Fondo

fuck me.

I haven't put myself thru
something like that in a
long time.

I'm not even looking
at reasons why.

It was a bad day compiled
by poor preperation.

These legs of Sept are not
those legs of summer.

I cracked at mile 50.
Though I got thru the
third timed section ok.
Heart revs were there,
was still ticking over the
gear, seemed good.

And then the lights went out.
There was a big battle with the
cramp monter in those dark
back alleys of slum town.
Classic stuff...

Why in the fuck,
am I doing this?
Asked a lot questions,
I didn't wanna answer.

The second 60/100 split
at Aid 3 was one of those
turns.  You know there is
no good to come from
either choice.

Bail = Months of gnawing regret.
Ride on = Me pushing my fucking
road bike up a climb because I had
nothing. Kip clop, Kip clop, Kip clop.

I ain't proud, fuck it.

What a fucking day.

And the with that, all I can say
 is Thank-you.

Thank you to Ralph & his crew for
putting on one hell of a series. Always
awesome to catch up with old friends.

And thanks to all the volunteers, your
loooong day is much appreciated.

And a special fuck you to the 'cakes, good stuff.

wow.

I sit here, in my back yard,
beer #6 in hand, huh #whut?


It was a very good day.

Full of doubt.
Purpose.

For some reason,
purpose.

Today was the day.

When else, would I
consider myself
'ready.'

?

Your peers,
your friends,
you see what they do,
so why not you?

One step at a time.

Step taken today,
118 doorstep to doorstep
on those skinny tires.

All you gots to do is pedal,
same as it ever was.
Been doing it all my life.

Pedaling.
Just pedal.

qwik n dirty

plans change.
plans are made.

plan j:
lose weight, get 'fit'.
vive' le Tour.

Plan h:
poach three days, missing
out on the first two.

Day 1/Stage 3:
I happily embrace my inner roadie.
I love riding road bikes, smooth,
efficient and plenty of time to take
it all in.

We climbed up Reddish, which I
was actually looking forward to.
And we got to descend out of the
saddle, double yeah hawll!

Moyer's Gap is a special spot,
nice sustained 19% ramp at the
top.

"This is gonna take everything I got." - Buck


Then it rained, and we road a shit
ton of wet fireroad.  My road bike
now hates me. Everybody ended up
numb, one way or the other.


Day2/Stage 4:
Big & Schlossy.
Tony B'town & I commuted
north, catching on the last 5yrs,
following the caravan of mtb
clad vehicles.

We ride mtn bikes north on the road,
make a few turns, settle in.  Parade
up into the forest, parade some trail,
stuff the front end and bang a leg off
the bike.  Ouch.
 Long is timed section, big ups,
groovy down and empty at the bottom.
Regroup. Ride/hike to the overlook.
Hang out for a bit with fellow
slummers and take it all in.

Lunch, sketchy fireworks, FREEDOM!
Then on that first steepish slimey bit
of down, slow speed stuff of the front
and over we go. Bang.

Do I still have all my teeph?

Yeah?  cool, I still have all my teeth.
But I am spitting out blood, neat.
Really busted my lip on that one...

Typical regroup/recovery and finally
back to steady gunning slumming'
tempo after an hour or so.

Just in time to make a wrong turn
and not realize it.  Get to the bottom
and hit an unmarked T, hmmmm.
There's skidmarks, there's tracks,
there's a downed tree blocking that way,
so go the other. Left is north, right is south.

Eventually find the road, and yeah,
I'm off course. Fuck, shoulda turned left
back there, so I guess I need to turn left
on the road and head north towards
where that left pops out and wherever
the hell we're parked.

Then I made some very poor route choices,
starting with that left turn, and for the next
hour or so and went for a very long, very
lost spin on the roads up around Bryce Resort
in the exact opposite direction of where I
needed to be going. It was a long trudge
backtrack down 42 and back over the Orkney
Grade where serendipity reigned and I
was picked up quickly at the crossroads
on a hunch.

