Tuesday, May 14, 2013

WCC Ride 05/14/13 - Wherein Jon Gets Lost. Again.

Thought I'd do the 11 mile loop, solo. Listen to some Prodigy. Tackle some hills. Think deep thoughts. And work up a sweat. Bumped into Eddie "Coach" Holmes. He talked me into the 28 mile loop. With the Big Boys. By two miles, I fell out of the pace line. By 8 miles I couldn't see them. By 14 miles I was wondering why they weren't circling back. And at nearly seventeen miles I passed a sign: Welcome To Stone County. At which point I was officially lost. Thankfully I didn't hear banjos.

Phoned Eddie when I found signal. Back tracked. Met up with him around 25 miles into my 11 mile ride. Rode. Talked. He gave me some pointers. Tried to do some intervals. By 30 miles, I was running on fumes. Thankfully concluded at 32 miles.

Sweat. Road dust. Mosquitoes while I stowed my gear. Humbling to be the slowest member of the pack. And invigorating to get lost. Again.

Should get lost more often.

Monday, May 13, 2013

More Moo Shoo

The spirit was upon me. Try something new, she said. Chinese, she said. But no carbs, geek! she said. And once that voice whispers... It's on. 

My usual neighboor haunt. Family store. Best General's chicken in town. What's news, but no carbs? I decide to try the Moo Shoo Pork. No previous experience with it. I ask Owner Lady what it is. Not sure what she said. But she smiled as she said it And nodded at me. Like I was making a really smart choice. 

Haul it home. And wow oh freaking wow! Thin sliced pork. Eggs. Maybe mushrooms. Hint of ginger. Garlic. And possibly a wine or something with the most excellent flavor. Served with a side of POTENT thick black hoisin sauce. And some amazing tortilla-like wraps. Though I swear Owner Lady said pancakes? No idea what they were made of, or how they were made. But the whole thing was magnificent, strangely exotic, and delicious. 

I'm thankful for the visit from the spirit. She steered me in the right direction, as usual. And I'm certainly going to get more moo shoo.

Thursday, May 09, 2013

Zipping Along

One lone non-office lunch per week. Usually spent amid young drama in The Old Biloxi Fillin' Station. My life is so very clean and simple in comparison to the tales we're told each Thursday or Friday. "We" meaning my work wife: Hodge. He likes to feel the soothing kiss of normalcy, too. So, I went caveman (surprise!) and opted for buffalo wings with a side salad. Sloppy and nummy. Just the way ol' Caveman Jon likes it.

After work? Biking through the hills of Woolmarket. Me, John H & David S. Just 11 miles. But did I mention the hills? First seven miles we were zipping along. Last four, panting like basset hounds. Gotta get used to those hills. And soon. Some big races coming up, and dying on the course isn't my idea of a good finish.

Wednesday, May 08, 2013

Non-Pub Run - 05/08/13

So my Pub Run was rescheduled to Tuesday, and that doesn't jive with my schedule. So, for the indeterminate future, I'm running solo through the neighborhood again on Wednesdays. And instead of 5K, I've graduated to 10K. Which completely reminds me why I dislike running so much. Not as much as I used to hate 5K. But at least in the same ballpark of loathing.

Pretty much the usual run given my location, my ability, and the time of year: mostly slow and sweaty.  Traffic was light. Humidity wasn't too bad. The Prodigy helped. But not one of my best runs. Need to start doing regular speed work. But I need a lot of things. Just a matter of time, money, and effort. All of which are in high demand but low supply.

Didn't cry, puke, or pass out. So I got that going for me. Until next week...

Tuesday, May 07, 2013

Southern Gaming 2013

Once a year a casino-based convention comes to town: The Southern Gaming Expo. Vendors circling overhead like shrill, angry gulls. Property executives get tan to make the rounds. And free parties litter the night like beads after Mardi Gras. Free food and free drink? Sign me up! But... there's this whole non-drinking issue Jon's been wrestling with recently. And the non-drinking side of the brain won the fight with the pro-drinking side. So Jon didn't partake, but he did attend the biggest party of the week.

My old drinking partner, Tracy, was there. Haven't seen her in probably a year. Or more? She came down with Rex last year, I think? And before that, I was in Las Vegas. Anyway, she's over in Louisiana, now. New property (for her.) New role. Lots of challenges. Her GM was with her. So we didn't have much time to catch up. But now that she's two hours away, instead of two days, maybe we can meet in the middle (NEW ORLEANS!) some time and compare notes.

Also got to hang out with my online video game brother: Mikey, aka Ribo. He works for MS Gaming in Jackson. Since I missed last year's expo, I haven't seen him since 2011. But we rumble sometimes on Borderlands 2. (New expansion due soon!) His wife, Sam, was there. Telling me about her adventures with the Dept of Marine Resources down here. (Apparently a big scandal that I've only vaguely sniffed) The Right Honorable Judge Rob was with him. And his bride, Amanda. We talked about video games, gaming, getting older, taxes, schools, society, and my near-termination a while back. Good times, good food, and what looked like really good booze.

