I start out Tuesday with the new road bicycle rear tire for a ride. I hit a turn around point and start riding back towards the ocean and note a pretty nasty headwind coming up. It's a difficult fight for the last 10 kilometers to the ocean and for the 8 kilometers along the ocean. And I get a bit of a respite with mostly a sidewind, though gusty, up the Los Angeles river to home. The wind has taken a lot out of me but its a good 65 kilometers and the new rear tire installation seems sound. After a warming shower I ride the Yamaha YZF-R1 in the howling winds around a bit and do some errands and return to home. At home I put on warm clothes and read the news and markets. The next few days are supposed to be the coldest of the winter season so I do everything to stay warm and prepare for cold runs and rides over the next few days.
When the alarm goes off near 5:30 am on Wednesday, I hear light rain coming down. So I shut off the alarm and turn over and sleep for another hour. When I get out of bed the streets are wet but not slippery enought to avoid running, but it isn't going to happen today. I just get up and read the news and the markets. It's a cold and very windy day, so I'm dressed warmly at home and it becomes apparaent that today will be a slow day and the first non-workout day of February. I work away on some small items of interest and start working on income taxes and social security benefits for August and Medicare for August. There are some CSULA questions/issues that come in and I deal with them. Today is a very cold and windy day and the night will be the coldest of our winter season at 3C or 4C. So I brace myself for a cold Thursday bicycle ride. The swelling of my nose, eyes, and forehead are down enough that I don't want to take that OTC antihistamine crap drug that messes me up. And the chips are going to fall where they may.
I'm out the door before 6:30am on the mountain bicycle for a ride in 3C weather. It's chilly to start with, but after 8 or 10 kilometers I'm at equilibrium. As expected, there are not many cyclists, runners, or walkers out in the cold weather. And I have a good ride to the old yacht club and back to home. I get in a nice warming shower and run errands to the ATM, the library, and the grocery store. From there the day slows down and I just keep warm. I do have my first call with Medicare representatives and discuss options and do a first draft of 2021 income tax returns.
Friday morning is again cold and I'm glad it's a pre-planned day off from cycling. I consider going out walking, but just want to rest the legs for Saturday's long ride. I read the news and the markets and update a website and get in a good session with the weights at mid-morning. There's sun to warm the day a bit and it does peak up to 65F or so. Late in the day I have the CSULA Zoom meeting.
I start Saturday in chilly weather apprehensive about today's ride. It takes at least 10 kilometers to get going but I start feeling good near the Whittier Narrows dam so I contine on up to the Santa Fe dam. From there I turn back to Long Beach and I only have tired legs for the last kilometer of the 90 kilometer ride. I think it was more a psychological tiring of the legs than anything else. The warming shower feels good. I'm starting to get excited with MotoGP testing and F1 testing occurring now and the first MotoGP race of the year is only eight days away. Person Ch_C comes to visit and we have a nice long visit until he starts back for home. And then I have a slow evening.
I sleep incredibly well on Saturday night into Sunday morning - shows what a good 90 kilometer road bicycle ride will do for me. I'm out the door at 6:17am on the mountain bicycle for a recovery ride down to the old yacht club and back to home. There aren't many riders out today (since I'm 15 minutes earlier than usual) and I'm just worn out from yesterday's ride despite the good sleep. Nonetheless I keep cranking along and even chase down a rider or two at certain points of the ride. At home I pull out the hand tree saw and try to trim back a tree in the very back corner of my backyard. After a few cuts on the ladder I realize I'm going to need the electric hedge trimmers and electric chainsaw. So those come out of the garage and I'm constantly moving the ladder around and climbing up and down it to safely trim back the tree. I can't fit all of the trimmings into my trash bin for the week, so some will have to wait on the ground for next week. After a shower I drag myself to the grocery store for shopping and start laundry. I'm worn out! The rest of the day is spent in rest and laying on the couch and stretching various muscle groups and aiming for another great night of sleep.
I have a bt of a blah day on Monday, but I do get in a good workout for the abdominals, lower back, and core muscles as well as spending time with the chainsaw chopping up the down tree branches.
I'm out the door at 6:20am on Tuesday for a 70-75 kilometer road bicycle ride. NMy legs are stil a bit hungover from Saturday's long ride. But its a good ride noentheless.
