just enough time to be preoccupied

Very sore today. I lifted weights yesterday morning, and then did a core routine and rode in the evening. I guess I felt guilty for not having done anything the past two days. 

I'm still struggling with the structured training. I was going back through the past couple of weeks of ride data and I think I have hit my numbers exactly once. I had been trying to target a heart rate range, but when I do that, I'm overshooting my power numbers. so I guess I will have to stick to the trainer and go by power. That works out ok I guess since it's basically rained every day this week and will continue as such. 

I found out a couple of weeks ago that Guitar center rents their lesson rooms without the lessons very cheaply. ($10 an hour) After an extended period trying to get in touch with the person in charge of them I booked one for this afternoon. I have electronic drums set up in the living room, but I've largely given up on them after playing the two shows I did in '17. 1. I was totally burnt out on playing drums and 2. the electronic drums lack the tactile feedback and inherent randomness (analogness?) of acoustic drums. I figure it will be nice just to go hit things, but maybe if I come up with anything inspired I can record it on my phone and use it to build something around. 

Speaking of songwriting, I keep meaning to lean more heavily on this collection of silly band names that I've kept for the last 3+ years. Whenever someone says something funny or particularly interesting, I record it. It started as just kind of a joke, but after reading that guided by voices book, my list is not unlike the song seeds that Bob Pollard always came up with. (additionally, a band from kalamazoo that I liked called kissmequick (and their later band, wizard attack) did this too.
Here are some recent additions:
Grown-up little league
Your dollars are under the knife
Straight up analog lunch space
The ambitious flake
Minimizing classification
The _____ of being unremarkable
The curse of always going half way
Swamp lemons
10 year olds with specialized tastes
Four year boomer ritual
Living in the laundry room

Some are a little more heady than others, but most seem interesting enough that you could build something around them. Some I remember the context that they came from, others I have no idea. There's an old one I've been working on: "harry homes for owls", that was from a conversation Helena and I had when we first started dating. We were walking to the taco shop (a Robertos, for all you San Diego folks) at dusk.. magic hour? and I was talking about how weird palm trees are up close. It's a jokey phrase, but since there's a whole scene around it, I'd really like to make it into something pseudo-romantic. ..which is really not my forte. My first attempt turned it into a tour of Bird Rock, the area that I worked in out there. Not even particularly from my point of view. And then that turned into a perspective switch to one of the neighborhood bums...

All the way from PB
to the birdrock roundabouts
walking down the street in a wet suit
eating snowcones out of a lean-to
Have you ever seen such a sea?
I've got everything I need.

smoking butts under the stairs
thinking about cashing in for a ride up to the county fair
been sweating in this blazer for the last two weeks
all i own is this backpack and these worn out 'sneaks
it's a strange life

Not very good, but starting is 90% of a thing. Ironically, the harry homes for owls line didn't even make it in.. maybe they are separate songs. 

Two days in a row on the bike! I've been going a little harder than the past couple of months, and wow - it hurts the next day. migraine auras both days, coughing, and very sore legs/neck today. I need to keep up on the trigger point stuff for the neck issues. the rest, I think, are unavoidable. 

A former bandmate who lives in indy now has been riding, and I'm hoping that maybe I can talk him into riding together. He recently expressed interest in doing a race. 

I'm also trying to calorie restrict. (maybe the cause of the migraines) I looked at the scale recently and am over my acceptable weight. which is not a surprise as shirts have all become pretty illfitting. for the past few weeks I've been doing soylent in place of a lot of meals and I expected more of a loss from it that I'm not seeing.. so I decided to start using the myfitnesspal app again to keep a better track of the in/out. The good news is with the soylent, I am coming pretty close to my assumed daily caloric needs. I am also a little surprised at the calorie burn from the bike. (I have been riding for a long time, but I very rarely count calories) an hour and a half ride is basically 2 soylents. I've had no problem managing a caloric deficit the past two days, despite eating fairly large lunches out. 

I've printed off some of my old p90X routines in hopes of using them to mix it up with cycling to try to keep from getting sick of the bike. I really need more structure, and I'm not there yet. Not being able to get up early enough to work out is making this hard - I have to do it at night which is not ideal, but I guess it's better than nothing.