2023

I’d say I’m going to post more frequently in 2023, but we alll know that’s a big fat lie. So, let’s start with a straight up “Happy New Year”, and be done with it.

Today started with a long time on the couch; then I finally got off my butt, fixed some stuff around the house, went to the grocery and bought cheese, glorious cheese and some cream. Smoked a turkey yesterday, so that means we’ve got Tetrazzini. (Spoiler: Yum)

Workout was good – 90 minutes (with a rest) of my first Zwift race plus another 45 minutes of junk miles. Worked out the wiggles before heading back to work tomorrow.

Anyway, was thinking about writing resolutions, but probably won’t.

Beautiful Weekend. Didn’t ride

It’s a little bit ironic. I’d lubed up the bike, laid out the kit, made time in the schedule. And I didn’t get in a single mile outside. Yet I’m still joyous over the weekend.

Let’s begin on Friday. I thought the day was going to be short-ish, and that I’d be out of the office by about 2. But, finally had a really productive meeting with one of my teams, and ended up pushing through til 4. And, so rather than standing my wife up for supper, I did a quick run, a quick asana, and jumped in the ocean on Friday.

Saturday, I slept in (Friday was a really good night), and started rebuilding the boat rack in the backyard; then spent the afternoon floating in the Mystic River for FloatElla. Music and beers with some other friends about to be college empty-nesters, and life is all sorts of good.

Today, finished up the kayak rack (It’s <chef’s kiss>), actually took parts I didn’t use back to the hardware store, got the convertible washed, picked up fish for supper, and cleaned the rubble out of the back yard. By the time I was done, it was almost 5, so I sat on Zwift and watched She-Hulk #2. Felt good.

So, beautiful summer weekend, but I didn’t actually get any miles in on the bike. Part of me is really going to regret this in January, but most of me is going to be happy every day when I leave for work and the back yard isn’t a mess.

Dog Days

Boy, has it been a summer. Graduation, lots of family visitors, vacations, new colleges, and soon to be an empty nest. No injuries, thankfully, and I’ve actually been running reliably again without a ton of pain.

The bike has really been my joy, as usual – Southeast New England is probably one of the best places on the planet to ride. Not enough mountains to really turn out phenomenal riders, but enough great terrain to put lots of people on bikes.

Today’s ride wasn’t anything special – just wanted to try out a new pair of shoes and actually put some sweat out. It’s been a busy week at work, with Monday having been off dropping a kid at school, and with the end of the fiscal year rapidly approaching. But it was a ride, it happened, and it was good.

I suppose I should have gotten out earlier, but it the Vuelta was on, I’d had a beer or two too many, and Mrs. Jank and oldest kid wanted to go stroll with the dog, so that was out. Oldest kid and I also spent some quality time running errands – really looking forward to him graduating college in December and the future ahead of him; but spending some time with him now is a gift.

So, I headed out in the heat of the day, about the time that people started heading into town for supper. So, traffic was a little bit heavier than I’d like, and the legs were leaden after about a week off. But the ride got done.

The bees buzzed,, the breeze blew, and the sun beat down on my ears. Miles rolled by under my wheels, the new shoes were great, and there’s corn and steak on the grill, a great bottle of wine waiting, and all is good.

2022

Haze grey and meh temperature. Much like many New Year’s Days past, and like many more to come.

Oh, wait one – I was about to write resolutions; ought to go get started on them first.

Alrite – I’m back. Actually ran today, then slow ride to the Y and a K in the pool.

2021 was a good rebuilding year – I think I’ve worked through my ankle issues that have been plaguing me since 2016. I got back in the habit of working out most days, and I’m in a decent mind space. I’ve been doing yoga and seeing changes in posture and muscle.

So, pretty bullish on 2022

Goals:

  • 10 miles / week running; 500 miles total for the year. This is 3 5k’s a week, and I think the legs are up to it
  • 50 miles / week on the bike; 2500 miles total for the year. Without really trying, and with 2 months off the bike when I borked my arm, I came within 100 miles of this in 2021. Least ambitious goal.
  • 2,000 yds/week swimming, 60k total for the year. I’ll be honest – I’m a crap swimmer, but can knock out 1k in less than 25 minutes, and think I can really pick it up. This is 2 swims per week. The yearly total is way off because I think I’m going to travel more, and can’t always find a pool.
  • The new goal is 5x week on doing at least 10 minutes of yoga. The Apple+ workouts have been awesome, and I really feel an improvement in the last quarter.

Oh, also more pictures. Failed that today.