On Wednesday I start with a 60 minute run/walk where I've increased the run portion a bit. When I get home I mow the front and back yards, trim the roses, and then lay down fertilizer in advance of Friday's expected rain. I review the CSULA team project's code and see that they are making progress. And near dinner time the retired school teacher comes over for more computer help and we end up back at her house across the street because her relatively new WiFI router doesn't seem to be transmitting a signal. We try many different things and finally I just tell her that its prbably an infantg mortality thing and she needs to call the Internet provider. I write down all of the steps that we performed so that she can explain the steps during her phone call with the Internet service provider.
Thursday, Frdiay, and Saturday are my recent typical pattersn of cycling, lifting weights, long cycling. During the Saturday morning long ride the wind is low and I get up to the Santa Fe Dam, but halfway back home a nasty headwind develops. By the end of the ride I am very tired but end up with anothewr 90 kilometer ride. There are CSULA Zoom meetings and other little things over the last few days, but I get them accomplished. And, finally, MotoGP/2/3 return with super exciting qualifying sessions from Qatar on Saturday. I had looked into attending this Qatar MotoGP/2/3 race weekened about a month ago, but decided against it. But since the omicorn Covid-19 virus seems to be receding globally, soon I will be at MotoGP/2/3 and/or F1 race weekends in person. And life will be able to start anew.
Regardless, after Saturday's windy 90 kilometer bicycle ride I'm pretty much a vegetable for the rest of the day with a few CSULA contacts. And I don't have a problem being a vegetable after a morning 90 kilometer bicycle ride. Throghout the day I eat a bit too much and feel bloated when I go to sleep on Saturday night.
I start Sunday out the door at 6:30 am for a mountain bicycle recovery ride down to the old yacht club and back to home. I just get used to the chillier day, get into a rhythm, and ride. Twice during the rides I see cyclists up ahead and I put in some speed bursts to get close to them and back off. My legs are not as tired as the prwvious couple of Sundays nor as tired as I expected after Saturday's long and windy ride. I lubricate the chains on both bicycles, trim the roses bringing blooms inside the house to enjoy, and grab a shower before doing some minor grocery shopping. The first MotoGP race of the year at Qatar, which I tried to line up attending a month or so ago, is both stategic and exciting. When my two least favorite riders drop or crash out I'm happy, when my two favorite riders get respectable 5th and 6th places I'm happy, but I have tears of joy when the independent rider, nicknamed "The Beast" as Nopey was nicknamed, wins. He wins for a team that was formed by an independent owner many years ago who, unfortunately, passed away from Covid-19 about a year ago. And the team is ecstatic, as I am, when the team run by his wife wins for the firt time since 2006. I just have tears of joy dropping down my cheeks at the checkered flag, during the past race warm-down celebratory lap, during the post-race interviews, and during the post-race podium celebrations. The rest of the day is a let-down after such an emotionally-wild MotoGP race.
Monday is my typially slow day. I did not sleep well because my CSULA team presented me with errors and problems that they were having and I keep waking up thinking about them. Thus by 6:00 am I am at my desk trying to understand the errors. Most are little innaccuracies, such as the wrong number of arguments passed into a subroutine. One is a more "interface" problem and it takes me a bit of time to get this right. And one is a conceptual problem which I throw back to the CSULA team to ponder. Nonetheless, I've fixed the obvious errors and sent a revised version of the code to the team with comments about what I did so that they can learn. And the code runs and performs an optimization - super progress! Near 11:30 am I ride the road bicycle, with bent derailleur from an impact a few months ago, to the local bicycle shop. I've brought a book to read so I go across the street and sit in the park (which is actually Boeing private property) and read. I get a callback saying that as they tried to straighten out the derailleur, they broke the hanger piece. This is not unexpected. I tell them to order the new hanger but put the bicycle into rideable shape so that I can get home. I finally get another call and the bike is rideable. I get the bicycle and ride it home and get in a core, abdominal, and lower back workout in and grab a shower. I watch the Moto3 race from Qatar and it has non-injury crashes, great passing, penalties from qualifying, and a stunningly weird mechanical failure that costs the runaway leader his first ever win. And then watch the news and some Netflix.