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

After a month break from writing, and three months off from regular exercise, it’s now time to get back to both. Monday is six months (24 weeks) from my next triathlon, and the beginning of training for the same. I’m trying to set out a manageable plan to work on getting faster (3:12 is the time to beat!), including weights for once. Gonna be an interesting season.

Also been working on the training plan for our new triathletes this year. I have the times and most of the heart rates, it’s just plugging in extra stuff like swim workouts and the like now. Plus setting out the stuff for their weight workouts. No pressure. This year should be the most difficult, once this is laid out it’ll just be a matter of tweaking it here and there.

I hosted friends at my place for Thanksgiving this year. Just a couple of us, but I did the majority of the cooking. I enjoyed that, it was fun getting everything together and timing it all out to be ready approximately at the same time. May do the same for the christmas holiday if there are folks in town.

So, after finishing the season last month I made the conscious decision to indulge in a lot of stuff I’d been putting off, either purposefully (drinking – yay for good bourbon) or out of a lack of time/energy (knitting, gaming, socializing). It’s been fun going back to some of these things, especially catching up on long- delayed knitting projects (I finished sock #1 of this pair, and I’m in the midst of the arch increases on #2), and getting back to seeing some of the folks I let slip along the way. I’ve by no means gone back to my previous social life, and it’s unlikely I ever will entirely, but I have caught up with a person or two in the last month.

It’s funny, they warn you that IM training will mean putting your social life on hold for a year, and you hear that, but it doesn’t quite take hold until you’ve done this. It really did retard any hope of a social life, though. Which is why I want to focus on shorter races next year, and more specifically to train for faster race times. It seems like the better course than trying to go for long again next year, rather to build up a better base for future years, and get back to what it feels like to train for the olympic distance along with my newbies next year.

But in the meantime, I’m enjoying the bourbon.

The season is almost done for my newbie triathlete program. They do their goal race tomorrow, then it’s one more event and wrap email and they’re on their own. As usual some of the co-leaders are completely burnt out (as I was last year, until I let myself rest), but I’m feeling pretty good about the season. We’ve already discussed ideas for next year and developing a more standardized format for the program, emails, etc. As with everything it’s a learning experience, and it’s just gonna get better.

The sunburn is in the “itchy, peel-y” stage right now and is driving me nuts. I’m going to have to vacuum like mad tomorrow to get rid of all the dead skin. Yuck! It’s just plain gross, but that’s the normal progression, and it’s healing fairly well. Because of the burn I took the week off from exercise. Headed back to the pool tomorrow for a clinic to work on efficiency in my stroke. Then I should get back to my normal training load with a nice long ride on Saturday, 6-7 hours or so. But this time with lots more sunscreen.

Feeling seriously annoyed this evening at the lack of gay men in my chosen sport. There’s maybe two other gay men that I know of in the club, and neither shows up to anything with any regularity, so I tend to be the lone, token fag. And heaven forfend there might actually be other gay men who might want to challenge themselves athletically. And heaven forfend there might actually be another triathlete to date.

We had a club happy hour this evening, and while it’s great seeing my friends in the club, it also drove home a bit of alienation I feel at being the sole out gay man at any of these events, social or training. And mentioning ‘triathlon’ to many non-triathletes ends up scaring them off as potential suitors because they feel like they won’t measure up (the usual reaction is some variation on ‘I could never do that’, ‘wow, you must be really fit,’ or a simple ‘oh’ as they slink off). It’s not like I feel like I have to date another triathlete, but it might at least get rid of the intimidation factor related to the sport.

I guess this is just a long way of saying I’m feeling lonely at the moment and I’d like to have someone else to share some of my life with, in more than just a friendship, who I wouldn’t scare off with my hobbies (we won’t even go into the looks I get when I mention that I knit).

