Too Vanilla For You

Talked to Ping Pong, I guess it's raining down in LA. Ha, poor schmuck. Oh well, at least it's warm there, unlike here. He said he's staying in Manhattan Beach, a block off the water, and he gets to ride an hour of bike path either north or south to get to any good riding. Sometimes he even has to get off his bike and walk it, not because the hills are too steep for him (like he has to do here), but because he'll get a ticket otherwise. Sounds like a good time.

Tomorrow is the first race. I think I'll do it, if it's not too cold. The plan (like every year) is to attack at the very beginning and see how long I can last in the breakaway. That's always a good way to start the race season, a 60 mile breakaway.

I guess it's now the season for race pre-reports and post-reports. I'll try to make them as un-boring and dis-uninteresting as possible. But I can't promise anything. Most of the time I find that race reports are possibly the worst thing you can find on the internet, and there's some pretty stupid stuff out there. Kind of like this blog.

Ok, I apologized to my mechanic for the comments about the bike not being built well. I did smell his biscuits.

Oh, and Nasty, my bike might be ugly, but at least it's not some genetic malformation like yours and trebone's.

I wonder what Tonkin's doing right now?

Peace out.

So for those of you that didn't know, mountain biking was my first foray into cycling. I'm excited to announce that I'm getting back to my roots with the purchase of a brand new Fisher Paragon 29er MTB. Last year I didn't own a mountain bike, and only did one MTB race (not counting the short tracks). The year before that I did own a MTB and only did one race. So now that I own a MTB again look out for me at the one race. I'm out for blood.

Is it still cool to call mountain bikes "MTB"s? Or should I call it a "two-nine-er"? Off-roader? Burrito earner?

Took it out for its maiden voyage this Sunday to those trails out in Scappoose. It was pretty fun, except my pro mechanic must have been sleeping when he built the bike. Luckily the training program that I've given him in exchange for his work doesn't actually help, so I think we're even.

In other news, don't do drugs.

I wonder what Tonkin's doing now?

Peace out.

It's so windy that I'm pretty sure my leg warmers were flapping in the wind this morning when I rode to work. I talked to Ping Pong, and he rode in the West Hills this morning. He said he's never going to ride when it's this windy again. That means he won't ride indoors, won't ride when it's too windy, won't ride when it's too rainy, too hot, too cold, too sunny, or too nice out. That means he's down to 65 degrees and partly cloudy. But seriously, I guess it was super sketchy out there. He said it was super gusty, making it hard to control his bike, and there were downed branches everywhere, and he even saw two downed power lines. Yowza.

You won't believe this...I got a bad tub of Kozy shack last night. It was kinda dry, like the rice hadn't been cooked long enough or something. I still ate half the tub, though. I mean, you have to. Bad Kozy shack is still better than eating a salad or something.

Other than that, nothing new. I've just been trying to get out as much as possible, it's incredibly nice here now. Sunny and 50's every day, and it looks like it'll stay this way for another 5 days or so. It's reminiscent of last year when we had 70s and sunny all February. That was insane.

I'm going to try to start saying "peace out" all the time.

Peace out.

So I guess today is the super bowl. I think it's even going on right now. But seriously, does anybody even care about basketball? I had my own super bowl today...or as Ping Pong would say, a super-duper bowl (say it with a lisp). It was a huge bowl of granola this morning with soy milk. That's good stuff.

So yeah, nice weather today, huh? Did the Peet's coffee master's ride. Turned back about half-way through so as not to break my three hour ride limit. Heard the other guys did about 4.5 hrs. That's too long.

Got my vanilla built back up after riding the old waterford for awhile. It's like night and day. The waterford is cool, sure, but the vanilla is so light and stiff and comfortable. Almost like a carbon trek. Gratuitous sponsor plug: buy a Vanilla (as if you didn't already know you wanted one). Sacha has assured me that even though the waiting list is long, it's NOT because he's on vacation. Seriously.

What else...oh yeah, I guess the hot new thing with all those bikers that did the big race last weekend in Europe is their new love of waffles. It's sort of like me and burritos, except different, because I already was all over the Belgium waffle thing. I guess in Belgium they just call them waffles. I wonder if they have American burritos in Belgium. Probably. I'm guessing the traditional Mexican burrito there is normal sized, and American burritos are the Shannon-sized ones that I eat. Anyways, try some waffles, they're good. I'm not talking Eggo waffles. Get the good stuff. You can even buy your own waffle maker for cheap. Here's a hint: the more butter in the batter, the fluffier they are on the inside and the crispier they are on the outside. Butter in the batter.

If anybody actually likes it when I talk about Walmart and economic issues, here's another cyclist blog to check out: smithbryan.blogspot.com. He's a pro, and asks some good questions. I like this one (I'll paraphrase): if we subscribe to the theory of the free market, laissez-faire economics, etc., do we need to legislate morality (prostitution, gun control, abortion, etc). Or is all that stuff self correcting, or does it just fall into a natural, neutral state? I'll start off with my opinion, but I'll answer the question cryptically. I could buy everything I get from my partner (companionship, a person to talk to, sex) and yet I got married anyway.