Wow, that looks exactly like my fan.
James Pearl Thinks Blogging is Dead
- Thread starter Norm
- Start date
that looks exactly like a ceiling fan i had in the '80s 😀
--
nice job pushing back. not sure if they teach this trick in school, but a person or group is not fully
engaged until they start asking which project/task should slip.
I am really happy to read that the podcast seems to be gaining a little traction and maybe some of the occasional listeners are becoming regular listeners. I think having guests helps, as it gives us a focus of sorts. This week we had no guest but we still had a driving element (the Stewart race), I think it lends us a direction which ties the podcast together, much like the rug in the Big Lebowski. I'll be off to Austin in a few days to get more coffee to use as an excuse to go see @seanrunnette again, hopefully next Friday. As I left yesterday Sean said it would be great if I could come back next week, at the expense of some family time. I reminded him that since I am home alone, this is purely at the expense of work. And since I'll technically be giving my life to work from 6pm Sunday through 4pm Thursday, they can spare a few hours.
I went to see @jimvreeland for the 5th straight day today. This time it is for the road bike. I am going through a sort of "cleansing of the shed" as it were. I'll be off the roadie for a solid week at least, maybe more. So it's a good time to bring it in and send it for a strip search. Hopefully when it's done the clicky-clicks and creaky-creaks will be goney-gone.
Speaking of clicks & creaks, I took Ted2 out for a quick spin today and after 10 minutes I turned around and went home and ripped the cranks off and re-greased everything. The BB is spinning smoothly, which is a nice surprise. I put it all back together and it was as quiet as could be. At the end of the ride I heard the tiniest squeak under load. But compared to what it was, it's purring like a kitten. The front ring may be the culprit but I'll worry about that if/when I swap it out. In all it was just over a 30 minute ride to make sure the thing was working. It's working. Forgot to mention to @UtahJoe that I tried to add air to the shock but when I tried to remove the cap, the whole shaft of the nozzle started spinning so I left it alone to get through the day.
Also confirmed with my boss that he will cover for me on Monday morning when I plan to ride my bike in Texas. I told him that my aunt Edna in El Paso will be falling down the steps so I will not be able to make it into the office until just before our first meeting at 1:00. He's on board. FWIW - honesty is the best policy. Well, unless you are a hitman. Then you should lie more. I digress. Anyway, I called Mellow Johnny's and reserved a Trek Fuel Ex for Monday. The trails are 2 miles from the shop and I found some routes on Strava in combination with Trailforks and texting with @Bizarro, who used to live there. Not sure he got my reply though.
Stopped in for a haircut, which will make Officer @Carson happy.
After work @Dominique and I went to Stonehouse and got 5 appetizers. I think if we had our way, every restaurant in the world would be tapas-style. Truffle fries here are legit.
I have tagged someone in every single paragraph in this post. Like @pooriggy, I like people. I enjoy hanging around with them and seeing them and talking to them. I do not, however, love working with most of them. So it's good that I don't work with any of you guys.
Oh yeah, we have a race tomorrow. I'll see @1sh0t1b33r there and give him his new GPS. My prediction on the day is this. We will repeat almost exactly what we did last Saturday - 4 laps in 3.5 hours. At this point it will be 12:30 and we will discuss if we want to go out for 1 more lap, which will likely add another hour, or call it a day. I have no prediction on what we will decide. But I suspect that our pace will be almost identical to last week. However, this week we will have pickle juice and I am making up 7 bottles (1 per 40 minutes, which gives me 280 minutes or 4 hours and 40 minutes of hydration) and 4 half-PB&J sandwiches, 1 per lap completion. I guess I'll toss some sugary goodness in as well.
Wish us luck @Mitch.
I went to see @jimvreeland for the 5th straight day today. This time it is for the road bike. I am going through a sort of "cleansing of the shed" as it were. I'll be off the roadie for a solid week at least, maybe more. So it's a good time to bring it in and send it for a strip search. Hopefully when it's done the clicky-clicks and creaky-creaks will be goney-gone.
