Winter Slump is for REALZ

 What its almost April?  in 2025?  WTF?

I knew from previous years my steps take a hit in January and February.  I had one weight in, in early January that was 208.9 that I didn't love.  And then I forgot my scale.

Till a week or so ago.  After a quick battery change I hopped on and WTH??? 215.8!  Damn it!   Thats my heaviest hit in at least 6 years!  Last year I flirted with 213 around the summer and in 2023 I was at the high 214 area for a brief bit.   Well we'll see how things are tomorrow or Friday AM when I do my next weight in.  Start of this week I was at 212.  I'd really like to see 210.   

Riding wise I did slow a LOT over Jan and Feb due to MTB in the shop for most of January and then sometimes too much snow a few times and some work schedule changes.   I'm at my 42'nd logged activity of the year and I'm at 360'ish miles of cycling this year with commuting, versus about 300 at same point last year before I started my new job.  

Step/walk wise I just need to commit I guess to pushing to get my 8-10K a day a bit more regularly.  

The real culprit?  We've had a ton of AWESOME shows we've seen in the last 3-4 weeks and we've been eating out at some fun places.  Too fun.   Shows and food include:

• George Thoroughgood and The Destroyers - Immigrant Food in DC - Amazing cocktails and some really good food.
• Brass Against - ST James - Really good cocktails and amazing Carribean Food
• Alton Brown - Ala in Bethesda - Amazing tapas and good cocktails also.  
• Dream Theatre - Up next this coming Friday.

Time to ride more and eat a few less fun things.

Also I in the MOST unexpected thing gave up Soda now almost 4 weeks ago.  I emotionally miss it at times, but I also know it is better for me.  In another week or so I'll let myself have maybe 1 every 2 weeks.    Honestly, I probably haven't gone this long without a soda since MAYBE before moving to Arizona in the 80's when I had to ride to the convenience store 1.5 miles away to get a Nehi or a RC Cola.  

I'm back, again?!?!? Nani???

 Wow, it's another post in less than 6 months.  Shocking.

October was a good cycling month.  November has been a bit MEH.  A bit of rain.  A bit of Meh. :P

With a tad over 200 miles it was my best month in YEARS.  Though I haven't weighted in, in a few weeks.  I'm due.  Maybe Friday.  Damn sweet tooth.  

The election results were honestly a shock.  But I guess it's the economy.  And scared folks.  Sigh.  

We also went from 3rd Summer with 70-80's last week to today's high was 52 and I hit a low on my ride in of 30.2 on GPS meaning probably 35?   The good news is I felt well layered in general.  Though I just realized now at 437 that my socks are on inside out.  

Saw Iron Maiden and The Hu last night.  Really good show.  Both bands were excellent.   I've now seen Maiden 2x, and I'm shocked how I enjoyed it.  Though maybe it was also the people watching.  Loved the set and the sound was good.  

Now I'm debating MCR show in summer in Philly.  Uhg.  Philly.  Sigh.  Feeling Emo, so it fitz, I sitz.  

Another half year - Fall 2024.

Wow, again another half year since my last Blogh post.  A busy half year for sure between a new job.  Moving.  Again.  A vacation.  Back To School for my partners kids.  Back to School at work (insanity the first 21 days).  And now the fall rush has started.  Jeez.

Awesomeness:

I'm healthy and regularly biking to work 2 days a week most of the time.   I've done 29 commutes by bike this year.  The now shorter commute 2 days a week to/from MD are way nicer than the 2 days to Vienna.  But I'm sort of missing some of the mileage and how empty the WOD is after you get thru Falls Church.  Hopefully I'm going to start doing some optional riding to get more distance or a better workout in the evenings.   MTB wise....well it's been wet.   We had our first Plan B in a while last week, but this week is looking Plan B.  Bummed but we needed rain.  Trails were dry as flour almost.   In general life is way better than the same point last year and I'm enjoying my new job a lot.  Getting back into work practices after a while out is tough!   

