Safety In Lights

This morning was warmer; was a bit overdressed on the bike - but pitch dark as usual. A and I missed the bunch by about 30 seconds (around 300-400 metres). It was a really big bunch of riders this morning, and since they weren't so far ahead we thought it would be a snip to catch them. Problem was, my light is about as good as the light from my watch - no, worse, and Alex only has a ruby red light on the back (he'd given his to his sister for the Mugg & Bean MTB 24 hour thing). So, as any sensible cyclist does riding on a pitch dark road, you slow down a bit.

It took us a good 10-15km to close down that 30 second gap. Probably the gap got bigger because around corners we couldn't even see them. What made it hard was I have been PROPERLY sick and my heart rate was telling me so. So this was the day for a heroic chase. We took a short cut and still the bunch flew around the corner 100 metres ahead of us. Jeepers! Also, this morning the wind was blowing unusually strong - I felt it especially on the long drag where we finally caught the bunch. Once in the bunch it felt - suddenly - absurdly slow, and easy. What gives?

The moral of the story (there always is one isn't there ;-) is that without lights, life becomes a LOT tougher. A lot tougher than you can imagine. The folks in New Orleans have a month to learn that lesson. Here in South Africa we've learned that in fits and starts. But get this - when the lights go out you're dealing with a whole different order of magnitude of life out there. It's a different universe requiring a lot of schlepp, a lot of effort. You don't want to find yourself in that position. Coal prices, I read yesterday in FM (not FHM ;-), waiting on a couch for my movie to start are around $163 from about $60 a year ago. What do you think the world uses to get its electricity?

Nice to have an early start to Friday. Will try to be at work before 7:30am so I can leave early.

This morning's stats:
Time - 1:29:24
HR - 152 avg/172 max
Distance - 40.4km
Avg speed - 26.8km/h (max 59.5km/h)
Altitude average - 1566masl
Temp - 8min, 10 av, 28 max
Ascent - 375m
KCal - 1528

Was good to end this morning's ride in the light. The last couple of months have meant getting up in the dark, riding in the dark, and arriving home in the dark. With Spring here now, that's changing.

Sponge Machine

Ja it was an interesting morning. Met up with A and H at Melrose Arch and did a tough cycle session: 5 minutes hard, 3 minutes easy, repeated 5 times. Hard may sound matter of fact, but the hard sessions maxxed out at 170 (for me at least).

What's interesting is when you are on the bike and you start to push above a 140 HR, the sweats starts to squeeze out, then drip. So you essentially feel like you are squeezing your own sponge tighter and tigher; wringing your body of its sweat, metabolising the fat, making the engine rid itself of blubber.

Getting up at 4:30am tomorrow for a cycle outdoors. Going to be cold and dark. Brrr.

Fietstoer: Oh ja, I heard that the fietstoer is having some drama. They were in Burgersdorp recently. Trailer broke off, and I think the one truck is sukkeling. And a cold front is moving over now.

Let them paint on the walls

Juno MacGuff: I think I'm, like, in love with you.
Paulie Bleeker: You mean as friends?
Juno MacGuff: No, I mean, like, for real. 'Cause you're, like, the coolest person I've ever met, and you don't even have to try, you know...
Paulie Bleeker: I try really hard, actually.

Instead of crawling back into my cave last night I ventured out. As far as - GASP - Montecasino. It was quite funny. I was really starving and so I said to L, "Shall we sit out...er (glancing up at the fake ceiling)...should we sit out inside?"

Salad was great, and the movie was an incredible breath of fresh air.

Back at the cave I had a top 500 worst sleeps in my sleep (around 2 hours, low quality), and so when the alarm went off at 4:30am I cringed, moaned, assumed the foetus position. I sent A an sms saying: "Dude, don't you want to ride tomorrow. I'm death in a blanket." (I'm paraphrasing). After two minutes I said stuff it, and kicked my sorry ass out of bed. Had a very nice ride (this time on my Trek since the Cannon is probably sitting in a hanger in Cape Town already).

Last night on Oprah I watched this professor with pancreatic cancer giving this speech on living. Are you an Eeyore or a Tigger. Oprah summed up the whole show by quoting something from his presentation. He'd said he had fantastic parents. When he was a youngster he asked permission to paint various things on the walls of his room. They felt that art (and expression) was more important than walls, so he went on to paint an elevator, rockets, equations and so forth on his bedroom walls.

We can do the same in our lives today, but the canvass is the walls we put around us, to defend our own views of the world.

Watch Randy Pausch's lecture here.