I have decided that as a public service to all of the people who read this blog (all three of you) I will give you my simple rules of life. These are in no particular order.

1. Accept the fact that people are lazy. We're all guilty of it at some point or another. If given two choices, some people, maybe not all of the time, will take the path that presents the least resistance. Therefore, if you assume that people are inherently stupid, and will make stupid decisions 70% of the time they are faced with a challenge, it makes living your own life that much easier, because you've prepared yourself, as opposed to saying "I cant believe he did that to me!"*

2. Dont take yourself so seriously all of the time. I am talking to you- the guy I see everyday in Starbucks in your pretty suit, ordering your cafe mocha latte half skim whatever, with your copy of "The Journal" tucked under your arm, while you blather incessantly into your bluetooth ear piece, about something that sounds so utterly boring that I want to grab a plastic knife and stab myself in the throat. Order a man's drink - Coffee, black. And then take that stupid ear thing off because you look like an asshat

3. No one should be saying the words "Grande or Venti" when ordering beverages at Starbucks. It sounds stupid. Make sure you tell the "Barista" - aka the guy making $10 an hour to brew coffee but let's give him a really fancy title so that it appears he/ she is doing something that the the pimply faced 17 year old working at Wawa does for half as much money- that you want a tall, medium or large.**

4. It's just a job

5. Go outside

6. Take the backroads if you are stuck in traffic. It might take you just as long to get your destination, but at least you wont be sitting in traffic

7. People who are dooshy dont know that they are dooshy. I have seen this time and time again.***

8. There's no rule that states that I have to like everybody that I encounter in my life. Just because you think someone is a nice guy doesnt mean that I have to think the same way. He's probably an asshole. Trust me.

9. Attractive women avoid sitting next to me at all costs on the train. Instead, rule #9 states that fat/ obese people must make every attempt to sit next to me, at all costs

10. Drive it like you stole it

11. Use a turn signal. How hard is it to use a turn signal? It's a simple flick of the wrist.

12. Some things in life are a privilege, not a right.

13. Give me eight hard hours of work everyday, and I will excuse the small mistakes.

14. Engineering is tough biz, and if your right out of school, expect to do some really shitty stuff in your first job. It's like engineering boot camp. Get used to it. The guy you're working for served his time in the trenches, now it's your turn to climb through a dirty nasty mechanical room counting valves

15. I am my biggest fan.

16. The glass is always half full

17. It is what it is

18. Yell at your kids when they are acting like little asshats in public. Everyone will respect you more for it. There's a reason why more and more restaurants are banning small kids - it's because you cant control your offspring

I have more I just cant think of them and I am now officially bored with this post

* I get alot of flack for this one because people think that I have a defeatist attitude. Wrong. Take my word for it
** I dont want to hear any feedback from anyone about how I am being as asshole to the hard working people at Starbucks. I respect anyone who busts their ass as much as the people who work in those stores do, but "barista?" For real?
*** Am I dooshy? Someone please tell me because I could be violating my own rule

Meh

It's been a while since I've slapped one of these entries together, and to be quite honest, I have no meaningful content to add, whatsoever. I havent been riding as much, which is unfortunate - it's been three weeks since I've been on the bike, but I have been working out - running here and there, spinning here and there, and I just added some weight training. I really need to get back out on the bike during the week. This week has been tough for me to get my ass out the bed in the morning, and I have been doing alot of after-work gym visits.

Running: not so good. I am still experiencing some pain in my side. I am going to try and get in to see a PT sometime in the next week - a guy who was reocmmended to me my the guy who gave me my shot. I have run out of solutions. I am hoping that adding some core work to what I do during the week will help strengthen the muscles on my side because at this point I believe its a strain of the oblique or something related to that.

I paced Lou through the 5k piece of the Journey for Joann tri over the weekend. While I got participate in a portion of the race, I was disappointed that I couldnt do the whole event - I've done this race three or four times, and it's one of my favorite events. With all of the ink work that I have had done on my arm over the past few weeks, and the fact that my running has really shit the bed, I couldnt put the time in for the swimming or the running. There's always next year I suppose.