Weight:

Post move I saw 204'ish for a while.  I'm now hanging on around 207.  Need to commit to better feeding stuff.  Please ignore that bacon and bacon and egg sandwhich I had this morning.  Big checkups/health stuff in planning for this year.

Move: 

2 more MAJOR items left.  1 is reduction of external storage from 5x10 and I need to go down to 5x5 this month to avoid a major price increase.  Too much junk.  Or too much camping crap.  Not sure.  A trip to Home Depot for another Rack is necessary I think this week.  Then the CAR.  Tagging stuff in MD sucks especially as VA does Electronic titles and MD still needs physical/printed tiles on Stone.   SUPER hassle.  Plus as my car purchase is less than 6 years ago I get to pay a TAX penalty.  Plus VA property tax for 2024..partial.  sigh.  It's more just annoying.  

 

Life in Gen:

October is just a busy month almost always between MoCo Epic, Membership Drive with the club, a weekend of cabin travel, and other stuff.  Trail work at Wakefield.  BikenetiCX Race.  What a month. 

But then I think about the utter crap fest currently happening to everyone from FL to mid-Central VA.  And I'm thankful for all that I have and all the folks who I know thru those area's who made it safely thru Hell-ene.  Hurricanes suck.  I've known that since I saw the impact of Andrew in the Fall of 1991 when we moved to Orlando then 2 weeks later we had Andrew victims stay in our school auditorium/etc for 2 weeks at least.   We aren't going to kill the planet, ultimately our choices will kill us.  What happens when Kyle turns into a hurricane and repeats Hell-ene next week?

 Ready for this election cycle to be DONE.  

New Things, Old Things

 Wow, almost the end of April   

Been riding more and that's good.  it's honestly been a bit to dry these last few weeks and now high 80's today and 90's for last 2 days of April  Jeez.

207 on the weight in.  Definitely holding some extra lbs post trail work salt and beer fest yesterday.  Keeping my eye on the 205.

Curious on how the commute down and back to foggy feels this week.  The climb back sucked.

Off to meet some peeps for dinner.  Just more of a self check-in.

Time Keeps on Slipping...

 Near 3 years since my last update in Sept 2021.  It's mind boggling how much has changed since then.  And in  , things keep on moving forward.

I've had some steps back unexpectedly.  Family has had challenges.  Love keeps supporting me.  And this year is gonna be SOMETHING else I can already tell in early March.

36 Logged activities for the year so far, though this month I started trying to be more mindful to log longer directed walks.   23 of those are bike rides, lots of MTB and looking to add in more road/cx but we shall see.

Big thing?  Watching the pie hole entrance.    Last May I hit a recent high of 215.  Got down into 210 range3 in Oct/Nov but now I'm finally progressing on the 205 zone.   I hit 206.3 today at pre-lunch weight in.  

For now I'm continuing to focus on a bit less chow in the mouth and a bit more activity.  

And I'm stoked for some MTB rides this spring and early summer!

Sunsets are life

 Today the Sunset on an old Friend.  It's been a while coming, but after 6 months of languishing in my basement and later outback, my trusty old 2010 Trek Paragon has ridden off into the Sunset.   

Hopefully as I donated it to Phoenix Bikes it finds a new home and has many more Sunrises and Moonrises ahead of it with a new owner.  

It was an awesome 2nd mountain bike and it went on adventures from Pisgah and Boone NC, to Rothrock, Rattling Creek and Raystown in PA, all the way up to the craziness of Vermont.  

Dawn Patrols, Night Rides, Day Rides, Races.  The bike has done it all.  Beer trips.  Snow Rides.  Wet sloppy muddy AF Rides.  Short, Long, Slow and Low, Fast and...well semi fast.  It did it all.  29'r was a huge upgrade from my classic 26'r.  It rolled over stuff that I wouldn't believe at first.  It also dumped me into a gully when I couldn't make a turn on it I expected on my first ride at Douthat.  

On the other hand it is too big (elbow issues from the 'Shed years ago still flare up).  No dropper setup.  And old school tech.  Rebuilding it to a modern spec and a new fork and everything even at team costs?  HUGE.  

