Fall Cometh, Time to go to School!

So fall is coming. Time to prime the lights and get ready for a dose of bug protein at the lake now. This mornings race report will be somewhat brief as was my involvement. With The Count back in his tomb by 7 now, the ride started a bit confused. As we overheard the Casket door close it was time to roll out. After a few slow brief moments though Thomas the train worked his way to the front to take his position of leadership and all was suddenly kindof right in this world. Our Celebrity appearances today are as follows. CroZzy was in full force. Big Legged Mirage was back for more. Flyer Shirer showed up on the fixie. Chainknee was out, back on the road bike. ClarkO was also out sporting some very impressive summer fitness. So the fun rolled on. Well we blew the stop sign coming off Mockingbird, and sure enough if someone was coming the opposite direction, time to dip and dive, only to find that someone else had set his bike in the road on a kickstand for us to play some more dodge ball with. I THOUGHT ALL THE HOTTERNHELL HACKS WERE NURSING SADDLE SORES STILL. Anyway Jeep hit it hard up the first hill and started a small bit of fragmentation in the bunch. I moved to the front to take some complimentary pulls and earn my fluids at which point Brandman, Matt of Few Words, Big legged Mirage, and Thomas the Train were on the front rotating. Well coming down the path behind the arboretum my light battery came off of my seatbag. This is not a good thing. As a result I got the battery loose and stuffed it in my jersey pocket. So now I have this battery cable dangling in my rear wheel. I tucked it in my seat bag strap and we hit loving. the group was working pretty hard and fighting together but no one individual was ripping at the legs yet. Well we hit the bottom of the second hill, and darn it if my light cable did not pop loose and wedge itself in the rear brake of my rear wheel. I got to stop. Fixed the light and started rolling backwards to get back together. Well I got back on around the arboretum. Again we hit about 30 mph down the path which was interesting. Heading into Loving a second time, CroZzy was pulling, and setting some wood screws while pulling out the 18 volt dewalt. About this point Judge Roy Dobi hit the gas and started to move up the left. I decided, although I had not done the whole ride it was time to earn my fluids again. Well Judge Roy Dobi and I pinned it and after some BMX turning hit the second hill solo. At this point I thought my efforts were going to make me poop my britches. So I sat on JR Dobi up the second climb. Brian came across and started hitting the front to make our efforts even greater. I took one pull only to realize that Russtic was pulling us back with the group in tow. I burned my matches and I was done. I think CroZzy took the group took the group to the line and it looked like either Pretty Boy Boyd or Russtic took the sprint. Good clean fun had by all.

Honorable mention. Russtic for really taking a personal interest in the real estate known as white rock/well... and Mockingbird. Good to see someone take such interest at the grass roots level of our fair city. A good example to all. Also honorable mention is the dogwood tree for uprooting itself and moving two feet before someone we know hit it.

BikePorn!!!!!

Alright. This rain has me down a bit so here is the deal. A few things have been hitting me as peculiar lately. 1. Our church had a discussion about the dangers of porn and the challenges online stuff has for our youth. I have two boys so it got my attention. Being a Mans Man I have also been faced with the challenge of doing whatever necessary to truly honor my wife who is worthy of honoring so this was something that resonated deeply for me. Anyhow, Flyer Shirer also sent out something listing bikes folks had submitted mainly of the bike messenger variety. Soooo. As a healthy distraction from the basically barely clothed beach volleyball chicks I propose a contest. It is time to rate BikePorn. Submissions should be made to me Rick_Mabus@hotmail.com. I will review bikes based on three different categories.
1st. Most truly sexy bike. Criteria for this is simply based on true sex appeal.
2nd Most original. This could be sexy or downright nasty. This is a more open category
3rd. Biggest Hoopdy. This is something that could be submitted to Pimp my Ride!! If you make me throw up you win.

Winners may or may not get a prize. It depends on if the housing market picks up between now and the end of the contest. I also do not have a determined final date for the contest. I will start by submitting my bikes for a start.

Re-Rack!!

