Not REAL Women

There's a Wed night ride that meets across the street from an LBS nearby. It's a recreational club ride considered to be at a B pace: short mileage, relaxed pace, social, a warmup to the recreational ride that is scheduled shortly afterward (which is also considered to be a B ride).

This ride meets a couple blocks from home, has a late-afternoon start and end before supper; and it gets me outta the house during the week to socialize at a time of year that I don't much care about being social. It's a nice, easy spin that works out the kinks in the legs and the brain. This past week, we arrived back at the parking lot after the ride with about a half hour until the next ride started up. As we chatted, an LBS shop ride was beginning to gather across the street.

I always feel a few pangs when I see a spirited ride readying--a shop ride used to be an easy one for me. I'm still amazed at the fitness a racer has in comparison to Joe Average Cyclist...even the mediocre racer class that I fell into. I still had the fitness for a few years after I quit racing and, while on shop rides, I enjoyed watching the shop-ride guys expend a ton of energy on a training ride. Knowing when to bank energy, knowing positioning and how to subtly push a shop-ride guy out into the wind were advantages I had, and I enjoyed playing a few games on the unsuspecting. They tended to be a bit amazed that a skinny girl could ride so strongly. It was partly that, of course, but it was also partly riding smart.

I like to think I've still got the smarts, but the riding strongly part? Not so much these days.

One of the women in our group looked over to the readying shop ride: Oh wow, there are a couple women on that ride.

Those aren't REAL women a guy in our group quipped. Normally, I'd have taken offense to the comment and flung some shyte at him: the insinuation that women athletes aren't totally feminine chaps my hide.

Instead, I looked over wistfully.

- The not so in shape Old Bag kinda missing being "not a REAL woman" this season

I Thought WE had it Bad....

This was Minneapolis on Monday.

It was a blast furnace: sweltering, muggy and windy to beat hell. But, South Dakota always wins the wind contest hands-down...be sure to look at the sustained wind speeds: The Life and Times of Biking Brady: Conditions Even I Won't Ride In

- OB goes back now and again and doesn't often bring the bicycle!

Double of a Different Sort

- T definitely wouldn't O be able to B retire on time!

Make Mine a Double

It's the Leo Principle: I met Leo when he was 49. Shortly afterward, he started talking about retiring. Not retiring some day but retiring then. At 49.

He didn't win the lottery. He didn't score a big inheritance. He's an average joe with an average job. But he has a secret.

Don't spend money on the little things.

Never pay for parking, eat out but only food you can't get at home, drink your liquor at home instead of at a restaurant you can buy an entire six-pack for what they charge!, and keep the clothes closet simple. Oh, and travel the world during the off-season when the special deals show up…and do it with a carry-on.

Bottom line? Spend money on the things that are important to you. Question all of the incidentals. Small costs become large totals over time. Everyone worries about the big expenses: the vacation. No one worries about $10 for parking or $7 for a beer, $12 for lunch out, but those are the costs that multiply when we're not looking…and we need to be looking.

Wheel and I? We try to live by the Leo Principle: we walk, we garden, we keep the closets lean, we cook, we bake. We run errands on the bicycle.

But last weekend, we both blew the don't buy liquor with meals rule. There's a fairly new sushi restaurant about a three-mile-ride from home…and before 6:00 even the food is on special.

The martini? We couldn't have gotten that at home...so, we each had TWO.

Our retirement is damned.

- TOB because it's been a looong spring