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

I should do brick workouts more often, that was good practice.

Biked about 25.5 miles, then ran 6.5, with a dismal eleven and a half minute transition (in my defense I had to catch the elevator upstairs and completely changed clothes, but still). Perfect morning for it, started just before 8, was done right before 11. Garmin estimates I burned about 2,700 calories and I believe it at the moment! Trying to snarf an egg and cheese sandwich (homemade, not fast food). Body’s saying while I may have consumed some sweet stuff on the bike & run, now it needs salt, and lots of it.

Bike seemed to be quite happy that I cleaned the chain yesterday. Only took me how many years of owning the thing? Oy. Better late than never, but boy did it need it. Next, the mountain bike chain. Time to get the bike a full check out after the next race, I think the tires may need to be replaced soon, they’re looking a little cracked.

In the meantime, I think it may be time to get out and do some errands.

Good: Got a new, faster work blackberry today.
Bad: It’s still not fully activated.
Good: I don’t have to listen to it tonight.
Bad: I still brought work home.
Good: Picked up clean dress shirts from the dry cleaners.
Bad: Blew a bike tire while dropping off another load of dress shirts.
Good: I was close to home.
Bad: I don’t think the tubes I got for the bike fit closely enough, hence flat #2 in as many weeks (pinching).
Good: It’s cooler out than yesterday.
Better: The conditions are perfect for thunderstorms, which are currently on their way.

Is there anything better than a shower after biking home from a sushi dinner? Doesn’t seem like it right now.

Two thoughts from from this morning’s bike ride:

1. Rain, rain, rain. But hey, at least the trail wasn’t crowded! Even before it rained, because I’d started at 7:30 (as opposed to 11:30 last weekend), it was a much more pleasant ride with fewer people out.

2. Cyclist warned me that a tree was down on the trail, and boy was he so not kidding! There was a small path next to the fence where others had pushed through, so I was able to get past it, but what a mess. Was right before mile 8.5 on the W&OD, just as you crossed the highway, turned the corner and have (normally) a nice downhill slope to zip down. Quite a surprise there.

Not a bad ride, though. 3 hours, a little over 44 miles. Felt good to get it done.

Training, that is. Ran and swam yesterday, biked this morning, running a long run tomorrow. Definitely feeling it tonight; almost didn’t do laundry as planned, but managed to get off my butt and get it done (yay for clean sheets). It’s a good kind of tired though – good, honest physical exhaustion from exercise.

Work’s nuts, which seems par for the course these days. I wonder if all political transitions are this crazy or if the economy being in the crapper has substantially added to it. I’d prefer not to find out for a while. What would be nice is to stop stress eating (why couldn’t I be one of those people who can’t eat when they get stressed instead of the opposite? silly body).

Long run planned for the morning, first in a while. Was prepping things for it tonight (water bottle, etc.) and I think I need to hit Conte’s or the like and pick up nutrition this weekend – down to two gels and two things of shot blocks. Not enough to make it through training or the two races, by a long shot.

First, I’m loving not having to shift gears. You just get on and start pedaling – no worrying about whether you left it in the right gear, whether it’ll be too loose or too tight to get going, you just go. If there’s a hill, it’s harder to pedal, if it’s downhill, it’s easier. Simple.

Second, it has a kick stand. I cannot express how awesome that is. For years now the “cool” bikes did not come with kick stands (and probably still don’t). And certainly, if you were using your bike for racing (which I’ve done on each of my other bikes), you didn’t want a kick stand, for practical as well as “cool” reasons. But being able to prop the bike up on its own while I fumble with getting the lock and cable out and in place? Priceless.

The brakes are still a little noisy, especially on a quick stop, but I’m sure that’ll work out as they get worn in.

The other bike store I tried also did not have shoes in my size (grrr!), so it looks like I may have to order some from online. Not my favorite choice, as my feet seem are odd enough that I pretty much always want to try shoes on right in the store to ensure proper fit, without endless back and forth shipping of shoes. Blah. But not having clips on the pedals, while not fatal, was kind of annoying. I wanted the increased power of being able to do the full rotation of the pedal and not just mash down on them; I’m definitely far more comfortable being clipped in as it gives one a better control over pedaling and balance.

