We both assumed we'd never speak again.
Till I saw you in those turquoise pumps and tight black model pants.
I need you back my friend.
Okay, this week's lyrical intro isn't particularly representative of events of the week. These lyrics were, however, important to the week's events. Mostly I just have a thing for turquoise shoes lately and really like the idea that can change one's fate in such a profound way. I guess I just need to be very careful that mine are used for good and not evil. I've definitely been getting more use out of the $20 turquoise flat sandals from Target than my sky-high turquoise platforms, so I'm not sure what that says about my current situation.
Anyway, feigned fashion philosophy aside, the theme of the past week turned out to be cultural exploration, and not in that "experiencing the rites of remote gravel grinding cultures in exotic locations like the plains of Illinois" way. I think last week's post was a good sign that Phase I of my New Year's Resolutions is going really well and seems to have reached the maintenance phase. Although I didn't actively decide to start Phase II, and had sort of even given myself permission to write off gravel grinding as cultivating other interests, I still ended up diving into Phase II world on a whim.
Much like in December when I admitted my social impairment problem and asked for help, on Tuesday I decided to admit to my musical impairment problem on Facebook and ask for help. I got tons of suggestions, and I'm currently working on listening to them all and deciding on what I like. I've always been embarrassed of my lack of music knowledge/taste, so I find discussing music with people very intimidating, which is unfortunate because it's supposed to be one of those softball topics of discussion when you're getting to know someone new. This experience has been fun, though, because it just throws all of the embarrassment out of the window at the beginning, and then I feel comfortable discussing in the context of "I'm a huge dork. Accept this and move on."
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| Library CDs: Exploration without commitment. |
It turned out to be awesome. It was a bunch of drug and alcohol related educational films from the '60's through the '80's, and let me tell you, I learned some valuable information that's just too hard to describe in the context of this blog. Despite the fact that social isolation isn't usually a problem for me anymore, I still ended up going by myself. I posted a picture of the poster on Facebook, but no one said, "OMG! That looks awesome! Can I pleassssssse come with you?" I think I secretly wanted to have the experience as my very own. Well, mine and that of 20-30 other people with whom I now share the bond of knowing that "boyfriends are the ultimate gateway drug".
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Finally, I still made time for bikes in all of this. It was actually a really solid training week, and I'm starting to get back on track in the weight room. That left me pretty sore for the weekend, so I didn't quite get as many singlespeed miles as I wanted to, but I did get in two ride mountain bike with girl friends on both Saturday and Sunday. This included my first French Lick singlespeed experience, which was ridiculously hard.
I guess the point of this is that, possibly for the first time in my life, I set down goals at the beginning of the year, and they all seem to be falling into place. The year's less than halfway over, but I'm already more than halfway accomplished on my personal New Year's resolutions. I'm also 100% on my cycling goals for the year so far.
I don't think I ever wrote those down, but they were to get second place in the Death March (which means winner of the Co-ed Teams Who Aren't Scott and Janelle category), and win the women's singlespeed division of the Tri-State 6 Hour Series. Well, the first one is checked off, and the second is technically off the table. When another promoter took the series over from Big Dave, the category for which I specifically bought a bike was dropped. I'm still determined to do all four races on my singlespeed, and I think that will be enough to know in my heart that I "won". Plus, my teammate said she'd give me a homemade plaque to commemorate my victory, so that should be better, anyway.
5 comments:
What was your issues at French Lick? Was it on the blue section?
Haha, I think "issues" is too strong of a word, especially after listening to a dude we rode with bitch about how "terrible" the trail was the whole time. No, the climb up from the last creek crossing has always been a killer for me, even on a geared bike, so on a singlespeed it was especially bad. And riding trails that rocky on a fully rigid bike was tough, too, but in a fun way.
Ok, I was thinking about using my SS for my pre-ride of the FL DINO course Friday night, you know, just for fun. Maybe I'll stick to the geared bike...
Last year I raced my SS and was much faster than I normally ride a geared bike. No shifting down on the climbs.
One the ruff stuff, just make sure to hold the bars tight, but let your arms loose. A big front tire helps too. Your fork might be some of the issue. I have ran a surly fork on my 1x1 and hated it. I was much happier with a pace carbon. I could not believe the difference.
I have yet to make it the 20 min. to ride there this year, but terrible is not a word that I would have ever used. You want to think of a trail being terrible, just bring that blue thing to Ferdinand :-)
I do have a carbon fork you could use to see if you like it.
Yeah, I would agree about Ferdinand being terrible, but me saying that to you probably sounds like that other guy saying French Lick is terrible to me. I was thinking, "What were you expecting? It's not the freakin' Pine Loop." FL is hard, but in a good way.
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