Funky, paint sale

No, no, no. It's not time to stock up on your favorite hippie colors for your tie-dye collection. That's just my week in a nut shell.

Monday and Tuesday both the wife and I were in a funk. I felt like I had a sickness coming on (had a nose and throat thing going on) but after pounding the Airborne and vitamin C I feel back to normal....for me that is.

I did get a ride in both days on the fix gear thou, and that may have helped clean out the old pickle too. Took off yesterday...well pretty much had on choice with the wind. I'm still at a loss with the wind up here in eastern PA, I mean it's a normal thing this time of year to have winds in the 30 to 40 mph range and gusts over 50! Hell, in FL we called this crap a huricane..here it's just a Wednesday.

But with Huricane Wednesday keeping me in the house I did get a crap load of painting done. And believe it or not it only took the wife five shots to gets the colors she wants......not bad.

Now for those of you picking your brains on what to get your significant other for the big day next month (guys it's Valentine's day on the 14th, don't forget.....AGAIN) stop your looking. The guys over at T6 are making things easy for you.

Now tell me this does not say love.....I mean you can't go wrong with "The School Girl" for sexy.

Why do I have cheap porn music going thru my head right now?

Off to my saddle.

Sunday Sweet....Picasso?

Today was one of the best rides of the year, even thou it's only Jan. But it was a MTB ride that had the wife "test" riding my hardtail as her new bike (depending on my 29er debate/out come.)
Kirk and I plus two (Bud and Buggy) did a ride down at Wissa with the significant others (Christa and Wifey) doing their own ride. Even though I was the only one sporting a single speed rig, it was the fastest ride yet this year....and I loved it. Even thou my legs and overall body were smoked from some jackass (me) damn near killing everybody on the road yesterday (still not sure what that was all about.)

After the "boys" had our ninety minute throw down the ladies came rolling up to the cars, and I'm not sure what was brighter the new pink kit the wife was sporting or the smile she had on her face. With the first words out of her mouth being "I love it"....I'd say she had a good ride too. And that's how you lose a bike boys and girls.....well, out with the old in with the new....just what is the new?

So after a little post ride nutrition the wife started the saga of picking out paint colors. This could make the six Star Wars movies over twenty odd years look short....but either way today I start to get my Picasso on. And that means there will be paint on the walls, on me, on the dogs.......

29ers, Tacos, road attacks and more tacos

All that and it's only Sunday morning.


I met up with Gary and Bud friday morning to take Bud's 29er out for a demo. To sum up a ninety minute ride...I WANT ONE, and I want it now! It just rolls so smooth and fast compared to my current hardtail (with 26 wheels.) I can't see myself sporting the green flame paint job (even thou it would match my teams kit) so it looks like the silver it is, now the only question is what wheels. More on that once I ask around.

So after a good ride off road friday the wife and I hit up our fav Mexican restaurant (starting to be a friday thing) for some Latin nutrition...and beer too.

Saturday morning was the Tour de Muffin ride....which turned into somewhat of a race. Six of us rolled out from D-town and headed north staying on the hillier PA side, but atleast I was not alone on the fix gear this week (had three fixies and three gearheads.) We did the 15 up and down miles then dropped down and crossed the river over to Milford, NJ....aka home of the The Baker.

With our bellies full of warmth we head toward home on the flat NJ side and everything was normal till just after we crossed the river back to the PA side. It's a seven mile long slight rolling climb back up into Doylestown. At the bottom of the first climb some jackass ( JA) "attacked" ( as much as you can on a fix gear) and this started the next twenty minutes of "playful attacks." The JA went off the front and one rider jumped after, after 10-15 seconds a third joined and JA attacked again, and again and again.

After a flat in the lead three all six were a group again. Once the ride started the JA went off the front, and again he was not alone. But after a mile of fix gear/gears fighting it out a truce was called and the ride ended peacefully. We ended up with just short of sixty miles, a good day.

After getting home and cleaned up the wife wanted to take the JA...I mean me back out for some more Mexican goodness. Was a sweet day....great ride with friends, followed by good food/beer and a night with the wife....what could be better?

A 29er in the garage maybe....

Pretty in Pink

No, don't get scared here. I'm not talking about myself on this one.

With the package that arrived in the mail yesterday from Hammer Nutrition the wife is gonna be pretty (or prettier) in pink this coming year. I never thought I was a big fan of the color pink, but I think the kit looks pretty badass.