Keeping myself busy with work and training and attempting to get sleep. Last night was the first good night of sleep I’ve had in about a week and I’m hoping to follow up on it with another good one this evening. Between a weather front that’s been passing back and forth over DC (hot, cold, hot, cold, and always wet) and just being drained at work I was a mess the past week. It seems to be evening out finally (though the oil spill is not helping…), and I keep reminding myself that the work front should be busy but in a different way once the other fiscal attorney comes on board after Memorial Day.

I’m a bit disappointed with where my biking is at the moment. I’m mostly happy with swimming and running. I took a run clinic earlier this month from the guy who wrote the book on the style of running I use and that was enormously helpful. I’ve continued to try and focus on form while I run, and just by that I’ve been a bit quicker than I was before, though I’m having to watch the heart rate. The beepy-thingey has been my constant companion (a metronome like thing that allows me to try and turn the legs over at a certain rate), much to the amusement of other people on the trail I’m sure. Swimming’s been okay, and the changeover I did to 100s, with each one a focus on a particular aspect of the stroke, has also helped. Biking, on the other hand, I feel behind on mostly due to scheduling things on the weekends. Not sure where I’d make it up, though if I keep waking up at 3 am and not being able to crash I might just do it in the morning rather than the weekend. Silly body.

Continuing to read like mad on training stuff. And I’ve started doing some reading into Buddhist notions of the self. Interesting take on things, and one which seems to resonate. Not sure where that will go, but the reading is interesting.

Trying to play through the video game Infamous on both hard mode and trying to play it as the good guy, and it ain’t easy. My old tactics while playing the evil side (blow ’em all to hell as quickly as possible) don’t work; I keep getting an “execution” bad karma hit that throws the entire mission off. Very annoying. But, challenging, and I’m keeping at it off and on. That might go to the side though, I just got a copy of Prototype to try out.

Had a date or two. Trying to decide which way a crush is going. But nothing definitive on that front at the moment. Which may be for the best; once the new triathlete stuff is done this year, training starts to ramp up a lot.

Other than the Comcast situation, things are pretty good here. Training is going apace, I have a plan for my swimming (the weakest of the three legs for me). I’m a tad apprehensive about getting up to the right volume of long rides given my volunteer duties with NTP, but I think I’ll be there for Eagleman. I’m already up to it for Columbia, and I expect that race will go fairly well, all things considered.

We’ve passed two candidates up to the next and final round of interviews for the other fiscal law position at work. Hopefully the interviews will get scheduled soon and we can get him or her on board in short order. Took us longer to get the reference checks done simply because of the nature of scheduling at work the week before last.

Along the same lines, I’m trying to get a better handle on my work load so I can know what things should and can get passed along to the new person. There are several ‘what if’ projects I’d like to start laying out as well, getting reference materials together to make it easier for myself and others to find things related to our budget and the organizational structure of the BGA.

Hosted my friend Rob this weekend, up from Richmond. Mostly I let him wander on his own as I had club and cable stuff to deal with, but we did get to spend some good time together, which was fun. I’m afraid such events will become more scarce as August approaches and I become pickier about my training and recovery needs.

Signed up for a running clinic next month with the folks who established the style of running I’ve been trying to do. Should be interesting to get some feedback from them on how I’m doing with their stuff. I suspect I’m going to be told to turn my legs over faster, but that’s fine and doable. More worried that I’m just completely off on what they were aiming for, but that remains to be seen.

Started another pair of socks yesterday, and I got yarn and a pattern from a club on Friday to knit a pair of fingerless gloves (‘texting gloves’ as they were called). Fun and interesting pattern, and great yarn for it. Looking forward to making those, but want to get the socks done first, or at least well started since those can be a Metro project where the gloves are a bit too complex for traveling.

It’s dark at 4 am when you get up for a race. I had to wear my glasses to bike over to the race this morning, since it started at 7, which was about 15 minutes before the sun came up. Switched to the sunglasses even in the dark because I knew I’d want them on the course, but not for biking over.

