Tuesday, February 9, 2010

He shoes, he Cores! But the bike bribes the goal judge

I started this morning feeling pretty perky. Then, as I was backing out of the driveway to take Linda to work I discovered one of the tires had gone flat. Handling metal stuff at well below zero isn't my chosen way to start the day. My neighbour a couple of doors down was out for a cigarette and came over to help. He suggested a nearby auto shop he uses, and the experience turned out just fine.

A little later I laced on the shoes, and ended up have a great 30 minute core workout. Even the side plank. Last week I weenied out in about 5 seconds, but today went 45 seconds each side, 3 times. And it wasn't 45 seconds by the skin of my teeth either, each time it was a couple seconds over because I was sick of looking at the stopwatch. I like using my ipod as the watch during core, because it lies flat, and has big numbers. The fact that the thousands of a second sometimes seem to take forever is beside the point. The rest of the core went pretty good too, well, except the pushups. Started in plank, on my toes for the first one, and my arms collapsed part way down, so I did them from my knees. My shoulders are hurting a bit.

Very shortly after I hopped on my bike. Warmed up, did some cadence and one leg drills, then started on the main set feeling waaaayyyyyy better than last time. First part was ok. I was most of the way through the second set when my brain went AWOL. I sort of woke up, wondering how long I'd been doing this particular bit, wondering what was next, no clue what gear I was in, or what rpm I was supposed to be working at. My legs were getting tired. Looking at the plan didn't help. I skipped to the next set, starting in time trial minus a gear, then tt, then tt + a gear. I was supposed to hold 90 rpm. I was part way through the tt gear when I noticed I was pedaling like crap, doing the plunge thing at a much lower rpm than the plan. After spending a while trying to fix that, and noticing all sorts of funny twitches in my legs, I decided it was maybe better to call it a day than to try to force something that wasn't working. Did some cool down, and found I was getting cold and chilled from all the sweat. It's better than my last bike workouts, but still not back to normal. 1.25 hrs.

In other news, the sun is out! I took some shots before it melted the beautiful hoarfrost. This is from my back door.





For dinner we've cracked the last bottle of Viognier. It's been 7 years in the bottle, and it's like drinking liquid gold. It is so good. This photo doesn't really do the colour justice. I'd like to get a shot of it in the sunlight, but I'm not about to go put it on the driveway.

17 comments:

  1. I like me some Viognier. And I like to drink gold. But I hate Goldshlagger. Too much like licorice. Uck. Is the wine glass propped on the CAT SCRATCHER?! Nice background.

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  2. OMG, carpeviam! STOP FOCUSING ON THE BOOZE!! You're carrying our godchild, afterall!!

    Those trees are really neat looking, Keef.

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  3. Kudos on the clever title :)
    I love the hoar (isn't that fun to say?). We have hoar almost every day in the winter. It makes it almost bearable up here.

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  4. Those pics are beautiful!! I love the trees when they are all frosted up like that.

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  5. It really has been beautiful around the city with all of the frost, then with all of the sunshine today!

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  6. 3 x 45 sec. side planks?! Nicely done. I usually only muster one. Pushups are rough after core work too. You think it's all arm, but I totally call on my core for pushups.

    Nice way to celebrate!

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  7. Nice pics Keith, I love all the horrer frost we've been getting this year. I can't remember getting this much other years.

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  8. We've even had hoar frost down here too this year -- gorgeous!

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  9. LooMoo-You might need to define "our," when referencing the godchild. Keith wants nothing to do with it, except to tell me when I'm entering my next trimester, and Xenia won't share. Where does that leave it? God-parent-less?

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  10. Actually, the whole godmoosechild thing is no big deal, as long as you guys are good with me teaching it Canadianisms.

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  11. Keith, please do teach the spawn a kanadianism or two. But NOT this one: "Homo milk". Yeah...

    Our local paper had a primer on "Speaking Canadian" for people getting ready to travel north for the Olympics. Most of the words and phrases were familiar, like "loonie" and "toonie", and there were lots of Tim Horton specific words, but HOMO MILK stopped me dead in my tracks. The paper defined it as "non homogenized milk". But of course to us crude Amerikcans it just sounds like man goo. Please tell me you were not raised on HOMO MILK...

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  12. Ummm, LuMu, I almost hesitate to bring this up. But most north american's have been brought up on milk that has been homogonized. Especially if you're one of those young whippersnappers that think they know everything.

    However, during certain periods of my childhood, I was raised on milk that was not only not homogonized, but hadn't even been pasturized. Almost straight from the cow, as it were.

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  13. Loved the pics (especially the last one)! I'm glad your core drills went well too!

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  14. There you go, justifying your craving for the creamy, delicious milk of a homo. Listen, it's really not my business if that's how you roll. But it COULD explain Glaven's extended absence. You haven't got that poor man hooked up to a milking machine, now have you?

    Sick, just sick..

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  15. I just checked. Nope, no Glaven here. Personally, I suspect he was busted by his employer, and has had to take down his blog as an act of contrition or something. Try Carolina John.

    You will note I suggested next Feb 11 as a potential spawning date. That seems a suitable gestation period for a Louisianan. Hope I spelled that right.

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  16. Your Glaven theory seems quite sound. I'll likely have to do the same before too long. (My paranoia is increasing, 'cause if you can deduce my real name and hometown, then so, too, can my employer. Boo, hiss...)

    And Feb. 11 sounds like a reasonable spawnage date. Carpe will whine, but only until she's drunk, at which point I imagine she'll become rather agreeable. Silly, pregnant sot...

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