See! Here I am! Though certainly heavier than I'd like to be for this time of year, I am at least alive... and on a bike.
We were working on photos for our upcoming catalog and got out today with our Creative Director- Pete Demos- and myself to snap the one remaining photo we needed. The above picture is not that picture... but it's still kinda fun.
Special thanks to Twin 6 for supplying us with clothing for the catalog again, and thanks for making the shorts with very robust strength seams... I'm normally an XL bib, so the LG bibs were straining a little under the pressure, but they made it!
Yes- for those keeping score, I fell asleep again last night before I could get on the rollers. There... I admit; I'm getting old. Time for dinner at 4:00, re-runs of Matlock and Murder She Wrote and bed by 9:00. I guess it's all down hill from here... well, until the baby is born.
So, umm, yeah... I was asleep by 9:00, but at least this time I managed to make it to my bedroom first. My neck was killing me, so I tried to lie on the bed with my head hanging to the side- turns out that was kinda comfortable. Oh well.
Today I took my daughter to her dance and guitar lessons- the punkin is too damned cute! Her mother is the one who has set up both the dance and guitar lessons, so I can not take any credit for being anything other than a chauffeur and bystander. Still, it's amazingly cute to watch a room full of 5-9yr old girls doing tap and jazz dance. How I don't get caught giggling is beyond me.
Ann went swimming before the classes, so after we got home from the lessons, I hopped on the bike for a 2hr-ish ride. The weather is starting to turn, since there are storms coming, so the wind was a little bit of a factor... though not that much. The skies were cool and grey, so the temp was beginning to drop as I headed out around 2:00. My legs felt ok- the power was there when I was trying to push the pedals, but I never felt very good overall. My heart rate was consistently too high and I always felt a bit short of breath. Just felt "off" the entire time. My neck and shoulders were unhappy, the cardio systems was wonky... but the legs didn't seem to mind the work. So, who knows... we'll see what happens tomorrow morning when I get out again. Stats; 1:56:32, 17.6av/33.9mx MPH, 34.33mi, 75av/128mx RPM- HR was somehow lost... but the numbers were not favorable anyway. It was nice that I didn't feel even worse after 2 days of not riding and the little bit of leg weights I did yesterday. Maybe I'll survive after all... maybe.
I began the day around 207lbs and was down to 203.8 after the ride. Still not close to my fighting weight... but closer than I was a few weeks ago!
For the first couple years of this blog, which will be 5yrs old in March, I used to infrequently remark, "wow, today/ this week was really busy!" Over time that began to slowly migrate to "wow, this has been a busy month!" Now... "busy" is the new status quo and "I'm losing my mind" has become the new change of pace.
This weekend and last night, I had the pleasure of finally meeting some "old" friends face to face and making some new friends at various tweetups in town as the PRSA09 conference was in town. I got to finally meet my friend Kellye Crane, new friend Lauren Vargas and old new friend Steve Woodruff. I got to make new friends like Kami Huyse, Jacob Sloan and Fran Stephenson- among all the others whose names I have forgotten and business cards I have yet to rediscover. All of these folks are very smart people deeply involved in public relations and/ or social media. We all know I'm an SM geek, but I have a strong respect for PR professionals as well- a lot of what I do with marketing and branding shares very similar traits with PR. I was lucky enough to get to join these folks at various get-togethers during the week after the conferences. It should go without saying that I had a fantastic time and I am very happy I got to share some conversations and laughs with some folks I have a lot of respect for.
Tomorrow will hopefully be the day I get back on the bike for the first time in more than a week since hurting my back. The muscle is still pissed off with me, but it seems to be getting better... and I am growing too impatient to wait any longer. It's gonna be one of those agonizing recovery rides where everything feels wrong and I feel like I should just take up golf... but you have to start somewhere. I've been hoping for months that this winter will be the winter where I actually get back into the routine of steady training- even when traveling- so I really am anxious to get back on the bike and even into the gym. I'll try to report on how things go tomorrow...
So many cool little things going on right now and hopefully I'll be able to report on them very soon. There's some exciting things going on- I promise.
Though certainly heavier than I'd like to be for this time of year, I am at least alive... and on a bike.
