Busy week so far

Here's what I spent most of Monday and Tuesday on:

Well, there was actually more than that one paint scheme. I had to do a couple more in a rush job for a presentation that was given somewhere in Arizona today. I had to completely draw a Bell 407 helicopter template to do the paint schemes on, plus redraw the hospital logos. It was not too bad because once I get into a project I tend to get lost in it and time flies for me. Usually the problem is getting into a project in the first place! But once I'm there and the muses are hanging out with me, it's sweet and things get done. Sometimes I wish I were more of a workaholic...like 60% of one...and I'd get more things done but that's just not me. But I do enjoy some of my jobs and totally get into them. It's even better when the check arrives in the mail! Yeahhh!

The last couple of nights we have spent at the old house, painting and trying to organize things. I had wanted to get it completely empty by the end of this month but somehow February is missing a couple of days and it's thrown me off. It looks like the weekend is more realistic to get everything out. If we end up renting the place ourselves, I'll toss some of my stuff in the shed out back so I can sort through it later on without disturbing the rentors. I took a load of things to the recycling center and trashed other things.

On a side note: Happy Birthday, Shannon!

I found out a number of days ago that a good friend of mine might be having a recurrence of cancer...I'm not happy. But she has a good attitude about it. I guess when you've faced the chance of dying once and beat it, why can't you do it again? Natalie is most worried about losing her hair again...it came out so great after her chemo last summer, really cute and curly. She'll have to dig out her wraps and hats again! Jonnene and I will try to spend time walking with her between chemo treatments to keep her strength up and keep her active, but I think she'll handle this second round pretty well. If things had happened like they normally do with Stage 4 ovarian cancer, I wouldn't be talking about this right now. Miracles do happen and they don't have to happen just once, right?

Got in a 3-mile run at lunch today and hope to do a couple of hours on the bike tomorrow afternoon. After that we look at possible new carpet for the old house. I think we're going to be busy for the next 2-3 months...lots to do.

Wreary Weekend

I think Jonnene and I spent most of today in a daze. This past weekend really wore us out, yet it was a good couple of days, lots of things to do and some fun to be had. It basically boiled down to three things:

Saturday morning we did some long rides on the bike. She did about 44 miles and I cranked out 63, or my first 100K of the year. It took a lot out of us since we haven't been riding as much as we'd like but we knew we needed to get some long rides in and it wouldn't be pleasant all the time. Maybe most of it but not ALL of it!

After the rides, she ran some errands while I washed up and prepped my gear for the 20K time trial being held in Monroe the next morning. But first we were going to Monroe Saturday afternoon to be at a play that evening. We had to dress up since the performance was only for the patrons of the theatre...the "upper crust" of Monroe-West Monroe society, or something like that. The play was "A Streetcar Named Desire" and we were going because a racing buddy/teammate of mine was playing the male lead role of Stanley Kowalski and I had to see that! We'd also stay at his house for the night before the time trial. Well, the play was fun to see although the seats were a bit uncomfortable and not enough leg room for guys like me. Brian did a great job and his was his first time to be in a play! I thought he was excellent...of course, he's a lawyer in real life, so maybe acting's a natural thing for him! Anyway, we met up with him and his wife after the performance and stayed up until 1 am talking and catching up on things. The Wife and I dropped like rocks once we got to our room to go to bed.


After five hours of sleep, we jumped up to do the time trial over at HorseShoe Lake, a basic out-and-back 12.6 miles of pushing a bicycle as fast as you can stand it. I was greatly out of shape and it showed. I did an even 33 minutes for the distance (I did it in 30:22 just last September when I was in great shape for this "older" body) but I was pretty happy with my effort. All I have to do is get stronger and stay focused...the speed will come and the times will drop. My result put me at 6th place in the Masters 45+ and that's okay with me since it's early in the season. That's me in the picture above in the new team kits.


Jonnene (above) did the time trial, too, and her time was about three minutes slower than last year. She had to use one of my front wheels when the valve extender on her Blackwell 50mm broke as we were airing up her tires.

