A shrinking feeling on a sunny route.

Ok, as per usual, I'll start with the music blog junk, skip to the next paragraph if you're uninterested. This does lead me to believe maybe I should start doing like a full on music blog, but really, I'm always so late int he game and so often things I'm turned off by on first listen actually grow on me and suddenly become faves...weird. A long time favourite of mine has been Future Sound Of London, FSOL for short. No, I haven't been into these guys from day one, but I've loved them since I first heard them...it was the summer in Portland '96. I've collected quite a bit of there work, released or broadcast, ISDN, Radio 1 rips, etc etc. There is a ton of stuff out there, but now all of a sudden they have released 3 albums of previously unreleased work as well as 1 digital album of work they did under alias, and still another as their popular psychedelic electronic band, The Amorphous Androgynous. The second album by AA was a really cool neo-hippy, "psychedelic babble"(to quote them in a way) and I was really touched by some of the album. Again, I'm excited for more music from another band I really enjoy. Also, they've always been ones to embrace digital distribution(ISDN), and They have pretty much their complete library online at their own digital store!!!

Saturday was a sunny but slightly chilly day, it was great! I had rested Friday because I knew I would be riding the course for R/S, and was well rested Saturday morning. Fortunately there is a loosely organized group playing ULTY during the mornings, so I jumped into my poly-pro and headed out for that. I briefly considered sunblock, but figured I wouldn't be out long enough. The showing for ULTY was light, but we played for about an hour and had fun, got some sun, etc etc. It's a nice way to work on my sprint work, but the rest of my skills need some polish... After that I headed home and just bummed around until my sister came to take my bike out to the race course, or there about(I know, I should have ridden it there, right!)

I followed out shortly after that and tried to motivate my sister to come to the practice ride, but she had some kind of self-conscious fear, so I just went alone. The race director was really laid back, asked who knew the course and offered to guide those of us who didn't. he rode at a moderate pace with lots of stops. We even rode the run course, now I am familiar with all the course and even mapped it for my running group, the OLLYTHONERS!!!! After the guided portion of the ride, I struck out for a second ride around the course and put some effort behind it. I didn't do so hot, but now I have an idea of the effort level I need to get up to in order to do well. I still think I'll have a chance to place for my age group, but there are a lot of athletes out there and I'm very new at all this...

Unlike my sister, I've never had any real trouble with Nike shoes. Always liked the styles, the colours(most of the time) and they have almost always fit me well. Until recently. I swear they recently decided to recreate the standard with which they measure sizes. I used to always be able to wear one size Nike, without fail. Now, all of a sudden, I'm having to buy a half size smaller to get the same result. Am I shrinking, have I lost so much weight in my feel that I lost a half size? ha ha, no all my shoes still fit, just all the newer models are a half size to big...This sucks, because now I'm gun-shy to buy another pair until I try them on(yes I use ebay normally).

Without that sunblock, I did manage to get a little red...not quite burned, but you know, more pink....

To my sis and niece....keep up the good work, I busted out more than 5 miles today! Wooo Hooo, SWEAT!!!!
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Now playing: Juiceboxxx & Dre Skull - Sweat
via FoxyTunes