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

Really good ride this morning. My newbies weren’t there on time (did see and pass one on my third and last loop), so I decided today was a day to practice riding in the aero position, down on the aero bars. Speedier that way, and I needed the practice time in that position. The ride went well, did 3 long loops and spent the vast majority of my time in the position with no pain in the back or neck. When you’re first learning to ride in that position those are two of the most common complaints – your neck hurts, or your lower back hurts (or both). Been doing back strengthening exercises to keep that in check, and with the neck, well, it’s a matter of spending more time in the position and learning not to keep your neck craned back to look directly forward. Not the easiest thing when one wears glasses, but it’s trainable. Now I need to do more tricep exercises, as those were the weak spot this morning and got a little sore at parts in the ride.

Decided I need to do a brick workout (BRICK = Bike, Run, ICK!) this Saturday since I’ve not done any since, oh, my last triathlon? Short one, since my race the following weekend is a short one. Just need to review that feeling of “are my legs going to be lead or gold today.”

Had a few dates lately. Taking things slowly (not hard, given my schedule), and trying not to rush into anything.

The building finally seems to be moving on the incense/pot smoke issue from the unit below mine. Per an email I got forwarded to me today they don’t have keys on file for them and have to have them there before they can go in (go fig – if you’re doing illegal things you don’t want someone just barging in). They’re scheduled now to go in and check it out next week. Maintenance has also asked if management can take some sort of action against them for indoor air pollution. In any case, I just want the stench not to make it into my unit (or, better yet, not to get made in the first place).

Having had two flats (one for each bike) last week I opted out of a swim this evening in favor of biking over to the bike shop to pick up more tubes. I had replacements for the ones which popped, but needed more to have spares around. Decided, since I’d never used one and will be racing more this year, to try out one of the CO2 cartridges to blow up the tri bike tire. Very cool toy, let me tell you. Instead of a minute or more to blow up the tire, this was done in seconds, to a perfect pressure. Good to know it works (and how it works) before needing it in a race. Also good to know the variable pressure thingey I got for it worked, too (basically there are two types of connectors for cartridges – the “pop it and all the air comes out immediately” type and a type which allows you to control the air flow – I have the latter, and it was worth the small amount of extra cash).

So, bikes all set and ready to go for the morning, for the club ride and the commute. Saved the old tube and cartridge since my bike shop can now recycle them. Better than ending up in a landfill, and easy enough to do.

I sat down and picked out the basic training plan I’m going to follow for the 1/2 iron in september. Plotted all the workouts into iCal, which means they’re on the treo now. It looks manageable, spelled out like that, and not quite as overwhelming as the plan I’d been using when I was trying to do a 1/2 last June (before the calf injury). It also helps that I’ve been doing a lot more biking, and feel more confident in that aspect of the sport now, as well as my running. I’ll tweak the plan as need be, and have already adjusted around my known schedule (the sprint race weekend after next, the charity ride and newbie races in july, etc.), but it’s looking manageable. And I might even get to have a social life in there on occasion, too.

The past couple weeks have just been entirely too much. Two flat tires last week, one on each bike. My neighbor across the hall, a sweet older gentleman, died of complications from his diabetes on Thursday. Started swimming again in anticipation of the sprint race I have in two weeks in Richmond, and for the 1/2 Ironman triathlon I’m doing in September. Went out a time or two for a birthday party, and taking a friend who needed to get out of his house, and just for the heck of it. Was up just before 4 this morning to run out to Columbia to be race support for my tri club for those folks racing the Columbia Triathlon today. Most definitely been burning the candle at both ends, in the middle, and everywhere else I could find a spot to light, or just melt off a bit.

I hope that the schedule will be calming down somewhat in the next few weeks, moreso since I’ve done much needed laundry and food shopping. Cooking anything more complex than zapping something in the microwave or popping it into the rice cooker or crock pot is going to be difficult as the season progresses, but I’ll make due. Simple meals are my friends in any case.

Despite how nuts this all sounds I’ve mostly been having a pretty good time. Work’s busy, but not overwhelmingly so. We’re in the process of hiring two new attorneys, one of whom is supposed to start learning some of my area of law so we have a backup for me. I’m prepping some training for the other attorneys in my office so they can better spot issues in my practice area and refer them appropriately. I finally reclaimed my living room from the dreaded futon, so it’s a bit more together (and roomba friendly). I have two dressers on the way for the bedroom, and a plan to pass off the last piece of my niece’s bedroom set to my parents when I see them in Richmond in two weeks. So stuff is relatively together, but definitely needs some smoothing at the edges.

May the 4th be with you.

Went to the Corcoran this evening to hear Karim Rashid give a talk on design as part of the events surrounding the Modernism exhibit they’re currently holding. It was a good talk, I enjoyed it thoroughly (as did Richard, whom I had invited along). He talked a lot about democratization of design, both in terms of making things more available and that more and more folks are now able to design and produce things in this digital age.

