Absurd, Futile and Tragic
Those three words are my effort to describe the actions of the latest 'lone gunman'. I'm probably not going to elucidate on that, but rest assured that description comes after careful consideration. Of course, words can only capture so much, and those are just three of them.
Cycling News Tour Ladder, Still OTB
So I still haven't ridden since last week. Stayed up late Sunday night leveling my rogue in WoW and was too blasted to ride yesterday, plus it was hot. Today's excuse was rain, but it had stopped by the time I would have been aboard. So to pull off the 'tre' I will need to ride the next three days. Planning to be in bed by 10 tonight to make sure I get enough rest.
Nice tour ladder preview on cyclingnews: http://www.cyclingnews.com/features.php?id=features/2009/tour_de_france_ladder_jun09. Where did LA get those shades, too cool for school.
Doldrums
Here I am wanting to ride but in that grey area of newness where I feel like ass for days after a couple days of riding.
Rode Mon and Tues, not yesterday or today. Promising myself I'll ride in the rain tomorrow no matter what, on the theory I'll have all weekend to recover. Which. I'm. Going. To. Need.
In other news my promotion became official yesterday. I'm the new Information Services Coordinator, a kind of help desk/IT trainee hybrid position. I'm super stoked about that and IFLML, just wish I could start working from home one day a week cause I really need the help on the rest front what with taking J man to preschool.
Also, on that subject, it is bringing with it all the crap that kids and school bring. Pushy kids, jerky kids who make fun of you and stuff. But whatever, he'll deal. Oh also, today it is J man vs. institutional spaghetti (today's lunch). I bet the spaghetti wins.
Another Day Another Ride
Managed to get on the bike again this morning. Due to better routing and better legs I got here like 20% faster than yesterday (8 minutes). That lessens my morning stress considerably as then I have plenty of time to use the building facilities and arrive at my desk without looking mussed. AND WE ALL KNOW HOW IMPORTANT THAT IS!
Ride home last night was a bit strenuous but not too difficult. I feared it would take me 50 minutes but it took just 45, but I'm hoping it will normally be 40 or less. Today it is going to be in the high 80s so the heat will bring its own difficulty aside from the hilly ride.
I weighed in this morning and I've never been this heavy before....eyah. Well when I ride regularly I usually drop a few pounds a week until I get to some sort of equilibrium. Lets just say it will take 2-3 months before I see that. I just hope to be able to wear a bathing suit in early August without looking like a beached....you know.
J man's first day at preschool went well. Evidently a kid pushed him and a kid pushed and hit him, or both kids pushed and hit, not exactly sure. But he didn't seem very upset by it and just told his teacher. He's new so from my view it is natural that other kids will try to establish dominance over him. He's really tall but very thin but wiry so we'll see how it goes. I'd kind of like to get him to take Judo or something because he's the kind of kid that if trained to use other (bigger) people's weight against them, he would just never get picked on ever. He's really strong and tall, just not big. My prediction is he'll get big when he's older, but we'll see. Probably spending more time on the bullying thing than I need to, sorry. He told his teachers and the kids stopped, so no biggie. He really likes the place and he'll make new friends fast.
So I'm Riding Again
New daycare situation for the J man has me driving to East Falls Church every morning and biking in from there to DC. Took me 40 minutes this morning. My weight is like 215-220 and I have basically zilch condition, but my legs aren't horrible. I predict I'll shave 5 minutes of my commute after 1-2 weeks as my wind gets better, and then it will get incrementally better as I drop weight and make smaller improvements. I'm planning to just do this every day so we'll see how that works out for me. Hopefully I can cause the weather is amazing now. Alternative would be to bike from day care 1 mile to metro, which isn't a terrible thing to do either but I really think I can manage my energy so I can stand 90-100 minutes of biking every single weekday.
Last night I took the Calfee down off the pegs and cleaned it up and got it ready to ride (it had a flat), packed a bag with tools and such like, and planned out a bike and work outfit for today. I won't have time to waste in the morning so every evening is going to have to be fairly disciplined with this sort of thing to minimize morning stress and time consumption.
In an unusual display of asshatery done about 2 years ago I took the racks off the Buick and started to configure them for the VW, then stopped halfway through it, and this weekend I couldn't find the missing pieces. Throwing the bike in the trunk sans wheels is fine for now, but it gets to be a problem when it rains, so hopefully I can find the parts in one of the 27 possible nooks I could have put them in sooner rather than later, or just get new ones if needed.
The commute itself was completely uneventful. I passed 3 upright bike commuter types and got passed by a guy that looked like an NCVC guy riding incognito. I could stand up and pound the pedals over rises, but I'd have to sit down and spin a really small gear at the top of hills as I'd be out of breath. It was nice to motor just a little and feel the burn again, but I tried not to overdo it.
Labels: bike commute, bike racks
