If You Love Something Set It Free

As the old saying goes, "if you love something, set it free. If it comes back, it was meant to be. If it doesn't come back, it was an ungrateful piece of shit and deserves to die". Well, me being the magnanimous person that I am, I decided to allow my blinkie light end cap to go on a solo adventure. I figured the best way to do so was to let it lose during a ride that way I wouldn't be able to retrieve it in a moment of weakness. Well, mission accomplished. About two weeks ago, the cap was jettisoned and the waiting period commenced.

So sad and lonely.

After close to two weeks, there was no news so I was ready to write my beloved blinkie end cap off but on Monday's commute I saw this:

That's right ladies and gentlemen, my beloved has returned! After much rejoicing the end cap was reintroduced to the rest of the blinkie.

Yay!

Nothing To See Here

Not much to bloggy about today so I'll keep it quick. Monday, on my mountain bike commute home I hit up the Schmid Preserve with the semi though out plan of checking out what areas need the most work. I'm now on the trails committee for the preserve (although I've only talked to one person and have yet to go to a meeting) so I feel it's my duty to ride there a bunch and make all sorts of grand plans for improvement that I'll never have time to complete. I'm a civic minded kind of fellow. I actually have been planning on building a bridge or two over some watery type areas so you can imagine my surprise when I came upon this:

That's right, an almost complete bridge over the largest stream in the preserve. I'm concerned though because this is much nicer looking than anything I had planned on building.

I also saw a bunch more of this:

New posts and signage. This trail is legit and stuff.

And then, later in the ride I came upon this beaut. An oldy time well cover. These things are worth quite a bit of money these days on the open market. Hopefully no redneck with a pick-up truck and a come-along have seen this. They could easily fetch 2 fitty for it.

How the Big Dogs Roll

We've all known for years how bad ass I am. There's really no room for debate on that one. But until today, I've always had to rely on the popular vote. The feeling from the masses. But now, now I have it in writing from the great and all knowing USCF that I am, indeed, the shit.

Dear Rick Nelson,

The following request to change your USCF category has been approved and processed by USA Cycling:
chiddong - 2010-04-12 8:03
Member: Rick Nelson
License: Road Racer
Request to change category from Cat 5 to Cat 4

That's right ladies and gentlemen! It is official. I've been promoted from the lowly ranks of mountain bike shoe wearing, underwear under chamois sporting, can't ride in a straight line cat 5 racers all the way up to the glamorous ranks of the still mountain bike shoe wearing but no underwear wearing of the cat 4's. Can they ride in a straight line? Well, I'm noW a cat 4 and I really can't so I'm guessing no, no they can't ride in a straight line.

Lucky for me, the USCF didn't require me to provide a race resume for the upgrade like they typically do. Instead I basically said "yeah, I've done a bunch of races in the past. I can't remember exactly what they were but I feel like I should be in the cat 4's so that I can race the SIP crit series in the A race instead of the lowly B race. Please help." No shitting, that is basically what I wrote (with a little of the kissy, kissy stuff left out) and they accepted it. Obviously they had heard about what hot shit I am as well.

So now, I'm free and clear to race in the A race at the Scarborough training crits. The same races I've been competing in on and off for three years in the A class. Oh well, it was a lot of work for probably only three races that I'll be able to make but how cool am I to be able to say I'm cat 4 now? Yeah, super cool.

Oh yeah, and lets just ignore the fact that the request was processed by "chiddong". That's a WHOLE other story.

Paris Roubaix Not Race Report Race Report

Is the title a bit confusing? It should be. Basically, there is a ride in these parts that takes place the same day as Paris Roubaix each year. It consists of a bunch of reasonable pavement, some crappy pavement and a bunch of dirt roads. Kinda sorta like Paris Roubaix just without the french accents and high Vo2 max's. It's really just a group ride with a bunch of regroups but the last 1/3 of the route (once we're at a point where noone will get lost) is GAME ON! with attacks galore as we run along Appleton Ridge and back into Searsmont. Most years I'm an idiot and push the pace early in the ride and then totally implode in those last 7-8 miles. It never helped that I usually rode to the ride start. It's about 42 miles there and, that early in my season, leaves me dragging towards the end of the ride. This year, for a number of reasons (mostly because I'm not in good enough shape)I drove to the ride. Good plan.

