i bought this:
can’t wait. Can’t hardly wait to see Alana smile when it arrives. SHE.HEARTS.PURPLE! She wore G’s nutcase one ride and for the first time *wanted* to wear a helmet. Accessorizing, is my little girly-girl.
I’ll have some Pivot stickers ready, Everyone luvs the Bird!
Public pants-dropping to force myself and my family to all eat healthier. 42 yo and for the first time ever i’m confronting an extra 10lbs I’m unable to simply shake away. The reality of reality is bitch-slapping me like my dui. It could be worse. Its actually not bad at all. I am reaching back to that nugget or certainty to find willpower when i crave doritos. The zip code of the goal has never been out of sight; i have never entered the Pain Cave. I have no excuses now that work doesn’t have free pb&j samiches anymore.
Beckie and G are eager participants. My support group.
3 lbs down this week, and for the first time in ~3 years there is no question in my mind how this will end. 3 days ago my body turned a corner and told me that it wanted what I wanted it to want. This is not addiction, its just the wrong kind of comfort. Me and the bod are working through it together. Can’t wait to see my 6-pack again.
Well well, Alana leaps 4 months & 1 day ahead of G on the bike.
a 2 mile ride (with 3 50 yard sections of singletrack!) required a nearly-equivalent expenditure of preparation and ego-stoking. There is a lot of gear on that kid.
Yuri talked us into this craziness. 45 miles further than I’d ever done on the road bike in one day, between 7000 and 9500 altitude, with storms every afternoon without fail. Every summer needs some challenge to get through til the end, and this one got me on the roadie more in the past month than the entire year prior. Three weekends in a row rolling pre-dawn to the end of Seven Springs Road and back, and a bunch of CX rides or short workouts at sunset along Thompson Peak Parkway. I’m craving a new all-carbon bike. I’ve come out of the closet and embraced my inner roadie dork.
Noel, John, Gordon and Flo were also onboard, and we rolled as our little group out of Show Low at 6am. 45 mild miles to Springerville shook out the system. While wondering what the next 2/3rds were gonna feel like, we got good line action, though no one had any clue what anyone else was doing. The chaos, really, was embarrassing for as much experience as this collective group bragged about. I don’t even want to think about my shaved shredded self — its so dirty.
rising sun on slick roads, bringing a bluebird day. wow! I was too strung by the prospect of 115 more miles to get out my camera. Most of these pics are Yuri’, Noel’s or Gordon’s — thank you.Rumble strips pattered off nips of sunlight pointing east, with rude reminders if your line strayed. At mile 30 there was a sunburst through a tired raincloud. It lasted 30 minutes. Nuthin to do but stare into it. Its like the picture below, except add a celestial glow and sweat of elysium, a choir of angels tuning their harps and making jokes about their constitutions. If the ride ended there, the day would have been perfect, except for driving 3 hours to ride 2.5.
2.5 mild hrs later…
birds watching dudes grubbing
dudes done grubbing
start of ~7 mile, 2k climb
Top!
hereabouts and for the next hour a lot of high-altitude grinding tore my junk out, a rub rash against my new Twin6 shammy that would make for complicatied explanations to Mrs. Cball. The turn into Big Lake was demoralizing 4 miles down, then right back. The ice cream bar and port-a-let were good, but the 8 miles sucked.
rolling out of Big Lake at the top of the ride 75 miles and 9200 vf, conversatons went like this:
Rider 1: i think i might cave in the next hour
Rider 2: Really, me too!
Rider 1: I’m so glad to hear you say that
Rider 2: No you’re not, you little roadie bitch.
HTFUing
I laid down for 3 min, and the recharge was capitol.
Water refill and 5 min break at mile 95.
and then it was like 35 miles trending-downhill fearing-for-your-life crowded Reservation roads home. I went very very fast, i was skeered, and remember nothing but bile.
We slept in the pines and drank, to avoid returning to the desert for 12 more hours. I got destroyed by gnats and stones pounded my lumbar while i huddled in my bivy. I felt amazing the next day and had a tallboy for breakfast on the ride home.
hello McDowell Mtn Ranch Swim Team End-of-Year Party at shwanky resort I’ve never been to, goodbye forever Frank Lloyd Wright Blvd. Except when i need to hit Trader Joe’s for beer; its a long way across Reach 11 to the 51 path.
