What do you wear to bike commute when you leave the house and it is 55 degrees and windy as hell, knowing that it will quickly warm up and I must talk to and teach 300 kids AND run a farmers market?

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1970′s gym teacher seemed the only appropriate look. Stowaway jacket by Rapha, shorts by Gap, old ass Chucks by Converse and socks by my awesome sister who knows me well. By 9am I had lost the jacket and socks and was cool and comfortable.

Fashion crisis averted. Those kids did not mess with this. Nor did cars.

I know when Cyclocross season rolls around it seems like that’s the only thing I’m doing cycling related, but I continue to ride my bike to work, to Bici, to events (beer festivals are always a great destination for a ride) and just for the heck of it! But life, it turns out, is not something I enjoy stopping to document on a regular basis. I’m living in the moment, ya know? I guess that’s a good thing for me as a person, but not necessarily for the blog. Bike commuting has become such a regular occurrence for both Elisa and myself, and while it’s still waaaay outside of the norm in Birmingham, it’s just daily life for me. I think that’s pretty cool.

But hey, Rossitron enjoyed a lovely ride to the grocery store the other day, and I had the sense of mind to snap a photo! There’s no bike rack at the ole Piggly Wiggly, but that’s no surprise. The grocery cart corral is a fine alternative, with the hope that no wayward cart makes a beeline for our sweet rides. My panniers were packed to the brim with ingredients for a veggie chili, beer, and game night with friends, but it was a load that was a pleasure to bear.

(Photos by Gina Simpson and others that I can remember. Sorry!!)

These past two weekends had back to back cross races for us here in Alabama, but I was sick for the most recent one. I gotta tell ya, it was pretty nice just to sit back and watch the race without the stress/nerves/flutterings/hyperventilation associated with my own racing preparations. Also, that course was a bitch and I am GLAD I didn’t have the pleasure of racing on it. Ew.

But the weekend before was our annual Halloween race and it was a blast! I wore my slutty french maid costume again this year (because when else am I going to wear it), but this year I decided I was Magenta from Rocky Horror Picture Show to go along with Rossitron’s costume. You’ll see who he went as below!

The course had a fair few barriers, some steep climbing areas, and there was a long and tricky single track section through the woods, but I took it easy and just enjoyed the ride. Lo and behold, I got 5th! Wahoo moving up in the pack…or something.

There was a great showing of costumes among the women – zombie school girl won best costume of the day. A few of the Bici dudes dressed up as well (BACON AND EGGS!), but overall the dudes seemed to think that racing was more important than having some fun for once. LAME. Rossitron did greatin his race and looked mighty sexy as Dr. Frankenfurter while doing it. Delicious!

Our next race will be the Anniston night race. Things are gonna get crazy!

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A little late, but a post about the Pirate Alleycat that I raced in a few weekends ago. It was a stunning day for a race and I was really sad that I woke up sick. Ah well, racing anyway! Kelly and I dressed up and headed out. We were happily surprised to see a ton of people in Pirate’s Alley in the French Quarter. It was a Saints game day, so there were a lot of other people out there to watch us take off. Best part of this city: No one asked why we were all dressed up!

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After waiting and waiting, we finally got our manifests and took off. The race took us all over town, 14 miles total. We climbed jungle gyms, fought with paint covered swords and made pirate balloons for our bikes.

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After the peg leg challenge, Kelly got a flat. Unfortunately, we did not have a spare tube. We considered stopping at a nearby bike shop, but I felt too icky. We walked, grabbed a beer and hitched a ride home with a friend.

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All in all, the day was a blast. Can’t wait to race in the next one!

This past weekend I enjoyed the first of hopefully many rides with my father on the Longleaf Trace, a rails to trails project in Mississippi. The trail is 40 miles long, starting in Hattiesburg and ending in Prentiss. We started just outside of Hattiesburg, about 7 miles from the start, due to homecoming at USM, but we still managed to get in 72 miles total.

This was a real feat for my dad. Before this ride his longest was 40 miles, on the flat as a pancake beachfront road in Pensacola. Add to that the fact that he’s only really been riding seriously for about two or three months, and you have yourself a real challenge.  By the end he was hurting, but he made it and was pleased as punch once we got back to my grandparent’s house, showered, ate a pile of food, and hobbled to the loungers to watch the USM game.

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The weather couldn’t have been better! There was no wind to speak of, nice sun, and a little bit of a chill to keep us from dripping sweat the entire time. The trail was nicely paved and flat (although poppa would disagree), and the scenery was mostly woods, peppered with open farm land, country homes, and little forgotten towns. Once we made it into Prentiss we were ready for lunch; unfortunately Prentiss isn’t exactly a booming metropolis – the downtown was basically abandoned and empty – but we were lucky enough to find a Subway that met our nutritional needs just fine.

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Then it was back the way we came! A little slower sure, but we were still managing to enjoy ourselves. The sign they used to warn of road crossings made me laugh, especially considering most of these were dirt roads through farm land. “BEWARE THE COUPE”!

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I was impressed by the amount of people that used the trail. When we drove up that morning there was a marathon finishing up, and we saw a fair few people walking as well as a few dozen riders along the way. Mississippians, as you all well know, are not known for having particularly healthy lifestyles, but the number of people we say made me happy to be a part of an alternative type of southern lifestyle. We still eat our fried chicken and apple pie, sit on the porch with a glass of iced tea telling stories to and about each other, and live not too far removed from the family farm, but we also know the joy that comes from a day full of fresh air and bike riding.