Motivation Returns

I'm just going to link the MTBNJ post with the pictures.

That's all the motivation I need right now. I rode it yesterday. It's fast. I crushed my lap time at LM from last year's race.

Communists

Woke up today at 3:50 to take a leak and minutes later found myself trying to calm Julia down while Nat went to get some Motrin. Apparently she had been up on and off since 1:00 complaining which usually translates as teething time, though it's been months now and those last 4 molars still aren't in. I was able to calm her down and try to go back to sleep. Try being the word.

I was never able to get back to sleep so I made some waffles, surfed, then hit the bike for an hour of semi-pain. Rode yesterday as well so that's it for me until Saturday, unless I get my new bike tonight and WFH tomorrow. Then I may head out to Lewis Morris just to get some time on the new wheels. But that's ahead of myself right now. Today I did high-end work and surprisingly I seem to be able to put out as much power as any previous session and I may actually need to up the ante because today's workout was actually a hair too easy. Still, the scale groaned again this morning so when it comes down to it I have a good 10 pounds of excess lard to pedal up those hills during next weekend's race. That should be a hoot.



Nat said of the girl yesterday, "She's hot." Indeed! I even drew Treeman out of the woodwork as he commented, "That's a pretty fantastic picture!". I knew he was out there but I guess the hottest teen female pole vaulter on the planet would trigger a mute to vocalize their sentiments on this particular subject. Incidentally her name is Allison Stokke and she's a minor celebrity in the sports blog world. I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader to stalk her as he or she sees fit. But let me first warn you that her dad is a lawyer. I hope Julia isn't that attractive when she gets to that age. I'd hate to have her image plastered all over the Internet like this girl. Chris Rock joked that his sole responsibility as a father is to keep his daughter off "the pole". I suggest that not appearing on Wikipedia and YouTube are also aims as a father. Oh and one of those chain emails where all the sorority girls are toasting the camera and your kid has her boob hanging out. And porn. And Lou's bed. This list could be endless.

I got naming suggestions from FatCat and Terren. I'm disappointed nobody else chimed in with a name though without question Fat Sam is going to be really tough to beat. You don't mean Communists, do you Sam?

Update: The bike is ready. I'm going to get it after work.

Bitchin Camaro or Jeff?

Today I'm going to go with in-line quotes to make this entry flow better, as if most of you care how I flow. Somebody give me a beat! First off Nat said my post yesterday was, "Boring," which isn't surprising because it was. Plus, it didn't have any mention of a headless Mickey Mouse which Jake referenced by saying, "dude. that's mickey's head." I'm glad we're all paying attention here. I post 30,000 words and 200 images about Taiwan and that's all I get from Jake in the last 2 months.

In an effort to keep things more saucy today I bring you this:



This is placed here for the sole reason to entertain my dear wife. Speaking of sauce we made some Kung Pao Chicken on Sunday which came out really well, surprisingly well in fact. There were a few things we would change about it but all in all it's the second best version of the dish we've had, taking a back seat only to the place in Edison. That includes the version we had in Taiwan. This is SOP for our post-Taiwan life, to try and keep the food ball rolling to some extent, just at a lower volume of food of course, 196 notwithstanding. Or, 196 withstanding, or better yet, 196 sitting, as it's clear I'm not doing jumping jacks with the bulk of my day.

Speaking of that, my teammate and fellow (soon to be) new bike owning brethren ChrisG says of my Funk Woes, "Hey buddy, the race season runs til October. And you'll hopefully be riding that cool-ass bike for a long time beyond the next few weeks. So have a good time, all the time. That's my philosophy."

I'm down, I am. I'm tuning out a little bit so I don't get too crazy about the delay. But it seems we're like 2 small steps away from this being done. Talked to Jay on Monday and we're looking at Wednesday night as a possible pickup. Did I mention I've got a cough? And a sneeze? I bet by COB Wednesday it'll be damn near unbearable for me to go to work Thursday. Wink, as they say, wink.

