Something I read... Good thing....

So I get emails and feeds of other bloggers. Good thing I'm not like this! I mean.. My saddle does match my tape, my bars and stem are both "wet white" WCR Ritchie, and my kit for the last few years has been coordinated. But... my shoes are Black, and they do match my bar tape and saddle, even though I'm not like this guy.

The Yellow Peril

A Sufferlandrian Christmas

The Sufferfest posted two days before Chrismas a contest for the Sufferlandrian flag for the best excuse why one was unable to ride on Christmas day. I took this as a writing challenge. Using my technology available to me and knowing I was only at home in the a.m. I opened Google Documents and began writing three letters to tell the story of my "suffering" on Christmas Day. I then set two alarms on my phone one for the afternoon and one for the afternoon. I had to do is cut and paste my Facebook posting with my phone (a little tricky with my fingers).

This effort won the contest for me. I and freaked out my daughter and her friend when I came out of my office, yelling "YES, YES, YES, I won a Sufferlandrian Flag!" They had no clue what I was talking about. And after waiting a week my Flag has arrived! I have hung it, with GREAT honor, in my "pain chamber" and I'm ready to ride... But wait it was 8°C outside today! What's with that?

My first letter posted:

May it Please Your Honorable Dictatorship,
I have served Sufferland many years both toiling in the barren fields and diligently on my trainer. Many times I have done great for Sufferlandria.
Alas, I failed to win on my last foray into Angles, and in your graciousness have chained me to the wall of the cave of the Sufferlandrian Troll to have the honour of preparing him Christmas dinner. Due to this privilege that has been bestowed upon me by your honor, I will be unable to ride my trainer this Christmas.
Cordially yours,
David Tuttle.

In the afternoon I posted this letter:

May it Please Your Most Honourable Dictatorship and My Glorious Fellow Sufferlandrians,
It has been brought to my attention by my most gracious host the Sufferlandrian Troll, that he owns all nine Sufferfest Video's (he still is a subject of Sufferlandria), and to my glory he has requested that I get on HIS trainer and do all nine on Christmas morning prior to preparing his Christmas meal. Technically I should bow out of this competition.
If it pleases you oh most benevolent Dictator and his most charming Mrs. Dictator, I would desire to remain in this contest as I shall be riding the Troll's trainer, not MY trainer.
Humbly yours,
David Tuttle.

And my third and final letter sent in the evening:

Oh most Acclaimed and Wise Dictator,
In your infinite knowledge you must know what Toll's eat for Christmas. I shall as your humble servant suffer once again toiling labouriously and without complaint preparing this... um, whatever it might be. It is an honour to serve the Great Land of Sufferlandria. Thank you once again for this honour.

Who the H#!! am I kidding... I shall NEVER EVER give half effort again, PLEASE release me from this duty!
And I will always IWBMATTKYT from now till evermore.

Pitifully and groveling on my knees forever your Loyal Servant,
David Tuttle.

OK, now for those of you who have never ever heard of or tried a Sufferfest, then you won't get the point of the letter. It has evolved, the land known as Sufferlandria, out of the on screen prompts and the Facebook Page. The videos have established that it is a poor impoverished country of where suffering is a way of life, with a King and Queen and David McQuillen (the creator of Sufferfest) is the Dictator, OH! and a troll.

And finally IWBMATTKYT! If you want to know what that means head over to The Sufferfest and find out for yourself.

My "NEW" winter Bike

OK so it's not new. It's my old steel road bike which was in need of some major work. The cable routing under the bottom bracket was a VERY poor design by Garmin back in the day and it just dug into the metal and I never got a good shift with the bike, and could NOT get the front derailleur to ever work.

So with a "Big Shout Out" to Terry D. and Jeff K. at The Bicycle Shop to help me grind off the stuff, paint the bare metal and put a nylon cable router underneath. I also replaced the BB so I could put on an Octolink 175 crank that was given to me 7 years ago... This work took us/me a good afternoon, and I should have done this 10 years ago! Because the bike shifts! Wow! I also put on my "road" fenders and zip tied them on... even today the road was wet, and I was glad it was not wet on me. I began this morning early and had my Quiet Time, read my new feeds and the weather was nice. I began laundry and began working on putting the bike together.

Yesterday when I was working it was 8°C and sunny, if I had the bike I would have ridden... Today was supposed to be cloudy and 1°C. Our weatherman is BAD, and this time it was in my favor. By 10:00 a.m. it was 8°C outside and SUNNY! I went for a ride. The wind from the west was a bit strong but on January 7, if you can ride on the road you ride on the road because there will be plenty of Saturdays spent on the Rollers, watching The Sufferfest tracking the training on TrainerRoad. Seeing that we are just at the beginning of winter and I've only done one workout with TrainerRoad, I'll save that for another Blog. The ride was fantastic, I was dressed well and got in a good 80 kms. in just around three hours.

2012 New Years Day.

It's a new Year and we're off on our tradition. This year it was raining, wet, cold and windy. Most are veteran cyclist who know how to dress for the weather others... Did not think before they came out. A couple guys had to turn back as they just were not dress properly.

I started out with the group and I was exhausted starting and my stomach ached on every climb, too rich of food on New Year's Eve! I also had a bit of a problem with my Podcast I wanted to listen to. I had planed on listening to Velocast Race Radio where the cast is half music and half news and opinion. Messing around with my phone and clothing I ended up wayyyyy behind the crew. I know my way home so I just rode my own ride and pace, and went straight home without stopping at the Tim's as my assumption is the guys would have been gone by the time I got there and nothing like being cold then going back out in the cold.... NO wait that's as bad as it gets. And if your interested in getting the Velocast RR you have to side load the podcast on Dogcatcher (Android cast player).

SO if you're wondering why two photos... our regular professional photographer is a bit AWOL and I don't think anyone else knows Photoshop as good as he does. Unless any of my readers are ace PhotoShopers I'll send the two photos.

January 2, now officially starts my off-season... I have weight to lose! Oh what did I eat last fall that made me so fat? I only have two months of Off-Season this year as I head down to Florida in March and I am planning on taking my bike along.