When There's Nothing Left

I should have rode today. It was cold, but sunny, and from the looks of it the driest day of the coming week. But I didn't. I was busy catching up on XXC and would have felt to guilty taking 2+ hours to get a ride in, so I settled for time at the gym. Sort of glad I did. After riding only ONCE in the past week, I knew that my legs would feel like two stubble-haired meat loafs with feet attached on the bike, so I figured easing back into routine with the gym would be the best.

Some of the day was spent sending out the first wave of "Fun Hurts" Ts which
are back in stock on xxcmag.com for all your f-bomb holiday shopping needs.

I did regret not riding, but I was right about the legs. Just doing my warm up on the StairMaster felt like a freaking chore. But after the weights, it was time for the longer higher intensity MasterStair-ing session, and by that time I felt great. That is when the regret of not riding moved in. It was also about this time that Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson was wailing on about "numbers" and "beasts" on my iPod, and in my twisted mind I contemplated, hopping down from the machine, propping up my semi-hairless and increasingly bone white leg on the machine in front of me (as if I was the aforementioned Dickinson atop a stage monitor) and letting rip with my best metal croon...

This can’t go on, I must inform the law.
Can this still be real or just some crazy dream?
But I feel drawn towards the chanting hordes,
seem to mesmerise...can’t avoid their eyes.

As you can most likely imagine, I did NOT do that, but DAMN did I want to! I have to admit (if not to my therapist, at least to you and the couple folks out there on the WWW.) that sometimes thinking stupid shit like that is the only thing that gets me through time at the gym. Well, that and knowing that if I keep doing what I'm doing, my strength and mid pack form will return, although I do have my doubts about my once taut and shapely ass. I kid about the ass of course, it's always been concave, flat, and in need a of a good bleaching. I admit I have been looking for an excuse to use the phrase "taut and shapely" since I saw that blond on the treadmill this afternoon. Again.... I kid! I'm a kidder.

Just to prove to you that this IS a bike blog is more than potty talk and heavy metal fantasies about evil beasts and taut buttocks, I give you some killer video of my friends Montana and Samwise (Gamgee) Morrison busting out some tan-dumb hurt at Pittsburgh's infamous Dirty Dozen.

Brilliant! Well done guys. Just goes to show, when there is nothing left in the well, poach some video from someone more talented.

Later.

Back Home

Back home in MP. Feels good to be home. I set my land speed record on the way home, even with the knob-gobbled holiday traffic. The masses were no match for me and the xB.

Lots going on this week for sure. B-Man is starting his new school (we/B. weren't diggin' his other school, so he's now going to SHA, AKA Division 8 State Champs, LOL!), I have a TON of XXC work to catch up on, as well as start back on Operation Mid Pack 2011.

Oh well, time to chillax with the family unit and brace for a week of catching up work wise, mentally, and physically.

Later.

The Lull

I am sooooo ready to be home. And by home I mean back in Mount P. Not that visiting with friends and family hasn't been great, and I can't say enough about the generosity of my Dad and my father in law to let us crash at their homes, but not having my routine of work, workout/ride, slack, cook, sleep, etc., is starting to make me a big crank/tool/member/richard cranium.

Could have rode today and I didn't. I could have raced the Dirty Dozen with my Pittsburgh friends and I didn't. I DID sleep in, eat a big breakfast (that I didn't make, not that it wasn't great, but damn I miss cooking my own eats!) get a hair cut, continue to play with WordPress, and go to Borders. NONE of those activities exactly lit a fire under my ass.

Cycling barely creeped into my life today. The extent of it was picking up a copy of Paved at Borders and adding some air to my tires. Paved is OK, but not a huge fan of road racing and cycling, but it is pretty well laid out. Not as good as Embrocation or Rouler, or even XXC Magazine (LOL!), but pretty well done.

Editor Joe Parkin seems to focuses a lot on Belgium and racing there. I'm sure that is no accident given his racing career, and hope there is even more in the future, because the muddy cross racing and epic Spring Classics of the region is about the only thing that gets my loins in an uproar about road riding/racing these days. Truth be told I've only sort of flipped threw it right now. Since I started XXC I find it harder and harder to look at other mags. Not that I think mine is better, but I sort of don't want to be influenced (consciously or subconsciously) by them and find myself doing something design or editorial wise that I don't want to or shouldn't do. I do hope to give it a good sit down read tomorrow night. In my own bed.

Later.

Delayed And Estranged

Thanksgiving Day, 4:28 PM. The meal is over, family is gone and I am chilling, blogging and digesting in the guest room of my Dad's house, on what could be the world's most uncomfortable and noisy bed. They should call the bed the "Sex Killer," 'cause while it is silent for blogging, there ain't nothin' happening on this bed later without the whole house knowing about. CURSE YOU GUEST BED! Of course the floor proved pretty solid back in my dating days...

YIKES! I'm offtrack, aren't I? Sorry.

The week has been proving tough and strange so far. Driving from Michigan to PA and not having a place to stay, means Moving from Poppy's House to Pappy's House and back, to split time. There has been some good times so far but sadly they were sandwiched in between some stress and nutz-o family stuff. Miscommunications, hurt feelings and my bad reactions to those added a little bit of drama to last 24 hours, but the meal itself went off without any Springer-esque scene. Oh well, shit happens, and this shit could have been a lot worse. Glad the day went OK though.

