Mud Ride!

Went for a short ride this morning. No pics from the ride because the camera battery was t-u. It's been raining here daily for almost a week now. The plan was to hit the trail that runs along White Oak Bayou. It's paved, so seemed like a good plan. Unfortunately, there are several places along the trail that are covered in mud. The mud is on top of asphault, so it's not damaging to the trail to ride through it.

I haven't had the Maxxis CrossMarks in the mud yet. I knew it wasn't much of a mud tire. But it's worse. It's useless in the mud. It probably didn't help that I had the air up to about 50 psi for the pavement. Regardless it's prety simple to see why this tire rolls so fast. The tires run mostly on the very center lug. Here's a pic:

Friends don't use this tire in clayey mud. The center lugs cleared instantly, but the outside never did. I ran through every puddle I could find. In almost 3 miles back home the gumbo never left the tires. Oh, here's a close up:

Since I haven't written a review of the CrossMark before, I should back up to say it is an excellent tire in dry, hard-packed conditions. It's light, and a fast, smooth roller. Much faster than the Specialized Adreneline's my Stumpy came with.

I bought the CrossMarks because I wanted a tire with more predictable cornering than the Adreneline's. I can say the CrossMarks are far, far better - confidence inspiring even.

Like I said, it was muddy. More of the aftermath:

Nothing like dragging your chain through mud all the way back home! Full bike cleaning was in order, and of course, it started raining while in the middle. So, I hosed it down, and hauled it inside an finished in the kitchen. The floor needed mopping anyway!

Whole Wheat Banana Pecan Pancake Breakfast

I hate buying bananas. They are always too green in the store, and they ripen too fast after I get them home. Luckily I found a great recipe that lets me use my over ripe bananas. These pancakes are great, easy to make, and contain no sugar. Today I combined them with a couple of eggs and some bacon. Yummy.

Sport-Wash Works for Cycling Clothes

I stumbled on Sport-Wash while at the grocery store. It proports to do all sorts of miracle things to high-performance clothing (like cycle wear). My first thought was "yeah right". I've been using plain ol' dish soap, and it seemingly did an okay job. It isn't cheap either - about $8/bottle. But against my skepticism, I decided to try it.


I followed the bottle's directions. They were similar to how I normally washed by garmets. But, the water was about twice as dark as usual with dirt!! Chck it out ya'll. Kinda gross how much grot was hanging around in my clothes. My guess is, this stuff releases the dirt better than regular detergents.

Whatever it does, it got my clothes much cleaner than regular detergent. I had noticed that my jerseys would funkify after wearing them just a short while. That's not happening anymore! Worth the cost!

Souvlaki Lamb With Yougart Dip

Tonight's meal. Souvlaki Lamb with Yougart Dip. Served along with greens, drizzled with a garlic, ginger, rice wine vinegar dressing.

The lamb and yougart were prepared according (mostly) to a receipe found on the Whole Foods website. The yougart dip calls for too much almond extract. I'm just going to eliminate all together next time I brew up this little number.

I really like the taste of lamb, and I'm just starting to experiment with it. It's flavor is so satisfying that I find I don't stuff myself to feel satiated as I do with beef. This was about a 4oz. portion, and total meal was less than 500 calories!