Accolades and things like that

Saturday night was the Shreveport-Bossier Advertising Federation's Addy Awards, recognizing the best in advertising in the area during 2007. I had entered three items and was informed that I won something, so we went to the awards banquet that was held at Independence Stadium in the suites in the south end zone. Pretty cool place to hold a party I'd say. I won a silver and a bronze for work I'd done for Goodwill Industries for their Tour de Goodwill bike tour last year...got to go up to the front both times to get my certificates and pose for photos with a couple of young ladies dressed as cheerleaders. The awards had a sports theme this year and the girls actually WERE cheerleaders! The food was pretty good and the video presentation of the awards could be seen on the monitors in the suite as well as the Diamond Vision screen on the north end zone scoreboard. The interesting part of the evening was a huge storm raging outside...the rain could be seen going sideways outside the large windows as the awards were handed out. It was a nice evening and I like wearing my tuxedo when the chance permits, plus seeing everyone else dressed to the nines. Jonnene looked great which probably made me look better than I deserved when I was next to her.

The weekend was busy and we got a few things done although it doesn't feel like it. Weather and time kept me from getting a ride in and I ended up doing a wind trainer ride in the living room while watching the prologue time trial in the Tour of California on Sunday evening. I mention the weather because with all the rain we got (that same weather system spawned tornados in Alabama a day later that hurt 40 people) we got to see how the water gathers up in our back yard and driveway. No chance of water getting into the house but it sure looks like it could happen when you look out there! Here it is Monday morning and there's still some water left in the driveway, and the ground in the backyard is quite saturated....just another project to work on this year to make the house even better!

We might have a interesting take on the old house...our next-door neighbor's daughter is moving back here from Texas and is interested in possibly renting our old place. It's something we'll have to look into.

Per Gallon

For real, this happened...I drove past the Volero station just before lunch and it had posted $2.77 for a gallon of regular. I needed some petrol so I made a note to stop by on my way back. That was the best price I had seen. Had lunch with Dad, then headed back to the station. The price had been changed to $2.86!! Hacked me off so much that I went to the Exxon station instead for their $2.85 gas.

I think I finished up the Blackwell catalog but I'm still waiting for a final okay before I take it to the printer. It's pretty much a knocked-together job so we can get something out as soon as possible. This is the front and back cover layout...what do you think?



Later this afternoon I took the K2 out for a spin and put in about 25 miles with a few hard efforts. It was in-your-face windy if you were going west or south, but it was beautiful riding if you were going east on Highway 175. All riding should be like this...25 mph with a bit of effort but not too much to spoil the moment where you feel like a world-class cyclist flying down the road. Einstein said that nothing makes you feel more like a kid than going downhill on a bicycle. Having a tailwind on smooth road while on a time trial bike is almost like that.

Feeling Slug-gish again

Cruising during a ride last September.....

I haven't done much outdoors since the Sunday ride outside of some yard work and walking the dogs. Team LaS'port's "Death Blow" training camp is currently going on and I didn't make either the Tuesday or today's 100-mile rides. Looks like I won't make the Thursday one due to a rush job for Blackwell on a 4-page "catalog" I've got to get out for them. I turned in the first draft today and, depending on when they finish proofing it, I've got to try to get it to the printer sometime Thursday afternoon! As much as I need the riding, I also need the money, so I'll be cozying up to the computer to get this job out. Maybe I can get an afternoon ride in on the TT bike.

Speaking of TT's, the 20K time trial in Monroe is the 24th and I won't be in one lick of decent shape for it. But I'll give it a go and I'm hoping I can get under 32 minutes. Last October I did a 30:22 on the same course after having mechanical problems before my start and ended up using a rear wheel that I didn't want to use. Jonnene's going to give it a shot, too, but she hasn't been riding as much as she'd like either. Her bike's been in the shop all week getting a tuneup but she'll have to get a new chain and shifter which are on order and will be added later on. She's just too tough on her bike! She needs to be gentle on her ride like I am...I'm still using parts that are about 15 years old on my bikes! Hey, I ride it till it breaks!

Running, Biking, Raking Leaves...