I would love to get out on the bike this weekend, but I am volunteering for the 20in24 race down in Philly- I am manning a water stop for 24 hours with Cat and Lynne, starting Saturday at 8:30 am through Sunday at 10:00 am. Twenty four hours straight with those two clowns. It's going to be awesome :)

Spin

I know that there are some people who read these worthless blog entries that I post, so if I offend anyone who goes to my gym with what I am about to say, I apologize in advance. Part of my responsibility with this blog is to report on the cold hard facts. I am like a hard-charging journalist pounding the street looking for the story, to report the facts. I am like the Steve Langford of blogging.

I took an easy spin class this morning only because I am going to be slogging through four miles of trails this afternoon marking the Pickle Course for tomorrow's big Pickle Run, and there is a *slight* chance that I might run the Swarthmore Independence Eve 8k tonight. Plus, running a five spot yesterday kinda made me a bit sore*.

I dont know the name of the spin instructor who taught my class this morning, but I have blogged about her class format in the past. It's awful. Her music is atrocious. Like as in take a hostage atrocious. She goes from an up-tempo song to a down tempo song. We do way too much standing climbs. She has no idea how to moderate the levels of resistance. I guess I should explain the resistance control on the bikes that we use in class.

The bikes are rather nice - brand new with digital readouts for level, rpm, HR, wattage, average wattage and time. There are 25 levels on the bike. Everyone has a baseline level - the recovery level. My recovery level hovers around 13 or 14.

Depending on the class, the instructor will have the people in the class increase the level of resistance in small does over the course of an internal. Obviously the number of level increases and the frequency of the increases varies with whatever workout we happen to be doing at any point in time. Most instructors will peak out at about 4 or 5 levels above baseline at the peak of the interval, with an occasional "max effort" which is the maximum resistance level you can maintain for that interval at whatever cadence the instructor is calling out for that interval.

My girl will have us at 7-8 level above recovery. I am glancing around the room and people look like they are about fall off of their bikes. For real? None of these people are Lance Armstrong. not to boast, but there are probably 4 or 5 of us in the class at anyone time that can maintain that level of effort. To make matters worse, she'll keep repeating those intervals over and over again. I am assuming that she's assuming that most people have a very low baseline, hence the fact that she'll keep bumping the levels up so high.

I'm glad that today was a rest today because I wouldnt have been able to sit in that class for more than 30 minutes without my own music.

Rant over.

* Wah

Poked

I got a cortisone shot yesterday. Let me preface the remainder of this entry by saying I hate needles, which is odd because I have half my arm tattoo'd. But it's a different kind of needle - I am not a fan of anything that get's inserted*

I know people suffer worse things in life - my boy Mike went through countless tests when he had cancer, and Dom had his blood clot issue. I count my blessings everyday for my good health, but I need something to blog about, so shut up and read.

The needle that they jabbed into my side was the biggest goddamn'd needle I have ever seen in my life and this procedure was a little more complicated that I had thought. The doc warned me ahead of time that because my pain was in a tricky spot in the ribs, there was a chance, albeit slim, that the needle could hit my lung and my lung would deflate. Not particularly what I wanted to hear at the time, but nothing in life comes without some risks I guess. Fuck it. Stick me. So they drag an ultrasound machine** into the room and another doctor comes in to navigate while my docs pokes around with the needle. First, they gave me a numbing shot. Then, I feel him stick the needle in- no pain but just the odd sensation of a needle buried deep inside my muscle. He must have been in there for a good two minutes fishing around and I could feel the damn thing moving around. All the while, doc #1 is guiding doc #2 as if he's trying to parallel park a car -

"Slowly, slowly..."
"Ok a little right. Stop"
"Ok move over and try over here"

At one point doc #2 says to doc #1 - "Well there's a rib. Found it." Great, at least we got the hard part out of the job. If we can't find the rib, we got bigger problems yo***

He explained that with my injury, a cortisone shot is like a grenade **** - he throws it in there and peppers the drugs around a bit to get the greatest coverage.