Speaking of clicks & creaks, I took Ted2 out for a quick spin today and after 10 minutes I turned around and went home and ripped the cranks off and re-greased everything. The BB is spinning smoothly, which is a nice surprise. I put it all back together and it was as quiet as could be. At the end of the ride I heard the tiniest squeak under load. But compared to what it was, it's purring like a kitten. The front ring may be the culprit but I'll worry about that if/when I swap it out. In all it was just over a 30 minute ride to make sure the thing was working. It's working. Forgot to mention to @UtahJoe that I tried to add air to the shock but when I tried to remove the cap, the whole shaft of the nozzle started spinning so I left it alone to get through the day.
Also confirmed with my boss that he will cover for me on Monday morning when I plan to ride my bike in Texas. I told him that my aunt Edna in El Paso will be falling down the steps so I will not be able to make it into the office until just before our first meeting at 1:00. He's on board. FWIW - honesty is the best policy. Well, unless you are a hitman. Then you should lie more. I digress. Anyway, I called Mellow Johnny's and reserved a Trek Fuel Ex for Monday. The trails are 2 miles from the shop and I found some routes on Strava in combination with Trailforks and texting with @Bizarro, who used to live there. Not sure he got my reply though.
Stopped in for a haircut, which will make Officer @Carson happy.
After work @Dominique and I went to Stonehouse and got 5 appetizers. I think if we had our way, every restaurant in the world would be tapas-style. Truffle fries here are legit.
I have tagged someone in every single paragraph in this post. Like @pooriggy, I like people. I enjoy hanging around with them and seeing them and talking to them. I do not, however, love working with most of them. So it's good that I don't work with any of you guys.
Oh yeah, we have a race tomorrow. I'll see @1sh0t1b33r there and give him his new GPS. My prediction on the day is this. We will repeat almost exactly what we did last Saturday - 4 laps in 3.5 hours. At this point it will be 12:30 and we will discuss if we want to go out for 1 more lap, which will likely add another hour, or call it a day. I have no prediction on what we will decide. But I suspect that our pace will be almost identical to last week. However, this week we will have pickle juice and I am making up 7 bottles (1 per 40 minutes, which gives me 280 minutes or 4 hours and 40 minutes of hydration) and 4 half-PB&J sandwiches, 1 per lap completion. I guess I'll toss some sugary goodness in as well.
Wish us luck @Mitch.
Haircuts are over rated.
Some restaurants overstate the tastiness of their truffle fries.
Good luck. Maybe I'll see you there? It's 1135. I just got home, only 2 beers, changed cog. Nothing else ready but wtf
Good luck Normandee. I'm gonna pass.
Aren’t Norms bikes PF30, at least the evo would be.
Regardless, invest in Kogel B.B. and say goodbye to B.B. issues
For those of you who don't want to read the whole thing, here's the TLDR version:
Boy goes to bike race with girl and gets to ride bikes with good friend for almost 4 hours and girl gets a podium. All 3 literally finish the race together and they eat cheeseburgers and drink coffee.
Not sure you could have scripted it any better.
+++++
Wake up at 5:45, out the door by 6:15, in the lot by 8:15, ready to roll by 8:30. As mentioned in the last recap, I have no pre-race anxiety at all. If it had been 8:45 when we rolled up, maybe. But even then what's the worst that happens? It all works out.
Another long race and another pact with the big man. Yesterday I posted the 4/5 discussion but with it pissing rain the whole way up, I figured we would be good at 4 today but we would see how it goes.
First lap we are off and there's a bunch of us. Course goes right up the fire road and we definitely don't go out too hard. Then it turns and you immediately loose all of your elevation in probably the shittiest mud bog of a downhill you can imagine. I understand why they did it as it breaks up the pack. But it wasn't fun to start the lap with. After you turn the corner the course is a series of small rock gardens, fast sections, moist dirt, and a few climbs. The first climb was out of the gate, as mentioned. The second was this rock garden that wasn't much of note ordinarily but being slightly uphill, turning, and then leaving you into this slog of a climb, I thought this was the worst of it.
