Posts Tagged → dirt road life

That Feeling

YellowDirtRoadFlowers

My last ride featured forty-seven miles of sandy roads, crap pavement, steady winds, unusually hight fall temperatures, dehydration, cramping and a semi bi-annual bonk due to suck. Fast forward four days of slack to today, and my ride featured ten less miles, firm dirt and gravel roads, little wind, perfect early fall temps, plenty of water and good legs. If last Thursday’s ride had me feeling like Fredwardian moron, this one had me feeling like a cycling god. Then I remembered that I only rode thirty-seven miles with about 800 feet of elevation gain. Whatever, for a few seconds I WAS a cycling god!! I’ll take that feeling over the bonked moron feeling any day, even if it does only last a few seconds.

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That Time I Bonked Due to Suck

DeerFeed

While Wifey has been out-of-town on .gov business this week I did everything a proper father/person should do, and that I do anyway (for the most part): Made all the meals, did laundry, got B to soccer practice, made sure his homework was done, mowed grass, did the shopping, did the dishes, took the trash out, ate properly, didn’t drink booze, smoke crack, shoot up, kill anyone or solicit prostitutes.

Given all that clean living I REALLY thought that I was up for a larger than usual (but not THAT large) multi-surface ride today. Sadly, my want to putz around taking photos, an unforeseen detour, a lack of on the bike nutrition, wind, deep sand, and higher than usual September temps turned me into a gelatinous heap of bonked suck praying for a passer-by to shoot me down like a gimp dog.

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Unchained

Unchained_Not_VH

A leaky pipe in the ceiling above the Stankment’s Man Cave (actually belonging to a boy) meant that my ability to leave the house was at the mercy of a plumber, and my Wednesday schedule (or lack there of) needed to be adjusted. Any time spent on two wheels would need to be moved to later in the morning/early afternoon, and mileage would be minimal. It was the perfect day to say I was too busy to ride, but I was not going to pass up the opportunity to ride in near perfect 75˚ temperatures and brilliant sunshine. Not when I know all too well that by this time next month the air will have a distinct chill to it, the winds will start cutting to the bone, and base layers and riding jackets will once again become the norm. A ride HAD to be done, even if it meant it had to be a  mere 25 mile Better Than The Trainer Ride™ on dirt and gravel roads north of town.

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Small Bagging It

Chevy_Farm_Truck

Always dig a good farm truck.

Late August and early September it was gloomy as hell here in Michiganderburgh. I swear we went nearly a solid week at one point without seeing the sun. Most of the time our winters aren’t even like that! Thankfully that has change over the past few days have been it’s been gloriously sunny. Today it was more even glorious ’cause after four days of slack, I finally got back in the saddle for a ride.

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New To Me

TurkeyFeather

In recent weeks I became increasingly unhappy with the performance of my trusty Canon s95 point and shoot digital camera. I’ve been using an s95 for years now and it was perfect for riding: small enough to fit in a jersey pocket, easy enough to operate one-handed in most cases, and used ones could be found cheaply on eBay. But since I started to do rides using my Nikon DSLR I found the quality lacking to what I had become used to, but the problem with a DSLR is that even though the DSLR Slinger from Porcelain Rocket makes transporting one on a mountain bike easier, you are STILL hauling around a heavy DSLR (often on an already heavy fat bike).

So I started looking into a new camera that is smaller than my D3200 but better than my Canon s95. In my research for a new everyday camera–for both on and off the bike–I kept coming back to a couple of different cameras: The Sony RX100 and the Fuji x100t. Sadly both where WAY out of my price range.

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Playing The Percentages

road_ride_pic

After two days off the bike for various reason (laziness + shit to do) I was back on the bike for some miles today. With my time at the shop on hold for the foreseeable future, my thesis in limbo (that’s a joke of course) and B-Man back in school, I can now start to set my sights on trying to get some longer (for me) rides in and try to burn as much man fat as I can in between my husbandly duties (don’t judge!). Because before you know it, the snow will be flying and I’ll be reduced to twenty mile fat bike rides on ice packed dirt roads while freezing my tits off.

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Friday Forty-Six

Rough_road_sighn

This week I found myself doing more road riding than in I have in a while. Well, not real skinny tire, hi-viz kit wearing, cafe stopping, kilometer talking, take your pull and follow the unwritten rules road riding, but rides in which I spent a higher percentage of time on paved roads (or what passes for paved in Michigan) than on dirt and gravel. Case in point: yesterday’s forty-six mile roll through the mythical rural landscapes of Mighiganderburgh atop the Boone.

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Hanging Low & Blowing Up

BaselineInTheDank

I’m not one to complain about weather (that’s a lie, I love to bitch about it), but the goddamn sun could shine again any day now! Today is the fourth day in a row that dark gray skies and dank, unusually chilly August temperatures draped over mid-Michigan like an octogenarian hobo’s scrotal sack. The lack of sun is normal back in my old state, but from my experiences with Michigan the past five summers, this is pretty unusual. Of course in two months I’ll be bitching about the fact that I got snowed on during my ride or crashed on ice. A goddamn meteorological malcontent is what I am (amongst other things).

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