home Stretch

I am curious about motivation.  I've been amazed about how hard I can go in certain situations.  Like being late for a dinner date with my wife, I've done some of my best TT'ing trying to get home in time. 

I've started my racing training, and back on to that familiar stretch.   for my body, but what for the mind?

"A skillful, balanced approach is helpful for one's physical and emotional health, and it applies to one's spiritual growth as well."  my morning tweet from the holy deity Mr. Lama.

I find a selfish joy in my suffering on the bike, some don't like the indoor trainer workouts,  the intense interval workouts,  lungs gasping for air, dead legs, or the careful eating habits, the reduction in beer intake(right).

but that is the...It, for me.  It helps me find a place, a peace, the real ability to be able to pedal myself to far away places. 

photo: M. Harris

I did not win that sprint, but in my heart, mind and soul, next time I will.

So...what I lack in bike racing tactic and intelligence, I'll try to make up with my unbridled spirit.

I like to sit and watch the horses, its good for me to have destinations to ride to.  One is the stables. 

 

Intimidating beast?

Hello the season of 2011, put on your fenders, plan your racing peaks, and do your proper training.

 

.....and watch for those township lines....cheers, dlowe. 

in the Glut

very proper recovery days for me, not over indulging, but, yes, indulging.  I've learned to deal with my family, I've made some really good friends, I've got some good lungs and legs so I can get in some nice rides.  I don't need too much money to find some interesting foods, coffee, cakes, beers and breads.

I missed a ride with friends today.

but was able to join another.

I've been following Mr. Dalai Lama on tweeter, just maybe trying to pick up a little insight. and like the headless Buddha statue that I use to ride past, he has, in an indirect way, taught me something. Not to be afraid of stress, and  not to worry about seeking out peace. That life is not the act of being good or bad. We all have different thresholds, of pain, love, how much beer you can hold. and that threshold is in a constant flux, its never the same.

I really think that Thee Holiness should swing his leg over the top tube and give cyclocross a shot. Why? He looks flabby. He needs to crawl into the cliched "pain cave" for a bit, to take an elbow and be put into the tape.

cyclocross, the bicycle, funny to say, i think has really made me a happier person. Cheers, the not thee holiness, dlowe.



Hard Case.

I'm hard.  I'm lucky, hard is good, yea.  I switched my tyres up on the road bike, bit slower rolling, but (i hope) less flatting.

I saw these dudes, these dudes that changed the face of music, they brought  it on, punk stepping across the line and became something credible,... in a basement.  Playing next to a washer and dryer, some place in W. Philly.
 
                            MUDHONEY

                        

Ten days of Indulgence begins for me, started this afternoon.  Just checking out facebook, and then, whatcha know out riding with Woody and Warren at the Wiss.  

Tonight I'm dipping into an IPA and headed over to Narberth to take George out for his Birthday.  Tron 3-d.

I'm running across old friends in my recent jaunts, last night it was Grips night out.   Saw Ed, hes not a grip, but he saw me drinking, and came over and we chatted it up,  must of been 5 or 6 years since I last spoke to him.  twas very nice.  That and coming across, my long time friend Vincent on the Holiday ride, me all drunk, rambling on to his girl about life. 

Its to easy, this good life, and I'm really not going to fight, the next 10 days, I think that's fair, are mine.  10 days of indulgence.

Have a Fucking Great Holiday!  Cheers, dlowe.

plot

I have a piece of land, in my mind.  Undeveloped Philadelphia city park owned land.  My plot.  A beautiful property, perfect for a World Cyclocross Championship Course.  Way better than that Louisville plot of land.


View Larger Map 

Its close to my home.  Today I road over, it was good, eerie, fun day of exploring.  I did come across a small hooverville encampment.  I pulled a ear bud from one ear to listen for others in my explorations.

A simple, extravagant dream.

cheers, dlowe.

sweet

What do you do when its off season, with a bunch of friends and bikes and trails and beer.  Ya race.

 The low down styled race went down, under the radar,  just going as hard as you can go to win for "fun" as you can, at the park.  Is that the roots of cross, make a course, get some racers, race, drink and laugh.  

Today as much as I wanted to race and drink and laugh,  I forgo'ed the junkyard cross for a long mtb ride.  I got 4 hrs of solo scooting about done on the bike.  I'm beat, bloated, sipping beer and content.    A good way to feel on a Sunday night.  cheers, dlowe.

passing time

I like maps.

and in the easy riding time of the year I try to make the most of my rides with a bit of exploring.   I search the maps to see what unfamiliar places lay withing my boundaries.

This is just down the road from where I live.   Now a decrepit row house philly neighborhood.  The bike school building is gone, its a 70's built firehouse.  The map did not lead me on a physical journey, no it took me, with great aide from the Internet on a reading journey back into time.

