the tao of cycling: sunglasses

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

oui!

I found my perfect new sunglasses and I'm sooooo excited!!
I am gorgeous, thinner, taller, a better cyclist, and can do handstands in them!

well, not really.
but they're cool, and I'm so very excited to have some new glasses.
woo hoo!

sometimes the smallest things can bring the largest grins to our faces,
n'est-ce pas?

Sunday, April 1, 2012

I need some new sunglasses

today I think I'll go to REI.
I lost my good riding glasses in nepal last december and I need new ones. I'm thinking about the conversation I'll have with the salesperson; it might go something like this:

"excuse me, I'm looking for some sunglasses, could you help me?
I ride a bike; I ride a lot.
I really like the photochromic lenses, the ones that change as the daylight changes, because sometimes I start riding early in the morning when it's still kind of dark, then keep going all day.
it's really nice to have the lenses adjust.
I've had the kind that come with exchangeable lenses, but I'm not going to carry extra lenses with me while I ride--changing them out while I'm on the road--so I'd really prefer the photochromic ones, if you have any.
other than that, I really don't care too much what they look like.
oh, and I almost forgot, what's most important, they need to make me look really good.
beautiful, really.
and thinner.
oh, and taller.
do you think you can help me?
oh, they're right over there?
and they'll do all those things for me?
perfect,
I'll take two.
make that three.
or, actually, I'll take them all, no need for anyone else to have sunglasses like these."

the Male Ego

The other day I was coming down a canyon in my drop bars (two years ago I would have said, 'what's a drop bar?'), working hard, when I came up on two guys who were also heading downhill but at a more leisurely pace. I passed them, said hello as I did so, and pulled back into the bike lane. a few minutes later they went flying past me, faces looking dead ahead, not a single bit of acknowledgment that I even existed on this planet let alone was involved in and enjoying the same sport they were.
I have to attribute this to the male ego. what else can it be? now I know we all have egos, myself included. and mine even shows its ridiculous little head once in a while, or perhaps more often. but the difference between mine and say, those of certain men on bicycles, is that I KNOW mine exists and I can LAUGH at mine. I know my ego was quite excited to pass those guys, and I could also smile because I knew if the men had really been working like I was, they would have kicked my butt down the hill.
I think I pissed them off.
and I'm sure I will be sharing with you much more of my thoughts about the male ego . . .

a little history

I was married, and I had a mountain bike which I rarely rode. we separated, I moved out, and four months later someone stole my bike. the next spring, 2005, I bought myself a new mountain bike. I rode occasionally, and in april 2006 I rode in my first century, the Cactus Hugger in St. George, Utah. I made it 54 miles on that mountain bike, and it took me about 6 hours. I think that included the rest stops where I prayed that someone would steal my bike again . . .
in june 2006 I started riding my mountain bike five mornings a week, a 45-55 minute loop that was intended to be all about exercise. and what I found was that I loved the quiet, peaceful morning full of bird chatter and barely breaking sunrises. by that fall I was hooked, and began considering the purchase of a road bike. I rode up emigration canyon for the first time that Labor Day of 2006, panting and plowing along on my trusty (heavy) bike, and a month later I was the proud owner of my own road bike: I had become a two-bike girl!
a 17-week-long "power camp" over the winter and a handful of new friends kept bicycling front and center in my life, and when spring of 2007 rolled around I was ready to hit the pavement. I rode my first century the end of april, when I again went to St. George and completed that Cactus Hugger. it took me about 7 hours, but this time I rode the entire 100 miles with about 9300 feet of vertical gain. woo hoo!
I started riding canyons around our area, emigration and millcreek, city creek, big cottonwood, little mountain and big mountain, and once--yes, only once--little cottonwood.
then in september of 2007, I rode from Logan, Utah, to Jackson, Wyoming, in the slightly infamous LOTOJA race. I rode, I did not race. and I completed the thing, crediting my good training buddies, the incredibly perfect weather, my support team, and an amazing convergence of all things positive in the universe.
I put in about 3500 miles last season, and as of today, july 19, 2008, I have about 1700 in, adding to it every day.
I have again signed on to ride the LOTOJA race, and my goal is to have just somewhere near as great a ride as I did last year. oh, and to have someone fun to talk with along the way as I got incredibly bored last year . . . star valley is still a nightmare scene in my biking memories . . .
and here is a picture of the machine that has helped me reclaim my life.

the tao of cycling

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

oui!

Sunday, April 1, 2012

I need some new sunglasses

Thursday, May 20, 2010

light bulb

a little history