More Miles, Gutchies, and Tour

My goal this week was to avoid doing road loops. Not avoid the road completely, but the standard road loops that I do on my road bike. I enjoy time on my mountain bike too much and continue to think that it is actually helping me more to ride the Dos on the road than my road bike. Dividing up my time on single track, roads, rail trails, and crap roads has been fun, and provided some killer workouts.

Rather than drive 25 minutes each way to Boyce Park every day to put in dirt loops (not a bad idea, just not cost and time effective), I spent time this week time doing steady efforts on the rail trail and in today's case looping 14 miles of trail trail in with 21 miles of road and crappy WPA roads with some nice climbs.

The weather has been perfect and its been fun
just to be out in the sun on my mountain bike.

For some reason the folks here in WPA continue to dump their gutchies on the sides of the roads. Not sure why. Not once have I been driving along and though "I think I'm gonna throw some undies out the window!". So in the past month that makes one rail trail thong, and one pair of gray (soiled?) tighty-whities. WTF?

The plates on this broken down "pirate trailer" are from Maine.
No signs of any I Heart Racin' Rick bumper stickers though.

It's been a nice week on the bike and I hope to continue it with some single track tomorrow.

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Is anyone else getting the vibe that Tom Boonen angered the Bike Gods with his nose candy antics? So far this Tour de France he's had a severe case of diarrhea, missed out on a Stage 2 sprint due to a pile up in front of him, and crashed today. I'm sure he's hoping to tough out the next couple stages, maybe he'll do some penance, sacrifice a live rooster covered in chain lube to the gods or something, and then try again with some flatter stages next week.

Ok, time for some Refried Bean Burrito digestion, and chillaxing. Or as much chillaxing as one can do with a 5 year old running amok and a belly full of spicy beans. By the way I will not be talking to any commentators from Sporza about tonight's possible (and likely) refried bean gassiness or my past history of flatulence de la Mexicana. The comments that were made about me were offensive and uncalled for.

Later.

Boonen photo snatched from CyclingNews.com without any permision at all.

Brunch Rides And Trail Bush

Since we here in WPA continue to have a rare streak of nice weather, I hit up Boyce a "brunch time" ride. The weather was just perfect, the ride was fun, and my legs felt spanky.

The ride started interestingly enough when the local high school's girls cross country team felt the need to jog to where I was parked and then proceed to stretch for 5 minutes while I was trying to get ready for my ride?? Jeeeezus! I KNOW I'm twice their age, I know that I may end up in jail JUST for typing this, and I KNOW this makes me sound like a big f*cking perv, but FOR THE LOVE OF GOD MAN! I AM human! Of course you know I rolled off feeling like a fat, depressed, creepy, pseudo-jobless old guy in comparison to them, so in the end, they won.

80% of the trails are in just PERFECT conditions. The remaining 20% aren't really muddy, but are overgrown. I'd love to get a machete so as to take some time and trim back some trail bush (I love saying that), but I'm not sure I have the sort of personality or luck that should have easy access to a machete. I see me using it to threaten some kid throwing his potato chip bag in my yard, or lopping off one of my arms trying to trim back some weeds.

With about 4 miles to go today I hit a root that was hidden by the aforementioned trail bush and went sailing over the bars into God-knows-what sort of weeds, poison, thorns and brush. The bike was fine and I'm fine (enough). One knee to top-tube, shoulder to ground, and hip to a root later, I was up and off to finish the last few miles.

Sometimes I think just riding on is the best thing after a crash. Get the blood moving and the mind off the thumping going on at the point of impact. I will say this- as much as I love riding 29ers, sometimes crashing on a 29er feels like I'm throwing myself off of a two story building. Maybe it's just in my head, but falling seems a long way down via a 29er.

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I TRY to not talk about too much Pro road stuff anymore, since when I do I usually get a bunch of pseudo anonymous comments about how lame I am and how much I don't know (all true), but I can't help it...

