My Hungry Year

Hiatus

2011-02-02T20:58:00.000-08:00

MHY is going on a (perhaps not so brief) hiatus. Pressing obligations IRL force me to make some hard choices about how I use my time right now. I welcome messages from anyone who wants the blog to continue.

2011 Plan Redux

2011-01-20T21:22:00.000-08:00

After digging out from the recent winter weather onslaught and getting a good start on the new semester I'm ready to get down to business. The watch words for the next few months are speed and strength. I'm going to focus on interval days, weights with only enough distance to keep my stamina up. Hopefully all this will translate to a 5K PR at the end of April.

The Plan:

Three to five days lifting weights with at least two of those days prioritizing lower body strength.
Two sets of intervals (half mile or longer) a week. I'm going to start at a 6:30-6:50/mile pace and adjust as necessary.
One long day (ten or so miles) at a moderate pace
One mixed/tempo run

By the time I'm done I hope I can actually move a little bit. We'll see.

2011 and All That

2011-01-02T18:08:00.000-08:00

According the internet the new trends of 2011 include modern suits, flaired jeans, and something called loungerie. Now I imagine I enjoy lounging as much as the next guy, but I'm not sure I'm ready for this (OSFFCWP).*

Unlike fasion designers, however, I don't think of this time of year as a new beginning as much as I think of it as time make the subtle shift from longer-distance, running-only training to less focused fun work outs with some emphasis on the 5Ks I like to race in the spring. Think of this as trading your Uggs for sweaty, slightly sunburned cat heels.

I plan on getting in two or three 5Ks between now and the end of April and I will be very disappointed if I don't clock a sub-22 in at least one certified-distance race. At the same time, I'm going to try to maintain a three-day-a-week strength plan built around the three lifts I'm tracking on the left side of the screen.

Official training plans will arrive soon along with the requisite complaints about the beginning of spring semester.

* Only safe for the fashion conscious workplace

Out of the Office

2010-12-23T06:28:00.001-08:00

MHM is out of the office for the next couple weeks but will return with all sorts of exciting stuff after the new year.

1:45:18

2010-12-12T09:06:00.000-08:00

First the good news: this year I ran an 8:02 pace, which is considerably quicker than last year's 8:27. With the exception of one moment in the middle of a three-mile climb I felt strong and comfortable. I got my clothes right and was neither exceptionally cold or overburdened with layers.

On the other hand, I got to the start five minutes later than I planned, had to wade through some seriously crowded streets for several miles and, oh yea missed my goal by eighteen seconds. Even though I improved last year's time by 7:39, those eighteen seconds really annoy me right now. Reading a race average HR of 169 and a max of 187 (92% and 102% of my theoretical max, respectively) the data, however, points to a solid effort so I can't complain, even if I was hoping for more.

I am planning on running this race again next year, but it's way to soon for me to be thinking about exact changes to my training, except that I know I want to do more like a fifteen-week run up next time.

In the shorter term, my 5K season starts in January and ends in April. As such, I'm going to focus a lot more on speed work and general strength for the next four months with the goal of tipping my muscle to fat ratio a bit more favorably toward muscle, and boosting my short to mid-distance top speed.

p.s. I'll post pictures from the race when they're available.

Two Days Out

2010-12-09T21:37:00.000-08:00

The Mrs. and I are headed off to the big race tomorrow. I'll pick up my bib number and all that first thing and then we'll do all our big citying; we'll have an early dinner somewhere nice, maybe see a movie or go shopping, but then it's off to bed so I can be up and moving in the morning. Our hotel is only about two miles from the starting line, so I only have to get up by 6:00 or so to be caffeinated and warmed up for the start.

After that, my plan look like this:

Get a good start position--preferably a spot from which I can see the 8:00 pacer.
Run a conservative first four miles. I'll be very happy to run the first four somewhere between 32:00 and 32:30.
Pick up the pace slightly at the start of mile five and reevaluate every mile or so.
Plan on hurting for the last two miles, but know that I can hurt more than I use to think I could.

I know this final point sounds like something that goes on the back of a t-shirt aimed at young men who aren't happy working out unless they can feel more bad-ass than all the people around them. That isn't how I mean it however.

The big lesson for me this year--thanks in part to a more reliable HRM--is that I can settle in at a much higher effort level than I thought I could three or four months ago. Intervals and tempo runs were very valuable parts of my training, but where I really began to understand things was in my ten-mile-plus runs. Last year I treated anything that distance as a completion-only exercise. This year I tracked my pace and aimed for specific goals and doing so forced me to understand that there's often (but not always) a little more in the tank than it feel like there is. I'll be wearing my HRM for the race and will be aiming for an AvHR in the neighborhood of 165. Assuming proper hydration that should put me in the 1:40-1:45 window I'm looking to hit.

Updates after the race.

Week 9: Penultimate

2010-12-05T20:06:00.000-08:00

This has been a really interesting one. Between my inability (still) to cope with the time change and all the running around that goes with the end of fall classes I was really having a hard time getting in my miles. Add to that a handful of days when I just didn't feel up to it and you have all the makings of a conundrum burrito.

Believed to be extinct, fossil records suggest conundrus wrapuperous would have looked something like this.

Unlike a frustration taco or a combo of despair, the conundrum burrito is relatively easy to choke down. In this case, I decided that while I did want to stick to the plan in abstract, I didn't believe that I was doing myself any favors working out when I was tired enough to sleep. If I were training for some sort of twenty-four hour endurance race I might feel differently, but I'm not, so I don't.

That said, I still ended up getting in three quality runs, including a set of 800 yard intervals and a six mile tempo run that averaged out at a 7:39 mile. All in all, I feel pretty decent about the state of my fitness. I'm lighter and in better shape than I was this time last year. I'll be posting my actual race day strategy later this week, so I won't get into that now except to say that I feel like I have a much better grasp of a13.1 psychology this year. More on that later.

Week Eight: All Hell Doesn't Break Loose

2010-11-28T17:49:00.000-08:00

So I sort of blew it on the whole training plan thing for week eight. Impending (and then receding) holidays and end-of-semester woes are the official scapegoats, but I think I was also pretty tired (see the second of the scapegoats). Anyways, here's the damage

Monday: Plan said off

Tuesday: Plan said Six 1K intervals--I took it off

Wednesday: Plan said off or run easy for thirty minutes. Usually I've been opting for the east thirty. This time I took it off.

Thursday: Plan said a hard thirty-five minute tempo run. I took it off.

Friday: Plan called for an easy thirty minutes, and that's what I did.

Saturday: I was supposed to run twelve miles--six easy and six at race pace +30. I made the six at race pace +00, but started feeling a little pain in my left knee (I know, very convenient) and cut it to nine. I did the whole nine at race +02.

Sunday: The plan called for an easy thirty minutes, but I was feeling a little guilty about the week so I did the same nine I did on Saturday and finished at 1:09:49, which is 7:45/mile or race pace -15. If I can do that for the 13.1 in two weeks I'll finish at around 1:41.

I'm going to try very hard to get back on the plan for the last two weeks. There's only one set of intervals and one long day left so it should be a little easier to put it all together.

When I got back today and bragged to one of the cats this was his reaction. I guess I'll have to go this one on my own.

Root Soup

2010-11-26T08:28:00.000-08:00

It strikes me suddenly that in the throes of 13.1 training I haven't really been talking about what I'm eating. Not only does this knock off the blog's Feng Shui, but it makes me seem a lot more two dimensional than I hope I am.

With all this in mind I present a new soup recipe that I think is just the thing for fall.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup cooking oil
half an onion, chopped
about a pound of peeled, chopped carrots
half a cup of peeled, chopped jicima (substitute with potatoes or parsnips if you prefer)
1 cup lentils

Directions:

warm to high medium heat about 1/4 cup of cooking oil in a six quart stock pot
Once the oil sizzles a little when you flick a drop of water into it add onions, carrots, and jicima and let brown for ten or fifteen minutes
Add lentils, stir to make sure everything get a good coating of oil, and let cook for another five minutes or so
add enough water to cover the ingredients plus a couple inches
let cook at a high simmer or soft boil until all the ingredients are soft. (30 minutes to an hour)
use a slotted spoon to move the solid ingredients to a blender, add enough of the liquid stock (or cream) to allow you blend into a smooth puree.
pour the contents of the blender back into the stock, season according to taste (I like to add salt, pepper, curry, chile powder, smoked paprika, lots of garlic, and fresh basil if I have it), and serve.

When you're all done it should look a little bit like this:

The ball park nutritional information I got by entering the main ingredients into a recipe calculator is below.

The main thing about soup, though, is that it's soothing and comfortable. Add a little wheat toast or corn bread and you've got a pretty good carb-up meal for cool fall evenings and if you make enough for leftovers you've got the fixings for a really great lunch or two later.

Calories		180.4

Total Fat		11.2 g

	Saturated Fat	0.8 g

	Polyunsaturated Fat	3.4 g

	Monounsaturated Fat	6.5 g

Cholesterol		0.0 mg

Sodium		42.3 mg

Potassium		377.4 mg

Total Carbohydrate		16.9 g

	Dietary Fiber	5.8 g

	Sugars	2.5 g

Protein		4.5 g


Vitamin A	123.5 %

Vitamin B-12	0.0 %

Vitamin B-6	9.2 %

Vitamin C	14.1 %

Vitamin D	0.0 %

Vitamin E	13.1 %

Calcium	3.3 %

Copper	7.2 %

Folate	22.3 %

Iron	8.7 %

Magnesium	6.1 %

Manganese	15.9 %

Niacin	4.9 %

Pantothenic Acid	4.4 %

Phosphorus	10.1 %

Riboflavin	4.0 %

Selenium	2.0 %

Thiamin	7.8 %

Zinc	4.6 %

Lucky Number Seven

2010-11-21T18:49:00.000-08:00

It's odd, but I actually got a little flutter of nerves when I typed the seven in the title. That means I'm something like three weeks from the race. I think I'm ready, but I suppose one isn't sure until the proverbial rubber meets the long, uphill, and oh so real road.

Monday: The plan said off, but I had make ups from the weekend so I ran for thirty-five minutes and probably covered around 3.5 miles.

Tuesday: The plan called for intervals like thus: .75miles @ 5:15 (1/4 interval rest) .75 miles @5:05 (1/4 rest) .75 5:05 (1/4) .75 DNF .75 DNF. It's a lame excuse, but after about a twelve-hour day at work I was just used up Tuesday night and couldn't finish all my intervals.

Wednesday: Easy run--3.75 in thirty minutes

Thursday: Fantastic tempo day--1 mile warm up and then 5.25 miles @ 41.46.

Friday: Soft Tempo--.5 mile warm up and then 5 miles @38.10.

Saturday: Off

Sunday: Long Run--Fifteen miles (longest single day of the plan) @2:23:47. I went out a little slow on this one and never quite felt the urge to speed up much. Today was really about putting miles on my knees and jacking up my metabolism a bit.

Overall, at three weeks out, I feel strong, but not overconfident. There is still a very real chance that I won't make my 1:45:00 goal in the upcoming 13.1. I won't hate myself forever or anything like that if I don't make it, but that will put some more pressure on my 5K schedule in the spring. I do want this season to be the one where I show some meaningful improvement.

Week Six

2010-11-17T18:37:00.000-08:00

Week six was a pretty neutral one. I was on schedule at the end of week five and so didn't have to do any make ups. However, the time change and subsequent 11:45 am sunset have still given me trouble and led to more indoor running that I would ordinarily prefer.

Monday: Off

Tuesday: Intervals--two miles at 14:34 (three minutes rest), one mile at 7:01, (one minute rest) one mile at 7:22 (one minute rest), 800m at 3:32 (one minute), and 800m at 3:24. I was definitely done when I finished these.

Wednesday: Off

Thursday: Tempo--one mile warm up, three miles fast (21:56) and one mile cool down.

Friday: Off

Saturday: the plan called for eleven miles at race pace. I did 11.09 miles (measures on Map My Run) at 1:36:53. That's 8:44/mile, but I think I lost two minutes to traffic lights (that would make it 8:33/mile), which isn't great, but isn't that far off either

Sunday : Off

Overall I'm feeling decent about things right now. I'm not eating as well as I should be, but I'm still hovering just below 180 and I think a reasonably disciplined ten days could bring me dangerously close to 175--my goal weight on race day. In other news, the high school kid who smoked me so badly at my last 5K just finished in the top third at the state cross country meet (he ran a 17:08) so I don't feel so bad that he beat me. I'm still fishing for that sub-22:00 5k, though.

Week Five: Fulcrum

2010-11-08T20:10:00.000-08:00

No, not the the evil organization intent on destroying Chuck, but more like the Archimedes, move the world sort of thing. This week falls exactly in the middle of my current training plan and it presented the first real gut check.

Regular readers will see a pattern here. Work has really been putting the screws to me lately and it's seriously affecting my will to run. I know that some of you are thinking, "but exercise helps reduce work-related stress." And you're right. It can't, however, do anything to cure a case of not enough sleep, which is what I've been dealing with for the last two weeks and it really caught up with me in the middle of training week. five. I think I've goten things back under control and am looking forward to some quality training in week six.

