I start Thursday with a good 90 minute run/walk. The left hamstring strain seems to have recovered but I still don't want to overdo it. I trim the roses and see that one of my crawl space vents is knocked loose. Was it from the dead rat I found yesterday? Regardless I try to put the vent back in place and lay two rat traps nearby. After a shower I work on the Reinforcement Learning algorithm by tidying up loose ends first because I haven't figured out the right learning lgorithm yet. Later I cook and eat pasta to carboload for an expected long road bicycle ride on Friday morning. And blow away the rest of the day with Netflix and the TdF though it isn't an ITT or mountain stage.
I go north on the Los Angeles river on the road bicycle for an expected long bicycle ride. I crank along well, though it feels like a slight headwind all of the way north. When I get to the construction detour, the one that usually takes me on surface streets and all of the way around the Foothill TRanssit Station, I follow a rider ahead. By creatively getting off the bicycle twice - once to leave the bicycle trail and onto dirt and once more to get back on the bicycle trail - I've found a way to avoid that surface street detour during construction with all of the traffic. I crank along nicely and today I've preplanned a stop at Wilderness Park soutbound on the San Gabriel river trail for an energy gel. I gulp it down and start riding again and pass a couple of other riders who I noticed I passed before (but they didn't stop). I continue along to the ocean and then back up the river trail for a total of 120 kilometers. I feel stronger and more alert than last week without the energy gel. Was it cycling accustomization or was it the energy gel? I grab a quick shower and drive to a grocery store. On the way out a guy with a Red Bull Racing shirt stops me and tells me how great my car looks. I point out the low mileage and it looks like he wants to cry. We have a good talk about recent F1 occurrences and team shifts and he offers me, for free, a full case of Red Bull when I tell him that I've been a fan of Red Bull racing since they entered F1 approximately 20 years ago. It turns out he works for Red Bull and I decline his offer with graciousness and just say, "I LOVE" the product, but already have quite a bit at home and I shouldn't drink it too often. We bump fists and I head for home. I read the news and markets and start the laundry and settle in for FP2 for both MotoGP and Moto2 from Germany (where I attended in person in 2019). I also fast-forward through a hilly but not spectacular stage of the TdF. And later I catch just a bit of the Dodgers' game since I rode extra long today.
On Saturday I take my typical recovery ride of the mountain bicycle to the old yacht club and back to home and I'm a shade slower than usual, but it's not important. At home I weedwack the rosebeds and rake up the dead leaves and debris of nerighboring plants and clean them up. I grab a shower and read thews a bit and then run errands to the grocery store and the bakery. I pick up two dozen gourmet cookies from a high end bakery for the neighbor's graduation party today. I watch qualifying for MotoGP/2/3 from Germany in the wet - it wasn't wet when I went. And then I manage to catch the entire IndyCar race from Iowa before going to the neighbor's party. The neighbor's oldest son has graduated from nursing school and will take the RN licensing exam later this year. But for now, we have the party and I contribute the cookies and when I shake the hand and hug the graduating nurse, I slip him $200. His Dad sees money being exchanged and says something like "Hey now", but I ignore him. Today it seems like there are four separate parties: one is many older Filipino people eating ad playing bingo, one is many Filipino next generation people playing vdeo games and tossing baloons around, one is purely family, and than there are a few neighbors. But it turns out that Mom and Dad end up spending a mjaority of the night talking with us neighors as we talk about the past history of the neighborhood, previous owners of houses, how happy we all are that MY neighbors, aka., the devil people, have left and have rented to a nice family, and other things. Finally after about five hours as I've refused alcohol throughout as, "I have to drive", (really I just live across the street), I take my leave and head for sleep and tell everyone that I maintain a fairly rigid sleep schedule at home as part of my recovery.
