A Day Without Bikes?

7:00 am... The alarm goes off. Hit the snooze one time and drift back to sleep thinking, "Did daylight savings time end last night?"

7:09 am... The alarm goes off again. Hit the snooze a second time, stumble out of bed and check the time on the cell phone. It should automatically update the time, right? 7:09. Maybe it hasn't updated yet. Check the computer for the time. It should update automatically also... dang blasted, 7:09. Stayed up too late last night goofing around with Cycling Manager on the computer.

7:10 am... stumble into the boy's bedroom and try to quietly find their dirty cycling clothes. But not too quietly. I asked them to get it all together last night and they didn't... finally give up and turn the light on. I don't care anymore if I wake them up. They should have gotten the clothing together last night.

7:15 am... stumble to the laundry room with two full loads of cycling clothes. Think to myself, "I wonder how many quarters I've poured into these machines over the years."

7:20 am... stumble back to the apartment. Spend a few minutes reading cycling related blogs on the Internet.

7:45 am... finally awake enough to walk, instead of stumble, back to the laundry room to put the loads in the dryer. Realize that I've probably poured enough quarters into the machines to have purchased my own several times over. Have a quick conversation with myself about the opportunity costs (I think I learned about that in Econ 101) associated with owning a washer and dryer. Come to the questionable conclusion that I'm better off pouring quarters into a machine owned by somebody else.

7:50 am... wake the boys up and tell them to get breakfast before jumping in the shower. The boys mumble something that sounds a little bit like, "mmnph hurrump, shlrmp fruungle," but don't even pretend to get out of bed.

7:52 am... briefly consider shaving my legs in the shower but decide that its only been a week and I should save the water. Instead, stand in the shower for ten minutes wasting water.

8:30 am... start loading the car with bikes, shoes, helmets, etc.

8:35 am... Caren shows up and gives me the sickly sweet smile while saying, "My chain needs lubing." Can't resist the sickly sweet smile, so clean and clean and clean and clean and lube her chain.

8:45 am... finish pumping up the tires and loading the car.

9:00 am... meet the Staz, get gas, and drive to Bicycles Plus in Folsom; all the while thinking, "If we were real cyclists we would ride the 35 miles to Folsom."

9:40 am... arrive at Bicycles Plus. Pull on vests, armwarmers, gloves, and shoes while greeting the usual suspects for the 10:00 am Jesse Ride.

10:00 am... wonder how long I'll hang on the sustained 200-300 watt four hour sufferfest as we roll out of the parking lot looking for any road that goes up.

approximately 10:20 am... pull off the vest and armwarmers and cram them into already full pockets. shoulda left them at the car.

approximately 11:00 am... get the heart rate back under control, shove a PowerBar into my mouth and begin to enjoy the descent.

approximately 11:02 am... that corner is coming up fast. break hard, feel the rear end lock up and slide to the right. release the breaks and get the rear rolling again. back on the breaks, rear locks again. release again. realize I've completely missed the entrance to the corner. lay the bike over hard and pray that it turns before hitting the guard rail on the bridge.

approximately 11:02:03 am... surf the guard rail on the bridge. feel it rip into my right shin/calf.

approximately 11:02:04 am... duck my head to the left, turn my shoulder, and feel my back slam into the bridge abutment sign at the end of the guard rail. I think my face grazed it as well, but my mug is so ugly that any new marks are not noticeable. Just a feeling like razor burn.

approximately 11:02:05 am... feel the handle bars jerk right as they hit the sign. tumble and land on my back.

approximately 11:02:15 am... jump up, back on the bike, give it a quick check, and start pedalling. No stopping and no whining on Jesse Rides, but I look down and notice a large red spot about 3"x 5" on my right shin/calf. Shrug off any inquiries as to my well being and continue pedalling as I force a bar end cap back into the right drop on my bars.

1:15 pm... arrive back at the car with AWfoSho and Caren in tow.

1:45 pm... get a cell phone call from El Gigante and Staz. They're dropped and lost somewhere near Cool.

2:30 pm... pick up Staz and El Gigante in Cool.

3:15 pm... drop Staz off at his car in Folsom and head for home.

4:00 pm... wander into Davis Kinko's covered in sweat, salt, and blood to make photo copies for the Junior Race Team meeting. Receive some curious looks.

4:25 pm... stop by Long's to pick up first-aid supplies. Unfortunately, I know just what I'm looking for and in which aisle to find it. At least I didn't have to wander around the store.

4:45 pm... unload the car and jump in the shower. Grimace as the water hits my leg, but manage to hold back the scream. Lather up the fingernail brush, scrub, bite my tongue to hold back the cursing, watch the blood swirl around as it makes its way to the drain, rinse and repeat... several times to make sure the dirt is all out. All the while wishing I'd shaved my legs when I was in the shower at 7:52 am.

5:00 pm... patch my leg up with the first-aid supplies previously purchased at Long's. Unfortunately, I'm getting pretty good at this.

5:15 pm... make a post-ride recovery meal for AWfoSho and El Gigante. At least I'd remembered to move the protein from the freezer to the fridge in the morning so it would thaw.

5:50 pm... walk across the street to Circle K to buy pens so that there are enough writing utensils at the Junior Race Team meeting.

6:00 pm... start setting up for the meeting.

6:30 pm... talk myself horse for about an hour in front of a room full of new and current DBCJRT athletes and their parents. Get to meet some great new kids, learn some new names, and get all jacked up for 2008.

8:30 pm... finish cleaning up after the meeting and stumble back to the apartment.

Thanks to a quirky year round schedule at school I get next week off... good thing, because tomorrow I'll have to start clothing orders, rosters, budgets, confirming sponsors and equipment, etc for 2008.

A day without a bike would be pretty uneventful!!!