Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Friday, December 19, 2008
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
all this cold makes me think of...
Cinnamon Bay in St. John.
I need to start putting a copyright watermark on my pics. I've been trying to come up with one. This is the best attempt thus far. Pretty lame, but will do for now.
Monday, November 3, 2008
a new athletic goal
I used to be a pretty hardcore athlete. I raced mountain bikes for 5 years and did some road bike racing as well. I even won some! It was great. It got me out of my shell and taught me a lot about self-discipline, sacrifice and mental toughness.
Most of racing is actually training rides with friends. My favorite rides were always those really long epic rides that we're also some of the hardest ones. It seems that the more you have to struggle to accomplish something, the more rewarding it is in the end. That was definitely the case in terms of bike riding. It gave me the physical outlet and challenge that I needed. All those endorphins kept me happy as well. :D
Then in March of '07 I blew a disc in my back and that really just 'effed up' my whole outlet. I can still ride, but not for long and not at the intensity that I'm used to. I feel slow and uncomfortable on my bike most of the time. Blah. I love bicycles and I will always love them and plan to ride them until I die, but will probably never be able to do those real long training rides that I miss so much. But maybe I can, you never can tell.
So in the meantime, while I slooooowly recover from an injury that happened 18 months ago, I've been doing some light running for a cardio workout. I'm easing into like an 80 year old would, but it's coming along pretty well. And it feels so great to feel my heart pounding and my lungs huffing. I need to be active to be happy.
So, I decided I need some kind of goal for myself to keep me on track with my athletic endeavors. Since I can't really run very far and can't ride very far either, but can do both fairly well for short spurts, I've decided a short-distance triathlon is just what the doctor ordered. Luckily for me, they have a series every summer in Shreveport intended for beginner triathletes. They do one short race in May (that's a swim, followed by a bike, then ending with a run), then another race that's a little longer in June, and then one a bit longer than that in July...kind of like easing you into a more traditional triathlon distance. Cool!
They don't have the dates posted for '09 yet, but here's what the one from this year looked like, and the distances should all be the same for '09.
The bike distances are just plain cute. Awwww, a 15 mile ride. Even with my effed up back, a 15-miler is a breeze, unless it was up a mountain, and it's Shreveport so no worries there. That 4 mile run is what scares me! Well, 4 miles doesn't scare me, but people will be watching....I won't be able to walk any of it! :P At least I have plenty of time to train. The real trick is the swim. I'm very into water sports of all kinds, but have never done much in terms of swimming laps. We do have a rec center here though with a nice big pool. It's ALL the way out on Industrial Drive, so that would be a perfect distance to ride the bike out there, swim some laps, then ride back. Course, that will be in the Spring. For now, I'll just work on the run and try to do a few short rides every week.
I'll be doing this to see how well I do, to see the improvement over the 3 events, to have some fun and meet some people, and hopefully to BEAT SOME PEOPLE LIKE RENTED MULES!
Stoked to have a goal!
Most of racing is actually training rides with friends. My favorite rides were always those really long epic rides that we're also some of the hardest ones. It seems that the more you have to struggle to accomplish something, the more rewarding it is in the end. That was definitely the case in terms of bike riding. It gave me the physical outlet and challenge that I needed. All those endorphins kept me happy as well. :D
Then in March of '07 I blew a disc in my back and that really just 'effed up' my whole outlet. I can still ride, but not for long and not at the intensity that I'm used to. I feel slow and uncomfortable on my bike most of the time. Blah. I love bicycles and I will always love them and plan to ride them until I die, but will probably never be able to do those real long training rides that I miss so much. But maybe I can, you never can tell.
So in the meantime, while I slooooowly recover from an injury that happened 18 months ago, I've been doing some light running for a cardio workout. I'm easing into like an 80 year old would, but it's coming along pretty well. And it feels so great to feel my heart pounding and my lungs huffing. I need to be active to be happy.
So, I decided I need some kind of goal for myself to keep me on track with my athletic endeavors. Since I can't really run very far and can't ride very far either, but can do both fairly well for short spurts, I've decided a short-distance triathlon is just what the doctor ordered. Luckily for me, they have a series every summer in Shreveport intended for beginner triathletes. They do one short race in May (that's a swim, followed by a bike, then ending with a run), then another race that's a little longer in June, and then one a bit longer than that in July...kind of like easing you into a more traditional triathlon distance. Cool!
They don't have the dates posted for '09 yet, but here's what the one from this year looked like, and the distances should all be the same for '09.