We had been told that there was a big-ass climb in the middle called Narcissist or something (is that right?). It is a series of man-made rock water bars that are really shitty and hard to climb. Upon coming to this, we just got off, walked it up, and that was that. To me, the first climb was harder because this hill is silly to bother trying to climb. Could you do it on a social ride with a ton of energy to blow? Maybe. But in a race, I see no point.
After that, the course was a total blast making your way back to the S/F. In between the hills there were some rocks, but as @seanrunnette put it, they were almost like what Wawayanda decided wasn't gnarly enough for their race and this is what you got. We averaged over 9 for the first lap. At the end of the lap we saw @1sh0t1b33r and yelled for him to see @Dominique who was up the road, who had his GPS.
Between every lap we stopped for bottles, pickle juice, and some food. So the lap times will be skewed by that.
Lap 2 by Sean's account was our fastest lap. It would make some sense as we were not inhibited by the race start slurry, and we knew what to expect. The nice thing about this loop is that there was nothing in it that really brought dread to you when you thought about it. So there was never one of those, "Oh man this shitty section again" moments. For the most part it was a really well put together course. Not really much of note on lap 2 that I can recall.
Lap 3 we come around and they are staging the cat 2s, and D is about to go. She gives us a fist pump and cheers us on. We take our pit stop and Sean asks if we should let them go and I say hells no. We get out ahead and get on the lap before they are let loose. We manage to stay in front of them even though I am sure we are not blazing at this point. But once we got into the muck & mire, we kept our distance. We ended up riding with @jeffstick for a while on this lap and at one point his CO2 fell out which I told him about. Shortly after his tube unfurled and he had to stop. I fly by him down the hill and BOOM, my rear wheel nails a rock and the air in the tire goes bye-bye-bye.
So we pull over and change my flat, and the entirety of the cat 2 world comes pouring by us, including D with a big smile on her face. That's nice to see.
While I put in a tube we decide that we are definitely going to stop at 4 today, barring any additional unforeseen smashages. We get back on the bike and my tire now has ROCK-SOLID PSI in it. But whatever, in the end I find it makes little difference today. We just assume our ride as we left off, frankly feeling a tad rested now. For the most part we keep the same dynamic as last week, with me leading the pace and Sean following. I offer to let him lead at one point and he says he prefers me being the tracer bullet, which I totally understand.
Lap 4 is just a really enjoyable lap. We are posting 9+ on ever lap (moving) and we are not losing any momentum as the race goes on. A huge goal of this race was to work on nutrition and it's obvious as we hammer out lap 4 that it's on point today. No cramps and no drop in speed at all. As we hit the base of the hike-a-bike we see D ahead finally, and we slowly reel her in. Eventually we catch her and we all roll out the last lap together.
We clean up, go to the cabin, and smash up a cheeseburger, then Sean & I get coffees to boot. We stick around to watch D collect her medal, and we are on our way back home.
We didn't end up super high in the results but again, we're not really racing this and if we had gone out for the 5th lap we would have ended up mid-pack like last week. I think it would have been hard but we would have nailed one more lap. But as we have discussed before, we still need to live our lives after the race ends, which kind of makes the decision for us. We got in a solid ride today, and that was well worth the trip on a day we all would have struggled to ride at all.
The next seed had been planted. The Rothrock TrailMix is on an open weekend...
Boy goes to bike race with girl and gets to ride bikes with good friend for almost 4 hours and girl gets a podium. All 3 literally finish the race together and they eat cheeseburgers and drink coffee.
Not sure you could have scripted it any better.
+++++
Wake up at 5:45, out the door by 6:15, in the lot by 8:15, ready to roll by 8:30. As mentioned in the last recap, I have no pre-race anxiety at all. If it had been 8:45 when we rolled up, maybe. But even then what's the worst that happens? It all works out.
Another long race and another pact with the big man. Yesterday I posted the 4/5 discussion but with it pissing rain the whole way up, I figured we would be good at 4 today but we would see how it goes.
