100

It was my first century of the year yesterday. I'd ridden close to that once before but this was most definitely the longest ride I've done by a fair margin in the last few months. It felt good to get out there and ride 100 miles, don't get me wrong it hurt pretty badly too, though I can't imagine doing that sort of distance very often.

I felt pretty trashed the rest of the day. I ate a lot of food throughout the afternoon and ended up passing out on the couch around 10:30pm (I missed the Venture Bros. season finally!) and woke up starving and pretty dehydrated. I drank a lot, ate some food, came to work... am eating more food now, but still feel pretty out of it.

We did the ride in 5h 10m which I think is a record for me at that distance. We pushed it pretty hard despite the wind and hills. We started slow since we had a lot of people with us, after the first rest stop we had a few less, and on the last 50 miles there were only five of us. It felt like I did a lot of the pulling, though typically I dropped people when I pulled on anything other than a downhill.

All in all, it was a good ride. I'm glad I did it. Though my legs would disagree.

-Later

Olympics

So they are wrapping up. I spent many an hour watching the world's best compete for small little medals and was thoroughly entertained. From the constant second guessing of certain swim results, arguments over athlete's ages (yeah, she doesn't look 16.. I mean, even Stuart wouldn't hit that), dropped batons, missed chances, referees kicked in the face, medals refused, incompetent officiating.. well let's just say the news definitely knows how to hype the stories.

But all in all it has been very fun to see them compete. I especially like the underdog races, where the favorites didn't make the final round and suddenly you have a wide open race. I mean, Spain winning the K2 500 meter? Come on.. did not see that occurring. It was also the first time I was able to watch canoing, synchronized swimming, track cycling, racewalking and a few other unique sports which don't show up in American sport's culture as highly as say, tracking and field, swimming, etc.

Oh, and 10k open water swim? Pretty nifty.

Dropping women's softball due to American whooping everyone's ass... then having America not win the gold medal? Ironic.

Watching 2 women from the gold medal ping-pong team face each other in the singles gold medal match? Amusing.

-Later

Killer Bee

Sunday mornings for me tend to mean a ride with the Wheeling Wheelmen. They are a good group of guys. Not excessively fast but very consistent and friendly. I like riding with them despite the fact that I know if I really want to improve my cycling skills I'll have to ride with people who push me, rather than with people I push.

So we started the ride, just sort of cruising along holding what I considered a pretty reasonable 24 pace. We are heading up to a stop light so we are sort of slowing down. I look back to see what traffic behind us is like, since if a car is turning it tends to be a good idea not to block the turn lane. Anyways a few of our group are a ways back stopped on the side of the road. There is a car passing them and a helmet lying in the opposite lane. Of course this is never a good sign. So the few of us at the light rode back to see what had happened.

Apparently one of the group had been riding along and had a bee sting him on his ear. Right on the tragus actually. He told us it was the first time he had ever been stung. So he didn't really know what was going on. When he was stung, he immediately ripped his helmet off, lost control of his bike, and ran into a curb probably doing around 20 mph. He went over the curb and eventually crashed on the grass embankment. Everyone was sort of amazed he managed to go over the curb.. and many were impressed that he did so without injuring himself too severely, especially since he had taken his helmet off first.

We fixed his flat tire but he decided to turn back since he was slightly nervous about having his first bee sting. The ride ended up well, no other incidents to speak of. Good fast pace. I enjoyed it.

Well I'm going to go grab some lunch.

Later

Cold

So for some reason there is no hot water in my apartment at the moment. Since I don't pay for gas, or water... I can only assume that it isn't my fault. Sadly I did not discover this until I decided to take a nice long shower after my ride this morning. I turned on the water, let it run for a bit.. typically I rinse and set my water bottles to dry while the water is warming up. So then I go and hop in the shower. I normally do a preliminary check to determine the temperature but since I spent a little while longer cleaning the water bottles I decided to forgo checking the water this time.

Suffice it to say I was slightly surprised. But I sucked it up and showered anyways. Not the most pleasant shower experience but far from the worst. What's the worst you say? Well.. I don't think I should share that story with the general public.

Now, about 6 hours later... and I'm tempted to call someone. But honestly, it isn't bothering me that much. We just got the shower installed at work.. so I think if I still don't have hot water tomorrow.. well, I've got to ride near there in the morning. And there is always the gym.

I know.. I just hate talking to people I don't know.

Later

Finally

So we finally got internet at the new office building. Numerous calls to Comcast resulted in nothing and it took thinly-veiled threats to actually get the ball rolling. But we have internet, fast and effective. Feels so nice to be able to access e-mail while at work. Really a relief.

Not much has really been happening up here. I've been riding a lot, watching Olympics, enjoying my new subscription to Netflix. Got a bunch of random stuff queued up.. but any suggestions are welcome. I've also been enjoying watching the streaming stuff they have online. The first season of Dexter was quite enthralling. I'd strongly recommend it to anyone.

Well I need to get back to work. Got a few things to get ready to ship out and I need to make sure the FedEx program is working on our new internet system.

Later