gatekeepeR's Blog » fitness

Tour

gatekeepeR — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:08:18 +0000

When I got home last night and crashed on the couch, there was an interesting show on HD Theatre (Discovery Channel HD). Chronicled the story of two guys who won a contest in 2007 to ride a stage of the Tour (actually, about half of it). (Offered as the L’Etape package from Trek Travel). The got outfitted with brand new Madone bokes, full Discovery team kit, and “behind the ropes” access at the Tour. They got to ride the route for what was stage 16 of that year’s Tour – over the Col ‘dPierre-St-Martin (Cat 1), Col d’Marie-Blanc (Cat 1), and finishing on the Col d’Aubisque (HC). (Click here for the route - click on “Profile of the Stage”) One of them dropped after the Marie-Blanc, but the other finished on the Aubisque. His time – 7 hours and change.

But watching it made me want to do something like that for a vacation in the upcoming years. Despite the pain, it looks like fun.

An observation

gatekeepeR — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 16:44:44 +0000

One of the interesting things that I’ve noted in the last week is that my sleep quality is directly related to my food intake. On nights where I don’t eat the healthiest dinner, I sleep horribly, and wake up groggy as all get out. I oversleep, despite the system of alarms that I have.

This really started over a year ago when I went out to San Fran. I thought that it was because I picked up tobacco use again. No doubt that it’s a contributing factor, to be sure. But with that trip, I stopped tracking my food, and began my decline from exercise.

It’s amazing to me (again, I suppose) just how much my diet affects everything else. I know that I’m extremely healthy (tobacco use aside) – with super low cholesterol and extremely healthy blood sugar/blood pressure/etc. I just need to make a more concerted effort, it seems.

The new season for one of my gaming leagues kicked off last night. To say it was a disaster would be an understatement. It’s beyond my comprehension how my teammates freeze up come match time. In practices, I can’t get them to shut up sometimes – always calling and communicating. But in the match, I got nothing from them. I had to almost scream at them to communicate. I know when things get bad, people get frustrated, but that’s when you need to talk the most. I can’t make changes on no communication. I fully expected in the practice afterwards for us to get rolled, but instead, it was the crew of old – talking, calling, communicating. Granted, we had a sub, but it makes me wonder if the player I had to sub for isn’t the problem. =/

So, it’s practice, practice, and more practice now. I hate that I’ve got to spend so much time on this. You’d think after several seasons of playing with some of the same guys, we’d have this worked out already. But we haven’t. And that frustrates me.

We’ll see what happens. All I can do, I suppose.

Won’t be riding in le-tour anytime soon

gatekeepeR — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 20:35:02 +0000

I got back on my bike for the first time in over a year last night. I spent about 25 minutes on the trainer, and then decided that I needed to get out of the house. So I went out and did 8 miles. Nowhere near my usual evening ride, but the total time on the bike – 55 minutes. Felt oh so good. It wasn’t a difficult route, no major hills/climbing, and the speed wasn’t where I remember it being, but what do you expect? The handling was off, and I forgot just how difficult it is to pace yourself on the road and judge your effort. If rain wasn’t in the forecast for the next couple of days, I’d probably be back on the road, without hitting the trainer.

My last grade got posted last night. B+ I can’t complain, considering I missed turning in a couple of case assignments, and figured that I’d be lucky if I got an A. At least my GPA stays above a 3.0, which is all I needed. I’m sitting down with my Independent Study coordinator on Monday to get that setup. So it’s just a matter of waiting for the rest of things to get underway. Financial Aid is set now. I just need to figure out if I’m set for December graduation or not.

After a couple of days of tracking my food intake – I just have to say wow. It’s no wonder I was feeling tired and run down for awhile. So much garbage. At least my calorie intake was good, but the nutrients I need… weren’t there. We’ll see how this keeps up.

Anyways, that’s it for the moment.