Could Be Worse

Had a road ride scheduled today, but then Wifey mentioned that she wanted to take B-Man to a Pirate game. She knows that's not my bag (dealing with the public), and gave me the green light to go ride or do whatever I wanted. I chose to ride, and ride on the mountain. Nothing big, but I needed to get out of the hood for a bit.

Just before I left for the ride, I was seaching for my iPod. The 45 minute drive would be nice to give a listen to the variety of new tunes I recently got from Dinosaur Jr., The Crystal Method, Jarvis Cocker and Jason Lytyle (of the late Grandaddy). Well I searched everywhere. I even did a cavity search on Wifey in pursuit of said small electronic listening device. And while that was fun (and little messy) it turned up nothing! Next search- The washer. Yep, it was in the pocket of the shorts I had on yesterday after my ride. Frig!! 2+ bills down the drain.

As I sat in my office chair in amazement that my iPod was gone, B-Man comes up and says "Daddy, I know you're sad, so I think you should come downstairs and look at our bikes, because thinking about bikes makes you happy." That is so true B-Man. Thanks. But hey, it's just an iPod, no big. Not like a lost a f*cking arm.

Oh well, I'd have to go old school and listen to CDs or something. Ah... no! I luckily have a cd full of mp3 mixes that I keep in the Xb for emergencies. And the Xb's tuneage pumper outer plays mp3 cds. Joy. (sort of, I'm still out 2 f*cking bills!!!)

The weather was so freaking perfect. Warm, but not hot, and no humidity. It would have been the perfect day for an epic, but I have the L-Jack coming up next week so something 2 to 3 hours would be good enough for my sub-marginally talented ass.

I parked off Rt.31 and rode Fire Tower over to Seven Springs and rode the race course. This time I rode the whole course and not just the 75% I have been riding. Contrary to a previous post of mine the Philip Seymour Hoffman Memorial Rock Garden (so named by me) trail is open and rideable. Apparently the 60 to 70 laps that I have on the course was just NOT enough to remember the correct entrance into the trail, oh well, it's open, I rode it, but had to dab once and walk 20 feet. Frig.

As much as I love many of the new trails at Seven Springs, the debate is open on whether they will make for a good race course. Already longish lap times are gonna be longer if they use the trails, and may pose a problem for many racers on night laps. IFFFFFFFFFF I were to race it (doubtful), that would pose no real problem for me since I'm lucky to use the Princeton Tec SB3 and between my 2 batteries have over 12 hours of burn time. But for those who might have an HID that only has like 1:30 of burn time, and you're riding slow... there could be issues. Just saying. You could just ride faster, ride blind, OR buy a PTSB3! ;)

Saw few other folks out on the trails including some junior riders (10 to 13 years old) with what I presume was their fathers (or older brothers, or creepy old guys). It was nice to see folks out enjoying the single track, especially junior riders. I can't wait to introduce B-Man to the beauty of time in the saddle in the mountains.

The legs felt great, and I experienced that magical feeling of feeling like I could toss the bike around and power up things at will. I can only equate it to hitting a baseball square on with a bat. That "solid" feeling of all things connecting and in sync. It's rare, but when it happend it's ggggoooooood.

Since I was feeling so good, it was sort of hard to pull in the reins and say "you know 2:30 in the saddle will be enough". I want to save as much of that "magic" for next week's Big M-F L-Jack 100 as I can. So I did the course, had fun, and then rode the service roads back to Rt. 31 and my iPodless Xb.

I had my camera, but there was really nothing new to take pics of, so I felt no reason to take it out of my pocket.

Once home it was a quick spray off of the Dos Niner, a quick shower, some Wii Soccer (Real Madrid baby!), and a few Dogfish Head 60 Minutes. Annnnnnnd.... listeing to some tunes on my iPod... YES!!! IT LIVES!! Spin Cycle be damned!!

Finally a ton of congrats need spread out to some folks at Big Bear...

My good friends (Brad, Don, Aaron, and Rob) on Team Argyle finished 3rd, and on the box in the Male Expert category! Nice going guys!! You done me proud!! Teamates Suz Falvey and Chissy Buerkle finished 1/2 in the Female Solo category, Pro Bikes Fab Five finished 1st in the 5 Person Male cat, Pro Bikes/New River/Endura finished 1st in the Single/Rigid cat, my Pro Bikes teammate John McClurg finished 13th out of a strong 23 man field, and my friend and all 'round great guy Bob Anderson finished 2nd to Brandon Draugelis (congrats to you too dude). I might add that Bob is like TWICE as old as Brandon! My buddy Metro finished up in 21st, but I have NO DOUBT that a good time was had and the will have some stories to tell.

I was sort of obsessed with following the real time scoring for the race. So many friends and teamates raging down in WV. But it was alos sort of depressing. I wished I was there. I wished I had enough talent/race energy/cash to spread around and take part in it. It did SORT of make me want to go back to Seven Springs to race a Solo again, but I alternate with thanking God I might be done with Solos and willign to sacrafice a live pig to do another. Go figure.

Time to polish off a few more DFH 60 Minutes and get ready grill some meat.

Later.