So I got up this morning and ran- I figured I'll test her out and see what's doing in the ole' internals. I ran 4.9 with no pain at an average pace of about ~ 9:10. The only thing that "hurts" is the spot where he stuck the need and there's a nice bruise on the spot. I've been poked more times this week than a Chinese Hooker during the week of the Army-Navy game*****, between the shot yesterday and my tat work a few days back. And I am going in for more tat work today :)

* That's what she said
** Hey doc if you find a pair of gold cuff links in there, let me know. I've been looking for those for 2 weeks
*** Sounds like someone didnt exactly nail the basic anatomy classes in med school
**** Not sure how I feel about a doctor using the term "grenade" as a context for any type of procedure
***** Yes, I threw a chinese hooker reference in there. That's how I roll.

Crappy 5k

The Crappy 5k went off without a hitch on Sunday. This is the fourth little "impromptu" race that we've done over the past three years and they are always a blast. Everyone comes out, runs a race and then drinks and eats for the next three hours. We're doing another on the 29th of July on a Friday night which is probably going to be trouble since the day following isnt a work day. These two races also serve as training runs for the two girls that we're prepping to be full -time timers.

I ran the crappy 5k in under 25 minutes which is rather amazing. The course was a bit short and adjusted for distance, I wouldnt have broken the 25 minute mark by very much, if at all. My side felt "ok" - not great but not "I feel like someone just stabbed me" painful. It was a drastic improvement over Thursday's Rush Hour Run/ Slog.

Kinda weird considering that out of the last four runs that I've done, three have been races - The Media Five Miler, Rush Hour Run, and The Crappy 5k. Strange.

Not so good

Not so good is how I felt last night at the Rush Hour Run. Dear christ in heaven was it hot! I ran at the gym the night prior and the side started to hurt again, about a mile into the run. I had a big lunch that afternoon and I am not sure if had something to do with the onset of the pain - perhaps the half pound of roast beef from my roast beef sandwich was sitting in the gut like a lead balloon. Regardless, I had pain, so I stopped running at just under 3 miles.

I woke up yesterday to find that my side was sore which is typical with the injury. So I called the doc and I made an appointment to get the shot. Enough is enough. So Wednesday I go in.

So anyways, last night, I figured I'll go out and run as far as I can and turn around when I couldnt stand the pain - it was an out and back course on the river up in Oaks. As luck would have it, a message therapist and chiropractor setup shop right next to our timing setup, and I got a quick adjustment from one of the doctors, that actually did help the pain, although minimally.

So, adorned in full Pickle suit, I setout on the race, midpack. Within about a mile, I couldnt "settle in." I have a couple of mental tricks that I have adopted over the years. I tend to go out fast when I race - usually too fast- and in order to try and back it off, I tell myself to settle in. I liken it to road riding, when I am tucked in a pace line, and I do my pull, I have to tell myself to get comfortable with the pace- to settle in. Relax. Get everything under control. So I have adopted that mantra with just about every physical endeavor that I do - running, spin classes, etc. If I can't get settled in, I know the ship is sunk and the rest of the exercise/race is going to be a shit-show.

I'll sometimes tell myself to "stay ahead of the pain." Picture the pain, and try to ride just ahead of it, like a surfer riding a wave, managing to stay just on the crest of the wave. This concept is a it hard for me to explain relative to the settling in bit.

So, anyway, the point is that I couldnt settle in last night. About a mile in, I was hot and my stomach hurt, so I stopped - walked - cheered the runners, etc. I repeated this run/walk process for the remainder of the race. In the last mile, I had to take the suit off for a bit- I couldnt take the heat. I did manage to run the whole race, albeit slow. This was a shitty week for training. I dont think I will be able to squeeze any type of workouts in today, and tomorrow might be tough as well. I am heading down to the Philly Tri in the am to which Baggadonuts do his thing, and then I have a shitload of yard work to do in prep for the Crappy 5k at my house on Sunday.