Nice, cool morning. Bike ride over was easy, though it took me a bit to find bike parking. I was the only one on the actual rack near the finish line – most people just locked up to street signs. Changed into running stuff, ran into club folks who were volunteering, club folks who were running, and other friends and coworkers who were running as well while we waited inside. Seeded myself back according to the time I thought I’d do. Interestingly, they assigned us to “corrals” according to our speed, but then didn’t put numbers out for the corrals, just the expected times. Ooookay.

They threw the professionals out on the course and then began the slow crawl toward the starting line. Once we got going I did pretty well pacing myself at just under 10 minute miles (and the results show my 10k split was at an average page of 9:55 min miles). The last half was a bit slower as we hit hills and I tired out some, but the 2:15:03 finish time was perfectly fine by me. As the first race of the season I wasn’t looking to break any personal records, just to get out and do the distance before the tri season got started. The course itself was good, the right level of challenge for an early race, though it was a tad quiet since a good chunk went through downtown’s business district and some sleepy neighborhoods. Adams Morgan was nice and cheery, with a good crowd, and there were good pockets of cheering here and there as well through North Cap and the Hill. I had fun giving high fives to a bunch of little kids along the race course where I spotted them in time. In any case the kids cheering always brought on a good smile.

Mile 11 seemed to be the missing mile for a lot of people, as in we hit 11 and then the next thing you knew, you were hitting the marker for 12 and thinking, “where did that last mile go?” At least 2-3 other people I talked to had the same experience. The last couple miles were challenging, and I was thanking my lucky stars I was just doing the half as it was starting to warm up as we came into the finish chute. I’m nicely sore this afternoon after a short nap and some goofing off on the PS3, post-race, but not injured and feeling pretty good. A good way to start the season, and I look forward to the rest of it.

I must be unconsciously watching my language around Mike because I actually managed to shock him with a hearty expletive (“fuck!”) this evening. That or I’ve stopped cursing as much, which is entirely possible since I’m stuck around so many political appointees these days.

Orientation day for the newbies is Saturday and we usually do a run afterward. This year, probably not so much, since it’s forecast to be 28 degrees and snowing. Whee! Not what I want to drag a bunch of new triathletes out into, personally. All the docs are current for them, though, including the next month of workouts, so now it’s just getting the clinics set up.

Need to pick up an X-Acto knife this weekend so I can start the process of replacing light switches and electrical sockets. Having looked at the paint jobs in the hallways I think I can say definitively that the estate I purchased the apartment from had the cult’s co-op’s own workers repaint the unit, because like the hallway, all of the electrical sockets and light switches were painted over when I moved in. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy, and there’s no reason for it when it’s relatively simple to either tape or remove and replace the covers while painting. So, I’d like to get those fixed, at least the ones that are in public view, so they don’t look so sloppy. And I’m dying to replace the awful (and filthy) blue light switch cover in the bathroom. That can’t happen soon enough for my tastes.

My new mortgage servicing company has made a fine festuche of the escrow statement on my PMI as I moved over to them. Sent them a doc on 12/10/09 to have them correct the error (they somehow assumed I wasn’t going to pay the PMI that was on the bill for December and January, despite never being late with a payment?!?!). Called today because the February bill shows an increase (which was threatened in the incorrect escrow statement) to collect the “missing” PMI. They did indeed get my letter via fax on the 10th, but no one ever bothered to send it to the escrow department to have the thing fixed. Oy. So, step one was having that happen today, and I’ll call to bug them in a week. In the meantime I have to pay the bill with the extra $17 and change on it and then deal later with getting that somehow credited to a future bill or to principle. Right. It’s not a ton of money, but frankly I don’t want to pay them a penny more than I owe them. I have little faith in this new company so far, though the reps I’ve spoken to in the two months I’ve had them have been fairly pleasant to deal with.

