Isolated Showers

Wow…  I have my feet on the internet!  So anyway, I go out for my lunch ride today, just like any other day.  It’s hot. It’s sunny.  It’s Atlanta.  I roll out, all is well.  Legs are sore, things aren’t going well, but working through it.  I get to the end of Columns Drive and the road is wet.  Maybe these rich people get their roads washed?

I circle back and its getting oddly windy and gray.  It starts raining!  Not a lot, just a bit.  I don’t use my walkman on busy rides, but I do on Columns… there are no cars.  I don’t have a bag!  It was supposed to be clear.  I think quick, take off my seat bag, empty it into my pockets and shove the ipod in there.  Good thinkin, eh?  Well, at this point, its 4 miles back to work – going to get very wet.  I’ve only ridden about 6 miles.  Not a long ride if I go back, I am wet anyways… so I enjoy the rest of my ride.  Good deal!  Got in about 25 miles.  The rain only lasted about 15 minutes, poured really good.  The nice thing was I was wearing my Oakleys with “Hydrophobic Coating”  (That’s rainex for your sunglasses, I think).  It means the glasses don’t hold water on the lenses.  Dad is reading this and saying “It’s a gimmick”.  NOPE!  I was riding with another guy and I got right in behind him in a pouring rain.  The rooster tail was going right in my face and I have to tell you, I could SEE!  Once the rain eased off I wished I had the vented lenses as the fog was a bit cumbersome, but they were clear to the end of the ride.  INCREDIBLE!  Waterproof sunglasses, what will they think of next?

Oh… and based on the condition of my shoes, socks and feet, I don’t think they get their roads washed   The strange thing of it all… as I rode out of that area, it only rained on Columns Drive – how odd!

You didn’t know? Yeah, Starbucks and I broke up!

Starbucks – it’s not enough….

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121392012139190357.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

HELLO! The reason people go to starbucks is for dark coffee. When you take that away, people go away. Myself included. This is not enough to end the divorce. We are still not together. I may visit now and then, but you had me at hello, then you kicked me in the coffee-cup of life! Let’s get with the program!

People who DON’T drink starbucks coffee say “Starbucks is too strong”… so you make it taste like mc donalds coffee and expect those that DO to still like it? Sheesh…

BTW – Carabou Coffee is pretty good!

Don’t party without me!

In an effort to save carrying stuff back and forth to work, I bought another belt.  It was actually fun, because my old belt didn’t fit any more.  Having another was good, a smaller one was cooler.  I leave my pants and a belt at work, folded and tucked in a locker in the gym.  Nobody messes with it…. or so I thought!

I get to work on Tuesday and my pants are there, but no belt.  WTF, Mate?  I know it wasn’t in the locker,  I looked… I normally just leave the belt ON the pants.  Well, whatever… maybe I took it home?   I’ve misplaced a thing or two in my life.

I go down to get ready to ride today, wound up, laying on top of my pants is my belt.  I am baffled!  I know it wasn’t there… I look closely at it.   I use hole #3… somebody’s been using HOLE #1.  Now, I have lost a lot of weight, but I am 3″ off hole #1!

I can not believe it… my belt went on a day of adventure and mayhem without me!  It’s not like somebody wore my underpants or anything, but at the same time… I will never feel that “bond” a man feels with his belt with that particular belt.  There will always be that “feeling” that my belt has been wrapped around another man’s body…. eh… wtf, mate?

Ultimately, I not at all worked up about this, rather I find it curiously odd.  I may never know who took my belt on an adventure, but I hope it didn’t leave them pant-less!

Doing it the right way

I’ve won bike races in the past.  Some were gifts, some were luck, some were brain cells and occasionally, I won them on power.  Last night, I won a bike race on power and brain cells combined.  It was perhaps my “perfect race” for the night.  The race was a  snowball… 1, 2, 3, 4, 5…. all the way up to 15 points awarded on each lap.  Second place on each lap gets 0….

We roll off and I grab the garbage.  One point… nobody cares.  They start to REALLY care on lap 2, don’t know why, but he… go for it it!! On lap 2 and three “fake sprinted” just enough to make a couple other guys work for 2 and 3 points.  Four was a good sprint, I floated.  Just buying myself a little recovery.   Five…. wound it up late.   I let them all sprint and I started sprinting too late to win 5 points, but early enough to catch them by surprise.  You see,  I knew they would all go high and look for somebody else to do some work.

As the field went up looking for a sucker, I gave them a sucker punch they were not expecting.  I attacked.  I have been working on long efforts, so I just hit it at about 90% and rolled hard.  I grabbed 7, but 1 person was chasing (Gwen).  I saw her and she is a good rider, so I eased up, let her through to get 8.  That meant we could work together.  I got 9, she got 10 and I started calculating.  Normally random number trivia is my specialty.  At 170 beats per minute, I cant figure this out and I want the win.  She pulls up on lap 13 and I attacked again.  I had to take “my lap” (14) and hers to guaruntee the win.  I held on to win the 15th lap by a large margin and ultimately win the race!

The other races last night… the 5 lap – I didn’t warm up well.  Ooops…. the points race, I probably placed.  I rode it to win, but not too smart.  Great workout though!  Last night felt great, this morning… not so much.  Then again, it’s a good feeling…