Recap of the first annual NSFW ride!

Last Wednesday I took a PTO day and decided what better to do on your day off than.. you guessed it! Ride bikes! Shane over at NOA organized the ride, which would take us in a big square through Lincoln on our fantastic path system, and it was a great day of ridin'!

Along the way, we got a chance to visit several of our fantastic local bike shops, all who had eats, swag, and stuff for us to drool over. Also gave everyone a chance to talk, regroup, and the like. We eventually made our way up North in Havelock to Pepe's which I've been meaning to visit for about a year, just never seem to make it up that way.


If you can't tell by the line of hungry cyclists, this is a popular place - for darn good reason. Pepe makes everything from scratch, from local produce, and it's all vegetarian. I make good salsa, and i love my salsa - but I think I've found a #2. Talk about fantastic! I knew from that point I had the chips and salsa it would be good - and dang it was, but I also ate too much. Next time I'll go with the sweet potato quesadilla, not the huevos rancheros.. those are just too much food.
After lunch the group set out to head west to the Highlands for more ridin - and a great group it was! The pace was perfect for me, somehow I kept to the front the whole time and had a blast ridin'. Of course, then the full stomach set in, the wind kicked up, and I just settled back a bit and kept up

Discovered a new trail in the Highlands - and a nice one at that - I never knew existed. New being relative, of course, but just another excellent example of what we have here in Lincoln. We headed back south, the last stop before the end being the north Cycle Works, and everyone was having a good time:

Overall a great day, and a great ride. The weather was a little on the miserable side in the morning, but turned out to be about perfect in the afternoon. First long mile day of the year, I'd ballpark with the "long way" to the start and home I put in 55-ish miles, and it felt good to do so. Met some great folks, including a couple readers (I guess I have more than I knew!) and had a awesome time. Gotta do more rides like that!

The eternal beauty of children

I want to tell you something about my daughter, who is 9 and probably one of the most beautiful people in my life. Yesterday she said to me "I love you, Ben, for who you are right now". I've struggled a bit with faith, with myself, and pretty much everything over the past year - but last night *TWICE* I saw the words of God spoken through the mouth of my little angel. After a tough night, and tough beginning to the morning I came to a stark realization:

I'm not a label, I'm not a definition, I'm not a role, I'm not a symbol, I'm not an icon, I'm not a object, I'm not happy, I'm not sad, I'm not a nice guy, I'm not a bad boy, I'm not a like, I'm not a comment, I'm not a bit, I'm not a byte, I'm not a blog, I'm not a social network, I'm not a Mac, I'm not a PC, I'm not a cyclist, I'm not the music that I listen to, I'm not the food that I eat, I'm not the liquid that I drink, I'm not a pawn, I'm not a piece of a puzzle, I'm not a man, I'm not a 500 pound man, I'm not a employee, I'm not what society wants me to be.

I'm Ben. It's nice to meet you.

Radio Silence - Broken

I've been neglecting you quite a bit, my favorite creative outlet, but I'm still here and doing well. In fact, I'm doing better than I've ever been in quite some time. Just very, extremely, busy and trying to keep up with the mountain of work and homework that seems unwilling to give me a break. Last week was the first week of pretty much full riding in quite some time and it seems like I waited just long enough to do it. The weather was amazing, the riding was amazing, and overall it's been great.

Ironically the week before I was in SoCal, where the weather wasn't very conducive to riding. Even if it had been the only places i could find that rented rides either were renting full-zoot Ultegra roadies, nice high-end MTB's or beach cruisers. The middle one I could have hung with, but dang were they expensive. I guess not many folks in Laguna Beach roll on Surly bikes, and that's kind of how I roll. Worked out for the best anyway, as I was working so much that I really wouldn't have had time to ride.

Now that I'm back home, though, and the temps are coming up I'm starting to feel it again. Riding, riding, and riding some more - just enjoying every minute I get on the bike. There's no more time limits and no more goals, I just ride as far as I want to and go with it. I've found a bit of peace in life lately (which is more complicated than I can get into here), part of which is removing internal stresses and pressures I put on myself. Once you remove your own guilt, and can just enjoy something - that's where it's at.

It's been a long winter, pounds gained thanks to a tough time, hurt back, and this thing called Prednisone but now it's all coming back together. This past week solidified that, Friday in particular. I just pounded the cranks with all I had and found that you know what? It's good. Could I go ride the GLGA right now? Oh heck no.

But I will. When I'm ready.

There are reasons we get overweight, and it's not all about biology, marketing or poor food choices. Once you nail those down, and get blessed with an amazing support system (my wife is literally my angel, and my kids are my small blessings that make it all worthwhile), it comes together. The rebounding will stop, and that's where it's at.