dj whitebread

Saturday, January 03, 2009

Exercise

Had an interesting attempt at exercise today. I didn't rush out the house, and was just planning on doing something easy. I only ended up riding like 13 miles. My rear derailleur was acting funny (good thing I got a new one for Christmas, thanks Mom and Dad!). Though, that isn't really why I stopped. I just wasn't quite feeling it today. But, I decided I needed to do something else, so when I got home I threw on my running shoes and headed out.

The first kilometer was fine, and I even stretched a little bit at the light. But about a block or two later my shins were just on fire with every step. I tried to walk a little bit and start again, but it was the same problem.

I took a short cut home walking and running a little, but it was definitely not the run I had envisioned. It really wasn't any of the exercise I envisioned.

Carrie did her 30K benchmark run today with AustinFit. I knew she would be napping in the afternoon, so I headed over to Thunderbird to get a little work done. Then when I got home I replaced the left tail light/blinker on the truck.

All in all, a pretty useful day. If it was just about 15 degrees cooler! 85 is too warm for January!

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6:55 PM |

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Windy ride

We did make it out to the bike ride today. Ended up doing 38.5 miles. Going out 360 was pretty windy. We took a little deviation that I had never done before. We took a right turn off of Bee Caves that ran us down a curvy rode to the river. It was fun to go down hill around the turns, but I must admit, I was holding back some because I had never been there before and it was hard to see cars around several of them. Then we were rewarded with a climb back out to Bee Caves. Luckily once we got back on 360 we had a tail wind to blow us home. I knew when I limped up the short hill at the arboretum just slowly stomping up it that my legs were done. If only I could go on rides like that a little more consistently.

I am bringing the bike home, so I'm looking forward to a few rides then.

We went to the Brazilian place by our house tonight. We haven't been a long while. Both of our entrees were quite tasty. The appetizer was as well. They seemed to have stayed a nice level of quality. The mojito wasn't too shabby either.

Tomorrow the countertop people show up to put the edges on. With that, the remodeling is done. We bought a new shower liner and hooks tonight at Target, so I'm looking forward to actually taking a shower in the master bathroom tomorrow. I don't remember when we found out that our tub was leaking... I just remember Carrie's parents were staying with us. Needless to say, it's been a while.

Well, I'm pretty tired. Pierre and I took a decently long nap this afternoon on the sofa, but I'm feeling tired again. I think my body is in shock from the exercise. I hope everybody had a good weekend.

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11:51 PM |

Friday, December 12, 2008

Back in Town

It's again nice to be back in Austin. I'm at work today, and looking forward to diving into things after I get back from lunch. As a quick follow up to the comments from the previous post, I will hopefully be posting pictures of the remodeling soon.

It's cool and clear in Austin today... really a beautiful day. It would really be a great day for a bike ride. I really need to get back on that. My lack of aerobic exercise lately is depressing. The effects are pretty obvious. It is frustrating to watch several of my friends be able to eat/drink whatever they want and stay thin. I just can't do that. Without consistent, decently intense exercise, I just balloon. I like food way too much.

I need to create a Christmas list. I'm really at a loss for things to ask for this year. I don't remember ever having a year where I really just felt so non-chalant about wanting stuff. There are a few things for my bike that I could use. My poor bike... it's so neglected these days.

I really do whine a lot about being out of shape. That must get really old... I'll try and cut that out in the future.

Should I bring the bike home for Christmas? We've considered going and getting a rack installed on the Accord. I'm officially soliciting opinions from interested parties.

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12:00 PM |

Monday, September 15, 2008

Fall?

The weather here is supposed to be pretty nice this week. No 90s all week, temperatures in the 60s in the morning. I'm pretty thrilled.

I went for a bike ride yesterday. That was an interesting experience... that first time you really get back on the bike after a long absence is always weird. Not only do your legs get tired, you feel fatigued in weird ways because you just aren't used to riding a bike anymore. Hip flexers, hamstrings, back. Just odd feelings. By the end of the ride it was pretty warm, so I think I'm still somewhat dehydrated. It was a nice ride though.

There are certain things around town that I've ridden so many times that I can use them to gauge my relative fitness. Getting up the Far West pedestrian bridge is one of those things. When I've been more in shape, getting up it is not even really a concern. I stay in a decent gear and just push right up. When I'm out of shape (like yesterday) I have to drop it into the 23 really early and just slowly grind up. It's amusing how these little tests crop up. Going up a little bit of 360 yesterday I was going so slowly up the hills. I had neither power nor aerobic fitness, so I was just slowly turning the pedals in my easiest gear. I couldn't push even if I had wanted to.

The nice thing about bike riding is how much just being consistent will make you stronger. You don't really have to do anything too crazy... it's just about making getting on your bike a habit. I'm really hoping to get that going. Though, I know I sound like a broken record some times. I'm enjoying the strength routine that I'm doing at the gym, and I just hope to get my aerobic fitness back on track by consistent cycling.

For those who love fresh mozzarella.

Okay... have a good week everybody!

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10:05 AM |

Friday, May 30, 2008

Swimming

So I think I'm embracing this swimming thing. I did 5x200 yesterday (with some warm up and cool down) in the pool, and then went for a 35 minute run around the lake.

I felt really good in the pool... I still have a long way to go, but I'm actually feeling comfortable. I could have done larger clumps than 200m at a time, but 200 seemed a nice balance between continuous swimming and not totally pushing myself too far. I felt good running, and for the last five minutes I really pushed, but my average pace was just 10:45 a mile! Bleh... I'm apparently still way slow at running. I guess I'll have to actually do some speed work during the summer to get my running pace down considerably.

I've done very minimal riding lately... about one ride a week. Carrie and I are heading to the Real-Ale ride tomorrow morning, and I'm just going to do the 30 mile route so that we don't spend too much time out in Blanco. I've been getting in exercise pretty consistently, just not necessarily bike riding. If I really do go forward this half-ironman, I definitely will not get to spend as much time on the bike as I would have just doing cycling, but the half-ironman seems like a challenge who's training I can more easily fit into my schedule.

There are going to be a pair of high-quality crits coming up in Austin in June. I doubt I will be in shape enough on the bike to do them. While the race on Saturday will be in downtown and is a NRC race so will have a lot of the top domestic crit racers showing up (and the entry price is high), the one on Sunday is literally a mile from our house and is significantly cheaper. I may just have to do that one on principle, but I have to try and get a little crit training in before then.

