Riot On Racing: Survived the Apocalypse, Christmas, and the Quest for Rich

Well looks like we survived Dec 21. Apparently none of the predicted occurred:

Some were disappointed:

They say the Mayan’s got it wrong...but the Mayan’s never said anything about the end of the world...that was our own trusty media?

Anyways that rant is for another blog...

I am still working on surviving the holidays given the abundance of calories I am ingesting. Also working on surviving my choice of Christmas gifts I got for Lois. She wasn’t too thrilled with the electric toothbrush I got her.

She wasn’t even happy that I hired a maid to clean up the mess.

Yet she was thrilled I hired a professional chef to serve Christmas dinner:

I was so confused...guess I will never understand women...

The cats enjoyed Christmas though...

And they let me know if they didn’t like a gift...

And they got me something..as always..

Anyways...As far as the holidays go, I have been eating way too much...and way to much nasty stuff. So I have been trying to ride as much as possible to offset the calorie intake...lest I look like this.

I have actually been getting in some very good bike rides. The conditions have been perfect ...cold enough to get frozen trails for mountain biking...yet warm enough to allow road rides. I have been able to hit the trails with Rod, and on a couple of BicycleWorks group rides. All of which are properly challenging and great workouts and calorie burns. Especially on our local trails, which are some of the most challenging trails around.

Also managed a couple of road rides with Fig, who always pushes me to challenge my limits. Rich (nickname CL) joined us on one ride, which ended up with a bit of an adventure...or something. It goes something like this... When Fig and I ride together we tend to challenge and push each other, and often end up going faster than we intend to on what we planned to be a leisurely ride. Not quite like these guys...

Actually that is more like Lois’ back seat driving. Anyways back on topic...

Rich has not been getting out as often as he used to...and is a little out of shape. So he would end up dropping back, and we would stop to wait. However, it was cold (it is December after all), and stopping when sweating is damn chilling...so eventually when he dropped off far enough instead of stopping, we would just slow to let him catch back on. However, at one point we looked back and there was no Rich...we slowed...still no Rich; we stopped...waited...no Rich. We assumed he made a wrong turn at the last intersection...so we did a 15 km loop in the direction we assumed he went...but did not run into him. Well there were only two more options that he could have taken from where we were (unless he had packed it in and went home), so we decided to split up and take one of the routes each...and meet back at the Kilbride General Store where we had last seen him. So went our Quest for Rich...Fig went East...I went west.

I soon ran into this person...

She hadn’t seen Rich...she was on a quest of her own. (In case you are wondering this is rather obscure reference to an 80’s movie...yes I am old...I will leave you to determine which movie).

I then ran into this person who was also lost and hungry but in control of the situation...

Ran into this cool little dude...but he hadn’t seen Rich.

And then I ran into some real weirdos cycling...

As you can imagine, this was too weird and I was really getting worried for Rich. I eventually made it back to the General Store...met Fig...he had not found Rich either. We were worried he would end up like these guys...

Fig was so worried he wanted to call a rescue team...he preferred this team...

I wanted to call this team...

I guess we just have different preferences. While we argued about it Fig got a text message. It was Rich; he HAD bailed and went home. Oh brother. After all the extra kilometres searching for Rich we had had a thorough ride and headed back ourselves.

As for other rides for the rest of this week, there is a Holiday ride planned for tomorrow, and there is Riot’s Birthday ride planned for Sunday...but the 27 feet of snow we got last night may put a dent in the plans. OK...27 feet may be exaggerating but it took me over an hour to shovel the driveway this morning!!

I will also be pouring coffee and Irish cream