April 2006 Archives

Today will be the first time all season that I will have missed my long ride for the weekend. I have a huge paper due tomorrow (my final for one of my classes), and there is just no way it is going to get done if I ride long. Not to mention that the weather is WAY less than inviting. Its been rainy and windy all weekend and while the sun is trying to peak out from the clouds now, it looks like the sky could open up again any minute.

I was really hoping to get in a good 90 miler today, which would have been my longest ride yet this season. I've only got 4 or 5 more long rides before CDA, so at this point, each of these is pretty damn important.

I've got a rest week coming up in a few weeks, so depending on whether or not I feel rested by the time I get to the end of that rest week, I might do a longer than normal ride (rest-week wise) at the end of that week. BUT thats the same weekend as Collegiate Roadie Nat's (yay!!!!!), AND in the middle of finals, so I'm not sure it wil happen. We'll see. For now, I will just sit here and work on my paper and be bummed.

I am slowly beginning to realize that the professors at school that I like the most are those who actually act like professors. Its usually those who are a little more buttoned up, a little more intimidating, and who keep the student/teacher relationship slightly more formal - at least in the classroom.

I have one professor this semester that I really really wanted to like. My best friend talked me into taking a class with her because she thinks she's just amazing, and she has a total girl crush on her. I needed another class, so I signed up. This woman is not your typical law school professor. In some ways its sort of a breath of fresh air to have someone teaching a class who reminds me way more of the professors I had in undergrad. She's eccentric and interesting and funky. She's the kind of person that I'd love to sit down and have a glass of wine or beer (or five) with and chat about what's going on in the world. She's cool like that. But as a professor, not so much.

Half the people that are in my class now have had her in the past, and most have her for a class that meets right before ours. I feel like half our class is inside jokes about things that have happened in the past. I sit there wondering "what the hell are they talking about?". She has been known to talk about students that aren't actually in class that day, out loud, in front of everyone ("What is UP with that kid? He seems like he's on another planet".). To me, that's just NOT cool. I go to class and feel like half of what we do doesn't even remotely relate to what we are supposed to be talking about, and so class often feels like a waste of time. I don't feel like she really CARES about the class, making it hard for ME to focus and care about the class. I don't think that its that she actually doesn't care, but her teaching style is just so laid back, that that's how it comes across. I dig classes where I can tell that the professor totally digs TEACHING the class. I'm taking one class this semester, because its required, that I fully expected to hate, but the prof's enthusiasm for it really shows and he has made it very very interesting to me.

One of the fun things (yes, there ARE a few fun things) about law school is that my professors seem to enjoy having us over to their houses for drinks. Last week, a few classmates and I spent three hours sitting on the porch of one prof's kickass house drinking beer and shooting the shit. He wanted to know what the latest law school gossip was - who was sleeping with who, that sort of thing. For some reason THAT didn't seem wrong. It was outside of class, and he was hesitant to voice an opinion on the matter. It didn't feel like it crossed the line. I don't know how to explain it.

I don't know what point I'm trying to make ... I think maybe I'm just procrastinating ....

I didn't sleep well last night. My body has a tough time shutting down after my long runs. I tossed and turned until 4 a.m. and then got up at 9 to start working on my paper (due Monday!). its cold and rainy out, the kind of dreary day when you just want to curl up in bed.

Finally around 3:00 I allowed myself a nap. I had just taken my fabulous Woolrich microfleece blanket out of the dryer so it was all warm and clean and wonderful. I climbed into bed and the cuddlemutt curled up next to me. I'm not sure there is ANYTHING more heavenly than a warm blanket, a warm dog, and a luxurious nap on a chilly rainy day (especially when you are trying to procrastinate).

Fortunately for the Smacca chickie, who deals with the cold a helluva lot more than I do, she will get to experience this very feeling pretty soon. Congrats Smacca chickie.

On a long ride last weekend the boyfriend and I were discussing which sport was tougher - cycling or running. Now, you have to take anything I have to say on this subject with a grain of salt, seeing as I'm equally inept at both. But I'm improving (finally), which is exciting, really exciting.

Anyway, my take on this debate is that cycling is the tougher sport. After several years of Ironman I have done my share of long runs and rides and I'm convinced that on a normal day cycling is tougher. There's just so much that comes into play (read: its really friggin windy here, and the wind sucks way WAY more when you're riding than it does when you're running). Now, I have to qualify my statement that cycling is more grueling by saying that on a bad day, when you don't feel great, running is just HARD. it hurts and sometimes it takes a helluva lot of energy and mental fortitude just to RUN. Cycling is rarely THAT hard. Its rare that I start a long ride thinking "man, I feel like crap", but the on the occaision that I start a long run feeling like that I know that its going to hurt very, very bad.

