What day is it?

Reebok PUMPS!!

Something about this week has just been crazy.  It's one of those weeks where the days are flying by, but the week seems to be dragging to the point where I have no idea what day it is today.  Maybe it's my age catching up to me??  Yesterday my wife asked how it felt to now be 35 - no different (except now I've entered my Reggie Lewis year).  Today I can't seem to keep things straight.

You know how I talked about pulling out a calendar and sitting down so I can visualize everything I want to do, everything I've committed to doing, and generally just making sure things don't conflict?  Well, I still haven't done that, and things continue to creep up and bite me in the ass.  Events are popping up in the immediate future that haven't been on my radar and thus are causing mass confusion and conflict in my head.

Even as I sit here I'm looking at my work calendar and I'm just feeling sluggish just figuring out when I'm going to catch up on all my paperwork between my scheduled meetings and duties today.  ANYWAY.  The one thing that I HAVE to do today is register for the Tarheel Trailblazer biking/camping weekend next weekend... cause today is the last day of registration and I put off registering because I'm so good at planning.  Once registered then I get to move forward on getting a camping hammock - which will be a first step in making my Appalachian trail journey a reality.  It's a whirlwind I tell you.

Speaking of whirlwinds, I've had a successful (2 day) start to my pledge to ride everyday in April.  Tuesday I hit North Meck for our Tuesday Social.  I got out early and it felt great to be on the trails after being sidelined with illness last week.  As I packed up my bike and was heading to work I realized that I didn't have my multitool and pump.  I was running late and figured everything would be fine so I left without it.... as a cyclist, we always know that on all those rides when you have a tube, pump, CO2, tools, and all the other extra crap we carry - we don't need it.... On my first lap things felt/sounded a little strange.  As I launched off a jump and landed a thought popped in my head - the rear wheel is loose.  The "right" thing to do would be to stop.  But without tools there was nothing I could do to sufficiently tighten my rear axle, so I continued my ride and tried to be a smooth (and grounded) as possible.  I was able to avoid catastrophic failure and finish out my lap.  Then I waited around for TheMutt to show up so I could tighten everything up and join the group safely.

I was definitely feeling like I was still in recovery mode after my first lap so I was glad this would be a social ride.  In the lot we even talked about no matter how small the group we always kept it social.  And then TomTom led off on his new singlespeed and there wasn't much social about our pace.  Of course I wasn't going to let him get away!  It was quicker then social, but we did make two stops so it wasn't an all out race.  But it was fun for sure!  Afterwards, I repaid TomTom in Mexican food for giving up his spot at the Tour de Charlotte since he was "forced" to go down and ride some amazing trails in Anniston, AL.

Yesterday I decided that since the weather was so nice I would grill out on my Birthday rather than go to some fancy restaurant.  But before any grilling could happen I definitely needed to get out for a ride.  I was a little later leaving work, so I knew it would be a neighborhood spin.  For a moment I thought about just making it a ride to the Common Market to pick up some beers, but it was too nice for just a beer run, so I wound my way around the neighborhood for about an hour.

Who knows what I'll do tonight - perhaps ride over to the monthly Trailblazer meeting?