Summertime, I'm loving it! Lots of riding!

We've been riding plenty of dirtbikes! Last week I rode at 3 Palms on Wednesday night with 4 friends. It seems the Wednesday night deal is a standing appointment. I took grilling stuff along and we grilled up some burgers as the riding was winding down. Saturday, I took my beloved border collie to the Run The Woodlands 5k. Ran a slow 26-ish minutes, but it's way hot! Then we again went to 3 Palms. What was to be 'an hour or two' turned out to be almost 4 hours. There are a lot of water breaks!

Then, I called my buddies Larry and Thomas Saturday evening and informed them that it would be wise to ride in the forest on Sunday. Larry and Thomas:

They had church, so we went super early. I got there at 6am. Is it wrong or illegal to listen to The Rippingtons very loud on the way to ride? Is it not contradictory to listen to jazz before climbing aboard a very rowdy dirt bike? Let's just call it the 'calm before the storm'... :):) Evan:

My riding has been very good! Lots of laps, lots of miles, lots of athletic endurance (yes, it is an endurance sport!). Zero perfectly good motorcycles thrown to the ground! Knocks on wood.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

The weekend of June 20-21:

Ran a good 5-6 miles with a new group. Not really new, they're The Woodlands Running Club, just a different little splinter group with a different day and place than the usual Sunday group. Great time and Tessie got to run with another border collie named Jessie. Ironic. Jessie chewed on Tessie so it's apparent that my dog got "owned". It could have gone either way with 2 females.

I rode it The Forest after that and ventured to a new trail that I had never ridden. Oh man, THAT was TOUGH! I think the trail loop is 17-18 miles. Then there are the additional 5 miles of GETTING LOST. Very deep sand, the whole way! Very deep, deep, deep sand! The whole way. Hell of a workout. Don't ride the Northeast Trail unless you have a bike that floats on sand!

That weekend by the numbers:
Number of miles run: 6
Number of miles ridden: 22
Number of miles ridden in VERY DEEP sand: 21.97
Number of perfectly good motorcycles thrown to the ground: 1

Cool new fiberglass bridge, the only one of its kind I've encountered in the forest:

Post ride self portrait:

I had a strange relationship with a small pine tree...

I've kept this pretty quiet until now. I've told a few people about what happened in the forest, but not many. Only now can I start to understand what happened and find a hint of levity.

Trail riding in the forest is a lot like trail running. Yes, running on trails with your feet and legs. Runners find and latch onto "runner's high", a brain state where endorphins are flowing and the runner is relaxed, euphoric, even 'high' and sometimes, 'quite high'. And for me, that runner's high sets in much sooner and is a lot more intense when running on trails. The reason is that you're really focused on picking your line. You totally zone out the surroundings other than the immediate terrain that you're negotiating. And you must pay close attention to your line to prevent twisting your ankle or tripping on a root or rock. It's easy to get lost when you're trail running because you tuned out the surroundings.

The same thing happens on a dirt bike when you're blasting through the woods. It takes a while for this intoxication to set in. You start to sweat, you're exerting energy moving around on the bike (body English) to get it to go where you would like. You're getting a little tired and you start picking up the pace a little. NOW, you're entering the ZONE! You're paying particular attention to the trees, ruts, roots, mud puddles, and sand patches. You're not totally focused on any one element; your brain is processing all of the information about the stuff in front of you and the stuff you just blew past, in your periphery. It's COOL! (this pic is not THE tree, just a pic I swiped off the internet)

So let's get back on topic. I had a strange relationship with ONE small pine tree out of billions. As I approached, it was perfectly in focus. Not an unfocused, slightly blurred tree like all of the others. I saw this tree perfectly. Perfectly focused, perfectly right there on the side of the trail. And I RODE RIGHT INTO IT!! Bwahaha! It nailed the ring finger on my left hand. Beneath my glove, it hurt like hell. After about 5 minutes of riding, I had to stop to peel the glove off. Finger was bleeding and cut pretty well on the outside of the hinge joint (I ain't no anatomy guy!). I'm damn lucky it didn't separate my finger! Lesson learned? Bark Busters!! Don't go into the woods without 'em! I've had these for years but hadn't bothered to bolt them on! Doh! So now the 125 has 'em and I'm going to fabricate a couple more pairs for the 100's.

