On the Road Again

Flying back to the east coast from Seattle was a bit of a shock to the body. I never have a hard time going to a new time zone at the beginning of a trip. I think its all of the excitement of an event and the possibility of touring and having fun that keeps the time shift from hitting me. Its always on the return that I have a 2 to 3 day adjustment. Once I'm home and back at work, my body decides to deal with the time shifting in a not so pleasant way. I'm struggling to stay alert at work and can't get off west coast time at night.

I get home around 10 PM after being up all day flying and dealing with a 4 hour stop over in Houston. Luckily, I was able to have lunch in Houston with my buddy Rick Levy, so the time on the ground only seemed half as long. Unfortunately, the airline did one of those hostage maneuvers where they pull away from the gate "on time" and sit in the runway for a couple of hours. You know you are in trouble when the stewardesses start handing out cups of water and peanuts while you're sitting on the run way. In any event, we took off after only a couple of hours on the ground. There ought to be a law. In fact, I think there is now, but the airlines are pretty good about skirting those pesky rules. As far as the statistics go, we had an "on time" departure.

Wednesday morning, I'm so off track internal clock time wise that I sleep through my alarm. My wife does the kind thing and lets me sleep in while she goes off to our trainer, Penn, for a workout without me. Thursday morning, I manage to go out with Salome for a 10 mile, get some blood flowing back in the legs, bike ride. Penn allows us to grab a makeup workout on Saturday morning, so I felt somewhat back on track weight-training wise. Penn also offers to meet up with us Sunday morning for our planned 40 mile bike ride. I put in a call to buddy Tony to make it a foursome for Sunday. Co-Blogger John decided to work on his diving and swimming skills instead. Given that he's heading out soon on a dive trip in the Honduras, I understood.

Sunday morning we meet up with Tony and ride north along A1a at 6AM to meet up with Penn. Both Tony and Penn are the strong riders and its always a pleasure to ride with either of them. Thus, Salome & I feel double blessed to be riding with these guys this morning. We pick up some friends of Penn's along the way. The group of six to seven of us feel so good that when we get to the turn around point, I say, "Let's keep going for 5 more miles north." It just felt so good to be out on a long ride again.

Of course, the distance we ended up covering (53 miles) was a stretch coming off a marathon. Late in the ride, I almost cramp up in the left calf that froze up at the end of the Seattle Marathon. By the last mile, my quads start to twitch, just a threat of a cramping up. As we get off our bikes, I'm thrilled that Salome & I were able to handle the distance. I also realize that we need to get back riding in a serious way. The Tour de France should provide the inspiration needed.

Buddy Wayne Crayton was planning a trip to Washington, DC with daughter Hannah (yes, she of the "Great Moose Attack"). We were supposed to visit DC with our young son Alex in the Spring, but Salome had a foot injury. Thus, we saw an opportunity to give Alex his tour of our nation's capital and meet up with Wayne and Hannah. Its also an opportunity to visit our friends Kate and Jim in Arlington, VA. So, we decided to hit the road again. We lined up White House and Capital tours and went to see Night at the Museum 2 to get psyched. Hopefully, Wayne and I can arrange a training run around the mall. In any event, we're "On the Road Again."