Arsbars.com

One lopsided birthday cake. Runny frosting. Made with love – that makes it all better right?? The girlfriends first attempt at cake making some might view as a failure. The cake tasted fine, the icing a bit strong. Next time it will be better. Learning from your mistakes is what life is about right? Have I used that line lately elsewhere??

Another two-a-day today. Two in a row. Tomorrow won’t be another or Monday. Maybe Tuesday. No rush.

Another wonderful day in the “dirty” south. Short sleeves and spandex claded ride. How I love it. Leaves are still falling & trees are on fire. Wonderful day alright.

5:30 on a Friday. I hope the gym won’t be slammed, maybe all the other gym going smucks have decided to go away for the weekend. Maybe not.

Rode on the road for an hour today. Amazing. Haven’t been on the road bike on the ROAD in a couple weeks. Handling was off for the first mile as the bars are much different from the fixie aka “Grape Ape.” Rode around the airport & then to South End of Charlotte. Gorgeous out today. Currently it is 74 degrees and the sun is already going down. Gorgeous. I’m tempted to ride to the gym. Very tempted. Much to do tonight to get the house in order as I’ll be on the go most of the weekend.

Tomorrow is a cross race down in Waxhaw. I won’t be racing. Spectator & pimping the business. Tomorrow is also someones birthday that I hold very dear to my heart. There is a party to be had, maybe some wine drinking & craziness. Probably not. Sunday is the big swap meet at Lowe’s. Good deals to be had. I won’t be buying anything only selling and again pimping the business.

I hope to get rides in both days. I’m doubting it as both day are gym days and I’m not even sure how the gym will work into the scheduling. Baby steps. Have a wonderful weekend if I don’t get back here to post up. Taryn have a wonderful birthday!

It turns out the trainer worked me harder than we probably BOTH thought. I barely could walk last night. Muscles in my legs feel like chopped liver or applesauce. They are getting better but I do think the 3 different variants of squats made my legs worthless for two days. Rode the trainer and took a long walk. They feel much better but popping a squat on the toilet is interesting and then trying to get up from that level is even better as my quads are out of commission.

Work to do from 2-4pm. Hopefully my legs will get me through that. More spinning tonight. Hope to get back to the gym for upperbody tomorrow but we’ll see. Not ready to much it too hard.

The meeting at UNCC Monday night was awesome. The group was small but it seemed strong. Everyone there wanted to be & all had input to give. The two speakers from Per4mance were helpful with all the kids questions. Trying to push them in the right direction but not pushing them too hard. I pulled a few new customers from the group. Spreading the word ya know. I hope to get on some rides with the club & make a couple more monthly meetings. Any cycling in Charlotte is better for the community in large.

Not much to say. Amazing caramel latte this morning. Got worked at the gym. Need to shower & then head off to a meeting up at UNCC. The college now has a bike club that has monthly meetings. This month it is focused around training and racing. I have many questions to be answered so I’m going to mooch & trail behind my friend Sara who happens to be friends of the two speakers. Hopefully hand out some flyers for Arleigh’s and have a grand ole time.

Now I must shower, do dishes and head out.

I’m in what Friel likes to call AA of weight training. Anatomical Adaptation. It includes being very sore but feels really good the day after. Muscles are being used that haven’t in a long time. Stretching feels amazing. Laughing hurts. All those good things.

Yep it’s prep time. The beginning of the long winter off season months. I have so much work to do to prep for the upcoming spring. For myself, the business and racing. The next few weeks will be mainly gym and cross training. Building up those key muscles around my shoulder that I tore to shreds months ago. I think stretching has become just as important. Long rides are out of the question for now until I build up my shoulder and core again.

The website is about complete for Arleigh’s. I have a couple pages to iron out, but I am pretty satisfied with the site right now. Now I need to slap my boy around over at twinsix to get a logo together for stickerage. I’ve been talking to various teams on doing race support next year. The money isn’t the best but it is something that will get me out there & hopefully good pr.

I purchased real beans today for the espresso maker. Also purchased some caramel syrup. Made a latte – froth and all. I must say it was pretty damn good. The beans & syrup came out to about $10, that’s about 2 venti caramel latte’s at Starbucks. I’m thinking I’ll probably get 10-12 cups from the beans and 20-25 cups from the syrup. Savings = $35-40. Sweetness.

In other blogger news -
Jeff aka Mr. 24 has his two sweet rides up for sale. Dicky hasn’t taken the hint that it’s fall and time to recoup from the past season. I’m looking forward to his race write up of SWANK.

Crazy day so far. Yet I feel like I haven’t accomplished much. I did tear off my old fraying patches on my messenger bag and sew on something I cut from a tshirt I had. Check it out.
Keep on trucking through is my quote for the month. There is much to do in the next week. Most importantly the website for Arleigh’s to work on. I hope to launch it to the area riding public over the weekend. Next on the list is learning how to make a latte in my kitchen. We’ll see how that goes probably won’t as I don’t have true espresso beans. Hazelnut coffee can’t double for that right?

I’ll have most the evening to finish everything I hope to do today. The girl is going to play Bunko with friends. I am hoping not to have to get roped in (though I would do it happily) so that I can get the site completed for the time being.

Rebuilt my old Raleigh into a fixie cross bike last night. Went down to the greenway and tried the mounting/dismounting with it fixed. Wasn’t as bad as I thought. Need to work on momentum but racing cross is the last of my worries right now. I’m thinking if all goes well I’ll give it a go next Saturday at the race in Waxhaw.

For now I’m going to ride to the gym & work out for a bit. On my home I’ll take some photos of the new fixed gear goodness.

If you haven’t been able to tell life has been getting busier with every passing day. The business is doing well and things are getting in order as I had planned. Thanks to everyone that has been helping out & dealing with my craziness.

In other news. It is NOVEMBER. What the hell? Seems like life goes screaming by you when you are an adult and have things to do like work. Riding has been a bit slack this week do to paper work and multiple jobs. I hope to get in a decent ride this afternoon & this weekend. We’ll see how that goes. Maybe even drag out the girl.

Posted a bunch of photos in the gallery. Check it out under Bikes & Personal. There are some classics from Savannah and a certain Dairy Queen. A couple of Kent busting his balls. Oh and a couple of Taryn running her ass off in our race a few weeks back.

Hope you’re having a wonderful 1st of November where ever you are. Don’t forget my birthday is in 12 days.