Tag Archives: work

Busyness is the new black.

8 Feb

Yesterday, I hit a milestone at my job: I worked the entire day. I didn’t even check my gmail. (I decided to end that streak today.)

Things have picked up here big time and it feels so good to finally be involved, contributing, bettering the company that I’m working for instead of just schleping a paycheck home every week.

Since my blogging time has now become work time (and rightly so), I’m back to the ever-a-struggle of finding time to blog during non-work hours. Which has been tough so far this week…

Monday night, I was excused from a workout by spending an hour and a half at the vet just for Katy to get her heartworm shot. I swear, going to the vet is even worse than going to the doctor. And my dogs go to the doctor more often than I do! Completely. ridiculous.

Last night, I raced home after work for a quick 2 mile run with the pooches and then did the first 30 minutes of P90X Yoga before heading to my church for a book study. I helped clean up afterward so I didn’t get home until 10:30 – waaaay past my bedtime. But somehow, I still managed to wake up this morning at 5:15 without an alarm. This has happened to me a lot lately. How does my body know what time to get up even when I go to bed later than usual? It boggles my mind.

Speaking of that 2 mile run, I wore my new Speedy Bullet jacket for the first time. And I am totally convinced it was worth the hefty price tag. My biggest concern about the jacket was that it wouldn’t be warm enough but it was 25 degrees on my run yesterday and with just a long-sleeve running shirt under the jacket, I felt perfect. Even, perhaps, slightly too warm (though I’m not complaining). This means I don’t have to dress like the Abdominal Snowman anymore!

Even though I was very impressed with my new coat, I was not impressed with the running trail.

My choices of running terrain were: 3 inches of snow or black ice. I actually didn’t mind running through the snow but the ice scared the crap out of me. And of course, the pooches were pulling me along wondering why I was being so slow. I’m ashamed to say that after at least 10 yanks on Katy’s leash, I used it as a rein to slap her butt so that she’d slow down and not pull me over. It worked… but she was not happy.

To switch topics in a completely random way, I have a new favorite breakfast.

Mix 1/3 cup old-fashioned oats with water and microwave. Add 1/2 tbsp peanut butter and 1/2 tbsp raspberry jam and stir until blended. Add 1 tbsp vanilla protein powder and 1 tbsp ground flaxseed; stir until blended. Top with 1/4 cup freeze dried strawberries, fresh blueberries and Fiber One cereal. Mmmm…

This idea was inspired by Run Eat Repeat and Clean Eating Chelsey – they always get creative with their breakfasts. I like that this keeps me fuller for longer than just plain cereal, but it’s also a way to get my cereal fix. It’s a win-win!

What’s your favorite way to eat oatmeal?

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Getting Motivated When You’re Bored Out of Your Mind

19 Jan

You’ve probably heard me mention before how slow things are at work, and have been since May when I was hired. Luckily, I am good at entertaining myself or I would have quickly gone mad.

However, I stink at being motivated when there’s nothing I have to do. And I find myself pushing the tasks I do have off until the next day because frankly, I can’t be bothered to stop reading blogs, mapping running routes, modifying training plans, and reading other useless nonsense on the interwebs. When I do have more than one work-related thing to do each day, I find myself annoyed because I had other things I wanted to do today. I already had plans, thankyouverymuch.

Someone driven by career goals would have quit long ago. My only “career” (and I use that term loosely) goal is to be a published author so I’m not sad to not be “succeeding in corporate America.”

Others would have at least utilized their 8 hours (sometimes 7…) a day for something that would improve their job performance. (I’m a copywriter so blogging counts, doesn’t it?)

Not me. I have seriously done everything on the Internet I’ve ever wanted to do, except anything work-related. I’ll find myself driving by a billboard that looks slightly amusing and making a mental note of the website – I should look that up at work. Things I would normally do at home (read: everything personal) I now save for work, so that I don’t lose it by 10 am and wind up in the office coffee shop, chugging spiked frappucinos.