And I guess you could say she was just as pumped to see it, considering once she saw it she immediately changed into it.....in the middle of the kitchen.

Also in the box were some goodies for myself. A couple bottles each of Endurolytes and Perpetuem. The endurolytes work great for my cramping (or lack there of now) problem, but this will be a first for the perpetuem. I'll let you know what I think after this weekends riding adventures.

One last sweet thing was one the box too.....can't wait to rock this badboy.

Meeting up for a little MTB action tonight under the lights (our own lights), but no demo of the 29er yet. That will have to wait until the morning. Ten AM tomorrow I'm rolling out on big boy wheels for the first time.....not sure if I'll sleep very well tonight.

Massages and The Simpsons

Yesterday was a great day out of the saddle. Spent the morning with the wife before heading out to see Geoffrey for a massage (and no it's not weird getting a massage from a man.) Besides the man is great at what does, plus he being a cyclist himself only helps at what he does.

Lastnight was sweet too, just the wife and I making sure the couch did not fly away. We did scratch The Simpsons Movie off our "to watch" list. And from all the negative things I'd heard about the movie I was happy with it. I mean what else can you do with the Simpsons for 90 minutes?

Still on a movie note I saw this morning that Heath Ledger died yesterday. The only thing I really knew him from was The Patriot, but I guess he was one of the dudes from Brokeback Mountain. This was the closest I've come to seeing the movie (luckily) but it's still a sad thing.

I met up with Gary for a 40 mile spin on the fix gear this morning and the legs felt great. A nice mix of hills and flat stuff, a good little workout. Also my Team director sent out the scoring guidelines and series rules for the local racing series and it looks like I could do both the XC series and the Endurance series. I just need to see how all the dates line up with these two and the individual endurance events I want to do.

But doing both series and the individual events (which are my focus) may be to much. I need to map everything out this weekend and talk it over with a few people.

Hoping to take out a 29er for a demo tomorrow night.....I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I'll let you know how it goes.

"Most Depressing Day of the Year?"

What the Hell..........that's really the first thing I want to see in the morning. I mean why not just have the headline read "Today's Gonna F-ing Suck...Face it."

Somehow I fought thru the depression of the morning and loaded up the fix gear to meet Girlwonder for a ride. The shortbus confirmed what the nips had already told me......it was freaking cold.

Then add in a 10 mph wind on top of that.

But wearing most of my cycling wardrope (and looking like the Michelin man) we headed out for a nice 30 mile spin. Just what the meat pistons (and mentally I) needed. You see yours truly here was a prick to the wife lastnight before going to bed. Then I tossed and turned all night thinking about it....serves me right. She was just trying to be supportive (as always) and me being prick that I can be would not listen. Nuff said.

Colder then a Witches......

Yeah, that was this weekend.

Saturday had highs only in the area of 32 and today it could (and did) not get above the low 20's. Then throw in 10-15 mph wind both days and....I give you my version of Hell. But good rides were thrown down on both days.

Yesterday was a good 60 miles ride on the fix gear (even thou I was the only one of the four that had one....I must have missed something.) But none the less was a good ride, pretty much the norm. Out of D-town up to Frenchtown via the (hilly) PA side, but back home thru the normal flatter Jersey route.

After getting cleaned up I meet up with the wife for some well earned beverages and a Mexican feast at Los Sarapes before heading home for a night with the fuzz balls and a movie. The movie was about a seven, but went well to top off a night of just hanging out with the bitches (and wife) at home.

The Wissahickon ride today started out looking like this....

Bud and I (the bankrobber)

but was a good 15 mile spin off road (my first since the race two weeks ago.) And better yet I got to try out Bud's 29er........Daddy likes. More on that once I get to put some miles on it this week. But over all a good recovery day on the bike.

Now it's time at home to watch a little football (that I don't really care about) and my "couple" of beers with the wife. Once things stop being numb (and her beer kicks in) we'll talk. Insert or fav porn music here.....

later.

Friday.....

Not Friday or even Next Friday but the last Friday. Yep, this is my last Friday before it's time to get down to business for the 08 season. Luckily no big changes are needed but it's time to start cutting out certain things (and back on others.)

Things that need to go are the junk food. Sure a little splurge here and there are fine, but the WHOLE bag of Oreo's that I knocked back last Sunday night are out.

