Went down to see my cycling coach yesterday…

…he’s got me doing a bunch of exercises in the gym to build up core strength and the cycling muscles. Squats and lunges for the quads and glutes; bench presses, shoulder presses, standing rows, skull-crushers for the upper-body; back extensions and crunches for the mid-body; calf raises and deadlifts for the calves and hamstrings, and oh yes, balance exercises to keep the knee happy. Went and did a round of those this morning, and boy am I going to be sore tomorrow morning! But it’ll definitely help prep me for the ride.

He also re-fitted my bike for me. My saddle has apparently broken down somewhat from all the riding I’ve done with it (over 5000 miles thus far), but he moved it back and tilted it up a trifle more, and suddenly things are magically better! I may wind up having to get another saddle, but I’m rather hoping not. I’m fond of this one, and good saddles are expensive.

So my training schedule for the next two days calls for one two-hour ride and one two-and-a-quarter hour ride. Saturday I’m doing an organized training ride (a nice flat jaunt around the baylands and back), plus probably some additional riding on my own because I don’t think that ride will last long enough to get in my bike time. Sunday I’m going to get up early and do a two-hour ride before heading up to lunch and the AIDS Lifecycle kickoff party!

Yep, there’s a PARTY, folks!! And I’m going, along with a friend who I’ve talked into signing up. I’m so psyched about that! My first convert! It’ll be REALLY cool doing the ride with someone I know. From outside the ride, that is. 🙂

Meanwhile, I am quite smug at having solved my transcription problem. You may recall that my transcriptionist was moving along at a pretty pokey pace (3 tapes in the last three months!). Well, I was racking my brains for how to find a new transcriptionist, and finally hit on the idea of trading donations for transcription work! So I offered people a $10 donation for every hour of transcription work, which my employer then matches, “paying” them $20/hour! And I got four or five “takers” within a day, one of whom is a trained paralegal and has done transcription work before! I’m SO psyched. I’ve bought two more transcribers on eBay and plan to send them out as soon as they arrive, so people can get started.

I mean, everyone wins. I get my tapes transcribed, they get money towards their fundraising goal, AND the AIDS Foundation gets the money! What’s not to like??

Anyway, hopefully this will work out and get me out from under the backlog.

Meanwhile, I have started Yet Another Pair of Socks. I am an unstoppable sock maniac. Cringe in terror…

More tomorrow, after mushroom hunting.