Falling Leaves

Today was such a beautiful day for this time in November. Who could ask for better weather. 68 degrees! That's crazy talk. Thursday's are normally a rest day for me. As I drove home though I decided it was just too nice not to go out and do something. So I figured I'd run just a little. Not long, but enough to say I got out and did something. I made it home, got out of the car and turned my knee oddly and it kinked and hurt. So I decided I'd go for a little ride instead. It'd be easier on my knee as it wasn't quickly working itself out. I got dressed headed out just to ride a little trail by my house.
I turned off the road into the trail and it seemed nice enough. Hit the first hill and it was very heavily leaf covered. No problem, just be careful because I can't see what's underneath. I'm slipping and sliding around. Finally I realize there's a very wet under layer under the leaves and I'm just kinda gliding along the top. Some sections were just down right soupy. So I cut out as soon as I could and decided to head out on the road. No biggie.
I'm dirty now, no reason to head home just yet. So instead of making a right for home, I take a left and head down a small back road. I pass a sign that says "Road Closed". I see a giant tree down over the road and figure that must be why, so I just hop off climb over the tree and proceed on. Now the road is very heavily leaf covered. As I go around this hard 180 turn in the road I'm looking up ahead to make sure there isn't another reason the road is closed, (like a bridge being out), then wham! I'm on the ground. I didn't even know what happened until I was sliding along the pavement. And yes, since it was nice out, I had shorts on. So I get up, brush myself off and notice there was a big stick under the leaves I had hit and took my front wheel out. Nice. Now I'm all skinned up so I decide I'm not following with the closed road anymore and head back. On the way back home I get two bugs in the same eye. Yikes! I obviously was meant to take today off.
However in hind sight, it may not be the riding. I may just be having that sort of day. Earlier in the day I had gotten a papercut on my thumb, shortly there after I was in the cafeteria at work and got my bagel stuck in one of those toaster turning machines and started a small fire and burnt the same thumb trying to reach in and unjam the bagel. Mmmmm...
Luckily today is almost over and I can start fresh again tomorrow.

Country Road

I'm working a really early schedule at work now. It's a little rough getting up in the morning. But the afternoons are totally making it worth it. I was thinking about this this afternoon as I rode through the backroads somewhat near my house. I say somewhat cause I took a new loop today. I had plenty of day light so I figured I'd experiment a little. I don't know why I ever think that's a good idea, but today I did. I took off and I was a little cold, but I figured I'd warm up once I hit the first few hills. Yup, didn't happen. So I'm hoofing along, trying to get warm, but also enjoying the day. At the beginning of the ride the sun was out and I could smell the smell of fall as I passed the farms. I don't know what that is. Maybe a mix of rotting cow shit and hay that's been harvested; but for some reason it smells good. So I'm ridding along and it's a little chilly, but over all a beautiful fall afternoon so I decided to take a new turn.
Well, the new turn ended up taking me a whole lot of new turns until I had no clue where I was. The sun was gone and a thick grey sky lay overhead. The wind picked up and the temperature must have dropped about 10 degrees. I was lost, and freezing, my toes were going numb and by now had to pee. Great. I thought about calling Marc, as I did have my phone with me. But I felt that would be like admitting defeat. So I kept at it. I wasn't really totally lost. I was on a loop that was marked. The problem was it's marked for a 25, 50, and 100k. And somehow I got on the wrong one and it was taking me very far away from home. I figured if I just followed it long enough that it would lead me back to a road I knew and then I could cut back home. The only problem was I was absolutely freezing and my feet were almost completely numb, making it very hard to climb. But I didn't give up, I plugged on and eventually it finally linked to a road I knew and I made my way home. I was very cold, feet very numb, and bladder about to burst. But I did it. I hadn't given up and I found my way on my own and had a really good ride.

Mmmm Cookies...

This past weekend was great. We did not go to a race, hell we barely road. It was just a nice relaxing weekend. I need those every once in a while. I ran around a little bit. But for the most part it was quiet.
Went out with some friends Friday night and Marc drank too much. I can always tell when he drinks too much cause he starts talking to all the people down Main St as we drive home. This time was particularly interesting as he's talking to them, but hadn't realized that the window was back up. So they could see him, but not hear him. That made for far less retorts, which was good.
Saturday was freezing by my standards, but I managed to get a ride in. Some kids showed up part of the way into my ride to have flag football practice on one of the fields I ride on. No biggie. There weren't that many kids and they were only using part of the field, so I just rode down the side (further away from the sideline) as not to be in there way. However the parents were still asses. I wasn't anywhere near interrupting the practice or bothering the kids and they ran screaming from one line to the other. Why screaming is a necessary part of practice I do not know. But they did this several times. Anyway, there 7 or so parents that were there just hanging out. They stood on the one corner I was cutting through and actually looked irritated as I came by. I slowed a ton so as to not startle them and passed carefully. But they still glared. Mmm, I was there first, I moved my loop as to stay completely out of the way, and yet they felt the need to give me nasty stares as I came by. I guess I was interrupting their conversation.
Sunday I decided to bake cookies. I've never baked cookies before. I've helped my mom back in the day. But never actually made them myself. So I decided to make some Tollhouse cookies. Just the recipe off the bag, but hey that's still from scratch. They turned out good, mmmm.

