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

Haven’t updated in forever (duh). Been dealing with a lot of messes at work, and not felt terribly motivated to deal with most of them. It’s exhausting when you’re working your butt off, and at the same time (it feels like) the entire country is complaining about what it is you do, and your bosses (Congress and POTUS) are talking about cutting your pay & benefits, on top of already constructively cutting them by freezing your pay, but still piling on additional costs for things like health care and pensions. So, yeah, hard to feel motivated. I suspect there will be a lot more of that going around when and if they implement the plan to increase our share of our pension contributions, since that’ll mean a 5-6% (minimum) cut in take home pay. Blah.

So, yeah, frustrated at work.

Other than that, I’m gearing up for next year’s season for my newbies, and seeing how much more I need to be doing. Trying to catch up on reading (the list of materials never gets smaller!). Trying to tweak/fix my eating habits – I gained way, way too much weight over this past year, between bad eating and lack of regular, sustained training. I wish it weren’t so damned easy to eat badly in this country (and frequently so expensive to eat well, though the salad bar by weight at work has been a cheaper option than the local sandwich shop when I fill the large part of the plate with greens).

Things continue to go well with the boy. Met his family last month, made a good impression. I still spend most nights with him and his beagle up at his apartment, though not every night (do have to do laundry on occasion, after all). It’ll be interesting to see how I’m going to work this with training and my coaching stuff with the newbies. An adventure, as life should be. Made him a scarf, so he’s been deemed knit-worthy. If you want more details past that you have to check my Facebook profile.

So, ran Cupid’s Undies Run this afternoon. Fun event, saw lots of friends in the club, had a good time. But man, after the head cold from hell and just generally not training well of late (still haven’t started regular training again), it kicked my ass. Now, there were environmental factors (mid-40s, no clothing to speak of, etc.), but still, I’m just not at any sort of level of fitness now, which irks the hell out of me. Hoping this was the wake-up call I needed to get back to it.

CPR class tomorrow, last thing I need to do before the training class to get the coaching certification. Watched the little videos, read the book, I think I’m ready.

Finished the sock on Monday and wore ’em to work on Tuesday:

Very comfy – tiny stitches seem to be much better for comfort over long time periods/distances than the bigger ones. Go fig. I’ve cast on a cowl I got from one of my Unique Sheep sock clubs, finally (a men’s accessories club I got last year – this’ll be the first project I’m doing from it!). Finally re-read the pattern and seem to make sense of it, so I’m going for it. Unfortunately it’s not a travel or transit friendly project (very involved pattern), so I hauled out the sock yarn last night and am trying to decide on some patterning to do this time around on the top of the sock & the leg. Plus I am signed up for a men’s sweater class at Stitch DC next month, and of the three choices for patterns chose the Alberta striped vest. Figure it was worth the investment to learn at least two new skills – two yarn knitting and sweater shaping.

Housekeeper came Wednesday. Pleased with the cleaning job, amused at playing “where did this get put in the kitchen”. She moved everything, of course, to clean under and around, and didn’t seem to note where things had been. Similarly on the dining room table where I had far too much junk out to begin with. So, my take away is to reduce the amount of stuff out on surfaces so she doesn’t have to move as much. The cleaner look will be more pleasant anyway, and having the discipline of her coming in every other week should help with that.

Saw another play at Arena Stage this evening. It’s the local theater here in my neighborhood, about 3 blocks from my apartment, and they specialize in American theater. They completely redid the space, gutting the buildings and building a large shell over the whole of it, even adding a third theater. Took ’em a couple of years and this year is the first season back in the new/old space. The renovation also seems to have influenced the quality of the work at the theater, which is much better than it used to be. Previously things were hit or miss (I walked out of one at intermission when the “crimson carpet” they rolled out was day-glo pink; seriously, high school productions do better than that), but I’ve enjoyed each of the productions they’ve done so far this season. I’m glad I bought season tickets, and bought two of them so I can take a guest, it’s been a good investment, and one I’ll repeat next season.

I’m debating a Body Electric retreat in August at Wildwood. They have a price break on the class price through the end of the month, just need to check the budget and the leave situation. Been feeling a craving for some BE work, and it would be nice to get back out to SF for a bit before and after again.

