Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Cycling, running and poker

I am getting back into the groove of things.  Monday was a big day for me.  I was able to get on the trainer and actually do a ‘real’ workout. 

homebrew_poker

Ridicule Stout and Chocolate Almond Porter

I dialed in a 2 x 20 minute @ 85% FTP trainer workout.  This session is not a super killer but it is a solid workout.  I have noticed that if I keep my cadence up in the 95 range it is much harder than dropping way down and just mashing it out.  So that is what I did.  I kept me cadence high and was able to perform the session without incident.  That is not always the case.  60 minutes later was completely saturated with sweat.

At lunch I was going to get a good run in on the trace.  For the last day of February the weather was 80 degrees and it was near raining, 90+ humidity.  Wow, that made for a tough run.  There is no heat acclimation in Winter.  The condition were very noticeable.  I forgot my GPS watch in the office so I just ran comfortably.  Well, as comfortably as I could – I was warm.  I ran 6.5 miles at some time in the high 40 minute / low 50 minute range.  The run did not feel as good as the 6 miles the previous day.  I took some walk breaks. 

I don’t think I lost any real fitness these past 3 weeks due to the marathon taper, marathon recovery and bike crash but I definitely have not gained a thing. 

Three weeks off from Masters Swim is putting me behind but the range of motion in the shoulder is not ideal.  I will get in the pool this week and see if I can work it out but probably not Masters Swim until next week and even then I might have to go down a lane.  I’ll be back into the groove of the swim but not today.

On a social note, the guys came over last night for poker night.  I am not a ‘real’ poker player by any means but I do at least keep a running tab on my wins and loses.  I am not one of these people that only remembers the winners.  If you follow the blog I am sure that you could have guessed that – I write things down.  Anyway, I won BIG back in December but this year has been a little slower.  Last poker session I though I was in the hole big time but after I tallied everything up I was down $3.65.  Last night I had a couple of big hands and a couple of bad beats but ended on the positive at $3.75.  That puts me UP a dime for the year.  However, at the end of the night I had two half full growlers of homebrew (Ridicule Stout – named that because of the brewing process)

rid·i·cule Pronounced: /ˈrɪdəˌkju:l/

Meaning: the act of making fun of someone or something in a cruel or harsh way : harsh comments made by people who are laughing at someone or something ▪ She didn't show anyone her artwork for fear of ridicule. ▪ He was a subject/object of ridicule to his coworkers. [=he was ridiculed by his coworkers] ▪ They held him up to (public) ridicule. [=they made fun of him publicly]

The other beer is a Chocolate Almond Porter that was quite possible the most perfect beer in the world and then Almond Extract was added to it.  This beer could easily be named Ridicule Chocolate Porter.  Heck, that might become the name of the brewery.

I also procured 2 dozen farm fresh eggs.

I think I came out a winner!

On a side note, I have been looking for a camcorder.  I asked Deejay at DSLR Film Noob what would be better, a dedicated camcorder or a DSLR that shoots HD?  He replied with a very detailed post – check it out if you are interested in such things.

Do you guys shoot any video and if so what do you use?

5 comments:

Matty O said...

Those brews sound fabulous! Porters are great, we have a "beer farm" by our house that has some good ones.

I have a feeling the swimming will be a curse and a blessing. Prepare for the pain train after that workout.

"...but I definitely have not gained a thing." I laughed pretty hard at that comment. HAHA!

Jon said...

Slow down there! $0.10 profit for the year? Watch out for the tax man! haha!

MMMmmmmm, Abita.....one of my favs!

Tri-James said...

Abita has many great beers but that brew was the Porter.

Tri4Success said...

Chocolate Almond Porter sounds awesome. I guess it's best not to think about how many calories are in that. Perhaps if we called it Ridicule Recovery Porter it would be OK?

The Boring Runner said...

Hmmmm, beer by the growler. Love it. I need to play poker with your crew if you end up with beer at the end.