Monday: was supposed to be off, but I did the forty-five-minute easy run I was supposed to do on Sunday. 45:22 for 4.1 miles. Easy run: check.

Tuesday: Intervals: the plan called for seven 1K runs with breaks of 1/4 of the interval time. Darkness forced me to do these inside on the treadmill, so an asterisk goes beside all these times: 4:23, 4:18, 4:18, 4:17, 4:12, 4:16, and 4:01. Av HR at the end of each interval: 174.

Wednesday: Easy run on the treadmill again (sigh) thirty minutes for 3 miles.

Thursday: Skip! My first hooky day.

Friday: The plan called for six miles at a moderate pace. I was tired and running behind all day so I ended up only running five on the treadmill in forty-five minutes.

Saturday: Off

Sunday: Plan called for fourteen miles. I ran 13.5 in 2:03:08 (counting three longish stoplights worth four to six minutes of that time). Call this one a win.

2010-11-01T16:12:00.000-07:00

Week 4: One Month In

Astute readers will notice that I took more days off than usual this week. Don't worry. I'm not injured or anything, I just had a major project to finish at work that took over everything for a few days there. Now that I'm done with that I'll be free to follow the plan a lot more closely and hopefully see the final bit of my December fitness come into form.

I'm trying to decide whether to race a 5K in a couple weeks. I think I will just to see if I can bring it in under 22:00. That would be a nice bit of encouragement about a month out from the 13.1. I'm feeling pretty strong right now and fairly optimistic about meeting my goals in December. It might be that I'm sticking to the plan (mostly) or I could be the euphoric beginnings of a diabetic coma brought on by a tragic overdose of pumpkin cake.

and as for training. . .

Monday: Off

Tuesday: Long intervals. The plan called for two miles, three-minute break, one mile, one minute break, one mile, one minute break, 800m, one minute break, 800m, done. I did a 15:20 two mile, 7:20 and 7:17 miles, 3:36 and 3:25 800s with all the appropriate breaks. Av HR=170. I'll take it.

Wednesday: Off

Thursday: Tempo Day. The plan called for a fast twenty-five minutes with a one mile warm up and cool down. I was feeling pretty beat, so I planned on a 5K, which I completed in 22:43. I cooled down and called it even.

Friday: Off

Saturday: Off--I was supposed to run ten miles (with four of them at race pace), but work intruded and I put it off.

Sunday: Made up the ten-mile run I skipped on Saturday. I didn't track my splits, but I did finish the whole run in 1:21:07, which the internet tells me works out to about 8:06 per mile. Av HR=165. Max HR=179. I was *very* happy with this.

Monday: Made up the easy run I was supposed to do on Sunday. I and a buddy went about 4.1 miles in 45 minutes and that was that.

Week Three: Re-Run

2010-10-24T14:40:00.000-07:00

Monday:
Supposed to be off, but I was still making up for last Saturday so I did the easy run I should have done on Sunday.

Tuesday:
Intervals--eight half miles with rest periods of 1/4 of the interval. I clocked my 880s at 3:00, 3:17, 3:07, 3:21, 3:13, 3:23, 3:15, 3:29 and rested between 40 and 50 seconds between each one. Again I was doing 880 out and backs for this and the back was much more uphill than the out. My Av HR at the end of the intervals was 172.

Wednesday:
Off

Thursday:
Easy run--I went four and a quarter in 33.42. Av HR was 158.

Friday:
Tempo Run. One mile each warm up and cool down then five miles at tempo. I did the five and a half-- because I don't yet have a measured file mile course--in 40:59 (whoot).

Saturday:
Off

Sunday:
Twelve mile run. The plan doesn't specify a pace, which I take to mean I can go whatever speed I want. I tried to see if I couldn't do this one at an 80 or 90 percent effort. There was some struggling toward the end and I missed my original goal, but I did bring the whole thing in at 1:42:43, which comes out to a 8:33 pace and puts me about six minutes off my desired race pace. Not bad for seven weeks out.

Week 2: With Apologies to The Stooges

2010-10-24T10:12:00.000-07:00

Week two is showing some promise.

Monday:
Off.

Tuesday:
I did a series of five 1K intervals with 1 minutes rest breaks in between. They clocked out, respectively, at 4:15, 4:40, 4:02, 4:29, and 4:29. My interval course is much more uphill on the return trip, which is why the odd intervals are usually slower, but considering that my slowest K of the day would had netted a 22:25 5K I can't complain too much. Average end-of-interval HR: 174.

Wednesday:
The plan called for an easy day so I jogged for thirty minutes (3.3 miles) on the treadmill at the gym. Note, Dancing with the Stars sucks.

Thursday:
I'm coming to love my tempo run days. This one was supposed to be a one-mile warm up, followed by five kilometers at tempo pace, then a one-mile cool-down. I clocked a 23:03 for the tempo portion and went home feeling pretty good about that.

Friday:
Again, the plan called for an easy day so I ran 2.6 miles on the treadmill while watching NCIS--it's better than DCTS, but I still can't see MArk Harmon without thinking of Ted Bundy.

Saturday:
The plan called for nine miles on Saturday, but I had to be out of town so I pushed Saturday's workout to Sunday.

Sunday:
Originally the plan called for an easy day today, but I had to make up for Saturday's dropped workout. I did nine miles (three at race pace like the plan said) and finished in 1:06:18 (6@43:00 and 3@23:18). Overall, I'm feeling pretty good about how I'm running at this point.

Week One: Good News/Bad News

2010-10-10T15:05:00.000-07:00

Week one of the 13.1 training plan is officially in the bag. The results thus far are as follows:

Monday: Off

Tuesday: Six 800m intervals (3:05, 3:13, 3:08, 3:17, 3:11, 3:13). The plan calls for 1/4 pace rest breaks in between each run. I planned on running four-minute 800s and resting for one minute. I was so surprised when I finished the first run in 3:05 that I forgot to recalculate my rest times so I ended up resting for more like 1/3 interval pace. Average HR during the running phases was 175.

Wednesday: The plan called for an easy thirty to forty-five minute run. I went right at 30:00 and covered a bit more than three and half miles. Av HR 155.

Thursday: The plan called for another easy thirty to forty-five minute run. I met up with a buddy and we did a nice, forty-nine minute, four-mile jog. AV HR 134.

Friday: I'd been dreading Friday's assignment-one mile warm up, four miles tempo (8:01for me according to McMillian Running's online calculator) and then a mile cool down. I didn't time the warm up or cool down miles, but the tempo portion broke down like this: 7:40, 8:15, 7:45, 7:50. Average HR during the tempo running was 169.

Saturday: Off

Sunday: Long run: ten miles in 1:34 with an average HR of 148.

Conclusions: Twenty-six and a half miles isn't bad. It probably should have been more like thirty, but I'm not ready to open a vein over it. The speed work was all pretty decent and the long run today was relatively easy and only about a minute off my race pace from last year. I don't doubt I could have gone faster if I'd wanted. Next week focuses more on speed and Sunday of week three features a twelve-mile run. I'll have a better sense where I am then.

13.1 Training

2010-10-03T19:22:00.000-07:00

Various work-related minutiae has kept me awfully busy the last week or two (and promises to keep me busy for the next twenty years or so). Luckily there hasn't been a lot to say. I've been getting in the odd run, swim, and bike ride and eating a boring, but reasonably balanced and well-proportioned diet. There has been some progress in the weight room (note the 325 pound deadlift) but gains have, for the most part, been modest.

This is why I'm pretty psyched that this week signals the beginning of my ten week half marathon training camp. Last year I clocked a 1:52:57 (chip time) and this year I'm aiming to finish in 1:45 flat. I know this sounds like a lot, but here are the reasons I think I can do it:

Last year I was late arriving and had to start at the very back of the pack without any warm up to speak of.
Last year I was around 200 pounds on race day, this year I expect to be closer to 175.
Last year I was building my fitness base with this run, but this year I'm building on the already pretty decent shape I'm in.

Readers can expect weekly (or so) updates with reports on mileage and training plan compliance for the next two and a half months. I'm following the same training plan that I did last year, but I'm doing the longer-distance variation and I'm aiming for 95% compliance this time.

Bread

2010-09-20T21:14:00.000-07:00

A good friend asked me to send him a recipe for bread, but I wanted to do one better and make directions for making bread.

First a little background. I started trying to make bread about the time I got married. I don't know, it seemed like a domestic enough sort of thing to do (that and making margaritas by the pitcher). A little while later I went to grad school in another state and my wife and I lived apart for two years. It was then that I really worked on perfecting bread making. As a result, bread has some complicated associations for me. But that's alright, because the first step to becoming a good bread baker is to accept that you will never get it exactly the way you want it every time. Making bread isn't an exercise in total control. Bread contradicts itself; it contains multitude. Only once you can accept that can you start on the path of the home baker.

Hungry's Simple Bread

Ingredients:
4 cups white flour, 2 cups wheat (sifted if possible, but it's not essential)
Additional flour for kneading
2 Tbs granulated salt
2 packets of yeast or equivalent (I use bulk yeast)
1 tsp white sugar
3 cups hot water


Here's pretty much everything. As you can see, I prefer using the mixer with dough hooks. If you want to roll old school you can mix by hand with a wooden spoon.

Step 1: Combine the flours and salt and mix thoroughly. The idea here is just to make sure the salt isn't so concentrated that it might kill the yeast later.

Step 2: Make a low spot in the salt/flour mixture (think sink hole) and pour in the sugar and yeast. Don't worry, the sugar doesn't sweeten the bread; it's there to feed the yeast.

Step 3: Add the hot water. Boiling water will kill the yeast and since that's where all the magic is, you want to avoid this. Instead, use water only as hot as it comes out of your tap. Using either the beater or a wooden spoon, mix all the ingredients until they begin to form a coherent dough. This is hard to explain, but once it stops being a sloppy, wet mess and starts being a sticky wet mess you're in the right neighborhood. Ideally, it will come out of the bowl onto your flour-dusted surface (more on this in a minute) as one piece.

It should sort of look like this. Ugly, but in that ugly duckling everything's going to be alright in the end sort of way.

Step 4: Dust a surface (probably your counter top) with flour (I sometimes use corn meal). You want to cover a section slightly larger than a sheet of notebook paper with a thin, mostly even, layer of flour. You also want to cover your hands with flour while you're at it. This is to keep the sticky dough from sticking to either. Dump the dough onto the dusted surface and begin working it vigorously. I prefer using the heel of my hands to press it into the floured surface, then folding it half and and pressing again. There are, however, as many kneading techniques as bakers and most are fine. Go with what feels right and keep adding flour if anything is sticking. When in doubt add a little more flour. You'll know you're done kneading when the dough stops being a sticky mess and starts to feel smooth and elastic.

It should look something like this.

Step 5: Pull off bits of the dough a little bigger than golf balls and shape them into the smoothest spheres you can. Try not to leave any seams if possible. Once you've done that--I get about 15 balls generally. You can coat a couple baking trays with spray oil (you can use liquid oil too, just try to keep the coating thin) and arrange them so there's a fair bit of space between each dough ball.

In process--I make the dough into a snake shape first. I think it's easier, but you don't have to do it that way.

On the tray--don't crowd your balls.

Step Six: Wait. Depending on heat and humidity levels your dough will need an hour or maybe an hour and a half to rise. This is the really magical step--don't skip it. Go for a run or read a Flannery O'Connor short story and when the dough balls have more or less doubled in size, go ahead and preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
Once the oven is hot, put your baking trays on the middle rack and set a timer for 25 minutes.

Step Seven: Take out the bread when the timer goes off. Be careful it will be very hot. Remove it from the tray and put it on a kitchen towel or wire rack to cool--otherwise it soaks up condensing moisture and gets soggy on the bottom. If you did everything right, you should get a stack of rolls that looks sort of like this:

For additional flavor options, consider adding a tablespoon of dried rosemary, or onion flakes. Pretty much anything savory goes well with this bread. Enjoy.

Multisport Me

2010-09-11T14:36:00.000-07:00

As part of his plan to start doing triathlons, a good friend from work bought a road bike last July. I'd been looking for a riding partner for a while, so it only seemed natural that we ride together. After a few weeks, though, I found myself fully caught up in his multisport training. As a result, many aspects of my fitness portfolio are looking quite a bit different and quite a bit better.

First, I'm doing bricks more than ever before. Instead of the long, bike-racer rides that were the core of my old workouts, we're putting together fifteen-to-thirty milers followed with one-to-three mile runs.

Second, I'm actually getting regular (if still embarassing pool time). Right now I'm swimming two times a week (I squeeze in a third day when I can, but it's not that often). Yesterday I completed a 12:30ish 500. That's nothing to write home about, I know, but it's A LOT better than I had been doing.

Third, I'm getting three days of weights every week. These workouts all revolve around the three lifts I'm tracking with the progress bars on the left of your screen. I'm making small but consistent gains on all three while also losing weight (see fourth) and I expect to meet or exceed my weight lifting goals in the next twelve months.

