The Discipline

I have been traveling back down this road for sometime...
I'd say it goes back nearly four years now. 

I can't say for sure what started the ball rolling, regardless the facts are this. 

At forty one I am back, to living a fully plant based, straight edge lifestyle. 

The facts are this... I come from a family with addicts and alcoholics on either side. I've witnessed this first hand from my own mothers lifelong struggle with food addiction. Watching a loved one slowly die each day by the choices they make is difficult. My own struggles with severe anxiety and depression should have sent me down the path of addiction. Somehow, I was able to avoid the pitfalls of youth and took shelter in music and skateboarding. Sure, I had plenty of opportunities to head towards the things I chose to avoid. 

For whatever the reason, I just found strength in not staying away from those things. The music scene would give me a group of like minded folks and community to be part of. My teenage years and into my early twenties were particularly rough. Having the support of that scene was sometimes the only sense of family i felt. I have since come to find a spot in my own family, even if I still feel like an outsider most of the time.

What does any of this have to do with bike racing or cycling? Nothing... I guess.

Other than committing to something and seeing it thorough to the end. I spent countless hours over the last few months researching new recipes and reading lots about training and plant based diets. 

It really has taken me back to a place in time.

 those years in the mid 90's when I flew the VEGAN Straight Edge flag.

It has been part of a walk down the same path and part new beginning. 

The experience has been incredibly positive thus far, I hope to keep the PMA as the years move on.

So with all that rambling out of the way...

Hold True

It was a rare treat today to spend a few hours chatting and tearing up the tight twisty stuff with Pauli a.k.a. m.rider. He needed to burn some vacation hours and I didn't have to be at the salt mines until the afternoon so we hooked up bright and early. I finally got to hand out his very own death riders kit and make it official. He threw on the new togs and off to Castlewood we went. I don't think I've ridden with him since a Bonktoberfest some years back... like 8 or 9 years maybe??? 

Can that even be right? Ah whatever it was just great to chat it up and spend some time on two wheels with him again. He can still draw smooth lines and descend strong as ever.
I just hope we can make this a regular type of thing.

Getting to catch up with him today I was reminded yet again how some of my oldest and best friends have come from punk rock, skateboards or both. Mike and I met some twenty plus years ago at all things a Hardcore show.  As luck would have it our girlfriends at the time were close friends and we met via the gals. Our local heroes Short Cut were playing along with some band I knew nothing about from Louisville KY. 

Two awesome things happened that night. 

I got introduced to a band and a guy who as Pauli himself would say are 'solid'

The band would be Endpoint and the 'solid dude' Pauli

I have a pretty good memory for whatever reason and I can remember where I heard certain records for the first time, people I met at which show etc. One of those things that has always stood out about that first meeting was the t-shirt. Pauli was wearing. None other than a  'Wide Awake' shirt. You know, that other Connecticut Straight Edge band. Being a 'youth crew' member myself I was in awe. A great lesser known band of it's day and a pretty rad shirt. So in a fitting tribute to our first meeting.

HOLD TRUE

We're Not In This Alone

I cannot take full credit for this blog post. As j.rider was the one who brought this too my attention. None the less I feel it's worthy of talking about. It's sort of funny how I got into this whole cycling thing anyway, so let me give you the back story. It was the late nineties and I had been towing the line of a Vegan Straight Edge Hardcore singer for the better part of the decade. My band at the time was coming apart at the seams for various reasons and my position in the local scene was fading. In short I needed a change, the type of change I wasn't sure. It just so happened j.rider picked up a Stumpjumper about the same time and took up ridding. After a few months I gave in and borrowed a bike to see what the hubbub was all about. I still remember how hard the first ride was, but I was hooked. Later that year we went to a local race just to spectate. At the race we ran into an old scene friend of mine and got to talking. It was m.rider or Pauli if that makes it easier. I'm not sure why cycling seems to have a punk rock or hardcore following but it sure seems to. Quite a few of the scene folks from my day have become bike shop monkeys or racers. Maybe it's something to do with the struggle and pain? It didn't take long to figure out i had found a new passion.

Every now and again it's nice to see that the death riders aren't alone in our love of cycling and music. As i stated earlier j.rider forwarded me a link to a blog for reading. His quote was something like READ THIS! So I headed over to Revolting Cogs. It was as if I was looking into a mirror so to speak. The more I read the more it sounded very familiar. Click on over and read the 'if you drive in a bike lane...' post. It's a gem of 90's hardcore banter and the struggles of being a punk rocker triathlete and cyclist. It's a fun read and hits pretty close to home... As I type this I happen to be once again straight edge and wearing tulasi beads.
This time at 38 sigh...