The Joys of the Suit

Humph... no luck meeting the 500 km mark by April 30th - unless I leave the house right now to ride 40 km in the dark at something like 3 degrees. No thanks. Schedule and weather did not permit me to reach that target. Ah well. I'll find time tomorrow. I'm not sure what the weatherman is up to, but again, the weather is changing on a daily basis for the weekend. Humph again. I've decided to take Friday off and if it rains it'll be good anyway since my place is a total sty and it's bad enough that it's getting on my nerves - that means it's embarrassingly bad. I have spring-cleaning-type chores to get done.

I got home from work tonight earlier than expected and now I'm blogging because I still need some time to unwind. So, funny story for you...

Tonight one of my co-workers and I were sharing embarrassing suit-ripping stories. You see, in our job we are obliged to wear nice suits, and yet at the same time we often have to do physical labour, like lifting big boxes and what-not. My embarrassing suit-ripping story occurred a couple of years ago in the winter when I was carrying a very heavy box into an office and my arms were finally feeling like they would give out and I could not put that box down fast enough. Of course, arms full, I had no third hand available to pull up the fronts of my pant legs before crouching down to free myself of said cargo... R-I-I-I-I-I-I-P! Oh no! I ripped the seat of my pants open. Luckily, it being winter and all, I had a long wool coat on and nobody was the wiser. Even more fortunate, I was still in town and could go home to change. And just to make me feel extra stupid, the tailor laughed at me days later when I took my pants in to be mended. Yes, cycling and adding a few pounds to the skinny body of my youth has actually endowed me with a butt (something I didn't have before), but it's not that big! Proper and expensive suit pants require pulling up in the front of the leg before bending down. Unfortunately that's not possible when your arms are full. I also have several nice suit jackets in which the inner lining is ripped from reaching into my trunk for things. Oh the trials and tribulations. ;)

April Goal

I've been a little neglectful this week, so posting a quick one for your Monday morning coffee break in the cube farm.

It's time for epsom salts and stretching. OK. I admit it: I've already fallen off the wagon when it comes to the weekly Sunday afternoon yoga/tai chi/pilates class... doh! Didn't get in the door from riding til 2-something though. I'm bad at making new habits I guess.

This weekend was another treat. The weatherman predicted rain Saturday, then changed it twice back and forth between rain and shine... this lead me to reschedule my massage appointment for Saturday morning twice (luckily on-line), leaving my massage therapist a little confused as to my state of mind. In the end I went early Saturday morning and then rode my bike in the afternoon. I wouldn't necessarily suggest a massage in the morning before riding your bike, but I at least had time for a nap before I headed out on the road. Today was another great day on the bike. Only problem with the last two days: it was really windy. Although, I guess the good thing is that it's pushing me to get stronger faster. I gave my new baby its first bath today. :) It's all shiny and lubed up - ready for more riding this week. I need a name for it, btw. It's not yet the end of April and I'm already closing in on 500 km!! I'll have to achieve it before the 30th. For tomorrow: recovery.

Velo Love

Wow. OK. This weekend was epic. Skiing is but a distant memory - funny how that works. Started the odometer again... of the nearly 300 km I have on it, 180 km were spent on the new bike this weekend!!!!!!!!!!! What a sweet ride. OMG! May I say that again? What a sweet ride!!!! OMG!!! I'm in love.

I'm hoping to start a new habit too: yoga on Sunday evenings (well it's a class at the gym called bodyflow where you do yoga, tai chi, and pilates). Perfect for me to move and stretch and do a little bit of core strength to balance out the cycling. So this is the second weekend. Apparently it takes one month to form a habit. Wish me luck. I need to do this one.

I finally uploaded my garmin software to the computer as well as the data I've got in it now. Uh-oh. That thing is dangerous. You wouldn't believe the cool s#%t you can do with that thing. I'm screwed.

Tan lines already solidly in place (well, the ones on the legs never really go away) - the cycling season has started off really strong. Let's see where I go with it...

Sunday evening musings

Funny story from Chicago...

I was in a session at the congress. It was on severe acute hypertension. Yes, it was very interesting. He, he. When I was leaving the session my colleague, Bernard, text messaged me asking where I was. I texted him back saying I was heading to room S501a (or something like that) and that after that I was meeting a group of our colleagues at the front door to head out to the hotel for our debrief meeting at 4 PM. I figured he'd meet me at the front door at the pre-specified time.

So I head to the room for the next session that I wanted to attend. I get to the room, find a spot, and settle in. Not 10 minutes later, who walks in, but Bernard, all smiles. I thought he knew what the session was about. I said to him, "I can't believe you came to this session". He looked kind of confused. At the front door of the room a woman was greeting those coming in and handing them a book - written by the speaker. Bernard had one in his hand. He looked down at the title of the book: Into the Labyrinth: How Women Become Leaders. I started to laugh. He had no idea. He ended up being one of 3 men in the room. The session was really interesting, an audience mostly consisting of female cardiologists and related specialties. Bernard was a trooper. He stayed to the end, and even kept the book to give to his wife. He's one of three of us who now cover the territory I used to do alone: it's now myself, Bernard, and Janette. Poor him, Janette and I really gave him a hard time the whole time we were at the conference. I think he kinda likes it in a way though. lol!

