Body Pump has served its purpose!

My thighs and butt are incredibly sore from that class I took yesterday. Jen and I were both at work hobbling around. It hurts to sit, squat, or walk down stairs. Good thing my bartending shift was downstairs tonight so I didn't have to deal with actually going up or down between floors. I always feel like I'm in great shape until I try something new and realize that I'm not in shape at all. Or parts of me aren't. When I first started to go to yoga, it hurt like hell for a few days afterwards, but now it's a nice but challenging workout and I can still move the next day. I wonder how long it will take for me to feel like that about this class. And I was only using the minimum weights possible (or none at all)! So my first foray into strength training for this trip was, I guess, successful.
Aside from working tonight during the national championship football game, today was very uneventful. I'm happy that it's snowing. Since I don't have to drive to work or anywhere it's nice that I can just sit back and enjoy it coming down without worry. It's not a windy blizzard like last month but some calming, peaceful, falling snow.
Here is a shout out to my BFF Conrad who is living it up in Bangkok right now. Wish I were there with ya, buddy. Conrad's job (as far as this bike trip is concerned) is to recommend books for me to read before I leave. I want to read classic, quintessential American books that describe the mountains, midwest, desert, etc. He's already told me about an Edward Abbey book I'm going to try to find as soon as I remember the name of it. I love Abbey's The Monkey Wrench Gang and I can't wait to read more of his stories about the American West. I want to compile quotes about the land to ponder as I pedal across it.

"One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am — a reluctant enthusiast... a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards."
-Edward Abbey, 1978