My Wife is Fast!!! (and Sweet)...

See Ktown,

See Ktown ride,

See Ktown ride faster than most experienced male riders I know,

See Ktown win her, "I'll try the first Sport race of 2009 and see how it goes then maybe I'll bump up [race]" by more than three minutes,

See Ktown place second in her first Elite Women's race,

See Ktown win her second Elite Women's race,

See Ktown admitting that she was briefly a horrible, horrible sandbagger,

See Ktown unselfishly buy blinds with her race winnings (truth be told as much as I like the blinds, they're really for her, not "us"),

he, he, he...

Ronaldo

Vitamin D Feels Good...

Its finally sunny today...for now. The sun is out and it feels good, but I find myself constantly checking the horizon for the inevitable black rain clouds. My handy-dandy weather channel desktop updater (getting my weather from a "faceless" entity somehow makes it less frustrating when its wrong 90% of the time) is predicting partly cloudy skies for most of the week with isolated thunderstorms 2-3 days this week. Hopefully this will be one of those 10% instances where the meteorological shamans at www.theweatherchannel.com are correct. In any event the partly cloudy skies should give the trails some time to dry out. Which will be nice for this weekend's Mountain Bike Festival in Marysville, PA. I'm not exactly sure how to prepare for an endurance event like the 12-hour relay. But there will be plenty ofLoweRiders there to help out all around so it should be fine.

We'll see...

Ronaldo

I Just Waved At Noah...

The weather "mystics" were calling for scattered thunderstorms today (Saturday), and so it rained for eight straight hours. It wasn't just drizzling for eight hours, it rained...with intermittent periods where it poured. The meteorologists' [what a freaking joke that occupation is] magic eight balls must all be on the fritz lately, and by lately I mean a little period I like to call 2009.

I'm going to start gathering woodland creatures in pairs...just in case...

I'm starting to feel like the little girl in "All Summer in a Day."

Remember that story from elementary school?

Man the rain is messing with my head.

Ktown and I are talking about moving to Seattle because its sunnier there.

Ronaldo

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

...come on back another day, which, if the first six months of 2009 are any indication will undoubtedly be a Wednesday since it literally has rained 90% of 2009's Wednesdays. What is the deal with rainy Wednesdays?!? If the team ride wasn't on Wednesday night I obviously wouldn't care much, but it is, so I do, and so it rains...every...single...Wednesday. Maybe we should switch the team ride night to Thursday to see if the black cloud of ride ruining rain repositions itself righteously on Thursday [alliteration cha chacha...]. Actually it pretty much rains all the time in Southeastern PA now. I must have missed the memo, but apparently southeastern PA is currently Seattle, weather wise anyway. The team didn't even try to ride last night. We made the decision fairly early on to forgo the ride in favor of going to Sly Fox for dinner. Ktown, Campbell, BShow, Newbie Jim, and I had a nice dinner. The Keeb, his lady friend Kim, and a couple of their friends showed up later. The evening was still fun, if soggy.

Looking forward to sunshine and dry trails,

Ronaldo

One Less than Originally Intended

Last night, I forwent a ride with some of the guys from the team at Wissahickon and opted instead to ride with the lovely K-town at Marsh Creek.  I was tired from my lunchtime ride but conditions were almost perfect and K-town was excited.  I just got my 29er back from the shop and was feeling pretty good.  K-town was killing me as she was fresh and has been bouncing around lately with excitement due to her recent return to activity from 7-10 days of being on the DL list (Dr.'s orders).  The ride was fun and basically uneventful until I tried to ride the only log ride Marsh Creek has to offer.  Not to be boastful, but let me preface this by saying I've ridden this log without incident several times before.  Obviously, that was not the case this time.  I approached the log thinking, "This should be fun, I haven't ridden this log in a while, it looks clean, the approach is smooth, should be no problem."  On the log I was thinking, "Nice work Ronaldo, this log is in the bag, you've kept your momentum up, no slips, first try, nice job."  These positive thoughts were immediately interrupted by my face and chest meeting the log with enough force to knock the wind out of me.  I haven't had the wind knocked out of me since I was a kid, I don't remember it being such an unpleasant sensation, but it sure was unpleasant.  

