KR's at it agin'

"Mommy - this bottle is bigger than my head!"



"Whatchoo talkin' bout Daddy!?!"



"That is disgusting! For this - I'll give 'em the fake cry."



"Psyche! That's why they call it the fake cry. Duh!!"



"This mobile thingy is the best...I think it's made in Alabama."

Things R Heating Up!!

Not much going on here except for trying to beat the heat. I love the mild winters in the deep south but these SWELTERING summers are the pits.

The pits? What does that even mean? Like arm pits? Cause that would be bad...but probably a derivative of 'the pit' i.e. hell. Seems like Milton may have used that?? Do I even give a hoot?!?

I digress (as those who know me well would say is a bit habitual on my part)...HOT! Yes. It is hot in MS these days. I try to get my riding in before the heat of mid-day when possible for a number of reasons: 1) the heat 2) to have the day with the fam and 3) the heat.

Sunday morning dawned a'steamin' and Mrs. Lolly had plans to meet some of her girlfriends for church and lunch. No problem...KR and I had some catching up to do anyway. After watching Ocean's 13 and napping for a bit we played KR's favorite game...coo and smile at the rotating bag of jelly beans. KR doesn't understand why I am so entertained by this but I am OK (wink).

Soon enough Lolly made it back (with a Turkey sandwich for the sitter - yum!) and took over the parenting duties so the other kid could go get his ride on. As it was, I had gotten hooked on the latest episode of MegaDisasters which was explaining the theory of the hypercane that may or may not be responsible for the KT extinction - fascinating. I will do some personal exploring into that on my own.

After my education, I met up with B-Rad to turn a few laps at Butt's Park here in J-Town. Of interest, the area where Butt's Park is located was used as a prison camp for German POWs during WWII and later as a small scale model of the Mississippi River Basin for the Army COE to conduct flood tests of some sort. Of course, it's now used as the playground for the terminally young and irresponsible MTB set! YAAA!!

We decided to turn 3 laps = 18 miles, and planned to turn about 12 of that at 'effort'. Well, the best laid plans of mice and men...yada yada. I cracked like an egg about 3 miles into the effort phase of the day's training. It happens sometimes and usually unexpectedly. What was to blame? Most likely a combination of the aforementioned heat and turkey sammich. The heat was just brutal and the body tends to not like 'new' foods before exercise...I usually don't eat turkey sandwiches for 'brek'. I managed to make it through the day but was spent for the remainder.

Lolly was nice enough to go pick us up some din-din from Newk's...that hit the spot and the fam hung out and watched some tube. Nice little Sunday.

No new pics of KR at the moment but here's one after a 12-hour race that illustrates how I felt yesterday. BONKY McSHAKY!

PICS!

The girls sure are cute...him? not so much!

The girls get a bit testy if they don't get to watch Grey's Anatomy. I had it coming I guess.
And yes, KR is pooping in the last picture.

MTB

I love mountain bikes. Something about riding in the woods just does it for me. It's not that I don't like riding on the road but it just doesn't provide that same release. Too many obstacles on the road (cars, rednecks, rednecks in cars)...just gets to be a bit too troublesome at times. Plus, the athelete in me prefers the woods. Anyone can ride a bike on the road, but not everyone can ride in the woods. Check one of the log rides at my local trail. In this shot i am going up the log after transitioning from the bridge. Very fun. Very sketchy after a rain. More fun coming down. The pic doesn't show the steepness of the downed tree very well.

...and, as promised, here's the pic of me rolling through Blood Rock. Paul Tidwell takes some great photos. Check out all the BnG pics at his site.

One thing that i have found in common with most endurance atheletes is that we relish the pain of a good race or ride. Pushing through the pain on a ride may be symbolic of something else...something in our make-up...something we try to keep at bay...who knows, I'm no psychologist.

I like this pic a lot. Very professional for one, but - just knowing myself - this is my pain face and I am loving it!

Furthermore - isn't it more fun to spectate someone riding through rock gardens than intersections. Just look at the anticipation on this guy's face behind me in this pic. He wants me to wreck bad! I would too if'n I were in his position.

All this talk has me excited...guess where I'll be headed after work today. That's right suckas!

Ciao.

More Photos

KR sez: "I had a real good check up yesterday and thought that all this Doctor stuff was a piece of cake. That is until they stuck me repeatedly and for no good reason from what I could tell. That put me in a foul mood for sure. My daddy is a big sissy judging from his pained expression during what I considered my ordeal."

Because He Can...

Hey look, it's McWeSSon about to start his race...but, er, who is that with the tassles?

You gotta love the singlespeeding scene...the only place I know where people can show up in a shredded/tassled tee shirt, sho nuf daisy dukes, and circa 1973 tube socks...and proceed to kick your butt. Johnny Tassles won our race in a walk. Impressive...but you'd better be good (or maybe something else) if you plan on wearing that get up.

Too funny!

KR is Thriving

For some reason I am unable to space these pics the way I prefer...guess I'm doing something wrong...even though I am adding them the exact way I have before. (Shrugs)

We go for KR's 6 week checkup tomorrow and expect no problems. She is becoming much more aware of her surroundings and, I can only judge by her reaction, but everything must make her mad because she is crying a bit more than she did initially. Someone said, "Oh that's normal in this stage." And when does this stage end?

Not sure where she gets her cuteness - but we can eliminate me from the equation and presume Lolly's genes or some from my side that skipped me.

The summer has settled in on us. Can you say steamy?!?

I initiated my 12 week plan today. ~12 weeks before my next race of any significance and I want to stay as focused as possible. Should be easy with the lack of distractions in my life. (wink) But it did feel good to get that 1st workout in. I had taken a week off after Bump-n-Grind and needed it to recover from some type of allergy-induced cold type bug. Thank heavens that KR and Lolly remained 'boog-free' because all three of us with the crud would be brutal. I didn't have that great of a race in B'ham but, once again, the experience was a blast! I ended up 10th out of 19 in my open singlespeed class race. Had some minor mechanical issues that did not affect my placing but put a slight damper on the race itself. I have ordered some pics of my trip through the infamous (in-famous; that means more than just famous) Blood Rock section of the trail. The section is super gnarly but I 'cleaned' it each time I rode it. I can hang my hat on that.

Over. Out.

Photo dump