More Stupidity

If running on the treadmill was stupid the other night, doing it again Fridat INSTEAD of riding was stupider. Stupider still was Thursday when I crashed at MMCC with less than a mile left in my ride. Not sure what happened? I made a left turn, possibly hit something under the blanket of leaves and the next thing I knew I was in a ditch along the trail looking up at my bike.

I haven't gone down in a while... maybe since last March's shoulder fucking, season fucking crash on black ice? Thankfully this time there were NO bodily injuries save for a slightly bruised knee cap. BUT (God I hate "buts") the rear wheel was somehow out of its dropout and front wheel was fucked, loosing air and shooting Stan's spooge. Frig.

I shot some Co2 in the front and sealed the leak, but the wheel was all sorts of fucked. Fffffffffff! I was at least able to pedal the last mile or so back to the xB. But all I could think about was the fact that these wheels are just a few months old and I have fucked one up already. Actually for the SECOND time, as I broke a spoke back in August on the rear wheel. Thank God the rest of the ride was awesome or I would be more pissed.

Just as I started typing this late Friday when Napper from Terry's called me and confirmed the wheel can't be saved and needs to be sent back to Easton to be rebuilt. Fffffffff! (did I say that already?)

Napper did offer to lend me a front wheel to hold me over until I can get the wheel back from Easton, and that is supper cool. God bless the LBS.

Saturday (today) I returned to MMCC on the Spearfish. Felt like shite, rode like shit, did one SHORT lap and split. Mind was in a fajunk.

I gotz pics to go with this, just too lazy.

Later.

Later.

I Did Something Stupid (again)

I did something stupid again. No, I didn't poop my chamois again. I attempted to run again. Thus, something stupid. Not sure why I tried, I guess I am just looking to shake up some workouts and prevent boredom. I also started thinking how dumb it is that I can ride hundreds of miles a week at times, but can't run more than a mile. So, I am trying to run.

Since I am not ready for running out among people I confined myself to the Not-So-Stankement™ and the treadmill. I'm starting out by wogging which according to Urban Dictionary can mean a number of things, but in my case I am talking about alternating running and walking (actually maybe I'll use the term "runalking" or maybe "wunking?). For my beastly self, I alternated walking at 3.7 mph and running at 6.8 mph every .25 miles for 3 miles. So in the end I did get 1.5 miles of running in, which is more than I have ran in at least 2 or 3 years. I'd like to work myself up to running 3 miles without stopping but we'll see. I do know I need some new shoes, the old ones just aren't cutting it.

One cool thing is that cardio-wise I feel like I can run forever (or at least a long time), it's my legs, knees etc., that need to used to it.

What I did is sort of illustrated in the video below. Funny thing is that while this is not me, 21 years ago I did sort of look like this guy. Ha!

Later.

Fell

Fall has fell and fallen all over the place. Getting rides in between the rain drops when and where I can.

Later.

The Very Least I Can Do

This has not been a week for "real" riding. Work, family, other commitments and weather all got in the way. Today I was supposed to go pre-ride the Iceman course with my friend Mike, but heavy rain and (his) work got in the way. Crap.

So twice this week I was forced to the Not-As-Stankment™ to ride my "new to me" trainer. I REALLY lucked out. My friend Chris here in MP won a trainer at the Wausau 24, so I offered to buy his old one when mine broke. His reply? "You can have it, I got enough use out of it." Thanks Chris!! I owe you some beers at The Bird. The best part is that his 7 year old, rebuilt a few times, glued in parts fluid trainer works 95% better than my old one did. Win.

In other news.... I bought a new cardigan sweater today. JOY!

See, I'm not all bikes, beer, boobs and music. I am quite the nerdy fashionista.

Later

That Time of Year (For Me)

Between weather (rain and 45 mph wind gusts at times) this week was a suck-fest for riding. Monday's ride was the best and was book-ended Friday with a short, wet ride on singletrack and wet leaves.

Then there was today...

It's early and there is a lot of time left in the riding season... BUT, sometimes Ma Nature unleashes her band of ill-willed, crap weather making miscreants who, after a summer filled with warm temps and daily sunshine, are pent up like group of 15 year old boys with a stack of smut books and access to an all you can pump Vaseline dispenser. In other words we were due for some shit weather and the miscreants did not disappoint today with temps in the low 40s and a steady rain... ALL day. In my opinion there is no worse conditions than rain and cold temps to ride and race in. Hell I would rather have snow!

Today, in my humble, unsolicited and somewhat pussy-like opinion, was a day to say "fuck it" (I say that a lot and my race results and man-chubs show it) and stay indoors for a workout. Right now the only thing I am "training" for is to stay in my 34 jeans, so I really don't care all that much, but still I wanted to get some quality sweat flowing. I am also trying to strengthen my shoulder and upper body after last winter's crash which left me unable to do any upper body weight bearing workout. This meant that today I would not only ride the trainer but do some dumbbell and core work. I figure if one is going to rock a beer belly, it is best to at least have the muscles underneath said layer of flab in shape.

So today was the first indoor workout of the coming off season. I kid you not when I say that after the pain of last year's crash on black ice and the resulting months of pain that came with it, I plan to spend a LOT of time indoors this year. Screw ice, screw E.R. bills, and screw the ice cold rain that was falling today. I got a nice workout in, burned off last night's beer and pizza and listened to a sweet Weezer mega-mix.

