Rode the last 2 days here, and weirdly I'm like the only one out there riding a bike. Sure the messengers are still kicking it hard core. Super hard core. Like still pimp'n pretty much a t-shirt with jeans hard core. And the runners are out in force. Like "biker get the phunk off the trail in force." It was that scary as I was the only one out there and the runners knew it... Plus those runners are insanely hardcore too: "who needs pants when it's 25 degrees out? Not me b/c I'm a hardcore runner! Hat? Who needs a hat? Hats or for sissies and cyclists!"
I was down in DE yesterday for my grandmother's 85th B-day. It was a totally rocking day though it started really shitty as all my riding buddies bailed b/c of the temps. I was still not convinced it was cold enough to pack it up, so I decided to ride to my drycleaners (Bambi's on Broad and yes they are environmentally sensitive cleaners) and test the temp out. It was ph'ing cold, but not too cold where you would freeze your arse off on a one hour spin. So I rocked out roadie style on the mtb. and did a few laps on Lemon Hill and then headed back to da Sou' Phil.
I cleaned up quick and barely made the R2 down to Wilmington. It was the coolest ride as I ran into a fine lady whom I used to date down in DE, whom I lost touch with when both of us became involved with other people back at the end of 2005. She had moved up to live the Philly life too, so it was uber cool to catch up with her again. It still amazes me at how I constanly cross paths with people who knew me down in DE while being in Philly.
She was also super cool when she offered to have her mother drop me off at my bro's place in Trolley Sq. as the walk up to there would have been crazy cold. While driving past Logan House I spotted Dan the Man riding by. Dude, I so wanted to lower the window and yell out, but my friend and her mom would been like WTF's going on!?! So after reading FM's blog tonight I see that he wasn't on his road bike, but a cross bike while out in B-wine. That's rockstar status fo' sho'! Though I always knew he was a rockstar anyways.
So I began my DE visit catching up with an old friend (and uber hottie at that, you're still 10 on a 10 if you're reading this Allie!) and then my bro and I headed out to get a few things for my granmother's b-day party later on. I wanted to stop by Trader Joes to pick up a few things for grandmom and while there I noticed that no one really bags their own groceries at the DE TJ's. In Philly everyone does, and it's abnormal to see otherwise. I wonder if it's the quicker city pace, but it did surprise me how also at the DE TJ's no one brought their own bag or bagged the bags while being rung up.
Later at my grandmom's party it was cool seeing all my cousins and all their little ones running around. One of my cousins kid's, who is about 2, was running around the house with swimming goggles on. I ask his dad, my cousin Chris, "dude, Alex is learning how to swim?", "nope, he just likes the goggles". I wish I had a picture as it was funny as shit and it reminded me of way back in the day when I was in college and one night one of my buddies, who was loaded as all can be, thought they would be cool to pimp out my goggles that night. Later that afternoon my bro, his fine wife and I headed over to my grandmother's house where they had decided to cook up a sweet b-day fondu dinner for my grandparents and of course it was totally rocking! As my bro's the Iron Fist in the kitchen, but when it's all done, it's always damn good.
Took the last train back up to Philly and chatted with 2 little girls across from me. I felt like a prisoner in an FBI questioning as between those 2 they asked me about 1303 questions by the time we got to Philly. It was the funniest trip as the mother just kept her mouth shut and let her girls just roll with the questions. The funniest question was when they asked me what were some of the last few movies I've seen. They were like, yeah, we liked Blade 3 too. I was like WHAT, you two are like 8 and 10? They said it didn't scare them. I told them how I couldn't sleep that night I watched it and they just thought I was a baby. It was so funny being put down by them!
Rode out to VF park today, my normal hilly route, though it was abnormally cold. I had planned to do just another hour or so today, but I got to Manyunk and felt surprisingly warm so I continued on and sure enough I was in over my head as by the time I was in the park, I could feel a funky bonk coming on. It totally sucked as I had what Ferg would describe as Gurgly-Gut. I didn't want to down anything more (bottles luckily hadn't frozen) though I did pack some hammer gel and hit that up, but it wasn't enough. I ended up taking the VF trail back and that puppy was treacherous, I had totally forgotten that it may have been iced up. So I ended up riding on the grass alongside the trail off and on for a few miles. It actually was good as it warmed me up and kept me going slow, so I didn't push into uber bonk status. I was surprised at how the mtb'ing the last few months has actually improved my overall fitness as while I haven't been doing any climbing on the road for a long while, I was able to muscle over most of the climbs. Sure it wasn't pretty, but I got through it. Made it back home before 4:30 which was the goal as there was no way I wanted to be out there when the sun started to go down. It was cold enough out there! I don't know how racers in the northern parts of this country can do it for more than just a few weeks.
Well, another month already into 2007. Hard to believe January's nothing but a memory and that I'll be 30 before I know it. I still feel so young, but when I hang with people just out of college, I'm like, these guys are kids!
and Dude FM, if I'm the SCWPJO that pushed you over the edge, I'm sorry dude, just delete my blog from your reading list. I'll still check yours every morning when I wake up though. I just try to let my peeps throughout this country know what's going on with me without having to email them.
Hope everyone is dusting their trainers off. Looks like this week's going to be the real deal winter now.
Ride on,
-BC
