Ride

We finally got to ride on a Saturday morning this past weekend. It was soooo cold! We rode to Norman to hit the Buch's ride, but we were late b/c I couldn't find my Assos winter gloves. So we stopped off at Buch's and I aired up my tires. I has 60 lbs in my front tire and 70 in my rear. I guess it's been awhile since I rode outside and needed to air up the tires. Anyway, Rich H (professor) was there on his fixed gear, so he rode north with us. It was pretty windy and we averaged almost 19 mph. It was pretty hard for me. Between the 25 degree temps, the 20 mph north wind and me just being out of shape, I was spent after the ride. What's bad is that we only rode 40 miles!

We found a dog. He is a HUGE Rott. He is still a puppy, but he is already over 100 lbs. He is hanging in our back yard right now. We're looking for the owner. I guess we'll keep him if we can't find his owner. He's pretty cool, though. He likes to play fetch with the tennis ball and he knows how to sit on command. He likes Mr. Magoo and Pepper, too. I bought a red collar for him today at PetsMart so I think I'll take him for a run tonight to see how he likes that.

We also found a house. It is so sweet! It is in historic Heritage Hills, but it is a brand new house. It looks old and has a stained concrete kitchen floor, which is totally what I want. We just need to sell both of our houses.

I've decided that I need to start watching what I eat. Not the whole watch it go in my mouth thing, but actually try to eat a little better. I need to lose a few lbs and I eat pretty crappy sometimes. So, I think I'm going to try to find a good healthy eating cookbook. I found one on barnesandnoble.com that is called "Muscle Meals". It's high protein low-fat type of meals. I am in a rut with my cooking. It seems that I cook the same thing every week. Noodles, olive oil, brocolli, chichen or turkey chili or nachos, or burritos. I need some new ideas.

A legal assistant in my office came by an asked what I was writing about. I told her about the eating better thing and she said "whatever, you don't have any fat on your body." I showed her the roll of belly fat and she jiggled it!!! Now, I really have a complex about it! I cannot believe she did that. I guess a run with the Rott and 100 crunches are on the agenda tonight!

Chad Shanks getting his groove on at the bike shop.

More Snow

SNOW

SNOW

How am I supposed to ride in this weather? Again, I was really excited to do a 4 hour ride tomorrow and it is snowing right now. Hopefully it warms up and quits by tomorrow morning at 10:00. It can start up again after 2:00 if it needs to!

OUTSIDE

Well, I finally got to ride outside last night. I grabbed my bike during lunch and took off for the big Lake Hef after work. I got there at 5:30 and was so excited to ride. Charles rode up there and met me and we took off around the lake. There were so many people. It reminded me of why I don't ride around the lake much anymore! We came across my buddy Greg and he flipped around and rode with us. It was so nice. About half way around, IT happened! I noticed IT approaching, but I had no idea of what great speed IT was carrying. Almost back to the parking lot and IT was finally there. DARKNESS!!! It was only 6:00! How could it be? What, I only get to ride one lap? That is it? Yes, one lap, as Charles confirmed my suspicions. I drove all the way up here and suited up and got real excited, for ONE lap around Lake Hefner? My gosh, what is my cycling career coming to......

Weather

Man, what is the story with this weather? It is too cold to ride on the weekends when I have the time to ride and then it is 60 degrees during the week when I have to work! I cannot wait until spring gets here. I am going stir crazy having to stay inside all of the time. I ate my oatmeal this morning outside (next to the giant ash tray at work)and I ate lunch outside, too. I am having to cherish every minute of nice weather I can get. I think I need to move south, maybe Austin or San Diego. But then again, I am NOT taking another state's Bar Exam.

I am done with the cleansing pills. I really don't know that they did any good. I don't feel any different, but they made my stomach hurt while I was taking them. So I am done with that.

Friday night we watched this awesome band play, Tall Cotton String Band. I think they were even better because my buddies Chris and Sheridan are in the band. It was a good time. Thanks Forrest for the head's up. You can check out the band at www.tallcottonstringband.com.