It is indeed time I got back to the "good life." The season was crap, nah, it was SHIT. Plan is to start focusing on next season. Too much out there I want to do before I end this here thing.

Funny thing I had planned on racing an 8 hour race today. But as you see here I said "fuck it." 

 

Later.

Ketchup

Last week I rode some singletrack. It was pretty fall-tastic.

Earlier this week I set out exploring the thousands of miles of snowmobile trails that crisscross Michigan. You can read and see more about that [HERE].

Yesterday I attempted to ride the trainer in leiu of riding in 20+ mph winds. The trainer is broke after 7 years of hard use. I am getting a used one off my friend Chris. Thanks.

Today I attempted to avoid another day of 20+ mph wind gusts by riding in the woods.

By the time I got the trails it was 39 degrees and pissing down rain on top of the aforementioned 20+ mph winds. I said fuck it and turned around. I have to say the weather.com radar must have been from like 3 weeks ago or something.

Later in the day some sort of white snow/ice/hail/shit fell from the sky and covered my grill. It made me more than a tad depressed.

But having said all that... I've had some really good rides, I've had some rides that didn't happen. Sucks is life. The Iceman is less than a month away. I really have no desire to do it. I would love to ride it with my friends, I just don't know if I feel like "racing" it with 6,000,000 other people again + spending coin on a hotel room. We'll see.

Might ride tomorrow. Might not.

Later.

Do You Remember The Last Time?

If you are an aging mountain bike racer like me, I ask you this question: do you remember the last time that you felt like an ACTUAL mountain bike racer?  If I am going to be honest, for me, it was in the summer of 2008.

I was up at Seven Springs pre-riding the 24 hour course for what, as it turns out, would be my LAST foray into 24 hour racing.

Back then, around July, it was my norm to go up to the mountain and ride multiple laps of the 24 hour course each weekend. One such day I met up with some fellow Pittsburghers who asked me to show them around the course. They were preparing to race as a team that year, I of course was preparing to race Solo, yet again.

I knew the group vaguely from this blog and from emails, but not in person, and I had no idea how much younger, fitter and hungrier they were.

I lead the group around the course at a nice tempo pace and all was good. We hit the final climb to the finish and all bets were off. The three others (one dude named Brad in particular) took off and I felt like my ass was made out of solid rock. They scurried up the mountain while I spun up like a slow hulking heap of suck. Sure, they were younger, they were racing a different class and they were more motivated, but still I knew at that exact moment that my days pretending to be a racer were over.

As I drove home that day I waffled in between admiring those kids, hating them and loving them. But still, in my heart I knew that my days as a mid pack at best endurance racer were over. There were now racers on the scene who were more motivated, faster and willing to work harder at getting faster at endurance racing than I was. Fin.

That is not to say my racing days ended there. I continued on to race that summer, in 2009 I did 4 N.U.E. races and I've continued to race on some level each season to this day. But still, that day sticks in my mind. It was over. It IS over.

That group of guys are a good group. They are friends of the mag and of mine to this day. But still, while they rock, I look for where my next beer is coming from and how fucked I am mentally and physically. As far as I am concerned my days are over. It was a good go but it's done. Now any and everything is just for fun. Whatever "fun" is.

I wish I could be as motivated as they were/are, but life got in the way. I got in the way. I suppose it's time to move on...

Later.

No You Didn't

No, you didn't do it, did you??? I did.

Sorry, don't care, not reading... I'm not into it.

But I did it.

So what? LOTS of people do it.

That's what I'M talking about.

Why didn't your read it? Mine is different.

Busy?

Doing what?

Stuff.

I know what you do and you don't do ANYthing!

I do stuff.

Not what I do.

Oh, well excuse me.

No excuse for you.

Oh that's fucking mature.

I'm just saying I do DO stuff. You're just too busy on Facebook and that shit to know. Moron.

I like ads.

You like ads?? Who likes ads? That's like LIKING George W. or LIKING Fox News.

Me... I like shiny stuff.

What are your, 12?

Fuck off.

I'm just sayin'.

What does that even mean "just sayin?" That's a freaking cop out for being an idiot.

It means that you can see that shit anywhere, I am trying to do something DIFFERENT!

You shouldn't.

Why?

'Cause people like shiny stuff... like ME.

Oh for Christ's Sake!!!

He probably would have liked shiny stuff too... If they had it back in his day.

What?... WHO?

Christ.

What about him?? HE WOULD LIKE SHINY STUFF TOO?

I'm just sayin' that if it wasn't for all that sand and the lack of technology, bikes, parts, etc., etc.,  HE (HE being Christ ) would have dug it!

Christ would NOT have dug shiny stuff, that was like everything he was against. Plus you just said "just sayin'," that does make you an idiot.

Just admit, you got it wrong, no big deal....

It IS a big deal, I put a lot into this.

So did I.

No you didn't you didn't do shit, you didn't even buy it.

But I THOUGHT about buying it AND we're Facebook friends. So we're like bros.

Who cares?? I THINK about buying a lot of shit, plus you DO know that being Facebook friends means about as much as being "best friends" in first grade, maybe even less. Actually yes, it means A LOT less. Thanks for nothing.

You're welcome.

Welcome??? I hate you.

Just sayin' bro.