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

Have I mentioned lately that I love where I bought my apartment?

Got to work this morning, changed from biking gear to office drag, and realized that I’d forgotten my cell phone. Whoops. So rather than panic and have to run back right that instant to get it (OCD much?), I made a plan to bike home at lunch, eat while here, and get the phone. It’s only a 10 minute trip door to door, so it’s easily done.

I could so quickly get used to doing this.

Making some fresh pasta, having some fake sausage and a nice pesto sauce. Called the parental units to check in with them. Checking email and the blogs on a real, non-work tracked computer.

Yeah, I could get used to this.

Was up at 5 this morning to go do a training triathlon with the Club down at Hains Point. I had been wavering yesterday, feeling totally unprepared (which I pretty much was), but popped a benadryl at 8:30, got into bed and was crashed by 9:30.

Got up before the sun, at 5ish. Made coffee (that I am just now sipping). Got a small b’fast, gathered my gear and got out the door to bike over to the point.

Registered, got marked up on the arm and leg and moved over to set up transition. I had everything laid out nicely, a pleasant change from the last time I did one of these (and no rain!). We wandered over to the pool and I actually got warmed up in the pool for once; I usually just stretch and get going – felt better having done 100 meters before hand.

Swim went well. Was cold to start (65?), but not unbearable once we got into the water. Did my race trick of breathing to one side instead of my normal two sided breathing. Should have seeded myself further up, I ran into the guy in front of me and didn’t get to pass him until the last 50 meters. He creamed me on the bike and run, but I had him on the swim. Swim time: 8:43.

Transition 1: 3:01:09 (including running back from the pool, so not bad).

Bike went okay. I could tell I had not been training. That said, I passed a couple of folks and was only passed by the folks who were way ahead of me in terms of loops (3 loop course). Dried out relatively quickly so it wasn’t too cold, post-swim. Oh, and I saw Tod out with his AIDS Marathon training folks, which was fun, even if I didn’t have more time to do more than yell out his name and wave as I zipped by on the bike. Bike time: 55:12

Transition 2: 1:42 (would be faster if I wore the same socks or didn’t wear socks, but that’s not happening, nor is dumping the damned orthotics. Yet).

Run went very well, I was quite pleased, except that I could have kicked it up sooner than I did. With a mile or less to go I picked up the pace and the leg turnover and did really well with it. Run time: 32:39 (meaning just at 10 minute miles average – course was 3.2 miles).

Total time: 1:41:09, a good 1/2 an hour faster than my last sprint race. So yes, quite pleased with the results.

For next time, I need to actually train, picking up the bike and the swim portions more (since I’m already running enough at the moment), and more speed work in all three sports. I think I can get it down more, especially on the bike, and get closer to an hour.

You can tell it’s almost the full moon – work is starting to get crazy again. Really crazy. Ick.

Sunday I managed to burn myself pretty well on the shoulders on my morning run. Got up too late (must’ve needed the sleep), so ran later than I’d have liked to, and the shoulders got nicely toasted while out and about. Doesn’t hurt, just looks pretty wicked red. Biked a tad, too. A lovely dinner of Indian food with L, then up chatting far too late.

A meeting of the cult co-op this evening. Very slow, not many folks showed up, which is typical of the summer months. There’s still a few members who do not like change, and they’ve been agitating against change. The latest tactic is to bad talk the building manager (whom they dislike, because she’s competent and doesn’t kowtow to them) behind her back once she’s left for the day. Charming. A shame we can’t record it, get the manager a nice suit for slander. Ah well.

As for now, it’s time to crash so that I can get up and do some speedwork in the morning. Not looking forward to it, but it should help. And it’ll be a welcome change from the normal slowish pace.

I looked at the calendar this morning and realized that the practice triathlon I thought was a couple weeks off is actually a week from today.

Whoops.

So I swam this afternoon, and biked to dinner (City Lights, with a new gay vegan here in town), since the mountain bike got out of the shop yesterday. New tires, new brake pads, tightened & realigned deraileurs & brakes, all of these were added or done and it made for a very nice ride. I think the tires I chose are a tad more street friendly than the last ones, making it overall more pleasant. Was going to get up and do a ride on the tri bike, but was up verrrrry late with dinner and a very pleasant conversation with a young gentleman, so no biking early.

Instead I did more stuff around the house, finally hanging the grocery bag holder under the kitchen sink, and breaking down and trashing the last three boxes. Cleaned up the bookshelf in the front hallway, rearranged the liquor supply/wine rack, generally put things away from the living room. It’s looking much more put together, and will be great once I tackle the book collection and figure out how I want to order that. I’m still leaning toward more shelving, with some closed shelves on the bottom for stuff like computer supplies and the like that don’t need to be on display.