I was able to squeeze a short 1.5 hour MTB road ride in out in White Oak yesterday, and make it to Penn Hills to pick up a batch of fresh off the presses XXC 'Fun Hurts..." T shirts, but NOT without putting us behind schedule on the day, and enhancing the above mentioned miscommunication with other family on times of arrivals, etc., I hate the holidays. I love the routine of every day.

We were able to meet up with some friends last night at their crib and it was great to see them. Great conversation, good times and good pizza. Not to mention dude had a 1/2 keg of Dogfish Head Indian Brown (AKA The Best Beer In The World) in the kegerator!

I would like to brave Monroeville "Black Friday Madness" to check out the new Pro Bikes shop. Maybe even pick up some new Ignitors and get them Stans-ed up. Not sure if I will make it or not though.

That's it, nothing much else planned for the weekend, maybe another ride, but if it adds to any holiday stress I will abort. One holiday down in what is the Holiday Trifecta of Evil. Good times.... good times....

Time to maybe get into some left overs. OR look for Wifey and see if she wants to pretend it's 1995 or something.

Later.

Back For A Bit

Back in The Commonwealth for a few days for Thanksgiving. I did end up bringing the bike. Weather, and time will tell where and when I ride. Feels strange being here. I've only been away from PA for about a month, yet upon my return some things feel so strange (and not missed)... Like sitting in 376 traffic, (traffic?? WTF?). Was nice to see some hills though. Lets see how nice my legs think they are!

Anyway, this week looks to be nuts- hope to get some riding in tomorrow, pick up some XXC t shirts, see some family, see some friends, have a few beers, eat some turkey, eat some pie, eat some mashed pots, make myself throw up, take a laxative, ride more, make myself throw up. Did I say that twice?

I know way less than nothing about track racing. Other than people race bikes, on a track. What I do know is that this film is really well done. Check it >

Velodrome from Nick Turpin on Vimeo.

Later.

Calm Before The Storm

Took yesterday off the bike, felt like I got hit by a truck most of the day. Then I slept like shit last night. So this morning I felt like the truck that hit me yesterday, backed up and over me today. BUT.

By mid morning I started to feel better, just as a Michigan monsoon was pissing down. Not wanting to go to the gym I climbed on the trainer. Something I have done very little of since moving to Michigan (just once prior to today). I put some race footage on the lap top in front of me, and some tuneage on the hi-fi and expected the worst. What I got was a VERY pleasant surprise. The legs felt great, and I was able able to get in my tempo HR zone and stay there for most of the ride. I've always had trouble getting my HR where I want it when on the trainer, but today I got it there and held it better than I have in a LONG time.

Not sure any of this means anything. I doubt. But it felt good. Now just to be able to hold that tempo for about 7 hours!

Off to Pennsylvania tomorrow. Might take a bike with me. Might not. I might see if I can set a record for the most weight gained in one week. I think I can do it.

Put some stuff up on the XXC Blog today too.

Later.

Adequate to Sub Par

I'd like to say I had big ride plans for this weekend, but this time of year, I just sort of go with whatever comes my way. So this week had a little bit of everything. Gym time (I'm getting huge), a weekday gravel ride, a night ride, and Saturday a trip up to MMCC to do some laps. I figured I did 3 laps last week, why not 3 more, or even better- FOUR! Well that didn't happen. It was two.

I guess the problem started on Friday night, as I sort of got into a few beers. Curse you Michigan for carrying my fave beers (Bells, Founders, Stone, etc.,) in every freaking store around! While I wasn't exactly tuned up like a frat boy with a Coors party ball and a bath tub full of Purple Jesus', I wasn't feeling too much pain as I watched a seemingly endless marathon on Billy The Exterminator and Top Gear (UK) on TV. Nothing a good sleep, some water, and coffee couldn't cure. Right? Right. Sort of.

I felt great in the AM, especially after about 200 oz. of Italian Roast coursing through my veins. At this point I started looking at the approaching ride through "coffee goggles," and thought I would do more like 4 laps at MMCC than 3. The problems was that my brain forgot to tell my legs of this plan.

I soon as I started the ride, I KNEW that 4 laps was NOT going to happen. Hell, I wasn't sure if 1 lap was even going to happen. I was all over the trails, my legs were dead and my back was killing me. My back has been a real ride limiter of late, and the cool temps and bumpy trails were not helping. I really need to get to a doctor/chiropractor to have it looked at. But by the end of the first lap I was feeling OK, and continued out for a second lap. About 2 miles into the 2nd lap I started to really feel good. I was getting good power to the pedals, having fun and moving pretty fast. Then a couple miles later I once again felt like shit and knew that 2 laps was going to be it. Eph it.


Not the end to the week I wanted. Most of it was my own fault. Shouldn't have got into those beers, but more than anything I should not have gone to they gym the day before. I usually take Friday to chill and ready for a weekend of riding. But this Friday I opted to go to the gym for an hour on the StairMaster and increasing weight on the leg press. NOT good. What was I thinking? I wasn't.

