Sun will go down

Last night was a typical Tuesday.  While at work Lynne came into the shop for a couple quick adjustments and a few other items now that the weather is warming and staying warm.  I asked if she was planning on going out to the TEAM ride which she told me she just got done with a ride about an hour back.  After not a lot of effort on my part she reluctantly agreed to come out for a second ride.

I arrived over in the Creek of the West a few minutes before 6pm so I turned a couple of laps before heading over to meet up with the TEAM.  We had a good sized group and they were all ready to ride by 6:30pm which is sometimes a difficult feat to accomplish.  I threw out the idea of heading out of Westcreek for the first 12 miles before the sun went down and then finishing up with a few more mind blowing laps inside Westcreek.

The ride through horse country was a pleasant one.  We were able to see a beautiful sunset over a huge gorse farm that turned the clouds different shades of bright oranges and pinks.  Sorry for not taking a picture, I was being pushed down the road by the group.  I did stop once we were back inside the Creek for a quick snapshot of the abandoned streets.

Stem Envy

Yesterday morning, I was contemplating grabbing the bike and heading out for a short and quick ride before going in and working the remaining portion of the day.  A quick early thunderstorm around 8ish had me changing my mind.  Instead, I decided it would be a good time to give Jenn's bike a nice run through since she will be back outside with her teammates at EF going forward.

After staring at the deep dishes for a bit too long, I knew I was suffering from not enough length out of my valve stem.  After many, many minutes of interweb research I decided that because my stem didn't have all the natural God given talents as some of the other valve stems in the world, I would try to elongate it.

 You too can elongate your stem 38mm instantly for just a couple of bucks.

I won't bore you with all of the other details that are just normal run of the mill type details when you prepare a bike for a new season.  But here she is looking as fast and slippery like a pimp in Detroit on a Saturday night.

Patch Kit

After spending Friday night trying to recover from the voodoo curse Toucan Sam placed on Friday morning, I awoke Saturday morning knowing it was going to be a good day. I spent a few minutes on the interwebs searching for home remedies to break a voodoo curse which didn't involve sacrificing a live animal.  Finally, my stomach told me it was not going to be accepting breakfast much longer as breakfast hours were almost up. I gave up my search for a cure and ate a couple bowls of the Captain Crunch.

I met up with the TNT team over in Varina for a nice 40ish mile ride.  It started off with everyone questioning what they were wearing and if they should change.  Rob then led a mission moment for the TEAM.  It was a touching story of how he recently got to spend some time with the Dr. who saved his life over 20 years ago.

Once on the ride we were motoring along when Paul noticed something was wrong with Karen's rear tire.  At first he thought her wheel had come out of true but upon inspection, the belt of the tire had actually blown in two different places and was causing the tire to grow massive ulcers.  Naturally we were about as far away from the vehicles as we were going to get so Karen, Paul and I continued riding very gingerly in the general direction of the vehicles.

2 or 3 miles down the road, we were passing a small house who's property was lined with a row of boxwoods. A small dog came bolting through the bushes and into the street just yapping away at Paul's feet.  A larger dog then came running through the yard.  Just as it was breaking through the bushes, Karen's rear tire blew scaring the dog back through the bushes and into the yard.  We stopped just a house or two down to assess the situation.

"We have ourselves a situation"

The tire had blown in the center of the tread and I wasn't confident we could get it fixed.  Karen started making a few calls while Paul rode ahead and told the group not to wait for us.  After not being able to reach anyone, I decided to try a Powerbar wrapper to help patch the hole long enough to get us as close to the cars as possible.  Karen looked at me like I was mental but I got her back up and rolling.  About a mile later Tom rolled back around and asked how we got it fixed, and I replied a Powerbar wrapper.  He laughed and gave me the same look Karen had.

 
Shortly thereafter the second spot on the tire gave out.  I was out of wrappers but thankfully Tom had a wrapper from another company who I am sure you have probably never heard of seeing how Powerbar is the only company who makes bars taste good. While we were dropping it into place Karen reached someone who was going to pick her up on the other side of the airport.  With just a couple of miles to get to the opposite side and the tire patched again, we rolled even more gently than before.  We got to within about a half mile of where she was meeting her friend when the tire gave out again.  With all of the rubber that was being blown, I was glad to see someone had left us a gift on the side of the road.  I don't think their situation could be fixed with a Powerbar wrapper, however.

After getting Karen situated, Tom and I started riding back doubting we would see any of the group before they rolled out of the parking lot.  The pace was steady as we rode through the Battlefield and we came across three other teammates heading in the opposite direction.  They had missed a turn and were searching for it.  After the ride Tom made a post over on DM about "trying to keep pace".  If a deck of cards comes out while he is around and the game of choice is poker, I can guarantee I will not be sitting down at that table.  His face and body language showed no tells he was having to work at keeping pace although, he would later claim he was.  Great ride Tom!

Toucan Sam's Revenge

Tuesday night is Chick-fil-a night.  I know that.  Jenn knows that.  The members of the TnT team who ride on Tuesday nights know that.  Now you know it.  While the Team and I were discussing how wonderful Tuesday nights are because of that, the topic then swung to other foods which are equally awesome.  When "What our favorite breakfast cereals were as a child?" came up, I couldn't decide between Fruit Loops and Captain Crunch w/Crunch Berries.

Fast forward to Friday morning.  I knew I was going to go out for close to a 50 miler through Powhatan today. Breakfast was going to be a must.  Problem, no cereal as I ate the last of the Frosted Mini Wheats and we were also out of milk as I put the last little bit into Jenn's coffee this morning.  Solution, go to the grocery store and buy the missing breakfast components.

