I doubt your eyes would be above it (think about it!)
sorry for lack of updates. Been busy busy busy around here. Still in love with mountain biking. I added a computer and a fin (rear fender) to the MTB rig. So its ready for serious tracking action. I just went with the cheapest wireless since A. I don't really give a flying fuck about my heart rate for these sorts of excursions and B. Odds are I'm going to break the transmitter within a couple months.
This hasn't loomed too far from my mind since well, shit, it is what it is and all...but Megan disappeared off the face of the earth culminating in us breaking up (I guess that's what it means @ least). So that's the end of that. I'm not like all busted up over it...truth is I have so many other things to think about, goals to accomplish and so forth the status/quality of my dating scenario isn't going to affect my daily life. I don't have any bad feelings towards her, but at the same time, I'm not looking to attempt to "patch things up" or whatever the fuck it is self pitying bastards do in these situations.
We've invited clients from all over the country to the Chicago environs this week to talk about the vision of the company. Near as I can tell this has gone well. I didn't really get involved with it much other than the open house on Monday night. This coincides with a girl from San Francisco that I referred to Resolution (and used to work with) coming to Chicago for training for the week (she just got hired). So we've hung out a bit, but tomorrow I'm going to play tourguide and show her that there's more to Chicago than Michigan Avenue (and if you're from a city of any kind of girth, the magnificent mile becomes pretty old pretty fucking fast). Prolly skate north to Wrigley and perhaps score some sushi.
This could take some planning (and me convincing Roly to come along), but I'm gathering data for 'the big ride' of next year. There's no doubt we'll be doing more centuries and so forth, but one of the goals after doing Death Valley is to reach out and do other rides in remote areas. The first one that came on the radar was actually to go back to Death Valley and beyond, get a relay together and do all 508 miles and 35,000 feet of elevation that is Furnace Creek. It'd be a HUGE undertaking considering we would need to ship 4 bikes out into the middle of the desert, procure a vehicle worthy of being a support vehicle and mounting all supplies for 4 riders so survive this trek (you see, grocery stores and sports shops aren't all that abundant when you're in the most uninhabitable region of the country). Suffice to say itd' be a fuck of a lot easier if we actually lived out there, but we don't so it is what it is. This is all even contingent on being selected to do the ride. You have to submit an application and they only pick a certain set of people to do it. We've got some major plusses in our camp (Roly being from Ireland is a being one since they like the whole "people from far away coming in to do the ride" thing). But ultimately, none of us can be described as ultramarathoners yet so there's that to consider.
But I'm really starting to take a longer look at The Fireweed 400. This is the exact opposite climate wise. This would be just outside of Anchourage Alaska and rather than do the 400 miler, I'd be down for the 100 race (no aerobars and no drafting). I could scare up a cycling partner or two without too much hassle and the elevation isn't quite as intimidating (about 10,000 feet). Not to mention actually -getting- to Alaska isn't as expensive as I originally anticipated. It can be done round trip with bike for right around a grand. Then once we're there, it looks pretty realistic to rent an RV and be based out of it while we do the actual ride.
This weekend I'm forsaking the Drive By Truckers show and making a jaunt to Iowa for the Tallywackers Halloween ride, which is basically a pub crawl/ride through Cedar Rapids. For all intents and purposes it's an excuse to meet up with a bunch of teams we ride with on Ragbrai and remember happier times (aka when we are on the ride). I have to conjur a costume between now and then which basically means whatever I have, I'll be. That leaves me with a pirate, some kind of rocker dude and/or well, the guy who doesn't have a costume. Rumor has it there's a lot of people going as Smokey and the Bandit people. Ya got me...