BUT as I said above, this time of year is still sort of just enjoying getting out and riding some snowless trails. No need to take thing too seriously, or worry to much about performance in November! I mean the first race is still 3+ months away. Also I DID still get over 8 hours of riding/training in this week, which while NOT great, it is better than I was getting just a couple months ago for the most part.

Even though I like to get at least one BIG grave l ride in on the weekend, I am aborting the ride today to chill the legs, maybe do some painting in the house, and be a slug. This coming week should be chaos. Leaving for PA on Tuesday, splitting time betweenst in-laws and my Dad's place, visiting friends, and MAYBE squeezing in a ride. UG!

The Bro List

Busy day around the crib today. Web stuff, mag stuff, house stuff, dad stuff, husband stuff, critter stuff, etc., etc., The highlight was getting to see a dead beaver and a live skunk in the back of the critter control dudes truck. Felt bad the beaver was dead. I like beavers. At least ones that aren't flooding peoples homes and spreading disease. We thought we had squirrels in the attic, turns out we don't. Might be some winged vermin, but won't know for sure till spring. Ug! But hey, I got to see a dead beaver!

OK, I lied, the highlight was getting to steal a quick hour of loops at Deerfield after dark tonight. The group ride never materialized so I went solo. Cranked out a quick hour in the crisp 34 degree temps and headed home to my fave fall/winter post ride meal- A big honking pot of chili. Cockles warmed, colon blown, smiles had.

Some observations from the night's ride: 6 deer eyes staring at you as you roll down single track is sort of spooky when alone. I need some booties for the tootsies. My light battery did not catch on fire. After an hour of following bright LED lights, the xB's lights look like dim, yellow, 40w light bulbs. Happy to be able to ride dirt at night with out fear of the county po-po coming down on me. While I didn't ride much longer than I would have if I had rode the trainer, it was much more fun for sure.

Oh, the Bro List. That comes from an episode of one of B-Man's shows, two friends have a list of shit they want to do together, yada, yada, yada.... Anyway I came home tonight to find a list of 12 things that B-Man wants to do in the coming days/months/year. Some I have NO idea what he means, but here they are as written with some minor explanations from me.

1. Blue Jay (no idea, but see #3)
2. Skate Board (he wants one for his birthday in Feb.)
3. Catch hawk. (He's on a bird kick lately, reading, watching, talking about, etc.,).
4. See Propel friends. (Propel was his old school in PA)
5. Be Venom (Venom is from Spider Man)
6. Skate with Tony Hawk
7. Play Basketball
8. Play Soccer
9. Meet Tony Hawk
10. Have a BMX bike
11. Be friends with Tony Hawk (Dude loves him some Tony Hawk!!)
12. Get a book called..... TONY HAWK

That my friends is a 6 year old's "bro list." Not to shabby. Little heavy on the Tony Hawk man crush, but could be worse for sure.

Later.

Nothing Much

No ride today. Embarrassed myself at the gym by sweating like a fool for 45 minutes on the StairMaster, then continued that embarrassment by doing a bit of lifting. It would be slightly less embarrassing if I didn't think B-Man could lift roughly the same amount of weight.

The rest of the day was spent getting some much needed XXC blogging done, lots of happenings over there. If I get to ride tomorrow, it will be a night ride. Hope the weather is good.

Anyway, this post was lame. Sorry. Just so there is SOMETHING to do with cycling on it, I leave you with a note that B-Man posted on my bed room wall the other day.

Of course it appears that he cut the top part of the paragraph off. I can only think it said "You really SUCK at weight lifting, and 99,000 other things.... BUT you're are really good at biking.... LOL!

Later.

Weekday Gravel

With the cross bike at Terry's and not wanting to drive anywhere I took advantage of some free time this a.m. to do a little R&D on TiEM out on the local gravel, sand, dirt, shit roads that lay just a few miles beyond my front door.


After many miles on the cross bike, riding the El-M on the gravel was slower for sure, but not "dear God this is slllllow" type slower. In fact some of the roads were pretty rough and stutter bumped due to some rain the other day followed by big GIANT freaky, Star Wars looking farm type equipment rolling over the sandy gravel and dirt that makes up these roads. So some fatter tires and even the Fox were welcomed on occasion. But for the most part I missed my cx bike.


I threw in a couple of new roads today, and took out a couple of old ones. The new ones brought some added climbing (or false flats if I were in PA, LOL!) that were unremarkable, but an excuse to at least get out of the saddle and let my aging saggy ass reshape itself a bit.

With rifle deer season in full effect I did heard quite a bit of gun fire out there. I don't mind hunters and hunting at all, but sort of mind the idea of being capped in the ass by a stray bullet. On one rode I got passed by dude in a pick up and he had one of the biggest bucks I've ever seen in the back. I don't hunt at all, and have never (or will) fired a gun, but I found myself giving him the thumbs up when I saw it! Must be some sort of man gene that I can't control. Oh well, I have more respect for the guy with the ballz enough to kill it and eat it, than I do the masses (including me) that will belly up to a steak that we have NO idea where it comes from, or how many chemicals, drugs, and feces are floating in it. Hey that reminds me- remember when I gave up meat a few months back? Yeah, that failed miserably. I still don't eat much red meat but have a pretty steady diet of turkey and chicken products. Finding it easier just to try to work out more, rather than not eat it.

