Water water....

"Water water everywhere but not a drop to drink"



No, I'm not having a high school English class flash back (besides, I'd need to have gone to have a flash back in the first place.) But that's a different story.



I'm talking about bikes. Between Wifey and I we have 14 bikes in the house right now....yeah, you heard me 14. Granted, two are loner/demo's and one still needs it's cracked frame replaced but they're hanging from hooks all over the place. If these things were meat Rocky would be in here using them as punching bags...

...and, I'm not puttin a picture of the meat locker up.

So where am I'm going with all this? Guess which one of the Army of bikes I want to ride.....yeah, the broken one. Not because I like it any better then the others (but I have spent many a long ride riding it...long, cramping nights filled full of what the Hell am I doing this for thoughts.)

But here I am rambling again.

I feel like I'm speed dating trying these different bikes. Sure it's cool to ride something different once in a while......nevermind, that's just to easy. But it's kinda hard to compare things to something when you can't ride one of them. I'm mean you can close your eyes and make believe you're riding something else, but it's not the same.....yes, I'm still talking about bikes by the way.

But the window shopping needs to come to an end....maybe.

Running

There, I said it....I've been running.
And no, it was not from blue flashing lights or to a buy one get one free sale at the beer store....but I would for that second one.

I ran more then I care to remember back in the military and the wife and I ran alot back when we first met (well, it was more like her trying to run from me and me chasing after her) but we wised up and focused more on cycling.

But for some reason a month or so ago I started again, not even sure why. But what the Hell, I thought it'd be good cross training for a week or two. Then two weeks ago I saw a sign advertising a 5k less then a mile from the house....how can I not do that I thought. Ok, so I can cross train a couple more weeks....do the race, then back away the running shoes again for a decade.

The race was last Saturday and I dug it. Sub 22 minutes (not stellar, but ok) and third in my name group. So now when I should be pack/hiding my running shoes again something weird happened. I found myself surfing the web for other races in the area.....and sadly I found some.

So much for hanging up the shoes again....we'll see what happens after this weekend. Hopefully I can kick this habit.

Lookin ahead...

and not really the same way as these two are...

In fact, I have no idea what the Hell they're doing. Luckily I must have missed that day of training when I was in the military.

But more so toward next years riding/racing thought. After a less then ideal this year I'm looking forward to getting back to

Stop the madness.....

and no, I'm not talkin about Susan Powter given one of her waked out weight loss infomercials from back in the day....

....but speaken of her. Has anybody seen a picture of her lately? I like the new punkish look....tat's, nose ring and hair....

Now we're takin, game on.

But before I say to many things that the wife will beat me for...I'm talking about the beatings I've been taken for no blog updates. I mean I'm not living the life of a Rockstar or anything....but the groupies could be cool.

Riding seams to be something from a prior life, and I'm not sure how I feel about that yet. Broke the mountain bike frame 5-6 weeks and have not road on dirt since...mostly because I have no big wheeled bike to ride yet. Just can't see myself on a 26er again.

Have taken the road bike out 4-5 times in the past six weeks, but have not went more then 25 miles each time. But it's getting to be fixie season again....and a strange as it sounds I'm looking forward to riding it again.

Besides the Wife is gonna drag me kicking and screaming back down to Miami again the first of the year for a 12 hour....I'm mean who wants to leave PA in the dead of winter to go to Miami?

And to ride a bike for 12 hours at that....I think she really needs a sit down.

The attack dog left...

ok, fine.....he fell asleep. Plus the cat's out of the bag, so it's out of the box for the new toy...

What can I say, it's that time of year to play off road on the skinny tire bikes.

Top Secret...

It's under non armed, fuzzy guard....but what we got?

He takes bribes if you want to see....or just wait the 30 seconds till he's bored/distracted by his brothers.

Or if you're wearing a skirt I'll show you myself...

Mt Washington Hillclimb

So back in Feb the BikeWrench calls at 11:45 on a Sunday morning, saying we need to do the Mt Washington Hillclimb. All I really remember hearing thru my hungover haze (remember I said it was Feb.....ok, any Sunday......fine, it was any morning of the year) "registration opens at noon and it'll close out in a couple hours at best."

Six months later here we are:

With traffic the eight hour trip turned into ten hours, but we did have a few sight along the way:


No freaking idea.....


But you've gotta love the rest areas in NH......nothing like a state that sells liquor on the side on the turnpike.

We roll into town with just enough time to grap our race packs and thru down some food but hittin the sheets at eleven.....so five AM came REAL EARLY.

Just before 8:30 we line up to watch the Pro class head out, and my herd rolled out five minutes later. It was nice and flat for about the first 40-50 yards then it started to kick up...and by kick up I mean straight to 12-13%.

The Wrench and I were riding side by side when we heard the next wave being started (they use a freakin cannon as a starting gun.) Next thing I hear is him saying "that's one mile down....eight minutes." Sweet.

Then I start thinking "when the Hell is this gonna flatten out"......at the top dumbass, at the top.
A few short kickers of 16-17% grade later I hear "mile two...18 minutes." Nice, I still felt good and all's well.

That changed at about mile 2.0000001. Started to fade a little and lost Wrench's wheel, I slowly fell back to about 15-20 yards back for awhile. After what I thought was 25-30 minutes I started to feel a little better. I decide to burn one of the few matches I had left and caught back up to my little rabbit. I ask him how we're lookin (fully knowing we were around 5 to 5.5 miles in) "4 miles.....well, 3.9 to be right now."

One word....fuck! Hearing that it felt little someone pulled a parachute and I was off the back, riding on flat tires....mentally shot, crushed and everything else. I fell back about 40-50 yards behind the Wrench and just stayed there.

Mile four to five was the steepest overall (other then the short kicker at the top) but I started to come around once we lost or treecover....about mile 4.5. Once I started to feel better it all came back, and the next thing I knew I was looking at the mile six marker....but the Wrench was still sitting about 50 yards up.

I start to push a little harder and to by disbelief to started to pull him back. Right I we pass the seven mile marker I pull up next and he gave me a where'd the Hell you come from look. Seeing the road leveled out a little (from 13-14% down to about 12%) over the next 100 or so yards and knowing the top was less then half a mile away I burnt my last match.

I jumped the best I could (which ain't much) for 5-8 seconds on the "flat" knowing the Wrench would follow. I looked under my arm as I sat back on the saddle for the up coming grade change (13-14% changed to 18% for 50-60 yards and then to 22-23% for the last 50 yards) and I was somewhat alone.

And then the finish line:

This is my thank God that's done face...

The FJ and I front row seat thou.

This 10 year old dude rocked the last 50-60 yards.

Reasons to climb...

The easy way down...

And Hell Yeah we had to stop on the way home.