So I've heard about something related to motorcycle riding that is called Target Fixation. I've always heard about it in a bad light. How could this be? Target fixation must certainly be a good thing, eh?! You know, like super focused, really alert to pulling off what you're trying to do. So after this episode with the pine tree, I googled it. And SURE ENOUGH, it's a BAD thing and something to be avoided! Apparently, if you focus too sharply on something, the brain has a little software glitch that will steer you right into that object. Prior to my relationship with the tree, I would have absolutely called BS on such a ridiculous notion. No way, it'll never happen!

Target Fixation DOES exist and it IS a bad thing! I've done it! Only once. And I mean that tree was in focus! Like no other tree ever before. Strange. Really weird! Here's what Wikipedia says, Target Fixation.
________________________________________________________________________


And in other news,I got an invitation from a friend, Glenn (a guy I met while riding in the woods), to visit the legendary Houston motocross track that has been laboriously and meticulously resurrected, Rio Bravo MX Park! Wow! Nice work, guys! They've done a fantastic job putting it back together!

After I took a couple of laps, I came in and said, "WOW, it's an old-fashioned motocross track, just like what tracks looked like in the 70's and 80's!" It's different in that it's a fast track with long sweeping turns and pretty graceful jumps. It just means you've gotta ride super fast to get the effect (like the Gran Prix track at 3 Palms). Not really my cup of tea because the speeds are high (the consequences for making a mistake can be high). But the guys at Rio Bravo have done a GREAT JOB! Hats off!

Weekend in Review! Weekdays are needed to give pause/recovery from Weekends!

I've been working diligently for the past few years to eliminate my monetary debts. Going into the weekend, I was finally DEBT FREE! No mortgage loan. No car loans. No credit card debts. No big machinery loans. Feels GOOD! My mantra has been, "I'm gonna take back my weekends!" Done deal.

So how did I score on taking back my weekends? Let's see: Saturday morning, I drove down to the Buffalo Wallow 6k Race down at Waugh and Memorial Drive. It was a great cross-country event. Further evidence that my anonymity (after relocating back here) is gone, I saw folks I knew at the event. Of course there was Coach Bill, Adrienne, and Gaslight. I hung out and chatted with Gaslight after I was done running. Neat lady, hardcore about her Houston running scene! There were runners EVERYWHERE! Not just my race, but everywhere for miles and miles. Houston's running contingent is stout! Photo credit, Bill D:



Earlier in the week, my good friend, Jeff, suggested that we go mountain biking on the Ho Chi Minh Trails that are within Memorial Park. Well, he opted out so I went anyway! It had probably been 12 years since I'd cycled there. I asked a rider if there were any "technical trails" (challenging). He said, "very technical" and pointed me in the right direction. Having done most of my mountain biking in Government Canyon (Helotes), Crown Ridge (San Antonio), and Hill Country Natural Area (in Bandera), I'm telling you that Ho Chi Minh is not VERY technical. Technical, yes. VERY, no! In all, a really cool place to ride! I had a blast, can't wait to go back!!


A typical picture of what the technical areas look like:


Really COOL sort of chute:



From there, it was off to just "go see people". This is RARE for me! I was in no particular hurry! I went and visited my good friends, L & J, who have put their home up for sale. I'm pretty tough on them. They still have stuff all over the place and I tell them they're NOT moving anytime soon. That's what the prospective buyers will think. My Realtor told me the same thing. I'll be damned if I didn't clear the whole house out after she barked at me! So it's my job to pass it on.


It IS important to be wary of under-arm perspiration whilst riding one's Harley on the 610 loop. This guy figured out the solution:


Next up was a visit to my buddies over at Cee San. Apparently, they TOO have taken back their weekends! Place was a ghost town:


I then went to my MOM's for lunch and fixed their treadmill. Great visit. Later in the day as I was prepping some dirt bikes, my buddy Matt came by. Damn, I've known this guy for 38 years! Hadn't seen him in prolly 25 years. I was gonna say he's a bit freakish, but then noticed the pic of my lovely tie-dye shirt. Oh well:


Then came Sunday! Had a great time at the track! It had been watered a bit much for my liking, but had a super time and passed a couple of riders. Yeah BABY:


I was going to go to my first "Hashing Run", but I got scared and the afternoon was overcast and windy. Next time! These hashers (Click on the link) are just nuts! Go to the "Hashing 101" section. That would indeed make me a 'virgin'!

Gotta LOVE Weekends!

After being off of the dirt bike for a month and a half or more, my friends suggested that we have a Motocross outing last weekend. While I had plenty of stuff to do, I just couldn't fight it! They came to my house and helped load up 6 bikes and we headed to the track.




Having mixed in frequent recreational motocross with my running/triathlon stuff throughout the past year, I guess I really didn't realize the dirt biking's contribution in physical conditioning. We rode Saturday after I ran 5 miles with the dogs. Sunday I ran 10 miles with the running group. But I was TORN UP from the motocross!! Only on Tuesday did the soreness and fatigue dwindle. My riding was GOOD!




Even though it doesn't seem very physically demanding while you're riding, do NOT under-estimate the workout you get from riding MX! I was wiped out from riding!! WooHoo!!



Here's our parting shot, great folks:



Running Update: As mentioned above I have been running. I run on weekends and try to get the dogs out once or twice a week. The weather and holidays have wreaked havoc on my good intentions. I've got the Houston 1/2 Marathon coming up in a week and a half, so I guess I need to hit it hard this week and weekend. I've been running Wednesday night track workouts, too. So I've still got 1.5 weeks to train for the event, eh?! :):)

Last Weekend...Great time, Great weather...

As I wrote earlier, I was going to cover up my running attire to sneak the Border Collie into the car and take her to the RTW5k race. Even in street clothes, both dogs KNEW it was weekend and both tried to jump in the car as I opened the door. Fail. Had to leave them both here...the American Bulldog would have scared folks at the race.

My sister-in-law ran her FIRST running race! Yea! I ran with her and pushed my young nephew in the stroller. She finished the race and did a fair amount of running, mixed with some walking. When she gets her running pace settled down a bit, she'll be able to sustain running. I then repeated the 5k after everyone was gone to get a brisk workout.


Next up, motocross at the track. Gorgeous day, perfectly groomed track, fun friends! Man, that set me up for the whole weekend! I just live for weekends! It was a productive day of riding. I short-circuited the track in a couple of places so I could work on turns and double-jumps that had been giving me some trouble. Practice, practice, practice! In fact, I have errands to run and a stop at the track is going to be included in a while.

Sunday had me driving round trip to NW San Antonio to score yet another load of my business stuff. I hauled a big U-haul trailer and filled it up pretty well. A couple more similar trips and I'll be out of SA!

On the way up, I stopped off visit my good buddy, Barry. He's worked his tail off building a new home near San Antonio and farming his 28 acres (I know where I'm headed when society collapses). Barry/Adorable Daughter/Beautiful home:





Had to stop at Joel's BBQ, in Flatonia, on the way home:

RTW 5k, followed by DIRT BIKING is on! EDITED

I just spoke with Elisharose, it's a GO. Their son has been slacking in his studies and this has postponed our activities from last weekend to this Saturday. Apparently the boy has decided it's a good thing to study, as dirtbiking is at the end of the tunnel...weather will be great...If not this time, no sweat. Riding can happen on any weekend... :):)

See topic a few topics below this one....

C'mon out...grilling, riding, good times...

EDIT:

Apparently a key figure in this HUGE endeavor this weekend is already in the hospital! Even before riding dirtbikes with Ev!

Dude claims to have a kidney stone, in the hospital, and says "it hurts"....oh cry me a river, little man!! Good grief. WIMP!

Just kidding! DAMN, I'm feeling for you! Females who've had 'stones have said it was worse than giving birth to a child (where's my 'freaked-out-eyes-wide-open emoticon'??). Sucks to be you, rest up.

I'm going to SNEAK Tessie (pure bred Border Collie) out of here tomorrow morning to go run the RTW5k with us. EVERYONE just LOVES Tess! Firstly, I can't dress in running clothes because the dogs KNOW when it's weekend and get totally stoked when they see me in running attire. I really don't want Mackie to bolt if she sees me drive out with Tessie. Before Jazz disappeared, it was Jazz and Mackie who battled/played every morning. They didn't notice/didn't care when I took Tess to the RTW race, because they had each other. With Jazz gone, I'm concerned. I'm fenced, but a dog that wants out IS out of the yard.



So I'll dress nonchalantly and change clothes at the race....and Mackie will be out grazing in the yard, checking stuff out and I'll whisper to Tessie and she'll know EXACTLY what we're doing and will silently hop in the truck and lie down as told!

Mackie is an American Bulldog, the BEST dog on this earth! BUT, folks who live in The Woodlands and walk on the trail where the race is held WOULD MOST CERTAINLY submit complaints!! Mack's a big dog and old people with little dogs surely won't appreciate Mackie!

Running in the WG Jones Forest off of 1488:






Over and out....

OK, Let's try this again, Running/Dirt Biking/Picnic...

This Saturday, October 25th. Same stuff as the previous topic. We'll go to the Run The Woodlands 5k at 8 am and go to the Track at 9 am.

All are all invited. Yes, EVEN Carolyn! I'll teach you how to ride and you'll have a GREAT TIME! We're safe and level-headed, no one gets hurt, everyone leaves with an ear-to-ear GRIN!

There will be some riding, grilling, feasting, riding, chatting with great folks, sitting in the shade checking stuff out. And prolly go riding some more, too. :)

Here's a FINE example of what it'll look like. Topic from the July 4th weekend:
Fourth of July

Dirt Biking, Sunday 10/19....Wanna go?

It looks like the track will be dry and the weather BEAUTIFUL! I've invited my friends to join for another half-day of riding dirt bikes.

I'll take some docile bikes along for beginners to ride. Track opens at 9am. I'll run with The Woodlands Running Club early, then load up and head out....

C'mon! Coach Bill? Manny/Cassie? Lance? Adrienne? John/Sabrina? I've neglected to mention a bunch of folks here, but that don't mean you ain't invited...

It should be a fine day for riding! Lemme know....BTW, I'm an excellent instructor!...

Evan

So, about 3 weeks ago I raced my FIRST Motocross Race!

Yep, I entered the Motocross races and ran 2 Motos (heats). As y'all may know, I live 5 miles from 3 Palms Extreme Sports Park and often ride during the week at lunchtime. I also have several regular MX friends I ride with on weekends.

I've ridden motorcycles all my life and was in the "holding onto the handlebars" position while inside my mother's womb. I'm innately gifted and talented with all things mechanical! I was the most "wrenching" little kid anyone's ever seen! So consequently I worked on bikes throughout childhood/junior high/high school/college. I had never actually been to a motocross track because that wasn't the main attraction for me.

While living in San Antonio, I amassed no shortage of motorcycles and had/have plenty of dirt bikes. We would go riding at a less-than-hardcore track pretty often. And the less-than-hardcore is a GOOD thing if you're out there to have fun and don't want to get RUN OVER by the REALLY fast guys! The track we rode wasn't representative (I guess) of real motocross tracks because it was hard-pack terrain. So my bikes of choice were Kawasaki KX-100's. I'm 5'8", pretty compact. I can ride big bikes, having owned 125's, 250's, and even a Honda CR-500 (INSANE BIKE!). But the 100's fit me really well. It's WAY different than the bigger bikes, even the 125's! There are things you don't do on the small bikes that you will do on the bigger bikes. But I was plenty quick riding the 100's.

Skip forward to my relocation back to Houston. I grew up here. My stomping ground was the Champions Forest/1960 area and spent summers on Lake Conroe. I relocated here for a number of reasons, but that's another topic.

Upon moving here, I loaded up the KX-100's and a KX-125 and went to 3 Palms. Had a MISERABLE time! OMG! The tracks are NOT hard-packed ground, but loose, deep sand, mud, dirt. It's a nightmare trying to get the small bikes around the track because they don't have deep broad power output. With hard-pack, you launch out of a corner and the hard ground offers little rolling resistance. Launch out of a corner and build speed that is very easy to maintain on the hard ground. NOT the case here! You gotta put power to the ground and you've gotta KEEP IT COMING! The loose deep ground takes A LOT of horsepower! Even the 125 is heavily taxed.

I bought a very slightly used (like 10-20 minutes old) 2004 Honda CR-250R the day after Christmas, 2007. Even after riding it a good bit, I was still struggling. I still wasn't enjoying the track as it's really tough to get around the track. I quickly reasoned that the problem HAD to be me! All of these other guys are flying by and having no trouble.

I learned of a really cool MX instructor, excellent instruction! I took 8 hours of professional Motocross instruction, four 2-hour "classes" over the span of a month. TOO COOL! Best value in education EVER! It took me a while to realize that wheelies, jumps and general hooliganism IS the premise of this particular form of "continuing education". The guy really got me straightened out and got my form and riding position corrected! Money well spent.

So after months of recreational riding, almost exclusively on the "Main Track", I'm pretty damn competent and certainly comfortable. I LOVE riding the Main Track! If you drive by on I-45 and look over, it could be ME that you're seeing there! WooHoo!

So I entered the race on the "Gran Prix" track. I don't like it as it's very fast. You've gotta REALLY go very fast to catch air....and it's LONG AIR. Just not my thing. I entered the "Over 40, 250 Novice" class. There were TWO things that needed to happen:

1) Do NOT get hurt!
2) Do NOT come in last place!

Well, having never launched out of a Motocross starting gate ever before, I was last out. After the first turn I looked back and there was no one behind me. "#$%^" OK, I'll just chase 'em down! WRONG!! Geezus! You know what it is about the Over 40 class that makes it so tough (it never occurred to me until after the race)? Every one of these guys were riders all through their lives! These are guys who REFUSE to let it go!

So I came in LAST PLACE! Do you have ANY idea how demoralizing that is?? I'm very good at my running and work/career stuff. I'm just not wired to accept failure. Hell, I would have GLADLY traded a minor injury for not coming in LAST PLACE!!

Between Motos, I went and practiced my "launch" in another area of the facility. I got it down much better than the first. Starting in 2nd gear, not 1st. Sitting WAY up on the seat/tank and modulating the clutch to keep the wheelie from getting too high.

Second Moto, I was ready for the launch, but still blew it. I bogged the bike, then got too aggressive with the clutch and had a hell of a wheelie, but was drifting out of my line to the right side. NO!! Can't do that as there's a bike RIGHT there! DOH! Had to shut off and let 'em go past. AGAIN last around the 1st turn, I was PISSED! I did manage to get around 2 guys!! WooHoo! But I really didn't like it! I was riding much harder and taking chances that I REALLY wouldn't have otherwise taken. Six laps per Moto will WEAR YOU OUT!!

I don't think I'll pursue Motocross racing (not on the Gran Prix track, anyway), as I just pushed too hard and am not willing to take the chances that I was taking. I WILL try the same 'Over 40, 250 Novice' the next time they have races on the Main Track, as I'm really comfortable there.

Coming in LAST PLACE in the 1st Moto SUCKED! Scoring 13th out of 15 riders in the 2nd Moto was much easier to take.

Don't think for ONE SECOND that the Over 40 guys are wimps, they HAUL ASS!! I learned a lot that day!! Just thought I'd share this with y'all....

Carry on.....:):):)

HUMBLED AGAIN! 2 weeks in a row...HELP, SOS!

Man, it's really UGLY out there!

I ran in the forest with my 2 dogs, NOT 3 (Jazz never came home,R.I.P. JAZZER!, she's a goner!) on Saturday, about 3 miles. Then EXCELLENT MotoCross! The weekend report seems to sound like a broken record, eh? :):):)

Sunday with The Woodlands Running Club was at least as bad as the previous week! ARGH! My running buddy, Sabrina was considerate enough to put up with my frequent walking near the end of the 10 miles. Man, this is NOT good! I'm in trouble over here! I'm stepping it up, gotta do it!

Sunday had excellent motocross races at the track...I opted to drink beer while spectating and putter around on a minibike. I did see the over-40 amateur class races and I thought, "sheeet, I CAN hang with these guys!" At only 5 laps per race, there's not enough advancement by the fastest riders to start "lapping" the slow guys. So suffice to say, if I hang in the back half of the race, it's not too crowded and fears of getting run-over by the leaders are minimal.

Monday, Labor Day, I went Motocross riding with some buds at the track....EXCELLENT OUTING!!

On another note, I saw a guy I know who was racing on Sunday. I had never met his wife. Nice lady, pleasant. The dude was barking orders at her, "go get me that jug of water" (while sitting in a chair and pointing). And other orders, as well. I guess it changed my opinion of the guy. I'm thinking, "get off your ass and go get it yourself!"...."AND since when did you get polio, lard ass??"...."it's not like you're running a marathon, you're racing ONLY 5 laps" (his riding was totally unimpressive).....my opinion of him has changed a lot...I'd bet that he barks at her all the time.... :( :( :(

No MX racing for the kid....***EDITED***

The weather can be a tough one! I'm 5 miles from the track and barely got any rain yesterday. I loaded up and went to the track to find that all of the rain hit them hard.

What a MESS!! I can't ride in that stuff! But the hardcore dirtbike freaks were there! I rode around a bit and just sank the bike in a bunch of soupy MUD...checked out the freak show, then headed home... :(:(:(

Squishy Socks...

I read yesterday about Tiny Frog's squishy socks and was thinking, "hey, I've done that"....

Well that's exactly what this morning's run provided. We're talking head to toes in drenching sweat! We ran a pretty brisk 7 miles in the forest with a good group. Great time! I've got a blister on my toe from the squishy socks. I'm NOT complaining, really. I LOVE summertime and I'm basking in it! WooHoo!

Time now to "load up" (dirtbike) because the track opens at 9 am....That's my cross-training, eh?!

***EDIT*** I went to the track and had a GREAT outing! Yesterday, the track was horrible, didn't stay for long at all...today it was rough and odd, but not at all bad. Some days can be really good, some really bad....sometimes it's hard to say why one's good and another day isn't...dunno!

And I've got regular friends at the track. Anonymity GONE. Good times! I'm gonna enter my first race in the novice class on Saturday, August 16th....Night race under the lights! Y'all show up!

Weekend Recap....

Man, I need a work week to recover from the weekend! I'll be making an appointment with my massage therapist in a little while!

I did go run in the forest with a good group early Sunday morning. There were probably 10 of us. Good time and a pretty quick pace, about 6.5 miles.

Then I DID go back to the track to claim the final 20 laps of my 45 lap quest. Piece of cake! Met a guy who rides a lot faster but doesn't take big chances on the BIG jumps. So he's clearing the same jumps/not hitting the big ones. And the same ones that I'm doing/not doing. Talk about a great point of reference! Nice guy, also a triathlete. He's a lot smoother/faster in the turns, the straights, and setting up for an impending corner. It's exactly where I need to be, more competent on the stuff that I am riding, but not taking big chances on the BIG jumps!

Number of times throwing a perfectly good motorcycle to the ground (crashes):2
Number of miles run: 9.6
Number of laps at MX track: 45

On Saturday, the track was tough. Hurricane Dolly wasn't quite as innocent as I'd hoped. Really deep, wet, sandy turns and straights in a couple of areas. I got stuck in a really deep rut and I was going down. But it REALLY did take several seconds (unlike a typical front end wash-out that happens quickly). Long enough that I collected my thoughts. "Oh sh*t, this is NOT going well! I'm gonna pull my leg out from under the bike...not yet, ok pretty soon........OK, pull the leg out from under the falling bike right NOW!"......Weird, it really was in slow motion! Plenty of time to figure it out!

Same thing in a deep sandy berm (a berm is banked turn). I left a BIG OLE DENT in that berm! For the rest of the ride, many laps to follow, I had to negotiate around that big ole dent! And it surely reminded me every time I saw it!

All told, GREAT time! I gotta get to work now! I need a work week to recover from the weekend!

Happy Birthday to ME!!

I'm ALIVE!! (all animated and jumping around waving arms) Oh HELL YEAH!!

Ran a great RTW 5k this morning! Everyone now knows Tessie on a first-name basis!....We ran a 23:40 not great, not shabby, either....

THEN I packed a cooler with BEER, Gatorade, and a gallon of water and went MOTOCROSSING!

45 laps didn't happen. No how, no way. It's a long track and pretty difficult this morning! I did 25 laps, 2 sets of 10 and one set of 5....Just exhausted! Chugged the whole bottle of Gatorade, dumped water on my head, all the good stuff!

Tomorrow, I'll go run in the forest with Susie's group for 1 lap (6.5 miles), then I THINK I might go scoop up the other 20 laps at the track....It could happen!...Oh HELL YEAH!


Tessie after the run...


Bike maintenance last night, cleaned air filter, clean/lube/adjust chain...


I devised a new method of counting laps, white electrical tape on the crossbar...each lap, stop, remove a tape tag from here and....


....put it here....




Me and my friend, Dave. Cool guy and rides at about the same ability level...GOOD TIMES!

Motocross Marathon? Sure....

Five years ago, I "rode my age" in laps around a motocross track in Garden Ridge, near San Antonio...It wasn't exactly on my birthday and it was blazing hot out....Tough ride, for sure!






Depending on what happens with the rain that this hurricane is bringing, I'm going riding this Saturday after the Run The Woodlands 5k race. Only this time, it'll be 45 laps on a much longer track, much more difficult track. No guarantees, that's a lot of MX! And it surely won't be continuous....It'll be a good time!

The Weekend in Review, Let's Recap...

Man, I live for the weekend! Since moving here in November, I've been saying, "I'm going to take back my weekends!" Friends said it wouldn't happen. Well, I'm doing pretty well with it!

Let's break it down by the numbers:

Number of parties attended: 1
Number of miles run: 0
Number of miles on bicycle: 0
Number of miles swimming: 0
Number of days going to the motocross track: 2
Number of days that ZZ TOP was playing as I entered the MX track: 1
Number of days that Jazz music was playing as I entered the MX track: 1
Number of perfectly good motorcycles thrown to the ground (crashes): 0
Number of riders passing me at the track: plenty
Number of riders passed: 6
Number of naps taken: 2
Number of battles waged on the internet at a motorcycling message board: 2

I had intended to go running in the forest with Susie's group (Luke's), but overslept. So I worked in my shop until the track opened. I've got a couple of regular buddies who show up at the track on Saturday mornings, rode with them. I usually stay at the track for anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on track condition, how I feel (on an "off day", it's easy to roll onto the trailer and drive right out the front gate).

It's a strange deal, I'm pretty sure I'm competitive. At the track, I get fired up and ride harder and more accurately when I encounter actual traffic. Specifically, riders of about the same ability. All of a sudden, I just go like crazy! It was getting a tad mundane on an empty track until others joined. It changes the whole equation, I jump into 'battle mode' and IT'S ON! So I guess I'm competitive.

What in the world is up with the 'fortune' that was in my fortune cookie?? This isn't what I would call a fortune, at all! And besides, what if my version of romance involves a cell phone? What is up with this:

Great weekend! Late post, AGAIN....

Ran the RTW 5k on Saturday, had a great time, quite the social event, too....my friend Diana ran, as did Christy from Luke's (she usually works the race, 1st time I've run with her). Diana met some folks and a guy with whom she works, Gary Van Kuiken, who's run marathons in all 50 states. Christy's pretty fast! Tessie and I did about 23-and-a-half minutes....

Went motocrossing both Saturday and Sunday mornings! Good time, but there was thrown, a "wrench into the spokes"....the track operators changed up the track. They added a couple of "doubles". These are double-jumps where you really need to jump a good ways (landing on the backside of the second "mound of dirt") to land in a very smooth zone....coming up way short (not attempting to jump it, rolling over it, or jumping only a little) is no problem...the problem is if you come up a little short or a good-bit short, very hard landing. I ended up "going for it" on the lesser of the 2 and it felt GREAT! Landing a dirt bike jump WELL is right on up there with the most pleasurable experiences imaginable, um yeah, even SEX!! And the longer jump's not going to be a problem....just a bit unsettling that they pushed dirt around in a lot of places and made the track a WHOLE lot more "interesting"!...

It's REALLY strange the different perspective looking at the jumps on the track from the sidelines, versus riding up on them and jumping them...I was talking with other riders who, like me, had stopped on their bikes off to the side to survey the new terrain and watch various riders dealing with the new track changes. About half the people were rolling over them, the other half were jumping. So our trepidation was surely shared. Standing next to the terrain it seems SO tame, no big deal where you land. On the bike, OMG!! Eyes wide open! Really strange how different the 2 perspectives are! Carry on...

Oh the IRONY!

I found it ironic that I was listening to jazz music as I drove into the race track this morning. Is that even legal? Would I have been roughed up by the dirt-biking community if they had known I was listening to anything other than Metallica, Pantera or some other death-metal band?

I had it cranked pretty loud, does that worsen or lessen the offense? Does listening to the Rippingtons loudly while entering the track further reinforce and explain why I'm so slow at the track?

OK, I'm back.....Great weekend!....

I had a great 4th of July holiday weekend! My next door neighbors had an enormous cache of fireworks, grilling supplies, food, beer and plenty of their hell raising Harley biker friends amassed for the 4th. They invited me. It was funny, I was probably the only one who wasn't sporting 'ink' (tattoos) or wearing a Harley tee shirt. They're totally cool, hard working folks, great neighbors! In fact I had a polo shirt on (where's my 'embarrassed' emoticon?)....

The dogs were truly freaked by the whole thing until I got them corralled into my closet, deep within the house. And the fireworks weren't just next door. All around my house sounded like a war zone. Fun time, nobody got arrested or had to go to the hospital/morgue.


























Saturday, I invited my friends(Click on aforementioned "friends" link to see her blog) to join me at 3 Palms Extreme Sports Park for a day of motorcycle riding. CLICK on the photos for full size, great pics, thanks!

Typically when I ride alone, I show up early in the day (before the rowdy FAST kids show up) and ride for 45 minutes to an hour. That's plenty of workout, trust me! Saturday, we stayed for 5 hours. I taught their kids how to ride and also gave the lady a ride on the front of my brutal red Honda. Out in a field, I nailed the throttle and wheelied a good bit. I did this a number of times, but kept asking her, "are we cool?"....she never screamed to stop, so I showed her the fantastic acceleration of a modern motocross bike. (where's my 'freaked out' emoticon?). And the acceleration is even much harder with only one person on the bike.


My friends brought a wealthy bounty of delicious fix'ins, the grill, cooler, charcoal, the works! When I was performing maintenance on the 4 bikes prior, I thought, "man, this is a lot of effort"....my friends certainly matched my effort with the healthy and delicious grub! Thanks!

As Elisharose explained in her blog (funny account of the day's fun, CLICK on the link to see her rendition of the event, funny), I taught her daughter to ride. I also gave her daughter a ride on the Red Thunder to demonstrate what it's like on the big bike. Then I proceeded to teach her how to ride the little Honda Z-50. (Coincidentally, the very first bike I ever rode was a Honda Z-50 MiniTrail, back in 1968) She has her very own Pink helmet and was styling! She didn't want to get off of the bike! Too funny! Too cute!