Under the bridge

Torture Chamber

An evil machine

When ridden outside, as it was intended to be, the Madone is fabulous. When clamped to the trainer it becomes a miserable, wicked device.

I despise the dungeon, but I must do what must be done.

Torture

I'd rather listen to Loretta Lynn non-stop for six hours than do another time-trial workout on the trainer. Man, it really needs to stop raining so I can get outside.

Foiled again

This Thursday was to be the final ride at Explore Park before switching to Carvin's Cove for the summer. Ain't gonna happen - rained out again. This ride has been cancelled more often than not this winter. I hope our luck with the weather improves at the Cove!

:)

Every ride has something unique about it. Good and/or bad. Sometimes you just feel it. Legs, lungs, balance...everything is perfect. Sometimes nothing feels right...like riding a bike borrowed from someone much taller than you.

On some rides you swear the sky is the most beautiful you've seen in your life. Yet on some rides you never even take the time to look up. All you can remember is the dead leaves and dirty ground (thanks Jack!).

Every so often on one of these rides we steal a moment from eternity and store it away in the form of a snap shot. Later when we look at it we feel only 1/10 of what we felt the moment it was taken, but that fraction still feels like something bigger than the place we are after the ride is over.

Try explaining that to someone who's hobby is watching TV. Go ride your bike.

Weekends are for...

...taking a break.

...restoring balance to your life.

...giving it all you got.

...taking in all that surrounds you.

...making sure your friends are not dead.

...dancing.

...helping out those you love.

...gathering to have some fun.

...being safe at all times.

...pumpin' it.

...and stylin'!

Motion Based, why don't you like me?

This past weekend was hard for me. It was raining cats and coyotes outside, forcing me to do my least favorite athletic activity: ride the wind trainer. The Six Hours of Warrior Creek is coming up in a few weeks and I've paid my cash to ride all six hours solo. Bottom line is I needed the saddle time and had to get it in somehow. I was just recovering from a nasty, horrific upper respiratory infection and plague, so there was no way I was going to ride for hour upon hour in the rain.

So into the basement I went. Pookie joined me. Side-by-side on our bikes, pedaling to nowhere watching Jack Bauer and 007. Both Saturday and Sunday. It was boring, but we got through it.

I wore my Garmin both days with the GPS disabled, allowing it to record time and heart rate data for posterity. Today I attempted to download the two rides to Motion Based so I could feel a swell of self-confidence when I looked at the hours I put in despite the weather. But the Garmin Gods have frowned on me. I tried several times, but I think because there is no GPS data, Motion Based won't recognize the activity as legit.

Deflated. I want to see the hours that I slaved away on that confounded CycleOps torture device! Blasted gadgetry!

Time

Rain. Relentless, cold rain. Time passes slowly on the trainer. Here are a few things to make it go faster.

Silversun Pickups. Haunting melodies. Layers of guitars. One of my new favorites.

Catching up with Jack Bauer. I haven't watched but maybe one full episode of 24 on TV, but now that I can watch them without many commercials on fox.com, I've become addicted to it.

Hancock: Not while on the trainer, but a good movie none the less.

And today's feature on-trainer presentation, Casino Royal.

With the exception of Silversun Pickups, everything else involves lots of guns.

Trainer + guns = time passes faster.

I'll be there...solo.

What I got

Early in the mornin'
Rise into the street
Cough so hard my stomach hurts
Feel dead on my feet

Got to find a reason
A reason things went wrong
Got to find a reason why my health is all gone

I got an infection
I can't even ride
I have to lay in bed all day although is nice outside

Life is too short, my temperature is hot
I think I got the flu 'cuz I didn't get a shot
Never told the doctor 'bout the crud in chest
Never took Cold-Ease, didn't get enough rest

Take a small example
A tip from me
Take all of your money spend it all on green tea...dee...dee...dee....dee
Flu's what I got
It's within' my reach
The cough I have sound like I drank bleach

It comes back to yo
You're gonna feel like a turd
Try and act tough, you're bound to get burned
Flu's what I got
Don't start a riot
I feel like I've just been shot, shot

Flu is...what I got
I said remember that
Flu is...what I got
I got
I got
I got
I got

Not there yet...

But I'm working on it. The lean muscle mass is cominig along lowly but surely. I'll drop a couple more pounds over the next few months of long miles on the bike. A work in progress...

It's alive! ALIVE!

The Niner was illin'. The threaded "nub" that holds the screws that hold the eccentric bottom bracket in place where frogizzled to the manizzle. (i.e., irreversibly damaged). I thought that my frame was destined for the scrap heap. Much sadness.


But alas, there is always hope! Niner must have had this happen quite often, so their crack team of crack fighting engineers devised a crack and creak-free solution. So, I yanked that original Niner eccentric from the frame...

...sanded off all of the paint around the outer edges of the BB shell...

...inserted and tightened the new, lighter and stronger Biocentric BB...

...and now we're ready to go once again! Happiness and cheer.

NanoRaptor, the anti-snow tire

Boy, was I surprised at how fast you can go from 10-12mph to a dead stop in deep, drifting snow. I thought I knew how to ride in it, but I'm used to wet, slushy snow. This snow was arctic. Fluffy and light, like snow should be. Like the snow where I grew up in PA. You know, the snow we never get here! Well, can't say that anymore b/c there it was right under my @ss when I landed in it...in all it's fluffy glory. Both wheels slid right out from under me.

No worries. I kept-a-pedlin'. Then what looked like a slight rise in the trail turned out to be a drift. Immediate and abrupt deceleration and face plant. At least cold, fluffy snow tastes good.