island. Actually there was a lot of Okinawa things going on in Shinjuku that day.

Tokyo #10: Dinner

2006-08-17T06:50:00.000-05:00

After one long hot day of walking around Tokyo, Linda and I dragged our sore feet back to our neighborhood to look for a nice place to have an ice cold beer. We ended up peeking into a nice looking izakaya called Umisen Yamasen which I believe means ocean spirit mountain spirit. Before we knew it the restaurant obasan (old lady) was seating us. We were the only people in the place of about 8 tables. Each table had a charcoal grill on it with large vents overhead to carry away the smoke and, more importantly, the massive amounts of heat coming from the habachi. We ordered up the combo platter of beef, fish, and vegetables - all uncooked. We then grilled everything ourselves. The fish were a bit disconcerning because they were whole, although they were completely gutted and looked very fresh. The problem was that we could not determine when they were cooked enough to eat. The beef and sausages were more familiar. Everything was delicious and the whole experience was novel and fun. FYI, I have a couple free beer coupons to the place if you're ever in the Shibuya/Shinsen area.

Tokyo #9: Toilet Part 2

2006-08-15T21:19:00.000-05:00

As promised in a previous post, here is our second bathroom experience. This was in Shinagawa train station. As we were getting off the Yamanote train, I read a sign in Japanese saying 'Shinagawa Tip Toilet' in Katakana. That was enough to get me curious. It turned out that it was a restroom with an honor box to throw money into. But that was only the 'tip' of the iceberg with this restroom. The men's room was what I would expect to find on the starship Enterprise. It was all maple wood, white, chrome, and loads of back lit panels. It was so cool. The hand air dryers were such that you would stick you hands into a slot then slowly withdrawn them so that the water squeeged off. Just like coming out of a car wash dryer. It worked so slick! I tried to linger so I could get a picture but every time it vacated someone would walk in.

When I finally left Linda was waiting for me and was excited to tell me how cool the ladies room was! She said that there was a display panel that indicated which stalls were vacate or occupied so that a women would know which one to go to. I bet the Enterprise doesn't even have that one.

It's no wonder that they needed to ask for tips to use the bathroom. The station must have spent a fortune on it. I now realize that we were so in awe that we forgot to throw in a tip. Gomenasai!