I Have Started Running

The title of the post pretty much says it all. Why have I started? I really don't know for sure. I have a couple of potential reasons.

• It's too cold to ride
• I think I could be a kick ass runner
  
• Riding the trainer is a fate worse than death
• I want to keep some fitness so I can crush my friends when it's time to ride again
• I feel guilty about eating and eating and eating
• I don't think I will ever reach my arbitrary weight goal of 172 without some sort of cross training
• I am a little burned out on riding right now

I think all of these reasons probably all play a little part in why I decided to go out and buy a pair of running shoes. I have always known that if I want to reach the fitness triumvirate of fast-strong-light I have got to take some proactive measures.

I have always thought about running because it's much quicker than riding and you can get a hell of a workout. I am still in the super-low mileage phase in an effort to keep the risk of injury down, but I am also not riding very much. I can't keep it up for too long because basically all of my friends ride. Just yesterday four people said directly to me...

"Hey do you want to go for a ride...(insert day and place here)"

I am not going to be able to keep up the excuses for long.

They say the hardest time for a new hobby/exercise/activity is the beginning. If you can do it for 3 weeks (or something like that) you can make it a habit. At this point it's been almost three weeks, I'll let you know if I feel anything special.

I think I need to beef it up a bit

So I think some of my latest posts have been a little weak. At very least they have been too infrequent to provide any sort of consistent entertainment. As a result I fear that I will lose my consistent viewer base of 4-5 people.

So, I am recommited to WLAM. Mark my words, there will be more movie reviews, personal updates and progress reports for on-going projects.

-Peace

Long Live Long Rides

Categorie(s): Bikes

The title of my post is actually the motto of IMBA the International Mountain Biking Association. I guess it's appropriate because the ride that I did several weeks ago is designated as an "IMBA Epic". The IMBA Epic rides are a collection of 32 rides mostly in the US that are "the reason why we ride". I have actually done two of these rides so far and I am within a day's drive of four others.

Johanna, fenton and I set out to do the Southern Traverse just before the temperature and all of the leaves dropped. Well, we didn't quite make it before the leaves but the weather was awesome.

I got a bunch of pics that day and a couple of movies. If you want to see me clean a huge log with great finesse, check out MOV0018. There are a couple of other attempts filmed as well. That might help give an idea how difficult it was.

Click here for the album

5 Words

Categorie(s): Misc

I was sitting around the house the other day watching TV, an activity I seem to be doing more of lately, when I had a thought. Are there 5 words that one could come up with to describe the last 5-10 years? By default, this would have to describe the last five years in America because I am just not worldly enough to do otherwise.

I know this is a really vague question but give it some thought and see if you can come up with anything. Imaging it's 2020 and you are hanging out with your old buddies from the 00's and you are discussing topics of the past. What topics would come up?

I have some starters...

• Reality Television
  
• 9-11
  
• iPods
  

What do you think? Leave a comment.

My Latest Project and Syba Enclosure Update

Categorie(s): Bikes, Projects

This is actually an old post I had sitting in draft mode waiting to be published. I think it's from early October. I'll release it to you all now. It's kind of ironic because I started on the project that I mention below and now I am already on to a new one. (and no, I haven't finished this one)


First, my new passion. MTB skillz obstacles.

I helped with the CAMBC TAKMBD (Take A Kid Mountain Biking Day) which was pretty cool. Things got a little mixed up and I was supposed to be a ride leader but I ended up with one kid, Jackson, (about 8 years old) his dad and a couple grownups. We had the highest Ride Leader/ Kid rations of any group. It was really cool because Jackson was a little timid about riding over the roots and rocks at first, but by the end the kid almost fell oft the trail 5 feet into a stream because he was trying to tackle some rocks, and he wouldn't quit until he rode the 5 1/2 inch wide see saw they had setup for the kids.

There was a skills course with small logs, a little ramp and the see saw (aka Teeter Totter) that the kids could play around on. It also served to sort the kids out by skill level before the rides grouped together and rolled out.

Well the skills course was so fun that the grownups couldn't help themselves. People were bunny hopping the logs, wheelie dropping the teeter totter, and just being silly. This got a bunch of us thinking..."Is this something that we could have permanently?" I don't know if/where/ or when it could happen, but that little bit of excitement was all I needed to get me building.


About the 3,5" Syba External Enclosure. I am going to have to give it a rating of definitely mediocre. I can't get the fan to stop buzzing. Whenever I have it on it sounds like an electric razor. So, I just decided to unplug the fan...I hope it doesn't fry the drive.

I think there are too many phone numbers

I have noticed recently that I have been getting a lot of wrong numbers calling my cell phone. I think there are just too many numbers these days. The numerical density just too high.

Has anyone else noticed an increase in wrong numbers?

A Civil Rights Icon Moves On

Categorie(s): News

Rosa Parks, matriarch of civil rights, dies at 92

Only 50 years ago Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man. I can't believe it was only 50 years ago. The means that my oldest aunt and uncle had to face segregation and by the time my father was born a revolution had begun and his experiences would differ greatly from his older siblings'.

