411 on shevdog’s Xlog
Who am I?
People call me shevdog, yet my name is Shawn. I’m not really athletic at all, yet people consider me an expert outdoorsman. That means I have all the know how, yet my body got fat since I didn’t apply what I knew with blood, sweat, and tears in my mid 20′s.
Sorry, that’s all you get!
Where am I from?
I grew up just north of Pittsburgh and will always refer to myself being from around da Burgh! In Yinzer fashion, I’ll say I live and work just outside of Philly. (So yes, I bleed “black ‘and gold” and hate Philly sports.) I actually live just outside of Phoenixville, so very close to Valley Forge National Historical Park, which is right by all the trails!
Why do I do this?
First and foremost for accountability. A close second is for my recording and analyzing my progress. It took a couple years, yet doing this eXercise log is starting to pay off, since I am gaining real progress and results.
What do your abbreviations mean?
Glad you asked. I explain it all on my lexicon.
What gear do you use?
Well, my gear page is a work in progress that explains most of what I use and like.
Do you think Floyd Landis did it?
Well, he’s from the next county over and I said all I am going to say in 2006. He’s still my favorite cyclist regardless of the truth. If I could climb mountains half as good as he can, I’d be pleased!
Is biking in Philly really that bad?
Well, to date, I only have biked NYC once, which is 2 hours away. No repeat trips have been scheduled. I’d pack up to go biking Pittsburgh any day! So Philly is somewhere between Pgh and NYC, just closer to home and much better trails. Aside from that, that’s why I’m a BCGP member. No matter where you bike, be careful!
Do you really yell at deer?
At least once a week, if not multiple times, I have deer run in front of me. Now if it were legal to hunt on a bike (in a national park) and I had that old western movie skill of being a sharp shooter on my bike, I’d solved the over-population issue already! I’ve found that on bike I can get closer to pretty much any animal that I ever could otherwise. So deer and rabbits lend to play frogger with me when I’m on the trail. Actually aside from yelling at deer so I don’t wreck into them, I like how I can get close to nature in ways backpacking just can’t do. Good thing I’m not in bear country!
Do you really eat bugs with all your survival training?
Well the only thing I hate more than bugs on the trail is wind. No matter how harmless or good it is to eat bugs, I’ll leave that to one of my best friends on the trail, bats, to do that so I don’t have to involuntarily. I hate bugs! Let me repeat, I hate bugs! There are some things about survival that I on;y talk about when I am training someone. So let’s leave it at “I hate bugs!” I hate bugs! I guess the worst thing would be wind that blows bugs down my mouth. Yuk!
No wonder I have learned to love cold weather on the trail… no bugs!
Do you hide your posters of Lance Armstrong when you have visitors over?
Pardon me?! My apartment is a Steelers and Penguins shrine! I hate ignorant people who call me “Lance”. I am far from his fitness level and if I was, I’d have posters of myself in your room! Sorry, but my sports hero is #66 Super Mario! (Yes I do, shhh!)
Les Stroud or Bear Grylls?
Was that even a question? Seriously?! If you want to die outside doing something thrillingly retarded, then Grylls is your man. 9 out of 10 people that think Bear Grylls is an awesome survival expert doesn’t know jack about wilderness survival. Bear is an thrill seeking adventurer, who actually has done some amazing things in his life, which I’d love to do. His show is entertaining and thrilling, yet as a survival guide, Bear brake too many key survival concepts. I could list, but I rather talk about Les.
I want to be like Les and I’m a third the expert he is on his bad day on m good day. Les is more than a survival expert, he’s the camera man, and the music man. I love that his Canadian house is truly green and self-sufficient. Les has his own band. Les is out in the wild on his own and shooting his own documentaries. What I like is his “Survive This” series that teaches kids survival, which is a tool I can use to help me and others I work with teach kids survival. (Of couse “Surviverman” has been a great tool!)
So I’d say Les, unless you want to die. Now I better get working on those figure 4′s!
Why do you keep adding non-sense to this page? Can we really take you seriously? Egotistic?!
