Reacquainted

Today I got reacquainted with my road bike. It sort of felt good. The great thing about riding on the road, on a road bike is that you turn the pedals (no matter how bloated and pathetic a road rider your are, speaking of myself of course) and zip-zang you're off. Well at least when things are flat. On a mountain bike everything is sort of lurching and awkward. Still fun at times, but still "lurchy." Yeah, that's right, I made up that word, but ass they say right down the street from my house- "deal wit it."

Where was I? Oh yeah, the road bike, the road in which it rolls and the re-acquaintance there of. The last time I rode the Campeon it was making sounds that resembled at WW I tank. Turns out my pedals were so shot they were jiggling like a porn star's boob(DD)eezzz. New pedals, fixed. Um, no? Lubed (sadly the bike, not me or anyone else), greased, etc., etc., And STILL I creak, not as bad, but creaking nonetheless. Shit has not been right on the road bike since I did that ride in the rain forever ago. I think it needs a full on greasy velo-enema of sorts.

Creaking be damned the ride was pretty OK. I still suck at road riding, enjoy it at times, but still not like riding a mountain bike on dirt. The sad thing is, the loop I do, (and the 30 variations of it) never seems to get any easier. I never do a hill and say- 'I remember when this was hard.' 6 years on and I'm still saying 'I hate this hill' or urging some false flat to blow me. There are other loops I do in other places that I dig and know I've got better at. but my local loops can suck it.

But hold on pardner, this makes it sound like my ride sucked. Ummm, no. It was sort of good for what it was. A quick 30 mile work day loop. But to tell you the truth, I really have no desire to ride more than 30 or 40 miles of pavement. Now put in some shit roads (all of PA?), some dirt, and some trail and I will be VERY interested in riding it. That is not to say I would ride it well, but I would WANT to ride it. I hate saying that. It makes me feel like a bad cyclist (joining bad father, husband, person, etc., etc.,). But bad as in not respecting the sport, not bad as in suck at it, but I SORT of DO suck at it, so I guess like Lindsay Lohan it can go both ways.

Anyway, aside from the whole huck off a cliff and crash thing, I LOVE this sport. The sport of cycling saved me from being a 300 pound goof (or at least being 300 pounds). It SORT of brought me out of the shell that some folks may argue I maybe should have just stayed in. And as of today (maybe not tomorrow) it has given me a career in the ABSOLUTE LOOSEST SENSE OF THE WORD with XXC Magazine (available at XXCMAG.COM). LOL!

Road riding- dig it. Some days I love it. Road racing- I'll watch it, respect it, but I won't do it again! Tried it once. Got dropped 1 mile in, rode 30+ miles by myself. I can do that for free. Cross racing? Suck at it, but want to do more, and want a cross bike (can SOMEONE get me a deal on a Jake The Snake??), XC racing? I would love to do it, but I'm in a VERY gray area of being able to ride long distances slow, but not being able to ride XC distances fast. Don't want to sandbag, and I don't want to come in DFL. But anyway I just want to let readers know that 90% of the time, when I talk disrespectfully of road riding, it's my inability to do said riding that irks me.

Wow, I got WAYYYYYY off track. I COULD have just said, I did a short road ride. It was OK, and just ended it. But I didn't. Sorry, I'm an idiot.

Later.