Knowing full well that most of my Friday ride time window, would be taken up with the closing on our new crib, I made sure to sneak out for another quick spin on Thursday. It wasn’t the greatest of rides, and I was feeling sluggish from being a slug, but it got the job done.
After a crap week of riding, it felt amazingly good to get out for a second day in a row on the Boone. Slightly warmer temps, less wind, and remembering to actually wear the appropriate base layer helped me go a few miles further than yesterday and get in a ball hair under 30 very unimpressive miles. Yeah, my hip/back still hurt a bit, but screw it, I was riding my bike when I should have been home packing, updating the shop’s website, the soccer club’s site, getting a flyer finished, packing, doing laundry, painting the basement, grocery shopping, and cooking dinner.
Spring in Michigan means that even when there’s no snow, sleet, or freezing rain, ride time often greets you with 32˚ temps and a crisp 10+ MPH wind coming out of the north/west. With a heavy sigh into the vat of coffee raised to my rotund face, I reluctantly made my way up to the Chamber of Farts™ to strap myself into Part 1 of my winter riding gear (spring ensemble): wool socks, fat condensing base layer, lined bibs, and Craft WindStopper base layer*. Then down to the big box of bike shit for Part 2: riding jacket, cool weather gloves, vintage Bikeman.com skull-cap and my regular Pearl Izumi kicks. With that, me and the Boone were out the door…
The past four or five days have been spent dealing with one storm after another: rain, snow, gusting winds, sleet, cold temps, and a bout of the black dog like I haven’t dealt with in a while. Obviously the black dog part was the worst, but the end is in sight, and for that I am grateful.
This week is B-Man’s Spring Break. Sadly, it hasn’t been all that spring-like, nor are we “spring-breaking” anywhere due to fact we’re buying a house in fifteen days’ time and moving in eighteen. However all is not lost, because B has been enjoying sleeping in and goofing off, and he did go on a fun day trip with Wifey and some of his friends yesterday.
Got out for a quick dirt road spin on the prOcal today. After a couple of rides last week I had some hipflexor issues, so I did some reading, and came up with some saddle adjustments that might help it (height + for/aft position). This helped immensely on the Boone, so I did the same with the prOcal in hopes of better comfort. Sadly, it wasn’t all that much better than last week. Well, at least not at first.
After a ride on Saturday which was confined to the paved roads north of town, I was looking forward to venturing off onto the dirt and gravel on Easter Sunday.
Monday was more productive than usual for me since I’ve taken on the (volunteer) duties of redoing the website for B-Man’s soccer club and I was soccer balls deep into putting the finishing touches on a locally hosted version of my ideas to present to the board that night. I got a 3 mile treadmill run in, got the temp site done, got it approved at our meeting that night, and now I am up to my fatty pelvis deep in creating the real website. It’s been a lot of work, but I’ll be happy to see the club get a way better site (in my opinion) and do my part to help the club. God knows I have nothing else to offer them other than annual fees and a son who is an awesome player.
If nothing else, the club project is the continued learning/self teaching/self loathing of stuff that I was never taught in a crap two-year art school–’cause Web design classes weren’t around in 1990–and who knows, it might lead to some cash paying/bartering jobs in the future. I’ll post a link when it’s done… if it’s ever done.
Saturday morning as I sat around drinking coffee and writing this digital fishwrap I finished my post by saying “time to air up the tires, charge the camera battery, and get out in the sunshine and calm winds while it lasts.” Well, the winds sure seemed calm here in town but when I got onto the open dirt roads north of town, the winds felt anything but calm. A stiff breeze came out of the west and cut right through my jacket and Craft windstopper base layer, keeping my nipples like two diamonds attached two fleshy beanbags full lard for nearly two-hours. Oh well, at least it was sunny.
Last week was an optimal early spring week for getting time on the bike and continuing some mild success with the Fit to Fat & Back process. Sadly, this week has been crap. The weather was rainy, blustery, and cool; riding was limited and time spent indoors “doing stuff” was high. On top of that any potential weight loss is unknown do to my scale in need a new battery and me being too forgetful stupid to remember to buy one. Add to that my “cheat day” came earlier than expected due to a mind funk and you have the makings for a more unsuccessful week in my life than usual.
Thankfully on Friday the storms had finally moved out of the area, the high wind warnings receded, and I finally got out on my bike for a ride. A ride in cool 35˚ “spring” temperatures, but a ride nonetheless.