I wasn't hurt but my bike did suffer a casualty.  I broke the rear brake lever.  So, I finished the ride with only a front brake.  Riding a single-speed with only a front brake is an unusual sensation.  You need to keep your momentum up (because you only have one gear), but not too much (because you have one less brake than originally intended and you don't want to become a permanent fixture of that tree).  Overall the ride was great and riding with 50% less braking power wasn't too weird.  By the end of the ride I didn't even notice except for the downhills, flats, corners, rollies, jumps or anywhere where there were roots, rocks, mud, or dirt.

Ronaldo

Its Been a Long Time...by the way I Hate March

To all of my endearing fans, my humblest and most sincere apologies for not posting for more than a month.  And since I am the only one that follows this blog regularly my apology is hereby accepted, and further I plan to buy myself an ice cream later today just to show there's no hard feelings.  

I also apologize that this blog post concerns something that pisses me off (again I hereby forgive me).  Those of you who know me won't be surprised and will read this post without so much as a second thought because you know that most things, if not all things, tend to piss me off, or at the very least ruffle my feathers.  What, you may be wondering, is this thing that is so infuriating that I should call it out specifically from the underlying background of irritation that is the world around me?  In a word...March.  

That's right March.  I hate March.  If the day of your birth happens to fall within this cursed month I feel for you I really do, but I can't help the fact that your parents were bored in June.

What is the deal with March anyway?  Its a winter month.  No, no wait its really a spring month.  But wait no its really a winter month, but with sun that's not really warm, and the nagging possibility for below freezing nocturnal temperatures.  The flowers are starting to come up and the trees are budding, but there's still the outside chance that it could freak snow like a foot, and then melt the next day.  March is by its very nature frenetic at best.  

For a Pennsylvania mountain biker who is trying to sharpen his fitness for the commencement of the racing season in April, it sucks.  We just got over ~six months of dreary winter weather.  I'm suffering from cabin fever, tired of riding the trainer, and looking to shed some layers.  I want to ride my bike in shorts and short sleeves and not have to worry about being blown off my bike, off the road, or into oncoming traffic, but I can't because March can't make up its mind about whether its the commencement of spring or the last hurrah for winter.  The wind alone is enough to make me put my road bike down until May.  It may just be me but I don't enjoy pedaling as hard as I can to go downhill.  Aren't downhills for coasting?

Beware the ides of March,

Ronaldo

5-Minute Recap of the Last Two Weeks

Ready, set, go...

Wednesday, January 21, 2009 some members of Team LoweRiders (TLR) met some members of Cradles to Canes at Marsh Creek for that rare unicorn of winter night rides, the snow ride. Conditions were pretty much perfect, and even better when I realized that lower tire pressure may make turning and climbing much easier and therefore much more fun. Great fun was had by all. Pizza, wings, and beer at Foster Boys after.

The following weekend Campbell, K-town, and me rode Fair Hill and White Clay. We met JMatt, BShow, one of his college buddies, and couple of his friends for a 3-plus-hour tour of Fair Hill on Saturday. And unlike that most famous 3-hour tour we didn't get lost...almost. We have finally learned a decent loop at Fair Hill that is long and includes most of the good trails that Fair Hill has to offer. And it only took us a year to learn it.

Sunday, Campbell, K-town, and me went to White Clay and rode almost every trail that the park has to offer. We now know this place inside and out...pretty much.

Trainer, trainer, trainer...

The following Wednesday it rained/iced/sleeted like three inches of bullet proof crap which just recently melted...for the most part.

Trainer, trainer, trainer, treadmill (What the!)...

This past Saturday no riding (or fun for that matter) was had because K-town's car brokedown on Friday night (its still at the shop), and my car brokedown on Saturday afternoon (all it needed was a battery). My father came to jump us (thanks Pop!), and Campbell and I changed the battery in a parking lot.

Sunday, Campbell, K-town and me attempted to ride the nearly half century we did a couple of weeks ago. K-town and I both flatted and eventually had to call my lil'bro Matt to come and bail us out (Thanks Bro!). My family is awesome...really, really, awesome.

My other lil'bro Josh comes home today from Joshua Tree. Hopefully there will be one good day of weather while he is home so that we can get a ride in. I'm sure he'll try to drag me out to a climbing gym or some other similar nonsense.

Its now Tuesday February 3, 2009 and its currently snowing on top of the bullet proof crap that didn't melt over the weekend.

Trainer, trainer, trainer, treadmill, Spring...

Ronaldo