Anyway, so far so good. Won’t be able to bike to work tomorrow as I have a long night planned with my friend Drew beginning right after work, but I do look forward to trying it out on the morning and evening commutes.

For some reason the reintegration back into real life has been a bit difficult. There was the inevitable backup of work at the BGA (“vacation is its own punishment”), breaking things off with someone I’d been dating, adjustment back to east coast time (which means I have to try and fight my normal nature to be a night owl), and just doing the little things like unpacking everything and putting it all away, sorting mail, grocery shopping, etc. Still haven’t done the grocery shopping, so I’ve been subsisting on ever-shrinking supplies of staples from the freezer and cabinet. Not a bad thing, it’s good to clear those out every now and again, but not perhaps the healthiest meals I could be eating.

One thing I’ve been doing to integrate some of our practices from DLOC has been to post “appreciations” over on FaceBook. Just little things to acknowledge those things I’m appreciative of for whatever reason. It does help to make one more mindful of what’s going on in your life, which has made it a useful tool for me.

Past that I’m trying to find my motivation to get back to tri training for my last two races this season, and finish up my commitment with the club’s volunteer work this month. “The Pile” of books has grown since coming back, including some re-reading of classics I feel the need to reexamine in light of the DLOC and SF experiences (The Ethical Slut, the Tao Te Ching/Dao De Jing). I’m about 1/2 an inch from finishing sock #2 on pair #2, and I have another pull ball ready to go on the next set, but the one sock’s been sitting here unloved as I try to work myself back into life.

Picked up another bike yesterday. I wanted something a bit better for zipping around town than my mountain bike (which is a good bike, but not the best for commuting). I went in a slightly different direction, a single gear, and put “campus pedals” on it (clipless on one side, regular pedal platform on the other), so I don’t have to throw on bike shoes just to zip somewhere if I wish to bike out. My goal there is to bike about more to things in town, and sweat be damned. It even came with a kickstand! I feel so retro with a kickstand on a bike – I don’t think I’ve had one of those since high school. With the bike, though, comes the last big purchase for the year, I think. Need to back off and pay off the remnants of vacation and the bike and plan for the end of the year and Giftmas. And to plan for the next body electric workshop next year, of course.

It’s hard to fully describe the changes wrought by DLOC, but I’ll be working on them this year.

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.

Okay, thank you Netflix for partnering with everyone under the sun. Here I was thinking I’d need to buy another computer or HD TiVo or some sort of device to play the “watch instantly” movies (while still being able to chat on the laptop, mind you), and while playing with the Xbox this morning I discovered I could watch them via a free download on that device. It’s nice to not have to spend more money for entertainment, and also good since the Xbox is the only thing plugged into the TV with HDMI at this point, so the picture quality is pretty good, even for downloaded content.

The week was an odd one, with the swings in weather and going out to be social and work oddities. Now that we’re past the initial stages of stimulus work, it’s getting down to crunch times for many offices – implementation and distribution of funds. Which means a lot of serious work, as well as the occasional eyebrow-raising inquiry (seriously, you think that a contract to maintain and develop a web site for aid recipients to report their progress doesn’t fall squarely within the definition of “management and oversight” of your program? please).

Finally running time machine this morning with my backup drive. A bit late, I know, but will be good to have it done at last. Cold wash got done, dinner plans with Richard and his new beau this evening. Need to get to the grocery store soon (tonight? tomorrow? not completely out of food but it’s getting there). Date planned for Monday. At some point I should get in a long bike ride this weekend. Need to finish up a sock I’m working on so I can get started on its mate. All these little necessities of life which catch up if you don’t keep up with them.

I can’t get Mary Prankster out of my head this morning:

Why, why, why, why, why she said.
Rosanna Arquette doesn’t look a thing like Madonna.
And you’d have to be a moron
To Desperately Seek either one

Oy.

If you’ve ever wondered why cyclists are so skinny, here’s a tip: I cycled an hour and twelve minutes this morning (20 miles or so) and the thing says I burned a little more than 1,400 calories.