Lots of learnings today

This morning felt pretty good, but I knew I didn't have much gas in the tank. There's interesting stuff (to me, at least) happening at work, and when I got up in the night I couldn't really go back to sleep.

Still I dragged my tail to the pool. The IGP said an hour, but I didn't think I could swim that long.
2K 40.29. My first K was bang on 20 minutes, swimming a slow steady pace. None the less, I could feel my calves tightening up, and my kick, such as it is, going right to a total shambles. I could actually feel myself slow down, even though I was pushing my arms harder. Learning 1, my kick actually has some value.

Then 20 min core in the dive tank. This is coming along. I'm doing more reps, and I can bend further.

Then a busy day at work, looking outside once in a while hoping it would stay nice enough to ride outdoors. So it did, though just barely. For a while I thought I was over-dressed, then I got into the wind. I swear, I was into a big head wind the entire course. Which was, btw, up the 37 street path, around the reservoir and back again.

25.2 K total trip
1:04 total time
23.7 Kph average speed
79 average cadence
46 Kph max speed
123 average heart rate
144 max heart rate
72 min heart rate
985 calories

It was an exhilarating ride, but not what I'd call a comfortable one, not at that pace. There are a bazillion cougers out on the path, lurking in the most unexpected places. They travel in packs, taking up the pathway and more, waiting to come across some poor helpless prey. They don't move over. I'd never really noticed that some of the corners are actually kind of tight at +30 Kph. You have to really pay attention to the bumps. And idiots and their dogs. Still pisses me off. Estela wants to go faster than the pathway is really built for. Several learnings here.

My long time readers might remember my first trip to MEC to buy fitness clothing, and my comment that large wasn't large enough. Well, now it might be. One thing to keep in mind is that as you lose weight, things fit differently. There are two topics I want to explore here, and the squeemish might as well leave now.

Don't say I didn't warn you. There's a difference in the way tights and bike shorts are constructed. For such a short ride on a cool day, I didn't want to wear just shorts, and neither did I want to wear shorts and tights. So tights alone it was. I used to, umm, let us say, fill out these tights a lot more than I do now. Let us also say I hadn't fully appreciated how much more room there was for potential motion, especially in the seated position. I found I was sitting in a slightly different position, and was shifting around a little getting comfortable, when I hit some tree root bumps in the path. The end result was to bounce most of me, the vast majority of me, back along the saddle. Just a little way. Until a certain portion of anatomy stopped. Hung up, you might say. Fortunately, it ended up ok, but I was a bit more cautious about bumps, and will consider my bike clothing choices a bit more carefully.

Guddled. I've been rolling that word around in the back of my brain for a while. I suspect there will come a time when there are unflattering race photos of me, but at least I can promise this. There will be no white tri-suit. Ever. I promise. There, I knew you'd be grateful.

But that leads me to my second point about things fitting differently. Pants are not just looser, but they fit differently, and some areas become comparatively tighter than they were, and looser. And, well, there's no polite way to say this. The same happens with underwear. It has become looser too. Both sets of looser fabric start interacting in unpredictable ways. And with losing flab and building muscle, a certain pair of muscles are getting more defined. Leaving more room for guddle to occur in. Which has been happening more lately. At inconvenient times. At work at inconvenient times. On the Deerfoot one day, waiting for traffic, I was damn near tempted to get out of the car, do the required adjustments, and carry on. Yes, I suppose I need to go clothes shopping. Again. I hate shopping for clothes. At least I used to know what size to look for, and I don't even know that anymore. I'm not looking forward to it.

Yes, I know, I know. If I've got to have problems, this is a good problem to have. Tell me that when I'm standing in the line up for the ATM on one particular occasion, and see if you can emit your card afterwards.