Some days I succeed. I have enough blog posts queued up in Google Reader from the 100 or so blogs I follow that after the morning’s work of logging my previous day’s workout, checking my email (work and personal), and doing “15 minutes of actual work,” I can easily zone out until I leave at 4 pm.

Other days, when it’s slow in blogland, Reader is empty by 12 pm and I languish. I get a headache from looking at the screen and reading but what else to do? I do a crossword, check email, visit The Nest message boards, vote for the best outfits on People.com, and ::gasp:: even attempt reading the news. (But my eyes quickly glaze over and I abandon that idea. How did I manage to major in Journalism without ever reading the news? I’m just that good.)

You’d think by the time I’m done wasting hours of my life sitting in an uncomfortable chair and causing my back to need physical therapy, I’d be rearing to get ‘er done once I got home. But the combination of the winter cold, the short days, and “I’ll do it tomorrow”s combine to make me even more lazy once I get home. It’s like I’m in a walking coma. After my workout and dinner, it’s only 6 pm and I wonder, Is it too early to go to bed?  I don’t want to watch TV but I don’t want to read and I surely don’t want to be productive. What to do, what to do…

I assure you, there is a point behind all this mindless chatter.

The point is, I have realized that I am not a victim of circumstances. I make my life what it is. And if I don’t want to spend days upon days of accomplishing absolutely nothing but running a few miles and eating a bunch of food, I don’t have to.

So I’m making some changes. I’m not going to get crazy or anything, but I think implementing a modest structure for my days and evenings of boredom would be wise. So this is what I’m thinking:

At work

Do work-related activities until at least noon. Obviously, this goes out the window once I (hopefully!) start having more things to do but who knows when that will be? In the meantime, I will read books and blogs on writing style, marketing, copywriting, etc, or do whatever work is assigned to me. After noon, I can do whatever useless crap I want (unless work comes in, then I will do that). Baby steps people. It’s harder than you would think to break out of a 9-month funk.

I put this into practice today. I had a meeting this morning, worked on some event materials, organized some files and then read The Elements of Style until noon, at which time I promptly opened Google Reader and exhaled a sigh of relief. Although I did mostly enjoy reading the book. Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE grammar and syntax? I took a Linguistics class my senior year in college for my Spanish major and wondered why hadn’t I taken any before. It was by far my favorite class ever.

At home

Do one thing every day. I have done this before and found it quite useful. I make a list of all the things I’ve thought about, wanted, or needed to do and then do one small thing or part of one bigger thing on the list every day. For example:

  • Finish race memory book
  • Find passport or apply for new one (I’m pretty sure it’s lost)
  • Buy photo corners at Michael’s
  • Work on scrapbook (1 page each night)
  • Clean the dogs’ ears
  • Brush the dogs’ teeth
  • Buy more dog food
  • Schedule bike fit
  • Clean refrigerator
  • Get teeth cleaned at dentist done!
  • Get haircut done!
  • Get physical therapy for back done!
Because…

On a positive note, I have been more diligent about going to bed early and getting up at 5:30 to read the Bible and work on my book. So at least I have that going for me!

Do you struggle with laziness when not required to do anything? Any tips on getting motivated?

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Five Randos

13 Jan

1. I had my second physical therapy appointment this morning. I was dreading it because I thought I was going to be get poked with needles (I even had a blog post title of “Pins and Needles” thought up). But luckily, since I told the therapist that my lower back felt fine still, he said he would leave it alone. Woohoo!

But I still had plenty of unpleasantness to deal with. I told him that my upper back between my shoulder blades was still sore/tight so he cracked that area again, along with my neck, and then proceeded to massage/poke/pull my shoulder and upper back tendons as I turned my head to one side, then the other. That hurt. A lot. Not like the sharp pain of a needle but a deep muscle-y pain – like how your tight IT band feels when you massage when it with a foam roller. My shoulders are sore now, which he said might happen.