On Sunday I take a second recovery mountain bicycle ride and my legs are very tired. I still push at times and climb the Junipero hill twice, but I can tell my legs are tired. At home I hand trim the neighbors' bush infringing somewhat on my driveway, do some garage door maintenance, tidy up the bathrooms and kitchen, and get in a warming shower. I watch the IndyCar race (a doubleheader from Iowa this weekend) and enjoy these results better than yesterday's results. Then I watch a wet Tissot sprint MotoGP race where I'm not happy with the results. The rest of the day is very slow and full recovery day is spent watching some Netflix. I completely miss the Dodgers' game because I get confused about the time but they win against one of their division arch rivals. My legs and in particular and my entire organism needs a rest day.
I should give the legs a day off today and lift weights for the upper body. But I don't. I get up and get in a a decent 10 kilometer run and there are no real threats from bodyparts to give me problems. At home I drill pilot holes and screw a "blockage" onto a crawl space vent where some sort of animal keeps going through. It managed to set off the traps and not get caught last night. So I screw a piece of wood into the last possible opening and set the traps. I hope that the animal, possum, rat, raccoon, or otherwise, does not find another "weak" crawl space vent to get through. After a shower I take the Yamaha YZF-R3 for a short ride and errand and watch a dry and very fun Moto3 race. After reading the news and markets I sit back for the first real mountain stage of the Tour de France on Bastille day. Later I do some coding and decide to go full in on indepdent gradients in the Machine Learning AI algorithm even though it seens that a pure, and previously programmed gradient-based optimization is equivalent. But it will give my friend options for his advertising, "We have both gradient-based optimization algorithms and Reinforcement Learning AI algorithms to maximize the throughput of your system while minimizing the damage to the equipment". And late I just continue to search for problems that need to be and can be solved solved with my skillset.
On Monday night I twice hear scratching around near the side of the house. And twice I grab a flashlight and an ice hocey stick to drive away wahetever animal is nearby, I don't see anything amiss. Thus I put in ear plugs, figuring I will deal with more animal intrusions in the morning, and I sleep super.
On Tuesday I put the road bicycle out to ride and inspect my crawl space vents and see no intrusion. My single repair, where the air conditioning cooling lines enter the crawl space, have held. Though both rat traps have been set off but have caught nothing. I ride my typical Tuesday 75 kilometer ride up and down the San Gabriel river rail, along the ocean, and back up the Los Angeles river trail. I feel decent, not great, but decent throughout the ride. At home I trim the roses and re-set the rat traps and do further inspection and see nothing amiss. Today I re-watch the last two climbs of yesterday's Tour de France and then watch a fun Moto2 race from Germany. Today I eat the last of the Filipino fod that I was given to take home from Saturday's party and enjoy the veggie rolls immensely.
I get a bit confused on Wednesday. I get in the usual 50 kilometer recovery ride to the old tacht club and trim and mow the front yard. Then I watch the MotoGP race from this past Sunday. And as I start watching, I realize today's Tour de France stage is NOT the high mountain stage that I expected but rather a silly Toulouse to Toulose loop ride. Thus I am disappointed but look forward to a Thursday high mountain stage, and Friday ITT, and Saturday;s high mountain stage up to Hautacam. It's a slow Wednesday and I don't quite have the enthusiasm to add in the individual gradients for Reinforcement Learning that I thought of the other day. In fact, I'm having difficulty understanding how Reinforcement Learning is any different than a global search.
On Thursday morning the inside of my left knee is sensitive. It doesn't hurt to put weight on it, but sertain positions if feels sore. I get out to lift weights in the morning and trim the roses. I take a bicycle out and ride it up ad down the street and the left knee does not complain. After a shower I watch the first part of the big mountain stage of the TdF and pause it when they get to the base of Hautacamp. I ride the motorcycle to visit the dental hygenist and prosthodontist as I hope we are getting very close to my permanent bridge. Back at home I watch a vicious attack up Hautacamp by one of the contenders to win a lot of time from all of the competitiors and take the yellow jersey.
