Bellyride

Morning weigh-in: 170#, 10.5% BF

That blood donation sure came back to bite me in the ass... I kind of figured there'd be a performance hit, and the girl said not to exert myself for the rest of the day yesterday. I asked her how long until I'd be back at 100% and she said "oh, six to eight weeks" -- yikes! She then said (and mind you, this is Saturday afternoon) not to drink any alcohol for 24 to 48 hours -- God DAMMIT woman gimme my blood back NOW! Oh well. I questioned her very closely as to why alcohol was bad (dehydration), then after the fest I went home and chugged water all afternoon. Went out to Which Brew, had a burger and one cask-conditioned pumpkin ale (plus two more glasses of water), then checked out the Lafayette Bar, for one last beer/water combo.

I'd never been to the Lafayette. This would be the bar in the Lafayette Hotel, which used to be a transient hotel/flophouse, and maybe still is -- though I remember it being closed down a few years ago, after a mentally ill tenant started a fire. Anyway, the bar has always been open, but I never went since I figured it would be filled with off-duty prostitutes and semi-homeless people or whatever, sort of like the Mt Vernon before they renovated it. Over the past year or two though, the place has become a jazz club of sorts. I ran into a friend at the garlic fest who really pushed it (she was garlic-festing with the girl who would be singing), and I decided to check it out...

It's pretty nice, a big place and well set up for jazz-combo stuff; the beer selection could be better but it was cheap enough. The Dan DeChellis Trio was playing, and that guest singer was awesome, but they went on break almost immediately after I got there, and were still on break when I finished my beer and left. It's not where I'd prefer to hang out, but I will probably go back. (Saw Art, and Dee Dee, and one or two others I recognized.)

Early bedtime. No dehydration issues, as far as I could tell.

Got up this morning and did a towpath/Sals ride, found out that there was a serious performance hit involved. I didn't feel tired or winded, just lethargic, especially on hills. I started downhill, went to the usual coffee shop (closed) so I went to Rumpelstiltskin's, a new coffee shop I wanted to check out (ditto closed), and so I had breakfast at the Quadrant. (Saw Sarah & her kids there, and also Pete a little later.) I ate a huge breakfast, then headed down the towpath.

When I got to Sals I found out about the lethargy thing (the feeling reminded me of having my heartrate maxxed out, and still needing more -- sorry Don it ain't gonna happen), so I did an abbreviated loop and headed to Ilick's Mills, to check out some Green Home Technology expo supposedly happening there. Nothing. I think the flyer I'd been emailed was pretty confused on what the event actually was, but I also had the wrong date... Anyway, if you can't go green go blue, so I hit Blue Sky Cafe (former home of Green Cafe) for some fruit & oatmeal and an iced coffee. (Saw ex-WB waitress Tara and her boyfriend John there, both working.)

The ride home, like the ride out, was done with a very full belly. Back home and it's been downtime ever since, doing laundry and playing on the computer. I just posted a bunch of weekend photos to flickr too, so go check them out. Garlic Fest, bike ride -- I've been trying to learn how to photograph while riding.