I guess that Google has digitized all these old books, and somehow my search, lead by the Bicycle school on the map, took me to the story of the bicycle and its arrival in Philadelphia.

http://www.google.com/books?id=DhIbAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA257#v=onepage&q&f=false

a nice read on a cold night, next to the fire, of course with a good beer.  cheers, d.

Dragons Milk

there is a whole fucking world out there.    Its really big.  We are less than a speck, a really,  really, tiny, small, microscopic, puny, speck.

I ate two 25cent yams for dinner.  Scrubbed and poked and put into the oven, 375 degrees, for 1 hour.
Just a pad of butter, and delightful.

I got out for a ride.   SS mtb, Wissahickon.  The snow, light dander. nippy out, chilled to the phalanges.    The ground, zoom.  Hard and really fast.  No one on the trails but me. 

I'm driving a bit extra to shop down here, but I like it. 

bought the yams, some beer, and other stuff.   The old ladies in front of me, in line at the scanner, didn't speak a lick of english.  but We flirted just a bit.  A blue collar crust, with a small  pompous overtone of Le Bus crusty bread and  beer, some really good beers by the the bottle, six packs to buy at not PA to go $$$.  Mostly ethnic, harder, very polite people, not common in Philly.  The polite.  I feel in place at this outta place place.      I shall hold the door open for you, and tip my hat, cheers, David.

lost: toe covers

firts: Unbunny, Young men are easy prey.
                        

I lost my toe covers.

Out on the cross bike, lower trails were flood by  the river.  I made the trek through the long, dark, train tunnel.  When I stopped to take a leak on the other side, I notice somewhere back there, in the dark tunnel, they came off.    Oh well.

The fox stopped by this morning. 

The other day riding in Belmont, I sat on the old Train platform and looked out over the land where Woodside Amusement park stood.  Done in by the Auto, people going on road trips.

Now stands this big apartment building.

Saturday Night was the Holiday ride.

Sunday was a bit of a wash,    ....................this girl, booze, watch out, she'll do you in.

I'm a bit of a wreck, without my toe covers,  Happy Holidays, d.

inferno

a bit early to be a bit stir crazy, just a tad I was today.
a bit of crazy Scratch, good for the long bike mix:

                
                      thee LEE SCRATCH PERRY yee ha ha ha



I've been riding, the colds been fine, the wind, fine too.   and I find just tooling around Belmont, where it always feels warmer, does me fine too.

I found this haul on clean up day, trash? relic?

and just tooling about the park its hard to imagine that this overgrown bit of land was quite used, thousands of people used this park, the trolley, and on the edge, over by the twisty bits trail Woodside Park.

there was a bike racing track, but I've searched in vain to find anything out about it.

Its all gone. 

My wife had a  tough work day yesterday,

so I gave her her christmas present

      an evil eye bracelet, toward off the evil spirits.  She came home today in a fine chipper mood.

Shes not in training, but she does love her oats and was quite happy to see the Free package that "Bob" sent me,  I feel a bit like the cool kids.

if you sign up, "Bob" will send you some,  tweet about how sweet it is when it arrives, ha, you'll be a cool kid.    www.TrainWithGrain.com   

                                                                     LEE

rock steady, dlowe.

technocolor

is Like twisting a knob.  one with a pointer, from zero to 10.  Not so much a volume knob.  More of a selector.    It took me a long time to realize that, my hand, twisted it.  Sure, most of the numbers, don't have any signal, nothings there, yet.   Most the time it all works well.  sometime it craps out.   I've got the old school, the kid pain, the adult, work, bike, wife.  What can come out my amplifier, is loud and distorted.   It vibrates the beer bottles off the stage.  It drives you back a step, when the volumes hits ya, full in the face.    Now a days, I keep it set, the out put, pretty clean, quiet.                      ....can't deny whats inside.

               
                           OFF!-  crawl

Sat.  above photo, Jonny Brendas George K.   Stornoway, excellent show, a top 5er. 
Sun.  Picked up lots of trash at the Belmont trails.  anti-vamping it.

caught up, naaw, just spinning the wheels.  Peel out, dlowe.

junket

art

they seem to be the       antithesis          to a super group,  that gives them less regard for honesty, that fearlessness to step just a bit over  the  edge.        pungent

music
The Night Marchers   ----and I keep holding on

               

I've done hundreds of laps of Wissahickon.  Today I added another.   The first climb when you come back to it, when you'r done with all that cross racing, is epic.  Especially SSpeeding it.  I'd think OK enough, but I knew in my mind I was set to do a lap, and like all good bike riders, I pushed on.  Did my lap.

sweet, to the point, new link on the side---- Funk Kit  cool,

worked on something clever the last couple of days, and I always enjoy being on Ice.

live epic,  dlowe.