Turnabout and Rehabilitation

Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 176#, 12.5% BF

 

I guess I don't get as much "suppression weight loss" from the yoga as I might have expected (toughh workout, forget pigs: I sweat like a fountain), though I'm sure dinner at Which Brew didn't help either. Last night was similar: bike/gym, then dinner again at the WB. I didn't even bother weighing myself this morning. Fun night though, and anyway I was pretty heartened by the hot lap I did before the gym workout: it's a 14-mile "warmup ride," and I did it in 47 minutes, averaging 17.7 mph. Since I also did some (light) leg work at the gym, my legs are now killing me.

 

In the news: So I see that the Violent Femmes are now suing each other over the use of one of their songs in a Wendy's commercial. I'm stuck wondering how long it'll be before I see "Anarchy In The UK" backing up a Range Rover commercial. Hopefully never...

 

Tonight is the towpath, maybe on the singlespeed, then back (yes) to WB for Fred's 40th birthday, and also Art's. Tomorrow is yoga and the gym.

Back To The Battle

Morning weigh-in: 173#, 12.5% BF

 

Rode last night with Doug, at least for part of the ride: he dropped back and got lost, did his own ride while I cruised around looking for him... I did the Hellertown hill ride, but did the Applebutter Rd -- Rt 412 -- Easton Rd -- Saucon Rd "far loop" backwards, which is not the way I like (I prefer heading west on Applebutter Rd, which is an awesome twisty downhill in that direction), but it was still pretty nice.

 

Working Towards Something: I'm trying to get ready for the VT50, getting my cardio/endurance back up to snuff, while also trying to drop a few pounds. (I'd like to be 170# for the race, and it's a little ambitious but I want to be 165# for All-A-Muchy -- my real target race -- which is on Oct 6th.) This basically means I'll be doing a lot of road rides, especially hilly ones, to approximate the hilly but relatively non-technical VT50 course, and to get my cardio workouts in without beating myself up too much.

 

So, I'll be hitting yoga tonight (a solid workout in itself), but tomorrow will be a Harmony/P'burg ride as a gym warmup, Friday will be the towpath (um, it's like a road), Sunday will be an early morning towpath/Sals ride, and Labor Day will be... what? Monday might be a tough call, since I have a Sunday afternoon picnic/party to go to.

Back In The Saddle

Morning weigh-in: 175#, 11.5% BF

Many things happening since my last post: went to Florida & visited my brother & his family (stay tuned for pictures) and uh... OK that's all really...

Oh yeah. The weekend before, we (the old Lehigh trails crowd) did a "goodbye ride" for Damion, who was moving with his family to eastern Washington State. That was in the morning, then in the afternoon I drove down to my parent's house and helped them pack. That was probably the last time I'll ever be there -- they're closing & moving out this week I believe. I took lots of pictures of both things; the Damion shots are already on Flickr and the house photos (some of them) will be soon.

Anyway, I'm back.

Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 173#, 11% BF
Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 175.5#, 10.5% BF

Took a rest day yesterday, and had the monthly Chain Gang meeting at Joe & Cindy's house. It was actually a really good time (I'm not surprised or anything, a pleasant evening was what I expected but it was still nice), killer food and conversation. Saw Bryan Klein, who showed up on his new motorcycle.

Solaris: If there is other life in the universe, how would we recognize it, and how would we communicate -- what would we even say to each other?

Tonight was the gym, and dinner was salad with pita & babaganouj. I'm going out to catch a band at Which Brew in a bit, but wanted to eat healthy here at home first.

PPRAC Stories: Bill

The Inspired Rider
Originally uploaded by hanskneller.

I have a few photos of him, but this shot by my friend Hans is the best one I found.

Bill's son is a testicular cancer survivor, and in the course of his son's illness and treatment, Bill became involved with an online support group. Needless to say, he became very close to a lot of people struggling with this disease, and with their families.

Every night after dinner, he would announce that he was riding for a particular person the next day: someone who survived, or was still undergoing treatment, or maybe someone who didn't make it. He would wear a LiveStrong shirt, and have everyone sign it, and after the ride he was sending the shirts to these people or their families.

There were a lot of true athletes on this ride; Bill was a decent rider but he was not one of the hotshots gobbling up the miles like they were nothing. Especially on the tough days he rode on pure heart.

He definitely earned my respect, I'm proud to just know what he did.

The S-word

Morning weigh-in: 174#, 10% BF

Rode tonight after work with Greg and Rich, lightning pace at Sals. I felt better than I did Sunday, and way better than last Wednesday's Sals ride, but I can tell I'm still tired. I also think I have a sinus problem a-building, which I'm handling with Mucinex. (Sudden weight loss, fatigue, colds: it all adds up to overtraining, which, in the absence of any recent formal "training," is probably just the aftermath of PPRAC. It beats the other reason some of my friends are tired lately -- there seems to be an epidemic of Lyme Disease among Lehigh Valley mountain bikers right now, especially those frequenting Sals and South Mountain. DEET is your friend.)

The Situationists: Still reading Babylon's Burning, and finally -- though you could feel it building to this -- someone finally mentioned the S-word. Situationist.

PPRAC Stories: Kelly

Ride Day 2: Kelly
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

Pretty girl, young but not the youngest person on the ride, she was a rock-solid rider with a core of iron... This was her second PPRAC ride, and I'd heard that she'd had some rough events in her life in the two intervening years ( this article talks about her brother and why she's participating), but when she got up one day after dinner and started talking about her big brother, how he stuck up for her when they were kids and how he'd passed away, only ten weeks before the ride, there wasn't a dry eye in the house.

Marching Around Breathing Deeply

Morning weigh-in: 175#, 11% BF

Fatamy: I can't find a link, but I saw in the paper that Tatamy is now outlawing skateboards, unless you're on your own property or riding in an orderly fashion at the government-supplied skate park or something... My standard Drunken Rant (#4, "Skateboarding Saved The Youth Of America") may be inserted here; I'll just note in passing that Tatamy is also the town where that "Road Raging Driver Assaults Cyclist" guy lives, and rename the town Fatamy. So long, fatsos!

OK, pot kettle black but at least I'm out there working it, and also not making it illegal for those kids to pursue fitness on their own terms...

Anyway, saw the "final show" of the Insidious Rays at the Funhouse on Friday, slacked off (for good reason) Saturday morning before hitting the gym & then MusikFest. Sunday I rode American Standard with a VMB dude named John. Last night was laundry, and dinner at Porters.

Jim and Me

Ride Day 5: Our Official Greeter
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

This was at breakfast in Williamsport, at the Williamsport Home (formerly: "The Wiliamsport Home for the Friendless") -- it seemed to be an ordinary nursing home, but maybe they were indigent or whatever...

Jim was our official greeter, the breakfast line started behind him. Everyone basically introduced themselves, made small talk and thanked him for the hospitality, etc. He was in heaven -- sometimes when you're sick you have to fight just to be seen as human.

(I have to point out that not all the residents were happy with our presence, some were downright grumpy that their favorite tables were in use when they came in breakfast..)

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.