3 - A - Days and the Weekend Forecast

SATURDAY
I felt like taking it easy on the legs and body today after Friday's expedition so I just hit the gym for some ab-work and (light) weights.

SUNDAY
The legs felt surprisingly good today so I hopped onto the bicycle and did 30 miles on the flat grounds up at Hains Point. I had my roommate with me which meant slllowwwweeerrr speeds, although I did manage to put together 4 sprints. During the sprints, I was up around 28-29 mph, and even hit 30 at one point (a new high!). It's an awesome kind of suffering feeling when you're going balls-out like that. I had a major "WTF" moment though on the last sprint when I was pushing the 29.X's and two dudes riding aero passed me LIKE I WAS STANDING STILL. Jeeeeeeeeez. I did my best to try and dig deeper and hop on the 2nd guy's wheel but there was no way in hell that was happening. It was a good, simple recovery-workout and, due to the absence of hills during the workout, I was able to sprint up the three hills back to my house with EASE.

I then got to grilling. MMMmmmmmmmm!

 

Grilled Chicken Kabobs in a Curried Yogurt Marinade, Grilled Veggies, 

a Grilled-Pineapple Chipotle Pepper Salad, Spicy Black-Bean Salad 

and my last bottle of Dogfish Head Burton Baton.

MONDAY
Good news - I got back into the pool today! It was an ugly workout, but better than the last few swims that were downright ugly. I did the 500m warm-up, followed by 10 x 200m and then a 100m victory lap. The form was crap, the times were slow (1:45/100M avg. at best) but I kept the rest-periods honest and fought through the mental hurdles.

TUESDAY
Today was the mother of all workouts!.. well, at least it was a BIG day for workouts. At lunch I hopped out onto the tow-path and ran about 4.25 miles. The first half was a piece of cake, but the second half was a MUCH faster pace and I was pretty thrashed at the end. The calves were on FIRE.

After work, my friend Patrick and I hit the courts for about an hour and a half of spirited tennis. We had some really heavy hitters on the court next to us and didn't want to make ourselves look like asses so we tried to put on our own show. We held our own all right and wore ourselves pretty ragged by the end.

I got home and figured "what the hell," ate a banana and HIT THE GYM. (Light) weights and lots of abs later... and I was BEAT. I was full of that "good-tired" feeling. I loaded up on left-overs and settled in for a night of baseball-watching and early-to-bedness. It was... ahhh... a good day.

WEDNESDAY
The body was tired today and everything was sore - ESPECIALLY THE CALVES. Jesus, the calves were sore. I guess I really rook for granted the kind of shape my calves were in from regular running last summer, b/c this is ridiculous. Anyway... REST DAY! Tomorrow has some AM tennis on-deck and then hopefully another lunch-time run (calf-muscles be damned!).We've been working on video-taping our serves via the iphone so perhaps I can share some of that goodness one of these days.

No epic rides this weekend because I'm off in Michigan celebrating Elaine's graduation with a PHD from U of M's Nuclear Engineering program! And lucky us: we get to go see Barack Obama speak live at the commencements!

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75 Miles of Elbow Room

I like beer.

Very much, actually.

I'm not talking about pounding miller-lites or shit like that. I like GOOD beer. And, if I can help it w/o looking like a pretentious asshole, I choose to drink my beer out of a glass. Do I consider myself a beer snob? No, I don't think so.  Beer snobs have rules, heavy prejudices and aren't what I consider to be "experimental" people (in terms of trying new brews, whether they be high or low (löwe?) brow (bräu?) (harrrrrrrr!).

 Duvel and Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary

I don't have rules. I have preferences (beer in glass)... but not rules. I consider myself more of a beer journeyman. An up-and-comer who is drinking up every new/different bottle of everything  looking to expose myself to as many different flavors as possible. I want to try it. I want to learn all about it. What does that taste like? I wonder how it compares to this.

I love beer.

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75 miles... what does that taste like?

Let me tell you.

