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Mental Monday I
2006-09-11, 4:37 p.m.

Day 750 Mental Monday

First, I�d like to acknowledge and remember the fallen heroes and those who passed away 5 years ago and offer my deepest sympathy and appreciation.

On with the mundane . . .

Here�s this weeks free association stuff from Unconscious Mutterings

1. True love :: Hah
2. Age :: old
3. Stern :: strict
4. Elastic :: stretchy
5. Rustic :: old
6. Enhance :: improve
7. Jackson :: 20
8. Inherit :: will
9. Devious :: sneaky
10. Scapegoat :: poor bastard


Apparently, I�m a cheap old cynical bastard that�s flexible and has room for improvement.. Seems reasonably close to me.

Another 5K race, another best time. Close this time though, only beat my previous time by a whopping 9 seconds. I have a real good excuse though. This course was very hilly. Very, very hilly. Started relatively flat for a few hundred yards, then it was uphill for the next half mile or so � sorta circling the Victor school campuses. Quick downhill into the village, flat along Main St. for a brief stretch then the beastly part begins. Seemed like the next mile headed out of town was uphill, but it was probably only a half mile, flat along the top of a ridge for a bit, short little down hill, then up hill again as we swung back towards town. Nice gentle downhill stretch back into the village, then finish up the last half mile nice & flat. I may check out either g00gle maps or g00gle earth and see if I can dig up the elevation changes along that course. It was by far the hilliest I�ve run since high school (wow � 5 whole races!!)

Rain held off Saturday too so the lawn got mowed. Whoopee!!. Might try uprooting all my crab grass and planting regular grass seed, see if I can�t get the nice turf to fill in better and crowd out the weeds. Problem is our yard is either all sun, all day or deep shade, all day. Very little sun/shade mix. Only thing that grows in the shade is moss and one particular weed (wild violet maybe?). Looks weird, but at least that�s in the back.

Now that I seem to be pretty firmly entrenched in this bike riding thing, Cindy has insisted that I break down and get a helmet. Yeah, I know � should have had one all along. Problem is I have a rather large head, also kinda long front - to - back, so it�s difficult to find a beanie that fits. Sunday must have been by lucky day. I was perusing the helmets at D1cks Sporting goods and actually found a brain bucket that claimed to be large enough to fit my 24.75 inch circumference head. (Yeah, that�s large. Go measure yours. Betcha get 23ish or a little less even.)

Anyhow � seeing as it�s pretty much the end of the season, I got a pretty good deal on the beanie � 37.5% off original price. That got it down to the upper limit of what I was willing to spend, barely. At least now, if I take a spill the pavement is protected from my head banging against it. I�d hate to see the bill for repairing the road after something like that.

Found a neat race to try for my October competition. Oh � did I mention that? I have been trying to get into an official �race� once a month till the end of the year, starting in May. Doing pretty well too. Missed in July, but did get to 2 in June so I�m averaging 1 a month at least. Back to October. Neat idea. Called a duathlon. Consists of trail running 2 miles, a 10 mile bike ride, and another 2 mile trail run (same course). The bike ride is along some old railroad beds, so it should be pretty flat. I checked previous years results (they do an excellent job of record keeping). Looks like I might be able to do middle of the pack for my age group (crusty old farts). Eric�s trail bike is sitting in the shed unused. I can tune it up a bit and do some test runs on a local greenway trail that�s built on some more old rail beds. Probably move my speedometer over to that bike to track distance & speed too. Overall, it sounds like a sweet way to spend an hour or so on a Saturday morning in the fall. Right now, I�m just waiting to hear from Eric to see if he minds me using his bike for the thing. He�s a nice kid, I�m sure he�ll let his dad go get beat up on some silly trail ride.

Did fit in a nice bike ride Sunday afternoon. Went from home out to Scottsville along Rt. 386 (had to do some riding to get to 386, in case you�re keeping score), sorta looped through the village, then headed back home along Rt. 383 (again with the riding some to get home from 383) 20.6 miles in all, averaged 16.2mph. Wind blew again. Got home and watched the rest of the Bills game. Should have kept riding. Bills were winning while I was listening on the radio.

Ended up not going to the Sunday evening Al Anon meeting. Kinda bummed about that. Just never settled in good all weekend. Cindy went out with friends Friday evening to see her bosses band play. That�s all well & good, except for her having to actually sober up for a few hours BEFORE they went out. Her timing was a little off and she peaked about 5 hours too soon. Not my problem. I did the race Saturday morning, mowed the lawn and puttered around the yard the rest of the day. Had a disagreement about who was supposed to run out and pick up her dad and who was cooking jambalaya for dinner. She thought I was going to get her dad. Never said word one to me about it until I started rounding up the ingredients for the jambalaya. Deal is, I always cook the jambalaya. Period. Same for gumbo. (She nearly ruined the last batch of gumbo by adding a flour and water mix to �thicken it� like a gravy. She was drunk, of course. Took nearly 2 quarts of stock to thin it back out proper. She remembers none of it � but everyone else does.)

Cindy ended up going to get her dad, I cooked. She spent the rest of the weekend being antagonistic. And drunk. She was toasted by mid afternoon Sunday. I should have just left the house last night and gone to the meeting. Screw explaining everything to her. Also screw waiting for that sober moment. Sorry Pam, I just don�t see it happening anytime soon. In the mean time, I�ll just go to the meetings and wait for her to ask what�s up.

(insert small break while I curse at my simulator)

Then I read Alison�s Thought for the Day III. I quote:
Remember this is for you and your recovery.
In order to be effective truth must penetrate like an arrow - and that is likely to hurt. Wei Wu Wei

Hurt is right. What Wei Wu Wei failed to clarify is that the hurt will be on both ends of the arrow�s path.

Of course, she also included:

From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere... If you never did, you should. These things are fun and fun is good. - Dr. Seuss, One Fish two fish red fish blue fish, 1960

Now, while you can take a second and think, my, how funny, Dr. Seuss! - it makes an excellent point. Fun is good - reward yourself. It�s all part of the recovery. That�s the nice part of today�s thought�s. Then there�s the bit on effectiveness. I ought to just muscle up and get it done tonight. Doubt she�ll be sober. Maybe she won�t be so far gone that some of the news will penetrate. Like that flippin arrow. But it will be a start.

Also got an appointment with my coach (Carin) at the Y. Time to consider the Nautilus equipment instead of the Life Fitness resistance machines. I�ve maxed out on a couple (back extension & leg press) and it�s just getting too crowded in there. And frankly, I�m in better condition than 99% of the people that use that stuff. There�s guys in there with arms twice the size of mine pushing only half the weight I move. Don�t know if they have some medical condition limiting their exertion or what. Regardless, I need to get to the Nautilus for more challenge. I�ve also noticed that my weight lifting has been tailing off recently, at least in number of pounds lifted per week. Might be boredom setting in. Time for a change. Best part � as a Y member the consult is free. I like free.

Updated stats:

Weight start: 206.5 on 1/1/06 (265.0 on 1/15/05)
Current weight: 186.25 on 9/11/06 progress.
Next weigh in: 9/11/06

New target � 180 by Halloween

The Keep on Truckin goal: (idea stolen shamelessly from Marn�s Big Adventure)
Miles at speed 9/6/06: 712.35
Miles with cool down: 783.49
Target for 2006: 1000 miles
Plus 127 miles biking so far.



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