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

I guess ye olde bodye decided this morning was for sleeping in rather than getting up and biking, as I slept through my alarm for about an hour. Whoops.

Recovery from the race has otherwise gone okay. The blister was gone yesterday, and the residual soreness in my right calf has tapered down to nothing this morning. Will do a short run tomorrow morning to stretch out the legs, then will be back to business for the half weekend after next.

Work was odd yesterday, there were only four of us in the main suite and one of those one never sees because she has an outside entrance to her office. The acting boss was sick as the proverbial dog and losing her voice, poor woman. I wonder what she’s going to sound like this morning.

Speaking of biking, it looks like Thursday’s ride, if it happens at all, will be on the trainer – going to be below freezing for the low. Brr! I realize it’s April in DC and these things happen, but man, I just want warmer weather to be here for good. Not blazing hot weather, but warmer.

1:45:39 chip time (heart rate monitor time). About 1:57 on the course time. AHR: 174; MHR: 185 (yeah, I burn high). 49-50 degrees out, light to no breeze, overcast.

Cool conditions. Ran into a few tri clubbers, both before the race, during, and after. We really need more cooler weather gear to wear, but that’s another story.

Forgot to lap time the miles as we went past them until mile 5 (0:52:06), and then there was no mile 7 marker. Sometime past mile 5 I felt like I had a rock in my shoe, so stopped twice (at about miles 6 and 7) to see what was up with it. Couldn’t find a thing. I suspect that somehow, no matter that the shoes have never done this, they were pinching the outside of my foot. Have a nascent blister developing, but no biggie.

Was running with two clubbers up until mile 5 when I hit that max heart rate and decided to pop back into the average range. I used to be able to run at 181/182 and that was about my threshold, but I think I’ve dropped back a bit to 179ish. Considering I’ve done no threshold training as yet this year, that’s not too surprising.

Was very glad I dumped the jacket at bag check as I heated up pretty well once we got running, and even more happy that I’d brought it afterward. The wind picked up a little while we were out, and being soaked in a cool breeze at 50 degrees out is pretty chilly.

Maintained a pretty steady 10:30 pace, which was great. I was expecting to come in closer to 2 hours for my finish for it based on my training runs, so I’m quite pleased with the chip time.

The cherry blossoms are at peak today, and they were absolutely gorgeous. Little fluffy white clouds of flowers attached to the trees. A good part of the early and late race are around the Potomac and the Tidal Basin, so we saw some great ones.

Happy to have finally run this race, which was shaping up as my nemesis after sports injuries kept me out the past two years. Was tons of fun, and great prep for the half marathon in two weeks!

Brr! It got cold again for this morning’s ride. Claimed it had dropped to 43 when I got home. Yuck. But, the cherry blossoms are just coming out, and are gorgeous. Also, saw a fox on the Potomac side of the Point. Big sucker, too. Very red, huge tail. Bet he loves the golfers.

Finally ordered myself a digital camera that arrived today. I’ve had a hand-me down one for a few years, but it’s been dropping pixels, so it was time to upgrade. Got one that’s relatively hardy, water and shock proof so I can drag it out biking. Still learning how to get it to work, of course, but so far so good. Need more memory for it so I can take more than 10 pics at the high resolution, but I have time for that. Looking forward to snapping photos.

Work’s starting to pick up some more of late, but so far I’m staying afloat. Several small things have popped up and I’m hoping those will get resolved in short order so I can get back to some larger projects, but one never knows at the BGA.

I’ve become one of those people. One of those sick, twisted, depraved individuals we all loathe so much. You know who I’m talking about: morning people.

I’ve been aware that I’ve been leaning that way. The signs were all there, going to bed early, feeling tired by 9, 9:30 in the evening, but I’d been trying to deny it. The revelation hit me full on this morning, though, when I was watching the sun rise over SW DC while running at Hains Point. I was remarking to myself how lovely the few brave cherry blossoms which have bloomed were in that morning sun and how sad it was that most people wouldn’t see something like this when it all came crashing down on my brain that I’d become one of them. One of us.

And you know what’s worse? I like it.

The other revelation this morning was that because I don’t run or bike with headphones on, if I’m out by myself I tend to write entries in my head but then never end up posting them. Either I get too busy when I get back inside or they end up disappearing from ye olde braine by the time I sit down to a computer. That’s a shame, some of them are quite fun.

11 miles on the Heart Rate Monitor, which means 10 in actuality. 1:53. Negative split, and the faster pace I kicked it to in the 2nd half is going to be doable for next week. Looks like a cold front is expected in next weekend, so the Cherry Blossom’s going to live up to its nickname of the ‘Chilly Bloosom,’ but at least we’re not losing an hour’s sleep just before the race (the one advantage to earlier DST?). So looking forward to finally running this race!

Managed to get up for the club bike ride again this morning, despite being up a touch too late the night before, and having a wee bit to drink while out with friends. The ride went well, despite being a tad cooler than Tuesday, and definitely more windy. The wind was coming up river, so each time we crossed down toward the Awakening it was like hitting a wall of wind when we came out of the trees down near the parking lot.