When I get on the road bicycle on Friday morning I take my time to get warmed up and I don't feel the left knee at all. Maybe I banged my left knee on something and there isn't any internal damage. I get in 120 kilometers of riding with headwind all of the way down the San Gabriel river trail from the Sanat Fe dam to the ocean. And a few spots of rain for a couple of kilometers. I'm tired from battling the headwind but ride on home with a slightly slower time than usual. I grab a quick shower and stock up on vegetables for the weekend. At home I watch FP2 for MotoGP and Moto2 - both in the rain - from the Czech Republic. This is the race that I went to in 2004 and has not been on the calendar for five years. Later I ride the motorcycle down to the Library Coffeehouse to meet up with the CSULA head of senior design (who was diagnosed with protate cancer a while ago). We catch up on our health issues (like old guys do) and about what's going on at CSULA. I rush on home and watch the uphill ITT from the Tour de France.
I sleeep horribly on Friday night. Why is this? I beat myself up really bad on yesterday's 120 km ride with 40 km against the wind down to the ocean. Regardless I'm out of bed at 5:35 am and get in a very good "recovery ride" on the mountain bicycle as I take it a bit slow at the start of the ride to get the legs going again and at the end of the ride both the legs and the enire organism feels good. At home I trim the roses and neighbor's roses, repair a sprinkler head, grab a shower, and put together a course syllabus for my CSULA professor friend who we met yesterday. Today I recharge all of my bicycle lights that have not been used for a number of months, do the laundry, and watch a bit of the British Open golf tournament. (Again, I like to watch when players hit bad shots into deep grass or bad positions and see how they creatively get out of their difficulty.) Later I cook brown rice for a few days, and watch the various MotoGP/2/3 qualifying sessions from the Czech Republic in dry conditions and five years since they have been to this track. Then I steam some vegetables to go with the cooked brown rice and warch a tortuous mountain stage of the Tour de France. This ia an incredible stage of the Tour de France that I watch where the mist and clouds and rain reduce visibility to less tgan 20 meters with dangerous descents and incrdible racing. I'm physically hungover from Friday's ride and so I don't even recall Saturday night except for a phonecall with a Phillippino friend who I met at the Abu Dhabi Formula One race back in 2016.
Sunday is a very difficult day. I sleep poorly on Saturday night because my left knee is hurting. When I wake up I change from an intended run to a spinner bicycle ride. After the first few kilometers the left leg knee feels completely normal. But not later. I trim the roses, grab a shower, and ride the bicycle to the grocery store to stock up and then watch the IndyCar race from Toronto. I continue to ice the left knee hoping against hope that this is just a temporary thing. The Toronnto IndyCar race is weird because there are enough different strategies and crashes that disrupt those strategies so that is it is never clear who will win. I continue to ice the left knee and watch the end of yesterday"s mountain stage of of the Tour de France with no significant changes (except the the third place rider dropping out midway through the race). And later I wach the Tissot MotoGP sprint race. I notice that there are a few newspapers collecting near the retired schoolteacher's door. (What's a newspaper?) And I consider wh to call first to go over there for a neighborly welfare check. At mid-afternoon I take out my trash and the retired schoolteacher's trash and it seemms like she had picked up her reserve of newspaper snad is still alive. And finally I watch the MotoGP TIssot Sprint race from the Czech Republic and some of the Dodgers' game.
As I watch more of the baseball games and after talking with the CSULA senior design lead professor, I switch my thoughts from an an optimal batting lineup and batting order to decisions mades during the game as to when to change pitchers and when to pinch hit. Intresting problems! And later I just continue icing my left knee and wonder when to call the doctor about this problem.
I sleep well on Sunday night and think about going walking, but decide aganst it. Instead I read the news and markets and have a good session with the weights where I get in extra repetitions on a few of the exercises. After a shower I run a quick errand in drizzle on the motorcycle and then sit back and watch both Moto3 and Moto2 races from the Czech Republic. I continually ice my left knee with a small ice back on the inside of the knee as well as a large ice pack engulfing the entire knee. The left knee is feeling pretty good, but I know that I need to rest it some before I start back in with some slow, short bicycle rides maybe this weekend.