Friday, December 19, 2008

 

Dodgy weather has pasted my rear end to the rollers today. The weather forecast calls for snow, so this may be the beginning of a long stretch of indoor riding.

 

 

Saturday, December 20, 2008

 

Today saw a spirited session of schmalz-bata followed by an hour on rollers – all before anyone in the house woke up! I was able to float on a cloud of smug self-satisfaction for the rest of the day. The problem with any sense of satisfaction won through training is that it only lasts 24 hours – like a hearty deodorant.

 

I was also able to get some quality time shoveling snow today. I may be in an obsessive minority here, but, I enjoy many groundskeeper activities. I like cutting grass. I like raking leaves. I like shoveling snow. I enjoy the feeling of setting out to complete a task and then finishing it. Getting things done makes me feel useful and adds purpose to my sometimes directionless days. And no, I won’t come to your house and shovel snow for you; I do it for the love.

 

 

Sunday, December 21, 2008

 

Today was the daunting notion of doing 90 minutes on rollers. I’ve been shoveling snow for two days now, and my body isn’t adapting well to it. My disappointing right shoulder is once again giving me trouble. It’s just not up to the task of a day’s worth of shoveling, and it had me feeling like decrepitude is sneaking up on my aged person. Or I just have the average upper body strength of a normal bike racer – an amount of strength that registers somewhere between “Daisy Scout” and “Timid Librarian”.

 

I found myself a little sore and tired at the beginning of my ride today, so I abandoned plans for kinda hard intervals. I opted instead to keep things interesting and do 10 one-legged pedaling drills – and I did them on rollers – as I have skills. The 90 minutes went as follows: every five minutes I would stand and ride to keep my nether bits from fusing, after that I would do 20 strokes on each leg, and then I would sit and ride again. This, along with watching the Miami Dolphins try to toss away their season by losing to the Chiefs, was enough to stave off dementia. I have no idea what I will do when football season ends – I fear for my sanity.

 

 

Monday, December 22, 2008

 

In the span of a week, it seems the world has frozen over as if attacked by the Snow Miser on a frozen banana daiquiri binge. It pains me to look outside and see the roads frosted over in that special grey white hue brought on by extreme cold and melted road salt. I shudder to imagine the pain that would be brought on if I were to lose my balance and land on that cold, hard ground. 

 

Today I amazed myself and actually went over my goal time of 60 minutes. I did an extra 10 minutes, which in rollers minutes is the same as the length of my entire high school career. I give all the credit to Batman. Specifically, wanting to watch the finish of “The Dark Knight”. I went through a comic nerd stage, so any super hero movies that come out have to eventually be watched, and “Dark Knight” was no exception. It was an enjoyable movie, and that’s all I require of my superhero movies. I’m still waiting on the movie version of “Alpha Flight”, of course. I think Woody Harrelson would make a great Sasquatch! And if you know what “Alpha Flight” is, I’m giving you an e-noogie right now, nerd!

 

 

Wednesday December 24, 2008

 

In anticipation of a two day Christmas celebration binge of eating, drinking and sitting, I got up early to get through a workout of schmalz-bata and then spin some on the rollers. I’ve added some light weight work into my half-assed plyometrics, and today I did the most reprehensible of leg workouts—the lunge. I’m not sure why I bear so much malice towards lunges, as they are very useful; but I do not enjoy them in any way. It’s a hang up I have. I will now just add it to the list, along with my distaste for pleated pants, nuts in baked goods and Aerosmith—seriously, they need to hang it up.

Never has a band with about one and half albums worth of good songs hung around for so long. Love in an elevator? Dear God!

 

Today I also did my 20/10s on the bike also. That means every physical activity of the day was based on intervals of 20 and 10 seconds, I also plan on carrying this sense of timing through the rest of the day, which would double my normal duration for the “McLovin”.