Partial Relief
2007-05-25, 4:10 p.m.

Day 1006

But only partial. Made it to that meeting last night. Thursday meetings are nice. They meet in a town about 14 miles due west of where I work. If I leave work at 5:00, I can be there by 5:30 if traffic isn�t completely nutz. There�s no going home first and getting snagged there. I do love me my Thursday meetings.

Now if I�d only put in a little effort last night, I might have gotten something out of the meeting. As it was, I just sat there and absorbed things. Not all bad, but when you don�t have any input, it�s hard to get anything back. Low energy day I guess.

At the Y this morning, I actually got into the spinning studio about 30 seconds before the instructor (Gary, the sadistic bastard) got on his bike. Made all the initial stretching routines!! You can tell Gary�s back is feeling better too. Not only did he beat the crap out of us (again), he joined in for nearly all of it.

There are basically 3 positions the instructors have us use in class. The first and most basic position is seated. You can adjust your hand position (3 or so choices) but seated is seated. When you�re digging in, your butt might slide back in the saddle a bit, but, again, your butt is in the saddle. Biggest load? Quadriceps.

The second position is the standing dig. The most vertical of the out of the saddle positions. You�re standing while pedaling, hips up near the handlebars, but nowhere near the seat. Easy position to ride in, especially for steep uphill climbs, or whenever the load on the pedals is really, really big. You get to use your body weight for leverage. Biggest load is again on your quads.

The third position is out of the saddle, but low. Your butt is supposed to be projecting back, hovering over the seat. Hands are usually more forward on the handlebars and the back is pretty much horizontal. Body weight is not so much a leverage point in this position. Load? Spreads back to the hamstrings and glutes. Gary loves this position. Gary loves to sprint in this position. This is what makes Gary a sadistic bastard. Well, that and liking to sprint in the standing dig position too. That�s hard because you have to use your hips as a swivel point. This puts the entire load on your legs so your hands & arms can�t really offer any significant support. Otherwise you bounce around so bad you work your fillings loose. Pretty sweet.

We did lots of out of the saddle work today. Sprinting uphill. Long digs. Long, low grinds followed by sprints. Theoretically, we made it the tops of hills and had to sprint down, because outdoors, that�s really fun. Indoors? You don�t really notice the speed advantage of going downhill. At all.

I think the ceiling fans were on reverse too. I was right under one (well, a little to the side, but really close) and I never felt a breeze the entire class. Needless to say, there was a small pond under my bike by the end of class. My skin was leaking really bad.

After Gary�s attack of the glutes & hammies, my legs are not very happy with me today. By tomorrow afternoon, I expect that today will have seemed joyous in comparison to what I have in store for them in the morning. The plan is to ride a 59 mile loop from home to Batavia & back. (Always back. Why do we always mention it?) Not too hilly, but more work than last weeks loop.

Since the kiddies are gone for the weekend, thought I�d sneak in an 86 mile loop Monday morning. That would leave me only 14 miles short of the Tour distance with 2 weeks to go. Thought about doing another really long ride June 2 or 3, then rest up for the tour itself, sticking to easier rides for the week leading up to it. That�s the plan anyhow. We�ll see if it holds.

In a classic passive/aggressive move, Cindy mentioned something about not having a job in 2 weeks. She also said that I probably didn�t care, and refused to say anymore about it for the rest of the night. THAT is irritating. Get drunk, complain that no one pays any attention to you, drop a bomb like you might be losing your job in two weeks, then refuse to answer questions when asked. Makes perfect sense, doesn�t it? I�m going to go play that game all weekend. Oh, joy.

Better go get a status report done before I leave. Or I could just leave and send it in from home. Heh, like THAT�s going to happen. Better do it before I go.

If I don�t pop in over the weekend, hope you all have a great holiday. Someone save me some couch space and room to park a bike, m�kay?

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