Navigation

Tag Archives | fucking weather

Gettin’ It

By soiledchamois on February 24, 2017 in Cycling

Despite its brevity, February in Michigan can be a long, depressing bastard of a month. February lodges itself in between the death-like acceptance of winter that January offers and the hopefulness of spring that March provides. Most often it’s bitterly cold, windy, and blanketed with ice and snow. However this February was not “most often.” We had several days of temps between 45˚ and 60˚, very little snow, and just a hint of ice at the beginning. While I am the first to admit that it should not be 55˚ in February, I am in no way going to complain about the ability to log over 265 miles as I attempted to jump start my fitness and hopefully some weight loss.

Continue Reading →

Three Out of Four

By soiledchamois on February 15, 2017 in Cycling

Muddy Lake boots and gritty mud.

Riding three out of four days in February is cherished, even if they yield a mere 75 miles combined. Most of the miles were forced to be done on pavement, due to the dirt roads being a bottom bracket grinding, potential collarbone breaking, concoction of ice, slush, mud, standing water, and gritty sand.

Continue Reading →

Changed Plans

By soiledchamois on February 13, 2017 in Cycling

All last week as I “ran” on the Dreadmill™, and spun my wheels going nowhere on the trainer, I set my mind to go down to the Cannonsburg Ski Area to take photos at the fat bike and snowboard races they were hosting. I figured I could use the practice and getting outside would do me good.

Continue Reading →

Memories of the Past Week, Others

By soiledchamois on February 7, 2017 in Cycling

Outdoor riding continues to elude me for a variety of reasons; first because of the abundances of rutted ice on many roads, then because it got cold as shit outside and for some reason this winter I am lacking the motivation freeze my tits off. Please note that “lack of motivation” is just code for my laziness, but that’s your call.

Continue Reading →

Empty Headed

By soiledchamois on February 1, 2017 in Cycling

You may wonder how the following relates to a cycling blog. Stick with it, I have a point eventually, you just have to sift through some ranting. Keep in mind there is surely a dose of hypocrisy, preachiness, and anger even though in my head it all makes perfect sense. Read at your own risk, or feel free to read something not a crap cycling blog. It’s totally your call.

Over the past few months I haven’t been sleeping very well. There are many “might-bes” and “could-bes,” which include such things as too much coffee, not enough riding, worry that my family’s entire world could come crashing down at any moment, and an ever-growing affection for nihilism. No matter the cause, counting sheep, masturbating, counting sheep masturbating, and masturbating while counting sheep only gets one so far, and I’ve found myself with time to think. This is both good (the time has allowed me to put some creative wheels in motion), and bad (see much of this paragraph). However in addition to all of that I have also had some thoughts that hover in the middle grounds between fond memories, existential ennui, and the want for simpler times.

Continue Reading →

Toe Tales

By soiledchamois on January 31, 2017 in Cycling

There has been a distinct lack of things happening over the past week. Quality outside riding was once again shelved due to ice, then deep mud, then ice again, now more crap snow. Then my running was shelved because I stubbed my toe and ripped the toenail off (that felt just as you might imagine), which left it looking like it was gnawed on by a wolverine.

Continue Reading →

The Return

By soiledchamois on January 25, 2017 in Cycling

Today was the return of various sorts of winter puke; rain, rain/snow mix, and finally wet snow. As of now not enough snow to make things fun, but enough to keep the roads–especially the dirt roads–crapper than ever.

Continue Reading →

Coming Clean

By soiledchamois on January 23, 2017 in Random

My family and I spent a long weekend back in Pennsylvania paying our respects to Wifey’s grandfather who passed away last Wednesday. It was a sad weekend indeed, but it was a beautiful ceremony and it did well to celebrate the life of a great man.

With all that car travel, sadness, stress, and a jam packed non-stop schedule came poor diet choices and a complete lack of exercise. I feel like I put on ten pounds in four days!

Now home, I was anxious to bet back into the routine of daily exercise and eating healthier home cooked foods. Sadly the weather would not been cooperating for outside activities. As I’ve mentioned before, the past two weeks it was ice and slush, most of that is gone but the dirt roads are a quagmire of mud and standing water. The paved roads are clear but today we were socked in with fog and misty rain most of the day and I somehow lost my rear blinky in the garage somewhere. Not wanting to be struck down by a cement truck, I needed options.

Continue Reading →

Knives & Knife Fights

By soiledchamois on January 15, 2017 in Cycling

What a week! Monday night’s five inches of snow turned into a snow day for B on Tuesday. Snow turned to rain Tuesday afternoon and melted most of the snow before 30-40 MPH winds kicked up and falling temps moved in overnight freezing everything solid. That resulted in second snow day on Wednesday. Then Wednesday night wet got a wintry mix of snow, rain, and freezing rain, followed by falling temps which meant another snow day on Thursday. HOLY GROUNDHOG DAY!

Even though school was finally back in session on Friday, everything was covered with a mix of frozen winter puke and that meant a fifth straight day of running on the treadmill. In my own way I’ve been enjoying the challenges and the pains of being a non-runner attempting to run, but five days in a row was a bit much. I needed to ride!

Continue Reading →

Snow Day

By soiledchamois on January 10, 2017 in Random

The weather goofs were right, we got snow. Yeah! About four inches or so, then it started raining and turned everything into a slushy, sloppy mess. Boo!! Now we’re getting 35+ MPH winds, more rain, and the temps are supposed to be dropping into the low twenties later. That should REALLY make things awesome by morning. I’ve learned to tolerated winter in the past few years by riding the Fatterson and snowshoeing, but wet snow, rain, ice, is about the worst ever. What sport or outdoor activity is done best in slush? Exactly.

Continue Reading →

Older posts Newer posts