Friday

Morning weigh-in: 180.5#, 12.5% BF

Went to the gym last night, had vertigo problems when I was on my back (bench, crunches) but kept going, worked my way through it (muscles performed very well at least). I felt OK afterward, but I was a little headachey -- I had GI distress all day too; all of this probably adds up to allergies of some kind, hopefully not the start of a cold or sinus infection. I almost blew off going out, but I expected to meet friends at WB, also I was hungry and didn't feel like cooking, and I also wanted to see Dave Cahill play, so off I went.

It was the right decision. Dave was awesome, dinner was good too, and I hung out with the usual gang of miscreants... didn't stay long though, got home and was in bed by 10:30. Woke up exhausted at 7:00, still feel tired: typical after a gym night, especially since I changed from "endurance" to a "strength" routine. Think I'll stay in tonight.

The Coffee Ride

Morning weigh-in: 179#, 14% BF

Last night I hooked up with the crew from the South Mountain Cyclery and Coffee Shop in Emmaus, for their weekly MTB ride up on, um, South Mountain. The ride starts at 6:00, which is kind of tough for me to get to; I was running late but they were too, so I got there "on time." The owner of the shop is Mark B, a guy I raced with back in 1997: he and I were both walk-ons for Scott H & Doug V's "Team Freakin A-" at the 24 Hours of Canaan. I'm not sure if he remembers that, probably does remember me from the more rancorous of the Valley Mountain Biker days. Anyway, he was there, as well as Dave Prior and three younger guys. (Heath & Hans would be starting at 6:30 from another location, and hopefully meeting us in the woods.)

Anyway, the ride started by going up the mountain on a paved road, maybe a mile of climbing to the trailhead; then came a downhill section of trail that didn't look like it got much use, very hard to even see the trail, and finally we were on some sweet, technical singletrack. We stopped for a bit, and saw lights on another trail so we waited, and it turned out to be Heath & Hans. Ride on some more -- fast bunch of guys, but I think I held my own except for the bigger logs (say 12" diameter and bigger, and there were a lot of them), where I really choked. It was funny, these guys were floating over the big logs, but a lot of the things that slowed them down or gave them trouble (rocks, rough surfaces) I didn't think were all that hard. It was probably the Turner that got me through, but I preferred to think of it as "Don is relatively stronger in the rocks."

At one point we stopped again, and again saw other lights in the woods, this time much further away. It looked like three riders, and somehow these guys surmised that it was Jon Gabor with a few friends, so we waited. And waited, and waited... eventually they were within shouting distance, but we never hooked up.

We rode a little more, over into the parts of South Mtn that I recognize (by the power lines), and finally back through town to end at the shop. Excellent ride! I'm going again next week.

Tonight is the gym, then "Hipster Night" at Which Brew, where Dave Cahill is playing. I'll probably run into Heath & Hans there...

Funny insight: I saw T the other day, and we got to talking. I told her I got another new bike, she told me she got another cat. I guess it's really over...

Imagine

Morning weigh-in: 181.5#, 10% BF (damn you, Taco Bell!)

RIP John Lennon, killed on this date in 1980 -- he was a year younger than I am now...

You may say I'm a dreamer,
but Im not the only one,
I hope some day you'll join us,
And the world will live as one.

I remember in high school, the day he died, or rather the next day when it was all over the news. Basically, the school shut down, nothing got done. (A very large proportion of the teachers were baby-boomers, who were totally devastated.) I spent the day in the band room listening to Beatles songs with the music teacher and a ton of students.

Went over Doug's house last night, and after much hijinks (can you say Dremmel tool?) I got my old cleat removed and the new one on. Tonight I'll be riding with Heath and Hans and Dave P, and whoever the crew is that rides out of South Mountain Cyclery and Coffee Shop -- dark woods, too much caffeine...

Spanky McSpankerson

Morning weigh-in: 185#, 14% BF

Friday night was Which Brew, where the music was a little on the lame side, then Saturday night was the same thing with a different lame-o... I was tired Saturday, took a nap and only decided last-minute to go out because I'd heard that the singer was pretty good, oh well.

Sunday was supposed to be an Allamuchy ride, but I blew it off to help Doug and Eric up at Salisbury. I rode from home, then rode the trails behind St Luke's and into Walking Purchase Park, where I picked up the trailhead for the aptly-named Spanky (actually named for Greg H aka "Spanky" who made the trails there happen, but it does lay down some serious whoop-ass). Lots of difficult fun, as you climb up to the Luby's Loop switchbacks (the Lubys, father and son, are very active in building the trails), down through John and Dave's section, and I caught up with D & E planning out some new trails in the big rock garden. We played around there for a while, then went up to the trail we were working on a few weeks back, extending it another few hundred yards. This area is all rock, a lot like the "goat trail" and needs quite a bit of work, so the progress was slow.

About 2:00 we knocked off and went riding, which is when I found out I broke one of my cleats while scrambling in the rocks... I tried riding for a while but it was not much fun, so I just decided to limp back home. Got home around 4:00, ate -- leftover rice/tuna/kim-chee in pitas, very tasty -- and napped again. Spanked...

Got up later, had dinner at Porters while I did laundry. Tonight is Mug Club Nite at WB after spinning, so Tuesday won't be laundry nite but xmas shopping instead.