Wow, what a busy weekend! At least it felt busy. We did the Trail Run at Lake Bistineau on Saturday morning and survived the son-of-a-gun. Didn't do too badly at all...Jonnene got 15th overall of 54 in the 3-mile trail run and won the Women's Masters trophy (well, not really a trophy...it was a travel CD case). She cranked out a time in the 32-minute range and helped a fellow runner deal with a sprained ankle after the race! I guess we've lost that Ace bandage for good!

I got 22nd overall of 86 in the 10-mile run and I have a couple of blood blisters on the ball of each foot to prove it! It was cold to start the race but the humidity was low so it was quite tolerable. After the pre-race meeting, we started off into the woods where it took about 2-3 minutes over the logging road to sort out everyone before we entered the first real trail. I stayed with a group which had a couple of runners I know who are pretty fast and I was able to hang on for the first 35 minutes...probably four miles...before I started to lose them. Even then I kept them in sight for a while as they hovered about 100-125 meters ahead. But they'd disappear eventually and I spent a lot of time by myself, occassionally passing someone or being passed by someone with more endurance/speed than me! The good thing about being with that faster group was that it took longer for some runners to catch up to me later in the run. The top two women runners finally caught me around the 7-mile mark as I was slowing. One passed me pretty quick while the second stayed behind me for almost a mile and we chatted nearly the entire time. Then I told her that I was just holding her up and let her pass by (she would beat me by a little over a minute).

In the last couple of miles two more guys passed me but I held everyone else off. As I exited the woods into a field, Jonnene was out there waiting for me and, as I blew her a kiss, yelled out that I had a chance to beat an hour-and-a half if I picked it up a bit. Sure enough, as I got within sight of the finish I could see the timing clock and started sprinting the best I could. Crossed the line in 1:29:53 for about a 9-minute-mile pace for 22nd overall (did I mention that already? Hee-hee.) and fourth in the Grand Masters 50+ age group. Except for the blood blisters, I came out of the run pretty good...a little stiff and some pain in my right hip socket but that was gone by Sunday.

Today we did a ride with Mack's Sunday morning take-it-easy group (usually a recovery ride for the hard Saturday ride). There were eleven of us and we covered more than 50 miles. It did have its fast moments and I was very pleased in how I kept up and just had a fun ride. Even Jonnene rode like a champ though she had to give up trying to stay with the group a bit when the pace picked up at the end but we weren't going to leave her. This week is Russ' "DeathBlow" training camp...100 miles a day Tuesday thru Friday, then 125 miles on Saturday and on Sunday. About 650 miles in six days if you do all the rides. I hope to do 3-4 of the rides but I doubt I'll cover the entire distance...I'll probably keep it around 50-75 miles for myself each time I'm able to come out. That'll be good for me this early in the season!

The rest of the day was shopping, for food and some items for the house. Planned out how I was going to empty out the old house during the remainder of this month. I want the place cleaned out by the end of February so we can get it on the market. After that we spent some time in the back yard, raking up some of the leaves. There's plenty out there and I'm interested in seeing what's below them, to see what we're dealing with in this new yard we have. Some things I'll have to fix and others to adjust. Some things will be just fine as they are.

I'm ready for bed...I'm knackered (as J sez).

Pounding Dirt

Tomorrow is the Trail Run at Lake Bistineau, 10 miles for me and 3 miles for Jonnene. I haven't run since last Sunday to give my right knee a chance to heal properly...it's probably okay anyway but there's not much I can do to enhance my fitness the last week before a race. I did get out on the bike Tuesday plus a spin on the trainer Thursday to keep the legs loose. We'll see how it goes Saturday morning...full report to come. It'll be a cold morning with plenty of sunshine and I'm hoping for a mostly dry trail to traverse upon. Then I'm back to the bicycle to catch up (eventually) to a decent level of fitness and get some races in.

In the meantime, we're keeping up with the news of one of J's uncles who is in hospital down in Perth. Without going much into it, it looks like some complications during surgery might be responsible for his condition, which is not too good. We're trying to stay hopeful but we're not getting much information. What we are getting doesn't sound good and he is in our prayers.

