Friday Is Better Than New Years

I made some remark on some little known social networking platform that I am not into New Years fluff jobs and hand jobbing. It is what it is (to quote Biz Markie), a date change. BFD. BUT I find it hard to argue with Father Time and Baby New Year (please put a shirt on BNY, I hate babies running around in just a diaper, a sash and a top hat. plus, it looks sort of gay- not that there's anything wrong with that- except that it looks stupid.


Where was I??? Oh yeah, New Years. It's hard for me to argue with New Years. I met Wifey on New Years. At (the now defunct) Nick's Fat City on the South Side of Pittsburgh. The (much hated by me) Clarks were playing. We met, danced, and then I did what any gentleman would do to a lady at Midnight. Stuck my tongue down her troat. Appalled her friends and then waited 4 weeks to call her. "Hey.... remember me?" Well she did. And 15 years later.... BAM! Tolerable marital bliss. I kid of course. We have a pretty darn OK life and I am blessed to have met her that night. Especially since I have never been one to go out out partying n'at. She puts up with a lot of shit from my should be medicated, moody self. AND she gave me the best thing EVER! B-Man. Thanks Wifey.

As I mentioned, I won't be fluffing you up for New Years (unless you're paying, I could use the dough). Enjoy the night, don't act like an ass, and do something fun with 2011, Day One.

2010 can suck it! And 2011 better be using protection, because I have be mind fornicating it for a while now. As long as I don't have to sell a house, buy a house, deal with re-lo folks, be without Wifey for 8 weeks, move to another state, get to race more, and step a bit back from nervous breakdown #4, the one louder bitch that is 2011 will be mine.

See you on the other side.

Later.

The What If List of 2011

So I sit here still in 2010 wondering what will go down race wise for me in 2011. I know for sure that in March I will do the Barry-Roubaix (as you should too!), and before that I MIGHT do a winter XC night race here in Mich-ee-gone, but that night race depends on the weather and whether my xB can get my ass up to the race safely or not.

I also know that I will do the Lumberjack 100 this year for sure. But other than that I am still waiting for the Michigan Cup Endurance Series schedule to be released. The series is made up of marathon, 6, 8, and 12 hour races with a 24 hour in there somewhere. I won't be doing the 24, but the series will probably take up most of my season, and have me not driving more than 2.5 hours to any race, which is pretty cool. But I need the damn dates before I can commit to anything. In due time I suppose.

I also have some non race race plans that include riding a very good chunk of the North Country Trail with some folks (or alone), and doing the High Country Pathway. On top of that I would also like to map out a dirt road century right out of MP or Alma. I am pretty darn sure that can be done, but whether that becomes a "race" or just the velosturbation™ of a self satisfying ITT remains to be seen. The opportunity is there for sure. Then of course the is the Hilly Billy Roubaix in June. A lot of whether I do that or not will depend on what sort of summer schedule B-Man has and whether I will have the time/energy to drive 10 hours to race. I might be able to coordinated it with a visit home, but can't commit yet.

Later in the season since I am at least for now a Michiganderiteburgherian I by law have to at least attempt to sign up for the Ore To Shore, and the Iceman in the fall. Just me and 5,000 other racers!

Much of the racing I want to do is here in Michigan. That is not by accident, I figure the best way to get to know the trails of the area is to go ahead and race them. I don't really care where I place, as long as it's not last. Anymore not last is just as good as first. Anyway, lots of neat things planned for 2011, some may or may not happen, but it's the "may" that keeps me doing what I do. Not that what I do is anything special, but it's a tad more than many folks do. And a "tad" in space terms is about a half a million million miles.

Later.

A Long Trip Just To Fail

After yesterday's time in the gym I was anxious to get outside today. I decided to head up to the MMCC trail and do some snow riding. That was a mistake! I based the ride on how much snow we have here in MP, and thought that even if a few people have rode there in the past week or so I would be able to plow through. No one rode the trails and there was 6 to 7 inches of snow on the ground. Within 2 feet I was at a stand still... at 5 feet I was walking, at 25 feet there were numerous trees down on across the trail, and at 75 feet I was turned around and headed for the car. Maybe a Pugsley or a Mukluk could have handled the job, but 29x2.1 tires were not going to do anything. It was just too deep.

Had I worn my hikers for the drive I would have just went for a hike, but all I had were sneakers and bike shoes. Snowshoes would have been perfect of the woods up there, AND would have helped back the snow down to ride. Might have to look into them. Plus if I pull a lawn roller behind me I can double the workout and REALLY pack the trails!

A quick drive home, out of the winter riding clothes and into the summer gear down in the basement for an hour on the trainer. I was less than enthused to ride after all that pointless driving and time wasting, but got some calories burned anyway.

I know a lot of folks are riding Midland City Park. I should have driven there instead, but nooooo, I thought I knew better. I didn't. But there is always tomorrow. Or the next day. Unless of course I giant 16 ton weight falls on my head before then, then I suppose it would be pointless.

