2008: Coming to a Close
So 2008 was a very good year. Tomorrow, I will write a full review of 2008, and talk about 2009. For now, however, I have a quiz:
On the final day of 2008, I:
a. woke up with a migraine
b. had a massive allergy attack
c. fell down a flight of stairs
d. all of the above
e. none of the above
The correct answer, of course, is "d." That said, I'm going to go drink and play Rock Band with my friends. I hope you all had an awesome 2008 and have a better 2009.
Bored?
Slow day at the office? You can spy on my desktop activities here. (Reload as desired for new images. Note that this will not always be running.)
Win!
So if you're a bit of a sci-fi geek like me, you might read the Eos Books blog. (Okay, I don't really read it regularly, but I probably should start.)
You might have been reading the post where someone named "Dan B" won the autographed copy of Neal Stephenson's Anathem.
Yup, that "Dan B" is me. Too awesome!
This is made even more cool as I switched majors from Comp Sci to Creative Writing after reading Stephenson's Snow Crash, a move that had a pretty positive impact on my life.
A huge thanks to Eos and Neal!
Dying
So I've had insomnia for awhile now. I don't know for certain, as I've really lost track of the days. Last night, I finally slept the whole night, and dear god, I hope that signals the end of it.
I don't know what's been more frustrating for me -- that I lay awake in the darkness staring at the ceiling or the wall, listening to the cats do their nightly activities, or that during the day I can feel my mental abilities and my memory slipping more and more with each passing day. If those wildly inaccurate free IQ tests on the web are to be believed, I've dropped about 30 points over the course of this, and I'm forgetting to do things that are supposed to be routine. Two days in a row now, I've left my work security badge at home, and I've forgotten to make coffee as well. The latter impacts Kate, and this morning it spilled over -- no pun intended -- and impacted me as well: she was obviously annoyed, and I being at the frayed end of my mental rope did not react well to this. I muttered some inadvisable things under my breath, and went upstairs to shave. Looking back at it, I'm surprised I remembered that I had to do that.
I suppose the upside to all of this is that my immune system still seems to be working. I've had a touch of a cold a few times, where it's lasted about 8 hours, and by the next day, I'm fine. So at least there's that. My only concern is this pushing me over the edge into depression -- I get a little down in the winter months, there's a lot of changes going on in life right now, and it's a little overwhelming at times. The lack of sleep could make that really bad.
So yeah, hopefully after last night this is behind me.
Off-Season Training
It's December. It's that time. It's time to suffer!
This off-season, I'm going to do some good cross-training in addition to the usual weights and assloads of base miles on the stationary bike. I'll be adding the following to my training regimen:
- plyometrics
- swimming
- running
- yoga (once per week)
In addition to all this goodness, I'll be driving to Colorado Springs in late March to get a full 3D fitting to my bikes (road and time trial) at Carmichael Training Systems ($500, plus travel). And in early April, I'll be paying a visit to the sports lab again for another work-up to see where I'm at ($100).
Well, No Fucking Wonder
What the author kinda feels like lately. Photo from the Library of Congress.
It is now the snowy month of December, when cyclists' dreams turn to spring and racing and suffering. And that can only mean one thing: off-season training.
I'm in a weird spot, being in my mid-30's. My metabolism has shifted, and since about 2003, I've slowly piled on about 30 pounds. This leaves me hovering around 205 pounds, the most I've ever weighed.
To look at me, you'd be hard-pressed to figure out where I carry the weight -- I still look skinny. The thing is, I'm one of those "fat-thin" people -- I carry it internally, between the organs, rather than externally. Generally, not a good thing.
And in my training program, diet has always been my weakest link. I've got a sweet tooth (inherited from my maternal grandmother, a diabetic who loves chocolate cake and hates the glucometer). There are vending machines not 30 feet from my desk at the office. At the bike shop, I am surrounded by decent sandwich and pizza places and there's always the gas station/convenience store across the street if money's tight.
This year, I decided that I really should do something about getting back down to my fighting weight (175-180 pounds). Last night, I came upon a solution while surfing for new iPhone apps. The Livestrong app, which features a calorie counter, was a free download, so I installed that, and this morning, started to make use of it.
First, I went through the set-up process, and to lose 2.0 pounds a week, I need to keep it to about 1900 calories a day, based on my lightly-active estimate of my life. Okay. No problem, right?
I started my day with a 12-ounce can of Mountain Dew. A good wake-up, right? Right. Got to the office, got a 20-ounce bottle of Pepsi and a sausage, egg, and cheese croissant.
This plethora of food put me to 50% of my daily intake already. I nearly shit. It's true, too, what they say about people's inability to judge caloric intake. I had no friggin' idea what I was eating.
I think this will help get my shit on-track as far as food goes, and hopefully I'll be down to racing weight by the end of March.
Tonight, I'll be setting up my off-season training program.
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Mmmm. Thunderstorm. [fontosaurus]
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I'm at 3M Center- Building 225 (3M Center, Building 225, St. Paul). [fontosaurus]
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Checked in at 3M Center- Building 225
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Willing to bet money that we sign LaDainian Tomlinson today. #Vikings [fontosaurus]
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At my first NBA game. [fontosaurus]
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T-wolves/Nuggets (@ Target Center w/ 11 others) [fontosaurus]
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Checked in at Target Center
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Wants Battlefield: Bad Company 2.
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Kickin it in the bar. (@ The Westin Minneapolis) http://4sq.com/91urJg [fontosaurus]
