James and Me

Don's Memorial
Originally uploaded by hanskneller.

Here's a photo of me at the Young Democrats Club in Williamsport, taken by my friend, fellow PPRACster and flickrite Hans. The guy on the wall behind me is our eleventh President, James K. Polk.

The connection? I do this ride in memory of my friend Mike, who passed away in 2003 (among other people). He served on the nuclear sub USS James K. Polk, and came down with his first bout of lymphoma while in the Navy.

A Little More of the Old Catch-Up

Morning weigh-in (Tuesday): 178.5#, 6% BF (Mug Club Nite Monday)
Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 176.5, 11% BF
Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 177#, 11% BF

Reading: I picked up sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs the other day, and read it on vacation. The verdict: annoying -- the guy's not nearly as clever as he thinks. Meantime though, I got Babylon's Burning at the same time and also started it on vacation; it's a history of punk from about 1974 through Nirvana (maybe 1992). Big thick meaty book, full of facts, stories, extensive quotes, I'll be enjoying this for a while. (Speaking of annoying, I've also been having a hard time finishing Black Swan Green, it's just getting a little tedious.)

Listening: Patti Smith's 1975 debut Horses. I now have "Land" on CD, and also "Gloria." Sweet!

Rode Tuesday at Sals, saw that I was still not quite recovered... Monday was beginner yoga (hot, and I was the only one who showed up so there was no hiding from the teacher), and Wednesday was the intermediate class, where the teacher "took it easy" but I was still a puddle of sweat.

More PPRAC news: I finished posting my vacation pics onto flickr, you can see all 121 of them in this set. (You can also find a bunch of photos by others in this group photo pool.) Enjoy!

Vacation's Over

Morning weigh-in: 178#, 10% BF

That's pretty good, I didn't gain weight on the trip (and since I had pizza/soda last night the loss was probably more until damage was done).

Believe it or not, I went for a ride yesterday. I felt a little edgy, like I was missing something (and surprisingly, did not feel tired), so I decided to do a towpath ride on the Turner. This meant about an hour or so of long-overdue maintenance first, but I got rolling around 5:30, and met Doug & Lori, as well as Eric & Kris, Eric & Janna, Joe and Cindy and Joe G down at Musikfest. I gave Doug the ribbon I carried on the ride (with the names of two friends who died in the past year), then stuck around for a few songs before bolting.

(I'll probably be doing the Musikfest thing again later in the week.)

Got home, found the boy two houses over using a broom and stepladder to try and get something off my roof -- the girl next door is now attracting the attention of the local boys, including this dork, who threw her flip-flop up there. Out the bedroom window with my own broom, problem solved, then it was time for some pizza on the porch.

...And I'm Back

Got home yesterday. I've basically been resting and doing laundry ever since, though I have posted a few pictures on flickr: check this set for what I've already posted, and stay tuned for more...

The trip was awesome. The rides were tough (especially later in the week), the scenery was beautiful, and the people -- the riders, the support crew, and the people who took care of us in the towns -- were the most wonderful group you could want to be counted among. I've been on an emotional high all week, and when things finally ended I actually felt kind of depressed that it was over.

Watch for ride stories as the week progresses.

One more for the list of heroes: My cousin Ed donated online while I was away. Way to go Ed!

Be Right Back...

Morning weigh-in (remember them?): 179#, 11% BF

Zoinks! But then again, I've been tapering/slacking, and also eating out a lot, over the past week. I usually gain weight on the PPRAC ride though, so I better be careful.

I am out of here; in about 10 minutes I'll be leaving for the starting point (Holy Trinity Church, Palmerton PA), first step on the road to um, Erie... See you all in a week, hopefully with some good stories.

Thanks again to all my wonderful sponsors -- you rock, but now I gotta roll.

Vermont Photos

Me On Burke Mountain
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

This is a shot of me at the top of Burke Mountain; after the day's ride, we drove to the top to check out the view. Not the best portrait because of the lighting -- I processed some others to get better brightness on the faces, maybe I should have done it here too -- but the scenery is good. You can find the rest of my photos here.

Enjoy!

The Road To Mandalay

I've been back from Vermont (which was lovely) all week, just haven't had a chance to post. We have a new Internet policy at work, all sorts of sites are restricted now -- so the days of the lunchtime epistle are over...

Getting ready for my next trip (the Cancer Ride), which starts Sunday.

More for the wall of heroes:

Uncle Pat
Claire
Lawrence
Doug and Lori

Thanks for supporting me!

Linux Voyager, Hardware/Gadget Edition: I've been preparing for the trip all week, and one thing I did was buy a new memory stick for my camera. The one I already have is old; it's sort of "two-sided" and each side holds only 128 Mb, so I got a new 1-Gig card -- since the new card has a different shape it came with a special adapter for the camera. Well, the card works great in the camera, but the printer cannot read it -- my printer has a built-in memory card reader, but for some reason it reports an error when it tries t access this one. Encryption, DRM? Whatever... I had no other way to read the card, so I picked up a USB memory stick reader today. Fiddled with the fstab file and everything was A-OK. My computer is now festooned with USB gingerbread.

Short Week

Morning weigh-in (Monday): 175.5#, 12.5% BF
Morning weigh-in (Tuesday): 177.5#, 9% BF

B-b-but where was the booze? Normally when the body fat is down like that and the weight's up, it means I went out the night before... last night was yoga and dinner at home, but there was probably a bounceback from some weekend weight/water suppression.

Thursday night: Gym workout with Dawn, then Which Brew to catch Post Junction. It was a later night than I would have wanted: they usually close at 11:00 on weeknights, but stayed open until midnight, and I stuck around for the whole show.

Friday night: Had what was probably my best towpath time in two years, 22.5 miles in 1:20, just below a 17 mph average (personal bests used to be 1:28 for 25.4 miles, ten years and 20 pounds ago when I lived on Southside). I was trying to make it home in time to go to a special Kirtan Workshop at Easton Yoga, but I was late for the start (like, over an hour late) so I skipped it. Which Brew for dinner, where I saw the Dan DeChellis Trio (sans the sax player, which would have made it a quartet anyway); I also saw some people who went to the Kirtan thing, and they told me I missed a great event. Oh well, there'll be another one in September, and the show at WB was good.

Saturday: Great yoga class, super workout with some different things (mostly from Kundalini yoga) in the mix. After that I skipped the gym, and went out on an exploration...

Patience, Willow: I rode down almost to Bethlehem, to check out the ruins of an abandoned amusement park. (When I mentioned this place to friends, I got a few stories about trips there as kids -- I also heard stories from younger friends, about sneaking into the place after it was closed.) I didn't find much, but it was my first visit, more recon than anything else -- there's supposed to be quite a bit still there, if you know where to look. I'll be back, but most likely on foot, and I'll probably do it in the fall/winter, when the vegetation is dormant.

Euro Vision: This was close to the Freemansburg section of the towpath, so I dropped on to that and cruised back to Easton. I hit downtown and did a mini "hub crawl" -- like a pub crawl, only on the bike -- stopping at setta Luna (first time there: had a Hoegaarden), then Pearly Baker's (Dogfish Head Farmhouse Ale), and finally Which Brew (Weyerbacher Muse), where I also got a burger and a coffee. Outdoor dining all the way, it was a pretty sweet setup.

Saturday Night: BBQ/Party at the Rigler's, a blowout they do every year with their next-door neighbor. Good time, but I (mostly) stuck to the Diet Cokes at that point.

Payback, Bi-yatch! Sunday was a ride at Blue Marsh with Joe & Cindy and Eric. Fun but relentlessly aerobic -- and fast -- and I eventually cracked by trying to keep up with the rockets. They stopped for some lunch at the beachside snack shack, and I passed them without realizing, so they eventually caught me and we finished together. Twenty four miles, two and a half hours, 100 ounces of E-Load (and a quart of OJ plus 20 oz of Coke on the ride home), I was spanked.

I'm going up to Vermont for a long weekend this Thursday, tonight is yoga and bike prep.

Bring On The Dancing Horses

Morning weigh-in: 176#, 11.5% BF

Great but very active/sweaty yoga workout last night, followed by a bag-o-salad for dinner -- I ran out of honey-mustard dressing so I made my own (ingredients: honey, mustard, plus a little lemon juice and olive oil but -- duh), tasted great. Tonight is the gym.

Listening: Some late-era Echo & the Bunnymen CD. New versions of old hits, dance mixes etc; when I bought it I was disappointed, but right now I'm really digging it for some reason. Maybe because I forgot what the originals sounded like?

