Keep Dancing!!!

I was scrambling around the house this morning getting everything ready for today's ride. The detail that is needed that just goes with every long ride across snow covered trails on a bicycle where cell phone service and anybody else isn't always available. 

 The TV was on in the background providing music as VH1 was playing their Top 20 videos. One of the videos caught my ear then my eye somewhere near the middle of the video. There was a young man, a Marine, standing next to his military uniform. He had his leg blown off, his hand, and there were other serious body scars. It became obvious the song was chronicling an actual real life situation. A man blown apart while serving his military duty in a country far far away from his home and family. A terrible tragedy. It's sad but often we become calloused to tragedies in people's life's such as this, we see them way too often in every newspaper. But there was something else that grabbed my heart, caught my soul as I watched.

There was a scene near the end of this video where this solider and his wife were dancing, together. Instead of wallowing in despair he chose to dance. There he was with his wife, while missing hand and part of an arm blown off, a leg gone, and yet dancing. I will never, ever be able to comprehend the depths of despair, the pain, the suffering the hopelessness that must have been part of the cycle of recovery. The waking up in the middle of the night and being in dream and forgetting what happened, and then the reality comes back and stays with the pain. But he chooses to dance.

 I have somehow slipped into mediocrity. It crept in unawares and made itself a major player in my day to day activities. I did have shoulder surgery, and I did have to stay off the bike for a time. But I didn’t have to change healthy habits for bad ones. Staying up late, overeating, drinking too much beer, sleeping in late, not stretching, gaining weight, not doing what I should be doing that comes with every lazy and negative attitude. Forcing myself to ride and indoor exercise bike took an extreme effort and was put off later and later each day, sandwiched between couch time. I've chose to get lazy, and it was hanging on.

Oh woe is me, was my theme, I hurt, this shouldn’t be happening to me, if I can’t ride my bike, I will just become self destructive, I’ll show em.


We have in us the ability to dance in spite of our circumstances. It is our choice.  I should have chosen to dance instead, and kept dancing.


My ride today was beautiful, fantastic, and challenging all rolled into one. The conditions were such that is made for a great ride. There was enough snow cover, and was packed down to make a good ride through the country trails. As the day warmed up the snow melted and the mud came out, but I was on my bike, and that was what I needed. I put my largest snow tires on the bike, it rode slow, and hard, but wonderfully. About 40 miles on snow mobile trails, my legs are tired and well spent and that makes me feel good about myself.

I am starting back, to the lifestyle I need, for me, to be me. I want to dance, and stay dancing.
 
 

Cheers, and thanks for stopping, I gotta go, I need to put this beer down and get to bed, I have a long long bike ride planned for tomorrow.

Oh and stop and say hi in the comment section if you don't mind, I get a lot of visitors and never hear from most. I would like to hear from you. Thanks.

Bikeoholics.....

Overheard at a bikecoholic’s meeting once, “Hi my name is Dave, and I am a bikeoholic.”

I guess that must be me, it seems I spend a lot of my time, thoughts, and plans riding or thinking about riding a bicycle. My day job supports my habit. When my doctor told me I needed shoulder surgery and that I would be off the bike for at least 4 weeks, probably more, my immediate fears were not about the risk, the pain, or what would it cost me. My first thoughts were how do I survive not bicycling for all that time. What the heck was I going to do with myself for all that time.


But 4 weeks did come and go. I did survive. The time did pass, in spite of my fears of not knowing what I was going to do and thinking I would be going terminally insane.


So after 4 weeks I went and visited with my surgeon. I asked for a release to go back to work, because I knew I needed that so I could get back out and ride. He agreed, and told me to expect pain, and to be careful, that I would still be healing for several months.


That was Thursday, Friday morning I rolled my bicycle out the front door, down the front steps, into the street, threw my leg over the cross bar, clipped my feet into the pedals and headed down the street to the trails and gravel roads, like I've done over 1000 times before.