Later.

Weighty Letter Bombs Of Love From Canada

Today was nice in a relaxing sweat all over the place sort of way. Wifey and B-Man are still in PA, so today was a good day to catch up on some sleep, then catch up on XXC work by updating the ever growing, amazingly huge, super fantastic XXC Events page and sending out a t shirt or two.

After that I hit the gym for the first time in a week. Felt damn good to be there! Sort of normal at first with a 20 minute warm up, then my weight workout, which is custom designed to help me achieve that 11 year old boy/cyclist look that I am going for. Sadly at my age, with the wrinkles and all the sagging, the workout will have me looking more like a sickly 40 year old man in need of a tummy tuck and some skin tightening. After that it was back on the StairMaster for an hour. That hour hurt like hell and I looked much worse for wear at the end with a huge puddle of salty suck (AKA sweat) surround and covering the machine.

A word about my sub par gym stuff*: Some folks might wonder why I have been spending more time in the gym than on my bike. Why get cardio from a StairMaster and not the bike? Why lift at all? Here is my answer: Going to the gym gets me out of the house! Since I work at home, and don't have a real active social life, getting out to the gym when the roads are crap for riding can get me a killer workout PDQ and safe me the madness of the trainer, looking at the same walls 24/7 or driving to the XC ski trails. I will start riding more both inside and out in the coming month along with continuing to go to the gym. I like mixing up riding with these workouts. There is nothing like spending an hour plus in the gym to make you love spending 4+ hours on your bike even more!

I had poo pooed the gym the past few years, but then I was looking back at some of my racing and saw that one of my best mid pack seasons to date was the 2006 race season. And it just so happens that I went to the gym the winter of 05/06. Hmmmm... (rubbing chin quizzically). Lifting also seems to be helping my back (which is feeling 99% better of late, thanks in part to the weighted back extensions for sure!) and my shoulder which gives me grief every winter with some throbbing arthritis pain, that probably comes from a collar bone break when I was a kid.

*PLEASE NOTE: I am not an elite athlete or racer. If you don't know that by now, that is you fault. I'm just sayin' that this stuff seems to work for me. Results and giving a shit at all may vary by reader. Also I typed all this because as I mentioned before, I have realized how the Soiled Chamois blog Jumped The Shark to being just some random blog where a borderline nut case bitches and moans about life. If you want that I guess you will have to go check out some Fox News Blog or something. They seem to do a lot of bitching.

In prep for some trainer sessions that will no doubt be coming in the next two months, I went to Target and picked up as super cheap DVD player for the basement.

This will save me from dragging the bike into the living room (pissing Wifey off), and stinking up the living room carpet with gallons of sweat (pissing off anyone who then has to smell said sweat carpet). Not to mention I always worry that a band of Jehovah's or Girl Scouts are gonna come knocking on the door, and I would be forced to answer it in a sweaty stinky bike kit. (Shameless plug: Speaking of bike kits- go order an XXC kit before January 10th!)

My Canadian friend (The Original Big Ring) who may or may not be affiliated with Les Assassins en Fauteuils Roulants (A.F.R.), a Quebecois separatist group featured in the novel Infinite Jest, sent me a package over the holiday. Sort of of a pre-Valentines Day/Easter card from the looks of it.

Yep, I was sent a couple of his custom stickers that only pro level slackers that race bikes and have the willingness to pay out of pocket for "custom" stickers can get send. Thanks OBR! I must say I am way more uncomfortable knowing that OBR has my home address, than I am with his overt love for me, or his use of religious imagery in stickers. LOL! BTW, before you tell me how inappropriate you think this sticker is or anything like that, read his post about the sticker. Or just hate him not me. All in good fun... all in good fun...

Time to chill, and undo all the hard work I did at the gym by drinking a couple beers and playing Fifa '11. Hey, that is what makes me some good at being mediocre.

Later.

BACK!

When I say "back" I mean back home (in M.P.), not like "I'm back and feeling goooood." But I will take it. Anytime I can put the Christmas holiday in the books is a good thing. Mark it down, and move on... Move on to New Years, which is the last ball suck holiday in the Sucking Of Ball holiday trifecta and be done. THEN I can move on to 2011 and the return of mediocre!!!

The actually Christmas holiday was good, B-Man had a blast (and that is what it is really all about) and it was great to see some family. But truth be told I just don't do the "visiting" thing well. I like my own space, and my own routine of slack, work, working out, making food, etc., So as you can imagine, shacking up with family (although super nice and cool) just doesn't feed my hunger for routine.

The best present Wifey and I could have hoped for, actually happened today- we closed on our White Oak house with the Re-Lo people and only have to worry about ONE house now!! Woot! Woot!! 98% of the stress of moving is done. Now just to pay back all the cash we borrowed from family and lending folks in order to make the move, LOL. Should be taken care of PDQ and that is beyond PDQ, it's PDS (Pretty Damn Sweet).

