Only a spin today

Full class tonight, and Greg had a big one teed up for us. I was on the bike a bit early and got in a good warmup. Then some one leg drill. Then some cadence work, alternating fast and slow. Then he sprang more one leg drill on us. Then did all again. Then a bit more stuff. Head down and push through, then cool down.

Now here's the odd thing, and I admit it doesn't make much sense to me. I was warming up in a gear harder than I normally do, at a higher rpm than I normally do, and could barely get my heart rate over 100. Throughout the workout I thought I was typically in a harder gear than normal and was maintaining cadence, yet I was having trouble getting my heart rate up to the top of zone 2. As soon as we went back to easy pedal, it plummeted back to under 100. Yet I don't think I was spinning any particularly more smoothly, and I didn't feel strong, and I certainly couldn't pedal fast tonight. Trying to get over 120 was brutal, and even maintaining that was tough. Yet my heart rate wasn't up. I guess my legs were tired.

The irritating thing was my shorts. I could not get comfey on the bike tonight. Squirmed around but couldn't make it better. It wasn't the normal sit bones thing. This was like the bike shorts chafing, which they've never done. The padding is a bit different than the other shorts that I wear more often. Maybe my butt has got used to them, and doesn't like these ones anymore. Pity, because the other ones have a couple small holes from the bike crash last year. Sigh. Maybe it's time to go shopping.

This was 1.75 hrs, a good solid workout.

A political note here, you can stop reading if that doesn't interest you.

I watched the inauguration today. I've spent most of the last 20 years building up a deep distaste for the American government, and the fascist (and yes, I know exactly what that word means) direction it's been taking. I believe that recent presidents and Bush in particular have betrayed their oaths of office, and betrayed the ideals of the country they were supposed to be leading. In fact, at the moment of the transition of power, America is not a free country. It is not governed by the rule of law, though there are still vestiges of it. Fundamental freedoms have been removed or restricted so strongly they aren't even a shadow of their former self. Americans have every reason to be ashamed of what their country has become. The difference between what America says, and what America does is making the rest of the world crazy.

And now we have this young man taking office and he has inspired the country like no president since JFK. I thought his inauguration speech was wonderful. I took a few minutes off work to watch the internet feed. Bush and Cheney should have been squirming in their chairs. The only way it could have been better is if he had snapped his fingers at a platoon of marines, and they dragged Bush and Cheney off to be waterboarded and put on trial. Well, maybe that's a little excessive, but the trial part isn't. But still, he hit that one out of the park. He has a night to celebrate something that so many people thought they would never see. And then tomorrow, I hope he starts kicking ass. Big time.

Canadian federal politicians, and doubly so for Prime Ministers are almost without exception, boring. Even by Canadian standards. Trudeau, and Diefenbaker are the only ones in recent memory that weren't. Well, Chretien was interesting only in the sense of watching a train wreck, and wondering when it would finally come off the rails. There was a certain fascination watching a man who couldn't really speak either of the official languages trying to communicate. The current Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, has been generally pragmatic and steady, with one monstrous exception, but nobody would call him charismatic. Just the opposite. So it will be interesting to see Harper and Obama meet. I hope they don't cancel each other out in a blinding flash.