new bike, newish blog, new perspective (maybe) and a lot of the same old shit. quick update on the stable: currently own a surly pugsley which i ride the shit out of, a vassago jabberwocky built up as my long distance gravel weapon, an uber-pimp trek superfly i have yet to ride and an azonic steelhead which lives on through the miraculous powers of welding although my knee isn't allowing it to be ridden much. didn't write much after the knee injury last year cause i didn't feel much like writing about my struggles to get back into what i considered adequate shape. those struggles were as much mental as they were physical. i just had a really tough time getting back into training. right now im in a decent upswing that i'm cautiously optimistic will hold and get me ready for transiowa. been working a lot at the bar which limits my time to ride with other local hooligans but have been doing a fair job of enjoying riding in good balance with training (by good balance i mean far more enjoyable rides than training rides). i'm not in the shape i once was...i'm not sure if i ever will be but i'm getting back into something that resembles a shape i'm content with.
new year's day ride went down again. as did most of the riders. jesse's hamburger knee was self-induced but some of the other crashes were a result of a lot of ice and a little alcohol. although i'm sure i have that backward. as usual it was probably the best ride of the year and everything is downhill from there, which is awesome considering it was only the first day of the year.
next up for me on the calendar is triple d. certainly not going into expecting to reclaim my title but excited to race it for the first time on a pugsley in what is the race's and my 4th installment. after triple d i'll be "training" for the pugsley world championships we're throwing here in decorah. i think training will require spending as much time as possible in a bar with jesse rather than actually trianing on the bike. after that i'm hoping to "organize" another std this year which will probably just be a super shitty weather gravel century, most likely the same century as last year's std. other than that it'll be a whole lot of getting ready for transiowa and mixing in enough trail riding to justify the superfly purchase and to be ready to race xc after the royal 162.
yep...after 4 months of not writing that's about all i got. happy adam?
8 comments:
good to hear from you again. I check here often and glad to hear you're alive.
Ben,
good on your comeback. I am bringing some Templeton to T.I. Hope to see you before that.
your friend,
ari
the PUGSLEY WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS sounds like it will be fun as hell!!! i'll be in AK otherwise i wouldn't miss it... i'll pass the word!
Good to see you're back.
Side note about the Steelhead: I almost bought one of these back in the day (2005) for snow biking. Good tire clearance, singlespeed, inexpensive. Would have been awful to ride 135 miles on though.
Lance: the real Pugsley World's is where you'll be!
thanks guys. look forward to getting back out and seeing everyone again. matt...i bought my steelhead around the same time as an urban/dj type of bike and i have abused it thoroughly. the thought of riding it any sort of distance, especially on snow, is miserable. huge tire clearance but the geometry seems pretty far off from something i'd want to ride more than around town or to the bar.
Welcome back. Glad to see you're riding again. Hopefully I'll be in good enough shape to come up for STD again. 6 months off the bike has left me a bit fatter and out of shape as well.
Hey, Ben, great seeing your blog up and running. lg/jcs
Had fun in Dubuque...watching the start of triple-d was cool...can't wait to hear the results and the details. I'm sure there will be an interesting story or two in there somewhere.
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