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3:56 PM |

Thursday, May 29, 2008

What's going on

Let's see. We had a fun-filled Memorial day weekend. Saw Indiana Jones... I sort of share Chad's thoughts. The one point I wanted to make was that the writing, I felt, had that same wittiness that the older movies had. That is something I was very excited to see.

Earlier this week Carrie and I went for a swim in the lake at the gym. We were going to swim in the pool, but it was full, so we decided, heck, let's just swim in the lake, that's what it's there for, right? I was little nervous and I wasn't sure how far I was going to be able to go. The loop around the lake is 750 meters, and I didn't think I would be able to pull that off. But I made it to the first buoy and felt really good. So we kept going... I took a few short breast stroke breaks, but I've never swam so consistently and felt so comfortable swimming as I did then. Towards the end a rainstorm showed up, and we got some practicing swimming with little waves splashing us while we tried to breathe. But it was a pretty cool experience... it was the first time that I felt that maybe I could do this half-ironman in October. So yeah... I think I'm going to sign up for the Longhorn. Any other takers?

I've been using the past three weeks to try and recover some from the OSDI push. However, I know that is now time to get back to it for the final push for my dissertation and defense. It's just so consuming... it's sort of hard to get back into it, but this is the final push for my degree, and I have to get it done.

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1:36 PM |

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

A day late

We had a great trip home. I got to ride with David, see David, Amy, Charlotte, and Ryan, and eat some boiled crawfish (thanks Alexanders!) on Thursday.

Friday I saw my grandparents and had lunch at Jay's Barbecue. Tastes exactly the same. I then headed down to New Orleans, picked up Carrie at the airport, and we met up with the LaBordes. We spent a wonderful, relaxed evening at the Lara's and got to see baby Bayona.

Saturday was a delicious lunch at Bayona (the restaurant) and Diego and Anna's medical school graduation. It was interesting to be back on Tulane's campus. The new University Center is really nice. The weird thing is that it's not that different of a floor plan. It was messing with my head some. I spent so much of my time at Tulane in the basement of that building working on the newspaper that it's odd to see the building look so different, but yet very similar.

After graduation we chilled out for a little bit and then hopped around several different bars relaxing and talking with the Laras and other assorted friends of theirs. It was a good time.

Sunday we headed to Baton Rouge, had a nice lunch with Carrie's parents and our nephew Travis and then (after I took a little nap) got on the road and headed back to Austin. The trip was uneventful, which is the way we like them.

I'm looking forward to a few uneventful weeks in Austin before we head to New Jersey for Meg and Harry's wedding. Memorial day weekend and a visit from my parents will be nice. I'm also looking forward to consistent bike riding once again.

I'm excited about the work left to finish everything. I turned in my first form for graduation yesterday... it's one of many. I'm going to start the scheduling dance today. Let the final trek begin...

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12:03 PM |

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

To Catch Up

Last Thursday when I posted seems like eons ago.

We did officially pull the paper. I was okay with that... the results just weren't happening. Friday I ended up not getting a chance to swim or bike, so I went into the triathlon on Saturday not having swam since last summer.

However, before that, we went to the ballet on Friday night. We got to enjoy the new Long Center for the Performing Arts as this was the ballet's first performance there. Very nice place, it is going to make a wonderful home for the arts in Austin. The symphony performed the music live, which was a nice touch. Don Quixote featured a large amount of point work, and it was pretty amazing to watch the women stay up on their toes like that for so long. The lead female dancer of the performance put on an amazing show of dancing; it was truly impressive.

Saturday morning was the triathlon. Basically, it went as well as could be expected for not exercising for two weeks and doing absolutely no running or swimming training. I felt really good on the bike, I could have pushed harder, but I was nervous about the run. I was also probably using way too big of a gear the entire ride. I forget that you really want to push an easier gear at a much higher cadence to keep the legs fresh for the run. The run was the most absurd two miles I've ever done. I felt like an old man just shuffling along. My body just did not want to run at that point. Oh, and the swim. Yeah... let's move on. We both finished and got it done, so it was nice to get that done and on the books. I definitely want to do several more this summer... I really want to do a triathlon where I actually swim the entire distance.

Harry's bachelor was party on Saturday night. The highlight was probably our time at the shooting range. I rented a .45 caliber Glock... that was fun to shoot. Overall we had a great time, though the giant meal of heavy, Salt Lick barbecue was a little much in retrospect. Sunday we ended the weekend with a showing of Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. Crude, ridiculous, and very silly... but I laughed the entire time.

I'm leaving for Baton Rouge early on Thursday morning so that I can make it there in time to do the Tuesday/Thursday training race out on river road. I really would like to get on the bike today or tomorrow to try and get some work in the legs so that it isn't a total shock come Thursday. I would at least like to postpone the inevitable drop for a little while.

The Giro is in full swing. So far it's been a good tour, though it's always sad to see so many guys break their collarbones so early. However, my fantasy team member Mark Cavendish took a crazy sprint today to bring me some quality points. He has made it clear that he may not stay in the Giro through the mountains to contest the later sprint stages. Hmmm, here's hoping he feels good and decides to stay in.

So the paper deadline has come and gone. It is sinking in that the next deadline in front of me is that of my dissertation. Finally, it has all come down to this. It's kind of crazy... to think this thing you've been thinking about for so long has finally arrived. There is a lot of work to be done, though, so I really need to stay pretty focused from here on out.

I hope everybody has a good week.

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2:44 PM |

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Recovering

I wanted to go for a ride yesterday, but as I was just riding my bike from the shop up to the truck, my legs (specifically my quads) felt completely sore and tired. So, I decided another day of rest and another full night of sleep would be a good thing. I do plan on going for a ride tonight, however, and I'm going to ride down to the crit tomorrow and get dropped in the 3/4 race. ;) They are actually hosting a crit skills clinic, so I hope that I can do that as well. I'm confused about the timing of the clinic, but hopefully it will all make sense once we get out there.

This weekend is Texas State's race weekend. I plan on skipping the short hill-climb time-trial in the morning and heading down Saturday afternoon for the crit and Sunday morning for the road race. The nice thing is with being in San Marcos I should still be able to get some work in both days as well as race.

I'm having a hard time getting stuff done the past few days. I'm really going to make an effort to get through what I need to get through today, so I can get back to building features.

Happy hump day.