The Crappy 5k is a small race that I am hosting at my house on Sunday morning. We're using it as a training exercise for two girls that we're prepping to be full-time timers. I have a few spots left - the entry fee is beer or a BBQ item for the post race tailgate at my crib. It will be a full scale race with our normal race setup, and I will setup a course through the hood that will be a cross between the Wife's Away 5k course and the Brookhaven Sunshine Run course. If you are interested, please let me know and I'll get your registered. I have less than a handful of spots left.

Keep it Simple Stupid

I got the results from the bone scan: negative for a stress fracture. The doc thinks its a muscle strain. I have two options: a cortisone shot, or a dextro something or other (I have it written down). The cortisone is a pain management shot. The dextro is a bit more invasive. In addition to management, the shot tears apart the muscle which then causes the muscle to heal back, in theory a bit stronger. I have to do some research. However, on the handful of runs that I have done over the past four or five days, I have had no pain, so the doc thinks its best to wait on the shot to see how I feel.

I am running the Rush Hour Run tomorrow night in Oaks. This is a great race with one great amenity that attracts alot of runners -- the post-race food. The RD gets a bunch of local gourmet restaurants to setup shop after the run. It's the est post race food spread in the area. I do alot of races as a timer, and I have run a shitload of races as a runner. Quite frankly, man cannot live on soft pretzels and bananas alone. Having some variety is always a good thing. I understand that nothing in life is free and that the RD's have to be very cost conscious with respect to race expenses, however, I always appreciate the folks who go the extra mile - some bagels with peanut butter, perhaps some tomato pie. Runners want a little bit of protein after a run, not just carbs. There are plenty of companies out there that will donate food to a good cause.

I'll be out there tomorrow in the Pickle Suit. It's gonna be another hot one- 86 degrees and a 60% chance of storms.

Odds and ends

I'm glad I didnt go out and ride this morning - it's pouring right now. I had a feeling when I woke up at 5 this morning that I should stay indoors. I ran a mile this morning at an easy pace - no pain. I jumped into a spin class right after I finished up my run with my favorite instructor, Fred. Fred plays great music and his class is hardcore from start to finish. Its unfortunate that I have to leave the classes 15 minutes early because I have to catch the train. my average wattage today was 290 watts. Last week, my average wattage was 280 watts in the same class (both measurements taken over a 30 minute time frame). I am trying to keep my cadence in moderate/big gears. I avoid alot of the standing climbs because I am a "ass in the saddle" climber and that's always something that I need to work on - climbing.

I ran on Sunday - I did the Brookhaven "short course" which is about 3.1/3.2 miles. Absolutely no pain. I was sore as an SOB though from the Media Five miler. I should get the results of my scan today or tomorrow - I am very curios to see what the results say.

Running

I ran the Media Five Miler on Friday night, in the Pickle Suit. My intent was to run one lap of the course and then spectate, cheer, act like a jackass, etc. But I felt ok after the first lap, so I cut our one corner of the course and jumped back into the back for the 2nd lap.

I was hot. That was probably my biggest issue with the run -- the hills and being grossly out of running shape also didnt help. I stopped alot on the course - I hit all of the water stops so I could dump some water down the inside of the suit, and I drank alot of beer. I must have stopped at every damn BBQ and tailgate on the course to have a sip of this, a little sip of that... Some of the people manning some of the tailgates that I hit on the first lap had beers waiting for me on the 2nd lap. The stomach wasnt feeling so good near the end but the amazing part is that I had no side pain, which is ironic considering that I had a bone scan that same morning.

Anyway, by the time I crossed the finish line, I probably had close to a six-pack in me. A good friend, Sue, threw me a beer about 20 meters from the finish line. So now most people either know who I am - the Pickle guy from the Pickle Runs-- or some beer swilling alcoholic jackass who runs around in a green suit as a either a: cucumber/jalapeno/green bean/etc.

I forgot how great that race is - its the only race in the area that gets that kind of crowd support other than the bigger races in Philly. I wish the course wasnt so damn hilly.

