March of Times

It feels like I'm still in March, but time has moved on with out me. Here we are beginning May already. I've got a lot of catching up to do. I feel like the little kid hollering for mom in the mall because I stopped to look around and everyone else kept right on walking. Soon enough I'll catch back up, but it's a little unnerving at present.

This week's been pretty good. Despite setbacks of the recent re-flooding, I've kept up pretty well with the chores. Even got to see several friends in at the shop this week, which is always a great surprise.

PMBAR is coming up next week. I'm 70% of where I should be fitness-wise and only 63% of where I need to be. Luckily I've got 262.7% of can-do adventurous attitude bottled up and 3 wells worth of demons, so the pain cave will have plenty of ammunition.

Plus this year I'll have H., Dish, and JD waiting for me at the finish line. It'll be the first year I'll have someone to drive my broken arse home after the race. Plus I'm not sure H. has really gotten to experience Pisgah outside of an ORAMM or two.

I'm partnering up with the infamous HoneyBadger this year. Team Kish My Moots is gonna rock. It's been foretold via photo prophecy (they were booth neighbors at this years handbuild bike show). No more "final countdown" sung over and over whilst rehashing the same Ghostbusters quote or having to be the pack mule schlepping all of Mr. Dicky's hand sanitizer, mustard, fig newtons, and quilted northern around.

Though I can't believe he broke up the band. Like his new little buddy is going to offer him enough blog fodder to spawn a separate article for Dirt Rag? I hope he remembers to pack his big hat.

In other news, JD and I met a new friend out on our Friday morning ride. The little fella was out back in our woods romping around in the lake. He decided to join JD and I on our ride. He opted not to come back to the house, but if he's still there when we ride tomorrow he'll be moving in for a while. JD will be thrilled. Dish will hate it.

Saturday's commute was one of road closures that made for heavier than normal traffic, but didn't really affect me too much otherwise. The Country Music Marathon (and half marathon) was today and much of downtown Nashville was closed off to vehicles. In Franklin was the Main Street Festival which had traffic re-routed around town. Adam and I headed out for a short ride after work then headed over to the Festival to check it out. Actually we were in search of two specific things: Gyros and Funnel Cakes.

Mission accomplished.

Night Life

Despite soggy floors, I'm blessed with great soil. JD and I were able to escape and get two night rides in this week between all the torrential rain and wind storms pummeling the area.  Life might be all wet at the moment, but the trails are dry so life is good.

Could be better with one of these, but good is still good.

Hunting and Gathering: A Full Color Sunday

As I age, childhood memories fade into one another. Seasons meld. Time between each seems to get shorter. As far as your typical traumatized American childhood holidays go, I always recall Easter being a happy time close to Spring Break. Usually the Midwest weather would be just starting to get sunny and warm. Then snow would visit us one last time just to rub it in on our holiday/time off.

One Easter I remember in particular, I woke up and found my easter basket in the hall just outside my bedroom door. In it was a pair of yellow Jams (that's surfer shorts for you youngins) and a surf or skate related white t-shirt and the typical a horde of candy. It was a terrific holiday score, or so I thought until I walked outside.

Somehow that memory has faded into one where my sister and I also received the only non-Sears bikes I remember getting (though my sister did get a used tan Murray 10 speed once): a red and white Schwinn with a blue sparkle banana seat.  Maybe it was one in the same, maybe it's become mixed due to the photos being stuck near one another in Dad's old photo albums. Who knows.

I'm also not sure if it was a stingray deluxe or some manta ray-esque model. But I do know I loved the heck out of it until I got my Free Spirit BMX bike for my birthday a few years later.

I was a pretty lucky kid. Thank you Easter Bunny.

Mud Red

My last two weekends were spent away from home. Other things had pulled precedence and required my full attention, as such many things fell by the way side. I busted a hump to get every back-logged item done on my list before I left work on Thursday. I came close, only 1 item remained, leaving my day off open to focus on the items undone at home. I was finally able to address most of them, one being my bike's current status. It was still mud caked from last weekends adventures.

Last week I added some length to my chain to allow for a bit more mud clearance in anticipation of the muddy conditions expected last weekend. This limits me to how small of a cog I can put on without re-breaking the chain. Loving how the bike was riding with a little bit longer than I normally run chainstays, I experimented with how far I could go before adversely affecting the feel of the bikes handling.

I pretty much got it as far as it'll go and still have appropriate chain tension and I'm loving the change. Still nimble in the tight rocks, but cornering at speed feels super stable. Steep and loose climbs aren't quite as tractor-ing up feeling as with the wheel tucked up tight, but didn't seem to cause any excessive traction loss. It's fun being able to tweak your ride and dial in personal ride characteristics.

