Weekly Beatdown

Good lord... Real life and illness.

I just realized it's been over a month since I wrote anything, and it's not because I've been lazy, there just hasn't been anything going on all that journal-worthy. I've been running low on outdoor adventure (even with the little a) recently.

Now that the family's back I've been riding with Kathryn a lot. I guess I _should_ take some pictures of that. She climbs the hills in the neighborhood on her Townie... hills that I struggle with sometimes on the road bike. Impressive! She's gotten fast enough to be a lot of fun to ride with too and I've really been enjoying that.

I've been running too. Trying to get up to 10 miles. Beats the hell out of me and every runner in Georgia passes me. Literally every one. Amazing how little crossover there is between cycling and running. Just lungs I guess.

Aside from that though, the kids are in school now and bringing home every infectious disease that their classmates accumulated over the summer. We've all been sick, non-stop, for a month.

Fortunately, I got kind-of over it last week though and felt well enough to jump in on the Smyrna Bicycles group ride this past Monday. Until recently I'd been otherwise occupied every Monday but no longer! Group ride time! Woohoo!

The ride climbs like every hill in the general Smyrna-Mableton area. Every single hill. I have no punch at all any more either. Endurance? Maybe. Punch? No! So it's a beatdown. Beatdown! Haven't had one of those in like 2 years and man I've been missing it. Fortunately it's also a no-drop ride, so my slow, sorry pace doesn't play too poorly. I don't think I was ever the last rider to any of the regroup points, but I was a contender a few times.

It might be time for a new group too. I stood up a few times, dropped my chain once and barely kept it from dropping a second time. The neglect has gone pretty far when the big ring on the road bike is worn out. Of course my chain is worn too, and the rear cassette, and it's all 9-speed, because "I like to get every last mile out of my components." Or at least that's what I say when I'm too lazy or broke to work on the bike.

My kit is looking pretty shabby these days too. The Reality bib is long dead. I've been riding my brother's old Peachtree Bikes/Toyota Forklift bib and either one of my old Reality jerseys or some even older sleeveless jersey. No matter how I dress, I'm breaking at least two of The Rules. Mixing club kits, wearing a kit from a team I never rode for, sleeveless on the road...

Shameful.

That's my MO though. I'll be out there stinking it up next Monday too. My goal - keep from getting dropped until the 3rd hill. Lets see how that goes. Honestly, right now I'm just happy to have the opportunity to stink something up at all.