The Chase

Racing bikes is not easy; by any stretch.  

When you get shelled out the back of an 80 person field after the third corner; nothing good happens.  Quite frankly it demoralizing.  It's like expending every bit of energy you have just to hang on, only to get flagged out because you're either "Going to get lapped" or "Not in contention" for the win.  Either way you cut it; it sucks.  

Fortunately Jerry and Caroline are gracious hosts and let Colin and myself stay at their home.  Of course after getting destroyed during the sanctioned event you have to make sure not to take things easy because you just get clipped on the ride home.  Even when you don't know where you are or how to get where you want to be.  It's easy to get lost in the Burgh' and sometimes you get your finger crushed trying to find your way out.  

You just have to be careful I guess.

Dreams

Once upon a time, I had these grand allusions that I was going to be a bike racer.  Like most fairy tales, this particular bit of fiction makes much more sense in my mind than in reality.  Sure I've done a handful of races back in the day but it's been a few years since I've gotten my race license and spent the time or effort to train for competition.  Well, for the past month, Jerry has been guilting me into entering a race this coming weekend and for some unknown reason I think I'm going to do it.

In the past when I've raced, my season typically wouldn't start until sometime in mid May when I've had time to log a bunch of miles in the saddle.  While I've been riding a lot lately I haven't been doing the types of rides that will get me conditioned to do a good ole fashioned four corner crit.  Needless to say I'm nervous and unsure about what will happen.

The main race is on Sunday but to make things more interesting there is a track race at the "Bud" that I think I'm going to have to do as well.  I've never raced on a track before, but then again I've never raced back-to-back days before either.  If nothing else, this will be a humbling experience and a welcome foray back into the world of bike racing; if only for a dose of reality to make me feel slow.

Back to Basics

Now that I have a bit more free time in my day-to-day since I'm no longer trying to date a (maybe) anti-Semite, I decided it would be a good idea to get back to my roots and back onto my bike.  Fortunately the weather was cooperating and Sunday turned out to be a great day for a ride.  Well, only half of it was great for riding.

Brian and I decided to head out and spend about four hours on the bike.  This would give us a solid day and still allow me some time to take care of a few things around the house.  Things were going great on the way out as we had a wicked tailwind to push us along.  We were making great time rolling along much faster than we should have been.  Things got a little dicey when we started our return trip.

See, the tailwind turned into a solid headwind and we were getting buffeted by crazy amounts of wind.  It was brutal to say the least.  Fortunately Brian is taller than I am so I spent a lot of the ride back tucked into his draft allowing him to do all the work.  Sure it's a bit selfish but it was still plenty of work for me to try and keep up with him.  

When we finally ended our ride we had logged about six hours on the bikes and managed to get in just over 100 miles.  Right now, however, my legs feel like wet noodles and are on the verge of cramping every time I move.  Hopefully this will prove to have some benefit when I attempt a race a the end of the month.  Of course that assumes I'll recover from today's outing.

Dating Days; Part 6

I’ll assume it comes as no surprise to anyone that after last week’s debacle of an outing, I had to bid farewell to Estelle.  She said some things that weren’t all together appropriate and I can’t really see that continuing down a good road. While ending the relationship seemed like an easy choice, I wasn’t expecting it go the way it did.  See, I figured that since it took so long to get Estelle to go out with me, she would be more than happy to let me go.  That was, unfortunately, not the case.  

After I broke the news to Estelle I was met by some exacerbated disagreement.  She was beside herself to say the least and was quite shocked to be hearing me end things with her.  In an odd twist, it turns out that the past five weeks had made Estelle start to like me more than she expected.  It was actually more than I expected too because the day after I ended things with her she called me and asked for another chance.  It was kind of surreal.

For the next several days she would call and I would foolishly answer only to hear her talk about what a mistake she made and that I should give her another chance.  I resisted the urge to go out with her again and continued to politely let her down.  I knew things were getting way out of control when Estelle’s roommate Diane called me.  I guess Estelle was more upset with this turn of events than I expected.

After talking with Diane for a few minutes and hearing her side of this story I was reluctantly convinced to get together with her.  It was the typical, “Estelle is a better person than you think and I’ll tell you why” routine.  I figured I could handle a  Saturday afternoon coffee with Diane and hoped that this might end things once and for all.  It had already been a long week of breaking things off with Estelle and I was ready for it to be over for good.

Saturday I met up with Diane at the local coffee shop and after a few minutes of listening to her I realized two things.  First, I wasn’t going to go out with Estelle anymore because she, like most women, had a touch of the crazies (sorry ladies but it’s true to some degree with all of you).  Second, and maybe most importantly, Diane is spectacular.  I think I might see if Diane wants to go out for dinner sometime.  Of course I might be better off taking a break from the ladies for a bit.

Dating Days; Part 5

I’m not exactly sure how to explain it, but things with Estelle may have taken a slight step backwards this weekend.  Did I say slight?  I maybe should have said massive.  The best part though (if there can actually be one) is that it wasn’t something that I did or said.

I’ve had several occasions to woo Estelle and started getting into her “good graces” so I thought it might be time to introduce her to some friends.  It just so happened that my friends Jerry and Caroline were coming up for the weekend to stay with me.  Jerry and Caroline are great people and very fun to hang out with so I thought Estelle would enjoy their company too.  In turn, I could use Jerry and Caroline as a barometer to see if Estelle was actually worth all the trouble I’ve been going through lately.  

Saturday night the three of us met Estelle out for dinner.  We were having a great time, laughing and joking and all that stuff.  I took this as a good sign but then things got weird.  About an hour into the meal Estelle noticed someone walking over to our table and she said, “Oh no.”  “I can’t believe he’s here.”  As I looked over to see who she was talking about, I noticed a man standing at our table and he said, “Hello Estelle.” “It’s good to see you.”  After some uncomfortable small talk Estelle informed us that this fine upstanding fellow (let’s call him Dave) was her ex-fiancé.  

Estelle continued to tell us that she broke things off with Dave because she found out that he was Jewish and couldn’t, as she put it, “Be with someone who was stingy.”  As soon as I realized she actually did, in fact, just say that; I looked over at Jerry who was looking back at me.  See, it just so happens that Jerry is Jewish and I guess didn’t take to kindly to this knock on his entire religious upbringing.  

After what seemed like an eternity of uncomfortable silence, I changed the subject and we continued on with the evening, except there was a bit less jovialness than before.  Jerry didn’t freak out (although he could have) and after we parted ways with Estelle to go back to my house,  I got an earful, and it was about as I expected.  I don’t know if she was serious about what she said but I plan to find out.  Needless to say, Jerry and Caroline are not fans of Estelle so I might have to reconsider this relationship.