Went to take the dead lamp out of the living room (one of the two torchieres died about a month after I moved in), forgot that with no bulb in the glass had no anchor, and SMASH went that. Thank heavens I had shoes on. Brought home the need for a decent broom, even with a vacuum cleaner.

I live such an exciting life now.

In a surprisingly good mood this evening. The quickie recap of the post-work scene:

Biked to my hair cut. On the way nearly got run over by an SUV who cut over with no turn signal into the bike lane, right into my path. I let him, and most of the block, know how displeased I was at him, yelling louder when he opened his window to apologize. I was not in the mood to be gracious and my heart rate was still too high.

Was early for the haircut, so went over to the vegan bakery close by, got some sweets, biked back over to actually get the haircut. Changed into a new shirt, out of the damp bike jersey. While leaving the place my back tire popped. Was meeting a young gentleman for dinner, but had time, so I went ahead and replaced the tube. But it wasn’t blowing up, and the time had come, so I walked it over to the corner, flagged him down (a fellow cyclist), and we went to dinner across the street.

Dinner was nice, good conversation, cute guy. Stopped by the liquor store to get some bourbon finally (been out since the 4th! the horror!). Walked to the U Street Metro (from 17th and R), metroed home, then discovered that the replacement tube (my last one) also had a hole in it, right across from the stem. Went to unpack my bag, felt something damp, had a mini panic attack thinking I’d crushed the liquor, but was relieved to discover it was only the damp bike jersey.

So, munching on a pecan cookie, chatting online, not drinking any of the bourbon (I want to run tomorrow), and generally enjoying the evening, despite the biking stuff.

Dear random cyclist,

Thank you for your attempted entry into the 2006 Darwin Awards, however we wish to note that your entry, “idiot on bicycle in traffic with headphones,” is far too common an occurance to rate a mention in this contest. Good luck on your continuing attempts to remove yourself from the gene pool, and let us know if you pick something more original.

Sincerely,

Darwin

—–
Dear 95% of the runners I saw out this morning,

Cotton?!?! WTF? Go get some real clothing that doesn’t weigh 10 gazillion pounds when it gets wet because you’re sweating like mad in this heat. It’s worth it. Trust me.

Sincerely,

Someone who got overheated just looking at you
—-
Dear Fish Market,

I realize you specialize in dead things, but do you have to smell like a charnal house first thing in the morning? Please at least spray down the parking lot. Thanks.

Sincerely,

A disgusted runner
—-
Dear Mother Nature,

Would a breeze have killed you this morning? Thanks for nothing.

Sincerely,

Overheated in DC
—-
Dear Designers of the DC Waterfront,

Would some more trees, and less concrete, have killed you? I know you wanted magnificent vistas, but damn is all that concrete miserably warm in the summer. Same for L’Enfant Promenade, more trees, less concrete. Idiots.

Sincerely,

A disgusted fan of midcentury architecture
—-
Dear DC City Planners,

Yes, the Waterfront and Promenade are historic, but c’mon, let’s get with the times. Modern Organic would be so much nicer, and make the areas so much more appealing. More trees, less concrete. Thanks.

Sincerely,

An annoyed resident

Did get new running shoes yesterday, but have done nothing with them yet, aside from dragging them home. I love buying running shoes, too, I’m probably the least difficult customer they get: “Yes, I’d like the Asics Gel Evolution in an eight and a half, 4E width. Thanks.” Always works, always does me right, no matter what they’re calling the shoe this year (they’ve changed the name at least three times in the 8 years I’ve been running).

Did bike around town yesterday on the mountain bike. Up to shoe shop, then to dinner, then home again. Such fun riding through city streets at night (not). Though my absolute favorite part is passing the folks who look like they’re uber-fit on their light little road bikes when I’m on my heavy, heavy steel frame mountain bike. Yes, it’s petty, but it gives me some measure of satisfaction that I can pass them on an uphill on my heavy bike. Might not be able to outdo them on a straight stretch, but I have at least that much ability on the hills.

Anyway, enjoying the last bits of slackersville, because the next event is just around the corner. In the meantime, club happy hour tomorrow, and a practice triathlon on Saturday for our newbies. Looking forward to getting going again, though. I get antsy after too much down time.

Yesterday evening just the thighs were sore, today it’s pretty much the entire lower body. Long run Saturday (7.2 miles), followed by a 2 hour bike ride Sunday (32.5 miles). Yeah, so nice and sore here today. Will stretch out shortly, but am enjoying sitting around in a bathrobe with my cereal and the web first.

Relatively quiet weekend. I did check out the local S&M club on Saturday where I learned that: a) I don’t like to receive heavy nipple play; and b) I despise being smacked on the ass.