He also showed me some exercises I could do to strengthen my lower back and hips. I’ll demonstrate and post them soon, since they’re beneficial for all runners/athletes.

What I’ll demonstrate now is how to lower your keyboard:

With a keyboard tray! It took me until this morning to realize I could push the tray in (I just had it installed yesterday). Before, it was sticking out from the desk by about 8 inches. At that rate, I was going to need glasses from squinting.

Anyway, lowering my keyboard will prevent me from shrugging my shoulders so much – your upper arms should be perpendicular to the floor when sitting at your desk.

2. Lots of TV time this weekend. Tomorrow is the Olympic Marathon Trials coverage (2-4 pm MST – we’re the same as central) and the Broncos game. Go Tebow! I might have to go buy a Broncos shirt tonight…

Sunday, I will be watching My Fair Wedding because fellow blogger Danica’s wedding will be on. It’ll be cool to finally see everything she hasn’t been able to show on her blog.

But I’ll balance that TV time out with two runs – my long run of 7 miles on Saturday and my tempo run of 4 miles on Sunday (moved from yesterday because I ate too much for dinner and would have puked if I tried to run…one of those days).

3. I seem to be a running anomaly. I’ve input several times into the McMillan Running Calculator: my half marathon PR back in 2007, my most recent 5K time, and my most-likely-never-to-be-duplicated 5 mile run in the Denver RnR Half Mary Relay. Those times are all over the board and produce quite the varied results.

With the 3 different times, my predicted marathon finish time could be (respectively):

5:17:58

5:20:24

4:54:08

I’ll take the last one, thankyouverymuch.

Also according to the calculator, my long runs should be run at a pace around 12:45 to 13:15 per mile. Lately, I’ve been comfortably running, without challenge, an easy pace of 11:15/mile for my long runs. But apparently, that should be the pace for my tempo intervals, which I’ve been running at a 9:55 or 10:00 pace (those paces aren’t even on the chart).

So I’ve concluded that while the running calculators may give me a ballpark of +/- 30 minutes for my marathon time, I should just use my long runs as a judge for my goals (and obviously the runs that are closer to the marathon distance, not the 8 miler I just did last Saturday). I’m also planning on doing Yasso 800s for my speedwork during Weeks 10-16 of my marathon training plan. It’d be cool if it really works to predict your marathon time (click the link to read more details).

4. I’ve been waiting for Friday all week long. Regardless, when I woke up this morning, I was surprised that it was already Friday. Which means I have to clean my house because we’re having people over for the game tomorrow.

5a. My favorite lunch as of late has been big salads, thanks to my friends leafy romaine lettuce and Caesar croutons. If it weren’t for those two, I wouldn’t be eating salads. They have changed my life. (For some reason, I get sick of spinach every now and again and won’t eat it to save my life…unless it’s in a smoothie.)

Yeah, I scrimped a little too much on the lettuce for that salad… but I also eat the lettuce first and this was halfway through the salad.

5b. We got new dinnerware for Christmas from my parents. The dishes we got for our wedding were really cute ones from Target but since I am a dish-breaker by trade, we only had 4 big plates left and all of our bowls (minus 2) had giant chips out of them. We are really enjoying our new dishes. Thanks Mom and Dad!

They are the Platzgraff Java pattern.

It’s even prettier in person. They’re still on sale at Shopko if you need new dishes!

What’s your favorite thing for lunch? Do the running calculators predict your speeds correctly?

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One of those days…

5 Jan

Today has seriously been the longest day EVER. I knew it from 10 am this morning when I had already done what I felt like was a lot of work and only an hour had gone by. ::sigh::

BUT!

I have this waiting for me when I get home:

My new running gear! Even though I probably won’t try it out until I wash it (never mind the fact that its 60 degrees today), I’m still excited.

I’m also pumped about tomorrow night. While Travis goes to play broomball, I am going to Target to spend a gift card from my MIL and then hopefully work on a racing scrapbook.

And now I’m going home to get my run on and stop wanting to poke my eyes out from boredom. Have a great night!

