I’ve long been a sucker for cycling videos, especially ones that call attention to XC and endurance racing and athletes. Even when I know the videos are more part of a marketing and brand machine than a cinematic statement, I still find myself sucked in.
I was pretty spent after yesterday’s ride. The steady, east winds during the last half of the ride and running out of fluids with 11 miles to go had me happy to spend the rest of my day and night on the porch with Jake (the dog), listening to music, and enjoying some well-earned beers before putting some burgers on the grill later in the evening.
I was resigned to not riding today (Sunday); I’d had enough of the oppressive wind and was looking forward to sleeping in, watching more footy (I never seem to get enough) and being a waste of a human being whilst my family is away in Pennsylvania.
But with my week’s mileage hovering at 172.9, as much as I wanted to lay around, I just couldn’t. Surely I could muster up the balls to get a mere 27+ miles in and put myself over 200 miles for the week. Something that I haven’t done in quite some time. Probably not since my days of thinking I could/should/wanted to race my mountain bike for long distances.
Despite my family unit being out-of-town for the weekend and the world that IS Mount Pleasant, Michigan at my social fingertips, I had a chill Friday evening alone making Bolognese sauce and pasta, drinking a few beers, sitting on the porch, and watching pirated downloads of Paris-Roubaix on TV. Truthfully I was pretty spent from the day’s ride and was more than happy to go to bed and enjoy several hours of slumber which was colorfully punctuated with dreams of intrigue featuring high-priced special effects, over paid guest stars (Jason Alexander, seriously??) and random memories of young women in black leggings and running shorts shopping in the Meijer produce aisle for ripe avocados. OK, that may have been a fantasy, not a dream, but still.
The other day I alluded to going down to Terry’s (my shop of choice) in beautiful downtown Alma to check out a bike. With me racing mountain bikes less and less and less and less and less and less these days, my rides of choice have been dirt road rides mixed with crap Michigan pavement. Last season when my back was jacked up and made worse by my positioning on the Jake (The Snake), I thought the best route would be to get a rigid fork and essentially make my El Mariachi a flat barred CX bike for dirt and gravel riding. Even though I usually turn to my Superfly full suspension for singletrack riding, I still couldn’t do it. The EM is too good of a mountain bike to relegate to dirt roads. So….
Dirty rollers.
I got 48.6 (NOT 50) miles of dirt and pavement in my legs yesterday but I felt surprisingly fresh and eager to ride more today, especially since my plan was to ride a bit less. I figured I should get something done besides jack around on my bike for hours (although I that would have been fine with me).
There are days when riding my bike in the bitter cold, ice, snow and relentless winds of a middle Michigan winter makes me want to fellatiate a loaded .45. However there is one thing in the back of my mind (other than the handgun fellatiating) during those cold winter rides– days like today.
After being in the saddle every day last week (both on the road and on the trainer) and a big weekend of riding, I needed a day off the bike today. The aging and fat just don’t recover like they used to. With my spare time free to goof off, I decided to take the first roll of film I shot with the new to me Olympus MJU II to get developed. I will say finding a place to develop 35mm film in house is no easy task these days! Right now here in town we are down to exactly ONE place (Walgreens on Mission & Preston for local yokals) that doesn’t send their film out.
After yesterday’s 41 mile road ride (with a dash of dirt thrown in) I was eager to get back out on the bike today for some mileage. For today’s ride I had mapped out a ride that was a nugget’s hair over 50 miles and about a 50/50 mix of pavement and dirt roads. In other words, it was perfect.
Just when I thought that I would never emerge from the Stankment™–where I spent most of the week spinning junk miles on the trainer–Ma Nature threw us a dry, gorgeous, fairly wind-free day. I assumed (wrongly) that the dirt roads would be a sloppy mess after two days of heavy rain, so I opted for a 41 mile ride south of town. It was tits!
After what seemed like weeks of steady sunshine–and cold ass temperatures–we here in mid Michigan have endured several days of gray skies, downpours and steady rain. The extent of my riding this week has been hour-long sessions on the trainer every day since Monday’s short 27 mile loop. Who knew you could ride junk miles on the trainer??