Much like a pilot's initial checks of the cock pit, we cyclists often make multiple physical and mental checks the first minutes on the bike especially when the bike and rider haven’t been ridden for some time. My feet felt right in the clips, seat is adjusted just right, tires pressure feels good, and there are no unusual noises. I take note of what clothing I am wearing and how it feels with the outdoor temps, and wind speed. I go through my mental check list, food, fluids, multi tool, spare tube, patch kit, air pump, lights, and so on and so forth are all on board.


That’s enough of that, as I settle into the ride. My cadence becomes rhythmic, hypnotic, it feels just like how I remembered it did, as I head down the road, over the bicycle paved path, onto the single path trail, and out past the city limits and I’m loving it.

Ice kept me on my toes, eyes watching for every detail in front of me. Sometimes holding my breath afraid my heart beat alone would be enough to start my tire sliding sideways and me slamming down on the frozen hard ground. Then I would find patch of gravel, and then snow and the riding tenseness would let up. Then another patch of ice and all senses alerted, on guard again. For reasons most wouldn’t understand I enjoyed that challenge, I felt alive again, I pedaled on.

Saturday, more of the same, and planning Sunday for the same.

Seems like life as I know it has settled quickly back to ‘normal’ and those 4 weeks of not riding already seem like a long long time ago.

 
 
 
 
 
 

CHEERS........Dave......

"....you ride a bike too much...."

It is a little before 6:00 p.m on Jan 15th 2012. I have been riding my FatBack bicycle for almost 8 hours now on a mixture of snow, dirt, grass, and gravel, across farm fields. gravel roads, and trails. It is dark out, and I'm following a blinking red light of another cyclist that is ahead of me. That rear blinkie light has been playing hide and seek with me around every bend as I and that other unnamed bicyclist weave our way over Heritage Trail headed to the finish of the Triple D winter bicycle race. My legs are cooked. I did my best to hold my ground all day, and my body was reduced to only one desire at that time, and that was to get off this bike. My soul was weary too, and wanted off the bike also. But my soul, my inner self wanted two things more then to stop pedaling. The first one was to pass that bicyclist in front of me, and 2nd, was to arrive at the Grand Harbor hotel and call Triple D completed, for the first time in 3 attempts. This battle between body and soul had been going on for an hour now. Such a paradox, for the last month I couldn’t wait to get on the bike and get this show started, and now I want off the bike, I want this ride finished. I remembered thinking as I hammered on the pedals closing in on the finish line, and at about 5 miles out, I made the decision even if this bike blows up on me I will drag this Fat Cycle to the finish. I had to. I can’t fail, I need to finish.

At around 6:50 p.m. after over 8 and half hours of snow cycling 2 of those 3 desires were accomplished. I was off the bike, and I had finished Triple D. Arriving at the Grand Harbor Hotel, and that blinking red light, whoever that was, finished in front of me.


That was more than 4 weeks ago; I have not been back out there on a bike since then. My spirit, soul, and body want to feel that ‘ride’ again. The surgical scars and the pain in my shoulder reminds me of what my doctor told me, “stay off the bike, do not reinjure that shoulder” He also did 2 of the 4 knee surgeries I’ve had and told me once, “you ride a bike too much” I think to myself, if you don’t know, I can’t tell you why I do this. Thinking about it, I guess I don’t know either.

So to keep my bicycle legs up, or I believe I do, by riding 1.5 hours every day on an indoor stationary bicycle trainer. That is a very long 1.5 hours. I watch my heart rate monitor, I watch my pedal cadence, I watch total calorie burn, and I plan. Plan I do, goals I want to accomplish on the bike, places I want to go on the bike, while I wait for my 1.5 hours to be completed and I can get off this bike.

Someday this will all be just a memory, and someday even the memory will be gone. But that doesn’t matter, I am like a junkie, I just want that feeling right now. That same feeling I had past the 8th hour of Triple D, when I finished and got off my bike.

Thanks for stopping in.
Dave

It doesn't get any better then this...

It's different now, then what I've been forever used to as more then a full time blue collar worker since 1971. I'm not getting up and going to work every morning, being off work recovering from shoulder surgery. Week days and weekends don't differentiate much from each other, days just seem to run together now. I find myself falling into the same pattern that repeats itself every 24 hours.