Such a little phrase: “severely deviated septum”. Nice. Evidently that’s contributing to the sinus things I’ve had for, well, forever and a day, according to my ENT. So she recommended a septoplasty to straighten it up, open up the passages, and allow things to drain properly. As well as a change in allergy meds to take me to one pill a day rather than 2-3. It’s an outpatient thing, takes 60-90 minutes, general anesthesia, ~5 days recovery time, do it on a Thursday, back to work Monday.

I’m going to do it, as soon as I can, after I arrange things at work, and get a friend or two to help take me home & make sure I’m okay that afternoon/evening.

Not particularly thrilled about the idea of surgery, but if it means not waking up with a nose full of snot, I’m down with it.

In other news, I’m an inch or two short of the end of the second sock I’m working on. Signed up for a sweater class next month, which I’m looking forward to both for training in how to do color work (the pattern I picked alternates stripes) and in doing things like arm holes and the like. Should be fun to learn the new skills, and will be interesting doing something other than self-taught stuff.

Tired today – was a little wired last night because of the appointment, then was fairly miserable for the first half of the day because of the numbing agent the ENT used so she could run a camera up my nose. Stuff tasted awful, then took hours to wear off. Blech.

Ooh, and I finally met my neighbor’s housekeeper yesterday morning and agreed to a cleaning schedule. She starts Wednesday and I am so, so, so looking forward to that. Well worth the money to have a clean bathroom/kitchen again, I think. We’ll see Wednesday night, but I’m psyched.

Coming down off stimulants is obnoxious. Last PA-provided pill was this morning, hoping the crap works out of my system quickly.

Been trying to dig up more stuff on stability training for my newbies. I’m late, thanks to the brain drain of the last month, but finding some good stuff to share with them now. Also starting to make more use of the USA Triathlon web site, which is actually pretty darned useful. I’d skimmed it before, but never really dug into the articles. And since I’m going to be partially signing my life away to them after April, I figured I should get more familiar with the site.

Half the fun of digging up exercises is trying them out myself. I predict I’m going to be somewhat sore in the morning, but it’s worth it.

In knitting news I finished the heel and started the leg on the 2nd dreidel sock. It’s knitting up nicely, and I look forward to finishing up the pair. On the sweater, I’m going to have to frog it. I thought the gauge would be close enough, but it’s not even remotely close (too tight/small). Crap. So I bought the next couple sized needles up last night and I’ll do a proper gauge swatch this time to get it matched up. Annoying, but a learning experience.

I seem to be on the ‘once a month update schedule’ these days. Working on the Uberlist for 2011, a bit over halfway there. Managed to get over half the stuff on 2010’s list done, which I consider to be a successful list year. Way too many books ordered in the past week, and they all seem to have shown up at the same time. Along with a new living room rug (which I’d been eyeing for months and which I’m really glad I ordered the moment they put it on sale – I can’t find the thing on their site any more), which is currently sitting, rolled up, in the front hall because I don’t have the energy to move all the furniture tonight to get it in place. Plenty of time this weekend, and maybe even tomorrow night.

The aforementioned planning has gone slightly more slowly than I expected, but I’m not terribly worried about it. I will be writing this weekend to try & get stuff done and out for review by the other co-leaders next week. For my own training, I’m delaying the formal start of my stuff in order to do some weight loss related stuff first. I’m a lot heavier than I need to be to race well, and that’s gotta change. The 10 lbs (and 3-4 percentage points of body fat) I gained post-IM haven’t helped, either. Yuck. So yes, I’m going to be a resolutioner this year, but if I want to gain speed this year, I need to help improve the ‘infrastructure’ needed for that.

2010 hasn’t been a bad year for me, and 2011 is shaping up to continue in the same vein.

Good thing my annual physical was before I got my latest “annual escrow account disclosure statement” from my mortgage servicing company, because it’s put my blood pressure through the roof (again). They’re showing two missed escrow payments, and one double payment, with the result that the spreadsheet I put together to track their nonsense now includes the fields “check number” and “when payment cleared the bank” so I’ll have that info in front of me when I call them tomorrow. Can’t wait for the explanation as to why they’re showing missed escrow payments when they had the funds in question 1-6 days before the payments were even due. They’ll probably tell me they couldn’t pay it because they didn’t know what to do with money that shows up on time. Ugh.

