And on the eighth day...

Tonight will mark day 8 in a row of riding! And 9 days of riding in the last 10. I think that might be some kind of record for me. I had much more time and mileage in August on vacation, but it was only 7 days of riding out of 8. Last December I did 8 rides in 10 days, but also - holiday paid time off so I had all day.

My "training schedule" has me in regen. for 5 days when I could be riding lots in December. So, we'll see what happens. Maybe some fun rides and then hit it hard for 4 days in a row in the next phase (hit it hard on the volume with mid-intensity anyway). But, I'm not up for planning that out yet. If nothing else, it'll be a good time for some easier road rides and family time.

I've been looking forward to the re-opening of some trails here in a few weeks. I won't get to enjoy them for the first few open weekends (probably better that way anyway, maybe the allure of re-newness will have worn off a little bit), but I am looking forward to riding them again. I might even hit up one of my favorite routes on my birthday out there. I rode it 2 years ago on my birthday on what was at the time my brand new endurance race bike. The bike was a bit awkward at first, and since I wasn't really strong the 32T middle ring was tough to ride. But, it was a good day.

















While I'm not shooting for an early season long event, it'll be nice to travel cross county on the bikes again and ride some more techy trails just for fun.

This weekend I've got one good ride planned for Saturday, and probably something a little bit easier, but still decent on Sunday. Considered the local 10-mile course with hills, but I'll be spending a lot of time there, so it might be nice to travel a tad south and re-unite with an old fire road climbing fest.

I'm taking tomorrow off, though. My legs were pretty packed up yesterday on the lunch road ride on the climbs, and I know after 2 laps tonight (gonna try out the lights for the first time in many many many months - wish me luck) they'll be sore. Also, I've been really tired. I was having problems staying awake yesterday afternoon, and felt downright pretty awful yesterday after work until I ate (I was a little stressed out anyway). I'm tired again this morning. Also, gotta run errands at some point, so tomorrow night it is with plenty of rest and recovery on the couch.

OT… anyone watching TV?

Heroes: WTF? The only story line I've liked all year has been Sylar "reborn" as a good guy turned stay-at-home dad. And that was only a really brief scene. Suresh? No. Evil Peter? No. HRG? Ugh. Claire trying to catch bad guys? Please…

House: I missed it this past Tuesday since I'm stupid. But, otherwise it's been all right this season. It bothers me, though, that Fox feels the need to delay putting a show online for viewing until EIGHT days after originally airing it. Thanks, Fox, for punishing me for not recording a show ahead of time. You suck.

Fringe: The jury is still out on this show. I really like the way they write Walter Bishop. I also sort of like Pacey, er, Peter Bishop. I can't get past the fact that he was Pacey, but otherwise he's good. The main chick, though? She bothers me just a bit. IMO she isn't believable as the character. Her personage just doesn't seem strong enough, I guess.

CSI NY: has there even been an episode on this month? I forget. Luckily for this show I have a series recording set.

Survivor: I like a few of the people on the loser tribe, but unfortunately they aren't going to last long, even if there is a merge soon. I guess I could go either way, but I always like to see what's gonna happen. Even if I missed the finale last time on a season I really liked.

CSI: The previews for the the premiere made that episode seem like it'd rival the Quentin Tarrantino episodes. The premiere did not rival those episodes. It was okay, but not as good as I expected. Last week was okay. Is the show just floating along until William Petersen leaves? They are slowly letting the best characters disappear. I think the show is becoming a dead man walking. Maybe not. Will I keep watching when Grissom is gone? Maybe. Maybe not. I still miss Sara, and I will miss Warrick.

The Office: has been good all year, but it's time to bring Pam back. Seriously.

I DVR'd Crusoe last Friday (er, I DVR'd the last 1:25, I missed the first :35). NBC's online shows don't quite rival ABC's, but it was decent. They showed it without commericals, so points for that. Could be an interesting show, but let's be honest… if Crusoe and Friday have built all that crap, they easily could've built a yacht and sailed back to London by now. I liked Judy.

Grey's Anatomy: good, I think. I liked the dermatology stuff. How bad is George going to feel when he realizes Lexi likes him? Hmm…

Things to ponder since so many of the shows above are all on tonight!

Until next time...

Looking for ride time

My ride time lately has been pathetically low. I realized earlier this week that over the last 3 weekends (10/4, 9/27, and 9/20) I had 6 hours of ride time. Seriously.

About 4.5 hours the weekend of 9/20-9/21. 0 hours the weekend of 9/27-9/28. Less than 2 hours the weekend of 10/4-10/5.

Pathetically.Low.

I took Sunday off after 5 days of hard riding in a row. I think I took Monday off as well. Tuesday and yesterday I did intervals on the trainer, but that's less than 2 hours.

The prescription? Hopefully a good 4 hour ride on Saturday backed up with some pavement time on Sunday. We'll see if it works out.

No race for me this weekend. I need ride time more than results.

Hopefully what smoke is left in the air will clear before this evening for some time on the dirt.

(This photo is not from today). The air up above was clear today, and it looked okay to the west. Looking S/E it was smokey, and the smell sort of is hanging in the air a bit. The weather is set to cool down a bit this weekend, so here's to hoping there aren't fires any time soon (like in the next 3-5 years).

Late edit: the reason I opened up a blog post today was for this quote from VeloNews:

"... Your friends are your friends, and your acquaintances are your acquaintances ... A lot of acquaintances are there in the good times, and not there in the bad times, but you know, that’s normal, that’s life. I’m not bitter about it, and I’m not bitter towards anyone, but tomorrow I’m probably not going to be going to dinner with them, either."

Should I consider myself lucky to have learned this while I'm still "young"? It is the stupid things in life (like a drunken joke, for instance) that turn people against you. And while your friends either don't care what you did in a 3 minute window on vacation, your acquaintances might act like it's life or death. And they probably won't ask you what your side of the story is.