Beggars cannot be choosers, and when it comes to www.blogger.com, they provide a great service, and it's free - and fantastic, ONLY when you go to try to publish a chunk of text, with hyperlinks, fancy graphics, complex hand written tables, et al...and the fucker hangs up. It sits there trying to publish - never does. Then you are in a quandry as to just cancel and hit "back" - and try to remember if you did a CTRL+A and prayed that you had it saved temporarilly on your keyboard. Then fuck, fuckin fuckitty fuckin shit, blogger just ceased. I lost it.

Well, after spending over an hour typing and formatting my blog for the day, filled with rainbows, smiley emotes, and fucking unicorns - not un-replete with tales of bicycling debauchery of 44 miles, pornmastagoriffic apartment hunting in Northern Virginia, I lost the damn thing. So all you get is this rant. Today has now officially sucked, tomorrow better be _________________ (fill in the blank, in comments).

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Friday, thank goodness it's here. Work was tolerable, knowing that it was the end of the week - was busy, but we finished what we could and left at a reasonable hour. The weather cooled down - so I was off to train in long bike tights, ling sleeve shirt with a lightr jacket in tow. I was glad I packed it , I was pretty cold near the last half of the ride. Put in a leisurely 42 miles - i was only needing to stretch after yesterdays club ride.

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I found a great website to get great bike stuff, www.glorycycles.com, ended up getting a few jerseys and a pair of bib shorts, pictured (click for enlargement, pops new window).

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Tomorrow/weekend is going to be abuzz with a whole sleu of things, haircut, wash car, apartment hunting...maybe apply for a lease if I find one I like. I also need to swap my single chainring with my triple chainring (which requires a total bottom bracket change - different crank setup, et al) for doing some hilly/mountain climb training in the next 6 weeks to train for the Mountains of Misery. I'm going to shoot for a 60-70 miler tomorrow from Leesburg towards Hillsborough (on the West Virginia border) and back.

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Yet another beautiful day - was just glorious, minus the pollen that has choked me up royally. Work was just that - work, I needed to leave a little early to meet up with my cycling club for an organized group ride. Because the weather this week was not horrible - like the rain we had last thursday, hordes of people showed. There must have been around 60-70 people.

I met with a few people I know, and decided on a BB ride (not an A/AA ride or a B ride, but a BB ride, which was the majority of the folks - all hard core folks.)
The ride started, and was very slow at the start, about 30 of us, all in a peleton/paceline gaining speed, and changing positions - was smooth sailing. We were in about the 30th mile when all of a sudden the AA riders saddled up besides us and joined in/integrated into out paceline - there were about 50 of us out there, was quite a site. Then the whole peleton bot faster and faster, I got caught up in the excitement, was up at the head about to shift into the lead and transfer our back from the paceline when I guess I didn't hear the shout from the rear for the BB riders to breal off and turn right. So by the time I was staging back off the lead, I realized all my BB buddies were gone. I was now riding with the AA riders - and we were whipping along. after another 7-8 miles, I started to lose steam and at one point, I started having what seemed like an asthma attack after a huge hill climb - I almost passed out. Then the end was near - I was about to collapse, but I finished with the AA riders, the best of the best of NoVa cyclists. Felt great.

Next tuesday and thursday, I'll stick with my own group (A/BB riders), and but will challenge myself to join them again, gradually edge up.

Tomorrow is tax day, seems like months since I did mine, oh wait...duh, it has been months. The weekend will be chock full of apartment appointments, I have set a goal to move on the first week of June. Gettin all my ducks in a row. Oh the joys of moving.

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Wow, where does the time go? Here it is 11:45pm and I have not finished all that I need to do for today.

This morning was rough - I woke up with the worst sinus/allergic induced headache..this has been going on all week. But this morning it was especially bad. I took some Zyrtec and went back to bed. I went into the office later in the morning, which proved to be futile - unmuch going on, just a standstill period. SO alot of idle time finishing up other small projects.

The weather was beautiful - warmed up to the mid 60s, clear day. Was looking forward to a nice leisurely training ride out to Hamilton/Purcellville. Completed with great confidence - 22 miles out..22 miles back, 44 total. It was picture perfect weather, gee I already mentioned that, redundancy is good for such a beautiful day.

When I finished up, and packed up everything into my car, gassed up, rana quick errand to the grocery store, and ready to drive the 16 miles home - it was already 8:20pm, then I stupidly drove home the way I usually do (there is new construction, causing major delays, which I knew about) - I didn't get home until after 9pm. The the domestic rush to have dinner, cleanup, and lay out clothes/organise bike crap for next day...then needed to replace brake pads on bike and strip oil off chain, relube and reattach - turned into a huge ordeal. Yes, now it's 11:49pm.

I did not watch any tv tonight. I haven't even checked my email. It's that kinda day.

Tomorrow night is my group ride with the punk ass crew of the Reston Bike Club - gonna be a fast ass ride....I'm rather looking forward to it.