Back to work and working out tomorrow. I can't wait to get on a normal eating and workout/ride schedule again. 5 day of nothing but shoveling food in my face and doing pint sized curls is enough. Time to bring it down, and then next week get even more focused on the new year. The first race of the year is less than 12 weeks away! That being the Barry-Roubaix!

Glad to be back and I hope to get back to more of a normal bike blog in the coming days. Should be a lot to blog about- rides, new frame, new races, training, porn, etc.,

Later.

So This Is Christmas?

So this is Christmas? Yep, and it's pretty darn not bad, even for a Grinch like me. We spent Christmas Eve with my Dad and family out in the the 'Dale, then headed back to our home base in White Oak (Pappa O's) to hang for a bit and gear up for Christmas Day madness.

The Eve was cool. My seestor cooked up some killer food, and I was called a freak by my sister-in law a few times (I guess that is to be expected, given my penchant for being a freak). The main food item was ham. I am not a ham fan, but a fan of ham I was last night and to that I say "gawdamn, gawdamn, gawdamn, that ham!" I ate too much of it and in turn had to drink roughly 476 oz. of water to flush the 1,899,999 mg of sodium from my ever increasing gelatinous system. But in the end it was worth every trip I made to the bathroom last night (7).

Good gift were got and quality time ripping on each other was had by my family. It was nice.

B-Man slept in later than usual on Christmas Day and we didn't start getting jiggy with the Santa gifts until about 7 a.m. or so. Everything from Santa was a hit and B-Man proclaimed this day "the best day EVER!" And that brought a smile to my sodium swollen face, still glistening with pig fat.

Later we had a giant brunch cooked up by Wifey, Papa-O' and Gran-moo. I again ate too much. This time sausage. I couldn't help it. Wifey (a former vegetarian) cooked it up, and something about a former vege-head cooking up sausage was a real gastronomical turn on to which my carnal desires needed to be satisfied.

Then more gifts, and B-Man in a froth of Christmas cheer. Good times. I got a cool bottler opener and picture frame made from recycled bike chains from my bro/sister in-law, and a super cool food processor from Pappa O' and Gran-moo. Anxious to try that bad boy out once I return to MP.

Time to maybe have a cold one or three, chill watch some boob tube, get ready for more ham, and order up some new pants with increased waist size.

Tomorrow I hope to see my Dad again, hang out with some friends and get ready for my return trip to MP so as to hop back into my sub par training, XC skiing (if I ever recover fully from the first one!), and work on XXC Mag #10 (TEN!!!!!????).

Hope anyone wasting their holiday reading this dross, enjoyed their Christmas.

Later.

PS The old house here in the Dubya-Oh will officially be out of our hair come Monday. JOOOOOYYYYY TO THE WORLD!!! LOL! It will be nice to only have to pay utilities for ONE house! Ha!

Holiday Wrap

We are about to celebrate the holiday season here in the States; Christmas, Hanukkah, Festivus, etc., etc., If you don't know by now, I am not a fan of the holiday season. Yeah, yeah, sure, I love to see B-Man all hopped up on Christmas geekness, but for a 39 year old adult, with a series of "issues" it is just not that fun. I think more than anything it is that Christmas is a celebration of all things winter, which I detest. I hate the cold, the damp, the dank, the dark, the ice, etc....

SURE, I love to XC ski on occasion, and a good winter hike is like a nice frozen enema to dislodge the remnants of a three day cheese binge, and a change of seasons is pretty "OK," but for the most part Old Man Winter, Santa, and all of his elves can piss off and just let me ride my bike in the warm sun. I totally dig riding in the snow, and may even do a race or two in said frozen Satanic excrement, but that doesn't mean I have to dig it.

I skied my ass off on Saturday and I am STILL walking like someone stuck a ski pole up my pooper! Freaking hip is killing me. Feels OK to ride and to do my gym shit, but sometimes walking makes me want to drop a dookie as I grit my teeth in pain. Eph skiing (for now).

While we are "ephing" folks, EPH L.L. Bean. I was supposed to leave VERY early AM tomorrow to head to PA, but the gift I ordered for Wifey has not appeared yet. Tracking says it is at the MP P.O. and will be delivered sometime tomorrow. Oh, EPH IT! I am just gonna do my normal day, get a workout in, and then head out to PA to catch up with the already departed B-Man and Wifey.

I got a nice ride in on the trainer today. A "pyramid" ride. 1 min on, 1 off, 2 on, 2 off, 3 on, 3 off, 4 on, 4 off, etc., etc., up to 5 and then back down. Yeah, sure I would have rather rode outside, but given that I shoveled snow this a.m., worked, wrapped C'Mas gifts, looked at porn, and goofed around on the web all day, 1:20 of riding was pretty darn on bad for me.

