Ok, I lied. Last Post of 2021

"How many miles do you ride a year?" is a common question that bike riders get from curious outsiders. Truth be told, I don't get in many miles.  Partly because I don't actually ride many miles, and partly because a lot of my miles are logged off-road.  This year was a bit lower mileage than previous years because, well, work.  Gotta make the donuts.  The mileage winner this year, like a lot of years for me, was my mountain bike.  Between the mountain bikes in my garage, I logged 1089 miles.  Total and complete props to Flannery Allison for the amazing photo from Cape Girardeau!!

Second on the list is road riding.  I like road riding, but I like it more for a good, hard workout than just logging miles.  Ain't nobody got time for that.  Most of my road miles came from my carbon gravel bike, which I rode while waiting for a real race bike, like the TCR that finally arrived late in the year.  Total road miles: 994.

A surprising number of road miles were logged on the Carbon Shitbike.  Not a very flattering name for a bike that took me so many places and logged so many training miles.  And it doubles as a cyclocross bike, too.  Got to get that white seat back.

The surprise players this year?  My BMX bikes.  Riding a BMX bike takes a helmet, some shorts, and some sticky tennis shoes.  So easy to get out of the garage and riding, a total of 5 minutes preparation...which is all I had to get ready many days with the shop doing gangbusters.  Between the Redline, the Schwinn, and the GT, I logged 572 miles. So fun, so childish!!

All said and done, just about 2700 miles total.  That includes race days, too.  Not a ton of miles, but a ton of adventures.

 

Last Post of 2021

I'd be remiss if I didn't end the year with the way we started it: as new owners of South Side Cyclery. Man, it's been a great year.  More work than we ever thought, and more successful than we ever thought possible.  That was due in no small part to our family, friends, and hard working staff at the shop.  The Beautiful Mrs. K and I are humbled!

The youngest kid in our family unit continues to surprise us with his drive to be better at cycling.  It's been a blast to see his improvements and his enthusiasm.  He's going to be better than I am by the middle of 2022.  I can feel it coming! And believe me, I welcome it.

My other bundles of joy, including the big Hound Dog puppy.  Hanna is going to graduate college in May!!!  How did that happen??  And Tyson only has another year and a half left!  My kids are almost all grown up.  At least we still have Eli and Remi.

You know when you get someone a reasonable gift that they asked for, but they turn around and buy you something extravagant?  Yeah.  That happened.  Mrs. K bought me a new desktop computer and I bought her a frying pan.  No, seriously.  Great desktop pic, huh?

I feel like I should give a shout out to our favorite baker, Flannery.  She had us over for dinner a few nights ago and I thought I had died and been greeted at the pearly gates with this spread.  And you thought she just took amazing photographs.  She's a curler as well.  True story.
 

Some things are just not worth Worrying About

I was upset last week after visiting an orthopedist about problems I've been having with my hips. I've had pain on and off over the last 30 years.  More on than off over the last 3 or 4 years.  She didn't beat around the bush and said that I had arthritis in both hips (and in the same breath mentioned replacement, what the bloody hell??) and in my lower back...and what the hell is up with the alignment of my pelvis and spine juncture?  She gave me a cortisone shot for a bad case of bursitis in my right butt cheek and sent me merrily on my way, probably pretty confident she'd see me again soon.  I moped around for a few days, wondering what it'd be like to ride a trike with a basket on the back and big motorcycle mirrors on the handlebars while cussing at youngsters riding by too close on their fancy racing bikes as I completely block the bike path.  I snapped out of it pretty quick.  I hear new hips are great, and I have a fantastic chiropractor (Linda Pecaut, Chirowholeness) who loves a challenge.

Besides that, I got this in a text soon after that.  It's my dynamic daughter.  I wish that I had a good nickname for her, but I've never really come up with one that fits.  She's Hanna, the girl who pretty much surprises me every day, and makes me laugh at the same time.  It gives my heart such great joy to see her enjoy riding bikes, but seeing her name come up on Strava with a good run, hike, or a funny pic is the best. 

Sometimes The Beautiful Mrs. K calls Eli "mini Me".  I will admit that there are some similarities between he and I.  But he is not another me.  He's a lot of really cool things wrapped into a cool teenage boy's persona.  Lately, he's become a lot more serious about riding fast.  So we've started some actual training and it's exciting!  Can't wait to see what more he gets into.

This is the part where I'd put something interesting about Tyson, but he's allergic to photos and he's deep into school right now.  So, I give you Remi, the frisbee chewing Hound Dog.  If I could have thought to grab video of this while I was laughing, I would have.  You'll just have to take this photo and my word for it. It was hilarious. 

 

Sylvan Springs Cyclocross Race - Not me, but Eli!

 

On Friday afternoon, Eli texted me and asked if there was a cyclocross race on Sunday.  I said yes, the State Cyclocross championship race is at Sylvan Springs.  He said he'd like to do it.  So I set about making the green Shitbike into a cross bike for the event.  No big deal, change the tires, and we're off.  I was pretty surprised that he was excited to do it, but I guess I shouldn't be.  He's been pretty jazzed to race bikes whenever the chance comes up.  A solid field of Juniors showed up to race, and Eli jumped out front as usual.  

Just like me, he got passed a few times but his lap times were really consistent and he was going pretty fast.  

He took everything on the course pretty much perfectly.  His mountain biking has really honed his skills and nothing really bothers him.  I made this shot of him going over the barriers, white socks and all.  Overall, his strength is top-notch but building pedal power in the straights is going to be a priority over the winter.

He ended up third.  He wasn't particularly happy because he's gotten a lot of thirds at local races.  Regardless, he's made such strides this year.  If he keeps at it, he'll climb up some podium spots next year.