We rolled out with 18 guys on all manner of bikes. Most folks were on either cross bikes or road bikes. There were a couple of guys on single speed flat bar road bikes and one dude who was on a mountain bike. Mountain bike dude, we'll call him "Bill" since that's his name, also forgot his cycling shoes so was riding in sneakers with clipless pedals. Probably one of the worst experiences ever. Right up there with riding a recumbant in a crit. Honestly, I probably would have packed my stuff back up and driven home. I guess I'm a quitter.

Early ride, everyone is still together except for the three ant size riders way in the distance.

Anyway, the first part of the ride was uneventful. No flat tires, nobody flew off the road on the washboardy dirt roads and most importantly, I didn't do anything really stupid. Sure, I attacked a couple of times and instigated a fast paceline with a few others that left the rest of the group in the dust (remember, it's ok to do that on this ride since we regroup often) but overall I kept everything in check.

One item of note is that I actually met a Racin Rick "fan". OK, he didn't actually say he was a fan, more that he reads the blog, but this is my blog and I can say what I want. Hmmm, in that case, this "fan" was a totally hot babe who totally wanted me.

That's my hot "fan" ther in the yellow helmet. We'll call her Trevina. Sexy name there chica.

Mid ride regroup. Only a few more miles before things start to hurt.

After the mid-point stop we started onto Appleton Ridge Rd., the painful part of the ride. It's all dirt and crappy pavment and has a bunch of punchy climbs. As soon as we hit the ridge I had to really fight the urge to do stupid stuff like lead all of the climbs (which is something I ALWAYS feel compelled to do even though it leaves me shelled). I did work really hard so that I could take some pictures though so that was smart. At least I didn't just take my camera for a ride yet again.

That's "Bill" in the yellow sleeves. He stayed in the front group the whole time despite the sneakers.

Shortly after this pic was taken the final selection was made. I made a tiny little dig, followed by Trevina pushing the pace for a couple of minutes as well as a guy I'll call BBB (he had a back bay bikes jersey on) and Boulder Boy (a guy originally from boulder co and sporting a boulder sports kit) and of course sneakers Bill. We were now down to five.

BBB was the first to take a flyer. I'm not sure if it was a planned attack but he accelerated and was off the front for about five minutes. Once again, I fought my natural tendancy to sprint to his wheel (and bring the rest of the group with me) and instead we slowly realed him in. Maturity is the shit!

That's BBB up ahead there.

Trevina

Boulder Boy

Once back together again the group slowed down a bit and we just lazily cruised along. That is until I noticed a small group trying to bridge up. No way was that going to happen. I made mention to everyone who would listen that they were bridging up hoping that someone else would take the initiative (and save me the tiring, tiring trouble) to pick up the pace. No one seemed game so, just as we crested a hill and Boulder Boy was at the front (he was my biggest mark), I dug in and shot off the front. It wasn't really an attack (I kind of thought Trevina was coming with me), but it was a pretty decent acceleration and before I knew it I had a sizeable gap and dreams of my first not race victory of the season.

From that point, I went into TT mode and drove and drove. On the last climb of the day I looked back to see BBB closing in on me. I though the jig was up but figured I might as well finish the climb before I cashed it in. Apparently BBB must have cracked though because by the time I was over the hill I had opened the gap back up and had a few hundred yard lead for the final 2-3 mile drive into town.

I had things in the bag right up until about 100 yards from the finish when I hit some bridge construction with a stop light. So just like that my lead evaporated. While sitting there "Bill" and BBB caught up and we not so patiently waited for the light. When it turned "Bill" and I practically ran over the car in front of us and I was able to edge him at the finish.

Good times.

Hey Trevina (aka "My Biggest Fan") if you know folks names (BBB, Boulder Boy etc) shoot me a comment.

Like the First Day of School

You know how goofy parents get when their kids head off to school for the first day each year? Lining them up to take pictures, waving goodbye as the board the bus, a tear in the corner of their eye as the bus pulls away? Well, I get that same feeling each spring when Marcy does her first bike commute of the year. I'm like a proud papa, snapping pics, waving, saying good-bye, throwing kisses...

Pic one. She didn't know I was going to take this.

Caught her pretending to be a boy. Looks a bit small to me...

this was the exasperated "daaaaaaaaaadddddddd, stop taking my picture!" moment.

and off she goes.

Marcy finished the ride in roughly 48 minutes. 12 hilly miles with a loaded pack in 48 minutes. Not bad. At the end of the day I did the exact same route except in reverse and turned myself inside out to do it as fast as possible and only pulled off 41 minutes with no pack. Get this girl a racing bib.

