That Worked Out Pretty Nice

Morning weigh-in: 179.5#, 6.5% BF

Really nice ride yesterday with Joe, kind of easy ("conversational pace" as the saying goes -- and we bullshitted almost the entire time), hitting the hills and trying to avoid the wind; we were out for about three hours and got maybe 32 miles in. I think we were both surprised, because it felt mellow but that was some solid mileage, especially for a hill ride. We ended almost in the dark though, and took a dirt road shortcut back to his house. Both of us were pleasantly surprised, since neither of us was motivated to go out riding in the cold, wind and snow (flurries, but still); this ride was literally "just what the doctor ordered." A little Italian post-ride take-out -- and some car trouble (Joe's car) picking it up -- more BS about the Chain Gang and the old days, and all of a sudden it was like 10:00. Home, some computer stuff, and I was in bed by 11:30 or so.

Tonight will be the towpath, dinner will be leftover take-out from last night (I got something called a "bomba," like an Italian version of a Cuban sandwich, and I could only eat half), plus maybe some stew. Tomorrow will be yoga, the gym, and more stew.

In The Name Of Love

Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 180#, 13% BF
Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 179#, 10% BF

Early morning, April 4: I missed it yesterday, but rest in peace, Martin Luther King.

Tuesday night was Svaroopa yoga -- which used to be very predictable (basically the same routine every week) but is now branching out into other moves -- then last night was the gym. I don't remember Tuesday's pre-grocery-shopping dinner, but last night was a bag of salad and a glass of milk, plus a handful of dry cereal before I hit the hay. Lately, my big meal of the day has been lunch.

Man that was pathetic: I downloaded mplayer a while ago and wasn't too impressed, mainly because of an annoying error message ("font not found: subtitle.tff") that kept popping up, and because I couldn't get movies to scale, like to full screen size. Two minutes with Google and the mplayer FAQ last night, and I had both issues resolved -- and it is pretty much the best Linux mpg/wmv/etc player, just like everyone said...

Riding tonight, probably the road with my friend Joe, then maybe dinner with him & Sue -- I've blown off their last few post-ride dinner invites, so must take them up on it tonight if they make the offer again. Otherwise, I'll have some of that bean & tomato stew. Tomorrow is the towpath, followed by more stew, and Saturday will be yoga followed by the gym. Anyway, that's the plan so far.

Hemo The Magnificent

Morning weigh-in: 180#, 10.5% BF

I was thinking yesterday about educational films I saw as a kid in school, and especially remembering a series that featured a professor and his sidekick interacting with various cartoon characters. I googled "blood," "sea water" and "professor" yesterday, and found these Amazon reviews. I guess I wasn't the only one who remembered that most famous exchange between Dr. Fred Baxter and Hemo The Magnificent...

Blood On Fire: Blew off yoga yesterday: it was so nice out I did a towpath ride, 22 miles in 1:34 for an average of about 14 mph. Not bad, but I have to remove maybe 15 minutes from that time to make it really respectable. (Tonight is back to yoga, the class I blew off last week.)

After the ride I met Brian for Mug Club Night at Which Brew. Haven't talked to him much lately, so we played catch-up: he had his last speed-skating practice the other day, and is off for Spring Break but is redoing his garage or something, no real "sleep-away" vacation. He returned The Road, which I loaned to him a few months ago.

My friend Doug once commented that I became much nicer and more personable once I stopped racing regularly, and training for all that racing (this was a while ago). I took this to mean that I was more easy-going once I stopped obsessing over race results and training regimens, and became more flexible with my time, more likely to just do regular rides or go out for a beer. Brian and I were talking about routines, and I think I caught him by surprise by saying my life had more of a routine in the Nineties than now -- my routines fitted his at the time, so they were probably less visible to him -- but really the structure in my life right now is only an attempt to force a return to the rhythm that my days, and years, followed back then. You know, back when I was less pleasant...

The struggle seems to be going my way though lately, and bringing some success (and success is is what drove my earlier obsessions), so it was a little bittersweet when Which Brew friends last night started asking "Where have you been? We haven't seen you in a while..."

Monday I Got Traveling On My Mind

Morning weigh-in: 179.5#, 13% BF

 

Well, it looks like I'll be in Illinois next week on business, so I better get all my personal business done this week, as well as any pleasure I might have planned. Not much else to say here, did all my catch-up with last night's post.

 

By the way, last week:

 

Monday: 0 miles (yoga)

Tuesday: 26 miles

Wednesday: 0 miles (yoga)

Thursday: 30 miles

Friday: 22 miles

Saturday: 26 miles (plus yoga)

 

For a grand total of 104 miles for the week -- not bad for March! What's missing right now is the gym, but I'll very likely be combining that with some rides in a week or so. I have some hard choices to make about yoga too, since (at the very least) the Tuesday class now conflicts with my need to ride...

 

Tonight is yoga (where, if we're lucky, instructor Kelly will have something to say about her trip to Sri Lanka), then the monthly Mug Club Night at Which Brew.

 

Sunday Evening Coming Down

Morning weigh-in: 180#, 13.5% BF (yeah, just had to post that & gloat)

So, rode Friday evening (towpath), then hit the sack early.

Saturday was early morning yoga, then the "Weyerbacher Beer Ride," in which I was supposed to lead a towpath ride from Bethlehem to the annual open house at Weyerbacher Brewery. Kind of a disappointment though: no one else showed up, but I did run into Cindy riding on the towpath with her dog. Oh well, the ride was nice and so was the open house, and I saw Joe & Sue there, as well as a bunch of other friends.

Dinner was at Which Brew, where I saw quite a few of the same people from the open house earlier in the day, especially the volunteers who were probably not able to drink until the fun was over... I felt kind of sick & out of sorts (lot of people say they had or have the same thing), so I went home early.

Today was breakfast at that crunchy new Blue Sky Cafe (where the old Green Cafe used to be), then trailwork at Sals. And now I think it's time for bed...

(By the way, you can see photos of the beer ride & open house, and trailwork photos, at my flickr page.)