Fourth, after close to a decade, my diet is finally coming together. I've lost twenty pounds since January. I haven't had my body fat percentage checked, but I've gotten stronger in the weight room and faster on the road and that's tells me pretty much everything I need to know.

Here's the pudding . . .

and here's the proof

Part Three: Trent

2010-08-31T20:31:00.000-07:00

The final leg of the trip too took us to Trent, a ski tourism town and otherwise very nice place. We packed daypacks with what we would need for the hikes we'd planned, left our luggage with the hotel manager and caught the train out of Venice. The train took us through mostly the outskirts of towns and I was surprised by all the vineyards and orchards we passed.

Trent lacks the dramatic grandeur of Venice, but it was very beautiful. Mountains ring the city so there are ridges in every direction. The downtown radiates outward from a central fountain and it is a comfortable size. We walked around the better part of a day before we felt like we were seeing too much of the same thing. Impressive sights in Trento: the Fountain of Neptune, the frescoes that decorate the buildings along the main square, and the giant, wicker goose in the park across from the train station.

The next day we took the bus to a trailhead about an hour away and struck out for Edemolo, the inn (they call them refugios) where we we're scheduled to spend the first night. We weren't really in the Alps (only the Dolomites), but between the pitch of the climb and the slippery, scree-covered trail the first day was a fairly strenuous walk. The inn was wonderful as was the family who ran it.

We were apparently the first Americans to every stay there--the hostess told us during dinner that she hadn't guessed we were American because we weren't fat. (Incidentally, American tourists in northern Italy always get confused for Germans). We had a poor night's sleep in a dorm-style bedroom, a small, European-style breakfast of bread and coffee, and set out to the next inn

The walk wasn't nearly as difficult on the second day, but the Seven Saddles Inn where we stayed was remarkable. As a vegetarian, I mostly ate polenta (a regional favorite apparently) and what the dish may have lacked, the setting made up.

After a more restful night at Sette Selle we hiked back to the trailhead and caught back to the bus station.

We had a very lovely diner in Trent including some fantastic onion and rosemary bread, caught the train back to Venice the next morning, and flew out the next day. All and all a wonderful trip, but, I suppose that since I've been back in real life for close to a month now it's time for the blog to come back from vacation as well. Expect the next few posts to line up my fitness and diet goals for the rest of the year and, hopefully, schedule out a couple of races between now and December.

Part 2: Venice

2010-08-19T19:43:00.000-07:00

First: Venice is a really, really acceptable city. Preferring to see what I saw rather than treat the trip like homework, I purposely didn't do a lot of research before going. The flight from Munich was unremarkable and the weather was predictably hot and rainy, There's no motorized vehicle in Venice except for boats, so I caught a bus at the airport and struck out for the island. From the central bus depot it was a short, three hour walk to the hotel.

Here's the thing that you really need to know about Venice. For the first ten hours you feel more lost than you have probably ever felt before. You feel so lost you despair of it. But somehow, by the middle of the next day, after a couple cups of coffee and some pastry, you realize that you can't get really get that lost--it's an island after all--and a pretty small one at that. So you wander around for a while (lost of course) but you start to get a feel for the way the city moves just the same.

I was only there four days, but was very impressed; you really couldn't walk more than a few minutes any direction without seeing something genuinely beautiful. The following are a couple examples in no particular order:

I had a couple meals to rival Munich while in Venice, but the place I'll really remember as the best is Ristorante Rosa Rosa, which first got my attention by playing Diana Krall's cover of "The Heart of Saturday Night" but kept my attention with some very nice dishes, including a great all vegetable antipasto and a delicate pizza.

I had planned on a least a couple runs while I was there, but the crowds were just way too much. Instead, I walked a lot and saved my energy for the hiking I will talk about in part three.

Part One: Munich

2010-08-15T10:00:00.000-07:00

The first part of my trip was a quick run to Munich. A good friend of mine was finishing a Fulbright at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and I wanted to see how he was doing. We played it cool and mostly hung out with friends he'd made during his year there, but he did have some time to play tourist guide for me as well. Munich is really vibrant and, like most of that part of the world, does a really interesting job of mixing the old and the new. I especially liked the central city area in which twelfth-century cathedrals shared space with Givenchy outlets.

Probably because of the university, Munich seemed pretty young and energetic, this was never more apparent than in the Englisher Garden, a sprawling park in the center of the city where I went jogging my second day. There were, of course, plenty of tourists like me, but there were also tons of kids playing in the sun. Apparently it had been very rainy for a couple weeks and this was the first nice day in a while.

After running we went to a wonderful restaurant called Prinz Myshkin where I had an excellent tofu stroganoff with mixed vegetables. Another dish I can recommend if you're ever in Munich is spaetzl, a very tasty egg noodle with onion and cheese. This is apparently a classic Bavarian meal and they take it seriously. The most traditional plates also have some sort of ground beef or sausage, but I didn't have any trouble getting vegetarian options.

My original plans for this trip involved a bicycle tour of Munich. We didn't end of doing it, but I was interested to see just how much people there relied on their bikes. I saw an incredible variety of people riding bikes trough town.

We only had three days, however, so when the last morning arrived we burned rubber (almost literally) to the airport and headed out--my friend back to his job in the US and me to Venice.

more to come

Home Again, Home Again

2010-08-09T11:24:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the long silence, but I've been traveling quite a bit over the last couple weeks. The quick version is that I sort of fell into an opportunity to spend two weeks gallivanting around Europe and took it. The longer version will take up the next couple posts, so stay tuned for stories about food, and exercise in the Old World.

Too Much of a Good Thing

2010-07-20T22:54:00.000-07:00

Running around all week trying to get ready to go out of town has kept me pretty busy. I have three loose ends left, however, and don't need to be on the road for another four days so I think I'll make it. I'm harvesting basil tomorrow with plans to make about half a gallon of pesto that I can freeze and then use throughout the rest of the year. After that the garden is going to be on its own for a couple weeks, but, considering how productive it's been so far with very little attention, I think everything will be fine. In fact, keeping up with the garden has been one of my more difficult jobs over the last ten or fifteen days.

This is what I have left after giving half the last weeks' harvest to the food bank. Note: the jars on the right are crowder peas and speckled lima beans--both of which have been really good so far. I think I'm having some folks over for diner tomorrow and I hope they show up with a real appetite for vegetarian gumbo, because I need to make about six gallons of it to use up all this produce.

Unfortunately, a couple of work-related things will have to wait on the vine a little longer (see what I did there). But I think they'll keep.

The odometer on my bike says I've ridden just over 700 miles in the last two months. That's not exactly bragging millage, but it does say that I'm getting back in the saddle. I hope to keep it up through the winter (indoor trainer miles count too) and see if I'm ready for the grown-up group rides again by spring here's hoping.

More when I get back.

The Best Laid Plans

2010-07-15T08:43:00.000-07:00

It occurred to me last night that if I want to run a marathon this December I'll have to start running with an eye toward that in the next month or so (readers my remember that I ran a half marathon last December (1:52:57)). Well, I've been thinking about running the full marathon version this year. Of course I don't want to stink up the place too much and would only be interested if I thought I could get into shape to run a 4:00 or better. The catch is that there's really no way to gauge whether I might expect that sort of run without doing a month or so of marathon-prep-type, which, since I've been riding my bike more, isn't as appealing as it might be.

I pondered this a bit over a New Orleans breakfast of champions, but I probably won't really know what I want to do until after I get back from traveling in a few weeks (details to follow) and all my regular semester duties start up again.

Easy as Pie

2010-07-11T10:43:00.000-07:00

I think the especially wet spring pushed the blackberry bushes near our apartment ahead of their ordinary schedule and so the season is almost finished. Distracted as I've been with other things, I just yesterday got the chance to go pick a bunch. There weren't enough for a whole blackberry pie so I had to augment with frozen blueberries and frozen raspberries. The results: Superstar Berry Medley Pie.

I'm going to check the usual spots for more blackberries in the hopes that I can get at least one more pie before they're totally gone.

Bridge Run

2010-07-08T06:00:00.000-07:00

The last couple weeks have been busy--lots of back-and-forth travel and other calendar-filling activities, so I haven't actually been working out as much as I would like. However I did manage to get in one of my favorite runs while running errands out of town the other day. It's a simple out-and-back over a bridge in a town I have to visit sever times a year. The round-trip clocks out at almost exactly six miles and the view from the highest point of the span is great.

When I got back home there were crowder peas, okra, tomatoes and herbs that needed picking. I don't know about you, but I can't look at all those things together without seeing gumbo.

I think the real trick is the roux. I used equal parts butter and white flour then added about half a cup of pureed tomatoes from the garden. Add chopped onions and okra along with your herbs and spices and around four cups of water. Simmer until the okra softens and then add the crowder peas and chopped facon (fake bacon). Serve over rice and you've got a pretty good dinner. According to the recipe analyzer at Calorie Count a serving has about 375 calories, 15g of fat, 51g of carbs, and 12g of protein.

Fat of the Land

2010-06-30T09:21:00.000-07:00

The garden is producing (although my brussels sprouts and green onions are totally MIA)and I celebrated by making a little gumbo risotto for lunch. This is a basic risotto, but instead of shallots and mushrooms, it comes with onions and okra. It's seasoned with a generous mix of black pepper, curry powder and red chile sauce and a pinch of salt. I don't eat meat, but if you do, shrimp would be very much at home in this as well. I garnish with chopped almonds (although pretty much any tree nut will do) and fresh parsley.

Even though the rice is fortified, this isn't exactly the most balanced meal. It's heavy on the carbs and light on pretty much everything else, but as part of a whole day's nutrition it has it's place--especially on days that feature a longer run or ride. I try to follow my workouts with a scoop of protein powder (25g) so once you factor that in with the pre-ride risotto you're macros actually start to look pretty reasonable.

100 Miles

2010-06-26T11:24:00.000-07:00

This has been my first triple-digit week in years and it feels great. A friend at work recently acquired a $450, second-hand Cannondale (it came with a complete Ultegra gruppo and Spinergy wheels--what a steal) and I've been riding with him a little. Somehow these rides helped me break the ice on the solo riding I need to do if I'm going to ride much here. Best of all, it only took a couple of days to feel like I was really groove back. I'm certainly not as fast as I used to be, but I've still got some game.

Yesterday's ride was 34.63 miles long and Map My Ride says it had a little over 800 feet of climbing. I averaged 15.9 for a total ride time of 2:10:11 (counting three red lights). The routes I've been following have moderate traffic and are kind of pretty.

The lead up to the hardest climb.

The top of the hardest climb. Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks so.

Proof that I don't completely suck.

Bike Ride Sunday

2010-06-20T19:19:00.000-07:00

Back on the bike again today. I'm getting better at dealing with the whole solo ride thing, but it clearly isn't really the most intuitive or enjoyable way to do it. I tallied 39.7 miles today (let's just call it forty) over rolling hills. The elevation profile (note the spiffy use of metric--who else is getting excited about grand tour season?) doesn't really convey how the ride felt, but I suppose that's ordinary enough.

I didn't check when I got home but I'd ball park it at 90 or 91 with a another five degrees from humidity and blacktop convection. I've ridden in worse heat, but I can't say it's fun. Luckily my eerie inability to find a comfortable spot on the saddle distracted me from the weather-related discomfort I would have otherwise suffered.

I haven't kept strict track (anyone noticing a pattern here?) but I thing this is close to two weeks of working out without a break. There's a chance I'll have a riding buddy tomorrow, so I'll plan on ridding then, but I'll most likely make Tuesday and Wednesday light activity days.

Bikes and Gardens

2010-06-17T16:09:00.000-07:00

So far I've clocked sixty miles on my bike this week. Ordinarily this wouldn't be a very big deal, but since I took the new job and had to move away from my group it's been hard to get the miles. If you've been reading for long you know that I've replaced a lot of that riding with running, which is fine if that's what you're into, but I'm finding myself more and more desperate to get on my bike for real.

The route I've ridden twice so far this week is a pretty nice out and back that sticks to state roads in farm country. According to Map My Ride it offers about 800 feet of climbing, which is mostly split between three or four hills. Last time I finished in just under two hours. Weather allowing, I'll ride it again on Friday and see if I can't do about the same.

Food wise, the garden is looking about ready to pop. I'm really looking forward to the tomatoes and okra, and the herbs are already earning their keep.

Summer Eating

2010-06-13T11:19:00.000-07:00

The summer is officially here and I find myself wanting to eat more-or-less raw food most of the time. I had pancakes this morning, but my am cravings lately are more of the yogurt and granola persuasion. The garden is starting to produce (anybody want some yellow squash?) so there should be should be good tomatoes and lots of herbs to go with them. Honestly, if I get off my ass and make some bread I'll have all the ingredients of most of the meals I want to eat now that the mercury is over 90 most of the day. See illustration below:

I've got more work to do on my essay and them I'm braving the heat for a (hopefully) thirty-mile bike ride. It would be nice to get more saddle time in general this summer. I'll put that on the list.

Cats

2010-06-06T10:53:00.000-07:00

Workouts and food, blah, blah, blah.

