I love nearly everything about this photo taken by Marius Maasewerd at the 2014 Men’s UCI XCO race in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Nearly everything. Let me “dissect” the photo and explain why…
Posts Tagged → random
A Normal Weekend
After a long, long, LONG Michigan winter, it has been nice to get back to “normal” weekends. By “normal” I of course mean weekends that have way more riding than staring out of windows cursing the snow and ice.
Friday Bike-ness
It was hard not to ride today given how nice it was outside today. It was harder still knowing that a bunch of my friends were riding the trails at MMCC today while I spent the day going to the doctors, baking bread, doing loads of laundry and hanging out with the B-Man who was off from school today. It’s not much of a life, but it’s the only one I got right now. Oh well, there was still much bike-ness crammed in there.
Soiled Balls
You might think that this is yet another installment of the super unpopular blog post series Crush Pasta (see Crush Pasta I and II), and it very well could be, but it’s not. This one’s about balls, as in meatballs.
A Little Throwback
Now THIS is a throwback. Probably my 3rd endurance race ever and my first marathon: the WVMBA’s Revenge of the Rattlesnake in May 2005. Happy to say that race is still going strong (now in the fall) and one of the toughest races on the east coast. I am UNNNhappy to say that I think I have gained as much weight as B-Man has since then and he’s ten now. Boo! To paraphrase Simon Pegg a bit from Run Fat Boy Run, “I’m not unfit, I’m just fat.”
Oddly enough, now it’s me that always looks like I’m miserable, crying and shitting myself… all of which are usually true. Yeah, this throwback shit is really fun. Let’s do it again next week.
Later.
Thursday Randomness
The photo above was taken during my road ride on Wednesday, the amount of farmland that I roll by during any given ride never ceases to amaze me. That field rolled on for a bout a mile or two to my left and was surely replaced by another soon after. It’s not that I didn’t roll by farms and field back in PA, I rode by plenty, but none that were the size of the farms that I see here. Every spring and summer I am left but with nothing but respect for farmers. It’s also cool to see how the fields go from fresh tilled dirt to waves of green corn, soy and wheat each year.
On The Road (Not a Novel)
Today was the first time in 2014 that I (sadly?) rode exclusively on pavement. It wasn’t long, barely topping an hour and a half, but my wheels did not touch dirt, mud, ice or snow (other than the thick layer of dust that litters our sun porch).
The Dirt
Popov Vodka continues to be THE go-to drink for dirt road alcoholics. Maybe it was the harsher than usual winter, but I must have gone past a hundred bottles or more of the stuff in the past week. Damn… I’m sort of shocked that in all my years I’ve never tried it. Hmmm… with the week I am having, it might be time to start!
The Weekend (Sort Of )
I was able to get a couple of nice rides in this weekend (both on dirt (roads) and pavement). And today I FINALLY got to ride without a winter jacket AND in knee warmers for the first time in 2014!! Most of the dirt roads were bone dry from the warm(ish) temps and relentless winds we’ve had the past few days, but some are still covered with ice, snow and LOTS of mud. Still, it was all good.
I have some pics to go through and some words to add about the rides, but other than my time on the bike, the last week and weekend have been less than stellar. Wifey took my xB back to Pittsburgh (because we thought it was the better of our two paid off high mileage cars) and the engine took a $3,000 bed shit. Ssoooooo we are in the midst of replacing the vehicle (which is still in Pittsburgh), dealing with a giant ass rental car (seriously, the Dodge Caravan is like a city fucking block long) and figuring out what to do.
The Return of Jaro
2010 UCI World Mountain Bike Champion and 2012 Olympic gold medalist Jaroslav Kulhavý is back on the bike training and racing after breaking his kneecap this past February when he fell on ice (walking).