thehappycat.net

Current Mood: Athletic & Happy

I have slacked commuting in to work the past few weeks. It’s pitchy-black out in the morning, colder, and been raining a lot recently.

I was able to remedy 2 of the 3 above issues.

I got myself a headlight which works surprisingly well for its teeny-tininess.

It’s pretty neat. The light mounts onto the handle bars with a little rubber loop. It has a wire hooks into a little battery pack which velcros onto the frame. The little battery pack is USB rechargeable and is the only part that needs to be removed and reattached for use. Easy to charge at work and/or home. There are 3 illumination settings and the brightest gets about 3 hours of life which is more than enough to get me to and from work w/o a charge.

To combat the “frigid” San Diego mornings I got myself a new jacket. Previously I had a thermal jersey but that thing gets TOO hot.

This jacket is awesome. It’s more like a lightly insulated windbreaker. But it’s form fit unlike my other windbreaker so I’m not getting all the flapping from the material that I used to get and it keeps me warm enough w/o me overheating. Additionally it’s super light weight and crunches up very small to fit in my pack on the ride home with no issue.

I can’t do much about the rain until God steps aside and gives me reign. Fear that day!

With the end of DST in sight, I also purchased a trainer. I love my roller and all and will continue to use them but I can only manage about 60 minutes on them max, normally I do only 30. At least with a trainer I can zone out an ride them for 2+ hours. I got a 13 week HIT workout I am starting tomorrow night on the new trainer. I’ve been doing intervals on the rollers the past few weeks and see a huge difference in my ability so it will be interesting to see what a structured program can do!

I did drop out of the Velodrome class. Maybe I’ll pick it up again when summer rolls around. Driving all the way downtown at 7pm on a Wednesday and not getting home until 10pm just kinda of sucks. Especially during winter when it gets dark at like 5pm, lol. Oh well, I have enough on my plate right now anyways.

There’s more to write but time to go prepare for the ride home!

Current Mood: Athletic

Interesting…

• fixed gear bike
  • pedal forward, bike moves forward
  • pedal backward, bike moves backward
  • stop pedaling = not a good idea since if the bike is moving… so are the pedals
• no brakes
  • what the fuck…
• banked track
  • the thing isn’t flat…it got like a 27 degree angle thing going on

Interesting…

I used one of their bikes. It was pretty horrid. I didn’t like trying to get my running shoes into the cages on the pedels. I felt trapped to it, heh. And the saddle was so not comfortable.

Took me a few laps to get accustomed to the banking of the track. I initially felt like the bike would just slip down.

Overall is was fun. I kept getting behind some guy who would create big gaps with the person un front of him… then speed up to close the gap. I was not comfortable riding as close to his wheel as they wanted since I had no breaks and he kept surging and slowing down. Once I finally got behind someone else I was more at ease. So next week I know who to avoid.

I think I’m still looking forward to next week..

Never search YouTube for sports stuff btw… nothing good can come of it.

Current Mood: Athletic & Happy

I don’t think I’ve posted since Brandon went to North Carolina for training. Just two weeks left to go in his 3 month “vacation”.

And in that time I’ve excelled at a new hobby. Cycling.

I had posted about it a few times when I first started, prior to Brandon’s departure but since then I have focused much of my free time towards it… I LOVE it! And… I am apparently not too bad at it from what friends tell me so that’s an added bonus.

So, I’d like to start blogging again a bit more once Brandon gets back. With cycling being a new focus in my life I have a feeling a majority of posts will be geared towards my new trial an errors! First and foremost is the Tour de Poway coming up on October 3rd. While considered just a “fun ride” I have signed up for the century (100 miles). The most I have done to date in a single ride with 80 miles but considering 40 miles of the was uphill one way… 100 miles of majority flat scares me little.

Another thing coming up, actually before the century, is my first velodrome class which begins next Wednesday! I am pretty excited about it. I want to start racing next season. I was hoping more for road races but since those are few and far between in the SoCal area crits are seeming to be the focus. Velodrome will teach me some close pack racing skills at high speeds and a bunch of other bike handling things that I feel will get me in a more confident place.

I also plan to start running again next week… with little expectations. More just to add another form of cardio into my life but not necessarily to get “good” at it. I am interested to see if I’ve improved at all tho considering all the cycling I have been doing.

So to end the week right, before I start focusing more on being healthy I had my farewell binge. There was the donut at work for breakfast. The frappacinno and cookie at lunch. And the caramel apple for dinner. And as I gnawed on each of those items I wasn’t even really that in to them. Should make the hill ride interesting tomorrow…

Kittens are still kittens (but bigger). Work is still work (with more work…). And everything thing else is business as usual. Baking has gone to the back burner until the kittens turn into catsloths and I can count on them to sleep 19 hours a day. Right now they are constantly on the counter tops and nothing can be left unattended without them getting into it.

I have more to post but it will have to wait a bit!

Yup… Posting this from my iPad… Because I’m a loser… But I KNOW you’re jealous!!!!

Current Mood: Love & Tired

Yup, there’s been a lot going on in the past few weeks and I am SOOOO tired.

I moved in with Brandon this weekend. Spent all last week packing up my apartment after work. Brandon would come over and grab a few boxes each night and move them over. Then Saturday we had movers come to get the large things. I have many large items it seems… Is this more than most?:

• sectional couch
• futon
• queen size bed
• 2 book shelves
• 3 dressers
• glass entertainment center
• computer desk

It never seems like that much but it took them 2 hours to get it all down to the truck and another hour to unload it all. Whatever tho, it was worth the money and also worth us not breaking our own backs! We still need to unpack and such.

The garage is currently packed with stuff so neither of us can park in it. Brandon did get these awesome surfboard racks tho that hang the boards on the wall to clear up some space. Those look really awesome mounted! So we’ll slowly unpack over the next week or so. I still need to clean the old place but I’m hoping to get the majority of that done tonight. I need to turn the keys in by Wednesday anyways.

Now, hopefully Brandon won’t get transferred anywhere immediately.

Running still sucks. I hate it. I dread attempting it today as I’m still tired and sore but I only ran once last week. Cycling however is going swimmingly! I get faster each time and this coming Saturday I’ll try one of the longer rides with one of the local cycling clubs. I’m excited for that, those are pretty enjoyable.

Then in 2 weeks I go home and visit my parents for roughly 10 days! I’m stoked for that as I haven’t been home in a LONG time.

And when I get back… I want to BAKE! I’ve not done that in forever since it’s generally a weekend thing and I was rarely hanging out at my place on the weekends. Cakes incoming!