Those who can write properly, do. Those who have forgotten how....

...create loosely organized and stylistically questionable bulleted lists. :)

• Some of you may be wondering what happened to the music this week. Rest assured that I am not trying to drive away my regular readers by being completely unreliable with my ONE regular feature...flighty is just my default state. How I roll, if you will. What I had actually intended was to spend some of my time on Sunday, during which I was on call at the office anyway, to post music. However, I got distracted by dry erase markers and laminated maps of Austin, and forgot about it completely.

• Speaking of markers and maps, route planning for the UAR is shaping up nicely. There's an additional marked checkpoint this year, and the shortest route I felt we could safely maneuver is over 19 miles long. And that's just for the posted obstacles. It's a good thing Noah and I did it last year...I think if we had waited till this year, there'd be nothing left of us at the end except a couple banged-up bikes and a puddle of tears.

• I've also done some scouting of landmark obstacles online, and found out a few encouraging things--1) last year was the first year they actually did landmarks, 2) the clues were hard for someone unfamiliar with Austin but nothing that a good googler couldn't tackle, 3) there are not physical challenges at the landmark checkpoints, and 4) only the first landmark (which you can plan for ahead of time) was outside the immediate downtown area. I doubt this will change for this year, particularly since the standard checkpoint route is longer.

• I'm not doing strength training today at lunch. I'm going to my very first (!) yoga class tonight instead, and postponing the strength class to Thursday. My yoga plan is to get in the extreme back row, thus minimizing the danger to others as I flop around and contort like the klutziest klutz in Klutztown.

• Part of the reason for this change of plans is that my left ankle is taking its sweet-ass time to heal. It's mostly fine in the mornings, but by the time I get home in the afternoon, it's swollen and sore to the point of limping. I've been icing it at night, and I started taking Aleve twice a day, so hopefully it will start improving soon. I'd like to start running again in July, and I'm pretty much screwed for the duathlon if it doesn't heal by August. At any rate, I figure yoga will be easier for it to handle than a cardio/strength workout, since (I think) there won't be as many weight-bearing exercises. Plus, my core strength and flexibility have taken a nose-dive since I stopped seeing the trainer, and it's starting to affect my bike comfort/performance.

• On the weight-loss front, if I don't start making some progress downward from 201 pretty soon, I might seriously consider chopping off body parts. I've been really good with the food and exercise lately (last night's margarita notwithstanding), and the scale is giving me bupkis. Before I start debating the worthiness of various extremities, however, I think I'm going to try to cut back on the sodium intake. I've never really paid much attention to it, but a (Kristi-inspired) look back through my diet logs for the past few weeks reveals that I lead a very salty lifestyle. For instance, yesterday's sodium count was at least 4000 mg, and this was a mostly-normal day. If I could cut back to even the high end of the RDA (2400 mg), I think I might see some difference on the scale. This will, however, mean cutting out most convenience food, and virtually all restaurant food. Neither of which are bad moves to make, but they are going to be a struggle for me at first. I'll try to keep you posted, but you know--flighty. See first bullet above, re: how I roll. I really am trying to work on that.