misery loves company... or sometimes just being left alone

I was glad to read on ThomP's blog that I wasn't the only one having trouble finding motivation to go for a ride today. I've been fighting this all-around disgusting depressed feeling for the last few days and I still can't put a finger on why. The upshot of this is: I end up having a terrible time getting myself to even set foot out the door.

I had promised, last week before the holiday, to arrange a group ride with friends and coworkers who have part or all of this week off and had subsequently come to dread the very idea of pulling it all together. An overactive sense of duty pushed me to make it happen, despite myself, and so the email fired away last night with the invitation for a Monday morning ride. Although I expected he would not have the day off, I included ThomP on the distribution, as I always do. That crucial decision would prove to be the ultimate unraveling of my plan to be a lazy ass and drink coffee and mope on a 60-degree day in December. Thom replied to my message with regrets, but asked whether I was thinking of riding today. I had been, of course (I'm always thinking about riding... but mostly I was thinking about not riding). After another volley of emails back and forth (I assume Thom, like I, was sitting at his computer with a cup of coffee, wild hair, glazed eyes, and still wearing the clothes he slept in - at noon or so) I decided this would be a lot easier over the phone (and that way I could be employing both of my laptops and my phone, all at the same time... gawd I'm a dork). On the phone, I prodded Thom to update his Flash Player and watch the final laps of the Superprestige - all the while my own resolve to do some heavy-duty not-riding began to wash away.

Thom, apparently, has recently taken an aversion to getting dirty, so he blathered on and on and on about riding his Sweet Fixie instead of his mountain bike so he wouldn't have to get dirt under his carefully trimmed fingernails by cleaning his bike afterward. There was something in there about a recent manicure and ruining the rose appliqués or something, but I had stopped paying attention at that point. But in that moment, I lost all control of myself and began unconsciously collecting my riding gear from around the room. Once off the phone, I caught the dramatic final lap of the Superprestige, put on my stretchy things, and bolted for the Jeep (The "J" is pronounced like an "H". Say "Heap").

Parker, when I got there, was still a snowy mess. The rain showers of the last few days had cleared the trails some, but the going was still quite slow and sloppy. In fact, I'd say about a third of the loop I took was unrideable or nearly-so. I couldn't take much more than about an hour of that torment, but it still felt good when all was said and done. And there's not much more to tell than that - no dramatic crashes, no helicopter rescues - just a bike ride (walk ride ride ride walk ride ride) in the woods. But I suppose tomorrow is another day.

The Ice Weasels Cameth

The race that ThomP and Colin put on last week was, by most accounts, a big hit. They both, with a load of help from a long list of friends and family, put together a fun and challenging course and created a festive atmosphere on a premium of space and resources. It just goes to prove: it's not what you've got, it's how you use it. Congratulations, guys.


And then the snow cameth

Yesterday, the Northeast got hit by it's first big snowstorm of the season. To keep from getting stir-crazy, and because a man's gotta eat, I decided to mount the Nokians on the Soma and brave the storm to meet Fiona and Leah for pizza and beers in Cambridge.



It's always a good time being just about the only thing on the road, except for the obvious plows and buses, and the very occasional car. Lucky for me - because the wet, heavy snow made holding a line difficult at points. For the majority of the ride, though, where the snow was well-packed-in, the going was smooth and fast. (The photo above was not taken while going quite as fast as you might be led to believe. My computer reads in km/h. Attempting that maneuver at 30+ in this snow... yeh... that just wasn't going to happen)

boom!.. winnah!

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of this week were filled with our annual planning meetings for Service Course at Mavic for the upcoming race season. The three long days in the conference room were filled with all the minutia of the program: how things were done over the past year, how things will be done in 2009, what needs to be axed, what needs to be ordered. From cables, housing, and crimps to spokes and rims to stickers and hats to tents and tools to clothing for our volunteer corps, no detail was too small to scrutinize - and all of that was just one afternoon's worth of topics. Now we use a few days to button-up the end of the year and then relax for a week or so before jumping feet first into putting our best laid plans into action. Or so I thought.

Boom. Tonight, I get hit with an email that I want to dance in the street over, but as is life, it's not that simple. Instead of relaxing over the break, I'll be getting deep inside my own head, weighing options, priorities, wants, needs... You get the picture. It's also possible I'm overreacting. I do that. It's possible that I could juggle a couple of things more easily than I imagine and with more help and support than I expect. These are all things I'll have to explore and scrutinize before the first of the year.

So, before I get ahead of myself, I think I need to sit back, take a breath, and relax. Things are good, and if I'm not careful, it's possible they might go and get better on me.

wet and wild

The office was closed today, thanks to an ice storm that knocked-out power for an estimated 300,000 people, including the office park where Mavic's U.S. headquarters is located. For me, it meant a day off I wasn't expecting. More importantly to me, my neighborhood, being about 15 miles south of the effected area, was relatively pleasant, if a bit soggy. Okay, really soggy. That wasn't going to stop me from getting a ride in, though.