Who's The Samaritan Now, Eh? An Observation: I'm in the Valley Mountain Bikers, a local bike club with maybe 200 members (30-50 active ones), and when I solicited for PPRAC donations I got nothing, zip, zilch -- this is my third PPRAC ride, and I got similar results for those rides too. Right now one member is fighting cancer, by the way.

Meantime, I asked Kelly Jo, Mistress of Which Brew, to send something out on her mailing list (shout-out: Thanks K-Jo!); it went out yesterday and I already have two donations.

A good Samaritan had a dollar. He walks into a bar and says to the bartender...

Trees! Treeeeeeees!!!!!

Morning weigh-in: 176.5#, 11% BF

Weight's still bouncing around between 175 and 179, looks like the problem -- as always -- is diet, so I guess I'll have to re-rededicate myself to losing that weight. Re, re, re, re, re, re, re, re... Last week I rode 220 miles; so far this week my mileage is zero. I'm working on it.

My town is once again an official disaster area, this time from a major thunderstorm which blew through yesterday. Lots of big trees in my neighborhood fell down, like onto houses and power lines; two big ones are down on my block alone and we actually got off easy. Roads closed everywhere, it was like a crazy maze trying to get around all the roadblocks and one-way streets in Wilson. Power was out (for safety reasons I think), and only came back on around 3:00 AM. I decided to skip cooking, went down to Which Brew (natch), where power was also out but they were serving beer, salads & hummus, so that's what I had for dinner. They closed when it got dark.

By the way, fireworks were great for Heritage Day, ditto Mary's "Merritage Day Party," and the 80-mile ride before all that was also great, even if it was stinking hot. My friends and I all seem to be riding well.

We Can Be Heroes

Morning weigh-in: 179#, 9.5% BF

PPRAC Hall of Fame: Thanks Mom & Dad for your generous donation!

Took a half day today to get some bank biz done, going for an early afternoon ride after I'm done. Bad food day yesterday (breakfast, or breakfasts, mostly to blame), but it was a good night in the gym, and I actually feel pretty fit.

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling

Morning weigh-in: 177#, 10.5% BF

So my car went into the shop Monday night for an oil change; since I got some other things done it was an all-day event Tuesday, with early-bird drop-off. Mug Club Monday night at Which Brew, home, bike on car & drop it off. Ride to work Tuesday, then to shop for car Tuesday night. Yesterday was the Independence Day ride and picnic (both of which were lovely) -- and I realized that, for the past several days, I'd been doing a bike ride every 12 hours or so...

By the way, yahoo is phasing out their photo section, so I had them import my photos into Flickr. I'll be organizing them soon, stay tuned.

Starting the Enlightenment with a Ka-BOOM! Happy anniversary, Principia Mathematica!

Night's Legal Tender

Morning weigh-in: 176.5#, 13.5% BF

So put on your Ghost Shirt,
As if that will save you,
And if you can pray,
Well, pray for rain too...

Highlight of the weekend? The incredible Friday night, or Saturday's hung-over yoga? The killer ride, the angry rattlesnake, the streamside BBQ, the peach cake? The house with the breezy composting toilet?? Not even your hairdresser knows for sure.

Running Between The Raindrops

Morning weigh-in: oops! forgot to weigh in...

Good towpath ride last night. Radar showed storms to north & south, but I-78 corridor was clear so I took the chance. Not a fast ride, but steady -- until it looked like a storm was coming so I cranked up the speed on the way back. Time was 1:36, not bad, and I just barely beat the storm.

Tonight is the gym.

Reading: Still on Black Swan Green. Interesting, it's all first-person singular, following one character, but the book's structure is still pure David Mitchell: every chapter is a new story, each fairly separate from the rest but each building a part of the larger story. What was that word, vignettes?

I Am The Owl

Morning weigh-in: 178#, 12% BF

Everything Comes Back To A Dead Kennedys Song: The CIA took themselves a big document dump, of stuff they did from 1959 to 1973 or so, that they thought might have been illegal -- they're calling it the "Family Jewels." For the past few days this has been the buzz internet story -- but this ain't news, any more than it's news that professional wrestling is fake, even when a wrestler admits it's fake.

"...in ten years or so we'll leak the truth,

but by then it's only so much paper!"

-- Dead Kennedys, "I Am The Owl"

Anyway, Svaroopa yoga last night, followed by dinner at Which Brew, where I saw Fred & Lara fresh (or not so fresh) off the plane from France. They were there for a friend's wedding, just got home, jet-lagged and no food in the house... I had some Sea Dog Wild Blueberry Wheat, presumably Maine blueberries in it because that's where Sea Dog is located. Meantime, I'm all for local stuff, but I bought a pint of NJ blueberries last week, and they are the blandest berries I've ever tasted, blander even than California agri-biz strawberries. Judging by that beer, those Maine berries must have been sweeeeeet...

Yackety Yak

Morning weigh-in: 177.5#, 12% BF

Not much being said here lately, sorry. It's not that that I have nothing to say, maybe more like too much, and not enough time to get to putting it down, and so the words are lost along with the moment.

Quick Recap: Thursday was run/gym, then Which Brew; Friday was towpath/Sals, then which Brew/Porters; Saturday was yoga/gym, then Which Brew; Sunday was a good solid 20 miles at Allamuchy with Bob and Joe & Cindy. Last night was yoga followed by dinner at Porters while the laundry cooked.

Vignette #1: Been fighting the weight again; as soon as I hit 175 the "nutritional discipline meltdown" comes into play, incredible urges for greasy foods, burgers & pizza etc. I think it's time for a closer look at my diet: I may be eating too much, but really not getting enough of what my body needs, hence the binges.

Vignette #2: Friday's band was smoking hot at Which Brew, could hardly tear myself away to go see Post Junction at Porters. But that was even better: ended up dancing with my (tipsy but married) neighbor as she celebrated her birthday. Dirty dancing, as the kids might call it -- the block party could prove awkward this year...

Vignette #3: Saw KEF at Which Brew on Saturday; their bassist is a blind black guy. I remember thinking wow, racism must make even less sense to blind people.

Vignette # 4: Rode surprisingly well on Sunday (actually, it's not really a surprise anymore), despite a tough start. When we got to the top of one not-as-difficult-as-it-seemed climb, one of my friends said "Yeah, the old Don is back." After a year of injury and recovery -- Yes!

Vignette #4.1: The latest energy food crazes are Clif Shot Blocks (like jello shots), and Jelly Belly's Energy Beans. I realized on Sunday that, as an adult, I spend most of my free time in the woods, riding my bicycle and eating candy...

Bloody Mary: For some reason I was thinking about this again recently.

Rocketman

Morning weigh-in (Tuesday): 178#, 11.5% BF
Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 176#, 13% BF

Rode last night with my friend Joe (the "fast guy"). The plan was to do about 5000 feet in 60 miles after work -- a brutal ride -- but we got cut short by weather and only did about 40 miles, and just shy of 3000 ft in elevation gain. Brutal enough, in my opinion... Dinner afterward was BBQ chicken with him and his girlfriend Sue.

Tonight is the Chain Gang meeting.

My Big Bear Photos

The Sid's Bikes Crew
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

Yep they're now in flickr, and you can see the set here. Enjoy!

Burnt, Basted, Prostaglandinated

Morning weigh-in: 175.5#, 13% BF

Legs & body are very tired this morning, probably from yesterday's ride. I did Sals via the towpath: four hours of riding, 33 miles, of which maybe ten were singletrack. Visited the folks yesterday, noticed the fatigue when swimming with my nephew.

Good visit, by the way. As always, photos to come soon...

I was going to ride in to work today, but decided against it, rest day is what the doctor orders, and I'll hit the yoga class & call it "active rest." Got up this morning and did a headstand, no cheating or leaning against the wall or nuthin.

VO2 Max

How time flies: I wrote this a year ago. Then again (of course), I wrote this two years ago, and this three years ago.

My legs feel a little tired and stiff right now (long ride Friday night, yoga and the gym yesterday), but lately I've been feeling (and riding) pretty strong on the bike, especially on hills. It might be the dropped weight, or maybe the body's adaption to the dropped weight (more likely, since there was a time lapse between the initial weight loss and the fitness jump), or maybe it's just the harder miles I've been doing, especially at Round Valley but also the bike commute. I noticed it a little at RV on a few of the recent rides, and actually surprised myself on the hills at Big Bear -- I was flying up things, made a lot of passes on grades and even steeps. I think my VO2 max must be rising, which is a good thing. It does go up with weight loss, but I think the real reason is better aerobic capacity overall -- and I think there's been a rise in my high-end, anaerobic endurance as well. Hey I'll take the win.

