comparisons

i've said before that nothing ever tastes better than hot food when you're really hungry.

it's now getting a run for its money from: a cold drink when you're really thirsty.

went to the gym today. have been meaning to for some time, but i finally did, now that the sprained ankle seems to be done giving me grief. go me. two miles and some change on the recumbent bike in 20 minutes, average speed 6.3 mph, no biggie -- i wasn't going for Power Cycling or anything. some sit-ups (in all directions), triceps pulldowns (because i don't like my arms), and about 800 meters on the erg(onomic rowing machine) before i gave up.

my trouble with the erg definitely comes from having been, however briefly, on the crew team in college. (i really was! but, like, i'm 5'4". this is really far too short to be an effective rower, for reasons of physics -- i was quite a bit stronger than the girl who was 5'10" and skinny as a straw, but not enough stronger to compensate for the extra distance she got with every stroke.) i can't do an easy few minutes on the erg the way i can on the bike; i have to try and get through the race, monitor my strokes per minute (28 today) and my 500m split (about 2:25 today, which, given the shape i'm in, isn't bad; a competitive female rower should be able to keep hers down around 2:00, and a lightweight male rower would find that ridiculous and be at about 1:30 -- the figure is in minutes, i.e. how long it would take you to cover 500 meters, and keeping it as low as possible over 2000m is obviously harder than it seems), and so forth. so the coaches did their job, i guess ...