Can the Celtics pull it off? 5:55 left. Down by 9.
Can I pull off a solid cycling season? I think so. I feel as if I'm down a month and a half. Things should get much more chill in my direction over the next few weeks when I finish with school for good. One more class - data and technology with should be right up my quasi OCD alley. Handed in my final portfolio today which was a huge relief. Its kind of silly that you need a Masters Degree to basically suspend teenagers from school as a vice principal but I guess it keeps people out of the profession that don't really want to be there. Back to riding, getting quality rides in about 3 to 5 times per week. All inner city trips of mine that don't involve carrying tons of stuff are on the bike - which I think helps fitness somewhat. Trying to hit Ninigret & Wells as much as possible but I've got to take a raincheck on tomorrow. I hope to rock some sick intervals tomorrow instead. No Sunappee for me but I'm up for Stafford Memorial Day weekend.
2:08 left: Celtics 83, Magic 85.
Hope is sill alive
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Monday, April 27, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Another boring post about cycling
I'm on day 3 of a four day block of sunburnt, dehydrating and tiring hard rides. I'm getting real cranky although I'm starting to feel OK on the bike. I like this feeling - I think it means I'm making progress in the fitness department. Hit Wells today and did 40 more laps around an industrial park in Newton. During the race I was thinking about how many times in my life I've done this loop? I couldn't tell if I've ridden 1,000 Wells Ave loops or less, its only 25 races? Who holds the record for maximum number of times around Wells Ave? What about Ninigret? Wompatuck? All contenders should all get trophies, attaboys and pats on the back - just like little league.
I think we should make a statute for the person who has the record number of times around Blackstone Blvd. I'm liking something like a modernized statue of Atlas holding a bike on his shoulders instead of the world. Painted gold. Bright gold. Or maybe Atlas should be riding the bike still holding the earth? It should be placed at the southern end by the "parking lot" so all can see as they enter the Providence's shrine to cycling. Any candidates....I've done a lot out there but there's folks out there who have been up and down our east side oasis many, many more times. With so many RISD folks around here we could probably pull this off - I think I'll email a professor and give him an idea for a project. Does RISD even have "professors" or are their instructors called something else just to be called something else because the coolest thing in the world is to "appear to" be unique and original?
I think we should make a statute for the person who has the record number of times around Blackstone Blvd. I'm liking something like a modernized statue of Atlas holding a bike on his shoulders instead of the world. Painted gold. Bright gold. Or maybe Atlas should be riding the bike still holding the earth? It should be placed at the southern end by the "parking lot" so all can see as they enter the Providence's shrine to cycling. Any candidates....I've done a lot out there but there's folks out there who have been up and down our east side oasis many, many more times. With so many RISD folks around here we could probably pull this off - I think I'll email a professor and give him an idea for a project. Does RISD even have "professors" or are their instructors called something else just to be called something else because the coolest thing in the world is to "appear to" be unique and original?