Reading: Still doing Black Swan Green, but I also have been re-reading at Faulkner's "The Bear," just nibbling.

One More From The Stealth Apocalypse: The birds, especially songbirds, have been disappearing for a while now, but here's something on a more personal level. (By the way, I remember being seriously creeped out by Lovecraftian whipporwills myself as a kid.)

"Who you gonna blame when your slaves all die of sorrow?" -- me

Friday Doldrums Blogging

Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 176#, 9% BF
Morning weigh-in (Friday): 176#, 10.5% BF

Yoga Wednesday night, followed by dinner at Which Brew. Gym, plus running, yesterday followed by a turkey sub for dinner. Tonight will be towpath/Sals, then off to meet the crew at Grumpy's, a BBQ/rib place in Allentown where I've never been.

I don't have much to say, but this should prove inspirational. Now go play outside!

Glamour

Morning weigh-in: 175#, 9% BF

After the gym yesterday I cruised over to the Wal-Mart, bought some socks and underwear, and while there I bought a few "gingham" (whatever that might mean) shirts: short sleeve, button-down, plaid polyester. I bought them for work, but at eight bucks a pop I'll wear them as riding jerseys if worst comes to worst...

Meanwhile, the Lizard Princess: I saw a post on James Wolcott's blog where he was ragging on those outraged by Paris's expecting & getting special treatment; his reply was essentially "welcome to the real world!" (Though I think he actually used "modern world.")

My thought was yes, the glitterati have always been playing a bit above the law, but back in the day we would not have seen this kind of circus for less than a murder... so here's to DUI, the great equalizer.

More from West Virginny

Morning weigh-in: 175#, 11% BF

This is a shot taken by Steve, our team captain. Tom (wearing the helmet) had just completed our last lap and the race is over. Our results can be found here (we're "Sids Bikes 2," click on the team name to see our stats) and our other team's results are here -- they took 3rd in their division if you can't guess their name...

I still haven't posted my photos, but I did narrow down my selection to 42 pictures, which I'll post probably within another day or so.

By the way: yoga yesterday, gym today -- no ride: thunderstorms and fatigue. Tomorrow is more yoga, then Thursday I'm back on the bike. Saw the coolest storm cell today, looked like a mushroom cloud, something you'd see over Bikini Atoll.

More Fun In West Virginia

Morning weigh-in: 175.5#, 9.5% BF

I'm back, had a great time. I have about 100 pictures -- took over 150, but I've already culled the real duds -- of which maybe 50 merit posting, stay tuned...

The race was awesome.

Been Thinking Again About The Stealth Apocalypse

Morning weigh-in: 175.5#, 13% BF

"If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man."

-- Albert Einstein (attributed)

Anyway, good ride last night, Round Valley with Kevin McGatha. Mechanical problems prevented me from climbing the second of the Three Sisters hills, but other than that (and of course the "impossible" entrance section) I rode everything there; I'm actually surprised at how well I'm doing on climbs like Anaerobic Detour these days. Too bad I blew chunks at the end of the ride -- some pollen towards the end made me get all phlegmy & post-nasal. It was weird, with a very sudden onset; I coughed so hard I ended up gagging.

Pushing thru the market square, so many mothers sighing

News had just come over, we had five years left to cry in

News guy wept and told us, earth was really dying

Cried so much his face was wet, then I knew he was not lying

-- David Bowie, "Five Years"

The Big Buzz

Morning weigh-in: 178.5#, 11% BF

Back to the boring posts. Yoga last night, followed by the Which Brew monthly Mug Club dinner -- not two days after the annual party, and maybe that's why it seemed a little quiet. Tonight is Svaroopa yoga, then I'm prepping for this weekend's race. Tomorrow is a ride at Round Valley.

UPDATE: Scooter gets 30 months. Sweet!

The View From Lunch

Morning weigh-in: 177.5#, 10% BF

In The News: Well, it looks like the Lizard Princess is off to jail, and I'm suggesting "Summer's Eve" for this guy's new nickname.

Reading: I just finished David Mitchell's number9dream. I had a lot of trouble with it at the start, just couldn't get into it like his other books, but I brought it down with me on vacation and knocked off a good chunk of it down there. It got a lot better, and I was totally engrossed in the story only to be disappointed by the ending, which I thought was a little too literary -- by that point I was just looking for some "happily ever after."

Now I'm reading Mitchell's Black Swan Green, just started this morning.

Truly Sad News

Rest in peace, Steve Gilliard. I guess you couldn't call it unexpected, because he'd been scary sick for a while, but this is still a gut-punch. Someone (Kos?) once called him "the best ranter on the Internet," and the News Blog was one I read every day for his take on current events, as well as food, beer and technology reviews; I might also point out that he absolutely nailed it, three or four years ago, calling out the exact shape the Iraq war would take (I heard of the Mahdi Army from the News Blog, long before they were on anyone else's radar) and illustrating his points with history lessons from WWII and colonial wars. His interests and outlook were very close to my own, and his was a voice I trusted to tell it like he saw it, and also to get it right.

I'm kind of upset, so I don't think I'll say any more, but Jane Hamsher has something to say worth reading, and so does Lindsay Beyerstein.

The Weekends Go Too Fast

Gonna Party Like It's Nineteen Seventy Nine
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

Friday was pretty mellow (no ride because of the thunderstorms that kept threatening, dinner at Which Brew, early night because I was out Thursday night in Bethlehem) but Saturday was jam-packed: I ran in the morning, then hit the gym, and then decided to get a ride in before the rain, and in between all that were various errands & chores etc. Got a lot done, I was pretty happy actually.

I was under the gun because I wanted to get down to the annual Mug Club Party at Which Brew. It kicked off at 5:00; I got there at 6:30 but no worries, the party went all night. Great food as usual, free cask-conditioned Weyerbacher Muse, and a DJ playing disco. Photos are posted on flickr, check 'em out.

Sunday was trailwork at Sals, chainsawing fallen trees (damage from several recent storms), as well as cutting back a lot of the underbrush where it was encroaching on the trail. Quick lunch in Bethlehem, then we went back for a ride but we were all pretty tired and the rainn finall started coming down, so we cut it short.

A Million Stories: Salamander

Salamander
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

I took this photo on my recent trip. These tiny little salamanders look just like fluorescent gummy bears, and there are times when they are literally everywhere.

About ten years ago or so, a friend and I did the Wild 100, an orienteering-style mountain bike race at Slatyfork. We were riding together, but got a late start (my fault) and then took a less traveled route to the first checkpoint, so wildlife had not yet been spooked by the race passing by. Riding up the USFS road, I couldn't get over how many of these guys were out sunning themselves in the gravel.

My friend said, "You don't see that every day."

And I replied with, "Yeah, it's amazing how many of them there are, they're everywhere you look. With that fluorescent orange color, they look almost edible."

He looked at me for a second like I'd totally lost it, and said, "You do know that I'm talking about the bear that ran across the road, not ten feet in front of us, right?"

Um...

Levez Vos Skinny Fists Comme Antennas to Heaven

I've been listening to Godspeed You! Black Emperor's "Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven" obsessively and almost exclusively since the return trip from West Virginia. Especially the first movement, which is the ultimate driving song for cruising serious mountain roads. I was listening to it on the drive from Judy Gap to Harrisonburg, probably the coolest road I know, and it felt like I had died and was driving towards Heaven, sort of like Doc Melhorne or maybe the couple in The Robe (or whatever) who walk off into the clouds at the end. Sad, very "parting is such sweet sorrow" at the start, but building toward a triumphant end.

No Country For Old Men

Morning weigh-in: 177.5#, 8% BF

I'm back, had a great time. Many things to say...

By the way, I re-read Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men while I was down there. It's the story, circa 1980, of an aging small-town Texas sheriff caught up in the middle of a drug war: a botched heroin deal leaves a dozen bodies in the desert, where a local finds them and takes off with $2.2 million, chased by the sheriff and an army of drug-cartel hit men. It was an interesting juxtaposition to The Reverend Horton Heat's "Low Flying Plane:" I like to listen to him whenever I'm down in Slatyfork, and that's his song about a farmer who becomes a millionaire drug dealer after finding bales of cocaine in his fields. Two sides of a coin...

