A bit about me.

I hate to admit it, but I'm tired. I'm hurting. I've had a rough year.

I'm now a business owner, and that's tiring.

I've crashed twice. I've broken my hand, 8 ribs and collapsed my lung. I've spent about 9 days in the hospital and had two surgeries.

I lost my Dad to cancer. He was young and strong. I wake up thinking about him because he's always the last person I think about before I fall asleep. I hope that still happens for a long time, but it means I dream and toss and turn and now I'm so, so tired.

I've dug deep, trying to hold things together. Riding is still my outlet, but it's not enough. I just can't seem to pound the pedals hard enough. Not this year anyways.

I'm going to race again next year, but I'm not sure how. I don't have much fight in me right now, but I hope it'll come. I'm just not sure of it.

9:00am at the Bean this Saturday. 3 hours in the rain.

Saturday morning, sunny but cold

9:00am at the bean. If it's real nice, we'll go for a long one. I'm thinking Horseshoe bay, deep cove, then SFU. SFU will be the first stop, so bring food.

These sunny winter days don't come round here too often, so make the most of them.

Friday ripper

Quick ride to HB tomorrow. 9:00am at the Bean. Supposed to be nice!

Rainy Sunday Ride

Aaaahhhh shit.

It's going to be wet this weekend, lets just face that. Because that's what we have to do. Abandon hope, the sun is gone. Accept your fate.

And once you do, it's not that bad. It's the hope of sun that makes riding in the rain so hard.

Accept your fate. Sometimes it rains, sometimes for months.

Fenders please. Sunday, 9:00 at the Bean on Cornwall.

Halloween ride

This Sunday is halloween.

We're still riding, hung over or not. Lets meet for coffee at 9, roll out at 9:30.

Bean around the World, 9:30 leave time.

The Intangibles

I'm not a retrogrouch.

There it is. I just want to put that out there before everything else. I'm not a retrogrouch.

I've got a real nice heart rate monitor/speedo/cadence thingy, but it hasn't seen handle bars in a while. I'll probably put it on soon so I can make sure my heartrate doesn't stay in the lazy zone too much, and so I'll know when i've been riding for 4 hours and it's time to head home. A clock is nice too, but mine rarely shows the right time.

It's not that I don't understand the watts & zones and all that jazz, but it sure doesn't interest me. Here's why:

Bike racing is not watt racing. Bike racing is about the intagibles.

The ability to suffer. Withstanding cold. Heat. Tempering desire with patience. Confidence. Charactar. Panache. Patience some more.

Get off your trainer.

You will reach 95% of your wattage potential by riding in all sorts of weather with all sorts of folks, but you will reach none of your intangibles potential on the trainer.

Lets resume, shall we?

It's been a while.

Well pardon, but I've been healing. I feel better now, so lets go riding. New meeting location: Bean Around the World on Cypress. It's more central, and the coffee is better than 'bucks.

9:00 Sunday morning, rain or shine.

Lets keep motivated in this rain, next season you know you'll be happy you rode. 3 hours this week (plus a stop), but lets work up to 4 or 5 hours.

Base miles aren't fast, but they aren't slow either.