Already looking forward to next year. Maybe I'll be drinking again by that time...

Monday, May 06, 2013

Monday's Villains

Not much cohesion to Monday's villains. Slept terribly last night. Too many thoughts and too few short term solutions. No rain but temperatures hover in the mid-50s. A jacket in May?Work immediately filled with dragons and boy is my sword arm sore. Jason's divorce court date gets pushed back. Dad wants to dig a ditch. Cindy finished her last test of the semester. Liam and the chamber group performed for a Biloxi school, passing the Google Maps car along the way. Meg is nearly as tall as her Mom. Molly got a bath. Lifted this morning. Sixty laps at the gym after work. Thirteen days until my next race. And boy are my swim arms sore!

Sunday, May 05, 2013

Cinco 2013

Day two of constant studying for Cindy. Laundry and shoe shopping for the rest of us. Shoe Carnival not open until ELEVEN! Michaels in the meanwhile. Where they have two aisles of yarn and hundreds of different kinds of glitter. Thankfully a Carnival salesperson makes my life easy by measuring Little Sasquatch's feet (he's a size eight for those keeping score) and finding a good (ie: cheap!) match for his only-worn-three-times old pair. Then a hotly debated visit to Raising Cane's for lunch. The kiddos were all worked up about it. My first visit. And I felt guilty just LOOKING at it. Fried chicken strip sammich and french fries. Couldn't bring myself to drink a soda and yet I was still burdened with excessive guilt for effectively negating much of my recent training by eating such metabolic atom bombs. Sure, sure, the strips were good. But fried + battered + tatters = NOT caveman approved. Poor choice on my part. I'll regret it for days, but sometimes we have to forgive ourselves for our trespass.

Then I was off to the lake, for triathlon training. Get out of the car and cannot find my swim gear. No goggles. No earplugs. No towel. I'd left them at home. Plenty of offers to borrow from friends, but nobody has prescription goggles of my caliber. And not being able to see the shore is a deal breaker. So I sit there while everyone swims. Followed by a double tough ride into the wind. We averaged maybe 14MPH against 10MPH winds. One of the other riders couldn't take much more. And our two hour ride slipped to one hour.

Ho hum. It is what it is. Back home to the kids and a thunderously loud Cinco De Mayo meal at one of the local Mexican eateries. Kids had their usual. Chicken (again) for the boy. Cheese enchilada for the girl Starving, I scarfed down a plate of steak fajitas (including the dang flour tortillas!) Bellies full, again, we rode home talking about genetics and astronomy and the potential for a one-way trip to Mars. Not bad for a day's work. Happy Cinco 2013! Whatever that represents...

Friday, May 03, 2013

Suckage Continues

After four days, the suckage continues. More rain in the afternoon, completely fouling my efforts to do any sort of serious training. Tuesday killed my bike ride. Wednesday killed my run. Same Thursday. Same today.

Told myself, "Dude!" (I call myself Dude.) "You're going to run when you get home, unless there is lightning or hellfire." But that was before I felt the temperature drop into the fifties. And before the walk from my car to the front door resulted in nearly unusable spectacles. Drizzle and glasses do not mix. I would have been runnng nearly blind.

So just a couple of weeks before an Olympic triathlon, I haven't trained in four days.

(sigh)

Thursday, May 02, 2013

April Rewind 2013

Cindy's birthday. Unusual cold. Unusual rain. First triathlon of the season. Winning another challenge from the Tunica crew. Better time on the training. And resumed levels of happiness. Hey, May... BRING IT!

  • Swim: 3.75 miles
  • Bike: 124.5 miles
  • Run: 23 miles
  • Strength Training: 12 hours
  • Calories burned: 20469

Wednesday, May 01, 2013

A Wild Wednesday

Not the day that was envisioned. Started with the results of personal experiment. Haven't had a drink (of alcohol) in three weeks. Not a drop. Wanted PLENTY. Enjoyed none. Testing a theory that drinking has contributed negatively to Ye Ol Waistline. Was hovering around 186.5, beginning of the month. Weight today? One hundred and eighty three pounds. 183! And that was fully dressed, work shoes, wallet, keys, phone. Everything. Buck naked and exhaling, the scale may touch down as low as 180.

The results are great, and terrible. Great because of the weight loss. But it is terrible because it comes at the price of one of the last few guilty pleasures in my life. Sure, sure, sure. There's probably a happy middle ground. Maybe ONE beer won't add to my waistline. But one ain't ever enough. So the results of my experiment create a tough moral dilemma: indulge and accept the drag on my weight, or keep suffering.

And then, the rain. Not just a bit. Not just a storm. But a Message From God Sized deluge. Talking biblical proportions, man! Cats & dogs living together. Total anarchy! Could barely drive home. Let alone do the weekly pub run.

YYYYYArrrrrrrgh! Why did it have to turn out to be such a wild Wednesday?