Meanwhile, since my summer class didn't make I find myself trying to get research-type work done at home--never something I was especially good at. This summer (as was the case in the last) this is complicated by the cats who let us live with them. Long-term readers will remember that we found two kittens about this time last year. They decided we could stay and now they're around a year old. We originally thought they must be siblings, but as they grew up it became clear that they aren't. I'm still trying to figure out how I can work adopting two cats into my case for tenure.

High Intensity Leg Work

2010-05-30T10:12:00.000-07:00

So, I'm spending the summer trying build speed and endurance (I also want to lose ten more pounds, but that's another post). In the vein, I'm loving my workouts on this:

I set the platform so that I have to step up far enough that my knee is higher than my hip, grab the handle with both hands for balance (no fair pulling yourself up) and do a series of quick step-ups. Twenty-five reps a side takes me more or less one minute. I follow this as quickly as possible with ten or twelve squats using fifty pounds on the EZ bar. Take a minute or so to recover between sets and repeat for a total of five. Add in the mile warm up and the mile cool down I do on the treadmill and I'm still done in under an hour.

What''s Round on Both Sides and High in the Middle? or Rutherford B. Hayes Was a Stud!

2010-05-25T15:45:00.000-07:00

I'm back from my trip to the wild Midwest and I can't begin to express my relief at just how true all the stereotypes are. The problem I've noticed most often when academic and midwestern values collide is that while it's sometimes necessary to move on after an approach as outlived its usefulness, your classic midwestererner is both too polite and too conservative to simply rush into some sort of fancy new idea. "Don't mention the sock," they might say, "I've got lecture notes that old, don'cha know." As nice as it can be to get away from the rush to out-theory the Jones that I often see at academic conferences, I do like my lectures fresh rather than from a jar.

Academic work aside, I managed to get in a good run every morning until the last (I can't stand packing still sweaty workout clothes). During my five-day excursion I manged to clock around twenty-five miles, most of them around the generally boarded up downtown. It was a generally in the 60s (quite the relief as we left those temperatures behind about two months ago back home). As all three meals every day were of the buffet variety I ate poorly, but the general lack of vegetarian options probably saved me from doing too much damage--image how embarassing it would feel to be the guy who got fat on relish sandwiches from hot dog day.

Summer classes start in a week (though I still don't know whether my class will make). Either way, I plan on shedding another ten pounds and continuing the power/enduro workouts I've been following since my last race-more on them in later posts.

Before and After Part 1

2010-05-10T20:25:00.000-07:00

A friend sent a photo of me finishing my latest race.* I've placed it next to a photo of me running in a duathlon last November for comparison purposes. In the left, I'm around 195 pounds and banging out a respectable (if jiggly) 27:43 5K. On the right, I'm hovering somewhere just south of 180 and wrapping things up in 22:27.

Timing aside, I think the difference is starting to show. Eventually I'm hoping to get down closer to 170 so I can see if there might be a twenty-minute racer under there.

* N.B. I'm doing my best Steve Stenzel on the right, but I'm doing it really, really slowly compared to him.

Winning and Losing

2010-05-08T11:46:00.000-07:00

So I ran the local 5k this morning and although I won't have an official time until Monday, I feel pretty confident that my watch-timed 22:27 is pretty close to right. This course was pretty hilly (and I think a tad long) so I'll go ahead and call that a win. The organizers left my name off the awards list (I was 4th overall)--no doubt the universe reminding me that I'm really not that big a deal after all--so that's the loss.

This was a lot smaller race than the one I ran last weekend--so small that I was alone almost the whole time. The winner went off the front within the first half mile and I lost sight of him before the first mile marker. I kept two and three in sight for the rest of the race, but couldn't reel them in. I was hoping for a better time, but according to my HRM I averaged 178 bpm with a max of 188 bpm (97% and 102% of my theoretical max, respectively) so I can't really say I wasn't working. This sort of proves what I've been suspecting --that while I'm making decent progress I'm not really in the shape I thought I was.

This works out well, however, since all I really want to do right now is pile on miles and run intervals. I'm just going to focus on training and eating as well as I can for a while and see how things look when the weather begins to cool off again.

Speaking of longer runs, I did a test jog with this yesterday and, much to my surprise liked it quite a bit. I'm hoping to put in a couple of double-digit runs with it over the next week and really see how it feels. If it makes long runs that much more comfortable, I might actually consider running the local marathon in December.

As for the intervals, I guess the only equipment I'll need is this:

Race Day Deux

2010-05-05T20:39:00.000-07:00

My next 5K is Saturday and I'm actually nervous about it. After my dismal showing last weekend I feel like I have to make a good run this weekend. I be satisfied with anything under 22:00, but something under 21:30 sure would be nice.I took the last two days off, but will be doing an easy half hour tonight and tomorrow with something very light on Friday.

Whatever the outcome on Saturday, I've decided not to race anymore this summer. Instead, I'm going to do two or three months of good training (emphasizing power and good diet) with a few travel breaks.

Wrapping up the semester is an ongoing and less than satisfying endeavor. I have a serious case of whatever you call senoiritis when the sufferer hasn't been a senior in close to two decades.

Celebration Cake

2010-05-03T06:28:00.000-07:00

Even if I hadn't tanked my last race this summer would still be all about the missus.

Not only did she score a fellowship to study Renaissance art in Venice (and guess who gets to tag along for part of the trip?), but just last week she solved the age-old two body problem by accepting a tenure-track position at this campus.

There can be only one response: celebration cake.

That giant sucking sound . . .

2010-05-01T06:59:00.000-07:00

My excuses are as numerous as my complaints, but the short story is that I really stank up the joint at my race yesterday. In fact, when Ross Perot said we'd hear a giant sucking sound going south, he must have been thinking about my second mile. Bad preparation, lack of focus, whatever it was, I clocked a pathetic 22:54--essentially a full minute and a half off my goal.

There's another 5K on the 8th, so I 'm hoping for some redemption then.

One Day Out

2010-04-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

Race season officially begins with tomorrow's 5k. I'd like to clock a 21:30, but my real goal is to pass Mr. 111 at the line and turn his sweaty victory salute into a tearful moment of regret.

I know, you think I should forgive him for last year, but you weren't there. You didn't see what he did.

The Good News

2010-04-21T05:10:00.000-07:00

Since so many of my recent posts seem to be about how much I'm not into my job right now, I thought I should take a moment to spread a little more positive energy. The twelve-steppers call their version of this a moral inventory, but in this case it's maybe more of a morale inventory.

Since the beginning of 2010, I:

shaved about two and a half minutes off my 5k time.
got close to seventy-five students through the semester (although some made the journey with more grace than others).
lost a little over twenty pounds (five or ten more and I'll post before and after pics).
got a lot better at swimming.
Finished running a short story contest that netted the undergrad winner $500
spent about forty hours tutoring at the local literacy co-op.
presented at a national conference and won a $1200 grant from the NEH.

Individually there's nothing super awesome here, but all together I suppose that means things aren't going too badly.

The Time Vampire

2010-04-20T16:44:00.000-07:00

Imagine a vampire that sucks time instead of blood. He can look like Tom Cruise, Bela Lugosi, or that sparkly guy from the new movies--it's entirely up to you. Now imagine that this time sucking vampire waited outside your office door nearly EVERY SINGLE DAY you're at work, but instead of being all smooth and seductive and metrosexual and stuff he just makes really, really stupid noises about all the things he KNOWS about his job, which, by the way, is pretty much the same job you do, which you've pretty much been doing for just as long, pretty much just as well. Then suddenly a hour is gone, slurped right up into his stupid time vampire pie-hole. That's been work lately. Awesome. Thanks, time vampire, for making sure there's a little extra suck in my life.

Something I Probably Shouldn't Admit

2010-04-14T14:48:00.000-07:00

We have a small running group here on campus. It's nothing serious, really just a couple of us tooling around the neighborhood next to the school for thirty or forty minutes. But there's something magic about spending your lunch hour exercising. Spring is coming on full force, the cherry trees and red buds are blossoming, the hyacinths and daffodils are up, and it's a really pleasant mid-seventies most afternoons. We go about three miles (the plan is to be out of the office for only an hour including changing and clean up) but it usually makes the rest of my day a lot better.

Some days the run is the only thing that I can say worked. When that's all I have I try to go with it and wear my Road ID under my pants for the rest of the afternoon.

New Orleans

2010-04-13T15:19:00.000-07:00

Work took me to New Orleans last weekend and when I wasn't busy explaining the ins and out of American literature to all my colleagues I was out and about in town trying to run--not so easy when your hotel is in the French Quarter and it's the French Quarter Festival. I know: boo-effen-hoo; but sometimes you really want a run more than you want jazz and living statues. Eventually I managed to get in a couple of good runs, one around Congo Square and its environs and the other along the river early on a Sunday.

I didn't get to go to my favorite New Orleans restaurant, but I did have a very nice brunch on Sunday including buckwheat pancakes and quite the tasty peanut butter cupcake with butter cream icing from a place called The Decadence Shoppe (mad props for juxtaposing the olde school spelling with the new wave sexual innuendo).

I've now got two races coming up, both 5ks and both pretty local. I'm hoping to get sub 21:00 by the second one, but what with work and cupcakes I'm not really in the shape I wanted to be in by now.

Brick

2010-04-03T20:30:00.000-07:00

Nope, not this kind.

Today wrapped up my third brick workout of the spring. The distances are still short because I am weak and slow, but not only am I seeing wear on my bike's rear tire for the first time in two years, I'm also starting to like it. So far I've only done bike/run workouts. I was going to do a swim/run tomorrow, but for some unfathomable reason the folks at my gym think The Second Coming is reason enough to close down for the day. I guess I'll either bike/run again or else do one of those activities individually.

I'm due for a test 5k next week, something I'm pretty excited about as I think I'm closing in on a couple of numbers that are pretty special to me.

Hyperlink Poem

2010-03-31T08:28:00.000-07:00

My life will never be the same
now that bikesnob has a name
Alas!

I Am Not a Hero

2010-03-29T18:29:00.001-07:00

It could be that I'm in the middle of teaching T.S. Eliot's "The Hollow Men," but classroom time just hasn't seemed all that worthwhile lately. I remember seeing Dead Poet's Society when I was fifteen and having that crazy, deep-in-the-gut-sense that if I could just get myself into a situation where I could make that sort of difference I'd be happy my whole life. Twenty-some-odd-years later, I've realized the truth about teaching.

Here it is--Hollywood tells these stories about "heroic" teachers because our culture isn't willing to imagine teaching outside of this heroic model. We're big fans of the flash of inspiration, that eureka moment when a student looks up from a piece of homework (beaming of course) and cries, "I understand." We're not such big fans, however, of what it takes to actually get there--long, hard, sometimes mind-numbingly dull hours of work and practice.

I don't care what you saw Jaime Escalante do in Stand and Deliver or Erin Gruwell do in Freedom Writers, Rocky-style training montages don't cut it. In fact, the real-life Gruwell was only in the classroom for five years. Most teachers I know clocked that before they finished their degrees and got their "real" jobs. Our society treats teachers like heroes because heroes do it for the satisfaction. I am not a hero. I am a highly trained professional, with a specific and necessary skill set. It's nice that my job (like most) comes with occasional moments of satisfaction, but I wouldn't last long if my only reward was "satisfaction." Students come and go--most of them are hardly memorable.

Ultimately, my commitment is to the knowledge. I try to pass it on in the hopes that it will exist for at least one more generation. I hope to stave off the next Dark Age just that much longer.

This is the way the class ends
This is the way the class ends
This is the way the class ends
Not with a bell, but a whimper

Mmm Balls

2010-03-24T18:51:00.000-07:00

After an excruciating twenty-two hours of student conferencing over the last three days--and yes, I'm really, really, really sure that the word isn't emplicationing--I was definitely ready to get out of my head a little after work today.

Luckily the weather cooperated and I was able to a backwards brick, which consisted of a 5k run followed by a ten-mile bike ride. Neither of these distances is especially impressive, but I haven't combined workouts in forever and old men like me have to pace themselves. My goal for both the run and the ride was to put out a consistent 75-80% effort. In other words, I wanted to see what I could do, but be sure to save enough to get home. Looking at the numbers my HRM collected, I'm fairly happy with the turnout. I finished the run at around 23:00, took my time changing shoes and getting on the bike and then finished a fairly hilly ten-miler at around 35:00. Counting the "transition," I worked out for a total of 1:11: 33, with an average heart rate of 143 (which my monitor tells me is 78% of my theoretical max).

In related news, the diet creeps along. I've been stalled in the lower 180s for the last week or two (see below), but at 182--what the scale said after my workout today--I've lost exactly twenty pounds since I began eating more carefully in the beginning of January. I've added some muscle in the upper-body region, so I don't know what my fat loss might work out to be, but I can feel the difference--especially in my runs. That said, I'd probably be closer to 175 if it weren't for things like this:

Cake Balls

First you bake a cake--I opted for a plain white cake, but I suppose anything could work. Next you prepare of bowl of frosting. Crumble the cake into the bowl and mix everything together until it forms a fairly coherent dough. Roll teaspoon-sized portions into balls, decorate as appropriate, and ignore the
whimpering of reason in the back of your head.