First lap we are off and there's a bunch of us. Course goes right up the fire road and we definitely don't go out too hard. Then it turns and you immediately loose all of your elevation in probably the shittiest mud bog of a downhill you can imagine. I understand why they did it as it breaks up the pack. But it wasn't fun to start the lap with. After you turn the corner the course is a series of small rock gardens, fast sections, moist dirt, and a few climbs. The first climb was out of the gate, as mentioned. The second was this rock garden that wasn't much of note ordinarily but being slightly uphill, turning, and then leaving you into this slog of a climb, I thought this was the worst of it.
We had been told that there was a big-ass climb in the middle called Narcissist or something (is that right?). It is a series of man-made rock water bars that are really shitty and hard to climb. Upon coming to this, we just got off, walked it up, and that was that. To me, the first climb was harder because this hill is silly to bother trying to climb. Could you do it on a social ride with a ton of energy to blow? Maybe. But in a race, I see no point.
After that, the course was a total blast making your way back to the S/F. In between the hills there were some rocks, but as @seanrunnette put it, they were almost like what Wawayanda decided wasn't gnarly enough for their race and this is what you got. We averaged over 9 for the first lap. At the end of the lap we saw @1sh0t1b33r and yelled for him to see @Dominique who was up the road, who had his GPS.
Between every lap we stopped for bottles, pickle juice, and some food. So the lap times will be skewed by that.
Lap 2 by Sean's account was our fastest lap. It would make some sense as we were not inhibited by the race start slurry, and we knew what to expect. The nice thing about this loop is that there was nothing in it that really brought dread to you when you thought about it. So there was never one of those, "Oh man this shitty section again" moments. For the most part it was a really well put together course. Not really much of note on lap 2 that I can recall.
Lap 3 we come around and they are staging the cat 2s, and D is about to go. She gives us a fist pump and cheers us on. We take our pit stop and Sean asks if we should let them go and I say hells no. We get out ahead and get on the lap before they are let loose. We manage to stay in front of them even though I am sure we are not blazing at this point. But once we got into the muck & mire, we kept our distance. We ended up riding with @jeffstick for a while on this lap and at one point his CO2 fell out which I told him about. Shortly after his tube unfurled and he had to stop. I fly by him down the hill and BOOM, my rear wheel nails a rock and the air in the tire goes bye-bye-bye.
So we pull over and change my flat, and the entirety of the cat 2 world comes pouring by us, including D with a big smile on her face. That's nice to see.
While I put in a tube we decide that we are definitely going to stop at 4 today, barring any additional unforeseen smashages. We get back on the bike and my tire now has ROCK-SOLID PSI in it. But whatever, in the end I find it makes little difference today. We just assume our ride as we left off, frankly feeling a tad rested now. For the most part we keep the same dynamic as last week, with me leading the pace and Sean following. I offer to let him lead at one point and he says he prefers me being the tracer bullet, which I totally understand.
Lap 4 is just a really enjoyable lap. We are posting 9+ on ever lap (moving) and we are not losing any momentum as the race goes on. A huge goal of this race was to work on nutrition and it's obvious as we hammer out lap 4 that it's on point today. No cramps and no drop in speed at all. As we hit the base of the hike-a-bike we see D ahead finally, and we slowly reel her in. Eventually we catch her and we all roll out the last lap together.
We clean up, go to the cabin, and smash up a cheeseburger, then Sean & I get coffees to boot. We stick around to watch D collect her medal, and we are on our way back home.
We didn't end up super high in the results but again, we're not really racing this and if we had gone out for the 5th lap we would have ended up mid-pack like last week. I think it would have been hard but we would have nailed one more lap. But as we have discussed before, we still need to live our lives after the race ends, which kind of makes the decision for us. We got in a solid ride today, and that was well worth the trip on a day we all would have struggled to ride at all.
The next seed had been planted. The Rothrock TrailMix is on an open weekend...
1speed
Incredibly profound yet fantastically flawed
Great seeing you out there and well done!!! I thought that was the best FC course they've ever run - I hadn't done the race in a while, so I don't know if it was a brand new course or the same one they've run the last few years. The old endurance course there was about 15 miles per lap, which was too long especially for a 4 hour race (the old endurance race was also 6 hours.) The course did start to get bit mushy the more tires went over it, but I thought overall it held up very well.