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10:27 AM |

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Tired Legs

I went for a recovery ride yesterday. My legs still felt a little sore today when I was walking around. However, it wasn't until I really went out to train today that I realized... my legs were tired.

This weekend was probably the hardest I've pushed my legs since Cheaha last May. It was an awesome weekend, but I was still feeling it. I actually had a hard time getting my heart rate up... that's not something I've actually experienced in the past. So tomorrow I'm taking a day off completely from the bike. I really wanted to ride M-Th this week, but with the long ride coming up this weekend, and I really want to do the crit on Thursday, I'm going to give my legs a total rest day to strengthen up.

Oh, and I forgot something on the want to buy album list, the new CD from the Raconteurs.

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10:07 PM |

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Work and bike

That's mainly been my focus since I've returned. Went for a ride on Monday, went to the MS150 logistics meeting at NI on Tuesday, and tonight I went for a ride and then attended the cycling club meeting regarding this weekend's race.

In between that has been work and limited time at home, which is unfortunate as I have a lovely, beautiful wife. I was able to cook supper tonight though, even though it was a bit rushed. I poached some fresh redfish in a white wine broth with mushrooms, broccoli, and roasted red peppers. We had that with some toasted Israeli couscous (the fat kind) that was cooked with some vegetable broth and spiced up with a little Tony's. I remembered that I actually bought the mushrooms for tomorrow's night supper. I guess I will pick some up tomorrow. The couscous could have been better, but like I said, I got all of that together pretty quickly so I didn't really have much time to think it all through.

I'm planning on doing a roasted chicken atop tagliatelle with mushrooms and leeks. I'm excited. The tagliatelle sauce is inspired by a Jamie Olliver show I caught recently. However, will be leaving out all the butter. ;)

Back to the bike, I'm feeling good. I went rode my hilly ride today, starting at campus, and I was able to push myself more than I expected. It's all about embracing pain... that's what I've realized. When it hurts keep pushing, your body will most likely keep on giving. I'm not talking about the kind of pain you get when something is messed up, I'm talking about the tired, I think I might vomit pain. That can be pushed through. I still have eons to go before I would call myself in shape, but I'm slowly feeling better and starting to realize that I may be able to get there one day.

As for school, the work is progressing. I've been productive this week. I'm just worried that I'm going to run out of time. I really need to get certain features implemented and ready to go by the end of the weekend. I have other stuff to work on.

Thanks again to all who have donated!

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10:25 PM |

Monday, March 31, 2008

The knee seems fine

So there are like 10 people (maybe) to whom this post will actually mean anything. The weird knee issues I felt on Easter weekend seem to have gone away; I believe the week off the bike helped that out. I went out this evening and threw in several different types of load on the legs (hills, out of the saddle, short sprints, consistent efforts, etc.) and never felt the weird pinch. I was very glad about this and hope the sensation continues to stay away.

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9:53 PM |

Monday, March 17, 2008

I finally earned the view

Or how I had forgotten just how steep Ladera Norte is.

Today I decided to go ride my close-in hill ride. It features three hill climbs that are all very close to where we live: Mt. Bonnell, Mesa (which climbs up Cat Mountain), and Ladera Norte. I got up the first two. I had done Mesa last week, and it was that day when I really started to convince myself that I could possibly be a cyclist again. So all that was left was Ladera Norte.

I started strong. Then it started to really fight back. I looked down at my computer and my heart rate was going steadily up and my speed was going steadily down. I started to feel my front wheel come off the ground on each pedal stroke. At this point I was going 3.8 mph... so while I wasn't going to fly up it I was determined to finish it. The way the climb works it's pretty steady for a while, and then there is a flat, followed by a short little wall to finish it out. I got to the flat. The little wall you can't spin up; you have to get out of the saddle and just push yourself over (not that I was doing much spinning at 3.8 mph). I got to the wall and tried to stay seated, but it eventually I had to get up. There's about 1-2 seconds where it feels a little bit better, then it feels much worse. I got through the worst of it, sat down and got to the stop sign. After rolling down the street a bit, I turned around and came back to enjoy the view that I had been enjoying for the last several weeks. But this time, I earned it, and man, did that feel really good.

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7:46 PM |

Weekend recap

It was a very nice weekend.

Friday night we met up with Dot and Jerry for some Suzi's, and the rice was a nice dose of carbs to help take on the bike ride we were planning on Saturday morning.

We headed over to Johanna's house for the ride, and I ended up riding with Dan and his friend Carl. We got a nice metric century in. It had been a long time since I had done a ride like that. My legs felt tired at the end, but not dead. They were still giving me juice when I asked for it, even right at the end. It was pretty windy, and we had a headwind section after we took a convenience store break in Manor that was brutal. Overall I felt good; I think things are slowly but surely coming back.

After Carrie and Johanna finished up their ride Carrie and I rushed home, got cleaned up and headed off to the surprise destination for our anniversary celebration. Turns out, Carrie had booked us tickets for the "Vanishing Texas Rivers" boat tour, which was very interesting and quite beautiful. The weather was perfect for it. After the boat cruise, we headed over to the Horseshoe Bay resort where we had a room for the evening. Carrie had also made reservations at Cafe 909, a cozy little fine-dining place right in the middle of the classic little Marble Falls downtown.

The food was remarkable. We ordered a bottle of Pinot Grigio from Flat Creek, one of the wineries we visited in the Fall (points for stocking hill-country wine) and he actually let us taste some before he opened a bottle for us since that year apparently came out different than your average Pinot Grigio. We both loved it, and told him we'd take it. (Points for knowing the wine you sell and having apparently personal relationship with the local vineyards... and this was just the waiter!) It was a very light flavor, but nicely fruity, not sweet, and amazingly drinkable. Neither of had had a proper lunch after riding, so when hey brought out the homemade bread, we tore through it. For starters, I ordered the asparagus soup that was topped with white asparagus slices, lump crab meet, heirloom tomato, and crème fraîche. Carrie had the seared tuna with citrus and mixed greens. Both were delicious. For our entrées I had a trout with brown-butter sauce with spinach and fingerling potatoes in a grain-mustard dressing and Carrie had the salmon. They were both delicious, and the bed of creamy, cheesy polenta under Carrie's salmon was quite tasty. The desserts were also good, a panna cotta with a rhubarb sauce and a chocolate torte with grapefruit sorbet, fresh citrus, and pink peppercorns.

Turns out this place has made its way onto several top-10 lists in Austin. Pretty good for a little place an hour away in Marble Falls! I would drive to Marble Falls to go back to this place in a heart beat.

