Slow Motion with D

This one’s about biking, so if ya got no interest, stop reading. No, don’t stop reading, I’m just pulling yur chain. So, this week on the bike has been a little harder than the past month. Not harder in volume or intensity, but harder in the mental department. A few of the days, I just wasn’t feeling it. Monday was a good rest day ’cause the Sunday before we had a house warming shin-dig at Gf’s new pad. She’s basically a real estate mogul now. On Tuesday I snuck out of work in the middle of the day to do some intervals up the local butte…Pilot Butte!!!! This little hill is nice right now because the gate is closed to cars, so you only have to worry aboot all the walkers. On the schedule was 5, 4 minute efforts just below…well, instead of explaining it myself, here’s the description from the website:

This workout is done to increase maximum oxygen uptake but is a controlled effort that can be replicated day after day when done right and after adaptation has occurred. By increasing this number you are basically building a bigger engine that will help increase anaerobic power and your workload at Lactate threshold. This workout can be done on the trainer or outside. When doing them outside it is easier to control the heartrate and the watts by using a hill with a 5-8% grade.

So that’s what I did, kinda. 4 minutes only gets you up 3/4 of the way when you’re trying to keep in controlled, so I did 2, 4 min and 2 6.5 min efforts to the top. All the walkers seemed to be eyeing me, as if to say, “you can’t make it to the top, can you?” I just had to do it. I ended up getting the same amount of time in my zones, so all is well in the training world! Wednesday was a low cadence, high cadence workout and Thursday was a muddy 1hr ride with the dog. Soupy mud that made the, “rest,” day a bit harder than I liked, but oh well. James (dog) was happy and so was I. Friday was 3hr, w/45min tempo, Saturday was 4hr w/BGA every 30 min (I called them Big girl accelerations on accident…it’s really big Gear) and Sunday was 5 hours. I had to rock the 5hrs solo ’cause, well, I just wasn’t in the mood to be around anyone. What a great day! No knee warmers for the first time this year. The legs just saw the sun for the first time last weekend w/knickers and this weekend they were in the flesh! Tan lines are just around the corner. Not to mention that I shaved this week too. I’m gonna put a few pictures in my album (I don’t know how to post them here…any pointers???). It was a big week and I’m glad it’s over, but I’m ready for more.

I missed the Banana Belt World Champs round 2 this weekend, but I think I’m heading over for number 3. Should be a good race. CMG has won both races (despite a dq) and has the top 2 overall spots. I’m gonna try to get in a break w/Seth, Zach or Donald. It could be interesting though ’cause they could be playing it safe for the overall….probably not though. I don’t think Andy will be in tow, so we (Hagens Berman) won’t have a, “leader.” Good times to just ride for myself, or Solomon.

Alright, that’s probably enough for now. Look at my pics! Thanks for reading.

No, not miles last week, but the movie, “300.” Basically a visual masterpiece. The dialogue is sometimes…corny, macho and moving…we’ll just say there isn’t a shortage of motivational speaches, that’s for sure! The real gem of this film is the visuals. The only major color that stands out is the crimson red of the Spartin’s cloak…and blood. The rest of the film is filled with a brown…kinda like the brown of my morning Americano w/cream. Speaking of Americano, I’ve read some posts saying this film is pro-America, pro-war. Can’t anything just be what it is anymore, or does it always have to have an underlying theme? Anyway, I digress. This is based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller of Sin City fame (for those that don’t know), The Dark Knight Returns, and Ronin (which I will get soon, ’cause I like Samurai tales), amongst others. Basically graphic novel gold. I’ve not read 300, but flipped through it today and just like Sin City, some of the images in the movie are directly from the page. The book is even in widescreen format (from before the movie). If you like rich visuals, spend the $8ish and see it on the big screen. Lots of blood and a few boobies, so leave the kiddies at home.