Last July, or something, I completed the longest ride of my life - 55 miles. I did it in rock-creak park on a Sunday when all of the roads were closed down. An out-and-back in rock-creak is somewhere in the neighborhood of 10.4 miles (right?.. I'm pretty sure). Anyway, it was DC-summer hot out, I was alone, and it was a lot of seeing the same thing over and over... and over... and over again. It was long, it was hard, but it was worth it.

I've been feeling great on the bike lately. Each week showed a progression in form, distance and confidence. Long gone are the days where I would sit on the trainer for only 30 minutes hoping... hoping so hard... that my knee would cooperate. I'm back, baby.

Patrick and I had been planning a BIG ride for a couple of weeks now. We hit 50 miles the weekend before and that lit a fire under us - it was time for something BIG. Patrick knew my current benchmark (55), as well as my ever-narrowing window of opportunity (1-month until DC departure). With this as my last free weekend, the exception being the one where I actually move, it was now or never.

Lift-off was scheduled for 7:00am on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. However, halfway there (and at the bottom of the f-ing hill that leads away from my house) I realized that I had forgotten BOTH of my water-bottles. Crap. So I wheeled back around and climbed the first of many hills that day. Never-the-less, I eventually got to the meet-up point and it was a hell of a view to start the day.

That's me on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. 

Beautiful day so far, huh?

Here's Patrick hanging out and enjoying some great 

peace and quiet before the day's journey.

We got rolling and started to journey our way out of the city. Traffic was aiiiiiight and the weather was a brisk 50 degrees. Today would have been the perfect morning for arm-warmers, knee-warmers, toe-warmers and full-fingered gloves.... but sadly I own none of these things. INSTEAD, I layered-up a long-sleeved dri-fit shirt under my jersey, threw a pair of regular gloves over my cycling gloves and wore compression socks to act as make-shift leg-warmers. Nice, huh? Oh, and how could I forget my new (coughFIRSTcough) pair of cycling socks! No, they're not those goofy looking ones with pictures all over them. These are simple, black, low-cut pearl izumi socks. And yes, they were underneath my compression socks.

The ride was to take us out to Poolesville, MD via MacArthur Blvd and a plethora of other roads, and then return back to DC via River Road. It all started out well enough. We didn't print off any queue sheets b/c we felt we had a good enough handle on our turns. Plus, we had dual iphone assistance so we could always fall back on map navigation. Before long though, we had reached our first impasse. Out with the phones!

PC with the iphone

It was a short pause and we launched out for another ways before stumbling onto this gem.

I guess Jed isn't open this early in the morning.

After a while, we were well out of the city and really on our way. Boy, and what a change in scenery. We were surrounded by dairy farms, horses, cattle.... and HILLS. Jesus, there were f-ing hills EVERYWHERE. I thought I knew what a "roller" was, but the joke was definitely on me today. It was KILLER and I experienced a whole new dimension of suffering on the bike. It was about this time that Patrick and I looked at each other and realized the 1 1/2 hours of tennis the morning before wasn't the best idea. Our legs were absent of that fresh feeling you know you've got when sprinting with ease up those first few hills. Hincapie would call it "bad legs." But that's OK because we were in it together. All it really means is that our jaws would be hanging a little lower and our chests heaving a bit harder, right?

Look at that seemingly small hill out there in the distance. 

Don't let it fool you for a second! It surely wraps up 

and around and then up some more. At least we had something 

nice to look at while sputtering along at <10mph.

After conquering a few of those nasty rollers we came upon what would have been the PERFECT stretch of Belgian pavé. It was about 8' wide and surrounded by the old country-side you see in all of the youtube highlight reels for the Belgian Spring Classics.

Stop laughing at my socks!

Shortly thereafter we stumbled onto a beautiful wheat field stretching off as far as the eye could see. How could we not jump off our bikes for a quick photo-op?

Cool field, huh?

Well, we eventually made it out to Poolesville, albeit through a very backwards and winding route. We filled up the bottles, at some GU and wheeled back around for the trek home. Our route back was significantly more direct and well-committed to memory on roads we both were quite familiar with. We picked up the pace and put our heads down in preparation for what surely would be a difficult mental and physical exercise.