Training is SO overrated...

Sunday afternoon Jonnene and I went out to the Eddy Jones nature trail so I could get in a long run on a trail where I wouldn't go over the same stretch twice like I usually do at the Stoner Trails. Thing was, I had forgotten (or I think I had forgotten) how brutal this trail could be. I last did it 14 months ago in accomplishing a half-marathon run (and left for Australia the next day) where the first 6.55 mile lap went well and where parts of the second lap was short of a death march. Anyways, I took off for a one lap jaunt. Wow, all the uphill portions were some real work! J took her dog for a half-hour walkabout on another part of the trail, doing a little running herself, too.

Well, I finally staggered out of the woods...ran the lap about two minutes slower than my second lap of the half-marathon. Part of the problem is that this had been a junk food weekend. After the bike tour Saturday morning and for the rest of the day (especially at the local Mardi Gras parade that night) I didn't exactly eat the best food out there. So my nutritional needs for this run lacked something and I knew that could affect the run...and it did. I should have done done the thing way better. Fortunately, at the trail run competition next weekend I'll pay more attention to what I eat and being worn out at the end can be attributed to the genuine effort...I hope.

My body was hurting afterwards and J worked on the ITB on both legs to work the tightness out of them that night. Took some Aleve for the inflamation. My right knee felt weak and really hurt when I walked on it the wrong way so today (Monday) will not consist of any running, biking, or silly exercise things like that. Seems to have worked...the knee feels pretty good this evening. I might try a light run with it tomorrow to see how it goes but I won't push it. Rather have it ready for this Saturday with some rest then push it too far, too soon.

The Gee-ants won the Super Bowl last night 17-14. It was a pretty good game as Super Bowls go, definitely an upset although the Giants were my sentimental favorites. We went to a friend's house for a Super Bowl party (re: more junk food...hmmmm) but left after watching Tom Petty at halftime. Saw the rest of the game at home and it was a great finish, very exciting.

Another FYF

Just a quick writeup on today's Freeze Your Fanny bike tour in Longview, TX. I did the 31-mile route plus a few extra miles since I don't have the endurance in my legs (I only did a whole 100 miles total in the entire month of January!). But it was a good ride. For the first 50 minutes that I stayed with the chase group I climbed the hills better than I thought I was capable of in my current physical shape...maybe all the running has given me some strength to handle the bike for a little while. Even had some good speed on the flats. The whole thing was not at race pace but it was pretty darn fast. I was happy with the effort. Tomorrow I hope to do a 7 mile trail run on the MTB trails at Eddy B. Jones Park if it doesn't rain, or doesn't rain too much.

I'm going to try to update this blog more often but usually I have to be in the mood to type it all up. Given how short this entry is, I'm obviously not completely in the mood!

RunRunFunFun

Did my seven miles at lunch today...about a 8:05 per mile average, I think. I wanted to do an easy run but it became a faster regular-style run...can't help it. Hopefully I'll be able to walk somewhat normal when I get out of bed in the morning...I might squeeze in a bike ride Tuesday afternoon.

My truck's in the shop, probably until sometime Wednesday. The mechs have located a water leak from two drain plugs in the back of the engine block but it requires moving the transmission out of the way to get at them (ouch!). But I might not have to have the engine valve gaskets replaced if this turns out to be the primary cause of the leak...keep your fingers crossed! Still won't be cheap but maybe it won't be that expensive either.

Good Morning!

It's hard to be humble when you're as good-looking as I am........ha-ha.....

Got up just a little while ago, took the dogs for a walk. Still getting used to the idea of bagging Farley's poop...since he's a Black Lab his stuff is a bit larger than most. But, since we're now in a new neighborhood, it's a good idea to not leave crap in the other yards. Makes for good neighborly harmony! Plus Jonnene "makes" me do it!