I'm not gonna lie to you. Originally I was NOT into the idea of watching the Tour this year, with the Lancesturbation, and inevitable drug busts, but it REALLY has captured my interest. And it has nothing to do with Astana, other than all the drama. (Hell there's probably less drama on the high school running team that I mentioned above). But each stage, EVEN my most hated- the Team Time Trial, has been interesting.

Today it was cool to see a break succeed, and nice to see Thomas Voeckler get a win. As I mentioned to one of my blog/FB friends today, Voeckler has to be a sponsors wet dream. The dude always manages to get in some breaks, and if nothing else for the last 5 years he seems to get a ton of TV coverage for his sponsors.


So like the allure of a strip club's "champagne room" I can't say no to the Tour. Because I'm afraid if I don't check it out, I might miss out on something, even though I know I will most likely be let down in the end, or at least feel guilt for having given so much time and energy to watching Pro cycling. But hey, it's feeling good right now, I'm just gonna go with it. Not too mentioned it's pretty much the ONLY thing on TV that has nothing to do with freaking "Wacko Jacko".

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It seems I won a free entry into the Tahoe 100 in September. Long story, but I posted a reply on MTBR.com to a post, and the dude replies back with an offer of a free entry. I PMed with him and it's all legit, but I can't go anyway. 2,500 miles in a long way to go for a race. It was a nice gesture from the race organizer and I thank them.

Check out the original post, I actually do really dig it. Seem the Tahoe Sierra 100 will be having Age Group Categories for the race. That is pretty damn cool, and I hope some of the other NUE racer directors will follow suit in the future. With 300 racers, I see no reason why some of the kitty (or at least prizes) can't be split up a bit more. I mean 150 guys line up, and they pay out top 3 or top 5? Eeesh. And NO I do NOT think I would even be in age group contention for placing, but it would be a TAD more motivating. Of course I'm not a 100 mile race organizer either, and can't imagine how hard a race of that magnitude is to organize.

Time to go. I think I can catch the 4th showing of today's Tour stage on Versus.

Later.

Tempos, Issuus, Zinios, Etc.,

Yesterday was a 1.5 hour loop at Boyce to get some single track in, today was a steady tempo in a constant head wind on the rail trail. Eeesh, big ringing it into headwinds and crosswinds, at 17 to 19 mph really worked my glutes off! I think the legs were more sore after today's constant effort than they are after a hilly 2 hour ride.

Tomorrow should be back to single track. We're in a stretch of sunny days here in WPA. Do you have ANY comprehension of how rare that is??? So, I plan to hit up more single track in the a.m.. and avoid the road for as long as the sun shall shine.

Part of me is kicking around the idea of doing some two-a-days in the near future. I don't have time for a 4 hour ride on a weekday, but occasionally I do have time for two 2 hour rides. I'm thinking like 2 hours of dirt in the a.m. and maybe 1 or 2 hours of flat bike trail stuff in the evening. Not sure it will happen but I am kicking around the idea.

Finally getting caught up on some XXC stuff. Still have more that needs done, as well as continuing to send out some advertising information. Begging is so not fun, but I do it just the same. I'm also kicking around different ideas of how to present the mag and ways to make at least a couple dollars off of it in the future. The PDF format is working and I like it being fully digital, but tracking down load information to provide to potential advertisers can be fuzzy, and the files are huge for folks to down load.

The Scribd site, is OK, but there are better ones out there. In the future I would also like to have issues available for super low cost purchase. There are a couple sites I'm looking at. One is issuu.com. Here's a link to an example of XXC Issue #2 at Issuu. It's very nice but there is currently no way to purchase eMags published on Issuu. It did monkey with the boldness of a couple fonts in the Tinker story too. And that was strange. Also note that XXC in it's current state was not meant to be read with facing pages, so there are some issue with page numbering, etc., this would change of course if I move the mag to a host such as this.

