Of Moose And Men
The Best Laid Plans Of Both Often Go Astray

I swear, tie manufacturers are getting skimpy with the silk these days. It used to be I had to carefully balance most ties to get the little end not to show under the larger piece, but these days I’m lucky if the little end meets the loop they give you to hold the little end in place. And no, my neck has not grown by 3-4 inches, either. Cheap bastards.

Work was an utter waste of a day. Would have been better spent pretty much anywhere else.

Swimming was a mix. There were glimpses of clear, effortless power, and then there were thrashing strokes that would have been more embarrassing had more people been there to see them. The last bits of the stroke drills are hit & miss, too. Mostly hit, but some miss. Felt good when it was “on,” though. The run this morning, on the other hand, was completely on. Stayed in zone 1, kept a good pace, went a little further. Very nicely done.

Also had a fun weekend with BC. His mother did an Easter dinner, and we were mercifully not part of any family drama. Played Apples to Apples with the family after dinner, which is always fun (I kept picking adjectives like “unscrupulous” and “dead,” though. Hmmm…). Didn’t get to the Design Center, but it’ll be there for another weekend. Much talking and general silliness other than the visit to see Mom. Enjoyed that a lot.

Yesterday was the first time in forever and a day that I’ve done two workouts in a day (a short run in the morning, swim drills in the evening), and today everything is sore. Hips, arms, core, the works. And I still want to hop on my bike for an hour or more here this morning to get in one more workout this week. I know this’ll get easier, but I did not want to get out of bed this morning. As it was I let myself sleep in.

Going to attempt a visit to the Washington Design Center today with BC (depends on when he gets over here, I suppose). It’s here in SW, and I’ve never been, so I want to check it out. Spring has sprung and I’m wanting to rearrange my living room. I have ideas, but it’s always fun to see what other folks have done to tweak those ideas.

Since getting tested, getting back to exercise has been slow. Motivation, breaking the non-exercising habits of the past couple of months, all nasty little barriers to overcome. Still not back to anything resembling a regular workout habit. Blah.

Work’s been pleasantly busy. Big project from last year has raised its ugly head again (the good idea of an outside agent which just happens not to be legal – so sorry), so we have to respond to yet another Hill inquiry about this thing. Ugh. Doesn’t help that the particular field office involved won’t shut up and get into line with HQ on this one, and admit that they’re reading the law wrong. The other big project has been a nice distraction, and finally seems to be coming together in a way that I think will work fairly well as a narrative, and in a way that the #2 in our office (who is ultimately charged with this memo) will like. Step increase kicks in this month at some point, so a little extra money should show up in ye olde paycheck soon, which is always nice.

Keep hoping for slightly warmer weather in the morning (I’d be okay with low 50s, thanks), mainly so I can go outside and bike. I don’t want to set up the trainer yet again and have to crank out miles in front of the television any more. Unfortunately the lows for the next week look to be in the mid-30s, so more trainer time it shall be. At least that lets me clear out my backlog of magazines & catalogs (I usually browse magazines when I get bored with the TV and am stuck on the bike indoors).

Okay, results from the testing are in. These are running based (so cycling and swimming will be different). VO2 Max is 42, which is okay (not stellar, but stellar wasn’t expected, to be honest). Max Heart Rate was 195 (!!!), Anerobic Threshold was 191, which puts the heart rate training zones at:

Z1 157-168
Z2 168-179
Z3 179-191
Z4 191-195
Z5 195-???

Compare this with the standard formula (220-age), where MHR would be 185, a full 10 beats lower than the tested number.

I suspect this means on average I’ve been training in Z1-Z2 almost exclusively, with only occasional dips into Z3. That’s not a bad thing, and it’s good that I’ve been generally staying in Z1-Z2. It’s also nice to know I don’t have to try to stay below 157 (which was excruciatingly slow). I do need to consider training into 3 and 4 on occasion, but not right at the immediate moment. For the time being it’s running in the zones I’ve been using, but with a bit more confidence, and no need to stay down lower than is useful.

