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Roscrea hurts 2005 October 30 21:51

Posted by diamond in : Random, Cycling , add a comment

Today i went to roscrea, 28 days after the last time, for another cycle with mark. We did the same route as last time, but the average speed went up from 20 to 24 kmph, which i’m quite happy with. The hills on the second half were still brutal, had to walk for the last 1/3rd of one as the lowest gear on the kelly is nowhere near as low as the lowest gear on the dawes (which _still_ wasn’t low enough last time either ,-). It was an event-filled cycle. We left mark’s house, travelled about 200m, then mark’s back tire got a puncture. I had a spare tube with me, so mark changed the tube, pumped up the new one, move the bike about 1m, and got another puncture. At that point we got tony to collect us with the jeep, went back to the house, repaired both tubes, and tried again. The next attempt went better, though i mis-judged the timing of some traffic lights and fell over due to not being able to unclip my left foot in time. Came down on my hands, fairly lightly. Palm is slightly bruised and swollen, could have been a lot worse.

In other health news, it’s fairly clear now that i do indeed have a double eye infection. Yay (inappropriate). Ironically it was friday evening of a bank holiday weekend that i figured this out. Will be going to my gp on Tuesday if i get the chance. I reckon it’s a fairly minor deal, but it isn’t going away on it’s own.

*Update*
Two other things have just returned to me that i had intended to mention here.

First is regards me losing weight. I’ve had a number of comments from different people about this since i mentioned it on here a few posts ago. Some people see the difference, some think i’m imagining that i’m overweight. It’s like this: it doesn’t show up that much to anyone but me, that doesn’t mean it’s healthy to have, or that it’s all in my mind. I’m well aware of the dangers of obsessing over it, when i started in college i was borderline anorexic (that’s a whole other story i’ll flesh out a bit more sometime (excuse the (intentional, and terrible) pun)). As such, i have very clearly defined idea of what a healthy weight for me is, and have no intentions of overstepping it.

On a lighter but more painful note, i have hopes of cycling to nenagh and back next sunday. This should be… ‘interesting’. If i can do it, that’s a 50 mile cycle, and i’ll be delighted. We’ll see how things go during the week, and how much time i have to spare at the weekend. I’ve just decided to have a strange foreboding that i’m going to be busy. Hurm. Well, the next sunday i have time then.

Another day, another cycle 2005 October 29 19:14

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Work in the wild onion today was fairly normal. The one major difference was the addition of an extra person waiting tables (cypher of skynet/nonado fame). Fortunately for her she was already well used to me, and therefore wasn’t phased by my directorial manner in my part of the kitchen ,-) Ruth told me that by wednesday this week she was looking forward to me coming in to washup on saturday. Aw -)

Went for a 1.5hr cycle with dan after work, did 35.9km @ 23.9kmph. Felt really good after it, and looking forward to the 2 hour cycle with mark tomorrow in roscrea with somewhat less trepidation (but still expect death). I also decided to give the november cycling weekend a miss. It would be pushing it hard to get into good enough shape in time, and with the way things are with work i can’t guarentee that i’ll be able to keep a decent training schedule. The new bike is fantastic. It glides, accellerates, turns… sooo nicely. Very happy with it. Cycling persuits (the source) have offered to replace the handlebars with narrower ones, for free, during the week, which is exellent. The current ones are about 1 size too wide for me. Weeee. *cough*. I did some calculations today with day, i reckon i’ve spent aroudn ~€1100 on bike stuff in the last few months. Here’s hoping i keep it up long enough to get good value for money.

Going to see Corpse Bride this evening with maeve1 and maeve2 and sith and hopefully cheez (if he ever answers his phone ,-) Should be good. Speaking of i’d better get ready. Flee!

Airships anyone? 2005 October 27 21:40

Posted by diamond in : Work , add a comment

Today was fairly non-descript. Had a 2.5 hour meeting for the purpose of rehearsing the presentations for the upcoming project review. Yay (inappropriate). Went for a very wet and gritty cycle with dan, after 26km we both came back covered in blackness.

The one bright spot today was when mikael mentioned an idea he had that we could use for the project, some time next year. I’ve only gotten the summary so far, ‘audio blimps’, but my mind is buzzing with lots of fun things i could do. Here’s hoping i get a chance -)

Plain Sailing 2005 October 26 21:41

Posted by diamond in : Random, Cycling , 1 comment so far

The pink eye seems to have receeded, eyes have been slightly itchy today, but tolerably so. I reckon it’ll be gone by tomorrow or so.

I took the new bike out for another spin tonight with dan. He wasn’t feeling well so retired home early. I did 34km in total, bringing to an even 70km the amount i’ve done so far on the kelly. Still some adjusting to it to do, but i’m really loving the speed and lack of drag. I’m seriously contemplating a cycling weekend in co. galway in november with mark. It’s a 3 day event, 30 miles the first day, 100 mils the second, and 30 miles again on the third. Gonna have to train lots between now and then in order to survive, but i’ll be very very happy with myself if i can do it. So here’s to that -)

In an amusing double-take this evening, i was watching tv, saw an ad for James Blunt, and remembered that i’d wanted to buy his album. Took out the pda, opened the ‘to buy’ text file where i list these things, scrolled to the bottom and read ‘james blunt album’. Oh ok maybe it’s not that amusing to anyone else. I guess this is a good example why a person like me needs a pda to remember things with. I’ve now ordered the cd from cdwow, looking forward to seeing exactly how good it is.

As usual, there was something else i wanted to add, but have forgotten.

Oh yeah. Today i received an unusual compliment. I was told i had the lowest cute-tolerance of anyone the complimenter knew. Woo! -)

Pink Eye Alert

Posted by diamond in : Random, Cycling , 4 comments

My eyes have been acting up a bit over the last few days, watering constantly, which is also causing the skin around them to get sore. Today the tears seemed to crystalise which meant i had to get mark (thanks!) to drive me to a pharmacy to get some optrex (horrible to use, but oh so wonderfully soothing afterwards) which at least allowed me to see straight again. The pharamcist quizzed me about my eyes as they were very obviously red. Scarily so actually, just looked in a mirror. I suspect it’s tiredness related, but if it doesn’t go away soon, infection is more likely. Ug.

In more freewheeling news, today i bought myself a very very shiny bike. Cost me €800 all in (thrown in: bottle rack, bottle, pump, saddle bag, spare tube, tire levers. extra: pedals). I’ve taken it for two spins already, 10km by myself before clubs and socs council (more on that below), and another 26km with dan afterwards. The bike rocks. Light, _fast_. Going flat out down castletroy hill, i broke the 60kmph speed limit, and that was with another 3-4 gears left. Weeee! -) Dan’s now riding my dawes discovery 201 hybrid. It’s like 2 bike upgrade for the price of one -) Really looking forward to putting lots of miles on this bike.

So, clubs and socs council. Yay (inappropriate). The meeting was unusually short, for which we were all thankful. Oh yes, The Plan, as previously mentioned. It went as follows: i turned up in my “Captain Pedantic Pants” t-shirt, and waited for a suitable point during the proceedings put up my hand to ask a question. Michelle (the chairperson, and co-conspirator) then said “the chair recognises Captain Pedantic Pants” (instead of the more traditional name+club/soc moniker), and i got to ask a fairly pointless question, thus getting my name as Captain Pedantic Pants in the meetings minutes (thanks to sith, the secretary of clubs and socs, and final co-conspirator). There was some rather confused looks on peoples faces during the event, not sure how many figured stuff out enough to read the t-shirt. Ah well, we had our fun, and rejoiced in the small victory afterwards. Thus it was done.