(careful a handful of images below the fold)
Getting sick certainly was one of those catastrophic events that make an unexpected impact. Legs are starting to wake up a bit, still sore, but then:
Last night it landed me here:
...nationally (just May). Currently 109 at 887 points (yeah if I had known i'd have ridden around for another mile). Yes there are a ton of people, them hyper milers and stuff, who are not in the challenge but hey there are a good number of people in there and I've never been ranked this high. Sure, it is early. I expect to fade back into my more typical ranking ~1000 (+/- 300).
Can I keep this hour or mileage number going for May? My only real goal is to ride more, as much as I can, and to ride everyday. Second level goal is to catch up a bit in the Hundo/month club, although I'll have to check with the rules people to see if I can make up the missed months here in May/June. Also hoping to build more base so I can do JG's Tour of RI. https://www.strava.com/segments/9644100 I'm sure I could do it right now, but I don't want to just do it, I want to not die a thousand deaths on Route 1 (like on my Four Hills of the Apocolypse Ride) granted the Ice cream eventually kicked in and roles were reversed and I probably could have kept riding (must make sure to stop for coffee ice cream at every opportunity is the lesson learned there).
Is this dumb? Yup. Likely. Is it making me faster? Probably not. But it is very much along the lines of what Thom K posted on Faceplace:
He wrote this and it resonated. And as I said in the comments, cyclocross excepted but also I'm not worrying about CX right now, not worrying about intervals or training or anything. Not that I do this time of year much or it needs to be but often there's always the thought lately "make each ride count." Fuck. That.
"Make every ride awesome." "Make every ride mean something." "Let each ride dictate what it does, don't decide for it."
Yes, still will go to smackdown. Yes, still gonna work on making the USAC/NEBRA TT training series happen this summer, still going to try and promote a gov'n body sanctioned grass crit/unique event in August. Why? Because I don't have enough else to do of course. Tons of time laying around. Oh. Wait. That's right I'm working two jobs already, am doing a bunch of other stuff for free (not related to family stuff, not COUNTING family stuff) and I want to do this too? Fuck yeah I do. More than ever. Probably way too much but if I don't it won't happen. Maybe it won't be missed if I don't manage it. We'll see. Hasn't happened yet.
All this extra riding has been good for brain. It has also dug out uncomfortable/painful/buried/hidden emotions or thoughts. Moments of my abject stupidity, moments of realization of the situation that i totally read wrong. Lots of rehashing events, lots of synaptic links back to the only year I've felt competitive and did well racing CX. Wouldn't change anything is usually the end result, I think perhaps while it isn't great it is helping to weaken those synaptic junctions re-arranging them and reworking them a bit. Yes I've had a massive crash course on neuroscience this year, much of which I knew from the morphology but so much more from the functional side of things. Yeah, great, GeWilli now is starting to understand neuroscience, something else almost no one else can comprehend along with the rest of the shit in his brain, I can hear the groans from twitter.
Twitter... yeah, composed a handful of them today, but never pulled the trigger. Let the tweets die. And when i say composed I did it in my head, heck my phone twitter app doesn't know what the fuck to show me anymore. I've started checking more recently but still nothing has compelled me to disturb the playground of those who frolic there. I'll be back again I think.
Ah the phone. Right. While it can still capture stuff like tonight (although I need more gooddamn dynamic fucking range ffs) it still works for this:
assuming it has enough battery... which it does for the short normal EBBP 6.9 mile commutes... assuming it is fully charged when I leave home or work. Heck I left home today with it fully charged, like normal commute mode and got to the city and heard the low battery alarm, wtf, that wasn't long at all?! 1hr and 52 min pedaling and the phone was like this:
Seriously. The remainder not shown was probably spent getting ready to ride in and forgetting this or that and then... yeah.. how awesomely fun is that? And that's w/o stopping for photos. Or stopping for anything, or getting phone calls (not that I get those ever). Easy solution is to just start carrying a spare usb battery with me, or maybe just riding with the spare battery hooked up. Of course have to get one of those. It is okay. "Choices we made."
I'm here and am me, and this is the way it is and if it wasn't i wouldn't be and yeah... whatever, it is what it is. Where do we go from here? Who knows. Final project for my class is due tomorrow, already a handful of my students have turned it in, the rest hopefully will respect the deadline and get it to me then. And of course I have to grade them all. And I am looking forward to that. It is pretty cool, honestly. A major time consuming task but you get a cool look at how they think by reading their writing.
Well summer cut is here, goodbye long hair and undercut, goodbye beard, see you in September.
Time to put the leftover dinner (taco fixings) away...
And I need to bust out the chainsaw, this riding is tweaking my lower-back, and honestly it seems that splitting wood with that big maul actually helps get it back in line. KOM G told me to do yoga, I said splitting wood and moving heavy shit has worked well for my back, he said I need to split a lot of wood. He's a very smart man. Wise too. And compassionate. One of those amazing people who leave an indelibly positive mark on your soul every time you interact with them.
Dogs are passed out (from watching me sit here). And I'm kind of finally picking up on it, they are in every room I'm in. At least when they aren't zonked out snoring like they are now (here in the front room with me).
No more words - lucky you handful of friends who read this - i deleted a whole paragraph just now, will revisit later.
Now, back on my feet to finish everything up before bed...after being on them all day (writing this has literally been the only time I've sat down today).
heddwch
G
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