Wow, I'm not sure I'd be able to pull off a 60 mile hill ride right now. Granted, I was on my fixed gear yesterday, but we didn't exactly hit any real hills, and only one short climb of any significance. By the last climb I was feeling it. Of course staying up and drinking until 1 am may have had something to do with it. 
How did you feel/fare with the other riders?
How did you feel/fare with the other riders?The banquet was pretty typical for this crew. They have it every year in this chinese resaurant with a bar/lounge. I don't know how they are around you, but up here they're all over the place. All have the same food, same drinks, and with only a few exceptions they all have karaoke on weekends. I haven't been in there in over a year, but it's right by my house so I know the set-up. I've noticed a disturbing trend over the years of more rap karaoke. Last saturday, the first singer was actually pretty good and did a melissa etheridge song. She was the last real singer of the night. After that, they all sucked beyond belief, and half of them were drunk suburban white kids doing rap songs, I mean come on, how fvcked up is rap karaoke?
Anyways, most of the guys are casual racers and casual drinkers. We have a few real drinkers and a few real racers. There is a small union of those last two sets, of which I'm a proud member. There are like 4 of us that drink as hard as we race. They've been trying to recruit new members into the club, and it kind of looks like they dug up three new guys and two new girls. One of the guys already races, the other two are pretty much novices. Neither girl races, but one is a personal trainer. The personal trainer was there last night, the other girl wasn't.
The trainer is about 40, and bore a striking resemblance to the the ex-wife of a guy that used to be a hard racer/drinker, but now just drinks. She got hooked into the club by the club president who is also a member of the drinking/racing union. She's about 5'4", probably 110 pounds, and very fit, long blonde hair, salon tan, overall very cute, but somewhat recently divorced with an attitude that goes with that. She was pacing herself between margaritas and seltzer water. At one point in the evening she was the only girl left with about 7 guys, she seemed comfortable with that, probably digging the attention, but half of us were married, and if there's one thing bike racers like to talk about it's bikes and racing. So no one was hitting on her, and she was actually asking a lot of good questions about the sport, teamwork, tactics, I think she felt like 'one of the guys' rather than a single girl out at a bar. She got kind of a kick listening to us bust each other chops about stupid things we've done in races. I think you know how different it is being with people whose motives you aren't questioning.
There was another guy named john (casual racer/drinker) there that loves to talk about politics. He gets all worked up about how evil liberals are, yadayadayada. I got into an argument with him about a year ago about some stupid shit on a club ride, and he actually came out with "no one should be surprised if I walk into some liberal politicians office someday and open fire". This was just after that nutbag in tennessee opened fire in that unitarian church during a kids play. I basically told him to never talk to me again (plus a few other choice words) and turned off the ride headed home (not to brag but this dude couldn't keep up with me on his best day). A couple other guys scolded him that if he didn't cool it with the political discussion he shouldn't bother showing up any more. They don't give a rats ass about liberal/conservative anything, they just don't want zealots of any stripe showing up - kills the buzz. I know most of the guys are actually pretty conservative, so for them to shut him down and tell me later that they scolded him should say something about him.
So this new girl gets into an argument with the john after she mentioned listening to a story about the olympics she heard on NPR. That set Mr. Politics off into lala land, and she wasn't about to back down. Seems she's as liberal as I am and has that recent-divorce-anger. I started to overhear them, and went behind john and started whispering "we're every wheeeerrrrrreee" but I don't think he heard me, or he was ignoring me. The team captain hears him about ready to blow, and actually stepped in to separate them. So he moves her on the other side of me and moves the dude behind someone else and told him to calm down. The other guys and I were laughing the whole time. She was pretty tense, and couldn't understand why he got so wired up all of a sudden. I told her 'you're trying to hammer a nail with a banana', and told her the shooting story. Then the team captain comes over to her and says, 'don't worry about john, when he starts talking about politics we usually just turn up the radio.' So I changed the subject to bike fit, she was cool with that.