He was especially not impressed by items which are expensive simply because of the name/label attached to them. To paraphrase: “A $300 t-shirt had better be damned incredible and do a lot for you, like heat or cool you to the perfect temperature instantly, or keep your nipples from popping out or the like.”
Perfect example on his the latter point, at dinner afterward Richard showed me two books he had put together through Apple and iPhoto publishing that are just magnificent. To think anyone would be publishing their own photo books (not merely collecting individual photos in an album) would have been incredible not that long ago, yet here were two quality productions done from home.

All in all a good way to spend a Thursday night.

Hadn’t slept well, was awake from 1 to 2 or so, so when I woke up (the second time) this morning to the clock telling me it was five after 6, I was starting the day off with a bit of a mood. I was supposed to be at Hains Point for a ride in 25 minutes, and it takes me not quite ten to get there. Yikes!

I threw on bike clothes, sucked down as much water as I could, checked the temperature (52F), threw on arm warmers, and was still not out the door until almost 6:30.

Rode over to the Point, regretting that I’d not thrown on a light jacket or vest as well (legs and arms were fine, torso a bit chilly). 6:36, they were well gone, so started to go around the opposite direction to find ’em.

Found the fast people, saw no slow folks (I’m not able to keep up with the faster riders. Yet.), but turned around and started going in the correct direction. Turned the corner to do a small loop, but as I got back toward the turn off I was going against the wind finally and it was just too much. I turned the corner and headed back home. Total time out, about 21 minutes, far short of the usual hour and a quarter.

Got in, stripped off the bike clothes, threw myself in the shower and hopped out into a chilly apartment. Threw on a robe, checked the clock, saw that I had time, and made a pot of coffee to sip there at home before work. Checked up on some club business, got that done, enjoyed the coffee thoroughly and eventually got ready to get to work.

Some days exercise just doesn’t work, and that’s perfectly fine. The coffee was good, and I’ll get in a better ride when more prepared and rested on Sunday.

To date I have avoided doing charity sporting events, but this year I have committed to ride in the 2007 TEAM Food & Friends cycling weekend, July 12-15th.

Food & Friends is a nonprofit organization that prepares, packages and delivers more than 3,000 meals a day, free of charge, to clients throughout the DC metropolitan area. One of the main reasons I signed up for this was that while Food & Friends began as a service to deliver meals to people with HIV/AIDS, and that’s still a central part of their mission, over the years they’ve been able to expand that service to include men, women and children who face a variety of illnesses such as breast and prostate cancer, and other life-challenging illnesses. That mission is critical to support providing three meals a day to more than 1,300 people, six days a week.

Please support my efforts to raise $1900 by making a tax-deductible donation today. Every penny raised goes directly to help the clients of Food & Friends.

If you can help in any amount, I’d be very grateful, and I know that the clients which Food & Friends serves will be as well. If you do donate, please let me know, since I won’t necessarily know the real names of folks who read this. Thank you.

I got hit by a bird when we first started up. Two birds were either fighting or fucking, but in any case they came swooping down in the road, not looking where they were going, and one of them smacked me. Never before have I felt like Fabio. No blood, no scratch, thankfully.

You can tell it’s spring pollen season when you look down and your tire is a lovely shade of light yellow. Ick.

Despite the bird incident it was a good ride. Overcast, cool, mid-60s. The rain that looked threatening never happened, so it was smooth sailing. Got dropped, as I expected, but no worries there, I just got in a good ride, keeping the cadence up and attempting to keep the heart rate at a decent level. Was a tad high, but it’ll get better as the season progresses.

So, I’ve finally started training for this triathlon season. Sort of.

Ran this morning, since I didn’t get in a single run this weekend. Didn’t sleep well Thursday or Friday nights, so was too wiped. Friday it was the asshole downstairs neighbors and their incense again. I left a very ugly email for management about not getting that fixed yet. They of course did not come into the apartment today to do anything to the remaining hole in the wall that’s letting this crap in. Someone’s getting an ugly phone call tomorrow.

Anyway, ran this morning, swam this evening. Pool was mega-crowded. One of the few times I’ve had to circle swim at the Y, which always throws off the pacing of a workout for me. The other two folks in the lane were a tad slower than I was, but not too far off. Gave me some time to rest before heading back out. Was an okay swim.

Plan is to get up and bike with the club in the morning, provided it’s not raining.

Should definitely sleep well tonight.

Still have to write up the race report from the previous weekend. Oh, and I signed up for a 10k in two weeks. Because I’m insane. And didn’t have a race in May yet. Though I have a friend looking for a 5k in the area because he’s never done a running race and I said I’d do one with him.

