Been a Long Time Since I Did the Stroll

I'm back. Wasn't really planning on disappearing, but you know how the time does fly... Weight: has been pretty stable at about 177# for most of this time, but it looks like it's starting to creep up; percent body fat is all over the map.

In the news:

Running is coming along OK, and I've been doing longer and faster runs on Saturday. When I run for time, my pace is on target for my sub-25-minute 5K. Next week is a rest week for running.

Biking is also coming along. I finally got my road bike refurbished, totally new Campagnolo component group including wheels. My mountain bike is in the care of UPS, on the way out to Utah (I hope).

Mike Bellush is now a married man (again). His wedding was last Saturday. Traditional Jewish wedding, really nice reception, saw the whole McVay clan there.

I would have thought I posted something here, but looking back I guess I didn't: I'm an uncle, my brother & his wife are the proud parents of Olivia Grace Kelly.

New Toy Alert: I got a digital camera, a Sony P-72 for my Utah vacation.

Vacation: I'll be gone out West, Moab and other Utah destinations, all of next week. Me, Brian, Joe & Cindy, Doug, Eric, and Bob. Should be way cool, stay tuned for stories & pictures...

back

Morning weigh-in (Sunday): 179# 12.5%
Morning weigh-in (Monday): 175.5# 10.5%
Morning weigh-in (Tuesday): 177.5# 12%

Forgot to check Saturday, forgot what weight was Friday. Oh well.

Interesting times lately: Thursday nite was crazy at Which Brew, like someone put flirt juice in the beer or something, the ladies were actually kind of ahh... aggressive, not that I'm complaining... Friday, Joe said he was "scared to go back," but I went & caught the band "Warm Apple Cider" (friends of bartender Carrie, not bad but I've heard better). Talking to some girl, thought it would be a reprise of the previous nite (she actually asked me if I came there often) but not this time.

Saturday was the Wind Gap Science fair, which I (among others) judged. It meant getting up a little early (and dealing with a tractor trailer lying on its side, blocking the road into Wind Gap, making me & everyone else late), but way fun. I worked with Charles, a High School aquabiology teacher, and Lauren, a microbiologist for a vitamin maker, and we judged the 7th Grade and 1st Grade exhibits. Some were pretty lame (I'm talking about the 7th graders) but some were very good. The younger kids were cute and much more fun, though you couldn't expect much in the way of "experimental science" from them; Al & Colette's son John was among the 1st Graders & had something about a tractor pull. (Al & Colette were both there as well; she was with John & Al was judging the Egg Drop contest.) Interesting day, or rather, morning. In the afternoon I went down to the Lehigh and ran for an hour, easy pace, and the evening was dinner with friends -- while we were at the bar waiting for our table, the bartender kept us entertained with amazing card & magic tricks.

Sunday was spent riding in Jim Thorpe, a good day of riding I must say, but I guess you had to be there...

Monday was the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour. Awesome, but more about it some other time.

This brings me up to date here, signing off.

a screeching halt

Morning weigh-in (Wednesday) 178#, ??? body fat
Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 177#, ??? body fat

Hitting a brick wall here, nothing to say, even forgot the weight statistics...

backsliding

Morning weigh-in (Monday): 175.5#, 14% body fat
Morning weigh-in (Tuesday): 179#, 13.5% body fat

Nothing much to say, blew off spinning last nite (had to do some car registration stuff) then ate a ton of bar food at Which Brew. Very tired this morning, so I blew off running in favor of extra sleep. Weight wasn't too forgiving, so I also had a sausage egg & cheese sandwich at work...

Just heard a young jazz pianist nemed Vijay Iyer, bought both his albums online. You heard it here first folks, this guy is the one they'll be talking and writing books about in a hundred years or so, destined (unless I jinx him) for greatness.

Flake Central

Morning weigh-in: 177#, 13% body fat

I woke up tired, so blew off both the MTB ride (actually, blew that off last nite) then blew off the road ride, since it sounded like it would be fast & hard (I was right: I just talked to Doug, and he said it was fast & hard). I went to the Quadrant for some coffee and a corn muffin, then decided to ride to the Green Cafe for brunch, called Joe but he already had something else planned.

That freaky (and not in a good way) girl Wendy was there running the show, and then Dave came in to put the finishing touches on the buzzkill ambiance... jeez, wonder how he knew I'd be there? I think the ol' GC has lost its magic for me.

so, what's new?

Morning weigh-in (Friday): 170#, 11.5% body fat
Morning weigh-in (Saturday): 170#, 14% body fat

Ran today with Dawn, a 4 mile route with "hill sprints," and we timed it: 36:57, not great but not too bad. I passed the 3 mile mark at 27 minutes, which was encouraging. This was followed by a gym workout, where we worked in crunches for the first time since my last vertigo experience, back when I went on that winter camping trip.