After the usual lesson on a fetish (in this case, water sports), I had two play sessions, one as a bottom, one as top. In the first I was tied to another bottom, supporting each other as the top circled us, playing with nips (hands, clothespins, clamps and something else that felt pretty sharp, but which I did not see due to the blindfold), some light flogging (which was not unpleasant), smacking (which was unpleasant for me). The entire time he was hitting my ass all I could think was that I had a two hour bike ride to do the next day and that if he went too much further the ride was not going to be pleasant. Ah well, live and learn. In the second I worked a bottom’s nips and punched him some at his request.

In neither scene did any of us come. That was similar to my experience at the local fisting club, though there it was easier to make the bottom come, since I literally had a hand on the trigger.

I also learned that unless I’m restrained, I don’t like to just lie there (or stand there, as the case ay be). I need to be a bit more active than that. In the first scene I was at least able to run my hands over the other bottom, but I think if I’d just had to stand there with nothing to do I’d have been more bored than anything else. At least if one is bound one can strain against the ropes and do something. I suspect I’m more on the S side of the S&M equation, though I enjoy both sides of the B&D equation. Dunno. The only other time I’ve done much in the way of S&M was when a dom top was lightly punching my chest, which I did enjoy, but in the context of the larger scene. I actually stopped the top in the first scene from Saturday at one point when he was hitting my ass because it was just not comfortable, and not something I was into at all.

Oh, and in an odd moment, someone came by when we were blindfolded and put a cold water bottle on my butt. Felt like ice, and I was thinking that (ice) actually might have been fun, but it disappeared far too quickly. Not sure if they had the top’s permission to do it or not.

Watched one guy work over a bottom with a long dowel rod (I can’t think of any other way to describe it). I could see learning that particular skill.

I’ll attend again, I think the class structure at the beginning of the evening is good and I do need additional instruction in how to do certain things, but as I learn more about my own likes and dislikes I’ll become more selective about what I do.

Finally got a chance to taste/use the little Cliff Shot Bloks I’d picked up at the Cherry Blossom expo, and I’m hooked. It was so much easier on the bike to fish one of those puppies out and have something to actually chew on, rather than having to tear open a container of goo one handed and then worry about where to put the little container when you’re done. Definitely going to be the calories of choice for the bike portion of my upcoming race (since I don’t seem to do well with sports drinks when exercising). Used them on a nice 2o-ish mile ride this morning.

Then this afternoon I swam, did 3 500 yard repeats after a long warm up. It went well, so I’m feeling okay about the swim portion of the race. The bike will be tough, but definitely doable, and the run, if this calf doesn’t get better this week, will be torture itself, but overall I think I’ll survive it.

Managed to get up to Dupont for lunch with a friend, and back down to the Y for the swim and then home again before the rain really hit. It’s going nicely now, a good, steady, relatively light rain. Enough to keep the kids indoors, not so nasty that I have to close the balcony doors. Is a nice, quiet counterpoint to my tapping on the keyboard. Should take the nice, quiet time to do some more cleaning, but I’m feeling cleaned out after yesterday’s straightening and getting the chairs unpacked and set up.

Is it bad that I bought a bicycling helmet that was fancy expensive enough to come with its own carrying case? Needed Wanted a new helmet for racing & to train on the tri bike, plus I needed beaucoup hydration equipment (read: I left all my water bottles at the old place), so it was off to the bike shop yesterday evening on the way to the club happy hour to pick up a few things. Was a successful trip, getting their last between-the-aero-bars water bottle, the helmet and a couple regular water bottles. Did forget to pick up arm warmers, but hopefully they won’t be needed any time in the near future.

Ran this morning, another successful run with no calf pain. Went out the same way, along the marina and up to L’Enfant Promenade to zip across the Case bridge, but this time I popped down into the park and ran around the Washington Channel and back that way, so a more varied loop than Monday’s run, and about a 1/3 of a mile or so longer. A lot of concrete out there, which is going to take some getting used to.

I set my old roomba loose on the floors this morning (since I’ve yet to swiffer them *whistles innocently*), and it seems to be running just fine. It didn’t like the old place, but I suspect we had too many obstacles set up for it to run well. Now that most boxes are out of the way, and I have no carpets down yet, it seems to be happily bumping it’s way through the bedroom, sucking up dirt. Let’s hope it helps with some of this dust that’s all over the floors.

I’ve determined that I’m never going to be a good gamer. I’ve not picked up the DS but once or twice since I’ve been here, and that was to place Advance Wars or Sonic Rush. I don’t think I’ve been to Animal Crossing in a couple weeks now; all my ‘neighbors’ will have run away and the place will be overgrown with weeds again. Ah well.