Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Wednesday struck by lightening and ramblin'

Out on the front line
don't worry I'll be fine
the story is just beginning
I say goodbye to my weakness
so long to the regret
and now I know that I'm alive
Brandon starts blog posts with song lyrics and I love that... I'm going to copy him.

I got out in the afternoon for a little over 2:00 with 4500ft of climbing. Everything felt OK. I got lucky on Saturday. My front tire came loose descending on a sand switchback and I nearly ate it... a brief moment of panic but I held it and felt invigorated after... not scared or panicked. A good sign that my luggage closet hasn't added another bag. Tomorrow is Walker Ranch a couple of times which will be a test of sorts. Not crazy technical but there are a lot of high speed opportunities.
  I have a theory that a hardish run before a bike makes the bike "worth more". You fatigue your legs with a ~1:00 run and then the specific bike fitness comes from the bike and also allows for lower training volumes on the bike (IE: a 1:00 run + 4:00 bike is equal to 5:00 on the bike, or more). So I might do my 10 mile tempo course hard in the morning first. I have plans to return to serious running after Leadville so I also don't want to lose touch with it. But I wondered today when the Silver Rush 50 bike registration opens for next year too. I have conflicting goals again. This year was sort of a gimme as I am waiting until I turn 40 to refocus on running... and it's taken forever for 40 to get here! The biking this year was supposed to just be a time killer, but I see now that biking is not only hugely useful to a runner but I also love it with similar passion as running. I want to run a fast marathon as a Master in the next few years... but I also have unfinished business as Silver Rush 50 and I suspect I will want to go back to Leadville or do another 100 mile mountain bike race too.

 Yesterday afternoon lightening struck our house and it fried my PC and modem. As a stay at home dad who coaches athletes from home via computer... I sort of panicked. I called my wife at work and for one athlete I told her the workouts while she typed it in to an e-mail. Michelle called for our weekly chat and she told me things usually happen in 3's... so this morning I got up early to drive to a coffee shop to use my laptop and my car battery was dead. #3... done?
 I spent the morning taking my computer to the shop and bought a new modem so I can use my laptop at home. If the PC is dead then I'm tempted to use this opportunity to upgrade to an Apple. I can't stand Microsoft. I'm wanting a very basic setup, any suggestions are welcome or if someone wants to sell an old Apple let me know.
   

8 comments:

James said...

Way to jump right back at it!!

We made the switch to Apple in December and will never go back.

James

Michelle Simmons said...

Well a dead car battery is a rather benign #3. So you should be good now. :)

And that's good news about the running making the biking more worthwhile. It occurred to me at the end of my run this afternoon that I might pay for it on my ride tomorrow... but now I'll just look at my ride as being enhanced by that rather uncomfortable effort today!

GZ said...

Struck by lightning is not a cool title to a blog post with the luck you have had as of late.

Brandon Fuller said...

Shinedown.

Sometimes it takes a good amount of investment to find the right lyrics. I just do it weekly.

I can get you Mac discounts on new stuff.

it's all about pace said...

the Mac Mini is pretty sweet... and like $700

Lucho said...

James- Ya, I want to make the switch too.

Mama- Benign yes... but I think it counts, or at least I'm counting it. I'm still alive today so maybe it was #3?

GZ- Ya right!?

Brandon- I usually choose my music by drums beats first, then lyrics. I've heard some pretty shitty music that had awesome lyrics I love it. I also listen to bagpipes and American Indian drums when I run... you should try it.

Pace- Yikes. I saw a refurbished Dell Optiplex (what I have now) for $75.00. But yes, the mini is what I ultimately want!

Chris Lee said...

Lucho, a friend left me with a used iMac G5 17 inch to sell. It is a Power PC which is the old processor. This means that you will not be able to upgrade the OS beyond X 10.5.8, but this should not be a real problem for a few years given that the machine is still really fast and has all the MAC niceness you are looking for. In fact, my friend also had a 20 inch iMac I traded an 8 year mtn bike to replace my 9 year old Sony...I totally the iMac!. Anyway let me know if you are interested in the 17inch. I believe he wants 300 but I'm sure he would negotiate.

Good luck up in Leadville...looking forward to reading about your journey up high!

Lucho said...

Chris- Super cool of you to mention that! Unfortunately the shop put my hard drive in to a new computer for just $75 (tells you how much PCs are worth)... so I'll suck it up and wait for this thing to die. I am getting an i-phone in September though, my sister is getting a new one, so I'll get to have a taste of intelligent design at least.
Thanks again Chris, much appreciated!