I admit it, my Friday night consisted of making Mexican food, hanging out with Wifey, having some drinks, watching bad TV (those Tiny House f*ckers!) and going to bed late. Despite all that, I was up early and feeling bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. But it was only 7 AM… on a Saturday… and it’s football’s international break, so there are no BPL matches to watch… so I went back to bed.
After three days in a row of decent riding, we here in Michigan were treated to two days and nights of rain, gray skies and gusting 30+ mile per hour winds. Needless to say there was no way I riding in that crap, but since I had to go out to run a series of errands late Friday afternoon, I took my camera and did some stomping around one of the county parks close by.
For me, a slack forty-four year old who is currently training for nothing other than to not drunkenly kill over whilst on the crapper, riding three days in a row is not only strange, but sort of an effort at times. Yeah, I know, I’m not exactly setting the world afire with my speeds and distances, I’m not doing intervals, hill repeats or anything that stupid resembles a hardcore training regime, but I’m still riding at a “comfortably hard” pace (in between photos), a pace and structure that is often referred to as “junk miles” by racers and coaches that give a shit [foreshadowing, ask me later]. And sometimes my crap body feels it.
What-evs, with today being Veteran’s Day [thank you Vets], Wifey was off from work, but B-Man was at school. Part of me wanted to stay at home, draw a hot bubble bath full of love, and nakedly lounge around being all lovey dovey with my bosomy, ginger haired gal-pal. BUT, the other part of me wanted to get out for a ride of a different sort on the Boone.
Why can’t we do both? [TMI? I thought so, sorry].
After windy, crap ride on Saturday and a Sunday-Sloth Day, it was nice to start off the week with a ride on the dirt roads and not feel like I wanted to take a freaking hostage or lie down in the dirt and wait for a ten ton tractor to run me over.
I am pretty lucky in that, if nothing else, my current [real] joblessness affords me the ability to get out to ride on weekdays in between dad/husband duties and occasional freelance projects. While lucky, those rides can often be rushed or limited in length due to said responsibilities. Soccer-free Saturday’s usually are a bit more relaxed and allow for longer rides. THIS Saturday was not one of those days.
In many ways, the Thursday Ride Was much like the Wednesday ride; most of the roads were getting a fresh coat of deep, power sapping dirt and gravel. However there were a few things that made it different, yet still wildly uninteresting or blog worthy…
In Monday’s post I commented about the amount and severity of the pot holes on the dirt roads north of town. In the back of my mind I was thinking that with the roads this bad, the county would surely be dumping some fresh dirt and doing some grading to the roads soon. I thought about how much better the 35c X’Plor USH tires would handle the roads when they were finished. What I didn’t count on was riding on the day they were actually dumping and grading that fresh dirt and gravel.
The corn and the beans are all but gone, with just a few stragglers remaining here and there, but for the most part the dirt and gravel roads are now void of most everything that even thinks about growing from the soil. Having said that, you would never know that it was November 2nd in the middle of Rectal Fornication, Michigan because it was sunny and close to 70˚ degrees today. I wouldn’t call that normal, but I will sure as hell take it when I can get it!
Not long after I hit the publish button on this morning’s post about riding the fatty and taking pics, and how I probably wouldn’t ride until Monday due to weather and my family activities, I kitted up and went for a short Better Than The Trainer Ride™. It wasn’t the best, it wasn’t worst, but I’m glad I got out to blow the ‘Weener stink off of me.
With the strong wind finally out of the area, I headed south for a dirt road ride on the fatty on Friday. After the rain of the previous days, the roads offered up a bit of everything: tacky dirt, wet peanut butter mud, deep ruts and soggy sand. I was happy with my girthy choice in bikes and even happier with my choice of cameras (the Fuji X-T10) and lenses (the Fuji 55-200mm f/3.5-4.8). The camera and lens set up is a bit heavy for mirrorless, but when you are on a 30+ pound bike, and weigh over 200 pounds yourself, what’s another pound or so? Plus I really dug the results.
