Sunday, July 27, 2008

Sooper Sunday



Early-morning dirt today. I arrived at the trailhead and someone at a nearby campsite was cooking bacon. Oh my... the tummy started growling. I had a small package of Cheeze-Its that I quickly downed. From there I hit the dirt. Had a good ride. Ran into a few folks from H-town. Surprisingly it wasn't too hot. It pays to get an early start!



I felt a bit askew! This was the result from a trip over-the-bars! The gal behind me said it was the most graceful dismount ever! Actually, I think the words "mentally disabled gymnist" were used! HA! Kinda hard to explain but I went over and pretty much ended up doing a cartwheel/handstand on the trail! I wasn't going very fast, so no serious harm done. Ma ka-nee is spranged a bit, though...

The ka-nee started getting stiff while packing up the truck. The only thing I had for an icepack was a bag that a jersery came in. Just for the record CapoForma jersey bags make great ice packs!

Friday, July 25, 2008

Dodging Dolly's Downpours

Hurricane Dolly made landfall far from the Houston area. Yet, we got a strong gulf moisture in-flow. That's meant sporadic, but, heavy rainfall. The clouds gathered Wednesday afternoon. Rain drizzled as I lead-out from the house but never got heavier. Got in my prescribed 4-hour base ride -dry- and returned home. I returned long enough to have a recovery drink, and get out of the bike kit and the skies opened up! HA! Just made it!


Yesterday, luck ran out. It was pouring. It's odd. If I'm out riding and it rains, I make peace with it and savor it. But taking off in the rain is infinately more difficult. I stayed in and took care of some domestic tasks.


Today, I'm going to do something I rarely do - combine workouts. Yesterday the menu held a 1.5-hr Tempo ride. Today's menu was 4x6:00 R6 Z4-5a intervals. Feeling that I need to do both... I'm going to do both. I'll shorten the intervals to three or four minutes then follow with the tempo ride. Rest and recovery is slated for Saturday.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Dirt Tan!

Hit Memorial Park before the rain started this afternoon. Unfortunately, the rain started so I high-tailed it off the trail and back to the concrete. Undaunted, I rode the paved paths to downtown. Two more hours of riding in sporadic rains, then it was back to the house. I got a nice dirt tan today...


I started a fire in the backyard, and let it get ready while I showered off the dirt tan. No more rains...



Then I topped some pounded chicken breasts with blue cheese...



Wrapped them in bacon... mmmm... bacon...



Then I grilled 'em with some zucchini sprinkled with thyme and served up with some greens.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Return to BASEics


doG dammit base miles are boring! My season-long training plan calls for a healthy stretch of base miles mid-year. Partly caused by the split mountain bike season we have here in Tejas. Sometimes I think that base miles were invented by coaches to make you so bored that you want to go out and to mega hard intervals.

I'm not there yet, but I probably will be by the end of this week.

My motto for the ride after a tough day...


Here's my tip today... don't ride on garbage day. Man, I wonder sometimes what people put in their garbage can. They can definately infect the breeze. And while drafting METRO busses can be fun, getting stuck behind a garbage truck's draft, well... not so good...



Three hours of base and it was time for reward!



Pita bread pizza with green salad splashed with balsamic vinegar and almonds.
OH YEEEAAAAH!

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Modernization

I'm now the proud owner of a modern desktop computer. My old one died. When I say old, I mean OLD. It was still running Windows98. I suppose in computer years that's like 100 years old or something. Anyway the hard drive died a slow progressive death. I was able to get a good deal of data off before it quit completely, but not all of it. I lost my digital photo directories. Glad I have the blog, because that's the only pictures I have of the last year now...

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Done!

The MR2 is done. Well, as done as it's going to ever be. Here are some before/after pics...


More photos [HERE]

Has been a fantastic journey. Along the way I learned a lot about chemistry, paint, sanding, and (mostly) patience. Painting teaches you patience for sure. Like any artisan I know where every defect is! I'm really happy with the end result. It was a ton of work. I will never, ever, complain about the cost of bodywork!

Would I do it again? Absolutely. There is something uniquely satisfying about painting... exposing the beauty within... that's a great journey for both life and cars!

Final Touches

This week's been filled with with lots of...

1. Removing overspray from the previous paint job from various body parts...



2. Removing lots of compound spatters. Not as easy as it looks. The residue disappears when wet, but reappears after it dries. I regret not cleaning as I went...



3. And I broke a window. Because it was not installed correctly I couldn't get the trim piece in place. It was glued in with urethane. There was no way to remove the window without destroying it anyway. So, I took a chance and decided to try to lightly grind a notch to cattywampus the trim piece in. The window went *POOF* and intantly shattered. This was the result...



I popped and crackled for almost an hour. Made a neat pattern though!



I sourced another window from American Auto Glass on Yale. The owner Robert was very helpful in this endeavor! Changing out the glass was pretty simple, except for vacuuming out all of the bits of glass. It was kinda fun smashing the window out. Don't get to do that everyday! I cut out all of the urethane sealer and replaced it with the proper -flexible- type.



Window refitted... correctly this time...



Next time, before-and-after pictures...