And the things that need to be cut back on are the............

yeah, beers. By no means are the wife and I in need of an AA meeting, but we were both having a couple beers with dinner every night and then throwing back a good number each over the weekend. Planning on limiting it to a couple on the weekends...just not saying how big those "couple" may be.

On the riding front, the preliminary schedule for the local MASS series came out the other day. So the big project for the weekend is to firm up the 08 schedule. I also need to do some research on new lights for this year. I've been running a NiteRider FireStorm the past couple of years and it works great, but the weight (800 grams) is twice what of the newer stuff. I'm not a weight weenie but if I can get a "better" light and drop 300 plus grams...even for a Oreo eater that's a no brainer.

Looking forward to putting in a good 3-4 hours on the fix gear tomorrow, and hoping to clean the dust off the hardtail for a trip down to Wissahickon on Sunday. But with the high only 20 for Sunday, we'll see.

Now I need to go take a closer look a that Oktoberfest pic...for research.

Zero day...

Or better yet a day of zero.

Wifey had to head back out to armPitts-burgh (as she so loving calls it) lastnight for work again. So that left me and the three fuzzy four legged amigos with the house to ourselves. So I (we) did what any man would do with his wife out of town for a couple nights.

Yep, you guessed it....I slept in late, and then laid around in my underwear (which I have none) all day.

After talking myself out of reenacting the underwear dance seen from Risky Business I got the day rolling. The weather here in the Philly area was....well, the weather here in the Philly area in January. Cold, wet, gray and all around crappy.

But with having booked ninety miles over the weekend on the fix gear I wanted a day out of the saddle anyway. So with the body still a little spent, and the weather looking like a horror movie I gave the meat pistons the day off.

And so the day pretty much looked like a lot of this.....

This was just before the snoring started, I kind of worn the poor boy out this morning.

For some strange reason a buddy of mine sent me this in an email lastnight. Which after seeing I have the need to go take a shower....for some reason I just feel dirty now.

The weather looks good for a ride tomorrow, hoping to put in a good 40-50 miles before the wife gets home in the late afternoon. Now for at shower...

Twin-Six

It looks like I'll be doing a little gear pimping here soon. I heard from the guys over at Twin-Six that they want me to be a rider for the T6 team. I want to throw a huge thanks out to both Ryan and Brent for putting their trust in me, I won't let you guys down.

Still waiting on the local MASS series race dates to come out, but it looks like my schedule is shaping up pretty fast. A nice little break right now to dial in a couple of things, but it starts to heat up mid March. Weekly training crits up in Lehigh and then the first road event will be the Philly Phlyer.

Today was a nice long ride on the fixies. Gary was short on time and had to go out early so he and I rolled out for two hours before I headed over to Kirks to meet up for the "real" ride at ten. Four of us headed out of D-town down to the river, turned north thru Frenchtown and up to The Baker in Milford for a muffin.

After the kids knocked back their 500 calorie softball sized mounds of joy we headed back toward home. I rolled back to the car with right over 70 miles in for the day, I'd say that earns me a couple tasty alcoholic beverages night. Therefore I've got things to do...or drink.

later.

Normal day...

Or the return to normal day....I hope.

The wife is driving home as I type from a work trip in Pittsburgh, or as she calls it "the armpit of the country." So with any luck tonight things will return to normal after ten days of her/I and us being gone. Will be nice, just the two of us again....... insert 70's porn music here.

Got out with Gary and Bud yesterday for a spin on the fixies. We only put in 20 miles but that was just what my body needed after this weekend. Found a good shot of Gary pinning one of the jumps earlier in the race.

No ride today even thou the body could handle a little spinning again. With the wind 25-30 mph and gusts over 40 I think I'm better off saving myself for a good ride tomorrow.

Till then I'm off for a massage and some good stretching out to prep myself for the wife coming home....once again insert 70's porn music here.

Oleta weekend recap

After the 1200 mile drive from PA to Miami Gary and I meet up with the wife and Girlwonder (both flew down) Friday afternoon for a little pre ride of the race course. I'd rode Oleta dozens of times having lived in the area for a couple years, but it was the first time for both Gary and GW. Was more of a good way for Gary and I to stretch our backs and legs then anything, but it was good.

Heading out of the hotel on race morning things were not looking good on the weather front.

But things cleared up just in time to set up the pit area and get the racer meeting in before start time.