I started running again last Wednesday. I experimented with putting some foam padding above and behind my right big toe to see if that would help in reducing the pain I was feeling down there when I ran. Before doing that I had tried to run, hoping it was healed up from the time off, and I couldn't get 100 meters down the street and was reduced to walking 'cause it hurt so much. I went back to the house, tried the padding, and went out again. I knocked out 2.5 miles and felt nothing! Since then I've done two runs of 4 and 5.5 miles (that last one beat me up a bit), and today I'm cranking for seven miles. I'm less than two weeks away from the trail run at Lake Bisteneau (10 miles) so I need to get back on track.

I'm still not riding as much as I'd like but I'll get back into it after the trail run is over...I still plan to run twice a week to keep up that part of my fitness. The Freeze Your Fanny ride in Longview is this Saturday so I'll go out for that and do the 60-mile course. It won't be pretty, that's for sure, but it's another brick in the foundation for 2008. I'm not worried...I'll be behind everyone else early in the season but I'll get there by May, riding pretty well if nothing gets in the way. Like I've said before, I'm looking forward to riding this year and expect some fun times in the peloton.

This past weekend consisited mainly of house stuff. Cleaning things up, sorting through and organizing what's already been moved here (still a ways to go on that!), painting, getting things we need, and (very) slowly emptying out the old house. We're almost finished getting everything out of the storage unit so we can close that out by month's end. The new place is starting to feel more like home every day. J's always got some good ideas to make it better and I make a suggestion or two also...I think the place will be great by the end of the year. We've volunteered to host the Christmas holidays for the family so we need to get the house ready to endure that!

It's kinda exciting....

Fah-reezin'!

Rode with Mack this morning...it was cold...about 29 degrees to start...saving grace was that the sun was out in all its glory...but not warm enough to make any difference. My balaclava is at the old house so I went out, bare-faced and all, with only my 2-day-old whisker growth to keep my face somewhat covered from the cold air. It was an easy ride (really, it was supposed to be) and I only covered 36 miles. Doesn't help that I haven't ridden that much the last couple of weeks but I'll get that corrected soon. Still, it was a good ride if you take out the fact that I couldn't feel my fingertips the last ten miles and had to pee real bad...cold weather riding does that to me. Once I got home and could feel my body parts again I took a nice HOT shower. Best part of the day, amen, bro.

We're still moving stuff from the storage lot and the old house to the new place. So much stuff! How did I accumulate all this crap over the years? Thing is, I don't have near as much stuff as many people out there have so I don't know how they deal with it when they move somewhere. I've been trying to simplify the amount of my possessions the last couple of years but there's still a lot here. But the new house is starting to feel a little more homey day by day. I've got the home studio in working (but not organized) order so I can work now.

More to come as I get to it.

The Last Monday in Bossier City

The weather is not behaving like it's January...I woke up to 64 degrees and cloudy, but with a lot of wind. I headed out to do my first parkway ride of the year, riding the TT bike since it was the only one of my two rides that was set up to go since I used it at the duathlon yesterday. There were seven of us out there and the wind kept the pace slower than usual. When I took my pull, we were heading north with the wind to our backs so my pull was pretty easy.

Most of today was prepping to make the move to the new house. Setting up gas, electric and water were the main concerns, transferring the service from the previous occupants to us by this weekend. There's still other things to do, of course, and I'll get to those on Tuesday. Jonnene's already set us up for TV, internet, and cell plus we now have a new phone number. I also spent some time in the back yard and did some repairs on the shed that have been needed for quite a long time.

LSU's leading Ohio State 31-17 right now and I'm pulling for the Buckeyes. I am no fan of LSU, and it's their fans who make me feel that way. They're probably the worst in college football and they make it their job to be sure that no other university in Louisiana gets the attention and money that LSU does. It's nice to have an entire state legislature in your back pocket.

Neat-O Weekend

I got competitive this weekend. The results were okay for a guy in the lousy shape I'm in but I was pleased. Muscle memory apparently is a real phenomenon.

