The Road to Somewhere

fidodie said:
i was able to ride everything on the fatbike on friday. think i put a foot down once in a traffic jam.
skinny 29r not so much. fatties are a blast. ;)
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Nice! Yes the fatties typically get no love past the winter. F the snow riding, break out the fatty for the regular trails and have a blast! I will say though when I get on my skinny tires they are soooo much easier to roll. The speed difference is crazy.
 
Coming up this week is the tour of north jersey. At least that's how it's going to feel. I'm going to hit the woods by me in Watnong Mtn, then Splitrock, then Waway. I have a big deck refinishing project coming up this weekend so I need to get my riding in this week. It should be a blast. At least the weather looks to cooperate.
 
Mahlon and Mooch are cued up for next week. Again thinking separately but they are great ridden on the same day.
 
Watnong was good last night but man that place is messed up from the storms. The one main connector trail has probably 10 serious trees down on it. Thankfully that's only one trail and the rest of the place was pretty good - just littered with some debris. It doesn't get as much love as it should and that's a major reason why I like it. Plus it's really only up or down. I found a really hard line last night since my usual loop was too annoying with the trees. One that will go but stumped me so far. It's pretty difficult but it's rideable. I snuck this ride in just before the rain. So I'm ahead of last week already. I'm trying to get the workouts in and get out of this funk. Today I have a bunch of Dr's appointments so I won't be riding. I'm going to a cardiologist since I had some heart palpitations towards the end of the winter. But as all things as I started to look into it - they disappeared. Since my good buddy passed from a heart attack I figured I'd be safe and get it checked out. So I have to go for a ECG and a wear a heart rate monitor for a day. Part of me wants to do a serious workout with the monitor on just to see what the doc has to say. Anyway that's on today's agenda and then hopefully some Stephen's riding for Thursday. I want to see if I can get my head together for a better go at the Iron Furnace race. I won't be at the head of the race but I'd like to put in a good hard effort and see what happens. I love waway.
 
xc62701 said:
Watnong was good last night but man that place is messed up from the storms.
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Bummer. I have a pretty cool route I stole from you that cuts through Watnong from Powder Mill to Central Park, which is the more "down" direction. I do that on my way to Lewis Morris or just as part of a trail/road combo loop from home. I know there are a few locals in there that take care of things, but they probably can't get big boy saws in there. Hopefully Parsippany will eventually take care of the big blowdowns.
 
JimN said:
Bummer. I have a pretty cool route I stole from you that cuts through Watnong from Powder Mill to Central Park, which is the more "down" direction. I do that on my way to Lewis Morris or just as part of a trail/road combo loop from home. I know there are a few locals in there that take care of things, but they probably can't get big boy saws in there. Hopefully Parsippany will eventually take care of the big blowdowns.
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I would get back in there with my saw to "help" but don't want to cause any issues. One is seriously 3' in diameter.
 
Bleh...boring day yesterday. I did all adult stuff. Today I get to play...well after more adulting. I have to go get my crap from my college as my grad program graduation is coming up and today is the last day to get stuff. So I have to jam out of work to get that stuff, a quick drop off at the docs and then I can go play in Splitrock/Tourne later this afternoon. That's the plan at least.

This weekend will be a no go - or maybe a quickie ride here or there as I have my deck project that has been waiting since last fall. I did the majority of the replacement/new framing and now it's time to finish that. I have to do some bracing, install some posts, and then it's Trex time. Holy crap that shit is pricey. I know it's worth the zero maintenance but $$$! I just ordered a whole bunch to be delivered tomorrow in time for deck time Sat/Sun. That should be fun. The plan worked out kinda well since when there is no deck you don't have to shovel it for the winter! Now it's time to have the deck back and fire up the BBQ.
 
Deck project was in full swing this weekend. I got the remainder of the framing and railing posts done then laid the decking. That took pretty much 2 days. I am wrapping the deck with an accent piece of decking which adds more headaches but should look better in the end. At this point I think I have a day or two more worth of work with the deck and railings and there's one spot that needs to be worked out. Right where the main support is causes a little hump in the decking. It's probably 1/8" off but noticeable for me. So I'm going over ideas about how to rectify that and a power planer seems to be the leading idea. I'll plane down the surface to make it work for the protruding board and I should be good. That is if I can get the deck board in question up.

I did get out for a quick ride on Saturday which was just nice to cruise around. Sunday none. Yesterday none. Today I hope to get out at night for something as the Iron Furnace race is sneaking up. At this point I want my body to function normally as I really kicked my ass with this project. I'll see if I can pedal normally this weekend and just enjoy the 50k at Waway.
 
Here's some progress pics. My back hurts just looking at these.
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I signed up for the Iron Furnace race to help me get going this season as it's been hard to really focus with too much other life going on. I rolled out of bed that morning thinking I have 9,000 other things I should be doing on a nice day like this besides bike racing, so you can see where my head is at. I have some fitness, but not anything to write home about. I started out ok and hung at the back of the main group heading up the road but I knew I wasn't going to hang that long. I did well until the zwifters got in my way in the rock gardens. I know Waway well so I was pretty frustrated at times and trying to make some unorthodox passes that worked in some spots and not in others. I passed probably 10 people by the time I was out of porcupine and I was feeling pretty good. I still couldn't open it up on the roads but was enjoying the singletrack. I made it through the back of the course ok and ripped it on Tombstone. Man I love that trail. I hit the bumpy stuff back by the lake and hit laurel and my legs exploded. Nope. I was done.

