Dobovedo's Journal of Journeys

Three times now I have come off of Peterson Rd. and into the dirt and gravel at the edge of the road, leading to where the paved path starts and heads into town. The first time, I wasn’t sure where it was, so I was going slow when I hit it. No problems. The second time, I came in way to fast, forgetting where it was around a somewhat-blind, downhill curve. Although it took some creative braking and handling on the loose dirt, there were no problems.

Today, the third, and ultimately last time, I again took it too fast. It sneaks up on ya. And this time there were indeed problems.

Read more on So THAT’S Why They Didn’t Pave It!…

After my hilly 10 mile run last Tuesday went well, I was pretty psyched to go out for a longer distance. I recovered well during the rest of the week and the riding I did was fairly light. Still.. I planned on waiting until Monday to make the next jump – to twelve miles.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that I more or less exactly failed to stick to my plan.

Read more on When Two Laps Equals A Half Mary…

Just started watching my new DVD, “A Ride With George Hincapie”. Among the opening visual sequences a quote pops up: “The goal in life is to live in total agreement with your nature.” Don’t know who’s quote it is, George or somebody else, but I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Read more on My Point Exactly…

It was an early, early morning. Up and out the door at 6:30 to get to the beach at Caesar’s Creek with Coach K and Dan. Wanted to get in an open water swim of roughly the same distance as Muncie – 1.2 miles. Also on the agenda was to try out some neoprene since Dan is roughly my size. That proved to be quite entertaining. For the others at least.

After the swim was a 50ish mile ride. You would never believe that we went to Caesar’s Creek, which is more or less Oregonia, and somehow managed to avoid every good climb in the area. Tri geeks are such sissies.

Read more on CC Swim & Ride…

The Farewell Tour began Friday with an overly warm, but otherwise nice evening for a spin around the Fred’s Ride Friday (White) loop. And a solid little group came out to ride with me. Thanks to Hillmaster, SloMo, Sis, PK and Jerry, and Bill. Sis and Hillmaster were sporting the red, white and blue jerseys, and I wore the newer blue/yellow. And of course, I had to ride the Binachi, purshased from Fred himself. Me and Hillmaster had matchin’ rides. It was a bit windy heading north up Rudy and Rudy and Hufford, but after that we had smooth sailing. I snuck around to take the twp. sign on Dayton-Brandt, not that anybody bothered to challenge me. SloMo also gave me a nice leadout down Studebaker so I could “win” the big race. Yeah, I’m goofy. Everybody that was available for post-ride eats was from the north, so we skipped Classic and had a nice time at Hinder’s instead. Thanks everyone! I’m gonna miss you guys.

Read more on Fred’s Ride Friday…

As I was riding down Wayne St. through downtown Piqua this morning, I noticed a van was cruising along behind me at a safe distance, and was making no attept to come past me. We went a couple blocks, and he kept his same distance. As I pulled up in the left turn lane to cross over the river on East Main, the van pulled up beside me – headed straight. Since the light was red, and his window was down, he said, “The bike path is back there”.

Naturally, I was pissed off by this comment.

Read more on “The Bike Path Is Back There”…

Not that this has anything to do with celestial phenomena, but the first of summer is a good time to evaluate where I am in my IM plan. And I’m finding myself in an odd place with 2.5 weeks to go until Muncie. On the one hand, my workouts and events are going well. I’m running better, recovering faster and making what I think is ideal progress. I am finding that hillier terrain may be doing me good because I get to work a variety of muscle groupings rather than simply pounding away on flat ground.

At the same time, I am accumulating more and more aches and pains and strains.

Read more on Solstice Assessment…

I wasn’t too sure what to expect when heading out for a long, hilly run on a hot summer evening. My plan was to get to the Turtles run a bit early, start out a half hour beforehand, and get roughly 3 miles. Then do the group run, and finish up with whatever extra tenths were needed to get to ten miles. Temps were hovering in the upper 80s, although I think the humidity must have been low. It felt warm in the car and standing over pavement, but there was enough breeze to get a cooling effect.

I thought maybe that the legs would be OK through the whole distance, but I wondered if the heat or fatigue would get me. Things went much better than expected.

Read more on Turtles Ten…

In the course of planning out the remaining time until Muncie and my subsequent move, I started putting together a list of rides and runs I wanted to do before I go: one more Ramble, a Hillmaster ride, a Fred’s Ride loop, a Riverside Ride, a Turtles Run…

Basically, what I’m doing is throwing myself a two-week, two-wheeled, rolling party: Dobo’s Farewell Tour

Read more on Dobo’s Farewell Tour…

About three weeks ago I heard from a friend that one of the people registered for the West Milton Canoe Tri wasn’t going to be able to do it. Or rather, one half of the team wasn’t able. He was looking for a possible replacement. I asked if said one half of team was OK with the fact that I hadn’t paddled a canoe in close to 10 years, and never in a race. Upon finding out that performance or ability wasn’t even remotely an issue, I said, sure, I’d fill in if needed. I didn’t hear anything back. Then, early this past week, I got another email… both halves of the team had dropped and they had an empty boat if I was interested. A quick IM to Coach K to see if she’d be my partner, and we were off and running.

Er… and canoeing and riding.

Read more on West Milton Canoe Tri…

This one is out of order since I had some kinda bigger things to write about. I looked at the calendar early this past week and realized that if I were moving on July 4th weekend, that would mean there were only three Wednesday’s left. Three chances to let the guys inflict some pain on me. I hadn’t planned on doing any of them before Muncie, but what the heck.. moving 400 miles south is a different story.

As it turned out, I inflicted more pain on myself than anybody else did.

Read more on Ramble…

In the short time since I posted my last blog I’ve gotten some emails addressed to somebody named “Kevin”. Sometimes I’m not sure who that is. There was another Kevin out of the ride for a while. He was a wife-leavin’ asshole, too, so maybe it’s fitting that people would revert to using my first name instead of my nickname since my nickname is my wife’s name – last name that is. It may be fitting, but it doesn’t fit.

Let’s keep this real simple – I’m still Dobo.

Read more on What’s In A Name?…