The real reason behind not going to Quabbin

Its not going away

Another boring post about cycling

I'm on day 3 of a four day block of sunburnt, dehydrating and tiring hard rides. I'm getting real cranky although I'm starting to feel OK on the bike. I like this feeling - I think it means I'm making progress in the fitness department. Hit Wells today and did 40 more laps around an industrial park in Newton. During the race I was thinking about how many times in my life I've done this loop? I couldn't tell if I've ridden 1,000 Wells Ave loops or less, its only 25 races? Who holds the record for maximum number of times around Wells Ave? What about Ninigret? Wompatuck? All contenders should all get trophies, attaboys and pats on the back - just like little league.
I think we should make a statute for the person who has the record number of times around Blackstone Blvd. I'm liking something like a modernized statue of Atlas holding a bike on his shoulders instead of the world. Painted gold. Bright gold. Or maybe Atlas should be riding the bike still holding the earth? It should be placed at the southern end by the "parking lot" so all can see as they enter the Providence's shrine to cycling. Any candidates....I've done a lot out there but there's folks out there who have been up and down our east side oasis many, many more times. With so many RISD folks around here we could probably pull this off - I think I'll email a professor and give him an idea for a project. Does RISD even have "professors" or are their instructors called something else just to be called something else because the coolest thing in the world is to "appear to" be unique and original?

Stolen Bike Alert

Someone stole my 1997 Specialized Stumpjumper between 11:30PM Saturday 4/18 and 10:00 AM Sunday 4/19. This bike is a dark blue "ghettoized" single speed conversion. The decals on the bike are yellow. It has a really old chain and no derailleurs. It has a 7 speed freewheel in the rear and a triple up front with only the middle chain ring usable. The seatpost is FROZEN and thus has no seat post binder bolt. Bike has 26x1.95 knobby tires. There is another bolt frozen in the right rear dropouts where a metal rack used to sit.

Sat. 4/11/2009

Despite the fact that it is officially "spring" this date probably was the lowest my core body temp has ever been. I rode in the rain and then hung out for a few hours at Ninigret. I really hope that I don't get sick out of this. It was fucking cold outside, windy and pouring rain. I could not get warm after my pathetic attempt at racing - I sat in the car and blasted the heat. Took off shoes and put feet next to heater. Still cold. A little relief in the car but not enough. On the way home heat all the way up and I was still cold. I took a shower at home and it made me feel better - but it took quite a while. How the hell did the AM forecast of showers ending by 11AM turn into 39F and Hvy. rain all day? It was fun anyway though. Wells tomorrow morning for me and then its time to reevaluate my training ethic and program. I've got to get out and ride more often.

I had to write about it

At least I got a bit of a tan today. Tonight I'm not really into blogging about the life vortex which is my grad program. School is like a black hole where all of my creativity & vitality has gone to be crushed. While on the subject of being crushed, the Marblehead race was today. A few laps into a big group goes off the front - including the extra fast guys. Extra fast guys split away from that group and raced their own race. My slow ass stayed in the big group, where I was more than happy to be. I did not contest the sprint at this point, because it is totally stupid to do so. Some guys were sprinting though which was kinda foolish as the first 30+ spots were up the road. One guy even thought it was still cross season and used some of the back stretch front yards as a means to move up. This shit kinda sketched me out because my shoulder is still fucked up after crashing a few weeks ago. I can't lift it without pain past a certain point and it just annoys the hell out of me.