Mountain Bike Commute

On Monday I busted out my first fo rizzle mountain bike commute, hitting two areas that I had avoided so far this spring because I suspected they'd be wet and nasty but by Monday, they were in pretty good shape. More importantly, I was able to scope out the trails that allow me to ride the schmid preserve in a loop of sorts and avoid doing the lollipop (in and out on the same trails). Me thinks it's time for a group ride in the Schmid.

Hey look! It's a bird that you can barely make out! How exciting. You should have seen this photo before I touched it up, just looked like a pile of leaves and branches. What? That's what it still looks like? Like I said the other day, why do I bother even taking pictures?

This below was my one real mistake of the ride. I knew this bridge was out (has been for years) yet I still took the route that forces me to cross here. During the high summer, some of those timbers are exposed and I can cross and stay dry. On this day I was mid calf in some purty cold water.

The other bonus of the ride was that, for the first time ever, I met other riders in the Preserve. I've seen tracks before but I had never laid my peepers on the authors. Of course, they were wearing jeans, t-shirts, no-helmets and were riding 90's vintage Trek Y-bikes (or at least one was and I was so distracted by it I didn't get a good view of the other). They were motoring along though and seemed to be having a good time so I was happy. Later in my ride I saw a Toyota pulling out that had a titus (I believe) in the back. I tried to flag them down and gave chase but almost had an aneurysm spinning at about 150rpm chasing them down the road.

Why do I care so much about a couple of riders? Well, the trails in the preserve are pretty good but the one thing that will make them better is more traffic since the newer trails, even though they are a few years old, are still pretty soft. Get some more tires in there and it will be better for everyone. That and I'm desperate for new friends...

It's All Her Fault

Here I am, minding my own business, having insecurity issues about this lame ass blog when ThomP has to go out and be all brilliant with his "Being Kimbo Slice" (I put that in there so that I might "accidentally" get a few google search hits!) post last week. I have a hard time putting even the most basic caption with a picture and here he is, out there having inspired diarrhea of the mouth. Maybe Miriam is the key to his success, what with her being the catalyst of the post after all. I guess it's time for Marcy to pick up her game. So there you have it, if this blog is lame, it's Marcy's fault. Damn her.

I was getting ready to do my yearly shave/wax (two different links there) my legs post but am now thinking that it's much too subdued. The bar is too high. Maybe if I use a chain saw for the initial clipping than I might be onto something. I'll have to give that some thought.

Over the weekend, I dragged my parents and brother out for another ride. My youngest brother is getting a bit rotund so I figure it's my civic duty to drag them out as much as possible to whup them into shape. Last week, I took them on a much too hard trail so this week I dialed the difficulty back and took them to the Schmid Preserve instead. It's still plenty technical in places and fun for all but not so difficult that inexperienced riders constantly feel like they're on the verge of death. I think I made a good choice.

Darren is making the transition to clipless pedals quite nicely. This was his third time out on them and he didn't have a single unclipping, slow motion fall mishap. (which is actually kind of sad) In fact, he cleared some pretty technical sections that I didn't even expect him to attempt. Very nice.

My dad, on the other hand, is having a bit more trouble acclimating. Maybe it's like introducing old farts to computers, the technology is just too advanced. In this case, the technological difference between using toe straps and clipless pedals is that you twist your foot to get out instead of pulling back. Yes, that is a pretty daunting task indeed. The good thing about this is that it gives me ample opportunity to have fun at his expense. It's a family tradition to be assholes to each other on every possible occasion so who am I to break tradition.

This was the first of many falls for my dad. In this case he ran straight into that small tree. Thankfully he landed between two pointy rocks. No hip replacements required.

Then, a bit later on, while preparing to dismount, he unclipped his left foot and instead of putting it down he decided to be creative and fall to his right instead. It was super funny at first but thankfully I followed the "make sure they aren't hurt before laughing at them" rule and held off laughing because he had fallen on a 4" diameter stump that left a nice contusion on his right thigh. Of course, once I realized it didn't puncture a lung or sever any arteries he was fair game for ridicule.

Oh wait, based on this picture, Darren did have one unclipping issue. There is a section near the house where you have to cross a stone wall in the middle of a 90 degree turn. It's difficulty is increased because there are a couple of ill placed trees at the apex of the turn (I need to cut them). Darren made it half way into the turn but stalled and teetered over onto a big rock. Once again, I yelled to see if he was ok. When he said yes I immediately yelled to not move because I needed to take a picture. It didn't look like a comfortable position to be in but photo ops come first, family second.

