Friday the Thirteenth

Morning weigh-in: 178#, 6% BF (dehydration?)

Nothing much to say, just thought I'd stop in to record the weight. My new goal is to drop below 170#, I was thinking by June, but maybe I'll say by Mountain Bike Weekend. This is the last MBW, by the way.

Coming up: Towpath tonight, Allamuchy Epic #1 (probably in the rain) tomorrow, PPRAC fundraising at Wal-Mart Sunday.

Why Not Do Both? Or All Three?

Morning weigh-in: 178.5#, 8% BF

Hit the gym last night, but brought the road bike, did my "short Harmony ride." About fifteen miles, basically an hour cardio warmup before hitting the ol' weights. After that I went to WB for dinner.

Not much else going on; if it doesn't rain I'll probably take the singlespeed to Jacobsburg tonight.

Wow! Was I Tired...

Morning weigh-in: 177.5#, 13.5% BF

Blew off the gym last night, was waaay too tired and decided a rest day would be wiser. I'll probably do a road ride tonight if the weather holds, otherwise it'll be the gym. I did a little bike work yesterday instead, clean/lube etc, then greased the pivots and replaced the rear brake pads. Things look good for Saturday's epic at Allamuchy, but now they're calling for rain...

I also did a little computer chore-work, fiddling here & there, nothing major. Bedtime was 10:30.

Listening: Very interesting ride in today, I tuned in to WPRB which has classical in the morning. First thing I hear is some kind of Gregorian-chant-like thing, only there were women's as well as men's voices, and though it had that "big room echo" you could tell it wasn't cathedral/stone but wood/modern walls. They played a few more, one or two tunes were even in English. Turns out, the composer was born in 1960 - aha! The particular show spotlighted very new, and very old, "classical" music; next up was some rare 18th-century Croatian symphony, which struck me as ...Viennese. Maybe I was reading to much into cultural/political hegemony in each case, but I was surprised that my ear was still that sensitive.

Happy Anniversary! Today is the 1675th anniversary of the start of the Middle Ages, the day Constantine made "New Rome that was Byzantium" (aka Istanbul, aka Constantinople) the capitol of the Roman Empire. Eleven hundred twenty three years and eighteen days later, the Middle Ages ended with the capture of Constantinople by the Ottomans. Now you know!

The PPRAC Crew Outside Wal-Mart

The PPRAC Crew Outside Wal-Mart
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

Morning Weigh-in: 177.5#, 13% BF

Here I am flanked by Brian and Janna at Saturday's Wal-Mart fundraiser. Seeing Janna was a pleasant surprise -- very pleasant, also very much a surprise because she wasn't due to move back from Hawaii for another few weeks...

By the way, here's a quick recap of the weekend:

Friday I blew off the towpath ride, sort of expected it to rain (it didn't). I took the time to install the new TruVativ cranks (btw, Thursday night was a visit to Joe C's to remove the old bottom bracket), also the new chain and cassette. After that I went out to WB & met Brian for dinner. He left after that but I was digging the music, took a seat at the bar. Very unusual evening after that: some old guy there, possibly gay -- not forthright either, but that old-style whiny insinuating type -- but definitely drunk, suddenly started blubbering over a friend who'd recently died of cancer (and whose dogs he'd inherited). Guy looked exactly like the actor who played The Riddler on Batman.

Saturday was the PPRAC fundraiser at Wal-Mart: me, Brian, and Kris R, with guest apearances by Kris's dad, Greg & Judy, and Eric & Janna to help out. Four hours on trainers, working the crowd for spare change -- we got everything from change, including pennies, to fives tens and twenties, probably raised more than $500. One long extended sociology experiment...

Saturday night was late, because after Wal-Mart I passed out for a few hours. I went down to Which Brew for dinner, ran into this dude Tom who is getting into MTB racing and triathlons (the guy is my age but he's hungry, he wants to win), then the guy next to us thought we were talking motorcycles and started talking about Unadilla, which segued into a conversation about crazy times at van-ins -- and then Vince came in on a skateboard, with Pete on a longboard. All in all, a very interesting crowd.

Sunday was Mother's Day, but I screwed up the planning phase so I had the day to myself. I rode downtown on the Turner, got breakfast at Coffee Works, then rode the towpath to the Salisbury trail system in Bethlehem. On the way I saw Kris on her "long run" for marathon training (she's racing in Burlington), with Judy on MTB and Janna running alongside. I was pretty tired at Sals at first, but stopped to eat and enjoy the view, and Eric R (Kris's Eric) rode up. We rode together from there, but he was going over to Lehigh afterward and I just wanted to cruise home... I had 40.58 miles for the day, maybe six hours chamois time. All new compnents are working OK.

Last night I did the towpath again, good time though nowhere near my best: 23 miles in 1:40 or maybe a little less, should be less than 1:30. Got home, did laundry, then got a real hankering for a "Flatiron Steak Sandwich" at Porters, so off I went. So much for those burned calories... Tonight will be the gym.

Sister Bluebird

Morning weigh-in: 176.5#, 12% BF

About this time every year, the world outside starts to remind me of one big Yes song... The blooming, flowering trees, the moist verdant earth with vivid blue sky above it... I like to think about "Starship Trooper" about now, bust out the old CD's. Yesterday was that day.