Saturday we made a visit to the Longhorn caverns. That was a lot of fun, I hadn't been on a cave tour in many, many years. It's always amazing what nature can do. Then after a quick drive to the Buchanan dam, we headed back into Austin just in time to catch evening Palm Sunday mass.

It was a great weekend and I thank my wife for planning it all. She's very good at planning things of this nature. :-D

Looking forward, lots of work to get done this week. We are going to head up to Dallas for Easter to see family, so that is cool. We are bringing the bikes, as we both need to get in a ride Saturday morning. I pretty much need to ride every day this week as I doubt I'll get any done on Easter and I also took yesterday off. I'm really shooting for 5-6 days a week at least through the end of April. (The first 8 days of May are going to be insane with the OSDI deadline on May 8th.)

I have really regained my passion for riding my bike. I just love it again. Unfortunately, I think my drive train is about to fall apart. Though, I did find somebody who can fix my Circuits and deal with their stupid double-threaded spokes.

Okay, time to work. Happy St. Patrick's day!

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12:47 PM |

Thursday, March 06, 2008

A few things

Did the pedal through the pines on Saturday. I rode the 50-mile route (actually just like 47). I went out like I had the fitness I had last year at this event. At the half-way point my legs were dead. Luckily, we had a tail-wind for the last 10 miles or so. That helped a lot. It was fun to be on the bike though. I am really looking forward to the time change this weekend as it will make riding during the week that much easier. This week also has had several things going on at night that is keeping me from attending the spin classes at the gym. And 6 AM is really early, so I haven't been able to make it to the gym for those.

One of those things that went on this week was the caucus. I went to our local polling place to caucus. It was interesting. It was also highly disorganized. They really had no idea what to do as the turnout was huge. Apparently, it was somewhat of a record turnout. While it was kind of crazy, it was interesting to take part in our election process in a way that I have never seen before.

I hope to get some good miles in this weekend. The weekends get busier as the month goes on, so I need to get as much distance in as I can.

Oh yeah, I also have a ton of work to do.

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10:21 AM |

Monday, February 25, 2008

Riding your bike is fun!

This weekend there a sharp increase in bike riding in our household. Even Pierre got in on the action. Okay, kidding about that. Anyway, Carrie and I both put in some decent time on the bike. On Saturday morning, we met up with another couple and headed down 360. I was really proud of Carrie for making it up and down that route... it has some pretty significant climbs on it. I was really slow up the hills, but I made it through all 33 miles just fine. Sunday morning, we went on different rides. I did 32 miles out east and Carrie met up with a friend to head up Parmer to Leander. My legs feel pretty spent today... I haven't ridden two days in a row since May or June. Yeah, wow. However, there was some point yesterday while I was riding where I really started to remember why I like riding my bike so much. It was a good feeling. This Saturday is the Pedal Through the Pines, the ride that made Jeff C. so angry that he came back a month and a half later with some much improved climbing legs. I am doing the 50-mile route. I hope to get on the bike (or at least to spin class) several times this week to continue to keep my legs and bottom used to being on the bike.

Went over to the Bircher's last night for the Oscars. It was fun, yummy food and good company, and that show on TV with the little shiny, gold statues. I was actually surprised at some of the awards (not that I've seen really any of the movies ;) ).

There are two weeks left to this fitness challenge that Carrie and I are doing. While it is setting some good habits, I get frustrated sometimes with the point structure. But, I believe that I'm on target point-wise to succeed.

On the work front I have a lot to do. But I won't bore you with the details.

I hope the week is starting well for everybody.

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1:00 PM |

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Back in the saddle

Went for a nice ride today with Allen and Nathalie. Nathalie got some practice with the clipless pedals, and it was nice to get back on the bike for me. We did an easy 23 miles; it was nice to spin the legs.

Carrie and I went to Zocalo again last night. It was very yummy again. Next person/people who visit us I think a trip there is definitely on the agenda.

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1:43 PM |

Thursday, November 08, 2007

Thursday

Been trying to ride consistently. Went for a nice ride yesterday... though, going up the hills seems to be spiking my heart rate much more than everybody else in the group. That's not good. I think a large part of that is I weigh 204lbs right now... Thats's 20 lbs more than I did when we went to Cheaha in May. Bad. I have to get my weight down...

I also broke a spoke on Sunday. That really hacked me off. We were 45 minutes into the ride, I was feeling really good, and all of a sudden, "dank, dank, dank, dank..." We had just hit some potholes where both of my bottles flew out (one of them ended up in an irretrievable spot, so I had just lost a bottle). Luckily, Carrie was home and she came and picked me up because I was not looking forward to an hour's ride back by myself with my back rim rubbing against the brake.

My friend Allen from our research group has joined the cycling team, so I am hoping we can push each other to get out and ride consistently. The team seems to be doing a better job of having consistent group rides this year, too. That's nice.

So what else is going on... this week is Wurstfest. Wir haben eine Menge Leute, die in Stadt kommen. Wilkommen!

I am trying to submit a paper next Thursday. Yeah, I know, it's crazy.

I think the previous post broke the djwb comment record.

Okay... the week's more than half way done. Everybody hang in there.

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8:39 AM |

Friday, November 02, 2007

Sleep

I have had weird sleep issues. I am having a really hard time going to sleep before midnight, and I am also having a hard time waking up at a decent time in the morning. If I try to go to bed early and I just lay in bed for over an hour. The mornings have been killer; I just cannot get out of bed. I feel so tired. The one night that I was able to fall right asleep was Wednesday night... I had gone for a bike ride that afternoon, and that definitely seemed to help. Maybe I just need to go ride my bike every day.

I'm assuming we are having our weekly bike ride tomorrow morning. It will be nice to get 40 or so miles in. I also plan on finishing up the tub caulking tomorrow. Then there is the LSU vs. Alabama football game... a definite must see.

I don't get super excited about NFL games very often, but this week's Patriots vs. Colts game has really caught my interest. These are really the two best teams in the league, and it will be fun to watch them go head to head. I am going to try and make a point on Sunday to sit down and watch this one in its entirety.

Maybe I will try and sneak in a shorter bike ride on Sunday... just some easy spinning or something. I really want to make sure I get a good base fitness down for the Spring road season (which in Texas starts in early February).

I hope everybody's Friday has treated them well.