Wow, really got off subject there. My bad... Really was a great day to ride and I am lucky that I was able to get the time to get out and ride. Might be the last time for a couple days, or at least until Thursday night. The sun was out, the air was crisp and my legs felt good. A nice way to spend a Tuesday morning, I doubt Wednesday will be as generous.

I got about 40 miles (34 of it dirt/gravel/mushy sand) in, then got home showered and headed down to Alma and Terry's Cycle to pick up the cross bike. Big thanks to Rod at Terry's for the quick turn around, great work and good price. Much appreciated.

Might have to hit the gym tomorrow, see how the work work and weather goes. Not to mention I need to start painting a couple rooms in the house. Dark green and egg plan purple in the dinning room. Yikes! BTW, anyone have a rough idea on the cost for someone (not me) to install a chandelier where there is none? Room has NO overhead lighting, and it needs it bad. But again, I am off subject here...

Later.

Not A Great Start

Not a great start to the week bike wise, or was it? A ride never really happened today. I got caught up doing some work on XXCMAG.COM, where I am trying to put together a database of endurance races and dates for 2001 under EVENTS. I was also in full on Dad mode too, but with B-Man off school. By the time the day was over and I could ride, I just decided to make a big vat of pasta and stuff my face with it. If you run a race and have a 2011 date you want up, drop me a line or comment with the info and I'll get it up.

Did get the bike down to Terry's Cycles in Alma today. They are gonna fix up the cx bike PDQ, and it should be gravel worthy very soon. Seemed like a real good shop, and dude dropped some knowledge on me about the endurance scene and in his words- "I think you're gonna be very happy with the variety of races to choose from up here." SWEET! I like hearing that.

Other than that there was not much else going on. I continue to be frustrated with my slow Charter web connections, but I suppose in due time (or money) it will get all running fast. Grrrrrr!

A ride SHOULD happen tomorrow on some dirt. Time, local, and distance TBD.

Now to figure out why XXCMAG.COM is not loading. (OK, it's loading now).

Later

I'll Pass

Today was NOT what I had in mind, but it will do. First I woke up sort of late, put the day behind schedule. I had a plan to do 50 mile gravel ride. So I went down to prep the cross bike for the day. Something didn't look right...

At what point I lost an ENTIRE FREAKING BRAKE SHOE I have no idea. But I did, and that sucks a hairy one. OK, I'll take the mountain bike. So I upped the PSI in the tires, locked the fork out, and got ready.

Then I stepped outside. Damn, it's cold! OK, no worries, all good. I get the shoes on, start out and it'd misting rain. OK this sort of changes things. While I was dressed warm enough for a 40 degree ride in a 15 mph wind, I was NOT dressed or prepared for a 50 mile ride in a WET 40 degrees and 15 mph wind. I made it two block and said "f*ck it." I love that I can get out in the middle of nowhere in just a few miles. But being cold and wet in the middle of nowhere with a perve in the park stiff breeze was not on my Sunday plan. So I turned back got undressed for the most part and did a quick spin on the trainer to at least get a sweat on.

The funny thing is that the weather channel dot com for MP never seems to be right. There was no rain on the radar, yet it was misting rain. Sometimes it says it's sunny and it's cloudy, and sometimes it says it's 50 when it's 30. (And yes, I have the right MP Mich.). I'm not the only one to think this, others have mention it too. Some sort of weather conspiracy.

This week was full of ride blocks and not what I would have liked, but I made the best of it. If I get out to ride tomorrow it will have to be a night ride, as B-Man is off school due to the first day of (rifle) Deer Season. Good gravy!!!

I guess during the day we can take a trip to the bike shop to see about getting a new brake on.

Now I guess I'll make the best of a cold, damp day and just sit my ass on the couch, play some video games and maybe drink a beer or two.

Later.

The 30 Miles of Moron

mo·ron [mawr-on, mohr-] –noun

1. a person who is notably stupid or lacking in good judgment.

2. Psychology. a person of borderline intelligence in a former classification of mental retardation, having an intelligence quotient of 50 to 69.

3. see Jason Mahokey (aka Soiled Chamois).

After a perfect date night last night with Wifey I had a plan to scoot up Mid Michigan Community College to roll a few laps of single track. AND that's exactly what I did. Although it wasn't perfect.

When I got to the lot and starting unpacking and readying myself and bike for the day, I noticed something was missing. My bottles. I left them in the fridge. FRIG! I'M SUCH A MORON!! All I had with me was a BIG ass Nalgene bottle that was way too big to fit in the bottle cage or my jersey pocket. Oh well, at least I was doing laps and not a BIG ride or I would have been screwed. So I was able to leave the bottle by the xB and hit from it every 10 miles. Not ideal, but SOMETHING.

I really like the trail at MMCC, but to me it SCREAMS for a full suspension. Why? While not a "technical" trail, it is rough and demands near constant pedaling, so it really beat you (me) up. So today I took the Dos Niner. While a vast improvement over using the hard tail, I was still wanting MORE cush for my ass. I started thinking about the Spearfish or something similar. I hate the thought of a full suspension. I hate all those moving parts and things to break, but this trail make me think about it every time I ride it. CURSES!

