An August Tuesday

Starting to show the signs that we are headed away from my favorite solstice. Cruising back from an evening ride at it was looking kind of dark shortly after 8 tonight. Some high clouds from storms off to the west added to the lack of lighting. On one hand it means some of the most pleasant days of the year are yet to come, but then it also means shorter days, eventually colder weather and all of those things which see how much you really want to ride a bike.

It also means cyclocross is coming up...oh yeah...good times. How much pain can you put into an hour.

Tonight was a training ride, more specifically hills. I kicked it off in style by scarfing down a slice of pizza when I got home from work. Ham and pineapple, a personal favorite. Couldn't wait until later as it was nice and fresh. About 30 minutes in I wondered if this would be one of those events I would look back upon in awe of my own stupidity. Fortunately things stayed settled and all was good. Good reminder that I need to use my brain a little more regularly. It tasted wonderful upon my return. The simple pleasures in life...

Completely unrelated, tonight is the Perseid meteor shower. Always kind of cool, if you want to stay up and watch it. Don't know that things are too favorable here, some clouds, fullish moon...don't think it will be in my plan.

August

...already. Amazing how time seems to go by faster as I get older. Guess I am not exactly discovering any new, just experiencing it first hand.

July seems like it was over practically after it started. Seems like it was just the nice, long 4th weekend.

Since then I have ridden a little less and worked on running a little more. Trying to get some balance back in the legs and body overall. Realized that the race training was doing a lot of good for certain muscle groups but leaving others sorely undergunned compared with their cycling centered neighbors. this accounted (quite likely) for some less than enjoyable weeks. I think I have pulled it back together, but we shall see...

I also hit a bit of a personal rut. Last couple weeks I felt tired, sore...more than expected maybe. I countered by reducing my workload and changing a few things up. One thing I noticed in particularly was that it seemed to take me a long time to get warmed up and comfortable for the Training Rides. Looking deeper I realized my sleep pattern is certainly not great and I haven't been doing myself any favors by getting 6 hours a night. Blabbing on some blog at midnight sure isn't a good way to help that either I suppose...oh well, weekend almost here and nothing special on deck. It is a work in progress for sure.

I continue to watch a mother/youngster turkey pair by the Trinity River Trail. So nice to see true wildlife in the confines of the city. FtW has impressed me with it's overall design, plenty of greenspace around for a larger city.

In the less-than-fun category, my all purpose bike continues to let me know it needs attention.
Replaced the BB last week after a superb lifespan. Gave it a good overall cleaning, inspired by the recent road bike overhaul. Promptly afterward I got The Creak. The mystery creak. I checked the usuals and found nothing out of line until I finally deduced it was the drive side pedal. I have an old set of SPDs on currently and this one was in need of a cleaning and lube it turns out. That done the bike is upgraded to "fair" condition, which means it is business as usual for store runs etc. Always a good thing.

So much excitement, I need to get some sleep.