xxxrplxxx's blog

We'll yesterday i went into the city and got there in record time since i drove. The plan was to meet up with Jamie again who was ordered to hydrate before my arrival (see 2 blogs ago to see why). Sarah and i met him on the west side of the GW bridge at fort Lee historical park. We did a 3hr ride up river road into the palisades. It was ridiculous to see how many roadies were out. Looked like a benefit ride was going on . We got to the car free part of river road where we came across a huge rock slide blocking the road. this took literally 5 minutes to get over.

Is he going to put the year after ever blog entry?? Yes, so too bad. Last Wednesday Sarah, Dakota and I left the frigid temps and headed for florida. I was going for my mid winter fitness test at a 12hour race in Ocala. In the past i've placed 2nd to harlen price(IF), 2nd to Tinker, (these were at the old venue, razorback), 3rd last year, and i think a 4th many years ago. I wanted and thought i could win this year. The santos trail system is an amazing thing to check out. They have 2 jump parks, a freeride park , and miles of trail all in a state park. So cool.

Every winter while i have the time i like to ride to NYC to visit my childhood best friend,Jamie, once or twice. In the past i've done it on a schwinn fixie, a mtn bike, but this year my bike of choice was my Cyclocross rig. I packed my Hydropak borracho with 17lbs of supplies including dress cloths since the plan was to have a dinner out with his folks at a fancy vegan gourmet place, then ride in the palisades area the next morning. This was Thurs morning and the ride was already going to be a challenge with 50mph gusts as mostly a tail wind but sometimes a non helpful crosswind.

this morning i wanted to wear out the d o double g before i started the long process of moving our landscape bus to a new location. so i decided to do a run at the burg pretty early. did 30 careful minutes due to ice up in the meadows area. dakota was content. After getting home this evening i did my second workout on cadencetv. Cadence is a shop near philly that does all my fitness testing and bike fittings. they have this cool thing called cadencetv which is $50 for a YEAR (i think to anybody) and is umlimited streaming of indoor spin workouts and pre videotaped outdoor road workouts.

so first lets back up a day. Saturday morn i got the award for best uncle(givin by me) by taking my little niece to clay art school. 10 saturdays in a row. ouch. good birth control though. After class i headed to Buds house/plantation. The goal was to light his flame of cycling again. pretty sure it was successful. two hour road loop with a good pace . Thinking of a way to really piss him off to fuel the fire like he had a few years back. i'll get him.

today i got 80+ tropical miles in. and thanks to this internet thing i also see you guys must be getting a little chilly in the lv. or at least in two more days. so again this ride consisted of awesome scenery after the death defying 10 miles out of tourist land. rather than bore you with trying to explain my ride i'll share some highlights of the day.
1. seeing natives haul 150lb propane tanks on their mopeds only being secured by two bungees. these are the same size tanks that in the u.s. require a hazmat lisence and a special truck. not here, just two bungees

not to make anybody jealous but a few hours ago i finished what may have been one of my nicest road rides while vacationing in dominican republic. before we left the lv i packed up a bike at the last second so i wouldn't go stir crazy. turns out, i'm glad i did. even though the worker at punta cana airport who searched my luggage didn't agree. his words, amaricana. translation- i can't believe this gringo couldn't leave home without his bicycle. what a fruitcake.

Well, today i was cut off at speed by a dude in a minivan making a right while i was going straight. Whoever has road riden with me knows there is always a chance of an argument. (Bud, remember when i chased a garbage truck down in avalon). So instead of braking like a normal person would do, i put my elbows up(thanks Jay) , pointed my inside knee(thanks damion) and took the turn with him while forcing him into the other lane of oncoming traffic. He stopped, then circled around his car and cursed him a new one .

usa cycling's 2nd ultra endur race was a twelve hour last weekend down in tennessee. There was a pretty big pay out ( or at least big to a professional mt biker $1500 for 1st , theN $1000, then $500) so i knew some tough guys would be there. I went down without a pit crew but used tinkers crew who turned out to be amazing help. So about 10 minutes into the race tinker gets a flat. you would think after 3 decades of racing he would have atube with him. you would think. well he didnt. and here is my problem. im way too nice with no competitive edge.

my saturday started with spreading some mysterious chemicals on lawns for 8 hours. yummy. this was killing me cause it was so nice out . hauled ass home and got in a ride which ended up to be one of my nicest local rides in a while.