Another Late Night

No morning weigh-in: overslept, forgot, dammit don't get complacent...

 

Good upper-body workout last night at the gym. Didn't do legs, and hit the core and upper body with non-standard exercises; weights were high but not ridiculous. I felt good. (Before the gym I did some Halloween shopping, looking in vain for some necessary accessories for my costume -- I'm not getting a good feeling about this.)

 

After that I hit Which Brew for dinner, where I got into a few really good conversations. I was talking bikes with Gary early on, and then it turns out that the girl sitting next to him knows Lars Tribus -- small world, though he does live somewhere in NJ, like near Holland Twp or something.

 

Later in the evening some of us let our geek flags fly: talking with two guys (Ed's roommate Mike, and a buddy of his wearing a GNU teeshirt), turns out they do network stuff for Lafayette College, working on some major project, and they are big into Open Source. Some dude on the other side of the room joined in, and poor Ed got stuck in the middle...

 

The girls were cool, letting us hang out & BS for a while after last call while they cleaned up. Since last call there is 11:00, it was once again a late-but-not-too-late evening, at least not until I got home. Some thought struck me, and I wanted to look up something or other... computer, internet, Google, Wikipedia, saw a whole bunch of other shiny things to go ADD over and completely forgot what I was originally looking for. Ended up at like 1:45 AM reading the Anabasis online.

 

 

 

 

Cowquaculture! I Want A Cowquarium!

Morning weigh-in: 164.5#, 11% BF

 

Good news, bad news? I'm liking those weights, but the body fat percentages? ...eh, not so much. I suspect that my body fat was reading a "false low" of around 11%-12% when I was heavier, because my scale reads body fat based on electrical impedance through the legs, where there was very little fat. That number shouldn't change as the fat disappears from areas, like my gut, that don't have any impact on the measurement -- at least, that's what I hope is happening. The (somewhat disquieting) alternative explanation is that I'm losing muscle as well as fat, while the percentage remains the same; I find that hard to believe though, since my strength is actually up.

 

W101, NFA (Phase Zero) Mission Accomplished: Either way, I have reached my "number" goal -- I'm below 165 pounds. (My real-world goal is to get rid of all the chub, and the mirror tells me that I have a little more work to do.) I guess it's time to talk about why I decided to lose the weight...

 

Next year I'll be doing the Wilderness 101 again, and I'm involved with a challenge with my friend Greg M (among others), that he calls "No Fucking Around." You can treat the W101 as a lark for extremely tough people, or as a survival contest for the weekend warriors, but what he wants is for us to take it seriously as a race, and do whatever you have to, to get the best time there that you can. For me that means some serious training, but before that I have to prepare myself to even begin that real training. Hence the weight loss -- this is a good time of year for it too, since the dieting is not very bike-friendly, but cycling should not be a big priority at this point in the training year anyway. Next up will be the introduction of cardio and base work into the mix, of low intensity but gradually increasing volume, a phase that will probably last for several months.

 

My actual goal is to break 10 hours in the race. I absolutely know I can do this, but I also know it won't happen by not caring.

 

Teh Funny: This Sadly, No! post got this comment, which brought about this comment in reply, which made me spit coffee on my computer screen.

 

Anyway, kick-ass yoga class last night, followed by the second half of a turkey sub that I bought for lunch. Tonight is the gym, followed by laundry and dinner at Which Brew.

Blast From The Past

Morning weigh-in: 165.5#, 10.5% BF

 

Listening to college radio on the way in this morning, the DJ played some early Blues Traveler in honor of their 20th anniversary or something; the song he played featured the guy who would eventually become the lead sing for the Spin Doctors. He dedicated the song to "everyone who used to hang out at The Wetlands." I was never a real fan of either band -- actually, I hated the Spin Doctors -- but I did see them once or twice at The Wetlands. At least, I think I did. Those were the days...

 

Ho Hum, What Else: Went to the gym last night, really good workout -- my legs are stronger right now (at the beginning of leg weightlifting season) than they've ever been. Dinner was black beans.

 

Got a flu shot today. Tonight is yoga, then I'm making tuna & wilted greens.

Watch The World Die

Morning weigh-in: 167#, 9.5% BF

 

It was strange on Sunday how warm and pleasant it was. We were joking about global warming as we rode, but it was obvious that the insects were all discombobulated, and then we started talking about colony collapse disorder... It really wasn't that unusually warm, but it did seem like we were in the middle of a swan song, one last kiss before the end. It's probably just winter approaching, but I could think of  worse ways to live out the end of the world than watching it from the woods.

 

Speaking of woods and the world's end, here are some dispatches from the current apocalypse. Good luck, Tbogg.

 

Last night was "active rest:" beginner yoga; it was a nice class with a pretty big turnout. I hit Porters afterward, for dinner and Monday Night Football. Not exactly the most exciting I ever saw, but I stuck around until the end anyway. Saw Eamon and Kateryna (best guesses on spelling) towards the end; they bought me a drink, so I bought them drinks, and then I absconded -- they're bartenders, night owls, I couldn't let things get too late on a school night...

 

Went home right after the game, late but reasonable -- then I blew it by posting my R.B. Winter photos on flickr, playing with computer until 1:30 or so. Enjoy the photos, morning wake-up was easy but I'm hurting now.

 

Tonight is the gym, then probably an early bedtime.

 

 

Swim Out Past The Breakers

Morning weigh-in: 165.5#, 11% BF

 

 

Damn fine weekend. Beautiful weather, sort of "Indian Summer's Indian Summer," as a certain author might say...

 

Friday I took a rest day, worked on the bikes instead of riding them, then went and did that Haunted Historic Tour of downtown Easton. It was pretty neat, and I got a few photos (already posted, you know what to do). I ran into a bunch of friends, including D&L, Spanky, and E-Rock, as well as Heath & Hans, all peeps you don't see over there much these days. Lotsa good conversation, then I drifted over to Porters to catch Brujos playing. Got and posted some pics over there too.

 

One thing I found out on that tour is that Easton Library was built on a graveyard. They relocated most of the graves to other cemeteries, but the bodies they couldn't identify they re-interred in an unmarked mass grave -- supposedly it's visible as a depression in the street behind the library. Since I'd parked downtown, on the (very late) walk back to my car I decided to try and find the grave... I have photos of that too, but they're just blurry, underexposed shots of asphalt so I didn't post them. Luckily I didn't get arrested, or jumped.

 

I had the best intentions to go to the early morning yoga class on Saturday, but did not actually wake up until a half hour after the class started. Oh well, coffee shop for breakfast, then I went to the gym. Chores, errands -- later in the afternoon I got in a ride at Sals with Larry, a friend from Porters. Nice ride, kind of mellow but I don't think it was what I led him to expect when I sold him on the ride. Dinner was Which Brew with a Japanese bossa nova band, and more BS'ing with whoever happened to sit next to me.

 

Sunday was Teh Awesome. I met Doug, Eric, Rich and Bob in Tannersville for breakfast, then we made the trek out to RB Winter. Beautiful weather, bright blue sky and an unseasonable 70 degrees, it was a perfect day for a ride, especially since the foliage up there was just about peaking. The ride itself was the usual "Cowbell Hollow / Top Mountain Trail" epic, maybe 29 miles total on a mix of jeep roads and super-rocky, technical singletrack. I think some people were hurting by the end, but I felt great, and really we all rode well. Long day: I got home about 13 hours after I left the house in the morning.

 

Tonight is "active rest" with the beginner yoga class, then I might post pics from the ride.