Back to Blogging!

Wow. It's been about a month since my last post. That's lame, but I've been BUSY!

I guess I'll start with this past week and then work backwards a bit, mainly because this past week is still fresh in my memory, and the old memory ain't what it used to be...

I was off this past week, with the exception of putting a shift in in the emergency department on Monday, and this was a great week off--better than most in the recent past, mainly because I got to do plenty of riding and proportionally less moving stuff (although, in retrospect, still quite a bit).

Saturday, however, was not an exciting day. Jean and I spent virtually the whole day running around from store to store getting "stuff." What stuff? I don't really remember, but I do know that light bulbs were pretty important. So was a smoke detector. All I really remember was that we drove around all day, from Target, to Home Depot, to Lowes, to Wal*Mart. Fun, fun, fun. After a long week at work, there's nothing more fun than driving around doing errands. Seriously, we're getting everything online from now on.

Although, while waiting for Jean in Wal*Mart, I did get to see this VERY cool, custom painted, camper. I may have these guys do some signage on my car... we'll see.

Anyway, the fun part of Saturday came when we got together with Megan & Rick for Clash of the Titans--in 3D. I loved the original movie, and to this day, my all time favorite movie quote is "Let loose the Kraken." (For some reason, this was changed to "release the Kraken in the new movie...)

I wasn't sure if the new version would be as good as the first, and sadly, it wasn't. It was still entertaining, and most important, I got some cool 3D glasses.

Sunday was still raining. I had been longing to get out for a ride--especially after working 9 days in a row, but the crappy weather held me at bay. I decided to take the marauding morons (Gary & Luna) out for a run, with Jean (not a marauding moron), and then meet up with Doug for breakfast. Jean and I did a couple of miles together and then I peeled off with the dogs to log a couple of more miles. I was hoping for 4-5 miles, but as I'm still learning my way around the new neighborhood, I took a couple of roads that were longer than expected, and 7 1/2 miles later, we jogged back in to the driveway. Longer than I had planned, but I was able to reward myself with a great steak tip breakfast at the Cityside Diner in Beverly! Mmmmm, meat.

Highlights for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday include, riding, riding and more riding.

Tuesday night I met up with a group at Willowdale, to try to scope out some of the course that will be used on the race in May. I was the only sucka there on a SS, and when the course hit the fire roads, I was left behind. Damn. The singletrack was a different story though, and there's where I felt I could hold my own. It was a fun ride, and cool to hang out over at Matt's house after. Although, apparently I've got a $1 bill for the beer. Damn again.

Wednesday, my buddy Tim came out from Worcester and we explored some trails in Beverly Commons and Gordon College. For reasons that are too convoluted to describe here, I decided to take a geared bike. I haven't ridden a geared bike off-road (aside from my travel bike which has a 1x8, and is used exclusively when I travel) in years. I also had suspension... I'll get into that another day, but looking back as the trails in the Commons, it was the right tool for the job. Very technical trails with lots of short, steep ups & downs. I'd probably take the geared bike back there next time, but we'll see. We ended up walking as much as riding, so when we had the chance to pop over to Gordon College, we did. It was one extreme to the other though, as we found ourselves pedaling along smooth fire roads. I eventually found some good stuff though and there's a surprising amount of killer singletrack hidden away all over the north shore.

Wednesday's good ride was followed by another ride in Bradley Palmer/Willowdale on Thursday, this time with Mike and his SS. It was good to be back on my fully rigid, 29'er singlespeed. We banged out a fast & fun 13 miles, and we continue to find new trails out there. I don't know who's doing the building & cutting, but whoever it is, he/she is a mad genius. Perhaps it's simply trail gnomes? Whatever, I love Willowdale.

I was starting to feel some fatigue set in in the legs, so I decided to take it "easy" on Friday. Well, sort of. I did sleep late (10:00am!), but after being suddenly awoken by the doorbell, I headed out for a road ride with Glen and Jamie. It was an easy ride for them, but I was hurting. All in all though, I knew that once I got back to work, I'd be thinking about riding, so I figured I'd ride every chance I could while I was off. It's better to go back to work exhausted instead of well-rested.  Otherwise it's not an appropriate use of personal time!