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

Not been wanting to write much of late. Had a lot of things going on, personally, and no real desire to share them with the world at large.

Running’s been going pretty well. Did not quite 15 miles on Sunday. Ironic sight of the day while out running: Woman sitting on her back porch in a “Race for the Cure” T-shirt, smoking a cigarette.

I can tell I’ve been a little stressed, though – eating like there’s no tomorrow. Makes one yearn for the days before 14 year old anorexics started having strokes and you could still get real dexatrim over the counter. The new stuff just isn’t the same, and who needs a dressed up caffeine pill, really? If I wanted to get jittery I’d just drink more coffee. Not there’s been a lack of that in my diet, either.

Anyway. Writing more out of a sense of obligation than any real desire to post, so I’ll end this here and save us all trouble of more inane writing.

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.

Did measured speedwork for the first time in, like, ever, this morning. And it was So Much Fun. 1.5 mile tempo pace, half mile cool down. Was supposed to do three repeats, only did two repeats because I thought I didn’t have enough time (turned out I could have – oh well), but man was it fun to run faster than normal again.

Might even be able to beat 1/2 an hour on the 5k I’m doing next month if I keep that up. Not that 1/2 an hour is terribly fast on a 5k, but I don’t think I’ve done that yet, and it’d be nice to do.

The tempo trainer thingey I got last week is definitely helping me keep the turnover going. Turnover (how many time your feet hit the pavement) was steady (with the beeping) at both the fast and the recovery paces, which is as it should be. More proof that switching over to the evolution running stuff was a good thing. I’m sure I was quite the sight this morning, tempo trainer beeping in one hand, heart rate monitor held in the other (showing pace and distance). But still, it was so much fun running up and down the boardwalk area at the Waterfront doing the repeats. I wish I’d discovered this stuff sooner.

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.

This morning’s run was great… for the first 4 miles. Had a nice breeze, heart rate was behaving itself, mostly shaded. Then I hit the Awakening, turned that corner and Death Awaited. Breeze was non-existent, shade was precarious at best, the heart rate shot up and forced walking breaks. Yuck. Needless to say the last three miles sucked gorilla butt.

But, I still got out and ran.

Been thinking a lot about dating lately, and I’m still of the opinion that, while I’ve gone on dates, I’m still not ready for anything yet. It’s like when I think about eating meat – I can visualize getting right up to the point of taking a bite, then I just freak out and can’t do it. Everything just keeps telling me I’m not ready yet, despite trying. I can still be witty and charming engaging and all that, but that essential spark is just not there for me.

Which is not necesarily a bad thing (though it is occasionally an annoying thing).

Took a quiet night tonight, not really spending any time online, played some on the DS (there were so many weeds all over my town in Animal Crossing it wasn’t even close to funny – that’s what I get for taking 2 months off from the game). Talked with K for the first time in a while, he’s doing well, which was good to hear. Nice and quiet, which was needed.

Tomorrow’s run should be interesting. It’s a short one (thankfully), but I received my tempo trainer finally today after being on backorder for two months now. So we’ll see how the pacing goes with picking up the feet to a set rythmn. Should be interesting.

I hate my digestive system. I suspect the spicy food from the other day has wreaked the havoc that is playing in there currently. Grrr. I want a do-over, with an iron digestive system the next time around, thanks. No lactose intolerance, no ickies when I eat (my favorite) spicy foods, just eat whatever I want and not get any sort of upset in the balance of the lower body. Is that so much to ask?

Did get some play in this evening, regardless. Must’ve been my 6 month mark, but I enjoyed it thoroughly. Shan’t go into more detail than that, this time.

The usual 7 miler planned for tomorrow morning, so it’s off to bed here so I can run before it gets too beastly out there. As it is it’ll easily be 80, even at the early hour. Thankfully the cold front comes through Friday to kill this thing off.

On my morning run this morning I:

Stared at army boys running (the joys of living a block from a base);
Helped a woman who was massively lost get back on her way;
Stared at more army boys running;
Got really, really warm.

Was an okay run. Did feel a touch of the soreness from Sunday’s run, but not too bad. Also had fun staring down a squirrel as I was stretching. Was slow enough that he came down to check things out (not too close to me), but was cute, for a tree rat.

Had a couple friends who live here in the cult co-op over for martinis this evening. Needed to practice on boys who wouldn’t care that I had no clue how to make them. Now that I know how (the gin variety, at least), I’ll have to have some more folks over.

It’s summer in DC, it’s hot, it’s humid, it’s time to mosey.

That does not mean walking at my normal “get out of my way before I barrel you over like the speed bump that you are” pace, it means getting back to my southern roots and walking at a measured pace designed not to leave you drenched when you get to your destination.

And by heavens, it works.

I managed not to be soaked by the time I got to work this morning. Tomorrow may be another story as I have a run planned in the morning and that tends to make me a tad more prone to sweating on the walk. But at least for one day I was not a total victim of the weather. Thursday should be really fun, what with my normal 7 miler to do.

In wretched news, the YWCA, where I swim, is closing their pool as of the end of August. Evidently it’s too big a financial drain on them, so they’re dumping it. As a result, I will be dumping them. I’ve written to the manager (with a CC to the overall email addy) asking how to cancel the membership. Which means I now have to find a new gym. Grrr. I’ll miss the towel service, but what a pain in the ass. Looks like I may be moving to the (not so hot) gym around the corner after all.

Assassins was really well done. Small space, big voices (mostly – Lee Harvey Oswald was a little weak), and really, really well staged. The curtain, a flag, dropped and the assassins and other cast members were sitting in an exact duplicate of the seat set up that we were in. Great commentary on who was where and what not. From there, it went really well. Good music, good show. Won’t be playing much longer, but I recommend it if you can get to it.

Was good to see L again. He’s been up in Maine or otherwise busy for most of the summer. Had fun catching up.

Legs are surprisingly well this evening, post-run. Sucking down water like there’s no tomorrow, though, and the piss at the resturant was pretty darned dark (dehydration, anyone?), but should get back to balance this evening before bed.