Whither March

And so the lion came. In the form of an inch of wet snow last Saturday and with a chilly 18 degree overnight low tonight. More of an annoyed lion's scratch than a culling of the herd. Thank goodness.

Two divergent topics tonight - new tires and achy joints.

Achy joints - Well, predictably, I got competitive with myself lifting weights in the barn. I started following a program based on 5 sets of 5 reps and increasing the weight incrementally each time. Except it was supposed to be "increase the weight incrementally each week", and incrementally rarely, for fellas 47 years old, means 10 pounds.

So I found my self doing squat 5 x 5's with 265 pounds and HOLY WAH! my left hip felt like it needed to be replaced! For a few weeks I bobbed back and forth so bad while I was walking I looked like Festus scurrying to the shootout.

So here're the things - Incrementally means like, oh, 2.5 or 5 pounds. Per week. The result is I started over at 225 to give my tendons, ligaments and shit time to catch up with my skinny thighs. And last night popped out a set at 235 and feel great.

Tires - Here's something I didn't want to know. Some people change the tires on their bikes with each oil change! Now that's street bike dudes tearin' up the twisties, but still. Most Motorcyclists are thrilled to get 10 k out of a set.

My tires need replacing.

Now go shop for tires. Too many damn choices. Features, tread, soft, hard, compounds, yadda, yadda, yadda. I settled on a new pair of Michelins which were cutting edge 2 or 3 years ago. There are "better" tires out there now, but hey, my VFR is 4 years old. This laptop is two years old. Eh.