brynna and autumn

Proof!

I finally have photographic proof that cycling is still an integral part of my "lifestyle".  It's been 1 1/2 weeks since I touched a bike and I was getting extremely antsy as a result.  So antsy that I was considering changing the name of the blog from "Racin Rick" to "Runnin and Pilates Rick" but that doesn't have the same ring to it plus, I have no idea how to change my header and, even if I did know, I don't have any photo shop type editing paraphernalia to make such magic happen.  Maybe a certain Jason would like to help a brother out again??? :)   Anyway, eventually (maybe after the holidays) the riding schedule will get back on track or else I'll be sucking a big fat d*ck next season in the elite fields (as if I wasn't going to anyway!).

Things aren't bad in my world though.  After 3+ weeks with the new pooch, I'm finally feeling like she'll be a nice addition to the family.  I never really considered taking her back to the shelter but there sure were days that I thought about it.  Let's just say that a new house with clean carpets do not mix well with a stray puppy.  Just sayin.  What Autumn does have going for her is that B fucking LOVES her.  I mean, really LOVES her.  And, as everybody knows, that in the Nelson household the road to riches is paved in Brynna.  You get in with her and you're in for life. 

gonna eat that foot!

then chew on face

then make a quick retreat

and a quick nap.  Looks like you're safe pooch.

I Dream of Cycling

And that is all it is, a dream. Last night, my dreams were riddled with bike related content but, now that I think about it, none of it was actually riding based. It mostly involved coming across long forgotten parts and pieces (probably since I'm trying to build the dos up with odd parts right now). So, even in my dreams I'm not doing any actual riding. I'm screwed. Must get on the bike soon!

Thankfully, my mediocre fitness is somewhat saved by my once or twice daily jogs with the new mutt and my reduction in drinking (again. maybe this time it'll take...) and my sanity is saved by a tranquil home life with a loving wife who only occasionally wants to kill me in my sleep and a sharp as a tack daughter with the fashion sense of Punky Brewster hopped up on jelly beans and cotton candy...

This Is How Mainers Do It

Operation "Put the wood to 'er" is still in effect up in the land of Edges and Combs thus, no riding happened again this weekend. Marcy and I almost made it out for a mountain bike ride during an afternoon free of parental obligations but we decided on a hike with the pooch instead. A tired dog is a happy dog and a tired,happy dog leads to happy people with no pee puddles on their floor so that's what we did instead. On a biking note, Marcy and I stomped around in the woods in a primo area for potential mountain bike trails with lots of elevation change, ledges and drop offs. IF I ever have the time (and that is a gi-normous IF) I'll get some trails put in there. Until then, I'll just annoy people by talking about it constantly...

Anyway... we split a shit ton of wood this weekend, dropped a 50+ lb piece of wood on my ankle with lots of running around, making of funny noises and near tears for Marcy's benefit and generally made like our fore fathers in the days of yore (you'll have to read down a ways) and worked ourselves to the bone with hydraulic and gasoline assistance.

They had cable reel tables in the days of yore right?  Brynna is so studious 

these days and draws, writes and does workbooks all day.  Even outside...

she gets the dork from her mother and the ravishingly good looks and 

irresistible personality from me.  really.

Hmmm, that's a tough one!

The pile doesn't look that big but I'm a grower not a shower.  Too much???

(I need to know where the line is so that I can tip-toe across on occasion...)

Stick a Fork In This Week

TG-freakin'-F!  This week has been a good, productive week at work but good god has it been tiring.  I gave up on posting earlier in the week.  Just not enough energy at the end of the day or during my morning coffee.  I suspect that nobody really minded.  So, I'll see you all back here on Monday.  Have good mosh pitting.

Sore Back and Hamstrings

No riding happened this weekend but that's ok. We've been cranking on getting all of our wood set for this and next winter before the snow flies.  A missed riding weekend here and there is well worth being warm this winter.  100% wood heat is nice and cheap but there are sacrifices on occasion but turning the thermostat up to 74 with no quilt on a cold winter morning makes it worth it for sure. 

I did figure out what was up with Selma's headset/starnut issue.  While perusing the web for answers I saw multiple suggestions to check to be sure that the steerer didn't protrude beyond the stem (because, if it does, there is nothing to tighten against and you'll just pull the star nut out).  I've had the exact same set up on this bike for two full years so I figured that couldn't be the case but I tried adding another spacer just to see and whatdayaknow?  It worked like a charm.  I'm guessing that it was a cool morning, and the steerer had just gotten out of the pool.  How else would you explain the shrinkage?

