Dusty

Both my riding legs and my photography skills are about as dusty as they can get judging by the photos below and the flabbiness in my gut. I've lost the ability to count or estimate time but I'm guessing that I've been off of the bike for almost two weeks straight at this point. It's been so long that the other day I thought it would be a good idea to go down to the basement and say hi to my long lost friends.

Once down stairs the first bike I see is poor selma who has been on the bike stand for a good 4+ weeks totally untouched and unloved. I put her up there with intentions to bleed her rear brake since it has gone caput and requires 5+ minutes for pumping to get firm, wait, we're still talking about my brakes here aren't we? Yeah? OK, good. Once on the stand though, I remembered that I'm a ham fisted meat head with a wrench and would surely do more harm than good so I've decided to take it to the shop instead. One of these days.

Next up is the El Mariachi leaning provocatively again the metal brake (it's used for braking metal you silly goose). The El sees the most use this time of year so she's mounted up with my lights, GPS unit and a bottle since I always seem to forget water this time of year. Three week old water bottle water is just delish!

Lastly (I'm not showing the Dos or the Carver since they are bare frames) are Marcy's and my road bikes. We've totally given up on them by this time of year because of the typical crappy conditions so they're hung in the mechanical room. At some point this sleek stallion will be called into action this winter when a multi-hour road assault is planned but, for now, they're eye candy for the wood boiler at the opposite end of the room.

Because of my lack of time recently I've gone ahead and done something drastic and started running again. I've found it hard to motivate myself to get up early enough to go for a run most mornings but have gotten out four times in the last couple of weeks. At first my shins were killing me but I realized that if I went trail running instead of on the road they don't seem to hurt so I guess I'm a trail runner now. Trail running is amazingly like mountain biking except for the fun and endorphins I get from riding but at least trail running does happen on trails in the woods. Of course, being a bike geek above all else, I don't have proper running attire or equipment so I look like a complete goober out there. I guess that it's good that I run under the cover of darkness.