Vay-cay-cay-cay...

No morning weigh-in. I'm home from work, on a mini-vacation. Out the door in a few minutes for Allamuchy. I'll be back Monday; expect pictures.

Final Countdown

Morning weigh-in: 175#, 12.5% BF

Got the bikes ready last night, bringing the Turner (to race) and the Surly (to cannibalize, and also maybe to race). I also packed up my tools and did the food shopping for the weekend; tonight I'll finish the laundry, pack the car etc, maybe get my Which Brew fix.

Teams at the Chain Gang Disco Aliens Camp

Space Balls: Me, Eric, Rich B, and his bud from Mack Trucks,
Hot Double-Team Action: Doug & Lori on the tandem,
Napoleon Dynamite: John C racing solo,
So-Slo: Brian racing solo, and
Exploding Balls: Scott S, Bob, Greg & Joe C make up the other 4-man team.

Hurricane Weather: Katrina and the Waves

Morning weigh-in: 175.5#, 10% BF

Getting ready for the maelstrom of Allamuchy, weather should be good throughout the weekend... tropical storm is heading for landfall somewhere down south; when it hits land they'll probably name it Katrina... had dinner at Which Brew last night, caesar salad & a bowl of chili, Brooklyn Lager & a Weyerbacher Autumn Fest, and Katrina was the waitress...

Rode the road last night, did the "1-hour loop" from the gym, did it in 50 minutes and felt pretty good. Legs suddenly seem very happy to spin up the hills, fitness was good but my high-intensity endurance is still not 100%, blew up on some of the climbs. I should peak by January... I followed the ride with a light workout in the gym, then as I said, I had dinner at WB. Nothing excessive, I expect that the jump in weight was from the multiple midnight bowls of GOLEAN Crunch! (or as I call it, "crack in a cereal bowl") that I scarfed down.

Shopping tonight, packing tomorrow, taking Friday off to show up early for the race.

When Is A Cigar Just A Cigar?

Morning weigh-in: 173.5#, 10.5% BF

No ride or exercise last night, played with computer instead.

A few guys at work have recently gotten into that antique/restored auto thing, which seemed to fit a pattern I noticed a while ago, but now I'm not so sure what the pattern is...

Back when microbrews became big, and even more so when the cigar craze came along, I kind of assumed that the driving force was a bit of backlash to the growing awareness of health risks, like "I know that drinking/smoking are bad for me, so I'll cut down my quantity, but switch to microbrews/cigars and savor the quality." The restored cars might follow the same pattern, what with gasoline prices and all, but I wonder if the trend, and in fact all three trends (plus that poker craze) aren't just symptoms of anxious masculinity -- well maybe not the microbrew, that's a metro thing after all...

Steve Gilliard has an interesting take here on when the cult of manhood collapsed in Nazi Germany.

Meantime, yesterday's post was going to be about something else, but after yakking about the weekend I didn't feel like following through, only the title survived: "No Gods, No Masters" was the motto of Margaret Sanger's magazine The Woman Rebel from her early radical days, and it was a sad tip of the hat to the women of Iraq.

No Gods, No Masters

Morning weigh-in: 173.5#, 13.5% BF

Looks like I came throught the weekend intact, weight-wise...

The weekend:

Friday night I blew off the towpath ride (looked like rain), blew off pretty much everything else as well, to just kick back & do laundry. Stopped in at Which Brew for a bit while the clothes visited the dryer, but it was a fairly early night -- I ran into Arnie L there, made plans to meet him for a morning bike ride.

Saturday I got up early, got a quick breakfast at Coffee Works, then met Arnie at the gym in Phillipsburg. I've known him for years, talked bikes many times but we never rode together until this. Older guy, just became a grandfather but he's a solid rider. We rode out behind Baker Chemical, came up Marble Hill Rd to Route 519 & took that to Foul Rift Road, then returned to P'burg via the river roads (like, past where the S.S. Diane used to be). Almost two hours of riding, first time on the road bike since the Perimeter Ride, and it felt good. After that was a gym workout.

Saturday Night was also quiet, also with a rather perfunctory visit to WB, where I hung a while with T and Ed.

Sunday was a "stop and smell the roses" ride with Brian up on Broad Mountain in Jim Thorpe, trails neither of us have done in a while -- PA Game Committee, access issues, yadda yadda. Moderate pace with plenty of breaks, including stops at the overlooks. Good to see the old place again, hasn't changed all that much. Lunch on the way home, then the rest of the day was naptime...