The rest of the day was uneventful, and now I'm going out to see/hear "Spirit Island" at Which Brew, then maybe "Sarah's Rhythm Recipe" at the Bluetone Cafe.

What about Friday? Run, work, ride (Russ & wife, Mike Arnold, Dona Long, coupla other guys I didn't know; no Doug, Lori or Brian), WB w/ Joe, then fairly early bedtime.

traveling twice the speed of sound

Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 180.5#, 10.5% body fat
Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 177.0#, 11.5% body fat

Apparently beer and Taco Bell are very heavy... went out for a quick one Tuesday night, had two Hoegardens, then stopped at Taco Bell on the way home. Stepped on scale yesterday morning -- GAAAH! Looks like the pig passed throught the python though...

Been staying up a little too late the past few days, consequently feeling tired. I think I'll be getting to bed earlier tonight.

Laissez le Bon Temps Rouler!

Morning weigh-in: 177.5#, 11.5% body fat

"Active rest" day, ran in the morning but no evening workout. A little surfing, checking the emails, then because it's Mardi Gras tonight, I think I might go out after I get the laundry & dishes & other schtuff done.

I'm back, with news

Morning weigh-in: 177#, 12.5# body fat

Actually lost weight while on vacation -- BONUS!

Back from Stowe/Burlington, where ski & snowshoe conditions were excellent, so the "party animal" activities were cancelled -- or at least, very very subdued -- due to outdoor-activity fatigue... BTW, it was just Joe Gallagher and myself this trip, Doug bailed. To make a long story short: we had fun, but that was the expected outcome, not news. Stay tuned for more stories later in the week.

The real (& very good) news is that I'm an uncle again; my brother's wife had a baby daughter last night. More on that too, but also later in the week. It's late, I was too tired to run this morning after the long drive and late (post-midnight) homecoming, and I still have to unpack the car. I felt tired today, but I lifted after work, & felt unexpectedly good in spin class tonight.

Even so, g'night.

Just A Song Before I Go

Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 176.5%, 12.5% body fat
Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 177.5#, 11.0% body fat

Yesterday was the Chain Gang meeting, and I was too tired to post when I got home. Got up this morning, too tired to run so blew it off. Work, spin, dinner and now I'm getting ready to head out of town for the weekend. Joe G and I are going to Burlington VT for the Mardi Gras festival, and also to do a little snowshoeing and XC skiing. We're leaving at 4:00 AM Friday, about 5 hours from now. Weather should get warm and rainy just as we arrive, so the real plan is to get drunk and toss beads to the chickalitas...

Active Rest

Morning weigh-in: 176#, 11.5% body fat

Exercise: ran this morning but nothing else, ditto for tomorrow, which is the next Chain Gang meeting and our official weigh-in.

Computer: things are running really well (I love it so far), but still no sound. I may need to get a sound card, or something.

Next up: this weekend is the Magic Hat Mardi Gras in Burlington. But first, chores & food shopping. Adios, my friend...

Galvanic Spectacle

Morning weigh-in: 176.5#, 12.5% body fat

Run, work, gym, spin, computer (XF86Config, Tux Racer, still no sound), now bed.

Been thinking about the "Superbowl boob incident." Wrong on so many levels, yadda yadda... the thing that gets me is the way the puppet show is becoming more strident, as the buttons they push have become desensitized. Transmarginal phase, extinction beyond the zero -- like shocking a dead frog's legs to make them still twitch, but needing bigger and bigger jolts as time goes by and the last life force drains out, how long will the dogs still drool for the bell after you stop feeding them? What's really funny is the way a TV can grab my attention now (after about 5 years of being TV-free) when I walk into the room where it's on, my resistance is waaaay down...

A New Toy

Morning weigh-in: 177.5#, 14% body fat

Rode this morning, did the Williams Twp ride (Gaffney Hill RD, Buttermilk Rd, Kichline & Hexkopf & Raubsville Roads, then Morgan Hill Rd back). A hard ride, but it's only 17 miles and should take me about 1:30, and it took me 2 hours today. It's still officially winter...

After the ride I went in to Brooklyn to see my grandmother, whose 89th birthday was Wednesday. Brought a cake, stayed for about two hours.

When I got home, I called my friend Paul, who got me some new computer stuff: new motherboard, Athlon 2.4 GHz CPU and 512 MB RAM, and a video card. It's like a new computer, the best out there currently, for only $360 -- you can't beat that! Of course, everything worked over his house, but now I'm having trouble here. Something to play with, but right now I have to go to bed.

BTW: crashed last night, didn't see the Kites or even go out at all. I just ran out of energy some time after dinner, went with the flow.

