Q. What’s the difference between George W. Bush and Sara Palin?
A. Lipstick
A weekend in the Ouachitas
I can’t think of many things that I’d rather do than spend a few days out in the middle of the woods. Ryan and I drove out to Lake Sylvia Friday morning. Once we arrived, we changed and took our bikes out for a nice 40-miler (see route below). It was just enough climbing to be interesting without making us hate life too much. When we got back, we set up camp and made the discovery that the showers at the campgrounds were actually cold water cannons. After building a fire, we ate some dinner (followed up by smores, of course!) and settled in to our tent. We also found a walking stick…
And Ryan did the dishes :D
Saturday morning, the 100 mile race started at 6:00am. We were asleep, but, thanks to our neightbors at the next campsite over, who talked as loudly as possible at every opportunity, we didn’t need an alarm clock to get up soon after. We met up with the Warthog crew to caravan out onto the race course and set up the Club Flamingo aid station- where the runners would pass through at both 39 and 76 miles on the out & back course. Here are a few photos from the caravan and aid station…
Rockin’ the GPS
Ouachita Mountains
Action shots:
At the aid station:
I’ll get a few runner photos up soon…
AT100 Weekend
Ryan and I will be heading off to Arkansas to volunteer at an aid station for the Arkansas Traveler 100 mile race. It should be a fun weekend. We plan on setting up camp at Lake Sylvia on Friday and heading out for a bike ride. If all goes as planned, we’ll get in a couple of 500ft climbs on the 40 mile loop I’ve got planned…
It should be a fun weekend. There will be smores. Oh yes… there will be smores…
Dog Parent of the Year
I just came accross this story on CNN’s website: Dog Owner Punches Shark to Save Dog
All I can say is WOW. The guy’s recount of the story brought tears to my eyes. What a great dad.
(not sure if I’d feel the same way if it were about a human child)
Cyclists: Stop contributing to animosity towards cyclists!
I generally train alone, but since race season is over, I’ve been going out with groups more on the weekend. One thing I began noticing (that I’d forgotten about since last winter) was how often people in the group totally ignore traffic laws.
OK- I’ll be the first to admit… I’ve run stop lights on my bike (you know, those ones that don’t see much traffic and have a road sensor that’s not tripped by bikes that’ll make you stand & wait for a car to come by to get a green light… yeah, those), and I generally don’t come to a complete stop at stop signs if no other traffic is around.
What I’m talking about are the people who blow through red lights and stop signs without touching the brakes. Also, those that cut corners into oncoming traffic when making a left turn. The ones that are showing people in cars that cyclists don’t hesitate to blatantly disregard traffic laws and act like road hogs.
Example A: Car politely (without getting too close, revving motor, or cutting off) passes group. Light ahead turns red. Rather than pulling up behind the car and waiting for green, group blows through red light since there’s no traffic coming from the right or left. After light turns green, car gets stuck behind the group. Result: Former polite driver is now pissed. Cyclists look like jerks.
Example B: Group is approaching a light where they wish to make a right-hand turn. Light turns red before they get there. Even though there is plenty of room to safely stop, cyclists blow through and make right turn anyway. Cars approaching from left (as they should, considering that they have a green light) are forced to stop in the middle of the intersection to prevent a collision with cyclists. As a result, cars are forced to pass cyclists once the cyclists clear the intersection. Once again, we look like jerks.
I’m not going to be a hypocrite and preach stopping and unclipping at every stop sign or waiting forever for a green light when the streets are otherwise deserted. I’m just asking that you not show your ass around people in cars. It will reinforce the ideas that we should “share the road” and that we all have the same legal responsibility out there. It could also possibly prevent someone from throwing bottles at me from their car because they assume that since the last cyclist(s) they saw was being a road hog that I must be one as well.
