Tour de Blast – Done!!!

Mark and I completed the Tour de Blast on Saturday.  This was one tough ride.  Basically it’s 84 miles, climbing one 4,300 foot ridge, and a 3,800 foot ridge – and oh yeah, you do the 3,800 foot ridge TWICE.  All told, it was over 7,000 feet of climbing for the day.

The day started for us at 4 am.  We got up, threw our things in the car, and had to drive 140 miles to the starting line.  Yes, it would have been easier to stay at a motel somewhere close the night before, but I decided it would be a good idea to save some money before I leave my paying job.  Probably would rethink that next time.

We got to the starting line at around 8am.  Another interesting bit of news was that Mark didn’t really feel that well (Mark is my uncle who is going to be 58 in a couple of months – he also happens to be my best friend).  His stomach had been bothering him all night, and he was afraid to eat very much.  Not what you want before a long, hard, ride.

To read more, click here.

Tour de Blast – Unfinished business

My next event is on Saturday.  I am riding the tour de blast.  It will be an 82 mile ride (that’s 135k for you metric fans out there); and it will have over 6,000 feet of elevation gain. 

The ride is at Mt. St. Helen’s.  Here is what their website says about the profile:

Elevation gain/difficulty
The elevation gain from the start line at Toutle to Elk Rock (27 miles into the ride, elevation 3,800 feet) is approximately 3,300 feet. From there, the highway descends 1,270 feet over five miles to Coldwater Lake(elevation 2,530 feet). Then riders will begin a nine-mile climb of 1,670 feet to the Johnston Ridge viewpoint and turnaround. A rider going all the way to Johnston Ridge and back to Toutle will climb a total of 6,240 vertical feet over 82 miles (135K) including the climb back up the eastern side of Elk Rock.

This is a ride I have done once before, in 2003.  I was riding with Mark and Mitch.  The weekend before had been in the mid 80’s.  The forecast said that the day of the ride would be in the high 60’s to the mid 70’s.  All of us wore fingerless gloves, cycling shorts and jerseys, and light rain jackets.  Bad idea!!!

To Read more, click here…

Konamoxt’s first 10 days

Konamoxt just passed it’s 10 day live mark.  Yes, it’s still in Beta, and that means a lot of bug fixes and improvements are still on the way (thanks Brad and Jeff!!!).  But overall, I’m very happy with the first 10 days.

 Most important – I want to thank all of you who have visited, signed up as members, given us feedback, posted problems and improvements, and supported us in many other ways we probably will never know about.  Konamoxt would be nothing without all of you.

 We have received a huge amount of positive feedback on our integrated workout logs and blogs.  We are glad you like it.  There are many, many ideas we have to make it even better; and there are many, many ideas you all have to make it better.  We want Konamoxt to be a place where people have the tools they need to fulfill on their goals – whether it’s to compete in an ironman for time, or to lose a few pounds and run your first 5k fun run.

We also see that many people have viewed our articles and training plans.  These are more tools to help you reach your goals.  A big thank you goes to Lisa, who has taken the lead on writing and accumulating these tools.  Our long term goal is to involve the community in contributing articles as well.  We know that the collective knowledge of the community will always be better and more diverse than the knowledge of a small team. 

For me personally, I am most happy about seeing the beginnings of our dream being fulfilled.  We want Konamoxt to be a place where people come to support and inspire each other.  That’s what transforms a place into a community.  We are seeing the support in the way people are reaching out to each other – whether you are a new blogger, a seasoned athlete, running your first marathon or tri, getting into shape for the first time, or even dealing with a slightly excitable horse (love your blog Kim). 

As fitness minded people and athletes, we could have life be just about ourselves – and there would be nothing wrong with that.  But we could also contribute to others as they start their journey as athletes and fitness minded people – and thereby change the world.  For me, that’s an even more interesting game to play.

So many blogs I see in other domains are about disagreeing with each other.  Ours is about agreeing with each other.  I like that better.  It is special, and it is rare.  You all make that happen.

Thanks again for your support. 

Phil

Weekly Weighin

I am up 3 pounds from where I was on May 23rd – when I reached 20 pounds lost for the year. 

 I’ve noticed that for me, my eating habits are sort of like the ocean – best not to turn your back on it.  I relaxed after the 23rd, started compromising on things I hadn’t been eating the prior month.  I had ice cream a couple of times, pizza a couple of times, went out to dinner a couple of times.  Next thing I knew, my weight was back up. 

To read more, click here…

Konamoxt Beta is now Launched

We are very excited to announce the launch of Konamoxt beta. We’ve been working hard for the last couple months to put this service together, we’re proud of what we’ve accomplished so far, but this is just the beginning.

Please, take the time to look around and sign up to our great new service.

What is Konamoxt?
Konamoxt is a gathering of active people committed to the fitness lifestyle. Konamoxt is inspired by a simple, but powerful idea:

What if we aggregated all the voices of fitness minded people together?

To learn more about Konamoxt see our About Section.

Why Join?
The short answer is we believe that fitness matters and we believe
that together, by sharing and supporting each other, we make the biggest
difference for ourselves and others.

If you want a much longer answer, see our About Section.

Would you like to join Konamoxt?Click here to sign up.

How much does it cost?
Absolutely nothing. Joining Konamoxt is both free and simple.

What can I do with Konamoxt?
By joining Konamoxt you are joining with other active people committed to a fitness lifestyle. Konamoxt is a place where you can be inspired by others and be inspiring to others; have conversations that make a difference; take action in your own life; and discover the benefits of an active fitness lifestyle.

Here are some of the key features at Konamoxt:

• Your own Personal Blog: Starting a blog takes only a few minutes to set up and are simple to use. Blogs are an easy way for people to support and inspire each other.
• Your own Training Log: Signing up gives you access to your own on-line training log. Your training log can be either public or private. Click here to see more detailed training log features.
• Forums: Our forum section allows people to engage in conversations about fitness related topics. Click here to see our forums.
• Events: The events calendar is a place for you to find events that are of interest to you; to add events that you would like to share; and to comment about events. Find events here.
• Discover other people’s blogs: See what other people are saying about training, fitness, and life. Find topics of interest here.
• Training plans and other articles: See our growing directory of training plans and other fitness articles. Training plans are available for beginning through advanced athletes and cover running, cycling and triathlon training. Training plans and articles are in our Library section.

Give us your feedback.
We appreciate you joining our beta program and helping us improve our product. We realize that there will be some rough edges and we look forward to your feedback. If you have questions or comments, need support, or would like to make a suggestion for features you would like to see please visit our Forums.

Please come check us out.