Can I still "eph" stuff? Good! EPH 2010!! Lots of cool stuff happened in '10 but lots of ball suck stuff happened too. More ball sucking than not. So good riddance to bad rubbish. I just want to get on with 2011, get back to the mid pack, get XXC back to it's little read, little known, little cared about self, and me back to some sort of mental balance that only involves working hard, riding hard and enjoying my B-Man and Wifey.

Pretty anxious for 2011. Lots of new races to race, lots of new places to ride, and what looks to be a new bike to share duties with the Ti El Mariachi. More on that another day.

Time to chill with a book, get some sleep and gear up to kick Christmas in the ass and then kick 2010 in the teeth.

Later.

It's All In The Hips

Me thinks that 10 miles or so was a bit much for the first ski on Saturday. How do I know? Because my legs, especially my hips still feel like a naked midget/dwarf beat me to an inch of my life with a frozen pimento loaf. I manged to do my hour StairMaster workout + weights today pretty pain free, but things like walking or squatting hurts. CURSE YOU VILE 10 MILE SNOWY FROLIC! CURSE YOU!

Speaking of snowy frolic...

Fun to watch guys go that fast in the snow.

Not sure what is one tap tomorrow. Gym? Snow ride? Trainer? Need to do something, because from about Thursday until early next week I will be without the gym, the bike (most likely) and trapped in the frozen depression and angst that is the holidays away from Soiled Chamois HQ.

Later.

Yikes! Skiing??? Ouch!

Good week of XXC work and gym stuff but no riding. An hour on the trainer doesn't count! BUT today I made up for it all by joining Chris M. and his friend Shirley in some cross country skiing up at XC Ski HQ. I am NOT a XC skier, I just sort of shuffle along, sweat my ass off and try not to fall. UNNNNNlike Chris and Shirley who are freaking amazing. I haven't seen skiing like that since I skied with my buddy Tom and his wife Chris back in PA. And their skate skiing was freaking amazing and I can even fathom doing it. Very impressive.

On top of all that, other than some putzing around at White Oak Park last year, I haven't done any real XC skiing in about 6 years or more. Then today I did roughly 10+ miles. Every "shushh" by the end hurt, and walking hurt even more once off the skis. There is a LLLLLLLOT of work to be done on my technique and lack there of.

It was a good day out in the crisp, snowy Michigan air. I burned a ton of calories and put them all right back in at the end of the day with a serious binge. UG!! I wanted to get out on the bike tomorrow for some snow riding, but I really don't think that is going to happen. Unless of course I can Phil McGroin by tomorrow A.M.! UGGGGG!

Monday is the kick off to the worst two weeks of the year. I pray they go fast and quick. Like a knife to the throat.

Anyway, I will blog as needed/wanted. In the mean time, did you check out the super time wasting video/info dump I did on the XXC Blog? OR the freaking 100 (freaking plus!) races that are now up on the XXC Events pages? Well you should. Or you're lame. OK, I'm kidding of course, I am the lame one who can't feel my groin. NOT for lack of trying! ;)

Later.

Forgot A Title. Oh Well.

No ride today. You see I have been struggling with a font choice/design for a piece in XXC #10 and it's been driving me crazy! But my persistence paid off (what do you know, I AM good at something!) and I got things looking the way I want. Woot! Woot! Yep, I spent 2+ days obsessing about an article title intro, that most folks won't even notice. Who knew Cooper Black could look so good (I am joking!).

I did find time to head over to Mo-Courts (that's the nickname I gave my gym) to molest the StairMaster for an hour. I usually do like 30 minutes, then weights, then the SM again, but that just seemed lame, so I did an hour straight, then did a HUGE upper body workout on the rowing machine for 10 minutes. Again, I kid. I AM a kidder.

The weekend holds some potential XC skiing, some snow biking, a holiday party, some beers, some beer, and some malted beverages, so tomorrow I might just piss around and ride the trainer so I can represent on the weekend (again with the kidding, get with the program).

BTW, My buddy Craig put up some XXC love on his blog today. Thanks OBR! Much appreciated. While I am on the subject of flaky Canadians- Do you know what the last REAL (non e mail) thing I heard from Craig was? No, no you don't 'cause you ain't me...

It was the 2009 Wilderness 101... Craig passed me at about mile 70(?) on his single speed as I walked a climb, I was completely destroyed as per NUE hundie usual. He made some wise ass comment about how fine my ass looked (he didn't, but a guy can dream), and moved on ahead. Then I hear him scream back to me "blah, blah, blah, blah, eh." "What???" I asked. "Blah, blah, blah, blah, eh!" He again screams. I think it best to ignore him, but he screams one more time. This time I heard him- "WATCH OUT! THERE'S A RATTLESNAKE UP HERE ON THE RIGHT!!! EH!!!" Ohhhhhhhhh, THAT is what he was saying. (Enter one soiled chamois). Never did see the snake, but at least he was kind enough to let me know, eh.

Later.

What The Cuss? The Bishop!!

