Fix my g*dd*mn sole!

I've been so immersed in my new baby, my new job, and my year-long aching foot that I've pushed aside the workout interjections in my entries. Nonetheless, I really have been exercising.

Last Friday, Dr. W injected more cortizone into the heel of my foot. Geez, it grossed me out. I couldn't help but flinch. It went like this: he stuck in the needle, injected some juice, pulled out and reinserted at a different angle, injected more juice, pulled out and reinserted again, ... and again ... and again ... and again. Oh, and again. [wince]

The treatment was kinda like the way you would swish a drinking straw in an almost empty beverage container, searching for that last sip. But more painful.

The lesson for you all: for heaven's sake, have lots of sex / suck face take care of your plantar fascia!

"Math Doesn't Suck"

Thank you, Winnie Cooper Danica McKellar. I hope to give your book a read to get a glimpse of your "fun" perspective on arithmetic.

You go, Wonder Girl!

One, two, three, push!

She's here! She's here! She's here!

Sweet little Claire popped into the world Thursday afternoon. And after only less than three hours of labor -- a new family record! :-)

That's 6 lbs, 15 oz, and 20 inches of life-formed love.

Go baby go!

Pre-birth day

A cute little button and still in her mother's womb. This sonogram of little C's face was taken a week and half ago (Aug 6). Much sooner than that -- tomorrow, in fact -- she'll be popping out probably just around noon. Melinda is already at 40 weeks and at full term and still not contracting. Go figure.

Because of this and because she has gestational diabetes, she's scheduled to be induced soon after we check into the hospital bright and early at 7 am.

So yeah, tomorrow's the day. Baby 4 is on her way.

***

ps: We've already picked out the cutie's first name. Anyone want to take a guess? However, her middle name has yet to be decided, and my suggestion unfortunately has been denied by the mrs. (Sorry, Red Sonja 2.) So feel free to throw in your two cents.

Burning up the hills

A 39.5 mile hilly bike ride with Jay today. A casual conversational pace, as we normally prefer. Hit the road at 6:30 am, back at the parking lot at 9:30 am. And the whole day ahead to spend with our families. A transparent workout is what I call it; hardly anyone notices our time away. That's the way I like it -- minimal time impact.

The highlight of the ride was the culmination of my gym workouts in me tearing up the last and hardest hill of our route. A personal best as I perceived it -- upping to the big chainring and bigger gear ratio (53/19, I think), faster cadence, and a lower RPE of 13 (vs 20, last year). Yeah, baby!

Alpe d'Huez, here I come! :-)

My work toys

Yay, I get to play with a thinga-ma-scope! Actually, it's a portable patient monitoring device. And an ultra expensive one too. My coworker plopped it on top of my desk yesterday, since it'll be part of one of the projects that I'll be working on.

So I've been playing doctor with myself all yesterday and this morning. Been keeping my arm strapped to the device's accessories, which has been auto-reading my blood pressure and heart rate at intervals for hours. I averaged a BP of about 110/70 BP and a heart rate of 56 bpm. Ahhh, the cardiac benefits of road cycling are finally showing their colors. Now if only I could determine if my genetically ill-fated cholesterol level has lowered.

Can't wait to play with myself some more. ;-)

My career -- moving on

Yay, I got another job! A permanent position this time. With benefits. Yay, again! I start Monday.

It's been quite a busy few weeks. (I apologize for the lack of entries.) My consulting assignment ended today and I spent the afternoon sporadically visiting my coworkers' cubicles to say goodbye. I'd been consulting at that company since the end of February 2007.

Melinda says that I should have taken one or two days off before starting my new employment so we can have the family spend some time together. I agree, but after I set my starting date. What was I thinking?

Nonetheless, I'm excited. And Melinda and the kids are too. So celebrate we shall. Alrighty then ... Applebee's, here we come! :-)

Go job go!

Taking it up a notch

Finally bumped the LifeCycle up to its max level of 25 @ Hill Intervals, 36 minutes. In all the peaks, I kept my cadence at 51 rpm, to the beat of the song 19-2000 (soulchild remix) by Gorillaz. In all fairness, I think the the exercise bike really was outputting at level 21 or 22. At least it felt that way. Perhaps I should suggest to the gym manager that their bikes be tuned up or calibrated to provide accurate resistance. Or maybe I could be wrong and just got that much better.

Nonetheless, since I've maxed the hill levels, it's time that I start upping the rpm's.

BTW, this is a fitness plateau that I've focused on for a long while and worked really hard to reach. Glad I finally got there. Can't wait to see how it translates on the real roads.

Go bike go! And oh ... Happy 4th, yo!

Perkins Tower

I didn't finish the bike climb to Perkins Tower at Bear Mtn, NY yesterday. My friend Jim didn't have it in his lungs to make it all the way up. It was just too much for him.

Our group of 7 riders started at Mike's house, which was about 17 miles south from the peak. We biked 12 miles along the Hudson River through loads of rolling hills (at too hard of a pace IMO) and just reached the Bear Mountain area into a long climb when Jim couldn't take it anymore. He pulled to the side for a long gasping breather and then said he was turning back. He was really spent.

Jay accompanied him to make sure he was alright. I went ahead to catch more of our friends further up, told them to just keep climbing, and then turned around and chased down Jim and Jay for a threesome ride back to Mike's house. The 4 others of our group eventually reached the Perkins Tower summit, made a fast descent (40 mph max, they said) and met with us three about 90 minutes later at the house.

To celebrate, we grilled burgers and hotdogs, sat around Mike's backyard deck and listened to the guys' war stories of the day's climb. Oh, how I wished we all could've made it up there. Maybe before the end of the summer, Jim, Jay and I will do our own Perkins Tower ride to make things complete (and at a much easier pace this time so as to not burn out). Already, we were starting to plan a date as we were eating our burgers.

So the lesson learned this weekend: there's no 'i' in 'Team', but there's an 'e' in 'We'. :-). All for one and one for all. Birds of a feather stick together. We three kings of orient are. "In good times and bad times, I'll be there forever more ... that's what friends are for." Ummm, yeah. And I'm glad Jim's okay.

Now on to the next tour! Allez!

I'm ready to climb!

Okay, enough of the leg porn in my last post. I was getting tired of looking at that bloated picture. My apologies to the offended.

Last Saturday, I totally smoked up the hills in my last long training ride before tomorrow's climb to Perkins Tower at Bear Mtn, NY (1200 ft over 5 miles). My friend Jay and I did about 35 miles of ups and down, and my legs didn't feel weary at all as in previous rides.

It's probably due to my obsession with doing hill intervals on the LifeCycle at the gym for the past six weeks. And I do mean almost every day of the work week. Started out at level 13, upped it methodically (and painfully) over the days and now I've tapped it at level 22, all with an RPE of 17-18. Tour de France, here I come! :-)

It's a rest day today and I've taken the day off for a doc appt and to watch the kids while mommy's taking an important nursing certification test. Tons of stuff to do around the house, though. Mowing the lawn, laundry, staining the deck, cleaning the garage, etc-- whoopie (sigh). I just hope it'll be beneficial to my endurance. :-)

Chore on!