Actually, these weren't as good as I hoped they'd be, but they're still cake-and-frosting balls so how much can I complain?

Texas Bird's Nest Toast

2010-03-20T11:33:00.000-07:00

Breakfasts are pretty special around my house, especially on weekends. Since I don't eat meat and I'm trying to eat a specific level of protein there are a lot of egg in my breakfasts. Usually schedule and cholesterol concerns hold sway during the week so I'll do whatever sort of egg white omelet I can put together with oatmeal or grits and eat quickly before I have to go teach.

The weekends are another story. Today was chicory coffee from New Orleans and Texas Bird's Nest Toast. Cook a thick slice of wheat bread on a very lightly oiled cast iron skillet over medium heat. Give the bread a few minutes head start then crack the egg into the cut out. Flip the whole deal after a couple minutes then cook until the yoke sets. Sat and pepper to taste. Serve with curried home fires, soy bacon, and grapefruit on the side, you're talking about the sort of breakfast someone can sit over a solid couple of hours.

Finally, I had my first swim in years yesterday. Alternating freestyle and breast stroke I did 500m in about twenty-five minutes (counting a couple breaks). That's nothing to brag about, but I think it does mean that I can do the tri that my buddy from work wants me to enter with him in September.

Spring Break

2010-03-16T16:42:00.000-07:00

So we sent to Florida for spring break. I know, "not bad," you're thinking and you're mostly right. It was however a working trip, most of which the missus spent at a conference and I spent working on a presentation I have to give next month. Getting to work on it near the beach didn't hurt though.

Additionally, when the weather was good (really only the last day) I had a great run that took me across the intercoastal waterway on this

and all the way to Sarasota Bay.

I'd say I clocked about fifteen miles over the trip (not counting the 1000 or so I did in the car). My next race is a 5K in May--I hope to be under 21 for that one, but we'll see.

Back in Black (spandex that is)

2010-02-28T13:00:00.000-08:00

The weather has been especially nice around here lately--chilly enough for good sleep but warming to the mid-50s in the afternoon. As I have a bunch of work travel (the antonym of fun travel) coming up I couldn't let the day slip by without trying out the local network of mountain bike trails that I recently discovered.

Aside from a steep entrance fee it was great. I covered about seven miles of single-track and fire road trails with a very technical rock garden, a water crossing and two short but respectable climbs. I felt good, especially since this was my first mountain bike ride since the duathlon I raced in November. If I can get a deal on an annual pass or something I'm going to try to fold a little more mountain biking into my workouts.

Attentive readers might have noticed that the progress bars tracking my weight training have been . . . well making progress. That bench press is kind of stuck, but I've gotten it on very good authority that these things take time, so I'll be patient.

Short-Sleeve Running

2010-02-21T14:36:00.000-08:00

Certainly there are things about living in the South that aren't so good, but getting to go for an hour-long jog in February wearing short sleeves isn't one of them. I listened to all of an old Dresden Dolls album and some of another playlist and basically enjoyed my first real outdoor exercise in about a month. Along the way I managed a neat, pain free, non-embarrassing 6.4 miler.

The April race I was looking forward to is still MIA on Active.com, so I'm trying to decide what to do about maintaining my race schedule without disrupting the very delicate balance I think I've established between work and working out. There is a tempting half marathon coming up in eight weeks, but that's a far cry from the 5K I was originally contemplating.

Also, I hit a new max on my squat yesterday. Hack squats on the sled have really helped me build some leg strength recently. Now that I've added them to the rotation I expect I'll see a lot more progress on the squats.

Hero

2010-02-08T17:37:00.000-08:00

What it's like to be John Stamstad:

From a 1996 article in Outside Magazine:

A typical day for Stamstad begins with a five-hour ride, followed by a one-hour jog from his house to the University of Cincinnati physics building, where, with his hands clasped behind his back, he makes ten trips up and down 16 flights of stairs, taking three steps at a time. It's Stamstad's favorite, most unfun workout: no windows, no distractions, no relief. The Alaskan tundra looks like Maui after months of stairwells. The day concludes with an hour on the wind trainer. Stamstad says that he knows he's mentally ready for a race when he can do a five-hour stint on the wind trainer, maintaining a heart rate of 155 beats per minute while staring at a blank wall.

Two years ago at the Iditabike, an exercise physiologist at the Medical University of South Carolina named Steve Bailey conducted a study of Stamstad and several other top competitors. Throughout the race, Stamstad's mood didn't fluctuate; he remained calm and focused. In a test that measured bewilderment and fatigue, he scored the same results at the finish of the race as he did at the start. During prolonged exercise, says Bailey, glucose stores go down and levels of free fatty acids and free tryptophan (an amino acid) go up, boosting energy. According to one school of thought, the increase in free fatty acids and free tryptophan also results in elevated levels of the brain chemical serotonin. Bailey is among those who believe that high amounts of serotonin make athletes more sensitive to fatigue.

"The hypothesis we're working with," he says, "is that fatigue during long periods of exercise isn't muscular in nature, but a perception in the brain." If that's the case, it could partly explain Stamstad's high pain threshold. According to Bailey's Iditabike data, Stamstad's blood analysis showed significantly lower levels of free fatty acids and free tryptophan than those of the other athletes in the race. "Either John doesn't experience pain like other people do, or he's better able to deal with it," says Bailey. "My guess is that it's probably a little bit of both--part training effect and part genetics."

Oh yea, in 1999, he rode the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (all of the nearly 2,500 miles of it) in nineteen days. Bad. Period. Ass. Period.

Race Report--Success

2010-02-07T14:33:00.000-08:00

The weather held this weekend and was able to talk myself into running that race after all. I wasn't feeling all that confident, but then again there wasn't much at stake. After the fiasco of almost missing the start at my last race, I got to registration early and had a solid forty-five minutes to warm up, decide exactly what to wear and pin on my number. I always have a better race when I really get to take my time the hour or so before, so I guess it shouldn't be a surprise that I clocked an early season record 22:34. I know that's not blazing fast--it only rated second in my age group--but it's almost as fast as I was at the end of last season. Results like this in February have me thinking that just maybe I can fine tune my workouts a little over the summer and finish a 5k close to a 20 flat by August.

The diet continues (although slowly). The scale at the gym said 188 this afternoon, which is a total loss of about twelve pounds last month. If I can duplicate that in February I'll be very close to my ten-twelve percent body fat goal. Honestly, I think the weight loss is at least as instrumental in this early season success as any training I did.

2010-02-02T08:54:00.000-08:00

Inspired by libgyrl and compelled by the terrible weather, I dragged my mag trainer out of closet and ground out ten miles this morning. Indoor riding isn't my favorite thing, but I'm finally starting to make contacts in the local cycling clubs and want to be ready come spring.

The first race of the year is a 5k on Saturday morning. The forecast calls for rain/snow showers, so it might end up as the first race I skip this year. Then again, bad weather might be just the ally I need to win my age group this year. Hmmm

2010-01-29T20:47:00.000-08:00

The whole diet and exercise thing continues apace. I've been emphasizing strength workouts lately and doing more sprint work. On a good day I can now do three sets of 10 actual pull-ups and I'm coming closer on the Texas Push-Up Challenge (more on that later).

Also, I've lost close to ten pounds over the last two or three weeks. According to the Men's Health web site, my curent weight puts me at about 16.23% body fat. I know this is a guestimate at best, but let's just use it as a sarting point. Some quick calculator work tells me that means fat accounts for something like 31 pounds of my total body weight.

Although I'd like to be as lean as possible, this really illuminating information, makes me think that getting into the single digits isn't very practical or realistic. If I aimed for 10% bodyfat, however, we're only talking about losing another 10 or 12 pounds. That would put me very close to my original 175-180 pound target range. As a point of reference, the yellow blob pictured at the top of this post represents 5 pounds of fat, so I would need to lose two of those--and no, that's not a three-year-old's hand.

Two Weeks Out

2010-01-25T20:37:00.000-08:00

Illness and a rocky start for spring semester leaves me in the awkward position of having a race in two weeks that I haven't really prepared for, much. I feel like there's a good chance I'll beat my time from last year (23:24), but I won't come close to my original goal of a sub-22:00.

In my defense, a lot of my energies have been going toward work stuff, including an amazingly stubborn student who refuses to believe that Muslims worship the same God as Christians and Jews. Worst of all, he continues to refer to the Muslim God as Abba. I'm not a believer, but honestly, if this were the soundtrack of paradise, I might reconsider.

Down with the Sickness

2010-01-14T15:01:00.000-08:00

This week brings us not just the first week of spring classes, but also my first illness of the new decade. What I thought was a mild cold has proven instead to be quite the uncomfortable sinus infection. Call me a crybaby, but besides one very mild workout I hoped would jump-start the old immune system I haven't done much besides snuffle, make ugly squinty faces, and produce mucus. Look for further updates once this subsides.

Tryin' to Catch me Eatin' Dirty

2010-01-10T11:48:00.000-08:00

I've stopped the food diary because the results are conclusive and unequivocal.

Average calories: 2283
Average Carbs: 227=908 calories
Average Protein: 121 grams=484 calories
Average Fat: 99 grams=891 calories

From where I'm sitting it looks like I need to reduce the amount a fat I'm getting by about 20 grams and replace them with about 50 grams of protein. Shaving another hundred calories off the carbs total for the next couple weeks wouldn't hurt either.

Right now I'm imaging something like this:

Average calories: 2283
Average Carbs: 200=800 calories
Average Protein: 121 grams=484 calories
Average Fat: 79grams=711calories

It's still too cold here so I did a modified long slow day in the gym. The scale said 196 when I checked, which, if my math is correct, is one pound lighter than I was this time last week. Since there are 3500 calories in a pound of fat, I'm going to try to trim another 500 cal/day this coming week to see if that shaves off two pounds. I'm not in a supper big hurry, but it would be nice to be down to 185 or so before my next race.

Benchmarks

2010-01-04T18:12:00.000-08:00

Ok, so my main (i.e., not entirely vain) fitness goals have almost always been cardio and endurance related. This hasn't changed, so my three main benchmarks for the year are going to be:

	Current Best	Desired
5k Run	22:13	20:00
10 mile time trial	About 30:00	26:00
30 mile road ride	About 2:45:00	1:30:00

I don't have any current benchmarks for these, but I will endeavor to generate some posthaste. I'll be posting summaries of workouts aimed at meeting the goal times throughout the year

Additional, but secondary benchmarks and goals:

	Current Max	Desired Max
Dead lift	250	325
Back Squat	200	250
Bench press	160	200
Pull up	9 consecutive	20 consecutive

This last set is less objective and more embarrassing. I think these are how the numbers should
work out, but I'm more concerned with the waist size than I am with the weight.

	Current	Desired
waist	36	30
weight	197	175-180

The food diary is still going (although I may get what I need from that in one week) and I'm fully recovered from my holiday binges so short-term goal number one is to post some sort of progress within the next fourteen days.

New Year's Resolution

2010-01-03T19:42:00.000-08:00

The word resolution comes from the Latin resolutionem , which means to break something into smaller parts as a means of simplifying it. With that in mind, my new year's resolutions are small and, I think, simple.

1. Eat better

While the quality of my diet is, generally, pretty good, the quantity is an issue. In particular, I need to replace a hefty chunk of my non Omega 3 or 6 fats (read: ice cream and tortilla chips) with good protein and some more complex carbohydrates. I'm going to commit to two weeks of keeping a food diary to see if the outlines of a good diet might be lurking under there.

2. Exercise better

I got more exercise last year than in the previous couple put together. Now I want to start thinking about what I'm doing in terms of performance and health. I need to think more about the relationship between work and recovery, but I'm also going to allow myself some vanity and aim for growing a little bit of a beach body. That said, this year I want to be specifically training for something every time I work out (vanity is something, right?). For the next month or so that will be the 5-K I have coming up--after that I'm not so sure.

3. Sleep Better

Last year I let work really mess up my sleep schedule. No more. I'm aiming for at least seven hours a night--and maybe as many as nine some night--for the next 362 days.

And there they are. I took some baseline measurements thins afternoon and I'll put up a post with current numbers and my end-of-year goals for incentive.

Kids these Days: Part 1 of 3

2009-12-30T19:40:00.000-08:00

One of my guilty pleasures is the web site tmuscle.com. It's a body building site that focuses primarily on getting big. For some context, the more senior members of the connected forum are under six feet and over 300 pounds. I'm not prepared to go that far myself, but there are tremendously good (and free) bits of advice floating around all over the site--especially the forums.

The most guilty part of my enjoyment comes from from the fact that the whole site exudes locker room--criticism is harsh and sometimes unwarranted, insults turn into inside jokes, which turn into memes that border on pure genius, back slapping is at a minimum, but for the most part they recognize excellence.