The other is zinio.com. This would have everything I want, but still have to talk with the dude about the costs. If it costs a shit load of coin to start up, it's a no go. If anyone knows of a similar service, drop me comment or e mail me. The free-er the better, since I continue to rock XXC as a "not for profit, but not for lack of trying" enterprise.

Sorry this post had little to do with ACTUALLY mountain biking. Then again, not sure anyone would care.

Later.

A Biketastic Monday

OK, first off an apology for yesterday's lack luster and self pitying post. Instead of using some of my frustration to fuel riding, "training" and racing, I let it get the best of me. I will most likely be at the 101. I mean I did promise a certain Canuck that I would be there with a feather boa on. While the feather boa, might not happen, I'm pretty damn sure I will be there.

Today was one of those days that just about everything I did had to do with bikes in one way or another. Check this day out, even the most trivial of days can be Biketastic!...

As usual I get up, suck down some high powered colon blow coffee out of the "bean pot" as my friend Dave calls it- a mug that I bought in Winter Park, Colorado about 6+ years ago. I answer a few e mails from some bike friends, and do my morning reads of a long list of cycling blogs and web sites.

Once B-Man is off to school, I chamois up, grab the Dos Niner and head to Boyce for a quick 1.5 hour ride in the dirt. It was great! It's still a bit overgrown there, but overall the trails are in pretty good shape considering all the rain we've had and my legs felt 200% better than Saturday's ride. Wish I would have had time for more.

Once home it was a quick shower, and then a trip to Pro Bikes Monroeville with B-Man to pick up Wifey's bike that was there getting a tune up and hang out a bit. I also left Big Mama there with Little Ball of Hate, and in a few days, she just might return as her skinnier, brighter colored, sluttier little sister.

While we were there B-Man got all fired up to ride and wanted to go ride bikes when we got home. So we drove home, picked up our bikes and helmets and headed out to ride around a local paved walking circle for an hour or so. He's all geeked up to get his training wheels off, but we needed to work on some stuff (stopping!), as well as skip stones in a nearby creek (or "crick" as they say in Western PA).

Finally we made it home after 4. I took care of a couple XXC things, got B-Man some grub, and since this IS July I watched the replay of Stage 3. Good stage. Usually I find the early stages of the Tour SUPER boring, but today was cool and fun to watch.

After dinner it was time to finish an XXC page layout and do this blog post. Bikes were just an unavoidable pert of my day. In other words, it was great. And like I said, the day was BIKETASTIC, and it's not over yet! I hope you were lucky enough to have a biketastic Monday.

Later.

Possible Changes

Another rare sunny day here in WPA. That makes two in the past 60 days (that's sort of a joke). It would have been a great day to ride, but after two hours of hauling around the two useless hunks of flesh that claimed to be my legs yesterday, I decided to just chill. So that's what I did. Luckily the weather looks pretty good this week and I'm hoping to get out for some fresh dirt.

Whilst chilling, I re-thought a bit of my schedule for 2009. I think my plan to do at least 4 hundies has gone away. I spent too much time with my head lodged firmly in my own rectum, failed to register early for the 101, and now registration is up to $165. Not sure I can justify spending that sort of coin to haul my ass up and down the mountains of central PA just to come in 90th. Not 100% certain, but it is looking that way. I figure maybe I'll ditch the 101, do the WVMBA Big Bear Ultra on August 8th and save about $120 or so. Maybe I'll try to hit up a couple XC races between now and then, work on my mapping of an epic in the WPA mountains and see what what I can come up with for the rest of the year.

I had written a lengthy post about becoming disenchanted with my racing and one poor performance after another while doing my best. But it came off like I was crying and moaning. There is definitely writing on the wall. Not only about my racing but other things as well. For now I choose not to read that writing. I will attempt to ride on blissfully ignorant, unaware, and hoping for the best. It's time for a mid season mental enema, maybe try to loose a few pounds, and work on some skills. Sometimes life, riding and racing can be a series of attempts at reinventing one's self, and redefining goals. Time to kick start that. At least I hope.

