A lot can happen in eight days
Monday, 21. April 2008, 04:53:07
Today is Sunday. A lot has happened since last Saturday.
Saturday, April 12th
It was gorgeous outside all day. Sunny and warm from the early morning, sunny enough that I opted out of a bike race. With the sunshine and warmth, stress just didn't seem to fit into the equation. The Emerald City posted a record high 80 degrees (27 C).
Sunday, April 13th
Usually, going out to breakfast means that we go to a place called The Dish Cafe. I've been going there for about nine years and never get tired of it. Today, though, seemed like a good time to try out a new place: Senor Moose Cafe, a Mexican-themed breakfast place. We go there just in the nick of time. And by "in the nick of time" I mean "at the wrong time." They had just seated a bunch of people so we had to wait about twenty minutes.
The food was worth the wait, but I missed the start of my race. I was eligible for the next race and really wanted to take my bike around a 600 meter loop at breakneck speeds for the better part of an hour. It wasn't a bad plan except that they was prize money so some of the big guns showed up, like Olympic hopeful Kenny Williams. I started out strong and four minutes later, I was the second rider to drop out.
Monday, April 14th
It rained. It was cold. I rode my bike anyway.
Tuesday, April 15th
It rained. It was cold. I was sore from riding my bike (see above) and went to the climbing gym.
Wednesday, April 16th
It rained. It was even colder than the last couple of days. After the Monday debacle, lying low seemed a better idea. All was well until the wee hours of the morning, meaning 3:00 AM.
I'm a light sleeper so the heavy-on-his-feet interloper walking around on my roof made enough noise to awaken me. Yes, he (possibly she) was on my roof. My house is part of a triplex, two units of which are storefronts. Like many such buildings, this one has a flat roof. It's not obvious that this building also houses an apartment, so the vandal decided to get on the roof and leave his tag on no less than four places.
The cops showed up in no time. They didn't catch the vandal. They were talkative, though, and bantered animatedly about the gratification associated with catching vandalizing miscreants.
Thursday, April 17th
By 4:00 AM, getting back to sleep wasn't an option. It's my "work-at-home" day, so I set up the home office (my couch) and worked until 2:00 PM. After that, I did some chores, walked the dog, then drove down to my second race of the week. I was there in time enough for the race's scheduled 6:00 PM start time, i.e., right after the 5:30 race.
There was only one problem with the six o'clock race, just a teensy tiny medical emergency. A 68 year old guy had entered the 5:30 race. He pulled up with a lap remaining and just passed out, completely unresponsive. Somebody called 911 and asked for an ambulance. Naturally, the fire department came instead. Their first responders said, "Yup, he's unresponsive. Call an ambulance."
Boy, y'all sure are on top of it, huh? Did I mention that he was 68 years old? I haven't heard what happened after that. I just hope he wasn't inspired to enter by my blog entry about the centenarian marathoner.
Anyhoo, after all that, the race started about 25 minutes late. It was cold, too. All my warming up was for naught. Racing seemed like a good idea after all. Besides that, I really wanted to take my bike around a 1 kilometer loop at breakneck speeds for the better part of an hour.
The rain put a stop to that. Well, with the race called off, I rode by myself to get some training in. Did I mention that it was cold?
Friday, April 18th
Yeah, so it was cold. It wasn't raining though. It was snowing instead. The latest spring snow Seattle has ever had. Not that it kept me at home because it seemed like a great night to scuba dive.
[Note to self: Self, it's not easy connecting inflator hoses to one's drysuit and BCD with numb fingers.]
As for that snow, it didn't hang out for long, just until about noon the next day.
Saturday, April 19th
I snapped a few pics of the neighborhood, complete with snow on the roofs and cherry blossoms in the front yards.
The morning was kinda cloudy, so I went to the climbing gym. It was sunny after that, good ol' cycling weather. It didn't last. Damned clouds and snow ruined it. No way did I ride my bike! I played pool instead.
Unlike last Saturday, Seattle didn't post record highs. It posted record low temperatures instead.
Sunday, April 20th
Guess what! No snow today!
Okay, no snow after 10:30 this morning. I hit the road for about three hours. My coach had said to do the middle two hours at the upper end of my aerobic zone and to "attack the hills" like Don Quixote. The 30 minute warm-up was fine. The middle two hours are, um, hazy with no oxygen getting to the reasoning centers of my brain. Thinking back evokes images of blurry pavement, sounds of labored breathing, and burning muscles. Otherwise, I got nothin'.
