Hey Mother Nature.....
Would you make up your dang mind already? This whole changing of temps is messing with my body big time. Cold for a few weeks and then back up to warmer temps for a few days and then right back to cold again..... it's really starting to bug me as my body doesn't seem to be quite as tolerable to the shifts as it used to be. I know we still have it good down here in the South as compared to our neighbors in the north that only get two seasons, those folks are hard core and have my respect that get out and ride in spite of freezing temps, snow and ice.
This weekend saw the X-mas ride with Sorba Gainesville out at Chicopee on Saturday. I made the call to a few folks late Friday night to see if anyone was interested, Shorty and Speedy both bit and said they were in for a 10:00 ride time. So I went to bed around midnight with the intent on waking up around 8:00 to eat and get on the road. However about an hour later my body decided to have its own little civil war between both ends of itself and have its own contest to see which end would win. Every two hours saw a different skirmish of sorts, and around 4:00 AM when I was thinking pretty heavily about pulling the plug on riding, both sides came to a peaceful agreement and balance was again restored within the force (still not sure which side won, there were some pretty heavy casualties on both sides)
So I wake up at a quarter past 9:00, hop in the shower, skip the coffee and breakfast and hop in the car thinking to myself "OK self we can still make it on time if we hurry." BEEP, F@#K!!!!! forgot to get gas last night, oh well at least this will give me time to get breakfast. So I make the call to let everyone know that I was going to be running late and did my best to get there as close to 10 as possible. Once there I got ready, and wouldn't ya know it, Shorty got held up by "traffic" so I was spared of the title of DFL on arrival.
twisted and all Ti'd up, you know you like it!
At this point, I'm still feeling pretty awful, but I had just built the Niner back up the day before with some, ok a lot of help from Hodge, and I really wanted to start forming the bond with new bike. We get to rolling and right off the bat, something feels off in the front end, a quick check and the bolts on the stem weren't tight enough. So after a re-torque I was off and rolling again, we had a good mixture of riders and paces at which folks were moving at. I had told myself I was going to take it easy and not push it too hard, but if you're going to ride a single speed there's only one place to be, and before long I found myself at the front of the group. We got to the intersection of the Outer Loop and Zig Zag and I started to make the left hand turn to keep moving along the Outer Loop when I hear Norma saying, "Oh come on y'all, Zig Zag isn't that bad, even Johnny said so the last time we rode it." Now at this point I have to give you the Norma to English, English to Norma translation. What she was really saying was, "Hey you, quit acting like a four year old little girl with a skinned knee and get your butt moving ya weak sissy lil punk." Anyone wanna guess what trail we rode next? That's right, we rode Zig Zag, which actually ended up being great. The bike handled really well and I was starting to feel the love again from a steel framed 29er w/ one gear. Soon enough we were done w/ the trail of a thousand turns and up and over Champain hill and moving down what to me is the reason why I ride a mountain bike. The first time I rode there it was love at first lap, it was the first time I can remember finishing a trail system and thinking to myself that I had really done something big and how much fun it was. So that section from the top of Champain down to the creek has been one of my personal favs for a while now and it keeps getting better.
Oh and we even saw a challenger conquer the hill climb too! Hey Johnny, smile ugly for the blog.
Sunday, well it was just too cold for me to want to get out on Sunday. Especially after having to work in the cold rain until after midnight on Saturday night. So I cleaned house and rode the trainer for an hour, Wheeee, trainer! Mista Krista got into town around 3:00 and we watched Apocolypto before heading down to the Sorella party at the Atlanta Brewing Company, BTW if you haven't seen this movie yet you need to check it out, it's pretty good.
The party was a good time, and the beer there is pretty decent, hard to beat my beloved Sweetwater 420 though. It was good to see some folks that I haven't seen in a little while and share a few pints.
me, mista krista and the Bear
It's cold again today, but I'm going to make the most of it and go play in traffic for a few hours. Coffee and layering is good. Thought you good folks might want to take a look at the bike room and the need for more space, prject for the week is to get the garage cleaned up.....
POAS
Matt-
This weekend saw the X-mas ride with Sorba Gainesville out at Chicopee on Saturday. I made the call to a few folks late Friday night to see if anyone was interested, Shorty and Speedy both bit and said they were in for a 10:00 ride time. So I went to bed around midnight with the intent on waking up around 8:00 to eat and get on the road. However about an hour later my body decided to have its own little civil war between both ends of itself and have its own contest to see which end would win. Every two hours saw a different skirmish of sorts, and around 4:00 AM when I was thinking pretty heavily about pulling the plug on riding, both sides came to a peaceful agreement and balance was again restored within the force (still not sure which side won, there were some pretty heavy casualties on both sides)
So I wake up at a quarter past 9:00, hop in the shower, skip the coffee and breakfast and hop in the car thinking to myself "OK self we can still make it on time if we hurry." BEEP, F@#K!!!!! forgot to get gas last night, oh well at least this will give me time to get breakfast. So I make the call to let everyone know that I was going to be running late and did my best to get there as close to 10 as possible. Once there I got ready, and wouldn't ya know it, Shorty got held up by "traffic" so I was spared of the title of DFL on arrival.
twisted and all Ti'd up, you know you like it!
At this point, I'm still feeling pretty awful, but I had just built the Niner back up the day before with some, ok a lot of help from Hodge, and I really wanted to start forming the bond with new bike. We get to rolling and right off the bat, something feels off in the front end, a quick check and the bolts on the stem weren't tight enough. So after a re-torque I was off and rolling again, we had a good mixture of riders and paces at which folks were moving at. I had told myself I was going to take it easy and not push it too hard, but if you're going to ride a single speed there's only one place to be, and before long I found myself at the front of the group. We got to the intersection of the Outer Loop and Zig Zag and I started to make the left hand turn to keep moving along the Outer Loop when I hear Norma saying, "Oh come on y'all, Zig Zag isn't that bad, even Johnny said so the last time we rode it." Now at this point I have to give you the Norma to English, English to Norma translation. What she was really saying was, "Hey you, quit acting like a four year old little girl with a skinned knee and get your butt moving ya weak sissy lil punk." Anyone wanna guess what trail we rode next? That's right, we rode Zig Zag, which actually ended up being great. The bike handled really well and I was starting to feel the love again from a steel framed 29er w/ one gear. Soon enough we were done w/ the trail of a thousand turns and up and over Champain hill and moving down what to me is the reason why I ride a mountain bike. The first time I rode there it was love at first lap, it was the first time I can remember finishing a trail system and thinking to myself that I had really done something big and how much fun it was. So that section from the top of Champain down to the creek has been one of my personal favs for a while now and it keeps getting better.
Oh and we even saw a challenger conquer the hill climb too! Hey Johnny, smile ugly for the blog.
Sunday, well it was just too cold for me to want to get out on Sunday. Especially after having to work in the cold rain until after midnight on Saturday night. So I cleaned house and rode the trainer for an hour, Wheeee, trainer! Mista Krista got into town around 3:00 and we watched Apocolypto before heading down to the Sorella party at the Atlanta Brewing Company, BTW if you haven't seen this movie yet you need to check it out, it's pretty good.
The party was a good time, and the beer there is pretty decent, hard to beat my beloved Sweetwater 420 though. It was good to see some folks that I haven't seen in a little while and share a few pints.
me, mista krista and the Bear
It's cold again today, but I'm going to make the most of it and go play in traffic for a few hours. Coffee and layering is good. Thought you good folks might want to take a look at the bike room and the need for more space, prject for the week is to get the garage cleaned up.....
POAS
Matt-
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