Saturday morning I did only the third sanctioned 10K (6.2 miles) run in my life, just needing the six miles as part of my training. Just so happened that the first run of the 2008 Winter Running Series in Shreveport was the same day so I decided to enter...only $5 and the chance to be beat down by some good runners from the area. It was windy and cloudy and had just rained but it was a good day to run otherwise! I got 15th of 50 entrants with a 47:29 (I was thinking I'd be lucky to break 50 minutes) so I can't complain...that's a 7:38/mile pace. I wasn't really pushing it since this was suppose to be volume miles run....usually I do a 8-minute-mile pace for volume work. And it felt good! Of course, I was sore later. No surprise there.

Later, Jonnene and I went appliance shopping for the new house. We picked out a washer and dryer made by LG. These are very handsome front-loading machines and we plan to stack them in the laundry room to give us more floor space. I'll have to do some modifications in the room before they arrive. That night we saw "Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" with Johnny Depp and I thought it was an interesting film, definitely a Tim Burton production and done very well. The singing was better than I expected, cinematography was excellent...but it was one bloody film!! Blood everywhere, dripping everywhere, spilling out everywhere....in some ways gory, some ways funny.

Sunday was the Dustbuster Duathlon: a 1.5 mile run, 11.9 mile bike, and a 1.5 mile run. Short story was that I got 27th overall out of 134 entrants but 5th in the 50-59 age group (these old guys are FAST!) with a time of 58:20. The wind was the main factor for everyone, if you could deal with it on the bike. This was the first time I'd been on my time trial bike since the district TT's in September and it behaved beautifully. The motor (me) could have been better but the wind has always been tough on me. However, it seemed to work in my favor today....I was riding at 18-19 mph for the first 5 miles as we all rode into the wind which was blowing at 15-20 mph out of the south....and I was passing people! That was wild. I averaged 20.6 for the entire route (which includes me running with the bike through the transistion area twice). My first run was at a 6:49/mile pace but the second run slowed down to a 7:56/mile pace. I had not practiced bike-to-run transistions so my legs weren't quite prepared for the change-of-muscle shock. I thought that second run would never end!

I wolved down a well-packed Quizno's chicken sub for lunch, then The Wife and I went out to get a refrigerator for the house, another LG with a titanium finish to modernize the kitchen a bit. Then we finally went to our neighbors house next door to break the news to them that we were moving. I know they wish that we would stay but they also knew the day would come since we had been talking about it for almost a year. Rick and Mary are good neighbors to have and I'm going to miss them.

I just checked the blog of a good cycling friend of mine and she listed me as a Long Time Supporter in her Important People and Places links. How super-duper-freakin' cool is that? Gotta love it.

Welcome to two-thou-oooh-ate!!

Hey, Happy New Year to you all! I've survived the holidays (again) and the relatives (not that bad a thing) and the food (ate less but still too much). I am currently at the heaviest I've ever been in my life...it'll come off as the year progresses and I'm riding more...and I'm not that thrilled about it. Obviously my metabolism is slowing down as I get older and I can't burn off the calories like I used to. Sucks to get old but that's okay, I'm enjoying life and being part of it. In so many ways it gets better as time goes by and I wish (as probably all folks do) that I knew then what I know now...I would have better understood things and probably saved myself a lot of heartache and made fewer mistakes. But like I've always said: Everything you've ever done in your life has brought you to where you are now.

And I like where I am now.

Having someone who loves me is huge. Having someone who puts up with me is beyond belief. Having someone who needs me makes me really, really happy.

We closed on a new house in Shreveport and will be moving in soon. The tough part is deciding where to put the bikes and where to put my studio/office. We'll have the space. We want it to be efficient and neat and useful. So we're going to take some time to get it right...hopefully no more than a couple of months. We're expecting visitors from Down Under by mid-April and we need to have the house in reasonable condition and order by that time.

My bike riding has been minimal because I'm running a lot. I have a duathlon this Sunday and a 10-mile trail run in early February. I really want to do well on the trail run and I've heard that training for it is a good idea! Ha! I drew up a detailed run schedule which started in mid-December, beginning with a simple 2-mile run and is now at 5 miles. This is all volume work and my first intervals begin next week. It gets harder to get into shape as one gets older and things start to ache after a while. The ITB in my left leg has been a bother since last year so I've been getting The Wife to massage it every once in a while recently. It helps a lot but I'm wondering how it'll affect the bike riding once I get back into a 2-wheel training routine. Today I spent 40+ minutes on the Stoner trails...probably around 5 miles...and I feel really beat up and achy now. I love running on the trails...do they love me? Plus it's been really cold and I've had to make myself stay to my training schedule...I didn't enjoy getting out of the warm truck to tackle the cold air hovering over the trails this afternoon!

