Change In Mindset

Preamble: In case you missed it, I wrote a blog post yesterday. Read it and feel free to praise, and then laugh at me.

Sadly since the cycling accident hashing has lost its place in the forefront of my mind. In years past Memorial and Labor Days were days I hashed, or at least days I considered hashing. Yesterday the thought of hashing never even popped in to my mind. Pity that. It wasn’t until this morning that I thought “Hey, yesterday was Labor Day. I bet there was a hash.”

Speaking of hashing, I will be in attendance at this year’s Black Sheep Campout at Lake Hartwell and will once again be making andouille grits cakes; if that’s not reason enough to sign up and attend then I don’t know what is! I’m thinking of making a trial run at the grits cakes this week in order to make it a little easier on myself than in years past.

Grammar Question: “In years past,” or “In year’s past,” or “In years’ past”? I’ve completely confused myself.

Meal Counting
I’m thinking of changing my count of “Carnivorous/Vegetarian Days” to “Carnivorous/Vegetarian Meals” in order to allow myself the flexibility of eating more vegetarian meals without having to commit to doing so for the entire day. Perhaps I’ll silently make this change for September and roll out the count in October.

ITP Flickr Pic (From Ten Years Ago)
Today marks the tenth anniversary of the last time I “ran” a 50k. Ah the good old days. Here you see me post Dances With Dirt (Hell, Michigan) 2001, the one in which I got stuck waist-deep in a bog because “Of course I’ll run the swamp, I’m a hasher!” and had to be pulled out by another runner. Believe it or not this photo was taken after I had attempted to rinse off in the lake. Most of you have seen me in that shirt because it’s the shirt I hashed in for about eight years, after it became much more red-orange thanks to an adventure race ITP-Readers Lisa and Randy and I did at Fort Yargo State Park a year or so after this photo was taken.
The Good Old Days
Also believe it or not this was the photo that I used many moons ago when I was a Match.com member. My philosophy then was “If a woman thinks I’m decent looking in this photo she’ll definitely be pleased when she sees me cleaned up.” For the most part this was faulty logic.

Cleaning Up Nicely — In A Different Way
What did pop into my mind on more than one occasion yesterday was eating at Fox Bros BBQ. I had more than a hankering for ribs and smoked chicken wings. However, I decided to stay at home and do some cleaning, refrigerator cleaning to be exact. For lunch I made myself a cheeseburger and ate it with some leftover baked beans. And at dinner I had pasta tossed with black bean salsa and black olives (I was also going to throw in some baby spinach leaves but when I opened the too-old bag there was a noticeable smell so I tossed it. Waste is better than food poisoning.) I know that pasta and salsa sounds like a weird combination, but if you strike the thought of pasta always tasting “Italian” then it’s actually rather tasty.

Remedial iOS
This weekend I started reading Cocoa Design Patterns to improve my programming skills. Yesterday I also decided to re-download the entire Fall 2010 quarter of Stanford University’s CS193P “Designing Apps for iOS” and watch a class session each day. I am bound and determined to become an excellent iOS developer — hopefully while it’s still an applicable and employable skill.

Back Into To The Theatre
Tonight I’ll be attending the performance of “Into The Woods” at Alliance Theatre. I know little about this play other than it’s a musical and I got my ticket for 50% thanks to a coupon handed to me while I was taking photos at the Peachtree Road Race two months ago.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – fair, still very concerned about my health
Current Music – silence at the moment
Website Of The Day – Colorado InviHash will most likely get in the way of me attempting Dances With Dirt in 2012. I was supposed to take another crack at it this year, but I think you probably know all about what interrupted my training. On a side note, the Dances With Dirt franchise has grown dramatically in ten years!
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – Saturday = cycling, 28.3 miles; Sunday = cycling, 24.3 miles
Morning Weigh-In

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0.0 miles
Wheel Mileage – 52.6 miles
Pushups – 0
Situps – 0
Stairs – 0 flights

Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 0 (0)

Vegetarian Days – 0
Carnivorous Days – 5

Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

September Goals
– “Completely” recover from the bike crash
– Ride my bike no fewer than 150 miles
– Not to get sick for the entire month
– Not get fired from my job
– Run at least twice
– Eat vegetarian no fewer than five days
– Lose three pounds

2011 Goals [will be a little more fluid than in past years]
– Reduce my weight by 25 pounds based on the my weight as measured on February 1st
Completely read the book Daily Negations which I received as a Christmas gift.
– Run Sharpened Stone as a real business — one which does not get penalized.
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Attend at least one professional photography workshop
– Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
Ride in no fewer than five 50 mile or 50K bike rides
– Run in no fewer than two one half-marathon
– Submit at least one application under the name “Sharpened Stone” to Apple’s iOS store

The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient programmer in Objective-C
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem
– Eat smaller portions

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

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11 Responses to Change In Mindset

  1. Martha says:

    I like you’re idea of changing from veggie days to veggie meals…takes a lot of the presure off and will allow you more flexibility in making healthier food choices. And for some reason I thought of you when I saw this:
    http://theoatmeal.com/comics/cook_home

    I managed my frist run in two weeks Saturday, 7ish miles…I was a little sore at the beginning but it wasn’t too bad, only did 3.5 on Sunday, that hurt! I went to the gym yesterday but couldn’t help myself, did a little bit of running in the rain as a warm up…it felt fantastic!!!

