Dobovedo's Journal of Journeys

Whew… what a month. It ended on a relatively light note with a comfy and slow ride to work and back. The wind kept kicin’ up on my way home and I responded by gripping the bars, gritting my teeth, and resolutely… slowing down more and more. hahaha. No epic efforts for me today. The more it blew the closer I got to 13 mph. Didn’t even make a 16 average on the day.

I also jipped myself out of a mile on my total for the month. I said 1533 but it ended up only 1532 (point 5). As if that made any difference.

Read more on Goodbye July…

Had to laugh at Egg’s blog title tonight, cause I was thinkin’ the exact same thing. Runaway Diesel indeed! So I borrowed a song title instead. But let’s not jump the gun too much here.

This was my first Ramble in six weeks. I knew it was since June, but didn’t realize it had actually been June 18. Can’t remember why I didn’t show up on the 25th, but I’m sure it was that ‘fear’ thing Craig’s always spoutin’ off about.

Read more on Train Kept a Rollin’…

The month of July is nearly over and by the time this day is done, I will have my goal of 1500 miles. When I originally set up my schedule, I would have thought that 1500 was easy enough. And by ‘easy’ I do not mean riding that many miles in 30 days. I simply mean that given the established quantity of 700 in 6 days with Rainstorm, finding another 800 miles in the other 24 days would seem like it would just sorta happen. (BTW… yes I know there’s 31 days in July. I’ll hit the goal a day early). What I hadn’t counted on was how much that one week would impact the prior and following weeks. Sure I’d be tired and need some recovery, but the week prior was really light and two weeks after was also.

What I also hadn’t counted on was just how many weekends in a row I’d be driving/traveling in addition to riding. June and July has been more like what I have done in late August through early October the past two years.

Read more on Enough!…

Well, my ride Tuesday was routinely boring and uneventful, but there was a tragic bike accident in Piqua. Heard April talking to her daughter about it since it’s the daughter of somebody they know.

Read more on Tragic Tuesday…

After a Sunday hilly century with 6000′ of climbing, I was a bit leary about heading out to the ride, but did it anyway. I figured the worst that could happen was I’d sit on a bit more than usual and maybe ride a bit off the back and just do my own thing if needed. I didn’t feel all that bad on my way there, but was feeling just a bit tired and for some reason, really hungry. Weird.

Got out to the start and we had Craig, Andy, Big Tim, Willis, Bryan and me, and were eventually joined by T-Bolt. Crilli had got stuck at work and was gonna maybe try and find us on the road. We rolled out at a fairly easy pace. Just a few miles up the road I was still feeling extremely hungry. I couldn’t figure it out, since I had eaten lunch late, not putting my LeanCuisine in the microwave until almost 4…

Read more on Ridin’ on Fumes…

Another weekend, another century. What is this… September?

The Sweet Corn Challenge (Ride) was only vaguely on my radar. A few years ago when I was riding up in Toledo, a few of the folks I ended up riding with were talking about it (being that it was only two weeks away). They mentioned it as being a favorite each year. After that I kinda forgot about it.

This year I saw it on the OBEC and put it on the list of ‘maybe’s. And then I kinda forgot about it.

Read more on Sweet Corn Challenge…

Due to any number of circumstances, I’m writing my Friday blog on Monday, and it somehow felt like a Wednesday.

When the Monday/Friday rides hit 23 mph, that’s getting pretty close to Ramble speed. Except that from what I hear, the Ramble itself is starting to reach Ludicrous Speed.

Read more on Friday Ramble?…

Riding to work today felt pretty much like a typical day, and my lurch has disappeared. It was such a nice evening, I felt like riding a few extra miles, but I never left the office until after 7, and by that time dinner was calling… loudly.

Read more on Back to Normal?…

Today was only a half a commute, as Cindy was picking me up after work to head down to Fraze Pavillion for the Over The Rhine show they were nice enough to put on just for the occasion of my birthday (OK… maybe it was for other people too, and it was a day late, but I can pretend).

I tested the legs a bit, left hamstring in particular, to see where I was at. And where I am at is riding pretty comfortably and with no real difficulty. Every so often I’ll have that muscle spasm for no apparent reason, but I feel better on the bike than anywhere else.

Read more on Half Step Forward…

I forgot to recount the other half of the story about Never Getting Out of the Boat.

After I got back in the boat I wasn’t supposed to get out of, and was limping around and whimpering, and trying to find ice and a comfortable spot to sit and whimper some more, I heard Cindy’s phone ring. I reached in to the bag to hand it to her.

Immediately I noticed mine wasn’t with it.

Read more on Adding Insult to Injury…

Well… if this is what 40 is like, forget it. I’ll go back to 39. The day started out OK as Cindy ‘surprised’ me by delivering a cake and balloons to the office before I got there. (Never mind that she drove the cake to Troy, but left her semi-injured husband back in Piqua to ride his bike there). As the afternoon progressed, things went steadily down hill with at least 40 different headaches. I’m wondering if perhaps it’s time to once again consider telling my company where they can stick it. Sheesh.

Not gonna waste my time with it though. What’s more important is that the ride to and from work was quite a bit improved over the previous day. Muscles heal SOOOOOOO much faster than tendons and bones and other bits. Still very tight, and still very sore, but I had my full pedal stroke and only a couple muscle spasms.

Read more on This is 40?…

Remember that scene from Apocolypse now where Chef goes off into the woods to look for mangoes? He comes face to face with a tiger and goes screaming back to the boat.

“Never get out of the boat. Never get out of the f@#ing boat…”

Read more on Never Get Out of the Boat…