Posts Tagged → doing stuff

Rolling Along

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The thing that sucks about the mythical land of Michiganderburgh is the lack of open space we have.

I’m trying to make up for last week’s time off the bike by getting in what I can this week. So far I’m up to about 6:20 of gravel roads and singletrack. Sadly, my aging, talentless, flabby, all too often beer fueled body, on the rebound from last week’s illness, is feeling every minute I’ve put in thus far– even today’s 32 mile ride on the flatter gravel roads north of town.

Since I’m tired and have important things to do like lay on the couch, watch soccer, fall asleep for an hour, drag my ass up to my bed, stare at the ceiling for two hours wondering how I became such a useless, hollow, shell of a man, who contributes nothing to society, fall into a fitful sleep and get up at 6 a.m. and do it all over again (whatever “it” is), I will just post up some pics in a gallery below. They’re from today’s ride, so it’s dirt roads, barns and shit like that. You know the routine.

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Finally Back At It

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After six days off the bike due to illness and a quick weekend get-a-way to Chicago with my family unit, I was FINALLY back on the bike today. If you’re reading this blog you most likely ride bikes, OR you got here Googling photos to satisfy some bizarre, crap covered chamois fetish you have. You disgust me! Welcome to the blog.

No matter how you got here, bike ridin’ type folk know that time off the bike sucks, and that it sucks even more when you’re off the bike due to coughing up snot and sludge for five days. Most will also know that the first ride back from such a break simultaneously rocks and sucks.

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More Bad Ideas

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Earlier this month I thought it would be a good idea to take a 30+ pound borrowed fat bike out for a ride on dirt roads. That wasn’t a bad idea, but it wasn’t a great one either. Since I am not one to avoid doing stupid things (in fact stupidity is sort of my thing), I one upped myself today and took my 40+ pound Surly Pugsley out on energy sapping muddy dirt roads… while sick. How bad could it be?

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The Rebound Ride

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After last week’s brilliant (for me) return to the saddle and near daily riding, this week has be quite the opposite. As of mid morning today (Saturday) I’ve ridden twice this week. Tuesday’s 42 mile road/gravel ride and Friday’s quick “better than the trainer” 23 mile gravel ride. Sigh.

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Adequate

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I mentioned in an earlier post today that I was off to ride, try out the WTB Nano 700 x 40c tires I picked up and try to make peace with my Kona Jake The Snake. Well, you may or many not have seen my afternoon edit on the post, but if not I will mention again: the tires were most excellent and well worth it, but I think my time with the Jake is done. I just don’t feel good on it… it’s almost painful. I doubt I’ll sell it (unless you want it?), but it may become a townie or a two-wheeled paperweight.

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Bullet Points

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I’m lacking time for my normal verbal diarrhea of a blog post, so I’m going all crap sales meeting Power Point presentation on you [not really] and doing it all with bullet points of random information nonsense. The only thing missing is a wig wearing sales director in a bad suit, bored as hell employees doodling sketches of him being chased by an angry bear with a knife and poor slide graphics (not designed by the in-house graphic artist, but instead downloaded from the web at 72 dpi and enlarged stretched to 900 dpi for that cool, “What the hell is that a graphic of?” look).

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Bad Ideas Turned Good

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As I mentioned the other day, my buddy at the shop lent me his Trek Farley* to ride for a few days and see what I thought. I did a lap on singletrack last Saturday and thought it felt a bit harsh compared to my Pugsley and made the pre-mature decision to shelve any ideas of considering one in the future. Then I got to thinking: whether I buy one or not, I think my assessment was a bit rash and not all that fair, given that while I have ridden my Pugsley on singletrack, I have only done so for 10-12 miles at a time to mix things up after I’ve done a “real” lap or two on my Superfly, or when conditions were shit.

I’ve love the Pugs in the snow and on the deep sand ORV trails, so I figured I should give the Farely another go before I return it this week, and ride it on surface that would be more akin to what I would actually use a fat bike on. The trouble is (thank God!), there is no snow on the ground and this week won’t really allow for me to head north to those ORV trails. So I had an idea– I would use the Farley for my dirt road ride today. Afterall, some of those roads are pretty sandy and pretty shit… It was a bad idea; sort of.

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Let’s Go!

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The ushering out of summer is done. Well, almost done. Now it’s on to fall and my Second Season.

The past few days have brought me nearly 60 miles of singletrack (twelve of which were on a borrowed fat bike). I have to say, for a big-boned, has-been, mid-pack racer type who enjoys beer a bit too much (and pizza, pasta and cheese even more) I am happy with that. Sure, there were days in the past that I would do more than that in one afternoon; these are not those days.

My only real goal going into the fall is to get as many miles as I can in while looking for work (I think the miles will be easier to get than the job). If I can even get 8 to 10 hours a week of riding in, while being good bout my eating and liquid refreshments, I think I’ll be happy enough. It would be nice to lose some fat off my man-hams, but I’m not going to hold my breath for that.

This fall–unlike last fall and winter–I am forgoing the gym. Yes, yes, I know, I mentioned (too) many times last year about how going to the gym helped me gain strength, added muscle, got me out of the house, etc., etc., Well, it seems (from looking at my “training” records) that my time at the gym fell off significantly after I purchased the Pugsley and realized, yet again, that being outside is way more fun than being in a gym, even if it is lacking the numbers of spandex-clad lady-types.

Fall may not officially start for another twenty days, but in my world it has.

Later.

Photo: by me. It was the lone photo taken during the second of two, 14-ish mile laps on Sunday.