I won't bore you with too many details about the new hills we found and then the GIANT hill we paper-boy'd it all the way up at the end, but just know we made it and we felt f-ing proud to do so. We were tired, but not overly so, which surprised me a bit. The legs were tired, but never really gave-out on me which I can only guess is a testament on some level to the training that has gone in up to this point. I gotta feel good about that right?

Back at home, post-ride!

My post-ride celebration wasn't what I thought it would be at all. I just wasn't in the mood for one of those two bottles of beer. Nor was I yearning for the tub of ice cream that was waiting for me (again, thank you Hannah Teter!). Instead, I opted for a mammoth sized plate of chicken fajitas and a single margarita at the local, cheap Mexican joint down the street from me. It turns out that was just what I needed. I came home all ready to take a nap but settled for an extremely relaxed state of mind while I handled planning for the upcoming Man-Bath!... but more on THAT in the future!

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The Day of Jeff (and Some Workout Stats)

Time to play a little bit of catch-up here...

Last Weekend Workout Totals
Cycling: 2 rides total, a 35 and a 40 miler.
Swimming: 1, but only 1000m - after a run, and I just wasn't feeling it
Running: 1 run, 2 miles - 1.0 incline, 7.5/8.0 mph split.
Weights: Abs and light-weights at the gym (after run, but before swim)

Monday
Crazy day at work so instead of swimming, my friend Patrick and I went and played tennis for a couple of hours to blow off some steam.

Volta Park in Georgetown (not "G-town Playground") - 2 Blocks From Work. On a side note, this is also where I did the majority of my swim-training... in that dinky little pool.

Tuesday
I have no idea what I did today, to be honest. Maybe I went running at the gym? Yeah, we'll go with that. I DID make a very meaty stew... does that count?

Wednesday
2,700m swim consisting of sets of 300m. It wore me out but I'm glad to have that 1,000m weekend swimming debacle behind me. I also found this place two blocks from the pool where I was able to drop my tennis racquet off to get restrung, and then pick it up an hour later after I was done with my workout. Nice!

HEAD Liquid Metal Prestige

Thursday
Two more hours of tennis after work today. I then went running and played with the weights. For my official record, it SUCKS to run after playing tennis for that long. You just have no spring left in your legs at all. It's like trying to start sprinting after you've just run a 10-mile tempo run - not easy! It's about time to raise the bar on the running distances again. We'll see how that goes this coming week.

Friday
I woke up early to get across town for a 9:00am bike ride with my friend Patrick. We'd be tackling mostly the same course we went at last week which happened to include a hill that brought me to my knees. I was determined to have a much stronger showing this time around and did, mostly, but was still dropped by Patrick rrrrrrrrrright near the end (1/8 mile left at most?). I rebounded and did a lot of the pulling for the rest of our ride, which brought me to a grand total of 50 miles! That is officially my longest ride of the year, second-longest of my life (55 is the current record, I do believe... although I went much faster on this last one I'm sure).

OK, so that wasn't entirely truthful... the ride actually only brought me to 48.15 miles (damnit!). I had to make it to 50 though, so I stayed on the bike and literally did LAPS AROUND MY BLOCK practicing riding w/o hands. I'm sure I looked ridiculous, but I hit 50 and learned how to confidently ride w/o hands so shutup.

Saturday
My co-worker Jeff's birthday was coming up sometime in the next month or so and I wanted to do something nice for him. Since I'm skipping town here in just over a month I've only got so many weekends left to hang out with people so we had to do this well ahead of Jeff's birthday. I organized a "Day of Jeff" where a bunch of his friends came over to his new house and did a shit-ton of yard-work. Now, understand that this man (Jeff) is handcuffed by a perpetual habit of over-thinking and over-planning things and not getting much done in the end. By us coming over in a group, we were able to brute force our way through many of the things Jeff wanted to accomplish, but in literally FRACTIONS of the time.

We moved two HUGE azaleas, pulled out and stacked over 300 bricks & 50 x 1'-square paving stones, cleaned gutters, moved countless small plants/flowers, leveled his entire front yard... annnnnnnd then shoveled and spread 13 tons of pea gravel.

 

Oh yeah, that's me!

 Working hard, or hardly working? You be the judge.

I'll count that as my workout for the day.