Kind of funny analogy, I did a lot of my riding on the Gauley Mountain trail system, but I've always considered the singletrack at Snowshoe to be superior. On Sunday I went over to Snowshoe, but found that things had changed...

The top of the mountain -- which once was empty, but now looked a bit like Disneyworld -- was where the action was, and that was where I finally found a bike shop. (I expected that I'd have to pay, or at least sign a waiver, before riding on their land, so I was looking for the official bike scene.) The place was packed to the gills with downhill bikers in full armor, and there were (packed) shuttles constantly running from the bottom of the hill back to the trailheads up top. Average age was 20 years younger than me.

I was told that if I wasn't going to use the lifts or shuttles I didn't need to pay, just hop on the trails and have fun, but once I got going I found their once-awesome XC trail system to be almost gone: overgrown, covered with debris, and generally suffering from neglect. Sad, actually. Sunday turned out to be my shortest ride day; I was disappointed and bailed early, which actually turned out to be a good thing because I managed to avoid the only bad weather of the whole trip (thunderstorms).

I left Snowshoe feeling like that superannuated sheriff. Luckily, the hippie-granola cross-country trails were still fine at Gauley...

I'm Outta Here!

Morning weigh-in: 177.5#, 12.5% BF

Well, not for a few hours yet, but I'm driving down to Slatyfork WV tonight. I should be hitting the Gauley Mountain trails around 9:00 or 10:00 tomorrow morning, then checking in at Elk River in the afternoon. Sweet! I'll be coming home Monday -- I'll be trying to get in as much riding as I can in those four days, maybe a day or two at Snowshoe, and a couple of rides behind Elk River...

Rode to work yesterday, hit yoga class on the way home, went to Porter's for dinner. Picked up the bike tonight from Saucon Valley Bikes, with Doug's loaner fork on it. (My fork is in the mail & on the way back to Marzocchi; I should see it in a week.)

Meantime, I have a whole bunch of new photos posted, including some from the race at Michaux, some from Mother's Day, a bunch from several early-spring rides in Jim Thorpe, and some from this past Sunday's "Dream Come True" charity road ride, not necessarily in that order. Enjoy!

See you next week, I'm off to talk to the trees again.

Thanks For Stopping By

Morning weigh-in: 178.5#, 12.5% BF

Same old same old: yoga & gym Saturday, "Dream Come True" charity road ride Sunday.

Expensive week, part 2: riding Round Valley Thursday, my front fork blew out. The bike is now in the shop but the fork has to go back to the factory for this kind of repair.

Not much to say otherwise.

The Art Of Living

Morning weigh-in: 179#, 9% BF

Yesterday was a pretty well-done day for me: bicycled in to work (only bad part was the 5:00 AM wake-up), work yadda yadda, then biked back to Easton for yoga, then home, then dinner at Which Brew -- something I wasn't too happy about weight-wise, but it was a very nice evening there.

As for Jerry Falwell's goodbye kiss, I think lapsed-Catholic Roy Edroso said it best, though I did like this retrospective.

Situation Normal

Morning Weigh-in: 181#, 9% BF

Bad nutrition weekend; last post said "not going out this weekend" but that's not exactly how it happened...

Friday night I met some friends at Sogo, a new Japanese / "Asian Fusion" place on Northampton Street. Eric & Janna, Eric & Kris, Greg, Doug & Lori, Deb -- they were there celebrating Eric B's birthday, and I really just stopped in to say hi but had a mohito while I was there. Damn fine summer drink, that mohito. I went to Which Brew after that (the others went to the Funhouse but I still wanted an early morning), had hot wings.

(Earlier in the evening I rode over steepest-road-in-NJ Fiddler's Elbow, thank you very much.)

Saturday was a bad day: I woke up out-of-sorts, did mediocre at yoga (no biggie but still), and at the coffee shop I noticed that the waitress was in a bit of a funk as well; I also noticed after leaving there that traffic was unusually bad -- not congested or aggressive, just bad, like everyone was in a funk. So it wasn't just me...

Drove all the way to Allentown to the PPRAC fundraiser at Wal-Mart (we would be riding our bikes on trainers and collecting change) and that's where I discovered that I did not have my front wheel. I must have left it outside in the alley! It was now noon (in other words, I was already late for the fundraiser) and the wheel had probably been sitting there -- or not --since I left the house at 7:30 AM...

I got home, of course the wheel was gone. I drove back to Allentown, held a bucket and worked the Wal-Mart crowd like a carnival barker. Got home, showered, took a nap, then went to Which Brew, which was closed for the evening. WTF?!? It was also raining.

Went across the street to Porters, where I had an entire cheese plate, a cheese steak and a couple of beers to drown my sorrow...

Sunday was a little better: I woke up to a beautiful day, so I hopped on the Turner and rode down the towpath to Sals. Had a great ride there, and on the way home I stopped in at the Blue Sky Cafe, ate an awesome french toast brunch. Nice solid 34 offroad miles, mellow pace.

In the afternoon I went to Howell (or Jackson, I forget what town exactly), down to my brother's house for a Mother's Day dinner. Lotta fun playing with my nephew, who got a lot bigger & more grown-up over the past few months, and also hanging out with the family. Dinner was General Tso's Chicken, followed by chocolate cake.

Yesterday was yoga (and the last of General Tso), and today will be yoga as well, but I also bicycled in to work today. Very pleasant.

The World Moves On a Woman's Hips

Morning weigh-in: 175.5#, 13.5% BF

My right hip is sort of feminine-shaped right now, much bigger at the lower point of the hip joint than the left one; it also has an enormous but somewhat diffuse yellowish bruise coming through from deep inside. Pain is mostly gone (it's still a bit sore to the touch but that's all), and all tightness has worked its way out: I'm pretty much recovered. Yoga and riding were definitely the right decisions.

VMB meeting at Sals last night, with pre-meeting ride. Rich B, Eric, Eric B, Doug, Trevor, Greg M, Rudy & a few others, some of whom started way earlier. Good ride, but I was disappointed in my technical riding (and speed: those guys are fast), and also with the ride's relatively short duration-- we only had an hour, which is really not enough time to let things develop. I was climbing well though, no complaints there. Pleasant (and as usual lately, very productive) out-of-doors meeting afterwards at the ballfield, then I went to Which Brew -- what, again? -- for dinner. Saw Stu & Kathy, a nice surprise on a weeknight, and sat out on the deck with them, as well as Perry, Judy (talking about her new place) and Ann. I think actually prefer weeknights at the WB over weekends, which is good because I'm probably not going out tonight or tomorrow.

Parting shot: Second night in a row I had a fan on in my bedroom. Bring the heat.

Hold My Hands And Pray For Rain

Morning weigh-in: 175.5#, 13% BF

Killer ride yesterday as I said, and hopefully I'll be up for another good ride tonight; the VMB meeting is at Sals and there's a ride beforehand. Rain cancels of course, and tomorrow will be the gym because of the rain.

Saturday will be yoga and then the PPRAC fundraiser at the Whitehall Wal-Mart; Sunday I'll be racing again, this time at French Creek. I hope I'm not overextending myself, doesn't feel like it but then again it never does until too late...

I'm pretty sure nutrition is the key to good fast recovery, which in turn is the key to multiple workouts. Last night I ate about 600 calories worth of couscous for dinner (this was post-ride, pre-ride I had a bowl of cereal with strawberries) as well as a quart of E-Load, I hit the glycogen window so I think I got a leg up on my replacement carbs. I ate all that on the porch, hanging with my neighbor Ebony, and Nick from across the street, pretending to not be nosy while the cops refereed an altercation between the teenage girls next door...

It Is A Mystery

Looking Up The Upper Switchback Trail
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

I took this photo a few months ago, while XC skiing with Doug & Lori. Other photos I posted from that day are getting maybe 5 or 10 views total, but this one has been looked at 83 times so far, making it my 18th most popular photo. I have no idea why -- I mean, it's a nice picture, I like it, but it just doesn't seem like anything special.

Anyway, rode the "northern benchmark" road ride tonight, 24 miles in 1:25, OK but really just average pace by the standards of a few years ago. I felt fast though, at least until I started the return trip and realized the way out had been with the wind...

One (OK, Two) For Sociability

Morning weigh-in: 178#, 13% BF

Stopped in last night at Bike King, bought new cleats which I'll put on tonight before hitting the road. I was planning on installing the cleats last night after Yoga (which was lovely), but I got a call from Doug, met him & Lori for a couple of beers at Which Brew. Very nice catch-up, hadn't seen them in a while.