Gary and I planned on riding together and the pace was nice and steady. Our laps times were in the hour range, but it's the pitting that slowed us down. This being his first endurance race he/we were wasting to much time in the pits. After the first 3-4 laps things were worked out and we cut our pit times in half, just now our laps times were slowing. Some of this was the course turning nasty from all the mud and some was just us slowing down, but that's how endurance races go.

Gary was rocking Hammer Nutrition products and loving them. But all I can say is that the Endurolytes he kept pumping into me every lap are now going to be a MUST for me on race day. I was taking two caps per lap until one minor cramp on lap seven (about eight hours in) then we bumped that up to four caps. Never had a problem again......HN Endurolytes here I come.

Things were going sweet till the 8th lap. About 15 minutes in I have no idea what happens but I just could not go. I still felt the same, I just keep falling back from Gary and my heart rate was about 5-8 beats lower. Gary keep rolling thru with me and we finished the lap 15 minutes slower then normal. Wanting some sugar fast I hit the Sweetarts......two small bags of these things and I was ready to rock.

Heading out for our ninth lap we knew we were gonna be cutting it close on the cut off time for a tenth lap. Know this we pushed a little harder in the first parts of the course, this was not a good thing for Gary. Halfway thru the lap he hit the same wall I did not the lap earlier. He nursed me thru my lap so I was happy to do the same for him. We did finish the lap but missed the cut off by about ten minutes, no big thing. We finished 6th and 7th out of 35 men and this being a low priority event for myself I was happy with that.

Girlwonder rocked out and placed 3rd in the women's solo 12. She's done two 12 hour events (the Tree Shaker 12 Hour Challenge being the other) and has a 2nd and 3rd place.....not to bad at all.

Looks like the "color change" will be complete in a couple of days, I'm still looking and doing paperwork. I'll get into all that once things are finished up.

Off to find my saddle now.....wonder how the legs are gonna like this?

There's no place like home..

That says it all.

Finished off a LOOOONG weekend this afternoon, now the clean up and recap begin. All things said I was pretty happy with how things came out at the race. Finish 7th out of 35 men, could have finished a little better...but I'll go into that in the morning when I know who and where I am.

A race recap, nutritional find and a color change details tomorrow. Right now I have a couch with my name on it.

Just checked the front door.....and lookie at what the wife order me up.

Well I got one and she got herself two. She saw me checking out the TwinSix site last week and took it upon herself to give me the hook up. Now that's a good women.

Now where's that couch ....

Ready, set.......DRIVE!

Today was a great day for not going outside at all here in southeast PA, in one word the weather SUCKED! I never heard the word blustery used as a weather term before moving here from the sunshine state a couple years back....now I know why. In Florida we call this HELL. The high temperature today was 30F with winds of 25-30 mph....like I said hell for a FL boy.

So with that said I finished off the packing and loading for the trip down to the race. Just need to take the kids (the four legged fuzzy, furballs) to their weekend getaway and head over to pick up Gary at nine.

I'm pumped to see Tinker Juarez is coming back down for the race again. He's not only one of the best mountainbikers ever, but one hell of a nice guy. Hope he has a great race.

Now it's time to go give some love to the doggies and put myself to bed for a loooong weekend. Wish me luck....I'm gonna need it.

Happy New Year....and now home alone.

One more year has come and gone, and I'm still not ruling the world. I really need to move that up on my things to do list......maybe this year.

Wifey and I had a quiet night at home lastnight (I think New Years Eve is like amateur night.) So after dinner we headed home before the crazies came out. I keep feeding her beer like it was candy, and she keep drinking them like they were water. Which they pretty much are/were. You see the wife is one of those that think this is beer.....

I know, I know.....I've tried to bring her into the light, but she's stuck in her ways.

But the night was good, watched I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, and played some pool. The movie was not bad (anything with jessica biel I'll sit thru) and as always the wife lost in pool.

Once the head stopped spinning this morning I started packing things up for the race this weekend in Miami. Normal stuff, extra everything....pedals, shoes, stem, handlebar, seatpost, seat, tools...bla, bla, bla. So now it's just a matter throwing all the stuff in the short bus and hitting the road Thrusday morning.

After a little goodbye lunch wifey headed to the airport and I headed to Gary's for a spin on the fixed gears. A 32 mile roll down to the river, up thru New Hope and back up to D-town. Just enough to knock the cobwebs off the legs.....and not to start off the new year with a big goose egg on day one.

Now I need to get ready for my big night home alone...well with the dogs that is. A beer in one hand and the remote in to other.........God I hate watchinbg TV.