After my visiting my long-time friend Mitch in Los Angeles last week to chart our course of continued blog dominance, I decided it would be worthwhile to accelerate my foray into yoga. It’s done wonders for Mitch’s flexibilty, complementing his regimen of Tae Kwan Do, surfing and cycling. I am uncomfortable with the spirituality aspect, but it’s something I can try and not buy equipment.
My left wrist was still a little tender from schlepping luggage through LAX last week. (For some reason I’m not cleared to know, one cannot check bags more than four hours in advance. Thus, every time I had to perform a vital bodily function, my three bag entourage would follow.) The wrist didn’t bother me much after the 45-mile hill blast on Saturday. However, once I started working on the forward-leaning poses, it was clear that I was going to exacerbate whatever I had already done to it. But, being male, I rationalized that with a lack of blood or broken limb, I would finish the attempt at workout. No pain, no gain.
By Monday morning, I couldn’t type, write or apply the front brakes on my bike without some protest. The ice pack I fabricated dulled the twinginess… until the ice melted in the heat. So currently, yoga’s on hold until the wrist is better.
Meanwhile, seeing the slugs spontaneously combust in my front yard from this weekend’s heat-fest reminded me that I have less than four weeks until Ride Around Washington.
In previous years, I’d do a lot of events in preparation for the Big Ride of the year. This year, my riding has been primarily commuting, mixing up the different ways up and around the plateau. I’m about 1,000 miles ahead of where I was this point last year and, so far, haven’t (totally) suffered on the centuries I’ve done. At the same time, I am not sure how well mastering bike commuting on an empty stomach and in all sorts of weather conditions will map to this particular event. If the anticipated weather were hilly with either 55°F and sunny or 45°F and raining, I’d be fine. RAW will have at least four mountain passes (36k of altitude gain) and temperatures averaging 90°F.
Yeah, it’s strange what I call “vacation.”