Friday, May 28, 2010

The basement is empty without Estela

It was tough dragging myself to the pool this morning. I wanted to sleep more. Swam an hour. It went pretty well. 4x500 as a main set. First three were good, last was 10 seconds slower. There were lots of people in the pool swimming just a bit slower than my. My inner shark came out to play, urging me to catch them, and pass them. And I did.

Estela is in the shop for a spring tuneup. They called today, and there is some additional work needed. Well, lots of additional work. New chain, chain rings, and cassette. They were all worn and the chain was stretched. No wonder I was having trouble shifting onto the big ring. While I was at it I had them put on new shifter cables since the old ones were munged up. New tires. Plus the regular tune up stuff. I'll practically have a new bike at the end of it, which is a good thing. Peace of mind when you're heading downhill at +80 Kph while out in the boonies is a good thing.

So I didn't have a bike for a spin session tonight. The hybrid won't fit on the trainer. It's much too wet and cold to ride outside. The pool is closed at 7pm today, which is a surprise, so no going to the gym. That left a run, which didn't thrill me to be honest. When I say wet and cold when I was thinking about running, I'm talking pouring rain, and cold enough to see your breath on the air. I decided to go anyways. Dressed like it was winter, practically. At least it stopped raining, but it was no warmer.

The run plan was run easy, faster, faster yet, all out, then back to faster yet, then easy. I really wasn't sure about the whole darned thing, but what do I know. Once I sucked it up and went outside my legs did just fine. I'm still breathing a bit harder than what I think I should be doing for a given heart rate. Or if you like, my heart rate is a bit low for a given breathing effort. Not as bad as on the bike the other day.

Ran an hour, and was mildly astonished to be able to run zone 3 (all right, the very bottom of zone 3) after 10 minutes of running just about as fast as I can run. One hour. Stretched after.

Time to go. Linda is watching the British version of Coupling, just about the funniest show ever on television. This episode is "Inferno". With the bi-vegetarian line. Susi is laughing already. Gotta go.

5 comments:

  1. you mean the British version of Friends, "Coupling". And yes, I'm wiping the tears already.... BAAAAH, BAAAAAH!!!

    holy hannah, that was about the funniest thing i've ever seen! LOL

    guess what? they have coupling at the library here! am going to rent it again.

    BAAAAH!! giggle, snicker, guffaw, SNORT!

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  2. Actually, there is an American version of Coupling. It was a flop. Another example of how the American TV and movie industry takes great foreign productions and redoes them (badly) for an American audience.

    You know why most Americans hate foreign films? Their lips can't move fast enough to read the subtitles. My audience excepted of course.

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  3. Somebody Is Killing The Bikes Of North America!1!

    Who could Teh Fiend be?

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  4. It's a good thing you took your bike in -- those changes and tune up is going to make all the difference. You are going to feel like a new man on the bike. Seriously.

    I was lucky enough to zip into a local bike shop here yesterday to get a quick fix on a brake cable. I drove down there lickety-split, and they did it right then and there...I was visualizing this positive outcome the entire drive there. Hahahaha!!

    Afterward, the mechanic told me my headset had needed to be tightened -- that for the "roads around here," I had to make sure it was on securely. I just about swallowed my tongue -- I'd been training all week, plus a 5 hour ride with HUGE hills (up and down) in the rain. Holy crap -- and I was so pleased with myself that I had reassembled my bike on my own. EEEEEP!!

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