I went to a camp called Kanakuk as a kid in Missouri. The camp was a Christian sports camp, and when I say sports I mean really... really into sports. Our days would consist of waking up for a Mr. Hustle period. Then we would eat breakfast, Cabin Cleanup, and three more periods in different sports disciplines, oh, and you were expected to jog between periods to make sure you were on time to your events. Great camp and a great place to send your kids if you so choose. So you get the drift. Well when it would rain things would come to a halt and we would all go back to our cabins. We would call it re-rack time. Well today I got out at 6 am to ride and noticed the roads were dry but I was getting spit on sitting there. With the forecast this did not bode well for my ride so I crawled back in bed which was not being partially occupied by my wife and 3.5 year old. I have determined they were far better training partners this morning than any of you jokers.

Have a good day and I will see those of you not heading to Hottern Hell Thursday.

When will the Hotternhell whatever be over

So I am probably right in assuming that the heat has more to do with the recent increase in traffic but the HHH100 always does seam to drive out the morons for the month of august. And by using the term morons you are correct in your conclusion that we did in fact pay our reservation fee to the parks and recreation department of dallas and we are the only ones entitled to be on the roads trials or bridges at the lake darn it. Speaking of parks and recreation where in the free world has he been? And Lester TBM? In the sprint today Robert won....yeh.

So on with the musings. Last year I had a close friend (the center of our football team in high school) offer up the challenge that he wanted to do the HHH full 100. I told him that if he trained hard from May to August I would help him get there. Well I got a call about two weeks out that he had been training but had not gone more than 30 miles. Me and another buddy took him on a 50 miler and he almost died doing the south loop. I basically dropped any worries I was heading to Witchita Falls. Monday before however I got a call and he had informed he had signed up. I realized we had not chance in you know where to get a hotel so I started looking on craigs list to see if we could find a camping trailer to put in the RV area. Michael Slaughter was intending on staying in a hotel but decided to ditch that idea and stay with us. Well I was thinking to myself, if I am going to do 100 miles easy might as well do the MTB time trial the night before. Which I did and it was fun about a dollar a minute for riding basically on a recently flooded riverbed. So on to the funnier stuff. We got this 25 foot trailer from a dude in Lewisville. I hooked everything up and off we went. Got to Witchita Falls and pulled into the parking lot of the MPAC center with a 25 foot trailer in tow. Those of you who have been there at 5 pm realize just how stupid this is. Anyhow I got into the parking lot and immediately clipped a ladies car. Only problem is I did not realize it and drove off. Because we could not find adequate parking I parked in a vacant lot. We casually went in to register and came out only to find a cop at our trailer. I thought he was giving me a parking ticket. When he told me what he was doing I begged for a parking ticket. So off to the camp grounds we go. We hooked up our water and electrical and nothing worked. This old bubba came by while I was off doing the mtb time trial thing and he turned everything on. I got back from the TT and realized our water at the sink had been on the whole time and flooded this poor dudes trailer. Woops. So we waited till it got dark and since there was no sewer hook up we drained our water storage tank on the ground!! About then Slaughter and he band of ruffians show up and we started chatting about the fun we had had so far. Early morning tomorrow so lets get some sleep right. Well about that time the air conditioner took over and started working like a champ, which was really the whole idea behind the trailer in the first place. Well Michael got cold jumped off his bunk and turned off our ac. sooooo about 4 am it got so freaking hot we had to stumble around in the dark and turn our ac back on. Needless to mention I will not be towing a trailer to HHH this year. Incidently my buddy and I finished the 100 in 6 hours and 42 minutes!!

