Today I forced myself out of my dirt road riding routine and into the woods around Mid Michigan Community College for a lap of leaf covered singletrack goodness. I was really shocked how many leaves were on the trails already and how many more are waiting to come down!
Not sure when it happened, but it seems over the past few days fall arrived. Technically it’s been fall for a while now, but today was the first second ride that I’ve done that it actually felt like fall: leaves changing, cool gusting winds, crisp air, knee warmers, jacket, cap, etc., etc.,
Fall usually depresses me more than I already am, and this year is no different. Well, it’s a little different as I am putting my complete faith and belief in weather.com which says that the current El Niño will have Michiganderburgh dryer than usual this winter. You would think that someone who owns a fat bike would have hopes for snow, snow, snow and more snow. In my case you would be wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong again. I have no problem with not seeing another snow flake the rest of my life.
Today was another cool, damp misty day here in Michigan. I can deal with mist and cool temps over the recent gusting winds and heavy rain any day, so I headed out on the fatty fatterson to log some miles, take some pics, and roll some worms.
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.
I finally did it! I finally forced my [recovering] sick, fat assed self to get in the saddle and get some miles in. It wasn’t the longest of rides, but between the wind and fatness of the bike, a workout was had.
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.
I’ve read things over the years in regards to diets, er, “lifestyles” that say if you follow a healthy lifestyle for 80% of the time, you can stay on the right track. I am pretty sure over they years I have done just that, especially in my mid 20’s through mid 30’s, but slowly I started making the WRONG choices 80% of the time.
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.
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.
Recently Wifey and I said goodbye to some good friends that moved to Mt. Pleasant at the same time we did back in 2010. Wifey worked with the woman and we hung out with her and her husband a lot over the past five years, especially since they lived just a couple blocks from us. Anyway, they moved to Florida, leaving us to deal with the long Michigan winters on our own now. In the moving process they ditched us with generously gave us a bunch of stuff they didn’t want/couldn’t take with them: Adirondack chairs, a snowblower, hundreds of pounds of salt (to melt ice), a kick ass drum kit (it’s very therapeutic to belt out a Neil Pert like solo once a day) and a ton of potted vegetable plants. There were tomatoes, red and green bell peppers, banana peppers and jalapenos.
