I forgot that I promised all of my loyal readers (my wife, maybe) that I would post my ride to work graph. The top line is the altitude changes, the other red line is my heart rate and the blue line is my speed. Exciting, huh?!?!?

It's actually interesting to review, especially in comparison with previous rides so that you can see progress. Anyway, enjoy.

My ride home went a little better - just as cold and under the dark night sky, but NO WIND:-)

Time: 48:00
Miles: 13.1
Avg. MPH: 16.4
Harmful emissions that might cause global warming which might cause the indigenous Inuit to change their lifestyles by asking them to not walk on thin ice while fishing in their native land: 0

Just my little way of trying to improve Mother Earth ;-)

I've got so many that I'll just have to add them one at a time over the next several weeks (ok, maybe just a day or two).

"It's a quagmire\Vietnam\disaster\etc."

Yeahhhh. Look, this is war and war stinks. Nobody, NO BODY, likes wars, but sometimes you take them on because you feel the alternative is worse (i.e. Hitler - world domination, extinction of Jews, remember?). But that doesn't matter now, we got into this and we need to see it through or you will see some death and mass killings that make this "quagmire" look like a day in the park. Calling it a quagmire when put in perspective with other conflicts where that term was used is just not intellectually honest. It's like saying you're "starving" even though you shoved a Biggie Size McBurger and Fries with a Frosty down your pie hole 3 hours ago unlike the truly starving that haven't eaten a decent meal EVER. This is NOT a quagmire.

BY the same token, what is going on is not GOOD either. My feeling is that we ought to put all of the PC Crap aside and really finish this thing off. Of course it will never happen because we are a bunch of spineless, weak-knee'd cry babies. We'd rather a few people die over a longer period of time and end up with some kind of quasi-legitimate way to exit gracefully without saying we lost than prosecute this thing properly, pissing everyone off for a few years, but at least winning it out right and having less people die in the end as a result. Again, I'm not saying I would have started this thing, but since we did why the heck can't we do it right?

Gotta put in my $0.02.

Colin Powell had it right, that is for sure. Going into Iraq was a bold move - right or wrong - but once we started it we have to see it through or it will have been a waste of lives, our tax dollars and potentially our safety. Of course, if it works (we'll maybe find out in 50 years), it could be hailed as the greatest move in the new millennium.

In the meantime, I am sick and tired of the loser politicians posturing purely for political points with total disregard for our mission and our troops. BS tactic #1:

- "Bush Lied" - well he may have, but I don't think so and there is no proof that he lied about anything substantial (i.e. WMD). He, just like all presidents do to "sell" their agenda, used the most compelling talking points and perhaps cherry picked some facts and/or intelligence to make his point. That is not lying, it's called persuasion.

Whether we should have started this or not is definitely up for debate and I have not fully made up my mind on it. Having said that I truly believe that 20 or 30 years from now we will see a totally different and "better" Middle East. By "better" I mean that people will generally have more freedoms, more education and access to information, friendlier with the U.S., a higher standard of living due to increased economic freedoms, etc. Of course, that could have happened without war - albeit at a much slower pace, but now we'll never know.

More later...

Sorry, I was just practicing excuses for my really slow ride to work this morning. It was around 40 and sunny, but the headwinds really made it feel a lot colder and harder than it usually is. Coupled with my current level of fitness, my ride today was the slowest since last May - ouch!

Time: 49:10
Miles: 13.1
Avg. MPH: 16.0
Weight:197
Gas: $0

OK, now that I have jump started my training around some goals, I plan to get my ride down to the low 40s averaging about 18 to 19mph. I also need to get my weight down to the low 180s, but that will come in the Spring - just gotta get through the winter!