Super dupe close up that I lichen to moss. (That's a joke son.)

Did one lap thinking if it sucked with no hydration I would bail. It didn't so I did 2 laps. After two laps, I saw no reason to stop, so I did 3 and ended up with about 30 miles of single track. It was a good day. Time to warm up, chill and have a beer or two and some mid-west Mexican.

Later.

Friday.....

Friday, oh yeah! It's like a good, long morning pee. This one is even better because I woke up riding the high of a nice Thursday night ride, and knowing that tonight Wifey and I are having our first date night in about 12+ weeks. B-Man has a baby sitter and we can walk two freaking blocks to a place serving up fine Belgian beers and I guess food. Is there food there? Hell I don't know... THERE'S BELGIAN BEER! And I can walk/fall/crawl home. Joy! Ha!

On top of all that I continue to find more ride options in my new state. Including an 80 mile IMBA Epic ride less than 2 hours from my house. While I don't think I will make it up there to do it in 2010 due to hunting season being in FULL ON BLAST YOU IN THE BACK effect on Monday, less daylight, weather, etc., etc., It is GAME ON in 2011. And don't get me started on the options for the huge ass North Country Trail. This winter may shoot me in the face like a depressed drunk with a itchy trigger finger and a new 12 gauge, but I'm ready. Anxious to race more in 2011, and ride my ass off.

Might hit up some extended gravel tomorrow or head to MMCC to ride, since I missed out riding there this week due to freaking students. Either way the weekend holds bikes, beers, and boobs in my future and I will be on them all like spray tan on a co-eds.....

Later.

Fun After Dark

I got pretty much NO work done today. Just all over the place right now. Gathering stories, looking at web designs, trying to get some design inspiration for an article or two, AND dealing with the Critter Control dude trying to catch the squirrels who invaded my roof and walls of our house. But there are worse things to worry about for sure.

Great ending to the day though- a nice 15 mile night ride with some locals. I forgot just how fun it is to weave in and out of the trees at night. The trails are so different at night. The overall experience is different too, but it remains big fun. I had not been night riding in a LONG time. So long I had to make sure my lights were charged and still working proper this afternoon. It was also nice to meet and ride with some locals and to know that I'm not the only rider in town.

Once home I was able to chill on the couch and watch some Billy The Exterminator with B-Man and Wifey while I stuffed my face with a big pot of chili. Good times.

One last note... Not to be a downer, and not to mention any names, but I found out some bad news today from a friend and mag contributor. I don't want to get into the what's and who's but he and his wife are grieving right now, and if he reads this I just want him to know that they are in my thoughts. Hang in there buddy.

Later.

Blocked Again (sort of) Part III

More heavy fog in the are this morning meant that B-Man was on a 2 hour delay. Which means I WAS on a two hour delay. Wanted to get this and that done, with a focus on that which is getting out for some mid week gravel lovin'. But by the time I took B to school and waited for said heavy fog to burn off, my "comfort window" was shrinking.

What's the Comfort Window you ask? The Comfort Window is that window that I allow myself of ride time (I like two hours) + allotted mechanical/flat/getting lost time + getting home (if driving) + getting out to the chamois and something less nugget binding and/or getting a shower before I have to get B-Man or other duty.

So today with B-Man not starting school 'till 10:45 and me with a few other duties to take care of, I aborted the ride and did go to the gym (against my will). Once there though I got in the zone, found a mix on the iPod that was worthy of me dropping a sweaty nugget on the StairMaster and weight machines (FYI It was Mix Master Mike- Napalm Rockets. Not my normal style of music at all but it has enough dubs/breaks/scratching and general noise to fuel the fun and help me forge that there is rap in .

I was sort of glad (hey, I'm trying to be positive here) that I went. I had a great workout, upped the weight on the leg press, and had fun in a twisted, the gym sucks, but sweating is good sort of way.

Tomorrow I have tentative plans to join a group for a night ride, so I gotta get the lights all charged and ready. Been a while since I did a group ride, I've been told it's "not a hammerfest" but I'll believe that when I'm not asking for oxygen an EMT or hanging my head in shame. LOL!

This week has NOT been going how I planned, but I am making the best of it.

Later.

Blocked (Sort of) Part II

Woke up this morning to fog. No big deal.

At 8:15 the cable guys shows up to redo the modem with a new wireless router and parks in my driveway. At 8:30 I ask him if he can move the van so I can take the boy to school. He says "I think the school has a two hour delay because of the fog...." "What?" Then he calls a friend that has kids in same school district, the dude says now they cancelled it. Again, I say "WHAT?" No school because of fog? I double check this info via cable guy beta with Wifey and sure enough- No school. B-Man was jacked because he was supposed to go on a field trip to some cool ass Native American shin-dig, and I was jacked because I wanted to ride and get some work done. The cable guy didn't seem to care.

So Tuesday needed a revamp-- STAT!