I really have nothing to blog about. I could go on about how I hate the word blog, blogger, and blogging. Who even came up with that name? Makes me think of flog, flogger, and flogging. Which makes me think of bishops and the flogging of said bishop and that makes me think of .... DAMN! See how nothing turns to something. I hate that. Anyway, when I was done thinking of flogged (not blogged) bishops, I thought of this and laughed my ass off for a bit.

Hmmm, Where was I?.... bike blog... bike blog ... bike blog... Oh! I rode the trainer today for an hour and sweat like a pig! There put that in your pipe full of cycling smugness and smoke it! AND I worked on interviews with REAL bike racers today. Bike racers that win shit and stuff. And yesterday I worked out like a freaking dog at the gym to help with OPERATION MID PACK 2011!! HA!

Speaking of O.M.P.-11 (say ommp-eleven), registration opened up for the 2011 Barry-Roubaix today. This will most likely be my first race of 2011. The Barry gives you a choice of 35 or 65 miles of (most likely frozen and cold) Michigan gravel. And I am happy to say that XXC is going to be part of the BR-2011. Look for some tees on the prize table and stuff like that. So get registered bitches. Now, do I buy studded cross tires just in case? Or just wing it?

Lastly- sorry about the post the other day where I was wishing a gorilla to hurt someone (someone evil!). I still want that to happen, but I am apologizing due to the outcry I received from the Society For The Ethical Treatment of Women Who Don't Want To Be Accosted By Gorillas. That and the fact that Wifey sort of did here own very low key, ask to talk to a supervisor version of the gorilla wish, and got a bunch of shit waived on the house, and we can close on the W.O. house at the end of the month. SWEET! I owe Wifey my version of banana. Which leads me back to that Bishop. What the cuss?

Later.

P.S. What the cuss? Is spawned from the fact that B-Man is watching the great, but too much of a good thing can be bad, movie- The Fantastic Mr. Fox for like the 5th day in a row. I love the movie, but cuss, it's time to move on.

Mail Order Gorillas

The past two days have been sort of wastes. Snow hit Saturday night. Not any Wrath of God type stuff, just a few inches of very wet snow. Then the temps dropped, the winds kicked up and froze everything solid. The MP area does an amazing job at clearing snow. I've never seen anything so orchestrated. Plows, plow the snow, it kicks up into the bed of the truck, they then dump it in the middle of an intersection until it is piled about 200 yards in the air. Then big giant ass backhoes come in and load it into giant ass dump trucks. Then they take it off to some snow grave yard or something and it is never seen again. No giant piles along the road, blocked views, taking parking spaces, no kitchen chairs saving spaces, etc., It is really impressive. What is NOT impressive is the their ability to get ride of the ice. I'm not sure they really use any salt at all. Damn, it's was slippy out there today.

To add to the madness, the temps were like 10 degrees today, and of course my xB's wind shield wiper liquid lines froze. So me and B-Man (who was home from school due to snow day) had to go the the slightly less white trashy than Wal-Mart mega super big box store that is Meijer to buy a variety of de-icer liquids and homemade remedy type solutions to break it free. Finally after obsessing over and working on the frozen lines all day they opened up. I then proceeded to drive nowhere.

Then to add even MORE madness (OK, MY madness) our relocation "expert" in charge of helping us with the "buy out" of our home in White Oak, contacted us to say that the final inspection showed some NEW issues that were NOT on the original list of items we were told needed to be fixed and did before they bought the home. So after spending $8,000+ (of borrowed/credit card money that we don't have) they have found NEW things they want done. To say that I hate the re-lo woman assigned to us is a gross understatement. I think I may have mentioned the wish for her to be accosted by monkeys in a jungle and/or watching her exit the side of a bridge like Wile E. Coyote (Super Genius) in a burning car. Yeah, I overreacted, especially when I mail ordered several angry gorillas to be delivered to her office.

The rest of the day's shit I can deal with, but these people are just making shit up now and taking advantage of us. The kicker is that the .gov billed this as a benefit to taking the job. How is putting us further into financial debt a benefit? Grrrrrrr!!

As you can imagine I did NOT ride today, I did not work out, and I got very little XXC work done. I did work on my sleeplessness, high blood pressure, mania, depression, anxiety, and getting my marriage deeper in the shitter.

Did I mention this Re-Lo Bee-otch?

Later.

Snow Day!

I had a pretty good week of "training" (please read training in SUPER GIANT AIR QUOTES, PLEASE!!!). Some gym time, some trainer time, some quick and cold trail time, and today. Today was the "queen day." A 2:20 ride up at MMCC in a few inches of snow. It rocked.

Down here in MP we had a dusting of snow that melted to almost nothing when today's temps warmed up to about 35, but up at the MMCC campus about 25 minutes away they had a good 2 to 3 inches of snow that while wet, and slippy on occasion, was still fine for riding.