Oh, and my favorite part of dealing with them? For the first time since about my third mortgage payment back in 2006 I’m paying my mortgage via check. Why? Because they want to charge me to make the payment online, in an amount that adds about 1% to the bill. No thanks, I’ll happily pay the USPS to deliver it instead. Dingbats.

And there’s some question why people dislike financial institutions?

Anyway. Other than that, training is going okay. My foot began to bother me a little at the end of last week, but several nights of sleeping in the brace has staved off the ever-possible plantar fasciitis. Went absolutely nuts in making soup last week, so I have gobs of the stuff in freezer bags now for easy meals later (whip up some fresh rice and heat up the soup, voila, homemade meal in no time). Curried split pea soup and African bean soup (also slightly curried, but with peanut butter in the broth – yum). Mood is much elevated thanks to regular exercise again.

Mike is looking at condos in Beantown these days. It’s been fun to watch the excitement and apprehension that goes along with that process. In a lot of ways I wish I were up there to look at places with him and watch the possibilities unfold. I did have to admit to him that I was a bit apprehensive when he first said that he was going to buy rather than rent when he moved this spring (it does make the long-distance aspect of the relationship a bit more, well, lasting for the near future), but spitting it out and talking about it with him released that anxiety. Yes, we’ll be traveling back and forth for a while to come, but I think he’s worth it.

Work has been hellacious as we move toward budget hearing time with the President’s budget coming out on Monday. Today was spent going over mind-numbing anticipatory questions and answers (the programs guessing what the Hill is going to ask us, and then answering said questions). On the one hand it’s a good picture of the overall direction of the BGA. On the other, it’s tedious and time-consuming, and one gets tired of correcting grammar and statutory reference mistakes. Eh, as long as they keep paying me. Though I do look forward to getting the ad out on the street for the other appropriations attorney position we’re supposed to be putting out. Soon. I hope. (Help!)

NTP is in full start-up mode. The newbies register on Wednesday and then the fun begins. I have two docs to edit up this week, and then we’re good to get started.

Been thinking a lot about decorating, again. Mainly paint and some minor things around the apartment. It’s been 4 years-ish since I moved in and I’ve not painted a thing. Whoops. I did come up with an idea for the color (though not the exact shade) for the bedroom this afternoon. Looked around when I got home and I think it’ll work. Not saying much past that, but I’m hopeful. Need to find someplace to do some framing for me, too (oooh, and there’s an idea for the front hall. Hmmm…). Anyway, it’s a slow process (re: 4 years, no paint), but is good to get some more concrete ideas. Oh, and cleaning out of closets will happen shortly. Lots to do, lots to do.

I’m currently sitting in my parents’ motor home, listening to the remnants of Hurricane Ida blowing past. Every now and again a particularly strong blast of wind manages to shake the coach back and forth. Reminds me of a camping trip we took when I was little and we had to flee into the vehicle we’d driven up in because the tent was literally about to be blown over by the wind that night. That’s not a concern here, obviously, but it is a bit disconcerting when your “home” rocks with the wind.

Completely forgot to bring any snacks, or Adult Tang, so I think I’ll be shopping tomorrow rather than this weekend. While I’m out in the wilds of Virginia I find it a good opportunity to hit stores I wouldn’t normally get to, or get things that it’s easier to haul home in the car rather than attempt to carry home via the Metro. If I can get out, that is. There’s more than a bit of flooding going on here, which made the drive down interesting once the sun set.

I got to spend the past two weekends with Mike – I went up for Halloween in Salem with him, and then he came down this past weekend for Code and a visit. We continue to talk nightly, and haven’t managed to run out of things to talk about. I head back up in early December to see him next, and visit Provincetown for the first time.

I’m thinking of taking a CPR course in late December. It would be good to know just in general, and also for my continuing work with our New Triathlete Program with my tri club. I’m trying to get myself back into “triathlon” mode, picking up literature I need to go over both for NTP and for my own training, and reinvesting myself back into a training mode that I’ve been out of since September’s race.