Otherwise the annual physical, 6 month dental checkup, periodic podiatrist visit, and dermatologist’s skin check yesterday showed me to be healthy as the proverbial horse. Cramming them all into one day is a lot of walking, but nicer on my leave balance. So, another year of fooling mother nature into thinking clean living will keep me going. To celebrate after the clean bills of health, I got a tattoo:

Actually, that was simply the last of five appointments I had yesterday, made over a month and a half ago, upon returning to DC after the Ironman. Convenient timing, with the planned day off. So far it’s healing well, a little sore today, but not itchy. I’m told day three can be fun, but so far I’m okay with this beast. Taking the picture was the hardest – it’s awkward to snap a photo of your own ankle/lower leg.

My gut decided it didn’t want to behave for the past week. A combination of allergies, lack of exercise & water (traveled home in the midst of the remnants of hurricane Ida), change in diet (see last parenthetical), &c. just left ye olde gut very, very unhappy with me. Finally managed to calm it down yesterday morning in time to get out and enjoy the gorgeous weather with a good 20 mile ride. Also got over to the Hill and fixed the fixie, which was a relief. It’s a shame there’s not a closer hardware store, but it’s all good now so I can ride to work again without problems.

Seven months until the half iron, six until the Olympic, and nine until the IM. Time to get out of off-season mode and back to training, hence the desire to get back onto the road yesterday. I also want/need to lose a few pounds as this season progresses so working out now is as important for that as it is for base building. While I’ve done some half-assed calorie counting I haven’t gotten really serious about it yet. Need to knuckle down on all fronts and get back to being serious about being a triathlete.

Got the results in from last week’s annual physical this morning. Cholesterol is a little higher than last year, but not yet “high”. Getting toward the “should watch it, perhaps” range. Vitamin D was on the low end of normal (meaning I need to be more consistent in taking my multivitamin, since it has D, and I don’t otherwise drink D-fortified cow’s milk). Everything else was perfectly normal, as expected. The annual dermatologist appointment is tomorrow morning, to do the skin check for odd spots. Gotta love getting older.

Tomorrow I have the unenviable task of telling work folks that if we screw up on a new provision in our appropriation this year (when it ever passes and gets signed, that is) we get to report that fact to everyone and his brother because it’ll constitute a violation of the Anti-deficiency Act. Woo-hoo! As if the contracting folks weren’t nervous enough about this. Lawdy. Well, it’ll give ’em some incentive not to screw this one up, at least.

Well, after trying this once before in 2008, and massively failing owing to plantar fasciitis and a spectacular break up, I’ve signed up for another Ironman race, this time in Louisville, Kentucky. On August 29, 2010, at 7:00 am sharp I’ll hit the Ohio river and hopefully sometime before midnight I’ll finish.

Still a little bit freaked out this evening, much as I was when I first signed up for Arizona. I know I can put in the work, and frankly after the injury I think I’m better able to focus on what I need to do to get through this. I’m signed up for one other race next year at the moment, the Eagleman 70.3 (that’s a half-Ironman), and I’m hoping to get into the Columbia triathlon for the third year in a row (registration opens Tuesday). That’ll be it for tris, and I might through in a road race or two as well. I haven’t sketched out the year’s full plan as yet, because I want to get through my last race in two weeks, the Nation’s Triathlon, first. Then I’ll fill in the gaps and set things in motion.

I’ll get through this one.

Training, that is. Ran and swam yesterday, biked this morning, running a long run tomorrow. Definitely feeling it tonight; almost didn’t do laundry as planned, but managed to get off my butt and get it done (yay for clean sheets). It’s a good kind of tired though – good, honest physical exhaustion from exercise.

Work’s nuts, which seems par for the course these days. I wonder if all political transitions are this crazy or if the economy being in the crapper has substantially added to it. I’d prefer not to find out for a while. What would be nice is to stop stress eating (why couldn’t I be one of those people who can’t eat when they get stressed instead of the opposite? silly body).

Long run planned for the morning, first in a while. Was prepping things for it tonight (water bottle, etc.) and I think I need to hit Conte’s or the like and pick up nutrition this weekend – down to two gels and two things of shot blocks. Not enough to make it through training or the two races, by a long shot.