Zero Pounds, Oily Spots & 18 Geared Bikes

Well the first 4 days of MEatless is done. Yeah! Total pounds lost = 0. Booo! I was really expecting to drop at least 10 of the 20 pounds I want to lose this week. Oh well, maybe MEatless Week II will fare better, especially since I plan to start mixing up some Alli/Metamucil Cocktails to aid the pound shedding. "Gas with oily spotting" and "frequent hard to control stools" be damned!

B-Man calls Friday "Fun Filled Friday". Tomorrow I will most certainly agree as I throw some chicken on the grill and crack a beer.

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I got another quick ride in the dirt in today. I have been totally stoked to ride dirt so close to my crib. Sure I need to do two laps or more to get a work out in, but some of the trails in Dubya-Oh-P are really fun, and on a weekday that is divided up between work/dad/ride/dad/work/sleep, I really don't mind.

In order to get more of a loop in I join some section of dirt with the park road. The park road itself is used by walkers and dog walkers. Given the looks I get, I sometimes feel like the people there have never really seen a person on a bike before. Makes me a little self conscious. They sort of stare at me in a way that make me feel that I didn't properly tuck the ol' chap in the chamois or my jersey has somehow come up and my pasty white belly flab is spilling over the "control top" of my bibs for all to see. Oh well, they will get used to it in time.

Speaking of the gawker/walkers. Today I'm looping through to start my second lap and this 40 to 50 year old guy walking his dog flags me down to stop as I'm rolling by. Figuring he might need something important (he didn't), like an idiot, I stop....

"Hey, there. You know I just got a bike. 18 gears or something like that. Took it to Schenley Park not long ago. There's some nice riding there. There's like a bike path"

"I heard that, that's cool." I reply, and attempt to inch away.

"I had it here once and started coming down that hill... wow, I thought I was gonna go over the bars! I mean it's been years since I was on a bike." We both laugh at the thought of him crashing his 18 speed bike on the 2% grade downhill, fido thankfully starts to pull him away, and I wish him luck with his bike as we part.

Why am I telling you this? Well as much as some might THINK it's me bitching about how some random dude stopped me during my 1.5 hour, "training to do nothing" but enjoy the dirt mountain bike ride, just to tell me about his bike and poor descending skills, it's not. I guess I just wanted to point out another example of how the Joy of Bike can get people talking. Like when you're a kid and you're friends with other kids just 'cause they're kid you're a kid, so BOOM you're friends. Bikes are sort of like that.

That's why when I'm out on a ride and get "cool guyed" by a passing cyclist (yes, YOU the roadie that I passed twice on my road ride last week, with not some much as a nod!) I can't help but think him a raging douche, and secretly wish that his PowerTap hub explodes, his warranty is denied and he feels like all the miles he just rode, acknowledging no one but the stats on his computer, never happened. I mean I'm not asking for hugs and kisses, and God knows I'm always too out of breath to talk on rides, but a nod would be just fine dude.

Wow, sorry, I got sidetracked with talks of cycling doucheness...

OK, flagging me down probably was a bit extreme, and I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't just a LITTLE disappointed that he didn't have a reason for me to speed off like a human Lassie on two wheels to fetch help, but I'm no worse for having stopped and neither is he. Unless of course he spied the misaligned ol' chap or the un-controlled bib belly. Then he's probably a tad scarred by the miniature stature of the one and the pasty enormity of the other.

Later.