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A White Christmas in Denver!

22 Dec

Well, it definitely snowed! Last night, when I got home from my women’s group, I told Travis that we should go on a walk in the snow. So we did.

I love going for walks in the snow.

So do the pooches.

We were very snowy by the time we got back. It’s still snowing this afternoon and so far, we’ve gotten about a foot. It was a little hairy driving to work today (because CDOT only has 75 plows for the entire Denver metro area!) but we made it! I was sooo tempted to call in because there’s hardly anyone here today (and there will be even fewer tomorrow!) but our VP ordered in lunch from Qdoba for us, which was nice and fun. Tomorrow is going to draaaaggg by though.

…………………………………..

On a brighter note, this weekend is Christmas!

I am so ready for some time to relax, hang out with Travis and friends, and eat delicious food! This is what we have planned so far:

  • Dinner and a movie with friends Friday night (Christmas Eve Eve)
  • Dinner with friends and their family on Christmas Eve
  • Special breakfast and dinner on Christmas day, just the two of us
  • Church on Christmas morning
  • Relaxing on the day after Christmas, before we go back to work

We haven’t decided when we’re going to open presents yet, but my vote is Christmas Eve morning – then we don’t have to wait!

Other than going grocery shopping tonight after work, I’m all ready for Christmas, which has meant a very relaxing, enjoyable week. It’s been so nice to drive home, knowing that I can go lay on the couch the minute I walk in the door, instead of running around doing errands or workouts.

I was just thinking yesterday as I drove home, that taking this week off from training was probably the best decision I could’ve made. Instead of stressing out over how to fit all my workouts in and wondering how I’ll ever manage with marathon training, I’ve been building up excitement and anticipation and will start marathon training ready to tackle the beast of 26.2.

The slower pace has also allowed me time to reflect on the amazing-ness of Christmas and quiet my heart, which is what I’ve been wanting! Come, Lord Jesus!

What are your plans for Christmas? Are you done with preparations?

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Let the fun begin!

16 Dec

Today at work, I only have to work sit at my desk until 11 and then I get to go shopping and partying! During work hours! Our department is sponsoring 2 families through Safehouse and we roll the shopping and gift-wrapping into our holiday party. I think it’s a pretty good idea, except Travis is bummed that he’s not invited (but I wasn’t invited to their potluck either this year).

Tomorrow, we’re running The Christmas Carol 5k – I’ll be wearing a hat similar to this one.

I would also like to find or make a tutu but it might be too late for that…

I’m hoping to get a nap in tomorrow after the race and then we’re having dinner with friends. Sunday, we’re still planning on going up to Evergreen for ice skating and dinner.

Have a good weekend! I might get ambitious tomorrow and post pictures of my tea table and our Christmas decorations. And hopefully my new 5k PR! 😉 Maybe.

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You know you work for a big corporation when…

24 Aug

As a person with a work history mostly at small non-profits, I have noticed that things in Corporate America look a little bit different.

You know you work for a big corporation when…

  1. You wander around for 5 minutes after work trying to remember where you parked your car that morning.
  2. You don’t work in a building; you work on a campus.
  3. Your office location is 6 digits/letters long, with designations for building, floor, wing and hallway.
  4. You don’t know what 99.995% of the people do who work there.
  5. There are thousands of people working at the same company you’ll never even see, much less meet.
  6. Your campus has its own coffee shop, cafeteria, fitness room and conference center.
  7. You have co-workers in 12 different countries.
  8. There’s a person for everything. (No odd jobs here!)
  9. The marketing department actually has (and uses!) a brand manual and AP style handbook.
  10. Rebranded assets include company cars, conference rooms and hallway signage.
  11. There are indoor walkways connecting each building.
  12. You have 7 different bosses (did you get the memo?).
  13. Your company has its own softball league, no outside participants needed.
  14. You need a security badge just to go to the bathroom.

Do you work for a big corporation? Any insights you’d like to share?

