Month: June 2008

Down…Up!…Down…Up!

So, marathon training is going pretty well, all things considered. I missed a couple of runs while Missy was in Houston. But then I cracked open the 20 week “official” plan for the San Antonio Rock’n’Roll marathon, and saw I was ahead of the game for where they want me to be. Worse things possible, I suppose.

This morning, I actually managed to make it out the door, ride for 40 minutes or so, and catch the commuter van. Didn’t get in a run at work, but hey – who needs bricks?

And, lastly – Missy’s goaded me into doing the Hundred Pushup challenge!

One Hundred Pushups

I think that at one time, like after getting chased around by the USMC’s finest for 13 weeks, I could probably do 100 pushups at a sitting. But that’s a while ago, and many cans of beer under the bridge.

So, you in?

Some would say I’m insane to complain about it

And I’d agree. Life is good.

Work was tough today, but all was made good by the boyzos and Missy’s book club. Us with the X-Chromosome deficiency grabbed the canoe and bought a little bit of fried chicken. We headed off to a cove off of the Thames and watched the sun set. The boys were fascinated watching the swallows darting about catching the evening’s bugs.

I’m a sucker for paddling.

Towels

Missy keeps giving me grief about why I keep the gnasty old white towels for my gym bag. Finally, I’ve got a good answer:

To look cool, wrap a towel around your waist when you change. Changing skirts are practical, but not very cool. To look Euro-cool, make sure it’s a white, thread bare towel taken from the cheap motel room that you and five teammates crammed into at your last stage race.

(Courtesy of PezCyclingNews)

(Also, it looks like I missed TowelDay this year.)

I Was a Monkey

Hi.

Man, what a couple of great weeks I’ve had. Off to Glasgow for a conference, where I gave a paper without dropping a single f-bomb at the podium AND got intelligent questions at the end. Stopped by the place where the pedal bicycle was invented. Then down into England to visit with a couple of vendors. I highly recommend the United Kingdom for a running vacation.

Extremely highly recommend it, especially if you can get the aMAZING hIP to show up. We headed into the Peaks District, just outside of Manchester, and the Hip mastered the hills and rocks with such aplomb that the sheep ought to have been scared, were it not for the kindness of the Hip leaving his wellingtons back down in the car.

But, the run was amazing. The UK’s built with the car as an afterthought, an inconvenience, really. There are amazing public footpaths EVERYWHERE. Just be considerate and shut the gate after you.

Yesterday was jet-lag day. Waking up was fine, as long as you’re allowing that 4 AM and wide awake is a good thing. Only lost one bag. Fell asleep in meetings, so I bailed early from the office. The airline had lost my backpack with my shoes, so I picked up a new pair, and did 5 miles on Jamestown in a glorious, sunny day.

Cannot wait for the weekend.

Small Pieces Loosley Joined

I got to cross another couple of good idea off the list last night.

My neighbor and I have been saying “Hey, we ought to go mountain biking” to each other for about the last year. Which is true – the number of people with whom I ought to go ride is astronomical, and if I could follow through, my belly wouldn’t be nearly so generous as it is.

The other idea was pretty simple – we live up on top of a hill here in Mystic, and there’s a bunch of land and parks, between our house and Fisher’s Island Sound. I’d been meaning to see if I could link together one epic ride out of the whole deal.

Despite yesterday being a day from hell, and despite my getting home about 20 minutes late, and despite a flat going up the driveway, the ride was all that and a bag of chips. We cruised through the land by the new elementary school. Quick pedal on the road past Whittle’s Farm – nice. Wrong turn in Pequot woods that turned into about a mile of tasty swoopy singletrack and ended up being the right turn – good twist of fate. And even the hike around Beebe pond was great.

We finished the ride down in the Daniel Packer Inn with a cold beer.