This week’s weather has been less than desirable, and for whatever reason I have had a bitch of a time dodging the rain since Monday’s mountain bike ride. Today however I somehow got my ass out the door, on the road and back before the cold, steady rains returned.
Bonuses: Got my ride in, beating the rain by 10 minutes. Found one leftover burrito in the fridge, served cold.
It’s only mid-October, but with the leaves falling, you can’t help but think that the snows will be here soon enough. Time to yet again formulate a winter time survival plan for fitness and sanity… and to look at photos of cyclists who are way tougher than I was or will ever be.
J.D. Wilkes & The Dirt Daubers (formerly The Dirt Daubers) are quickly becoming the number band on the imaginary soundtrack in my head during dirt road rides. At one time it was the sounds of Hank III that country-fried my brain and filled it with images of the critters, farms, landscapes and undercover back road meth labs of rural Michigan, but Hank is on the back burner now, replaced by J.D. and his Daubers.
Today I enjoyed the last of my miles on the Superfly 100. During my time with the bike I got close to 65 miles on it and I am pretty impressed, but it’s time to say goodbye and get it back to my friend Mike tomorrow. I should probably take him a sixer or something to say thanks for the good times.
The pic above is of a short, smooth sandy section up at MMCC. It’s one of the few places that you can ease up and take in a bottle easily. From the amount of tire tracks it looks like lots of folks have been taking advantage of the sweet fall weather we have been having.
While I am not that big a fan of cyclocross racing, the video below from the ABRA Cyclocross Race Series #2 is freaking bad ass. On top of being a cool video, the course ACTUALLY looks like it would be fun to race. So often I see cross races and I am left thinking how much cooler the race would be if it wasn’t just doing laps in park with man made barriers so small that every Joe Chain Ring is hopping over them. I am either watching and asking myself why I am doing so or riding the course and asking myself why am I not in the woods. But this course looks fun(er).
Autumn continues to fall on mid-Michigan like a pumpkin to the head and I continue as best I can to get out in the woods.
I love pasta and I am done trying pretend that I don’t, or that I can eat Primal or Paleo for more than a week or two before I realize that life is too short to not eat pasta (or beans for that matter). I’m sorry, but Italians have been eating the stuff forever and Italy has produced some pretty freaking legendary cyclists– none of which I recall being fat in their racing days. So as I often say on this blog (and in my daily life) “fuck it.” Or in this case, “Fuck it, I’m eating pasta.” Moderation and miles on the bike seems to work best for crushing pasta and not having to move up a belt size.
SKIP TO THE END FOR A JUNE 2014 UPDATE:
I have spent the last two day doing some 16 mile laps on the trails at Mid Michigan Community College. I have to say it was freaking awesome to be out in the woods, which are blossoming into a golden shower of autumnal leaves, and awesomer [word?] still to have the chance to ride through that crunchy golden shower on a bike that is very much NOT mine, but would NOT mind at all if it were.