What else? Work was nuts today. We had field counsel in from all over the country and I got to meet some of them in person finally. Otherwise I was buried in my office writing up stuff to go the uber-boss to tell him why we don’t think we have a legal problem with someone another BGA claims is a legal problem. Whee. That and trying to pry more information out of yet another BGA. At least they’re paying me well now.

Mixed messages and missed texts ended up scuttling Saturday plans, so was relatively good and quiet Saturday evening. Biked with my newbies Sunday. Made plans for dinner with a friend on Thursday. The same missed connection from Saturday seems to be missing making plans for this week as well. Oh well, his loss. Plans made for this upcoming Saturday to go to, of all things, an amusement park. Only riding the rollercoasters if they’re not too big. As Bug can attest to, I’m not a big fan. Should be a trip.

My sunglasses broke this morning; ear piece came off. Thankfully I have an eyedoctor appointment on Monday (along with the dentist – double whammy), so I’ll be able to either fix these or order a new set. Also have to get new regular lenses, I’m sure. The ones I have now must not have gotten the scratch-proof coating, they’re all scratched to heck and it’s beyond annoying when around any sort of brightish light. Look forward to being able to read the TiVo screen from my reading chair again. How much we want to bet I’m down another quarter of a diopter again this year?

Otherwise, kicking up the training for my first sprint race the first weekend of June, and settling back into a routine. While includes crashing at not quite 10 pm. Oy.

Oh, and on the removal of The Awakening from Hains Point? Let ’em have it. Maybe fewer tour busses will travel down there now while we’re trying to bike and run.

Going back to where you grew up is not necessarily the easiest thing to do.

I’ve considered myself lucky in that ‘home’ is a short trip away (even if traffic is occasionally harsh), but not so close that my family can drop in unannounced. I’ve enjoyed that slight distance as I work out for myself how I interact with my immediate family, and frankly right at the moment I find it a bit far away.

I’m encouraging my elder (soon to be eldest) niece to take up athletics in a way I never did in school. Her birthday present this year (she turned 10 last month) was a triathlon race entry fee and a good pair of running shoes from Uncle Moose. She’s got my feet, poor dear. Overpronator (like my father, her grandfather, as well as her Uncle), so stability shoes were in order. They were less than I expected to pay (being used to adult, male prices), so a good top and shorts and socks were in order, too. I wish I could be down there to train with her, to encourage her more. Hell, she’s even willing to try tofu now, something her step mother had managed to poison her away from just a couple years ago. She really looks up to me, and it’s hard to leave knowing that.

I don’t have any other children in my life. Her baby sister is just that, a baby (turned 1 this past month), and the other niece isn’t due until June (at which point the elder niece becomes the eldest niece).

My parents are, thankfullly, taking a bit more interest in their health. They were great as race support yesterday, and do talk about the walking they’re doing, and more stuff at the Y down there now. I want them around, selfishly, and am glad they’re looking out a bit more for themselves now. I wish they’d done more earlier, but any little bit helps.

We went to brunch this morning with one of mom’s fellow teachers. She and I went to see Evita together, as well as Cats, while I was still in Jr high and high school. As she put it this morning, “When your mother told me about your lifestyle I said, ‘Duh, we went to musical theather together.'” Too funny. She hadn’t really met my Dad until Mom’s retirement, at which point she introduced herself by saying, “Hi, I used to date your son.” She’s a self-described ‘bobble-head’ now, thanks to a sick new wing of the junior high where Mom used to work. It caused some neurological problems that has her looking like she has parkinson’s, though that’s not the case. It was both hard to see her, as well as good to see her. She was a very good friend, and despite the bobbing, she’s doing well.

Which reminds me, Mom and Dad have adopted Save The Ta-Tas as their motto now. They spotted a shirt while down in Florida this past winter and had to get some of the merchandise (including stickers which are all over their cars now). Mom’s a breast cancer survivor for not quite a decade now, so is an appropriate thing to show (she loves her “My Ta-Tas are Survivors” shirt).

We did chat some about the family history as well. I thought just 2 of her 3 brothers had had prostate cancer, as well as her father, but it seems all three have had it. The third had normal PSA results, but mentioned the family thing to his doctor and sure enough, the digital exam showed cancer as well. So my early screening isn’t such a bad thing. Now if I can continue to stave off the hair loss on Mom’s side I’ll be happy (though if it shows up, the rest is gone – it’s all or nothing; I’m not doing a comb-over).

The younger niece is, unfortunately, too young yet to remember Uncle Moose. Over this next year things will cement, at which point the spoiling will begin, but I have a bit of a reprieve until language starts in earnest. She knows ‘nose’ and ‘ears’ and the difference between her own and someone else’s, but she’s not got language quite down yet. Soon, I’m sure, at which point more spoiling will become part of the order of things. Hopefully she’ll be as athletic as her big sister is (and her parents are not), which will make spoiling easy.