So... this week looks like it's going to be really gorgeous (weather-wise). I'm working my butt off Monday and Tuesday, but as the week comes to a close I hope to get out on the NEW bike for the first time!!! So maybe my next post will be about that!

Oh, and I spent a little time this weekend changing things up here. Those of you who know me well will laugh when you see the colour scheme. I think I've captured a lot of the places I've been thru the photos. And yes, they were all taken by yours truly. I think my fave is the Eiffel Tower shot at night. Man, that thing is huge!

Fried

Wow. I'm so fried. My brain is mushy tonight. I can't remember things and spelling is difficult. Don't know why I'm even writing here. Maybe you all need some Friday distraction and me writing about nothing will help. ;)

It's been a crazy week. I've been working like a dog. Tonight I have plans to go for "adventures in dining" courtesy of Stef. I am looking forward to seeing how big she's gotten. Hopefully the girlz will be able to keep this kind of outing going. Stef wanted to organize something where we could go out and at the same time, expose ourselves to a little 'culture'. So tonight it's Ethiopian. I've had Ethiopian food before in T.O and it was great. I just hope I can hold a conversation. At this point I'm not sure.

I'm not going to train tonight and Jess canceled - phew! Not a bad thing. I probably would, and could have fallen asleep during squats or lunges. Last weekend I got to ride outside both days! I was going to head out alone on Saturday - not thinking about inviting anyone along, and also wanting some down time. My experience is that after being in meetings and conferences for a week I need time alone. However, Ruth phoned and asked if I wanted to head out with her. And frankly, I love riding with Ruth. So out we went. By the end we were in such bliss we were making plans for another ride on Sunday. Funny... just writing that made me perk up a little. :) I was hoping to get out this weekend but the weather keeps changing. I guess I'll have to play it by ear. I LOVE cycling!!! Ok. I know you know that, but I just had to write it anyway. The new bike has not been out yet. I'm going to wait til they sweep the roads a lot more and I feel that I won't get any road salt on it. You probably can't help but notice all the snow still there in our photos. Well, it's melting - I'm starting to see grass on my front lawn!! Spring is here - woo-hoo!

Chi-Town Low Down

OK. I'm starting to recover from a week's worth of work and travel. I am not exaggerating when I say, I believe I actually got a half hour to myself one day - and even that half hour was rushed. The rest of the time I was working my butt off like you wouldn't believe. My average morning wake up time from Sat thru Thurs was around 6 AM - starting with a 4:45 AM wake-up time on Saturday to get off to my flight. I am not a morning person, so you can imagine what those mornings did to me. And I worked all day at the conference Sat to Mon evening, with dinners out every night, ending with a symposium dinner on Monday. Tuesday we started our meetings when the rest of our colleagues joined us in the windy city. The conference, while exhausting, was fun and educational for sure. I was able to take 2 hours to myself on Sunday afternoon between seminars and dinner meetings and met up with a friend and colleague who stayed with me there (although she never saw me apart from that afternoon). We took a quick boat trip up the river and out to Lake Michigan. It was raining a bit and foggy, so we didn't get the view of the city that you would normally, but it was nice to do it regardless.

I found Chicago to be friendly and clean. I was told that the downtown core, where we were staying, is the nicest part of the city, so it leaves a bit of a biased point of view for me - particularly when I wasn't able to see much of the city, save for cab rides between the hotel and convention centre. However, what I saw makes me want to go back some day and experience it more. The architecture is definitely cool. The way the city was developed is really neat. Apparently it burned down and they had to rebuild at one time. They had been dumping all their sewage and other waste into the river and it caught on fire. That's when they built a lock at the entrance to the lake and forced the river in the opposite direction so as to move waste out and treat it properly. So I guess that's where "second city" gets its name. Due to the fog on the day that I took that boat trip I wasn't able to see the top of the Sears Tower, but it's still the tallest building in the city. And they've done a lot of neat things to move traffic, like Wacker St, which has 'upper' and 'lower' parts so that trucks can unload downstairs and not impede the flow.


(it's the one in the middle there)

Spring had arrived in Chicago already - there was no snow left and I saw LOTS of cyclists! I actually forgot how much snow we had here, so was surprised when I looked out the airplane window before we landed. Eek! One day I noticed the view from my hotel room window and saw I had a great view! And it was beautiful outside.

One of the final things I did in Chi-Town was the original House of Blues. The company had rented the entire place out for us on Wednesday night. That was a lot of fun! They had a Blues Brothers cover band play for us, and some Canadian comedian (I can't remember who - but I think he was pretty big because everyone else knew who he was - I'm hopeless with those things).

On the way home I got to thinking that Chicago is a lot like NYC, but smaller, cleaner, friendlier... and maybe even better shopping! So, next time you are thinking of going to NY for a shopping weekend, I'd reconsider and think about the windy city. Which, by the way, wasn't very windy. ;)