The ride was slow but dam fun. I can usually turn out a lap at MMCC in under an hour even at my slow ass pace, but today a lap was about 1:05 or more. The best technique was to sit and spin. A few of the little up hills were slippy and I biffed on one as I lost momentum in the wet snow, but for the most part is was just a fun 2+ hours of snowy singletrack that was like a combination of riding, skiing, and surfing. I hardly touched the brakes as the snow was enough to help slow me through the corners. Thank goodness for that, because my already sucky Avid Juicy Ultimates ("Ultimate" at what, sucking?) were next to useless.


In any event it was a fun ride, that was well worth the 25 minute drive north. It was also nice to get a winter ride in without my bottles freezing! Woot! Woot!

Some good amounts of snow are expected tomorrow, I am of course praying that the douche bag weather man is wrong. But I doubt. It's December in freaking Michigan!

Later.

Smaller Can Be Better

From the few years that I thought I could race 24 Solos I went through a lot of lights. I used a variety of NightRider Halogens and HID lights. Then I saw the Princeton Tec LEDs, and just felt in love with the color of LEDs and how my eyes react to it versus HID lighting. There is just no comparison to me- LED is the shit! And the folks at Princeton Tec helped me out a bit and are great peeps.

My main set up for a while was a Princeton Tec SB3. Thing would burn forever and gave me some good light. It had it's down falls; the light sat REAL tall on the helmet (branch fodder), and the battery weighed a ton. But I more than happily made that sacrifice because the burn time fit my racing at the time, and the light was bright enough. (For the time).

Once I saw that I was probably not be going to be doing many more 24 hour races (solo), I figured I could take a look at some lighter weight LEDs that were on the market. The only thing was the price! Gad-zoinks!! But then a buddy tuned me on to the Magic Shine light. Sub $100, and bright as the sun to me. Sure it's cheap, made in China, blah, blah, but it was freaking BRIGHT! When I bought it I figured if I get one year out of it I'd be happy enough.

The thing is/was when I lived in White Oak, PA I hardly ever rode at night- I wasn't a fan of the city based legal trails at Frick Park, South Park was a bitch to get to, and Bavington and North Park might as well been on another planet it took so long to get to from my crib! There was the mountain was a bit too far away for a night ride (and covered in snow a lot during the winter, and Boyce was a great place to ride, but technically illegal to night rider there. Sure people do it, but there were always threats from the County po-po about getting caught, etc., etc., And I know me- I WOULD be the freaking one to get made and example of by Mr. County Cop With Attitude. I would be forced to tell the tale of how I spent the night in poky, with my bike locked up in the evidence room while some meth head tried to molest me through my chamois in Cell Block H.

On top of all that I have been working at home for the past 2 years (I run a mag called XXC in case you didn't know), and since I'm the boss, if I want to ride during the day, I can usually ride during the day. SO, any night ride I was doing was the occasional rail trail ride when schedules got ephed and I didn't want the trainer in the basement.

But then I moved to Michigan. All the trails near my crib are open to night riding. In fact I questioned the legality of riding the parks and trail systems at night to one shop owner and his reply was- "They're all legal, why wouldn't they be? Nobody cares if you ride at night." GASP! OK, this changes things a bit.

Now if I can't make it out during the day to scheduling, Dad stuff, etc., I have some serious options, not to mention a small group of locals who have real jobs and ride at night, and the trails are easy to get to which is a huge bonus! Now I sort of WANT to ride at night. Good thing I got that light I love so much!

Then about a month ago I start reading posts on the blog and forums about how that Magic Shine light that I love so much is having battery issues (and eventually the battery will be recalled). Rumors are flying all over the place- one dudes says his battery spontaneously combusted and almost burned his house down, one dude says it's just a cell problem in the battery, one guys says "you get what you pay for." One dude says there's nothing wrong with them at all, just a supply issue that is being blown out of proportion. All I know is that mine works and I doubt it will burn my house down any more than my lap top or cell phone could. BUT once I start hear those rumblings I start searching for a replacement just in case it goes down on me (and just in time before the mobs of folks thinking their house will explode from their lights).

DAMN! Every light that has what I want still costs a boat load. One of the options beyond just being bright was the option to use regular rechargeable batteries with it. Just in case. Well I finally found what I was looking for thanks to web buddy and endurance freak (and sort of just a freak) Dave Nice. Dave threw out a link about Amoeba Lights. Jay out in CO, does some KILLER DYI lights, that are bright as the sun, super, super light weight! Like my digital camera weighs like 3x what the batter and light of this light does. Really SUPER impressed with this light. Built solid, well crafted, and handmade right in Colorado. This light will be perfect on its own with the Princeton Tec EOS (a great back up light!) or on occasion with the still kicking, hasn't burnt my house down Magic Shine I am venturing somewhere a bit more technical.


The light itself is so light that the helmet mount is just some Velcro adhesive pads that you mount to your lid. This didn't work for me since the Lazer helmet has a serious peak in the middle. BUT not to be deterred, AND keeping with the DYI anthem of the light I have an extra rubber piece for mounting a HR monitor to the bars. Drilled some holes in the side, zip tied it to the helmet, mounted the adhesive pad, and stuck the light on my lid- DONE. (pic tomorrow, tired now).