JDurk
Well-Known Member
Same course the last few years, maybe '14 or '15
Mountain Bike Mike
Well-Known Member
I’m ot sure how I missed you and D... I ran in to Sean with 10 minutes before we staged..
Sunday.
1. Happy Mother's Day!
2. I thought of something I wanted to say about the race yesterday but I forgot. Anyway, good job @pooriggy on the race. That's not what I wanted to say but I'll say that anyway.
I often have random thoughts through the day about what to write later in the day. Then when it’s time to sit down and write them I draw a blank. This is a good example.
Maybe it was about the chainring. During the race yesterday the small opening on the chain was able to wedge on the big teeth. Then this caused a chain suck situation which isn’t really supposed to happen anymore. So yeah the chainring is really worn out.
3. Rothrock. How does the team feel about moving out the NYC date? We were supposed to do a NYC trip that date but now I’m trying to get D interested in Rothrock. Maybe NYC 2 weeks later? Discuss.
4. Austin. I’m not really that stoked about this trip and frankly I’m pretty much the opposite of stoked. I am kind of really annoyed about this trip any way you slice it. It’s triple-invasive on our home life this week and it’s got absolutely no point at all. Combine that with the reality that very little actual work will get done and I’m having a really hard time looking at this trip positively.
I’m sure it will be fine but right now I’m agitated by the incredible inconvenience coupled with the absolute uselessness of it.
5. The Journey.
And so we begin, just before 6:00. @Dominique sees me off and I hop in my Uber, then 5 minutes later I get a text from United saying that my plane is delayed 40 minutes. This is going to be a long night. What's another 40?
I start 2 books in the same day. One is the 4th book in this spy series I read some time ago and the other is some other book. I’m wedges between 2 hunks of man flesh typing on my phone so I’m not going to pull them out. I’ll tell you what they are later. The point in doing 2 books is to see which one sticks.
The first thing I do when I get through the TSA is to use one of my Inited Club cards to hang out with a bunch of obnoxious douchebags.
Ok the guy next to me has restless leg syndrome. I’m going to choke him before this is over. I’m having a hard time being relaxed when I’ve got Inspector Fidget going crazy next to me.
The flight was delayed an hour in all because excuses. Newark. Whatever. I’m starimg at a 2am bedtime and that’s probably CST. I was hoping to get up at 6 tomorrow to ride but I’m not sure that’s realistic. I may need to slice an hour from that plan so as not to be a zombie all day.
Ok today was pretty good until this trip got underway. I’m going to hit reply and assure you that tomorrow will be better. Or the other way around. Tomorrow will be better. Talk to you then. Reply now.
1. Happy Mother's Day!
2. I thought of something I wanted to say about the race yesterday but I forgot. Anyway, good job @pooriggy on the race. That's not what I wanted to say but I'll say that anyway.
I often have random thoughts through the day about what to write later in the day. Then when it’s time to sit down and write them I draw a blank. This is a good example.
Maybe it was about the chainring. During the race yesterday the small opening on the chain was able to wedge on the big teeth. Then this caused a chain suck situation which isn’t really supposed to happen anymore. So yeah the chainring is really worn out.
3. Rothrock. How does the team feel about moving out the NYC date? We were supposed to do a NYC trip that date but now I’m trying to get D interested in Rothrock. Maybe NYC 2 weeks later? Discuss.
4. Austin. I’m not really that stoked about this trip and frankly I’m pretty much the opposite of stoked. I am kind of really annoyed about this trip any way you slice it. It’s triple-invasive on our home life this week and it’s got absolutely no point at all. Combine that with the reality that very little actual work will get done and I’m having a really hard time looking at this trip positively.
I’m sure it will be fine but right now I’m agitated by the incredible inconvenience coupled with the absolute uselessness of it.
5. The Journey.
And so we begin, just before 6:00. @Dominique sees me off and I hop in my Uber, then 5 minutes later I get a text from United saying that my plane is delayed 40 minutes. This is going to be a long night. What's another 40?
