Blue

oh, I'm up,
Feeling peppy, and even after yesterday's excellent, small group ride, lead by Kelly Cline.
a long 60 miles for me, and also a tall 4800' of climbing to boot too.  That's big for me.
Good ride, why?  a good small group of like minded riders, some events along the ride, tales to be told, easy pedaling when it was supposed to be easy, and hard when you need to go hard.

oh Kelly didn't float over the dirt potholes and all smooth enough, I enjoy the rare tube change.

                                                photo: the Multi talented.  R. Lewandowski

I got out today to spin 'em out, the legs,  and work in the new shoes, and they felt good,  Maybe it was the new shoes,  I gotta say I'm loving 'em.   My legs felt good, a lot left, I hit some climbs, just enough to be enough, and not enough to be too much.

I'm not a flashy guy, my things tend to be a bit tattered, and it's true I have flannel that is older than most hipsters.  I'm sure, in the closet, I could find one that maybe comes up on 30 years of rep'n.

Kelly is in a new kit, and happy to say a new team mate, and he's got a sense of style, understated, but always, smart.   Shoes to the lid, it works.

Maybe looking good,  it does translate to feeling good, and that's a good thing on the bike.
I need a new lid, with a touch of blue, too.


good weekend, maybe it's just the sap in the veins, maybe its good friends, maybe,
ah what the fuck, take it when you get it, no reason needed!

Cheers my mofo friends!  dlowe

proud goat with a rooster on its back

I went to the show of Phillip Taylor's to see some of his phila. photographs.

                             photo detail,  Phillip Taylor

I was up early today.   Being chilly out, the ground hard, I got out the door, on the mountain bike,
and headed over to ride Belmont while the trails were still hard


I love Belmont,
I've seen a lot at belmont, live sex acts, I  rode the day a body was dumped on the trail,  If the killer was on strava, we'd been pretty close to crossing paths.  I'd see him on heat maps.
It is overgrown, and, always in a fight to be controlled.
Fat bikes, city kids riding quads on 100 of yards wheelies, boobie traps, the sun sets on an amazing view of the city sky line, after cx grass track

                           photo: Phillip Taylor, s. philly dump ( where the stadiums now stand)

it is freaky the trails, outlined, all over the place, branches, and logs, sometimes 4 deep piled along the trail.  Stay inside the lines some OCD mook mtbiker wants you to do.
and the power struggles to say who controls these bum trails, always goes on, changes
always seems to be exclusive, someone knows the best, and is real angry, cause, they know best, and how ever anyone else rides, it's wrong.
Many sharp things, cut at eye level, knee, hip, toe, don't dab, you'll get shanked.

                            photos; Phillip Taylor,  TB documentation, the tenderloin

Mr. Taylor's photos are just here and there about the library, in beat up cabinets, scratched glass cases,
His stuff is good, gems.
and that's it, soon they will be taken, and be put away, hidden, unknown.

I ride Belmont as much as I can, and always during the ride I cuss something,
a truly philadelphia institution!

Cheers, w/love, dlowe

Along East River Drive.

I like talking with someone from Philadelphia, and you tell 'em about a place, and they say, oh up on "east river drive".    

 I tried to get George out to ride with me today, but he was hung-over, declined, said his bed had the spins last night.  
I did not have enough time to do as much as I wanted, but to get any in was a bonus.

I love the boxer trail, the name of it, its location just sitting there close to it all, hidden.  There is a corner on it, when you are headed out toward East Falls,
It's a blind hook.  It has caught me a few times. Whoosh, and I'm on the lip of the steep drop, trying to make a blind turn to the right.  I like trails that are not always friendly,  keeps me on my toes.

I can't imagine not having that bike, the Cannondale CAAD 9cx. Its my steady steed, now a single speed, seems to be always ready for me.  It was one of my first matching set of cx bikes, and in custom team colors,  made in the USA.   (I've got them both still,  the other is stripped of its parts, hung up in the shed).

Saw some cx race schedules for the upcoming year posted, so nice, real nice, looking at the dates, names, races, freaking awesome!

Cheers, dlowe.

Poop

Duff could live anywhere.




Last Wednesday, ....After shitting and puking and sleeping about twenty of the twenty-fours hours,... Thursday,  I awoke, 6 pounds lighter, and a bears spring hunger in the belly, "I'm good", well at the time I thought I beat it, better.

I craved a hoagie, chips, and a newspaper.




I did a long easy ride on Saturday, my first day back on the bike.   about 4hrs of flat, soft pedaling.
I was afraid to stop during the ride.  I did not want my brain to switch to thinking about the body,
that as long as I was pedaling I felt good.




