Keith dives into the "V" unprotected...

We spent a little time on this nasty little rock section called the "V". Truth be told I've only cleaned the little bastard twice. Both times I was following Keith's line. Tonight despite a number of attempts none of us made it. It may have been my flash in everyone's face screwing everyone up. Keith said it was because he didn't have the balls he used to. Was that bad? well maybe...

You know what they say about the "V". It's evil. Once you have the "V" you can't ever go with out it. The "V" will make you think differently. The "V" has been the ruin of many a young man's life. That's just what they say.

Finished up the night with that bastard climb up along side the church, every year I wait for the time when I can power up that thing effortlessly and say it was easy. Every year, I curse that thing, and suffer over the top. Tonight was tough, fun and hard. I suffered badly up a number of hills; it may have been my hardest ride this year. I was really happy I could hang in. These are some bad dudes. I'm lucky to get to ride with them.

respect
fm

Rick fumbles on the lip of the "V". Happens to the best of us at least once.

all I can say is that the velvet underground is great, and I like watching the puddles gather rain...

recovery during a nap interval session

Pretty mellow weekend. What you see above is pretty much it. That and I consumed a whole lot of alcohol. Well, a lot for me. Got shots Friday, pain has been better but back was sore where they made the injections. Per the doctor I am off the bike until Monday, so I sat back and watched a lot of basketball, refused to shower, and drank beer. I guess Todd was wrong about Wake going deep huh? Go WV !

Saturday night rocked out with Bry and Tab for a bit. Got a sweet new camera on Zeke’s recommendation. Went to borders totally lit up to read euro trash magazines that I can’t afford, and who do I see gracing the cover of this mag ?
KC is such a rock star. Looking forward to seeing her, chop, and maybe the B’s soon.

Sounds like a bitchen ride Saturday. I was green with envy reading about what a killer group and how much fun it was. The couch, while relaxing, did nothing to exhilarate me, or help me get stronger. Although I have found it is easier to do nap intervals on the couch than the bike.

Sitting on the couch I was thinking about the season. A couple weeks ago I had a nice section, a nice little climb and I was pretty stoked. Slick Rick brought me back to earth saying “we have to be able to do that for 2 hours.” I didn’t think about it at the time, because I was resplendent to just be riding, and not have to stop on top of a hill, but riding Fairhill Thursday, I was pathetic, couldn’t keep the bike rolling, never got on top of the gear. Felt like I struggled in the rollers so much. Sitting on the couch I was just reminded that I have along way to go. Form comes with persistence. I keep reminding myself of that…

Between nap intervals, I spent some time surfing. If you want quick updates on the norba nationals, don’t look at velonews or cyclingnew, go to Jason Sager’s Blog . He updates quickly, has a great perspective considering he is right in the race, and frankly his blog is a great read. It has quickly become one of my favorites. I have enjoyed following along with his season as he looks for a breakout race, and the Norba podium. Best updates on racing, it’s like the quick inside story. Check it out.

more fries please !

Diane was great today. Went out with her family to a restaurant called the Kitty Knight house. It was a little chi chi for our normal taste, and frankly for all the pomp and circumstance the food wasn’t that great. Diane was surly as hell before we left because she had to iron a shirt, and clean up a little. Who’s the dirty bastard now?

Anyway, I had a big damn pretzel covered with cheese and crab meat. Crab was good, but the pretzel was sub par. Also ate a po’ boy sandwich consisting of oysters and cheese and some good veggies. They went heavy on onions which kinda dominated the flavor. Yeah, I know a far cry from the oatmeal diet, but screw it, gotta have a little balance in your life. Anyway, I expected more from this place, as nice as the amenities were the food was on par with pub fare, and not at pub fare prices. The waitress noticed they skimped on my fries, and she loaded me up with an extra bowl. That was nice, although not necessary.

All in all a quiet weekend. Believe it or not I’m looking forward to hitting the training tomorrow morning and to get rolling again. Base 2 starts tomorrow. Let’s see what I can do…

Respect
fatmarc

St. Patrick's Day

Great. more fing crack backs on my hair. My lovely sister in law, who I adore offers up Syndrome as a description for my hair. Great I'm a comic book villain. I think a mullet was better...

Today is St. Patrick's day, the holiest of all holy holidays. My favorite holiday all year. It commemorates the snakes being driven out of Ireland, the world championships of Sean Kelly, the invention of Guinness, John Kerry defeating W, and of course the Red Sox Winning the World Series. Look, everyone wear's green, you celebrate drinking, and it's almost spring. How can you lose?

Diane and I both have off tomorrow; as well I'm getting more injections, so we headed out to Kate's in town to celebrate the holiday. The place was packed. We were probably towards the upper end of the age scale, but WTF it was fun. We had a large plate of nachos, debated about who had the best chip, and Diane filled me in on Alias from last night, and of course drinks. Lots of drinks. Good night.

You know my wife really rules. First of all, I am a dork. I mean a super dork, and Diane, well she's cool. She puts up with all my crap. My cycling foolishness, my 33 year old dude still dressing like I was a skateboarder shit. My "I like to be dirty", I only want to each burritos, and my damn it C is for cookie that's good enough for me bullshit.

