Day: August 3, 2008

Is 6:15am Too Early to Start Drinking?

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i asked myself this about an hour and a half into my Sunday ride to Tortilla Flat. i was tired all over, looking forward to the ride ending since Friday when I knew I had to do it, and thinking of the 2 cases of Stockyard Stout I just picked up from Trader Jo’s.**

It was a big week, 2 commutes, Tortilla, and yesterday’s ride on National. Chongoman Bob was hosting a ride and post-ride breakfast to celebrate his birthday, and lots of the MTBR crew were there: Doug, Sam, Mike R, JB, Jeff and Su Ling, Kathleen, BrianC, a few others I knew a bit, and a few cool folks I got to meet – about 14 riders in all. Lots of nice bikes. Bob lives across from the old office, and we rolled about 5:45 up Javalina, Mormon, National. The pace was slow with a large group, I was mostly up front with Doug, and at the saddle before BV we decided to jump out and get more mileage and meet everyone back at Bob’s. down Geronimo, Doug’s crazy idea to go up 24th, then National down again. I missed the Heckler, and it missed National, but for the scant $20 Rage charged me to deal with RockShox and the warranty on the fork I may have to send it in for more service again! I rode pretty well too.

good times, but the ride along with several hours of yardwork left me flat for the road ride. I wasn’t hurting on the roadie, just noticeably fatigued. Sometimes you are in pain, sometimes you just reach down and there is nothing there. After I didn’t loosen up after the first climb into Las Sendas, I figured this was going to be a long steady slow day. i was struggling to hold 10 mph on the climbs, but I actually handled it well mentally. The last few weeks making my mind strong for this ride, and starting in the dark got me into a nice relaxed, quiet, calm place. at one point, however, a lady-bug landed on my bars and would not shoo away, until finally i swatted it and curse “I do not need your weight!”   I took breaks, I ate — it was that kind of day.   I went up, I came down, I was very very tired, and though i wanted to crack on the return from AJ i held on and crawled at 8mph back up the Las Sendas climb.

No pancakes today, straight to beer. 10.5 hrs in the saddle this week, without too much loss to my lifting and stretching. I will likely do 10.5 hrs in the saddle at the Crazy 88. Ready or not here i come…

**Trader Joe’s has raised the price to $24 a case. All good things must come to an end.

A Narrowly Avoided Faux Pas

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I asked Beckie the other day if she was showing faster for this pregnancy than for the last one.

This was a potential hand-grenade of a question.

Beckie and I have pretty much both been religious about exercise for as long as I can remember. Sometimes we are better or worse, but its been a long time since either one of us looked sloshy. and yet, there it was. A fair question, if you don’t ask it to a woman, a pregnant woman, a pregnant woman facing 110 degrees between her and a run, an overstressed pregnant woman already dealing with one obsessive-compulsive tinyMonster. Its fair especially since Beckie didn’t show at all til like 6 months with Genevieve, won the Tour of the White Mountains, and hiked Flatiron on New Years Eve at 7.5 months. And even more especially since I have been doing the shopping and can state emphatically that our grocery list has been pretty damn good.

I asked it very politely. as an interested party, an amicus curiae as it were. but I had to know!

Apparently women show faster the 2nd time around. I have since received independent confirmation of this, by a mere coincidence of listening in on someone else’s conversation. Beckie, too,   was prompt and objective in her response.

Whew!

Good Idea

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G’s been very proud of my thinking lately. She tells me this: “good idea daddy!” And for a second, its very gratifying to be complimented. Then i’m like “wtf! you have no clue what i’m talking about? you need help wiping your butt and suddenly you’re a talent scout?”

It says a lot about the persuasive power in one’s tone of voice. and what a cute baby voice on a cute little girl will do to my sense of reason, when used persuasively.

G’s been having lots of ideas of her own too. She announces proudly “I got an idea!” And i listen attentively, then press her for details, and she goes:

then i fill in an idea and we go play.

I like that she is using her brain, and trying to come up with solutions. Her dialog comes out of “Go Diego Go”, so it is partly that she understands it and partly that she parrots the situation and is using the words as tools. Like most learning with her, some of it involves repetition and some of it involves insight.

Her awareness of complex topics like time and distance is behind this. Where else could ideas come from if not based in a notion of the abstract? Its pretty cool seeing her brain go to this next level. Regularly now if I’m talking to Beckie on the phone, G gets insistent that i give her the phone cause she “wanna say hi to mommy.” And if we get home and Beckie is not around, I say “mommy is not here” and she goes “mommy’s in town?” She knows that Waterday happens sometimes, the we travel to the park in the bike in the evenings, and when we run out of popsicles\yogurt\cookies\eggs\chicken\pasta if I say “no more, all done” she actually stops her tantrum.