Saturday Blogging

Morning weigh-in: 178#, 13.5% body fat

Greg and Judy went to Which Brew last night, with their friends Dan & Katie. Kind of a surprise I guess (but of course not really) for all of us to run into each other; we had dinner at our table & they had theirs in the other room, but when we were done we (that is, Doug & Lori, Joe, Brian & myself) went to say hi & bye. I was tired and my plan was to head out for an early bedtime (I was the one pushing for the evening to end), but when the others left I ended up joining their table for another several hours of conversation & goofy bar tricks...

This morning was Coffee Works for breakfast, then another run/weights workout with Dawn, followed by laundry, drycleaning, household chores, an oil change and a haircut. Next up is a trip to Bethlehem to see the Kites at the Funhouse.

This just in: I signed up to judge an elementary school science fair. More later....

Friday Blogging

Morning weigh-in 177.5#, 11.5% body fat

Last post was written Thursday night, but phone was screwed up so I only got to post it tonight. Tonight was riding with Doug on the towpath, followed by Which Brew (well duh), dinner with Doug; we were joined by Lori, then Joe, then Brian. Surprise: Greg & Judy came in, with their friends Dan & Katie. After dinner, everyone I was with originally left, so I joined D&J and D&K. I just got in, I'm tired, now it's bedtime, goodnight.

Thursday Blogging

Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 179#, 11.5% body fat
Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 177.5#, 13% body fat

Probably have enough weight, body fat & exercise info in here to do some decent data mining, but that's another day and another project.

I rode the towpath yesterday; it's getting very rideable again. There was some snow ("ice" might be a better term, thought the resorts would call it "packed powder"), which had decent traction and was hard enough to support me, but the dirt was spongy and soaked & had that "springtime soft" feeling. It took me two hours to ride to Bethlehem (I turned around just before the Stefko Boulevard bridge) & back.

Joe called me afterward (& after dinner), said he had some photos from the New Years Day hike, so I met him at Which Brew about 10:00. When I pulled in I saw something moving among the garbage cans down the block: it was a woman, very large and dropsically fat, who was doing an "I've fallen and can't get up." I ran over to see if she was OK, and she sort of said yes, but it was obvious she was extremely drunk, like too drunk to avoid dying of exposure in the gutter, so I called the police from WB. They came about 5 minutes later, and I pointed her out to them. A few minutes after that, we saw an ambulance go by, figure it was her. I hope she was too messed up to remember me, because even though I did her a major favor she might not see it that way...

Work & spinning today, dinner, laundry, a little light blogging, then it'll be bedtime.

Just passsing through

Morning weigh-in: 178#, 13.5% body fat

Ran this morning, no run tomorrow but I may ride since it looks to be pretty nice... nothing much else to say.

Thick as a Brick

Morning weigh-in: 179#, 14.5% body fat

My tri-geek friends sometimes refer to it as a "brick" workout, where you do more than one workout in succession: bike then run, swim then whatever, etc. I used to joke that it was called "brick" because you felt like a ton of them fell on you when you did one... Well, today was a morning run, then weights and spinning. None were radical workouts, but I did the last two back-to-back, and now I feel great, maybe a little tired but it's a good tired...

Just made the best dinner I ever cooked: that pasta with wilted greens, but I also added some tuna in olive oil. Like I said, the best thing I ever ate. I have some apricots with sage and cinnamon and fresh grated ginger waiting in the fridge. Dieting makes me think about food, thinking about food makes me hungry, which makes me eat which makes me gain weight which makes me dietwhichmakesmethinkaboutfood...

My friend Doug emailed me today, a friend of his passed away. Cancer. He was pretty bummed out, & reading his email I knew exactly what he was going through. Well, time heals or so they say, but I'm still waiting.

Redemption Song (happy belated birthday, Bob)

Morning weigh-in: 179.5#, 14.5% body fat

Last night's shows were great. The first one was at Which Brew, where I caught a set of "Sarah's Rhythm Recipe," a bluesy rock band featuring jazz/blues singer Sarah Ayers. Stu and Cathy were there, and I'm starting to suspect that they've taken me under their wing, the project being to set me up with one of her friends... I had one beer and -- well, not escaped, exactly, because the girl was nice, but I did have to get to Bethlehem.

It was at the Funhouse that I saw "the Fellas," a group of college kids playing a sort of jam-band jazz: guitar/bass/drums, with sax and trumpet. They played all original instrumentals, all very danceable (more like dancing for Phish or the Dead, rather than say ska or the Specials), and there were a lot of cuties dancing. I met Joe down there, then after a while I saw Doug, then a little later I saw Eric and Kris come in. I also saw Cos's brother Jake & his girlfriend, Creepy Dave, and a few others, so there were actually more people there that I knew than back at WB. Anyway, the band was awesome, but I skipped the last set to get a somewhat early start on Sunday.