I'd gone to Bike King on Monday as well, but had forgotten my wallet which necessitated the return trip yesterday, and with going out last night, I managed to extend to three days what should have been a 10 minute task -- D'oh! Anyway, I removed the old cleats (the hardest part of the job) this morning before work, and should be ready to ride pretty quickly tonight. The hip is just now starting to feel OK, so it's not like I missed anything.

Third Knee On My Hip

Morning weigh-in (Monday): 176.5#, 11.5% BF
Morning weigh-in (Tuesday): 178.5, 11% BF

Quick weekend recap: Friday was a hot lap on the towpath, followed by an abbreviated evening out (bed by 11:00 I'd guess), Saturday was a rest day, did some chores and had an even earlier evening out, bed by 8:00 for Sunday's 4:30 wake-up.

Michaux: A Race Report (something I wrote up for the Chain Gang)

It was an excellent day for racing and riding yesterday, and trail conditions were ideal, maybe even a bit on the dry side with a few notable exceptions. Joe and I, having left his house at some ungodly hour, and being sent on a detour through the woods, arrived around 8:30 AM, just after the 50-mile racers took off. Register, prep bikes, port-o-john, warmup, more port-o-john, and then we lined up for the start about 10:30.

The start setup, by the way, was different from previous years: we lined up on the dirt road behind registration, heading towards the parking lot entrance but from there straight, up that dirt road climb for about a mile and into about 4 miles of mixed single/doubletrack I'd never seen before. Very nice stuff, but also very tight and twisty, hard to pass -- and if anyone stops ahead, everyone's walking. That area ended with a boggy section, one of only three wet spots on the whole course, but like those other spots it was a giant mud pit; the trail literally went through a swamp. It was rideable, but once again we were forced off the bikes by the general chaos. That swamp was the last place I saw my left cleat...

I was pretty ticc'ed at first, and I lost a lot of time figuring out what happened & looking for a spare in my pack (no such luck or foresight), but in the end the handicap might have helped me: I was forced to be very careful with my foot, especially on technical climbs, and as a result I just toodled up at a sedate pace (where I might have gone in more aggressively, blown up, and walked), and actually passed a lot of guys walking up the hills.

Downhill I wasn't so fortunate. There's a lot of bike-handling done unconsciously through your feet, and for the most part (by forcing myself to think about it) I was able to compensate for that -- until one double log where I just bunny-hopped without thinking first... Foot flew to the side, bike plowed into the log and stopped, and I did a somersault over the bars, landing on my hip on a rock. I got to watch all the guys I just passed on the hill go by, thinking "those %$#!!&$ dudes probably think I'm some kind of roadie, passing on a hill and then crashing! I'll show them! Ow, I'll probably feel this tomorrow." (I was right on at least one count.)

The rest of the ride was uneventful. I was pretty far behind, and when I got to Grave's Ridge I was disappointed to see it was empty because I was cleaning it -- until I dabbed on something stupid in front of the only two spectators. That was at mile 15; there was maybe another mile or two of loamy singletrack, then a 5-6 mile jeep road climb (log sled trail, mainly), followed by a mile or so of rocky singletrack before the last bit of dirt road to the finish. My final time was 3:11 or so, just about what I expected (shooting for an average of 7.5 mph) so I was happy.

Saw Joe at the finish, first time I saw him since the start. He rode with Jay for most of the race, and his story is better than mine but you'll have to hear it from him. I also saw Joe Gabor at the finish; he did the 50-miler, and finshed not long after I did. He looked like death warmed over and said "this was harder than the Wilderness 101!" I'm guessing I made the right course choice...

Long ride home, made even longer by construction delays, but it was still one heck of a good day.

One last observation: the atmosphere was very laid-back, very "old school" as both Joe and Jay noted: things were very relaxed, there were quite a few racers taking "spliff breaks" on the course, and most everyone had a bottle of barley pop at the end. Sue, who ran support for Joe G at the rest areas, told us of one guy (probably not an official) trying to induce the 50-mile singlespeeders to chug a beer at the last rest stop, on the grounds that if they were that damn hardcore... He had a few takers.

So anyway, I have a huge (and very sore) welt on my hip, but last night's yoga helped out, and a few more days should get me back up to 100%. Dinner last night was at the monthly Mug Club at Which Brew, and tonight it'll probably be something light.

Lux Vomica (or, Thin Is In)

Morning weigh-in: 177#, 8.5% BF

Stupid hard ride yesterday with my friend Joe at Round Valley. He's way faster than I am, and I basically I came home crushed. Torched my lungs, I even vomited in the parking lot at the halfway point.

The ride was hard, but that wasn't the real problem. This is more of that early-spring postnasal drip thing, which dries and hardens in my throat and lungs, making me cough so hard I eventually gag. I went without my medicine yesterday: the Mucinex which thins everything out and dries up my sinuses, and the Astelin which keeps the passages open, and without them I had some serious problems riding. Well, now I know, I learned my lesson -- once again...

Tonight is the towpath, tomorrow is a rest day and Sunday I am racing Michaux. I will be taking my pills and spray with me. Gotta keep the lungs clear.

Berry Berry Bonth of Bay

Morning weigh-in: 176#, 12% BF

I forget what Wednesday's weigh-in was, but it wasn't good, maybe 179# or so, product of a Tuesday trip to Which Brew for dinner (instead of shopping -- but I was so hungry!) while my laundry dried.

Finally did my food shopping last night. Busy evening: haircut immediately after work, then I rode the singlespeed downtown for yoga -- did a headstand, which doesn't seem quite so grail-shaped anymore -- home, shopping, dinner, garbage, then went out and prepped the Turner for today's ride. (I'll be hitting Round Valley after work tonight.)

It is Springtime. It has always been springtime. Spring is finally here for real, the weather's nice, the trees are in full bloom, and it's berry season at the supermarket. Among my purchases yesterday were a box of strawberries, a box of raspberries and three boxes of blueberries. You'll never guess what i had for dinner last night -- or breakfast this morning...

I Only Think When Provoked

Morning weigh-in: 177.5#, 12% BF

Yesterday was an "active rest" day; I went to the beginner yoga class. It's nowhere near as athletically intense as some other classes (thus "active rest," the only class that's less physically demanding is tonight's Svaroopa class), but I always manage to come home with something new. Many times I've gone there thinking "man I know this stuff, why am I bothering with this baby course?" only to think afterward "wow I didn't know any of that -- how could I have been so stupid?" Anyway, good class as usual, but it was unusually crowded, I even saw someone there I knew. There must be an "intro to yoga" workshop going on: students usually take one regularly-scheduled class a week in addition to their workshop stuff.

Dinner was a salad, some cottage cheese and an apple -- in other words I must go grocery shopping tonight. (Well, I was planning on a light supper anyway.) I was supposed to do laundry last night, with a supermarket trip while it dried, but yesterday morning a friend showed up at my door, who was biking to work in the rain and had decided against it. I gave him a ride in, and he rode home on a different bike (don't ask), but he needed to pick up his bike last night from my place, and by the time he left I decided I was in for the night. Thus, tonight is laundry/shopping.

Political Crack: Happy Mission Accomplished Day!

And Another Thing from the Blogosphere: This excellent post hits the nail on the head. I see this happening in Easton (where a friend once said "every time you have an urban renewal, you just end up with one more bar") and I see the same dynamic in Bethlehem with the BethWorks (or whatever) project and the coming of the casinos. Hmmmm...

Every Eight Hours, A Doctor Avoids Me: Had an apple with breakfast (oatmeal), and one with lunch (chicken stir-fry), and of course one last night with dinner. This really isn't unusual anymore; I've been on an apple kick for the past month or so, usually as a post-meal snack. I don't normally think of apples as either tasty or filling, but I find that if I get one to eat, instead of whatever it is I crave, they do taste good and fill me up just fine.

Anyway, tonight is Svaroopa yoga, maybe a more active at-home something as well (calisthenics etc), and of course laundry & shopping.

Awesomely Awesome In Its Awesomeness

Morning weigh-in: 178#, 11% BF

Great ride yesterday, maybe the best in several years: I went up to early to Jim Thorpe and rode up Broad Mountain via the "stagecoach road" singletrack, met the VMB group ride and did American Standard, then came down the mountain via the Bear Trail for a total of 29 miles, at least 20 of which were pure singletrack satisfaction.

