episode 125 : Perry Rubay

Friday night started with a furious group of us at la tol teca, because as FFAmy put it, "they don't mind if you get obnoxious there." For the record we did get quite obnoxious. It has been a long time since I had done any drinking, and I was pretty grumpy. Nothing cures grumpy like tequila. I forgot how good it felt to get my swerve on. That was nice. this is Jen's burrito:

Saturday saw a small group of us, (Wes the conqueror, Alan the cleaner, Jan aka Uncle Mike from America, Kurtee and I) hit up the trails at Elk Neck. As maestro I played spider fighter, confirming that despite cooler temperatures, the creatures of Elk Neck would soon close the trails for another season. This was Wes's first trip to elk neck. He is now one of the converted, can I get a witness from the congregation?

The group of us hiking up one of the steepy, steeps:

Kurtee and Alan the cleaner enjoy the beautiful look out. Who would guess in less than 12 hrs a horrible nor'easter would roll in:

Saturday night a large group of us hit the PRG2 in coatesville. Lots of new problems on the bouldering wall. I feel badly because the new Delaware Rock Gym just opened, but there's so many new problems at PRG2, which is my home gym, (is it weird I've been climbing 2 months and have a home gym?) I kinda feel compelled to work these until

I'm a little more familiar with them, and you know able to finish a couple of them.

My hands were hurting all night, and I admit despite having a really fun time, I climbed pretty poorly. But on the bright side, I have gotten very good at falling off the wall. There were so many from the cycling crew here Saturday night, Genia coined it a "cycling invasion" Never has the climbing gym seen so many dudes with shaved legs, bird chests, and atrophied arms.

Following our our climbing, we all headed down the road to the four dog tavern. I had an excellent salad, but my sandwich, a BLT with Salmon, was awful. First there was hardly any B, L or T, and the Salmon was really fishy tasting. Of course all of this was forgiven with a delightful dessert call the dog bone. It was an odd tasty pastry of sorts, complimented with 2 scoops of woodside ice cream. Delicious.

Since I've been sick, my best training move is rest, so as the nor'easter rolled in and destroyed any chances of riding today, a ton of us (Monkey, Dan the Man, Dennisbike, Lisa Lisa, Spot Paul, E-town, Meghan, Tom (papa smurf), Wes (t. Conqueror), Fitzy, Kurtee, Jan and I think I didn't miss anyone) enjoyed Belgium waffles, coffee, and donuts as we all cheered Old Stewy on to victory at Paris Roubaix. Admittedly, not a single one of us had picked him, but when he broke away with 25K to go, not a single one was routing against him.

all in all a very cool day. I have to admit, since I've been sick or getting over being sick for so long now I can't remember when I put together a solid week of training. This was another week of 6.5 hours, and the intensity I did was too soon, and I just crumbled anyway. I don't even feel like much of a bike racer at all right now. Usually I pride myself in working my ass off, and when I'm suffering, mentally I say to myself, "dude out work, think about how hard you work."

I wonder what I'll think of next weekend? "Boy you've been riding that couch hard. Those remote control intervals have you in great shape." Saturday after elk neck, there was a fairhill ride out of my place, and I just didn't have the heart to go on it, I wanted to, but just felt like I'd bury myself too much and delay getting healthy. On one hand I feel like I don't want to do anything to screw up my mtb season, but I feel like, by not doing anything, which is really hard for me, I'm screwing up my mtb season. So much for coming into season stronger than ever. I am so gonna get my ass kicked in the next couple of weeks.

I think I need more tequila.

respect.

fm