James Pearl Thinks Blogging is Dead

Magic

Formerly 1sh0t1b33r
Team MTBNJ Halter's
toxins don't exist?
How do these work then!?
3.jpg

:D
 

soundz

The Hat
Team MTBNJ Halter's
A toxin (from Ancient Greek: τοξικόν toxikon) is a poisonous substance produced within living cells or organisms; synthetic toxicants created by artificial processes are thus excluded. The term was first used by organic chemist Ludwig Brieger (1849–1919).

I guess toxicology reports are fake as well.
 

rottin'

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I'm I @jShort camp...I'm a huge Ewing fan and MJ can suck it! That motherf&(@(&

With regards to @pearl observation about the "like" button...I admit that I fall prey to that click a lot. Not necessarily because I am not interested per se, but sometimes I am just speed reading recent posts and do not have time to comment, while other times I may agree or "like" whatever I'm reading but do not really have anything productive to add. Sometimes I just like it...other times I like it, but to be completely honest, I am pretty effing boring and do not have a ton of interesting things to say to forward the conversation...some here on the board have a way of expressing things way better than I can articulate, shit I'm only half a step above a gorilla;)
 

pooriggy

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
If you scroll through to last post without a like or comment you should automatically be taken to a screen recapping Mitch's weekend.
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I'll get to the replies, eventually I will. Especially @soulchild who raises a good question. But as I am in Montreal right now I will forgo that and talk about something else.

Wednesday

I used to occasionally do the road ride self-test where I would just set out and try to hold 20 mph as long as I could. I will not say those days are long gone, but they are on a temporary hiatus. Now I strive for the "hang 19" club, which I managed to join on Wednesday. In the end I managed 19.3 until about a mile from the house then I dialed back to rest a bit on the way home. This is that sort of "driving" ride that used to be the bread & butter of my training before power consumed me. As it turns out, this was also when I was pretty much at the peak of my fitness & racing success. Once I added power I never really progressed much. In a sense this is a return to that.

Thursday

I woke up early-ish and got out on the bike before 7:00. Sure, it was like 6:59:59 but it was technically before 7. As the summer warms up I am hopeful that I can start to do this more often. I did nothing special on the bike other than ride it. But it was this or nothing on this day because we had a date with the road as we were setting sail for Canada later in the day. Thus, in order to keep the train rolling I needed to get out before D left for work.

I also want to do a century on the road bike this summer so I'll want to be starting something like that on the earlier side so I can make it a reality.

The Weekend

So we're up in Canada now and I set my goal for the week at 7 hours. The overall goal for the year is 365 hours, which for those of you who have not been hit in the head by a rock in the last hour know that translates to an hour a day. I'm behind on that goal right now so I am trying to alternate my weeks so that I have a week of "even" where I ride 7 hours, then a week where I ride 10 or more. This allows me to slowly catch up as opposed to eating all 12 pizzas in one sitting.

I came to Canada at 4:40 in 4 days, which was pretty good for the same week that the kids got out of school and they had 2 half days this week. So that left 2:20 to break even. First day was a wash both literally (rain) and figuratively (no riding) so I was looking to make something happen today as the weather was looking good and we had no firm plans on the day.

Those of you on Strava & Instagram know I got out on a city tour of Montreal with my BIL Philippe. He was up for the early ride and we got in almost 2 hours today. I think I am sitting at 6.5 for the week now, which is in the "close enough/I'll take it realm" but if I get a ride in tomorrow I'll sort of consider that house money in a sense. The ride today turned the weekend into a push in that sense.

We took off around 7:30 and circled the old Expos stadium (we're about a mile away) before hitting the bike path along the St Lawrence then riding halfway over one of the bridges and hopping onto the island in the river where they host the F1 race every year. I would love to get up here for that one year but that was a few weeks ago and today we were just content to ride the track, which is open to the public.

After that we hopped into the city and through the Old Port, past McGill, and then up Mont Royale then back home to complete the tour. In all a solid tour of the city and one I would gladly do again.

I may wake up and ride some of that myself tomorrow morning. Or I may do nothing depending on how I feel. Either way I'll wake up in Montreal.

Then tomorrow we'll drive home after spending some part of the day in the city being tourists.

Wonder Woman

We saw the movie last week but since @StayHydrated wants me to keep the other thread going I'll put it there. Eventually.
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Photo Dump Time

Thursday driving to Montreal, last view as we leave the Adirondacks:

Fri drive.jpg


Friday at the science center. Here is something to think about. The average human has an average brain of 1.2 kg and 2 kg of shit in them. This explains SO MUCH:

Sat science.jpg


Saturday morning Philippe took me on a tour of Montreal. Here we are going across one of the bridges:

Sat ride.jpg


No single-pics of the first part of the day but in the afternoon D and the kids went on a ropes course while I took it easy and just did nothing. Here she is on the boat:

Sat Boat 0.jpg


And here she is up in the air:

Sat Boat.jpg


Sunday morning back out for a solo bike ride. First I rode past the old Expos Stadium:

Sun Expos.jpg


Eventually got to the F1 track where I did a few laps, same as the day before but this pis was better:

Sun ride 2.jpg


Other side of the bridge, but today there was sunshine:

Sun ride.jpg


After the boys set sail for their 2 weeks at the cottage with D's parents, we spent a few hours being adults in Montreal:

Sun lunch.jpg


Then we drove home at night. Then tonight we hit up Chimney Rock. Luke explaining something here, probably how he's going to put ice cream on his Doritos:

Mon CR.jpg
 

UtahJoe

Team Workhorse
Team MTBNJ Halter's
As an engineer, I love that stadium. Wait...so let me get this straight...you built a structure as large as the actual stadium itself for the express purpose of raising and lowering a canvas umbrella....Love it.
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Feedback

I will pick & choose random things that seem to beg some comment...

