Summer is so Close I Can Feel It.

Un carajillo, un café tocado, un café con brandy; whatever you call it, you have the perfect pick-me-up in the late afternoon when you still have a few meters to go before the finish line of the working day. Of course, you could skip the brandy and just kick back a coffee and—believe it or not—that’s what I do about 99% of the time, but today I thought that I deserved a bit of a reward.

After a fairly productive morning I had a two hour bike ride and workout. I rode down to El Saler beach and did my pull-up routine. Today I did 180 assisted pull-ups where I use one of my feet to help push. I’m having a bit of trouble with my left shoulder after tearing a muscle slightly a couple weeks back. It hurts during a certain range of movement so I have to be careful. Assisted or not, 180 is a fuck of a lot of pull-ups.  I got home, showered, made myself a quick Tortilla francesa (cheese omelet), and ran out the door again.  I got back home again at 4:30 and had a 45 minute nap. I woke up from it completely discombobulated. I had to take a second to remember what day it was—always the sign of a great nap.  I wiped the slobber from my mouth and rode downtown.  Here I sit drinking a coffee with brandy. I feel like a million bucks and it only cost €2.50.

Any sort of nap has been somewhat of a luxury for me lately, at least during the week and 45 minutes is something I’d be willing to pay good money for after such a good day of training. A nap helps my heart rate to settle down after two hours of being spiked. There were a few cyclists on the path today that made me work harder than usual; two of them had much snappier bikes than my fat tire road hog. I’m not making excuses but I would like to get a new bike this autumn, something along the lines of a cyclo-cross but without the drop handle bars. I have a lot of other things to take care of before I can bother about a new bike.

Summer is still about a week off but you’d never know that from the gorgeous weather we have had.  This means that you have to go without a shirt which means dieting and losing the winter flab.  I’m close but no cigar. I have been athletically inspired after reading about an American fitness guru in the New York Times. He is my age and his work outs are insane displays of strength and endurance. I bet that I could give him a run for his money on a bike but his upper body routine is mind bogglingly tough. I am trying to pattern my routine after his, at least somewhat. It’s getting to hot for clothes so you need to look good without them.