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3:53 PM |

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Maru and Amy's

While Carrie and I didn't do anything very Halloween specific tonight (though Carrie did dress up as a farmer for work today, it was a well done costume), we did have a nice evening.

We went to our local sushi place, Maru, and enjoyed their quality fare. We tried the seaweed salad for the first time, and it was quite delicious. Their miso soup is fantastic... I know that is a pretty basic thing, but they really do it well. The tamago was very well done, the eggs were firm but velvety and it had the requisite subtle sweetness. The three rolls we got were all top notch. Their prices aren't cheap, but they just give you so much fish with each roll, it really works out in the end.

After that we drove up Burnet a few blocks and hit the Amy's. I hadn't had Amy's ice cream in so long. It was delicious as usual.

Watched a few shows on the DVR, and now we're waiting on a cake to finish baking so we can go to sleep. A good bike ride and a full tummy... I feel a quality night's sleep coming on.

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10:44 PM |

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Many things

We are in Baton Rouge for the upcoming wedding of Maureen and Greg. I am excited; it should be fun as lots of people are coming into town for said wedding. Always nice to see friends.

The Tour continues to have it's issues. I just knew something was going to go down with Rasmussen. It seemed like every day his story got sketchier and sketchier. I do like all three of the people now in the lead though, so hopefully one of them will make it happen. Cadel and Levi are pretty decent time trialists, so I'm curious to see how well Contador can do, and if he can hang on.

While it is annoying that there are still cheaters to catch, I do think it is good that people are getting caught. I am also glad that the riders seem to be actively speaking out against everything. It isn't just, "I don't dope, leave me alone." Now there actually seems to be a dislike of the practice and the people who do it.

Tom Boonen gave me another reason to think he is awesome. Check out this quote:

Vino is a dirty cheat who they ought to suspend for his lifetime. He is causing immense damage to everyone. There are so many teams in search of a new sponsor. This case will not make it easier.

Tornado Tom does not mince words; awesome.

On the work front I'm trying to finish up some stuff to send off to Harrick today. My inlaws now have a wireless router, so that makes working from the house a lot more feasible. We will be heading out to Hawaii in two weeks from tomorrow. Pretty crazy. I still need to do my talk!

There were several things that occurred that I did not blog about. I went down to San Antonio to compete in an autocross event again, but this time I brought the Accord and raced it. It was a lot of fun, but I still have much improving to do.

We went to Merri Su and Brian's wedding. It was a very nice affair in the hill country.

Carrie and I saw Harry Potter and Ocean's 13 one weekend. I immensely enjoyed both movies, but I a sucker for both of those franchises.

On the subject of the HP, Carrie and I went get a book on Friday night, and she finished on Saturday night. I have yet to start the book, so I am eagerly awaiting starting it and quickly finishing it when I get back to Austin.

I really need to start riding my bike again. I know I sound like a broken record, but it's getting out of hand. With the upcoming trip to Hawaii and the associated work with that, it is going to be tough to make myself schedule the time for riding. But, those are all just excuses. If I really want to do it there should be no reason why I can't.

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10:17 AM |

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

French Toast

Made French Toast for breakfast. It was good, albeit a tad bit heavy. I was going to use the leftover French bread we had, but it had turned a tad bit hard. One would think that would be good... except that it was so brittle it shattered as I tried to slice it. Oh well... the Health Nut worked out well.

The autocross on Sunday was a blast. I improved as the day went on. I had a few spinouts, but that's all part of the learning process. I got 4th out of the 7 novices. Not too bad for my first time out, if I do say so myself. A guy in a Yaris beat me... but since he had taken his back seat out his time got a harder normalization factor than me. I hope to get the Accord back today, so come July 8th I'm going to give driving that a try.

I am having a very hard time debugging my code at the moment. I'm getting a segmentation fault, and I have absolutely no idea what could be causing it. This is why parallel programming is hard. Concurrency does weird stuff.

I keep wimping out on the Tuesday Nighter. I am not sure what it is... I just don't feel fast right now. I don't know... I think I am going to go swimming.

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11:43 AM |

Friday, June 15, 2007

Over a week

Hate it when that happens...

So I decided that I'm not burnt out on bike racing. I am burnt out on getting destroyed at the very beginning of a race. It is hard to motivate myself to train by myself for what seems like an inevitable ass kicking. Yes, I know training more would help that, but I feel like there is such a huge gap to cross.

So I've taken this opportunity to start getting my triathlon skills in order. Namely, running and swimming more. I still love to ride my bike, and I still love to race, but I want to not think about bike racing for a little bit. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that. There are several good tris in the summer, and this year I want to actually not look handicapped in the water. I know I will never be a *fast* runner, but I also would like to get myself out of the slow category. Working on the bike is the easy part.

Work is going okay.

I went to the autocross even with Jerry and some other people last Sunday. It was a lot of fun to ride along with everybody. We are planning on going down to San Antonio this weekend to the one there, and I am planning on driving. I was going to try out the Accord, but it is still in the shop, so I am going to drive Jerry's Miata. There is chance of rain, so people are all worried, but hey, it will be more interesting that way. ;)

I cooked red beans and rice on Tuesday for my school people. The andouille I used came from this place outside of Lafayette where Jeff Courville and I had stopped to pick up boudin. It was quite spicy. It really spiced up the red beans. I liked it, and the other people seemed to as well.

Oh well, enjoy the weekend.

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11:29 AM |

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Cheaha Prelude

The trip to Cheaha was a lot of fun. I decided to break the whole thing down into a few blog posts, in attempt to not give everybody another monster post.

So Baton Rouge. We were really only going to be there two days. We got in way late on Wednesday night and headed straight to sleep. Thursday, after sleeping late we had some sandwiches and I got ready to head out to the River Road training race. I showed up, got ready to go, and we headed out. David hung back with me in the B group. I was feeling really good, and we started rotating around. The funny thing, as I soon realized, was that in Baton Rouge the slow people are still fast. They're just a little bit slower (and apparently there is less attacking) than the fast group.

Anyway, I got left out front by somebody who didn't want to rotate properly and then a poorly timed acceleration left me struggling to hold on. I tried to time trial back on the group but to no avail. I stayed with some guys for awhile, but eventually I realized I wasn't going to be able to do the entire length of the ride at this speed. I turned around in an effort to catch David on the way back.

