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

Awesome run this morning, about 10-11 miles (probably 10, given the ‘off’ factor of my pedometer). Totally on pace and what not to run the Cherry Blossom 10 miler in 3 weeks. Yay! *knock wood*

Our newbies had a group run, either 25 minutes or 30 minutes, depending on the group (sprint/olympic). None of the sprint folks showed up (whoops), so we just looped around Hains Point. I had been all worries earlier in the week about biking over and then having someone to watch gear, then had the “Duh!” moment when I thought about my long run this morning and that the meeting site was only about 2 miles from home. So, ran over, met them, ran sweep with the last runner (great conversation), then did another loop with one of my volunteers (fastish for me, slow for him), then home.

It’s going to be one of those weird spring days where you can’t decide quite which jacket to wear. No matter, one way or another I am getting The Heck Out Of The House today. I think some furniture window shopping is in order.

Good intro meeting for the newbies this morning. Got out and biked there and back. Nice lunch in Georgetown with some of the volunteers. Finally rearranged the cables to the TV and computer, so they don’t show or stretch. Vacuumed. Should have napped, but just didn’t.

The warmer weather was good today. I’m hopeful that in the next couple weeks I’ll be able to take the tri bike off the trainer and use it outside, though I fear it was a false start, given the forecast for the next week). That and I’d like to be able to bike to work again. It’s not quite up to the right temps in the morning to make it comortable; I’d like it to be above freezing so my toes don’t fall off. The fact that they don’t make booties to go over mountain bike shoes doesn’t help (wool socks alone don’t cut it). The bus is fine, but the bike is faster.

I also want it warm enough to do the morning rides with the club once they start up again on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Annual meeting of the club tomorrow, making up for the lost one last Sunday when it snowed and made the roads so crazy.  Should be relatively pro-forma, though thankfully we’re moving the annual meeting to the fall after this one (pending a vote to change the bylaws). Good way to round out the tri weekend, but I’ll be glad when it’s done.

It’s March, so no more snow effect on the glen. Perhaps wishful thinking, but I’m downright tired of the stuff now.

None of the days these past two weeks were as bad as last Thursday, but they were pretty darned busy. Today was the epitome of it all, with several meetings with folks, the outcomes of which were almost pre-ordained, and all of which required I wear a suit, so suited I went. It always gets comments, since most days: a) I don’t wear a white shirt (white drains me of what little color I have); and b) I don’t wear a tie or jacket. I look good in the suit, and occasionally I toy with the idea of jazzing up the wardrobe with a couple more, but the idea of wearing one to work, or of dragging it to work on the bicycle in warmer weather, is not exactly appealing.

Running’s almost back on track and it appears I’m actually going to be able to run the Cherry Blossom on the way to the half-marathon I have in mid-April. (*knock wood*) Do need to creep back into the gym for some stablization, but the running’s going okay. When I have run, it’s certainly been a good sleep aid. It’s only a little after 8 as I write this and I feel like I could crash right now.

The newbie triathletes get started tomorrow with a meeting and a short run. Looking forward to this year’s program, if we can just tamp down the “and you need to do this, and this, and…” nature of one of last year’s leaders. I appreciate the help, but chill! We can do this, trust us.

Attracted some sort of bizarre anonymous stalker over at LJ on my last post there. Left the comment there for the heck of it, though did freeze the thread for posterity. It and another comment on someone else’s LJ (since screened) were directed at comments I made about not revealing which Big Government Agency (BGA) I work for in my writings online. I discuss work only in the most oblique manner, and it’s not like folks couldn’t find out where I work if they tried, but I prefer not to let my BGA be searchable through my writings, since there are folks who go out and look for news about the BGA (any BGA does, actually), and I’d rather not compromise my employment.

And as to the offer of sexual aid in the comment, don’t do me any favors.

Full triathlon weekend, after the newbie meeting tomorrow, we have the club’s postponed annual meeting on Sunday, plus my long run for the week, 8 miles or so. Will be cool again in the morning, so out come the tights once more (this morning was in shorts and a long-sleeve T, and that was a bit warm at the end).