Waking up when the sun comes up I suspect was once Neanderthal's natural pattern before alarm clocks existed and seems I am now following this pattern when my alarm clock isn't necessary.


After coffee, letting the dog out and back in again, some computer nothingness I soon find myself warming up in my dungeon basement on my indoor bicycle trainer.


If cycling only existed on indoor trainers, all cycling would soon come to an end for me. Guarantees of a longer, healthier life would not offer enough rewards to be pedaling in my basement going nowhere. I do this only because I suspect by the end of next week my doctor will release me to go back to work, and when I walk out of his office my legs will be more then ready to take me places rotating pedals on a FatTire bike on a snow covered trail in North East Iowa.


My heart rate monitor hits 130 beats per minute, telling me I am adequately warmed up and ready to begin my daily 90 minute self inflicted hurt. 90 minutes is all I can tolerate, it is my self agreement I made with myself that I need to accomplish daily.

10 minutes, 20 minutes,30 minutes, and a million thoughts now become one hour. 30 minutes left and I push harder to keep my heart rate up to the required commitment.

I am finishing now, 90 minutes is up, I am crossing the 'finish line' I beat everybody, every compromise, every excuse not to do this.

The rest of the day is spent watching Judge Judy, the local news, and other TV shows. Reading some body’s else’s thoughts on their blog and my mediocrity. I also daydream a lot and am thinking it won't be long and I will be spending the day riding snow mobile trails on a FatTire bicycle.

Dave CHEERS!!!!

Lions should run free....

Continously, over and over rotating the pedals around, and around, and around. Staring at the clock it says 34:45. I have been pedaling for 34 minutes and 45 seconds. It seems much longer than that. My Timex heart rate monitor, it keeps me honest. My goal is to hold 80% of my max heart rate for the entire ride. There is no easy way to do this; I have to hold the mind set of push, push, push, push, to keep my heart rate at that level for this long. I close my eyes, and keep rotating on the pedals. I don't know how much time passes, it seems like almost forever. The first thing I look at when I open my eyes is the clock. It says 38:52, only 4 more minutes have gone by.

Pedaling while standing up for a while, my heart rate drops, even though it seems like harder work, I speed up, going nowhere to increase my heart rate.  I am on day 2 of my commitment, to hold this heart rate for 1.5 hours every day.

This is only being done so when the day comes and two hands can be put on the handle bars again I will be able to ride with legs that will want to finish the journeys that need to be rode.  

Slipping into a daydream my heart rate drifts downward, I pick up the pace to pick my heart rate back up again and I begin to train myself to keep my heart rate up and still day dream at the same time. To be able to drift away, in my mind, go somewhere else, like the places you go when you are waiting alone for a long time in a doctor's waiting room, and yet still have my legs firing up and down continuously maintaining an intense effort.

My IPOD changes songs, high energy rock. It is my training set of songs I use for hard days on trail rides. For a moment it almost makes me think I am climbing a long hill on some trail, my bike rocking back and forth with every stroke, and I am happy to be out here and to conquer this hill.
Then I realize I am still in my basement, head almost hitting the ceiling, riding on my stationary bicycle. 

My mind starts drifting off again to over 50 years ago. A small boy watches a lion pace back and forth in his cage. I think about that lion, I would watch a long time ago when my parents would take me and my brothers and sisters on our yearly pilgrimage to the Madison Zoo. He would always be pacing back and forth, in his jail cell. He committed no crime, he didn't belong in there, and I think he was just waiting to die.  I always wished I could break him loose, and free him from that prison zoo, and he could run free once again. 

I wait for the day I am out of here, and not pacing back and forth going nowhere.

The clock rolls over from 129:59 to 1:30.00.  I stop pedaling immediately. Finished for the day. I will be back tomorrow and do this all over again.












  



I have hopes, and dreams,  and a look forward to the life that is yet ahead of me. I realize there are many that their hopes and dreams don't exist anymore  

I remain grateful for what I have. 
CHEERS

Dave

?? Has anybody seen the kNIGHT RIDER ??

Brevity is going to have be the theme for now on this Blog.  I know, hard to imagine that for me, thee "King of Pontification." But you see I am typing with one finger for reasons seen below.


