Race to the End of December -- Log

So get this - i finally downloaded and processed the stats for this site, and get this:

* total visitors for November: 7,214
* average # of visitors per day: 232
* total unique IP's: 2,445

Wawawee! Where are all these people coming from?? And who are they? Are *you* one of them?? Anyway, i simply wasn't expecting numbers like that..i was thinking like maybe 2-8 visitors a day...eeep..the pressure..

On the food-side of things, i found a really good faux-cheese, Vegan Gourmet from Earth Island - it tastes pretty good (even straight-up) and melts really nicely!

My first experience with the Mozzarella flavor was one of my favorite tests - the grilled cheese sandwich, which it passed with flying colors! Next up was melted on spaghetti, and again was really nice. Also was a nice addition to a tempeh burger. I will invest in some more to try out on nachos at my upcoming Winter Salsa celebration. (Winter Salsa - haha - get it?)

I don't know if people who eat cow cheese will enjoy it, but as a vegan it was quite excellent...especially compared to Veganrella...which is somewhat infamous..

I also got a tasty new vegan toothpaste from J/A/S/O/N, the Tea Tree & Cinnamon stuff, nummers. I use almost all JASON stuff - shampoo and deodorant..Apricot flavor of course! Unfortunately i just checked out their website, and they're owned by the Hain Celestial Group, which if i'm not mistaken is owned by Heinz...aah well.

Training has been really good, the weather has been quite nice the last couple weeks with almost no rain, and even several sunny days! I've really gotten into a good upper-body routine, and i'm also following the Health for Life 'Legendary Abs' program. You can read some interesting files about it here, and 'Legendary Abs II' can be found here in PDF format.

I'm up to Level 2, which is really surprising to me, because i could barely complete Level A when i was working out more regularly last spring..i think i must have gained a bunch of overall strength over the summer..! It's a pretty good program tho, from what i hear (and feel!)

I'm working my way up to doing this four times a week, plus when i hit the gym on Tue and Thu, i do a couple sets of hanging knee-raises. (Up to 12.) For what it's worth, i'm starting to get a little definition down there as well..woohoo, i'll be all hunky for the summer! Too bad for all the hair on my back. ;)

I've also been mixing up my leg workout a bit more, i'm finding that in hard, seated efforts (ie, intervals and sprints) my legs were kind of 'wobbling' as i was applying pressure, especially at lower cadences.. (As i apply pressure downwards, my knees wobble a bit to the left and right...i never noticed this before.) I'm guessing it's the result of muscle-gain in my quads, but my stabilizers haven't been challenged/keeping-up in excercises like leg extensions, and so i need to do a few more excercises that require them...so i've started doing one-legged squats and lunges (which of course really hit the spot the first time i did them..haha)

Cracking open the logbook, here's what i've been putting myself through:

* Wed (Dec 30th) - 2hr EM

* Thu - 1hr EM, did it on the rollers, and watched *gasp* snow falling!! Maintained a nice high cadence over 120rpm with a 46x16 gearing on my track bike.

Hit the gym in the evening, typical session doing abs, legs and back.

* Fri - Rest-a-riffic!

* Sat - BSide ride, another nice day. Also did chest and shoulders at home in the evening.

* Sun - Cross-training!! Went for a snowy 3hr hike up to the railway tracks at Finlayson with some friends, good times!

The first pic is some of the salmon carcasses...there were a lot.. Next is one of the big trestle-bridges we crossed, it's prolly 60-100 feet above the ground..! Third pic, to the right, is me with my friends in the back - there are these little extensions on the bridge that you can stand on in case the train comes (which it did!) If you look very closely, you can almost see them on the left of the train in the second pic...

* Mon - and there was more rest...

* Tue (Dec 6th) - 1hr RR (Recovery Ride), i actually just tooled around town doing some errands. Did a workout at home in the eve, did my HFL Legendary Abs Lv 2, legs (1-legged squats and lunges) as well as tri's and bi's.

* Wed - 1.5hr EM

* Thu - 1hr EM w/OU's x 2, Over/Under intervals on the rollers, got some good high-speed intervals on (upwards of 155rpm), really worked a lot of 'smaller' muscles in my legs. Also hit the gym: abs, legs and back.

* Fri - rest is best!

* Sat - 2.5hr EM w/Kevin, nice day!

* Sun - 3hr EM w/45min RS, joined the BSide group, smaller gang but a really good ride.

* Mon - rested today! Also did abs and chest work (bench press and bench flys.)

The rest of the week looks pretty reasonable, go SI's (Speed Intervals) tomorrow and Thu..now in my Peaking section of training...January is coming quickly!

I've finally mixed-up my tunes again:

I'm enjoying a mix of the best 'alternative' rawk from the early 90's, this stuff is quite influential to much of the alternative stuff we're listening to now, you can't go wrong with any of this! Unfortunately i didn't have enough space for a few other bands, like Pavement, Belly, Sloan and The Vaselines...'95-2000 will be an even tougher choice...now i'm wishing i had more space. ;) * Beck - Mellow Gold - 94 * Faith No More - Angle Dust - 92 * Frank Black - Teenager of the Year - 94 * Nirvana - Bleach - 89 * Sebadoh - Bubble & Scrape - 93 * Sonic Youth - Goo - 90 * Throwing Muses - Red Heaven - 92 (These are the albums currently in my Creative MuVo, 512mb MP3 player. I just set it to 'random' and soak up the tunes on my rides.. The MuVo isthebest flash-based MP3 player on the planet, btw! Click here for my top riding/training albums.)