We are going to build a new house, I think. They say it takes about 6 months to build a house. Now we just need the good location. Maybe Norman. We'll see!

Yesterday, Charles and I did this core strength DVD. My legs are more sore today than they have been in probably 4 years. Even more sore than when I first begin weights in the winter. We did Hindu lunges, side lunges, ab stuff and push-ups. It had alot of yoga mixed into it, which was good. I guess I am not in that good of shape right now. I need to get on the ball and start getting fit, I guess.

NEW BIKE

I am looking to buy a new bike. I don't know what I want to get though. I'm thinking about the new Giant TCR Composite 0, except I think it only comes in gold. I really don't want a gold bike. I've also looked at Blue and Cervelo.

I finally rode outside yesterday. I left work at 5:00 exactly and made it home in 15 minutes. I threw off the work clothes and put on the chamois. Charles grabbed a blinkie light and we were off. It was a good ride. Too bad it started getting dark about 5 miles into the ride. We only ended up riding for 30 minutes and we put in 12 miles. Oh well. I was so happy to be off the trainer anyway. I also realized that the trainer is alot harder than riding on the road.

I am taking off at 3:00 today for an appointment with my bike. So, I am hoping to get in a few hours before it gets dark. My goal for this weekend is 2 hours today, 4 hours Saturday and 4 hours Sunday.

We are having open house at both houses on Sunday, so maybe we will get an offer for them both this weekend. That would be very exciting! Check out our houses: http://pamklepper.com/ (Charles' is MLS 205400 and mine is MLS 205727).

CLEANSING

The whole idea is that years and years of crap gets built up in your intestines, your organs and mainly your colon and creates toxins in the body. I guess it sorta lodges in there and you can't really get it out "naturally". The new trend is the "colonics" or "colon irrigation" which cleanses the entire colon. I'm really not into having water sprayed up my butt so I am taking the cleansing pills instead, which are supposed to do they same thing but over a 2 week period.

I haven't felt very good lately, so maybe it is all the toxins in my body!?! I am interested to see how I feel after these 2 weeks are up. I guess if I feel better, then the cleansing MUST work, huh?

I rode the trainer this morning for 45 minutes while I watched the news. It really was not very exciting, but at 6:00 in the AM there is not alot of good tv to chose from. I am thinking about getting some of those books on CD to listen to while I ride. I have always wanted to read all those old famous books, like the ones you are forced to read in high school English class and in college Literature. I have read a few and I think my favorite is "Of Mice and Men". If anyone has any suggestions of good old books, let me know. Along with the cleansing, I think I need to get more intellectual, too.

UPDATE

I have now been awake for 7 hours and I have gone to the bathroom 7 times due to the cleansing pills I have been taking! I guess it is a good thing that it is too cold to do any long rides on my bike! :-)

BUSY BEE

This weekend was such a busy weekend. Not only was it 15 degrees on Saturday and 21 degrees on Sunday, but I only got to ride for one hour on my trainer Sunday morning. Charles' house was shown 5 or 6 times over the weekend, so we had to be MIA for that. We put my house on the market yesterday, so most of the weekend was spent fixing things at my house. Between Lowe's, Home Depot and the two houses, I think I used almost a full tank of gas for the weekend. We also put an offer on another house. We offered less than the asking price, so I'm sure the owner will counter today. I guess we'll see.

I think I am racing Valley of the Sun in February. My dilemma is that it is in one month. I haven't been riding near enough to race in a month. And even worse, I need to loose about 10 lbs. Not riding + eating = fat butt!!! Operation race readiness starts today. I am also taking these cleansing tablets. They are supposed to get rid of the crap that builds up in your intestines and organs. As of right now, I have been to the bathroom 4 times, and I have only been awake for 2 hours! The rest of the day is not looking good, for sure. Plus, this is a 2 week cycle!!!

