High Sunday irk factor

Hmmm, it might be partly that I was annoyed with myself for not staying at home and working, which might have been the more mature choice - but in fact I was in an EXTRAORDINARILY GRUMPY MOOD by the time I reached Chelsea Piers.

I set out feeling extremely sunny, and it was truly and literally an uncannily beautiful day - but in fact an unseasonally beautiful weekend day (it is in the mid-60s, with clear air and bright sunlight!) is an UNALLOYED EVIL from the point of view of one who wishes to ride the bike path down the west side...

Before I even GOT on the path, I was already irked to find HUNDREDS OF FDNY MOTORCYCLISTS milling around across BOTH lanes of Riverside Drive - THEY WERE WAYWARD! (This was their event.) In fact this was only a matter of a moment's annoyance - but then in the next bit of Riverside Park I was extremely further irked to be confronted by a SWARMING THRONG OF WAYWARD HUMANITY (like farmed fish in tanks - it was awful, they were packed virtually solid!) - they were there for a good cause - but STILL! And I already knew I was going to face serious congestion around the docks in midtown, having had to run through crowds there yesterday (but there were cool jets and helicopters flying above) - and again, it is churlish to complain - but the USS New York's weekend of activities for Veterans Day is drawing unprecedented throngs - basically by the time I got to Chelsea Piers, I was ready to move to a LARGELY UNPOPULATED part of the planet - Alaska - Nova Scotia - Antarctica?...

Anyway the spin class was very good. At the end, in an effort to get my HR higher (I think I spent much of the class at too low an effort level - avg HR 125!), I went into a super-high gear that twanged something in my knee - I guess I really just have to stick with not-quite-that-hard gears and higher cadence (the cue was for cadence between 50 and 60 - if I want my HR to get into the 150s, I have to be in a really high gear for that).

So I just had a very short swim (having prudently worn Triathlon Garb), just 200 yards, a dunk in the hot tub and a bag of ice from the snack bar - in fact it now feels as good as new, but it was still twanging a bit on my bike ride home, so I must be careful of that. It is a spot of knee pain that I first felt in August, and in retrospect I am very certain it has to do with running gait - I upped mileage that month (and it was treadmill mileage, which for me I think increases the effect of instabilities) - I blamed it at the time on increasing cycling hours, but it really is exactly the spot that I saw in that gait analysis taking all the pressure. Spin teacher guesses it is tendonitis & was stern on the heat/ice instructions...

ANYWAY I am not really mentally prepared for a taper, I am finding exercise sort of my only outlet right now for STRESS! I do have a lot of work to get done in the next week and a half or so - if I can stay offline more of the time (my main distraction), perhaps I can channel obsessiveness back in that direction instead of so much towards fitness-related activities...