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I'm going to sound like a commercial for Zyrtec - but my gosh, I pop those things like candy this time of the year with all the pollen. I have been suffering from these odd pressure headaches between my nasal cavity up thru my forehead then through my temples then to the back of my head. The worst ones are where I can feel the blood churn in the front of my head, like I'm about to have an anurism any moment.

So, I take Zyrtec. Still headaches, drys me out - makes it less intense.

The weather today cooled down, highs in the upper 50s. Good thing I didn't pack away the long bike tights. I have to say, I love my arm warmers. Yes, the damn cycling industry has thought of everything - from arm warmers, to knee warmers, leg warmers, toe warmers, et al. These things are all made from neoprene - and elastic enough to quickly put on and take off, they wick sweat and just look dorky and sexy at the same time.

The temp dropped to the low 50s when I headed out after a not so interesting work day, I suited up in warm gear - also because it was supposed to rain. Cycling jersey, arm warmers, long bike tights, and clear rain jacket rolled up in rear pocket - ready to go. I had to get back a little early because my older brother was in town for a quick dinner - so I only did a 36 miler. When I finished, then it began to rain.

Was great seeing my brother - he has a totally dry sense of humor. We were rememebering a time back when we were in Boy Scouts...both early teenagers..and we had gone on this 60 mile canoe trip down the Shenendoah, a 3 day trip. We were looking forward to it immensely - but it ended up raining the entire time, especially when we were in the canoes. I described that weekend as "the canoe trip from hell, nothing but rain ad foul language". The weather completely soaked all our gear - nothing worse then pitching a wet tent and rolling out your sopping wet sleeping bag..and sleeping in it. We were miserable. I had my brother laughing so hard, in his supressed kinda way, then he dryly said with a cheshire cat grin "yea...that was a bad weekend". Guess ya had to be there - it's all in his delivery.

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Phew, I am wiped out after a long day at work and a long training ride afterwards. I get home, change, set up things for tomorrow, have dinner - it's suddenly 10pm.

But the weather, it was fantastic - another repeat of Saturday and Sunday. I took advantage of it - biked out to Hamilton and back, total 44 miles. Saw a bunch of cycling buddies on the trail - a few nods and quick conversations. Then later a few of us joined in for the haul back to the Sterling, Herndon, Reston stopping points. Great comradrie.

Tomorrow will be the start of a few rainy days ahead - big deal, it's Spring. Least it's not snow.

I cannot beleive the cost of gas these past few weeks - about $2.35 a gallon for regular, I've never seen gas so expensive in all my life. I'm imagining how much $$ I could save if I could actually commute by bike to work daily (unfortunately, my commute is not bike friendly - in fact illegal).

If I have the energy, I'll post the recipes for the stuffed rainbow trout, the methi leaf stirfry and the romano tomato vinegrette on toast (from Sunday's post)

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I remember a spring day when I was a junior in high school, I was breifly on the tennis team (only to impress a girl, what else)...after practice, I went with my buddies in thier convertable and drove around - it was right after daylight savings time, so the day seemed to last forever, it was a sunset that cast purple shadows, sky crisp and clear. I was happy. Unsure why that particular spring day is captured in my mind...but today was a similar scenario (to be memorable in the same way).

photo by d. scott gregory

I got up super early this morning and woofed down a Powerbar, some strawberries, got some coffee to go for the road and headed out to Leesburg for my first (metric) Century of the season. This one was basically a training rode for me..that I payed 10 bucks for, an organized metric century (100 kilometers, 63 miles) with SAG (service & Gear), pit stops, et al. But the weather - it was just fricking amazing. Not much to report about the actual ride, great folks I met en route, the food was not so great - but hey, it was only a $10 entrance fee. It was more of a leisure stroll for most folks, then there were a few hard core people - well, we tore it up. I finished in about three hours and 28 minutes. The ride seemed too short for a few of us, so we did a 5 mile "cool down" ride. Total of 68 miles today - those hills kill my legs...good training for the Mountains of Misery.

There was an extensive picnic afterwards, with a cycling showcase...sortof an outdoor trade show of bike equipment. I spent the afternoon just mosying around. Got a premature sunburn on my arms, was glad I sprayed on sunscreen this morn (Goatee is coming off soon, I don't need a silly goatee tanline, bad enough I get a bike short "biker's tan" and odd strap mark tan lines from my helmet).

photo by d. scott gregory

I finished the afternoon by running a few errands - had my sunroof open all day. Came home, showered and changed then spent the evening cooking for my parents. I made Rainbow Trout stuffed with herbed leek, spinach and sausage - side dish of Methi Leaf Stirfry and a Romano Tomato vinegrette bruchetta over hard toast covered in gorgonzola cheese. (recipe to follow...click on pictures to see larger).

Sunday night anxiety settles in. Not looking forward to this work week - I am looking forward to similar weather as today and some great training rides, and moving plans to follow.

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