The Good News and the Bad News

The good news is that this morning at 2 am it was a balmy 51 degrees. Pretty darn nice for this time of year. The bad news is that I was awake at 2 am to see what the temp was. For some unknown reason I couldn't sleep at all last night (tonight? this morning?). I laid in bed for a while hoping for sleep but when that obviously wasn't going to happen I decided to pop a movie in downstairs and fall asleep to that. Watching a movie I've seen a bunch of times is usually just what the doctor ordered when I can't sleep because it distracts me enough to shut my brain off but since I've seen it I don't need to focus to keep up with what's going on. That's usually a recipe for success. Not so last night. Finally, at about 1 I decided it was pointless since I'd be getting up in a few hours anyway so I might as well ride my ass into work and hope I don't pass out at my desk today. The ride in was surprisingly nice. The road is really quiet at that time of the morning (duh!) so I was able to cruise the 7 miles without seeing one car. On the busiest road on the peninsula even. The only problem was when I got to the office and I looked at my clothes stash and saw that I had about 10 shirts, 6 pairs of socks, a few pairs of boxers and no frickin pants! Uh-0h. I briefly pictured myself hanging out in my bike shorts all day and scaring my co-workers but that didn't seem like such a good idea so I formulated another plan. I seemed to remember leaving a few unwanted clothes in the apartment (where I shower) when we moved out and thankfully found some tan gap "jeans". Not exactly my favorite pants (I actually don't ever even remember owning them, I hope they're actually mine) but it's better than hanging out in my boxers all day and the tan pants and light yellow polo I'm wearing really gives me a panama jack feel which might not be so bad for such a nice day.

The other good news is that since I'm in so early, I'll be able to make up some time from skipping out early Friday AND still get to leave a bit early for my afternoon mountain bike ride. My hope today is to scope out the last couple sections of my Schmid loop. I've avoided them so far this season because they are usually wet but I think it's time to see if they can be added into the mix thus allowing a two hour loop without any backtracking or doubling up on any trails.

Oh yeah, did you hear the big news? The Bike Snob has revealed himself. Yeah, I could give a rats ass too...

Ok, that's it. Time to try not to fall asleep for the next 12 hours.

Why Bother

I haven't quite figued out why I bother to take a camera with me every time I ride. I schlep it around with me for a couple of hours and, if I'm lucky, only remember to take one or two mediocre pictures the whole time. Take last night for example. 1.5 hours of mountain biking with the Bathers and this is the only picture I took:

This was supposed to be a picture of a fairy house in the town park but because of my stellar photo taking abilities it looks more like a pile of sticks with a giant's hand in the foreground. And that foggy blur? If you turn your volume way up and stare at it long enough a giant image of David Hasselhoff having happy time with two puppies will pop up and scare the bejezus out of you. You have been warned.

Moving Mountains

Yesterday, after getting clearance (clarence) from the boss I made plans to meet up with the Bathers for a ride tonight. I was giddy with anticipation to be riding trails again after a couple of weeks off. Right up until I got a call from Bubba's to remind me of my hair cut appointment tonight. What's that you ask? I get my hair cut at a place called Bubba's? Well, with hair like this, where else would I go?

In reality, it's an award winning salon (top 40 in new england) and they do really nice work. and despite the name there are no shotguns, possums, varmints or bowevils hanging on the walls. I tried to reschedule but couldn't get in for another month so I was bummed. Until I said, "F my beautiful locks! I need to ride!" and called and rescheduled for late next month. Chicks dig dudes with long hair right???

One More Break

Woke up this morning and it was raining, again, for the third straight day. As a result, I couldn't drag myself out of bed to go for a jog on soggy trails or to ride my road bike in the rain. AGAIN. Instead, I've decided to take an uber easy day. No running. No riding. No pilates/stretching. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Unfortunately, this all comes on the morning that I notice my weight has crept back up two pounds. Oh well, some prunes and a nice, satisfying BM and I'll be back in line.

Speaking of pilates and my weight. I know that I'm making some good progress on both fronts. I still feel like an asthmatic child when I'm riding but I feel a bit leaner and stronger in the core section. On Sunday, while doing my morning routine, I took a couple of timer pics while I was doing pilates to check my form and I gotta say. Not bad. Not bad at all. I was tempted to post the pics but I didn't think anyone really wanted to see me in nothing but boxers. I'm a whore for attention but I really don't want to start getting love notes with dirty underwear in the mail from Jason. A boy need to draw the line somewhere.

