What a great day....long, but great day. Got up real early to see my brother and his family off. Helped my father do some pruning and other yard work. Decided to go on an early morning bike ride to avoid the wrath of Hurricane Charley (it was forecast to rain all late afternoon). I was planning on doing 100 kilometers (63 miles). Come hell or highwater..I was gonna do it. So I drove out to Vienna and biked west to Hamilton 31.5 miles out, turned around and came back. Made great time, only 3 hours and 15 minutes. I was semi-wiped out. Next weekend - I'm gonna do an 80 miler - from West Falls Church to Purcellville - 40 out and 40 back. Then the following weekend is the Reston Century - 100 miles.

After the bike ride, I went to Performance and stocked up on some Power Bar (brand) Gelpacks for the next series of rides, another water bottle cage for the new bike, a Spin Doctor chain cleaner w/ chemicals and some racing socks. Came home showered and then went out to dinner with my folks at a new restaurant here in Fairfax called Coastal Flats - it was quite good, pre-1950s Cuban flair cuisine. Came home, cleaned my bike chain and tweaked my trainer. Watched the news - Hurricane Charley has now officially passed. Tomorrow will be a good uneventful day weatherwise. Will prolly do a quick 45-50 miler to keep the legs movin.

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Friday the 13th. Uber-crappy day at work. Thank goodness it's now the weekend. Went out on a 45 mile bike ride. Was threatening to rain - the temp was great. Arrived back while dark. Time to mount the headlights. Brother and family stayed the night on their way to the beach - was nice seeing them.

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I must be having my period...or just having a horrible day. Work royally sucked. Asshole boss seemed to hone his asshole skills from yesterday to go into an unbridled asshole attempt to break the record for being the biggest asshole today. I think I can accurately quote him when he peaked at 23,000 feet of Mt Asshole altitude in just this series of bipolaresque fired off sentences (one hypocritical sentence after another): "So, even though i asked you if you could get (said project) done next week, i really need it today - not next week - TODAY! I don't want you thinking too hard about this, you just need it done - now! Stop listening to me and get cracking! But seriously hear me out and take me seriously, we need to get this done and listen to what I tell you to do!" I should have just asked him if he was on crack or something. He's a walking heart attack. He fails miserably in his management skills - he's threatened by his staff and he is incoherant as a person, not to mention a total scatterbrain. One minute he changes his mind, the next he changes it back and assumes that everyone is his personal mind reader who can follow his delusional arbitrary trains of thought. As of today, I've started to gather materials, update things to look for a new job. I don't need this kind of bullshit - to work for a meglomaniac with no sense of courtesy nor professionalism. Besides - it was due for me to move on. Today was strike three.

To top it all off today - I was really looking forward to my training session with my bike partner this evening after work. Then came the tornado warnings and flood warnings and whatnot from the hurricane Bonnie & Charlie that hit the coast recently. It poured and poured and lightning, et al. I (more out of habit) got dressed at work for the ride and planned to leave a little early to meet in Vienna - then my training partner called to called saying that "heck no, it's too intense out there". I was still focused on going, but by the time I went to the car, took the bike out of the car, put on the front tire, put on my helmet, gloves, hydration bladder - I was already soaked to the bone. And it wasn't hot out - it was actually a little chilly. I even had on my rain parka. I thought - "OK, this is not meant to be - or happen. I got everything back into the car and drove home with my tail between my legs.

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Hurricane season upon us. Obviously not as bad as last year when we had Isabelle hit. That was a mess - I was living in Richmond, VA when it hit - we got slammed. We were without power for almost 2 weeks - and I was living in DOWNTOWN Richmond. Today we had a horrible leftover wrath of hurricane Bonnie (ironically, my mother's name)...and later this week, hurricane Charley will hit. Touch and go with the weather for biking - but will ride the storm out.

Tomorrow huge night to bike with my training partner, we gonna do a festive 40-42 miler and do our dinner/drinks thing afterwards. Should be fun - she'd been out of town for a week and the 2 weeks prior she was finishing up some grad school classes - so we have alot to catch up. And she has not ridden with me since I got the new bike. Ha!...she may not wanna bike with me evar. Well, I don't run...nor swim competitively - she does. She'd kick my ass in the pool. SHe started this intensive triathalete swim class - she swims a mile every morning, with sprints. Then she goes on a 10 mile run or a 30 mile bike ride in the afternoon/eve everyday. Pretty hard core. So when we have dinner/drinks after our ride - we basically say...screw diets....i'm getting a huge ass cheeseburger with bacon with fries and a beer or two.


