Sunday, September 7, 2008

A Breath of Fresh Air

Written by felix

Felix Wong is an outdoor enthusiast living in Fort Collins. A mechanical engineer by day, he is especially passionate about bicycling, running, and backpacking.

1. Northside Aztlan Community Center

Monday, 10 December 2007

Two Saturdays ago I went to new Northside Aztlan Community Center in Fort Collins. There were a couple of reasons to do so: 1) to celebrate the grand opening of the city’s newest facility, and 2) enjoy some free classes and free food!

The Community Center had long existed as a 15,000 square feet facility. This year, that building was torn down and a 50,000 square feet one was built in its place. Since Fort Collins is a green city, this center was built with LEED silver-level certification in mind. Nine tons of material were diverted from the construction site (a former landfill) to recycling centers, and conservation of water and energy was addressed, as epitomized by the dual-flush toilets.

Activities offered at the center for adults include salsaerobics, karate, yoga, spinning, clogging, strength and tone, karate, contra dance, and aikido. There were free demos for all of these. I participated in a spinning class, and then a yoga one. I also attended the martial arts demonstration, but they captured my interest no more than when I was a kid.

I also worked out with free weights and machines (instead of working out in my basement that day). There were many stations; almost as many as the 24-Hour Fitness I’d go to in the last city I lived in.

Of course, lots of activities are offered for children and teenagers too. The gym was huge with numerous basketball courts. There was a room with three or four pool tables. A skate park and handball courts are scheduled to be opened in fall 2008.

Considering how close the facility is to me and reasonably priced it is ($4/adult per day, with less expensive punch-card options), I should try to go there more often. One of the City of Fort Collins' official mottos is, “Recreation — it’s for life!,” and I agree.

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2. Reusable Grocery Bags

Wednesday, 21 November 2007

Ten years ago, I had a roommate named Kathy. Kathy had previously majored in environmental studies at Stanford, and therefore was very conscientious about her impact on the environment. One of her habits that initially raised my eyebrows was walking to Andronico’s — sort of a higher-end, smaller version of Whole Foods — a couple blocks away from home with one or two canvas shopping bags.

“Wow,” I used to think, “that is going a little overboard. Who brings their own bags to go shopping? And how bad are grocery bags? They can be reused, after all, as garbage bags or to, say, bring shoes to the gym.”

Ten years later — in my new push to become more environmentally friendly — I only now realize that Kathy was well ahead of the times, having become a fan of canvas grocery bags myself after using them for over a month.

Prior to a month ago, I was good about requesting paper bags (which, unlike plastic, at least decompose quickly), or — better — saying “I don’t need a bag” when purchasing only 1-3 items. I was also always good about bringing in the plastic bags that inevitably would accumulate in the house to, say, Albertsons for plastic bag recycling. Yet, there always was something disturbing about coming home from grocery shopping with 3-5 bags I didn’t need to do anything but transport food (which is often contained in enough wasteful packaging as it is) from the store to the car, and from the car to the kitchen.

Finally, I purchased a couple of canvas bags from the Sunflower Market as an experiment. After all, they were just $2 each (since then, I learned that one can get them at Safeway for $1 each!) And after using them for a month, I can attest they have benefits beyond the ecological benefits of reducing the amount of paper and plastic we use.

These bags are STRONG! No longer do I have to carry grocery bags with my hands underneath them or deal with ripping bags.
Because the bags are so strong, one can load up the bags completely full without having to worry about them tearing. They are also larger in capacity than paper bags (and of course, plastic ones). As a result, I estimate that 2 canvas bags = 3-5 paper bags = 4-7 plastic ones.
Since less bags (only two) are needed to carry the amount of groceries I get every 5-7 days, after I have checked out my food, I can just leave the cart in the store, and then walk over to my car carrying the two bags. I.e., I no longer have to wheel a cart through the parking lot and then wheel it back to some cart-return place. How convenient.
Having to carry only two bags means less trips from my car to the kitchen after I arrive home.
Many stores (including Safeway, the Sunflower Market, and I think Albertsons) cut ~$0.05/bag off your grocery bill for bringing in your own bags. So the bags do pay for themselves over time.

