Chubbed Up

This is how I see the next couple months going for me:

I'm fully converted over into non-racer boi status with the 32 spoke NOX/Industry Nine wheels and big Maxxis meats.  I've got too much fun coming up in the next couple months, what with the trip to Grand Targhee and the Dirt Rag Dirt Fest WV later in July.

Last year's event produced some of my best memories of 2017.  Except for waking up that first morning with that vaguely familiar "God, kill me," my heart's pumping gravy feeling, it was a nonstop fun.  I went on about a thousand rides with a thousand different people, never had to light up a camping stove, and took exactly one shower (and also bathed in an overflowing ditch once).  I've talked a few more Charlotte folks into joining me, so I expect this year to be even better.

I would like to think that I might make at least one or two of the organized activities (not yoga), but somehow I imagine I won't be paying close enough attention.  I don't get decent phone signal there, so my time keeping abilities are pure shit since I just toss it in the glove box when I get to Big Bear.

Which is truly the beauty of it all.  Unplug.  Disconnect from the (shitty) outside world and pay attention to the people around you.  This is why you came all the way out into the woods.  Ride bikes, make friends, drink beer... do yoga?

Mebbe not.

But you can, emphasis on "you."

Oh, and back to the racer boi topic.

There's a certain part of me that knows that I'm not gonna get through 2018 without wanting to do something that hurts.  This will be the second year with no hundie since 2006 and the first year with no stage race since 2004.  Yeth, I guess you could consider il Giro a stage race of a sort...

It's just that the Grand Tours are just an animal unlike any other and beyond categorization and proper labels.

Sure, I plan on going to SSWC '18 in Bend, but that's less of a race and more of a multi-day party with some riding bikes thrown in occasionally.  I just can't figure out what to do right now, but I'm sure it will come to me.  I need some kinda motivation to get out and "exercise" on these typical Charlotte summer mornings.  Yesterday's hour long extended commute shirtless junk miles had me pretty much drenched in sweat by the time I rolled up to work.

Yeth, I'm sure my coworkers love it when I "train" on the way to work.  At least I have the decency to sit on an upcycled cardboard USPS Priority Mail box instead of directly on the office chair.

I'm gross, but not terribly gross.