Total adventure bike, this ride had everything: brutal lung-busting climbs, rocky singletrack, logs, loamy singletrack through the pines, hardpack, swamps, water crossings (including one very deep and raging mountain stream I had to wade, at the ruins of an old dam), a dirt cliff/embankment that I had to climb, and the infamous pipe crossing over yet another raging mountain stream. A little bit of hike-a-bike where the trail had grown in, and some road/railroad grade riding completed the picture. Weather varied from cloudy and cold in the early morning, to sunny and hot later, to sun showers, to a thunderstorm for the last mile; companionship ranged from solo riding at the beginning and end, to as many as 21 on the American Standard group ride.

Met up with a few of the crew at the Hotel Switzerland for lunch and a beer afterward, and my day was complete.

The Sarcophagus Cannot Hold

Morning weigh-in: 180#, 8% BF

Well that's what two dinners and a few beers will do for you... Home, dinner, gym, Which Brew, sleep, wake, step on scale -- gaaaa! Good gym workout though, really hit the arms & shoulders hard.

Forgot to mention it, but yesterday was also the 21st anniversary of the (start of the) Chernobyl disaster. (And wasn't I writing about this recently?) At the bar I asked for some absinthe (active ingredient: wormwood, which in Ukranian is "chernobyl") to commemorate the event, but they had nothing, so then I asked for "something Spanish" to remember Guernica, and they recommended tequila. Oh well, another dumb idea shot down, and probably a good thing too.

Meantime, I can't resist: once again here's the Kid, of Speed!

Nosferatu

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

Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 178#, 11% BF

Wikipedia sez today's the anniverary of the Guernica raid, which reminds me of Picasso's famous painting, and that reminds me of the photo to the right, with Nixon/Reagan/Bush shadow-government supervillain John "You Can't Make An Omelet Without Raping Some Nuns" Negroponte, posing in front of the UN's copy of the mural. You can almost see the spittle forming at the sides of his mouth as he giggles and plans another Abu Ghraib. (That reminds me, the US government has just released this terrorist rather than extradite him. A-and don't get me started on this!)

Anyway, great ride Tuesday night at Round Valley. Though I was planning to do an out-and-back (which would be about 3/4 of the way around the lake, then turning around and doing the singletrack again) but decided at the turnaround point that I'd run out of time, so I completed the loop around the lake via Mountain Road. My total ride was 12 or so miles in 1:30.

Dinner was leftover pizza plus a little bit of that pasta & tuna, then I went to Which Brew while the laundry was drying. I want to do a fund-raising event there for PPRAC, and went down to maybe talk to Kelly-Jo about it, but she wasn't in. Supposedly she'll be there tonight, and so that's where I'll be as well, after the gym.

Last night was yoga, then the last of the pork tenderloin, with sauerkraut and a salad. (I also posted some photos at flickr.) Tonight will be a gym workout, more pasta, and a short pit stop at the WB.

OK, Not So Much

Morning weigh-in: 179.5#, 11% BF

"Active rest" day yesterday: yoga after work, and then for dinner I made tuna & wilted greens (over spaghetti this time) which may explain the 2 pound weight jump...

Not much to say today, so I'll just do a tour of Teh Internets. Hmmm, lets see... looks like the government has launched a war on chocolate, the honeybees are still mysteriously dying, and playing in the dirt makes you happy.

I'll be getting happy at Round Valley tonight.

Sol Invictus

Morning weigh-in: 177.5#, 9% BF

Good ride yesterday in Jim Thorpe, downright nice in fact, even came home with a "farmer tan" sunburn on my arms... Me, Doug, Eric, Spanky, Dave L, Joe G and Rudy, a good mix of riders (both socially and in terms of ability), on challenging but fun terrain -- and did I mention the weather?

Friday night was cool, outside on the deck at Which Brew, and Saturday afternoon -- evening, since I got there at dinnertime, but the sun was still out -- I went back to hang outside some more. Shockingly early night, I was home and in bed by 10:30, but I started early and my watchwords for the evening were moderation and self-control -- and in the tale of the tape, the results speak for themselves. Ahhh, but life is good...

Ludlow, Colorado

Morning weigh-n: 179#, 10% BF

Gym last night, then leftovers. Just the way I pictured it.

Today in history: It's the anniversary of the Ludlow Massacre. This was featured prominently in the last pages of Against the Day, and was mainly the backdrop for that Scarsdale Vibe speech I quoted earlier.

(By the way, Cormac McCarthy just won the Pulitzer Prize for The Road.)

Tonight I'm riding in Jersey with my friend Joe, then hitting the hay early. Tomorrow is yoga, gym, and maybe a mellow ride, Sunday is Jim Thorpe. It's beautiful out.

Belated Birthday

Morning weigh-in: 179#, 10.5% BF

Not too bad a weight hit, considering last night's dinner was pizza & beer, but I did manage to maintain my self-control.

Rode last night, 12.5 miles in maybe 55 minutes, a short & sweet hill ride before the Chain Gang meeting. (Another good meeting by the way, very productive, if talking and planning count as "productivity." It almost didn't happen, since we had some last-minute venue changes and uncertanties on where to relocate -- all's well that ends well though...) Couple of guys did a monster hard ride before the meeting on their new bikes, I guess Spring is really here despite appearances.

Happy Birthday To Me: Finally got a chance to open my birthday presents. Thanks Mom & Dad! I'm already most of the way through all three books (well, two are references, but still).

Tonight will be the gym, dinner will be leftover pork tenderloin.

Speedy McBikerson Fly-By

Morning weigh-in: 178.5#, 5.5% BF

Not sure what that body fat's telling me, usually it's a pretty reliable indicator of hydration (if nothing else), and I had a fairly non-hydration-stressed day yesterday (no alcohol, yoga was more "active rest" than a true workout, drank plenty of liquids, etc). It Is A Mystery.

Amanda at Pandagon takes a pretty good look at shopping by car vs deliveries vs running your errands by bike. (Don't forget to check out the comments.) I have my $0.02 to add but not the time, so I guess it'll have to wait until another day...

Probably getting in a bike ride tonight, then having the Chain Gang meeting -- maybe!

Playing Catch-up With Myself

Morning weigh-in: 178.5#, 10.5% BF

Ho hum, another day, another return to a previous post's title... yesterday's title was a quote from a speech in Against the Day, in which evil plutocrat Scarsdale Vibe declares (in about 1918 in the Rockies) that the striking miners and other mountain poor are doomed to extinction, and will be replaced by more presentable slaves, who will be drawn by recreational opportunities and trapped by their mortgages. I meant to use it as a comment on global warming and the recent storm -- yeah it's flooding again -- but didn't actually get around to saying anything about it.

Anyway, yoga last night, yoga tonight; tomorrow is the Chain Gang meeting, and maybe a quick ride beforehand if I can get it in.

It Is Inevitable. It has Already Begun.

Morning weigh-in: 181#, 9.5% BF

Looks like a little bit of un-suppression going on in the weight there, bounceback from Sunday, which was a complete rest day that ended with four bowls of cereal at midnight -- the Friday and Saturday trips to Which Brew probably didn't help either, but my weight Saturday afternoon was 178#.

Mea Culpa: Oops, my bad, looks like I used "errata" incorrectly in my last post's title. Oh the irony...

Holy Cow what the hell is going on in Virginia?

Listening: In the car it's Gregorian Chants (again), but in the house my new all-time favorite song is Galaxie 500's "Don't Let Our Youth Go To Waste."

Requiem and Errata

Well, I'm back, flew in yesterday. Picked up my car (which didn't start at first -- it worked fine when I brought it in last week), did some laundry, went for a ride, then went to Which Brew for dinner. Ah, home... Today was early-morning yoga, then the gym; later in the day I rode the towpath out to Sals, did a short lap there and got home just before dark.

Requiem for the Midwest in the Key of Vanilla: Southern Illinois is a pretty weird place, or rather I should just say it's not like here. That's for sure -- I wouldn't want to live there, and I didn't even like visiting... Farms, a prison, the plant, an interstate and not much else. Plenty of white bread, string beans, you know you're in trouble when the hippest things around are the corporate chain restaurants.

So It Goes: Rest in peace, Kurt Vonnegut -- his peephole closed while I was away.

When Lilacs Last In The Dooryard Bloomed: John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln on this date in 1865. Out in the Land of Lincoln, spring had already arrived, at least in the southern part where I was, and lilacs were blooming in the dooryards.

