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

Been loving being here in the bay area the past two days. I’ve worked on my tolerance for beer, wandered around in town, run into friends on the street, and gotten to meet several folks I know, at least one for the first time. Went dancing last night at the local every-other-week bear get-together. Stayed out late yesterday. Crashed early Friday. Eaten lots and lots of good, inexpensive dim sum.

And I can tell I’ve relaxed considerably because I actually have fingernails and cuticles again (I tend to chew them off when I’m stressed, and so they’ve not much been in evidence lately as they’ve been thoroughly taken down at work). Precisely what I’ve needed, and while I’m looking forward to the retreat this week, I’m also very much looking forward to seeing more friends the week after.

Successfully escaped the office after only a mild delay. All work was taken care of or passed off to others. I so owe my backup for this. Got home and almost immediately turned the work blackberry off. Felt very good to do that. All of my away messages say that I’ll have no access to voice- or e-mail during the period I’m out – trying to set expectations as

Packed, mostly. Yay for lists. Still have the daily use stuff I’ll need in the morning, of course, but pretty much everything else is in there now. I did experiment briefly with trying to fit into a carry-on, but it seems I’m not that light a traveler. Well, not if I want to take running shoes.

Connected with Dean, set to get in tomorrow. Flight’s showing on time, and the weather looks like it’s going to hold in the morning to get out of here. So, so very ready to git outta here now.

Getting ready to go on vacation is a royal pain in the tukas. Work is a mess and when I announced I’d be out at a large-ish meeting today, I suddenly got a ton of requests today for last minute stuff. Yuck.

In the meantime, laundry is now done, cold wash is all hanging on the drying racks. Packing list has been made.

Tomorrow night I’m finishing up last minute work stuff and passing things along, then home to pack, get emails out to folks, and get to sleep early. Still haven’t started the hat I have to make for the gift exchange at the retreat, guess I’ll be knitting a lot on the plane.

Then it’s off to the left coast early Friday morning.

I don’t think I could’ve shown myself a more stark contrast this morning between running and cycling. I went out and did 20 miles on the bike just now, came back in and plugged in the heart rate monitor to download the data, and it turns out I was out cycling for less than a minute less than the time I ran yesterday (1:09:35 cycling cersus 1:09:43 running). Perfect way to compare the two.

The starkest difference, and the one that I knew was there but hadn’t had matching data quite like this, was calories burned. Now, I know it’s an average, a suggestion based on my height and weight and all that, but the running showed 826 calories burned, and the cycling showed 1,278 calories burned. Meaning in their estimate running burned only 2/3 as many calories as cycling did. No wonder I was losing all the weight last spring when I was cycling all the time! (and yes, the running and swimming helped, too, I’m sure, but still)

This tells me I need to stop staying up so late and get my tail out on the bike more often in the morning.

Finished the Lawyers Have Heart 10k this morning (an hour and 8 or 9 minutes – I forgot to hit the stop button when I zipped over the finish line and they haven’t posted results yet). Ran for the first 4 miles or so, then took some walking breaks. It was made pleasant for those first 4 miles by a young law student who decided to chat with me about triathlons (I was wearing a club shirt). She had a good pace and we ran pretty well together, which was nice. I finally let her go when I needed to drop down out of zone 4 and back into zone 3 with some walk breaks. Glad I did the race, I needed the experience, even if it did mean I didn’t go out last night.

One thing that annoyed me was that they used a new disposable timing chip system – as if Championchip’s resuable chips weren’t good enough. So now we all have a piece of miniature electronics and plastic to throw away. Ugh. I’m going to send a polite note to the race organizers expressing my displeasure over the waste.

Popped down to the parade this evening. Dear heavens but that took forever. The sun had been down over half an hour and floats and groups were still coming past the reviewing stand. Someone needs to work on their timing. Or start the thing earlier. Or something, because N and I finally gave up and went to meet the typing pool for dinner down on P street. Took a lot of pictures, not sure if any are worth anything. Did discover my backup battery had no charge (whoops!), so those are getting charged now and in the morning before tomorrow’s day at the festival. My plan is to spend pretty much all day down there seeing folks, chatting and what not. I always prefer the festival over the parade because the pace is more leisurely and it’s not such a logistical mess.

