Now what am I going to do?

Friday I celebrated my birthday after getting off work later than normal. I use the term "celebrate" very loosely. I cracked a beer when I got home, planned on bleeding my Hayes Primes when I got done with supper, ended up on the phone with four different "industry" people, drank more beer, watched some Craig Ferguson stand-up, and went to bed at midnight... without bleeding my brakes.

I woke up Saturday morning at 5:00AM realizing that if I did not bleed my brakes I would have to ride the Superbeast on the same stupid ride I attempted last week but did not complete due to lack of planning and mechanical malfeasance. I was feeling the effects of "celebrating", and just assembling the bleed kit took a half hour of effort.

I watched the Hayes Prime bleed instructional video once, remembered the steps but forgot the order, attempted a bleed on the rear and failed. I watched the video again, focused on getting it right, and won on the second try.

First victory of the day.

I did not have to bleed the front. Somehow I had magically trimmed the line and reassembled the brake without allowing air into the system.

Second victory of the day.

I then decided to PLAN the ride that I failed on last week. Instead of wearing a hydration pack and carrying 122oz of water to ride to two parks with two perfectly functioning water fountains, I opted for two water bottles. The short sleeve TSE jersey would be replaced with a jersey of the sleeveless variety due to the extreme heat, I would look at my route before leaving the house to get a general idea of where I was going, and I swapped my gear to a more road friendly 32X17 instead of the Superbeast's 38X23.

The ride was as awful as I had planned it to be. I normally ride a 32X19 at the USNWC center due to 3-4 climbs that are awkward with an 18, and the 17 certainly sucked a capital amount of ass in that manner. I did n0t wreck as I did last week, although I almost ate shit on the slippery roots while an attractive female runner personally witnessed my lack of grace and flow. Moving on, Stabby and Eric Van Driver met me at Renaissance Park for one lap out there, and then I headed home rounding out my day with 60.07 miles and the satisfaction of accomplishing the stupidest MTB ride I've ever been on right out of my front door. I could pretend it was more thrilling than that, but it was not.

Third victory of the day.

This week Fajita is at camp and The Pie took my niece to Give Kids the World to volunteer. While she's out saving the world one cause at a time, I'll be holding down the fort... alone. I would like to say this opens up my ability to ride before/after work, but I'm on dog duty. In order to ride I will have to once again motivate myself to head back out the door on a bike for the second time of the day after the evening feed and poop. Seeking motivation, I thought maybe I would join in on some scheduled rides already in progress. I picked the wrong week for that. The Charlotte Summer MTB Series is on break this week, and Two Wheeled Tuesdays is taking the week off to "reassess, retool and make it how we wanted."

First fail of the new week.

I finished so many of my bike related projects over the weekend that I have no idea what I'll get into this week (after I finish my next article for Dirt Rag... I promise).