Sniff, sniff…

Smells like vacation.

Back August 9!

Okay, so not feeling as down today as I was yesterday. I’ve officially “been sent down to the minors” for the Black Cats, at my own request, since I wasn’t contributing anything on the field in my current state, so for the rest of the year I’ll be playing down in the B division. Which sucks, but it’ll be much better for me while I get my fitness and touch back, and I gotta say, getting back to the team I helped start is fantastic motivation. So in lieu of hauling out to Manassas for the Cats game last night, I jogged to the gym, and for over an hour sweated my arse off on the bike and rowing machine. And even after rehydrating when I got home, discovered I’m actually down 4lbs since… er, that morning. Scales must have been off. Apparantly there’s something to this diet and exercise thing after all!

I think I’ve missed my window for getting the bike out to CA in time for the ride, unless I do it 3 day. Which is fine, there’s no way I can hang with JB anyways. And it gives me an opportunity to maybe get one last ride in this Sunday before I jet off on Tuesday. Will be bringing my running gear at least – it is now on.

In other news, I’ve settled on a build list for Kermit, the 29er project. Of course, I won’t be buying ANY of this yet. Nope, the credit card will remain firmly in the pocket. On One carbon fork (whenever it comes out), King headset (natch.), Thomson post and stem (of course), FSA Carbon cranks (Drew had a set of these, and I’m impressed by how light his Dos is), Juicy brakes (whatever I can find on sale), Mary bars (again, thanks to Drew) and custom WTB wheels (getting the parts from JB, so I just need to find a sucke… I mean, kind soul, to build ‘em for me.)

So that’ll be nice when it’s finished.

Which, of course, won’t be for a long time.

Rode Rosaryville with my home boyz Drew and TeamGAZ lead rider Bukit. The weather was hot (not warm. Hot.) and muggy, and knowing that it was my first offroad ride in two months meant I wasn’t expecting it to be as fast and flowy as the last time I rode there. But I’d gotten the green light finally, and was itching to ride.

But oh dear God, it sucked.

I mean, really sucked. Actually, it didn’t – *I* did. A single loop of Rosaryville, which two months ago took me about 50 minutes, this time took me over and hour and a half. My slow pace, and repeatedly stopping (to occasionally throw up) while my lungs tried to figure out what the hell was going on, almost doubled my time. That’s two months off a bike, ladies and gentlemen.

Last time, two loops, 1:50, felt great afterwards.
This time, one loop, 1:20 (or something), wanted someone to shoot me in the back of the head afterwards.

Not good. But I have to give props to the guys for reining themselves in and being great (as always) ridemates. I still feel guilty for ballsing up their rides.

Here’s me, courtesy of Drew…

This was capped off by getting home, showering, and hopping on a scale. For the past week, my arse has been on a diet, and I’ve been good about it (apart from Saturday night, when I had Indian food and three beers – which was the cause of the afforementioned hurling). And in addition to dieting, of the past 7 days, I’ve gotten good exercise for five of them (gym twice, ran once, soccer game, ride yesterday). So I was expecting to be down from my hefty 175.

Nope. I’m actually a pound heavier. Very disheartening.

Oh well. Onwards is the only way forward.

Well, two or three weeks since my last post, so I suppose I should do a catchup post. Been absolutely buried at work, with the push for the conference, and then spent all of last week in Seattle working my arse off. Well, not literally, the arse is still there. Along with the gut, and the beginnings of man boobs, triple chins, etc. (Sorry, got on the scale yesterday morning, I now weigh 175lbs. Which is cool if you’re 6′0, not if you’re 5′6.) But back now, and trying to get into the groove of things.

Anyways, aside from a week in Seattle (great town, wish I wasn’t working 14 hours every day I was out there, including July 4) the other big news is that I finally went and did it. Yup, when I returned from Seattle, this was waiting for me:

’twas my second choice behind the On-One, but rapidly improving thanks to the tasty dropout action. And I couldn’t say no to the deal I got: $175 plus shipping from ebay from a bike shop in MO. (Technically it was “used” but was never fully built up so it’s good as new.) Tracee was cool with it, since I lied my arse off about it’s origins (note the subliminal attempt at getting rid of my arse. Again.) My good buddy Bukit had a freelance gig that he needed some Flash help with. Just two hours of work, and I got this as payment for my time. Damn, he’s a nice guy, Trace, isn’t he? And I know we have nowhere to store another bike, but it’s just a frame, so it can sit in the closet.

Of course, just because I promised I wouldn’t build it up, doesn’t mean I won’t start amassing the components for it…

The feet are healed. Unofficially. But I walk on them, I’ve run on them, and there’s no issue. Well, apart from the fact that almost two months off my feet has left my fitness in the toilet, and my buly mass 5lbs heavier. Which is another reason that the singlespeed will stay unbuilt for a while – I could barely handle a geared ride right now.

We fly to CA in less than two weeks, which means I gotta ship my bike out after this weekend if I plan on riding with JB. Which means I got not that long to at least TRY to get back to where I was, let alone to the level I WANTED to be at. It’s gonna be a long summer, but at least this time it seems that Tracee and I are on the same page when it comes to shedding the poundage. It’s on. Oh, it’s on.

That’s it for now. Back to work for me…