Later.

Dead Legs and The Wolf Pack

FINALLY got out to ride in some sun today. I wish the ride would have been better but my legs felt like two fleshy hunks of raw bacon. Just DEAD! 32 miles felt like 50. Oh well, it beat sitting around the house on a beautiful day.

Having a little cookout tonight to celebrate the 4th of July. Grill some meat, eat some beans and have a few Dogfish Heads. Got some sparklers (or "sprinklers" as B-Man calls them) to light later. For the life of me I have no idea why the wolf on the "wolf pack" sparklers needs to looks as if he and the pack just feasted on a gimp elk??

Time to try to chillax for the rest of the weekend... Watch some Tour, eat some food, have a few cold ones and wait for my one neighbor to light her mini bon fire and smoke me out of my freaking house. I might chuck some lighted sparklers at her if she lights that f*cking thing! Then again, the 4th in a jail cell doesn't sound that great. Of course there would be no smoke. Hmmm.

Have a great holiday folks.

Later.

Mr. Mushroom Crotch

More rain, more clouds, more moisture, more potential fungus in the chamois today. The W.S.E. continues, and I welcomed it with 2.5+ hours of riding in the rain. 14 miles of rail trail, 20+ miles of shit roads, farm roads and WPA back roads, and lots of moisture. I think I ACTUALLY felt a fungus grow betweenst my nuggets during the ride. Ah, who cares, nothing a little cream won't take care of.

There was no single track, there was no double track, just limestone, and a bunch of pavement in various stages of suck. OK by me. It was fun. I got a great workout in and got to spend time in the saddle of my fave bike- the Dos Niner.

The sun did come out for about 30 seconds during the ride. Long enough to say "hey, it's the sun", but short lived enough to say "f*ck, it's raining again!". The first 7 miles of rail trail were OK, the rain would come and go, and I just hammered on listening to my iPod which was snug in a plastic bag and playing some live Art Brut. By the time I hit the first paved climb though the rain was coming down a bit harder. The ear buds came out and I proceeded to ride though the mist/drizzle/downpour/sun/mist/clouds for the next 20+ miles of roads.

The exact length and time of the ride is unknown, since my computer became a bit waterlogged at some point and stopped working. Lots of folks can ride without a computer, not having one working drives me mad. It's sort of a motivator to keep going. To see the miles pile up, the time tick away, etc., After a couple big down hills, enough water must have been blown out for it to start working again.

This ride has really started to be one of my favorite local rides. It's got some flats to hammer, some nice climbs, and except for 1 or 2 paved sections it's VERY low traffic. Another bonus is that given the rail trail and the condition of some of the roads, it's best done on my mountain bike. Riding my mountain bike on the road has gone from something I used to loathe to something I love. Maybe it's the big wheels of a 29er that makes it more fun? Or maybe it's as I've said before- I race my mountain bike in races that often have road sections and long gravel road sections, but never race my road bike at all, so it might just make more sense to use my mountain bike more often. Or MAYBE it's just fun and a great work out?

After the climb (pictured above) I rounded a corner to find a few cows in the middle of the road. I stood there for a few moments politely asking them to move. No dice. Finally my inner cowboy kicked in and I gave it a few "Move! Yah! Yahs!" It worked. They scurried off and I was on my way.

Soon it was time for the 7 miles back on the rail trail which now had a layer of wet limestone waiting to cover me and my bike. It was raining again, and the earphones were back on, and I hammered out the last 7 miles to the xB. I was pretty happy with the ride. Especially given the fact that I stood in my doorway watching it rain a few hours prior and thinking to myself "no way!"

Sometimes you just do what you gotta do. Not to "train" or think yourself a "hard man". Sometimes you just do what you gotta do to salvage a day, to burn some calories and get those endorphins pumping and doing their thang.

Later.