Week #35.5: Excuses, Excuses

I'm really late with this week's check-in, and even now, I have very little to say. Last week was spent mostly recovering from Relay Cross, which took an incredible toll on my body. I didn't really do much of consequence until Saturday when Janelle wanted to try out her new singlespeed, and I broke out in the Karate Monkey for the first time in weeks. It was stupidly hot, and we elected not to do the main climb of Aynes, but I still had to take a rest break just getting up the short part to Green Valley. That was embarrassing, and I definitely hope that it was just the heat or lingering fatigue from the race bringing me down, and not that I've become *that* out of shape in the past couple of months.

Sunday was my first ride plus gym double workout day since pre-Death March. Both were short and easy, but since I'd had so little of each in the past days and would spend Monday driving to State College, I had a hard time choosing which was more important.

As I just said, I was driving to State College on Monday, so I had very little time for blogging, and was hoping my visit would produce more blog material. However, this visit was just a quick trip to spend a little time with Frank to break up the long five-week stretch between my last long visit and his visit for the OVCX opener, which will take place in Bloomington this season. So I basically spent 18 hours of driving to have dinner and spend the day with him. Totally worth it.

Mushu is either protesting my leaving or the suitcase is a really comfortable bed.
Clemmie is protesting Mushu getting to enjoy anything for more than four seconds.

We did get in a short road ride of Bloomington-like difficulty level. I had great intentions of doing hill repeats, but the nine-hour drive in my legs made one pass up the main climb of the route plenty. The scenery mostly included the "port-a-potty farms" (empty tailgate fields), and the lovely State College airport, so there were no scenic vista selfies to be had this time.

So the only pictures I have this week are my cats protesting my departure and the duck that we cooked for dinner Tuesday night. After setting the tone with first-date baked liver pate', culinary adventures have been our thing just as much as cycling adventures. So when we went to the farmer's market and Frank's favorite meat supplier had one duck left, we decided to give it a shot. The guy said to cook the legs and breast separately, but I was stubborn and just rigged up some foil legwarmers (leg coolers, really) to promote even cooking. It totally worked out, and the duck was delicious. It was also good thing that we cooked the whole thing at once, since a 3.5 pound duck surprisingly has barely enough meat to feed two carnivorous people for one meal.

So that was my week (and a half): Training, meh. Other stuff, pretty cool. Sometimes that's how it goes.

Roasted duck, Flashdance style.