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

This morning I mapped out my long runs for the next month, up to Columbia on the 17th of May. It’s ambitious, but doable. I do wish I were in the situation of last spring where I had been at a 10k long distance for months before, but you run with the endurance you have, not the endurance you want, to paraphrase the former head of defense. In the meantime, my hips and ass are complaining about the extra work from the increase in running and biking. They’ll just have to get over it.

Didn’t really mind the rain this morning. We need it, because water levels in the area are still low, and it merely meant I had to bike on the trainer again. Not my favorite way to bike, but better than not biking. And I got to skim through two of the back log of magazines in the magazine pile, which I suppose is a plus.

Chatted today with a co-worker of mine who’s been out on maternity leave, and caught her up on the last couple months of office drama and intrigue. Again, it’s tons of fun being a lawyer at a BGA when the head of the BGA dislikes anyone not in his particular profession, but especially can’t stand the lawyers. I think he views us merely as an obstacle to carry out his work rather than a protection. That might change the first time something goes wrong (and something will go wrong at some point), but we’ll see. I’d bet he’d just blame us for not being vocal enough, despite his efforts to sideline us. Regardless, it was fun to chat with her again; I’d missed having her in the office as she’s the other lawyer who came in the same year I did, albeit several months later (there was a third, but she switched offices).

Sunrise through the cherry blossoms this morning on my first weekday morning ride of the year. Absolutely gorgeous.

Also pretty darned cold. My little balcony thingey says 46, though the official temperature at the airport across the river says 38. Either way, chilly when you’re cycling. I’m glad I changed my mind at the last minute and put on the fleece tights. As I sit here in the apartment my arms and toes are still a little chilled, but the shower will solve that. This was supposed to be the coldest morning this week, so I’m hopeful it won’t be this bad again this season.

Not my fastest ride ever, but the point was just to get out there and do it, not necessarily to be a speed demon on the roads. Didn’t see anyone else from the club out there (and it’s hard to miss me, between the club jersey, wind vest and arm warmers – I look like superman in the club’s blue with all the red and white on it), but that should pick up as it warms up. I thought I’d see one or two of our die hards, but perhaps they’re avoiding the Point until the blossoms are done and the tourists are gone (and yes, there were tourists out, even at that hour, catching pictures of the sun just hitting the blossoms as it came over the Washington Channel).

I’ve been cutting back on my caffeine intake again, with a goal of eliminating it from my diet during the week. I’m tired of being dependent on it to get going in the mornings, and would prefer to be able to use it more strategically and not as a “must have” drug. So far so good, though yesterday was dragging. All part of getting back to training and getting my body back into shape. I wrote off yesterday for exercise, but I want to get back to the schedule I was on last spring before the injury – MWF Run in the morning, swim in the evening (with Wed as the weekly long run), TuThSa bike, Su completely off. That worked well as I recall, and kept me on track with a single weekend day to be a complete bum (and one night to be able to go out without worrying about the next morning’s workout). I’m still on the fence about the Columbia triathlon (Olympic distance) in May, but if I can stick to that I think I can do it, even if I’ll be slow on the run.

Haven’t made time to write because I’m either getting home & being a total veg because I’m wiped out from the work day or I’m going out to see friends or maybe even a date or two. Work continues to roll along at a crazy pace. I’ve given myself a big assignment that I’ve not been able to start yet because of other fires that keep popping up. It’s needed, but finding time is a challenge.

Training is almost non-existent at this point. I’m swimming, but with the colder temps I’ve not gotten out to bike in the mornings and I’m unmotivated to haul the trainer back out. It’s not supposed to be this bloody cold in late Smarch in DC, damn it.

Much has also been on my mind about dating and the extent to which one compromises versus standing firm. After BC there are some things I consider to be vital to my well being which are not precisely the norm (Body Electric comes to mind), and I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about those things and how and when to introduce them. With a couple guys I can tell there are distict differences in relationship styles that I don’t think will ultimately be compatible. And how does one express that and not sound cliché?

How bad is it when you’re grooving out to the jazz in your taxi, headed home from another night of confusing bar boy bingo, and realize that the song is “Someday My Prince Will Come”? Miles Davis, so it was good jazz, but it was surprising to hear that particular tune at that particular time.

Good run today, following on the nice bike ride yesterday. Need the rain that’s coming in Tuesday to wash away all the road chemicals from last week’s snow storm, but the warmer temps are definitely a plus. Still have to haul out cold weather gear to ride or run in the mornings once my body adjusts to the time change, but it felt good to have a good, warm day again.

Okay, getting back to exercise = one tired Moose.

Biked yesterday, swam tonight (aside – I don’t seem to smell like chlorine as strongly as I did when I swam at the old gym. hmmmm…). All good stuff. It helps that the USAT Club Challenge started today (swim month!), so I have more pressure motivation to get in the pool, at least. And while “running is my prozac,” swimming and biking are definitely helping.

Spent a good part of the weekend straightening and reorganizing and throwing stuff away. You see, I stopped after brunch at a couple of furniture stores and purchased a couple lights and some shelving, so it all had to get put into place. Oy. Happy with the purchases (one lamp had to get ordered, so will be here in a couple of weeks), and how the integrated into the place. Almost panicked over the shelves – bought 4, but only 2 fit in the space for which they were intended (and did not want to have to drag them back to the store), but the other two fit nicely in another spot where they actually (*gasp*) match the furniture, unlike the shelf which was there before. Decorating is hard, and I’ve not the gene for it, but occasionally I get it right. And, bonus, now it’s finally bright enough in here to knit with dark yarns.