They Will Fly Towards Grace: My friend Joe's sister passed away while I was gone; she'd been very sick for a while (cancer of some kind, I didn't pry). I also ran into Doug and Lori today at Sals, and Lori said her grandmother had passed away last night. It's been a tough week.

Reading: I finally finished Against the Day. After becoming disinterested and putting it aside for more than a month, I brought it along last week as airport reading and was completely engrossed once again; I just finished the last five pages (of 1085) today. Like Mason & Dixon it had a bittersweet ending: "they will fly towards grace" was the final line of the book. (I've heard it said that Against the Day is sort of a prequel to Gravity's Rainbow: flip the last page and you get "A screaming comes across the sky.")

Requiem For A World: I also re-read The Road recently, even though it's a tough, heartbreaking book. There's a payoff in multiple reads though, since I now know that it was a nuclear war that brought on the hellish world in the book, and that the mother was pregnant with the boy when it happened. I hear the book is now on Oprah's book club list, or something.

"Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent." Go in peace.

My Bags Are Packed, I'm Ready To Go

I also got in an early morning ride, then did laundry, dishes, garbage, cleaned the house, emptied the fridge (into my stomach) & generally got the house ready for my absence; I also dropped off my rear wheel with Brian (he'll bring it to the bike shop for me tomorrow) and dropped off my car for a new muffler, oil change and inspection. Busy day, see you in a week...

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.)

Tipperary

Morning weigh-in: 181#, 13.5% BF

Fun & fast (and hard) hill workout w/ Joe yesterday, then went home, ate dinner (tuna & rice) and was in bed by 9:30. Rough night, almost like I was feverish -- I might actually have been feverish, either from the hard workout or a real fever from the cold.

Or, it might have been the decongestant I took. On Joe's advice I tried Mucinex, which is really just pseudoephedrine and an expectorant, but it's time-released and it really worked wonders (except for sleep) last night and today. Weird, pseudoephedrine is now kept behind the counter at the drugstore, and you have to show ID to get it -- apparently kids are using it to make meth or something.

Tonight is the towpath, and I'll probably stay in so I can be fresh for Saturday (yoga, biking).

Mailblogging

Morning weigh-in: 180.5#, 9.5% BF

 

(Note the recent weight loss. Woo Hoo! I think a lot of that is "suppression weight," as in water loss or whatever from the exercise, but as long as it keeps trending downward, I'm pretty sure I'm actually losing weight for real too.)

 

My, that was disgusting: I have a head cold, maybe more like sinusitis, no doubt caused by all the tree pollen lately. Word to the wise, never sneeze with a banana in your mouth. Just sayin'...

 

Brought the bike to work today, will ride with Joe but may have to take it easy due to the cold.

Note: I wrote this Thursday, posted it Friday.

Hump Day Already

Morning weigh-in (Monday): 183#, 13.5% BF
Morning weigh-in (Tuesday): 182#, 13% BF
Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 182.5#, 10.5% BF

More gossip: Here's an interesting story. Very strange -- and it just so happens that I (vaguely) know the girl who was the victim. Meantime, my friend Pete, who with his beard and shoulder-length hair bore an uncanny resemblance to Arlo Guthrie, shaved his beard off and cut his hair really short. I saw him the other day and didn't even recognize him...

Bike! Rode Sunday after a rough Saturday night (ran into friend Shannon, much talk including the above-mentioned gossip), and had a really good ride. About 30 miles in the Slate Belt with Eric B and Joe & Cindy, average pace was about 15 mph. Monday was yoga -- ditto Saturday, thus there was no Friday night, which explains Saturday night -- but yesterday was a beautiful day so I did my Hellertown loop. Took me 1:49 to go about 26 miles, about 14.2 mph average which could be better but hey it's hilly, and I started and finished in daylight.

Tomorrow is another ride, in Jersey with my friend Joe, then Friday is the towpath. If the weather's nice Saturday I'll be doing another towpath ride, leading a ride from Bethlehem to Weyerbacher Brewery's Annual Open House.

Tonight was yoga also, the more athletic "intermediate" class. Monday's beginner class was tough too, with a new twist on things since the usual instructor is in Sri Lanka right now, doing some kind of alternative "doctors without borders"-type stuff. Sri Lanka -- gulp!

I Don't Like To Repeat Gossip...

...so you better listen real good the first time!

Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 187#, 13% BF
Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 186#, 13% BF
Morning weigh-in (Friday): 182#, 10% BF

That was some sandwich! Like a pig in a python... I had dinner at Which Brew on Tuesday night, got the Reuben special, which turned out to be a triple-decker corned beef sandwich on thick slabs of rye. It was enormous, and almost beat me but I got it all down, plus the fries and two Anchor Steam Porters. I know who had the last laugh though, when I stepped on the scale Wednesday morning.

The Gossip: One reason I went down there Tuesday was that I missed the St Patrick's day festivities, and got an email (sent around midnight Saturday to everyone on the Virtual Pub mailing list), stating that there had been an incident that night, such behavior was unwelcome and would not be tolerated and oh my God I had to know more... I had to wait a few days but I got the scoop at dinner: apparently someone had locked the owner/bartender in the bathroom while she was cleaning it. (Think about it, this is how a robbery would start, and also even as a prank it should raise red flags in terms of hostility issues, and potential for even more abusive behavior down the pike.) I said as much before finding out who did it, then heard who it was and who egged him on -- I'm not mentioning any names but I think that the perpetrator was just drunk and stupid, but I think the instigator might very well be on a hostility trip, especially after I found out this was his second time instigating the exact same thing.

The March Chain Gang meeting was Wednesday night at Brian's house, probably one of the biggest we've ever had in terms of attendance; we probably had close to the entire club there. We had several crock pots of chili for our potluck dinner, but I made bean and tomato stew (lentils, chick peas & kidney beans, stewed tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, spinach etc) in my crock pot, which boiled over while I was at work -- gee, maybe it was too full -- and spilled all over the counter. I was so busy I couldn't really clean the counter until last night, and by then it was all nice and sticky. Good stew though, I've been eating it for a few days now.

That was some ride! Last night I rode with my friend Joe who lives in Bloomsbury, which is on my way home. I brought the road bike to work, and we rode from his house, just getting back before dark. Two hours or a little more, maybe 30 miles (or a little more). I was whooped when we were done, and filthy as a hog: neither of us wore tights, just shorts, and between the rain and the snowmelt on the roads, there was a lot of road-gritty spray all over our legs and faces. I was so tired after the ride I skipped the gym, came home (ate stew) and went to bed.

Tonight was the gym, also more stew, and tomorrow will be yoga in the morning. I'm staying in for the night, but may go out tomorrow.

Watersleep To Firewaking

Morning weigh-in: 183.5#, 13.5% BF

"The green cusp, dreaming fishes to young ram, watersleep to firewaking..." -- Thomas Pynchon

So it's the vernal equinox, when you can stand an egg on its end, or something like that. But now its springtime.

Yoga tonight, yoga last night; tomorrow is the Chain Gang meeting. Potluck dinner, I'm making bean and tomato stew in the crock pot, though I think quite a few are bringing chili.

More bad news: My friend Mike B (not my high school buddy, a neighbor and riding partner) hasn't been around much lately, and today he called to tell me why: he has cancer. I didn't ask what he had, and he said he's mainly been getting tests right now, no chemo or other treatment yet. Few years younger than me, wife, two kids. Oh man...

Non-Attachment

Morning weigh-in: 184.5#, 13% BF

(Posting might get a little more sporadic, our access to this kind of internet stuff is now blocked at work, even at lunchtime, so I can no longer do my midday updates.)

So, yes I rode Friday afternoon, went 11 miles in just under 3 hours, last 2-3 miles being on the road: I went down the bike path to the new boat launch, then backtracked to the old Glendon bridge, crossed the river and took the bike path to the falls, then came up through town, returning on Northampton. Good solid ride, lots of resistance when I was off the plowed parts. After that I walked down to Which Brew.

Saturday was the gym (no yoga: I planned ahead, stayed out late specifically because I expected things to be closed), errands, haircut etc, then went to my friend Joe's St Patty's Day party (photos here).

Sunday was snowshoeing in Jim Thorpe. Beautiful day, and the snow was pretty to look at, but it was not ideal for playing in, either on snowshoes (too soft, melting) or XC skis (one skier told me it was very sticky, which I'd expect with all that sun & warmth). Oh well, Doug said XC conditions were ideal along the canal on Saturday... (By the way I took photos of the ride up, and they're posted on flickr as well; the camera's batteries died before I could take any shots in the woods.)

