The Perfect Week

A rider I've known for the past 20 years once noted that the perfect week for a cyclist is one that you never start your car. I almost made that this week. I did commute by bike 5 days, but I have to make a trip tomorrow to work on my money pit in manch-vegas, so, it's been a perfect commuting week. In addition, I rode during the day with a couple co-workers, both of whom ride for fitness, bu neither have ever raced. This was a ride that lasted an hour, so by the time I ride home tonight, I'll have a hair over 100 miles for the week. The trick,I've found, with regards to therapy for my achilles tendon, is to keep it elevated as much as possible. I've found that alot of standing really aggravates it.

As far as the numbers go (the metric), the parameters have changed slightly. I figured that since all my rides are going to be short for the foreseeable future, I should alter my riding style to enhance power development. So this week I put it in the big ring and left it there. Keep my cadence about 70, and work the hard gear, concentrate on form. I'll have to generate a few days worth of numbers
to come up with a goal.

Friends

I really don't have alot of friends. This isn't a whiny post, it's a statement of fact. I think I understand what a friend is. In my interpretation it's someone who you can call and chat with, you have some similar interests, you call each other when one of you has tickets to to some event, you can show up at each others house unannounced and it's appreciated and you genuinely care for each others best interests. So, I repeat, I don't have alot of friends.

For some reason - I realize - I'm really not that likeable. I'm not as unlikable as other people I've met. You know the type - people go out their way to avoid them. I know this is not the case with me. When I show up for rides, people say hi with a smile, talk about other shit than cycling, and are willing to work with me in a break or chase. These people aren't exactly 'friends'. They are 'friendly acquaintances' But when push comes to shove, I'm not going to get asked over to anyones house for dinner. Part of the problem is that I really don't know too many people socially outside of cycling. I immersed myself so deeply into it 20 years ago to the point that I really know no very few other people socially. To be real, mea culpa.

I was a member of the board of directors for the Northeast Bicycle Club (NEBC) for 6 years, including two as vice president and two as president. When I left the club, there were no complaints. I rode for them for 8 years, and towards the end I _was_ in fact the guy that people wouldn't wait for on a ride, the guy people would avoid.

I went to the next club, BOB, and was accepted as a misfit, as I really am a misfit. But, this club was full of misfits. Everyone got along playfully berating each other, insulting each others families, etc. But even we had the one guy, that no one wanted to be around. I put ten years into BOB. It was a small club, no real money, we bought our own clothes.

But, things change. We got a whole bunch of new people that followed the money of a big sponsorship. Guys that take it entirely too seriously. In general, the same type of people that were attracted to NEBC. I was told by a few people, 'If you don't like the deal, you don't have to join the club', as if the club had always been the new big money team and I was the usurper. Now, I'm the guy again. No calls to go for rides, no calls to just chat, no one just drops by, and my attempts at the same are seemingly met with disregard. There are notable exceptions, but even those relationships are not exactly reciprocal.

Now, I realize I have this annoying habit of poisoning relationships. People seem to just tire of me. I'm getting older, I'm not really going to change. Recently, on the club message board, I was pretty told my presence was no longer appreciated, almost exclusively by the characters I noted above (the ones who showed up after the money), and completely exclusively by members whose contributions to the club have consisted of sitting at a registration table a few times over the past years. I quit racing for the team last year, but was still a paid member of the club. My ten years of working for the club at our races instead of racing them seems to be irrelevant. As I noted above, my social sphere consisted almost entirely of the bike racing world. So, when that bed gets shit in, I have no where to sleep.

But really, it's me. I know it's me. If it wasn't me, I would have had people defending my position. There were none. I'm not saying I was wrong. I'm saying I held a position no one else did, and my attitude and ego helped poison the debate to the effect that my appearance on the message board is no longer appreciated. to be completely fair, my antagonists were no more graceful than I was. It's easy to see where that would end up. Because of the nature of the argument, there are very few people I can still see and they smile when I show up.

So, it's for me to move on.