cycling tip 16

You get out what you put in. Not only with training, but many aspects from mental clarity to nutrition.

cycling tip 15

Fitness trumps skill. Technical riding is inherently slower than smooth sailing. When the trail turns up fitness will show itself. I am lacking the fitness lately. I feel like the handling is good and dialed in for the local terrain, but the fitness has me struggling when gravity is against me. I do fine if I don't push myself too hard I am able to clean the more technical spots.

Bored-N@7 sprgs

Sweet weekend at the ride in and out Bullata chalet. Volcano hit as smooth as the mountain did. Ice limited us to staying out of the glades, which was probably a good thing.

Turning the page...

Onto another year, can't say much has changed, and that is just fine with me. I was pretty beat up from snowboarding on Saturday and draggin out a deer alone on Monday, almost felt sick on Tuesday, but rested well and really enjoyed riding last night, Wait service sucked, the problem is that the staff turns over so quickly, and most the staff is under 18, most these kids have no hustle in their bustle, no sense of work ethnic, as Larry the cable guy would say "Get er done", move, snap to, use some intuition, quicker in quicker out. I have to say the brewers and quality control have been great. If you have not been, go sit at the bar at Victory, sit near the front taps to admire the entire selection. The Tap selection is unrivaled, three traditional pils, numerous ales(including 4 cask and barleywine), great lagers including a rausch beer and doppelbock, so many options and a small braumeister pils (14oz) is only 3.75. Well worth it.

cycling tip 14

Be courteous, a group ride is meant to be fun. Starting a ride with the intention of showing up anyone, cutting in, sitting in, generally being way too serious. Riding together is a great social gathering, you don't always need to have that racer's edge, Sit back enjoy the scenery or have a chat, don't feel the need to always make the front group at the cost of pushing 95%, so out of breathe you can't even talk if you wanted. Enjoy the day. Of course there are the Race rides where nobody stops if you get a flat and the talk is limited and the idea is to strut your stuff, if I have learned anything a little wit goes a long way, so stay cool, and don't be a dick.

Murderous

I shot ,
and down,
did not die,
finished it off with a knife
I sat and watched a shuttering final breathe,
soon it will be dinner.

Ugg - (silly shoes better suited for eskimos)

Wiping out sucks, but at least when it is cold the pain goes away when the cold sets in. In true bizzaro world fashion, Ben on gears and Rick on SS, we had most of the crew last night, maybe because the temp was hovering around 3o instead of teens, regardless it was super fun fast and all of that. Rocked the Lander express twice, second time was a charm as I slipped into the front. Hit the trail fast, had to hop and stick to slow down as the little trace of snow had a hovering affect. The trail is really more like a ride. Hit the new IMBA certified section, wide fast and smooth. I'll give them this, they do know how to make fast trails, my complaint is that the trail loses some character. Off to other side, Mike lost his light on a bad section and clipped his banana, the wait was what I needed to get the steam back in the engine. I blow steam hard, but the little engine can't on the long ones. Thru the river that needs diversion up to the school. This is where it got bad. Following a wheel, on the fastest part of the down. I usually push off the turn hard to build speed into the last stretch. Well I wasn't watching the ground close enough. Not sure if it was something the sent me off or just lost the edge of the trail, but it went something like this: 25 mph,Wash, Superman, Pete Rose, Owt. Terra firma was not forgiving. luckily I had on a couple of layers or I would be missing a couple layers of skin, but the hip bruise is hurting pretty awefully. I'm limping into the office like Randy the Ram. Ouch.

Blog

I took a blog dump this morning. I am going to call it Blogarrhea. Goes well with my thursday morning hot wing expulsion. did I really need those cookies when I got home at 11:30.

Self Portrait (with a phone)

I took this after a punchy little climb ( all the climbs are little relatively around here, but it does not make the climbs easy) up after crossing beaver creek. It looks like the township may be putting in a park where an old building is in ruins. I should try to get involved and help build a nice little trail system. It is free recreation everyone can enjoy. Here is a link to the loop I did. I thought to myself that if I could get up early and do this every other morning I might start to get myself back into some kind of shape. Short little ride

Random Phone pics

Here is a hollow sycamore tree. I went on a bike ride during the big snow storm we got in December. Sat in this tree for a little. It is right along the Brandywine. These giant sycamore trees don't mind having their feet wet. Although hollow at the bottom this tree is prefectly a live. It was snowing hard, I was wearing googles. The streets were cover with about 3 inches and the trails about the same. Needless to say it was lots of fun and made the beer drinking upon return even better.

A few Days after Christmas I took my flintlock out for a walk at Marsh Creek. The picture below is the far northwesterly corner of the park. Most of Marsh Creek is a man made lake. This is the actual stream that flows into the lake. It was very windy and cold, I walked between the PA turn pike and this creek. I was suprized at the flow the stream carried. The terrian is very very rocky, big round rocks. Across the stream there are steep knobs with more jagged rocks. Potentially an sweet technical rockier than FC red/white, type terrian, for a trail. As I slowly walked upstream, I saw three deer parallelling me on the other side of the stream up the hill, about 150 yards away. No way of making that shot with a Flintlock. The lead deer was a large buck. I could see the white of his horns pretruding straight forward from his head. We paralleled each other for a while and they eventually went up the hill to the top. I later spotted a bunch of doe up the same way. Unfortunately, the land was post as a nature preserve across the stream. I could have easily cross, but I stayed low and never took a shot. When I left I look towards the preserve and saw about 20-30 deer spread out in the field.

Wednesday - Ride

So dry it was dusty, food for soul...and picture of St. Victorious, food for well food.

Demolishion Progression

Guillotine

On my way into my office this morning, I noticed a huge crane dropping a guillotine shape block onto the old Dormitories. It was fascinating to watch the power of the device smashing thru the building. I was going to take a pic from my phone but the sun was bright above the crane. Anyways at lunch I walked around to take a picture. The dust was blowing right at me so I took a quick picture and headed down wind. The phone pic is really terrible but you get the idea.

I now work below the new building, which was funded by "The Fund", which basically get contracts and funding via a private market. So though you may not know it, there is a chance you could own a little piece of this.