The weekend wasn't without exercise though.  B busted our her learning exercise mat thingy on Saturday and Sunday and did all sorts of running races, obstacle courses and what-not.  One of the events was a three person running race.  While racing she'd comment on how hard it was and I'd just smirk.  You don't know hard kiddo.  How hard can a 30 second race be?  Pretty f'ing hard it turns out.  I'm not sure what it was but something about the sprinting with tiny steps was brutal and left my hamstrings completely inflamed.   Oh, and B beat me every time by 2-4 seconds.  For real.

So, a weekend full of chain sawing and throwing and carting wood has left me with a sore back and doing a 32 second running race had me limping with sore hamstrings.  Sad, very sad.

This Seems Right

I can't remember if I've mentioned this before but a while back, a friend of mine sent me a link to a series of endurance "races" called Tough Mudder which are basically 2 1/2 hour obstacle courses designed to make you hate life while you try not to die.  My buddy sent it to me since he figured I was the only person he knew who would be dumb enough to even consider doing it. Well, it turns out he was right, they've set a date in May for the event at Mount Snow in Vermont and I think I may have to sign up.  I don't know about you, but this looks like a damn good time and will give me something to obsess over (other than mtb race season) during the winter.  Maybe my brother will be dumb enough to sign up for it as well.  Yeah, I think so.

I'z Gotz Nuzzin'

Great gobs of gilded glitter shit. That star fangled nut is a pain in my ballz. In reality it's probably a steerer tube issue but that stupid nut started this whole nonsense. As you may remember, I've had a squeek in my cockpit for a while now and a couple of weeks ago I diagnosed the problem as a slipping star nut.  My first attempt to install the new star nut was met with anger and frustration so I went out and spent my hardly earned money on an actual star nut installation tool which worked marvelously last night.  What wasn't so marvelous is that when I attempted to tighten the headset, the star nut backed itself out just like the other.  WTF!  I've never seen nor heard of this happening before but, then again, I've spent most of my life in Maine and have hardly seen any minorities either so my inexperience doesn't necessarily mean shit.   As a result of Operation Star Nut Failure 2, I won't be hitting up the Bather Thursday night ride.  Bummer.

Instead, I give you more parasite/beneficial parasite photos:

Family Day

Nothing interesting (bike wise) happened yesterday in RR land. Unless you want me to post pics of me getting my hair cut... Wait, a minute, I did actually pick up some tasty bits of bike stuff on my way back from a meeting. I nabbed meself a carver carbon fork and carber ebb in trade for a frame that I won at the BB12 last year and I picked up my star nut installer and headset press so I can finally get my luscious Selma running again. But, other than picking the parts up,I did nothing so let's speak of it no more.

Instead I'll fill you full of family stuff instead. Actually, I don't have time for a full meal so this'll have to be more of an aperitif.

Marcy and the new four legged parasite getting chummy and sleepy.

B and the parasite.

and, at long last, our new dining room set.

Balls in the Mouth For Charity

This past Saturday Marcy and I took part in an innovative charity event, a 12 hour spin class to raise money for the local Y.  Each person was asked to pony up some clams in exchange for a one hour spin class.  Easy peasy and it raised well over 10k for the Y.  Not too shabby.  Oh, and I got to get a pic of Marcy's boss with a pink ball in his mouth.  This was an event that just kept giving, giving and giving.

Sorry for such craptacular pics and boring content but, then again, you should be used to that by now.

 

I took a two hour shift which I thought was be simple as pie but after the first hours' sprint fest, the ole legs were a bit twitchy but, thankfully, the second class was more of a climbing class with slow cadence drills so I survived just fine and totally kicked everyone's asses at TDF trivia.  Take that losers!

Let's Pitch It

This weekend (yesterday actually) I had a doozy of a time.  I had reluctantly agreed to meet with a new client Sunday afternoon.  Usually I don't do the weekend client thing but they're good guys and nobody can turn down a good job these days so after working on finishing our dining room table and stacking wood between coats of poly I put on my sunday (almost) best and headed to scenic Harpswell for my meeting with our newest junior member in tow.  The job site was 5 miles south of Brunswick at the end of a very remote 1 mile dirt road.  I get there, meet with the clients for about an hour and then go to get the pooch out of the car so she can relieve herself and wouldn't you know it, she had managed to lock herself in the car with the keys safely in it.  No worries, Marcy was shopping with B in Brunswick.  I'll just call her and they'll come down and open it up for us.  I tried her multiple times to no avail and I couldn't find my AAA card so I got a ride from the client to town so that I could at least have a coffee while I waited for Marcy and B to show up.  3, 4 maybe 5 tries later and I still can't reach Marcy and it's now starting to get dark.  Shit.

