Dragons, 171, 100, 10, screams of pain

Another weekend ends and again I feel like a zombie today.

On Friday after work I stopped at Sam’s.  While I was there I fell prey to a couple impulsive buys, a pack of six solar pathway lights and a small raised garden kit.  I have wanted to get some new solar lights for a long time.  The couple I have have been dead for a long time.  I used four of them out front to compliment the fresh landscaping and two in the back by the lanai doors.  They look great once sunlight fades.

The raised garden will go into our existing garden once we shut it down for the summer.  Our thought is to use it in the low corner to raise and contain the soil. It would add another 8 inches to the soil level.  It would be a good spot for root crops. 

On Saturday Ali had another swimming session planned.  She is trying to swim as much as possible in preparation for her first sprint triathlon next weekend.  Before she left she hopped on the mower and got a good amount of grass mowed before she left which was a help for me.  After weed whacking it saved me a lot of extra time on the mower.

I was busy around the house most of the day doing various small chores.  At one point I piled the girls in the van and took them with me to the auto parts store.  I finally got around to doing some research on the 171 code that my Chinese code reader has been showing me on the Tacoma.  The most likely cause is a dirty MAF sensor.  I picked up some cleaner that is specifically designed for the job.

I also managed to find a replacement battery for the Moto Guzzi.  When I checked at Walmart and Autozone neither place had anything in stock.  Not only did I find a battery but I found one that you didn’t have to fill and charge yourself, a double bonus.  My plans for the bike are simple, get it running again and sell it hopefully.

I also finally got rid of the old bedroom tv Saturday.  After listing it twice on Craigslist unsuccessfully I decided I would try the curb option.  I printed out a sign that said “FREE   WORKS FINE  HEAVY!” and taped it to the front.  I carted the 118 pound monster to the end of the driveway and set it in place with the remote control sitting on top.  Within 20 minutes it was gone.  Yea it would have been nice to score a few bucks for it but at this point both Ali and I were just glad to have it off our bedroom floor.

We had a race Sunday morning so we had some race prep to do but it didn’t stop us from sneaking in another visit to the Silverspot theater to see “How to Train Your Dragon”.  I had heard from several sources that the movie was really good.  Once again we took advantage of the on site restaurant.  This time I requested the “good” seats that are up on a small platform looking out the window. I went less formal with my meal this time, ordering the three mini-burger platter.  Ali switched it up as well getting a flat bread pizza which was really good. 

You can really tell that season has passed.  The theater was not full at all, I think we had less than 10 people in there with us.  Once again Ali and I really enjoyed the plush environment to watch a movie, the first 3D film I have watched at Silverspot.  The movie was really fun.  It’s theme was right up the alley for two animal lovers such as Ali and myself.  I was glad the theater was sparsely populated so that the moisture on my cheek late in the movie was not witnessed by others.  I’m a sucker for animal movies, even animated ones. We both liked it, a lot,  A rating from me.

Sunday was another 4am morning to time a race.  When we got to the race site I decided to take a leak before the port-a-lets got too disgusting.  Well it seemed as though someone discovered them the night before.  The first one I went into had the urinal filled with trash and a pile of wet toilet paper on the floor.  Since there were only three port-a-lets I knew I had to do something so after I relived myself in another unit I went back to the first one, grabbed a wad of toilet paper and used it to clean the junk out of the urinal.  People are pigs.

The timing process went well.  Ali once again ran the race with her friends.  It was a warm and humid morning.  It seems like we pretty much skipped Spring this year.  There was an odd man on the course.  He almost appeared to have terets or some other sort of mental disorder.  The best way I could describe it was the man would say whatever was floating through his mind, constantly.  Unfortunately it seems like he had a lot of obscenities in his head.  Ali said he was doing it the entire race.  I heard him swearing and yelling at himself loudly as he crossed the finish.  It was bizarre.

Again we made record time getting out of there.  We were packed up and in the car by 9am and back at the house before 10 even with a pit stop at DD for coffee and a donut.

Ali and I talked about doing a bike ride to further push her triathlon training.  Ali wasn’t very excited about the prospect but within 15 minutes of being home we were out on the bikes doing another 10 mile jaunt.  Once again there was a strong headwind for the first portion of the ride which turned into a nice tailwind on the return trip.  It was the first time we rode the bikes after they were “tuned up”.  I have to say, I’m not really impressed with the tune up.  I didn’t really notice any difference, some gears still felt like they weren’t aligned quite right and my handlebars actually were now off center.  I don’t know if  it was worth $60.

After the bike ride we headed to the pool to swim a bit.  Ali bought my a tri-style swimsuit on Friday which is basically mid-thigh spandex. I didn’t opt to put on the suit.  I did use the swim goggles Ali bought me.  We both did a number of laps in our 28 foot long pool.  It was obvious that Ali’s form is much better than mine. I have a hard time doing conventional breathing and instead resort to lifting my head entirely out of the water.  She got me the suit so I could accompany her to the pool for some of her swimming sessions.  She registered us as official NAT’s members (Naples Area Triathletes) so I am a card carrying triathlete in name only.  Maybe some day I could try a sprint-tri such as what Ali is doing but from our brief swim session I can tell you swimming 400 meters would be a big challenge right now.

After our “block” Ali retired to the bedroom to nap.  I dug into getting all of my post race responsibilities cleaned up which took a couple hours.  Afterwards for some reason, despite being up since 4Am I had an urge to attempt yet another physical test I had talked about with Jeremy, the 100 pull up challenge.

I lugged the camera and a bottle of water out to my pull up station and got rolling.  When I first thought about doing this I thought that I could do it within a half hour, later that mental goal shrunk to 20 minutes.  Now I do a decent amount of pull ups but I have never attempted anything close to this number.  Currently if I went to failure I could do somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 full ROM pull ups, give or take a couple.  My plan was to break the effort into smaller sets, before I hit muscle failure.  I’ve found that once muscle failure occurs it is very difficult to continue repping out in multiple sets. 

I decided to do a first set of 10 and then go with sets of 5 as long as I could.  Surprisingly I was able to maintain 5 and even a few sets of 6 inadvertently all the way to the end.  Jeremy discovered upon his review that I actually did a total of 103 pull ups.  I suppose fatigue affected my ability to count as the challenge wore on.

I completed my challenge just under my 20 minute goal, clocking in at 19:37. The last 25 or so reps were pretty tough but overall the challenge wasn’t quite as difficult as I imagined it would be.  One thing I didn’t imagine or plan for was the toll the challenge would take on my hands.  My right hand had huge two calluses ripped wide open.  There were screams heard throughout the house as I tried to clean them up later, major stinging.

When I told Ali of my latest challenge all she could do was shake her head.   I showed her my self inflicted wounds of battle which she helped me bandage.  If you have 20 minutes or so to kill you can watch the event here.

After my pull up marathon was over I was pretty beat.  The early wake up plus physical exertion sort of wiped me out.  At one point I passed out on the couch for awhile while Ali was cooking.  Speaking of Ali’s cooking, she made some quality dishes yesterday including a very tasty lasagna hybrid and a chocolate chip banana cake. Both efforts get 4 stars from me.

I was lazy for the rest of the night, my energy level was low.  This week I will need to be creative in my gym sessions.  So many exercises utilize the portion of my palm that is ripped up.