I start 2 books in the same day. One is the 4th book in this spy series I read some time ago and the other is some other book. I’m wedges between 2 hunks of man flesh typing on my phone so I’m not going to pull them out. I’ll tell you what they are later. The point in doing 2 books is to see which one sticks.
The first thing I do when I get through the TSA is to use one of my Inited Club cards to hang out with a bunch of obnoxious douchebags.
Ok the guy next to me has restless leg syndrome. I’m going to choke him before this is over. I’m having a hard time being relaxed when I’ve got Inspector Fidget going crazy next to me.
The flight was delayed an hour in all because excuses. Newark. Whatever. I’m starimg at a 2am bedtime and that’s probably CST. I was hoping to get up at 6 tomorrow to ride but I’m not sure that’s realistic. I may need to slice an hour from that plan so as not to be a zombie all day.
Ok today was pretty good until this trip got underway. I’m going to hit reply and assure you that tomorrow will be better. Or the other way around. Tomorrow will be better. Talk to you then. Reply now.
Yes these are wonderful, high quality, etc... But in norms case the bike has a 6+ year old set of carbon sram cranks that have been living in a salt mist experiment and never cleaned for eions...(plus they were known for being creaky when new) The crank arms will slightly loosen and creak over time as will the direct mount chain rings.. Which is usually what you fix when you take everything apart, clean and reassemble.
That drivetrain is more than a year old, its done 🙂
Bummed i couldnt make it out there. I like that you and @seanrunnette are doing this...kinda reminds me of when we did the DH40 in 2010...Of course me, you and @graveyardman67 were trying to kill each other, but it was still super fun.
Have fun in Austin.
It got better.
Let's start with last night's guilty confession. As I was flying in, my boss sends me a message asking if I ate dinner. Not really, I reply. Ok, going to grab In & Out Burger, he replies. So I land, take the Uber, then walk into the hotel at 1:20 am CST and crush a burger & fries. File that under Things That Do Not Help the Race Weight Equation. Also file that under ZFGS, which stands for something we have taken to saying a lot at work lately. ZFG = Zero Fucks Given. The last letter changes depending on what day it is.
So on the flight last night I tried to just do nothing at times, and lean forward with my head in my hands thinking of not being in constant physical contact with the people on either side of me. In a sense you could call it meditation. It was a meditation of how to imagine your physical person not being in contact with other man flesh. In this sense, I think maybe meditation makes a lot of sense. I can also say that it didn't really work all that well.
This morning I woke up, atoned a tiny bit by eating plain oatmeal with blueberries, and took an Uber to Mellow Johnny's. Given that I had gone to bed at 3:00am EST, I was not exactly fresh. But I woke up and that was enough. Anyone who has done a race with little sleep knows how this goes. You're tired, then you get on the bike, and you're fine. This was like that.
I imagine it took maybe 15 minutes to get it all worked out and to get changed. Hopped on the bike and was off into never-never Austin land. I had tossed a few lines on the GPS but like an idiot, forgot the GPS mount so I had to keep it in my pocket and randomly take it out. For the most part this was ok, as the main path was fairly obvious. I am sure @JimN knows what I am talking about. I had mapped out a route that had a left & right option, but when I went to take the left option to make a loop out of it, it turned out that the Strava route builder sent me straight across a river and I wasn't going to wade across it only to find whatever on the other side.
The trail I rode was a multi-use trail that is more than what you would think when I say that. Lots of fast trail coupled with a lot of rocks, though not in the way you would think of them. The rocks there are mostly packed in dirt, where in Jersey the rocks are more deposited all at once and where leaves slowly build up and get washed away. While it is rocky, it's a pretty light-intermediate friendly trail. There are some rock sections that are actually really hard, like advanced hard. But mostly they are fun/challenging and have ways to go around if you don't want to ride them.
Scenery was pretty nice also.
I took a few more pics but now that I look at them, they are pretty blurry.