Spin

Since the temp dropped, its been a bit chilly in the am, chilly enough that I am defaulting to the gym until it warms up again. I am probably the only idiot in the tri-state area that wants to the temp to rise back up into the upper 80's.

The guy who taught my spin class is one of the best instructors I've ever had, and definitely the best at my gym. He plays nothing but rock and metal throughout the class, and he's hardcore from start to finish. He doesnt do any stupid aerobics type shit on the bike, and he's got a good mix of climbs, sprints, tempo rides, etc. If I had to complain about one thing, it would be maybe the lack of enough recovery time. But that might be more of a function of my intensity relative to the rest of the class - I wont lie, and this is not to be construed as 'bragging,' but I bring my A-game to every class, and I think I am one of the hardest working, if not the hardest working m-fer in the class. I guess in theory as I adapt to the training, the recovery time should be sufficient.

I pulled an average of 278 watts for today's class over 50 minutes. That metric cannot be equated to wattage on a real bike, but it's a good metric to use to gauge my fitness. In the beginning of the year, I was averaging 220, then 250, then 260, now close to 280, and that is with me increasing my basline resistance as well. But like I said, today's class was hardcore - big ring, high cadence. I was hitting 400+ a few times. I have to check my HR monitor, but I was redlining a few times this morning.

Dead Things

I see alot of dead things on the road when I do these early morning rides. Raccoons, possums, deer. Reminds of the mortality of human life and how I could become road kill in an instant if I get tapped by a car. At least on the trails, probably the worst I could is hit a tree or loose it on a nasty downhill. I'd probably still walk away in better shape than if I were to have gotten plowed by a car that weighs close to a ton.

What I am doing cannot technically be called "training" because I am not doing any type of structured training plan - I just go out and ride. It's good and it's bad. It's good because it gives me a lot of freedom to just do whatever the hell I want, when I want. It's bad because I am probably not maximizing the time I am actually spending on the bike.

Training Upate

So as it turns out I picked up a race timing gig for the same day as the Guy's Neshaminy Race, so there goes that plan out the window. But, the Fairhill race is July 10th and I am wide open that day so I am going to throw my hat into the ring for that race. I havent been to Fairhill in ages. I cant remember the last time that I raced there. The upside to the scheduling conflict is that I will get more time to train.

The training has been going well. I feel good on the bike- comfortable; probably more comfortable that I have felt on a mountain bike in a very long time. The Jamis is amazing. It's a combination of the suspension system (which I think I finally have dialed in to where it needs to be). The thing climbs like a monster which is surprising for a full sussy that tips the scales close to 28 pounds. The suspension technology has come along way since my last "new" full suspension bike - the shock allows the rear wheel to track over everything. I have yet to loose traction on a climb and the steering is amazingly nimble for a bike with a relatively high head tube angle. The bike descends like a beast which should be expected from a full suspension bike with as much travel as thing coupled with the geometry of the bike.

I am climbing very well. I can definitely see some good progress on my fitness. I am not totally gassed at the top of many of the climbs that would take the wind out of my sails about a month ago. As a matter of fact, I have been working on keeping my power consistent through a climb and not "laying off" at the crest. Also, I am working on good gear selection and keeping my cadence high instead of burning my quads in a big ring - I am not Jan Ulrich. I dont have that kind of power. I am not fast, but quite frankly I really have not had the opportunity to do any real "speed" training. I have been doing alot of solo riding and I really dont get a chance to hammer unless I ride with others, like Lou and Dom.

Speaking of riding, I have been putting a fair amount of time on the bike. I've been going out in the morning to Darlington Woods 2-3x's a week. The rides are short because I am pressed for time, but it beats the spin classes and it gives me the opportunity to put some rubber on the trails. There's alot of things in the spin classes that dont translate well outside, namely, bike handling. Any idiot can put a spin bike on a high resistance level and crank up a hill for five minutes; it takes a special kind of idiot (like me) to crank up a hill on a twisty, rooty loose and maintain traction. In some respects I am probably getting a better cardio workout in the spin class but there's no equal to being on the trails, on your own bike, facing "real world" conditions. This morning I jumped into a spin class for the first time in 2+ weeks because I needed to do a recovery ride - high cadence/ low resistance. Otherwise, I am going to try and stick to the outside world as much as I can. This current heat wave is brutal, but that's also a big reason why I got riding at 5:40 am in the morning - much cooler.

