18 November 2010 - 6:31Preparations

In my lameness, I have not really attempted to ride my bike in any way shape or form for the betterment of my fitness. 45 minute pokes in the woods are fun, but don’t really do much except pass the time. Now that must change. I have that big ride in Arizona coming up in February that I ought to be ready for, and 48 miles in the desert just doesn’t ride itself you know…

So I suppose I actually have to get out there and ride some, whether I like it or not.

Some of my friends have already logged some trainer time, and while I think about jumping on the hampster wheel, I can’t quite bring myself to do it. What I really need to do, is get my lazy ass out there on the orange bike and grab some gravel road miles and suffer in the cold boredom that is winter riding here in VT.

That first ride is always the hardest, because it only means that there will be months and months of the same cruel slogging through mushy dirt roads. But it must be done. After those first few painful miles, it gets a little easier, and soon the transition can be made from the shortish flat rides to the longer ones with the serious climbing added to the distance. It’s practically like starting from zero again.

But while I’m not doing that, I am tweaking and refining my weapon of choice for the big ride. I’m gonna hopefully get some off road miles on it over Thanksgiving in PA, just to make sure it is truly battle ready. SSAZ is not the only thing this bike has to be ready to throw down for… Besides Singlespeed-a-palooza in May, there is also SSUSA to consider, which is to be held in CO at a date TBD. And SSWC is to be held in Ireland also TBD.

Seems like I got a lot on my plate already, and it isn’t even 2011 yet!

I’m also furiously growing my pathetic beard so that I can try to have some good ironic facial hair for these big rides. It is no secret that Dejay can grow awesome ironic facial hair almost overnight. I cannot.

I haven’t done any kind of facial grooming since September 30th, yet this is all I can come up with. It’s at the point where it does do a good job of keeping the cold off my face, but I’m secretly hoping for some sort of tipping point to occur – when a certain amount of time might pass and BWOON! all of a sudden it’s out of control. I couldn’t be so lucky.

Instead I’ll probably end up having to manscape some sort of a goofy moustache or beard.