Comments on: Changed Man, Part II: It’s All In Your Head

By: Unknown

Unknown — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 22:13:24 +0000

hey rocky, nice rack.

By: Ariane

Ariane — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 03:46:45 +0000

Al– …giggle… "Assos Butt’r…." ahhh… I laugh.

By: Fat Cyclist

Fat Cyclist — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 19:23:26 +0000

kevin – no, i don’t think they did. but from my perspective that’s immaterial: it wouldn’t have mattered if there were mountain bikes because i wouldn’t have ridden them if there were. the trails were there, i could have done *something* on them.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 18:33:55 +0000

*I went to high school in Fruita, CO, which any mountain biker worth his salt knows is one of the best mountain biking destinations in the world.*Did they have mt bikes when you were in high school?

By: Unknown

Unknown — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 13:23:20 +0000

Geez David. Maybe we’re talking about different things. My body goes and does the work – it continues to ride at pace, steer, brake and follow the course – while my mind goes walkabout. After 10 or 20 minutes, my mind shows up, the body says, "hey, what are you doing here?" and then my mind gets back to messing with my body, making it do things it doesn’t want to do (like hills) and just generally being a pain. "Hey, legs, why aren’t you burning? Pick it up." "Hey, stomach, shut up. You’ll get food, when I say it’s time to get food." "Butt, for the millionth time, I don’t have the money for that $200 saddle right now… so shut up, and keep sitting there – and no, you aren’t getting the Assos Chamois Butt’r, either.” Is this a zen state, or something completely the opposite, like maybe just a short truce between my brain and body in their constant struggle for control?

By: David

David — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 12:30:32 +0000

Sort of a Zen type tangent here…Becoming one with your body in mostly the physical sense yet in so doing being able to understand when your body gives you feedback about how it is really feeling… even on the emotional plane (like I said, sort of Zennish)… Body Mechanics is what I think it’s called. I raced for a couple season’s down in the Smoky Mountains for a team known at the time as Carolina Fatz. We lived and trained in Asheville NC yet three out of the five guys were from Florida, then there was the one native (he was called The Weasel for some reason) and me… the Yankee. Malcolm was the team captain (Floridian) and through his attempts at making me progress from beginner with a heart, to the sport class with some decent gear to a budding expert I came to find out about how the good riders control their bodies to make the most out of what is purported to be the maximal 1/2 horse power of output which the human heart is capable. Things like keeping the back straight, head forward, shoulders square… and MOST importantly the continuance of methodical breathing because once you loose sight of that bit than everything else goes to pot.That was many years ago but I did/do apply the skills I learned about keeping the body in sync to a variety of other sports, leisure time activities and even when walking down the street. I love going for a jog and turning myself into a robot that can keep going and going and… You get so much more "natural" torque hence momentum when you keep whole your body in pretty strict conformity to the set of motions that are in accordance with achieving the task at hand in the most efficient manner. I was never a fast runner in high school or college but discovered that in fact I did have the wherewithal to blow doors off the competition during my stint in a San Francisco based ultimate league years after this discovery.And all this body centric thinking also allows you to read and/or listen to what your body is trying to tell you in as far as injury, time off for rest…

By: Fat Cyclist

Fat Cyclist — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 07:26:05 +0000

mom – setting me up w/ the jr. high pole vaulting team when i was in 4th grade was one of the coolest things any mom has ever done for any son. in the spirit of that coolness, please do not show the world what i looked like as a teenager. i’m begging here.

By: Carolynn

Carolynn — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 06:23:54 +0000

I suppose I shouldn’t tell about your pole vaulting days? Perhaps someone will ask you. And you had an early start: great on a Big Wheel.Just about one more crack about home movies and I will post them on my own blog for the world to see.Rocky’s ma-in-law

By: BIg Mike In Oz

BIg Mike In Oz — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 05:58:40 +0000

Here I was, all hyped, thinking we were gonna hear about psychological carnage to go with the debilitating physical injuries and you are talking about having blonde episodes while riding. Or maybe it’s not blonde, maybe it’s oxygen starvation.Hey you make cute babies too. Maybe you and me are twins.

By: Fat Cyclist

Fat Cyclist — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 05:40:56 +0000

craig – one of the things i like about cycling is it can be as much of a group/team sport as you like, or as solitary as you like. i like it both ways; depends on the mood.caloi-rider – i lived in grand junction, too, but went to school in fruita. one of my big regrets is not getting to know the place better.the_cosh – so what you’re saying is that all us cyclists are basically people who were too uncoordinated for organized sports, but too stupid for chess club. ok, i’ll buy that.glenn – if you won any running races at all, you’re way out of my league. i can identify with the win a (cycling) race every once in a while, when the right guys are out of town." that’s pretty much my racing strategy: make sure the fast people are otherwise occupied.brooklyn – let’s make a blood pact right now that we will never videotape our children between the age of 13-17. kellene called me today and laughed and laughed and laughed, even when i told her that it’s still not funny to me. you know what’s not fair? when a person who was good-looking as a teenager marries another person who was good-looking as a teenager, and then they have kids who are all good-looking as teenagers. sometimes i wish kellene didn’t have life so easy. (sorry everyone else in the world, but you’d have to be a member of my family to get the rich irony in that last sentence.)tayfuryagci – yeah, but you should see the other guy.errorista – we keep all our dress-up clothes, and you are definitely next on the hand-me-down chain.al maviva – you are going to like that bike as a fixie. except when you don’t.stan – not only do i know the one, i was the one.dug – your gesture was as poignant as it was picante.errorista – dug was just showing off with that word, in the hopes you would tell his boss / our bro-in-law (that cracks me up every time i consider it) how smart he is. don’t fall into that trap.stormcroweprime – i’m sure your take on reaching a zen state with cycling is different than mine. i look forward to reading what you have to say.rocky – hey, how was moab last weekend (falls of chair, laughing).a. toad – i’ve often snapped out of the zone, amazed that i’m not .0005 seconds from the grille of a semi. i think that there’s part of you, though, that’s taking care of the essential chores: pedal, stay upright, stay on the right side of the road, draft properly. or maybe i’m a full-on menace. could go either way.wiselittleetc. – that makeup job looks better in real life, too. and she can do incredibly realistic wounds. once, a friend came over in ripped up bike shorts and jersey on halloween; my wife gave him ultra-realistic-looking road rash and bruises, complete with embedded gravel. since he was a serious cyclist, when he stumbled into the halloween party, everyone was convinced he had just suffered the fall of a lifetime. philly jen – ha, another speech geek. i did lincoln-douglas on day 1 events, humor interp on day 2. did better at humor interp than at lincoln-douglas.scooter’s mommy – yep, and we have more in common than that, too.kazoo – i blog very early in the morning, then lie about how much i ride. easy.