In Which Our Heroine Learns About Wind

It was a GORGEOUS day in Toledo today, my darlings!  Beautiful, sunny, warm, breezy.

OK, not so much with the breezy.  IT WAS WINDY AS HELL!

The Vita Guru took off for work this morning, I grew weary of swearing at my own pile of work, so I hopped into the saddle and went twice around the neighborhood.  And it took For. Ever.  I am not even kidding.  It was really difficult to stay upright, I felt like I was going to be flung halfway across the state - if not to Oz itself! - at any moment!  But it was a great ride, even if it was really difficult and my legs burn and MY BUTT HURTS!

(I did a bunch of hip lifts after the ride to soothe the aching tuckus, and it seems to have helped quite a bit, but the "sit bones" are still burning and complaining at me.  It's hard to convince the junk in your trunk to stay situated such that it doesn't hurt so much!)

My playlist is steadily coming along, as I add songs, remove songs, and rutsch the whole thing around.  A couple weeks ago, my bestie introduced me to this song:

Isn't Florence just amazing?  Not only is she beautiful and supernaturally graceful, she's got her some PIPES!  There's something about this song that gets my heart beating and my legs pumping, and though it's probably going to catch some bugs, I can't help but sing along as I pedal down the road.  I've seen Florence live, and have a bunch of her stuff in the Ride playlist, but this one in particular has really been speaking to me lately.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, The Beastie Boys have also been in heavy rotation.  What?  I'm a child of the 80s, and I reserve the right to rock out to the soundtrack of my mis-spent youth as it pleases me!  (Also, MCA is looking mighty fine these days.  Not as fine as Lenny Kravitz, mind, but does ANYONE look as fine as Lenny Kravitz, I ask you?)

In spite of the pain of getting this bounteous booty into shape, I find that the music helps me power through it.  It helps me focus, helps my pedaling switch to auto-pilot so I can concentrate on important things, like not getting blown out of the saddle!

Even better, when I got home, I found my order from Foam On The Range waiting for me, so I had my pick of lovely things for my post ride shower.  Mmmm, Juniper and Sage SunSoap!

We had a very healthy supper tonight - chicken stir fry with broccoli, carrots, peppers, a slivered up Meyer lemon, and black rice.  I felt positively ravenous, but I was very modest in my portion, as the Vita Guru and I need to go for a blood draw tomorrow, and need to fast for 12 hours.  I don't want anything messing with my results, because I hate having follow-up visits with the vampires.

So, I'm well exercised, well-washed, and well fed, and I'm so very tired.  Tomorrow, a longer ride, and hopefully my butt will stop complaining so much.  And with luck, I'll get better about writing about my adventures!

Tomorrow, I'm going to be bad.  The Vita Guru and I are heading up to Evans Street Station to meet up with friends for the Oberon release party.  I promise I'll ride first!!  Oberon is what tells me that Spring is really here.

What's your favorite Springtime vice?


--Missy, the Fat Bottomed Girl

It's All About The Music, Baby

One of the more obnoxious things about training - aside from actually having to get up and do it, of course - is keeping my mind occupied while my body is indignantly demanding to know just what the HELL I think I'm doing, and can we please get it over with, already, and go sit in the sauna?

I watch other people at the gym.  There are the extra-dedicated dudes putting time in on the elliptical with nothing but a grimace and a waterfall of sweat pouring off them.  Then there are the super-toned babes on the treadmill, making it look like it ain't no thang while they read the latest issue of Shape.  Everyone else usually has some color of little earbud jammed in their ears, and you can kind of tell what sort of music they're listening to by the faraway looks and the variations in pacing.

Me?  I fall in that last group.  I used to try reading whilst on the stationary bike or the treadmill, but I found that the physical activity made it difficult to concentrate on my reading, and that's probably counter to my goals.  I figure that this is because reading has been a lifelong comfort activity for me - typically, I either read in bed, or in a hot bathtub full of bubbles up to my neck, with a glass of red wine by my side.

What?!  Quiet, you, or I'll whack you with my Kindle.  Or my corkscrew.  Red wine is good for you!

Anyway...when engaging in training/exercise activities, I much prefer to crank up the jams (and sometimes sing along, which can be a little awkward if you do it in public, but what the hell).  The question then becomes "What's on the playlist?"

The answer is "It depends."  Longtime friends and acquaintances know that I took quite a few years of bellydance classes, and still dance on the regular to maintain muscle memory, amuse myself and my friends, and to keep limber.  I tend to use bellydance to warm up before hitting the weights or hopping into cardio.  My warmup list includes things like:

Bassnectar & Kraddy - Snakecharmer (Great video with Rachel Brice!)
Roustabout (Bassnectar Remix)
Moon Over Ala Nar
No Gravity
Simarik
Inertia Creeps (State Of Bengal Mix)

There's nothing like a good shimmy to get a girl motivated to do some harder work, right?  Well, that and it's fun to see who's trying to watch surreptitiously and try to figure out how a fat chick can move with such fluidity.  Also, when else do you get to drape your ass in shiny things and shake it for all you're worth?

Now I find myself tasked with creating a playlist that will eventually get me through a 100 miles on my bike.  Bike MS estimates that if I ride at a "social" pace, I will be on my bike for five hours each day.  I'm pretty sure that The Vita-Guru has plans for us to ride a smidge faster than that, but I figure I ought to come up with a ten hour playlist anyway.  Obviously, Queen's Bicycle Race is a must, but what else? As I child of the 80s, I find myself well motivated by 80s music, so I'm thinking:

Have A Nice Day
Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)
Rock Me Amadeus (Extended Version)
Eye Of The Tiger
Rock Of Ages (Pyromania)
Pump Up The Volume (UK 12" Remix)
Sauerland (What? I lived in Germany in the late 80s!)
Things Can Only Get Better

...for a start, anyway.  I suppose I could just dump all of my music onto my phone and set it to shuffle, but I'm pretty sure I've got some klinkers in there that would throw me off my pace!

Help me out, peeps!  What other high energy songs should I be adding to my playlist to keep me motivated to pedal onward?  I'd love to hear your suggestions!

--Missy, the Fat Bottomed Girl