11.11.11 Vets day gravel grinder and "like" small town

#2 was a best choice.  Arrived at Emporia to find the streets full of traffic and Soden’s Grove Park full of people and vehicles.  Turns out Emporia is the founding city for our national holiday Veteran’s Day.  It was also interest to note I had my USAF team Jersey on (RAGBRAI circa ’94 and ’95) so with discipline due the occasion I and the other vets saluted during taps and 21 gun salute.  Amazing the effect taps has on a crowd. 

Anyway, 28 miles in.  18 miles of it gravel.  Awesome gravel roads with great horizon views.  The “rollers” are epic and my crack cocaine.  I didn’t have a map so ended up not on road to “hill one” on north side of freeway (I did see it when leaving for return trip to Wichita).  High Gear BS Emporia owned by a young fellow who actually rides (bonus).  If you’re in town, drop by and see the shop (they need a coffee machine).

PS finally got my Adventure Monkey T!  it is sweet

KU ballgame in Lawrence tomorrow for KΔ Dad’s weekend.  Family fun….Hey where are the Bike shops (BS) in Lawrence?!

Ride Zen my friends - KC

Blissful decisions to make

It’s 3am and I’ve been awake for an hour.  Feeling rested and woke with my mind focusing on Tribology of all things.  In the ‘90s I became an avid cyclist and discovered the concept tribology and even wrote it on my cycling mechanical apron.    Tribology is the science and engineering of interacting surfaces in relative motion. It includes the study and application of the principles of friction, lubrication and wear.

You are practicing tribology when you get off the couch or easy chair and move.  That is where science meets health and prevention of illness.  That’s where my area of expertise takes over.  From an individual health perspective, each of is ultimately responsible for what and how we maintain a healthy connection to our planet.

Today, I have a dread decision to make:  how to move on the planet today.  No work used to mean hours in my easy chair.  No more.  Now it means making great decisions as I am faced with today:

1.        Grab the 29’r and get to Camp Horizon single track

2.        Grab the crossbike and hit the flint hills for a gravel grinder

This, my friends is decisional bliss

Stay tuned.  I will leave you with this

We can waste our lives dreaming big but letting insecurities blind us    OR-

We can look up and see life as a series of moments to be experienced rather than conquered

- Ryan Levinson, Outside Magazine, Dec 2011 “between the lines”

Ride Zen my friends, the Kinesthetic Cyclist (KC)

Maximum rehabilitation potential (It only hurts when I cough)

The only position of true aerobic exercise....seated.  The 29'r floats over roots and scrabble rock on gravel-grinding roads.  274.6lbs today...goal is 215lb and I won't say when as long as I'm climbing up the ladder instead of down.
Ride Zen my friends

Epic endo

Feeling my oats after lap 2 at Miller's Meadow (Wichita, KS) epic endo...No loss of consciousness but bolstered cyclist ego.  Got up after I could breath again and straightened stem only to see this as I sought nature's obstacle causing my abrupt cessation of kinetic energy (forward momentum)

Aeorobic fall winds while riding 17m today

Embrace the wind.  Biggest decision:  route as to when the "workout will begin
Ride faithfully my friend...the zen is out there