And so it goes...

Today is March 17th. I have about one month until my triumphant(ly horrible) return to mountain bike racing. I need to get serious about the training. This is a tough week - I am flying to Massachusetts for two days this week, and unless my hotel has a weight room, that puts me behind the 8-ball with respect to getting some spinning in this week.

I had a pretty good streak of training days last week - three days in a row of spinning with some running mixed in (until the friggen pain in my side got bad enough that I had to stop). My wattages are looking good, considering that I had to take a some days off with being sick. I'd have to go back and look at my data on my garmin but I know that I averaged 246 watts on the second session and 270 watts my third session (for about 30 minutes) - I dont think I could maintain that wattage for the full hour. I've geen hitting the mid 400 watt range in my sustained sprints (~ 30 seconds).

I'm definitely modfiying the classes as I take them to better suit the actual skills that I would need to apply to a mountain bike. Some of the "moves" in the classes arent very applicable to a bike, so I'll do my own thing while the instructor takes the rest of the class through his/her routine.

I got a referal to a couple of sports medicine specialists. I have to call today and setup an appointment with one of the Dr.'s that my GP highly recommends for this nagging sidepain. I really want to get this thing straightened out so I can race in the tri in July up in Towamencin

I am going to cobble together a training plan today that's going to have me put alot of time in with the bike because that's the immediate training need in light of the upcoming mountain bike race, with some swimming mixed in. If I cant train for running, there's no harm in at least trying to train for the other two legs of the tri while I am training for this MTB race.

I need to get my f*t @ss into shape

The title cuts right to the chase.

I went out for a ride on Sunday - only the 2nd time on the new Jamis since I picked it up this winter. I haven't been as dedicated with my "training" as I had in the earlier part of the spring - I got sick and that lingered on for about two weeks, and then it took me a bit of time to get my rear back into the gym.

There were times on Sunday that I truly felt my that heart was going to jump out of my chest, run along side of me, and curse at me and heckle. My legs felt ok, which leads me to believe that the hours of spinning that I have been throwing in lately have had some sort of payoff, but the engine needs some tuning-up.

So, I have decided to register for a mountain bike race on June 18th - Guy's Neshaminy Classic. I have done this race three times (I think) over the course of the past ten years. Its a good course and a great race and I need something to motivate me to get my ass up out the bed at 5 am to get to the gym

So its done. Registered. I am registered for the Sport Class - that's like the intermediate division. I thought about Beginner, given the shape I am in, but a former teammate of mine bitch slapped me. He's got a point - I've been riding since 1993. That's close to 18 years of experience. Just on principle, I don't belong in the Beginner Class, even if I get my ass handed to me in Sport. It will be 14 miles of pain. I have a month to train. Let the fun begin.

Spin

In an effort to get myself in shape, I have decided to immerse myself into spinning. I have had alot of luck using spin classes to get myself into decent riding shape over the years. Some would argue that the only way to really train for cycling would be via a true indoor trainer. I beg to differ. I'll admit that maybe the spin bike doesnt offer quite the same training benefits as riding one's own bike on an indoor trainer. However, there are some trade offs I'm willing to accept.

• Having used an indoor trainer in the past, there's a certain level of solitude one must accept. Essentially, the rider is sitting in an empty room with perhaps a TV. Sitting on a trainer for two hours with some movies to watch might be fine for some, but I'd go postal eventually
• I need and like the social aspect of the gym. I like eye candy. I like being in a room with thirty (30) other knuckleads working their asses off.
• I like the competition. I like looking around the room at the people who arent breaking a sweat, while I am leaving a puddle of water on the floor, and know that I am the hardest working man in that room.
  

