Inside My Head...and Bike.

I'll let you inside my head--into the stream of consciousness of a champion cyclist.

I decided to start riding my road bike more. Got it down today...can't remember the last time I was on the road since I usually opt for my MTB these days...damn the road bike is unforgiving on my ass despite the carbon fork! I don't like the road much anymore--haven't for years. Funny--I used to live for and on my bike spending thousands of miles per year training and racing in all sorts of weather and conditions...tonight it's a struggle to pedal over the bridge down to the boulevard where I searched for a hot lap course--or warm lap course considering my "bike legs" currently...I opt for the favorite spot which I have not visited for months near I-5 in Santa Clarita Industrial Park...two hard rights with a sweeping curve and only one hard stop...about 2:00 or so around the whole loop...more tonight though...I ride to ride tonight. Heart rate, cadence, watts, %s of output, voltage, or whatever else they are using today doesn't mean shit to me--it simply doesn't matter. All that matters is that I ride. The mind of a champion--from the past. It's hard for someone like me to ride at all because I'm immediately a marked man...even with my feeble bike legs, I still look like I can race tomorrow, so anyone with any sort of bike fitness wants to knock me off...it's hard to friggin' relax! The road bike has a higher profile than my MTB...I settle in though...it's like an old friend--sort of. Off the stop sign out of the saddle getting up to speed then right over the gutter always full of water watching my line so I don't spin out then around the sweeping right towards the T intersection where no stop sign is posted so it's a traffic check and go then down to the hard right with stop sign where I do a quick stop barely enough to be legal...then 'round again. I spin it for 30 minutes--my goal. Another 10+ each way to and from...about an hour on the road...not too bad I guess.

Coming back through the market parking lot I pull up to the crosswalk. There is a family--two obese parents and their normal weight child. Hell the Dad is morbidly obese--it is what it is. The kid jogs across to clear the busy traffic. The Dad waddles because he is too fat or too lazy to run...what I caught more than the visual was his comment to his son..."Don't worry. We have good lawyers." Interesting. I felt like asking him, "Do you have a good mortician too that carries supersized coffins in case you stroke out?!" The American way man...sue with lawyers. It's always someone else's fault isn't it?

So tonight I rode...thought...listened to crosswalk comments, and spun away my chest pains from the stress of trying to save America from its "appetite for destruction." Spinning in LA, Coach RJ