Well, despite the fact I have-ahem-not been dieting as well as I should be, and I also have not been running as much as I should be, I once again ran the Iroquois Hill Runners Thanksgiving Day Run today. It was a beautiful day to run, despite starting out on the cool side. So cool, in fact, that I decided to wear mittens, which by two miles in, were much much too hot. The event is a scenic run up the hill in Iroquois Park, around the top, then back down. I first ran it back in 1999, then again in 2000, and I can’t remember running it again until last year. But I hope to start doing it every year from now on out. A truly nice event.
Monthly Archive for November, 2008
Well, whenever I get in a mood to surf the web, I often find myself on You Tube, bouncing around from one video to another. I like looking at somewhat obscure performances of groups I listened to as a kid, especially from the late 60s and 70s. Sometimes, people just take the audio and put together their own montage, sort of “interpreting” the music. But what i really enjoy are the rarities from old TV shows. So, in an effort to put an obligatory You Tube link on my blog, here is one I found of the Guess Who’s “Laughing,” evidently from a pilot of a Canadian TV show. The title says it’s 1970 but I think the song was actually out in 68 or 69. The video is grainy, with a countdown timer embedded onscreen, and the audio is crackly, but there is something about it I like. I chose it as one of my “favorites” on You Tube.
I decided to document, with photos, a typical bike ride in Southern Indiana. This was a 45 mile trip to the Clark State Forest on Sunday, November 2, 2008. More details on the route can be found by clicking this link.
In the table below, you can click on the thumbnail images for a larger photo. Or you can view the originals on flickr.
| Starting at County Line Road, make your way to Payne Koehler Road, then out 60 to Bean Road, next to the Clark County airport. |  |
| While on Bean Road, be sure to pass directly under the pair of Fila tennis shoes someone threw over the line directly above the railroad tracks. |  |
| About five miles out, take in the scenic beauty of the Sellersburg Stone Company and asphalt plant. Oh, so that's where all those huge trucks are coming from (unless you go on a Sunday). |  |
| Ugh. I hate this particular railroad crossing on East Utica Street in sleepy old Sellersburg. |  |
| A close second to railroad crossings I don't like. These always give me the feeling of a potential pancaked front wheel. |  |
| If you are going to rendezvous with the Southern Indiana Wheelmen, you might find yourself pulling out of this parking lot at Silver Creek High School. |  |
| Once you head down 31 a little bit, take a right on Webber past the "see-mint" plant. |  |
| Climb a little incline on Brick Church Road and get greeted by the Silver Creek Cemetery. You've got promises to keep and miles to go before you sleep. |  |
| Nice little farm on Brick Church Road. |  |
| Take a left on Stricker. You can build up some speed on the few little rollers but you might as well not, just coast as much as possible. This is not the Tour de France, and you aren't even Walter Mitty. |  |
| Head due East on Stricker. That's kind of a cool lookin barn on the right. |  |
| Once you turn off of Fox onto Trealor, had you done this ride before the election, you might have noticed the lone Obama sign in a seemingly endless sea of McCain-Palin signs. |  |
| So peaceful, a nice scene along Hansberry. |  |
| The same farm. Nice spread you got, whoever you are. |  |
| The crop's all in, but this is still a spectacular view. Beats riding in downtown Louisville and fighting traffic any day. |  |
| Keep going on Hansberry. I see a lot of Bluebirds out on this stretch at the right time of day. |  |
| You can't see it very well in this photo, but there's a nice smiley face on this barn. |  |
| Get ready to do the little incline up Murphy to Caney. There are buffalo on the farm to the right once you get to the stop sign. |  |
| Take the nice downhill on into Henryville. Oh Lyle Lovett did a cool song called "Up In Indiana" that mentions Henryville. |  |
| Get off 31 and take a left into the Forest entrance. As soon as you can. Those cars on 31 can be kind of cruel sometimes, at speeds over 60 often. |  |
| Welcome to the Forest. Congratulations. You made it. |  |
| Oh man, the trees. The leaves. |  |
| Take a left on White Oak and head past the lake. The one-way road makes it a very nice cruise. |  |
| Leave the lake area and just past here, if you want, go on and take the Fire Tower Challenge. Not for me, on this day. |  |
| So long, nice forest area. Head back to 31. |  |
| At the four way stop, take a right on 160. |  |
| This stretch of 160 is not too pleasant, so why not make a stop at the Sprint store for a snack? |  |
| There is a bench, and may I recommend a Zagnut bar and a Sunkist soda, in lieu of a Clark bar and an Orange Crush (which they do not have). From here, you can go on out 160 to Henryville-Bluelick and make your way back, or simply turn around and go back the way you came. That's what I did. |  |
Well, I really don’t know where to begin. I doubt if I can really catch up just in one post, but I will try, for those two or three people who stop by now and then to see if I am still on the planet. :) My year started out good. I had some goals. I have achieved a few of them, and I have not achieved a few of them. I was running races trying to prep for the Mini Marathon. I think the last one I logged here was the Anthem 5K. Then after that, I did the Rodes City Run 10K, the Clover Leaf 10K, and the Papa John’s 10 miler. That was on March 29. I kept training after that, but a week or two later, I sustained a fluke injury, a bruised rib. At work. Sitting in my chair, lol.
But it was a bitch. Every step I took was like someone poking me really rather severely in my right rib area. Actually, it was like that with every deep breath I took. I couldn’t believe my dumb luck. For a while, I thought I was not going to be able to run the Mini. I didn’t really make my mind up until about two days before the race, which was April 26. I managed somehow to complete the race, a whole lot slower than I had originally planned, but considering the circumstances, just finishing was an accomplishment for me.
During that entire time, and since then, I sort of withdrew into myself a bit. It’s not like I have become anti-social, but I didn’t really feel like I had much to say in terms of keeping this journal up. I still am not quite sure if I have enough going on that’s worthy enough to write down, but maybe there is. We’ll see.
After the mini, I stopped training. I have only run two races since then, both 5Ks, the Thru the Zoo race on May 10, and the Race for the Cure on October 12. I am in piss poor running shape, but I am going to get back into the swing of it. I felt like I could barely finish the Race for the Cure, but all I had to do was think about my friend Diann who is recovering from breast cancer, and whatever pain I was feeling during the run seemed trivial.
So, what I have been doing, a whole lot since about June, is riding bicycles. I had not been doing much riding in the past few years, but back in June, I bought a Cannondale Synapse. Since then I have been totally and completely hooked. I have picked up a couple of old Schwinns, too, and restored them. I made one into a singlespeed with a flip-flop hub for fixie riding, and the other is an aqua colored 1984 Schwinn Traveler 12-speed that is now in it’s original glory.
I have been putting miles in. It’s sort of addicting, like running is, when you get into it. Since June 13, I have ridden over 1500 miles, which of course is not a whole bunch but considering I am a working stiff and I don’t really commute because I can’t bring myself to fight the Second Street Bridge traffic on my bike all alone, twice a day, I think the miles I have accumulated so far are good miles. By that I mean they are miles that for the most part have been exceedingly freeing and supremely satisfying. I wish I could think up some more superlatives to use. Bicycling is great. It doesn’t help me lose weight like running does but that’s not why I do it so much. It’s very hard to describe but it’s kind of spiritual for me. 
More to come…I shall attempt to document the rides I did this weekend, but in a different post.