Obviously a mix of boredom, killing time, yet really because I know my stalkers can’t get enough of it! (I still don’t get why I even have stalkers, since it is me we’re talking about. You can’t take me seriously, but after the first couple headers, you got to read into my sarcasm as just that, sarcasm. Any egotism is also sarcasm, since as I explain so seriously, I am not athletic at all, yet have a boat load of outdoors expertise. Make sense? If not, keep re-reading until your head caves in or somehow I appear in front of you like a genie in a lamp. LOL!
Why don’t people go out on the trail with you?
Honestly, it is mostly a time issue. I’d like to think the real truth of me being athletically challenged is the reason why. Yet for those I know have time, they think they can’t keep up with me. Slackers?! Eh, whatever. Thing is I like the solitude that the trail sometimes offers, being a mix of INFJ and INTP. Still, it is nice to have someone with you on the trail, so you have a drafting buddy or can have someone to carry half the gear in their pack. Eventually people will realize the adventures I go on are truly adventures and actually are exciting, regardless of the challenges. It is the challenges that makes them adventures!
Tell us a secret!
Well then it will no longer be a secret!
No seriously, give us something juicy!
Ok then. I can’t bike with no hands. I’ve tried a couple times and lasted no more than 5 seconds. I will die never learning this skill, especially since I don’t want to re-injure my left elbow again, as per my October 2008 bike crash, which had nothing to do with trying out that skill and had to do with not being able to see a construction fence at VFNHP just after the sun set. The only other secret I have is that no matter how good a hockey player I was a teen, to this day I don’t know how to skate. When I tried to learn, my younger brother made fun of me. I swear one of these days I will learn, even if I have to dress up like Tom Brasso!
What about Royal Rangers… what the heck is this? Why you so good at it?
Royal Rangers is a Christian scouting program. I was a Cub Scout up until I joined Royal Rangers in third grade. My brother and I cleaned house earning pretty much everything that can be earn, especially the top honor, the GMA (Gold Medal of Achievements). I even was the best Royal Ranger in my state two years in a row in high school, just a couple points both times away from being the best in the country. (I admit, I choked on some memorization stuff and some petty details).
My dad and mom actually taught me all the basic outdoor and scouting skills. Come on, my mom was my den leader in Cub Scouts and my dad taught me how to hike, bike, camp, and canoe! Royal Rangers just filled in the gaps and sharpened my skills. That’s not putting anyone down, just saying that it took a team effort to make me the outdoorsman and person I am today. So many men of God poured their lives into mine over the years and those efforts made the biggest difference in my life!
As for why I am so good at it, that’s all I was allowed to do. Remember how I said I am not athletic? Well I wasn’t allowed to play sports. My family was poor and my parents didn’t want me to get hurt. I never did get hurt, yet honestly there are things I did with my childhood and teen outdoor adventures that put me at greater risk for harm. I guess when you are enabled to do a particular thing and you actually enjoy doing it, plus have some peer pressure in the mix (the good kind), you get good at it.
Why cycling?
I started road biking with my brother and neighbors my last couple years in high school. I was shocked we were allowed to bike 10 miles away from home on back country roads. That’s when I learned that the “cool” bikes I wanted to ride actually sucked and that those retarded looking road bikes actually road the road better. (Get it! lol!)
In college, I borrowed people’s bike since I didn’t have one of my own. (Someone stole mine and I couldn’t bring my parents crappy ones with me). I biked all those hills to and from Valley Forge National Park, which pre-dates the existence of the trails I’m on all the time. Eventually the summer between my Senior year I got a bike, though back then I was more into running than anything else.
Yes, I took up running in college, which I did here and there throughout my college years and maybe a year or so out of college. Running is better than cycling, as far as cardio goes, yet it takes its tool on your body if you are not doing it right and don’t have the right shoes. And a year or so out of college, my life got busy with career and my body began to hurt when I ran, so I eventually stop running and stopped riding my bike when I got a car.