Oh yeah, and then we ate a shit-ton of food (ribs that were smoked for 7 hours) and drank some fabulous beer. It was a good day.

Breakfast - Donuts, Bagels & Iced Coffee!
I really think more triathletes should eat like this.

Jeff, manning the most awesome grill in the world.

The whole gang at the end of the day.

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S-E-X-Y... annnnnnnnd I'm Blushing Just Typing This

Shaving your legs is a VERY VERY VERY STRANGE feeling. Let me tell you a little story...

Friday morning brought with it a nice 35 mile bike-ride through the lesser-traveled roads of Anacostia (DC). There were lots of confused stares, some highway riding, cows, hills, speeds upwards of 40mph, bridges and the tallest, most caffeinated iced-coffee my body has ever imbibed.

[As a quick aside, I don't EVER drink coffee, but sometimes will have an iced-coffee, but only if it's half-decaf. The size is usually around 12 oz., but this behemoth was around 20 oz. and 100% fresh-roasted and HIGHLY caffeinated. My body was shaking!]

After the ride, I was pretty proud and decided to take the whole leg-shaving thing for a test-run by shaving everything below the knee on the front of my right leg.

Woah... it was... smooth? :)

It's hard to say I didn't kiiiiiiiiind of like it at that point and was pretty committed now that I had to shave the rest. But I hadn't earned that right just yet, no sir.

[Jesus, it's been like a week since I started writing this one too!... I'm an awful blogger]

But yeah, I had to earn the right to shave the rest of my legs (wtf?!?... that sounds so lame if you're not into cycling). Soooooo, I went out and knocked out a nice little 40-miler through the up-downs of Rock-Creek Park here in DC. For the geographically unaware, the city closes down the well-paved roads of Rock-Creek Park on Saturdays and Sundays from 7am-7pm allowing cyclists, runners, walkers and those gay (not in the anti-homosexual sense) rollerbladers to envelope the roadways and ride without impediment.  Political correctness aside, it KILLED me last year that some f-ing rollerbladers could go faster than I could on the bike. Not this year, you hear me rollerbladers? NOT THIS YEAR YOU SONS OF BITCHES!

Anyway... I ended up doing 40 miles of hard and sweaty riding at Rock-Creek Park that left me thoroughly cooked at the end. I was never passed, yet did a fair amount of passing so that served as a continuous confidence builder. Granted, most of the people I passed were pushing strollers, whom, I might add, didn't appreciate me yelling "YOUR ASS JUST GOT DROPPED" every time I passed by... but that's neither here nor there.

I got home, took my bike inside, grabbed some music, went to the freezer, grabbed THIS (below) and planted my ass out on a plastic adirondack chair and JUST. LOVED. LIFE.

"Gosh darn" (goddamn!) it was good!

I don't know who the hell Hannah Teter is, but I could've swore someone in her family owns a ton of grocery stores around here. I'm not sure that warrants a photo and personal flavor of Ben & Jerry's, but who the hell cares b/c this ice-cream is AWESOME. I ate half the tub while listening to one of my guilty music pleasures - 60's era Gospel music (The Swan Silvertones).

Once that business was taken care of, I got my MACH 87 razor, a bar of soap, two HUGE bowls of hot water and set up camp in the middle of my backyard.

IT'S BUSINESS TIME. (you have to click this)

I searched the depths of my brain trying to assemble any and all knowledge I had somehow and unwillingly acquired (I swear) regarding the shaving of one's legs. Thankfully, I can make the excuse attribute all of said knowledge to my friend Bryan whom was an annual competitor at the state finals for swimming throughout high-school. (You mean you're friends with an all-star swimmer and all that rubbed off on you were tips/tricks for shaving your legs?.... ::sigh:: sadly, yes.)

So there I sat in the middle of my back yard and shaved my legs while all of my neighbors watched in horror and confusion. Can you do a shaving "race report"? I'll give it a shot...

T1: I set up my equipment and got right into the saddle (aka plastic adirondack chair)

I dove right into the areas below the knees and built up some major confidence. I had a good lather going and followed suit with a superior rinsing technique that involved a fist full of paper-towel for removing the large chunks of hair stuck between the 37 blades. Before I knew it I was coming right up against the knees. A smooth start to the process, to say the least.

