Wednesday, December 10, 2008

8842

tomorrow is my last hope for an outdoor ride for a while, I fear. the weather channel is predicting stormy weather (that makes me want to sing "stormy weather" like ella fitzgerald) for five days beginning this friday. tomorrow, thursday, the predicted high is only 43, but that's the best looking day for a while.
and I've got this new itch, the number 9000.
yep, I am now a mere 158 miles from reaching this new milestone, and I am practically covered in a rash about it. I keep calculating the possibility of achieving this before the year's end, and with the current weather prediction I'm not feeling terribly hopeful.
even thinking about riding tomorrow is difficult, as a lot of bike lanes are full of snow and ice, especially if I am to ride somewhere I'd like to be riding. if I headed out west I could probably find some dry bike lanes, but I might also find myself frustrated by stop lights and traffic. I'm not that desperate to hit that milepost.
or am I?
hmmm.
158 miles is about 10 hours or so on my bike, which doesn't seem too unreasonable an accomplishment in the next 20 days, does it? last week was the first week I have ridden less than 100 miles since last spring. I'm renewing all of my weight-room/gym acquaintences, and as much as I enjoy that comraderie, there is just a little tinge of melancholy in my greetings. this will be my 2nd winter of elliptical and weight machines, free weights, exercise balls, bosu balance balls, and mats with my bright green ipod blaring through my earphones.
one thing I've noticed is that I'm more current with world issues when I hit the elliptical machine, as that's a good 20 minutes or so that I can read the closed-captioned news. when I'm out on my bike I am blissfully unaware of current scandals, market collapses, and negative health news.
as a matter of fact, I will end on this note: this morning I "read" on the television that 1 in 6 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime. and that 40 percent less single men go in for screenings than do married men (gee, I bet we can all understand that statistic!).
so my message to you all today is, get that screening on a regular basis, guys.
and I will pray for enough sunshine tomorrow to get out on my real bike and lower that 158 down a couple notches.
and if that doesn't happen, I'll just have more closed-captioned news to share with you.

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