Well, I’m riding the Parkway bike trail with some regularity. There are about 3 decent hills on the way out to Hoadly road and 1 on the way back. The bugs are out in force – I ate 2 grasshoppers the hard way today! The first one wasn’t too bad but the second one was pretty bitter. Crunchy too.
What I’ve been doing lately is to do the Parkway ride first and then hang a left on Hastings and work my way back around back to the airport and then down 28. I haven’t measured it but I’d guess it’s around 30 miles. It’s a great ride with only 2 dangerous spots: crossing Liberia and crossing the 234 bypass over by the airport. Neither needs to be fatal but you can’t take anything for granted.
So, today I went into work early so I could bag out early to do the Parkway ride – it’s a nice day! I took the ride at a decent pace and was cranking on the way back when I came to the bridge. I normally slow down a bit there as the walkway on the bridge accumulates a lot of grit and broken glass (what is it about beer bottles and the bridge?) and I had hit something crunchy on the way out. So, I took it out of the big ring and eased on the brakes.
I was about halfway through and I was congratulating myself on my restraint and thoughtful speed adjustment when…I looked up from the road in front of me and spied what looked to be a bright yellow jersey about halfway up the hill in front of me. Without even thinking, I popped in another gear on the back ring and started picking up speed. I got off the bridge and could see it was another guy on the hill in front of me.
Without even thinking, I popped in another gear and set sail to catch that guy in front of me. This proves just one thing and I’ve said it before: if you put 2 guys on bikes you don’t have a bike ride; you have a race. I put the big ring in on the front and stood up to get the pace set right. As I kept the pace up, I saw the guy in front of me turn his head and take note. He picked up the pace and crested a hill, disappearing from view.
I crested the same hill and made a turn and he was stopped at an intersection about 50 feet away. I was surprised but I slowed and called out to see if he was ok. He turned, smiled and said that he had pulled over to make an adjustment. I stifled a smile, said, “ok” and cranked on around him. Now, he might have had some minor adjustment to make but we all know why he pulled over:
He knew I was going to catch him…:)
May 25, 2010 at 8:05 pm
Protein shakes versus grasshoppers. To each his own! 🙂
from my BlackBerry Storm…
May 25, 2010 at 9:34 pm
Sorry A, from now on I may be sorely tempted to call you “Grasshopper” (or maybe “Crunchy”). But I do pledge to at least make a good faith attempt to refrain from doing this. On the other hand…
Good sport.
May 25, 2010 at 9:37 pm
Lol….when u r going 30mph and a bug hits u in the chops, dinner is served!
May 25, 2010 at 10:10 pm
So, does gewurztraminer or sauvignon blanc go better with fresh grasshopper? I wouldn’t know but you are presumably far better positioned to opine on this. Yuk yuk yuk! (Sorry, just can’t help it.)
Also, perhaps we now know why that other fellow slowed down: He knew better than to exercise on a full stomach! (Ok, well maybe that’s just disgusting.)
May 26, 2010 at 3:48 pm
Andy,
It’s not the bugs that get me. It’s the cloud of road-kill-funk-fog that is thick on the parkway, from the multiple dead deer. It’s because whether running or biking, I breath almost exclusively through the nose. Keeps me from swallowing bugs, but the funk hits twice as hard,
May 26, 2010 at 7:41 pm
R:
For the first bug I would have picked something like a california cab. It was crunch but bland. A bit of a fruit bomb to offset the blandness. Maybe a Wellington Cabernet. The second one was very bitter so I would have gone with something sweeter. Maybe a young sauterne. Sweet enough to offset the bitter but enough body to carry the balance of the bug guts…:)
Steve:
The road kill funk is bad. I was riding today and got a mouth/lung full of funk before I realized it. It’s terrible…
May 28, 2010 at 7:28 am
As someone who fishes for catfish, I guess I’ve developed a tolerance for strong smelling stuff. Using “stink bait” or cut bait that’s been sitting around for a while just means a better chance of fish.
May 28, 2010 at 7:35 am
Dude, you aren’t kidding. When I was a kid we used to go crabbing. We would go buy chicken wings and let them sit outside for a day or three. Lordy did that stink something aweful!
Took a bit to wash that stink off your hands and wherever else it touched!
May 28, 2010 at 11:13 pm
Oh ya, now you are talking. It may sound strange to some, but the more a bait stinks, the better it is.