I really didn't have it and didn't want to try and force my legs to race. So I crept back to the start/finish line thinking about what else I could be doing and the value of DNF'ing. I could understand why it seems so enticing but that's not what I've done ever. So I decided to just go roll another casual lap and take in the scenery and get more time rolling. I should have taken my number plate off as I was riding in spots and that was just mocking me knowing I was in a race and just tooting along. Anyway, I finished and packed the car up and headed home. I was able to spend some good quality time with the family and my daughter and that was all worth it. I probably should have just stayed home and got some of the projects I need to get done at home accomplished but it was nice to be out there enjoying the day and riding my bike as a race was going on.

Later the thought sank in. I signed up for the Waway Triathlon in two weeks. WTF was I thinking. I'll probably still do it but I'm not in the right mindset for racing at this point. I've got a lot to do and my 2nd baby is due in 5+ weeks. I can barely focus long enough to write this post nevermind the rest of my life events going on. I'll probably try and come say hi at a few races in the interim but at this point I'm looking forward to maybe having a decent cyclocross season.
 
bummed to read.

I guess I'm looking at it the other way, how will I focus/do anything after #2, especially in the short term. Feels like right now is the time to do those fun things while things are as normal as they are going to be at home.
 
pearl said:
bummed to read.

I guess I'm looking at it the other way, how will I focus/do anything after #2, especially in the short term. Feels like right now is the time to do those fun things while things are as normal as they are going to be at home.
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Yea I thought I would preload the season so I can get my racing fix in now but it's just getting worse and worse. Demands at home are just pulling time away from riding and although I'm not happy about it, I do love spending time with my daughter so it's not all bad. And with #2 who knows. I'm going to have to be ok with riding on the weekends and when I can till things slow down a little bit. Life changes are hard. I remember having so much extra time that I could obsess over how I could structure riding and prep for racing. Now it's a last minute afterthought at best.
 
xc62701 said:
Yea I thought I would preload the season so I can get my racing fix in now but it's just getting worse and worse. Demands at home are just pulling time away from riding and although I'm not happy about it, I do love spending time with my daughter so it's not all bad. And with #2 who knows. I'm going to have to be ok with riding on the weekends and when I can till things slow down a little bit. Life changes are hard. I remember having so much extra time that I could obsess over how I could structure riding and prep for racing. Now it's a last minute afterthought at best.
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You’ll be fine homie. Life is crazy. I’m on the up and up with fitness/racing but in the same boat as you. I neglect a lot of house work and my wife allows me to train as much as I need. I do spend every other minute taking care of and having fun with my little dudes. The good part is they like bikes and the garage jist as much as doing yard work. My daughter is due in under three weeks and selfish me will probably have to give up some riding time. Just fitting time in to mow the lawn gets kinda crazy.
 
xc62701 said:
I'm going to have to be ok with riding on the weekends and when I can till things slow down a little bit. Life changes are hard. I remember having so much extra time that I could obsess over how I could structure riding and prep for racing. Now it's a last minute afterthought at best.
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My #1 priority is riding my bike, but last week was typical of reality:

Monday: work late in NY at client.
Tuesday: get home at 4pm from office really looking forward to riding. NY client calls and am on phone for 5 hour revenue recognition crisis instead. Have beer with wife and go to sleep.
Wednesday: Uber home from Manhattan at 8pm. Exhausted. Hit bed.
Thursday: Spend seven hours extracting my 91 year old Dad from the cardiac unit of his hospital with related chores. Reflecting that evening, thought that I was lucky that I could do so, instead of riding my bike.
Friday: crisis at NJ client threatens to turn into a weekend of work. At 1pm, the crisis dies. Get home, ride bike for a couple of hours. Then have a beer and give Mrs. Gock birthday presents a day early cuz...
Saturday: Mrs. Gock's birthday-road trip See college dance production. Get smashed into by drunken, stumbling coed while walking across the street. Have a triple tequila, straight up.
Sunday: early return from road trip-ride bike for a couple of hours.

So, that was the week. Reality took out three of five possible/probable bike rides. All part of a long, fat, not enough riding, no results, 2018 season for me.

I think that I missed one season of coaching (insert name of sport here) in 15 years while the kids were growing up. If I had to do it again, I would have still spent more time with them.
 
Yea life just gets in the way. I have an appointment after work so that kills today and I have this deck and yardwork thing hanging over my head if I do get free time. Tuesday looks ok at this point but I still need time to get my deck done. Wednesday I go to see my mom in her rehab center so that kills that day. I may ride to work Thursday or Friday to help get some actual pedal time in but it's nothing like in the past when I could do 90-2 hours of riding every day after work. I'm lucky I can ride as much as I do on the weekends. That's usually only because I have to get up at the ass crack of dawn and ride before the family wakes up. That's the usual deal.
 
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