Weekend wrap up...

So the weekend is now coming to an end. Dang. At least I rode and spent some time with family. That's good. I'll actually be at home with my daughter tomorrow because her school is still closed, due to the fires- the schools are still concerned about the air quality. It's much better now, but I'm never going to argue with them over worrying about the safety of kids.

So today I got out for another 2.5hr ride... but this time I rode with gears!

My legs are totally smoked from all the fixed gear workouts I've been doing. All the sprint intervals have just blown me to shreds. I mean, I haven't been racing this year, so I haven't been putting in any actual workouts much this year. It's amazing how much difference I can feel in my legs after just 3-4 weeks of focused effort. Besides, in just two weeks I'll be in Taichung, Taiwan before heading to Tokyo, Japan. I always leave thinking that I'll at least get into the fitness closet at the hotel and work up a sweat... but the long days/ nights and jetlag always seem to find a way to keep me rooted in bed until it is time to get up and head out for the real work. So right now I see all this hard work as a base of fitness to fall back to when I return from overseas. Hopefully.

Anyway, I got a nice 40-45 miles in, but my legs were filled with sand and/ or lead. I can't remember the last time I started a ride feeling so sore and lethargic. It took me at least an hour before my legs began to loosen up and feel "ok". It's probably a sign that I need to back off a little and let my legs recover and let the muscles heal and get stronger. The good news is that I felt better and stronger as the ride went on. Near the end, I was drafting cars in traffic at 45+ mph and feeling pretty good- nothing turns your legs into spinning machines quite like riding a fixed gear. It wasn't until I nearly plowed into the back of the Escalade I was happily drafting and motorpacing behind that I realized that I was flying along in my 53x19! Riding the past week in a 46x16 has gotten my legs a lot faster already!

nice ride"... and I even meant it. So Ricky Racer just kinda snorts and shoots me this sideways glance of total disapproval- I'm in no team kit, I'm "only" riding on a mostly unmarked carbon prototype bike with SRAM Rival (not Force or RED) and I'm clearly going too slow to be a serious cyclist. So I just kind of thought to myself, "dude, you're the kind of ass that gives the rest of us roadies a bad name". I shrug it off since I have nothing to prove to this dork, but the more I think about it, the more he has me pissed off on my blissful Sunday ride. Now I'm getting a little torqued up and the more I see him fading away up the climb, the more I want to chase him down. So... boys always being boys... I chase him down at a mellow, but serious pace. As I pass him, I politely smile and say, "have a nice ride" and roll on up the climb. A few moments later, Captain Happy comes flying by me out of the saddle in his 53x11... without a word, but with strain showing on his face. Now I'm just giggling to myself because I know I'm now going to be enjoying being a thorn in his side for the rest of the hill. I settle in behind him, spinning myHere's the best part of this story: as you can see from the picture above, I rode in "stealth mode" in a plain black wool jersey and plain black bib shorts... I was feeling casual. So I'm plodding along on the long-ish climb, just riding slow tempo to spare my legs, when this guy from one of the local hotshot shop teams comes flying by on his custom yellow Madone with full Dura Ace and Bontrager deep section carbon wheels. As he comes by, I wave to him and say, "have a 39x15 as he begins to sway from side to side with his knees jerking through each pedal stroke with his monster gear. A few moments later I decide to finish this thing off... so I go to my 53x17 and stomp away... smiling as I pass him I say, "enjoy the rest of your ride... and thanks for the draft". I admit, I had to dig WAY deep at that point to maintain my pace, but as I looked back between my legs with my head down, I could see him suddenly sitting upright and riding in his 39x23... beaten and broken.

Now, I don't frequently give in to my ego very often, but I did today. Why today? Because the guy was being an ass because he thought he knew better and knew he was better than me based on a look. I very infrequently cave in like that and I'm not saying that I'm proud of how I reacted, but I am proud that I shelled the guy. I'm a big fan of waving to other cyclists and smiling at them and extending a welcome to the club. We all need to do this if we hope to have more people join in our fun. Otherwise we continue to look like elitist pricks with an attitude. On the same climb, at the beginning, I passed a guy on his dual suspension MTB on the bike path. At first, as I saw him in front of me, I thought he had a terrible case of pedal induced bobbing going on, but as I got closer to him, I could hear him singing to the song on his iPod and could see that he was simply bouncing to the music! When I passed and offered my "have a nice day", he shot back a huge (though startled) smile as he gave me a big thumbs up and kept bouncing away to the beat. That, my friends, is having a good time on your bike. That is what we should ALL be aspiring to.

***

Yesterday was my nephew Nolen's 4th birthday party. All the family got together and since his birthday is so close to Halloween, costumes were worn by most of the kids... including The Princess...
Katie Cat!

Nolen is a big fan of the Transformers and the party was Transformer themed.

My younger nephew, Jack, was a little devil...

... the cutest little devil ever.

It made for a pretty good weekend. How about yours?

Tim