Stupid Hurts….trust me I know!

I hate running with a passion, I have hated it for a long time. So I have decided I will compete in a few road races this year. I figure it will give me the focus and reason to get out and run some.

The next local road race is the Mercedes Marathon on Feb. 10th. I will be running in the 5k portion. That equals about 3.1 miles.
That gives me all January to get into running shape. Right now I am looking for people to run with every few days to help me get into shape, and maybe run with me on race day.

Technorati Tags: running, passion, compete, races, Mercedes, Marathon, 5k, race

Even though I haven’t had a motorcycle in way to long, I still have my last helmet. and at the request of a friend I took a picture of it, while doign so I took the time to find where I had lost all of my other helmet pictures and a few of my motocycle pics.

So now for a bit of randomness
My first helmet was all black and got split in half on my first wreck in Florida. So I purchased a new one in St. Augustine. It fell off a shelf and the front half broke off. So I decided at that point I should buy quality helmets.

First was the blue Fulhmer

then the white icon

can you tell i like dragons
then this one

at which point I fell in love Suomy’s and that is pretty much all I will wear
Unfortunately Sherrif Joe and company still have that one
and the current one

Now I just need a new bike!

Oh and a bunch more pics in my gallery now to

Technorati Tags: motorcycle, helmet, pictures, St. Augustine, Fulhmer, Suomy

Happy Holidays and what not everyone.

Making sure my holiday stared off with a bang my Ibook died again. luckily it is still under warrantyfrom the last time this happened so the repair will be free of charge. But since I have to mail it in this time it will be a bit before I get it back. Fortunately one of my friends gave me a spare computer they had lying around to get me through this dark and lonely time.

Of course as I am walking in the door with my new computer my house mate points out he has about 4 computers tucked into one of the closets that aren’t being used. So today was spent writing a term paper for a friend while intermintantly pirating parts off the other computers in the house and getting my box up and running Linux. Somehow I had managed to forget just how much of a pain the intial config can be for a fresh install can be.

Technorati Tags: Holidays, Ibook, warranty, Linux

I have been putting off adding an entry to my website lately because aside from recovering from my recent trip, life has been blissfully dull lately. I have been spending my idle time trying to plan my next adventure, but I am really starting to wonder if there is a point to a life where all I do is roam from one thrill to the next. I have had a few pleasant offers to settle down, but I don’t realistically see myself taking any of them. I think I thrive on the excitement.

Someone did manage to trick me into speaking to my mom for the third time since she kicked me out last New Year’s. That was interesting but I don’t feel like any real good came from it. I also managed to get tapped to help host a New Year’s party for the first time ever in my life. I originally planned on spending the night with the same guys I spent it with last year, just because I have never managed to spend New Year’s in the same place twice in a row. Plus this is the first year in a very long time without some sort of personal disaster happening during the holidays. I guess this is to make up for the chaos of last year. Of course it is a little early to be certain, but it does seem like this year will end on a uncommonly high note.

I recently came into a Ipod even though I said I never ever would own one. But someone gave me their old 20 gig unit since they replaced it with a newer model. Now I just need a firewire cable, then that will mean no more low capacity cell phone mp3 player.

I also added a few of my older pics to the Stupid Hurts Gallery

Technorati Tags: website, mom, New Year’s, New, Ipod, mp3

I know I have been slacking off, but I think I earned an off day or two.

Mileage for the day: 72 miles
Average speed: 12 mph
Max Speed: 28 mph
Grand Total!! 610 miles

Brundidge-Prattville

I was pretty sore most of the day yesterday. I have realized that slow days make the fast days possible, and that I can’t go balls out every single day.

Luckily for a big chunk of the day I had a generous tailwind from the south. At one point I was beating along at just a hair over 30 miles an hour. I saw a cop sitting over the the grass to my left, and I assumed he would ignore me since I was on a bicycle. Then I see him raise his radar gun and shoot me. I know he shot me because as I blitzed past him I saw him staring at the display on the radar gun clearly baffled. I could not help but smile to myself about that one for the rest of the day.

Somewhere after 50 miles I couldn’t get back onto my pace. I figured since I wasn’t going to get into a comfortable groove I may as well see how far I can go before I have to quit. I didn’t really think that one through very well. Because at this point I had eaten most of my snacks and was nearly out of water from fending off several dogs earlier in the day.

Realizing this after the 70 mile mark I decided to push ahead anyway. And thing were going great until my headlight started to get dim and I could see less and less of the road. Then I noticed all of the lights were getting dim, and I was having problems keeping my bike on the road. After a few more miles I realized what was happening. I was going blind. This had happened before once at a track meet, so I knew what I had to do. Find food and water quickly, luckily for me I passed a well placed all night MacDonald’s and was was able to rest and resupply. I would have hated to be taken out by a rookie mistake like that.

The Day In Numbers
Miles: 84
Average Speed: 11.8
Max: 33.7
Total Mileage: 538.1

Technorati Tags: Prattville, tailwind, cop, radar, track, MacDonald’s

Cypress Fl.-Brundidge, Al.

This morning got off to an awesome start. All the previous days injuries seemed to be gone and I fell into my pace fairly easily. My phone has been dead for a bit so that meant no music, but I was feeling so good it didn’t really matter.

During the first ten miles of my day I was pedaling along thinking to myself, “I have got this far with out a flat tire, amazing.” Unfortunately I must have said it out loud. Somewhere around the 25 five mile mark my rear tire went flat. Less than a mile from the Alabama state line. I didn’t even have time to get my back wheel off my bike and start swapping tubes out. Before someone had stopped to offer me a ride up to the Dothan Wal-mart so I wouldn’t have to waste my spare tube. Made as much sense as any. Well I crossed the state line in the back of a car, not exactly what I had in mind, but it was still early in the day.

I made it to the Wal-mart and outside was a squad of guys in a roped off area assembling bikes for the Christmas rush. I talked to them about the area while I swapped my tube out. I think my skills impressed them, because they offered me a job traveling with them doing bike builds. I declined because I have other things in mind right now.

From there I rode the 231 north for a while. But that presented two major issues.. The first is there are long stretches of the 231 that don’t have a shoulder, and after someone in a van actually cut over and physically pushed me off the road I decided to walk till the shoulder restarted. I ended up walking ten miles before I got a semi-ridable shoulder.

Surprisingly the shoulder on the 231 is textured with ripples that are about an inch deep. Riding over these on a road bike is not at all unlike riding a washing machine with two cinder blocks and an angry Doberman inside of it

20 miles of constant jarring vibration and I wanted to die. But then I saw this shimmer up ahead.
there was a 20 foot tall chrome chicken staring at me from the darkness. That was all I needed, I couldn’t be defeated by a simple road.

My bag felt more like a superhero cape, and the light rain that had been following me for the past few miles suddenly didn’t mater. The road was mine to do with as I pleased. It felt awesome. I ended up pounded out a few more miles before the rain got to heavy for me to feel comfortable with my computer.

The tale of the tape
Miles for the day: 72.9
Average Speed: 12.5
Top 30.5
Total: 454.1

Technorati Tags: Dothan, Wal-mart, Christmas, 231, chicken, superhero