Friday, November 26, 2010

Leftovers...

I had a nice day yesterday, piercing stomach pains notwithstanding. Hooked up with Seibold & a truncated FBS crew for a damp hooligan cross ride in and around Crofton. We took out cross bikes and tooled up the road, through the parks, across the golf course on the cart trail, and into the woods around Crofton. At some point Young Tom McKay led us into the woods, down a steep hill, and into a valley by a stream - that we had to cross three times, once humping across a slimy dead log, another time walking across one, another time leaping. It was a fun ride, two hours of riding and some bushwhacking. Not all training has to be power metered; Just Riding Around (JRA) is training too, and has none of the psychological cost that comes with some grind of a solo L2/L3 ride.

As my first ride in a couple weeks, I had a fun post-bronchitis blast of coughing and hacked up tons of an unidentified liquid that Sean figured was some turkey glaze that I'd been storing up. The legs were MIA, I was oh-so-weak, and I managed to eat my antibiotics pre-ride, which left me with a bad case of nausea and a feeling like a knife was lodged in my gut.

Did I mention this was the most fun I've had in weeks? It was. I capped off the day with a plate of Recovery Turkey. Brined that puppy overnight, lifted the breast skin up and lodged rolled up bits of bacon and a stick of butter in strategic locations under the skin, and cooked it just until it hit 180 degrees. It turned out *so* juicy and nice... going to remember that trick for next year. Thanks to the bum stomach I managed not to finish the whole plate and got through Turkey Day without the usual epic blast of overeating, so it wound up being a pretty good day and a great feast in spite of everything.

I hope you guys had a happy Thanksgiving. I'm thankful for my readers and friends and the folks I ride with.

Show of hands - who thought that exact same thing yesterday?

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2 comments:

Tom said...

180? Man that brine must work wonders - I had to wrestle my mom to take the turkey out at 168. Bird was great, but we don't brine. I'd like to try that at some point. Mom made 3 pies for 6 people, including an apple just for moi. So much sleeping was induced. You coming out to Taneytown?

Jim said...

Wow. That's a lot of pie. The brine does work wonders. 170 if the bird is un-stuffed, 180 if it's stuffed. Y'know, 'cuz of the germs.

No Taneytown for me. Can't race since I've gone fallow and am still a bit weak from the bronchitis. Reckon I'll take a nice nap around about mid-morning. Good luck to you though.