Riding and other maladies...

So it has been about a good 5 months since I last really rode the bike, like for training purposes, and now, I'm way out of shape, and not feeling very good at all. Work has been a pain in the ass the last well, 5 months, or since about August, so it has left me little "me" time really, or none at all. What is that they say about all work and no play? Well, that's the situation I think I've been in for, well, close to 6 months now. Race season has started, and pretty much already, I've decided that racing is probably not going to be for me this year. Maybe a few select events here and there, but for the most part, there won't be any racing coming on down the pike for me this season, well, at least if I keep up the pace of training that I've run into so far since the year rolled over to 2006. The riding gods have not been pleased with me I don't think. Which reminds me, I've got to renew my club dues for 2006, anyway.. Yeah, riding, not good, or haven't been doing it at all. I keep telling myself, OK, this weekend is the weekend where it all starts again, and then, well, nothing happens. And then the next weekend is going to be the weekend, and again, nothing. I've been doing this to myself for the better part of, well, 5 months now. There were some weekends when I would ride, and then get a ride in on Monday and Tuesday, and then, nothingness for 2 weeks after that, and then ride again some weekend, and let's face it, anything you had gained, has now been long lost, and hence the slow, one might call it molasses like, return to racing for this kid. And hey, if I don't race much or at all this year, this cycling stuff can be a lifetime sport, I can always go back and do it again next year with the expressed intent of doing it right again. In the meantime, I think I'll ride as much as I can, maybe do some running (gasp!), and dig out the old hiking boots, and take long walks in the woods with the SO, and The Bea (Bea being the dog). I think that would make for good weekends really, almost as much as riding the bike around industrial parks in circular crits week in and week out.

Back when I started racing on the road, in 2000, there were tons of my friends and people I liked being around doing it. We all traveled around together, and really had a kick ass time of it. We crammed 4-6 people into a hotel room, shared rides, expenses, and broke bread together, and like I said, it was a lot of fun. Then, people got married, had children, went away from the sport, and now from our original crew of fun loving assholes, there are like 2 or 3 of us left, and maybe just 1 or 2 if you count me out, and it's not as much fun as it used to be. These things, I guess they happen. I still love bike racing, but the best part of it was the cameraderie, and the friends being around all the time. I loved racing then, and I love racing now, but it has taken on a decidedly different flavor. Anyway, it will come around and be fun again, I know that it will be, and I'll be there to ride in the races again, and travel to strange and exotic locales like Brooks Georgia, or Rock Hill South Carolina, you know, those places on the map that I'm pretty sure I never would go to, if it weren't for a bike race being held there.

Also, today is my Dad's Birthday. He's a bright and shiny 73 years old today. Here's the old man!! Here here!

Crazy things were happening in town today. A guy drove his car into a bunch of people, ran over 9 people, on purpose, phoned in a bomb threat on the apartment complex he was living in, and things like that. It was surreal seeing Chapel Hill, NC on the national news, and even more surreal because I knew the place where this thing went down, and most surreal because the SO works right next to where that happened, and she was walking around the spot where the incident occurred not long before some dumb ass came barreling through in his rented SUV. Not that I would wish anyone to get hurt, but I'm glad that it wasn't the SO. It's kind of shaking though, and her students are affected by this, and freaked out. I mean, Chapel Hill is generally a pretty darn safe place to live, and these sorts of things don't happen around here, except this time, they did. Check out the story about this happening on the Daily Tarheel website, they've had the best reports about what happened by far compared to the rest of the media outlets around the triangle area.

http://www.dailytarheel.com/

Crazy days indeed...