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A Day in the Life

19 Aug

I always find it interesting to see what other people’s days look like (shoutout to SUAR!) so here’s one of mine (though not every day involves so much dog drama, clothes changing, and bean throwing. 🙂)

2:45 am — Get up to pee and decide to let the dogs out while I’m up. Charlie does not go. Go back to bed.

4:30 — Hear dogs moving around. Get up and feed them so I can leave them in the laundry room. Go back to bed.

4:45 — Hear dogs whining. Get up and let them out of the laundry room. Go back to bed.

4:50 — Realize that Charlie might have to pee now so get up to take her outside. She doesn’t go.

4:55 — Come back inside to see that Charlie didn’t go outside because she had already gone inside, right after getting out of the laundry room. Clean pee up and go back to bed.

6:00 — Alarm goes off for the first time.

7:00 — Finally get up after many, many hits to the snooze button, and eat breakfast.

“Do I look like a trouble maker?”

“Not to me.”

7:15 — Evaluate my hair in the mirror and decide to wash it. Hop in the shower.

7:25 — Do my hair and makeup.

7:40 — Get dressed in Outfit #1.

7:50 — Set up iron and ironing board for wrinkly shirt. Make lunch and snacks while waiting for iron to heat up.

From left to right: banana; Laughing Cow Sun-dried Tomato & Basil cheese; Triscuits; Colorado peach; 2 clementines; leftover Baked Mac & Cheese; spinach salad with craisins, feta, almonds and poppyseed dressing; and bing cherries. (For the record, I didn’t eat the clementines or peach and I ate the banana right before our swim.)

8:00 — Iron shirt and promptly decide to change out of the skirt.

8:03 — Get dressed in Outfit #2.

Eh. Not feelin’ it.

8:07 — Get dressed in Outfit #3. Winner. (Or I just no longer care.)

8:10 — Sit down for a short time in the Word.

8:25 — Make iced coffee while talking to the husband.

8:33 — Leave for work.

9:05 — Arrive at work. Our campus is comprised of four buildings like this one:

The desk where I will spend the next 8 mind-numbing hours being extremely bored:

At least the campus is pretty:

3:00 pm — Actually have work to do! Last 2 hours fly by.

5:05 — Time to go home! Traffic is bad but there are pretty views.

I can see Denver from my car!

5:35 — Arrive home. Let pooches out to pee while I check on our zucchini jungle garden.

Mmm… sweet cherry tomatoes.

Yes, our winter squash grew through the fence.

5:45 — Feed pooches. Travis gets home.

6:00 — Decide to do an open water swim so we change and leave.

6:35 — Get to Big Soda swimming beach.

The water’s actually not that bad once you get used to it. Decide that the water is too choppy for an extended swim (hello, water up the nose!) so do roughly 750 yards and get out.

7:10 — Drive home and take a shower to rid me of algae and stank. Eat Stacy’s Pita Chips while writing grocery store list.

7:40 — Travis takes dogs for a ride to the auto parts store and I go to the grocery and liquor stores to buy some dinner necessities.

8:15 — Get home and start making dinner (Spicy Crab Salad) while Travis grills some corn on the cob and waters the lawn.

8:20 — Crack open a glorious Mike’s Hard Black Cherry Lemonade. Hits the spot.

8:35 — Finally sit down to dinner. Delicious!

8:55 — Leave the dinner table in a huff after an intense debate on whether healthy eating involves carbs (one of those conversations where Travis and I probably agree but just can’t seem to communicate in a way that we both understand).

9:00 — Make Travis not do the dishes because he faked throwing my black beans in the garbage. (Hey – I was angry and nonsensical and didn’t want any innocent food to meet an unfortunate end.)

9:10 — Dishes done. Watch Downsized for a bit, feeling pretty good about our financial choices.

9:45 — Decide I need to go to bed so brush my teeth, make the bed (I can’t stand getting in a messy bed!), and soon after, Travis follows.