The cable guy did his thing and got me back to enjoying web page photos loading in under 3 minutes on my desktop computer, and then B-Man and I went to get hair cuts at the local barber. I'm not ashamed to admit that B-Man and I are SuperCuts/BoRics type dudes. While I can't completely speak for B-Man, I myself prefer semi-hot, fresh from beauty school, so not my type females touching and styling the locks and burns. I like that they make very little chit chat, do a good job, and get me out the door fast because they think I'm sort of creepy.

So when I saw the wall to wall sausage party and various deer heads on the wall at the local barber I was a bit taken back. There was lots of hunting and ice fishing talk, and an hour wait. The dudes were nice for sure, and truth be told the atmosphere was sort of neat. I mean otther than me they knew the name of every dude that came in, and new all the town's important happenings (someone got a leg severed yesterday!! Jeeezusss!!).

Nice or not, I knew there was no way I was letting those dudes near the chops. But I was too embarrassed to walk out and look like "Mr. too good to wait for a barber cut guy." So we waited. For an hour while the 10 dudes and kids front of use got cuts.

Since I now did not want a hair cut, and I had to pee, I let B-Man take one for the team, get a quick cut and get us out. He looks fine, I still need my burns thinned and my lobes waxed. They did a great job and I may go back for a cut, but not before they know my name, and I get my first ice shanty built.

The rest of the day was spent doing some minor XXC work and goofing off with B-Man until Wifey came home. I thought about going to the gym, but its' 60 degrees in November, in MICHIGAN, eph the gym! So I shot over to Deerfield for quick hour. Those flat but fast and sort of fun because their so close trails are like racing a cross race. Big ring, always on the gas riding. There's even a 3 inch deep sandy climb with water bars that sucks the power right out your legs in a "oh yeah, that feels gooooood" sort of way.

Sun setting along the river.

I had prepared to do a night ride and had all the gear with me but after four laps, boredome set in and I left before the sun sat with one hour of big ring tempo riding in. NOT my plan for the day, but it beat the hell out of spending 1 hour at the gym or the trainer. There will be plenty of time for that when there's 2 feet of snow on the ground. Of course I just might be in that shanty....

EDIT: Well that lasted about 24 hours. My computer once again loads pics about as fast as a 1999 dial up modem. Back to the drawing board. Tired of looking at those stupid.jpg icons for 2 minutes until the page loads the pics.

Later

Blocked

I had incredible two days on the bike. So good that I wanted more! So after a morning e mails, invoices and HTML frustration I headed up to the MMCC to ride a couple laps. BUT I had to abort the ride because (are you ready for this?) I couldn't get a parking space! WTF?? Tried two lots, looked for a place back off the road to ditch the xB but was not convinced that any place would be safe enough to leave a vehicle alone with out of state plates.

So I did a lot driving and no riding. I attempted to do work on the web site, but ran out of brain cells, I wanted to figure out how to keep the squirrels from getting into the walls of the house, but just stood in the driveway saying "yep, I think that's where they are going in. Too bad I don't have a ladder and the know how to get them out and seal up that little gap." I also spent another 20 minutes on the phone with Charter Cable to try to get my high speed Internet from being slow speed Internet. The result of that was that I have to have a cable guy come tomorrow to THEIR router and see if that works. FRIGGIN' FRIGS of FRIG!!

Why does B-Man drink hot chocolate like he's eating soup? Secondly- Why does B-Man drink hot chocolate like he's eating soup and THEN put Trix cereal in his hot chocolate. ONLY to realize that it tastes like poop and then force me to deal with the yellow, pink, purple and brown mess in the cup. BBBBBBB-MMMMANNNNNN!!!

Oh well, I was due a day of total frustration. Hoping I exit the right side of the bed tomorrow.

Visit cyclingdirt.org for more Videos

BTW, watching the video above was damn cool. That attack Matters put in was freaking boss.

Later.

The M.C.F. Trails

The legs took a while to bounce back from yesterday's cold 44 miles, but with the help of my friends at Sierra Nevada (Celebration Ale- OMG!) and the pizza place down the road, they bounced back big time. So I headed over to Midland, MI to take a look at the Midland City Forest trails. And I have to say it was WELL worth the 35+ minute drive. The trails kicked ass! SUPER tight, bermed corners, wooden bridges, marked trails (a rare sight in WPA). It was like a very well taken care of Boyce Park back in Pittsburgh.


I did a couple laps, back tracked on a couple and then did another hunk of trail "just 'cause it was fun!" The M.C.F. trails were the best I have ridden here so far. They had roots, some rocks, and more curves than party at the Playboy mansion (with none of the STDs!).

While still no REAL climbing, the trails required so much finesse that it felt a little tougher than trails that flat should be. There were a few little grunts to make it worth while for sure. I rode for 2 hours there and I'm pretty sure I had a smile on my face the full 120 minutes.

These trails were serious fun. And has with the Mid Michigan Community College trails, they are made that much "funner" by being about 35 minutes from home. The trails reminded me of the best sections of Boyce Park, the Leesburg BD course, Lodi farms and Bavington all rolled into one perfect single track package. It was so perfect at times, I mentioned to Wifey that I'm almost think that Dow Chemical (whose factories/HQ is in Midland) has come up with some sort of SingleTrackz® chemical spray that the forest gets dosed with. That or there are just some good trail builders with a love of making some fun trails. I sure hope to get some more riding in there before the snows.