Spell Bound

I was flipping through Entertainment Weekly and came across a list of the top 5 movie magicians. Yes, I don't know why I was looking at Entertainment Weekly either. For some reason it's been coming to the house. I don't have a subscription or anything, but it keeps showing up. Anyway, the list was:

#5 Merlin
#4 Gandalf
#3 Albus Dumbledore
#2 The Wicked Witch of the West
#1 Yoda

I couldn't believe what I was reading. For one, though Yoda is a bad ass, he's not a magician, he's a jedi knight.
As for the wicked Witch of the West. #2, really? What did she really do. So she could look in a crystal ball and have a minion of flying monkeys. She couldn't even cast a decent enough spell to be immune to water. She must bave been one smelly B*&^#.
Now Albus Dumbledore on the other hand. He's awesome. He is not only a really powerful wizard, but he also has compassion and understanding. A really likeable guy. And where's Voldemort in this list? He's supposed to be the most powerful wizard of all. He's bringing himself back from the dead even. I never saw the Wicked Witch of the West do that.
Gandalf, again, another great choice. That fight on top of the tower was awesome. Yes, I'm a super geek.
And Merlin as #5? He's the one that started it all. He's the ubber magician. However, I'm not familiar with the particular film they're referencing. So maybe that Merlin sucked.
So my list would be as follows.

#5 the Wicked Witch of the West (only because I do not consider a jedi knight a magician)
#4 Dumbledore
#3 Gandalf
#2 Voldemort
#1 Merlin

Happy Trails

I can't believe the weather the last few days. It's been absolutely beautiful, especially for this time of year. I was home earlier then normal the other day and trying to decide if I was going to go for a ride. It was awesome out, but my back had been paining me all morning (and I was whining). I went back and forth and resolved that I'd take a day of rest and just enjoy the day. Then Amy calls. She too was out of work early. After very little prodding, and the promise of a nice easy spin, I agree to meet up with her and go for a ride at White Clay as long as I could get my bike in the car; as I have not yet put the roof rack back on. After practically dismantling my bike to get it in the car, I manage to fit it in and the ride was a go.
We decide to meet at the bird sanctuary. Which I thought was odd since we were riding White Clay, but ok. I arrive first. I get out and try to get my bike back together before Amy gets there so we get rolling. As soon as I get out of the car a guy comes over and says, "I have a silly question, could you tell me how to get to Bike Line?" So I gave him directions. Afterwards I proceed to pull out my bike and I hear grumbling. Then one of them says, "I think it's called a cyclocross bike". I told him it was, and he in turn asks if I could ride it here. I said I don't know I hadn't before, but I'm about to find out. Mmmm, actually that is a good question. I've never really ridden my cross bike on single track.
Soon Amy arrives, we get ourselves together and head off. It's beautiful out. I'm in shorts and short sleeves and comfortable. The trails are in awesome condition. They're nice and dry, with just a little leaves on them to kinda make it more interesting. It's great. We head over to White Clay. We end up climbing a lot more than I had anticipated. But it was just nice to get out and have an enjoyable ride.
It did get a little interesting when we get to shock and awe. Normally it's called this because it's a fast twisty burmy piece of singletrack you can fly through. However, with cross brakes, that aren't really made for breaking but really slowing, it gave shock and awe a whole new meaning. We both were squeezing as hard as we could and just rolling along. There was no stopping. Eventually we did manage to stop and we had to rest are hands for a moment as they had seized up from white knuckling for so long.
Overall it was an awesome day, great riding, my back loosened up and felt good. We don't get too many more days like this anymore. So it's nice to be able to make the most of them.






FFA messing around on a make-shift teeter-totter. We passed up riding on the real teeter totter on the skills trail.











Look how pretty the view was. And I don't mean of Amy's ass.












We ran into Fitzi and rider heading out for a run on the way back to the car.

Suit Up?

Yesterday was Beacon. I was scared half to death of this race. All week people kept telling me how hard it was and of the ampitheater of death. I didn't even want to do it it got so bad. Marc had pre-registered me, so I was stuck. There was no way out. Ah, but then I got hurt Satruday. I don't know exactly what happened. All I know is that by Saturday night my back and hip had seized up so much that I couldn't stand up straight or put hardly any pressure on my one leg. I tried to rub it out and made it worse. I took Advil; didn't help. I tried hot balm. Felt good. But I think it just disguised the pain. I went to bed without packing for the race. I wasn't even sure I was going to make it to the race, not alone actually getting on my bike.
Sunday morning comes, I get up and move around gingerly. I feel stiff, but no sharp stabbing pains. So that's an improvement. I take more Advil. Grab a little something to eat and throw some crap in my bag as Marc is rushing me out the door.
We get to the race, I'm moving ok. I pick up my number, go to get dressed and oh no not again! I have my shoes, but this time I forget my kit. I have arm warmers, leg warmers, gloves, shoes helmet, everything for my extremeties, but no kit. Luckily Mike lent me one of his skin suits. He had an extra, though it was a men's medium. But hey, beggers can't be choosy.
Oddly enough the shorts weren't bad. I filled out the butt just fine. It was a little loose around the leg, but the kneewarmers held it in place. The upper body was another story. My oh my was it anything but tight. At the line one of the girls actually laughed at me. Another said that it made it look like I lost a bunch of weight. I laughed. But it did the job.
Thanks Mike!!!
My race went well. Amy came through with some stuff called Biofreeze that did wonders on my back. It felt great. It Seized up a little later again. But just reapplied and good as new. Also, turned out I liked the course a lot. I did hate the ampitheater of death with a passion. That is a hateful thing to make people run up. Especially someone as short as me. Those things weren't stairs. It was like climbing a wall each time. But other than that I really enjoyed the course. Even the beach wasn't so bad. Overall turned out to be a good day, and now Beacon is one of my favorite courses so far.

Itty Bitty Pit Tid Bit

Below is an actual conversation Amy, Paul and I had regarding handing off a bike.

Amy, "here catch for me".

me, "no I can't, I'm no good, I get hurt".

Amy, "ok hold this, I'll catch, I like to catch".

Paul, "if you're gonna catch, you have to catch from behind".

Amy, "oh I know, I'm good at catching".

me, "ok, as long as I don't have to catch".