The bike distances are just plain cute. Awwww, a 15 mile ride. Even with my effed up back, a 15-miler is a breeze, unless it was up a mountain, and it's Shreveport so no worries there. That 4 mile run is what scares me! Well, 4 miles doesn't scare me, but people will be watching....I won't be able to walk any of it! :P At least I have plenty of time to train. The real trick is the swim. I'm very into water sports of all kinds, but have never done much in terms of swimming laps. We do have a rec center here though with a nice big pool. It's ALL the way out on Industrial Drive, so that would be a perfect distance to ride the bike out there, swim some laps, then ride back. Course, that will be in the Spring. For now, I'll just work on the run and try to do a few short rides every week.
I'll be doing this to see how well I do, to see the improvement over the 3 events, to have some fun and meet some people, and hopefully to BEAT SOME PEOPLE LIKE RENTED MULES!
Stoked to have a goal!
Thursday, October 30, 2008
cool things
i got a raise today. it was unexpected and larger than usual. hell to the yeah!
another cool thing is the abundance of alien clipart on clipart.com. we use clipart at the paper I work at, along with other stock art services. but clipart is the only one with their own alien-specific artist. that's all this cat does is alien art.
anyway, tonight I will be celebrating my raise not unlike this alien...
another cool thing is the abundance of alien clipart on clipart.com. we use clipart at the paper I work at, along with other stock art services. but clipart is the only one with their own alien-specific artist. that's all this cat does is alien art.
anyway, tonight I will be celebrating my raise not unlike this alien...
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
2 thumbs down
I've ridden bikes for many years now. I ride in traffic a lot and am used to dealing with idiot drivers who think being enclosed in a metal box gives them the right to be complete assholes to everyone else around them, most especially cyclists. All these years of dealing with idiots has taught me a few things, and one of them is that it's best to let drivers know when they are being idiots, but not by giving them the finger, because that just brings it to the 'road rage' level. So my preferred method of letting them know they are being an asshole is to give them a big old 'thumbs down.' It lets them know I disapprove, but I'm not calling them a name or trying to incite violence. Seriously, when you almost KILL SOMEONE they have the right to let you know it happened. Otherwise, you just go on driving your loaded weapon threatening people at will. And that's just not cool.
More often than not people take offense to my thumbs down. Like today. Coming back from lunch a car passes me and then makes a right turn directly in front of me, causing me to have to hit my brakes hard to avoid hitting the car. It was a woman driver (almost all the ones that try to kill me are women, WTF?)and I saw her look in her rear view mirrow after she ALMOST KILLED ME and so I throw her a nice big thumbs down, actually a series of thumbs down, so she gets the point that she ALMOST KILLED ME. So what really gets me is that as she sees me giving her my friendly symbol (trust me on this, I really want to flip her off, I mean fuck her, she just tried to kill me!) she hits her brakes to slow down, like she's gonna confront me or something. Oh lady, pleeeeease stop your car just once and confront me....pretty please....cause I have a LOT to say about it. But no, she just taps the brakes because that's all she has the guts to do in her big metal box. I wish just once one of these drivers who ALMOST KILLS ME on my bicycle would just stop and discuss it with me. Again, I have lots to say about it.
People use their cars like loaded weapons. The next time someone ALMOST KILLS ME on my bicycle I'd like to make them ride the bike and let me take the car and do to them what they just did to me. And then when they are unable to refrain from using the middle finger (unlike myself) then I can threaten them with my big metal car.
More often than not people take offense to my thumbs down. Like today. Coming back from lunch a car passes me and then makes a right turn directly in front of me, causing me to have to hit my brakes hard to avoid hitting the car. It was a woman driver (almost all the ones that try to kill me are women, WTF?)and I saw her look in her rear view mirrow after she ALMOST KILLED ME and so I throw her a nice big thumbs down, actually a series of thumbs down, so she gets the point that she ALMOST KILLED ME. So what really gets me is that as she sees me giving her my friendly symbol (trust me on this, I really want to flip her off, I mean fuck her, she just tried to kill me!) she hits her brakes to slow down, like she's gonna confront me or something. Oh lady, pleeeeease stop your car just once and confront me....pretty please....cause I have a LOT to say about it. But no, she just taps the brakes because that's all she has the guts to do in her big metal box. I wish just once one of these drivers who ALMOST KILLS ME on my bicycle would just stop and discuss it with me. Again, I have lots to say about it.
People use their cars like loaded weapons. The next time someone ALMOST KILLS ME on my bicycle I'd like to make them ride the bike and let me take the car and do to them what they just did to me. And then when they are unable to refrain from using the middle finger (unlike myself) then I can threaten them with my big metal car.
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