Amusingly enough, I hit the split right as he did. We rolled along at a conversational 20 mph for a while until we got caught from behind. At some point David and I had a gap and then we got caught. Near the end David decided to kick it up a little and I fought hard to just stay on his wheel. I eventually had to drop off, but it turns out it really wasn't very far to the end... I should have tried to hold on a little bit longer.

All in all it was fun and a good workout. I went home and ate two plates of pork loin and rice and gravy.

Friday I got up and switched out my cassette on the bike to put my "climbing cassette" on. I also cleaned/relubed the bike to get it ready for Sunday. After some yummy crawfish stew for lunch and showers, Carrie and I headed out to see my grandparents. We headed out from there to David's pre-Cheaha pizza party.

Ryan is hilarious... he talks so much! It was great to see everybody and spend some time with family.

We left finalizing the plans for Saturday morning's trip to Alabama. Time to get some sleep, Alabama awaited!

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2:24 PM |

Sunday, April 22, 2007

No posts...

I hate it when I don't post for an entire week.

So what happened with Harrick? I realized that I hadn't actually put that up on my blog. Apologies for anybody who was looking for it. The basic story is that he has asked for another year extension to his leave, and we have no reason to think the University won't give it to him. So what does this mean for me?

While I wish that he was coming back now, we had a good, long meeting and came up with several concrete things to help the distance issue and to help progress occur. I'm happy with the overall outcome, even though it would obviously be better if he were here.

As for the rest of the week, got a few rides in, played some WoW, got my butt kicked at the Thursday night crits. I hung on for several laps, and we weren't necessarily going slowly.

On Friday Anna and Jeff came in from Houston. Jeff and I suited up and headed out to start our little Cheaha mini-camp. On the menu for Friday was a 50 mile jaunt out west into the hill country. Let me put it this way, Jeff has definitely been on his bike a good bit. When we started climbing out from the river he rode away from me like it was nothing. I felt odd the whole ride. Some hills I felt really strong and could power up them, other hills I felt like my legs were rubber. We had some decent headwind going up most of the tougher hills, but that's not a valid excuse. Both times we stopped my stomach started cramping up on me. By the time we were riding down Shoal Creek and almost home I felt like I was going to throw up, and just felt exhausted all over.

Long story short, I don't think I had enough calories and I think I let myself get dehydrated. After supper (and lots of water) I felt remarkably better.

Saturday we headed out again for a much shorter ride, what I like to call my local Ride O'Pain. It's just a 17 mile loop, but it climbs up three nasty little hills all within the local neighborhoods. Mt. Bonnel, Mesa Dr.(which is technically Cat Mountain), and Ladera Norte. I had taken Jeff on this ride I think last August or September and he has wanted to come back and try it again ever since. Ladera Norte is really the one that hurts... it gets really steep. It's also the longest. Well, we made it up all three. Ladera Norte got a little rough for me towards the end; I will definitely be changing out cassettes to the 12/25 for Cheaha.

After a lazy afternoon yesterday after Jeff and Anna departed, Carrie and I headed over to my friend Jeff's to eat fajitas with him and Harry and Meg. We then headed over to the Alamo Village to catch Blades of Glory. I laughed a lot, but it's Will Ferrell, so I'm not really an objective judge.

Today I decided to come into work since I didn't really get anything done on Friday. Time to code... yay coding. However, I'm still in the stage where I'm just laying down lots of foundation code... so it's still kind of mundane. Pretty soon, I'll start getting into the meat of things.

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12:38 PM |

Friday, April 13, 2007

Weird week

Knowing that Harrick was coming in this evening and brining with him some kind of decision has kind of put an odd light on the whole week.

I gave a presentation on Wednesday on my work to the group. It went okay... mainly it gave me lots of feedback to help improve further versions of the talk, namely, my proposal.

This weekend is our race weekend. I'm excited on the one hand. On the other hand, I'm feeling somewhat not motivated. I don't know what it is... I want the team to do well, obviously, but I just question my effectiveness. On Sunday we aren't starting with the women's Bs, and that has really been my main contribution so far this season: helping the women. My main hope is to do well at the crit and hold on during the road race. We'll see how all of this goes.

I mean, the main reason behind this is my lack of training. I'm still really excited about Cheaha, it's the racing that I'm feeling a little burnt out about. I think mainly I'm tired of having to do most of my training alone. I think once I start getting to go to the crits every week again that will help. Maybe I need to start attending some of the other rides around town like the Tuesday nighter and the ATC hammer fest.

Mainly, I just want to know if I'm going to have an advisor.

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10:33 PM |

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Paper done

We got the paper submitted. That's good. We'll know about the status on May 1st.

So I'm trying to hit level 70 right now in WoW. This is the highest level you can be, and I'm just tired of not being there. I hit 69 last night, so it shouldn't be much longer.

I'm going to go for a ride today to test out a few things: 1) my shoulder, 2) my new shoes, and 3) my back. My shoulder feels a lot better, but it doesn't feel quite back to normal, and I have had a goofy upper back cramp on and off for the past few days. I got my shoes the other week, but didn't have time to try them out before Wichita Falls.

Our race is the weekend after Easter. We will be using the Thursday night crit course for our crit and Pace Bend for our road race... it should be a good weekend of racing. The race I missed on Sunday sounded pretty brutal as it got pretty warm and the gravel proved for interesting racing, as predicted. I wish I could have been there.

Oh well, I hope everybody is having a good week so far.

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1:56 PM |

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Kudos

I want to give an awesome thank you to AustinBikes. It is a small, two-person bike shop on the drag. They also have a cat named Leo. But the big point here is that they fixed my bike. And they fixed it well. Turns out there were a multitude of problems, some which started right after I bought the bike. After fixing the issues, and a shifter cable and housing replacement, my bike was good to go, and let me say, it hasn't shifted this crisply in a long time. I will probably throw my new tires on it before this weekend's 50 mile charity ride that Jeff C. and I are doing.

I went out and did some repeats up Mesa yesterday. Again, the bike behaved beautifully. One thing I noticed is when I'm trying to climb more quickly, I start to just hurt all over. But the interesting is that my heart rate is still low, in a range that I would never be concerned about. So I'm assuming this just means that my legs are too weak. While my heart isn't having issues, my leg muscles aren't able to output the necessary power aerobically. Of course, I'm totally making things up here. If anybody has any ideas please comment.

Today I hope to pull off a recovery ride around Shoal Creek just to spin the legs out. I'm really going to make an effort to get in a lot of bike time (smartly) over the next two months. I want to do well in the upcoming collegiate races and I want to do well at Cheaha.