Mod Photo: Almost like it was SUPPOSED to be. The light head is the exact size of a HR monitor rubber, handlebar thingy (Oh, like you know what's it's called!). Drilled a hole, stuffed a zip tie in, zipped and done. Of course I didn't have a charged drill battery, so I used a "ghetto drill" and just kept shoving a screwdriver through the rubber thingy till it popped out the other side.

Many folks mount the battery to the helmet too. I do not want to. I want as little weight as possible on my head. So I will just throw the tiny battery in my jersey pocket or rear jacket pocket.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Pros: BRIGHT!! Super light weight, tiny, solid made, great customer service, extra battery pack that can be used with 6 AA batteries, made in Colorado by a dude that uses his lights every day.

Cons: Not crazy about the helmet mount system, but I am happy with what I did to solve that. The light will get hot. If you are just standing about. Should probably be turned off if you are just standing talking with your friends bull shitting in the woods. But how many of us do that? And there is just one setting: Super bright. No low, medium or flashing. Just HIGH. And that is fine by me. I can't say I have EVER just used a low setting on a light, except for if I was on the road at some point at dusk. Which in that case I have the EOS to turn on. So that is of no concern to me.

As with any mountain bike, part or accessory, the real proof is on the trail. It looked super freaking great in the backyard tonight, but the the trail is the puddin' proof and my legs were too damn tired from going ape shit at the gym today. Should be able to test them out next week, maybe in some snow!

EDIT: Jay from Amoeba Lights let me know today that a REAL helmet mount is available direct from him.


I make pick this up if my ghetto mount fails in some way. Thanks Jay.

Later.

13:29 And Borrowed Time

Not surprisingly (since that wouldn't take much) today was much better than yesterday. Lots of XXC stuff to work on (the fun art stuff that I know how to do, not the lame stuff that I have no idea how to do), and I was able to get out for a quick hour or so at Deerfield.

Deerfield is nothing to get excited about, and often it is just easier to say "f*ck it, I'll ride the trainer" than drive the 5 minutes to Deerfield to ride wide flat trails. Much is wide cross country ski trail or walking paths, that undulate a few feet up and down (I'm not kidding, it's like 5 feet of elevation) except for 2 sandy ups that are real buzz kills, but welcome after the steady go, go, go of the rest of it.

It was cold, there is no denying that. I realized today that it take me 13 minutes and 29 seconds of riding before the finger pain from the cold leaves me. But damn, tht 13.5 minutes sucks! LOL!


So the ride was nothing to write home about. OR to blog about, yet I just did. It was enough to get my 2nd Frozen Bottle Ride of the year in, so that was sort of cool. Not sure IF anyone is reading, or if anyone aside from me really cares. Hell, I don't even care and I just wrote it. I fully see where this blog went from a bike loving racer/rider to just a daily diatribe of sorts. I'm fine with that. I'll probably keep riding and writing about that riding, but I can't imagine that anyone gives two shakes of a ho-bo's gonads. I guess nowadays folks prefer the 10 word quips that Twitter can offer. Well, that I really don't say much here anymore.

Blogger says I have 1,926 posts on the Chamois. Maybe I'll keep 'er going to 2,000 then call it. I doubt, but it's thought.

Time to chill with a movie or something.

Later.

Wasted

I hate weather. OK OK, I hate winter. There I said it. I mean I dig the winter, and the change of seasons and all that jazz, and sometimes I don't mind riding in the cold. A few layers and a few shivers and chatters are good for the soul. But today the was no goodness for the soul, nor was there any wanted. Just couldn't get in the zone for the cold or anything today. And the bitter cold breeze blowing was enough to induce projectile lactation.

Some time on the trainer would have to do today. And yeah, that sucked. I'm usually one that can make the best of the trainer. Just couldn't get into it today. I couldn't focus on a work out, the music selections seemed all off, and my sweat smelled like cheese. But I did get it done, and moved on with the day. Not that I got anything else done. XXC work was all over the place and I wasn't really focused on any one task.

Since I had only left the house to walk B-Man 200 yards to school, I thought it might be nice to get out for a bit. So I went to Rick's to get some chicken for dinner. Well that killed 4 minutes. I forget how quick it is to get to the stores around here. Eeesh.

The only real cycling highlight of the day was watching episode nine of Behind The Barriers. Which is like the best show on TV. Oh wait, it's not on TV, it's on the computer.

Hopefully I can make up for today's Day of Suck by either riding or at least leaving the house to go to the gym tomorrow.

Later.

The Low Of The Week Is A High

After yesterday's ride, Wifey, B-Man and I headed over to the Mt. P. Christmas Parade. I pretty much hate the Holiday's, but on occasion I am moved to enjoy them. Last night was one of those times. I was super impressed with the sense of community that MP showed. No drunken yahoos, no white trash dropping F-bombs all over the place and beating their kids and wives. Just a good time.