After Years of weight lifting, a couple dozen bike crashes or more and  3 shots of cortisone in less then 8 months and a recent MRI I find myself Friday morning nervous and looking for my best pair of underwear for a trip to the hospital and shoulder surgery.  Rotator cuff was thin and with a tear if it would have ripped anymore it would have lengthened and compounded recovery greatly. My doctor removed  bone that was causing impingement,  an inflamed ligament, and a swollen bursa. He did some other stuff but I was too "high" to remember anything else he told me.

So, without any further ado, I'll wrap this up for now.


I want to come back soon and write about the Triple D race I was in last Sunday. Being with some of the riders that made the top 18-25 group yet in Dyersville, past the half way point and after all the hills, and ending up 30th has some Bonk written in it. Being the oldest in the top 30, at almost 59 and with around 75 experienced riders signing up, thoroughbred stallions, with 20 or so not finishing I am quite happy with the effort. That being said  I still have improvements to identify ( I knew I should have shaved my legs :-) . The nature of this type of competition fits my OCD well, and lets me obsess about the details. Training styles, recovery, equipment, clothing, nutrition, and on and on. I am not alone in this, most the cyclists competitors I know do so.

My daughter, yes I said my daughter Melissa, a new entry into the the endurance winter events took 2nd in the women's marathon. Awesome. Melissa you rock!!

Lance Andre did invite me up front for some special swag for my help in setting up the distances, but this is what I had to say about Lance and Traci, on Face Book, and this goes out to all you race directors/organizers/volunteers/sponsors you give and give and we participants get to reap the benefits of all your hard work.

 "Lance and Traci: Triple D is and continuing to be one of the best run, most fun bike/ski/run races in the Midwest. The growing popularity shows that. I've seen the 100s of hours you've put in. With out these efforts and the efforts of other race directors/organizers we who bike-ski-run would lose a big part of what we do. We target races like these, set goals, train, and go out and enjoy the hell out of events like Triple D. From all us Thank you...."

Now I realize I said I was going to keep this brief but I think the drugs are kicking in....I have just one more thing to say and then I will go.
 
I strive to keep this Blog with a G rating for General audiences. But sometimes it slips into the PG-13 rating. So if you don't qualify for the PG-13 rating please DO NOT scroll down
 

Below is a picture of my bike when I broke the news to her we would not be riding for awhile.

She gave me this obscene gesture..



                                                    OK, umm, being were in the "PG-13" category now I have  just one more thing to add. Try this. Stick your dominate hand/arm inside your shirt and try to do some of the basic bodily needs we do each day, and no, I am not talking about buttoning your shirt!!!  Uh huh!!! You get the idea, this is going to suck.

Dang I want to go riding too, hopes this recovery goes well and fast.



 



Oh just one more thing, I know some of you think that I just might be the kNIGHT RIDER and your worried I won't be out there at night protecting the trails from the evil villains. Umm, Quite frankly I am worried about that too.

CHEERS!!!!!

Triple D you got your snow.....

Here is Dubuque, 6:00 a.m. Thursday morning 1/12/12. 3-5 more inches coming yet. Triple D does it again. A FatTire riding event. I will post some pictures later of the Trail conditions. 
Ride On.

So after this Triple D miracle blizzard most of us will now quit obsessing over what bike we were going to ride in Triple D. With this much snow, bicycling over farm fields, trails, rutted paths, and B roads, riding only a FatTire is starting to make too much sense to ignore. So being a lot of us borderline on OCD and need  something else to worry about we will now change our thoughts and obsessions to what Fat Tire combination to go with. Nate, or Endo, or Larry, or Big Fat Larry or Husker. To be mounted on 70, 80, 90, or 100 Rims. Then we'll think about how much air pressure for each tire.

Then if we get close to figuring out that challenge  we will then ponder what gearing combinations to use. Then I'll start to wonder how much clothing should I wear, with temps being around 11f Sunday morning, but warming up to the upper 30s as I warm up too.

Then I wonder how will I store my extra clothes, I will need to remove layers as things heat up. I don't want the extra weight of a back rack.

