they turn green when i laugh

my gullet full from el charro, i sit to enlighten you with the goings on of my day.


after a hearty post-dinner snack consisting of three handfuls of chocolate chips last night, i woke up around 7 to prepare for my 9am ride to exhaustion. the 3rd out of 4. see image above. in credibly attractive, i know.

as you may have already read, my prior two were quite successful in going to my maximum effort. redundancy aside, at 280 watts i went for 77-80 minutes. today however, i felt fresh. upon reaching the 80 minute mark, and feeling strong, this morning i let out a "hell yeah!" in my mind. i kept digging to the same point of exhaustion that i reached for the prior two, except this time the clock read 113 minutes. i was super stoked. i think i averaged close to 18mph and did close to 37 miles total? so they tell me. they being the grad students to which i am the lab rat. the effort was a combination of getting stronger and having a solid amount of chocolate-chip pancakes in my belly i suppose. regardless, it was great for my confidence.

i have been thinking about growing a pair and racing A for tech and conference championships at wvu. we'll see. given my increase in strength as evident on the roads and with the stationary testing, i think that i would be able to hang with the big dawgs for the entirety of the race. otherwise my self-esteem will be plummeting at break-neck speed back to earth.

sometimes you just need to take a bold leap and not dwell too much on the rational factors. that is something i have always been privy to, thinking rationally. i think that i would be better served by sometimes just jumping and acting on impulse. call it a flaw? although i don't really consider it to be, more a state of mind, an approach to decision making. and the only reason i am suggesting acting otherwise is to have different (not necessarily better) life experiences. because what is life if you don't live it? i would think that having an incredibly diverse background in decision making would a) make me an idiot for not being consistent with my decisions, b) make me wise for increasing the breadth of my experiences, or c) supply me with in-n-out double-doubles, fries, and chocolate milk-shakes for the rest of my life. lets pray for c. man do i love in-n-out. and i spite all of you who went to nationals and didn't like it, because i love them, and that's all that really matters.

back to my day. went to class. im beginning to believe more and more every passing day that yes, class truly is for chumps. more on that in the following weeks. had a little lunch out on the quad solo style. nothing like some good people-watching to make me confident that i am not a spaz after all. lived like eastern-euro-trash by hitting up the urec sauna for 15, jumping under a cold shower, then getting back in the sauna for another 10-15. with none other than the always amicable and socially outgoing jakobim.

riding home i tried to pop a wheelie on my road bike. i didn't fall over, but i was flirting with catastrophe. i think i needed one more easy gear, or a more significant uphill. i will try again, mark my words.

next a spontaneous invite to el charro to put us back right where we started. mostly uneventful monday, with a little splash of emerill lagasse "BAM!" i might try to watch 24 for the first time tonight. if you feel like leaving a comment, how about your favorite prime-time television show currently running? i need to find something to fill the void in my life from 8-11 on weeknights. the greatest shows ever (seinfeld and family guy) don't count.

ps: how about george mason!?!? i am torn between picking lsu or ucla to win it all. lsu has way more talent, and big baby is just so adorable, so i think i am going to pick the tigers to do it all. i can do that, because i didn't make a bracket. suckers.

current jam: lola - the kinks