Who Needs To Be Good?/l'art pour l'art

Who Needs To Be Good?

I've hit about three or four different blogs this weeks were the folks were "killing their blogs" etc., etc., The common refrain is- "what's the point", "nothing to say" about their own blogs or comments about other blogs like "you're not that good" "No one wants to read about your bike stuff, or see pics of you", yada, yada, yada... Hmmmm. I think they're right. I'm killing the blog! HA! I don't begrudge them, God knows there a million things I should be doing around the house, or to better my existence. Yet, I continue to blather on.

Seriously, whoever said you had to be good, be a pro cyclist or have a point? I sure as hell know I'm not that good, I have no real point, and nothing really to say other than- I like all things bike. I like racing my bike, riding my bike, and bike stuff. I like lusting for new frames, components, wheels, tires, lights, jerseys, and t shirts.

I like interacting (even if it's mostly via the internet) with my fellow racers. I like sharing information, resources, news and plans. I like talking about products I've tried, I'm going to try, things I saw, read, or have done. I like communicating with racers and bike geeks all over the world. I mean I've had interactions with folks from Denmark, The Netherlands, England, Spain, and really freaky places like Minnesota and Delaware! That's pretty f*cking cool to me.

I tend talk about the folks who help support my bike habit like Bikeman.com, Salsa, Twin-Six, Princeton-Tec, and a few others. Because I've gotten to know many of the folks behind these companies. It's not about "free stuff" or "discounts". I respect their passion for bikes, riding and racing. I admire them. I like, and in some cases love, their products. As an amateur shlep I'm lucky to have the support of some folks I WANT to support, that I want to see succeed. I believe in many of their products and when I'm lusting something, it just means I'M lusting for it. If you are too, that's cool. I'll try share some info with you. I'm not saying anything is the "best" OK, sometimes I do, but in that case it just means it IS. (Kidding!)

L'art pour l'art

Maybe this blog is my therapy? Maybe I'm addicted to bikes? Or maybe I'm defensive and am trying to justify the 1045+ times I've written some ridiculous blog entry, but I don't think so. In fact I know I'm not. The Soiled Chamois is my chance to talk about bikes and all thing bike. It's my chance to be creative. To write, design, and create the things the way I want to. The Soiled Chamois is about bikes AND it's sort of a "journal" about my life ATTEMPTING to race bikes.

On a recent trip down to Dirty Harry's, Scott and I started talking about bikes, the coming season, and what our goals and plans were. I could have talked ALL day to him about that shit. BUT I was on my freaking lunch hour!! So all that pent up bike racer geekness would have to wait until I got home, got my training in, showered, made dinner, ate, played with B-Man, and then sat my ass down in front of the Mac to spew bike nonsense.

What's my final point to this semi rant? Not sure I have one. Just that if you enjoy writing, taking photos, or designing about your racing, training, riding, or your life's general bike geekness. By all means do it. Don't care about whether people read it, or if there's a "point". I like to think that for every person that reads this blog and thinks "this is stupid, this guy's just some amateur racer!" there are two more that read and think, "if this guy can try these races maybe I can too". I like to think that THAT is the point. Having fun, riding and racing your bike. Dig?

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Now my semi sort of "rant" is done. So I'll get all geeky on your ass now- I did a kick ass set of Threshold Intervals tonight as prescribed by Lynda. I'll just say they rocked. I only rode for 1:05 and burnt nearly as many calories as I do when I've done my OWN 1:30 version of Threshold Intervals. I hope to get more of the "quality of quantity" thin going in the coming weeks.

Remember last week when I talked about that Zym logo that I thought was cool? Well I saw on their site today that they have a poster available for free. I haven't got my order yet, so I'm sort of hoping that one found it's way into my shipment ;)

Time to go sit in front of the mirror ;)

Later.