Movember Moment

I think that #rwrunstreak is beginning to catch up with me after 18 days. I knew I was a little tapped out today, but jumped on the treadmill after work to stay on task. Did 1.1 miles at about 11 minute pace, which, were I rested, should barely get my heart rate above Zone 1; instead, the average for the run was in the upper half of my Zone 2. It didn’t hurt, so I got it done, but definitely will not be staying up late tonite.

After logging the mile, I jumped on Zwift to actually make some progress on their Movember challenge. It’s not really a huge challenge – 9.9 hours of some sort of exercise during the month of November, but it still kind of amazes me that I’ll actually log fitness to get some sort of virtual swag, as opposed to logging fitness because it’s actually, well, good for me…

Whatevs. The cat kept me company – she’s been being more social lately, which is kind of odd.

OK, got this done, so let’s actually write for something worthwhile.

One week of strong

So, I think that one of the really positive outtakes from “Muscle over 40” for me has been just a little more desire to be active. And this week’s “Fitness and Freshness” shows a pretty strong uptick:

I’m finally back to where I was at the beginning of April, when I stopped running for a while due to a gimp ankle. The ankle’s feeling much better.

Today was a day off. Originally, I thought I was going to study, but there’s some local drama going around, so my sleep game has been off. Plus, the kids went off to work and school, and Mrs J looked at me and said “Wanna go?”

“Yuh.” ;)

“OK”, she said, and tossed my running shoes at me. Let’s go.

Le. Sigh.

The run was strangely, strangely good. Which either means I’m about to break again, or that I may actually be getting better. Short run, just a couple miles.

After the run, it was on the bike again, down River Road, soaking in the light and air, and just kind of being joyous. It was weird being on River Road during the part of the day when most folks are working – most Saturdays and Sundays, it’s tons of “Always Wave at your fellow cyclists who you see out there on the road“. But this time, not so much. Like two other cyclists. On the other hand, the fishermen under the IH-95 bridge seemed pretty friendly, though Narragansett tallboys at 8 AM will do that for you.

Workout at the YMCA was humbling. Lessons learned:

    DOMS* is most definitely a thing
    60 year old ladies can kick my butt
    I have the upper body of a cyclist and the midsection of a football fan
  • RE: DOMS – I think it’s mostly the body saying “OK, I gave you the one day, but you really want to keep doing this?” But it had set in for certain this morning, mostly in the quads and glutes after doing the trap bar deadlifts on Wednesday. The run did a pretty good job of shaking it out, but still.
  • Re: 60 year old ladies – Today’s workout was mostly arms, but it also included a set on the squat machine. In which, when I got there, there was a fit 60 something woman saying “Just one more set”. Fine, I said, as I didn’t necessarily mind the recovery.
  • When she was done, I fiddled around trying to figure out the machine, thinking I would need to add some weight. Turns out, I didn’t have to to add an ounce. Woman was crushing it, and much like Mrs. Jank, could easily take me in a fair fight.
  • Re: My upper body – for the flys and the other arm exercises, I used a pathetic amount of weight as judged by the portion of the stack that I moved. Luckily, the woman from earlier was finished after the squat machine, so she didn’t stick around to kick sand in my face.
  • Oldest kid works at the Y. He’d been up at 4 and out of the house at 4:30 in order to open the pool for the 5 AM swimmers. So, as I was finishing up, he was getting off, so we headed downtown for coffee and bagels. Really proud of the guy he’s growing into; happy to have him home for the summer.
  • On the way out, I realized that I’d carried my new camera like 50 miles at this point without snapping any snaps. So, I parked the bike outside Harp and Hound.
  • Probably should have stayed there for 3 hours.
  • Muscle after 40, Week 1, Day 2

    Cut out of work early today. Beautiful day, so instead of just stoping at the gym on my way home, I went home first, and rode the bike to the Y.

    What a time to be alive! The ride was awesome, but it usually is – down hill from the house, then a cruise down River Road, through downtown, and stop at the Y. The Mystic Y is about 6 months redone, and it is amazeballs. Lots of natural light, and, a decent number of people. Felt good to be using something other than the pool.

    Regardless, today’s activity was harder than Day 1. Not sure if it was residual tired from Monday, or if I used weights that were too heavy, but I’m pretty sure that it really was some muscle groups I don’t usually hit. Doesn’t matter, because I got ‘er done.

    Rode home up the other side of the river, stopped at Kelley’s Pace for another ankle brace. I think the leg is mostly good now, but i’m going to keep using the brace as a prophylactic probably through the end of the calendar year.

    Pshew. Run tomorrow and Friday, rest Saturday, and then do the flyaway leg of the Vermont City Marathon on Sunday. Life is hard.