JamesK, I owe you, you too Sue G.! Thank You!

So after that 2hours of extra roadieness,
the busted lip and other additional impacts,
I was feeling kinda hollow come Sunday,
so I saw the peloton off and went home,
tail between my legs.

vive leTour'

!

oh yay, another one

Jeb Bush:
“We need to make sure that we protect the right not just of having religious views, but the right of acting on those religious views,” he said.

Does this asshole understand how fucked up this view is and what a Pandora's box he opens up with that statement? Fucking conservatives.

boom.

March was a rough month,
weather, mental state, all
very cold and grey.

Peak belly hit sometime
about mid month. Then
the weather broke, and we
began pedaling again.

Then the relationship broke,
and I really began pedaling
again, or at least 100% on
my terms, again. Man I love
those old school BSRR's..

So, just crossed that old school
base build 1000mile threshold
sometime in the last week,
and according to the scale,
15lbs has been left behind
out along that quiet white line
since those March doldrums.

Targeting another 5 to 10,
but don't call it a comeback,
I'm just looking to be not quite
so far off the back on Sundays.


And I sure do love to ride my bicycle.

'guiding'

'guiding', it ain't easy.  period.
tough day, saw some good fish
while crawling around the banks
of the Letort in the later morn.

had one live action test case to
demonstrate what usually happens
when you encounter one of those rather
large, 'you get one cast' type of fish....

to which I got exactly one cast.
Big old 18"+er saw the leader
overhead, and bolted.....All in
front of the former el Presidente'
of the Angler's Club of NY.

He was a trooper on the Letort and
wish we'd done better on Mtn Creek
in the afternoon. I picked up a few, a
couple decent sized rainbow stockies,
some small wild browns and chubs,
he got into some smaller wild browns...


there's a mild regret of outfishing
the sport you're sporting, which is
why 'guiding' is in quotes...today's
role is to put 'em over fish, advise
if the vibe is there, but not hold
hands....take your buddy fishing
sort of deal, share some local
knowledge if you can, history,
stories like those you've heard
from guides while guided, but this
is your neck of the woods.  And,
yeah, so, it's cool to bring your rod,
unlike actual guiding...so, anyways.

Do wish he'd gotten onto more decent trouts,
weird to feel guilty-ish about having a bit
of success today...tough conditions all around,
weather and all has been goofy, cold rain thru
the week with flows up and now back down
quick, early clouds and getting' sunny in a snap...
curious to hear how the other's fared.
Plan B was a spot on the Breeches...grass is
always greener, ya know?

but, Like I said, weird to feel guilty-ish about
having success, but this guy's fished places
I'll only ever dream of, literally...I've dreamt
of places he's fished and has access to, and he
seems to be good people, know what I mean?

Former el Presidente' of the Angler's
Club of NY, I'm here to put you onto
some fish, sooooo, yeah, I'm, uhhh,
gonna demonstrate here, that there in
that tight pocket water you just walked
up by, there're at least two 6-8" wild
browns and a nicely colored
13" stocker rainbow.

and a chub, plus the other fleeting
shadows I kicked up as I waded thru.

maybe I just have knack for it.?
been doing it for awhile now I guess,
and these are my home waters...


I did get his card & some flies
that I'm gonna stash away, along
with an invite for lunch if I'm ever
"up in the city"....a visit to the
"Museum that serves Lunch."

Which would be amazing I'm sure..
can't imagine.

So, I guess I must've done
something right, eh?

good times,
good. times.

"the cupcake ride"

top of the knob before the downhill
really goes down the hill...I hear voices.

real ones.

catch two fellas, not part of the group.

"is this the CupCake Ride?!"
"are you riding with the CupCakes?!"

uhmm, I guess so, yeah...

[& thanks for letting me by,
the mythical unicorns of
TumblingRun should also
be along at any minute...]

qwik notes.

things I should write down.

Roxbury is tough fucking climb.
Gizmo stats showed sustained 15-16%
early on, then a ramp from 12ish up 15%
as you roll up thru the line cut.

