The Blog Within

Read about it here.

I needed to capture a GPS track of the trail in Bluffs Regional Park (Lone Tree) for Singletracks.com, and Jen wanted a break from the kids, so I packed the kids and bikes and off we went.

I hear the shoe-in-mouth method of climbing is highly recommended by Carmichael Training Systems. I may have to try it.

Laney was mad about something…can’t remember what exactly:

And the GPS track that I captured:

This morning was perfect for riding, even with all the debris on the trail from the previous night’s flooding.

Here’s the old bike with its new fork and laptop bag:

The food and schwag station:

Most of the trail looks like this:

And there’s even some scenery:

Here’s a really good recap of the whole ride:

Are you frustrated by various songs on your Mp3 player playing at wildly different volume levels? Do you use your Mp3 player in an environment such as cycling where it is inconvenient or even unsafe to reach for the volume buttons?

If you answered yes to the above, then this free application is for you:

Mp3Gain

Mp3Gain is a simple application written in Java that scans a folder full of mp3 music files, analyzes the volume, or gain level, and corrects that level for consistent playback. You can run the application against the music folder on your computer or directly against your mp3 player..or both!

First, download the program here.
Double-click the downloaded file to install it, and then run the program:

With one of the buttons in the upper left, add a group of mp3 files or more likely a whole folder of them. Here’s me scannnig my Blackberry:

Next, click the Track Analysis button to analyze the tracks. Scroll down through the list and you will see any tracks that are out of spec, and what values will be changed. This is a good place to note the difference between track analysis and album analysis:

• Track analysis compares all the tracks in the folder to each other and applies a consistent volume across all of them.
• Album analysis compares tracks across a single album and normalizes volume for the album, but different albums can differ from each other.
• I always use track analysis, especially for an mp3 player.

Once the tracks are done analyzing, click the Track Gain button to apply the new volume levels to the mp3 files. This can take a few minuets depending on the speed of your device and the size of your collection.

Once this completes, OK the success message and Exit out of the program. Your mp3’s should now have a more consistent volume level and you will be reaching for the buttons on your mp3 player a lot less!

So I went to the Dominos website to look for coupons, and found one, along with a link to order online.

Why not.

I placed my order painlessly, and the site then went to the Pizza Tracker application.

Cool!

It updated in real time as Jeff (the store manager, I used to work there) made the order and loaded it into the oven. It then showed it coming out of the oven and being boxed up….at 10:24pm

Delivering…

Delivering…

Delivering…

(Dominos is 10 minutes tops from our house)

Delivering…

Delivered! “Enjoy your food”

Wait, what? There’s been no driver at my house?!?

Finally at 11:00pm, 36 minutes after he set out on his 10 minute drive, the driver showed up with our food, not in a hot bag.

Way to go Dominos, can you transfer me to Pizza Hut please…

On a related note, Cherry Village Asian Grill always ALWAYS gets here in about 15-20 from when we order, and they’re twice as far away as Dominos.

Oh, and the new handlebar grips arrived today. I’ll post my first impression as soon as I try them out tomorrow.

Tonight’s weekly ride was Chimney Gulch in Golden.

I didn’t feel well.

I didn’t ride well

And I even capped it off with a nice digger on the way back down.

All in all, not the most fun I’ve had on a bicycle.

But, I did get some good photos :D

In my mind I ride like this:

But in reality, it’s more like this:

Before I ever became obsessed with got into mountain biking, Jen and I did a LOT of hiking. Today the temps were in the mid 70’s with a mix of sun and clouds and my ‘weekend’ upgrade project at work went so smoothly that we finished it all yesterday, so we decided to go to Castlewood Canyon State Park: one of our favorite hikes and 10 minutes from our house.

To mix it up a little, Jen and Ava went one direction around the loop, and Laney and I went the other way. We traded kids 1/2 way, so Jen and I retraced our steps while each kid made the whole loop. We also used it as a chance to use our new 2-way radios that we got recently.

[View with PicLens]

 

Tonight, for something different, I tried attaching the camera to the frame, just behind the headset. For a smooth paved trail, it’s perfect, but I’m afraid the vibration would be too much for offroad use.

Here’s a sample: