Can't we all just get along?

I don't understand.

I don't understand why people insist upon perpetuating the mountain biking vs. road riding thing. They're different, but both are great. They're both fun. They're both hard. They each have their own challenges and rewards. Many people who I know who do both, myself included, prefer one over the other, but enjoy both.

Why the intolerance? Why do some people who only participate in one of the two feel the need to belittle the other? I don't get it. What's the point? Aren't we all doing basically the same thing? We love to ride our bikes. Some of us on the road, some on the trails and some like it both ways. Yeah, go ahead and have fun with that. ;)

I'm fed up with some of the crap I've been hearing lately about how a paved climb can't be "hard" because it's paved. If you want a "hard" hill, you need rocks and sticks and things that move underneath your wheels." I readily acknowledge that mountain biking climbs can be absolutely freaking hard if not impossible. That's cool. There are some climbs that I can do now that took me a couple of seasons of trying before I could ride them all the way up. I appreciate that. But, don't try to tell me that a road hill can't be hard because it's paved. Sorry, but that's bulls**t. Maybe I should send him on hill ride with KL or my friend Doug. Both on and off road hills can be hard, just in different ways.

I get upset when the debate goes in the other direction as well, it's just that this rant comes after an annoying exchange with a mountain biker who thinks he knows everything and that roadies don't know what 'hard' is. Argh.

Seriously, how hard is it to get along???

All Feathers, No Fire

I've been meaning to write a race report for Jiminy Peak, but I haven't had the time to do so until now. After my weak ass performance and lack of will to do anything, I've been training hard this week.

5 years ago, when I first started racing, I remember walking into my local bike shop feeling down on myself because I had had my first bad race. I had the good fortune of placing well in the first few that I did. My friend Bob looked at me and asked what was wrong. When I told him, he was very matter of fact and just said "Some days you get chicken, so some days you get feathers." That phrase has stuck with me and I must say that last Saturday was a feathers kind of day.

I couldn't get fired up for Jiminy. I don't know why. My head wasn't in the game and well, it showed. The race itself was not overly difficult. In fact, the first time up the hill actually felt like it was pretty easy. The second lap wasn't so bad. I chatted with KL about Shel Silverstein for a bit and chatted with some other folks I hadn't seen in awhile. When we came around the final corner to go up the hill, I was in a bad spot and had to brake in the corner and when I tried to accelerate out of it, I was in too big a gear and my calf cramped. So, that sucked what little will I had out of me. I've pedaled through much worse. I sprinted through a really really bad calf cramp at Battenkill Roubaix so I have absolutely no excuse. All I can say is that I lacked the fire in the belly to push through the pain.

Code Monkey

OK, so I'm not a Code Monkey, though I did play one in a former life back in the day. This song cracks me up. It was introduced to me by my code monkey, gadget geek, cycling friend Curt who heard it on NPR. You too can hear it and get a laugh here.

Code Monkey mp3

Enjoy.