After Sunday’s foggy ride, I took Monday off the bike but not off from “doing stuff.” I forced myself on the treadmill for 3 miles of sprint intervals and to do my feeble attempts at strength training with the weights which is about as fun as root canal. Tuesday I headed back out onto the dirt roads for a short ride which was again enveloped in a misty fog.
As expected it pissed down a cold rain today here in Michiganderburgh. In between rain drops, dad/house duties and a piss poor excuse for a strength training workout, I finally got around to putting up a post and gallery of pics from my walkabout in Braddock over the Thanksgiving holiday in western Pennsylvania. You can check it out at junkmilesmedia.com.
Later.
My plan to ride my bike on Friday was a fail. The winds were still just too damn strong. On Saturday there was a winter storm moving through, with little visibility, so I opted to run on the treadmill for a half an hour, then head down to Terry’s Cycle to pick up some much-needed winter riding gloves before stopping by the Alma Grand Prix of Cyclocross course with my camera to click some pics of the reported “fun” ride that was going on there. The run, the gloves and the pics were all a success, even with only two riders (including the ride’s organiser) showing up for the ride.
Wednesday night after I helped Wifey out with her strength training, I hung around in the Stankment™ to search through piles of bike crap for a saddle to put on my road bike, a bike which these days stays affixed to my trainer all year round and has been missing a saddle for the past eight months. Knowing that crap weather was fast approaching I searched, cussed, found and installed the saddle in preparation for another day hunkered down avoiding high winds and rain.
Fall, autumn, the Sunday of seasons, call it whatever you want, it’s nearly gone. I know, it’s not officially over until December 22nd when winter, the relentless heavy flowing period week of seasons takes over, but it feels like it’s all but done now.
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.
Rainy Saturday. X-T10, 1/2000, ISO 6400
I woke up at 7:30 this morning; the late fall sun was just starting to think about thinking about rising to show off the dark gray of the day. I brushed my snags, washed my face, assessed the status of my numerous wrinkles, the severity of the bags under my eyes and headed downstairs to let Jake (the dog) out into the dark damp morning to do his thing. I thought about a cup of coffee but turned the TV on instead and saw that the footy didn’t kickoff until 10. Why am I up?
I went back to bed.
B-Man had his last match of the regular season down in Lansing on Sunday evening, so I snuck out for a quick 35 mile dirt road ride before we had to get ready and make the drive. The temps were crisp to say the least, with a start time temp of 39˚ and a steady breeze from the north, but it was awesome to get out and enjoy the sunny fall day.
The winds were pretty fierce on Sunday so I aborted a planned, post soccer match dirt road ride with a couple of friends. They were still riding, choosing to head into the woods to ride singletrack, but I really had no desire to beat my myself into submission and embarrass myself trying to stay on their wheels all afternoon. Instead I opted to skulk around the house, have some beers and inventory all the gear that I want to sell [including the Velocity Blunt SL Comp wheels seen above].
Since I am not one to keep quiet (in the blogo-shere) even when I have nothing at all to say, I am putting up this post. Lucky for you there’s not much to it except some bitching about crap weather and some photos from around greater Michiganderburgh and food in my kitchen.
I knew going into this weekend that unless I got up at the ass crack of dawn on Saturday, my only day to ride would be Sunday. B had an away match Saturday afternoon, so most of the day would be spent driving and spectating. It didn’t really matter that much since the winds were gusting and the rain was pissing down all day. Perfect weather for sitting in a chair watching U12 soccer.
