The bachelor - week 2

It's been a busy week. A lot of stuff to do at work, a lot of stuff to do at home, and some of my highest training volume of the year all coincided. The weather took a nice turn this week and I was able to get some good outdoors riding in. I went on our team's group ride yesterday for the first time in a while. I arrived a little late because I hit nearly every light between here and Longmont and there was some fog on the way down. My only goal for the day was to ride in a higher gear to build some leg strength. I thought I must be getting fatigued, because even the flat sections of road felt difficult. It wasn't until I got back to the shop that I realized my rear break had been dragging the whole time. Whoops! I guess that's what I get for showing up late and having to rush.

I picked up my new mountain bike on Saturday too. (Pictures to follow someday.) I didn't expect to be excited to get it, but I got to tell you I'm pretty darned stoked. It's fun to have a new bike. I'll probably wait until some of the mud dries up before I go ride it around.

Friday Livia and I met up in Denver to see a documentary call "The Bridge". It's a real feel good movie about the Golden Gate Bridge and how it's the most popular place in the world to commit suicide. The filmmaker had a camera on filming the bridge for a year. It appeared as if sometimes they were manning the camera, and able to zoom in on people on the bridge, and other times they just had a wide shot rolling. Sometimes they'd show the wide shot, and it'd be all quiet until you see a large splash in the water from someone jumping. I kind of expected the movie to be partly an argument for putting methods in place to prevent suicide, but they didn't touch on it at all. Instead, it was all narrative by family/friends of bridge jumpers (and one jumpee who actually survived). I wouldn't recommend seeing it if you're depressed. I also wouldn't recommend it as a date movie. If I weren't married, and I weren't there with an engaged friend, and there wasn't so much suicide. I totally would have scored. This is what my life has come to: My wife is out of the country, and I'm watching movies about suicide. Maybe I'll watch Barney or something to even things out.

Today I only took a short ride and then worked furiously around the house. I had a bunch of stuff piling up that was really bothering me and I'm leaving tomorrow afternoon for a short business trip to Portland. I wish I could stay longer (I'm getting back Tuesday around midnight), but there's just too much other stuff going on. I finished up my evening by reading the newspaper and watching the Grammy's. I didn't realize it before but Dan Wilson wrote a lot of songs on the Dixie Chicks new album (which cleaned up in awards). Of course, nobody probably knows who Dan Wilson is, but he was the front man for a (now defunt) band that I really like (Semisonic). It's cool to see him writing for someone else and getting some good credit for it.