On the way home I put trust in my borrowed GPS system to get me back to MP. I ended up in te cul de sac of a Midland neighborhood. I turned that shit off ASAP and went with instinct. 30 minutes later I was home in MP kicking it with B-Man, Wifey and the visiting Papa-O'.

You know you're "up north" when you see signs like this. LOL!

What a great weekend. 2:45 of gravel, 2 hours of sweet single track. I could sort of get used to this.

Later.

Gravel Saturday

Took me a while to get motivated to get out the door today. Great looking day with bright sun, but temps in the 20s at wake up time. YIKES! Eventually the sun warmed it up to about 35 when I took off for a gravel ride. I had mapped out a 70 mile ride, but the temps puckered my bung a bit and I aborted that idea and just went with my (now) normal loop of a couple nugget hairs shy of 45 miles.

The loop as it is now has me leaving out the back door, doing a brief ride through the neighborhood/campus area and 3 miles later turning off onto dirt/gravel, not seeing pavement again for another 35+ miles. 10 miles in I thought I was overdressed, 40+ miles later I thought I was under dressed. Damn hard to get it all right with the temps. Just glad to be out on the bike in early November. There were a few snow flakes flying around yesterday, so to get up today and see the bright sun and 40 degree temps was pretty sweet.

After riding a few of these "flat" Michigan gravel rides I have to say they are fun, but are hard in their own way. The wind can be a factor in the severity of the ride (thankfully no wind today!), as is the sandy sections of the roads, which ALWAYS seem to be when the road goes up. And by "UP" I mean about 50 feet. I have come closer to crashing on these rides than I have on trails or road in the past 2 years. The sand will take control of your wheels and all you can do is finesse the bike a bit to keep 'er up. Another deceptive factor is the constant pedaling. Sure in PA there are some amazing climbs (which I miss!) but also some free wheeling descents. Here in Mich. it's pedal, pedal, pedal, oh wait here's a small down hill... Wait WHY DO I HAVE TO FREAKING PEDAL??? LOL.


Some things that continue to amaze me on my rides....

1. How OPEN this area of the country is. I man you can see for MMMMMMILES at times.

2. Farmers are the hardest working people in the U.S. hands down. I have sort of recognized this before during rides, but here it is agra-tastic and while I am out riding my bike, and others are watching football or doing something even more stupid, farmers are out there plowing, working on equipment, etc., And in the end, STILL not making enough to pay off much of their debt to the seed people and banks. Farmers should be give freaking Saint-hood in my opinion. Growing shit to keep the Worlds' asses fat while most of us are pissing off doing stupid things like riding our bikes.

3. I see more hunting blinds than people or cars on my rides by far.

4. In PA it was discarded undies, here it's furniture. I have seen enough corn field furniture to put together a house. A dirty, stinky, house, but a house nonetheless.

5. That's it. (Right now.)

At the end of the ride I was damn cold, wind (or is that sun?) burned, tired and glad to be home. I in no way wanted to leave my friends and family in PA, but I do have to say there is a LOT of being here that just rocks. I am taking better care of myself, Wifey and I are closer and happier than we've been in months, and despite the lack of elevation I am getting at ton of riding in. NOT TO EVEN FREAKING MENTION that you can buy Bell's and Founders in the freaking grocery store!!!!!!!!!!! Sweet Josie in a D-cup!!


Time to chill and hang out with family.

Later.

Ahhh Friday....

Wow, busy week. Wifey gave me shit for not posting anything. She sees me not posting a blog entry as a sign that I may mentally implode. It's not, and I didn't. I didn't get as much done this week as I thought I would ride/training wise, but let's face it, at this point in the season, we're still in "who gives a f*ck? mode." So this week was all about getting more used to the gym, and more used to the surrounding roads and trails. One of which is the Deerfield Nature Park down the road from me.

Technically it's one step above riding a rail trail, but it's still pretty fun. Will I think it's fun 4 months from now is a whole other story, but for now it's cool. Lots of big ring double track ski trails and single track trail here and there to keep the heart rate up and burning calories. There is one sandy up hill that requires the middle ring, but other than that it's Little Ball of Hate/D-POW approved.

I rode about 14 miles there today, which meant SEVERAL loops and semi loops through the park. After the 10 mile point I decided to get the camera and all get Les Stroud on your asses again.

Doing these little movies is sort of stupid, but having just got XXC #9 out I find myself with some creative energy that need burned off. I spent some of that energy trying to formulate a plan for a redesign of the XXC web site. Using a simple WordPress blog to get it heading the right direction, but I will have to move it to the stand alone WordPress program and/or call in some WP pros to help me get it up and running. It's a work in progress and may or may not ever actually happen. But best to at least start it now before stories and pics for the next XXC demand my attention.

Time to get the gear together, wait for it to warm up a bit more, and make up my mind where and when I want to ride today. Gotta take advantage of the snowless days while I can. BTW I think I'm the ONLY mountain bike racer in the state of Michigan NOT racing the Iceman this weekend. LOL!

