Sometimes a workout isn’t just a workout

19. March 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: cycling, daily life, friends, good things, gratitude, smiles, spring, storytelling, writing · Tags: , ,

Six-thirty comes early on a Saturday.  Rolling over and going back to sleep takes a bit of resistance.  Not quite strength, but nothing short of strong will.

As the alarm went off this morning I realized two things — this was the second time I’ve set an alarm since leaving Discovery and I really hate WYPR on a Saturday morning.  I hit the snooze button.  It was only natural.  Post Ride Latte and Some Dreams

Eight minutes later, I something clicked.  I’d known that the reason for the alarm was to get up to ride, but to be honest, I wasn’t really sure I wanted to get out of bed and meet the peloton when the alarm first went off.  I could certainly ride on my own as I did a few weekends ago.  But something clicked, and I got myself out of bed and scrambled into a pair of bibs and a jersey.

Since, I’d stayed in bed for an extra eight minutes, I really didn’t have time to make coffee.  I grabbed an energy bar and a banana, filled the water bottles with Gatorade and headed to the shed.  Walking out the door, I looked at the thermometer.  58F. More »

Come on Springtime

26. December 2010 · 1 comment · Categories: cycling, daily life, exercise, irritants, mr. grey, mrs. tkd, snow, spring, struggles, weather, winter, winter blues

The hacking started sometime around the 22nd of November.  Coughs and phlegm punctuate our conversations. One of the three of us has been sick for the entire month of December.  The days are short, the weather is cold, and I’ve not been on my bike since November 7th.  This is becoming a drag.

That ride on November 7th was a great solo ride.  I’d received word of my new job offer on that ride.  It was a glorious day with temps climbing into the mid 60s by the end of the ride.  I expected that I’d be riding the rest of the month and then throughout December.  I’d not counted on sickness and cold weather getting in the way.

The truth is, I probably could have ridden more despite the cold, if it weren’t for the sickness.  For three weeks, breathing was labored just sitting around.  The idea of actually getting the lungs pumping was well, out of the question.  But the real stumbler has been the new job.

I’ve admitted it before: I am a consummate perfectionist. When I started my last job, I stressed so hard over doing a good job that I developed migraines among other aliments that lasted for months. I hoped not to repeat that performance when I started this job, and I’ve been relatively successful, but I’ve put forth a full court press for sure.  There has not been a lot of down time.

So, I find myself here, the day after Christmas, looking out the window of my office at snow starting to softly fall in the cold winter air, and I’m looking forward to April. I’m hoping that I will be back out on the bike, and that I’ll be able to find some coverage of the Tour de Flanders.  That will indicate the kickoff of another great season of cycling.

Spring, 2010 Style

19. March 2010 · Write a comment · Categories: daily life, food, gardening, good things, gratitude, home, maryland, music, sidetracks, snow, spring, thoughts, weather, winter

And it’s sure been a cold, cold winter

And the wind ain’t been blowin’ from the south

It’s sure been a cold, cold winter

And the light of love is all burned out

It sure been a hard, hard winter

My feet been draggin’ ‘cross the ground

And I hope it’s gonna be a long, hot summer

And the light of love will be burnin’ bright

…

It sure been a cold, cold winter

My feet been draggin’ ‘cross the ground

And the fields has all been brown and fallow

And the springtime take a long way around

God damn, I love that song. For those that don’t recognize it, its “Winter” by the Rolling stones on the Goats Head Soup album.  If you haven’t given it a listen before, well, you should, you’ll recognize a bunch of good tunes on there.  And if you have, but haven’t listened to it in a while, well, give it a spin – or whatever we do with digital music these days.

Spring is here!  It was 72 F here in Severna Park today!  Beautiful days.  I grilled.  I wore short sleeves. I knocked off work a tinsy bit early.

I’ve got spinach growing in my garden – it wintered over!  So did the collards and kale that I never go around to picking.  Even after the ridiculous snow and cold we had!  And most extraordinarily, so did my parsley.  I’m excited for the spring and getting my garden going again!

A long road to the garden

11. May 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: daily life, food, gardening, good things, home, smiles, spring, vegetables

It’s been a long road to the garden.  I bought seeds back in March and hoped to get them in the ground by mid-April.  I planned three beds and had bought wood to frame out two.  During that wood purchase, I broke the window of my car, which put an end to the building exercise.

There were a series of setbacks after that including a torn tendon, needing to build the boxes, and getting some soil.  I ordered soil for delivery on May 2nd.  I’d ordered topsoil with the intention of amending it with compost and peat moss.  The dirt delivered was littered with rocks and glass, as well as other construction debris.  As mentioned in a previous post, I had some misgivings about this soil.

After the dirt had been rained on for about a week, it looked even worse.  I fretted about what to do for an entire week, but finally decided that I needed to have a talk with the nursery.  I took a shovel’s worth of the dirt to the nursery and they were SHOCKED.  They apologized and offered to replace it.  Since the first round was so awful, I was a little hesitant. 

They recommended that I use Leafgro instead of topsoil and offered to send me 3 yards for free.  I tried to pay the difference since this product was more expensive, but they wouldn’t take my money.  When it arrived, it looked awesome.  It’s black and loamy.  Fantastic looking soil. 

I filled my beds with it and actually got some plants in the ground yesterday. I’m very excited to see how things progress with the plants over the next few months.

Garden Beds

05. May 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: daily life, food, gardening, good things, home, smiles, spring, vegetables

Well, I’ve been a little behind schedule due to my Achilles…but I managed to cobble together my garden beds two weekends ago, and filled them with dirt this past weekend.  I ordered topsoil from a local nursery.  It was anything but TOP.  I was a bit disappointed.  I did some more research and found that I’d probably ordered the wrong thing — should have ordered sifted topsoil.  Even then, sifted topsoil is NOT the high quality dark black garden soil that I was expecting.

Luckily, I’d planned on amending the soil anyway, so this weekend I’ll be mixing in some peat moss and compost from my very own compost pile.  I’ve been working on it all year and even stored compost indoors this winter (much to Mrs. TKD’s chagrin) inside in a 5 gallon bucket.  Once that’s all done, I’ll start planting the various items that I’ve got started in starter pots.  

When I’m done, I’ll have 100 square feet of garden.  Looking forward to it.

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