This week was supposed to be a relatively quiet one, or so I thought. Then a cousin called, is in town, and we’re having dinner tomorrow, which means my hair appointment (for the 3rd of 4th time in a row?) gets rescheduled, hopefully to Wednesday, when I have a date with BC (dinner after haircut, I suppose). Thursday turns out to be election night for my cult co-op, so I’ll be getting some knitting in then. Busy, busy, busy.

The legs are a bit sore from yesterday’s short run, which is expected. Treated myself by making a nice curry tonight, though it reminded me why I don’t keep cashews in the house in a regular basis (*nom, nom, nom!*). This curry’s best with a light topping of cilantro & chopped cashews, so I went all out after a brief stop at the grocery store for the fresh stuff.

One of my larger projects is going to be picking up steam here in short order, so work’s going to get very busy with lots of the more tedious aspects of being an attorney. I think we know where we’re going with it, though, so hopefully it won’t be too painful.

I’m deliberately not commenting on all of the political posts I see all over the ‘net these days (well, except to share satire), mainly because I happen to like my friends and would rather not unduly antagonize those relationships.

Started the day relatively early, at least early for me these days. After an early breakfast and putzing around the house, I hauled myself up to upper NorthWhite Northwest DC to get myself tested. Specifically, I was getting a VO2Max test. This involved getting a Hannibal Lector-esque mask strapped over my nose and mouth and then running myself ragged.

It actually isn’t as bad as it sounds. They just strap you in, hook you up to a detector, then start you walking at a moderate pace on a treadmill. The pace picks up until you get to a preset one (set by the tester after talking about your pace), then they start increasing the incline. All of this happens slowly over the course of 15 minutes, until you get up to your upper limits, which I presume they could tell by the VO2 feedback. I hit 200 beats per minute before we went into cooldown mode.

I’ve not gotten the full results back yet (they’re being emailed to me), but the tester did confirm something which I’d suspected for several years now – I burn high when it comes to heart rate in exercise. I look forward to seeing what the tests show for where my heart rates are supposed to be now, as it’ll help me train more intelligently. I’ve wanted to do one of these tests for a while, but the timing never worked before now. I’m planning to follow up with another test in a month to see how training affects the numbers.

And it was wonderful getting to run after a full month down from the vertigo, even to that level of effort. Perhaps especially to that level of effort.

After coming home to clean up I zipped out to my local yarn shop to pick up some longer circular needles for the scarf I’m working on (the 16″ was getting annoying – kept catching on the cable). Their selection waxes and wanes, so I picked up several pair while I was at it, for future projects. Switching the scarf over was easily done, and the longer cable’s been much easier to knit with. Not quite halfway done with the first skein. Posted a pic on Flickr today of the progress as of this afternoon when I updated the status over on Ravelry.

Haven’t seen much of BC lately. He’s dealing with his company’s annual audit this past week and next (plus all the prep the week before last). Headed out to the movies with him tomorrow, after a run in the afternoon, I hope. Depends on his work load, but it should work. I just picked up an EZ-Pass for the mini, so I don’t have to keep popping change on the toll road to get out to his place. His parents have accepted an offer on some property to turn into a winery, and he’s going to purchase their house from them, so for the foreseeable future I’ll be driving to Herndon on a semi-regular basis. The EZ-Pass just makes it that much easier to get out there.

One last appointment with the podiatrist in a week, then I should be cleared entirely from his care, which is the last bit of anything going on. The plantar fasciitis is gone, and has been gone for several weeks now, but this is just one last appointment to milk my insurance company ensure it’s well and truly 100% gone. Until then I can still run, so that starts up tomorrow with BC, and then swimming again come Monday. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that this was it, because the long-term goal is focused on the IM now.

Had a fun time at brunch with Dean and Martin this morning. Took a couple photos and posted them up on Flickr. Learned that the trick to getting brunch at Asylum in a decent amount of time is to get there right at 11 when they open. We walked right into our seats, nothing was messed up, the server wasn’t overly harried. It was a most pleasant restaurant experience.