TEAM UNATTACKED RIDES AGAIN!

Today Johnny Boy Clark, Scott "Titanium Cancellara" Young and I were able to do something we've not done together for about five months--get out for a mountain bike ride together! It was great. Even if it kinda rained. Even if it kinda hurt because I chose to ride my rigid fork single-speed up that dang steep Fragrance Lake Road. Even if they've covered much of the Interurban Trail with what seems five inches of gravel so that every pedal stroke feels like it's getting you nowhere. It was just damned good to be out widdem! (First I broke my collarbone in late April, then two weeks later John broke his and while he's been back running for a while, he's just now getting back to mountain biking.)

Above, I'm flexing my ginormous arm muscles with a sort of coy tilt to my head as John focuses on his jacket zipper and wisely ignores me. We'd just ridden up Fragrance Lake Road (which climbs 935 feet in 1.9 miles) and were about to head down around the lake and the ultra-fun Two-Dollar Trail. (Photo credit: TC.) Then it was back to B'ham via the way we came--the aforementioned heavily graveled Interurban Trail (see photo below, again thanks to TC), Arroyo and Boulevard Parks, with a stop at Woods Coffee and on home. Great ride.

I'm thinking that pretty much ever since we've been calling ourselves Team Unattacked, we've been attacked by one thing or another. (Trees, pavement, etc.) Also, we've each had titanium hardware implanted somewhere in our bodies. Scott was first when he broke his scaphoid bone and had a titanium screw stuck near his thumb; we started calling him the Titanium Cowboy because of it. But now John and I have titanium plates and screws in our shoulders so we're Titanium Cowboys too. So maybe that should be our name, the Titanium Cowboys. (Or perhaps, Titanium Idiots, which also has a nice ring to it.)