The Forgetful Mind.

I hate it when I forget things. I seem to be forgetting things more often these days. I'm not sure if I'm getting senile or if I've clipped one too many saplings while out blazing down trails. It just bugs me to no end.


Case in point: I purchased this can of mushrooms with a specific purpose in mind. I know I wanted to mix them with something but that something escapes me. As you can see, it's a cheap can of Kroger mushroom buttons, so whatever I had in mind for them was nothing fancy. Maybe it will come to me later, but for the moment, I have a can of mushrooms without a purpose.
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August 10, Edit: Spaghetti! I got the mushrooms for spaghetti!

~ Fight Like Susan ~

Elden Nelson, the Fat Cyclist, lost his wife, Susan, last night after a long bout with cancer. Affectionately known as “Fatty” to his many readers, Edlen has entertained cyclist across the country with his humorous insights and inspired with his tireless fight against cancer.

My heart goes out to Elden and his family during this very difficult time.

With deepest sympathy,
Richard

Enjoying the Fruits of My Labor

The weather has been dismal the past several days, and I have neglected my bikes in favor of doing trail work at the Whirlpool Trails here in town. However, with the break in the rainy weather today, I decided to get out and enjoy the fruits of my labor and thread a little single-track.

I could have published more photos of the trails but my camera went on the blink, probably from condensation since it was in my jersey pocket and I was sweating like a pig. It appears the dog days of August have arrived. I had to stop every mile or so to wipe the sweat out of my eyes. It was simply awful! I perspired so much while riding that I lost close to three pounds in a two-hour ride.


This used to be a very nasty dip on the Weldy Trail at the bottom of a down hill run. It totally screwed up the trail flow, so I filled it with large sticks and packed everything down with a layer of dirt and sand. I also used some large rocks I found to give it a little "edge".

This downed tree on the Stunt Trail used to bring everyone to a dead stop. I piled up logs and sticks to create a “log pile” and packed it with dirt. I promise it’s stable and fun to ride.

Too far to the left and you clip the sapling. Too far to the right and you hit the root with your tires.

There used to be a vertical drop close to eight inches between the stump and the tree that was almost imposable to get over. The worse part was a root that protruded upward and would usually clip my pedal. I solved this by cutting the root back and constructing a “ramp” from sticks and dirt. Now this section is much smoother.

This section is just crazy fast. You zip one way and zag another.

The funny thing about this sapling is I debated if I should cut it out or leave it alone. I decided to leave it alone. Well, today I clipped it with my handlebar and took a dirt dive. The sapling is bent over because I bent it that way after my collision. I'd have cut it down on the spot if I had my machete.

First Impressions: Avid Elixir-CR Brakes

After experiencing persistent problems with sticky pistons and the levers not returning properly on my Magura Marta SL brakes, I decided to give the new Avid Elixir-CR brakes a shot. These brakes came highly recommended by Steve at the local shop.

The first thing I noticed about the Elixir brakes is the smooth lever action, especially when compared to my old Magura brakes. There is an even and consistent feel through out the lever travel, which was lacking in the Magura stoppers. Another noticeable difference is the tool-free adjustment feature of the Elixir brakes. Reach adjustment is controlled by a black dial at the base of the lever and pad contact is controlled via a red barrel adjuster where the line runs into the lever. A key selling point here is the independent nature of each adjustment feature. Adjusting lever reach, for example, will not affect how the pads feel in contacting the rotor, so you can literally tailor the feel of your brakes to the trail conditions. Speaking of brake pads, the most noticeable difference between the Elixir-CR brakes and my old brakes is the absence of brake squeal. The Elixir-CR pads and 185 rotors are simply dead silent. There was none of the usual metallic grinding sound or the high-pitched squeal so common in mountain bike brakes.

What's in a Doodle?

The dictionary defines a doodle as any type of sketch or unfocused drawing made while a person's attention is otherwise occupied. These simple drawings can have concrete representational meaning or may just be abstract shapes.

If this is true, then doodles are essentially expressions of the subconscious mind and open to psychological interpretation. Such notables in the field of psychology as Freud and Jung held that doodling is an act where the individual is conscious, but the meaning of the drawing is unconscious. Alfred Adler believed doodling fulfilled our need for symmetry and order.

With this, I offer a page of my own doodles for interpretation and analysis.

Click the image for a larger view.

93-miles and a New Route

I went on a nice 93-mile ride today with a couple of teammates and pushed a rather brisk pace for the majority of the trip. I recall looking down at my computer at one point when we were rotating on a flat section and seeing 28 mph. We spent most of the time in the 21 to 22 mph range not counting sprints to various city limit signs along the way.


The area along 76 and from Ecru to Hurricane is all new to me. There are some nice rollers out there and one flat stretch east of Ecru.

Sunday Iron-Butt Rainout & Monday Road Ride

Sunday:
I didn’t make it to the Iron Butt 100 in Memphis on Sunday and judging from some of the photos I've seen not going was a smart move. I don’t mind a damp trail but shin deep mud is just not my thing.

Since the Iron Butt didn’t happen, I went to help with a local crit on the Ole Miss campus where I worked a section of road for the cat-5, cat-4, and open women’s races. I hung out at the finish line for the cat-1,2,3 race and enjoyed watching the action.

The cat-4 race reminded me just why I gave up road racing this year. I basically don’t miss all the nonsense that some people bring to these events. It can be a bit much. The cat-4 race, for example, was little more than a moving cloud of noise peppered with obscenities, arguing among teammates and adolescent testosterone. The amusing part was watching the largest cat-4 team in the race completely self-destruct by chasing down every break from their own teammates. Give me single-track!

Monday:
Today I decided to get in some long miles on the road bike and set out to do my 244 loop east of town.

About 10-miles into my ride I encountered this truck spraying goodness knows what on the side of the road. Keeping my distance, I waited for the wind to shift then gave it my best sprint to get around the rolling chemical spill.

While out on county road 202, I noticed a lot of these flowers on the side of the road and decided to snap a photo of them. I think they’re Black Eyed Susies, but I’m not sure. Let’s hope the chemical truck took a different route.

I snapped this photo on the return leg of my trip because it reminded me of a Cézanne painting.

When I got back to town, I stopped by the shop to shoot the bull and get some water. The guys were busy building up this Moots YBB 29er. I think there are five or six people in town with Moots bikes now, but I’m the only person with a Moots ZX.