So eventually I got a gut. Wasn’t much at first, but grew more and more. Working the IT life, sitting all day, long hours in front of the computer screen, takes it tole on the body, as well as overall. So late in 2004 I pushed towards fitness, this the Xlog was born. Started out with running, but that ended when I was hurting (and lazy). The lazy man in me wanted to sit, to coast here and there, thus I started up biking again.
In 2005 I got sick of my heavy moutain bike and wanted something lighter, more road worthy. Looking at road bikes, then my budget, I told myself I’d get the road bike later and settle for the hybrid. Eventually the MTB was stolen, yet to this day my Trek FX 7300 is taking the abuse I’ve been giving it for 4+ years and closing in on 10,000 miles!
OK, but you got to do other stuff like run, kayak, lift weighs, yoga…?!
You are right, I do. I also can always eat better too.
I love kayaking, since I grew up canoeing. I did buy a kayak in 2004, but then donated it in 2007 to Royal Rangers. It was a pain for me to get out kayaking, not realizing that I lived near some prime kayaking spots in Phoenixville. I plan to buy an inexpensive on Summer 2009 to get back into kayaking. I loved kayaking the 3Rivers in Pittsburgh Memorial Day weekend 2009, so now I know can do this locally and have some people to kayak with!
As for running, I have run a couple miles here and there in 2009. I plan to get back into a schedule starting July 2009. I figure I can get a routine going where every week I’ll bike, run, hike/pack, kayak, and strenght train. I want to get into blading too, which I’ll tackle end of summer or fall. Yoga? We’ll see, just not anytime in the near future.
Did you really backpack in a foot of snow? Had hypothermia?
Yes. It was more a day hike up Hawk Mountain Pinnacle sometime 2002 or 2003, where I had my day pack on. The snow mostly smoothed out the rough spots of the trail, though there were some sink holes. And it wasn’t bitter cold. Lots of adventurous fun!
When I went to the Royal Rangers NTT in April 2001, I was a college Senior, meaning I didn’t have all my gear in my dorm room. I was not “ready”, didn’t have the right gear, especially rain gear. On the Tuscarora Trail, we started top the hill with snow, then descended to our campsite with rain. My jacket was not a rain jacket and I got soaked with cold rain. I can list all my gear mistakes, yet am glad for them, since they taught me lessons I will never forget, which made me better on the trail.
Why no photos of you?
I barely even provided my first name, you think I’ll post photos?! And it is hard to take photos of yourself when you don’t ahve someone to hand the camera to to take the photo. Do you really see me handing my camera to a stranger on the trail? Oh wait, were’d he/she go? Oh crap, my camera is gone! LOL! Thing is that even if I was in shape like Floyd or Lance, I think in my own poor self image I wouldn’t post photos of myself. At some point I will, but not any time soon, until I my gut totally flat again and I can get some sun on my pale white skin.
Besides, cycling tights even on athletic people… Yeah, I hear people’s passing comments all the time on the trail and most of them I’d have to agree with. But biking in jeans or street clothes doesn’t work kiddo! I mean, anything can work, just that cotton causes so many problems and any trail expert will tell you that. So we might look, um, gay and all, but have you even tried it, as in the clothes. Makes a huge difference. Even so, photos of that, no thanks!
Have you ever taken the R6 on your bike? Wimped out?
No. Never.
It has got to be severe for me to wimp out. I’ll hike it and have done that before, but furthest out was Norristown, which is as far as the R6 goes.
Usually I start small, like a 20-35 mile ride, then get ambitious and turn it into a marathon bike ride. My worst ride was July 2006, where I bonked in 100F weather in Philly. It took me and extra hour or two, with lots of stops, yet I finished that 50 mile ride.
Hard part is limiting myself. If anything, I wimp out by taking an unscheduled day off, due to slacker reasons.
Ok, once I did wimp out. That day was October 13, 2008 when I wrecked in VFNHP. I didn’t finish out my 50 mile ride. I know, I let a fractured arm/elbow stop me. What a wimp!