I took a few wrong turns and 1 tossed me into a hiking trail that I had attempted to ride at first. It would later become obvious that it was a hiking trail but when I first tasted this, it was too early to know. I came up on a pretty gnarly rock-up and I tried to ride it. So I tried, but I failed, which happens. But the way I failed was somewhat less-than-great. I crashed left, which seems to be my crashing side. I smashed my forearm, which seems to be my crashing body part. And I opened up a little chunk of myself on the rock.
No biggie, I think. And keep on riding. It doesn't hurt so I am not too worried about it. Look down at my knee, and only a little scraped up. I look at my forearm and it appears that a vial of blood has been poured down the length AND width of it. The underside of it is literally covered in blood. It is oozing out of this little wound. I stop and wipe off a bunch with some leaves, and it helps for about 2 minutes. I stop again and wipe again, and some congealed blood chunks off, and I am thinking, well this is lovely.
Shortly after I have to cross a stream so I dunk my forearm in it, and after it is nice and clean, I see the wound is really pretty small. It's just in a spot that seems to want to dump blood. I look down and I see the rocks with blood all over them, as if I have slaughtered a small animal where I am standing. I roll on, and wipe one more time with some leaves and this time just slap the leaves on my forearm to help it stop the bleeding. Eventually this works for the most part. And I keep on riding.
In the end I came to the conclusion that I was tired and being really sloppy. I dial it back a bit and try to just take it more as it comes. I turn around at about the 10 mile mark and head back the way I came. About half a mile from the shop, the front tire flats, and I ride it until the air is all gone. The last full block I walk back to the shop. I turn in my bike, take a shower, and head back to the hotel to change into my monkey clothes. What a great morning.
The wound in my forearm bleeds all day, up to and through dinner ever-so-slightly. I assume I will wake up with blood on the sheets tomorrow. Scratch that. I just looked down and see that I have left a small patch of ooze on my shorts. Damn it.
I meet my boss and 1 other guy for lunch, which is some Chinese place that ends up being really good. As we were walking by the dude cold-talked us into going in. For sure, worth it.
After lunch we grab some coffee stuff at the Starbucks Reserve, which is a foo-foo version of the same old Starbucks. Then we head into the office. The afternoon session was actually reasonably good. This is not part of the NHO, however. It's more advanced planning stuff and it was worthwhile.
For dinner I met up with a friend who I have not seen in over a year. She is the PM I was working with a year ago when I moved from that last project with New York Life to this one. Without question she is the best PM I've worked with and given the dead wood I have to deal with daily, I would love to bring her into our org. But I don't think that's realistic given what this new Borg wants to pay people. Anyway, it was good to catch up with her and to meet her husband, who ended up being a great conversationalist. Dinner was fine, just some contemporary Mexican place downtown. But the company was great and it gave me a good opportunity to skip the drunk-fest that the night would become with the other guys who are in town for this event.
Speaking of, today or yesterday is 400 days without a drink. Still no problem passing on these.
Let's start with last night's guilty confession. As I was flying in, my boss sends me a message asking if I ate dinner. Not really, I reply. Ok, going to grab In & Out Burger, he replies. So I land, take the Uber, then walk into the hotel at 1:20 am CST and crush a burger & fries. File that under Things That Do Not Help the Race Weight Equation. Also file that under ZFGS, which stands for something we have taken to saying a lot at work lately. ZFG = Zero Fucks Given. The last letter changes depending on what day it is.
So on the flight last night I tried to just do nothing at times, and lean forward with my head in my hands thinking of not being in constant physical contact with the people on either side of me. In a sense you could call it meditation. It was a meditation of how to imagine your physical person not being in contact with other man flesh. In this sense, I think maybe meditation makes a lot of sense. I can also say that it didn't really work all that well.
This morning I woke up, atoned a tiny bit by eating plain oatmeal with blueberries, and took an Uber to Mellow Johnny's. Given that I had gone to bed at 3:00am EST, I was not exactly fresh. But I woke up and that was enough. Anyone who has done a race with little sleep knows how this goes. You're tired, then you get on the bike, and you're fine. This was like that.