I'll probably have close to three (3) hours of spin time this week (an hour per class). Eventually I am going to step that up to four (4) classes. In some cases I'll go a half hour early and ride on my own before class.

This week, I ran twice. 3.4 miles and then a 1.25 miler. Nothing crazy, but pain free. No side pain, no calf pain. I am not going to go crazy. I view running as a secondary method of cross-training at this point. Cycling is and will be the primary training.

Donuts

I got my fat ass into the gym tonight to a spin class. I finally realized how grossly out of shape I am. I was in agony. At one point I think my heart was going to jump out of my chest and heckle me. Additionally, I had to put on fancy clothes today for a trip to Boston (that never happened) and I couldn't button the top button of my dress shirt. Not good.

New bike this Friday. I'd like to take her in for a break-in ride this weekend. I love doughnuts

Hide the Pickle

I didnt get into the gym once this week. That's horrible. However, I did get a tattoo, as most of you might have seen on Facebook. I get a new bike this weekend, so I got that going for me. If I can get the derailleur cable on my Y bike fixed, I'll go a ride later. No one cares. I am boring myself just talking about it.

But what is important is the running of the 1st Run of the 2011 Winter Pickle Running Series. We had 300+ knuckleheads running around Ridley Creek State Park and I think everyone had a ton of fun. The trail conditions were perfect - 2" to 4" of fresh powder with no ice, and yesterday was a crystal clear day.

We had one injury that actually required medical attention. One of the 5k runners lost his footing and went ass over teacups coming around the turn-around point. He fucked himself up good. I dont know how he got back to the start, but when I caught up to him, he was lying in the back of Tim's truck and he wasnt in good shape. There was a Dr. on site who had wrapped his arm up and by all appearances, it looks like he popped out his shoulder.

When the first responders arrived, they came in full force - an ambulance, a volunteer's truck, and one of those fast response firetrucks, complete an actual fireman in full get. Big thanks to those guys.

Check out the Pickle Facebook page - do a search for "The Pickle Run" and become one of our friends. We have no friends. Where do you think we find the time to put on this stupid event?

Snow Ride

I killed two birds with one stone day - the first mountain bike ride of the year and first Snow Ride of 2011. However, not being in shape, coupled with riding in snow - which is like riding in sand - knocked the shit out of me. And I broke a chain, which doesnt surprise me because there is an unspoken but generally accepted rule that states whenever three (3) or more Drexel Alumni are riding together, something will break. The other part of that rule states that the odds are very good that the person breaking something will be me.

This is the part where I lost all feeling my fingers

Out of shape. Riding in snow. Broken chain. It could be worse - I could have been running. Rat bastard running...

I Hate Running

I hate running. That sounds a little dramatic but I had a run last night that just re-affirms my decision to quit running for a bit. My back hurt and I was miserable. Granted, I checked it in mentally, so that wasn't helping - aka I didn't want to be out there in the first place.

I'm bike shopping, mountain bike to be specific. Shopping is probably too strong a word for what I am doing since I already know what I want and I don't have to physically shop for it. The crew that I ride with, we have a hookup that shall remain nameless, but lets just say that its no coincidence that most of us ride Jamis bikes. So I think I am picking up a Jamis 650B. That means nothing too most people. Just know that it goes fast. And it looks fast.




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Location:Camelot Dr,Brookhaven,United States

Strep Steady Diet of Nothing

I got the strep. Throat is on fire. I went to one of those mini-clinic jawns this morning and they gave me some roids and amoxicilin. This is awesome. My diet has consisted of nothing but ice cream and popsicles - a steady diet of nothing (which is also the name of DC based punk band from way back. Can you name it?)

The Midnight 5k went off without a - hitch. They had two-hundred sixty registered runners and two hundred twenty finishers. I wish I could have stayed for more of the post race festivities, but I just wanted to go home and go home and go to bed. Once I got home, I didnt actually to bed until 5 am because 1) my throat was on fire and 2) I wasnt tired. So I popped two unisoms and an ambien. You would think that after that dosage of meds, it would have been "goodnight Irene" but I still rolled around until 5:30 am.