A long time ago, a friend once asked me if I was the kind of guy who saw an attractive girl on the street, by the time I passed her, I was ready to ask for my records back.
Having just finished watching the Science of Sleep by Michel Gondry, I’m going to postulate not only that he is that type of guy, but also that he made an entire feature length film about it.
It was not the masterpiece that is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but fun anyway.
Lifted again today. 40 minutes at lunch. Must have done 100 situps between sets.
Kind of an awkward workout schedule this week. Lift monday and friday. ride tuesday,wednesday.
eh. whatever.
Better that then nothing.
Lifted Monday.
Rode 2.5 hours on Bucks County roads on Thanksgiving day.
Felt yesterday and today.
Training: I think I was on the trainer for 40 minutes monday night. 45 minutes friday night.
Today I was out tooling around from Delaware to someplace near Thornbury. Maybe 1.5 hours on the road.
Still eating pretty much whatever I want.
I start lifting this week.
That is all.
Was busy finishing a book yesterday. Didn’t get a chance to write. Didn’t do much anyway.
Training: nothing.
Eating:
Breakfast: bannana, vitamin water, pretzel. coffee.
Lunch: 2 slices of pizza. Lemonade.
Snack:bag of popcorn.
Dinner: Chicken Stir Fry.(late no after dinner snack.)
Today:
Training: 30 minute run at lunch.
Eating: Vitamin water, banana, pretzel, glass of OJ 2 cups of coffee thru morning.
Lunch: 2 PB sandwich. Popcorn. lemonade.
Snack: Granola bar. Pretzel. Vitamin water.
Dinner: Lasagna.
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I almost ran this little one over on Ocean Drive tonight. We went back so I could help him across the road.
Some of you come to me since I compared Tom Boonen to Dr. Rockzo and have been all:
“Dude, harsh! TB just got dis invited from the Tour.”
I want to address that now. But first a long digression:
One of the great ideas my dad ever had was making my brothers and I work through our summer and winter breaks after high school and during college. We painted and did demolition at the University of Pennsylvania.
The crews were staffed with 2 kinds of folks: college kids and guys who were in recovery.
I have this clear memory of sitting out behind Hill house, the summer after graduating from high school. Maybe we were taking a break. Maybe we were folding drop cloths. Anyway, this guy I’m working with, not one of the college kids, and I are bullshitting about whatever, probably girls. He starts telling me about this girl he knew growing up. How fine she was…and how she got on the pipe and all that changed. And how her brother got on the pipe, and how his girlfriend got on the pipe, her friend, her cousin, her nephew…and so on and so forth.
In retrospect, he made it sound like if you were the one not smoking crack rocks in that kind of place, you’d be like the lone hold out in a zombie movie.
Ever since then, I’ve had what you might call a more then moderate disdain for rich white people who mix it up with the blow. Maybe because I have that picture in my head. Possibly also, because not only does the law punish them less when busted, but also because they are more likely to have better access to treatment.
Anyway, Tom Boonen is a public figure, doing something dumb. I think he’s earned a little bit of ridicule.
That said, I can’t help but think that maybe this is the best possible thing that could have happened to him. He’s a great bicycle racer; he’s fun to watch. Maybe he’ll get some treatment while everyone else is riding the tour this summer. It’d be a major bummer if he ended up like Pantani.
Here is the whole record
He laughs at mom betraying his trust like it just doesn’t matter.
It was the biggest turtle I have ever seen. He/She was in the shade of some grass on the right side of the path, maybe a quarter mile from Norristown.
You’d think that I would have considered it a sign. IE Slow and steady wins the race. There were bunnies around the path too. All on the left side. (If you have no idea what I am talking about, Google Roman Superstition.)
My team asked me to take a few laps at the beginning and go hard on the climb of the course. String out the field to get a sense of the field for the guy we wanted to win. I thought ‘Sure, no problem. I will do that, then take a few laps to recover. What could possibly go wrong?’
I kept telling folks this week that I felt ‘good’ for this race. I’m never ever going to do that again.
At the whistle, a guy from tri-state(maybe?) went up the road. I went after him. I took the first turn badly, had to do a lot of work to get onto his wheel again. I didn’t look to see how hard I was going. After I caught up, I sat on him until the pack caught up.
By the time we got half way up the climb about a mile later, I had peeled off and started drifting to the back. I figured I hadn’t executed on the plan, but I kept someone not on my team from getting very far up the road.
Time to recover!
For the next two laps, There was no rest for me. I went over a bump and lost my water bottle. I got caught behind a crash on the bad turn. I got caught behind everyone stopping at the bad turn. I every time I started getting comfortable and looking for an opportunity to move up, the pace would lift, or we’d get to a climb. I was OTB before the end of the third lap. Thats less then seven miles or a third of the race for those of you keeping score at home.
I stopped and started a few times. And then got lapped. Finally, I did something I have never done before. I took the DNF.
On the bright side, my team captain got 3rd.
For me though, It was a shitshow. I am red with shame.
That is all.