My legs are still twitching, but I can eat anything for the next couple of days. And lots of it.
Yay, me!
Saturday, April 12th
It was gorgeous outside all day. Sunny and warm from the early morning, sunny enough that I opted out of a bike race. With the sunshine and warmth, stress just didn't seem to fit into the equation. The Emerald City posted a record high 80 degrees (27 C).
Sunday, April 13th
Usually, going out to breakfast means that we go to a place called The Dish Cafe. I've been going there for about nine years and never get tired of it. Today, though, seemed like a good time to try out a new place: Senor Moose Cafe, a Mexican-themed breakfast place. We go there just in the nick of time. And by "in the nick of time" I mean "at the wrong time." They had just seated a bunch of people so we had to wait about twenty minutes.
The food was worth the wait, but I missed the start of my race. I was eligible for the next race and really wanted to take my bike around a 600 meter loop at breakneck speeds for the better part of an hour. It wasn't a bad plan except that they was prize money so some of the big guns showed up, like Olympic hopeful Kenny Williams. I started out strong and four minutes later, I was the second rider to drop out.
Monday, April 14th
It rained. It was cold. I rode my bike anyway.
Tuesday, April 15th
It rained. It was cold. I was sore from riding my bike (see above) and went to the climbing gym.
Wednesday, April 16th
It rained. It was even colder than the last couple of days. After the Monday debacle, lying low seemed a better idea. All was well until the wee hours of the morning, meaning 3:00 AM.
I'm a light sleeper so the heavy-on-his-feet interloper walking around on my roof made enough noise to awaken me. Yes, he (possibly she) was on my roof. My house is part of a triplex, two units of which are storefronts. Like many such buildings, this one has a flat roof. It's not obvious that this building also houses an apartment, so the vandal decided to get on the roof and leave his tag on no less than four places.
The cops showed up in no time. They didn't catch the vandal. They were talkative, though, and bantered animatedly about the gratification associated with catching vandalizing miscreants.
Thursday, April 17th
By 4:00 AM, getting back to sleep wasn't an option. It's my "work-at-home" day, so I set up the home office (my couch) and worked until 2:00 PM. After that, I did some chores, walked the dog, then drove down to my second race of the week. I was there in time enough for the race's scheduled 6:00 PM start time, i.e., right after the 5:30 race.
There was only one problem with the six o'clock race, just a teensy tiny medical emergency. A 68 year old guy had entered the 5:30 race. He pulled up with a lap remaining and just passed out, completely unresponsive. Somebody called 911 and asked for an ambulance. Naturally, the fire department came instead. Their first responders said, "Yup, he's unresponsive. Call an ambulance."
Boy, y'all sure are on top of it, huh? Did I mention that he was 68 years old? I haven't heard what happened after that. I just hope he wasn't inspired to enter by my blog entry about the centenarian marathoner.
Anyhoo, after all that, the race started about 25 minutes late. It was cold, too. All my warming up was for naught. Racing seemed like a good idea after all. Besides that, I really wanted to take my bike around a 1 kilometer loop at breakneck speeds for the better part of an hour.
The rain put a stop to that. Well, with the race called off, I rode by myself to get some training in. Did I mention that it was cold?
Friday, April 18th
Yeah, so it was cold. It wasn't raining though. It was snowing instead. The latest spring snow Seattle has ever had. Not that it kept me at home because it seemed like a great night to scuba dive.
[Note to self: Self, it's not easy connecting inflator hoses to one's drysuit and BCD with numb fingers.]
As for that snow, it didn't hang out for long, just until about noon the next day.
Saturday, April 19th
I snapped a few pics of the neighborhood, complete with snow on the roofs and cherry blossoms in the front yards.
The morning was kinda cloudy, so I went to the climbing gym. It was sunny after that, good ol' cycling weather. It didn't last. Damned clouds and snow ruined it. No way did I ride my bike! I played pool instead.
Unlike last Saturday, Seattle didn't post record highs. It posted record low temperatures instead.
Sunday, April 20th
Guess what! No snow today!
Okay, no snow after 10:30 this morning. I hit the road for about three hours. My coach had said to do the middle two hours at the upper end of my aerobic zone and to "attack the hills" like Don Quixote. The 30 minute warm-up was fine. The middle two hours are, um, hazy with no oxygen getting to the reasoning centers of my brain. Thinking back evokes images of blurry pavement, sounds of labored breathing, and burning muscles. Otherwise, I got nothin'.
My legs are still twitching, but I can eat anything for the next couple of days. And lots of it.
Yay, me!
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