Snow Riders

Morning weigh-in: 172.5#, 9.5% BF

 

Went out last night on the towpath, but I started late (8:00, an hour after my  planned "late start" at 7:00) and wanted to be done by 9:00, so I only went to Freemansburg before turning around -- the snow made for very slow going. After that I met Anne and her friend Lois at Brew Works; Lois was leaving, so we moved up the bar and chatted with the bartender while I grabbed some dinner.

 

Ick Regis: Anne's friend Joyce just wrote a novel, and I was checking it out on Amazon when I came across this blog post. Pretty awesome, and it kind of reminded me of the ending to Kim.

 

Tonight, hopefully, is a group ride on the towpath, like the one last week.

 

Getting My Monday Morning Quarter Back

Morning Weigh-in: 172#, 10% BF

 

Hopefully they (the official morning weigh-ins) will be more frequent in the future. I am not officially a Bedlamite, but I do send a lot of my time over at Anne's now, so I moved most of my toys -- except the computer, but I do have the laptop there -- over to her place, and that pile of toys includes the Official Morning Weigh-in And OCD Scale. Poor Anne!

 

The first week of training is done by the way, and I'm now into Week 2 of "Base Period 1:" the same low-intensity rides as the first week, only more of them, while strength training continues in the gym. Week 1 worked out pretty well, except that I was very tired Saturday morning,(after my Friday evening Towpath ride), and blew off my scheduled yoga and gym sessions.

 

A quick FYI digression: I have three Base Periods scheduled, and three Build Periods after that, each period lasting three weeks and followed by a less intense "rest week," and that should take me into July, when I transition into race mode.

 

So how did I spend my Saturday? Anne and I walked downtown in the snow, got a load of ingredients, and then spent the rest of the day brewing beer. Home brewing is not a very laborious process but it takes a while, and there's a lot lots of downtime while water heats up or cools down, grains steep etc, so, "brewing" really meant we spent the day reading, playing with the computer and watching movies (The Matrix, The Big Lebowski) while the snow fell. We didn't actually finish until about 1:30 AM, but there is now a giant, 5-gallon jug of Porter fermenting in her living room.

 

Sunday was supposed to be a fun group ride, mixed road and offroad around south Bethlehem, but the snowstorm nixed that, and we -- Anne and I, Doug & Lori, and Eric & Kris -- went XC skiing instead, up in Jim Thorpe. We went along the old Switchback Railroad from Mauch Chunk Lake Park to Summit Hill and back; it took us about 2 hours, maybe a little longer. Beautiful day, and great conditions except some places where the ski tracks had been stepped on by hikers and snowshoers -- that's actually illegal in NY state, and I wish that were true here too. Great day though, lots of fun even though I forgot my poles.

 

Dinner was at the Hotel Switzerland, or whatever it's currently called, and I studiously avoided watching the game to avoid jinxing it, but apparently my superstitious mojo wasn't enough, and the Giants lost. A sad day...

 

Tonight is a towpath ride, and tomorrow is a group training ride on the towpath.