Just read a post on Wil Wheaton’s blog that lead to a discussion board that led to a list of ‘Ten Truly Underrated Sci-Fi Movies‘… if you’re interested. I had trouble getting the videos to play the movie clips on the article site, but there are certainly a few of those that I would like to watch.
I’m a little bit perturbed, but within reason, because they are pushing back the release of the Harry Potter 6 movie until next year. ????? Something to do with Warner Bros. and Fox getting in a fight over the rights to the Watchmen and blah blah blah HP is getting pushed back. But, being a grown woman, that’s all the complaining I’m going to do about that.
Headed off to the “Midwest” today! Excited and I think that I’ve gotten most everything in order until I come back. Seriously looking forward to the weather, but I didn’t go overboard, I only brought ONE jacket. I’m not that Texafied. I can hardly imagine it. A HIGH temperature of 78! It’s like, normal! [Current temp here - 92, relatively low for late August]. We were blessed with a bunch of rain last week and since then, the highest it has gotten is 99. A breeze compared to the practically constant 105’s we were dealing with for a MONTH beforehand.
Want to see people ‘Keeping it real”? Check out the posts on SecretTweet with Twitter. It’s like Post Secret but updates several times a day, versus once a week. [Warning - uncensored content (text only). These people are being very blunt]. Good site for getting some perspective, and or venting (anyone can post) annonymously.
Can’t wait to see a bunch of my friends this weekend! And my family!!! Yay. Good times.
Ok, was sent a link to an incredibly addictive website. More irresistible than addictive, at least it’s not a neverending game or something. It’s called Yearbook Yourself. You basically upload a pic of yourself and you can select yearbook photo looks from 1950 through 2000 (every 4 years). You can share the pics, or download and the whole is really a sales site for clothing etc, but that’s only if you follow those links. I couldn’t resist, so I picked a few fun ones - here you go!
Ok, so I actually got out of bed at 6am this morning, got ready for my ride, put the cat in his carrier without incident, ate breakfast and loaded the bike. All by 7am! I took the little guy to the vet - he had to get pretty much all his yearly shots today, so he wasn’t in the best mood later. He’s over it now, of course.
Anyway, headed from the vet to the Benbrook YMCA to get started on my ride. My goals right now are to continue to build up strength and endurance on the bike, get used to the course (this was my 3rd time riding the whole thing), practice THAT hill and if possible, drop some time. It was a nice morning, but still a little humid. I sweat a lot, but today was ridiculous. I’m going to need to wash the bike! Actually, that’s one of the reasons you need to clean the chain/gears often if you sweat a lot. The good: experimented a lot with gear preference for this course and finally think I found my ‘home base’ gear - and I even know how to get there! hehe. The bad: um, if YOU are sweaty, chances are that sweat will make it onto your fingers -which in turn touch the brake handles occasionally - which in turn become slippery. Need to figure out how to dry the brake handles while riding. Not cool when your fingers slip off the brakes when you would really like to use them.
Another interesting part about my ride were the turkey vultures, at least that’s what I think they are. I encountered the first one when it jumped out onto the road from the bushes about 100 meters ahead of me. Um…..ok, now what. All I could think was that I didn’t want to be the story on the news that night of “Local woman cyclist attacked by turkey vulture, seen freaking out and falling off bike - video footage at 11.” Seriously. So I turned around, let a car pass me…. maybe he could scare the bird away. No joy. So I took the long way around through a camping area, cause no way was I going to chance it.
Of course, only about a mile later while approaching the top of The Hill, there were about 8 or 9 of them just hanging out - luckily well away from the road. I was honestly spending all my worry energy trying just to make it up the hill, but I was thinking about them on the way back to hill, but I remained calm and we let each other be. It helped that there were about 8 other cyclists in my general area that had clearly NOT been attacked, so that made me feel better about my chances. I actually stopped at the top of the hill on the way back and took a picture of the lovely message painted on the rode and a view of the lake from the hill [to be posted when they get to my inbox]. I did not take a picture of the birds. Why risk it.
All in all a good ride, pretty much about the same time as before. Guess I’ll need to do it again. The kicker came when I decided to run a quick, short lap around the track next to the Y. Just 1/3 mile. Ha. Ha. Ha. Yeah, there is a reason that you’re supposed to practice running after you bike. It took the entire 1/3 mile to convince my legs that I was in fact now running and no longer on the bike, so they should start trying to run like they were running and not still pedaling and drop the 100 lbs of lead in them. Ugh. That was not cool. I’m definitely going to have to do that again.
Ok, so I’m 85% ready for the event this weekend. Got several big things squared away yesterday…. but I still have to get STUFF ready. The comment boxes need to be finished. I need to take the used voucher box with me on Friday, need to get the two-way radios labeled and charged, finish the cell phone list, and there’s probably something else I have to do that’s written in the sticky note forest on my desk. Then, it’s kitty’s favorite time of year! His comprehensive exam = CBC, and every preventative test under the kitty cat sun… = only time he ever hisses, ever. It’s hilarious to watch my cat get angry. Especially since he spent most of his entire kitty childhood living at the vet clinic (because I worked there) and now he gets all fiesty and growly at the very same doctor who he used to love. I actually video taped it last time (him hissing) just because it was so rare and there’s absolutely no way he would do that at home. All he does here is whine.
Then I have to fit in (hopefully) 2 days of double workouts, at least one swim and hopefully mow the lawn at some point. Good times.
Yeah, I’m entering the crazy-twilight-zone-of-busy-ness this week. The Roundup is 5 days away! I start watching people’s kitty cats this week while they go on vacation. I’ve got some end of the month deadlines looming on two separate jobs - both of which cannot be accomplished in the same setting, (i.e., at my desk). And I am in full training mode for my races. Why? Cause I HAVE to be. And it’s raining - which is good, but may throw a small wrench in the training plans this week. Although it is forcing me to do weights tonight -which I really need to do. Muscle burns fat. Muscle burns fat.
Oh, and this morning I’m going in for my first body fat test since the beginning of April. Should be interesting. My last result wasn’t that great. Since I wasn’t really training for anything specific, and I wasn’t eating the greatest, my numbers had been creeping up. But sometime around June I refocused and am doing much better now. But I seriously don’t know what my numbers will look like today. With each new direction in my training, I’m essentially reshaping my body and I don’t know what to expect. Like in general you would think that lower numbers all around are better, (in terms of weight, body fat %, measurements, etc). But if you are working on an area and that exercise is building muscle, you might go up - and that’s ok. I’m just trying to figure out which areas are up because of my training and which ones are just extra pizza. =) Now that I’ve added cycling and swimming to my running. I have no idea what to expect. I can tell that I am starting to lean out more, and it seems pretty balanced with all three sports - so hopefully this will continue. Just getting used to this training on/off body fluctuation stuff I guess.
Just for fun, here is my chart of ongoing caliper measurements for my body fat tests. Gotta love charts! I’ll update after today’s measurements.
*Update - good news, mostly
Decreased big on a couple, and maintained on the rest. Gained 3 lbs lean mass, lost 1 lb fat, and dropped the body fat by 1.4%! On the right track at least.
Here is a video of one of the all-woman teams from last year’s Ragnar Relay race. I think this one was up north somewhere - they were complaining about 84 degrees. Certainly can’t be Texas.
Enjoy, it’s a fun video!
