busy bee

CHALLENGES ARE WHAT MAKE LIFE INTERESTING; OVERCOMING THEM IS WHAT MAKES LIFE MEANINGFUL.

i think my little challenge (read: misbehaving glute/hammy) is behind me for the most part, no pun intended. thanks to Andrew, my ART guy, who has worked magic in just 3 sessions, i am able to run again. it is slower than i like but i'm so happy to just be able to get out in the morning before work and clear my mind. i will say that i feel somewhat spastic the first mile or two and then settle in but something has changed and what that is, alludes me. it also seems to have created a change in how i'm feeling on the tri bike. i'm very uncomfortable but i'll save that story and issue for the next blog post (hopefully it won't take me 2 weeks to write up another post, which seems to be the trend lately).

i've had this partially started blog sitting in draft since Sunday ..shame on me. i haven't been "feeling" the blog thing lately ...meh! not sure if it is out of laziness or b/c of just plain old being too busy. maybe a little of both. i've been getting in a lot of saddle time though, which makes me happy. of course, with all this time out and about on the bike, you meet some pretty cool folks along the way but sometimes you meet a few pests too. this brings me to my story. a story about a guy with many monikers. none of them good.

he kinda looked like the picture above but with a different kit on.

anyway, I've been meaning to write about this very annoying character we have come into contact with 3 times in less than a year. the last time being last Saturday on the Suncoast Trail, an awesome 41 mile rail trail. i'm sure many of you can relate and probably have a similar story of your own and please share it if you'd like. first let me tell you about the first time we encountered this freak-a-zoid. It was last summer and it was a group of about 6-8 of us riding. we were doing a 100 mile ride as part of my 140.6 training so we thought it would be nice to change up the route a bit. somewhere along this trail, a cyclist on a Kestrel roadbike, wearing a black Cadillac jersey and black cycling shorts, joins in out of nowhere and starts mixing it up. by mixing it up, i mean he just cut into our paceline and then everytime we got near a section with a climb, he would sprint to show everyone up and then he would rudely cut back into the middle of our paceline. it didn't take us long to figure this boy out. he obviously has some mental issues. he thinks he is 20 but he's going on 70 (at least he looks about that old) and he is one can short of a six pack. the other problem we have with this jackwagon is that if he doesn't cut into the paceline, he will ride next to you as close as he can get and he looks at you and sneers and does some kind of strange movement that can be interpreted as a challenge, as if he is saying, "c'mon, you wanna race?" ( i am not making this up). he rides so dangerously! needless to say, he did this one time and the boys in our group caught on and everytime we got to a climbing section, they would all take off and beat him up the climb. the only reason we were finally able to rid ourselves of this menace is when the trail ended and we went in a different direction. ever since that first encounter last year, we came up with a lot of names for him, such as, King of the Suncoast, Suncoast Stalker, a-hole, and douchebag to name just a few. our second encounter was 2 weeks ago. it was less of an encounter and more of just a sighting. he had his sights on a different group of cyclists so we were able to escape his crazy wrath. last week's ride was another story. he was waiting for us like a thief in the night, like a stalker. he did his usual, cut into the paceline and invading everyone's personal space but we were ready for him this time. he got his ass handed to him on every climb by at least one person each time he pulled his shenanigans. it was so funny to watch. i did not get involved because i was too busy writing this story in my head as it all unfolded ahead of me. the best part was the last climb ...he took off and the j-man looked like he got shot out of a cannon. he blew by this whack job and when j-man got to the top of the climb, which is the end of the trail, he raised his hands in victory, like the winners of a stage in the tour de france. it was classic and i wish i would have had a camera or video cam with me. of course, i had to get the last word in, so i told the guy as i went by him that he just got schooled AGAIN! we all agreed next time that we aren't playing that game again and we will kindly tell him that he is not welcome to ride with us. end of story. my question is this ...what is this guy's problem? obviously, nobody wants to ride with him because everytime we have seen him, he is alone. ok, that's all the press he is getting on this blog. maybe he will stumble upon this blog and recognize himself.

the best group of cycling buddies out there. thanks Linda M. for taking this pic. we just finished 85 miles and look how happy we look! even after the encounter with the Suncoast Stalker.

huge shout out to Jeff, Shann, and Bob who kicked Ironman Texas ass this past Saturday. they are warriors in that heat and humidity. i know i've already told each of you all this but i will say it again, i'm so proud of you. it was so much fun stalking them on the IM website.

i'm heading out on a bit of an adventure this weekend and will update when i get back. until then, i hope everyone has a wonderful, long holiday weekend. be safe!

much love and peace out!