What about lighting, how much should I take? With all this snow slowing down the pace I don't think my helmet light will be enough. Finishing Triple D for us non front runners, is thee challenge.

Fluids, how much? I would like to pack enough to make it to Dyersville, the turn around point.

I can't forget my multi tool and chain repair tool and spare link and on and on. 

Do I need my poggies? Almost like miniature sleeping bags that fit over your handle bars to stick your hands into to keep warm. The problem is I need them at 15 degrees when we start out, but they will be too warm by noon.

How about calories? I like to eat 200-300 calories an hour when cycling. I will burn up more then that but that is all I can digest and convert into glucose per hour.

I will pack a spare tire tube and air pump and a tire patch kit.

An IPOD will come along for the journey. It would be  typical for me to find my pace and find myself riding the last hours alone and music makes good company.

Every bolt needs to be checked on my FatRig, and I will stop now with how most cyclist think about preparation, you get the idea.

I have friends, and know people who can win this race. They have most the same thoughts and even more thoughts  based on experiences and the harsh training mentor called past failures.

Out of all these unknowns, I do know this. After riding 9 hours plus from daylight to dark, across frozen country side, and finishing at the Grand Harbor Resort that first drink, will feel well earned and taste delicious. The others that follow are just obligatory for the occasion.

There is now over 155 folks, chumping at the bit and ready to get started signed up for this race. Lance and Traci Andre,  I've caught a glimpse of the 100s of hours of hard work that you two put into this 'ride' to make it work. I find what started out as a idea in 2007 and now in it's 5th year and brings this many people together in the middle of winter, in Iowa, for an outdoor event, more then wonderful. Thank you.

Ride on.

Dave



Has anybody seen a snow man?

I've become quite concerned about them lately. All they do is lay around the house, depressed, drinking beer, talking about past winters, previous blizzards, and what winters 'used' to be like in Iowa..... 

.....and such has been the snow season in Iowa this year. But I decided I still can ride even if the weather is 'bad' like no snow, no freezing temps, and no blizzards. I have skinnie tyred evil bikes in my stables too yanno.

 
Did a mud run 1/5/12 with the Trek Cycle Cross bike. I don't like to leave tracks and after climbing some hills that were shade covered I hit an open field. In 50 feet packed mud would no longer allow the tires to rotate I ended up carrying the bike across a farm field and onto the highway, finding a stick and removing enough mud to ride home and spent the evening crying and drinking beer. 
 
 

 
 
I received an Email from Craig from over yonder saying him and Charles were coming to town and wanted to try out the Triple D race route and asked if I would be interested. I responded with yeap. I briefly met Craig in person last year during a Pre-race meeting. We did the customary head nod like people do when they got a thousand other things on their minds at the time. At the race he got ahead of me and I never caught up. That was the last time of real life contact we've had.  We continued to corresponded back and forth in Blogdom.
So early Sunday morning I pedaled down to the Grand Harbor Hotel and saw two guys unloading their bicycles from the back of the pickup.
And we rode, and rode, over farm fields, gravel roads, and trail. We had a blast, talked and talked and had a great time. When humans share like passion to the level us bikeaholics do it's like you've known each other your whole lives the first day you hook up.
Craig is doing well and getting serious in competitive biking. Charles is a pedaling machine. We were headed up a very steep rock infested rutted hill. Charles got out ahead of us, front tire bouncing off a rock and down he went hard. Back on the bike and away he went. Not to be out done, I was next in line to bounce off the hard frozen ground. The difference is Charles is 26, I am 58.

Headed down a short hill grass path, accelerating to make the short steep climb which was next, tires hit the bottom of the hill and instantly change directions from down to up. A large boulder tip glazed with ice, and hidden in the grass met my front tire, bike kicking out from under me, and the momentum slamming me into the ground, even made my fillings hurt. Gawd I love this.  
 
 
 
  Some pictures below of an afternoon to evening ride on 1/2/12. Sun went down, moon came out.  

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

There's a contest going on over at the Cup-O-Dirt web sight. Seems the challenge is to guess how many dirty metrics I have done for 2011. Nick the web sight master is threatening me with kidnapping all my 'gals' if I don't do a count.
 
