Week as Hell

It's been a long week filled with some good riding. It's had its share of horror too.

First off, if you're an MTB'er and not a total dick, and you'd like to give a little back, hie yourself to the tennis courts at Wakefield this Saturday AM and be ready to roll at 10:30. Washington Underground Singlespeed Society (WUSS) stalwart Aaron Ryan died a few weeks back, leaving behind a lovely wife, young daughter, and another unborn child. He expired a few days after a run-in with a car, though it's not clear that the car was the cause; Aaron just dropped dead after experiencing some minor symptoms that might not have been anything. I wasn't close to him; we raced at the same place at the same time a bunch, and we had a lot of friends in common. What I did remember, after Mrs. Outlaw mentioned it, was that he had ridden in this utterly brutal day long mountain bike decathlon on a 98 degree day a couple summers ago, and while we all cooled off in Liberty Reservoir afterwards (catatonic) he decided to go for a swim across the reservoir and back, maybe a mile round trip. We were sure he'd die but he just knocked it out and came back laughing and smiling. Good guy, strong rider. The ride Saturday asks for a $40 donation to go to a scholarship fund for Aaron's kids. It's a good cause.

Second thing is I found out a friend from rugby days died last weekend. The circumstances are not clear; he apparently parked his car on Route 50 near Annapolis, and then walked in front of a semi. The cops said very quickly it was a suicide, and that got me to thinking. You know, suicide is never a smart way out. The permanent solution to temporary problems, it may be an attack on the self but it also functions as a huge "fuck you" to all your friends and family. I've been a member in a bunch of different tribes in my life - some military crews, some rugby clubs, bike racing crews - and the thing is if somebody in my crew was down and out they could take over the man-cave (which rivals a lot of Capitol Hill basement apartments), eat my food, yell at my dog, and piece it back together. I'd be there for them. And I'm not alone. My friends are solid folks, and I know they'd be a safety net for others in our little tribe. If you're down, you're out, lean on friends. You've got 'em. Don't ever even seriously consider throwing your life away. The other real problem with suicide is that killing yourself is one thing, but suicides occur in clusters. A person will sort of infect others with that mentality - so you often see suicides running in families, or in a school, or in a little community. Don't be a link in the chain that causes deaths like that. Yeah, it ends your damn problems but it heaps heartbreak on all your friends and family. Seek help. Please.

Last thing - would folks making the Lance Armstrong prison ass rape jokes give it a freaking rest for a while? Seriously. I've been on the cop side, the prosecution side, and the defense side, and I clerked for a judge for a while. I've interviewed inmates in prison, post-conviction. I get the criminal justice system. I sense that most of the people making the dumbest and most offensive cracks don't. This is like the "war geek" bloggers critiquing our troops tactics. When some lardass who has never gotten closer to the Army than playing with his GI Joe action figure thinks he knows something about what the guys in the mud are about, he's generally wrong and generally making an ass out of himself in front of people who have actual knowledge of the matters in question. Second, it's undignified. Lance may have some smarts but at heart he's just a dumb ass cheating jock - like almost all the other guys who were top 10 TdF riders in the 90's and 00's; are you willing to sell out that hard just to insult a guy that doesn't give a shit about you? It's a little disproportionate too. There's a million worse criminals than him that are going to go on to rape, murder, rob and create mayhem in their communities. Why doesn't anybody give a crap about that? This is important enough to you that you're willing to toss away your dignity in order to indulge yourself? Really?

Enough heavy shit. I feel like I just removed your finger warts with a shotgun. The week wasn't *that* bad. It was a good riding week. As usual my friends were an emotional and spiritual life buoy for me. There were some rides...

Saturday was a Dawn Patrol at Patapsco. Great ride, except I ate shit about 2 minutes into it on the wet grass in the field heading onto Nacho from Landing Road. The lower (worn in) track was real damp and I was closing a gap up to Svenstrom and BB, so I decided to hop up into the less worn grassy track, which is smooth. I was going full steam when the front end slipped out and went down hard. I thought I'd broken my leg, did a quick break check, then got back on the bike and started chasing like hell. I was a little shook up and later on my back started cramping. I also got a twinge in the lower back on a hill - I dinged up one of those muscles around the disc that bothered me last year and my back is still a bit stiff & sore. I rode okay though - managed to clean a couple obstacles I've never even attempted before. It was tough though and the full extent of the bruising wasn't clear until I was riding road on Sunday and Monday, with achy cramps in my legs and back where the worst of the bruising was. Adding insult to injury, I broke out with a Poison Ivy reaction on Tuesday. When Momma Patapsco wants to hit you, she frickin' unloads.

TOT 63: I thought a bone was broken...

TOT 64: What does a road cyclist look like?
90 minutes L2/L3

Then again, there are some days you ride, and you see God's face about you, and realize that you are created to feel joy.

TOT 65: Finding Beauty Even On A Bike Trail Commute

It's funny how you can be riding along and not thinking about the biking / picture taking project, and all of a sudden something grabs your eyes and goes, "this is it, take a picture NOW!"

It wouldn't be a good week, of course, without a couple hot laps of Rosaryville prior to work. So check this out, the Redline frame is breaking, so I rode the geared boinger. I took it real easy, just cruised. You know what my time was? 51 minutes / lap, same as if I'm going moderately hard. It's like 51 is my time at Rosey, unless I'm working very hard. But all effort levels seem to end in a 51 for me, unless I'm fixed.

TOT 66: My Favorite Stream Crossing

And speaking of fixing things... BB fixes it. Great ride at Patapsco, two flats, one near crash by Svenstrom, a near-cleaning of Ridge by Moi, and a nice time overall.

TOT 67: The 1x1 Wasn't Broke
But BB Fixed it Anyhow

TOT 68: The Fog is Getting Thicker
But Leon is *Not* Getting Laaaaaarger

Okay, I'm going to go light on the tunes here because I'm all tired out.

First off, some Dropkick Murphys, for the Broons. They earned it, and god bless 'em, they do have the best team song in the NHL.



Then this - nice soul song, hella video:



And this, which reminds me of Bullitt:



And finally, because it's tick & flea season, and you need a Kafkaesque reminder to check yourself after riding in the woods:




See you guys on the flipside.