A future hardtail is in my mind but no specifics, but maybe by next spring?  ZOOOOM!

Got the SLF's boy's out on bikes this weekend and for trailwork.  The younger now fits his 20 inch geared bike which is a HUGE step up.   He can't downshift properly due to the grip shifter being VERY difficult to shift.  Not sure if it's the shifter or the mech/derail.   Nice chill weekend!

Hoping to get out some on Tuesday on MTB as we have crap weather incoming Wed-Friday potentially.  

Keep your eyes on the horizon!

Take the Good, with the Meh.

Take the Good, with the Meh.

It's like medicine.  Or Physics.  Good things come with Meh things.  E=MC^2 and all that.  

The Good - My Weight is down to 201'ish.  My lowest in 3+ years of using my fancy scale.  200 is the Goal to float 198 to 202'ish.  The Bad News....Holidays are coming.

https://theoatmeal.com/comics/diet_train - The Oatmeal is Truth.

Relationship with the SLF is going well, though she's had some up's and downs but she's resilient and future plans continue to be made.  She met the X last weekend on a bike ride and it went well.  One of the best parts of the last near 2 years was my brothers advice to get back out there via Bumble.  

Cycling - Slowly climbing up from only 7 or 8 hours over the summer.  I won't hit my 2019 level of 1800 miles, etc but I'm not going to be in the SUB-1K miles club either and planning to push a bit more into 2021.  

Other Training - Running - Meh.  I've slacked off, going to try and run on Fridays and eventually get to 
"Bricking" in a month or by 2021.  Also looking into restarting bodyweight workouts.  Get Pumped Up.

Trumplestiltskin is a Loser.  Biden wasn't really my 1st choice and neither was The Bernie.  But 8 days of the week I would have chosen any functional human over Chester Cheeto.   

Weather - Well we had an epic warm fall, yes it felt warm at points but it was awesome, the cold now is bring the MEH but it's all about proper layers.  Get it figured out.  Feet are my real pain point currently.  Boots for anything sub 50 at this point if riding in low area's.  A few area's I rode thru last night were in low 40's meaning with Ride Wind Chill it was really low 30's.  No wonder my toes were semi frozen.  

Corona - Dumb fucks who can't be reasonable and wear masks when outside there door and not eating...I'm a bit spoiled around eating but now realize the fun days of summer are gone and I'm not happy with eating in at all and with more crowded/enclosed outside dinning.  

Stable Reduction - Sold the SIR9 after 6 or 7 years of it sitting in my basement.  Sad but necessary.  Any new MTB I want to have has to have a tapered steer tube.  I'm debating weather to rebuild/upgrade Miss Daisy this spring or just replace it with something mid-level.  Gotta get the roommate situation set 1st.  SLOOOOOOW.  Next up I'm selling the Fuji finally.  It's sat with a broken rear wheel for a year.  It's just to small/racer geo for me at this point.  Any new road bike will be touring geometry and will be able to run 650x50 up to 700x38.  Compact probably.  Steel.  Long time away honestly.  For now the CX bike works.  Maybe a more road'ish set of wheels at some point?  Then I have to decide the fate of ye olde schwin cruiser I've wanted to restore for years.  Maybe I'll minimally fix and upgrade it with an internal hub into a cruiser/townie.  But more than likely I'll give it away to someone with real interest in resto or making it into a cruiser, etc.  Crap reduction will continue to be my plan for 2021.  Tools and junk storage I will reduce then I plan to redo my "workspace" in the basement.  

Like everyone the big bummer is missing family this holiday.  I was as usual planning for Xmas in FLA with maybe a mixed family Christmas with my family and SLF down there.  2021 Maybe.  Hopefully the vaccine stuff gets normalcy in place by mid-late 2021, but I'm sort of worst-casing that 2022.  UGH.   

For now stay safe, wear masks, wash and sanitize.  Be Smart.  Get out and enjoy what you can when you can.