Savior

I was facing winter with the worst fitness I’d had in 15 years.

It was a tough fall. The comings and goings of everyday tasks were tiring. For anything but the essentials, I looked for simplicity...my days were broken into two pieces: work, hang at home. Errands had no place. Exercise wasn’t a player. Socializing? whatever. I hunkered down and rode it out.

Physically, I felt like a glazed donut: fried and squishy, but without the sugary outside. Shuddup! I feel like crap, my uncle is going downhill, and my cat died...damned cat, anyway.

I took the bicycle out now and again, but riding was more complex than I cared to undertake. The season was changing and the decisions were too many: glove liners? windstopper mitts? which tights? how many layers? lube? tires? batteries for lights, schmutz on the derailleur....

It was easier to just grab my trail runners and head out the front door for a jog. I worked up from a few blocks to a couple miles. It got me outside in what was left of the daylight with a minimum of prep and time. But I can’t say I loved it.

In December when I headed out on skis for the first time, it surprised me that my legs were in decent shape. I’ve been out a few times, but skiing just hasn’t captured my heart.

Awhile back, I headed out on the bicycle into a brief bout of crisp sunshine and did a flat ride on the trails near home. The 15 mph headwind surprised me when I turned toward home. Hmmm, my bad: I wasn’t tuned-in to the conditions. I lowered my head and geared down.

I felt alive.

Last weekend, Wheel and I went for a short ride to the ATM. We totaled about eight miles, with temps dropping into the low 20s and clouds rolling in. Gray lenses in my glasses made things drab. My toes were frozen slabs by the end of the ride.

It was exhilarating.

Running saved my fitness. Cycling saves my soul.


- TOB

Gazoombas, Landscaping and Running Shoes

or
If You Want a Cycling Post, Go Away

My costal cartilage mountain biking injury is slowly healing. It still hurts when I run. My massive gazoombas bouncing around cause some massive hurt...or it's those phantom gazoombas, because I'm sure the hurt would be like that if they were massive.

We had landscaping done. I'm still amazed at the time it took me for someone else to do the work. Phone calls. Emails. Meetings. WD and had I debated this for a long time: You know, WE could do this. It always came back to: And, for exactly HOW MANY weekends do you want to be tied to yardwork? It's one thing to take-on maintenance...quite another to be willingly married to a house project at the expense of fall riding.

Work is beginning to bleed out of the confines of the work day. I'm trying to decide if this is a good thing...tonight I found myself searching for library bloggers and twitter-ers. I need connections. This year, I'm a team of one. At least when I worked K-4, there were three others across the district, but currently I'm at a huge intermediate school that's very different, programming-wise, from the elementaries yet it isn't quite the same as the high school. And, you know, it's not all about books. It's about turning-out kids who are information-literate, and about helping teachers step outta the comfort zone and become coaches of learning. We librarians are on the edge, I tell you.

Running: three times in the past week. I need ski legs. It's a fast workout. 30 minutes out the front door and back home again. Do I like it? Ask me in January when I'm facing down the Birkie trail for a point-to-point.

- The distracted Old Bag

9:05 November 23rd

Turkey Day 5K
Downtown Minneapolis
Me and 8,000 of my Closest Friends

- OB in a sea of people that went on for blocks!

5:37 Standard Time

Running down the trail
next to the tracks
the dusk blew-in dark and cold
tumbled most trail souls home
except for the lone walker on an overhead bridge
clutching a briefcase hunched
against the wind

5:38
looking beyond the underpass
down the train rails to where the city ends
a blotch of pink-purple-orange clouds
meant it was still afternoon somewhere
warm and soul-filled
I could hear them partying
dancing the rumba
or
maybe
maybe it was the pompons from my stocking cap
tapping my head as I ran

- OB

Could it Be...

It's tough for Betty and I on days like this -- she's willing, but I deal with some serious overheating tendencies you'd think the lack-of a pitted-out T-Shirt could be a good thing -- and while Prudence still comes out now and again for the grocery or downtown run, Stella is content to hang-out in the stable in anticipation of those cool fall days.

So

I've taken out the running shoes...

...THE RUNNING SHOES...

running shoes, the

shoes I use to run,

those things
that
I use to do that one thing.

Betty...Stella...Prudence.... Bicycles deserve names. Naming grants personality, insight, attachment. We personify those items in our lives which intensify our experiences as if somehow they knowingly contribute.

In that case, my running shoes are now named They That Dwell in the Underworld and Heap Misery Upon She That Must Run...but there's gotta be a more concise term....

- TOB wishing MN would indeed freeze over

Dew Point

Def: the temperature at which air becomes saturated and produces dew.

Yesterday's Stats
High Temp -- 93 °F
Dew Point -- 70 °F
Average Humidity -- 71% (high 87%, low 59%)

Today is predicted to be near 90 with the dew point hovering around 60...remaining hot and muggy throughout most of the week, with temps

gradually
drop
p
i
n
g
in
to
the
mid-80s

Hoh baby!

I've taken to the running shoes since the workout is quick and agonizing, so I KNOW it's working.

- OB *sigh*

After the Reindeer Run

or
Five Miles is the Farthest I've EVER Run


So this is the farthest I've ever gone, says I.

Good for you, says he.

I've always been best at short distances, says I.

What about cycling? says he.

Well, crits and pursuits at the track when I was racing, says I.

But now? says he.

Oh, I can be out all day at a decent clip, says I.

Hey, ya know that injury, says he.

Yah, says I.

Well, the doctor told me I could run 10 miles by the time the snow flies, says he.

But ya did that by the end of August, says I.

I was a bit ahead of schedule, says he.

That’s just like you, says I.

So, I ran 16 miles the other day just to see, says he.

And? says I.

Felt good, says he.

I don’t want to ever run 16 miles, says I.

Ya just have to decide you want to do it, says he.

I don’t plan to ever want to, says I.

You could do it, says he.

I run for 30 minutes and call it good, says I.

Ya just have to go slower to go farther, says he.

!

...I'll have to think about that one, says I.


- The Old Bag's Thinkin'

I've Spent Eight Months on a Bicycle!

or
Where Were THOSE Muscles All This Time?

running through my youth
short distances ‘round the track
fleet-footed playing

memories are fresh
still find excitement within
oval enclosure

now running distance
plodding, tromping, trodding on
muscles tendons OW!

...if bike haiku is called Baiku... is this Raiku?

- The Bag needs some Ibuprofen