the craving

before when i tried to stop smoking, the craving was really bad. i caved in then. recently, i was going through this thread on bike forums on stopping smoking and what genericbikedude posted:

what worked for me was just a little awareness trick. try focusing all of your awareness on your feeling of the craving. look at it and pay attention to it, rather than looking at its effect on you (making you feel bad, anxious, etc).

if you can relly focus your attention on the craving, you'll find that there is really nothing there. and by the time you've relaxed your mind enough to make this work, the craving tends to pass anyway.

the same trick works for physical pain (but to a lesser degree!) and anything that causes anxiety.

makes sense to me than anything i've tried before.

notes and shoutouts

lito: dude, christy was asking when you'd drop by at the bike shop and get that chain replaced

jay: good to meet you bro and the best of luck tomorrow on getting in a team for the tour

eboy: nice sweet opera dude. opera — carbon/titanium road bike dressed in carbon records. caramba. glad to meet you.

kikay notes: jun mentioned that rey ranada was the one who brazed my bike and ave was the one who filed the lugs. even i get confused with the tidbits i get.

just a ride

yesterday, i went out to on the bike a bit. bad ride. i was concentrating too much on the spin, the pedal stroke, the frigging traffic, forgot my water, breathing too little. ugh.

today's ride was a lot better. i just rode. no agenda. no targets. to time constraints.

i just went out for a slow ride. i had time to look around the city, stop for a drink and observe the traffic and the people.

i also got to visit one of the cbike shops i frequent — christy's — and i got a second bottle cage and some story swapping with new friends.

traffic was bad going back home that i had to weave in traffic. it was fun but i didn't want to do it all the way home so on to the wide sidewalk of roxas. surprisingly there was very little people traffic.

got home tired but satisfied with my ride.