I was telling my training partner about this website www.caloriesperhour.com that allows you to calculate how many calories you burn in an hour (or minute) for all sorts of activities - from the mundane (like walking a dog, or house cleaning)to the hard core sports crap. You put in your age, weight, height, and type of activity...and how long you do it. Then you hit calculate - it's pretty cool. I put this in for what I do daily:

Male 36, 5' 6", 140 lb BMI=22.6 RMR=1,508
Bicycling - over 20 mph (racing)
2,286 calories in 2 hr 15 min

Made me think how many calories I'll be burning when I do the Reston Century on the 29th (the race is 100 miles...I should finish within 5.5 hours, 20mph is average speed, the course is very hilly so I could be biking between 16 and 32 mph):

Male 36, 5' 6", 140 lb BMI=22.6 RMR=1,508
Bicycling - over 20 mph (racing)
5,588 calories in 5 hr 30 min

Pretty scary - I'd have to consume 24 Power Bars (they contain 230 calories each) to make up for what amounts of calories I'd burn. So generally, you shed some major fat and what not (sweat) from doing this. I'm Stoked.

Tonight, only did a minimal 42 miler - was a nice trip, albeit extra humid - I think I sweat a gallon. I have this new trick that I do when I stop at intersections. My helmet has removeable spongelike liners for comfort - but they turn into sponges for sweat....when I get to an intersection or place where I have to stop - I grab my helmet and push it up against my forehead thus wringing out the sweat sponge liner. It just gushes sweat - it's strangely impressive - looks like I have a leaky water bottle in my helmet.

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The damage is done, I have signed up for the Reston Century 2004 for Sunday, August 29th. I am really excited. I'll be doing part of it with my training partner (she has a triathalon she is doing the day before - will be wiped out and will opt for the 31 miler). This is what I have been training for all spring/summer. Will be a testament. One of my fears is the "rolling" part of this sentence: "The challenging Century and Metric Century routes follow beautiful rolling rural roads through scenic, historic towns such as Leesburg, Hamilton, Purcellville, Round Hill, Hillsboro,Lovettsville and Waterford." My training partner says - it's not "rolling" it's HILLY - you are basically biking in the Appallechian Mountains in part of it (those rural towns are on the border of West Virginia). I loved the standard "BICYCLING ACTIVITIES INVOLVE RISKS AND DANGERS OF SERIOUS BODILY INJURY, INCLUDING PERMANENT DISABILITY, PARALYSIS AND DEATH" waiver information that I had to sign - run of mill stuff.

Today had to work a little late but I was determined to bike another 42 miles, it was beautiful...albeit a little gusty, but schweet and all sunsetty. Came back and it was dark. Will be training Thursday with my training partner, tomorrow will just be another ride - but the weather says it may storm. Big friggy deal - long as there's no heavy lightning, it's a go.

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Grrrr at work. Lousy day. Was way too busy, and my asshole boss was extra assholish today. I cannot beleive that someone can be so hypocritical, absent minded and patronizing simultaneously. He needs to change his management style or I'm outta there. I consider this strike two (strike one is the not such a great sallary).

I ended up leaving work late - frustrated...and craving my bike ride to calm down. But I knew I'd be coming back late...dark. Fortunately I had bought a new headlight...but I had left it at home. Oh well. After the 42 mile bike ride, it was still barely light enough to see. In the next few weeks and thru the fall...it will be getting darker earlier, and after this month - it will get chillier...than colder. So there may be days that I'll train at home if it is raining or super cold or icey/snowy. I'm preparing myself already, stocking up on some neccessary things like winter bike gloves, gortex shoe covers, maybe a new gortex jacket, ear/face covers... I already invested in the indoor trainer for bad days and a lighting system for dark evenings. I'm in for the long haul.

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Boy Oh Boy, wasn't sure if I'd go on a bike ride today. I was stiffer than a frozen hot dog this morning after yesterday's bike ride. But I still needed to go out and train. The only inspiration was to pass the 500 mile odometer mark on my cyclometer (for the new bike). I decided to do a different route today - the "Annandale loop" - it's a 45 mile hilly trek the runs from Vienna to Falls Church then thru the Custis trail then loop back down to Alexandria then back to the Washington Old Dominion trail. it's a little challenging...but I picked the wrong day for it. It was completely beautiful....and cool on the August Summer side, on a weekend...so there where herds of weekend warriors...and families with unobservant parents with unleashed kids doing stupid things...like running in front of my bike. I almost collided with two sets of these ignorant breeders' kids. The children don't know any better...they are kids...but the PARENTS should control their kids in a place where it's the W O & D BIKE TRAIL...there are bicyclists...many of them...racing, training, biking. When you have a family of 7, 5 children under 5 years of age - why why..WHY do you take them to the W O & D bike trail to walk? And allow your children to run loose. Grrr. /end of rant. Anyways, it was a good 45 mile trek despite the ignorant parents. Takes 4 advil....

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