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9:19 AM |

Monday, February 19, 2007

So that's what racing feels like

Sunday's road race was by far my best race ever.

No, I didn't finish with the group. But I made it 32/36 miles. Well, I'll tell the entire story.

The race started out slowly. Two of our guys decided to speed it up, and Aggie went with them, 3 on 2. I decided to jump on, and before we knew it, there were 7 of us (a UofH rider had also jumped in). We started rotating through a double pace line and had a good gap. There was some disagreement in the group over whether or not the break would stick, blah blah blah. The net result was that we did eventually get caught. I was very curious who was working to pull us back as we had good representation in the group. I knew none of our guys were that dumb. Turns out the entire Baylor team came to the front to pull us back. So we got caught, but nobody really saw Baylor again, so the break was successful in my book.

The rest of the first loop was pretty uninteresting. Well there was a crash, but that was behind me, so I didn't see any of it. Aggie had it in there head today that they were going to set the pace, and had a protestant work ethic going in terms of pulling. We were okay to let them.

So for the most part, the course was pretty flat. There were some small to intermediate rollers on the back side, and there was a large climb about 1.5 mile before the finish, and then it was mostly downhill to the finish. So coming into the large hill on the first lap, there is a decent stretch of downhill. I decided to attack. I took off and first time I looked back there was a gap. Ha, I'd never had that happen before. This whole plan was to make sure I was able to start the hill before everybody else. And, I couldn't believe it, it worked. I finished the hill in the middle of the pack and was able to easily move back up with the downhill section after the hill.

The second lap was pretty non-eventful. Right before the big climb I moved up to the front so that I could slide back during the climb knowing I could jump back on during the downhill section.

At this point in time my shifting was totally shot. I'm not sure what's wrong with it, but it is totally messed up.

When we hit the rollers on the back side, our team started to attack. While, I wasn't happy about this from a selfish perspective, I knew it had to be done. We had enough people and we needed to start trying to shrink the pack. Each attack took people off the group. Unfortunately, I was one of them. I fell off the pack at one point, saw that one of our Women B riders had also fallen off, and pulled her back up. At this point my legs were dead, and I just couldn't follow the next attack. But, I was happy. I had made it almost to the end, and I knew there was no way I would be able to make it up that hill with the group with people starting to fight hard at the finish. Anyway, I got up the final hill, hunted down a U of H guy in the final stretch. I was also able to catch a Baylor guy but I had no sprint left in me when I got to the line. But the cool thing was I helped get one of our women a 3rd place, and I felt good about that. I also mixed it up for the first time ever.

I am sore today, but I love it. That was so much fun. I know I'm not a climber, but I played to my strengths, and it helped me out. I need to shed weight. Having to push this much weight up hills isn't helping anything.

The team did really well again. We haven't seen the official point totals yet, but I will be highly surprised if we are not in the lead in conference. All of our teams did well, and we were the only teams with guys actively helping the women. The weekend was a ton of fun and it just makes me want to train harder. Hook'em!

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10:22 AM |

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Ballet

Tonight is the ballet. It is at the Paramount Theater downtown; that should be nice. The Paramount is a cool, old theater. I'll report on the ballet tomorrow.

Went for a ride this afternoon. It was good to get on the bike as this week by quickly and I hadn't ridden. Since the ball was last weekend I didn't get to ride at all, and with the race this weekend I figured over a week of no riding would be a bad idea. So I met up with another guy from the team and we went do 5x3min on/off hill repeats up Mesa. Man, I have no hill fitness. Very frustrating. I swear I got a lot better at climbing by the end of last summer. Anyway, it was good to get out and ride some and hurt. I wanted to get that out of the way before the races this weekend.

I'm looking forward to the races this weekend. Racing C's hopefully will give me a chance to actually do some racing and not just get completely shelled. But we'll see. I'm sure the weekend will be fun regardless.

This Sunday is also the Austin marathon. Carrie is doing the half, and I know she'll do great.

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5:32 PM |

Monday, February 05, 2007

Cheaha

So I registered for it today. 102 miles up and over and up and over again. I'm shooting to break 6.5 hours this year. On the subject of climbing (and my current inability to do it) my compact crankset is in Austin. The DHL guy attempted to deliver today but we weren't there. So I'll either just sign the slip and have him leave it or stay around until 10:00 am or so to be there when he comes. Hopefully I can get it put on in time for the races in two weeks.

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2:43 PM |

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Lots of riding

For starts, something very much non-cycling related. Thursday night Carrie and I went to the Container Store to purchase some elfa for our master closet during their big elfa sale. We got stuff for two of three walls for what we agreed was a really good price. We put up the side wall Friday night and tonight we finished the back wall. We've added a ton of shelf space in our closet. The previous design had a ton of hanging space that we didn't use, so it really was just wasted space. With the new setup we will have a lot more useable space.

Saturday morning I got up early to head to Bicycle Sports Shop on my bike for our "Sponsor's Ride." We had 30-40 people show up between the team and people from BSS. It was pretty cool. We did a 60 mile route to San Marcos and back. I was excited because I pretty much hang with the fast group through most of the ride. I made it through several accelerations and stuck in the pack through many miles of steady state kind of stuff. I did get dropped right before the part of the ride that I don't know well, so I got a little lost getting back to the shop, but not really. I mainly just had to stay on a major street instead of winding through the neighborhood. Luckily I had somebody else with me so I didn't feel totally stupid. But it was a really good ride all things considered.

Yesterday afternoon I met with Harrick, as he is in town. The funny thing is that I had that post-workout dumbness about me. After my Chipotle burrito, I felt much better. The meeting went really well and we got a lot accomplished, so that was awesome. I'm very excited about my work and I'm feeling much more energized about my progress.

Last night Carrie and I went to Austin Java because, well, it's just good. It's pretty close, it's tasty, it's casual, and they make good coffee.

This morning I woke up and went outside to see Carrie finish her run, and then headed back in to go to campus to meet some teammates to go pre-ride the course for the stage race next weekend. It was cold. We rode the road race course, and things seemed okay. There are several hills of note in the back corner of the course (it's a loop). Depending on the wind that day they could be pretty painful. But they aren't too long. They're not west Austin hills, but they aren't small enough to be ignored. There is a weird S-turn like thing right before the finishing strait... we just predicted there would be at least one person who goes down there, more if it's wet. It was full of gravel today, but that should be swept before the race.