Saddles (again)
I’ve been through a few more, so here’s my updated list:
Fizik Arione
Terry Zero
Terry Butterfly
Terry Falcon X
Specialized Toupe 143
Selle Anatomica Titanico (kept it for a while, but it stretched too much and looked absolutely horrible)
Brooks B17 champion special
WTB Speed She
Specialized Jett 155
Selle San Marco Glamour Aspide
Fizik Vitesse
Koobi Xenon
SMP Pro
SMP Glider
Terry Butterfly (again- tried a newer one just to make sure)
Specialized Ruby 155
Bontrager Inform 150
Selle Italia SLR Gelflow (current saddle- haven’t ridden longer than an hour yet)
All of these but the last one (so far) have caused some sort of issue- most of the ones with cutouts have given me severe saddle sores on the sides of the cutout. The ones without a cutout (both Fiziks and the Brooks) caused horrible soft tissue pain. The soft ones (Butterfly, Bontrager, Zero) seem the worst about saddle sores (though the Bontrager wasn’t as bad since it has a large “dent” rather than a cutout). None of them after the An-Atomica caused sitbone soreness. I guessing by then, my butt had toughened up. I’m really tired of dealing with pain on rides over 35-40 miles. It sucks. I’ve lanced countless saddle sores and spent countless hours suffering while I ride.I’m hoping the SLR is the answer, but at this point, I’ve lost all hope!!!
If you manufacture saddles, and you’re reading this… please… help me…
Pearl Izumi, WTF were you thinking?!?
So I’m flipping through Velonews and I come across an ad for Pearl Izumi clothing. However, the ad tells me nothing about the clothes, because it’s essentially (for lack of a better term) faceless tits in a jersey (see photo below… warning- may be offensive to some). Now, I’m not one to get worked up over some nudity in most situations, but this is blatant “sex sells” advertising. It’s objectifying and disrespectful. I find it to be somewhat of a slap in the face to the women like myself who take their sport very seriously, and don’t care to be percieved as some sort of jersey-meat for the purpose of advertising.
I’ve emailed both Pearl Izumi and Velonews about the lack of taste in their advertising, and have encouraged others to do the same. Somehow, I doubt it will change anything. I’m “voting with my wallet” as well. Looks like I’ll be sending those gloves back that I just ordered. I encourage anyone who thinks that women in jerseys deserve better to do the same thing.
A scan of the page in question (courtesy of Mimi from the Team Estrogen web forum- I’ve made it small on purpose. Click for full-size):
Wintertime Fun Ride
I’ve added another horse to the stable…
The multi-purpose steel beast- a Surly Cross-Check! Right now I’m running it fixed gear (42×14) while I wait for a freewheel cog to arrive. Hopefully the mix of fixed gear road riding and single speed CX will make winter training a little more fun. I just finished my first fixed gear ride, and I have to admit, I didn’t really miss coasting except on a couple of low-speed turns. Enjoy…
Excited to ride my bike again
Finally.
I honestly haven’t felt like riding for about three weeks now, but after taking much of this week off (of the bike at least), I’m finally looking forward to getting out for a group ride tomorrow morning. I knew the urge would come back eventually, I just wasn’t sure how long it would take!
Socially Responsible, my A**!
So a few weeks ago, a friend of mine introduced me to what I thought was an awesome coffee shop/cafe called Republic Coffee. They had geat food with a nice vegetarian selection (the latter being very rare in Memphis). They also tout themselves as serving the community and “acting LOCAL while thinking GLOBAL.” Sounds great, eh?
Well, then I met someone who worked there. This person told me that the shifts were 10 hours long, and they had to train for 30 hours before they could get any pay (including tips). When I heard this, I naturally thought, well, they must pay well if they’re going to put the employees through this kind of crap. I was incredibly wrong. They pay their employees minimum wage.
Holy crap! Good job! Way to serve the community!
Seriously- I had a high school job at a restaurant that paid better than minimum wage. How can you talk about how good you are with a clear concience?!? Greed. It’s creeping in from all directions.