I'm going to bed.

I'm exhausted. These first days after base always seem to drain me the most. I'm not used to working hard on the bike, and evidently I'm not estimating my caloric loss correctly, as I totally ran out of gas about an hour from home, and once again found myself at the BreadBoard raiding the day olds. I lucked out though, and got there just after they put all of todays stuff in the day olds, so I basically got new stuff, for yesterdays price. Anyway. I managed 3.5 hours on my rode bike today, with about 2 hours of cadence work and an hour or so of what I think is tempo. I really need to figure out this HRM situation so I'm not just guessing anymore. On top of that I did a lap of the Backbone with Mike. He was kind enough to lend me his Karate Monkey which was a blast. I like riding that thing a lot, enough that now I want one really bad, but I don't think I'd ever race it, so it kinda seems like a waste to get too used to riding one. Anyway, I dumped it a couple times, once pretty hard. I hate crashing because it usually throws my head out of the game, but I managed to ride fairly well post-dump. I came to a very grave realization as I rode from Loveland to Windsor, and never really reached the edge of a town. Not only are all these new housing development displacing native species, destroying the beauty of the land, and adding to the traffic problem of the Front Range, the worst thing they've done is taking away all of the cycling communities bathrooms. I reached what I thought was the edge of Loveland and realized I needed to "use the facilities." The facilities typically consist of the ditch of a less traveled road when you are on your bike. Well I rode and rode without seeing a viable "bathroom," and when I could see I-25 in the distance, I knew things were only going to get worse. I got to a new development, one of those POSH (Port Out Starboard Back) "lakeside" developments that appeared to have only one house built, so I took my chances. As I began to use their facilities, located next to a brand new light pole, I thought to myself, what are the chances that the people from that one house will leave while I'm out here, plus I'd have at least a few minutes of them getting into the car, starting it, etc. It was while I was thinking about this that I noticed the line of cars come over the hill, from where the rest of the development must be located, and one by one they drove by, each slowing to see what I was doing. I panicked, but didn't know what to do, anyone who has seen Dumb and Dumber knows you can't stop once you've started, it stings. So I decided to just roll with the punches. I looked over my shoulder and smiled and nodded as each car drove by. When I got home I finished the first of my new books. "The View From Saturday" by E.L. Konigsburg. It's a pretty good story of a few unlikely friends that are in a trivia contest. Not the best book I read, but I can see why it got the Newberry.

I'm going to try and post a new vocab word that "defines" my day each time I update. I think today's word will be "adventure."

Main Entry: ad·ven·ture
Pronunciation: ad-'ven-chur
Function: noun
2 : an exciting or remarkable experience

Not that today was too exciting or remarkable, but I've decided to try and make every day an adventure of some sorts. I'm getting pretty tired of riding through Kersey, Milliken, Johnstown, etc... so I think I'm going to try my hardest to rack up some uncharted roads this coming week. If not uncharted, at least less traveled. I'd really like to do some climbing tomorrow. We'll see what the day brings.

P.S. How adventurous can dining get, even if it is "exotic"?