Later

Thought I Could

I thought I could beat the rain that was heading our way today and get a few loops at Deerfield in. As it turn out I only got about 9 miles of riding in before the cold 38 degree rain started coming down. I rode in it a for a while, but I was a little under-dressed (knee warmers and cotton socks on the legs were not a good choice) and shit got cold fast. As you can see by the red on my exposed meats sticks in the pic below >>>

The trails were fun to ride. And yes D-POW it was big ring the whole time, except for one grunt on a side trail that I was afraid of breaking my chain with the effort so I backed off and shifted to the middle. You also see in the pic (now above) there was plenty of wet gritty sand. My drive train was a mess by then end. I could almost here metal shaving off the rings, chain and pulleys! LOL!

I was glad to get home warm up and start looking at some options for the XXC site. I think the iWeb thing has run it's course. I find it impossible to get proper stats for advertisers and potential advertisers, yet I find the idea of working with codes freaking IMPOSSIBLE for me. I started fooling around with a WordPress blog page just to experiment, but they are limiting what I can change, and working with the TypeKit stuff is maddening! Parts of it I love, but anytime they start using code lingo I am lost and want to have a melt down. With print stuff I know what I want something to look like and 90% of the time I can get close to what I want. With web stuff I sort of know what I want, and get what I want about 35% of the time. LOL! Oh well, for 9 issues of XXC I have tried to redesign the web site after a release and every time I say f*ck it. We'll see this time.

In othe bike she-it: I took my wheel in to the shop to get fixed on Monday. Even though the woman working questioned why I didn't fix it myself (don't know how, don't have the tools, thought they would dig the business) their wrench had it done that day and did a great job. So that was at least cool. I am missing Pro Bikes though. I loved being able to walk in the shop and just sit and bullshit with the guys. Not to mention they put up with my wrenching handicap. Plus, they were my shop and I miss that. I feel like I am a man without a shop right now. Ha! In due time I suppose...

Later.

Unexpected But Swell

I took yesterday off the bike to rest up the legs after the 90 mile weekend. I hoped to get some riding in today and then start to focus on Operation Mid Pack. My attempt to get back into MY idea of race and ride shape. I would like to get more riding and racing in this spring and summer than I did last year.

The flaw with my plan was that I did not find out B-Man was off school today until last night. Crap. Not that I don't love spending time with him, but the "plan" would have to sort of be on hold as I went into Dad Mode to formulate a new plan.

So after FINALLY getting my blood thinner script faxed in to a pharmacy up here and re-filled (why did that need to be so hard?), and mailing out an XXC t-shirt to the Middle East, B-Man and I headed out for a hike at Deerfield Nature Park just down the highway from us. It is THEE closest place to ride trails near our house. Today of course we were just out on foot, taking in the crisp fall air, walking in the woods while I scouted out the trails.

Some of the trails we were on were really sandy, some were nice hard pack, some were perfect ribbons of single track and some were wide and quad-ish like (my term for about as wide as an ATV). Really not hills of any sort, but still some nice trails.

We did run into a couple getting ready to go out and ride. They said they ride there all the time and have a loop they do a few times to get in some time. In fact in the photo below you can see the woman coming down a section quadish ready to run B-Man down (I kid, she was going about 5 mph, LOL).


I'm anxious to get back to explore some trails on the bike, may even do that tomorrow if there's time. There isn't a ton of trail there, but there is enough to get a fix in for sure. Sort of how White Oak Park was back in PA. Not great but fun and funner because it was few minutes down the road. Being less than 10 minutes from the house is definitely a bonus. The one dude at the local shop mentioned a way to ride there on an abandoned dirt road and some low traffic roads from town, but the maps, etc., aren't showing it, so I guess I will have to go back and pump them for more info. I was in there yesterday to pick drop off/pick up my wheel, but the lady person working didn't seem to chatty or even into the fact that I needed a repair.

All in all we had a great hike. Hadn't planned the day, or hiking at all but our planned 30 minute walk turned into a nice 1 hour or so in the woods. Pretty cool. A bonus to the park (aside from its proximity to my crib) is that in the winter many of the trails are groomed XC ski trails. NICE!

Wifey ended up escaping work early today and met us at home. We then walked over to Jimmy John's for a sandwich. I am here nor there on the place (mostly not there about the prices!) but B-Man love their chips, so I promised him J.J's and it was nice to chill as a family.

There was probably plenty of time for me to get a ride in, but I just wasn't in the ride zone and would have felt rushed, so I headed over to the gym for a work out. I wanted to kick of some of that "training" but I still need to focus on what it is exactly I want from my weight workouts there. I have that sh*t written down somewhere, but my laziness sort of gets in the way. I did enough time on the Stair Master that upon leaving a REAL big older Native American dude gave me props for it. I just laughed and basically told him that I try to make up for my 14 year old girl weight routine with some hard cardio.

Yesterday was sort of a wash, and I had hoped today would be something, and it was. It was better than I anticipated. Happy Tuesday to me. How will Wednesday compare?

Later.

"Training"

Can we do some training? Like, seriously, please?

What are you talking about? Whaddaya think we're doing?

We're acting like a couple of nut jobs, that's what I think we're doing.

Yeah, good. You're learning.

Big Z & Cody Maverick,
Surf's UP

Later