274 is pretty steady, some 13-14%, but
nothing unexpected after descending
it a few times, just a steady grind.

Germantown.  oy, loose bullshit
scattered 'gravel' over hardpack.
hell of a climb regardless,
sustained 13-14% for the last
7 or 8 or so minutes with some
nice views to the left, will take
pics next time I drive it.

Horse Valley Run, it is my river Ganges.
Soak the legs, mile 65, reboot and shuffle
the deck. Have a snack at the store, then
75ish north until...that right turn.

74 South up over Tuscarora.....ouch.
It's a beast, in three parts.  Pitchy bits for
ten minutes on up around the left hand bend
until the tight right hander.  Tough kick to start,
13ish if I recall give or take, then the mid
section between hairpins is manageable,
steady 9ish recovery pitch for ten minutes
before the turn with three fun ramps that top
out at 14-15% just before rolling over the top.

Ride across a big rolling valley, things are
getting interesting...

Wagg's is Wagg's as pr usual, it sucks.
Even mores at 100miles in. The right leg
cramped up as the pitch steepened, been a
while for that classic scenario...pushed thru
it and still somehow set a Strava, PR....so
must be doing something right, I guess.....


having a good time regardless.

pr baby, p.r.

p.
freakin'.
r.

that was fun,
111 on the gizmo,
longest for me,
solo solitary road ridin'

long day checking to
see if certain demons
have been exorcised..
signs point to yes.

the full answer.....well,
it was an amazing day
for a ride on a bicycle.

pieced together a grand
daddy BSRR route, that
quickly looks like a stepping
stone.  

to some place.

square 1.53

7gels, 2clif bars, $20, 2bottles, scouted route to shake things down. Roxbury/274/New Germantown/follow 75-ish to 74south up over Tuscarora & Waggs. Clockwise loop maximizes refuel locations...after the big climb, not right before, but backloads the climbing...Wagg's at the century mark? perfect. Shiny new hoops on the road machine shod with fresh Conti 25's, along with select carpet fibres to take the edge off have really livened up the ride....and I've got all day, the weather looks prime, so why the hell not? Let's see if the Garmin battery lasts longer than that damn phone ever did.



not sure how many squares there are, exactly.
but I feel like I'm a good step on the way out of
Square One, finally.  Square zero sucked, that
was about a month ago, which was around
500ish miles, having been bitten off in big,
quiet, solitary chunks.

Odo on the road bike read 1231 yesterday, when
it got swapped for the fancy Garmin gizmo. That's
from when new, but add 65ish for the 'demo ride'
I took before writing the check....420 is where we
started this spring, so 1420 is the door to SqRE 2,
that'll mark the first consistent block of 1000 along
the white line in a long while.

In a long while.

Wanna get this last 200 done in short order, then
soak it in for a couple weeks while doing TU work
in June and try to sharpen up some with shorter efforts
in between commitments.  And there's no real reason
right now, not a single goal really, other than improving.

And theres lot's of room for that, lots.

That was a peak experience a few years back,
no doubt. A hell of a ride to get there and doubt
I'll ever have that belly of fire to reach those heights
again....and that's life, enjoy it, appreciate it and give thanks.

It does feel good to be pedaling a bike for me
again, for my reasons, on my terms. It's been a
while, and the fishin's been good too...

lone wolf.

I guess it's how I roll.

So far my road bike
constitutes the rebound.

The road has always
been good to me. There's
a lot to be considered and
explored along that solitary
white line, it'll take you
places if you let it.

Always keep an ear out
for traffic, ya hear?

had an idea

about a post,
that I should maybe write

about

my current situation.

let's just say I have a bit more free time
on my hands.

I've been filling some of it
with long bike rides.

I have another one planned,
it looks tasty.

to a place I've longed for.

work on restoring the diesel
first.

the turbo comes later..

and the fishes are hungry,
still good times on the water.

upheaval, I guess it has its benefits,
shake her down to the foundation,
bikes, trouts, a good night's sleep.