Cleaver

A a heavy cleaver just fell on my foot from about six feet up. The blunt side was down. Talk about a close one.

Back at It

Weekend update.

Saturday, 2 hrs on the trainer watching Empire Strikes Back.

Sunday, sledding with the kids. I saw a pedal moraine jersey southbound from Alterra did an internal "Oh yeah, go get 'em!"

Evening run, 32F -> 30F. One hour. Tri shorts, long sleeve run shirt, gloves, balaklava, even shoes and socks.

Yeah, I slacked a bit after a couple of weeks oncall. No excuses. I did it to myself. Now I'm pissed! Go time again. Weights in the morning.

Nothing to Report

Day 19 of 2008.

1/2 sick. 1/2 on call. Not much in the way of working out. Work is hard, but I'm getting things done. Pack is still in it. Temperatures are in the single digits.

I'm about 90% of the way through book 5/7 in The Dark Tower series.

Life is good. More to come.

Chip Off the Old Block

Need some inspiration?

The temps were in the 20's today. My 5 year old daughter rode her bike to school. I picked her up afterwards and her bike was alone in the rack. Keep it up!

Where is your bike?

Testing 1... 2... 3...

Is this thing on?

After two weeks of weight training. After putting in some seriously heavy-legged, just get them in, slogging runs. I loosened up the ole legs with 2 hours of spinning on Saturday. Then we took the kids to a pool birthday party that night. Sunday morning I was raring for a good run. And I wanted some kind of test. How are these things working after some weights?

It's not much to brag about, but I ran my first sub-1 hour 10k yesterday (58:51). This in the face of getting slower the entire year of Ironman. Chalk one up for balance. What is aerobic endurance with out at least a smidgen of muscle?

It's only January, and yes. This thing is on.

A New First

I don't know if it was what I did or didn't do but I"m sure it was my fault.

It's getting warmer. As a result, yesterday I decided to bike outside. A demon or daemon possessed me. So, before taking off, I ripped the large and small chain rings off the Giant ATX780. I put some short stack bolts in there. I yanked some cables. I removed a front der-thingy. None of this, of course, will make any significant difference in weight with that 'keep the nose on the ground" MAG 21 on the front. Yet still I did it. I left the back as is.. I wanted to figure out what back gear I want for single speeding.

Those of you that know me, might immediately wonder why JWM "absolutely needs" a geared cross bike, but somehow takes a perfectly good geared mountain bike and starts ripping parts off it.. It was something to do. What else can I say? It doesn't mean I won't still be in the market for a fine geared CX bike one day..

Left with a middle chain ring, some warmer yet oddly foul in a melting kinda way weather, I pushed outdoors and headed down the street. The middle chain ring ain't street gears. The tires were soft and ready to bump up and down some snowy trails. But there were not snowy trails to ride on.. There were melting, not frozen enough, not soft enough, trails. It was just the right consistency that you could go 5" then sink in again. Maybe the pros would have made light work of it, but I was unable to use the trails.

There I was stuck riding the local multi use path, with tires aired up for mud, shox ready to go, and a middle chain ring. Relegated to such, I decided it's a spin outdoors day. I took off for a typcial 15 miler. I'd say I made about 11 before my chain broke.. After that it was 4 miles of, lower the seat and run. It weren't pretty.

So, either I was working on it and broke the chain, or I had neglected to notice that the thing was so dang old that it was time to replace it. My bad.

Either way, it's all but fate saying I should replace it with a much shorter chain and no rear der-thingy.

Now, when do those trails dry up?

Happy New Year!

'08 - day 1.

Soreness kicked in from yesterday's strength workout. I plan on going back tomorrow.. Hopefully after a few weeks I can upgrade from fly paper to Lego blocks as weights.

45 minutes on the trainer loosened me up a bit.

I slightly lament missing out on watching the Polar Bears ring in the new year today.. I'm not crazy enough to do it in 20 degree weather, but it might be fun to watch!

Wish me luck on day 2 of strength training tomorrow. It is the right move for me.

Resolutions? Nah, not this year. I have ideas, but not resolutions. Though I do need a new mantra.