Today was pretty much the first group ride of the year. Joe & Cindy, Brian, Curt's son Matt, and Rob Goody left from Curt's house and did a 23 mile road ride. Joe & Matt were on fixed gear road bikes, Brian was on his old touring bike, and Cindy and I were on mountain bikes (unlike Cindy, I was riding slick tires though), but Rob was riding his full-suspension mountain bike, with studded tires -- can you say rolling resistance? Big heavy bike, thing rides like a pig on the road and with studded tires to boot, and he was at the front the whole time. Monster of the day award.

I wasn't fully up to snuff but I felt OK, rode at my own pace. It was very windy out, and it seemed that every climb ended with a "wind-swept hilltop" -- headwinds both ways, of course. With the upright MTB position, I felt like one big sail trying to push through the air, but the mountain bike came in handy when we hit ice or other winter road hazards... long story short, it was a good ride, though a bit on the hard side, then afterwards we went to Jack Creek for a quick dinner.

Pattern Recognition: I happened to see in the paper this article about a "cool hunter," someone who goes around the world looking for trendy new cool stuff to mass market. That was Cayce Pollard's job in William Gibson's Pattern Recognition, so it seemed pretty neat at first, in that postmodern hipster economy way, but it really wasn't all that cool of course, just a little more of the Great Rock And Roll Swindle... the guy was French, and I thought "where are the Situationists when you need them?" A little pie in the face could come in handy right now...

Anyway, that brought me to thinking about Bob Marley, whose birthday was Friday. Who he was, what he stood for, and fought and sang for, and how they're using him now to sell good times and time shares in Jamaica, mon. Well, after this kind of rehabilitation, maybe someday there will come true redemption. I hope so.

The Spew: keeping you up-to-date since 2003

Morning weigh-in: 179#, 14% body fat

I went swimming last night, which turned out to be a lot of fun. It was Doug and myself, as guests of Greg H at the Bethlehem YMCA. The setup there is pretty nice, not too big on weights or cardio machines that I could see, but they have several racquetball courts, hot tub & sauna, etc, and of course a pool. The water was chlorinated, but not too strongly.

I forgot how much of a workout swimming can be! We each did our own thing, swimming laps in the same lane -- a woman sharing our lane but "driving on the left side of the road" if you know what I mean, fled to the (empty) next lane over, after bumping heads with Greg... He was doing some specific workout, two double laps (ie 100 yards) hard, then a quick break before doing another two, over and over, while I did a bunch of laps in a crawl, then a "resting" double lap on my back, then a few more crawl, then a double lap of breast stroke, etc; Doug just did laps and worked on his form. Plenty of rest & BS breaks, the time flew by: we were there for an hour, finishing at 9:30. I'm sure I did more than a half mile -- 18 double laps -- but less than a mile. Greg did considerably more, Doug about the same as me. Afterward, we each went our separate ways -- I was meeting Joe G at Which Brew.

Before swimming I made that "pasta & wilted greens" dish, which was awesome but leaves you with a very strong garlic aura... the poolwater & subsequent shower burned it off, but after a while at WB I started to smell chlorine, then garlic again, so I called it an early night before I offended too many people. (Also, I've been thinking about the Superbowl, and am not too happy with some of the decisions I made -- don't ask -- so I think that'll be it for blowouts for a while.) Anyway, while I was there I had an Old Heathen Imperial Stout, and some black bean hummus (again with the garlic), and that seemed to whet my appetite because when I left I didn't go straight home, but to Taco Bell and got a shitload of all the wrong things... Damn you, Taco Bell!

Today I ran with Dawn, my trainer. I've been working with her for years, mainly weights which she's good at but it's not her thing; I think she's been waiting for me to break down and ask her for running advice for more than a year now! Anyway, she's helping me get ready for that 5k, pretty serious about it too, more than I am so I better get my act together...

In other news: soon I will be a godfather to my as-yet-unborn niece, but first my sister-in-law has to survive her pregnancy. She and my brother are the ones who got married in October; now they have a baby on the way, but apparently she's having a rough time, serious health issues, and she just went into the hospital. Her doctor was thinking of inducing labor early, say March 1, but is now talking (worst-case scenario) of possibly a C-section as soon as the baby can survive outside the womb... I talked to them last night on the phone: Amy's in a bit of pain but she seems to be holding up OK, and I joked with her to keep it in perspective: someday the baby will be thirteen and giving her lip! Anyway, that was my connection with the adult world for this week. (My next task: are conditions still OK for XC skiing, or should I do a road ride with Joe C and crew tomorrow instead?)