rjones28 

Oo. Fancy.

rjones28 

Custom

LesterOfPuppets

In other bird news, I saw a dead lovebird in the bike lane on my way home this evening.

DougRNS

SMMFH

Heathpack 

We are still negotiating but received an offer from them today which we need to respond to by 5pm Sat. Definitely a number we’d accept.

However the broker of some folks who looked this week called today to say they want to take a second look. They were informed we have an (as-yet) unaccepted offer. So we’ll see if they make the effort to look tomorrow morning and make an offer of their own. If not we’ll accept the one we have.

You never know because a boat’s a boat but we expect the survey will go well. We had her hauled two years ago and replaced a bunch of through-hull fittings. Generally we’re very on top of all routine maintenance since she’s been a charter boat and likewise we’ve always just immediately fixed anything that broke so as not to lose charter days. We’re not expecting any surprises.

But then again: she’s a boat.

45 day escrow which is not contingent upon a loan so if we sign tomorrow, it’s just the survey and the sea trial I think. She might be gone from us the first week of April.

Everyone says I’ll be happy that day but I expect to be sad. She’s really a lovely thing.

Heathpack 

So aside from selling the boat, I have come to another momentous decision just today: I parted ways with my coach of five plus years. Nothing against Coach, I just have been having trouble getting it done of late, and that aspect of cycling (the missed workouts) was becoming a stressor unto itself.

Definitely coming to this decision is something that made me sad. I’m not sure if I’ll try to race but I’m thinking I will just ride with friends for awhile. I’ve had a schedule and structured workouts for 5 years now & I have really enjoyed the overall arc of it. I need a break but will probably feel adrift for a while. We’ll see, maybe I’ll prefer the freedom to just ride however.

<sigh>

kissTheApex

I wish I had the desire to work with a coach and will power to put in the work, not to prepare for racing or anything but to keep the schedule consistent.

Allow me to whine that I’m tired of the rat race .. no matter what, I’m too fat for this sport.

datlas 

FWIW riding with friends is more fun and less suffering than racing. Of course, it depends on your goals. I think you have made the right choice.

MoAlpha

I won’t be happy when we sell. A good sailboat has too much personality, has given too much pleasure, taken you safely through too many dangers, to sell without sorrow. So much of what’s sweet and fun about our relationship is tied up in our boat too. Also, when we sell (unless it’s to get another boat) it will be because of some major change in our lives, probably not for the better. Ugh.

datlas 

Mrs datlas is in a monthly book club. Makes me consider a monthly bike book club for my local cycling gang. Book should be somehow cycling related, but as superficial or deep as we want.

Good idea?

datlas 

Sun is up. Time to ride. Will be trying the nitrile exam gloves under regular winter gloves. Report to follow.

Trsnrtr

I think that would be a great idea.

WhyFi

Ditto.

Pirkaus

Is it safe to read a book, while riding a bike?
Asking for a friend.

Heathpack 

Well we shall see.

I like the racing but there’s some real negatives to it, being solely a TTist.

1. There’s almost no solid or reasonable aspirational goal events. State TTs within driving distance of me have all been cancelled or rescheduled in recent years, which makes training for them as a goal event very difficult. The USA Cycling National TT is always on a Thursday which they’re not open to changing. This translates into taking a week off from work (need to arrive Tues, which means being off Tues through Fri) and then women are typically given races later in the schedule when heat & wind are more of a factor. National Senior Games is worth doing but the qualifying races are on Tues/Wed which is again hard to accomplish as a non retired person, plus the next race is in Florida in June, ugh.
2. Without aspirational goal races, it’s just racing the same two venues over and over, with no races having much particular significance
3. It’s isolating because you can’t always mesh your training schedule with your friends’ plans, so you ride solo alot
4. There’s no real appropriate race team for me to join to find folks who have similar goals and interests. Most race teams are geared towards mass start racing (because that’s what you need a team for) and TT is given zero thought, it’s not interesting to folks on the team in any way

But workdays I can’t really ride with others too easily anyway. Having a nice challenging workout on my schedule without me coming up with it on my own was a nice luxury. Being able to execute on the TT bike is cool too- it requires a degree of mental focus and being 100% in just one exact moment at a time is very zen and somehow very cleansing to me. Maybe it’s because I multitask all day at work- but the TT work is a cool thing to be. Not to mention that it works a type of fitness that o don’t typically work on my own in a group ride- the sustained threshold effort. It’s an antisocial effort, on account of the inability to chat and the slight drooling.

So for me, it’s complicated. But for the immediate time being, I think a little less structure will be a good thing.

LesterOfPuppets

Totally safe for stokers to read while riding

Heathpack 

I was previously all about that desire and it was zero problem for me to spring out of bed before dawn on work days to get a workout in.

But gradually a lot happened to erode that:
1. Coach assigned almost all TT workouts which are hard to do with friends (although I do have friends who routinely ride before dawn year round)
2. My train schedule has gradually crept earlier, meaning I have to finish my ride earlier in order to make my train. I also have to finish my ride with sufficient time to upload data and make notes for coach. So it’s usually a 4:20 or 4:30 wake up time. It gets tiring.
3. I became more reluctant to ride solo pre-dawn on the road after I crashed and got a concussion. That was on a ride with friends and thankfully they were there to help me when my brain wasn’t working too well.
4. Physiologically I need a fair amount of rest to TT well, so my fun weekend rides with friends were of necessity kept somewhat under wraps
5. I got a dog who wasn’t super self confident so I started doing dog sports with her to give her something for her to feel pride/confidence in. She’s young but this season turned out to be a super little rabbit dog and she’d rocked her Field Trials and Hunt Tests. I’ve met a whole new circle of friends who want to do dog stuff together, and these trials and tests are literally all day events (sun up to sun down, no time to ride). Plus I’ve gotta train the dog and also the puppy.
6. We bought a Disneyland Annual pass this year which I’d like to enjoy and get our money out of.

So suddenly I was super tightly scheduled all winter long (field trial season), getting up Uber early, only doing TT trainer workouts and started to feel overwhelmed. I’d skip workouts and that kind of thing doesn’t sit well with me. I’m just the kind of person who shows up for all scheduled things, on time and prepared. Something had to give.

Ironically the field season is essentially over and my schedule is going to lighten up in a big way. It feels like that’s happening just a few weeks too late for me.

Whatever, I can always go back to it, either with my recent coach or some other one, if I really miss the structure.

MoAlpha

If they’re the literary type. I was in a book club years ago, a small social thing with very idea-driven and intellectual people, and, with some notable exceptions, my Sportsfreunde, would not have fit in.

MoAlpha

My wheel dealer is in Europe, but I’ll have the PRC1400s in a week.

My back is feeling normal for the first time since the hit and I seem to have misplaced a couple of pounds since then, despite a lot of resistance work. Long, slow ride tomorrow.

rjones28 

Welcome to the new age.

rjones28 

Same

rjones28 

Rode outside for the first time in a while. I did not wear nitrile gloves.

Velo Vol 

The sun is still cold but it's a day that gives one hope that this godforsaken season may one day end.

The other day I was enjoying birds in the lawn. Some cardinals, a blue jay, and unknown brown birds. I am a man of the common bird.

Velo Vol 

This.

BillyD

Been there, done that. "Alexa, call my cell phone".