Mid Week

I have been starting my morning with yoga. I've done it the last three days and I love it. It actually wakes me up and eliminates the normal morning aches and pains. I rode the bike to work the last couple of days and look forward to the race this weekend. 

Not much else going on. 

Clear The Roads!

Attention all drivers in the state of Georgia, Clear the roads and beware! There is a newly permitted student driver rampaging and terrorizing your roadways. My advice, stay off the roads for the next 5 or 6 years until common driving skills have been sufficiently mastered. This is for your own safety. Thank you.

Seriously, my friend's daughter has accomplished one of the great many milestones in life, she passed her driving permit test. We are all very proud of her and I would expect that she will quickly become a safe and proficient driver. She will have very good teachers and be driving in some difficult traffic (Atlanta area). I'm sure that she will soon be the designated driver for her father and myself. 

Cold weather has finally passed, I think. I plan to jump back into serious training again this week. I hope to start with some calisthenics as per the recommendations of my coach. We also have a race this coming weekend and I will be riding the single speed again. This time I'm borrowing a friends bike that has a suspension fork. I hope to be more competitive because of it.

Quick Summary

The visit from family is almost at an end. Our house is a mess and cleaning and recovery should take at least one full day. I forget what it's like to have children 4 years old and younger around. It can be very draining on your nerves, especially when they are not your own.

The race at Markum Park went well. I finished Fifth out of five but I'm totally ok with that. I rode my full rigid single speed and was cautious because of it. Some of the downhills were wallowed out at the bottom so I opted to walk those. The margin for error is too great with a rigid fork. I did however complete three laps and got a hell of a workout, both leg and upper body. 

I have hired a coach. I'm hoping that he will be able to better organize my ride time so that I can train effectively verses just all out riding. I will keep you up to speed on how that is going.

Back to It

The week starts again and I will be back to core exercises twice a day and bike commuting to work. I plan to start elongating the ride home to tack on some extra miles. It's supposed to get cold again on wednesday which I am not looking forward to. The morning ride can be quite brisk.

My wife's sister and her family arrive on tuesday for a week long+ visit. More on that later.

Resolution Diligence

This week ends with continued encouragement and satisfaction that I was able to stick with my New Year's resolution. Yes it's only been one week, but you have to start somewhere. I bike commuted to work all week except Friday because I had to use my truck to pull the spray trailer. That was actually the first time I used my truck at all this past week. I even rode the bike to the grocery store. I also did my core exercises all week. Usually this is the first resolution to get dropped. 

I also started preparing for the 12 hours of Santos today. I did the saturday morning road ride with the Cycle Haus and got in 66 miles. I actually felt pretty good afterward. Of course I sat in a lot and didn't do a lot of work at the front.

The twelve hour team has been set and we should have a strong showing. I'm pretty excited.

Comment Response

I wish to refute sk8rmom's comment on my last post. There were no glory days! I'm not saying that I didn't have my share of good times, but the main source of enjoyment came from knowing that time is the great equalizer.

 There is only a VERY small percentage of the adolescent malformed that actually improve as time marches on. Sure, you occasionally have the ugly duckling that 20 years later is a Victoria's Secret model. And an even smaller percentage of the big time high school athletes are still living the dream in the realm of professional sports. But the reality is that most of the "beautiful people" are just as fat, with similar or less hair then me. And the poor women.... what you have endured. I've seen examples of previously beautiful size 1's blossom into alarmingly large specimens. 

Ah,.. Time... my dear friend, how you have righted the wrongs of the past. For this I am truly greatful.

What's wrong with me?

For years I've lived in a utopian solitude. Preferring to hermit myself away from everything that was Hamburg NY, circa 1989. Everything in my life was fine until recently. I now find myself completely obsessed with "facebook". I don't know how it started, but I can tell you that it has been an ugly decent into the depths of flashback Hell. I am on the site daily looking at pictures of people I once knew, hoping that they have aged worse than me. 

I don't know if it's because 2009 is the year of my 20th high school reunion, or if I have finally just recognized the gaping hole in my life that was once filled with a youthful exuberance and adolescence. A strange but strong bond, held between high school "non-populars" as we fought an emotional battle to "fit in".

Or is it because twenty years later, I look at my life and say "man, did I luck out!" I mean come on... aside from the slight gut and receding hairline, I'm probably in the best shape of my life. I have a beautiful wife that puts up with most of my bullshit, and two great children that I'm sure will end up with high paying jobs to support their aging father. 

So as I prepare once again to log on to the site, I crank up a little Til Tuesday - "voices carry", put on two rugby shirts with the collars popped, and tie my sneakers Behind the tongue of my Nike high-tops, I draw strength from the knowledge that I surf this site only to mock,. And that it only re-affirms my opinions as a self proclaimed elitist snob.

Post Camping

Camping was great! We couldn't have had more perfect weather. We had fun, the boys met new friends, and we did a bunch of bike riding. The boys were very impressive on the pump track and on the bigger jumps in the Vortex area. They also did great on the trail. We are looking forward to going back.

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