Long day today. Did finish up, I hope, a project which has been haunting us for several months now. Now I can move on to several other projects that have been on the back burner for far too long. At least they’re interesting ones that I feel like I can dig my legal teeth into. Payment for services we provide to the public (and the rates therefor), and the funds we receive for work we do for other federal and state entities and how that’s accounted for. We suspect some of our field offices have been playing fast and loose, so my accounting folks and I are digging down into the authorities there.

Boring to some (most), stock in trade for me.

Crashing early here tonight, up tomorrow for a run. Still on track for the races coming up, but watching it to make sure I’m careful about injuries. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Early start to the day. Up at 5:30 for a pre-dawn ride with the club. Did an hour, but got smoked early on. The mostly solo ride was good, nonetheless. Hains Point is very well lit, so was no trouble to be out there before the sun came up.

Got home, whipped up a meal for the crock pot, started the dish washer, got cleaned up, biked up to work.

I’m exhausted just thinking about it (and about ready to crash here at 8:30 – will just be up another hour, I think).

No smoke today from the neighbors. Hooray for small things. 😉 Dinner from the crock pot was wonderful. Hot food, no cooking in the evening. Perfect.

Getting rid of the old couch tomorrow evening, yay. Will try to run in the morning as well. Will be cooler than this morning, I think, but easier to run in that than bike.

Awesome run this morning, about 10-11 miles (probably 10, given the ‘off’ factor of my pedometer). Totally on pace and what not to run the Cherry Blossom 10 miler in 3 weeks. Yay! *knock wood*

Our newbies had a group run, either 25 minutes or 30 minutes, depending on the group (sprint/olympic). None of the sprint folks showed up (whoops), so we just looped around Hains Point. I had been all worries earlier in the week about biking over and then having someone to watch gear, then had the “Duh!” moment when I thought about my long run this morning and that the meeting site was only about 2 miles from home. So, ran over, met them, ran sweep with the last runner (great conversation), then did another loop with one of my volunteers (fastish for me, slow for him), then home.

It’s going to be one of those weird spring days where you can’t decide quite which jacket to wear. No matter, one way or another I am getting The Heck Out Of The House today. I think some furniture window shopping is in order.

Good intro meeting for the newbies this morning. Got out and biked there and back. Nice lunch in Georgetown with some of the volunteers. Finally rearranged the cables to the TV and computer, so they don’t show or stretch. Vacuumed. Should have napped, but just didn’t.

The warmer weather was good today. I’m hopeful that in the next couple weeks I’ll be able to take the tri bike off the trainer and use it outside, though I fear it was a false start, given the forecast for the next week). That and I’d like to be able to bike to work again. It’s not quite up to the right temps in the morning to make it comortable; I’d like it to be above freezing so my toes don’t fall off. The fact that they don’t make booties to go over mountain bike shoes doesn’t help (wool socks alone don’t cut it). The bus is fine, but the bike is faster.

I also want it warm enough to do the morning rides with the club once they start up again on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Annual meeting of the club tomorrow, making up for the lost one last Sunday when it snowed and made the roads so crazy.  Should be relatively pro-forma, though thankfully we’re moving the annual meeting to the fall after this one (pending a vote to change the bylaws). Good way to round out the tri weekend, but I’ll be glad when it’s done.

It’s March, so no more snow effect on the glen. Perhaps wishful thinking, but I’m downright tired of the stuff now.

None of the days these past two weeks were as bad as last Thursday, but they were pretty darned busy. Today was the epitome of it all, with several meetings with folks, the outcomes of which were almost pre-ordained, and all of which required I wear a suit, so suited I went. It always gets comments, since most days: a) I don’t wear a white shirt (white drains me of what little color I have); and b) I don’t wear a tie or jacket. I look good in the suit, and occasionally I toy with the idea of jazzing up the wardrobe with a couple more, but the idea of wearing one to work, or of dragging it to work on the bicycle in warmer weather, is not exactly appealing.

Running’s almost back on track and it appears I’m actually going to be able to run the Cherry Blossom on the way to the half-marathon I have in mid-April. (*knock wood*) Do need to creep back into the gym for some stablization, but the running’s going okay. When I have run, it’s certainly been a good sleep aid. It’s only a little after 8 as I write this and I feel like I could crash right now.

The newbie triathletes get started tomorrow with a meeting and a short run. Looking forward to this year’s program, if we can just tamp down the “and you need to do this, and this, and…” nature of one of last year’s leaders. I appreciate the help, but chill! We can do this, trust us.

Attracted some sort of bizarre anonymous stalker over at LJ on my last post there. Left the comment there for the heck of it, though did freeze the thread for posterity. It and another comment on someone else’s LJ (since screened) were directed at comments I made about not revealing which Big Government Agency (BGA) I work for in my writings online. I discuss work only in the most oblique manner, and it’s not like folks couldn’t find out where I work if they tried, but I prefer not to let my BGA be searchable through my writings, since there are folks who go out and look for news about the BGA (any BGA does, actually), and I’d rather not compromise my employment.

And as to the offer of sexual aid in the comment, don’t do me any favors.

Full triathlon weekend, after the newbie meeting tomorrow, we have the club’s postponed annual meeting on Sunday, plus my long run for the week, 8 miles or so. Will be cool again in the morning, so out come the tights once more (this morning was in shorts and a long-sleeve T, and that was a bit warm at the end).