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.

When I moved into the new place and set up the TiVo, I noticed that Spike TV was playing Deep Space 9 on reruns, in order, several episides a day. So I signed up for a season pass and have been watching them bit by bit. The run ended recently and so I caught up to the last several episodes, not being able to stop watching as the story progressed in a marvelous fashion up until the end. So somewhere around 2-something last night I finished up the last episode. Worth staying up for, but left me a tad tired this morning, when the building’s fire alarm went off sometime after 6 a.m.

I vaguely remember drifting out of sleep, but only realized what was going on when I heard the fire trucks pull up. Will have to have a discussion with the building to see about making the alarm a) louder and b) more annoying. It was a constant beeping which really was no more annoying that someone’s alarm clock going off on the other side of a large house. Not nearly sufficient to wake people up in the case of a real emergency.

Having lived in a large building where the alarm went off every 2-3 months, I wasn’t about to evacuate until I knew there was an actual reason to. So I watched as the firemen in one of the trucks were unable to get into the property. They ended up setting two ladders so that they could go up one on one side of the fence and down another on the other. I cannot believe none of the security guards, nor any residents had keys to open the fencing. That’s going to change, period. I suspect folks will be yelling up a storm at the board meeting on Wednesday about this.

After brunch most of the day was spent with MG, a gentleman I’ve recently started dating. Some shopping, some wandering, a good nap at his place, then home again before heading out to dinner with RNJTM. Now it’s crash time so I can get up and run in the morning, another 15-16 miler planned as prep for the marathon.

I can tell autumn is approaching for several reasons now:

There are massive numbers of migratory birds who are now clustering outside my office window (well, one floor up from me, actually), and they are LOUD. They keep flying back and forth between the trees on the Mall and the BGA office building, and it’s very distracting. I can even hear them over my radio/iPod speakers sometimes.

It’s not quite as bright in the morning now when I get up. Partially this is because I discovered when I (finally!) got rid of the old living room curtains left by the old owner that he’d also left some external sheer-ish things that I could put up to make the room darker, so I did that. And partially it’s because ye olde lazy sun is not getting up as early now. Bastard. I want bright light at 6 am, thankyouverymuch.

I can walk to work in a dress shirt and not be soaked through by the time I get here.

Fall races are close enough to feel “real” now.

So, ’tis on its way, even if we’re not quite there, at least here in my little slice of DC. Now watch the temps shoot back up into the upper 90s again.

Saw my dermatologist Monday for my semi-annual check up with him. He didn’t like a couple spots, so he froze them off. I look like I can’t use a razor without slicing off large chunks of skin. Thankfully facial skin heals pretty quickly (at least mine does), so it’s getting better, but it hasn’t helped my mood. That’s been the major source of discontent this week.

Also had my every-six-month HIV test this week. Because why have just one major stressor in your week when you can have two? It came out fine.

Reduced considerably the amount of food I’ve been snarfing as the week has gone by. I was stress eating earlier in the week (mainly over the lovely blisters/scabs from the freezing), which was setting off all kinds of moody stuff. Whee! Thankfully after one particularly nasty little meal I realized what was happening and put the smack down on that.

Nice speedwork run this morning, back again to the recording and what not from yesterday’s free range run. Brief walk to deal with a stitch in my side (too much cranberry juice this morning?), but once that was done, I was fine. The last four runs over that distance (4.3 miles, give or take a bit) have each gotten faster – from 46:50 to today’s 40:06. Am definitely going to break 1/2 an hour on next month’s 5k. My goal will be to break my PR for a 5K, 27:33, set back in May of 2000 when I ran my first ever 5k (back when I weighed 20 lbs less than I do now, thanks to the mono the previous fall, I might add). Should be fun. In the meantime, I’ll keep doing speedwork. And long runs at not-so-speedy paces. And having fun while doing both.

If you go out on a run, but take no equipment for recording heart rate, distance, pace, etc., did it really happen?

Felt the need to just run this morning, the up and back along the waterfront that I consider my usual not-quite-2-miles-when-I’m-feeling-icky run. Up, back, no beeps, no watch whatsoever, so clue how long it took me or how my heart was doing. Just a nice run to remind myself that I do this stuff because it feels good, and because it’s fun.

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.