Thursday, November 10, 2005

Hello, Old Friend

Hebe and I went for a MTB ride this afternoon. What a blast. We went over and poached Pinchot Park. Officially you’re not allowed to ride there except for a small section but we did a loop around the whole joint with a side out-n-back trail thrown in the middle of our ride. Pinchot is perfect for Hebe and I because it’s smack in between our homes. 10 minute drive for both. Not a lot of elevation change. A few rollers. Several tough rock gardens. We ended up riding almost 1hr45min. It was a great workout for ‘cross. Lots of accelerations. I forgot how much power you need to clean rock gardens and accelerating through various technical stuff. I definitely lacked skill in picking good lines in the rocks but the power was there to muscle my way through it. Almost as an afterthought, I realized that I spent 50min in zone 5 today. That’s essentially the same as a ‘cross race. Nice. Before we started I asked Mike if he could remember the last time we rode MTB’s together. Answer. Last century. I can remember Hebe dragging me through the woods at Camp Tuckaho years and years ago when he raced MTB’s. Had to be late 90’s. I raced 24hrs Canaan ’98 & ’99, which was the last time I did any “serious” mountain stuff. But even at that point most of the training I did for that race was all road. Aaahh, memories. It’s nice to reflect back to fun times in the past but it also reminds me that I’m getting old.
My old friend, The Mountain Sled

Some of the blogs I read from ‘crossers near and far have talked recently about hopping on the scales of justice this time of year and not liking what they see. It’s inevitable that some lbs are going to find you unless you cut down on your caloric intake. A lot of guys are racing once or twice every weekend and because of shorter days just aren’t getting the time to ride during the week as much. So far I’ve managed to maintain my summer weight. This morning pre-eat-post#2 my Tanita scale read 145.4 and 8.9 bodyfat. I certainly haven’t been doing anything close to the riding I did this summer so I feel somewhat fortunate to not be fighting extra poundage. I still commute to work daily and do ‘cross workouts on the way so that’s helped, for sure.

I have such a love/hate feeling about this time of year. Autumn is my favorite season. And this year, so far, it’s been fantastic. Awesome weather. Hell, I was sweating my nuts off at Lower Allen. The bad news is after November comes December. And we all know what comes after that…..January(yuck)….February(nasty)…..March(a glimmer of hope)…..Finally April rolls around and if the winter blues hasn’t forced you to off yourself you get the biggest tease month of all. You get 70 degrees one day and 35 and snow the next.

I just ate a large bowl of sauerkraut. Mmmmmm. Love that stuff. All that was missing was sandwich. Maybe two pieces of bread and a hunk of cheese and you could call that a meal. Errrr.....uummmmm, almost.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Listen up you 145 pound weakling. Let's clarify the 'cheese' sandwich.
A. You were a "vegetarian" that DAY. (yeah I said day.....) I think you were trying to impress some chick -not Erin.
B. We had NOTHING else in the house because we were leaving for the weekend.
C. Be happy I didn't give you a bowl of dog food covered in sugar and milk and pretend it was "vegetarian cereal".
Maybe.....if you had eaten more cheese growing up, you would be taller than 5'4"!

dk said...

Now now, my historical revisionist. I attempted vegetarianism years after the infamous "cheese sandwich" incident....I was doing it because I was a fat-ass.

The kind gesture has never been questioned. Only after I realized it wasn't a candid-camera-ha-ha-the-jokes-on-me kinda thing.

All these years later I still wonder....who eats a cold cheese sandwich? No meat, no mayo, no mustard, no lettuce, no tomato, no pickle, not refrigerated grilled cheese.

Innocent?.......

Anonymous said...

My husband eats plain cheese sandwiches ALL THE TIME! He IS the Legend you know......maybe there's something to be said for the plain cheese sandwich!