The Loneliest Number

This unusually early cold snap has given the feeling of the Holiday season. Only 4 weeks until Thanksgiving then before you know it Christmas will be here. Man this year has flown by. According to the “elders” in my family, the years do seem to fly by the older you get.

Now on to bikes. Trying to find someone to ride with lately is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Big Worm, our unofficial ride coordinator, is injured so he’s out (get better dude). Marko can’t stand the cold so he gets on the trails early; Wrecking Ball has turned into Mr. Mom and has had “domestic obligations” lately; Berg will only ride when/where Marko is riding; and who the hell knows what lil’ Ball is up to; and the Red Dragon, well the Red Dragon can only get a kitchen pass from Mrs. Red Dragon about once a week. With the time change coming this weekend I am hopeful that the crew will start getting some organized riding in. After all 1 is the loneliest number.

Sidelined

Sitting on the sidelines sucks! It's the perfect Tallahassee mountain bike season, and it looks like many of the fair weather crew members have come out of hibernation. Red Dragon is regaining his wings. Micro's attendance is growing. Even an out of town, old schooler was here this past weekend. It's killing me not to be there, but I finally heard from the doc's office yesterday. I've got an appointment at TOC next Thursday. My ankle has been feeling better, so I may even try an easy ride later this week, or this weekend.

I'm stoked to see the weather has the 'posse out en masse, and if I don't see you folks on the trail soon, I'll see you at the Sweet 16 Double Header, at Bikechain, Nov. 8th! Kent and Mark have been working hard to make the shop space look good, and there efforts are paying off. Come check it out, next weekend.

ps. Keep a close eye on Big Jim Slade, I think he has been up to something. Here me now. Read his later.

Stupid Bike Sunday

Stupid Bike Sunday was a new idea, and may not take off as planned. We had an out-of-town guest come in who wanted to go ride and wanted to keep the pace down a little. We decided that it was a good time for everyone to bring out their dusty bikes - the ones that don't get ridden very often. So, the invite was for (no offense) singlespeeds, cyclocross, retro builds with rigid forks, etc. Since we don't normally ride these types of bikes out on the trails, the pace definitley stayed down, and there were a few crashes and flat tires along the way. All in all, it was a good ride and good company, however, there are some sore body parts and bruised egos. Looks like these will get hung back up for awhile so we can get back to what we are used to. The good news is that we came up with a new saying. I can't remember what it is right now, but it will resurface, and it will probably be said way too often on future rides.

Lil Ronnie and Sister Amy

Ain't no sunshine when it rains

Don't really know what the title has to do with anything, the weather is perfect around here these days. Anyway, a new author here, just trying out the new blogging thing on this old blog. I keep getting an error message that saving and publishing may fail, therefore, I will not be typing much more.

Ouch

The GOOD NEWS - I felt really good on the bike tonight, especially on a ride I was not going to be able to make. It's the Thursday night Joe's ride. On the first lap Ice Berg went off the front motivated by verbal jabs by apebike and all-pro (aka cuz). I was scared so I just shut up (rare) and made jokes in my head about Berg's pink socks. The Church section surge starts slow which was cool so I was able to hold on into the long downhill. On the first tittie hill I had to hold myself back from jumping on the gas - I sat in. Second tittie hill hurts a little - I'm still sitting in. Cuz has been powering the whole time with a little help from ape. I'm about six riders back and I'm thinking of the bricks sprint. Now we're on the false flat and the speed ramps up. We drop some guys and I'm the last in our six man race. I'm in danger of getting YoYo'd off the back but HotRod bridges back up and I'm able to hang. Getting closer, planning when I want to go - Uhgh - Rod sits up enough to slow us where I have to make an effort to go around. I can't bridge to Big Jim but I pass yellow shirt and my cuz (who sat up on a nutritional). And I stay close enough to see ape and berg fighting it out. Berg won. I'm breathing pretty hard and the BAD NEWS is I'm dreading the climbs because I still haven't fixed my brothers bike - it's stuck in the big ring. Cuz says it's good for training. So I grunt it out pass Red Dragon climb and going in to AJ Henry Park I sneak off the front. Not to break away, but merely to go up Gardenview at my own pace. We regroup at the top of Gardenview and much to my dismay, ape powers down when we round the corner at the church. This is much quicker than the first lap and I'm already hurting. The church hurts, the golf course hurts, the downhill hurts. Riders are getting shucked but I'm still here - weird. First tittie hurts bad and I know I'm losing it. Ape and cuz are powering but keep pulling over just enough but nobody's pulling through. I'm about rider five and I know I don't have much left. Near the crest of tittie two, I stomp on the pedals expecting to at least provide a halfway lead-out... BOOM! I came completely apart. Ape powers by and says to dig deep, but I've already got a chop stick hanging out my ass. I chalk it up to half nutrition/half bonk. All in all a really cool ride and somewhat encouraging. Even though this was a slower ride, I did a lot better than earlier in the year. It was a smaller ride so I'm thinking it is about even. The running is definitely helping. bikechain out

OK, so I should be have about 3 % body fat by now. I have lost just over 15 pounds so I'm on my way. I shall refocus my energies. Big Worm (aka ApeBike) says that boot camp and red dragon are played out. I shall reincarnate "focus and disciplined" Later. K