B-Man got to visit with Santa and let him know what he needed, and me and Wifey got to freeze our butts off in the process. Still a good time though and worth the 2 block walk to downtown to see it. Between the nice ride yesterday, and the great time we had last night, yesterday was one of those rare moments that I (we) thought that we indeed made the right decision to move our asses up here. At least for a little while, to mentally regroup.

B-Man had a great time, got a bunch of candy, hung on my neck, and got to see a bunch of fire trucks, and the 4-H Queen. What else is there?? All in all a great weekend- B-Man enjoyed his first week at SHA, I got about 8 hours of "training" in, a BUNCH of work done on XXC, AND a bunch of house painting done. I could bitch if I wanted to about something, but I won't. I have all winter for that.

Today there was no ride, barring a 45 minute trainer spin. The bulk of the day was spent trying to paint Home Depot Orange faux bricks on the sun porch an off white. UG!! Took a llllllong time. It was like an endurance race, except painting and way suckier. BUT I got it done, and with time to then chill with a beer or two, and some White Trash Mexican food.

Time to wind it on down, do some reading, get to bed and get ready to do it all over again.

Later.

Slush Ride #1

Busy, busy week here, but still managed to get some hours in at the gym, on the trainer and on the trail. Today I got up to MMCC for a ride. While it was no doubt cold, it was also no doubt fun. MMCC is about a half hour North of MP, and they had just a bit more snow there than we had. It was still only a dusting and 23.99" LESS than parts of Illinois had the past few days. Good they can have it!

I finally managed to find my Lake winter shoes in amongst the unpacked boxes in our basement. JOY! I also manged to finally get my recently Stans gooed wheels to hold air. BONUS! So I had warm toes, firm wheels, and trails that alternated between snow covered, frozen hard pack dirt/sand, and leaves. The pace was VERY casual and I was just happy to be out and on the trail.

Took the Ti El Mariachi today and as always, I was glad I did. Other than the some Avid brakes that could use a bleeding and some pads replaced, the bike was spot on. I took the Dos Niner the last time I went up to ride MMCC, and it was good, but I still just LOVE my Ti El M. While I love/have loved my Dos Niner, and don't doubt that the Spearfish will one day pull part time duties with me, I still just love a great hard tail frame and the Ti El M is the shiznit.


It was cold for sure with temps never really getting to the 30 degree mark, so I told myself that I would see what the trails were like, do a lap, and if it sucked leave after a lap. But the trails were freaking AWESOME. The snow was dry, the ground was frozen, and the tires were hooking up on everything. Usually riding these trails is super fast Jedi/Endor type riding, today it was more Empire/At-At Walker lurching type riding. And I was super OK with that, because it was nice just to be out on the bike, in Michigan. In DECEMBER!

I ended up with two hours of ride time, a bottle filled with slushy Gatorade, and some sweet endorphins coursing through my bod. A chilly, but great day to be out on the mountain bike.

Later.

Working Sort Of Hard

This week has been super busy, but in a good/great way. Lots of Mag stuff going down in time for the Holiday Recession Season... New (old) T shirts in stock and for sale, as well as XXC jerseys, caps, shorts, and bibs up for pre ordering (if your door swings that way). I'm also trying to work out stuff with some folks to get the word out about XXC (and it's potential world domination which is moving at pre global warming glacial speed). Then of course I am trying to gather content for the next issue, and it looks like it's all coming together pretty darn nice- An interview with a series champion, a couple other endurance freaks get a talking to, a tongue in cheek view of the Iceman, a first timers view of Trans North Georgia, and a few other nuggets. And I hate to admit I have only worked on about -5% of ALL that, with the goal of publishing in late January. DOH!

Then of course there is the continued beginnings 2011 "training." Or what I more often like to refer to as "not becoming a big fat non-racing goof." Monday I hit the gym, Tuesday I got some tempo with some intervals on the trainer, and today, I headed out for a short and cold hour in some light snow to at least get my ass outside.

The first problem I encountered was that I can not find my Lake winter shoes. Surely they are buried deep in some yet to be unpacked boxes in the basement. Curses! So I utilized some newspaper bags. Yes, somehow I got duped into getting the local daily paper, which is (and I'm not kidding" about 8 pages long every day. Annnnyway. I used the bags over wool socks. Yeah, it was ghetto. I'm cool with that.

Did a few quick loops around the park, burned some calories and had a pretty darn, not bad, OK time. I needed to get home since there was a stuff to do and an appointment to keep for some house stuff. Not to mention my rear wheel has not been holding air super well, and I left my Co2 in the car and didn't feel like blowing it (no pun!) on a short little ride with the car never more than a few miles away.

Back to the gym tomorrow to work on my flabby buttocks, then back to mag work to get shit sorted out.

Later.