Assuming the weather dudes have it right and we got a stellar day tomorrow, I'll be riding in Bath tomorrow with the boys. KillBill always puts the hurting on me so I need to save the legs. KB has been doing intervals for weeks now so my slow ass is always put in the hurt locker. It's a good hurt though and group rides always turn out to be a better workout than when I ride alone so the training will be nice.

I finally got a finished pic from my brother of his new to him NON FIXIE, NON HIPSTER commuter. Shit, he's even got brakes on that thing. I still dig it though.

Spreadin the Love

I still haven't gotten to the point in the pre-season that I feel like going out and cracking out 20 intervals. I hope I do soon though because the race season is fastly approaching and I'm still at ground zero training wise. About a month ago I took a big ass, 3'x5' calander home in order the plan my season but it still remains in a roll on the desk upstairs. That doesn't help the motivation. Maybe I'll do it tonight. Yeah, that's it. That's what I'll do. Sure.

What does motivate me though is that I'm starting to read race reports. It's frickin March and I'm reading race reports. That's the stuff that'll really get the juices flowing so Endless, Johnny B and Hill Junkie, keep it coming!

Since I'm not intervalling, I'm doing the next best thing. Trying to get other people as obsessed with riding as I am. Who cares that my parents and brother had been traveling since 3 am? They'd still LOVE to go for a ride 16 hours later. Of course they would. And me being the thoughful chap that I am, I take them on a brutally technical trail down the road from our house. A trail that they'd have trouble with on a typical day but make it their second ride ever on clipless pedals and you know it's going to be good!

Marcy and the temp. pup.

it looks like darren is going to rail this corner but in reality he chickened out because of the sharp pointy rocks at the bottom and is just leaning against the tree.

yukking it up after dad and darren took a lil dirt nap together. slow motion falls are fun to watch.

the beautiful front tire sawing action of inexperienced riders.

ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!

I'm swamped today so no pre-work/break time posting. Instead, I'll give you a shot that I take every spring/summer on one of my favorite road loops. It's my "hill" loop even though the longest hill only takes about three minutes to climb. It's not much but it's the best I've got in my immediate area so I'll take it.

The lake in the background is Damariscotta lake. Nice place to be in the summer I would guess but I've never been out on it. For shame. Also, notice the tilt of my saddle bag? Me too. That's a post for another day...

I Need To Research More

After posting today's blog post, my brother and I had this thrilling I-M session:

rustymtb: i'm so famous I made it to the racin rick blog!

Rick: yessa

slow friday

need better completed pics though

rustymtb: now i'll be incentivized to put the rest up

Rick: ooohhhhhh! big word!

rustymtb: it's not a fixie, btw

Rick: oops, sorry.

rustymtb: oh well

it makes me sound cooler

Rick: just figured it must be.

rustymtb: no way I could run that fixed

Rick: how can it be a hipster bike and not be fixed? i may have to take the whole post down

rustymtb: taking a bike that originally had 27" wheels and replacing it with 700c makes for a low BB

throw 175 cranks on there and i'd be skipping pedals off pavement constantly

Rick: wimp


There are four things that you can deduce from this conversation.

1. I need a fact checker. The whole premise of the post was that my brother had built a hipster fixie and now I find out it's a single speed. How pedestrian.
2. I'm generally a sarcastic dick to everyone around me. Including people at work and my boss. I might want to rethink that approach, although, it seems to be working for me so far.
3. I'm much more into riding and racing than my brother but he still knows a shit ton more about bikes than I do. I couldn't even begin to do what he did to that bike. If it doesn't have new, easily found, standard components than I can't do it.
4. and finally, you can never have an off the record conversation with me. Especially on a day that I have nothing to blog about. I mean really, who wants to hear about my grueling 20 minute commute this morning after dropping the car off at the garage?
   

Rus' New Ride

While most of us were getting fat over the winter, my brother Rus was busy building up a new hipster fixed gear commuter (he works in downtown boston afterall)and getting fat btw. My brother is a multi-tasker. I saw the bike in the beginning but had no idea what he had planned. I kind of thought that he'd just clean it up a bit, put some heavy commuter bits on it and let it be a dirtbag commuter. Especially after his treasured Van Dessel was a crumpled heap one day when he left his office. Boy was I wrong. What started out as a forgettable old road bike with nice lugs has been turned into a "hey, look at me!" beauty. Not shown in the pictures would be the 18 cable and u-locks he must have to keep her from getting stolen. All that extra weight is probably a good workout.


and his facebook album of the build.