T2: Mentally prepare for the knees. Rub knees down with water and then work up a good lather.

Ok, first stroke.... FUCK!.. blood everywhere. Great... put a piece of paper towel on it like you're a 14 year old shaving his face for the first time. Annnnnd, the remaining hairs on my knees were removed sllllooooowwwllllly and without incident.

T3(?): Sit there thinking how long this is taking me... about 30 minutes at this point? Jeez... Now is about when I started rushing things.

Who would've thought your thighs are larger and would hold more hair than the rest of your legs? Jesus, I certainly failed to account for this (mentally, at least). I figured my leg hair was analogous to trees on the side of a mountain - the higher up you got the more sparse it was!.. but I suppose not.

What it looks AND feels like.

I got a few strokes in and quickly exchanged the murky leg-hair soup for some clean + clear warm water. Buuuuut, then I got lazy. Wanting it to be over, I started speed-shaving.

DUMB IDEA.

I finished w/o incident, but the next few days SUUUUUUUCKED. I know understand your razor burn and ingrown hair pains, ladies. It ain't pretty, but I think it all could've been worse if I hadn't moisturized. (Queue embarrassing mental picture.) Today, my legs are what most women would describe as "pokey."

Here are a couple of grainy pieces of evidence.

Pay no attention to the junior varsity leg-muscles!

I'd like to end this post with a beer recommendation. You all should be familiar with Dogfish Head brewery (shame on you if you aren't!). They're a great micro-brewery (kind of) known for their IPAs and willingness to experiment with all sorts of new flavored beer. I recently sampled some Burton Baton and found it quite pleasing. It's a little bit pricey and you only get a 4-pack instead of a sixer, but it's still worth it if it means trying something new and shaking yourself out of your regular rotation.

I love me some good beer!

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I Did It

I shaved my legs.

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A Night Off, Mentally and Physically

You can't usually pick the moments that put you into a state of introspection. Often times we'll find ourselves in the midst of a flurry of activities scattered over days, weeks or even months. I find I get used to a state of constant action, whether it be work, working out, moving prep, wedding planning or whatever else, but then when a sudden lack-of action temporarily hits, I'm left trying to catch back up, mentally.

Part of my natural catching-up process involves taking stock of where my life is at. Depending on my mood, the time of day and the amount of time I'm afforded, this can be quick and neat or lonnnng and, well, just long. I'd rate this latest pause in the action as medium in length, but positive in future outlook.

Heh, well crap... Re-reading this all, it sounds somewhat depressing and doesn't seem to foreshadow anything positive so I'll change gears.

I worked late and then it rained a lot so I skipped out on the pool and just took the night off (Wednesday), made some dinner and chilled-out. On the menu was Thai-chicken in a peanut sauce and to wash it down I used my all-time favorite soda - Grapefruit A-Treat. I kicked my legs up, dusted off the guitar and watched me some baseball.

Go Yankees!

It's nice to have some "me" time every now and again, as I'm sure others can attest. I was particularly relaxation-related productive with learning parts to a few songs on the guitar.

I also got some good reading (blogs) and movie-watching in (Up in the Air), both of which seemed to touch on weighing the importance of possessions versus experiences. Long-story short, it's a unique time in my life to come across these things as I am currently trying to get rid of ALL of my furniture and trying to dwindle down my possessions to only that which would fit in a car with me. I like the challenge of doing this, as well as the "clean slate" mentality that becomes more permanent with each item sold/thrown-out.

Of course, the hobby of cycling is DIRECTLY in opposition to this less-is-more mindset. No matter, b/c I don't have that over-accumulation problem yet.... YET!

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OK, well... I started writing this all last Tuesday or something and here we are on Sunday morning with me not having a clue where I was going with all of that crap in the beginning. More betterer workout news coming later tonight.

Thursday?... I don't remember
+ 2.0 mile treadmill run - 1.0 incline, 1 mile at 7.5 mph, 1 mile at 8.0 mph
+ Light weights and abs

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Peloton, Oh Peloton!

Yikes... falling behind on the workout log, but I guess there hasn't been a ton to really report on that front.