10:30 — Finally asleep, after laying awake thinking about what we’re going to do with the dogs on our upcoming trips, what my Warrior Dash outfit is going to look like, and how nervous I am to freeze my butt off during the Oly Tri in just a little over a week.

Whew!

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Thwarted again.

8 Jul

Yesterday, I finally biked to work for the first time ever. I had forgotten to bring my clothes to work the day before so I had to bring a big backpack with my clothes, toiletries and makeup, bike lock, lunch, and towel (I wasn’t sure the locker room had ones that contractors could use – we kind of get the shaft around here – but they do). So my backpack was a little on the heavy side but it has the straps that go around the waist and across the chest so it didn’t move around too much.

I only took 2 wrong turns, which were quickly corrected. I’m sure that I would’ve been very lost if I hadn’t driven the route beforehand so that I knew generally where I was supposed to be going. The part that was the most confusing was being on the bike trails (though it was also the most enjoyable because there were no cars to worry about).

The most notable part of the ride? The hills. Holy crap. I got dominated. It was sheer grit and stubbornness that got me up those hills. (For those of you who are intense bikers, you probably think I’m a wuss to whine about a 3% grade that lasts for 1.5 miles but for me, it was hard! It probably didn’t help that I had done squats and lunges for the first time in 5-6 months the day before and woke up very sore.) According to MapMyRun, there are two main climbs on this route: on Carr Street (above) and then on Simms Street (below).

Carr Street was the shorter, but steeper of the two. I was huffing and puffing and seriously considered walking my bike. But I didn’t. This is when doing endurance sports is purely mental. Your entire body is saying STOP but you keep pushing. It was nice to have a bike lane on this hill, just in case I was a swerving spaz.

 The hill on Simms was not so kind to me though. Giant hill, no shoulder (see pic – though it doesn’t do the hill justice). As cars were whizzing by at 50 mph and I was trying to not swerve either in front of one or into the gravel shoulder, I was repeating Jerry Seinfeld’s bit on scuba diving to myself: “Just don’t die… don’t die, don’t die, don’t die… there’s a rock, there’s a fish, who cares… just don’t die…” 

I didn’t die. And I made it to work on time, though it took me 1:13:25 to go 13.8 miles.

But when it came time to bike home, this was the sky:

I was still going to bike home, even after Travis told me it was raining in Golden. It wasn’t raining in Broomfield at that very moment so my stubbornness kicked in and I decided it would be an adventure.

I had just gotten my sweaty bike gear back on (note to self: don’t forget to bring an extra sports bra to work next time! EW!) when Travis called back and told me about tree limbs being ripped off, flash flood warnings, 40 mph gusts, and rain everywhere. “I’d feel a lot better coming to pick you up,” he said. “FINE!” I raged.

Let me explain my horrid reaction: My sensible self appreciated my husband’s concern and willingness to drive 30 minutes one way to come pick me and my little ole bike up. My nonsensical self wanted to bike home at all costs. I had been thwarting in my first attempt at biking to work and now this? I would not allow it. Sensibility (and my husband) won the day. And I will say that I was very happy (later) that I did not bike home. It would’ve been miserable and probably deterred me from ever riding my bike in to work again.

While we were up in that neighborhood with the car, I suggested we get Chick-Fil-A for dinner. So we did. It was delicious (though I’ll warn you to not get their Chicken Caesar wrap if you don’t like massive amounts of Parmesan cheese – I like it but not that much so I ended up eating only 3/4 of it).

After tidying up the house in preparation for cleaning it tonight for our BBQ tomorrow, I went to DSW and finally bought my new sandals!

After trying on something like 15 different pairs and styles, I decided these would work well with both black and brown tones, they have a slight heel and some good cushioning (advice from my friend B), and they’re freaking cute. They do feel very different than flip flops, since there’s nothing to hold the front of my foot in, but I’m sure I’ll get used to them.