    “Rolling” Hills?

    Spring may finally have arrived in southern New England, though, as has been characteristic the last few years, we’ve gone straight from a disappointing winter into early summer, apparently somewhere between Friday afternoon and Saturday morning.

    Friday, I finally said “Y’know what? I’m a cyclist. Why aren’t I riding my bike more?”

    Answering, I said “Uh, ’cause it’s cold-ish, and may rain?”

    “But I live in New England. Possibly the only place on the planet with weather that can make a person whinier about the weather than old England. There are places where it is much, much warmer. And places where it is much, much colder. Sure, it’s not 75 and sunny all the time, but who wants to put up with Californians? Point is, you could ride outside almost 330 days of the year and be in no risk of the weather killing you. On the other 30 days, you can almost certainly get in a few miles of XC skiing. Bad weather is an entering argument, but shape means you can treasure the amazeballs days. And you can’t get shape by whining.”

    “Self, you make an excellent point. Giddyup.”

    Friday, I was back from a trip to our Nation’s capital, trodding the halls of power, and weaving my way among the throngs of teenagers from the heartland out in DC to see that socialism can actually build a pretty good lifestyle; that walkable cities with transit are pretty stinking cool, and that robust public support for the arts and humanities provides a really interesting way to spend a few days wandering among the collective artifacts that have shaped our history, our art, our sense of self, and our technology.

    Mostly, tho, it looked like almost any middle school outing – the adults pretending that they had a shred of cool; the children actively ignoring anyone over 18, the vendors trying desperately to pry hard earned spending money out of the kids’ wallets in exchange for red, white, and blue trinkets made in China.

    But the runs was good. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to say that without hesitation; this week felt like a breakthrough. Cranking out 6 on Sunday, and hopefully running one of the legs of the Vermont City Marathon Relay next weekend. Woot.

    Enough running, tho. What I really want to talk about is the bike.

    There are few things quite so transcendent as the first few rides in the spring, regardless of one’s state of training coming out of a deep winter. The combination of the turn from grey of deep winter, to the brown of mud and very early spring, to the first hints of color from the daffodils and tulips, the first greens from the skunk cabbage and elephants’ ears and fiddleheads. The sounds – the first spring peepers; the hoot of the owls, the deeper ribbets of the leopard and bull frogs, and the terrifying screeching of the fisher cats. The smells – from the damp of melting ice and snow, the earth as it starts to wake, the dead skunk that’s been under a snow pile or frozen mid-puetrificaiton for six months, and finally the flowers and grasses, and blooming trees – amazing.

    Then there’s the transition of bikes – last ride on the winter bike, with the bullet proof tires to ensure that cinders don’t end your ride prematurely with a tire change in freezing rain (or a call to a significant other, more likely). The first time when you, against better judgement, take out the summer bike, with the good wheels and tires out on roads that might not be completely salt and cinder free and feel again the joy of a beautiful bike under your seat…

    I’d made that first ride on the good bike back in April – we had a couple weeks of steady rain, with one 40 degree sunny day that fell on a weekend. I could tell that the fitness wasn’t where I want it to be, but the bike absolutely did not let down.

    Fast forward back to this weekend. Friday, my afternoon meetings were cancelled, and, well, I cashed in some hard earned leave in order to ride my bike around Newport.

    The ride was, actually pretty good – breezy and cool, but not cold. Shorts, wool jersey, and wool undershirt kept me pretty comfy. I’ve been letting my hair grow – managing bangs that stuck out under my helmet was more of a PITA than I anticipated; but partly, I didn’t want to stop in order to rearrange my helmet.

    Having ridden around Newport for a while, I’ve gotten pretty good at reading the winds, and figuring if I should do Ocean Drive counterclockwise or clockwise. Today was a counterclockwise day, which meant I started out by heading through downtown. It’s the start of tourist season, but the road improvements aren’t yet finished, so closures and construction made it a bear.

    I’ll also never quite understand why the middle of downtown is a two-lane, dead straight, divided highway for like half a mile, with only two pedestrian crossings. This is not shared-use friendly design. Were I on the Newport town council, I’d open every meeting by proposing cutting this down to two lanes, and relclaiming the other half for mixed-use commercial/residential to help out with the bike-able/transit housing shortage for both Salve Regina and the NAVSTA.

    Anyway, fought against the wind until I hit Brenton Point State Park, then crushed it eastbound on Ocean Ave. The one gripe I had was the dude on the e-bike who stayed JUST out of touch – wished I’d caught him to have a draft on the way back.

