Very Late TdF Post

Yeah, like I watched a fair bit of the TdF this year and a skinny British guy and his skinny British team didn't just win but dominated in a way that was so far from being Britsih!!

Mr B Wiggins got a bit pissed (as in angry, rather than tipsy) and let the newspaper guys have it at one point.

Just for posterity here is his repost.

"I say they're just fucking wankers. I cannot be doing with people like that.


"It justifies their own bone-idleness because they can't ever imagine applying themselves to do anything in their lives.

"It's easy for them to sit under a pseudonym on Twitter and write that sort of shit, rather than get off their arses in their own lives and apply themselves and work hard at something and achieve something.

"And that's ultimately it. Cunts."

So I guess he was a bit irritated. Just gotta hope his blood stays nice and pure.

Till next time girls and boys

DB

Can't Keep An Old Dog Down

Oh yeah!
Just cos I'm stuck up here in MI don't mean life is over - oh no! Got myself a fixie and a bad attitude, what more does a guy need? Just cos its a bit on the warm side - like historically hot - isn't gonna keep this dog in the kennel. TdF on the box, what more inspiration does a guy need. So choice made, gotta get out here and put some miles on the road.
Camelback filled to brim, even topped up on the sun screen and hit the road -whoa! Hotter than Nicole Kidman in "Dead Calm". Went South, didn't kill the old self but toughed it out for two hours before turned round for home.
Love the dirt roads in MI, teeth chattering, bone shaking, dust raising fun that needs to be tried to be believed. Corrugated sections made me wish I was somewhere else but what the heck. Three hours in and time to refuel. Hit a store in Dansville - not accepting cards so money a bit tight. need water and cheap calories, in full calorie melt-down. Gallon water, cosmic brownie and half dozen Donettes. Sit outside and tuck in.
Wow people in Dansville are big (less politically correctly - FAT!) All the adults I saw were impressive in their bulk. Not just over-weight but Sumo-stylee Freakin' massive. Waddling, leaning back to balance the gut 'kin huge. Fatsville USA!! Only ordinary-sized people I saw were the three young girls sitting in car outside store as I gorged myself on the cheap calories. Not exactly slender themselves, but at least i suspect they can still see their feet when they stand up. All I can say is "Get out of here as fast as you can girls, I've seen your future.... And it's obese".
So my day was freakin awesome 72 miles of fixie magic, over 4 hours in the saddle.
Oh Yeah!!

Till next time

DB

Awakening (Part 2)

Huh!
What the fuck?
(Sire the monster, it stirs)
Where the heck am I? What happened?
(My dark lord, your creation lives! The monster awakes)
(SHUT UP IGOR, LEAVE THE BEAST TO REVIVE)
Shit I'm still here, thought I was a gonna. But no, takes more than a relocation to Michigan to take this sucker down.
Just cos the trails are a bit on the shite-side and the old MTB has been relegated to gathering dust in the garage doesn't mean life is over. Heck no, time to get off the arse and make things happen.
Hang on kids, gonna be a wild ride I promise you.

Watch out DB's back (and I'm pissed off)

Till next time.

Awakening (part 1)

........... Huh?

Training Update

<2weeks to Flying Pig. All the "big miles" done. Been lazy as ever though more fast miles than ever before.

Been averaging 6:40 ish for 5-7 mile runs and managed a couple of fast 10 milers, an 18 miler and 3 fast 15 milers. On Sunday did my last 15 miler - cold, snowy and a wind that was hard to fathom. Made it round in 1:35 so exactly 7 min pace - bit slower than I was want but not too bad.

Now it is the taper and maintenance phase - did a 5 miler at lunch today - fairly easy at approx 7 min pace.

Might skip tomorrow and do 7 on Thursday am.

Ho Hum, waiting game now, patience and healing

Senile Moment!

Bugger me you know you are getting old when you can't trust your memories anymore.

Very strange string of events over past couple of days has me in a real daze. Going back over 20 years to a Middle School Trip to Dinard in northern France. I have (and have had or years) a very singular memory, about a girl I liked oddly enough (unrequited not so oddly enough, but them's the breaks). Anyway she (Louise Whitehouse, see I even remember her name!) was of particular interest to me at an age when I was just becoming aware of girls. She was going out with one of the "A-list" boys, Kevin Pit and as I wasn't exactly A-list material (lower C-list I suspect) I barely even spoke to her. Anyway I don't think Kevin was on the trip and she had actually talked to me on a couple of occasions which probably had got my recently emerging hormones right in a pickle.

So the scene is set.

We went to France by bus and ferry, now I don't remember the bus driver clearly but he was old (bearing in mind I was about 11 or 12, so he could easily have been 20 and counted as geriatric). Louise (the target of my developing affections) was a "well built lass", which probably went some way to explaining both my (and Kevin Pit's) interest in her I fear. Seems it might have attracted the rather pervy attentions of the bus driver as well cos Louise complained very loudly about him groping her! I was shocked, horrified and in some prepubescent way enraged! I can remember trying to stand between her and him whenever possible the next few days.

