How I Spent My Afternoon!

The weather was awesome today. The job I am working at is a nasty chemical plant, so leaving early didn't take a whole lot of convincing. I split at noon and headed for home. I made a couple of stops on the way, but I was still home by 1:15. My plan was to do some fising in the pond out back. It isn't a big pond but it is stocked with bass and catfish.

These are the tools necessary for successful fishing
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The Geese have defiled our little dock
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Fish #1
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I actually had some luck today. I caught about 6 or 7 here are some pics to prove it.

Next time I will go after the catfish, they are freakin' huge.
Thanks for reading,
Buddy

Fish #2
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Not Flat Ride

Finally we had a break from the rainy weather. Most of today looked iffy but as The day went on the weather improved. My plan for today was Hills. I have a tough Hill ride from my house. I hadn't heard from anybody so I thought I would be riding solo. At about 2:00 Mike K called me and said he was into doing a hill ride. We met up on the road and headed out for my "Not Flat Ride". I tried to hit all the tough hills in the area, with a little rest in the middle. We rode hard attacking every climb like it was the last. I was feeling pretty good, but Mike (I ride 3-4 hours a week) was riding strong. I was glad he came out, it made me push harder than I would have on my own. It was a good ride and we kept the pace steady in between the hills. I think I ended up with over 2 hours and an avg. speed of 18.5. Not too bad for a hill ride. I am now looking forward to a 4 park ride from fatmarc's house on Saturday. It should be a fun 3.5-4 hours.

Well thanks for reading
Buddy

The Torture Device, a Neccessary Evil
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I Thought They Outlawed Torture!

Given the current CRAPPY weather, I was sentenced to 90 minutes of torture.

I had no choice but to ride the trainer tonight. I had a nice two days rest and it was time to get back to work. I needed some intesity so I did a Spinnervals tape. Spinnervals 5.0 Menatl Toughness. Don't get me wrong these tapes are great, they are quality workouts in a controlled environment. It's just the fact that they are done on a trainer. Usually by this time I am done with the trainer, but not this year. I am hoping to get outside on the road bike tomorrow for a nice 2 hour hill ride. If not it will be more time in the torture chamber.

Thanks for reading

Buddy

I Should Probably Be Out Ridng!

I didn't ride again today. That is 2 days off, I can't remember the last ime i took 2 days off. The weather today was pretty crappy. It rained all day and the temp. never got above 60. Tomorrow doesn't look any better either. If it isn't raining when I get home tomorrow I will be out on the road doing hills. If it does rain tomorrow I will in the basement on the trainer doing intervals, YEAH BABY!

Rachael offered to take us out to eat tonight. Who am I to reject such an offer. We went to the Half Moon, probably my favorite place to eat. They are always changing and adding to their beer selection and tonight was no different. They have added Dogfish 90 minute IPA on tap. Man that is one good fucking beer. I had a buffalo burger with bacon and swiss and 2 90 minutes, what a good dinner. Rachael went with the Sesame Chicken salad and a Magic Hat Blind Faith. Also good stuff.

Now I fancy myself as a bit of beer guru, I mean I know a lot about beer and different brewing styles. While Rachael and I were having dinner I couldn't help but over hear a couple of guys trying to order beer. they asked the waiter for some advice, but he was about 19 and didn't know shit about beer. They mentioned Belgian, and I couldn't help it I had to but in. I went over to their table and gave them a brief description of some of the milder Belgians. After I sat back down I felt a little weird. I asked Rachael if I over stepped my bounds and she just shook her head. Man, am I nosy, plus I seem to try and push my love of good beer onto everybody. One of these days I may actually succeed, or get my ass kicked.

Well I must go now so thanks for reading
Buddy

Fun Race With Fast Guys!

Friday night while at Lauri's, Todd made me a proposition. "Let's ride the whole race together and see what happens". I said OK. Today was French Creek and all the Single Speeding heavy hitters were there. Eric Roman, Travis, Wes, and the return of Marc V. We actually had 11 in the class but I'm not going to list them all. I was ready for this course, I had the oppertunity to ride it a couple of weeks ago. The start was fast as usual, but I was able to resist trying to stay with the big boys. I was in pretty good shape though I was 6th into the single track. I was looking for Todd and sure enough he was behind me within 10 minutes. I got buckled by the guy in front of me, and the next thing I know I am last. I got onto Todd's wheel and we started to pick guys off. This dude riding a Vicious 29er, was telling me ny tire selection was bad, then I blew by him through the rocks and never saw him again. Then we caught Big Ben. Just as we got up to him he flatted. Todd decided to try and put some time on those guys so we took off.

Allow me to back track for a second. The race promoters decided to put all the sport, endurance, and experts on the course at the same time. This made for a lot of passing. I didn't mind it too much but a couple of times I was getting buckled by folks, then i would have to chase down Todd again. We settled into a nice rythym, Todd ringing his bell and shouting, "Expert Single Speeder back". It was kind of cool, and most people were very nice about letting us by. We were hurting but having a great ride, no crashes and no flats. The second lap seemed to hurt pretty bad, but thanks to Todd who kept pushing the whole time I got through it and towards the end of the race was felling pretty good.

At one point during the race we were flying down the last rocky, rotty down hill and ended up passing not 1, not 2, but 3 guys on full suspension bikes. That was a good feeling. In the end Todd gave me the nod because of the series points, which was mighty nice of him. We finished in a very respectable 2:40, I didn't think that was too bad for 27 miles.

Eric Roman won with Travis a little behind him Wes was 3rd and my boy Marc finished 4th, Very nicely done my friend. Tofer was 5th and I was 6th with Todd right behind me in 7th. It was a much better race from last week. Oh! did I mention the course was a Fucking Blast.

Thanks for reading Buddy

Bill Doh before, sorry I didn't get an after of Bill
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Matt finishing lap 6
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Matt before
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Endurance guys are FREAKS!

Today was the first in a 3 part endurance series. Our team had 4 people doing it, Matty T, Andrew the endurance guru, Bill Doh!, and Fitzy. Matt really impressed me today not only did he finish 6 laps, but he was 5th out of 30 and he did all on a Single Speed. Andrew also did 6 laps, he came through at 2:55 (the race ran to 3:00) and headed out to do his last lap. That is just sick, way to go Andrew. Bill went out a little too hard for the first 3 laps and ended up with 5 and Fitzy plugged along and finished very respectable.

Nice job by all of you guys.