My New Obsession: To Inner Peace or Not?

Quit dancing around like a Dicky and get out there and hurt him! - turkish

Life has been having a good time piker punching me lately. Just when I think the round is over, a jab here, kidney punch there, upper cut, and kablammo, but I'm too stubborn to stay down. To counter all the sadness, sorrow, worry, and strife I've garnered a new obsession: tires. Big, fat corner chewing tires with rounded profiles and small knobs that seem to hook up where ever I may roam. How wide can I go? How low can I go? Kenda Slant 6? Maybe some Vulpines? Can I get a WWLT bigger than 2.55??

The other obsession is whether to inner-peace or not inner-peace. Does the 760g "race" tire have a paper thin sidewall that won't resist flats as well as the 790g Team FreeRide tire's nylon lined inner-peace sidewall? Or is it more for smashing into rocks style pinch flat protection? Is the added 30g worth the peace of mind?

With all my time going to work, friends and loved ones in need, traveling, hospitals, funeral homes, there's not been much saddle me time at all. So far all my early season goals for myself have been passed over for gas station food, fried things, Midwest comfort food, and exhaustion. So, in light of lost time and new obsessions comes a new goal: MLM.

Having long admired nice guys such as Dave Wiens and trying to model my training off of articles they've written and interviews I've read I decided 2010 is coming in like a big Mofo and as such, deserves to be ridden like one too. Enter my "More Like Mark" training plan.

Heavy bike, anger rides, hell rides, one front ring. During average work weeks I'll get 2 angry hour sessions before work during the week. I've had an hour of anger so far this week with hopes for another hour tomorrow morning with the Monkey in the Monkey Pit (my new term of endearment for the back trails ala the Peacock Pit). This is where I've been learning to fully commit to the corners and let'er go through the rocky downs, my own personal training and tire testing ground.

photo from wtb.com

There's also a nice spot in the bottom I'm daydreaming about putting a pump track. The horses don't go down there and it'd be a nice fit between trail systems (Monkey Pit and Lilly Berm (she liked to collapse my berms)). I just need to find the time. Hoping as the daylight lengthens I can get out after work some, but that also means mowing will return, there's fencing to be done, closet and shed cleaning, and trail work/maintenance in the back, along with regional area trails and that training stuff I should be doing. Oh yeah, and a work schedule that likes to keep me away from home. Good problems to have I reckon. I mean I could be cooped up in some urban area with no personal playground and not collecting a check like last year. Yea, these are life's good problems.

The only bad problem with all these good problems is no H. time. She's picked up 6 weeks or so of overtime to help us catch up on bills. My overtime is unpaid and in high demand of late. Since she gets compensated for hers, she's digging in to help the bottom line. Though knowing her, as long as I'm out near the barn she'll not complain too much. Another motivator to get the Monkey Pit trails and pump track up and running. Less training time away from the homestead.

Weir for art though WeirWolf LT Inner-Peace?

Though none of this helps to ease my obsession. Even at work today whilst trying to stay awake and focused on the endlessly repeating mass casualty studies going on, I'm using down time to search out info on the Weirwolf LT and it's namesake. Trying to decipher what's real and what's red koolaid or just urban myth. Searching for the elusive inner-peace version is proving fruitless. Another plus for the "race" version? Or is the lack of availability a plus for the inner-peace version? So many questions, so many hours locked in a dark lab.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow morning more dirt time with the test tread.