Once at the store, the internal debate of which cereal to choose began once again.  I tried making a list in my head quickly of what I could remember liking the most of each one as a kid but it came out pretty much even.  I looked at the price which was the same which meant I couldn't use it as a viable reason to pick one over the other.  I was going to have to hurt someone's feelings.

The inner 5 year old came out, this would be decided by "Who would win in a fight?".  I won't go into too many gory details of the happenings of the frontline itself, but it ended with Toucan Sam trying some long distance voodoo mumbo jumbo against Captain Crunch but would ultimately be lured in closer by Captain's crunch berries.  He would fall victim to a poisoned crunch berry.  Captain Crunch it is then!

After getting home and finally eating, taking out the trash, doing the dishes, playing with the pups and thinking about cutting the grass it was time to gather the gear and head out onto the road.  As I mentioned before I headed for the Powhatan border for a nice 50ish mile loop.  I really enjoy that loop as it has a couple of steeper climbs, a lot of rolling terrain and a few flat areas to recover.  Once on the bike I knew it was going to be a painful day.  There was a headwind blowing out of the west at 15mph.  The first 38 miles where either into it or a crosswind before finally a tailwind for the return trip home.

If this farm ever goes up for sale, I am going to buy it

At mile 28ish I was really struggling with the warmer temps and noticed I was going through my bottles pretty fast.  No problem I will just stop to quickly refill as I grabbed my card just prior to leaving the house.  Or not, I pulled it out but it never made it's way into my pocket.  I was just about ready to slam into the "wall" when I started to see quick random clips of the cereal war run through my head.  Had I picked the wrong one?  Was Toucan Sam now aiming his voodoo mumbo jumbo at me?  If a Korean nuclear missile cannot reach Virginia am I really to believe his voodoo spells can reach all the way from the jungle?

Someone's way of saying I am going to be swimming with the fishes?

Through the hallucinations, it became clear to me that there is no limit to the range of the spells he can cast with his rainbow striped beak.  I choose the wrong colorful box this morning and now I am paying for it.  The remaining little bit of Powerbar Endurance drink was to be reserved for when I took on a Gel Blast or two.  Both were soon gone as I desperately tried to get some sort of energy from eating although I knew it wasn't going to be much help as dehydrated as I becoming.  Mother Nature did me a solid one when she blew me the finally 9 miles home with a nice tailwind.

Once I was home, I turned on the tv, filled a bottle up with 3 servings of Powerbar Recovery, chugged the bottle and repeated.  I then sat down in front of the tv while taking my shoes off and I feel asleep err, passed out for a couple of hours.   When I awoke the dried salt on my face made it look as if I had been antiqued.  A quick shower, another bottle of recovery and then an endless glass of water for the rest of the evening had me feeling much better.

I am left with the life changing question of whether I eat the remaining Captain Crunch, throw it away or return it?  If I tried returning it, would the ladies at the grocery store go in search of a straight jacket?  I'll probably just eat it and stop thinking about it...

3 days from now will be Spring Equinox, the official start to the Spring season.  Spring brings longer days (3 minutes each day this week), warmer temperatures and sometimes rain.  Warmer temps means less layers.  Rain means not riding unless I get stuck out in it by a shower that pops up onto radar out of nowhere then disappears just as quickly.

Tuesday night brought neither of those to fruition.  The weather was looking a bit iffy all day but I was told by my gut of guts, lord knows it has gotten bigger with what I am going to call knowledge, it was not going to rain until after I was finished riding with the TNT crew.

Start time temperatures were 50 degrees but dropping so I reluctantly layered up in thin layers to help stay warm for the evening. Sounds terrible I am complaining about 50 degree days when others are jumping for joy one finally arrives.  But 60's are now my nice day and 70's a great day.

Jenn is now working out on the bike outdoors again so we were heading to the same place.  This cuts out about 9 miles but because EF starts 30 minutes before TNT than I still had time to get a few extra miles in.  This early in the season I am not chasing miles anyhow, especially 9 more.  If I get them, I get them but I am not sweating not getting them as they will not make or break my training, err I mean my fitness.

Ride went off just how I had planned it with all of the gut filled knowledge.  As soon as the last bike was put into the last car, Mother Nature opened up on us.  Finished the evening up with a nice ~30 miles under the belt and managed to stay dry.  Suppose if I ever need a career change I could always start traveling with the county fairs as "know it all fat guy who can predict the weather."  Then again, probably not...

Spring Fever

With our recent trip down to Florida a few weeks back I was spoiled with morning temperatures in the 60's and highs never breaking 80.  It made for a nice relaxing trip but certainly made the thoughts of coming back home to highs in the upper 50's a bit hard to stomach.

However, yesterday was the type of day I needed on the bike.  I was able to use my good looks and charm to awaken Jenn 15 minutes early and convince her to drop me off by the store a few minutes early on her way over to Westcreek where she was to do a nasty set of intervals.  I was going to work until mid-afternoon and then ride home and get some natural Vitamin D as it was supposed to near 70 degrees yesterday.

The sun started beating down on my pasty untighted, short sleeve wearing skin immediately and it was nice for my body to warm up within moments of being on the bike versus about 20 minutes in.  Somewhere along Cherokee Rd some lucky husband was cutting his grass which was a delightful smell I never get tired of.  Unless your grass isn't really grass but instead wild green onions.  Then the smell isn't so delightful.

Another sign Spring is near, Spring Training is about 2/3 the way through and the start to the regular season is at the end of the month.  After I got out of the shower yesterday I was able to watch the a Cubs game on the boob tube.  Something I wasn't able to do much last year.  This year a plan is in the works to make sure I don't miss a game and I cannot wait for it to be put into action.

Now to do the other thing most people dread doing in the spring.  Nope not clean, Jenn and I did that before we left for our trip.  Taxes!  Gotta get the man his money or better yet get our money back from the man.