    When I hit the end of Ocean Drive, I thought about going back, but a mile into the wind on legs that aren’t yet accustomed to riding, and I turned around, rode past the Gilded Age 1.0 mansions, wishing that the robber barons of today had the common courtesy to place their unbalanced gains on such public display, and took the short way back home. 21 miles and happy.

    Saturday was like the actual day of summer that we’re going to get this year, apparently. Fortunately, our troop had enough adults at the Zombie Camporee that I was able to break free for some miles. Reminded me of EVERYTHING i love about riding in eastern CT. Highlights:

    • The corner of Plains Road and Under the Mountain Road in Franklin – no real sign, just two roads coming together in a wood, in which case I couldn’t tell which one was the less traveled…
    • Robinson Hill Road – Nutmeggers didn’t know sarcasm – if a road has “Hill” in the name, it’s going to be a hill. That said, Robinson Hill Road is extreme even for this rule. I rolled into it at about 10 miles, so should have been plenty warmed up, and should have been able to crush this. More later
    • Jerusalem Road – On the east bank of the Shetucket River. One of the quintessential New England roads – forest, farms, homes. Two lanes, next to no traffic, turns and whoop-de-doo hills. Short climbs to crush – man.
    • A “town” every 5 miles or so, which is great to catch the breath.

    Chris Case had a pretty good bit capturing much of this in a reprint at the end of this month’s VeloNews. You get to read about it, I get to live it.

    Anyway, enough. Got three weeks to finish up school for this quarter, and, as always, I’m way behind the eight ball.

    Home Stretch

    Big year since the last post way back in May. The short version is that I’m finally starting to feel whatever my “normal” is supposed to be. Ran the Tarzan Brown race again this year, and pretty comfortably finished the 5.5 miles under 50 minutes. I was a little discouraged about that, until I went back into Strava and found out that, even when I was feeling “strong”, my previous best was 47 minutes. Granted, that’s 30 seconds/mile faster, but I’m also carrying about 25 more pounds than I was for that race.

    So, I’m fat, but the legs are back.

    Lovely wife and I went for a possible last ride yesterday. Temperatures were in the 40’s, but the ride was awesome when we were in the sun and out of the wind.

    But, boy – the wind. I set two strava PRs and matched another best effort, because winter was coming down from Canada with a vengeance.

    Main goal of the ride was to get out to the Stonington Farmers’ Market in the Velvet Mill. We hadn’t been together for a couple months, so it was good to get back there. Picked up a beautiful ciabatta, shrimp and amazing scallops, and cheese curds.

    The ride home was pretty non-eventful. We stayed off Rt 1 and mostly stayed in the woods and hills to stay out of the wind. Coffee stop, and home to toasted bread and cheese. Amazing.

    Oh, and this was supper:

    Haze Grey and What do I weigh?

    We’d been having a decent bout of spring in New England, largely because I spent a big chunk of the last two weeks on travel. So, of course, it’s got to be nice here. So nice, in fact, that the wife and kids put fans in the windows, and the leaves came out.

    Today? Not so much. Friday? Beautiful. This morning? Grey. Not even the grey of a TV tuned to an unused channel, but the grey of limbo. Even the new leaves seemed subdued. You can thank Troop 76, because we’re camping this weekend, and our motto is “Troop 76 percent chance of rain”, with the records to back that up.

    I had crap to do first thing in the morning, and didn’t get out to ride until about lunch, at which time the grey and misty morning had turned into grey and drizzly if not actually rainy. But, I saddled up the Cannondale, thinking that maybe it was raining because I’d been a New England bike apostate by riding in the basement in front of Zwift all winter, instead of doing my penance in March and April on the salt bike, bundled up against the cold and slush.

    I’d like to say transcendence set in during the ride. But I can’t – the ride was cold and wet; the cars sent up spray, and I can’t even pretend to have “early season fitness”; this ride was fueled by guilt and what few dad watts I’ve got left (I think that teenage children may actually drain dad watts).

    Neither can i say I was sad to ride today. There was value in the cold rain, and reality in the painful joy of hot water on cold flesh. I still can ride, I still love where I ride, and maybe not all things good are joyful.

    The tale of the scale hasn’t been good. I haven’t gained weight; neither have I lost any. Fitness seems to be coming back, which is good. I don’t think I’m going to die at the Vermont City Marathon relay in three weeks.

    And the campout is awesome. The frogs are louder than the scouts; and letting boys self-organize occasionally yields amazing stuff – like the campstove donuts that were embellished with the addition of girl scout cookies and marshmallows. 6 hours of laughter brings light to absolutely any day. Though I do hope that the sun comes out tomorrow.