In the meantime, I’m going to try and get up and get in a bike ride in the morning, as well as hitting the work ATM so I don’t have to pay fees. Sunscreen galore for tomorrow, too. No sense getting more fried than I need to.

I think the theme of this past week has been “yes, I’m incredibly tired and I’m so, so, so, so, so, so ready to go on vacation now, thankyouverymuch.” It’s been difficult to motivate myself to do much of anything.

Sort-of prepped for a 10k on Saturday, then likely planning to go watch the parade Saturday evening, and perhaps find myself out and about somewhere later that evening. Sunday is of course the festival, and I plan to go down and try not to get too sunburnt.

Also more than a wee bit tired of the daily thunderstorms now. With one exception they’ve all been in the evening this past week so have (theoretically) not interfered with my workouts, but I’m still a bit tired of the light shows and the wet. And the accompanying humidity. Not that we shouldn’t expect 198% humidity in DC in June, but still.

Gotten my stuff together, mostly, for California next week. I’m set for a ride to Wildwood, have made a couple plans to see folks, but will need to be making calls & dropping notes this upcoming week to try and set a few more things up. Looking forward to the Tut exhibit at the De Young, and the zoo, and yarn shopping. And, most of all, just not being at work for two full weeks. I need the down time from it or I’m going to seriously go nuts. I’m very, very glad I planned this trip and got it approved back in December, because it’s coming at a perfect time to get the heck out of Dodge.

Finished my socks this evening:

Yay.

Finished the Columbia triathlon in 3:35:30, about 2 minutes slower than last year. Will write up a full race report later. In the meantime, shower, FOOD, and maybe a nap.

My stomach has started the pre-race jitters dance this morning. I’ve gotten up, taken delivery of a chair I ordered a couple months back (and yay for prompt delivery people – window was 8 to 12 and he was here at 2 after 8!), started assembling my race gear, and put the bike rack on the back of the mini. Weather today is sticky, and threatening rain. Tomorrow looks to be cool and damp (arm warmers have been put in the gear pile).

Once I get packet pick-up and bike drop-off done here in a bit, it’s home to finish packing, clean, and generally try to go over the race day and how things are going to go (visualizing transition is a good thing). Get to try the wet suit on and see how tight it’s going to be this year – I’ve not worn it since last July-ish, and I gained a few pounds over the non-running part of last year which haven’t quite come off yet. With it looking to be damp tomorrow I’m glad I got the new, lighter shades. Lighter in terms of tint, that is – wanted something for dimmer conditions like pre-dawn rides where the sun would be coming up, and I’d want some protection once it did, but not the full dark of my normal sunglasses. They’re perfect for this weather, protecting but not obscuring.

Will try to crash shortly after sunset this evening since I have to get up around 4 to get ready and get up to Columbia for the race in the morning. Gonna be a long day tomorrow.

Did a final push tonight to ensure I can do Columbia on Sunday. Swam a little over a mile (3×500 as the main set, with about a minute rest between each), got home, changed, zipped out for a run of about six and a half miles (a little more than what I’ll be doing Sunday, though on flat and not hills like Columbia will be). Not bad, though I predict I will be a bit sore tomorrow. If nothing else there’ll be a small blister on the left foot from the new orthoses. I think next week will be time for new shoes, too. And hey, should sleep nicely tonight.

I got a pretty nasty little sunburn on Sunday while driving back from Tidewater. It’s fading, and isn’t quite as red as it was on Monday. I keep slathering it with aftersun lotion (and sunscreen when I go out), and no peeling, either. Yay moisturizer. Made an appointment for early June to get the mini’s AC fixed so I won’t do that to myself again.

I want to spend some time next week going through my uberlist for this year. Some things have been completed, and some have changed or been rendered moot. And it’s time for a review, after getting through this first race.