However, something I've seen more and more in the relatively short time I've lurked on the site are a certain kind of post like one that recently appeared in the beginners forum. The appropriately christened "wannagetripped" started an equally well-named thread, "Need Help Getting Ripped" with this message:

I am sure there are posts like this one. I don't have a lot of time to sift through posts to find what I am looking for so I hope someone can help me. I just currently joined a gym and I am looking to get as close to the attached photo as possible. You can see my current photo on my homepage. I know it will obviously take a long time. Any nutrition and exercise tips and pointers will be greatly appreciated! Feel free to PM me also! Thanks in advance!!

When other members scolded "wannagetripped" for not using the search function to find answers to his question that are compiled throughout the site, he responeded:

I love people who sit in chat rooms and on forums and talk shit on people. Those people have no lives. And most of those guys are over weight losers with no g/f's, wives or friends to hang out with. I used to be cut to hell when I played football and didnt have a family to support, but with working, and keeping, 4 jobs the past 5 years it kinda takes a toll on your body when you dont have time for exercise. But now I am trying to make time. And maybe im crazy but i thought me posting on here was doing research? I figured a quick easy way to get info is to just make a post. I was just looking for info like ACTrain sent me. Which was very helpful and what I was looking for. I did go through the forums and did learn alot. I also figured I would post and see what other info people might give me looking specifically at my body and the body I want. Guess not. So I know now it was pointless.

The pattern here is so familiar it's painful. Notice the track the reaction post follows. A-he attacks the people who rightfully point out his laziness (on a workout site no less). B-He catalogs his heroic work ethic (which apparently doesn't extend to looking up the information he wants). C-He argues that what he did *was* the work those other people claimed he didn't do. D-He challenges the significance of the whole endeavor.

This, my friends, is the litany of the cheater. Every, and I mean *every* student I've ever caught copying on a paper has followed some version of this same pattern.

A typical exchange might sound like this:

Me: This section of your four page paper that extends from page two to page four is word-for-word from this website that I've called up on my computer.

Student: You've hated me from the beginning of the semester and this is just your way of getting me in trouble.

Me: No, *you* included all this outside work and failed to quote or cite it. I didn't have anything to do with that.

Student: I have two jobs and a daughter. I can't write all that stuff myself.

Me: Unfortunately school is time consuming and I'm afraid the rules are very clear on this.

Student: But you said I had to do research, now you're saying I shouldn't. You keep changing the rules.

Me: But you have to actually write your own paper. You use the outside sources to support what *you* argue.

Student: Fine, fail me. I don't even want to be in college.

Ultimately, the seeming universality of this approach to learning much be significant of some sort of Generation Z quirk that we X and Ys need to better understand. More in the second and third parts of this series . . .

Back in the Saddle

2009-12-22T16:18:00.000-08:00

It's official--I'm confirmed for my next race--a 5K on 2/6/10. The plan for now is to run one 5K in February and another toward the end of April. I started a seven week training plan today and am aiming for a 22:00 in February. I'll adjust my expectations for April according to how I do in February.

I'd did 6X880 intervals today and came in between 3:24 and 3:32 on all of them. I know, not a spectacular showing, but these were my first intervals since my last race and I didn't want anything to fall off.

On a similar note, I'm going to try very hard over the next couple month to really focusing on getting a good stretch after running. I know the NY Times is saying not to bother, but I'm having enough low-level problems (especially on my left side) that I figure it's worth a shot.

Teaching Woes

2009-12-19T10:47:00.000-08:00

Plagiarism:

I'm not really that concerned with intellectual property or even worried about the long-term educational value of the essays my students write for their freshman English classes. I think what gets me ultimately about cases of plagiarism is how they almost always start with students who believe they are simply too important to actually do their work.

Case in point: this is from an email a student wrote to me about a reading journal entry that was largely copied from a Publishers Weekly review, " I realize that I used the same "ugly, unwashed murdering rapist" but either way I would have had to put murdering rapist in the entry." Interestingly, the story the student was supposed to be writing about didn't include such a figure. She had copied from a review about an entirely different text (this one did have an ugly, unwashed murdering rapist) that the author published nearly a decade after the one she was assigned. That this student's defense revolves around the idea that the phrase "ugly, unwashed murdering rapist" is unavoidable because it so perfectly captures the spirit of the text, only reinforces my sense that she never read the assigned text in the first place.

The student ends her argument with, "and I really would hate to have to retake this whole course and possibly lose my scholarship for a misunderstanding on my part." Invoking the scholarship shows a good instinct and the final bit about "the misunderstanding" might have be a canny way to accept responsibility without necessarily admitting guilt, except that her earlier argument reveals too much. She seems to be asking me to agree to see her transgression as an honest failure to meet standards rather than a dishonest attempt to pass off someone else's work as her own. However, exposing that she hasn't even read the text while arguing a point of analysis reveals a strategy that wholly revolves around getting credit for work she did not do. This isn't a mistake or a misunderstanding, it is a conscious attempt to undermine the fundamental purpose of the class.

The sin here is not that she copied, it's that she acted in bad faith. She's cheating the people of the state, accepting the opportunity that their taxes provide, but squandering it in an arrogant attempt to avoid learning anything at all.

For an even better cheater story click here: Laura K. Krishna is a Plagiarist.

1:52:57

2009-12-14T09:04:00.000-08:00

2009 Half Marathon Experience--

Lessons learned:

• Following a plan is good. It keeps me honest about how much I am and am not doing and it gets me to vary my workout.
• Arriving late is bad, especially when you're talking about a race with close to ten thousand runners. I was there an hour before the gun, which was enough time to get my number and find the start, but not enough to warm up.
• Good position in the beginning is even more important in big races (see arriving late above).

Overall I have no complaints. I missed my goal by eight minutes, but on a course that was much hillier than my usual runs. My ten-week plan was a success. I feel faster and leaner than I have in years. I have a 5k coming up in February and another in April. Running will continue to be part of the weekly rotation, but I really want to get back to my bike more this coming year—there may even be a mountaintop century in the works.

T-Zero

2009-12-11T08:59:00.001-08:00

The race I've been working out for over the last ten weeks starts this morning at 7:50. The forecast calls for dry, but sub freezing weather the whole time I expect to be on the course. Overall, I don't feel especially optimistic. I imagine it will be fine, but I always sort of miss the low-pressure training routine when it comes time to strap on a chip and put my legs where my mouth is (or something like that).

Anyway, I'll report back in a few hours.

P.S to Libgyrl: a couple posts back something you wrote made me think of this:

2009-12-04T12:12:00.000-08:00

Troubles in Philly

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/troubles-in-philly-lessons-for-new-york/

BSNYC has already covered this, but I'm more interested in the familiar argument that a few readers' comments present, which, were it an Aristotelian syllogism, would run like this:

Major Premise: Things that are injurious or lethal should be banned.

Minor Premise: Many bicyclists in urban environments fail to obey the rules of traffic and this leads to injury and, in extreme cases, death.

Conclusion: Bicycles should be banned.

Granted, this is a bit on an oversimplification, but I see versions of this argument time and time again. Most often, because people know I ride a bike on the road, the version I hear is that I shouldn't be allowed to ride in traffic for my own protection. In fact, I wish I had Campagnolo Retro Wool Cycling Jersey for every time someone had shaken a head and said to me with husky-voiced concern "People are just crazy out there on the road." While I appreciate this often earnest concern for my safety, this attitude also brings me to my point. If the—sometimes very large—portion of urban cyclists who break the rules (whether through arrogance or a mistaken sense that it's "safer") are dangerous, what does that make the population of drivers who do the same in vehicles that weigh 2000 pounds and are capable of speeds five times that of the ordinary cyclist?

I would never argue that riding against traffic, or skipping red lights, or any of the other bad behaviors some cyclists practice on a regular basis is justifiable. I actually try to correct riders who seem to be doing these things out of ignorance (as opposed to arrogance) when I see them on the street. But if breaking the laws of traffic and being generally irresponsible are grounds for being removed from the streets, it seems clear to me that we would be obliged to ban most vehicles—especially cars—from our roads. Car crashes account for about 40,000 deaths in the US alone, which is about 2.5 times the number of deaths we can pin on drug abuse. Where is the outrage? Hell, cars kill almost twice as many people every year in the country as guns. Where's the outcry for better car control?

Ultimately irresponsible behavior leads to preventable accidents. It doesn't matter if the jerk is on a bike or in a car: people get hurt. Since the problem is behavioral, the solution must address the loose nut behind the steering wheel or handle bars. As long as cities continue to write off bikes as something other than vehicles with less than full rights on the road, a portion of cyclists will respond by continuing to ignore the rules of traffic. At the same time, the longer we’re distracted by the various car v. bike arguments that dominate the discourse surrounding this issue, the longer we'll take to reach a sensible solution that address the real problems with how we move from A to B in much of this country.

An Open Letter to Drivers

2009-11-30T14:31:00.001-08:00

Dear Drivers,

First, let me thank you all for your consideration regarding my well-being. Your attention regarding my presence on the road while running or cycling really is remarkable. I've noted your concern for years, in fact, and waiting until now to recognize it is nothing short of unforgivably remiss on my part. In an attempt to redress this failing, please let me recognize as many of you as I can on an individual basis:

To the otherwise responsible-looking woman who didn't check both ways before urging her late model Honda into the intersection I was crossing—thank you both for missing me and having the character to spare me any embarrassment that said near-miss might have caused if you had done anything other than ignore the entire, ugly, incident.

To the young man in the Chevy SUV who swerved in a hilarious imitation of aiming to hit me while I was riding my bike on a county road—thank you for adding just a little excitement to what might otherwise have been an uneventful ride. I'd like to note, in particular, the remarkably animated face you made while doing this, but I'm afraid my description just wouldn't do it justice.

To the young man in the Ford sedan, the middle-aged fellow in the Ford truck, and the middle aged women in the Mustang—I am humbled by your offer to build a series of sidewalks along my fourteen-mile jogging route. Please contact me with further details regarding this "Get off the road!" Are you all serving on the committee?

Finally, to young woman who narrowly missed hitting me while passing only to come within inches of hitting me while making a right turn ten feet later—I appreciate the suggestion that my recent weight loss means I take up less room on the road.

Sincerely yours,

The runner/biker/walker you endangered this week.

Ok My!

2009-11-19T10:53:00.000-08:00

I'm almost into peak week in my training plan so I've started looking more closely at the stuff I'll need to have together for race day. One of the things that suddenly stuck me this morning, was the profile of the race course.

Somehow I didn't quite realize how up and down this course was. Unfortunately, it's too late to back out. I'm supposed to do 14 miles this Saturday, but I guess I better put together hilly route.

Pie

2009-11-16T13:39:00.000-08:00

So it's the time of year when having the oven heat up the house isn't a bad thing and I've been baking. Fall and winter are the best times for baking--not so good for dieting. Right now my half marathon training is helping balance things out, but I don't know what I'm going to do for December, January, and February.

Where I grew up you never admit to a good crust--it always has to be a disappointment, not because the crust you produce is bad, but because it doesn't quite match up with that Platonic crust we in the cave can only see in the form of dim, not-so-light-and-flaky shadows.

Here are a couple I did this week:

Pumpkin Pie (made with real pumpkin)

Apple Pie (with minced gala apples)

2009-11-14T19:53:00.000-08:00

About five months ago two small cats did me the kindness of letting me share their house . In not mentioning this more often, it seems I've been remiss. So without ado: the cats

Even though we've already spent more than $1000 on vet bills we're still calling them "black cat" and "gray cat"--like we're being careful not to get too attached or invested. I'd be lying if I didn't say they've grown on me . . . even if they've also chewed and clawed on me.

In other news, the training continues. I did 12.6 today, being careful to stay at around 10 minutes/mile for the first four like the plan suggests, and still brought it in at 1:55. Tomorrow marks the end of week six of ten and I'm starting to think I won't embarrass myself too badly after all.

Sneaky Race--Now with Picture

2009-11-08T13:49:00.000-08:00

The dualthlon up the road was just too irresistible. Forget about operating on six hours sleep a night for the last two weeks. Don't worry about the total absence of mountain bike riding for the last ten months. Instead, just pack up some sports drink, a bike pump, six layers of warm clothes (none of which you'll need more than fifteen minutes after the starting gun) and race.

The event was well-planned and well-staffed. The course, a 3k run, 14k mountain bike, and 5k run was very nice and, with only one glaring exception (more on this later) well-marked. There were lots of good snacks, decent PA with good music and a good briefing fifteen minutes before the start. The crowd was varied. I saw some two or three thousand dollar bikes, but I also saw plenty of entry-level rigs as well. I wasn't the only person without those fancy triathlon shoelace gizmoes, which made me feel good, but there were examples of this strange multi-sport technology.

One of the best parts of the morning was overhearing a conversation about somebody's boyfriend whose job, "You know, racing" had gotten much better since Floyd has gone to Rock. Get that, not even a last name. I'm not saying that Landis deserves an over-abundance of respect, but how--in a monologue that mentions "Floyd" and Rock and Republic literally in the same breath--does one decide the proper direction in which to aim one's scorn?

