the ride

earlier in the week, i mentioned in the blog that i'd requested new projects at work. bam! now i'm buried. careful what you wish for? anyway, it's all good.

time to ramble with da' finga's. as i try to plan 2006, the desire to do a solo 24 as the major "A" race of the season isn't jumping out at me. need a different challenge, or at least a different focus on the same challenges. am also thinking about how to take the love of the ride to the next level... while competing is the shizzle, it can also make one forget why they're out doing a century in 32 degree rain pushed by 20mph swirling winds. is it for the race? or for the soul? probably both, but sometimes when one is only thinking of the race, it drags you down into a "i have to do this" attitude vs a "i want to do this" mindset... pedal. pedal. pedal... but that being said, i'm already getting fired-up to race my bike in '06...

talking about taking the love of the ride to the next level: while checking-out the Grand Loop and Great Divide races on mtbr, bumped into Kent Peterson's blog - and his full accounting of the Great Divide race. have only had time to begin reading it, but real interesting stuff. also "stole" a link to a funny Jeff Guerrero article about bike commuting,Bikakure—The Book of the Commuter. Commuting is where it all started for me and the longer i ride, the more aware "of the Way" i become (still can't help breaking traffic laws left and right, but figure it's ok in boston 'cause everyone drives like the devil is in the backseat). JG's mind-farts on bike commuting made me think about what kind of rider i am in the first place and if i've pigeon-holed myself into a idea being a racer. makes me wonder if i got caught-up in the moment, that moment of absolute and complete fullfillment one feels when completing a mtbike race (especially a solo 24 or long epic) and forgot about all the other moments that come with a season of riding - a "season" that never really has an end for the bike commuter. that's why the blog is no longer "an endurance mtb blog" but more simply, "a guy that rides his bike a lot" blog. that makes more sense to me. remove as many layers of description as possible from riding... there's enough layers of complexity in the rest of life.

can you tell i've had an extra helping of caffeine-crack this morning?