Post Category → Cycling

Corn Sniffing Parts I & II

fast-moving-corn

Dirt and gravel road riding has continued this week with a 30+ mile late afternoon ride on Monday and a 30 mile early-ish morning ride on Tuesday. I rode the Boone north of town both days, and most–but not all–of the roads were thankfully void the deep washboard ruts that are currently prevalent to the south.

The corn is huge right now, with most fields towering over me as I ride. I’ve ridden past corn fields for my whole life, but it wasn’t until I moved here that I really noticed how much you can actually smell the corn as you ride by. It’s as if I have my nostrils right down to an ear of corn sniffing it like I was doing lines of coke. Or something like that.

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Better Focus

old-barn-in-field

Sunday morning I sat at the computer and wrote a blog post about Saturday’s mountain bike ride. Then Wifey came into my office with some sort of failing DVD workout drama and interrupted me. I never did get around to actually publishing that post, and it was probably for the best. See, Saturday’s ride on singletrack didn’t go so well in the back and hip department, and I aborted after about 7 or 8 miles of riding. This left me in a hell of a funk, swearing that I would not even attempt to ride singletrack the rest of 2016, that all that physical therapy was a waste of time and money, and that I should just spend my Saturdays sitting in a comfy chair watching soccer, drinking until I pass out, blah, blah, blah, blah. And most of that stuff is true (especially the blah, blah, blah part).

Regardless of how poor the ride was, or how disappointed I was, I decided there was no point in spreading that self-pity around, and to focus on the fact that I had three rides under my expanding belt before I headed to MMCC to ride on Saturday, and those rides were just fine, so just get out to ride instead of sitting around bitching about one ride.

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Back To The Boone

misty-shaded-dirt-road

Last Thursday I resurrected the Fatterson– Jesus vs. Lazarus-like–for a dirt road ride in which I whole heartedly expected messy, gobsmacking mud due to some thunderstorms that came through on Wednesday night. Instead I found tacky dirt roads that were near perfect for riding. So when I woke up on Friday morning and saw we had received more rain, I figured I might as well just roll the Boone since the dry roads have been sucking up the water pretty good.

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The Beast is Back

musk-on-dirt

For five months or more, the beast of a bike that is the Trek Farley (better known as the Fatterson), has sat in the garage with no seat post, and still sporting studded tires. I have thoroughly enjoyed months of riding the Boone and the PrOcal, but for some reason I had the urge to roll like a tank over the gravel and dirt roads of central Michigan, so I set about swapping out the post, and finally getting some studless meats on, so as to do just that.

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The Boiled Ham Rides

high-corn-in-front-red-barn

The past week has been blazingly hot here in Michigan with temps often hovering in the mid-90s. As I’ve mentioned several times in the past, mid-90 temps in Michigan are roughly equal to living on the surface of the sun, especially when you realize that we were getting snow flurries in early May! As much as my super large former fat man (on his way back again) sweat glands don’t mesh well with high heat, I won’t complain all that much, since I would rather ride in some heat than the cold.

The week hasn’t been ideal for riding, but I did force myself out into the heat for couple short rides over the past few days.

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Post PT Goodness

fence-posts-wire

I had another early morning PT session on Wednesday. You would think a ride after a session with a therapist stretching, and ripping at my muscles and forcing me to work my core in a million different directions would have me super loose and ready to ride. Sadly, past experience has proved otherwise. Until Wednesday.

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The Power’s Off

paint-the-barn-red

I was up super early Monday morning to go to a 3:30 AM physical therapy appointment (OK, it wasn’t 3;30 AM, but it sure felt like it). I was stretched, yoga-balled, pounded, rolled, BOSU-balled, etc., etc., in the ever failing attempt at having my back and hip feel normal during rides.

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This is Livin’

big-giant-tree-color

I ride my bike in the woods today, completing a full loop with moderated stoppage. Yes, there was some back pain. No, I wasn’t happy about that, but there was a “come to Jesus moment” when I realized which position on the bike felt the best (might need to get all Jaroslav Kulhavy with my position!). And yes, I was very happy to have completed another loop on dirt in the woods. I wish I had been more comfortable, but the trails were great, the morning air was cool, with some occasional light drizzle. Made for a good time.

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Almost a Hike

patched-together-barn

Thursday was my birthday (thank you, but no gifts please). It seems I turned 45 years old, even though for some weeks I was convinced I was turning 46. Maybe that’s because my body feels way older these days? In any event, it’s been a long-standing tradition of mine to try to get out for a ride on my birthday to celebrate another of year of being healthy and fit enough to do such things. That my birthday plan… until it wasn’t.

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