COLD

I had planned to ride for an hour this morning on my trainer. My alarm went off at 5:55. I re-set it for 6:25, thinking, OK I can ride for 30 minutes. It went off again at 6:25 and I guess I shut it off. I really don't remember because I was asleep. I woke up at 7:48. I have to be at work at 8:00. So, no trainer ride this morning and no hair fixing or making wearing either. It's a really good thing that clients don't come to my office!

Magen's in California training. She has a place to stay. All I need is a plane ticket out there and I'd be good to go. So, if anyone wants to buy a plane ticket for me to go to Cali I would greatly appreciate it.

Maybe I'll get to ride the trainer tonight.

BLAH BLAH BLAH!!!

That pretty much explains how I have been feeling lately. I am not sick but I just don't feel good. I rode the trainer this morning for 45 minutes. Not real hard, but high cadence. I wore my heart rate monitor for the first time in over a year. My heart rate was around 165. But, that really means nothing to me. I haven't done any max efforts in so long with a heart rate monitor, I have no idea what my max is.

I feel hungry all of the time. I am not riding enough to be eating all the time, so I'm not sure what the story is. I'm somewhat depressed because of the weather. I always look forward to riding outside on the weekends. This weekend it is only supposed to be 35 on Saturday and 30 on Sunday. I guess if there is absolutely no wind, it will be ok, but no wind in Oklahoma? Yea right!!! Many more cold-no ride weekends and I may have to consider jumping on the Weight Watchers/Jenny Craig bandwagon!

I am selling my house. Charles is selling his house. So if anyone wants to buy either a house on the north side or a house on the south side, we've got you covered. Charles' house goes on the market today. My will be following shortly. I think we are going to make an offer on another house this weekend. Hopefully it all flows somehow, because I don't really want to end up with 3 houses (plus one rent house) so 4 houses in total. My old renter called me yesterday and he is interested is buying my house. How weird? I just consulted a realtor last night about selling my house and yesterday afternoon I got a phone call from Gary asking if I want to sell my house. Maybe everything will work out.

I am hoping in the next couple of weeks to actually start training. My first race is at the end of February, so I think I need to get on the ball!

My friend Jill in a national contest. Jill in second from the left in red. She is awesome!

Pepper and Charles at work!

WEEKEND RIDE

Saturday was 24 degrees with a wind chill of 17. I opted to not ride. I wrote it off as a rest day. Instead of riding, I watched The Bourne Supremecy and Dodgeball. Both pretty good movies. I did laundry and dishes during Dodgeball, so I missed alot of the funny parts. Since I didn't ride at all, I decided after dinner to go ahead and splurge on dessert, a 7 layer chocolate cake. It was like eating a giant Hostess Ding Dong. It was soooo good! But of course, I felt terrible afterwards. To make matter worse, after dinner we stopped by my friend Jill's new house. Jill is a body builder. She showed me all of her pictures from her most recent show. I felt really fat after looking at those. She looked awesome. I told Charles I thought I needed to start lifting so I could look like that. He said, "go ahead, but with all those muscles, you won't be able to climb" (Charles' inadvertant way of controlling what I do). Ok, so he has a point.

Sunday, I felt so guilty for not riding and for eating so badly on Saturday, so we did the 8:30 OBS ride from Stars and Stripes Park at Lake Hefner. We got there late, so we had to catch up to the ride at Java Daves downtown. We ended up with 60 miles. It was a good ride, minus all the stopping. Once we dropped some people and got the ride rolling, it was good. I got to ride with my friend Carl, so that was good. I haven't ridden with him in awhile. Last summer we used to do Sunday centuries every week. I miss riding with Carl. He is so freaking happy to be on his bike. You gotta love riding with someone who gets so much joy out of riding. He isn't the fastest, but I guarantee, he enjoys riding more than anyone. He gets sorta giddy even talking about riding. He is trying to convince me to go to Clayton, Oklahoma next weekend to do this epic mountain bike weekend. I am not so excited about breaking out the mountain bike, but we'll see.