I do wonder why I go out and do intervals if my aim is to have fun all the time. In a strange way I like punishing myself. I also like Kung Pao Chicken so there ya go. If there were only a way to get faster while eating Kung Pao Chicken I might have myself a bitching hobby. But in the end you're right. It's a long season and it will all be good. The thing I'm rueful of right now is that this early season I was really progressing well and hoped to hit the first race with a bang. I can still hit my season goals but it will be more back-loaded than front loaded. I prefer to be aggressive with my deadlines.

Steve chimed in as well with, "buck up little camper. things are going to get better... hopefully, the new bike will re-kindle your spirits. i can't imagine how frustrating and disheartening the wait is, but i think this will all pass when you get some new metal and rubber between your legs. that was real gay..."

Maybe, maybe. I mean, maybe it was real gay. It could have been worse, to be sure. At least you didn't use the expression, "All up in your sphincter." So I thank you for that. But I suspect you're right, though I'm afraid of a sketchy bike fit the first time I get on it. Hopefully we can spend some time getting it right when I pick it up then this weekend is pure bliss. One can hope, but with all of this I remain cautiously optimistic for the time being.

Did I mention the new bike is tang? Like the color. In Mandarin, tang can be translated as sugar. So if I'm going to name it maybe I'll call it Sugar. Maybe. It also can translate to soup, bold/rude, pool, hall, chest, lie/recline, if/supposing, trip, or hot/scalding. Perhaps I should let you guys decide what to name it. Though knowing my audience you'll all choose something dumb, like Bitching Camaro. Really though, why would you name your bike? If I must, perhaps I should go with Jeff, like Terren and I named our bowling balls years ago, when we dubbed them Fred and Jeff. Mine was named after this dude Dan's cat, who used to frequent the Ale N Wich. Dan, not the cat. Not sure where Terren got Fred from, other than a hat.

I'm open to suggestions of course.

Lost In Translation

Back to the Monday, work Monday. Sitting at 196 this morning, +3 pounds since Saturday. I'm back into a pattern where I bloat up after a weekend of hard riding. I had gotten to a point where I was able to maintain my weight through the weekend, more or less. I'll get back to where I need to be assuming I keep at it. This is just a matter of me verifying that the last 6 weeks have really chewed up and spit out my fitness. I'm feeling more or less healthy, my clothes were fitting better, and the scale had started to relent a bit last week. But Monday morning finds me back at a +10 as compared with my pre-vacation weight. My pants are tight.

The first H2H race is 2 weeks from yesterday and I think I might be able to cobble together a reasonable showing, where reasonable is top 20 in my class. I'm not expecting anything beyond that with good reason. Since I came back my motivation isn't there. I woke up at 5:00 Friday and just surfed for an hour instead of getting on the bike. I didn't even bother setting the alarm today. I had 2 hard rides this weekend so I'm taking today off. I need to walk a fine line between hitting it hard enough versus not over-taxing myself between now and the race. Yet if I don't build up I'll struggle through the whole race season.

You know though, it's a lot of empty words at this point. I just don't have the endurance nor the motivation that I had before the trip which are 2 big requirements to putting a lot of time into it. Something got lost in translation when I went and came back and now I'm reaping the "benefits". I'm not able to ride for 2 hours at pace like I had been able to. Hitting 90 minutes is a chore in itself. And my power on the hills is starting to fade. I'm still able to hammer out a pretty good pace on the tempo rides but I can tell it's not all there. What's more is that after I hit those rides, my residual fatigue lasts a lot longer than I'm used to. So this morning, after 2 weekend rides of hitting the high-end stuff, I'm cooked and in need of a rest day, all bloated up like a brined turkey. My legs hurt walking out of the Path.

There's my token biking post on the week. I've tailed off with the bike posts because it gets boring to read the same stuff over and over. But I do plan to race still, even if maybe not as often as I had planned. It seems a waste to squander my money when I'm not bringing my best to the table. It's also worth noting that this 2 month process to get my bike built has taken a lot of steam out of my sails. In theory this might have been done before I even went on vacation. That was something on 6 weeks ago now. My excitement to get a new bike has gone, and now it's just one delay after another. Someday my ship will come in.