Anyway we got going exactly at 9:00, and by 9:12, I (and twenty of my best friends) were heading back to look for the turn we had obviously missed. We found it and by 9:18, we were back on track. Best estimates suggest that this make our initial 3k into more like a 5k. After that, however, it was relatively smooth sailing. I'd been hoping for a 1:45 or better, but finished at 1:55:05. Considering the detour, however, I can live with it. The splits are:

Run 1-24:26 / T1-1:26 / Bike-1:00:05 T/ 2-1:27 /Run 2-27:43 / Total- 1:55:05
Obviously my transitions are slow, but I'm not too worried since I really only do the multi-sport thing for giggles. I'm relatively satisfied with the run times and, for a guy who hasn't been on a mountain bike for damn near a year, I can't complain about that leg either.

Tomorrow is the beginning of week six on the ten-week training plan for the half-marathon. I'm still hoping I can do 1:45 or better, but I'll have a better sense of what to expect at the end of next week.

Added: this must have been the most photographed race in which I've ever participated. Unfortunately, even with a photo count totaling well over two thousand, nearly every picture of me looks dumb. Go figure. Here's the one that doesn't out me for the prancing runner I must be.

New Hero

2009-11-03T19:21:00.000-08:00

How to be like David Goggins:

1. Finish your first 100 mile ultramarathon in under nineteen hours.
2. Race the Badwater 150 three times in a row, come in fifth, third, and first.
3. Take second in the Ultraman World Championships using a borrowed bike.
4. Be a Navy SEAL.
5. Use your races to raise money so the children of killed soldiers can go to college.

The list goes on, but as I overheard another fan say: This guy isn't an ultramarathoner, he's a bad-ass who chooses to run ultramarathons.

Kickin' it Olde School in the Red Stick

2009-11-01T17:11:00.000-08:00

Business took me to Baton Rouge for the weekend. Generally, I like trips to Louisiana, but I must admit that Baton Rouge is one of my least favorite destinations in the sportsman's paradise. That said--I found a really wonderful bakery. I was a little wary of the Old-English motif at first, but it had great coffee, the four-cheese scones were excellent, and the baker-owner couldn't have been nicer. Anyone finding themselves near the capital building in Baton Rouge would do well to check it out.

It was tucked in next to a place offering full-body massages (isn't that implied? is the added emphasis on body supposed to act like air quotes? like they say "full body massage," but they mean, "illegal and not really all that satisfying sex industry stereotype"?).

Either way, I played it safe and just got "scones."

In other news:
I also managed to run close to twenty-miles over the weekend, including a deeply satisfying ten-miler along the levee. I'm at the end of week four of ten on my 13.1 training plan, and I think it's working. Week five is set to be the toughest and then I start a slow taper. I'm running/pedaling a duathlon next weekend. There are fourteen men in my (always too competitive) age group, so I'm probably going to get whooped pretty soundly, but I couldn't resist a chance to get back on my mountain bike and race. More on that next week (or later if I'm typing with one arm in a cast).

Favorite new carb

2009-10-25T20:46:00.000-07:00

Risotto has been on the menu four out of the last five days over here. I'm absolutely in love with it. It can be savory, salty, spicy, even sweet if you're careful. I've never made anything that was so delicate, but also so easy to work. It's a perfect combination of cooking fundamentals: heat, oil, simmer, flavor. As an added bonus, if you're careful with the butter it's actually a pretty healthy dish.

Here's a recipe:

1 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs freshly chopped garlic
1/4 cup finely chopped red onions
1/2 cup Arborio (Italian short grained rice)
1/4 cup dry white wine (warmed to room temperature)
2 or 3 cups broth (room temperature as well) (I use vegetable broth, but chicken can work too)
1 Tbs butter
salt and pepper
fresh Parmesan cheese
1 Tbs fresh flat-leaf parsley

Heat the oil in a heavy skillet. Once it's hot, caramelize the onions (three to five minuets, or until they first start to show brown). Add the rice, stirring to make sure it gets coated with the olive oil. Reduce the pan to medium heat and add room temperature wine. Stir gently, adjusting temperature as necessary to keep liquid at a gentle simmer. Once the rice has absorbed the wine, begin adding the broth half a cup at a time. Add more as the broth is absorbed, stirring gently, until the rice is soft and creamy. Lower heat and stir in the butter. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Top with Parmesan and parsley and serve warm.

Training Week Two

2009-10-19T19:59:00.000-07:00

Week two is in the box, as they say, and I clocked twenty-three miles. Three of them were 1000 meter sprints (or as close I come to sprinting) and another seven or so were tempo or race pace, so I feel like I'm getting a pretty well-rounded bit of training right now. Unfortunately, my times aren't looking so hot. Interpolating from my nine-miler on Sunday, I'm looking at a 2:10 pace for the half marathon. The hope I'm holding out is that folding the warm up into the first few miles like I do means I'll be considerably faster on race day, when I warm up for thirty minutes before the gun goes off.

I had to rearrange a couple of workouts to fit in the veterinary emergency (more on that later), so tomorrow is another intervals day. The plan is to do a 7x880 at around 3:30 each with a two minute break in between. Football practice ends at 7:00pm, so I'll be doing these under the lights, something that always makes me feel equal parts heroic and pathetic.

Running, Teaching, Running from Teaching

2009-10-13T09:40:00.000-07:00

The half-marathon training continues apace (ha!). I clocked twenty-three good miles in week one and am on track to get twenty-four good one's by Sunday (which is the end of training week two on my plan). Week seven will be the longest at around thirty-two miles and my race is at the end of week twelve.

If only work were going so well. Today, I asked a student to clarify a point in an essay and the email I got in response reads simply, "I was wrong about the warehouse, it actually said whorehouse and i read it wrong." I won't bore everyone with the details, but, as you might imagine, the difference is significant.

5K

2009-10-10T19:29:00.001-07:00

I managed two unexpected experiences at my race this morning. First, even without anything I could remotely call training, I managed a sub twenty-four minute run (I'll post an official time once I have it). Second, I got totally smoked by a ten-year-old kid. When he took off at the gun I was thinking, "Yea, he'll blow up in about five hundred yards." Well, the egg sure was on my face three miles and just barely twenty-three minutes later when when he crossed the line about hundred yards in front of me.

Anyway, I have nine weeks to finish getting ready for the half-marathon in December. This was a better beginning than I expected, and maybe that kid will start smoking between now and then.

Soup

2009-10-10T19:25:00.000-07:00

As the weather gradually turns cooler I'm craving a lot of soups. In fact, soup has been on the menu here three of the last five days. Most recently today's lunch was split pea soup. I like to keep it simple, split peas, onions, green peppers, and carrots with garlic, salt and pepper. The trick is to simmer it for about thirty minutes (maybe more) and then puree half of it. Recombine the pureed part for an especially creamy soup.

Garnish with some smoked paprika and you are good to go.

Motivation

2009-10-06T19:42:00.000-07:00

It just hit me that a little over two years ago I scored my first (and, to date, only) win in a bike race. Here I am, twenty-four months and fifteen pounds ago, powering through a steep uphill turn on my way to a come-from-behind victory at the line.

Day one of my official half-marathon traing schedule went like gangbusters. I was a little worried when I had to wait an extra ten minutes for the local high school football team to clear the field before I could use the track, but once they were gone--cute little concussions waiting-to happen that they are-- I had as many open lanes as I could use. The plan called for five 880s in the 3:45 to 4:00 range. I know that's not exactly smoking, but it is only the first week of the plan. My watch died on me and I haven't have a chance to do anything about it yet, so I was reduced to finding songs on my MP3 player that were about four minutes long to time myself. In case anyone else out there finds themselves in similar straits, you could get a watch or listen to these:

and

I managed to bring them all in under 3:30--not too bad for the first day. In fact, after a couple months of feeling lost over my workouts it sort of feels like a come-from-behind victory.

2009-10-05T04:27:00.000-07:00

So, the 80% effort 5K that I ran yesterday turned out an impressive 27:06, or five minutes slower than I would have liked.

My "tune up" race is Saturday morning and I hoping for something in the 25-26 minute range. From there, it's nothing but prep for the December race and getting some bike time. I finally got the rack for our new car and we have a long weekend coming up, so I'm thinking about a little mountain biking on Sunday might be just the thing.

The garden plot is now fully cleared, which means I brought about a pound of fresh basil home last night. The results so far have been a fairly nice pesto over whole wheat pasta, but I expect this will keep giving for a while. I could put in a crop for the winter, but time is fleeting and I want to spend the next few months getting some work done and putting my training back on track (ha!)

A 190 Pound Experiment

2009-09-30T19:53:00.000-07:00

For a variety of reasons my training goals have radically changed over the last month. I've essentially been off for three weeks now, but in a lot of ways I'm in better shape than I was when I was clocking miles every day. In other ways, not so much. I have a race in exactly ten days and I've done zero pointed training for it. Instead of skipping it I'm going to use it to set a baseline for the next year or so.

It's going to be an experiment:

I'll post various stats after the 10th and we'll see where things go from there.

Fall Bike Rides

2009-09-27T10:31:00.000-07:00

The garden season is coming to an end, two of the three big projects that have occupied me--the way Germany occupied Paris--are in the can, and the weather is breaking. That means a couple of things, but mostly bike rides are coming back.

There's still the IT band problem, most recently diagnosed as a too tight pectineus. (Don't get me started on the stretches I'm supposed to do for that.) So I'm swapping out long runs right now for longish bike rides. Fall racing is on the way, and I'm supposed to start my half-marathon training plan in about a week--we'll see how that works out.

Yes, I'll have some cheese with that

2009-08-31T13:07:00.000-07:00

A strained muscle in my shoulder and shin splints on my left leg have made it official--I am seriously asymmetrical. Ramping up my milage slightly this week while continuing to lift (mostly an even mix of core, upper-body free weight, and body weight core/upper circuits) two or three times a week has made it really obvious that my right side above the waist and my left side below are both considerably stronger than their counterparts. I thought I was addressing this with my asymmetrical exercises like one legged squats and dead lifts and doing extra sets on traditionally one-armed exercises. This, however, doesn't seem to be the case.

I'm not as bad off as this guy, but I do think I have a couple of those symptoms. Oh yea, God save me from pube dysfunction.

I've noticed that at an 8:30 or slower pace I don't feel anything too bad, so I'm going to try to keep doing LSD, some tempo runs with long war up periods, and some short, explosive intervals while I figure out what I want to do about my lopsidedness. At some point I hope to be able to explain why the strong side flip flops at my waist. Right now I'm going to guess that it's like a cantilever where one side counterbalances the other.

Curried Tofu Dinner

2009-08-29T12:02:00.000-07:00

The cool thing about tofu is very few people will come over to your house and eat your stash. The other cool thing about tofu is that it's an ancient food, whose migration across Asia and into the western world is deeply connected with the movement of Buddhism. It's a low-fat source of protein and iron and, if you get the right kind, you can avoid all the isoflavones that act like estrogens--try finding beef at your local supermarket that is both free of synthetic hormones AND massive amounts of antibiotics.

Anyway, my curried tofu is best served over basmati rice, but noodles (rice, glass, or wheat) will work if you prefer. If your tofu doesn't come already cubed go ahead and cube it into smallish pieces. I think about a half inch square is fine, but the size doesn't really matter as long as the pieces are relatively uniform. Next, spread them out on an oiled cookie sheet (I use a dash of spray oil, but you can use anything). Bake them at a very low temperature (say 150F) for about half an hour. This helpd to dehydrate them, so they'll absorb more of the curry flavor and give them a slightly puffed texture that I find pleasing.

While the tofu is in the over you can prepare your vegetables. I chop carrots, green or red peppers, and red or white onions. You don't want to overwhelm the curry with too many ingredients--a lot of different things will work in a curry, but I find that after about four things it gets too busy. If your knife skills cut the mustard (ha!) you should still have a few minutes to get the rice started before the tofu is ready to come out of the oven.

Remove the tofu from the over after about half an hour. Set it aside and prepare your curry spice mix (remember: terrifying crocodiles gulp careless and rash children). Warm a large skillet over medium/medium-high heat and start with the onions. Once they start to caramelize you can add the carrots and baked tofu. Once they brown, add the peppers, spice mix and a cup or cup and a half of coconut milk. Simmer for a few minutes while stirring until the sauce starts to reduce.

Your rice is probably done by now. If not, move the skillet to a burner on the lowest setting and wait for craters to form in your rice. Once ready, serve on a warmed plate with mint a splash of sesame sauce. I usually add some rooster sauce to mine, so you might want some of that handy.

Boring update

2009-08-27T03:58:00.000-07:00

I'm running again--clocked almost forty miles last week and should get about the same this week. The plan right now is to aim for about 125 miles in September and then start a more formal training plan with an interval day and some tempo days and what not. My running partner moves out of town on Friday, but he'd been of pretty limited use in that function since he started smoking again. Anyway, I've always found that it was easier to run alone, except on those cold mornings when I needed the extra excuse to get out of bed before spring.

I'm not going to weigh myself for a long while. The weight lifting I've been doing has sort of changed my ideas about how much I should weigh anyway. I think I gained five or six pounds of lean muscle over the summer and that's suggesting a broader scale of good possibilities than I thought there were.

