Dreaming of a Life Less Ordinary

03/31/2025 Back Outside II: The Bureau of Positive Self Talk The Bureau of Positive Self sounds to me like something out of pre-revolution Russia.  However, I sort of like it.  I think I will adopt it as my modus operandi.  I have the Russian Revolution on my brain.  Not because I am a socialist at heart or because I am some type of radical.  More so because when you have spent the last five months listening to the revolutions podcast and you are on Season 10, Episode 70, it registers on the brain. The Revolution Podcast is fantastic.  It is done by the same guy who did the History of Rome Podcast which was my first podcast I ever listened too.  Really it is great.  Maybe don’t binge it straight through or you will also start referring to you dog as Comrade or Robespierre. Also, when you are out on a 2:15 minute LDSR ride in granny gear, you might also start asking yourself questions like would my dog have h...

  Back outside! One hundred and six days since the last time I had been outside on my bike, but then again who is counting, not me.  After a winter spent spinning indoors and lifting weights, the temperatures finally warmed and the sky dried up enough for me to get back outside!   I couldn’t wait.  I was trying to get everything done in a rush yesterday.  Breakfast, lunch, recycle center, car wash, taxes, everything that was on the list, I had to get done so that I could get outside and get on my bike.  It had been far too long.  Plus, when the cleaning lady is here, Kona, is sufficiently distracted and I can sneak off and go, go, go.  Yesterday, my training schedule had me scheduled for a LSDR for two hours.  That is a long slow distance ride.  The goal is to keep my heart rate low and not go to hard.  This is tough for me because I can’t walk out of my house and spit without hitting a r...

  The Man  in the Box... 03/09/2025 The Man in the Box…. “I’m the man in the box, buried in my shit” Man in the Box - Alice in Chains  The Box I can’t help it.  Every time I go to get into my sauna tent, I hear Layne Staley’s chilling words in my head.  I know whatever Alice in Chains meant in their song, has nothing to do with what I am going to do, while in the sauna but there it is.  Every Tuesday and Thursday after I get done throwing around some weight, I finish my chat with Clayton and then I turn to the box and as you can see, it really does look like a box.  Probably why, the song runs through my head.   On February 18 th  I took my heat training for Enchanted Circle to the next level and started getting into the sauna tent for 20 minutes.  I was skeptical that the thing would really work.  However, I was super surprised how hot that sauna tent gets.  Thing is amazing.  ...

  6000 Feet over 85 miles…. Enchanted Circle coming August 2025 I'm excited to announce that after the flat Tarwheel ride in North Carolina (8 weeks and counting), with only 500 feet of climbing, I will be taking on a challenging ride in New Mexico this August. This ride features 6,000 feet of elevation gain, twelve times more than the Tarwheel course. Why did I choose such a demanding event to end the summer? I'm eager to push my limits and experience the contrast.  Then again, I might just be a little crazy or a lot, depending on your definition.   This August, I am heading to Red River, New Mexico, for the most challenging ride of my life at the Enchanted Circle Ride. At one point on this ride, you are climbing 2,000 feet over 17 miles. My previous best was 2,000 feet over 50 miles with varied terrain. It's daunting, but I'm excited to prepare my mind, body, and soul for this challenge.   I am making numerous adjustments in preparation for this goal...

  TarWheel One can’t simply rest on one’s laurels, can one?  That seems like a very fancy sentence for those of us at the Dreaming of a Life Less Ordinary.  I guess that is my fancy way of saying it is time to start targeting a new challenge and while I hope very soon to be announcing two new challenges, right now I can only announce one.   As I continue to check states off my list of places to ride, the next state of our union to be checked off is North Carolina at the Annual TarWheel Cycling Event in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.    The event is Saturday April 12, 2025, in the aforementioned, Elizabeth City.  The distance is 62 miles and like 0 climbing.  This thing is flat as a board, want to insert jokes about prom date, but this is 2025 and there is no room for that, we are an evolved group at the Dream of a Life Less Ordinary.  Although really the elevation gain is 369 feet, which is not much. ...

  God Bless Texas… (24 Miles Wintery, Wet, and Windy)   “Oh, how I wish Dallas were in Tennessee…. If you could move Texas East, then she’d be here with me…”   It was that and “Goin' through the Big D and don't mean Dallas.   I can't believe what the judge had to tell us. I got the jeep and she got the palace.” Is what kept ringing in my ears during most of my time I was in the Lone Star State.   Well to be perfectly honest once in a blue moon I would break out with “If you’re gonna play in Texas, you gotta have fiddle in the band, that lead guitar is hot, but not for a Louisiana Man.” Then I kept wondering what the Louisiana man was doing in Texas.   However, that is a little off the point.   I guess when I was in Texas, I wanted to sing a little country music, and I most definitely was in Texas and I most definitely sang a little country music or what I could remember of the country I grew up listening to.   State number 3 has been marke...