Ok Ok, I will go to my blog,  FaceBook and my diary work records and do a century count. But I think this borders real close on extortion. 

Now I must say this, and then I will finish, I shall shuddup, and let you get going. Last week I had my 3rd shot of cortisone in my right shoulder in 7 months. My doc doing a real through examination became quite concerned about the looseness of the joint. The MRI technician with a busy schedule worked through her lunch to give me a MRI and I laid on the examining table for 45 minutes while the machine clicked away taking magnetic pictures of my shoulder's insides.
To make a long story short, and translate the medical jargon, it is this. It will never heal on it's own.
Seems bike crashes, years of weight lifting, 100s of miles as a swimmer and just an active life of wear and tear has now come to collect it's due.

So on Jan 20th 2012, I will have surgery. Impingement bone will be cut away,  rotator cuff will be trimmed, bursa removed and smoothing up rough services,  along with a few things I forgot.  

I didn't tell my doctor I am in a 65 mile bicycle race snow covered farm fields, trails and gravel this Sunday. I didn't think he would understand.  But unless you do this, most people don't. I'm not sure I do.  

Well I think I will officially be entering the feared 'off season' unvoluntarily I might add.
Those close to me are frightened and thinking of running away, I would too, but I've found out that where ever I go, that is where I will find myself.    


I'll be back,
Dave

The Last day of 2011

It wasn't the plan starting out, but I think the last day of the year ended up being one of the hardest days on the bike for the whole year. I put new parts on my Cycle Cross, and wanted to try them out.This included  Salsa Woodchipper bar which gives, I think better control in off road conditions then the standard drop bars. Combine that with new Shimano Tiagra brake and shifters which add more hand room and comfort. I wear a XXL glove and this combination gives more space and hand room in the cockpit then the smaller road version allows and the ergonomics are also improved.
Also I added bigger gears in the back end going from a 26 tooth gear to 32 teeth for aging leg engines and better hill climbing. I started the morning out with testing the trannie and failed on the hard climbs, I ran out of gear, traction and horse power all at the same time.

This is the second of a series of steep hills in the up and coming Triple D bike race. I spun out at the same time my legs gave out. My FatTire usually makes it. After some hard bounces and steep hills I hooked up on a county paved road to take me out of town, where gravel would greet me.
My 'skinnie' 42 CC tires sunk down into sticky peanut butter like gravel and lime trail and roads. Standing on the pedals at 6 mph was going to be the norm for today. I figured, might as well just dig in, and get a good work out.

So I rode on, me and the Cycle Cross machine. 4 hours later I am sweating, removing clothes, and criss crossing back and forth trying to find something to ride on without sinking into the muck. Riding on the outside grassy edge often seemed the best spot I could find to keep rolling.



As you can see some of my fans often gather along my route and cheer me on....:-)

 

Out of fluids, I needed to swing into the small town of Farley where I knew where there was a pop machine for the Mayberry price of 75 cents a can.
It was there I made the decision to get off the gravel and dirt and ride back to home on county pavement.
An hour later it was going good, I was making good time, and thinking I would get back before lights out. Hands starting to get cold with only light glove liners on I reached into my windbreaker pocket for my
super-duper best gloves ever I packed away earlier, and ONLY HAD ONE!!!!

Sun going down, hands cold, I needed to back track and find my lost glove. Simply a stupid mistake, zipper up your pockets you are storing equipment in. Little mistakes can bring to a halt, rides that might be a year's plan and the race you worked so hard for.

Well one hour later there was my glove, laying in the curb of the first town I rode into to that 75 cent can of pop. Getting dark and not wanting to ride county highways due to fast moving vehicles and New Year's eve revelry, I headed to a combination of seldom used gravel roads and lime trail. Sticky muddy, gravel roads and trail that I decided to get off of over two hours ago.

I phone Birgit my lady and warn her I might be looking (pleading) for a "Sag" ride, cause I am running out of gas, out of daylight, and a couple of  hours from home yet. I can't find a place in the road where the tires will roll, everything is like sticky muck.

