First Day

Excited and nervous, but looking forward to it. New jobs always make for more changes than you expect, and I'm wondering what will come.

I'll still be up and about early in the AM, as I'll be running and doing hill repeats for exercise before a later (for me) 9-6 shift during orientation/training, then I'll be working an early shift 6-3 once things settle. Which is awesome, as I'll have afternoon hours available to ride/run some trails.

Give me a couple days to get with the program, and I'll fill anyone who cares in on the deets!

Have a great week!

Long time no bloggity...

It isn't that I haven't been doing anything new and exciting. In fact I'm really excited about lots of things. Uh huh, yep, I am. I've just not had a lot of time to formulate a plan as to how I planned to tell the blogosphere all of my exciting news. So I'm just going to give you blurbs for now, if that's all right with all of you.

1. The new roof is almost done, THANK GOODNESS! The noise has not been all that nice, in fact it gave me a killer headache. And of course the estimate got obliterated when it was found that there were two layers of shingles to remove, SIGH. But we'll be good and groovy roofwise for many years to come.
2. I joined Facebook and it's been consuming me this morning in between other tasks. Why? Well, believe it or not I'm going to use it and other like features for work, but it's also a much cheaper and more fun way to keep up with old friends than Classmates.
3. For work? Yep, I got a new job. More details later, promise. I start Monday, and I'm anally prepping. I always go overboard prepping for meetings, presentations, whatever. First day on a new job, SAME thing!
   
4. I had a blast tackling DH at Snowshoe. Now, I only did the beginner run and only tried two small man-made drops, but I was bitten by a bug, and this wussy downhiller actually enjoyed the speed and the descents when made smooth(er) by 8.5" of travel, HYOOGE DH tires and a full face helmet.
5. I'm swamped doing stuff for the Estrogen Strong Endurance Triumvirate (Nam, Carey & Danielle)...but I'm loving every minute of it and I'll be posting some of what I've been doing, promise!
6. I'll be working much of the weekend, finishing up last projects for the old job and pro-bono stuff I've tackled, but I will somehow manage to ride my bike. Ran this morning, and it was nice.

That's all for now, I know I teased with some stuff, but I promise I'll give full details before too much longer!

Schtuff

Morning all outta kilter here. Had to take Jeff to the doc, has some sort of infection involving boils (I know how freaking medieval can you get???) and after the visit I had to hit two pharmacies before I could find his antibiotics. Not the same antibiotic I took during the Booty debaucle, made sure he knew to ensure that one was not administered, as compared to him, I've got a stomach of steel.

Fay's doing her best to drop some bad weather on us, trying to wreck riding plans. Keeping an eagle eye on the radar, I see that most of the color is still south of us, and I hope it stays that way. Though, unless there's lightning, I'm going to borrow some of Renee's determination and get my ride in come what may, Fay! My knobbies are hitting some asphalt tomorrow, and possibly hopefully forest service roads on Sunday.

Despite the comings and goings of the day, I did manage to get Namrita's site up, and I have the OK for the Blogger community to go check it out. The home page has a random script, so the photos swap if you hit refresh. The inner pages still need some tweaking and additions (web sites are never 100% complete), so expect a repeat link when I get some more added to it. I'm waiting on Danielle to FINALLY get me some high resolution photos (hey, she even admits she's kept me waiting forever in her most recent post), then I have several projects to finish up for her before she heads off to Sin City and a little thing folks in the biz call Interbike.

I'm beat today...slept in spare room to let Jeff sleep without me accidentally rolling into him last night and, who'd of thunk it from this long time insomniac, I got little to no sleep. Tylenol PM shall make good on it's promise tonight so I'm ready to ride, rain or shine, probably rain, tomorrow.

Bohuggity Whumpus

Yeah, I made that term up. But that's how my ride felt on Monday and the feeling stuck around for my run yesterday morning. Is it that time? Did "that" day decide to stretch into a two-day slump?

What day? "That" day. Pretty much every female mountain biker understands. It's that day when your hormones are so completely out of whack that you steer into trees, pick the worst possible line - even on trails you know like the back of your hand and completely forget how to lean into or out of a switchback.

