Posting

I'm liking this posting frequently thing.
I've learned that riding long makes you weak as hell in the gym the day after - upper body and lower body. I guess that means I pushed myself. I just got my reflective vest (2.99 on Ebay). It was shipped from Hong Kong - complete with nifty Chinese stamps.

Any Given Sunday

Had a great ride today - I went out towards the reservoir where I unexpectedly met up w/ Aaron from Providence. In total we got 3 hours in and I'm totally psyched about this. I've really got to trim down - I'm up in the high 180s which is way too much. How did this happen? So I'm hungry now but not overly so, just a little bit. I actually feel really good right now - legs not overly sore, knees don't feel as if they are 100 years old. The girl that checked me out at Stop and Shop was sniffling and I could tell had a slight fever (unless she just smoked a big fatty blunt). I hope she didn't pass on her infection - that would totally suck. There's a bad one going around work.
Going to South Carolina for next weekend to see the remnants of my family which should be nice. I think I'm going to rent a bike and do a couple rides - in sneakers and with bike shorts under sweatpants of course. I'll have to rent a bike from somewhere b/c I'm not bringing mine on the plane. There is really, really good riding down there - smooth roads that go on forever and ever. I am not bringing any cold weather gear even though I know better and should because it gets cold there sometimes. I'm excited to go to Atlanta on the 21st. We're going to catch a pro hockey game. Apart from this, I'm going to hike Sassafras Mtn. which is SC's highest point.

Today was cold

I was a lazy ass today. I did nothing all day and I'm not going to feel guilty about it at all. I've also decided on going after my phD @ Northeastern when I'm done w/ PC. It should only take a couple of years after I'm done w/ what I'm doing now. Regardless, I guess coming to that decision was doing something. This means a few more years of being the world's cheapest biker, although I'm getting my road rig ready and equipped for next season. Anyway, I've got to get my cross bike ready so if (when) I wake up early I can go on a ride up to Lincoln Wds. (0900) but things don't look good in that department. I found out why my avg. spd was so low on the CX ride the other day - broken rear spoke and I've got to repair my extra tubular tire. Ditching the broken spoke wheel and putting on my tubular. Uncharted territory here - I've stitched one up w/ floss before and had it work but I'm not doing that to this one - taking out the core and putting in the sealant stuff should do the trick.
Today is the first day that my knees have not been extra painful. I had problems walking stairs all week - like walking up and down at an angle to minimize the awful shots of pain. This means running is out. Walking up stairs holding the handrail like I'm 80 is not something I look forward to. I've also got to lose some weight - way too heavy right now. I don't know how much I can lose, but if that scale at the YMCA is right I've got a lot to lose.
Leah and I are getting sushi tonight. I'm really hungry. I love sushi. Low fat and healthy.

The girls on the second floor

whom live beneath me are really, really going to hate me after I'm done riding the trainer. Maybe they shouldn't have parties that end "early" like 2AM.

Tyra

When I came home tonight I flipped on the TV. I did not look at it...I flipped it on only. I began to cook dinner. After a while I started to listen to it. There was this show on - called "Tyra." This was the stupidest shit I've seen in a while. Anyway, I hit the bikepath tonight with my crappy light. It went well. I TT'd up to a group of 3 guys who ended up being pretty strong. We went the whole way - which ended up being about 1.5 hours. It felt great to get a good ride in during the week. I'm really looking forward to next cycling season. Mike Sam, Wild Bill and I went on the first winter ride of the season on Sunday. Like it started to sleet when we started out - it got worse and worse as we got further but it was just sleet. The roads got slick when we were about an hour out. I dumped it on Mann School which was kinda fun actually - I've got a nice totally black bruise that doesn't really hurt. I guess I made the most awful sound when I went down which also was kind of gratifying. It poured down rain from Greenville all the way into town. Hands 100% numb. No feeling. Same with feet. Soaked through and through. Just a tip - do not ever wash your bike in the shower. It makes a hell of a mess.

Apart from this I need to reassess my disposition at work. I spent the week with my family, whom I almost never see and thus was able to relax. The past two days I've been too relaxed to deal with situations that I must deal with and therefore I have become comfortable. This will change tomorrow. It is impossible to do this job and try to keep it low stress - which is frustrating but whatever.

