Back to looking back

Probably no better time than now for some navel gazing.  The last two weekends have been less than monumental, such that they can bee summed us thusly.

Two weeks ago, I spent my Saturday morning tromping around the Backyard Trails doing trail work.  Nobody brought flags or ribbon to mark the new corridor, so the trail needed to stay to the right of a chunk of an orange milk crate, go past the discarded tire, and then towards the torn and muddy real estate sign.

Sunday, my stoke was as low as they trails were moist.  I just rode some greenway miles knowing that things would be looking up the next weekend.

Or not.

I got sick early last week, the kinda sick that puts me on the couch with coughing fits.  Sweet.  No riding outside of commuting and at work in the hopes that I can put this behind me as quickly as possible.  I spent Saturday and Sunday piddling about the house, watching shite movies, and finishing some heavily procrastinated on bike maintenance.

New, first time ever 3/32 drive train on the tarck behk (48 X 17), rebuilt rear hub... and in the process, stripped some lock ring threads off the hub.  I swear I didn't do it on purpose to help push me into that new Squid SO EZ I was talking about last week.  Dammit.

So, that navel gazing...

It's essentially the end of the year, so mebbe I'm supposed to be reflecting on my 2019 before I get all worked up about 2020.

Since this is sorta a bike racing blerhg, let's just say this about that:

This was my freshman year of racing in the fifty plus class, and I did a shit job committing to it.  Over the course of the year, I raced in the single speed class seven times, open men three times, and forty plus once.  I only took advantage of my freshman fifty year at the Winter Sort Track Series, the Trans-Sylvania Epic, and the Breck Epic (as part of an old man duo team).  I told myself I was gonna look for more races that had a fifty plus category... and I totally didn't, and I even registered as SS once instead of the racing in the "olds," ending up not on a podium I coulda been on... because... burrito?

I did manage to squeak out one "W" all season long, of course in the single speed class and not the "olds."

I'll attach some small amount of pride to winning the Pisgah 55.5k, mostly because Steve Bennett really made me earn it, but also because I was able to get fifth place in the overall.  I tried at something, and I liked it.

I was a tryer several times during this past year, in fact.  For some odd reason, I still find it somewhat exhilarating to push my body hard enough that I feel like I'm gonna bleed outta my eyes.  Results or not, getting my heart rate up in the red zone for long periods of time is still quite the addiction.

Speaking of heart rate, I don't think I can part ways with my Wahoo Elemnt Bolt.  I can't say I'm using it to even 25% or its potential.  I've never used it to navigate, and I hardly revisit the data I've acquired.  How I haven't lost my shit and sold it already is beyond me.

But here we are, and it's still here, and I don't hate it.

In the interest of living my blessed life, I plan on continuing on in 2020 in pretty much the same manner as I always have.  Furthermore, I appreciates the halps of those listed on my blerhg sidebar as Dick Support.  I'm not saying that I couldn't do all this without them, but they do make it easier to do what I do.  I am beholden to them and humbled to have their continued support.

Oh, and let's not forget about you, the reader person.  Blogs have been ded for years now, and yet there are still those few holdouts who come here for whatever reason.  If you'd stop reading, I'd stop writing... at least I'd like to think I'd quit.  Despite how familiar quitting may be to me, I never always know exactly when to do it.  The blerhg is the internet equivalent of that rat tail that I sported until the early '90s.

And so ends the 14th year of teamdicky dot blog dot com dot sex dot org.

See you later, 2019.  Nice knowing you.

Sorta.