Got tired of picking up certain chocolate stapes of my diet piecemeal, so ordered a bunch online tonight. Is good to have regular snacks that are also good for you. And storable.

Ran through a bunch of ethics reports at work today. I don’t normally do ethics work, but it’s the sole rating factor for our office, so we’re all pitching in. Thankfully they weren’t onerous, I got a good batch, so all but one are done, out of about two dozen or so. Hopefully tomorrow the Senate will take up and pass their version of the year-long budget bill so we can get our funding by the time it runs out on Thursday under the current structure. I’d also kind of like to get the pay raise I’ve been approved to receive, too, which is dependent on the final appropriation. Wretched congressmonsters, do your freakin’ job.

Leg is still sore, so still no running/biking. This is getting more than a little irritating, especially since I have races in two months. Still have plenty of time to get prepped, but I get irritable when I can’t exercise, so there I am.

Somehow I doubt the huge winter storm they keep predicting is going to actually materialize. We’ll see, but regardless I’ll be at work.

Damned screw top wine. I cut myself opening the bottle tonight. Poor thumb.

The stomach woes continued today, to the point where I’m taking tomorrow off to deal with them at home rather than at the office. Felt like I spent half the day in the bathroom (not quite that bad, but it wasn’t pleasant). Brought some work home, so I won’t be a total slouch, but I hope it’ll be better after tomorrow. And not having to venture out in the snow until evening isn’t a bad thing, either.

Good dinner this evening with Richard and another gay librarian here in town to whom I’d wanted to introduce him. Had fun watching them library-geek out, and they seemed to get along well. A good professional intro for both.

The newbie triathlete program is progressing well. Had our weekly conference call and everything seems to be on schedule. We’re definitely communicating better this year than last year, which helps tremendously. If you’re in DC and want to do a tri, let me know, we’ll be happy to help train ya.

My wireless router, after several years of good service, died unexpectedly last weekend. Not such a big deal for the computer, I was able to hook the laptop in directly to the cable modem and get service just fine. The TiVo, on the other hand, was getting fussy with no regular updates, so rather than wait for the local Apple stores to get in the latest version of their router, I popped out to Best Buy and picked up another D-Link router. The last one was a D-Link and it worked well until it died. Took a bit to get the new one working with the iBook, but it’s all good now. So nice to be able to sit on the couch and type again. it’s much more comfortable on my back.

Between the router being dead and stressing some over that (something in my control was broken and that drives me nuts), and the sinus thing not yet being 100% done (drugs – yuck), and MG also not feeling well, it was a blah weekend. Did get out and see Into the Woods with L and friends tonight (the new season at Signature), which was pretty well done (they need to work on sound issues, though – it’s not miked, which is good, but they faded out a bit when not facing at least sideways toward us). Needed to get out (and not to shop for a router).

Discretion says tomorrow is an indoor biking day, with the low around 8F in the morning. I have sufficient gear to run in it if I wished, but why the hell would I want to? 20s I might do, but not single digits. At least not yet. I suppose I could always go to the gym and use the treadmill, but that’s so deadly dull for me. Oh, did get new orthotics on Friday, tested those on a short run mid-afternoon today. Wonderful. Was nice to have the cushion under the ball of the foot again (the old ones had the cushion fall off). Hopefully with two pair now I can save on wear & tear by keeping the newer ones in the running shoes all the time.

I was on a triathlon course, but it was a really, really badly designed course. We had a long run from the swim course (meaning I had no glasses on), on an unmarked dirt road with spectators wandering in and out of the way. Finally found the bike course, which was similarly unmarked with spectators milling about. After getting lost at least once and backtracking, I made it back to the run, where I and everyone else promptly got lost and never found the finish. Very odd dream, very much not my experience with triathlons, where courses have always been well laid out, marked, and where the spectators stay the hell out of the way (with the exception of the port-a-johns, unfortunately).

