Tuesday, April 21, 2009

No Cycling on Another Rainy Day in East Central Illinois

Since this was the official start of the cycling season for the Prairie Cycling Club, I was hoping to get in a lot of cycling this week. Saturday was great in the morning, which was all that counted, and we did a nice ride to Sidney so I got in 27 miles.

It rained on Sunday but we had already planned to see "The Audition," about the national Met auditions from 2007. It was a very interesting documentary. A lot of the audience were the same people who go to the live Met HD broadcasts, not surprisingly. So I wasn't planning to ride anyway. Yesterday it rained on and off and we had a couple periods of hail besides high winds. So I didn't go out last night. Not having a rear light on my road bike at the moment doesn't help. It was still raining this morning and windy too, so that took care of the Tuesday morning ride. I used the treadmill at the gym instead, although I had forgotten that the treadmill uses different muscles and I really hurt after only a few minutes. I still did three miles but I was in real pain. Stretching at the end was not optional!

The weather is still rainy and cold, so I won't go out tonight either. The ride leader has tickets to Krannert, so I am sure that he is just as happy that the weather is not conducive to a ride this evening. Since we have plans for next Saturday morning, I probably won't ride again until next Monday night. Not the best start to the cycling season. I just hope next week is better.

With not riding and just the gym workouts, my Moonwalk miles are kind of pathetic. I do now have a pedometer although I am not sure that I will get a lot of extra miles with that since I seem to sit and work at the computer rather than walking around. Still, I am making an effort. Once I get a chance to ride more I should get closer to the 100 mile minimum. I am about 1/3 of the way there. Last year I did about 260 miles altogether. I have a new heart rate monitor too, although I forgot to wear it to the gym this morning. I really need more of a routine. Retirement is great except for turning my brain to mush.

In the meantime I have been procrastinating with Facebook and not getting a lot of stuff done. I still need to finish up my Calais piece for my other blog and I need to write up something on Henry VI for my study group and come up with some discussion questions for the secondary source articles we are reading for Thursday. I haven't looked at anything on the carbon footprint either. I have read only part of the material from the New York Times Magazine from Sunday, which was relevant to our group.

I am spending more time thinking about what I am eating than I care to do. The doctor wants me to lose quite a bit of weight. Cutting down on carbs is quite difficult. I have to up the amount of milk and milk products and that means fewer other carbs like bread and crackers and hot cereal and potatoes and stuff. Desserts are a problem too. I would like to eat more fruit rather than drink more milk. The protein is ok although knowing I have to eat makes me less likely to want it. I did get a bunch of sushi today because I always like that and it gives me a balance of protein and carbs. The topamax is supposed to also help with weight loss and that definitely doesn't seem to be happening. The only good news is that even though my total cholesterol is still high, and I am sure that I will hear about it from the doctor next week, my HDL is really pretty high at 79. Not that Dr. Helfrich will let me off easy for that.

One project was to turn the living room into an office. Of course, even though I got more storage stuff so that things wouldn't pile up again, they are piling up again. And I am not reading, something I should be doing, along with actual writing, not just blogging.

At least today I wrote a real blog, not just a Plinky exercise. I just wish I had something more interesting to write about. Maybe I will be able to write about my experiences looking for flights from Brussels to Venice in the near future. Tomorrow we have someone coming to look at our basement windows. The more we can get done on the house for the amount that we have agreed to spend, the happier I will be about that part of our plans for spending for this year. Now if we could only find a cat sitter.

I seem to have stopped setting goals but I do need to work on Italian. Peter got me Rosetta Stone but he is the only one using it. I can't say that I don't have time. I just don't make the time. It is easy to procrastinate instead. Maybe once I get started it will be easier to keep going.

So here I sit with a few books about fifteenth-century England next to me and instead of reading or writing something insightful or at least educational I will probably look at Facebook when I finish writing this. How pathetic is that? Maybe my time would be better spent searching for Natalie Dessay's shoes. Oh that's right, I just got new Mizuno gym shoes instead. Probably better for my feet anyway. Too bad they are blue and silver and not that gorgeous green.

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:19 AM

    What kind of bike do you ride? I used to ride, too. My GF and I would meet at 5:30 a.m. and ride at least 10 miles every morning, rain or shine. Then we'd do 40 or so at least one day of the weekend. I loved it.

    Is the Topomax for migraine headaches?

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  2. I have a Trek Pilot 5.2 that I bought as my retirement present to myself. I also have a Trek 7100 hybrid that I use to ride around town. It was my first bike when I started riding again at almost 55, but it was too heavy for riding 25-50 miles at a time.

    The Topomax is for migraines. I have had them since I was a teenager. My mom said hers stopped when she went through menopause but I haven't been so lucky.

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