Rest

It's a rest week for me now so there isn't all that much to blog about. My timing couldn't be better though since the weather is so craptastic right now that a few days of little to no riding isn't such a bad thing. I do hope our weather pattern changes soon though because I don't see myself back on trails for a couple of weeks at this point with the amount of rain we've gotten in the last few days. I'm also finding that after three weeks of very mild (for February and March at least)weather I'm a total pansy boy when it comes to the cold. 30 degrees this morning? A temp that just a month ago I'd practically ride naked in had me recoiling in terror on the first slight downhill when the windchill had to have dropped all the way down to, what?, 28 degrees. F it, spring is in my head. So be it.

Hopefully rest week will include some of this:

We've busted out the grill and firepit five or six times already this year.

Other than the current shit weather, there are sure signs that spring is coming. The biggest of which for the Nelson clan is the onslaught of ticks. We're currently dog sitting for my parents pooch Dallas and last night we noticed a tick. And then two, three, four (impressed that I can count so high?) and eventually pulled around 10 of those engorged little bastards off of her. Including two deer ticks. You know, carriers of everyone's favorite debilitating disease. Frick. Made marcy and I want to peel our skin off. So, with nature's chemical warfare goon on the loose, it's time to shear the legs. My hairy legs essentially scoop up and make cozy any and all ticks that are in a five mile radius. So the legs will be clean soon. The question is, shave or wax? Whatcha think?

kinda look like I have a chia pet restrained under those knee warmers

Scouting

What interesting thing do I have to say about Sunday's ride? Nothing really, so I won't say much. Basically, I went out to check out a bit of trail that I haven't been to yet this season despite it being 1/4 mile from the house. It has some very fun sections of singletrack though so it was time to see how it fared through the winter and it would give me a chance to tire out my parents dog so that I wouldn't need to have a prosthetic arm attached to where my shriveled up, useless, tennis elbowed arm used to be from playing fetch with a tennis ball so much. It turns out that my parent's dog is a great trail dog. She was trained to follow at your heel at all times so she's never trying to get in front like chance used to do and she actually listens when you call her. Quite the concept. Maybe I'll keep her when my parents get back. The trails were mostly good. They were nice and dry but one section didn't fare well from the wind storm that we had a couple of weeks ago. There are big ole fir and pine trees all over the trail in one area. I guess I'll need to schlep a chainsaw in there sometime soon. The trails are too fun to not use.

The "view" from the high spot of the ride. Can't see shit from here in the summer.

Good dog.

Old stone foundation, and an oil filter and old budweiser can.

and yours truly. what a handsome devil.

Schwing

Week number three of pretty decent hours on the bike is complete. Nothing out of this world, mind you, but pretty good none the less. With running and my ever so manly pilates I was just a BCH under 10 hours for the week. With riding up, my weight is on the way down as well. A bit over a month ago I was peaking at 200-202 lbs. Right up there with sir eats a lot. Now, I'm hovering at 193 lbs. Still a bit portly for my taste and about 3 christmas turkeys away from the truly svelt, ideal body composition, road racer types. Of course, there is no scientific way for me to become 5'-6" and 145 lbs so I'll be happy with what I can accomplish. At this rate, I should be able to hit my goal weight of 185 by the time the season starts. That's if I can stay away from good beer that is. I made the rash decision over the weekend to try the non-beer that is endorsed by his high and mighty himself. That's right, Michelob Ultra. Be still my beating taste buds. I was apprehensive to try it but I have to admit, it wasn't half bad. No, it's not a full bodied IPA but it lets me feel like I'm having a beer but I'm not getting drunk and bloated. Win, win I guess.

Over the weekend, I was also able to bust out some trail work. First up was to re-route a wet area on an existing trail near the house. A couple hours of clipping and raking and it's near completion, just have to get out there mattock (don't have access to a pulaski) and do some bench cutting and it will be complete. I've ridden it a couple of times already and it should ride well. We also cut a bunch of trail around the house over the weekend which was great for a couple of reasons. First, Marcy and Brynna helped with a bunch of it and Brynna was totally into helping and even did a couple of laps (running) on one of the trails after it was completed. We only have about 4 minutes worth of trail on the property so far but the possibilities are nearly limitless.

the dog du-jour. our parent's dog while they are on vaca

putting the kid to work. if aliens abducted our family over the weekend, they would assume that tennis balls grow from a dog's mouth based on how often this mutt has one jammed in there.

heave ho!