Well how this all ties together is with a song I vividly remember from this trip and have always linked with these events - Elvis Costello's "Everyday I write the Book". The song opens with the words "You say you don't know what love is, when your old enough to know better, when you find strange hands in your sweater". This line resonated in my young mind and reignited my fury at the bus driver (whose hands in Louise's sweater I had always felt this was s direct reference to). And the chorus with its "I'm giving you a long look" was always strangely melancholy, as I had given Louise many "long looks" but she never looked back! Oddly though the next year (post-Kevin Pit) we did become pretty good friends (though never an "item as I was far too scared to ever ask her out) and in fact I think she was the first girl to ever call me "Darling" - I remember the words hit me like a tazer!

Anyway you get the picture - young (unrequited) love and that summer and the song have been linked ever since - to the point where, whenever I hear the song I can picture the foyer of the hotel in Dinard when Louise spoke up about the Bus Drivers mucky paws.

So here's the rub..... Last weekend (some 20+ years later) I am in Okemos library and I spot Elvis Costello's greatest hits. I check it out along with a Thurston Moore disc. Sure enough the CD has "the song" as well as another favorite "Veronica", which is all about an old lady with dementia and which always drives me to the point of tears (I'm a daft idiot). Listened to the CD tonight for the first time. Check out the sleeve notes and "Everyday I write the book" reached #28 in the UK charts and was off the album "Punch the Clock" released in 1983 - three years after my trip to France!! I left the Middle School for High school in 1981 and never saw Louise again.

So this whole time (for nigh on 20 years) I have had a completely erroneous memory! Wow when you can't trust your own mind what is there left? I spent about two hours checking the web to see if maybe the song was released in the UK before the US. Apparently not. Bugger!

Till next time - if I remember

DB

First MTB ride of the year!!

Think the lack of alcoholic beverages being sunk is negatively impacting the old blogging output. But that's another story. Last 5 weeks before Flying Pig and so focus still is on the road running. Weather has been lousy, cold and freakin' miserable which has made it impossible on some of these early mornings to drag my sorry arse out of bed to run in the dark and cold. Work a bit crazy so lunch running has also been curtailed, not a Rosy picture if 180 is to be attempted. But them's the breaks. Manage a few 5 and 7 milers during the week - dropped the 5 miler time to 34.13 which is a fastest for the year but still 45 secs from where I need to be. Last Sat was the local track club 30 k run (18.6 miles for all the metrically challenged amongst you). Well sounds kinda like fun to me, so 9 am Sat morning and I am in Mason with a group of 20 or so like minded souls. Weather is almost perfect (bout 20 oF too cold, but still as a still thing and sunny). Course is two laps of rolling country lanes. Straight from the gate I run with what looks like it will be the lead pack, feelin' good so not too bothered, after a mile one other runner (Jeremy) and I hit the front and push the pace. Nice uphill from 1 to 2.5 miles and life is good - cold hands but the hill helps generate some body warmth. Before you know it and 4 mile is done - spot on 7 min/mile pace (that'll do). We settle in and enjoy the countryside. At 8 miles there is a short out and back section and as we emerge we see the guys running behind us, we have about 2 min on them at this point. Long gradual hill to just before 9 miles then back into Mason for the end of lap one. Pushed the last 3 miles and go through 15 k at approx 1.03. Second lap and feelin' spritely. THink about pushing it up first hill but Jeremy isn't too into that idea so we settle in and cruise. Again before I know it we pas the 2.5 mile marker, "only about 6.5 to go" I think - hum! Must be tired the math is a bit dodgy but what the heck. Before we know it we are back at the out and back - bit further in front of the guys behind us and it's looking good. The hill does for Jeremy though, I shout encouragement but the poor guy is knackered. At top of hill I look back and we are being chased down hard! Into mason and I feel great actually, finish in 2:10:30, almost spot on 7 min/mile - I'll take that a slightly positive split but the second loop was taken fairly easy. Will need to step it up slightly for the Pig. Sunday and daughter #2 and I catch up with Ski-ing Eric and his eldest daughter for the first MTB of 2011 (maybe). Temp is still hovering about freezing so trails are O.K. We hit Harris and do both upper and lower loops, lower loop is a bit soggy and we have to pick bikes up on occasion but we make it round. Short trip to the pump track, but that is a bit soggy so we don;t ride that more than once round. Short ride, only 3 miles but the girls have fun and that's the point. Coffee, hot chocolate and home. More early morning runs, but Mr Mark is home for this weekend so hopefully I can get a fastish 15 in with him on Saturday. Finally caved a bought some new runners - moved away from NB this time to Asics - looked cool and were in the sale. Wearing them as I type to break the in, will be their inaugural run tomorrow am (a steady 7), did same route this morning in 47;29 (sub 7 so that's O.K. (pictures to come) Till next time DB