Not expecting to see another soul out here I ride past Sundown Ski Resort, seeing all those lights and hearing people's voices made riding on the trail seem like a social event for that moment.


Almost darkness totally drops in, the moon tries to help me out, but it is frosty fog out and hazy, and the moon cast little light. But thank you anyways Man in the Moon. Now your eyes start playing tricks on you and shadows start becoming something your afraid of. You tell yourself that that is not a wolf off to the side, but just a stump as you ride by and see that it was really a large rock.  I turn on my helmet light but it is not enough to find the right spot on the road for my tires. As I am mounting my headlight, my daughter Melissa calls, chats, and tells me about her marathon training, and we shortly there after good bye each other, both knowing I have to to get going. . That picked up my spirits. I didn't want to call for a ride, I wanted to pedal for what ever it took and arrive home under my own power. I can't explain why, that is, but in some strange sense that was how I could win, by not stopping, not cutting this journey short and calling for a ride. But to keep going, finish what I started. Maybe this is primal, some strange inner sense of survival. Maybe as a human species we don't have to hunt for our food, to survive anymore, and this satisfies that drive in some other way.
And besides, I don't recall Columbus calling for a ride 3/4s across the Atlantic Ocean and bailing out when the going got tough.

Hallelujah, I arrive home, zonked, tired, thirsty, and hungry, perfect way to end the year.

Most people are saying "HAPPY  NEW YEAR" to everyone.  Having happiness won't change for you by me saying "Happy New Year" We are primarily a product of choices and how we choose to deal with the things that come at us. I am always inspired by those of you that get dealt some tough blows and choose not to surrender, but to persevere, and play the best game you can with the cards you were dealt.

Let's kick some ass for 2012 and get off the couch or picnic table like my dog Pitty the Pit Bull who gets tired from sleeping all day and have fun, play, love, be who we should be.

Dave

Happy New Year everybody ......

One of these days

"One of these days the ground will drop out from beneath your feet"

"One of these days your heart will stop and play its final beat"

"One of these days the clocks will stop and time won't mean a thing"

Foo Fighters from "These Days"

So I just don't want to waste my moments.

My legs were tired from riding  three days in a row, that I had off work, for the Christmas weekend riding with wind and hills . One day of rest, (back to work) and then one last day vacation day to use up before the years end found me planning a days ride on my Trek XO2 Cycle Cross. I still need to do two more distance certification runs for the full and half marathon race for Triple D this Jan 15th. So this would be about a 67 mile day.

I should have started earlier, with all the stops and counter monitering I would need to do I would  be finishing in the dark, and wanted to use as much daylight as I could get. I ride back and forth for 5 runs across the measured 1000 foot runs and make note of the counter mounted on the front of my bicycle tire at each start and finish of each run.

Glad to have that part out of the way.Next I would note the counter value with my front tire directly over the half marathon finish point and ride the most straight line I could to the Marathon Half start  line and again note the counter value. Thus obtaining the half distance in reverse for the upcoming Triple D races.

But I can now ride uninterupted. This is the place I find myself often. The place where if I had something that was bothering me, I forgot about it. The place where I consider 'not wasting my moments.'

Squirrels are darting all over the place. I don't know why but it seems they are always running as fast as they can. Zig zagging across the jungle floor of Iowa wood lands, seemingly without purpose. I suppose if foxes, coyotes and 22 caliber bullets were always trying to put an end to my life, I'd be running too. 

I ride past the tree where I would see Big Eagle sitting, every previous winter that I have been riding out here. Big Eagle would always show up after the leaves have all fallen off the trees and sit in the same branch, always alone. Eagles mate for life, I tend to think Big Eagle had outlived his mate, and now was just waiting for his end. I could never get very close to Big Eagle, as I approached on bicycle I would watch his nervousness  turn into a slow lumbered fly away. This the best picture I could get of Big Eagle, off the bike, walking slowly, and using camera magnification.

But Big Eagle did not come back this year. His tree with his branch has remained empty this year after all the leaves have fallen. Maybe Big Eagle is now flying with his mate, in some other place.

The empty tree without Big Eagle

Our moments are precious, a gift, temporal, best not to be wasted.
Thanks for the visit.
Dave