After getting a few things done round the house that had gone neglected for too long, I kitted up and hit the trail for a quick loop. The trails were a series of rivulets, making the going challenging if I wasn't to end up completely soaked-through on this 46 degree day - not my idea of a good time, so I took it easy. I do enjoy slow-going on a day like today when I've pretty much got the place to myself, save for the dog-walkers near the parking lot where I would begin and end. In fact, I only crossed paths with three others on the trail, once I had left the pooches' play group behind.



My yellow shoes have seen their fair share of abuse at this point and I've got to say they're holding up well to everything I've thrown at them. The fit is great and they're incredibly stiff and stable for such a lightweight race shoe. After today's ride, though, I've got to admit that I'm really excited to get my feet into a pair of Mantras for the softer, grippier, more heavily lugged (if a bit heavier) outsole and for the included booties that will surely keep the feet warmer than the exceptionally vented Furys.

There's not anything remarkable to report, beyond that. "That" was enough to keep me satisfied on a day I otherwise could have spent in the cube farm.

I skipped karaoke for this?

You bet your ass I did.



I finally got the IF built up again, proper-like, with a Marzocchi 4X and a pair of Crossmax SX wheels. I would like to have kitted it out with a lighter fork, but the 4X is relatively unique in that it has no complex system of platform, lockout, or travel adjust; it's a simple, open-bath fork with 110mm travel out of the box, derived from the DJ1 fork, but with a lighter steerer and stanchions. Since I developed the geometry of my frame with the offset and the axle-to-crown dimensions of a 110mm travel Marzocchi, in the first place, I thought it best to fit the same to preserve the frame's geometry and ride quality. I'm not disappointed!

I took the bike for a shakedown ride tonight and instantly began to wonder why it was that I stripped the bike and left the bare frame hanging on a wall for so long. The geometry is something I dreamt up with the help of Matt Bracken and Brian Kelly, while they were still with the company, and it is based on the idea of a quintessential New England trail bike. I gave the frame a steep~ish head angle, and high~ish bottom bracket - neither pushed beyond reason, instead, gently tweaked to replicate old-time greats like the 1990s' EWR Woodsbike (recently revived) and Cannondale Beast of the East, but with a modern spin. Tyler Evans lent some of his fabrication mastery to the project and created a hand-formed box-gusset for the downtube/headtube junction, as well as a handful of other construction details that rounded out the stoutly-built frame, while still keeping the overall weight a scant under 5 pounds (not bad for a frame built with two downtubes and five chainstays).

The ride tonight, as one might expect, was fantastic. The bitter cold of the last couple of days moved out, and with snow and more freezing temps looming, I took full advantage of the brief window of opportunity and headed out, solo. I never like to get too far over my head when I'm riding alone in the dark, so I stuck to a trail I know well. Still, in the black of night, even this familiar trail held enough surprises to keep me on my toes.

My input seemed like mere suggestion, rather than command, as tires darted left and right beneath me, searching for traction through the fallen leaves and over damp, slick rock and roots, and while my headlamp produced a vignette of the trail that constantly changed with the ebb and flow of shadows. When I loosened up and let the bike do the work; magic. It rolled like water down the path of least resistance, carving turns and skipping through rock gardens; I'm sure it carried me with authority through lines I never would have seen in broad daylight. That's the charm of riding in the dark.

I just won't let it break me: one is enough

After a ride in Lynn on the resurrected IF, a little time to let my knee recover, and some quiet contemplation, I've decided that singlespeed is still the way for me. The IF will get rebuilt; I love that bike, after all, but it deserves a proper build to let it shine in the places it was designed to be ridden. For most of the riding I like to do, though, the rigid, singlespeed SOMA is the right bike.

I've geared it down, slightly, and we'll see how that works out over the coming months.

mike the headless chicken

So, I'm going through some photos from the last year's travels, and I come across this:

Yep. While I was in Fruita, Colorado, I saw this enormous, steel sculpture, immortalizing Mike the Headless Chicken.

I don't even know where to go from there.

still going

Looks like I was able to keep things separate on my server for the transition, so my older blog posts are still available on blog.todddowns.com.

Ultimately, I'd like to migrate everything over to one program, but this saves me a lot of frustration in the interim.

rebuilding

Hey, all. One quick note.

I've been getting an obscene number of spam-comments from some sort of spamtastic spambot in the last couple of weeks (anywhere between 15 and 25 per day). I think this is due to the lack of a security measure with my old blog editor, so I've switched to blogger, but keeping things hosted on my own server. I'll be migrating posts from the old editor into the new as time allows.