I have a new position at my job. Its kind of awesome because it allows me to make some modest cash without having to work to much which I think is every ones goal in life. Even better is the opportunity it has afforded me for more ride time. Sad part is that I have yet to take full advantage off all the spare chances I have had to ride.
Its been a real crazy couple of weeks since I last posted. August and December are the toughest months of the year and the most financially taxing. The boys get off to school and it can turn into a VERY expensive endeavour preparing three children for their educational journeys.
Despite of all, I have had more chances to go out and skateboard and have even began working on a father and son skate video of which I will gladly share some clips. I figure I better get some footage while I'm still able to throw down on the board before the day comes that I cant or I don't want to. Not too long ago we made it out to this skate park in Longwood called MESH. It was a top notch facility, a Lil expensive for my taste, but great riding nonetheless. I played the equivalent of a soccer daddy and gave my son and two of his friends a ride up there for a 6 hour session. Unbeknowst to myself a pro skateboarder showed up named Roberto Lopez Mont. If you watch fuel TV and watch a show called skate maps he made several appearances on it. The guy was an animal. He jumped a 12 foot gap to a flat top to a 15 foot suicide drop on the other side and stuck it after just a handful of tries.
I have acquired a new hobby as well. I'm becoming the quintessential urban mountain biker. Utilizing the Internet prowess of the satellite pictures on Google Maps, I have been searching for single track in my local woods. It has been extremely successful as well. I have now located, dirt roads, paths, old rail beds and single track in the Four town area. Which has now afforded me the ability to one day soon put together what I call the Unification ride. I figure it will be slightly over fifty miles with 18 of it being some type of off road riding thru four cities that surround Deltona. For Florida, it does host a good amount of climbing and it has a fair amount of road riding and some of my favorite urban single track sidewalk surfing. After I do it several times, I plan on maybe inviting someone, anyone to come on down and join me on the tour.
There is a single speed race coming up on September 22nd that has become my recent focus. I missed the trail to trail and the 13 hours of Santos due to various reasons and decided since I had made a commitment to this single speed race I would focus my time, effort and resources to make an appearance and hopefully do well. I have a single speed bike, a mono cog, that is a classic beauty. But it is a 26 inch bike and frankly, all I have been riding for over a year are big wheeled bikes. I thought better of returning to the 26 and decided to put together the Raleigh XXIX + G frame into a single speed.
The budget is extremely tight, but I managed with the help of my friends Jeff, Aka the post man, And Brian from Bikeworks, to gather enough parts to make a pretty interesting build. I plan on building it tomorrow and hopefully take it for some test rides several days this week. I have intentions next week of beating one person at that race and one person only. He does not know that I have the desire, but I think my intentions will be clear enough the morning off when I pop up next to him on the start line and follow his wheel, patiently waiting that he makes a mistake vs. dropping me.
I do consider myself to be a capable single speeder. As a matter of fact the first podium I ever got was on a single speed. I was racing against geared folks and managed to snatch fifth place, was closing in on fourth and even beat my team mate who was decidedly faster then me, with the exception of that day. The first time I rode my mono cog at Reddick was at one of the 12 hour races where I completed the 11 mile lap in 56 minutes. So I have been known to throw down some serious speed, lets see what happens.
The other day I was on a ride, cruising on this sidewalk at a good pace when I see a Honda Element on the shoulder and a lady and a child standing outside of the car. I don't think much of it at the time and as I pass I notice that she is snapping a towel at something in her car. I briefly make eye contact with her and recognize the look of distress. I grab some brake and make a U turn to discover that she has stopped driving because a dragonfly was in the car. Apparently she is scared of the bug, to which after gaining her permission I grab the bug, and gently release it into the wild.
This past Sunday I made my way to Reddick with the wife and my youngest son. I had some friends that came up from Miami and PostMan invited me to come up and hang out as well. So I decided to kill two birds with one stone. Got a late start, ate late, got there late, started the ride late, everything was late. But, I met up with my friends from Miami and we started one of the expert loops. Three miles in, I was amazed at my riding, I was climbing up hill at close to 11mph, effortlessly to say the least. I was cruising the flats well, but after grannies revenge, the heat started getting to me. And the three miles that followed, were a little bit rough, with constant over the head water showers and some slow riding. Eventually, I told the guys to roll on, cause my lunch was in my throat, and rode out the last four miles and a good pace and feeling OK. Got to the parking lot and never made it out again. Seems in all my late afternoon evening riding, I had forgotten how important it was to eat Long before you ride, when you ride in the heat. I will remember that next weekend on the 22nd.
I think that about catches me up with whats been going on. I will post pics of the single speed when its done I'm hoping it comes out looking very nice and riding even nicer. The Florida State championship series is kicking off. Of which I plan to make a couple of races for the fun of it and the training. October should be a big month for me as well as I plan on attempting my first 12 hour race. We will see how it goes, I have about a month to fine tune my preparation which basically means, get out and do lots of ridiculous long rides. Indeed, I do have my work cut out.
Till then, stay smooth and stay fast....
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