I've been off the MTB except for one or two easy jaunts most of the summer. I hit the Pig Saturday and felt great, riding easy and having a blast. It's our easiest trail, but there were some reroutes I'd never done before, so figured I'd dab a time or two, but I felt great. So, decided to hit it again Monday. And that's when it happened. It was like I'd never been on a knobby-tired bike before. I was sketchy to the 10th degree. Dabbing, short stopping and ramming my saddle into my pardukey, slingshotting over roots. Basically I made every bad manuever possible. I gave up after 1.5 laps and headed for home.

So, I figured it was over, done, I'd be cool on Tuesday. I had a great long run on Sunday, and did the same route on Tuesday morning, before it got too hot and humid. And my body was again going haywire. I was drenched in sweat early on and my legs were absolutely not down with the route. What I'd run up easily, I had to walk, and sometimes I had to stop and recuperate mid hill. Now, I do live in a very hilly neighborhood, but these were long gradual climbs, not the short and steep and long and steep hills I sailed up Sunday.

So, two days this month? Just to spice up my life? We'll see if it stretches for three. I'm meeting Kim at Thomson this afternoon, ostensibly to work with her on a couple of her trouble spots. We'll see if it isn't me having trouble spots.

In other news I'm hard at work for Danielle and Namrita, and hopefully Carey (soon). I'll have some design work to show you all soon.

The "In Threes" Theory

Jeff always scoffs at my "bad things happen in threes" theory. Tells me I'm pandering to old wives' tales, yadda yadda.

Well, isn't he getting his come-uppance! Turns out it hit us at home. Had to have electrical work done, AC guys is here now replacing the fan and installing a new thermostat (we believe the one currently mounted is older than me), and tomorrow I'm getting roof estimates, as the deluge last night started three separate drips in the living room.

We knew we'd eventually have to deal with all of these. But I think el Jefe caused a quickening with his refusal to believe in the "In Threes" theory.

So now, our bank account's taking a hit, "in threes"!

Highs & Lows

The morning was fantastic. Namrita came down to pre-ride East Macon before the GASS Championship race, and to pick up the Fools Gold prizes I made. I have to say, overall I'm really pleased with how the prizes turned out. Especially those for the 100 milers. Riding was fun, and even though I've been off the bike, it wasn't that bad, except when I had to go anaerobic. Then you could tell I'd been away from the MTB. Overall stamina was pretty good, probably from all the road bike miles leading up to Booty.

Jeff blew a fuse on the dryer last night, so I bought some and replaced. But in the "which fuse is it" fun that comes from unmarked fuses, we appear to have some sparks/rapid fuse burnout on one fuse. Unfortunately, it's the fuse that powers the AC. Luckily it's going to be cool enough tonight to not require a service call until the AM.

I'll keep you posted!

Healed Up In the Heat

It's gonna be another hot one. 99 with heat index of 110. Hard call as to whether to ride or not. I want to. as I've been off the bike for over a week. But those temps are brutal alone, then you add in the humidity heat index. YIKES. Plan is to go out for a slow paced 20-22 miler, just to get my butt back in the saddle and test it out (Kim's letting me test one she barely used).

The stomach finally evened out the end of last week. It helped to set me up on my August/September plan to lean out, as I couldn't handle much food. The goal over the next two months is to build lean muscle while dropping fat. This means deficit eating, but not starvation. I'm not planning to wreck my metabolism or anything else stupid. Rides will be shorter, except for one long version most Sundays, in order to facilitate deficit calorie loads. Weights, short runs/rides and HIIT sessions will make up the bulk of the workouts through late September.

By then the weather will be cooling off and base miles will be all the rage. Right?

I've not posted tunes in a while, so feel that I should or Brian might stop visiting! Sort of an eclectic mix today!


A Way To Your Heart - Salim Nourallah

Where Do You Run - Vivian Girls

Go Radio - The Radio

The Girl From Ipanema - Pizzicato Five

The Boomerang Generation - Voxpop