I gasped when I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror first thing this morning. I had just woke up with morning hair. I thought H.I. was in my bathroom! The pic above was taken yesterday after working a generous amount of dollar store gel thru my hair.
Only 3 weeks left to donate and ONLY 3 more weeks of me prattling on in facebook about this awesome beard.
So this last couple of weeks my workout schedules have changed drastically. Cynthia's been taking a cake decorating class at Michaels in the evenings so I have missed a couple of weeks of swimming. Travel is picking up some for work, and getting dark earlier hasn't helped.
I have started running some on the American Tobacco Train, and Ulmstead Park and really like that.
This has been my first full year of consistent fitness training since like 1993. I got into mountain biking some in the mid 90's and even did some racing. (poorly, but racing nonetheless). In those days, I probably had a decent aerobic base left over from swimming in college and could suffer thru any ride and replenish with chicken wings and pitchers of beer!
So this fall, I've tried to get out and mountain bike more than I have in the last couple of years. And I'm having a ton of fun! Having the aerobic fitness to ride well makes it really enjoyable. Today my friend Loucks and I went to a local park and rode for a good 2 hours. We did most of Crabtree park and were having a blast.
We saw a bunch of deer including a sizable 8 point who stared us down for like 5 minutes from about 20 yards away. I told Loucks "if he charges us, we should keep our bikes between us and him." His reply "Can that happen?" Me: "Yeah you saw Tommy Boy when the deer was in the trunk." editors note:Ladies, ever wonder what your husbands talk about when they're out? Pretty good example.
We were about 1 hour into the ride and stopped at a map to determine our next loop. A guy in a nice full suspension rig, fancy gear, and a brand new camelback passed us. After a few momements we caught up to him. I was ok riding behind him but he pulled over to let us pass. He made a comment about letting us go ahead since we like riding tires so much. And then I flipped over my handle bars. I got up quickly and was fine thanks to years of experience falling on mountain bikes. So then he asks if we've been back here before. My answer: "No but it's GREAT!" And then he proceeds to lecture us. At which point we ride away and enjoy the rest of the ride.
So in analyzing that confrontation, it's hard for me to think about how we could have avoided it. So here is what I'd like to tell that guy.
1) Yes I'm catching you on the hills. I'm on a 15 year old hard tail bike, and you have a new full suspension bike with a ton of cushy travel. I've got to maintain speed to get over rocks and roots where you can just pedal and glide over them. Feel free to get out of your saddle and work a hill, these aren't that long!
2) Yes, I'm catching you going up the hills because you have a full suspension bike that weighs like 45 pounds. My little hard tail weighs like 25.
3) Yes, I'm catching you on the hills because my camelback has exactly 1 liter of water, 1 innertube, 3 tire levers, and a mini pump. Your's looked like you were carrying enough food and gear to survive 12 days in the bush and rebuild a suspension. We're 2 miles from Aviation Parkway for God's sake if you need to do more than fix a flat, call for a ride and walk out!
I'm pretty sure it wasn't my athleticism causing me to catch this guy. And I don't feel I was following that closely. 15 feet isn't bad where you would expect someone to pull over and let you pass.
Anyway, enough ranting. Here's a few pics of my super mountain bike. It's a 1995 Jamis Diablo LE (I believe LE stands for "Luxury Edition") I call her Betsy!
I was riding earlier today with the front wheel.
XT all around except when you need XTR. That's the biggest XTR cluster you could have bought in those days. It makes the bottom chain ring unnecessary. And only 8 speeds.
Early threadless headset! With early Judy XC suspension fork. Too bad there's no 1" steerer tube forks available anymore.
And finally....Aluminum?, Whats Aluminum? Good ol' steel tubing.
I feel better now.
~Dave
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