Now, the other woman that was there doesn't really race, but she goes on the group training rides and works her ass off. She's a workout junkie, about 25, wicked cute girl. I've known her for about 4 years - she used to date this guy Chris on the team and now they're FWB - and she was more ripped/stacked/fit than I've ever seen her. You might remember a blog story I wrote about a couple that showed up on a tandem that kicked everyone's ass on the ride except me, and I just outsprinted them at the end of the ride, that was her and Chris. Well, it seems she hooked up with some personal trainer, and man if that girl is _sculpted_. We could actually see hamstring definition through her jeans. Now, she isn't bulky at all. If she was wearing a long sleeved shirt and just the jeans she had on, you wouldn't think she was out of the ordinary. She was wearing a sleeveless shirt and kept giving us a gun-show, not intentionally. I think "gun-show" should be her new nick-name. I finally said to her 'cmon jackie show us those guns' and she got this big smile and did one of those body building poses. I said "no, do this" and I flexed my arms and took turns kissing my biceps (hers were bigger, of course that isn't hard to do). Chris starts laughing really hard and says, "oh dude, she totally does that!!" I asked 'wow, what have you been doing', so she gives me the readers digest version of her workouts, then sticks her leg out and says "feel how hard my quad is, go ahead, slap it!" So of course I did, and son of a biatch if it wasn't as solid as the ice-filled drainpipes on the north side of my house.
fun night!
Tell away. I'm always game for good stories. Particularly ones that involve athletes and alcohol.
>I just don't see that being a dominant characteristic of your personality
And you're right. I'm not inherently a bitch. It's just that I can be when pushed.
>Judy is a total b!tch
True. An outer shell that's hard as nails, but totally mush under it all.
>You and chad just weren't compatible
try telling him that. he's still pretty convinced i am the one for him. i'm convinced otherwise. plus, not sure i'm ready to move away from my friends and family. mostly friends. but dad is here too. and i'm a total daddy's girl.
Speaking of friends, i spent saturday afternoon with teammates and friends at the LBS. it actually got up to about 45 degrees yesterday, so i went out with buddies for a 60 mile hill ride. legs were trashed from the sub-8min 17 mile run day before, but i'm really gaining a total love for the bike. And i totally appreciate my teammates. otherwise, that ride would've been horrendous.
| From: | "Zen" |
| To: | |
| Date: | 02/22/2010 02:25 PM |
| Subject: | Re: Is it over? |
Well, you know what they say, men are like city busses........As far as 'b!tch' goes, I just don't see that being a dominant characteristic of your personality. Maybe because we've never really met or 'hung out', but I'm usually decent at picking up on that. for instance, Judy is a total b!tch. Granted, she's had a rough life, and I think she needs to be given a lot of slack for that and especially for pulling herself out that life, but I don't think I could ever get too tight with her. You and chad just weren't compatible for more than a fling. Not really anyone's fault, you're you, he's him, no sense it forcing something that isn't meant to be. You both had some good times and it' better to dwell on those than push false emotions.
Not a fan of hoppy beer. I'm more into the malty brews. I had a Berkshire Coffehouse Porter recently that was heavenly. Rich but not filling, with a hint of fresh brewed coffee aroma, and slightly sweeter than guinness. We have a local resaturant that has 36 microbrew on tap, and they change one of two of them every month. The closest thing they have to a mass produced beer is guinness.
Weekend was ok. I spent two hours friday tweaking up my ice bike which included fixing a flat that I got the weekend before and rode the bike two miles on. I thought the tire was ok, but saturday morn I got out to ride and literally - one pedal stroke (no exaggeration) and tire blows completely off the rim. It was so bad the tube didn't even blow, I tried to reseat it but didn't even get it fully inflated and it did it again. So I went home and took my dog for a 90 minute run in the woods. We tried some new trails and almost fell through some ice in a swampy area. My dog was so tired that she walked up the stairs into the house, she usually 'gallops' up them.
My old team had their club banquet saturday night. It's at a local chinese restaurant/bar/lounge. Stoopid local kids doing rap karaoke. Who's bright fvcking idea is rap karaoke?
They're trying to get me to come back to the team so they invited me and bought me beer. We actually drank the bar _out_ of sam adams, and they have nothing on tap. The place is a real sh!t hole. Anyways, we closed the place (1:00AM) and sunday I got 2 1/2 hours on my fixed gear. I was so whipped by sunday evening from the hangover and the bike ride plus talking the dog for a long walk that I fell asleep at 7 pm.
sorry this got so long. I actually have more to tell about the banquet if you're interested.
From: amanda.lindsey@pnc.com
Sent: Monday, February 22, 2010 1:52 PM
To: Zen
Subject: Re: Is it over?
moving on. it's better for him that way. i mean, if he hangs on (and i allow him to), i'll just end up hurting him even worse. i can be a real btch at times. but that's in the genes, right?
so, i went out with Rob this weekend and enjoyed a few. I might have a new favorite in Bell's Hopslam. so fragrant and delicious. but i love me some hops.
how was your weeknd?
| From: | "Zen" |
| To: | |
| Date: | 02/22/2010 01:45 PM |
| Subject: | Is it over? |
Hey kiddo,
Just wondering how things ended up with chad - giving it a shot or moving on?
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