Tuesday Feels like Monday

Hola Compadres. Today was sure a good time. Man I am feeling way out of shape though. Here is the skinny. Started the ride with a brisk run down the smooth side all while having the good fortune of Detlef join us one last time before leaving our fair city. Well anyway we got to the bathhouse climb and the hell began to get unleashed. We went blazing by Erica On and On Badu's house and it looked like JeeP, The Count, and Thomas the Train were on the front keeping the good times at hand. Well after a quick trip behind the Arboretum, We hit the hills with everyone looking a little pensive. I was on the front and started to wind it up when The Tabinator came ripping by on the left. I caught his wheel and rolling into Westshore I did some MTB skills clinic work to get around the corner and down the hill we went. The Tabinator and I for whatever reason could not get on the same page as far as speed but we did get about 5 guys in a group that started to form a bit of a gap on the rest of the jokers. Well that got absorbed and back to the smooth side we went only to have The Count attack. The Tabinator went with him and we started to chase again. About this time my week off the bike was starting to really put me deep inside the pain locker with someone else locking the outside. Well we hit the smooth side and I think I took one small pull only to have someone attack as I was swinging off. Darn you somebody. About that time we started to roll behind the arboretum when The Count attacked as I was pulling off the front again. Darn you The Count. Well then we hit the bridge where and somehow Christian was up the road. Not sure how that happened but the thought is that might not have been the most sporting move of the day. I did not see so all I can say is we started a chase. Well on loving I though I was seeing Elvis and Jesus screaming at me on the grass. Got to the top and chased down the hill and was recovering a bit. The Lakewood came and I went. Well the stop sign saved my ride life and I was back on for good. I did notice however that the ride was quite small by now. No Chaineeeee, No JeeP, and a few others had dwindled to no so much. Well Mr. Brown Town with his excessively shiny cranks pulled off the coup and attacked going into the last corner. Flyer Shirer jumped on Greg the Bike Breakers wheel and according to Shirer Flyer he might have won if you are Liberal with the line placement. I don't know and really don't care because at that point I was simply trying to get my helmet and gloves off as I was just plain darn uncomfortable. I am not taking another week off like that for a while!!

Honorable mention today goes yet again to the Count and Thomas the Train for selflessly always working at the front on the rides even when the rest of us feel terrible. Also the mirage members sporting ink. Way to make all the old guys look cool!!

Sometimes life gives you lemonade tooo.

So todays ride. I turned off early (more on that in a sec). I really don't care who won and I really don't know what happened in the sprint. As with the new Thursday attitude though we are going to take a diversion. My very close friend Jason Vivion got an email from someone at Mavic that a certain gentleman was in town and was looking for groups to ride with. Jason connected me together with this whole ride group effort and off we went. Well Tuesday I had basically decided I was a little cooked and ready for some down time. Well I saw the name Detlef Schrempf on the email and decided it was time to dust off the shoes and get on the bike. I met "Det" at the AAC yesterday morning at 6 and we put in a couple of laps at the lake. While riding a rental bike the rear tire decided it did not like the air it had in it so we stopped to fix a flat. At this point Russ-tic pulled up and said hello. We visited for a minute and I introduced Russ to the group. Now I was a little concerned, as Det is a public figure and might want to stay low profile. He introduces himself as Det. Russ says "Great, Whats that short for, Detmer?....... Eventually Det says, "no Detlef" To which Russ responds with a Ohhhh like Detlef Schrempf. At this point, I chimed in and said quietly, "Russ, that is Detlef Schrempf". It was pretty funny, and Russ as usual was a class act and did a great job hosting with us as we had a guest in town.

Well here is the point. Today many of you might have noticed the rather tall rider with us that made the Count look like a midget, and made all 5'8" of me look like a fire ant. Well that was Detlef. I have had an amazing pleasure to get to know him over the last couple of rides and have been overly impressed with him. Detlef had a great career in the NBA and was very respected player who EARNED, not won, countless honors in the league. He also had quite a long career as well. That is not what has been so impressive about getting to know Det. He is in Dallas from Seattle for a youth basketball camp put on by Adidas. Not many people travel to Dallas in August from Seattle for a vacation. I also did a short bit of research and it is impressive how much charitable work Detlef is involved in at the present time. I wanted to simply mentioned all of this not to put him on a platform and start our idol worship because I am pretty sure his Velcro works the same on his cycling shoes as mine does. What I am saying is that "To whom much is given much is expected" Detlef has been given a lot and is giving back a lot as is apparent by his reason to be here, and also his charitable work. Go to www.Detlef.com Go look at the organizations they support and also the partner organizations and make sure to support those causes. Have a great day and as usual keep it rubber side down.

Pillow Time

Alright. I did not quite have it today so when the alarm sounded I hit off and off to sleep I went. I would love to give away the rights to anyone interested to let us know how today went. That being said here is what I do have of last weeks ride.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PWBAEozRL8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AwzE-zwy2I

Enjoy!