21 Days

Facebook is ruining my blog. There I said it. Between Facebook and twitter I have become totally lazy about blogging. Ideas are constantly swirling in my head calling for a blog post but because of my ridiculous lifestyle the only thing I have time for is a quick FB update. Its been good don't get me wrong. Hup United has gone coast-to-coast in a quest for Facebook world domination...Ok who am I kidding? Sockington the cat has 1.5 million followers on twitter. The rest of us are posers on a grande scale compared to that feline wonderkind.

Its almost becoming like the Seinfield episode where Elaine laments wether her love interests are sponge worthy...I want to save the good stuff for the blog but I just don't have the time to sit down and put it down on the pad. The biggest news of course is that Winter is ovah!!! Jonny Bold said it, so it must be true. He is the Chuck Norris of cycling after all and if he says winter is over it damn well better be over or JB will kick old man winter in the nuts and that as they say will be the end of that.

In a mere 21 days it will be the first day of Spring. And even more importantly The Rhonde de Rosey shall be contested over hill and dale all throughout Boston and its environs. I did a Rhonde recon ride on saturday in a light snowstorm and had a few epiphanies. One: cross tires are slow as hell on the road. Two: the woods are going to be a mudpit. Three: I am seriously going to need to decide between do I want to go fast on the road sections or crash and die in the mud sectors. The Rhonde de Rosey may end up being more a Three Peaks on meth than a true Rhonde hardman road ride. With the trail sectors we are going to be asked to ride (well demanded to ride!) you will need a cross bike.

I had to hike a bike a good section of trail on saturday so road shoes are out. It is going to be an incredible day on the bike. I personally am totally geeking out about it. Did I buy specific tires for this ride? Maybe. Am I going to divulge just what rubber I bought...not so much. Suffice it to say its not a semi-slick and its not a true knobby. Last hint: they seemed to work pretty ok at the real Three Peaks this last year.

But back to my ride on saturday. It was one of those rides that take a leap of faith. The end of winter is like that. You have no idea what you are going to get out there. Is it going to just be a cool rain or is it going to turn into a blizzard with black ice covering all the road surfaces? I left my trepidation at the garage bay and headed out. The snow was actually awesome to ride on. Soft and powdery kind of like NBX. But it covered some nasty stuff underneath it. The first real trail sector I hit I had an "Oh shit! I am going to die!" moment. I am barely over my messed up knee from Ice Weasels the thought of getting jacked up just as the season is going to start made me want to puke. But I rode it out. The michelin mud 2s continue to impress in this department. They really are the best handling cross tire out there. I have to make a point to send a set to francois at FMB and see how those would work as a tubular for cross season.
I got a solid 1.5 hours just kind of feeling myself out on the trails. Scoped out Elm Bank which is in great shape! I will say though that the banks of the Charles River are really close to flowing over onto the trail. I had to hike a bike for a while but that was pretty cool too. I walked maybe 1/4 mile up a slogging ridge line with the Rock Lobster on my shoulder. She felt good up there. Light and tight. My shouldering form hasn't lost a beat. I talked with a dog walker for the hike and that was kind of cool. We ended up talking about our knee injuries which morphed into a discussion of Wes Welker and what might have happened if he hadn't gone down with a knee injury right before the playoffs.

But back to Facebook and its evil twin sister from Hades Twitter. The power of the two for their social networking abilities cannot be denied. Their power as an all consuming time suck are pretty much Legion. Blogs to me are an amazing journal or diary/teaching tool. I am not naming names because there are so many great blogs and bloggers right now but when I first moved back to Boston five years ago three blogs pretty much laid a map for my reentry. I owe a lot to those bloggers. Over the years I've also found a few that are equally as poignant. There is one that just for some reason strikes a chord lately and is one I stumbled upon via faticus's blog. She is without a doubt my hero. Seems like a badass, great mom, great rider, priorities dialed. Check it out the entries are short but to the point. Its a totally personal diary style blog but what she shares is just fantastic. Her take on Facebook is spot on. Check it here hardtales.blogspot.com