Wednesday 
+ Run - 1.5 miles @ 7.0mph and 1.0 incline (damn am I missing the days of 6 miles at 8.5 mph!).
+ Swim - 2,000m hard effort
+ Work on E's Phd - 5+ hours (!!!!!)

Thursday
+ AWESOME bike ride out at Hains Point - about 33 miles. More on this later.
+ Work on E's Phd - 5+ hours (!!!!!)

Friday
+ Light weights and abs at the gym early in the morning.
+ Off to PA until Sunday night

Saturday
+ No Workout, unless you count moving around mulch and heavy boxes of books.
+ Played with the new iPad at the Apple store - very cool, but not right for me just yet.
+ Followed the Tour of Flanders via my iPhone - epic win for Cancellara!

 Mr. Fabian Cancellara

Sunday
+ No Workout

Monday
+ Worked on E's Phd from the moment I got off work until about 2:30am... ahhh!!
+ No workout

Tuesday
+ Worked on E's Phd from the moment I got off work until 5:00am (due Wednesday AM!)
+ Slept three hours then went to work
+ Uhh, no workout (a litttle bit tired)

Ok, back to Thursday's awesome bike ride...

Hains Point, aka East Potomac Park

I got a good 5-mile warm-up in on my way out to Hains Point (a flat, but sometimes terribly windy 3.18 mile loop)  from my place and was only about 1/4 of the way through the first lap when the fabled peloton came around. I've always wanted to jump in the pack and do a few laps with them, but I usually ended up riding that route with my roommate who doesn't have the power/skill/mental-toughness to stay in the group. I was riding solo this time around and absolutely jumped right into the mix.

 The Fabled Peloton!

Now, I am very much a "peloton noob" so I know practically none of the rules involved. Should I have waited and jumped in at the end of the group?.. Do I have to remove all flashing lights before I am allowed access?.. Does your cycling gear have to match and does THAT all have to match your bicycle?.. And most importantly, MUST I be wearing cycling socks? (No, I still don't own any...)

Who knows.

I jumped in never-the-less. My legs felt VERY fresh (I had "good legs") and I had no problem staying middle-of-the-pack and in-close with everyone else. Halfway through that first lap, there was a 10-man break (the 1st selection, if you will) that took off from the front. I put my head down and dug in hard and was able to latch onto that group and stick with them through the end of the lap. It was tough but ultimately a VERY empowering feeling! I made it my business to try and stay with any break for the rest of the day.

The next few laps were equally exciting and challenging. There's a great part of the loop where you round the point and the whole peloton thins out to near single-file. Everyone digs down deep and really starts cranking around this turn. It's often right after this turn where people will start to stand up and look to establish a mini-break.

At one point leading up to the turn, I heard two girls conspiring to try and "take the stage" and win the sprint-out at the end of each lap. What?!... strategy?!?!  It was SO.COOL.

Out of my 7-completed laps, I was only dropped off of the break-out group once (lap 3). On lap 5, I got out front and took some pulls for about a mile, throwing down an average of around 26.0 mph (very high for me)!! I then stood up and tried to take the stage myself, but was quickly humbled by two other dudes who weren't ready to give it away to a noob juuuuuust yet.

 What it feel like to get dropped!

To get weird on you here for a minute... it was all a truly remarkable, new experience for me. I have never done group rides larger than 3 and found this to be just amazing - close quarters, everyone focused, everyone pedaling hard and working as a group. It's so energizing and just AWESOME.

I had a nice 5 1/2 mile (roughly) ride home where I stood up and attacked three different hills because I was still feeding off of the peloton high.

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I Deserve a PHD Too, Damnit!

It's 5:10am. I've been working on part of E's dissertation since 6:00pm tonight, then countless days/hours before now. The deadline is tomorrow.

This is me remembering how to suffer for school-work.

Yes, that's a Hollister shirt. It's the only thing I've ever purchased at that store and dates back about 8 years. Tell ya what though... it's damn comfortable.

I hate this.

It's going to be a high of 88 degrees tomorrow. Our air-conditioner at work is next-to broken.

I think this where the AOL savvy kids might say "FML."

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