I finally find my AAA card and make the call to get help but the ass at the end of the line refuses to send someone because I'm not at the car and won't let me catch a ride in the truck even though the driver is going to go RIGHT FRICKIN PAST ME!  What to do, what to do.  Eventually, after trying marcy several more times to no avail I decide to walk to Wal Mart and try calling a cab.  Of course, the only cab company in town is closed on Sundays so, instead, I buy a headlamp and start hoofing it the 6 miles to the car.  Solid plan.  If AAA won't let me in a rock sure will.  I step out of Wal Mart and feel a drop of rain.  Frickin beautiful.  By the time I get back to the main road it's sleeting like a mother, dark as hell and because this would make for a perfect horror/suspense movie, my phone battery starts beeping at me as it's about to shit the bed.  Fuck me in the goat ass.

At this point, I figure I've got at least an hour walk ahead of me so I might as well call AAA again (and hope the battery holds out) and see if someone would meet me there in an hour.  Lucky for me, this operator took pity on me and (mostly) on my poor defenseless dog and bent the rules so that the wrecker would pick me up on his way to pop the locks.  So the lessen here (other than not leaving the keys in the car with a hyperactive dog) is, if you need AAA in a hurry, tell them there is a dog in the car.  Nobody cares about people but everybody (almost) loves dogs.

Ahh Sweet 2011

Things are starting to shape up for 2011.  I'm fully in the "regenerative" stage of my training.  Meaning, I'm barely touching the bike these days.  Normal work and home life stuff is there but throw in a new pooch producing copious amount of urine and feces and a star fangled nut that won't go in the stupid fucking steerer tube and you have the recipe for ZERO riding.  All is good though, I've got a star fangled nut installer thing-a-ma-jiggy ordered and the pooch seems to be learning the difference between the great out-of-doors and the doody free in-of-doors so by next week I suspect things will be back in order.  Plus, PLUS, Marcy and I are signed up for a fundraiser this weekend that'll have us as part of a 12 hr spin bike team with me putting in 2-3 hours in the sweatatorium.  There's nothing like 3 hours riding inside to make you want to get outside to ride. 

Looking ahead to 2011, I've started getting my sponsorship proposal letters out for 2011 and hope to get them all wrapped up by the end of the weekend so I know what's what for next year.  Big things are going to happen.  I'm sure.  Really.  So, if you happen to be an industry insider (only one follower that I know of.  Hi Endless!) who reads this drivel and you have copious amounts of stuff (parts and money) that you want to part with, drop me a line.  If you have a product that I actually like I'm a very cheap date...  I've cleaned out my e-mail so that I don't overrun my storage allotment with the massive amounts of inquiries.

As for 2011 plans, as I've mentioned before, I intend to get pummeled in the Elite class for most of the xc season.  To that end, I'm shoppin for a new xc rig.  Previously, the Santa Cruz Tallboy was the leading contender but just recently my boyz at Salsa came out with the Spearfish (pictured above) as well so the decision is a tough one.  I can nab the Salsa complete with a pretty solid build for the price of the Tallboy frame but that Tallboy sure is sweet.  Me thinks that it'll all come down to cash-ola when the card slides through the slot but there's still time for Salsa and Santa Cruz to kiss my bum and beg and plead for my support in 2011.  Or not.

New Addition

I'd like to introduce you all to the newest member of the Nelson clan. Autumn Red Leeka Nelson. That right there my friends is the type of name you get when you give full naming rights to a 5 year old. I guess we should be thankful that B didn't name her Booger Poop Snickerdoodle. Small victories. We adopted Autumn from the local shelter after she spent most of the summer living on the rough and tumble streets of Waldoboro. She's skinny as a rail and has virtually no training but she is a total sweetheart and is a quick study. Day one involved three pees and two poops in the house (we refused to jamb her in a crate until she was comfortable with it and she would pee and poop IMMEDIATELY after being taken for a walk). Day two had zero in house relief. VICTORY! Day three (today) she'll probably shit and projectile vomit all through the element but we'll always Monday. Oh glorious Monday.

I'm in the process of training her to be civil both on and off leash and to run behind me (unlike Chance) so that she'll make for a good biking companion.  Of course, she's got a bunch of hound in her so only time will tell if her nose will take over for the brain once she's off leash.  For now, I'm just happy that she's not a dominate male like Chance and isn't trying to mount my head any chance she gets!