Still, I'm more excited about the upcoming bike racing season than I've been in a long time. I've got some goals to accomplish involving my time trials and road races, but I think I'm going to stay away from the criteriums unless I have to do them in a stage race...I'm realizing my mortality in my old age! I'll go into all that in the coming months.

Merry Christmas to All

It's Christmas Eve and my first Christmas with my wife. Cool.

I started running again eight days ago to prepare for the 10-mile trail run at Lake Bistineau on February 9th. I worked out a schedule based on the one I've done for the 1/2 marathon trail runs in '04 and '06. Started with a simple 2-miler and graduated up every other day in half-mile increments and today I got in 4 miles on the Stoner trails. I hope to stay faithful to the schedule plus get some riding miles in since I have a duathlon coming up in a couple of weeks. It's heck getting back into shape!

Aaacckkkk!!!

I always like it when Calvin goes "Aacckkk!!" when Hobbs tackles him.

Things are happening around here. First off, I'm recovering from a mild cold. That's kinda misleading because I feel pretty good but my chest has tons of green stuff all collected in it. I put in about 80 miles on the bike over the weekend but the cold has made me sore all over because of it. I'm really discouraged from running and stuff because of the coughing fits I have...maybe I'll get over it soon. There's a duathlon coming up on January 6th I really want to do, as well as a 10-mile trail run in February, and it would help if I trained up a bit for them. Plus I'm planning to do major bicycle miles after the first of the year. I have some goals for the upcoming season.

J and I have bought a house!! Well, almost bought one...we offered a contract and it was accepted. We're waiting on final approal of a loan from the bank and all the other stuff that has to be done, like an updated appraisal of the house, termite inspection, and other things like that. The place is nice and is currently owned by some friends of ours who are also cyclists and triathletes. They're moving out of state due to a new job and we happened to hear about it at a party given by our local triathlon club. We jumped on the chance (after looking at other houses that weren't up to snuff for us) and we liked the place almost immediately for practically the same reasons Scott and Lindsay liked it when they bought it some time ago. We hope to move in after the first of the year, or when they finally make their trek to their new homestead. I'm excited but then it's followed by the thought, "What have we done?" :)

We're keeping the old house for at least a couple more months so I can finish up the remodeling being done. The kitchen's almost finished, save for a new floor covering, and some painting still needs to be done. We thought about renting it out but I'm not all that interested in being a landlord...maybe some landlord friends of mine would be interested in buying the place for that purpose. I hope we can sell it in quick order and get it out of our hands. It's served me well the last 20 years but it's time to move on.

The holidays are coming up and the pressure is on. Presents need to be snapped up and wrapped, visits have to be made. We've already done a couple of parties and I'm proud that I haven't stuffed myself like I have done in the past. It's tough enough to stay quasi-slender at my age during the winter and the goodies being offered at these gatherings don't help one bit! I'll still have to drop 7-8 pounds by March (I'd love to lose a full TEN pounds for bike racing!).

Hola! The Holiday Season Begins!!

Thanksgiving has come and gone...let the shopping commence. As for J and myself, we spent the holiday at my Dad's house with most of my step-mother's relatives there. On Saturday, we headed down to my brother's house to hang out with my side of the family. It was nice to see everyone and it all went well. I managed to watch my food intake, was much better than last year but I still managed to do some damage. I just love the pecan pie!!