I'm also flexing my teacher muscles again now that school is back in session. Nothing much to say about my students yet, but go ahead and pencil me in for some complaining in a later session.

2009-08-22T11:33:00.000-07:00

In the second chapter of Genesis, God creates Adam by forming him out of dirt and "breathing" life into him. One way to talk about this is by saying God inspired Adam.

At its root, the word inspire means to be filled with God's influence. I'm not one of the faithful, but I often find myself thinking about the story of Adam's creation while I make bread. You start with a lumpy substance not unlike dirt. You work it with your hands until it's the right shape and then you leave it alone to become inspired. It's like magic.

Discussing the eighteenth-century English disdain for the potato (and most other things Irish) Michael Pollan writes:

Like the potato, wheat begins in nature, but it is then transformed by culture. While the potato is simply thrown into a pot or fire, wheat must be harvested, threshed, milled, mixed, kneaded, shaped, baked, and then, in a final miracle of transubstantiation, the doughy lump of formless matter rises to become bread. This elaborate process, with its division of labor and suggestion of transcendence, symbolized civilization's mastery of raw nature.1

I think Pollan is right, within the context of the English imperial world view, but today bread and its amazing transformation more aptly signifies a sort of ecstatic joining with the non-human. Approaching it more along the lines of Buddhist transcendence of self than western ideas of conquest or mastery, that moment of inspiration during which dough miraculously becomes bread serves highlights our limitations--reminds us that without the aid of yeast one of our most basic foods simply wouldn't be available to us. We do not make the bread, Saccharomyces cerevisiae does and none of our base mixing and squeezing and kneading can ever replace the spark it provides.

Mint Julep

2009-08-18T11:55:00.000-07:00

School starts tomorrow, but this is the only lesson I feel like teaching tonight.

First:
Simmer a cup of filtered water in a small pot. Add three quarters of a cup of powdered sugar. Stir it a lot to make sure the sugar is fully in suspension. Once it's completely dissolved let it cool to room temperature. This is called simple syrup (I sometimes make a three cups of this and keep it in the fridge so I'll have it on hand).

Next:
Drop a fifteen or twenty mint leaves into the bottom of a Collins glass. Add about a tablespoon of water and muddle vigorously.

Then:
Add three ounces of bourbon or rye (I prefer Maker's Mark, but almost anything will do). Pour this into a shaker using a strainer to remove the mint leaves. Pour the now leafless mixture back into the Collins glass full of ice and top with simple syrup until the glass is full. Shake or stir and serve with your choice of garnish.

Big Meat

2009-08-16T11:47:00.000-07:00

So, I did the math yesterday and was a little shocked to see that I've only been getting about .5g of protein/kg of body weight, which means I've really only been getting about half of what I need. Having been a mildly athletic vegetarian for twenty years, I always scoffed at those folks who warned me about low protein, but I'm wondering if some of my exercise-ennui lately isn't maybe connected to a protein-related failure to recover. That said, I'm going to try to drop some carbs from my diet (if you can call something as disorganized as my eating habits a diet) and replace them with protein with a daily goal of 100 grams of protein.

According to many sources, including probably the stoutest Ph.D. I've ever seen, the standard recommended daily intake of the big P workes out to between 1.4 and 2.0 g of protein per kg of body weight. A quick trip to a metric conversion calculation on the web pegs me at 88.9kg, which would suggest that I should be eating between 124 and 178 grams of protein every day. The big guy's article goes on to say, however, that new research suggests that people of the athletic persuasion might actually make more efficient use of protein than sedentary types. So I don't really need that much, right? No. He goes on to write, "those of you who staunchly believe that you're only required to eat enough protein to meet your needs,go right ahead and reduce your protein intake from 2.0g/kg to 0.65g/kg. In the meantime, I'll be encouraging everyone else to actually increase his or her protein intake beyond the current 2.0g/kg recommendation"1. Following this advice I'd need to jack up the protein in my daily diet to almost 200g.

Ok, so how did I come up with 100g? Simple--I thought about what it would take, given my vegetarian eating, to come up with 200g of protein and one day might look like this: eleven eggs, one cup cooked pinto beans, three eight ounce protein shakes, 1 cup Qinoua , a box of tofu, and a bagel with peanut butter for a grad total of 2300 calories and 201 grams of protein. Once I stopped laughing I decided that I can just boost my protein intake a little at first, and see if I get any results. If so, maybe I'll feel motivated enough to do the sort of dietary gymnastics it would take to get it higher.

We ended up going out last night so the curry I was planning for then will probably be what hits the dinner table tonight.

If the cat's don't keep me up late again, I'm going to try to fit in a run, lift, 100g of protein, and a couple of hours at the office tomorrow. Whew, I'm already tired.

p.s. The curry turned out so well I have to boast a little:

and for the cook:

2009-08-15T13:56:00.001-07:00

So I'm lifting weights--something I haven't really done since around 1998. For the moment it's a motivation thing. I feel like lifting more than I feel like running, so I'm lifting more and running less (I'm still managing about fifteen miles a week). My next race is a 5K in October, which I'm using as a tune-up for the half marathon in early December so I'll shift my focus back to running in the next couple weeks and probably have a decent chance at a 20-21 min 5k.

On to the food:

The garden is producing a lot of okra right now so we'll probably have some sort of okra curry over naan for dinner. I love making curry because of the way the spices combine both to the eye and the palate.
The best curries have turmeric, cumin, garlic, coriander, red chile, and curry power (of course). I remember it my reciting the phrase "terrifying crocodiles gulp careless and rash children." (My ninth-grade biology teacher taught me the mnemonic for Linnaean taxonomy and I've been making up my own ever since). The ratio of spices depends on the taste your after. I like mine kind of sweet and spicy so I add a little extra coriander and chile powder. Throw in some some tofu for the protein and a beer for the cook and you're doing ok.

So I'm Back

2009-08-14T20:05:00.000-07:00

I didn't really do that well with the last round of posts. The problem, as best I can determine was in the software rather than the hardware. I was trying to deny myself food while what I'm really prone to do is enjoy food. So maybe the thing to do is to enjoy food differently. To whit: the new hungry month--in which I try to reorient my relationship with food, drink and exercise. This time it's blackberry tarts.

First, go find a bunch of wild blackberries. If you live south of Canada there's no excuse for buying blackberries in the summer.

Second: combine 3 c. flour, 1 tsp. salt 3/4 c. canola oil, stirring cold water one Tbs at a time until the dough begins to form. Divide the dough into twelve equal pieces and press each into an oiled muffin pan as if they were mini-pies. Pile blackberries on top of each piece of dough and bake for 35 minutes at 350 degrees.

As far as exercise goes, I'm lifting weights again for the first time in years and rebuilding my base in so I can start training for a December half marathon which I hope to finish under two hours.

2009-06-18T20:36:00.000-07:00

Days 29 and 30

Thus ends the hungry month. Weigh in the morning said 183, which I think comes out to and even six pounds lost. This is a little less than half my goal. I'm not depressed, but neither am I thrilled. There were several unforeseens that really changed the equation mid-stride. I'm going to think about it for a few days and see where the diet (and blog) need to go in the future.

2009-06-16T16:56:00.000-07:00

Days 26, 26, 28

Buddhists take refuge in the three jewels (often depicted by the lotus) by contemplating the balance of Buddha, Dharma, and Sanga. We have apparently reached a similarly higher plane of balance at our house as we have lost our old car to irreparable engine trouble while having gained two kittens, which--if weighed on my special emotional scale--total out to right around 2,800 pounds, or exactly the same as a late model Ford compact. We spent the day car shopping--I haggled--and came home with a new ... er less used car.

I had planned on an afternoon ride, but after six hours of car dealerships we got home twenty minutes ahead of a brutal thunderstorm and all outside activity is canceled from the evening.

I had bread and a fried egg for breakfast and eight pieces of vegi sushi for lunch. Dinner will most likely be some sort of rice and vegetable combination. Lets call it 2000 kcal today.

I'm going to weigh in tomorrow in preparation for the final entry (coming on day 30) of the hungry month portion of this blog. We'll see where things go from there.

2009-06-13T13:56:00.000-07:00

Day 25
Breakfast was about a cup of grits with two Tbs of shredded cheese, and a scrambled egg sandwich with mustard, hot sauce, tomatoes and two pieces of Morning Star Facon. For lunch I had two mini-Clif bars during my bike ride and a Boca Chic'n sandwich with mustard and rooster sauce after.

Let me pause here for a minute to say that I really, *really* think that Boca makes some of the best stuff out there for busy vegetarians. Eleven grams of protein, six grams of fat, fifteen grams of carbohydrates wrapped up into 160 calories--yum.

Dinner was a big salad and a small bean burrito. All told, I think the damage was around 1800kcals--not bad.

My bike ride today was great. If Map My Ride is correct I covered just a whisker under 30 miles with 584 feet of climbing in one hour forty-five minutes.

30 mile loop
Find more Bike Rides in Lancaster, South Carolina

I'm not ready for the Tour, but it felt good for a change. On a side note, riding by yourself affords one with a pretty much overpowering opportunity to sing. Over the course of my ride I sang both of these at least twice (and not just because I was having trouble remembering some of the words).

and

without a group, however, it's difficult to do the audience participation part in the Coulton song.

I did achieve something close to audience participation though, when--while I was out of the saddle climbing the last hill--a guy in a late-model Tercel, wearing a gigantic straw hat, hollered "Ride that thang, boy," as he passed me.

2009-06-13T09:42:00.000-07:00

Day 24

Breakfast: grits and an egg with hot sauce and lots of pepper
Lunch: Boca sandwich and some cottage cheese
Dinner: Grilled tofu and squash over rice and *gasp* a small thing of ice cream with a couple sugar cookies (crap). Lets say 2200 kcals.

I have a feeling I'm going to finish the month with only about a five pound loss. Clearly I need to change a few things. The eating hasn't been as good as I'd like, but the exercise is coming back. I've been on my bike every one the last three days and I'm actually feeling pretty good about how I'm riding. Solo rides aren't as much fun, but I'm getting better at amusing myself. Tomorrow I'm going to try to do a slightly longer loop and see how that feel. If I'm up for it I might even add a short run afterward.

The fireflies are out in force. I stepped into the back yard for a minute last night and they were popping all around me. I guess this means it's officially summer and I better take advantage of the long days while I still can.

2009-06-12T12:11:00.000-07:00

Days 21, 22, 23

Cats continue to define much of what's going on. Summer orientations are starting up on campus, so that's going to start eating up a bunch of time too. That said, I got out on my bike Wednesday and Thursday. I've been tuning my rear shifter--it's funny how nothing seems to knock a bike out of tune as fast and not riding it. Neither ride was long--just an hour each. I'm still sorting out some of the routes here and I'm not ready to get way out there by myself yet.

I've been mostly having grits or bagels for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch. We had Thai last night and rice with vegetables the night before. I'm not working out as much as I'd like, but hopefully I'll get that on track soon.

2009-06-09T09:41:00.001-07:00

Day 20
Some normalcy returned today. The cats are still here, but I'm pretty convinced that the black one's funk is over so I didn't fell like I had to get up and check on it every couple hours. Feeling better rested, I actually got up and made a real breakfast: bagels with provolone, half a grapefruit, and about a half cup of cottage cheese. For lunch I made a Boca Chik'n sandwich and for dinner I grilled some vegetables and couscous for dinner (plus a very small bowl of ice cream).

I also ran four miles, put up "kittens need a good home" posters around campus and did a little work in the garden, which has so far produced a few pounds of radishes (they mature quickly) and a ton of weeds (they mature even more quickly). My plot is part of a community garden project that gives most of its food to a local food bank. We're waiting to hear next week if the grant application I wrote to Gardenburger got approved.

I hope to make it into the gym for some more swimming and a weigh in tomorrow. I'm not feeling all the optimistic, but I should be somewhere in the low 180s.

2009-06-07T20:48:00.000-07:00

Days 18 and 19
A twofer--the cat situation has gotten more complicated. Eight days ago we found the gray one from the Day 12 post. Two days ago this one literally fell out of a tree at our feet.

I called fifteen more shelters today and none of them were willing to take cats.

I'm embarrassed at how much this consumes me and how little time I have for anything else, but I feel on the verge of panic over these cats. I can't imagine taking care of them for the next twenty years, but I can't give them to the pound (which euthanizes kittens after only twenty-four hours) either.

I haven't worked our or thought too much about my diet for the last couple days. I was hoping to reboot this week, but I don't see how I'll do it while facing the cat-aclysm.

2009-06-05T20:44:00.000-07:00

Day 17:

Sausage sandwiches with mustard and cheese for breakfast. For lunch I had a boca sandwich and more radishes. Dinner was about half a frozen pizza. I spent most of the day trying to find something to do with this kitten. There's an adoptathon tomorrow morning and I'm hoping we can find someone there. For something that weighs 1.05 pounds the thing takes up an incredible space in my life.

I have some work-type stuff to do tomorrow afternoon, but I hope to get a bike ride in later in the afternoon.