I usually go to the gym on Sunday mornings for about an hour. I spend 40 minutes on the elliptical trainer and 20 minutes on the stationary bike. Yesterday, I noticed this Samuel L. Jackson thriller on TNT, so I watched it out of the corner of my eye while on the trainer and then found a stationary bike directly in front of the TV. Finally figured out it was The Negotiator, which also stars David Morse, Kevin Spacey, John Spencer and Paul Giamatti. I got hooked, but wasn’t sure how far into the film I was. It’ll be over at 12:00, I told myself, so I added an extra 30 minutes to my stationary bike program.
12:00: Still going strong. Maybe 12:30. Nope. I stuck with it until 1:00, 30 miles on the bike later. My total workout was something like 2-1/2 hours, and boy are my legs feeling it today. I used to bike a lot. I’ve done a few centuries (hundred mile bike rides) and 30-mile bike rides were a weekend tradition before the traffic around here got so crazy that it was suicidal to go out without driving 30 miles first to get clear of it. My bicycle has more cobwebs than Shelob’s lair.
Decent movie. Kevin Spacey is very good in this one. Calm control.
I finished my Storytellers Unplugged essay over the weekend, so stay tuned on Friday when it goes live! Didn’t accomplish much more than that. Some noodling with various ideas, but nothing of consequence. I submitted a short story proposal for a themed anthology that met with favorable response but I won’t know for sure one way or t’other for nearly a month, so that goes on the back burner for now.
Read most of Stephen Harrigan’s upcoming Challenger Park, which is a The Right Stuff for the space shuttle, of sorts. I’m familiar with the setting, the environs of Clear Lake, where Johnson Space Center is located, so that’s cool. I like reading stories that accurately portray locales I know.
Weekend TV watching: Cold Case: B+; Desperate Housewives: C; Gray’s Anatomy: A-.
That’ll teach you to be healthy. I used to ride in the American Cancer Bike-A-Thon way back in the 80s and early 90s. Never touched the bike except for that once a year day, where I’d get the thing out of storage, wipe it down, check the tires, and bike 50 miles. The legs were nothing. What hurt was my danged backside!
I skipped Desperate Housewives to see the Sopranos premiere. Looks like I made the right choice.
We don’t subscribe to cable, so I don’t have that alternative. I only watched it because I had nothing better to do before Gray’s Anatomy came on. Desperate Houswives is becoming wall to wall silly.
Yup.
In my serious biking days, I discovered the miracle of gel. My seat had a thick gel overlay that took a lot of the discomfort out of the ride, and I also had gloves with gel palms because you put a lot of weight on your hands in racing posture. The gel was something similar to the material used in breast implants, so that was good for a few jokes, too.
I was using a Gel Seat! ::grin::