Randonee!

So, I had a couple of choices for riding today. One, was to drive almost three hours to race 8 miles in the Moody Park race, another was to ride in Pinnacle Bike Shop's dirt randonee, a 40+ mile fun-fest mixing it up on dirt roads and pavement. Hmmm.... not much of a choice. Especially with all this rain we've had. Every once in a while I DO try to do the right thing when it comes to preserving the trails we ride, and giving them a day or two to dry out, I think, was the right thing to do.

Mid-Season Slumber; Time to SNAP out of it!

I don't know what happened these last few weeks, er - now months, since Battenkill - but good grief I've gotten out of shape! Missed rides, low motivation, and general New England crappy weather blahs have conspired to make me feel like a semi-catatonic fool.

What to do? Plan to do some races - and try and get back in shape for 'cross season. I'm going to go bananas here and plan on a trail run too, in October - as my wife threw the gauntlet down, and I accepted the challenge.

Tell me where to go, and what we can do as a team; I've targeted the Hampshire 100 EFTA race, on August 21st, and the Ravenswood Trail Race on Saturday Oct. 16th - but would like to hit some shorter and closer races to tune up the engine at. Or perhaps organize a few Racer-X epic rides... or even another road race, though the Wells Avenue training races are always "fun", if racing in circles, in Newton, sometimes with traffic - is "fun".

That's all - back to our regularly scheduled programs!

Ride Report: Tuesday Pinnacle Shop Ride

Route as recorded by RunKeeper

Some days you're the buggy, some days you're the whip. Or a horse. Or hopelessly out of date and out of witty analogies. Wait - does one whip the buggy? Or the horse. WTF?

Whatever the case may be, I was not going to be able to ride the ECV TT on Wednesday this week, so I got a hall pass for a ride on Tuesday. Threw the hardtail 29'er on the car and zipped over to Pinnacle Bikes / Cyclocrossworld.com HQ to meet the gang for the shop ride. It was a small group - 4 of us total; Silas and Josh Anthony (yes, of the crazy fast / genetically gifted 'Anthony Clan') from the shop, and long time North Shore, MA stud Andrew Mahoney (owner of the stellar Atomic Cafe's in Beverly and Marblehead). Good thing these guys were "out of shape" and "injured" and generally all claiming all manner of excuses - as even with their "out of shape" form they still killed a sick ride - both technical and fast. And fun.

Rumpus or Ruckus? And what of Darius Rucker from Hootie and the Blowfish? Still Alive or What?

Heads up Vet 2 40-49 Novice Mountain Bikers You just got served at the Big Ring Rumpus!

(You may now resume handing me my ass on a weekly basis.)

Wow, what a crazy day! Where to begin? OK we'll start at the start.

Dave rolls over about 7:00am, we load up, and Team Hyphenated Last Name heads off to the Big Ring Rumpus up in New Hampshire.

Ride: The Boxy Car

Weather: Primo

Bikes: Ready

Spirits: High

Highway Speed: Evidently excessive as we are no sooner pulling onto the highway as we are pulled over with sirens and lights full-on. Dave and I look at each other as if to say "Wha?" I had a bad feeling on this one.

They Might Be Giants

I'm going to share a little secret with you; I'm tall. No, I'm not freakishly tall, like an albino Manute Bol, but I think I fall into the "above average" height category. Every bike I've owned has been XL, and my legs go all the way down to the ground. It's not very often when I have to look UP at someone. At 6'2", even if someone is a bit taller, up to 6'4" say, it's only my eyes that have to gaze up a bit (such as when I gaze in Jamie's beautiful eyes). So when I have to actually look up, with my head, it's a weird, weird feeling.

The Willows Weren't the Only Ones Weeping

Ah, Weeping Willow. It's hard to resist a race that's nearly in your back yard and on killer trails. That was my mindset when I signed up for the Open Singlespeed class. I had no delusions of fitness, no false ideas of grandeur. But I did apparently misconstrue the word "friend," as someone I thought was a friend left me to die.

Get Your Style On!

It's time to round up some orders on new, updated Racer-X team clothing. We're currently working on short-sleeve cycling tops, shorts (bibs & regular) and short-sleeve skin suits.  We're also getting a sample kit with other items (arm warmers, shoe covers, gloves, jackets, etc), so in the future, we'll know what other items will look and feel like.