This morning's parkway ride had 8 people show up! That's surprising because once the weather turns cold, it becomes the standard that around 4-5 riders are the max. The temperature was 43 degrees but it was actually quite pleasant...probably because there wasn't any appreciable wind to speak of except for what we were generating. This was my first ride where I put on the full cold-weather gear for the first time of Winter 2007-2008. I had worn my bib knickers and arm warmers a few times before but now it was full leg covers, long sleeve jersey, and a light jacket! The pace was slow (also a by-product of the colder weather with this group), usually around 20 mph. My legs felt terrible but the pace wasn't anything I couldn't deal with, and my pull on the final section was the fastest of the ride...going about 23 mph. It felt slower. I didn't want to go any faster anyway. My return home was also slow and I almost hit a runner on the bike path who came out from behind a blind corner. I thought I saw some movement thru the bushes and reacted by soft-pedaling immediately and touching my brakes. So I wasn't going as fast as I could have been and really had no problem missing the guy. A bit faster and we might have collided since my turning radius would have been a smidgen wider.

The first part of this week was kinda busy, getting some ads and billboard designs out. I've sent out the invoices on those jobs and I currently have a healthy amount of outstanding receipts which will come in handy as those checks should be arriving bit-by-bit over the rest of this year. I hope to get more work in before Christmas so I can deal with January's bills and needs. But I'm good for December! Just finished the layouts for our Christmas cards and now I need to get them printed and mailed out. I'm fairly pleased with them...they have plenty of photos and updates about us in them and should get the recipients up to date.

Found out that the Louisiana-Mississippi Bicycle Racing Association has tentively listed my road race in July '08 for the district age-group road race championships. That's news to me! I'll have to see what extra I'd have to do to make that happen so I can figure out if I can do it or not. I don't mind doing it but it does add a little more pressure to an event I was going to do on a low-key level.

Thankgiving Eve

I've hardly been on my bike since the Tour de Ouachita, almost 11 days ago, so I thought it might be a good idea to make it to the 5:50 ride this morning and get back into some kind of routine. Plus it might be the last warm morning of 2007 and I better take advantage of it! Including me, there were seven of us cruising down the parkway but the pace wasn't that quick. I think I might have averaged 21.8 mph during my long pull but that was into an 8 mph southerly headwind and that tends to slow you down. And I'm nowhere near the shape I was in back in September.

I did a tradeout with Blackwell Research regarding a couple of jobs I did for them that I hadn't sent invoices for yet. I got a rear Hundred wheel with Shimano hub as well as a Blackwell double-wheel bag....very nice stuff. The wheel had been used last week when the Blackwell team went to do some tests at the Texas A&M wind tunnel, so technically it was a used wheel but it's just as good as a new one. Plus you can find pictures of it being used at the tunnel (it's the rear wheel). The wheel bag is pretty neat...holds two wheels securely and has two pockets for skewers and other gear. Very heavy duty and pretty. Basically the two products combine for about $1200 retail but with this tradeout, Blackwell only pays for cost and that pretty much equals what I billed them for the jobs I did a while back. I'm still waiting on one last check from them for something else and then my professional association with them will be over. I'll still buy their stuff when I can and support my buds over there.

Got more work done on the kitchen today. I'm reburbishing the cabinet doors instead of replacing them, which is cheaper in product but takes up more of my time. But I've been satisfied with the results and will just keep cranking it out. There's other things to do and I'd like to have the whole room done by the end of the year. So far I'm quite pleased with the results.

Lots of fallout from the ULM-Alabama game since Saturday. My alma mater has been in the news continuously for one reason or another, in association with the Tide's "embarrassing" loss to us. Hey, the Warhawks played hard and made Alabama work for all it got. We stopped them when we had to and the better team won that day. Now on another day, Alabama would probably kill us...but on November 17th of 2007, we were the better and classier squad at Bryant-Denny Field. Thank goodness we don't have to play them next year!

Tomorrow is Turkey Day...The Wife and I will do the annual Turkey Trot run in the morning and the rest of the day is to be spent/tolerated with relatives. The rest of the holiday weekend we'll try to get a number of things accomplished around the house and elsewhere. Hope we're somewhat successful!

Something I Never Thought I'd See

University of Louisiana at Monroe Warhawks - 21
University of Alabama Crimson Tide - 14

Jonnene and I were there...Section A, Row 58.

'Nuff said.