I think the hardest thing about continually writing is the impossibility of making it even ok all the time.

Well this is a big one for me also. What can I possibly say here that I have not already said before? I rode a bike. I felt good. I felt like shit. I feel fat. I feel good. I love ice cream. Raid kills bugs dead.

Having said that I guess there is always LIFE and how it pertains to the world as we know it. Lou brought the point up and I'll get to that below. So there is riding but how do I manage to ride with the amount of time I spend away from home. Beginning last Thursday we were spending 11 nights away from home between then and July 16, and I would add 2 onto that as I have a separate trip for work in there. I mean there's that but then we all do that. In addition, there are new readers here who have not read my brain vomit to maybe they'll be interested.

Or not. Go read the blog about shitting yourself if that's your cup of tea I suppose. I know that some percentage of people will not take me seriously because I am no longer fast.

I think you would be pretty good at enduros actually. Just a random thought I had.

Is this your kind way of saying "You know fat guys go downhill faster and you don't suck at bike handling?"

I rode CR Monday with the crew and it was the first time I had been on a mountain bike in a month, and that was at Raystown. I felt like it was the first mountain bike ride in a year. Everything felt strange. I guess this is what it feels like when you turn into a roadie prick? I have been spending a lot of time on the road lately.

I'd like to try an enduro one day.

Your last thread got me to read 3 books this year, which is 2 more than I read in 2016, and we're not even done with June. Keep doing things like that. My neural plasticity thanks you.

FFS, at least name what 3 books you read.

maybe just all the OG bloggers/appreciators are gone? I still blame the like button.

Says the guy who comments once then goes into a hole never to be seen again! Can you at least send me a post card from North Bumbletucky?

I think the site is better when Norm blogs. Some of those early ones (cliff bars) were pretty instrumental and motivated me to train and get fast.

I really don't have anything to say to this other than I guess I find it interesting that I managed to turn consumption into a training methodology. Maybe I should try this again. I will say that if I never eat another Clif bar in my life I will not be sad. Clif bars are to portable nutrition, as Budweiser is to beer.

I "liked" the post, then will IM with Norm today about the post.

Still waiting on that IM!

See we IM about more important things that I can't always put on the blog.

How about creating a new narrative of what role cycling will play in your life?

Now that I read that to myself, why do we insist that things will work themselves out? Nothing really ever works itself out. We make choices (or don't), things happen (or don't) and the only thing that changes is our perspective as it relates to the outcome (ie whether or not it worked itself out). IDK, this is messing with me. Going to Starbucks, will revisit this topic.

I cut out a bunch of this out but the general point remains. What role does biking play in my life? I don't know the answer to that question but when I don't bike these thing happen:

1. I gain weight
2. I feel lethargic
3. I save tons of money by not destroying my bikes

In the end I think 1+2 far outweigh 3 so I need to keep riding. I got a little consumed by work in the last year and as much as it's nice to make more money, my pants are starting to not fit and I don't want to buy new clothes. Plus, if I keep gaining weight then well shit...how am I gonna enjoy that money?

So in a sense biking is a way for me to get a break from work and stay healthy. I enjoy it, so it's a hobby. And as a last piece it allows me to eat the things I want to eat. I won't go into the intake-output equations but biking a bunch allows me more wiggle room in that math realm.

But.

Will things work out? I don't know because for me it's not so much an issue of things working out. It's a matter of figuring out what the "things" are. Suppose you set your goal to do a 100 mile race just to finish. Or ok, let's aim higher. An Ironman. Suppose I train for 12 months and do it in 2018. And suppose I actually finish. Will that have worked out?

Additional information: What if I discard my family, do poorly at work, and become so tired I am a miserable prick all the time. Will that have worked out? I think for me it's always a case of what "working out" even means. And I think that while we may have goals, who are we to say that those goals make us happy, or equate to things working out?

At 45 years old, I don't even know what "things working out" even means. I mean at this point, I guess it means not being dead at 50. So really, goal #1 is to not be dead at 50. Beyond that we get into the happiness factor and we can all stand around making pretty comments about happiness and bowls of fruit and that sort of nonsense but we are all here because we want to be better, which often means being stronger, which tends to make us faster. Racing is a natural extension of that but it is not the only piece of the puzzle when this is the direction.

So Lou, I really don't know that I can say what I consider "working out" right now. I want to be happy but I also want to be able to button my work slacks again and I want to be able to throw down on the bike but I also want to be able to enjoy it. And I want to do well at work and more than anything I want an official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle.

And you know what? If I get all that and still shoot my eye out? Fuck it, I'll red those books for Mr Quinn with one eye and consider it all worked out.

Do you count the time at the spin class in your time goal?

Yes, absolutely. If it's not recorded it never happened. I shall invite you to put a quote here about a rolling donut. Direct it at whoever you like!

Glad to see you writing again!

Man I figured you were sick of me talking given how much shit you have to listen to me say!
 
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