All in all a very good Thanksgiving day. Was nice and quiet for most of it. The store this morning was uncrowded and uncharacteristically quick to get out of. The cooking went well, and I took the better of the two batches of cupcakes with me (made 2 dozen). Unfortunately I’ve broken a ring on my icing piper, so it was slathered on by spreader rather than piped nicely, but they did fine.

Side note: I really, really want to make the margarita cupcakes I found in the cookbook while flipping back to the buttercreme frosting recipe.

The dinner itself was fantastic. I took a zucchini risotto as well as the cupcakes (the mushroom selection stunk, so zucchini it was). The bird came out perfect, which the host was rightly proud of. He also thoughtfully saved me a batch of potatoes sans butter/milk, which was much appreciated. The other selections were equally tasty, with lots of good vegetables.

Some Wii was played, and I set Jon’s Wii up (he hadn’t played with it since he’d moved – in June). Next thing you know he’s going to be getting messages via the Wii from a certain someone who will have him registered here shortly. Bwhahahaha. We did warn him what the blinky blue light on the front means now, too.

Got the kitchen cleaned up just now after getting home, so no mess in the morning. Off work early tomorrow, and will plan to stop by the gym after that, swim, and hand in my receipt for the new shoes & lock. Wonder how they’ll do the credit.

Got the news that early registration for the Nation’s Tri opened for DC Tri Club folks, so signed up for that tonight. Hopefully with the stretching I’ve started doing on my feet will keep the PF under control, and keep it from recurring, and I’ll be able to do the race this time around.

This past weekend sucked. I finally got productive around Sunday afternoon when I had a cleaning/laundry fit, but prior to that it was a lot of sitting around feeling sorry for myself, avoiding walking, and playing on the Wii. My usual “leave me alone until I feel better” attitude gets compounded when it’s semi-painful to walk as well; doesn’t encourage me to leave the house for a lot when it can potentially hurt to do so.

Did get out Sunday morning to use a gift certificate my newbies had given me at the end of their tri program, picked up some cross-training implements to help with that process. Was a good excuse to get out of the house, but even the walk to and from Metro ended up making my heel sore.

Then, today, not a ton of pain. Wandering around the office was fine, no real pain. The bike ride there and back was fine, of course (biking hasn’t irritated it at all, thankfully). So bizarre, pain the one day at minor stuff, none the next at a more normal course. Wish it would just heal up already, this is long past the point where it got old.

Got completely and utterly soaked on this afternoon’s ride. It had been threatening rain on and off all day, and I’d been a zombie most of the day, so I finally got going around 4 or so. Was great for the first 2 long loops, then a little over halfway into the third the bottom dropped out. Not much to do but keep riding at that point, and it’s not like I’ve never raced in the rain (Mooseman, Richmond Powersprint, anyone?). Did an additional short loop – was considering going for the long loop again as it started lightening up, but then the bottom dropped out, again, on the backside of the short loop, so I headed in after that one.

Yesterday was all about being a slug. Got up late, knitted (per the previous post) & caught up on TV. Played Bioshock. Made pancakes. Was fantastic, especially after the chaos of the previous weekend, and the mess of the work week.

That was a surprise. Came home, put the bike away, loaded up laundry, was heading out to go do it when I looked at the carpet in the dining area where something was missing, but I couldn’t pinpoint what. Then I saw the manuals for the stove and microwave, but not the appliances themselves. Quick doubletake to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating, then zipped into the kitchen to see the new appliances in place. And all of my crap shoved all over the place because they didn’t warn me they were coming so I didn’t clear the area for them. Oy.

But hey, they’re in!

Of course, I didn’t actually get a chance to use them tonight because I was also doing laundry, and getting rid of my old desk, so by the time I got done and could sit down to figure out how to work the microwave I was starving, so just had leftover potato salad. And collapsed into my chair to actually sit down finally (after cleaning some of the countertops, of course, and putting away dishes, and putting dirty ones in the washer, etc., etc., etc.).

Got up and biked this morning. After snapping off another presta valve stem in the pump. Grrrrr. Stupid design, both the pump and presta valves in general. But the ride itself went well, cool, and gradually sped up each round, cutting each 5.whatever mile loop by 15 seconds. And now I’m ready to collapse – I’m not used to getting up at 5:30 any more, though I hope to get back to that this week.

Got to see JT this evening for dinner out in Ballston. The new redo of the old Tara Thai there, well, fails. It’s obvious they’re trying to turn it into a more clubby place and that just won’t work well there. Oh well. The bartender was nice, and the drinks were cheap ($2.50 for a draft beer during happy hour – 5-8). Not sure we’ll be going back any time soon, though.

Still have assorted little things to go through before I’ll have the room entirely together in the new configuration, but it’s pretty much there now. I can get the bikes in and out (a major consideration – they’re stored on the balcony and I have to be able to get them to/from the front door easily). The room would be easier to configure without needing that pathway, but it works this way.

Going to try and get up and cycle in the morning. Went out Saturday for an hour and it was great. I’m cleared to cycle all I want, so I need to be taking advantage of that, even as it cools off outside.