    Good to see you back on the bike, great job this weekend!!

  2. Steve says:

    I just noticed your Garmin seems to call the intersection of Gordon and 54 Blackjack, unless it’s referencing your bike.

    A very good ride both days- shortened on Sunday by the chance of more than a drizzle.

    We celebrated my brothers birthday for dinner last night when the fam met up at Malones on Virginia Ave. I’m giving them a shout out because they handled a party of 15 with no problems and the food was excellent. I had shrimp and grits and Debbie had shrimp Creole. Everyone else’ dinner was equally well received.

    -FP

  3. Good on ya, Martha!

    There were only a few sore spots 😉 on Sunday’s ride, though my cardio is suffering and is something I need to rectify soon otherwise I’ll be in really bad shape (figuratively and literally — family history indicates I might not have the strongest heart around). Truth be told I probably would have gone for a ride yesterday had the weather not been so threatening.

    The comic hits rather close to home though I like to believe I am a little more successful and much cleaner than that depicted. 🙂

    Steve, I noticed that too and had a good laugh at the coincidence.

  4. Barb says:

    Glad someone got some biking exercise – I did get some kayaking in Sunday around the lake (I forgot what a good upper body workout that is) and of course some swimming/floating.
    It never really rained much until Monday morning when everyone was packing up to leave – luckily I had decided to load up before I ate some breakfast, so my stuff didn’t get completely soaked.

    Freedom Ride update:
    Allan is leaving DC today, he said the drivers there are worse that Buckhead. And – of course the route planners didn’t “think” about the fact that larger vans, etc are not allowed anywhere near the Capitol/White House – so they totally lost the riders & had a really fun time trying to get out of the city. He is pretty much over this ride at this point, and they still has 4 more days of riding, plus the NYC stuff. (and, they are riding in rain today, so bike clean up tonight will not be fun).

  5. Being “prepared” was part of my problem with my “lost” key on Sunday. Had I not checked the weather radar and assumed the rain would move in quicker than it eventually did, I never would have packed up my backup car key into the trunk. Why didn’t I leave my backup key out? Because I “never” lose things.

    Oh, that sucks for Allan. I assume the bike riders are not riding back, have they planned for that? 🙂

  6. Martha says:

    I’m not envying Allan at this moment. After doing the rely race last year, I can say that even the best of friends get really, really annoying after 24 hours stuck together in a van. Add tired, hungry and dirty…it’s about as ugly as ugly can get.

    Oh, I made it to the Little Lebowski Fest Sunday night, I finally managed to see Sherri and Matt (aka Purple Peter Eater & Boob Teaser)…and heard (okay saw!!) their good news!!

    Paulie, gentics are only a small part of your overall health…get on the bike, eat right and you’ll be beter than fine. Small changes can make a big difference. I’m ‘back on the wagon’ today…too much junk and too much sitting around the last couple of weeks. I’m ready to get back in shape!!

  7. Martha says:

    I swear one of my favorite things about the new car is the comb lock/keyless entry. As long as I’m able to remember a five didgit number, I’ll never be locked out of my car. I love not checking to make sure I still have my key every 5 minutes when I’m running.

  8. Barb says:

    my Honda I need to use the key to lock the doors – so unless I mess with the back trunk with my keys – I’m not too afraid of every locking myself out either.

    At least Allan isn’t in the van all day with the riders – he’s had different people with him some of the days (a massage therapist, the videographer, etc. so at least he hasn’t had to sit with the same people all day every day). His favorite days have been when no one rides with him 😉

    But – as he said yesterday, he doesn’t even want to hang out with his friends for 10 days straight, much less this group of people. (and there is about 7 more days left). If he ever wondered about his decision to leave the traveling bike mechanic world, this has convinced him he can’t do it anymore.

  9. I realize genetics are just a portion of overall health, but I’m starting to wonder and they cannot be discounted — especially as one ages. I might even be starting to considering seeing/asking my doctor (for something not related to the bike accident!) 🙁

    What was the good news? I’m assuming pregnancy/child.

    When locking my car I have a “system” of looking at the key in my hand as I close the door/trunk. I assume that I either didn’t do this because I wasn’t completely locking the car (the doors remained unlocked, but I couldn’t get into the trunk because the trunk latch was locked and the seats require a key to fold down), OR I did look at the key but because I unknowingly put it into my jersey pocket I never looked in the helmet until I returned home and dumped its contents. Oh well, I have another story to tell me non-existent grandkids…

  10. Jenka says:

    “In years past.” It’s just plural. Sounds like you were over-thinking it.

    “Into The Woods”? If so, that is one of Stephen Sondheim’s most famous musicals!

    My weekend was so relaxing! I did nothing! Well, mostly nothing, except Sunday when we volunteered at the Decatur Book Festival. Now if only my leg would heal.

  11. “Into The Woods” is correct (and now corrected). I initially typed “Back To The Woods” and then realized it was wrong but inadvertently left “To” in the title.

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