Hidden Benefits of Exercise:

Let's see - weight loss/maintenance, elevated metabolism, improved sleep, better muscle tone, increased energy level .... yawn ... BORING. Here's one to appeal to us lazy folks: keeping up with the laundry! Normally, the laundry protocol has to begin considering doing a load only when down to that last pair of underwear. Now, with a limited set of workout clothes and many workouts in a week, laundry is a necessity. No more washer-stuffing, dryer-not-drying loads either; rather, the amount of clothes is just right to make the washer happy and not shake down the house in its spin cycle.

Only 1100 yards of swimming today, because I got to Roble pool at 12:25, and it closes at 1pm. I am beginning to like Roble better than schmancy Avery Aquatic Center, which is too much of a scene for me I think. Sure, all the greats have trained there (Janet Evans, Summer Sanders, Pablo Morales, Jenny Thompson - who was in my dorm and gave me a can of Old Milwaukie as my secret santa, thank you very much), but I am only 1/1000th great, and there's just too much paddle-handed, zoomer-zooming, tinted-goggle, rock-hard-abbed, flip-turning extremeness there for my tastes. Roble pool is tiny, with just five lanes. The best thing about going over lunch hour is that it's only open to faculty/staff, so I have to dig through my wallet to find my old contraband staff ID. But the folks there are more my speed. I'll just have to get there earlier next time to put in the full hour and reach the target distance. And I'll have to figure out how not to get massive sunburns on my back. Now I have this funky tanned neck above a crabapple red upper back. Very attractive.

Went for a 23-mile spin at sundown with my friend Frank. Though he did beat me up the hill at Huddart Park to Kings Mountain road, he was complaining the rest of the way that he was struggling to keep up. Must be those new wheels of mine. Or maybe it was because his legs were completely shot from some crazy twenty mile hikes up and down the canyons of Bryce and Zion National Parks over the weekend. That didn't stop us from trying to chase down my neighbor Katie, whom we spotted at the top of Sand Hill Road in her shiny red SAAB with her shiny red new bike on top. The stoplights refused to work with us though, and we never caught her. What an exciting life we lead! Thanks for reading.