So with the long and extended weekend, Amanda and I wanted to relax, but also created a list of things to get done around the house – cleaning, etc. Today was the day we blitzed that list so that the next three days we have off will be very relaxing and devoid of chores. Tonight, we’re doing a date night – dinner and a movie at Brier Creek.

Tomorrow, I don’t think much is planned, and with the possibility of thunderstorms, I’m not even sure I’ll get any outdoor bike training in. I might be glued to the trainer watching the Tour de France instead. Despite Amanda’s protests, I see a lot of GTA IV and Rock Band in the coming days as well.

Happy 4th of July everyone! I started out the day off with a nice 66+ mile ride. Now we’re relaxing and will soon head out to Holly Springs to hang out with Bret, Tina and the rest of the crew. Have a safe and happy Independence Day!

*sigh* I was sifting through the images on the Keefer Madness web server, looking for art to add to some of the recent posts and came across a whole bunch of old pictures that used to be part of a front page image rotation. These bring back so many memories – twofold: my skinnier/leaner days (I still miss kickboxing!) and the days when my Back to the Future pinball machine was working.

See all those lights on the pinball machine’s display? I can almost imagine hitting those circular white buttons on either side of the cabinet and making the flippers toggle. *sigh* I’ve got to get that CPU sent off to Coin Service Technology up in PA to see if they can fix it. I long for a real game of pinball. Plus, it’s become a running gag. I’ve owned it for 8 years. Amanda’s never known me when it did work. I’ve got to get it working and soon!

Here’s a local humorous take on biking to work courtesy of the News & Observer:

Biking to Work

So things are looking up in the Guitar Hero universe for me. For Independence Day, they’re releasing the “Top Gun Anthem” for free on Xbox Live and the Playstation Network. I’ll be downloading that for sure. But the better news are the rumors of future Guitar Hero releases. Rumor has it that on the heels of the recently released Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, two more bands are in the works – both of which are tops in my most often played: Metallica and Van Halen. Sign me up for both please!

I’d rather have both of those as Rock Band, getting the drums in the mix as well, but I’ll settle for whatever I can get in playable content from those two.

Free DLC for GH III on July 3, GH: Van Halen in the Works?

Man, the slightly cooler temperatures really setup tonight’s group training ride for a very smooth ride. There were only 7 of us in total – most Tuesday night regulars. I kind of liked the small number. For the most part, we all stayed together and had a good pace. Multiple times I glanced down at the Garmin and we were doing 21’s, 22’s and even a 23 and 24 in there for good measure. It obviously wasn’t all that fast as we ended up with a pace of 19.4 miles per hour, which still isn’t too shabby.

At the end of these Tuesday night rides, there’s always a bit of sprinting and pacer pushing. I always contest but have a tendency to push too hard early on, get caught and blow up. Tonight, I stayed out front for over half the designated sprint road (Olive Branch). I did get caught and overtaken, but was able to latch on to the last wheel with some effort. I sat in there for a bit, recovered and blew by the group. I stayed out front for the rest of the sprint, just able to contain one rider for the last bit. It was very satisfying to win that and start the lone return home.

I’ve got a long weekend coming up in a few short days and am planning to race on Tuesday night at Ace (for the first time). Hopefully I can contest and win there as well.

Raleigh Gyros Tuesday St. Francis Ride - July 1, 2008

So this closes the door for Landis in cycling. Guilty or not, the guy’s out of appeals or any form of legal weapons. This whole ordeal has been drawn out, scandal-ridden and very very expensive. I think a lot wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt and it’s obvious that there are some real flaws in the regulations and testing, but the synthetic testosterone definitely seemed to be real.

Landis’ historic comeback in stage 17 of the ‘06 Tour de France seemed superhuman and too good to be true. It was.

Landis Loses Doping Appeal Before Sports’ Highest Court

James Reilly is the second astronaut to leave NASA in the past few days. Is something going on with NASA, or I wonder if these are just a product of the space shuttle program starting to wind down.

Just last week, Barbara Morgan left NASA for a teaching position at Boise State. Morgan was the alternate teacher behind Christa McAuliffe for the Challenger flight. Morgan eventually became a full-fledged astronaut though after the Challenger tragedy.

Astronaut James Reilly Leaves NASA

So as I mentioned yesterday, my ride yesterday was one of my normal solo training rides that I do from the house. Yesterday’s hot and headwind-laden run was the basis for my training today, virtually racing against yesterday’s performance. My Garmin Edge 305 has this virtual partner function built in, but with almost a year of utilizing the Edge, I had yet to utilize this function till this morning’s ride.

This morning’s ride was a bit cooler than yesterday, but the wind was about the same, and out of the gate, I was ahead of my pace from yesterday. Only for a few seconds at the beginning of the ride was I behind yesterday’s effort. At only point, I got was .6 miles ahead of yesterday’s run and felt really good doing it. I think this virtual partner will be a good training tool for riding some of the same roads day in and day out. Tomorrow, I’ll give it a shot on my commute to and from as well.

I also look forward to making today’s run my next competition. It seems like a no-brainer way to stay motivated and push your pace for some great solo training.

June 29, 2008 Falls Lake Loop Run

So the original plan was to get up first thing this morning. But, instead, given that we are only allowed lawn watering Wednesday and Saturday, I watered the lawn first thing this morning and played some GTA IV on the Xbox. That ate up a couple hours and we then went out to lunch and ran errands. Luckily, I kept the motivation to ride this afternoon once we returned home, as I wanted to record a course on my Garmin Edge 305 GPS to use to race against in future training (including tomorrow morning’s bright and early training)

Man, it’s hot out there, with the sun beating down! I have a standard course from the house out to the local lake and back that clocks in just under 20 miles – an hour out and back, which is perfect for squeezing in some training after work, or pretty much any time. I started out fast, with a high cadence on the way out, dully aware of some wind at my back.

Over time, the midday sun and temperature in general was really draining. So much of the road course I picked was very exposed, with little shade and tree cover to help. On the way back, it was a bit of a struggle – a strong wind pushing against me was like climbing the whole way back. I kind of expected the heat to be an adversary in today’s training, but the wind was a total surprise. Regardless, I finished the ride in almost exactly an hour, and have an initial course to try out tomorrow morning to race against myself (virtual partner). I’m really looking forward to using the virtual partner to up my training efforts – including my bike commutes to and from work.

Falls Lake Training Course