Thoughts on Life

1. Is it really wrong to practice my freestyle swim stroke when walking around the library at work?

2. We aren't supposed to have a lot of contact with people due to the swine flu. My entire day is spent taking books, dvd's, handing out a bathroom key (yucky) and people breathing/sneezing/coughing on me at the Reference desk. Guess I should retire?

3. Why did New York citizens spend 1.5 billion dollars on Yankee stadium, yet the outfield walls are in too close and one of the tunnels to the field help push the balls further, thus increasing home runs.
Too bad this doesn't seem to help the home team win.

4. Why am I watching more baseball on tv than Lou or Mike, and it's always the Yankees, and they seem to be losing a lot?

5. I really don't like biking into the wind, downhill, and having to pedal just as hard as going up a hill. This doesn't seem fair.

6. We are supposed to drink 8 glasses of water a day, plus more fluids to offset dehydration from exercise. But if I pee many times a day (which I do), then the tv commercials tell me I need a drug because my friends will leave me behind in the bathroom and continue having fun without me. This makes me sad.
Well, it would make me sad, but most of my friends are long-distance athletes and always drinking and peeing. Sometimes they even find a tree or bush. We have a code; "Leave no pee-er behind".
Who needs drugs with friends like that?

7. Television also tells me I need a drug because I get up at night to pee. Yet I'm supposed to drink all these fluids that have a tendency to make me pee. This is quite a conundrum. If I can't pee so much during the day, I can't pee at night, when exactly am I supposed to relieve myself?
I think the stop-pee drug makers and the bottled water distributors are in business together or it's a government conspiracy.

8. Here's a joke. Two women walk into a bike store. Let's call them Jan and Eileen and the bike store can be named Full Moon Vista.

Jan and Eileen walk into Full Moon Vista during a Women's Only Sales Event. Credit cards in hands, husbands at home, no kids. Jan and Eileen get to ride bikes costing double or triple what they now own. Hmmm. The ladies like the bikes, a lot, what a surprise, the bikes weigh about the same as a chocolate cupcake with vanilla icing. They want to buy the bikes. There is the good angel on their left shoulder, the devil on the right shoulder. What should they do? Hmmm.

Well, we really don't know what they are going to do, time will tell. Where's the punchline? I forgot to write one because this is no joke. Full Moon Vista knows how to market.

Boston Marathon (of course)

The intrepid trio of Sals runners; Mike the 4th, Rickinevermetcottonididntlike and Andyarelativeineverymarathoncity successfully completed the 113th running of the Boston Marathon on Monday.

A cool, but windy, day greeted the runners. Their finishing times were all in the 3:50 range. Congratulations and welcome back to our honored training partners!

I watched quite a bit of the marathon, which was being broadcast live over the internet. The men's and women's races were both exciting as American Ryan Hall took the lead right from the start and Kara Goucher was in the lead pack throughout the women's race and took the lead from about 21-25 miles. Both Americans finished third overall. Kara was 9 seconds behind the winner and Ryan less than a minute.

Mary Poppins

I admit it, if I don't, someone else who happens to have the good fortune to live with me will. Sunday morning was cold. Riding my bike is neat, I love it, but I still have issues with riding in sub 35 degree weather. Go ahead, make fun of me, but that is too darn cold for bike riding. That's why I went downstairs, back to the indoor trainer.

It's been at least four months of riding with Troy Jacobsen's Spinerval series, or following Dennis Moriarty's training. But I needed to ride 56 miles and I was mentally tired of both of them. What was I going to do? Flipping through the channels (yes we still pay for cable), I came to the Family Channel and there was one of my all-time favorite actors, Dick Van Dyke, dressed like a chimney sweep! It was the beginning of Mary Poppins. Perfect timing on my part.

I immediately decided to ride near the cadence and in the gear I want to use at the Disney World 1/2 IM next month, the gear I'm going to catch Jan and Amanda in (no doubt they will beat me out of the water, but that's it). This was fate, I was watching one of the most famous Disney movies of all time on television and I'm going to Disney! During every commercial I pretended I was riding uphill and put the bike into harder gears.

Two hours and forty-six minutes later I had completed the 56 mile bike. For the first time ever I averaged over 20mph for an extended period of time riding indoors. The movie ended as I was picking things up. Perfect, a true fairy-tale ending, it was supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

Velocipede

After a complete search of her family tree, it became apparent why Eileen is so good on the bicycle. Apparently Eileen's ancestors were some of the original members of the local Gymnacyclidium, circa 1869. Roads weren't the greatest between Spencerport and Rochester back then. Imagine riding the bike pictured above fifteen miles to a cycling class or race being held in downtown Rochester!

People think it is tough to learn riding with clipless pedals nowadays. They are nothing compared to falling off one of these bikes. I've heard downhills were especially treacherous. Rumor has it Eileen's Great-Great-Great Uncles and Aunts flew down Gillett hill (which was a dirt road until about 1970) with ease. During the annual Spencerport carnival, Velocipede races were held and Eileen's family won fifteen years in a row, in the men's and women's divisions.

The family had unique training techniques, including attaching tow ropes to the Velocipedes and pulling barges along the canal path from Spencerport to Brockport.

So, if you see Eileen flying along the country roads, you'll know that it's a genetic gift and hard training that makes her so good.

YellowJacket Racing

Daniel's 5k Looks like Saturday's race will be a wild, windy affair, with temperatures hovering in the 40 degree range. I can't wait to get out there and work for YellowJacket Racing, timing the race and hoping our equipment doesn't blow away!
Here's a little song that might be going through my head while I work, thanks to Gene Kelly.

I'm working in the rain
Just working in the rain
What a glorious feelin'
I'm happy again
I'm laughing at clouds
So dark up above
The chips are beeping
Give thanks the system is A-Okay,
Let the stormy clouds chase
The runners to a great place
Come on with the rain
I've a smile on my face
I walk down the course
With a happy refrain
Just workin',
Workin' in the rain.

Dancin' in the rain
Dee-ah dee-ah dee-ah
Dee-ah dee-ah dee-ah
I'm happy again!
I'm workin' and dancin' in the rain!