Josie’s Post…
I love my dad. He is the bestest dad evah! And I was riding in the bike buggy with my mom ’cause she is awesome! I went with my mom and sister to the butterfly exhibit at Meijer’s Garden. It was the bestest time up there. I had chicken wings and a sundae with Oreo’s, gummy worms, and chocolate pudding at TGI Friday’s.
Josie
(Typed by dad).
Every Once In A While I’m Happy To Be Mistaken
I went out on my 35.5 mile ride this afternoon and had a blast – up until about the 27th mile when I started to feel a bit fatigued in the shoulders. The weather was incredible, sunny and 60 degrees, so I only had to wear a blue Under Armour shirt, rockin’ my USA jersey and thin tights over cycling shorts – if I must say so myself, I looked pretty fabulous. Starting out there was hardly any wind to speak of, a rarity lately and at 20 mph I felt perfectly comfortable – not too hot and not cold. About 7 miles in, I approached a four-way stop, slowed slightly and checked for traffic. There were a couple of cars approaching from the distance so I gauged their speed to make sure I would have the right of way and blew the stop sign…about a quarter-mile through the intersection and fella in a pickup sidled up along side and asked if it was all of a sudden legal for cyclists to disobey stop signs. I explained as well as a winded fella could, that I did indeed check to make sure the right of way would be mine and that I kept my momentum through the intersection for my safety and to keep from clogging up the intersection for the drivers… To my surprise, he accepted my explanation, nodded, said OK, gave me the thumbs up and sped on his way. This time around, my trip through Linden was uneventful and quite enjoyable.
I’ve been working quite a bit on pushing a little harder up hills, where I used to push from the saddle, I’ve begun standing a lot more to pick up speed as I climb while trying not to gas it too hard and wear myself out and it’s really been paying off. I’ve felt a lot stronger over the last couple of weeks – and some of that is definitely attributable to my new minimalist (chuckle) racing saddle – my butt’s never been so happy on a bike. As I approached Grand Blanc road to head into Swartz Creek, I thought about cutting about five miles off of my ride for about a quarter of a mile – the justification went like this, “your shoulders are feeling it and you’ve really hit this ride hard, there’s no shame it cutting this one short and heading home”…I told the committee to suck it up because there’s never much traffic on the extra mile and pushed on… I wasn’t quite sure where my time was, with my phone mounted on my stem it’s a little hard to hear my Endomondo chick tell me where I’m at so I just kept pushing… and pushing but I couldn’t shake the idea that I’d felt a little slower this time around. Finally, my curiosity got the best of me and with four miles I checked my time – 1:40 and change… That gave me nineteen minutes, in four miles to beat my last time on that loop. I bared down, best I could after 31 miles and beat my last time by a little more than 8 minutes.
I just love kicking my own butt – and I was definitely happy that I was mistaken about being slow. Final average was 19.26 mph. 35.66 miles in 1:51:14. Total calories burned: 1,954. Max speed: 27.96 mph. Cycling Challenge on Endomondo: 503 of 13,181. Calorie Challenge: 1,104 of 20,068. Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about baby – my gut hates this stuff!
Uh, dude – that’s BACON wrapped Tilapia…
That’s right. I said it. Bacon. Wrapped. Tilapia.
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Manscaping – It’s Society’s FAULT!!! And a Weekend Preview
Ah, I was looking for something fun to write about! Edith over at mymultipersonality noticed something funny that I am about to distort in an unnatural way that will shed light on one of the most egregious ills of society:
“…This was a well-built man in spandex on a nice bike so I will admit, unapologetically, to checking him. But there was something about him that struck me as odd and I could not, for the life of me, put my finger on it at first.
It was just evident that there was SOMETHING OFF ABOUT THIS MALE CYCLIST.
And it was really starting to bug me that I couldn’t figure out what it was.
And then, right before the light changed, it hit me: he was hairy”.
I’m going to try as hard as I can to feign justifiable indignation at the notion that a well built male cyclist should commence with the arduous task of a full manscaping regimen to satisfy society’s expectation of a clean crisp muscular man with skin as supple as a woman’s. It ‘s the radical feminization of the male cyclist! We need men’s rights groups, political lobbies! What’s next, a move to make men sit whilst they pee?! Someone call out the national guard, we need sanctions! Where’s the UN when you need it? IT’S A GENDER WAR! For the love of God and all that is Holy, where did this war against men begin, we need at least a half a trillion dollars committed to studies! We must band together to stop this assault on manhood – and HAIR. After all, who could be against HAIR! My God, I may faint… I think I could suffer a nervous breakdown, where’s my Social Security Rep? I think I’m disabled by the need to have my hair removed with a laser and I can’t afford it (Oh no, don’t laugh, I know a girl on disability because she’s too torn up to work because she wants to get a lot of plastic surgery done and can’t afford it – I kid you not)! Where’s my handout? I want my bailout! I’M A VICTIM, hear me WHINE!
Of course, I manscape considerably, so there’s that… Oh, and I think the same thing when I see a hairy guy on a bike too – so there’s that. Oh well.
The important note on the egregious ill: The biggest problem with politics is that people actually take political battles seriously – politicians don’t, why should we? One thing is for certain – when a politician opens his mouth, you’re about to get at least half of the story.
In other news:
Sixteen days to go to my first Metric Century, I’m finally starting to get fired up, and to support the treatment center that gave me the break I needed to finally plug the jug is all the better. That said, I think my goal of 3-1/2 hours is really aggressive but doable – of course, that’s assuming I’m not able to ride in a group and draft.
This weekend is going to be a little choppy – after taking two days off at the beginning of the week, I’ve been able to get back to it with a 20 mile ride on Wednesday and a 16 miler yesterday. Rather than ride long tomorrow, I’ll be trying to shoe in a 35.5 mile ride today because I’ve got the kids tomorrow morning so I’ll have to drive down to the running club. I’ll be running farther than usual and I’ll get in a shorter ride in between thunderstorms in the forecast (though we’ve got some moderate temps in store as well) after my wife gets back from her appointments. Sunday will be open to an extent, I really don’t know what I’ll be in the mood for, but it’ll at least be 16 which will get me well over my weekly goal of 100 miles.
As far as my challenges go, thankfully my one day funk hasn’t cost me. In the cycling challenge, I’m at 684 of 12,960 and for the calorie challenge I’m at 1,556 of 19, 783 and I’ll be moving up after today’s ride.
As far as my bike goes, the more I ride it, the more I like it… It’s fantastic on rough pavement, the wheels are still as true as the day I brought it home (after a couple of “focus is elsewhere” pot holes at 18-22 mph) and I can’t get over how smooth it rides and my new saddle is aces so my butt’s not sore after a long ride.
Fit Recovery 