The Fixie Revoultion

Categorie(s): Bikes




My good friend (who I will refer to as DG in order to protect the innocent) has joined the fixie revolution. This is a revolution of which I am not a part but I still highly respect and envy it's memebers. I hope to one day join their ranks, but to add another bike to the stable would reduce the minimal amount of time that I currently spend with each of my four bikes. Maybe I will one day sell one of them for a Langster...

Anyway, this is not about me...it's about a biddy and his new bike. Congrats to DG!

Stoned: The Morning After

So the Stones came to town last night. I wasn't actually there but it was still a sight to see. I got most of the experience without even having to buy a ticket.

I am always amazed at how much big events turn this little town upside down. Since I live about a mile from the Stadium, during big footbal games I usually have to find a clever way home, avoiding the main arteries to grounds. Last night was the worst it's ever been. I thought I was being clever by driving past my exit and trying to come in from the South, bad idea. I will spare you the details but I ended up 4 miles outside of town driving down a windy narrow country road, in the wrong direction, in a rainstorm and my gas light came on. That's all I am going to say be cause I have already begun to forget the experience. I think it's part of that natural human reaction where bad memories get sort of dulled. Kind of like with childbirth or a camping trip where you get caught in the rain.

The impact of the immigration didn't end when the concert was over. As I was driving to work this morning, I noticed the streets were dead. Maybe the rain had something to do with it, but there was an earie silence within 2 miles of the Stadium. Almost as if everyone was still recovering. No die-hard joggers, no one waiting at bus stops to go to work or wherever, no students walking to class. Even if you didn't know the Stones were in town, you knew something happened.

And then I found out where everyone was...

You see Bodos is the Charlottesville institution, nay empire, that has a very specific format. When there is a rush, this particular system requires that almost everyone knows how it works. It's not really that complicated. When it gets busy, there are two lines, one to order and one to wait for your food. The order line is usually very very fast and very short...but the waiting line sometimes gets backed up near the door...maybe you can see what is going to happen here.

So, someone that has never been to Bodos notices that there are a lot of cars in the parking lot, they also notice when they walk in that there are a lot of people. Not knowing what to do they sort of gaze at the menu and latch on to what looks like a line (pretty normal behavior). What they don't realize is that they are really more in a linear crowd, than an actual line. Usually one of the regulars spots this newbie behavior and directs them to the amazingly short order line (where they stand there for several minutes dumbfounded by the menu) and eventually everything is ok.

So, even if you didn't have to drive 15 miles to complete your 4 mile commute last night, an astute Charlottesvillian would know that something happened last night. The big toungues on the T-shirts might have been a giveaway as to what it was, but even without that...there was a disturbance.

Bicycle Racing

So, a couple of months ago I did my first road race. I have been MTB racing for a couple of years and I am no superstar, but I have had my moments. I made an agreement with a couple of roadies that if they did my Brownie Crit, I would do this road race in Richmond. I figured it couldn't be that bad. I heard the course was pretty flat and fairly short with two 14-mile laps. I estimated about 1.5 hours of hard riding, not too bad.

Well...it was interesting. First thing I'll say is that in the end I am glad that I did it. It was a fun little road trip with Mark and Heather but it was really really hard. The course was dead flat. There was a little bit of relief but nothing to speak of. Not enough that anyone could get away. Unfortunately, that made it really really sketchy. We were in a pack of 50 for the entire first lap. There were also a couple of sharp turns but we had a rolling enclosure so that made them a little safer.

After the first lap (of two) I was starting to get a little pooped. The pace started off a LOT faster that Mark or I thought it would. I asked Mark on Saturday if he was bringing a trainer and he laughed. When he did the Commonwealth games he said the race was really slow until the end. But, this race was HOT from the beginning. It felt just like a MTB race, I was pegged for the first 5 miles or so. Then it sort of settled in and I rode next to Mark and said "It's a little hot huh?" He agreed.

Anyway, we are racing along on this fast flat course after one lap and I started to get a little pooped. I was hanging off the back of the bus contemplating how hard I wanted to work when I saw the worst crash I have ever seen in real life. It was like a friggin tour crash. It turns out someone cut off one of our racers and took him down. Then like six more guys must have gone down right away. There were bikes in the air, riders on the ground, blah blah blah. One guy actaully ended up with his wheel about ten feet away from his bike.

So, I slowed down, made sure that the CRC jersey that I saw wasn't Mark and made sure he was okay and then I decided that I couldn't (and didn't want to) get back on the pack so I just rode the rest of the loop with a couple of guys. About 5-10 mimutes after the first crash, we roll up on some carnage from the second crash. Mark saw it and said there were bikes everywhere. Everyone looked okay but there was one guy that was having trouble getting in the wheel truck. There were actually people in the truck from the first crash that got out because they weren't hurt as bad as people from the second crash.

Mark ended up finishing with the pack, he rode off of the front for a little while just to avoid the sketch. Then he came back into the pack and stayed away from the finish so he wouldn't get hurt.

In the end, we both came out without crashing so we were content. That day I decided two things.

1) I will ride my road bike recreationally and the MTB will be the competitive one.

2) I would be perfectly fine hanging the Lemond up until November.

That was back July sometime. It is now the last day in September and I have ridden my road bike once since that day. It wasn't a real ride, I rode to work. I should probably get back on my road bike, but it's just not as much fun as the MTB.

Now, 7 Springs! That was a good time! That'll be next.