Speaking of fun, getting all my crap done also allowed me to get out and actually get in some riding. Too many hours hiking and clearing trail lately and not near enough spent in the saddle. Today I made the first steps back to getting saddle time.

I started on the road with an unexpected guest rider. H. got off work this morning and made it out for a road ride with me for the first time in months. And what a great day for it. 80 degrees and sunny. After the road it was into the woods with the pup for some dirt sessions.

I even had time to clean up my bike as well as the 'dorfers, which came home with me after Sunday's race so as not to get his new spanky car dirty. You can lead a roadie to dirt, but you can't make him drink.

Here are some memories from last weekend's Crude XC. Still one of my all time favorite races.

The Duke post race opening the lungs with a Marlboro Red. Doesn't get much Cruder.

Sweetness

Good friends dropping by. Cool bikes hanging around. Chicken Ta-da in a bowl and a bitchin' night trail ride with the pup.

 Keith #2 gets a sweet new Salsa Ala Carte. 

These are a few of the things that helped un-whine my recent whiny-ness. Clarity of the woods helped me focus on the issue: a big load recently dropped onto my shoulders and the feeling that no-one has my back has been lingering heavily on my mind.

Then I realized it's ok if things aren't always perfect and I relaxed. Finally (for once), doing nothing actually solves a problem. Now if I can only figure out how to resolve things with procrastination...

Keith #1 gets his MOOTS Vamoots CR finally ready to ride.

Double Mojo

Much better day today. Double MOOTS pleasure.

I just wasn't feeling it yesterday. Nothing wrong, just nothing right. Until I got home and got out for a night ride with the pup. But even before then, life still wasn't feeling exactly right.

As I attached the lights and suited up, it clicked. My Kanza Killer Cow protection sticker was gone. Somewhere during the Chickasaw race when I was plugging way in my pain cave, the mud and wet combined to rip my lucky sticker off my fork. Hence robbing me of some mojo.

Power restored.

So before my ride, I remedied the situation. Double Mojo added. All feels right with my world again. Ka-chow.

Clearin Clayvegas

Tennessee Chainsaw Massacre.

JD and I made time to get down to Clayville to get a trail ready for an upcoming race. Monday night's strong wind storms and tornadoes had done a number on the trail. It's long hours of labor. Friday JD and I worked trimming and clearing trail for 6.5 hours and I thought I had cleared about 4 miles. Riding it afterwards to clock it, it came in at a measly 2.89 miles. Hmmm... that'll make for some short laps.

Perks.

Sunday Clay volunteered some of his rare free time to help me clear some of the fallen trees and bush hog a bunch of the trail. Between the two of us we got almost 8 miles cleared. We still have a few more trees to clear out and a section of trail to weed eat, but it's much better than it was. I think we might just be able to have a race yet.

JD cooling off in the creek.

Despite being a lot of back breaking work, it's hard to complain when the perks of the job allow for an awesome weekend of creek romping.

And star gazing at the barn, swillin' whisky and beer to the sounds of Outlaw Country.

And sneaking out for a little night riding.

And watching the setting sun paint the sky.

We even finished up early enough on Sunday to get out for a lap on the trail and home early enough to enjoy a beer at the barn with the wife.

Lights Out!

Despite the daylight hours getting longer, it's still dusk-thirty by the time I get home from work. So sad to not get out to enjoy the sun and warmth of the day. I bared the cross yesterday, but it was to torturous today. Especially when you have friends like 8Ball who roll in mid-ride just to let you know they're out enjoying the sunny, warm weather while you're stuck inside.

Ah, but I planned ahead. Batteries were charging whilst I worked, making for a very merry puppy when I got home from work. 'Tis the season of the night ride: Still 68 degrees out. Still a bit too early for bugs. And no sign of spiderwebs hanging face level across the trail.

I'd forgotten how fun trail riding is in the dark. The lights force your focus narrow. Everything fading into black behind the fallout of the light in your periphery. Sounds seem louder and crisper than during the day due to your other senses blinded by the darkness. You force the pace. Faster. The shadows shift giving the trees the appearance of dancing side to side as the lights on the bike weave around the trail. Faster still. Soon the intense focus brings a calm zen-like flow and the stress of the day rolls off with the beads of sweat.

It's not about fitness. It's not about speed. It's about fun. About escaping. About focus and clarity. About not hitting the trees.

Plus it's a little creepy out there alone in the dark woods.

On the less dark and more warm and fuzzy side of the blog, we have a new arrival at the farm. She came just after the cool front passed in following Monday's big storms. A happy and healthy little baby girl. Congrats Han!