mold

the sandwich i had last night and then one i made for breakfast today both had mold on the roll. my concern is wit the fact that two meals in a row and i ate mold. the coffee today was weak, i may get sick today, i may not. is mold that bad for you? it must be pretty bad. maybe a coffee at lunch, good and black will get rid of it. an americano to course thru and dissolve any nasties trying to sicken me.

up

there are not superlatives wide enough to describe how good the road bike felt today. i know this makes me sound more like a roadie than i perfer to be described but it felt so good to roll the skinny tires down the path that i feel like i was just released from a POW camp. better sleep last night to rid me of that knot in the center of my solar plexus that hampered anything other than a brief run yesterday and a full rest day monday. i don't normally take whole days off, i didn't really have a choice, i needed to prepare to not sleep much monday night. mistake. a ride is always better than not. the cool air woke. no ghosts last night. better sleep. it sounds so basic but a ride is always better than not. better always. no matter how beat the body and mind feels it opens the paths and improves everything.

pieces

right in the center of my thorax or under my solar plexus i feel it. the knot sticks there and shakes, i wonder if that's what the tremors start as, a little knot, that grows into a full on body quake. it stays right there for now, coffee and food today didn't make it go anywhere. power nap didn't remove it either. i can picture the junkie digging at his stomAch to get the bugs out, my tremors are lingering like that but just sort of a pleasant visitor right now. i think i'll get back on the bike tomorrow, running isn't taking the ghosts away right now, they are staying in the middle, safely, like switzerland avoiding any real pressure from any side. sunday was a great ride that should be done more often, pictures tonight, treeline and down in the clouds to the good high speed singletrack. shut off any issues and just follow the front end, no stopping for the slower thoughts, keeping my nose in the cheese. running fills the void only so long, the slowness and plodding nature lose entertainment quickly, the jarring of my bones into my cartlidge into my tendons into my organs into my shoes is the best part. shaking the jelly up that gets so loosely packed riding the bike all year. not like it is inaccessable, just in a neat little bundle, running loosens it. i feel more complete, getting out of the comfort zone, into the place i love but i can leave. different vehicles take you places better, a bike is a bike but a foot offers a separate piece. more to see with a different way to get there. the feeding isn't going to stop whether or not i get enough i know i'm getting more than i was. always getting another snack. the chill is there in the air, the better weather for cross is coming. as soon as i get rid of my condition today, this week, this month, i'll feel like the steps are being taken. time to dig out the dirt around it and clean it off and sharpen, tune and polish, until the form is there, sort of like a sculptor that is working on his first piece in a year, well, 9 months.

dirty work

i feel achy and sore and chilly, it must be the start of cross season. first run of the year and the first practice session. better work to come, better runs, runs are never good just more work and more suffering. the bike was great until i needed to brake hard around a corner and both cables pulled thru. no brakes in the mud on a mostly narrow parcours isn't the best. i overcooked most turns after that. good practice anyway. stepping off the bike at 30km/hr was a challenge on the first day in cross mode since december. i like to stir my coffee with an old kids spoon, it's so quiet and it still stirs. amazing, it makes me so happy to put my coffee together before i get out. the other day when my thermos with a full compliment of peets house blend inside, bounced down the path at 50km/hr. the thermos survived with a few scratches and it really doesn't sit so well upright. it works ok but i was bummed to see my trusty thermos marred. the spoon is great, the perfect size to get the job done and make the coffee mixed just right. it gets most of sediment off the bottom from the presspot and makes the flavors meld just right. good spoon.

sleeping in chunks

i don't think i got rested in one night, i was tired all week and just a short day on the bike followed by good sleep couldn't have been all it took to get me to rested point. today i'm up at 5, ready to go. damn bugs. i wish i could get the better side of it. on occasion oversleep, get more than i need. instead i get to do what insomniacs do all the time, i guess, plan a day that needs no planning and wonder what sort of tired this will make me later today or tomorrow. i'd like to get on the bike ealier but that just seems foolish, that and the foxes and coyotes outside tonight/morning are going nuts about something, maybe they got a good tasting cat last night, just not mine.

brian?

yesterday was more tiring than it should have been, legs aren't thrilled but i wnat more, the volume is up and the motivation is high going into cross but i just keep getting tired, is brian back? i love the tapeworm but i wish he'd bother someone else for a few months. i saw doctor hotplate the other day, enough said. i feel good about the food but the engine always can use more, i never finish a ride with food in pockets or drink in bottles. that seems to be working pretty well. more.

5-0

colorado state patrol has set up a road rage hotline for cyclists *277, i hope other states follow. let's rid ourselves of the asshole of the moment.

ride

i'm too much of an asshole to be confused for a hippie for one second but i do try to do the right thing environmentally. i heard a story on NPR and living on earth about how the ice caps in greenland are melting faster than just ten years ago. in 1997 the caps were melting at 19 cubic miles a year, last year they melted at a rate of 52 cubic miles a year. i know that global warming is a left wing scare tactic and that it is a myth but that myth is going to make some new beachfront property a little bit inland. with the price of gas so high try to ride or walk an errand today, it's not always easy to break the habit but today is a good day to try, it's monday, the hardest day of the week, make it harder today. just get off gas pedal for an hour and try the other pedal. enough preaching, i hate it when the soapbox gets under my feet. sorry 'bout that. better yet ignore me, all three people who might be reading this are going to ride anyway today. fuk cheney.

hot and dry

i guess didn't cool down enough last night at the end of the ride, i slept like i was on a tongue of lava. better to get a cool down in, a real cool down where the body gets out the heat and readies to get off the bike. for real, not much sleep and then a coughing fit to make sure i got shit sleep for the night. i'm still too warm, the furnace is working overtime for no reason, i need to jump in the river on the lunch ride to cool off, a quick visit to hypothermia-land would do the trick. i guess 7 hours of riding in two days with races is firing up the system more than normal. oddly i don't feel fatigued, just warm and dry. maybe today i could get an IV while i work to top me off a bit. special sauce in there to make me faster for cross...

redux

the hands are slowly recovering, i almost feel pre-arthritic, is that a thing? i can ride a bike just fine i just need a bit of help when it comes to the 2 hour zone on ski area trails. i raced the longer one wednesday night, better work and harder on the system, i feel good about that, i'll do more of that next year in the local series. tim rocked the overall on the single and showed that it isn't a geared world. for me next year it will be a front suspended world for a lot of races, i need it to keep up on a lot of courses. summer is a bad time to get hurt with cross looming. if it'd not a focal point of the season why make it harder? just a good effort every other wednesday night. road bike for a few more days to recover and then get out the narrow knobs and start the real work of the season, the one that matters most. it's time to get out the running shoes too, old ones aren't good for new work.