I am totally smitten. Thing is, she's perfect for me and that's pretty awesome. What's also awesome is when we are out at bars and she points out all the chicks with big cans to me. Yeah, nothing like watching my lovely wife and a 24 year old, hefty frat boy, almost both spill their drinks while simultaneously pointing out a lovely young lady, who was perhaps showing a little more cleavage than was socially acceptable. And I think, based on the amount of ass she had hanging out of her pants she is going to school to be a plumber. Seriously, the hefty frat dude and Di were in perfect synchronicity, right arm extending, right hands pointing, mouths dropping open, and the inevitable "holy shit!" shouted.

Best part of the entire deal was when the frat dude looked at Diane like he wanted to give her a high 5.Then he realized, that well she was probably in her late 20's and a woman, and well, the inevitable WTF expression on his face was great. Followed of course by him yelling "dude your wife rules !" yeah, I know it. It was a good night.

Like all rock stars Diane is rocking out on the guitar right now. Wait she might have just ate shit sliding across the kitchen in her sox. You know under normal circumstances her balance isn't so great, right now it's really impaired. Wait, she's up again, every things cool.

Got to ride white clay and fairhill today. Hit White Clay at 6:00 am, was seeing stars climbing up that border trail. Trails were dry but didn't roll nearly as well as MR did the other night. I rode one of the obstacles, and shouted out "yeah!!" as I cleaned it for the first time. That was rad. Looping home I hit the same obstacle in a different direction. I was just a little hot and almost launched myself into the log pile. That would have been bad.

Fairhill was awesome. 10 minutes after getting home I was out the driveway and deep into the "crack head bob" trail. It was sweet. Technically I wasn't great today, but I had fun. It's easy to get spoiled following Fuzzy and Matt's lines; Much tougher having to pick you own. But heck, I rode trails 3 days this week. How can I complain?

Well, I just want to wish you and all of yours a happy St. Patrick's day. It is after all, the greatest of all holidays...

Respect
fatmarc

More fun than a....

Yes, the wonder that is Disney...

Chain ring bolts fear this man...

This is supposed to be a rest week for me. Ha.
I get more shots in the spine Friday, so I'm trying to cram all my hours for the week into 3 days, as I won't be able to ride Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Yeah, no sweat. Yikes.

My friend LWeb (If biatch) rode up to meet me today. LWeb, Karen B and I were gonna go for a ride. Now this wasn't all fun, LWeb has been talking to me about roots and shoots program and youth group which may have a tie in to my job. But, as it turns out there was a lunch meeting I was supposed to be in, (it wasn't on my outlook calendar, I swear) and well, I missed it. I went to the meeting organizer told her my dilemma, she was cool, but still couldn't help having a weird feeling in my gut. In the end I think everything was cool, but... well...anyway... we had a fun ride, and did talk some shop. Damn, just a weird moment I guess.

Tonight was another good ride, MR was beautiful. Rolled out of the Zingo's parking lot with Fuzzy, Matty T, Todd, Keith G (bobby's boy), leg breaker Buddy, Single Speed Dan. We ripped the Judge. It was fast as all hell. I was hanging on for dear life and Fuzzy and Matt were picken' out sweet lines. It was just point and shoot. Single Speed Dan and his huge freaking legs destroyed yet another set of chain ring bolts and he was done early. We rolled back to the parking lot, Fuzzy, who was out much earlier bailed, and we picked up Slick Rick.

The rest of the night the fun continued. Leg breaker Buddy stopped a few times to make some minor adjustments to his IONIC. Small victory for me on this night, as this was the first time I wasn’t dropped on a mountain bike ride this year. F- yeah. Form (which I don’t have) comes with persistence. Todd was sporting a sweet knee brace, and plans on racing female/ beginner/ Clydesdale/ for white guys from Brooklyn this season. He was trying to get dropped on the 5 second rule, which he created, but kept hanging around at about 4 seconds. Todd likes Wake to go far in the tournament. I took some beatings over my hair growth:

First this exchange:

Slick Rick: " you going for an Elvis gone bad look with the burns and the mullet ?"
Me; " gunnar has a mullet."
Slick Rick : " gunnar is not a role model."

Then this exchange:

Todd " I'll get everyone to throw in 50 bucks if you go with the real deal. I mean shaved top,
Full on tail in the back, died red."
Leg Breaker Buddy " It's gotta be spiked on top. Gotta be spiked."

Ride ended up with everyone sharing a nice road soda in the parking lot.

Gotta give props to my main man Keith G. Two weeks ago he had a cancerous testicle removed, and tonight he was totally ripping. Not to mention, he had most of us laughing our asses of with one ball jokes. He said it's his way of coping. Dude, not to laugh at cancer, but I almost crashed laughing so hard a couple of times. How do you laugh at that? Stare fucking death in the face and laugh. Shit too deep for fatmarc.com for sure. I'm glad Keith was there. It was great to ride with him again.

Came home and Diane had just gotten home from Guitar. She loves guitar, but is hating a song she's been working on. Yeah Home on the Range. It's like the devil's song for her. What ever you do don't sing "oh give me a home" around her.. Anyway she picked up Taco Bell on the way home. Yeah, Taco Bell isn't the best Mexican, hell it's not Mexican at all, but after a long day, it was quite welcomed. Chicken Quesidilla and cheesey potatoes. mmm good.

heard Jebbagger might have a girl friend. steer clear young jedi, alcohol, women, an recreational drugs have been the downfall of many a good man. (vice versa if you are a woman.) (and if your gay it's been your down fall too, men to men, women to women, yeah you know what i mean...)

Respect
fatmarc