Most of the crewers were pretty focused on putting in miles as Felasco prep. Now, with no clear goal on the horizon, the machine seems to be faltering. Personally, I was riding about 5-6 times a week, and digging it. Once you establish the rhythm it's not too hard to keep it rolling. The holidays definitely threw a wrench in the works. Everything was just humming along. Night rides, day rides, weekend rides, harder rides, recovery rides, and then BAM! Christmas on a Tuesday. So of course Christmas Eve ate up Monday. Pick up the pieces and schedule the usual Thursday ride and weekend rides, and along comes New Years Eve. There went Monday again. The Hangover Hare Scramble cancels the Tuesday night ride. Throw in a little questionable weather, and two weeks are turned into 2-ride weeks. It's like rolling along through bumper to bumper rush hour traffic, feeling good about the time you're saving being on your bike, and then you get doored!
So what will the new focus be? Bikechain keeps talking about doing a 12 hour as a team. But Bikechain does that. He talks. Hopefully we'll see him on the Sunday ride. I don't think he's ridden since Felasco, and I know from experience, that he suffers from the "lack of a goal" syndrome more than most any other crew member....
....except maybe Spanish Mackerel! I talked to the Mackerel a couple of times this week, trying to see if he was through riding until next Thanksgiving. He actually claims he wants to ride on Sunday. I hope he makes it. It would be a shame to see that new rig of his start collecting dust with only two rides on its wings.
I don't sweat Wrecking Ball's motivation. If nothing else, that Pekingese energy of his will spin him off the couch and onto his bike! He's generally more willing to ride solo than the rest of us. The word on the street is that after he took a little bit of a beating at Munson Thursday night, he went out and did the Big East Loop solo on Friday. I think it was some sort of cathartic self flagellation.
Speaking of solo. The White Ghost, Ricky Silk, lives to ride alone. This guy is so focused that the majority of the time he won't ride with us because we are either going too slow or too fast for his scheduled training ride that day. He's been in hibernation since the Tallahassee race, with a brief peek outside of his recovery cave to participate in the Off Road Spaghetti. But if you check his site, you'll see he was out riding on what was possibly the worst day of this winter, as far as riding conditions are concerned. So I guess something has his interest peaked.
Marko, I'm not sure about right now. Best I can tell, he's taking a mental break from all of the riding focus. He's still in the gym and doing the bigger rides, and he's very focused on improving his eating habits. He just seems to be a little less gung ho than he was a couple of months ago. But like Wrecking Ball, I don't really worry about him flipping the switch when the time comes. In the meantime, I'm enjoying him being a little more mortal than he used to be.
Derwood is another crewer who's had responsibility drag his super powers back to a more manageable level. Again, I'm thankful to see him hurt a little once in awhile. Starting a new business will do that to you. As soon as he gets that under control, I'm sure he'll be right back to turning us inside out on a regular basis.
As for myself, I'm picking up the pieces again. I managed to ride the day after Felasco, but it all went to hell after that. Monday saw responsibility interfere with my fun. Tuesday, I got called out to attend the reorganization meeting of out fledgling local SORBA club. Wednesday, it rained all day long and was cold(But Silk was out!). Thursday and Friday I got to ride, but today we had a high of 48 and it rained for about 18 hours straight! While the riding has been intermittent, it's not from lack of desire. I don't know what's driving it, but it's there. Maybe the anticipation of a hut-to-hut trip this summer, or an attempt at the Fool's Gold 50. It could just be the constant pursuit of another ride as fun as this past Thursday's. Regardless, I'm looking at the weather channel, in anticipation of tomorrow's ride.
12 comments:
In the great words of Evil Knievel, “do you know who the hell I am?”. He said that in response to being questioned why he went through with his famous Grand Canyon jump attempt, even when he knew his chances of surviving were 50/50. Well I’ll tell you who the hell I am. I’m KW (k-dub), aka. bikechain, brother kent and most recently red dragon. There are no un-truths in the ape’s post. His post is pure wisdom because he knows it will involve some Whittington’esqe gauntlet throwing. So puppet master, here goes: You have awakened a sleeping giant. I shall now commit to a diet of turkey and mustard sandwiches on whole wheat, washed down with Fresca. No longer will I be a slave to chicken wings, beer, sour patch kids and cokes. I shall now embrace the rice cake and heart rate monitor. My goal shall be to loose 30 pounds by BUMP and Grind. This will be great for me and bad for you. I shall punish you at every opportunity. This is my code. Boot camp starts Jan. 21, 2008. Wrecking Ball – what shall be the terms?
Loser pays entry fees.
W.b.
Woah there compadre! Dont throw me under the "lack of a goal" bus. I'm more vague and noncommittal, some would even say aloof and obtuse. But lacking goals? Hell, didnt you see the Felasco promo vid? Mark said it plain as day, the Mac do what the Mac sets his mind to do. Nuff said
AS soon as the "Broken Bone"in the shoulder has another day or two to heal i should be able to roll again
Donnie
K-Dub - I see my goal was realized.
Spanish Mackeral - I stand corrected. The Mackeral was in play on sunday's long ass ride through the forest. As a matter of fact, he was looking better than I've seen him look on his bike in a long while. I'll have my account posted later.
I think the goals should include a full merging of crews trip to Pisgah/ Tsali in April. Our group tends to shun the race scene in favor of the camp like rock stars, ride all day, party all night scene.
If you lose that much weight you might need a new Captain Lyra suit.
Juancho - Now that's a damn fine goal!
Nice refocus Kent. If you are serious, let me know and you can jump in on my stealth training; but, sshhhhh, don't tell anyone. Oh yeah, if you lose the dirty thirty, I'll buy you another Captain America save all Asians lycra suit.
"A cousin's love is....well,...a cousin's love."
Yeah, I'm a finicky bitch when it comes to my riding. I hope you'll love me anyway.
The wrecking ball and the worm are rolling and I'm afraid even kent can't stop it. ROLL BABY ROLL!!!!
You know, ya'll are some bitches, check the weather out up in DC! Try riding in your living room, yep that's my world right now and thanks to my absolutely silent trainer with the Watt meter, I am bringing a whole new can of whup ass. As a matter of fact, piss on entry fees, I say let's do the Dausett race the week before bump, slowest wears a skirt to the pre-dinner ride at bump. Or maybe a skirt to the Awful House the morning of the race. I don't mean a kilt, I mean a womans skirt. Chris, this means if you lose, it's off to the BBW store!
Honestly though, the trainer keeps me from going fast right now, not that I have ever been that fast, but there is hope. As for how cold it is here. Let's see, last February, I did a Crit with the high at 28 degrees for the day, so quit bitching about those cold days, get busy, cause come Dausett and the Bump............Hell's coming boys and the old man is bringing it!
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