I've gone back and forth on being a Phillies fan,  and true, I prefer to go to the games when they are a bad baseball team, and the stadium is empty, and small packs of philly youths, with snide mustaches and big ass cans of beer, are loose in the stadium,  moving up to the front row seats in the out field. 

I like having a couple rows of empty seats around.


Coming back towards philly,  I plugged in and listened to Charles LeDuff read to me, from his book Detroit.






The hoagie did not sit well in my belly.   Damn.   I kept on with the rice and miso, bland.
I'm not a bland guy.
I saw the weather forecast and knew that I yearned to be out on the bike.






I go between fiction, and true stories of hard people, interesting, smart, more of the common type of person, or the evil industry captains.  and the Inventors, and the Artist of the times    .....what drives them?    mainly set in a time period of 1860's-1930's,  americans.
The fiction, seems to be noir-ish, drunken, 1900's-1940's.   great stories, unbelievable true tales.


LeDuff is not the best writer, but he is a great story teller.   I don't want to travel to Santa Monica,
or Miami beach,  I'm not really much of a traveler,  but if a trip came up, maybe for work,...
I'd want to go to Detroit.


Yesterday, I peeled off the small group,  turned and did some hills, climbed,  hills around here, these hills are small, but they have some pep, you have to work.
I went out to Dawson st. pub,  picked up George at his small, old, end of the row, row house,  parked on Cresson along the train tracks.   Walked down the manayunk  street with Stan, Anthony, George,
sat in a good bar, had some beers, the beers did some work,  Loud emotional talk, joking, a good band played the night. 
Slept well.




thanks LeDuff, I enjoyed what you wrote.  It made for a good ride home,
I feel pretty good.  Today, take up the chain slack on the sscx. Enjoy the day off, my fireroads, bum trails, the boxer, my city.

                                           Mr. Charlie LeDuff



Cheers,  dlowe

My Lair

I'm so proud of everyone,  the ones that are out riding, and the ones inside on the trainers.

I do my groveling upstairs,  it's nice, I don't mind, the time goes by quick,
and I was not in the mood to layer up, for the short ride out in the cold, this weekend.
I'm good at visualizing, and I can go large bits of time, imagining racing; crits, cx courses,
Lots of time it comes down to the last two or three laps,
I plan where I'm sitting in the group, when I want to go,
even putting people along the course,  maybe Anne Rock or Featherboy yelling at me,
a choice encouraging heckle or something of that nature.

When I pull out the ear buds, wipe down, down load, I feel good.


nothing can match a good outdoor ride, with a chill or snow squall,  I dig it.

                                        snuck out a bit ago on a light snow and got a cx ride in

The off season, means gym time, to build a bit of muscle and I hope some bone density.
I've avoided running, and I know I need to, so got some shoes, and instead of the short drive to the gym, I lace up and trot there.  Not so bad, sorta like it.   Always somewhere to improve.

You know this rock?
I do, it's on my mind.  Looks to be the first race this year.  Never to soon to plan, to work on the weakness.

Congrats on the fine training comrades,  keep at it.   and hopefully it's with a smile!

Cheers!  dlowe

Horace the Motivater

I'd be repugnant, it'd be, to take anything away, or feel anything less about last year, than fully satisfied.
It's a good "normal" to, now,  aim and build for each year.   In many ways.
The cx bikes, need a bit of attention, not really tucked into bed the best, need just a bit of love, then back to their napping for next season.


and the slightest hardest part this season of the change of seasons has been the entertainment, and insight that I miss from the blogs, and they seem mostly based on cx racing, so they have no  content, a subject to recap.  The blogs are quiet.


I'd wish more different peeps would take up blogging,  I like the personalities,  I'm, it's a good, entertained.    I've found that my life is far different, my take and view, I get a bunch outta, what others see and write about.

Me?  I've been so content,  that sitting around, its come easy,  that easy pedaling comes easy.
I know that in the end of August, when it's too hot, I'll be lining up in a new class, and nervous.
I'll want to be able to dig even a bit deeper, to be classier, ...I have to work on starts, remounts, skills a lot.  


There is a picture of the West Chester artist Horace Pippin hanging in my shed, he's a motivator, inspires me.
the local college,  Haverford,  had a show, 
"Portraits From the Harlem Renaissance, Photographer Carl Van Vechten",  and there in the show was my picture, the real one, of Horace.  Coolio!


a good wide base, and anything I can pile together in that foundation, that'll make me race better, well Horace is in there, one of the stones.

Cheers Blokes,  I miss ya just a wee tiny bit!  dlowe