I'm starting a facebook page advocating locking Plaxico Burress up for at least the minimum. Tyra has left the TV hopefully forever and I put CNN on. Bloomberg says the minimum is 3.5 years. Even though I'm relatively liberal when it comes to violent crime I have 0 tolerance. Corrections creates jobs anyway and we are in a recession. Yeah, its a long time but don't have illegal firearms with you at the club. See, this type of shit is exactly what is wrong with America. Succeeding but still behaving as if you haven't. Lets see - I'm a professional athlete making millions of dollars a year and I'm going to bring a loaded illegal firearm into a nightclub (I'm sure his defense will be that he needs it for "protection"). Dude has no sense - what was he going to do with it? Show it off? Impress his friends and other lowlifes at the club? Act extra cool with your pistol. Dude plays in the NFL. The NFL and he's good. Who is he afraid of? Really, who is he afraid of. Think about it. Nor does the guy have any firearms training or experience because if he had, he would not have shot himself in the leg. Tips for Plaxico: 1. Outgrow nightclubs. Instead attend expensive fundraisers, political events, volunteer functions and black tie cocktail parties. 2. Do not go to places where you are likely to be forced to use a firearm to protect yourself. This is not Baghdad - it is the United States. If you want to go to a place where a lot of people carry guns then you should go to such a place and when (if) you return you can give the NFL a report on how well the people lived there. I guess not attending the club could be looked at as "not keeping it real." Guess what, you cease to be real once you make it to the NFL and make a shit-ton of money. Plaxico sucks. Michael Vick also sucks. Vick sucks worse though. Alright, I'm done with my mostly negative unpleasant blog post. But I feel better.

Frozen Toes

I did a relatively short easy 30 mile ride today on my now ultralight single speed cross bike. I did not wear booties. I did wear extra socks - thick fleece socks. I thought this would have been OK. It was not. The balls of my feet through my toes are still mostly numb right now and I've been home for 20 minutes. They are gonna feel really good when I take a shower.
Despite the cold (which really wasn't bad at all apart from cold feet) it felt great to go for a ride and enjoy it again. Like it felt really great - I really love riding my bike sometimes. I'm beginning to long for the days of solid group road rides in the spring and mid/late winter. I'm putting these off though until the end of December at the earliest - probably start them up in mid-January actually.

My parents are coming to town tomorrow so I'll be tied up next week mostly. I hope I can stay on my weekday YMCA treadmill/weights routine. I've been doing this upper body workout: do one pullup, wait ten seconds. Do two pullups, wait 20 sec., 3 pullups - 30 seconds. Do them until you cannot do them anymore always resting 10 sec per pullup. When you can't do them anymore then go back down the same way you came up. When I'm done do sets of pushups. Just doing this makes me sore as hell - but its getting easier and soreness is abating somewhat.

I think I remember skiing...

Well it got cold out, which I really don't mind at all right now. I like cold. While I totally plan on actually riding both days this weekend - I'm hoping it snows pretty soon in northern New England. I really want to get a good year of cross country in and to do some alpine backcountry stuff. There's got to be a lot of backcountry stuff within a few hours of here...I just don't know where it is yet. I'll find it - eventually. I remember doing a lot of semi-backcountry in VT when I lived there - I think I skied the Teardrop on Mansfield every weekend because I was too "cheap" to buy lift tickets. I really wasn't cheap, I just couldn't afford them. Stowe (which has by far the sickest backcountry stuff) wants like $70 a day or something. I also remember doing some really stupid shit - like skiing down Camel's Hump in a snowstorm and having to drive an '86 Cutlass with summer tires home down the access road. I ditched the car once and the three other guys had to push it out. It was so sketchy - white knuckle to the max. There was some really fun stuff too - like skiing the Robbins Mtn. power line (you can see it off I89 in Richmond) in a totally untouched state, with my brother who was still learning snowboarding but fought like hell to stay up (he failed at that and so did I). I think our goal was to admire our lines from a distance - it was all messed up because all of us kept falling - the snow was so deep and heavy. Like you made three turns, leaning all the way back and had to stop because you were too tired to continue. Everything I wore was soaked from falling in that stuff - snow was all inside my boots, hat, inside of gloves...everywhere.

Cross country for me is like mountain biking in the winter - even though bikes are cool cross country is better. I really miss cross country skiing. Getting up the southern VT portion of the Catamount trail would be good this winter. I've done a bit of it - from App. Gap thru Smugglers - which was great when the snow didn't suck and my skis were appropriately maintained. I have delusions of skiing the entire thing at some point - in sections. Sort of all set with winter camping because it sucks and you are always cold. Well enough for now.