Ants tickle

The ants that invaded my kitchen a few weeks ago seem to have moved on to greener pastures. Their departure coincides with the implementation of "Operation Stop Leaving Food Out on the Counter", which itself coincided with "Operation Stop Leaving Half-Empty Cans of Raspberry Soda on the Counter". A word of advice - if you leave a half-empty can of soda sitting out for any length of time, even indoors, you may want to peek into the can before drinking out of it. Ants tickle.

For those of you wondering why I say "soda" instead of "pop", head on over to this site. I originally hail from eastern WI - an island of soda in a sea of pop. According to the poll, 62 of 66 respondants in my parent's county say "soda" instead of "pop" or whatever. So there.

My tube is toast.

My tube is toast. This is a bummer because I've ridden this tube nonstop since 2001. It's been patched thrice. I loved it because the valve stem is smooth, instead of having threads up and down it - it was a pleasure to pump up, since the smooth surface made it easy to get a pump head on and off.

Hit a man-made hole in the road at the north end of Wirth Parkway. It had those nice sharp edges that only a man-made hole can have. It was raining, and I was cruising downhill at a good clip - didn't even see the hole until my wheel was bouncing out of it. Flatted instantly. Kind of freaky flatting at speed. Nice big pinch flat - two 1/2" slits on either side of the tube :(

Stopping to install a new tube in the rain wasn't a big deal since we were well soaked already - shoes had filled with water about 10 miles earlier. When the shoes fill with water, that's when I generally stop caring that it's raining and just enjoy riding. 'Cause once the shoes fill with water, it's a pretty good bet that, come what may, it's impossible to get any wetter.

Only problem was that after stopping to install the tube, I was freezing my ass off. Wasn't bad until we got rolling again, but once the wind hit the wet skin, I started shaking with cold. So I sprinted up Wirth Parkway in an attempt to warm up a bit, and after that I was fine for the last few miles. But the hot shower still felt damn good!

Rant / weekend synopsis

15 mile long run today. I'll talk more about that in a second. But first I need to rant about something I saw while running on the path along Minnehaha Creek. There's a pedestrian bridge (just west of Lyndale Ave, I believe) and below it alongside the path were a smashed TV, and a smashed microwave oven. Not just smashed, I mean destroyed, as in "dropped 30 feet from the pedestrian bridge" destroyed. This shit really pisses me off. Whoever did this should themselves be dropped from the bridge. That would teach 'em.

As for the run itself, it kind of sucked. Isles, Calhoun, Harriet, plus out and back along the Minnehaha creek trail (ran as far as the big Rabbit, then turned around) makes for 15 miles or so, by my math. I did it run-walk style, running about 2 miles, then walking for 1-3 minutes before starting to run again. I didn't eat very well yesterday (or at least last night) and didn't eat as much during the run as I should have, which didn't help. If my 20 miler next weekend feels like this, it'll be a looonnnng run indeed.

It also probably didn't help that I trashed my legs riding w/Doug and Brian yesterday. Road about 40, attacking all the hills hardcore and then regrouping at the top. There was a moderate breeze, and one of my pulls was a roughly 2 mile stretch into wind where I managed to still average 19mph or so - but I didn't realize I had dropped the others until near the end - not very nice of me :-( On the last big hill, approaching downtown from the South on West River Road, I powered all the way up at 20mph+ at which point my legs were total toast. Good ride. It was raining a bit at the start, but ended up being nice weather for a ride by the end. Not to toot my own horn, but I'm starting to feel pretty good about where my riding is at this year. Good enough that I'll start to consider checking out a fast group ride w/one of the local clubs sometime soon. I've been thinking about this lately, but haven't mentally worked my way up to it yet.

Doug talked me into seeing El Vez at First Ave last night w/his posse. Say "El Vez" three times real fast, and you might figure out what kind of music it was. He bills himself as the Mexican Elvis, and puts on a show complete with multiple costume changes (when's the last time you saw a guy wearing a tiger-print jumpsuit w/giant Elvis-style collar), 2 female backup singers/dancers (hot) and does mostly covers of american pop/rock standards. But the lyrics are changed to have a Latin bent, with about half of them actually being somewhat educational. Pretty campy stuff.