I happened to look at that Cancer Kids photo pool again yesterday, and that little girl Mia was there in some new photos -- she has acute myeloid leukemia, and she's had a relapse. (Just for laughs, Google "myeloid leukemia", relapse and prognosis.) It's not anyone I know, or anyone who knows me, but all of a sudden it was like there was no more air in the room. I had trouble sleeping, I couldn't stop thinking about it.

The Iron Boot Of Winter

Morning weigh-in: 184.5#, 9% BF

Last night was a killer workout in the gym, preceded by a mile run (8:30 but on the treadmill, sigh) and followed by chicken noodle soup & a salad; dessert was an early bedtime.

Meantime, it looks like the iron boot of winter is once again stomping on our necks... Got home early from work -- we closed at 1:00 -- and am now going for a ride. Later, as the snow gets deeper, I'll either go play with the XC skis or the snowshoes (more likely), and then go downtown for dinner and what nightlife might survive the storm.

Season of Dissolution

Morning weigh-in (Wednesday) 184.5#, 13% BF
Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 184#, 14% BF

Went to yoga last night, one of the more athletic classes (also a little later in the evening, so I stayed late at work first), then to Which Brew for dinner. Cool night, usual suspects on both sides of the bar. Tonight is the gym also after working late.

Weather is rainy, the snow has mostly melted and the ground really can't get any more sopping wet. Mud Season is upon us, and we are now truly primed for spring. It may be a bit preliminary, but it also looks like the "kid button," has been pressed: they were out in force yesterday, playing on the block.

It Seems Like Years Since It's Been Clear

Morning weigh-in: 185.5# 9% BF

Not much to report, had a pretty good if somewhat "regressional" weekend: skipped the ride and went out Friday night; gym -- no yoga -- then a grueling road ride in NJ with my friend Joe on Saturday, and out again for the evening; and on Sunday I slept in, did some chores before a more mellow PA road ride on Sunday. Pretty much the "standard configuration."

Meantime: I see that the "Gonzales eight" scandal is not only growing legs, but arms, claws and fangs as well.

Nice weather for a day or so, then rain -- but at least it's warmer, and sunny past 7:00.

Good Thing I'm A Cyborg

Morning weigh-in: 183.5#, 11.5% BF

Rode the towpath to the VMB meeting last night, which was at CAT headquarters -- people were a little surprised that I rode there, but as I said last night, I couldn't drive to the Coalition for Appropriate Transportation. The girl there said "that's as it should be!" (They are definitely not shy at CAT; they shamed us last night into joining as a non-profit organization, which I guess is as it should be since we're using their facilities.)

The ride home was a little easier, since a lot of the mushy ground had re-frozen and the trail surface was hard & fast. Still took me an hour though, and I was pushing it so I'd make Which Brew before the kitchen closed. Got home, called and asked them to cook me a burger (now that's what I call service!) then changed & headed on down.

A Nice Surprise: Megan was was at Which Brew, visiting from Seattle after being gone for more than a year -- she hadn't been back since her moving-away party in 2005, and literally went there straight from the airport. It was really good to see her, and good to get a chance to congratulate her on how well she's doing & how happy she seems to be in Seattle. (I get the emails & see the photos, "thriving" & "glowing" really are the best descriptions.) She's good people, I'm glad things are going her way.

Anyway, the cyborg thing: There was a light cover of snow in some areas on the towpath last night, which was good on the way out because it was firmer than the muddy gravel underneath, but near the access points (Sand Island, Riverside Park) it was a little deeper, packed and icy and lumpy with footprints. This was a pain int the butt especially on the return trip, since the trail had refrozen and was the better surface again, but I was just bumping and bouncing ans sliding along anyway, had to get home... I slid out to the left and caught myself with my foot, and only later realized that was the same move that broke my ankle a year ago (today is the surgery anniversary). Didn't feel a thing -- granted I was moving much slower, and the surface where I planted my foot was smooth, but now I also have a much stronger, titanium-reinforced ankle. Better than it was -- better, stronger, faster, I think I'll go kick something...

That Whole Domestic Goddess Thing

Morning weigh-in: 184#, 13% BF

Gym last night, then leftover potatoes & chickpeas in lemon-tahini-curry sauce, plus a salad. Bedtime was not long after. Tonight is the VMB meeting, and I'm riding to that so I don't know what, or when, dinner will be -- I was going to make bean & tomato stew in the crock pot, but discovered last night that I was missing a few crucial ingredients, so I'll probably just make it on the weekend. That doesn't solve tonight's dinner problems though...

Meanwhile, today is International Women's Day and (Blog Against Sexism day), so I'll just maybe touch on that with the words waitress and health insurance.

Meanwhile meanwhile, I see that the "Gonzales Eight" scandal is growing even more legs.

Still Winter

Morning weigh-in: 185.5#, 13.5% BF

Randomly checking Teh Intertubes...

Bowdlerizing "The Vagina Monologues?"
Wow that's some serious stupid -- Pandagon has the scoop.

But What About the Ponies?
Looks like I wasn't the only one to notice yesterday's trifecta.

Anyway, did a bunch of chores/errands yesterday, around & in-between was the Tuesday Svaroopa yoga class. Gas, groceries, laundry, etc etc, but I also put a few photos on flickr, from last Sunday's trailwork. Foot bothered me yesterday; I knew today's snow was coming.

I got to bed pretty late (12:30) but felt pretty rested when the alarm went off (at 6:00). I usually sleep for another half hour before getting up, but this morning rolled over and saw 8:11 -- oh no! No wonder I feel rested! Turns out I hit the adjusting buttons when I turned off the alarm, it was only 6:11 and I had plenty of time but I realized this once I got into the kitchen, at a dead run trying to get ready for work...

In Like A Lion

Morning weigh-in: 186#, 13% BF

Looks like winter is not quite over: it's freezing out, 10 degrees above zero and strong gusty winds when I left the house this morning. Still, you can fee that spring is on its way... Nothing much to report otherwise. I went out last night after yoga, monthly Mug Club dinner at Which Brew. I thought I kept things under control but the tape tells a different tale.

Oh yeah, Scooter Libby is found guilty on four of five charges, the Walter Reed scandal is starting to reap the whirlwind, and yet another investigation is heating up.

Taklamakan: Way Down in Cocomo

Morning weigh-in: 185.5#, 11% BF (b-b-but it was a chicken cheesesteak!!)

Anniversary: it was one year ago today that I broke my ankle. It's also my brother Kevin's birthday.

Friday: did a road ride, short & sweet & hilly, another Morvale Road extravaganza, and then walked down to Which Brew. Early night, but I wanted to be there to say goodbye to that dude Ryan, who took a job as brewmaster down in North Carolina. Also, they had a special cask-conditioned Weyerbacher Black Hole Stout brewed with arabica beans. Good stuff.

Saturday was a good hard yoga workout, followed by a very intense gym workout (with a trip to the coffee shop and a mile run in between); I followed all that with a nap. I was going to do another road ride, but it was raining -- and when I woke up it was sunny and beautiful of course. Got a call from Doug, he & Lori were down at WB, and soon enough so was I.

Sunday was trailwork at Sals, then the Banff Mountain Film Festival road show. I went with a group of friends; we were a crowd of about 16 people, and saw a whole bunch more familiar faces. The films: I had several favorites, but two that stood out were "Kids Who Rip," a documentary about children (youngest was maybe 6, oldest was 13) who skate/snowboard/surf/ski, either competitively or for fun, but at a very high level of X-games proficiency and craziness, and the other was a documentary of a young Canadian couple who bicycled from Ulan Bator to Calcutta, through some beautiful but godawful-remote and rugged scenery.

Which brings us to the Taklamakan Desert. It's not really as remote as I'd originally heard -- the Silk Road bifurcates to go around it (a Northern route and a Southern route), there are cities along the edges, and of course the couple was riding along a road as they crossed it -- but it is still pretty damn remote, and one of the biggest sand deserts in the world. I became infatuated with the place after reading A Good Old-Fashioned Future, a book of interconnected science-fiction stories by Bruce Sterling. The last story was about some extreme adventurers, recruited as spies to investigate some abandoned top-secret facility deep in the desert, where of course they make the usual shocking discoveries.

There was also quite a bit about the Taklamakan (among many other Siberian and Central Asian wonders) in Against the Day (yep, still reading), so it was very cool to actually see the place. Sand, sandstorms, broiling heat, no water. You know: desert.