With training for the DAMN ramping up hard in March, I needed to get my shit together and keep the giant goals more dialed-in for the month. That’s okay. The reduced time between training and tackling items for the 101 Things project both meant that I felt like I was getting things done this month regardless of my modest and unrelated goals.
- Finish cataloging all my Magic the Gathering cards.
- Training/DAMN Prep.
- Get the D&D campaign going.
Cataloging Magic the Gathering Cards
Well, I did technically start this in February but finishing it was a pretty gargantuan task that made a good March goal. I was able to work on it for an hour or so a day, using Lion’s Eye as my primary tool. As of this writing (March 26th), I’m a little more than halfway through the process, and that’s at the pace of 60-90 minutes per day. Yeesh. FAIL. Due to poor estimation of volume of work.
Training/DAMN Prep
Continuing to hit the gym and piling on some miles has been great. I was able to get out on the road on March 2nd and 3rd, which might be the earliest I’ve ever been able to do that in Minnesota. Ever. Generally, I’ve felt a lot stronger due to the gym work, but I needed to start piling on the cardio and mileage.
On the gear side, I’m gradually adding needed gear — I’ve got until August, so I’ve been adding the gear I need at a reasonable rate. Right now, I’m in the process of assembling a cheap backup set of wheels that will live in the back of the support vehicle for the ride. I need to identify a good clip-on aerobar to acquire for the event, and chase down a frame bag for slogging extras with me.
Nutrition is going to be the longest part of this — I have experimentation to do with the on-bike stuff to try and optimize my intake. I had problems with the ridiculous pace that I was required to eat during the Filthy 50 last year and I was definitely running out of gas toward the end of it. As far as routine eating goes, however, I have made huge strides in how I eat, and it’s paying dividends on getting my body weight under control, while still being fueled for day-to-day life.
Logistics has been part of the prep, too. Didi and I had planned on pre-driving the course on Saturday the 23rd, but we were waylaid by shitty weather rolling in and we opted not to risk getting caught out in the country if things went really sideways. We’re bumping that out to late April to compensate. In the meantime, I’ve been making checklists for my gear — both the on-bike stuff, and the stuff that’ll go into the support vehicle. In May or June, we’ll probably run through a pit-stop practice routine just so we know we can get through a pit stop in a meaningful way. (The goal is no rest stop longer than 10-15 minutes.)
Overall, I feel like I’m doing everything I can. Win.
D&D Campaign
The world design is finished. The player’s guide to the world is finished, and distributed, and the first session (session zero, player building) is set up. I’m pretty pleased with how this is shaking out. Win.
Minor/Other Accomplishments
- Built up the new road bike. This chewed up a bit of time, mostly spent on delays because of stuff that needed chaning (missing DUB adapters for the bottom bracket, poor choice of tires for the rims).
- Starting to build my backup wheels for the DAMN. Probably going to be a mostly-DT Swiss wheelset. Rims are purchased, hubs and spokes next.
Blockers
- Advance Wars 1+2: Reboot was a bit of a time suck this month. It’s a great port of a pair of Gameboy Advance SP games, with updated graphics for the Switch. If they ever do this with Final Fantasy Tactics Advance my available time is going to massively evaporate.
- Lots of Fridays I lost an hour or so watching Masters of the Air on AppleTV+. It wasn’t as good as I hoped it would be, but it was still pretty decent. Not as good as Band of Brothers, but better than The Pacific.
- Three-Body Problem on Prime might end up chewing up a bunch of time next month, too. Oof.
Conclusions
A pretty solid month, overall. I’m going to try to wrap up the card scanning project next month.
(Featured image created with/generated by Adobe Firefly 2 Beta. Prompt: the interior of a modern factory with an assembly line building robots.)