Carl

BENDING CRANK ARMS

I guess that is my new goal for 2005. We did a Spinnervals DVD last night. It was called Bending Crank Arms. Coach Troy said that after we do that workout enough we will be able to bend the cranks on our bikes because we will have so much POWER!!! I'm sure that is a huge exaggeration, but a good thought nonetheless. Anyway, the workout was hard. It was an hour long with both on the bike and off the bike stuff. Off the bike, we were doing squats, as many as you can do in one minute and then you holding it down for one minute. You do like 5 sets of those and then get back on the bike and push big ring/11 for 5 minutes as hard as you can. Then he tells you to get up out of the saddle and sprint. RIGHT ON! Let me just say, my butt and my quads are still on fire from that workout. Charles and I both have mats under the bikes, but we sweat so much, we had to clean the wood floor as well.

I made chili last night. I am not pregnant, but I am on this jalepeno/olive kick. Everything I make has either olives or jalepenos in it. So, my chili had jalepenos. It was so hot. I had a hard time eating it because my nose was runny. But it was pretty good.

We watched Napoleon Dynamite too. Man, what a flashback. I mean, crimped hair, side ponytails, Trapper Keepers, Caboodles, walkmans with the big earphones, moon boots, puffy sleeves. It was like going back to 5th grade!!!

COLD

I have been on the trainer alot lately. Last night we did a Spinnervals DVD, The Uphill Grind. It was super tough. My average was 21.5. Charles keeps telling me that my trainer is messed up because he only averaged 17. I guess I dropped him, huh? My max speed was 36, so he is probably correct, because I very rarely hit 36 on the road and that is very unlikely for me to go that fast on the trainer. Regardless of speed, I was hurting! I had a huge puddle of sweat under the trainer and every time I stood up out of the saddle, I was flinging sweat all over the place. My legs are a little sore today, so I know I got a good workout. The workout was only 45 minutes, but it's all out effort the whole time. Much better than watching tv and riding the trainer.

I keep meaning to ride for an hour in the morning, but I just can't get out of bed at 5:55 AM. I shut my alarm off and go back to sleep. This morning I woke up at 7:20. It was a bit of a scramble to get to work by 8:00, especially with the bad roads. We can wear jeans if it is either snowing or if it is below 10 degrees. This morning it was not snowing and it was 11 degrees. So, no jeans today. We never have clients come in the office and I am never in court, so I don't understand the whole dress code in the first place. I keep telling my boss that I would be much more productive in sweats and running shoes, but he justs ignores me. Oh well, add it to the list of the job complaints!!!

Weekend Rides

New Year's Day Charles and I rode from OKC to Enid. It was exactly 90 miles from our house to my grandma's house. We made it in less than 4 hours. We were rolling along pretty fast, for sure! There was a pretty good south wind pushing us up there, but the 35 miles of crosswind out to Okarche was pretty trecherous. We stopped one time in Kingfisher, but only so I could take a potty break (too much coffee) behind some dumpsters in an alley. Last year when we rode to Enid, I had to stop twice, but that was because I was tired and not very fit. So, at least I am getting fitter. If nothing else, I know that I can sit on my bike for 90 miles without much of a break! We also both had back packs on with clothes for the day. So a little added resistance is always good. My back and shoudlers are feeling the effects today. Anyway, we got to my grandma and grandad's house around noon, took showers and ate lunch. It was my mom's side of the family Christmas. We hung out with the family for a little while and then went to visit my best friend since the 4th grade, Leah. Leah is now married and has two kids. Then, my mom drove us back to OKC.

Sunday, we did the Buchanan's ride in Norman. Only about 10 people showed up which was a huge surprise since it was 65 degrees today. I thought everyone would be taking advantage of the nice weather. We rode for almost 3 hours and put in 50 miles. I actually felt pretty good. I thought I would be super tired from the long ride yesterday, but I felt ok. About 5 minutes after we got in the car it started pouring rain. I'm glad we didn't opt for the 4 hour ride.

Both rides I used my new iPod mini. I think that is the secret to being fast. It makes the long rides go by so much faster and gives you something to focus on instead of the pain.

Morning commute to work and the dreaded back pack

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