I imagine it took maybe 15 minutes to get it all worked out and to get changed. Hopped on the bike and was off into never-never Austin land. I had tossed a few lines on the GPS but like an idiot, forgot the GPS mount so I had to keep it in my pocket and randomly take it out. For the most part this was ok, as the main path was fairly obvious. I am sure @JimN knows what I am talking about. I had mapped out a route that had a left & right option, but when I went to take the left option to make a loop out of it, it turned out that the Strava route builder sent me straight across a river and I wasn't going to wade across it only to find whatever on the other side.
The trail I rode was a multi-use trail that is more than what you would think when I say that. Lots of fast trail coupled with a lot of rocks, though not in the way you would think of them. The rocks there are mostly packed in dirt, where in Jersey the rocks are more deposited all at once and where leaves slowly build up and get washed away. While it is rocky, it's a pretty light-intermediate friendly trail. There are some rock sections that are actually really hard, like advanced hard. But mostly they are fun/challenging and have ways to go around if you don't want to ride them.
Scenery was pretty nice also.
I took a few more pics but now that I look at them, they are pretty blurry.
I took a few wrong turns and 1 tossed me into a hiking trail that I had attempted to ride at first. It would later become obvious that it was a hiking trail but when I first tasted this, it was too early to know. I came up on a pretty gnarly rock-up and I tried to ride it. So I tried, but I failed, which happens. But the way I failed was somewhat less-than-great. I crashed left, which seems to be my crashing side. I smashed my forearm, which seems to be my crashing body part. And I opened up a little chunk of myself on the rock.
No biggie, I think. And keep on riding. It doesn't hurt so I am not too worried about it. Look down at my knee, and only a little scraped up. I look at my forearm and it appears that a vial of blood has been poured down the length AND width of it. The underside of it is literally covered in blood. It is oozing out of this little wound. I stop and wipe off a bunch with some leaves, and it helps for about 2 minutes. I stop again and wipe again, and some congealed blood chunks off, and I am thinking, well this is lovely.
Shortly after I have to cross a stream so I dunk my forearm in it, and after it is nice and clean, I see the wound is really pretty small. It's just in a spot that seems to want to dump blood. I look down and I see the rocks with blood all over them, as if I have slaughtered a small animal where I am standing. I roll on, and wipe one more time with some leaves and this time just slap the leaves on my forearm to help it stop the bleeding. Eventually this works for the most part. And I keep on riding.
In the end I came to the conclusion that I was tired and being really sloppy. I dial it back a bit and try to just take it more as it comes. I turn around at about the 10 mile mark and head back the way I came. About half a mile from the shop, the front tire flats, and I ride it until the air is all gone. The last full block I walk back to the shop. I turn in my bike, take a shower, and head back to the hotel to change into my monkey clothes. What a great morning.
The wound in my forearm bleeds all day, up to and through dinner ever-so-slightly. I assume I will wake up with blood on the sheets tomorrow. Scratch that. I just looked down and see that I have left a small patch of ooze on my shorts. Damn it.
I meet my boss and 1 other guy for lunch, which is some Chinese place that ends up being really good. As we were walking by the dude cold-talked us into going in. For sure, worth it.
After lunch we grab some coffee stuff at the Starbucks Reserve, which is a foo-foo version of the same old Starbucks. Then we head into the office. The afternoon session was actually reasonably good. This is not part of the NHO, however. It's more advanced planning stuff and it was worthwhile.
For dinner I met up with a friend who I have not seen in over a year. She is the PM I was working with a year ago when I moved from that last project with New York Life to this one. Without question she is the best PM I've worked with and given the dead wood I have to deal with daily, I would love to bring her into our org. But I don't think that's realistic given what this new Borg wants to pay people. Anyway, it was good to catch up with her and to meet her husband, who ended up being a great conversationalist. Dinner was fine, just some contemporary Mexican place downtown. But the company was great and it gave me a good opportunity to skip the drunk-fest that the night would become with the other guys who are in town for this event.
Speaking of, today or yesterday is 400 days without a drink. Still no problem passing on these.