The one downside to using reusable grocery bags is that now I have less paper bags to line the kitchen trash can. (Well, maybe this is not a downside, since I had too many to begin with!) BUT, this just adds additional pressure to reduce waste that goes into the landfill. Actually, I produce so little waste that I’ve just downgraded my Gallegos trash collection plan to "set out a 35-gallon bag as needed." So this is actually a good thing.

Now I am feeling pretty silly for not doing this for a whole decade after being introduced to the idea by Kathy. Well, better late than never, I guess!
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4. So Many Cycling Groups

Tuesday, 30 October 2007

Now that ultra-running season is over for me, I am looking forward to getting back on the bike. Out of curiosity, I did a search for cycling groups in Fort Collins to do some pedaling. Not surprisingly, there are several in town, but I was surprised at how many new ones popped up since I last checked a year ago.

On the VeloCal.org calendar alone, there are the following:

FRRR (not sure what this stands for)
Cycling Friends of Fort Collins
The Breakfast Club
WGBU (weekend riders from HP)
Friday Flyer
JJ's Saturday Riders
Velo-One Cycling
Rainbow Riders Cycling Group
Sprockets and Spokes Bike Shop
Solo Pick-up Ride
Team Rio Grande
Northern CO Tri Club
Full Cycle Group Ride Fort Collins

Then there are groups not even listed on VeloCal, such as the Fort Collins Cycling Club.

It appears there is no shortage of group cycling opportunities in town. Now if I can only squeeze in some more riding time before the weather gets too cold!
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5. When Running Becomes Too Much

Thursday, 18 October 2007

Last weekend -- while Father Zeus threw down lightning bolts to knock out power at Hughes Stadium -- I was in Boulder, doing something most rational people would rightly call Completely Unnecessary. Like a rat, I was running in circles around the Boulder Reservoir over and over again in a race called the 24 Hours of Boulder.

Why do something like that, especially when it was cold and wet outside. Was it fun? (No!) Was it healthy? (No!) Wouldn't one be accomplishing as much as if he had taken out a whip, and lashed his own legs repeatedly for hours on end? (Probably.)

It was my attempt to see what this up-and-coming fringe sport of ultra-running is all about. As an endurance athlete, I couldn't help but take on the challenge of running 100 miles. Or running for 24 hours. Or something like that.

Problem was, I could achieve none of those things.

I've already mentioned the weather, which was as grey as a Siamese kitten and as cold as the milk in your fridge. But I had other problems, such as having to pee every 20 minutes (a consequence of not having something spongy like bread in my stomach) and having a large caloric deficit (due to the race providing primarily gels and sports drinks, as if that was going to provide enough fuel for 24 hours).

There was also the issue of boredom. Staring at the same three trees by the Boulder Reservoir became a little monotonous, as was thinking all the time, "golly, my calves sure are sore!" I started out running a meager 10-minute/mile pace, but after 13 hours, was struggling to jog a pedestrian 20-minute/mile pace.

After 15 hours -- when the clock struck midnight and I just finished my ninth lap -- my body was as numb as a cod and my dignity had been thoroughly dragged through the mud. At the rate I was going, I was going to have to run (shuffle) for 15 more hours to finish another 36 miles to make my race total 100. I decided that I Was Absolutely Not Going To Do That.

Final result: 64.4 miles. That exceeded my previous longest run by 12 miles. Good enough.

The sad thing is despite stopping well short of my stated goal of running 100 miles, this was by far the most difficult thing I have ever done, athletically speaking. I have done some pretty tough stuff in the past -- including a 762-mile bike race in France, and some Ironman triathlons. Yet, I have never suffered as much as I did during this run.

How do rats manage to do things like this? I have no idea. I was just waiting for Zeus to put me out of my misery.
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