I wish I could figure out for certain what my triggers are for depressive incidents. Injury is certainly one, as is feeling unwell/sick. But one does so tire of dealing with that crap. Nothing like wanting to just sit around and mope for days. And eat. Let’s not forget eating. Which of course adds to the depression, while feeling fat, fat, fat, and unable to control the desire to eat. Being currently at the highest weight I’ve been at in a number of years isn’t helping, either. Ugh. Thankfully the incidents don’t usually last for all that long, but it’d be nice to short-circuit them entirely. Or find a way to let it sweep over me and be done with it.

In happier news, ran into a friend while walking home tonight. She’s (finally) gotten a new job and is now working literally right around the corner from me at another BGA (fellow fed lifer there). Will have to get lunch with her and catch up.

But not any time soon. The CR has heated up, with passage in the House, and with it a lot of demands on my time at work. This has beeen such an unusual year, what with the former Congress totally punting on their one major responsibility in their final year – funding the Federal government’s operations. Unfortunately the Senate’s not going to take up the CR until a week from Tuesday, a little over a week after the next year’s budget request comes out this Monday. What a mess. I’m sure that hasn’t helped much, either.

I’m going to need to ramp up my running, getting up early enough to get in decent miles to build up to the two April races, and ramp down some of the other cross training stuff I’m doing. I don’t have any tris coming up until the fall, so it’s not crucial to maintain the swimming and biking quite as much as the running. The endorphins from running are more helpful, too. Of course, the cold weather out there isn’t much fun, but I’ve got enough clothes to stay warm enough out there. And regular exercise does help the mood. A lot.

I suppose this is one of the drawbacks of training as I do, what with swimming and what not. it seems I have a nascent case of swimmer’s ear. At least, I think that’s what it is now. Previously (because I’ve had lighter versions of these symptoms before in the winter) I’d just assumed it was a bit of excess snot built up in my sinuses, as the symptoms weren’t that far apart (slight pressure on the eardrum, which is really irritating when you’re running and your eardrum is beating in time with your steps). Now, I’m pretty much convinced it’s swimmer’s ear, so i’m backing off swimming this week, seeing my physician’s assistant on Wednesday, and in the meantime I’m just about steadily saying: OUCH!

This. Fracking. Hurts.

I’ll be getting some earplugs next week, too. Ouch.

In other news™, I keep thinking I want to get a Wii, but then I remember that I barely have time for my DS these days, which means I’m really not playing games at all, which means a Wii would pretty much be a waste of money. Which is annoying, because it looks fun, but I’d rather save my $$ and pay off a student loan this year. Irritating to be so ‘adult’ at times. I’d also rather spend my time, at least until July 22, on training our newbies for their first triathlon. After the ear’s better, of course.

Ouch.

The wind is literally howling outside my windows. Every few minutes it picks up and sounds like animals screaming outside. Spooky.

Was a triathlon weekend. The regional meeting for our region of USAT was held on Saturday. They hand out prize money based on the highest attendance, so went to help bolster the club’s chances (we won). Last year we plowed that back into the newbie program, and there’s a good chance it’ll happen this year as well. Yay for that. Then today I edited docs for the program and sent some along to the other leaders. Hopefully we’ll be all set for next Saturday’s info meeting for this year’s program. Also picked up some more winter/cooler weather gear (hooray for sales).

This past week was absolute hell at work. We had drafting assistance requests for hill staffers out the wazoo, and they’re still not done on action to complete our funding. I think the plan is that the House takes it up on Wednesday, then the Senate does next week. Which is a mess because the President’s budget for the following year gets released a week from tomorrow. Oh, and we were still negotiating bits of that as well. Oy! I look forward to the moment when next year’s is out and this year’s finally gets finalized. Of course, then we’ll start the hearings on next year’s but that’ll be a change of pace from where we’ve been.

Made a mess ‘o chili tonight so I have lunches this week. My usual cheap haunt on site has closed down for the next 2.5 months for renovations, and the other places just give you too darned much food, so looks like it’s time to get on the ball and carry stuff in again. Was good chili, so should be great tomorrow.