Hi All,

I thought I'd put the band back together again and write again.  It has been a long time since I've shared thoughts on my biking or whatever other hobby has my attention. I am not sure a reason for the hiatus other than I just got out of it.  In retrospect, I wish I'd tried harder to maintain some type of journal. I've realized that writing here helps writing elsewhere. It helps to take the jumble of thoughts that bounce back and forth and make a coherent sentence.  Helping in this case to calm down those thoughts and if anything just reason whatever I'm going around and around about.

Mountain biking is still my central focus. If anything, the emphasis has grown all encompassing. It's almost all I think about, talk about and spend money on.  With the exception of my beloved and frustrating money pit 2005 Legacy GT Wagon 5MT, cycling is and has always been my mistress.

Mountain biking is a welcome friend especially in these times. I'm very lucky to be able to say that there isn't anything really bad in my life. It is just a harder time in general. I recall a friend saying that this middle age is considered one of the hardest times because of a combination of aging parents on one side, younger to grown kids on another, and your own marriage and career in the middle. Financially, it can be straining with college expenses incurring or looming.

Combine all that with the world we are living in  and I can see why I've fallen deeper and deeper into the obsessing about something else. For those of you reading in the future or not from around here, it's 2017 and locally, nationally, and worldwide it is a time of great stress and uncertainty. Politics combined with catastrophic natural disasters and every news days is stressful. 

So cycling is my respite to provide a place to focus thoughts and energy. It's also a good/bad thing as it can be the source of much frustration when working on my bike or wishing I was in better shape. I'm slower than I used to be and don't ride as long as we did in VA.  The riding here in Central NY, especially this little pocket is different. It's hard and grinding and 1hr here is like 1.5 in VA. So doing a 7mile ride in 1.5 hr and feeling worked can be a blow to the ego when I used to do 3hr or 40mile mtb rides.

I have some friends to ride with and beers after are sometimes more the focus than riding hard or long. I am very focused on skill development and pushing my own capabilities. I imagine that is seen as showing off. The racer, even though I was never that good, has me always pushing to improve my fitness and ride harder. Though, I just can't get myself to get onto a solid training plan and do the intervals on the trainer like I used to.

I'm turning 50 next year and have been considering some kind of event like a bike trip or 80k mtb ride or racing again. We'll see. I am not sure I've got it in me to race, but do know there is nothing like fear to motivate me to train.

So I am glad to be back and share some thoughts, and welcome back.

I just got a new bike and am in thought that the journey of setting it up and growing with it would me a fun entry back to writing more formally here in a blog.  I have been keeping notes in a table in one note of almost every ride for the past two years with my previous hardtail and various setup, tire pressures, and fork settings. 

This new bike and it as a platform makes for a great canvas for trying and learning some things. I see some frustration too as is always my way. No matter what I can do some things wrong.