Hello again everyone. I'm back with another gripping update about my latest challenge. My biweekly (or is it semi-monthly) update on my training and fundraising. I'm back for another season of fighting cancer while riding hundreds...er...thousands of miles on my bike. I'm raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society in honor of my late mother-in-law, my friend Stacy, who both battled Leukemia. If you'd like to support my cause, visit my fundraising site at http://www.active.com/donate/tntgsf/steveasche
Ever so slowly forward
If you've been following this year's update you'll know that I pledged to ride 100 miles for every 100 dollars raised. I've ridden 100 miles each of the last two weekends. That's the good news. You've donated over $1600. That's great news. I've picked up my training pace so I should be able to match the fundraising. Sure I'm 980 miles in debt, but my average continues to increase. Now, of course, you could really put me in my place and make a donation just to make me work harder.
Yelling at cyclists
I've noticed an interesting phenomena this season. For some reason people in cars like to yell at people on bikes. I'm not going to go on another rant about inconsiderate drivers and their vulgar epithets. I could fill pages about the various rude remarks hurled in my direction. I was riding on Saturday and some knucklehead in a pick-up truck yelled an unintelligible remark at us. I asked a teammate what the guy said, he said the guy yelled "I'm a fool". Now I don't think that's exactly what he yelled, but it made me think that whenever someone yells something derogatory at us, we can just think they're advertising how ignorant they are. That yelling happens everytime I go riding. It's the non-derogatory comments that are more interesting. If I'm wearing a jersey with the logo of my favorite team, I always get several supportive shouts. The puzzling ones are those that ask questions from their moving cars. Picture yourself in this situation - a car comes up on you, your focus is on not being hit, as the car passes you hear something, it takes you a second to process what you heard and actually interpret it, then by the time you realize it's a question you're only response is an unintelligible grunt. I personally fret over the fact that they think I must be an idiot. From their perspective they asked a question and all this cyclist could do was manage a grunt. Real smooth.
Usually they're asking if they're on the right road, which way is such and such. If you feel compelled to yell at a cyclist, because obviously so many do, you should yell something that will really make them think. I think it would be amusing if you yelled, "Hey, what's the capital of Montana?"
On Bike Seats
I mentioned last time how you had to have no shame when it comes to wearing bike shorts. To elaborate on the whole bike short phenomenon, there is a good reason to wear bike shorts. Bike shorts are made to protect you from your bike seat. They put padding in the shorts because there isn't any padding on the seat. When most people look at a road bike they think that seat looks uncomfortable. You know what? They're right. Most bike seats are uncomfortable and they get even more uncomfortable after a long day. I believe there's collusion between the bicycle seat makers and the short makers so they don't make one aspect of bike too comfortable. There's even a product called chamois butter that is designed to protect you from your shorts which protect you from your bike seat.
So this product is a cream, with the consistency of soft butter no less, that you rub on the padding of your bike shorts. That would be the inside of your bike shorts. There's one manufacturer that calls its product Chamois Butt'r. I guess that's their way of making sure the chamois butter goes where it's intended to go, i.e. your butt. Do they really think people will put this on toast? Anyway, if you really want to give yourself a treat, and I mean that in the most sarcastic way, you should take some cold sour cream (cold butter won't work since it hardens) rub it in your underwear, then put them on. Do that, and you'll pretty much replicate the experience a cyclist goes through when they put their bike shorts on. At the risk of stating the obvious, you will not like it. Makes you want go out and ride.
That's all for this update. Check out the blog. http://notabouttheback.blogspot.com/ Next time I'll have some pictures up there so you can see some of the strange discoveries we find on our rides. And no, I'm not going to post pictures of flattened roadkill. Even I have some sense of good taste.
Ever so slowly forward
If you've been following this year's update you'll know that I pledged to ride 100 miles for every 100 dollars raised. I've ridden 100 miles each of the last two weekends. That's the good news. You've donated over $1600. That's great news. I've picked up my training pace so I should be able to match the fundraising. Sure I'm 980 miles in debt, but my average continues to increase. Now, of course, you could really put me in my place and make a donation just to make me work harder.
Yelling at cyclists
I've noticed an interesting phenomena this season. For some reason people in cars like to yell at people on bikes. I'm not going to go on another rant about inconsiderate drivers and their vulgar epithets. I could fill pages about the various rude remarks hurled in my direction. I was riding on Saturday and some knucklehead in a pick-up truck yelled an unintelligible remark at us. I asked a teammate what the guy said, he said the guy yelled "I'm a fool". Now I don't think that's exactly what he yelled, but it made me think that whenever someone yells something derogatory at us, we can just think they're advertising how ignorant they are. That yelling happens everytime I go riding. It's the non-derogatory comments that are more interesting. If I'm wearing a jersey with the logo of my favorite team, I always get several supportive shouts. The puzzling ones are those that ask questions from their moving cars. Picture yourself in this situation - a car comes up on you, your focus is on not being hit, as the car passes you hear something, it takes you a second to process what you heard and actually interpret it, then by the time you realize it's a question you're only response is an unintelligible grunt. I personally fret over the fact that they think I must be an idiot. From their perspective they asked a question and all this cyclist could do was manage a grunt. Real smooth.
Usually they're asking if they're on the right road, which way is such and such. If you feel compelled to yell at a cyclist, because obviously so many do, you should yell something that will really make them think. I think it would be amusing if you yelled, "Hey, what's the capital of Montana?"
On Bike Seats
I mentioned last time how you had to have no shame when it comes to wearing bike shorts. To elaborate on the whole bike short phenomenon, there is a good reason to wear bike shorts. Bike shorts are made to protect you from your bike seat. They put padding in the shorts because there isn't any padding on the seat. When most people look at a road bike they think that seat looks uncomfortable. You know what? They're right. Most bike seats are uncomfortable and they get even more uncomfortable after a long day. I believe there's collusion between the bicycle seat makers and the short makers so they don't make one aspect of bike too comfortable. There's even a product called chamois butter that is designed to protect you from your shorts which protect you from your bike seat.
So this product is a cream, with the consistency of soft butter no less, that you rub on the padding of your bike shorts. That would be the inside of your bike shorts. There's one manufacturer that calls its product Chamois Butt'r. I guess that's their way of making sure the chamois butter goes where it's intended to go, i.e. your butt. Do they really think people will put this on toast? Anyway, if you really want to give yourself a treat, and I mean that in the most sarcastic way, you should take some cold sour cream (cold butter won't work since it hardens) rub it in your underwear, then put them on. Do that, and you'll pretty much replicate the experience a cyclist goes through when they put their bike shorts on. At the risk of stating the obvious, you will not like it. Makes you want go out and ride.
That's all for this update. Check out the blog. http://notabouttheback.blogspot.com/ Next time I'll have some pictures up there so you can see some of the strange discoveries we find on our rides. And no, I'm not going to post pictures of flattened roadkill. Even I have some sense of good taste.
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