Randomness.. Bikes..

Yesterday was the first day I had ridden a mountain bike in about three weeks and it was great. It was a beautiful day, not too cool and the sun throwing down a nice full beam of warmth. I wrestled with myself, though not putting up much of a fight, about whether or not I could squeeze a ride in given the stuff I had piled up I needed to take care of. Sometimes a mental reset is much more beneficial than trying to plow through a huge work load without a little self pity and relaxation.

I've been playing with my work schedule and finally came up with something that will work for me in terms of providing a bit of a breather during the week so hopefully I can squeeze a little road bike time in to keep things somewhat sane. With the running I've been doing I'm starting to think about a summer half marathon if I can find one that is NOT on the road--I despise running on pavement or any man-made surface-well, not so much me as it is my knees. Also maybe a dirt marathon in the Fall/Winter! I'm thinking I'm probably going to back down the lofty 12 Hour / 100 Miler goals to some 6 Hour stuff and a 50 @ Fool's Gold given the huge decrease in on the bike time. Hopefully I'll still have a century in me come April...

The past week or so has been awesome thanks to my tainted CLIF bars, which I didn't realize were tainted until it was too late. I'm not 100% sure that's the cause since I didn't have the time to actually go to the doctor and verify but given how horrible I felt--close to the worst ever that didn't involve a bicycle and excess distances--I'm pretty sure that's what was going on. Obviously this compounded the lack of mileage I've been putting in even further, today was actually the first day I felt normal and was able to do some circuit training in between study sessions. Given the 0 riding for almost two weeks now I think I'm going to skip the February Snake, plus I can't see a realistic way to make up all the time I will lose traveling. Definitely looking forward to March though since it falls on the start of Spring Break--no class for a week and I'm planning on burning through a week of vacation at work as well. Can't wait.

Been pretty swamped and thus haven't updated in slightly over a week, nor ridden a bike in about that same time frame. My schedule has altered from having so much time that I would have to create things to do to having so many things to do I don't have enough time to actually do them all. My "lite" days are ~12 hours straight at the office and the others are 15+ hours mixed between on campus and at the office. So it's been quite awesome and will only get even more awesome. Started running 2 - 3 times a week to make up for the lack of exercise and had planned long weekend rides but of course didn't err, do that this past weekend. Oops.

I think I've finally got everything the way I like it, for a while at least. I added a twitter widget to the sidebar since I forsee limited posting in my future and twitter is easy to update regardless of where I am or what I'm doing. Also decided to try and add a flickr badge as part of the header after seeing it on several other sites but they always had their badges styled weird. Eventually stole the look of Ricky Silk's badge. Oops.

----------------
Listening to: Andrew Bird - Scythian Empires

So I like to mess and tinker with stuff, especially if it's in an environment like the intarwebs where I can't really permanently break anything. Just throw back to a backup that I hopefully took and start over no harm done. Updated the site with a new template and modified the sidebar stuff although still trying to work out the spacing between the various objects. Should get it worked out this weekend.

I need to do more upper body and general strength work off the bike to be more comfy on courses like the snake, of course I also need to stick to a regimented training schedule on the bike to be more comfy but seriously doubt I will. For the most part I don't really care how long it takes me to do something or how much better or faster I can do it than other people around me. The main thing I like to do is just spend all freaking day in the woods, but then that isn't always enough for me either. What I really like is the mental challenge tough riding brings: a tough course, tough weather, single speed, and sometimes rigid (I'm not that tough..). It's good for the soul and provides time for unfettered contemplation and a glimpse of the real person inside.

Turning biking into a regimented and metered schedule focusing on time, HR/Power, and where I placed as I've tried to do several times before just kills the love of it for me. Just ride. Dirty or clean. Wet or dry. First or last. It's all part of the ride and all beautiful in a different way. Just like the weather at SCG this weekend--I'm a huge sucker for the foreboding mountains covered up in fog with a light rain thrown in the mix. Very pretty.

----------------
Listening to: Jack Johnson - A Pirate Looks at Forty