Dobovedo's Journal of Journeys

Been playing with my Inno – XM/MP3 unit – quite a bit the last few days.

Not while riding, mind you… mostly tweaking the car uses.

What? No riding?

Yep… been off the bike since Christmas morning. Today was the 4th and probably last rest day. I was gonna go for 5 days off, but there’s rain likely on Sunday, so I’ll probably ride Sat. Believe me… I practically had to force myself to not ride today. Luckily I was cruisin’ up and down I-75 in the near-60 and lots of sunshine. Thursday I had a followup massage on the neck/upper back and after being a little sore from the treatment, I am really starting to get back to normal. With a little more rest for the remainder of the week/weekend/month/year I’ll be ready to get back to commuting, post-work night rides and… yes… even start on the trainer. The DVDs came in the mail Thursday.

Read more on Inno Update…

Seems everyone has been getting on the iPod bandwagon lately. Some of you fellow riders have had them for quite a while, and absolutely love them. On the bike, in the car, etc. MP3s to ride by, tunes to drive by, even the little inspirational videos from Discovery Channel. Cool stuff.

But I never felt the need to have one.

On the bike, I had always been content to ride without music.
In the car, I have always been satisfied with the CD player and fairly decent music collection I already had.

But then the iPod became even more prevalent.. Cindy got an iPod Shuffle from her employees for Christmas. No bigger than a hair-clip, super lightweight, and perfect for her running.

Read more on nOt aN iPod…

I followed up my Christmas Eve ride with another ride only 8 hours later. Instead of driving with Cindy back to her parents house in B’Creek, I hopped back on the bike and rode over for an hour long journey. Back down my newly found Stewart St. through Dayton on Brown and St. Clair, then east on the bike path.

I thought I was going to get a small window of clear weather. On the radar there was a hole right where I was going, but as it turned out, there was some light sprinkles about half of the way. Add to that only 35 degrees, an east headwind, and the ride really wasn’t all that enjoyable.

Read more on Christmas ride…

Remember that joke I made a while back about rewriting the Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer song? [Horse & Buggy]

Well, it came to mind again while I was out riding on Christmas Eve. I seriously doubt those were Reindeer reindeer, or if they were, it was only Santa’s B Team and they decided to spend their night off in Miamisburg.

Like I said… I seriously doubt it.

So they must have been plain old deer, and they didn’t get in my way so I didn’t get in theirs. Nobody got run over.

Read more on Reindeer? ride…

Today was one of those days that just turned to shit.

After three weeks of having my neck and upper back slowly start to feel better, I thought I was pretty much back to normal. Then on Tuesday I woke up and it was as if no time had passed. I could barely turn my head and in a lot of pain. This has continued daily since then. I didn’t ride Thursday or Friday since it was rainy and nasty. No difference.

Read more on F it…

Oooh.. can’t wait for the fun(?) to begin. I ordered my winter training package today to be ready for the first of the year.

On tap? Read more on Spinervals on the way……

Well ya wouldn’t know it by going outside, but the first day of winter was Friday, and as such it is the darkest night of the year.

The bad news? Well… it’s winter and snowy, icy, shitty days are on their way. We’ve had our share of cold temps, but really no bad weather yet.

Read more on DARKEST NIGHT…

I always laugh when someone claims ownership of certain roads or routes for cycling… as if any of us actually had a right to claim public by-ways as their own.

Granted, a certain amount of territoriality is human nature. The problems come when territoriality becomes gang-related turf warfare, when border disputes become wars, or for that matter, when the natural selection becomes segregation or worse.

Read more on How DARE you!…

Speaking of goals and such for ’07, I’m considering joining UMCA, the UltraMarathon Cycling Association.

Since I’m moving in to longer and longer rides and more frequent centuries, it seems a good way to have a little fun with targets and goals. Not only do they keep track of 24 hour, distance and cross-state records, but they also have a little thing called the Year-Rounder competition. The basic idea is to ride no less than one century a month, year round. Organized, individual and even indoor miles count under various submission rules and categories.

Read more on Ultra Cycling…

As soon as anyone finds out I hit my 10,000 mile goal, their first question is… “What are ya gonna do next year?”

Geez.. people. Give me some time to enjoy the moment, will ya?

Read more on What’s next?…

Good thing I had my eye on the radar this evening. My work day got later and later. Pretty soon I realized that the rain that was supposed to be here around midnight was about 4 hours early. I felt just the slightest of rain drops on the way home.

The roads did start to get a little slick since it’s been awhile since there was any rain to wash the oils and crud off the pavement, but I managed to get home without incident.

Read more on Early drops…

Company Xmas party was in Tipp City this evening, so all I got in was the early commute to Troy. Cindy picked me up afterwards.

Only thing of note was an interesting new use for a water bottle cage: perfect for carrying a small bottle of All super-concentrated laundry detergent. Turned upside-down it wedged in perfectly so I didn’t have to try to get it there in a jacket pocket or an over the shoulder bag.

Read more on Quick one…