Frustrated

I was anxious to get on the bike today, and to get back on dirt. I mentally scheduled in time with the Dos at Boyce Park for a couple hours this a.m.. Typical weekday- up, copious amounts of coffee, check e mail, get the boy up, eat, off to school, kit up and off to ride. Sadly as the a.m. went on I found myself less and less enthused to ride at Boyce. I blame an on again/off again summer funk that I've been in. But I went anyway.

The trails seemed pretty good. Couple of mud holes here and there, but nothing like my attempt last week. Then I started getting deeper into the single track. And the vegetation became thicker and thicker. Arms getting tore up from jaggerz, bitch slapped my some thick weeds, and in no way being able to see around corners. Boyce has become sort of a thorn (no pun intended) in my side this summer. I want dirt but it alternates between being a mud pool and now grown up with weeds and jaggerz.

My mind was so "out there" I found myself bypassing turns for parts of a loop I done in various ways for years! Sad thing was my legs felt great. Lungs felt great. My mind was just everywhere but the ride. I seriously felt like I was riding like a novice rider. Shit was just "off".

I aborted after an hour. I could have taken a few minutes and figured out a loop that would have ditched the heavy growth areas, but figured "f*ck it". I'll hit the road tomorrow in preps for this weekend's single track binge in Michigan. As much as I hate the road, I hate getting bitch slapped by thick ass weeds more! I of course want to get out to Boyce and cut back some growth, but of course you have to go through the "ask the county parks people, make sure this organization knows about it, make sure that organization knows about it, do it like this, not like that" stuff. When the single track at Boyce is on, it's some of the best suburban single track around. But right now the combination of my mind funk and the vegetation, has me eager to stay in the mountains, and on the race courses for a while. Luckily there is enough race time coming in the next couple weeks to keep my lust for dirt satiated. And afte that a nice stretch of nothing but racing and riding on my terms for about 3 or 4 weeks.

I never said I was deep, but I am profoundly shallow

My lack of knowledge is vast, and my horizons are narrow
I never said I was big, I never said that I was clever
And if you're waiting to find what's going on in my mind,
you could be waiting forever
Forever and ever
- "I never said I was deep", by Jarvis Cocker

For all the crap riding/mental funk I've been doing/having, I am VERY pleased with the way Issue #3 of XXC is taking shape. With each issue I'm finding myself better at letting go of the design "restrictions" that 16 years of newspaper ad design put on me. It feels good. Of course I actually got PAID to do the shit work. Hmmmm.

Time to de funk, listen to some more from Sir Jarvis, and get some rest. OK, get some rest.

Later.