This was the situation today when I headed out the door for my long run. I felt like CRAP for the first 30-40 minutes. My calves were ridiculously tight and I couldn't get them loosened up for the life of me. I know that if I can make it through the 40 minute mark, I usually feel a whole lot better, which was the case today. So I pushed on. And on. And on. My long runs are usually an out and back along the lake - I like long out and backs because I feel like all I have to do is get out to my farthest point, and then its easy - I just have to get home. I should have noticed how much my quads were hurting today on my way out. When I turned around at 1:20, I realized that it was going to be a long, LONG run home.

I'm usually pretty happy for about two hours of my long runs, and after that it just starts to hurt. But this was the worst I've hurt on a long run since ... Ironman maybe. My quads and hip flexors were ACHING and at one point I was really worried about my ability to get home. Not as in, worried about my ability to RUN home, but worried about my ability to get home at all. Big time ouch.

I ended up running 2:30 and walking the last 15 minutes. Thats a long run, but not THAT much longer than last week. OH but it HURTS.

Is it taper time yet????????

I pulled up the Looneyville newspaper site today and immediately saw this.

Bloody fucking hell. I was hoping, PRAYING, that this wouldn't go through. I live friggin next door to where this will be built. It makes me ILL to think that a Wal-Mart is going in next to me. I friggin' HATE WalMart with a passion.

Yes, I am one of those people who would prefer Looneyville to stay exactly as it is, but I realize growth is necessary and inevitable. But WHY did it have to be a WALMART??? I would have taken ANYTHING but Walmart. Target would have been better. Whole Foods or Trader Joe's would have been ideal.

We already have ONE WalMart in this town and its a DISASTER. The whole area of town its in is a mess and the place is constantly expanding. And now they're gonna build another fucking eyesore out on the edge of town? This is an intersection that I ride through pretty much every time I head out on my bike. Once this thing is built I will be dodging rednecks in big ass trucks spewing exhaust and trying to run me off the road. Do I sound like I'm being a bitch and making generlizations? I don't care. I HATE Walmart. HATE HATE HATE.

Ok, I never do these types of things - but I made one of those "Quiz your Friends" quizzes, just for fun!

So, how well DO you know me? Take my quiz here: http://www.quizyourfriends.com/linkquiz03.php?quizname=060418134117-989119&

I am terribly bad at rest weeks. I rest waaaay too much. Last weekend I finished up a tough three week block and this week I've done just about nothing training wise. I take my rest weeks VERY seriously.

The last chunk of training has been great though. I've seen some real improvements in my cycling, finally. My long rides have been faster than they've ever been, which is a great feeling. This isn't to say that they've been "fast", just fast for me. I'm kind of excited to see what I can do on race day. The long runs have gone pretty well too.

This is the time of year, however, when I start to think "I'll be happy when this thing is OVER and I can go back to having a normal life". Not so much in that I really want to sit on my ass and not do anything, but in that there's other stuff I want to do. Its this time of the training season when i start to think "I really miss mountain biking ... and I could use a little less structure ...".

Last summer we taught my best friend, a former college runner, how to ride a bike. Note that I didn't say "how to mountain bike" or "how to use clipless pedals". No, at 24 years old, she had never been on a bike.

She road twice last summer (on the sidewalk ... like five miles max), and was really shaky, so I was SHOCKED when she called last weekend and said "Can I borrow your mountain bike? The boyfriend wants to take me mountain biking". I assumed they were going to go ride on the bike path, but no, he took her out on real live trails. Rocky singletrack with lots of creek crossings and she had the cuts and bruises to prove it. I was SO insanely proud of her!! She asked if she can take my mountain bike to Moab this summer! OF COURSE!!! I'm kinda jealous tho ... I've been mountain biking on and off for 8 years and *I'VE* never been to Mecca!

Anyway, she just bought a $50 mountain bike at a garage sale, so she can get her legs used to biking a little more and have something to cruise around on when my bike's not available. She'll need to upgrade pretty quick, but for a chick that's been on a bike 4 times in her entire life, I think its pretty cool.

The boyfriend and I watched Walk the Line last night. Oh. My. Freakin'. Lord. I am in LOVE with this movie!!!!!

I am a notoriously bad movie watcher, I get antsy and bored and fall asleep a lot, but even after 2+ hours I did NOT want this movie to end. I woke up this morning with Johnny Cash songs in my head and promptly downloaded the soundtrack. Yes, I realize that the soundtrack is actually Joaquin and Reese singing, and not Johnny, but the clarity of it is awesome. I forgot how much I LOVE rockabilly.

Seriously ... if you haven't seen this movie. Go rent it right now. Hell, go BUY it right now. Its amazing.

I have a new favorite movie.

And now, the boyfriend and I are off to take some pics to send to Keen for the ad campaign. Woohoo!