I Am Not Lost! I Think?

The roads dried out today so I bundled up and went out for a ride. I learned a little bit about my training routine.

1.I'm never again eating eggs and bacon on the same day I plan on riding my bike.

2. In addition, I'm not to eat a whole frozen pizza by myself ever again under any circumstances. I did let Liz have a piece of the pizza, but it didn't help.

So I had a bit of heartburn, but I fully admit that I deserved it.

Here is the picture of the day. It was at the base of the big hill that I ride up. It is a good sized hill, and you can see a bit of it in the background (the hill, not the road I bike up). It made me feel good that total strangers knew that I wasn't lost. I'm on their road, and as long as I drive safe everything will be ok.

Sleepless

I have always considered myself a champion sleeper. But like most people on this earth, I have a couple of nights here and there when I'm not tired even when I should be. Tonight is one of those nights. They rarely happen (maybe because Liz and I don't have any kids?), but I figured why not do something instead of laying in bed staring at the ceiling. Here is a list of things I'm thankful for at this very minute....

1. A really good past week at school

2. Being all caught up on all my grading (if only for one or two days)

3. Living in a deadly quiet apartment complex

4. Getting better at doing my devotions at night

5. Emergency roadside assistance (we are covered through phone and car insurance... that's a lot of free towing!)

6. Paying someone else to do my taxes. I don't care how much it costs. I don't want the headache.

7. Coffee during the day(good or bad)

8. Good tea at night (only good)

9. The fact that almost all the snow melted today

10. My bike

11. The fact that my wife never snores

12. Really vivid dreams that make me ask Liz weird questions when she wakes up in the morning while I still sleep (How exactly do you respect people from Tennessee?)

13. Fluffy pillows

14. Watching Penny attack Liz's yarn

15. James Taylor

16. Excedrin (or now called the Saturday Production Stimulator)

17. Food. The more the better.

See wasn't that fun!

Maybe someday we'll buy some kids for a psuedo farm

weak sauce.... I know but it is 1:30am so cut me some slack.

In bed (sort of) and working (sort of)

Liz wanted me to work in bed tonight and I figured why not. It's not like I get much done past 11:00pm at night anyway when I sit on the couch with the TV on anyway. Now I'm in bed, just not asleep, and I'm supposed to be writing my client notes, but writing my blog is more enjoyable.

Here is today's recap.

I worked and got stuff done. For me that is a hard combination to put together. Usually I work really hard and get nothing done. Sometimes I work very little but manage to make good progress. Today was just effort in = productivity out.

I did my new spinerval dvd I got from Christmas today. On the main menu I noticed that the first scene after the warmup was called "killer minutes." I chuckled to myself and thought, "I've been training hard. I'll power through these like a champ." Fast forward to the end of those five one minute sprints, and I'm done. Head in my hands, unable to talk, snot on my face, complete malfunction type of done. I made it 20 minutes before I couldn't go on and resigned to the floor. Liz looked a bit worried but mostly amused.

ohhh Penny's on the bed now too. That almost never happens. She usually prefers to only be on the bed only when she can have it to herself. She is a true cat in that sense.

So it was a short ride because I wasn't ready for the effort commitment. I'll try again on Thursday and I bet it will go better.

Back to those pesky client notes. Isn't it good enough that I did the therapy? I have to document it too?

Olympic Gold

Here is a link to a news story about Aaric and his performance in Vancouver.

They're Never Right

Well our local weather man was again completely wrong about today's forecast. He said rain and snow but we didn't get anything. I'm not sure when 36 degrees turned into a warm day, but both Liz and I were able to get outside with one less layer than usual. I didn't even have to wear my face mask.

I didn't go very far today on the bike. I got as far as the stadium on campus. From there, I just went up and down the hill till my legs gave out. Turns out that it only took 10 times up the hill (about 30 minutes) before the tank was empty. This is the same hill that I might be racing on when the Purdue race comes to town in April so I wanted to see just how steep it is. Turns out that it is annoyingly steep. Not deadly steep, but steep enough to really catch your legs by surprise.

I didn't take the camera on the ride since I took a pre-ride picture of my bike workshop area.

Liz is always so thrilled to see me working in what used to be her kitchen.

In other news, I'm proposing my preliminary proposal Thursday at 11:00am. Please pray that it goes well. Liz's relative (cousin?) Aaric Kendall is competing in Vancouver in the Artisan Olymics. He is a master ice sculptor who won bronze in Italy.

Here is one of his pieces that I found on Google images ( there are a bunch of other cool ones)

Here is a picture from a common route I take. Note the complete absence of....pretty much anything.

Transition

I've been biking on and off since my last post. A few times outside, but mostly on the trainer. I've moved from base miles to getting more speed work into each ride. I think it will take me awhile to get back into going fast. My legs feel tired. I have pictures to post of some rides, but nothing exciting since it is cold outside and Indiana.

I'm waiting for my first client of the day. Friday's are always busy because I have two clients in the morning and an assessment session in the afternoon. By the time I get home, I pretty whipped. The bright side is that I'm not sure how much work I'd be getting done on Friday's if I didn't have to meet with clients. I think the temptation to start the weekend would be overpowering.

That's all from here. Back to prepping for the exposures I am planning to do with my second client.

To the Biker Unidentified

It was 4:30pm and you were on the way to Battle Ground. You crossed ahead of me on a road up ahead. I watched you for awhile always in your drops with a big gear and high cadence. When there is no corn, this is possible. At the crossroad, I turned to follow you (that's how I know you went to Battle Ground). You were wearing a Purdue Kit and I thought I should try to catch up and say hi.

At the first time check, you were 45 seconds ahead of me. I didn't know that by turning 90 degrees you would make me work, work, work, and toil. I clocked myself at 30mph three different times. There was a good tailwind wasn't there. Yet, I never got really any closer to you. You were always just a blip in my vision causing car and trucks to veer around you into oncoming lanes of traffic. I know because I spent a long time chasing you. All I wanted was a picture of you for this blog. You could have been famous. I saved face by turning to do a different loop. It was clear you had me beat in a race you didn't even know was raging. My legs were plussed and my breath came in grunts towards the end. Because of you, these horse are still wondering why I had to stop twice to take their pictures.

All said and done, it will be a good summer. And I will beat you.

Weather We Can Believe In

This morning I bundled up to go run out to the car and start it so that it could warm up, but once I got out there I realized that it was quiet pleasant outside (considering the time of morning and month). I believe this reaffirms to me how dreadful January is for cyclists. All it took was one peak outside to decide that I would cut out of school this afternoon and go for a nice ride.

Right now I'm waiting for an eye appointment by sipping coffee at our local Panera. Their coffee is always surprisingly good to me. As much as I want to turn up my nose this fast food chain and their "frontega chicken on focaccia," I can't do it. Maybe is has something to do with the fact that I'm shamelessly using their internet to write this post.

Last night my clients were excellent.