I saw a few of the different options I had been looking at online in the store but after trying them on, realized that they either didn’t fit my foot well or I didn’t like how they “wore”. So I’m glad I went to the store instead of buying online! That’s generally the way I operate. I usually only buy stuff online after trying it on in a store. But I do make exceptions if it means I get a good deal and free shipping.

Here’s a pic of my feet in my new sandals:

LOVE!

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Bike to Work FAIL.

22 Jun

Today was Denver’s Bike to Work Day. I have never biked to work before but have always been intrigued by the idea. And since I am now training for an Olympic triathlon and needing to bike rides of 20-30 miles every week, I figured it would be a great way to get in my training, as well as my commute (it’s 13.5 miles to work by car or bike).

I spent a couple hours at work yesterday getting everything mapped out, typing up directions and stowing my work clothes for today in one of the fitness center lockers. I drove my route home last night, to get better acquainted with the streets and make sure that everything looked pretty safe. I was so excited and nervous that I went to bed thinking about it and woke up thinking about it. I packed up my Camelbak this morning with my smaller-than-normal lunch, flip-flops, cell phone, phone charger, camera, photo ID, credit card, chapstick, deodorant, and makeup. I had my helmet, water bottle and sunglasses. I wore a bright orange t-shirt over my long-sleeve gray tech tee.

I taped my directions to my aero bars

I forgot just one small thing.

Check the bike.

I didn’t think it would be an issue since I had just biked 20 miles on it Sunday with no issues. But now that I think about it, the chain was making some weird noises during that ride – so much so that Travis asked me what the noise was. I said the chain was rubbing like it does when it’s in the highest or lowest gear, ignoring the indicator on my shifter showing that the chain was actually on a middle gear.

I left the house at 6:35 and followed my route north. Since I haven’t biked on actual streets very much – this was maybe the third time? – I was approaching a stoplight when I realized (too late) that I should be in a lower gear in order to get started more easily. So as I was braking, I downshifted twice without pedaling, so that I didn’t *actually* shift.

Big mistake.

It may have just been a coincidence that the problems started right after that, or it may have been the cause.

The Magnificent Sliding Chain

But my chain was jacked up big time. It was sliding all over the place, trying to choose between 2 or 3 different gears. I pulled into a parking lot and tooled around there for about 5 minutes, changing gears to see if I could get my chain back on track. No luck. Then I got off and looked at the chain. I didn’t see anything obviously wrong and know next to nothing technical about bikes so as much as it disappointed me, I knew the smart thing would be to go home. I didn’t want to get stranded on the side of the road, or worse, ruin my bike.

As I pulled out of the parking lot to where I was going to turn around, the chain seemed better. Maybe, just maybe, I can still make this work. I continued on my route for another mile. Things were good. Chain in place. Then I encountered a hill. I tried to tackle it without downshifting but I couldn’t. So I shifted down one gear. Still good. Down another. Still good. Down another.

::Crunch… crunch…crunch::

Crap it.

I turned off on a side street, resolving that it just wasn’t in the cards for me to ride my bike to work today.

I got home and went into the office to escape my dogs’ excitement and mope. But then I realized, it was only 7:10 – if Travis could fix my bike in 10 minutes, I could still bike to work. So I went and woke Travis up and being the sweet, dutiful husband, he rolled out of bed early to help me futz with my bike. But no matter what we adjusted, poked, moved, or tested, the chain refused to work. It needs professional help.

So I did not get to bike to work today. I’m bummed. But I’m not deterred! I WILL ride my bike to work one day soon.

My sad little bike computer only read 5.759 miles by the time I took a shower (my short bike ride + ride on bike trainer to figure out what was wrong) when I had been expecting something more like 27.xx miles. What makes me more frustrated is that we have our church group tonight from 6 to 9 so the morning was my main workout window. I’m still going to try to squeeze a short run in after work so that the day isn’t a total bust. But I’m thoroughly bummed about this whole thing.

So I called up an old pal for consolation:

You can always count on Mr. Donut to cheer you up. Mmmm…

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