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Stolen Bike Alert
Someone stole my 1997 Specialized Stumpjumper between 11:30PM Saturday 4/18 and 10:00 AM Sunday 4/19. This bike is a dark blue "ghettoized" single speed conversion. The decals on the bike are yellow. It has a really old chain and no derailleurs. It has a 7 speed freewheel in the rear and a triple up front with only the middle chain ring usable. The seatpost is FROZEN and thus has no seat post binder bolt. Bike has 26x1.95 knobby tires. There is another bolt frozen in the right rear dropouts where a metal rack used to sit.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Sat. 4/11/2009
Despite the fact that it is officially "spring" this date probably was the lowest my core body temp has ever been. I rode in the rain and then hung out for a few hours at Ninigret. I really hope that I don't get sick out of this. It was fucking cold outside, windy and pouring rain. I could not get warm after my pathetic attempt at racing - I sat in the car and blasted the heat. Took off shoes and put feet next to heater. Still cold. A little relief in the car but not enough. On the way home heat all the way up and I was still cold. I took a shower at home and it made me feel better - but it took quite a while. How the hell did the AM forecast of showers ending by 11AM turn into 39F and Hvy. rain all day? It was fun anyway though. Wells tomorrow morning for me and then its time to reevaluate my training ethic and program. I've got to get out and ride more often.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
I had to write about it
At least I got a bit of a tan today. Tonight I'm not really into blogging about the life vortex which is my grad program. School is like a black hole where all of my creativity & vitality has gone to be crushed. While on the subject of being crushed, the Marblehead race was today. A few laps into a big group goes off the front - including the extra fast guys. Extra fast guys split away from that group and raced their own race. My slow ass stayed in the big group, where I was more than happy to be. I did not contest the sprint at this point, because it is totally stupid to do so. Some guys were sprinting though which was kinda foolish as the first 30+ spots were up the road. One guy even thought it was still cross season and used some of the back stretch front yards as a means to move up. This shit kinda sketched me out because my shoulder is still fucked up after crashing a few weeks ago. I can't lift it without pain past a certain point and it just annoys the hell out of me.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Dreaming
Currently in a stress induced dream of vacation - taking it easy in a land without projects, papers, telephones, email, and cold weather. I have passed the threshold of productivity and now am on the downward slide towards burnout. Not a good place to be when I have to coordinate a major event and presentation on Friday.
Ditched the workout today - planned 2h. Since I came home exhausted and couldn't motivate at all - even the little tricks I've learned to use over the years to motivate didn't work. Looked at old race results, put on music I love, watched cycling.tv, and read biographies of athletes whom have more demanding lives than my own. I have a theory about this - I know that if I really don't want to ride there is always a good reason. No one person is an island and this most certainly includes me despite my desire for this to be the contrary. It is just so difficult to quantify stress and its effect on our lives. So this ends my public act of contrition for not training and thus wasting a perfectly good training day. Not to worry, there will plenty of days when its raining, windy and cold that I'll be out there. I did get a solid half hour tempo session in on Monday...maybe I just need to forget about midweek distance stuff and just focus on intensity threshold building stuff. Tomorrow I've penciled in 2x:20 threshold intervals. Friday has happy hour penciled in...actually I wrote that one in pen because its not changing.
I've hit Wells the past couple of weekends - been a lot of fun. I like racing there and have felt pretty good at times during the race. This thing has been pretty fast - the first ten laps or so last Sunday were extra fast. I did get taken out in the first corner the weekend before last but it wasn't that bad - I jumped back in after a few laps off and some bike adjustments. Adjustments which included putting my saddle back on the rails. Still kinda sore from this though - esp. my right shoulder.
Ditched the workout today - planned 2h. Since I came home exhausted and couldn't motivate at all - even the little tricks I've learned to use over the years to motivate didn't work. Looked at old race results, put on music I love, watched cycling.tv, and read biographies of athletes whom have more demanding lives than my own. I have a theory about this - I know that if I really don't want to ride there is always a good reason. No one person is an island and this most certainly includes me despite my desire for this to be the contrary. It is just so difficult to quantify stress and its effect on our lives. So this ends my public act of contrition for not training and thus wasting a perfectly good training day. Not to worry, there will plenty of days when its raining, windy and cold that I'll be out there. I did get a solid half hour tempo session in on Monday...maybe I just need to forget about midweek distance stuff and just focus on intensity threshold building stuff. Tomorrow I've penciled in 2x:20 threshold intervals. Friday has happy hour penciled in...actually I wrote that one in pen because its not changing.
I've hit Wells the past couple of weekends - been a lot of fun. I like racing there and have felt pretty good at times during the race. This thing has been pretty fast - the first ten laps or so last Sunday were extra fast. I did get taken out in the first corner the weekend before last but it wasn't that bad - I jumped back in after a few laps off and some bike adjustments. Adjustments which included putting my saddle back on the rails. Still kinda sore from this though - esp. my right shoulder.
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