After we rode the loop we went back to the car. Some of the people wanted to ride over to the time-trial and crit courses, so I got in my car (with other drivers for the other cars) and we drove over there to wait for the riders. So we got to the time-trial course (which was luckily in a very nice park on a lake by a dam) and waited. And waited. Let's just say it took them a while, as getting over there involved a) big hills and b) wind. Time for an interesting Central Texas note...

East of I-35 is "flat." While it is not flat by Louisiana standards, everybody here refers to it as such. Lots of little rollers, some of them not that little, but nothing where you really feel you are in a particularly hilly area. West of I-35, the "hill country" got that name for a reason. Especially when you get further South and West of Austin.

So, these guys riding over to the time-trial course crossed the interstate very early in their ride, and spent a good 20-30 miles riding through some substantial hills. To make a long story short, they finally got there, we drove to the crit course, did a lap, and then found a little restaurant out wherever we were. So, I got home at like 7pm. I had originally expected to get home at like 3. Oh well. I know about the course now. For whatever that is worth.

Need to finish moving the elfa shelves into the closet. I hope everybody has a good start to their weeks tomorrow!

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10:47 PM |

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Crazy

Two cycling related items. Gaynor, if you're reading you may want to just skip this post. ;)

First, I went to spin class at the gym tonight. I figure if I can't ride outside, I might as well start using all my indoor options: the trainer and spin class. It was hard. I was trying to keep my cadence really high and keep up with the teacher. I definitely got a good work out. The spin bikes are nice as you can adjust the heck out of them to get a decent fit. The pedals are Look style, so my Shimano cleats did pop out of them at one point. That was a little freaky. But it is definitely a good option, as I need to get my rear in shape. And that brings us to the second point.

I decided to start racing two weeks earlier than originally planned by signing up for the Tour of New Braunfels Omnium stage race on Feb. 3 and 4. There are a ton of people from our team signed up, so I figure I might as well go down there. Time to suck it up and bite the bullet. At least this way I'll get my first race this year out of the way before the first collegiate race. However, what this means is that I'm going to be way out of shape in a week and a half when I pull up to the start line. It's a road race on Saturday and a time trial and crit on Sunday. Not sure if I'll do all of them, but I plan on at least doing the road race and time trial. I like time trials. I may hold out on the crit...

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10:14 PM |

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Got a ride in

So while I didn't get up early, I did get a ride in this afternoon. I went rode out and back on 360 turning around at Bee Caves. The ride out is harder in terms of hills. I was glad when I turned around, until I realized that I was riding into a killer head wind. This is the kind of wind that when it gusts you honestly feel like you slowed down like 5 mph. It was a good ride, and my legs are tired. I was glad to get back on the bike. The countdown begins to the first race.

Carrie led the charge to de-Christmas the condo today. The living room seems much more open, if less festive. We did pick up a King Cake at HEB on the way home from supper. It's okay... nothing special, but it had an okay taste. I might be calling on my new New Orleans resident friends to get some king cake shipped out this way soon.

Last night I made a pot of red beans. The cold weather just asked for it... I also hadn't done it from scratch in a long time. They took forever to cream up. I was starting to get really worried there for a while. They also came out more brown than maroon. But, they taste pretty good. I believe we might have them tomorrow night for supper.

The most memorable part of today's ride was that somebody threw something at me out of their car. I think it was coins. I felt something hit the back of my right thigh and I saw coin like things hit the ground. Sigh... I've never understood why people think that kind of stuff is funny.

We got some sushi tonight. It was good. I have now satiated my sushi craving for a while.

So I see the Saints will be playing the Eagles next week. Hopefully they can repeat their earlier beating of the Eagles. I feel bad for Tony Romo after watching that Cowboys game last night. Poor guy... sucks that him bobbling the hold ends up being the thing that everybody remembers as losing the game.

I guess that's it. Tomorrow starts another week!

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8:16 PM |

Thursday, January 04, 2007

Happy Birthday to Me

Thanks to everybody for the birthday wishes in the last post. They are always appreciated. We had a good night last night with some LSU game watching (and winning!). I was glad to see LSU pound ND into the ground. Even though most of the broadcast was a Notre Dame lovefest.

My new iPod nano is in Memphis, which means I should get it tomorrow. Sweet!

I need to submit my travel grant receipts so that I can get paid for my trip to California. Free travel is great! ;)

So I joined Carrie's gym the other day. The main selling point was that they own a lake that has a 750 m swim course buoyed out. I mean, the place is really nice just in general... but the ability to do open water swimming at will is too good to pass up. I want to try and do some core strength stuff as well to slim up my upper body. The bike takes care of the pure cardio and general calorie burning... I just need some targeted work to get rid of some of this fluff.

My face looks big in pictures. I used to have a slim face... not so much anymore. I would like to fix that.

The sun the next few days should provide for some good bike riding weather... I really need to take advantage of that as the first races of the season are quickly approaching.

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11:21 AM |

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

The Long Road Home

Whew... quite a week and a half. As some of you may have noticed, djwhitebread.com went down. This was because I forgot to renew the domain name registration. Whoops. After some friendly assistance from the folks at pairNIC the site is now back up and running.

We had a good time at home. I was able to get several bike rides in with David and one in with Jeff and Charlene as well. We saw all the family, got to meet my little cousin James for the first time, and generally soaked in the Christmas spirit.

You may think this is a total copout post, and well, it sort of is.

I know my posting of late as been subpar. I have lost my usual frequency, and my sitemeter numbers reflect that. I hope to get things going back in the right direction as this new year has now dawned.

If you didn't watch the Fiesta Bowl of Boise State vs. Oklahoma last night you missed one of the most exciting football games I've seen since last year's national championship (and really, I'm not sure anything will ever surpass that). Boise State pulled every play out of their crazy play book to beat OU in overtime. Then one of their start players proposes to his girlfriend the head cheerleader after the game on national television. You can't get much better than that. And, as a bonus, this makes the BCS look silly and shows one more time why we should have some type of playoff system.

Well, I hope everybody is having a good new year, and may we all have good luck keeping our resolutions!

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12:34 PM |

Thursday, December 14, 2006

So I finally made it back on my bike today. Thank goodness... 2.5 weeks was way too long to go without a bike ride. I need to keep up the training through the next few weeks so I don't show up in January slow... well, slower than usual. I am still planning on bringing the bike to the Rouge with us at Christmas (hint hint).

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12:55 AM |




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