Ellicot City Ride......even a coffee break!

Ace, Stu and Michelle......sampling the muffins!

I was back on the bike in full force this weekend. Saturday was the first ride back at D-Ville for a long while and the longest ride over 2 hours since sometime in September. Main aim was not to get dropped and mission accomplished! It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be as I managed to get the 70 miles in (even if the last 5 miles from the Park 'n' Ride to Bowie with Mike was a struggle as we were both gassed). Give it a few more weeks and I'll try it with the fixie.....then I'll be dropped!

Sunday we headed out to Ellicot City, starting from BWI. It was actually the first time that I had ever ridden around there and so riding the hills came as a slightly welcome change. Fortunately all bar one had ridden the Saturday ride and it was a nice easy ride on the hills......even had an official coffee stop, which is the first one I can remember since riding back in College, although then it was more of a beer and pie stop :-) I'll definitely have to try and remember the routes around that area as the Illchester climb was good as were many others that I probably wouldn't be able to find again. On a warm November morning the ride was good, ask me in the middle of May with the hammer down and I might say otherwise!

Red Cup? Blue Cup?......

It was only a matter of time before it was going to happen and then after coming back from the pool on Monday evening, there it was.......an Obama/Biden yard sign at the house opposite!

For so long our street had been removed from the upcoming elections but now that naivety has been lost I'm sure it will only encourage others to follow suit. For Sarah and I the past 18 months has been somewhat frustrating bearing in mind that as British Citizens residing in the US we cannot vote in any political elections. We can pay our taxes! but we cannot vote....don't get me started on that (and yes I am sure there are plenty of arguments for and against the issue).

Anyway, as everything around us is gearing up for Election Day on November 4th 7-Eleven came to my aid and have been running their 7-Election campaign for a few weeks. Whenever I purchase a cup of coffee (should I ever be out and about and not near my own Coffees of Hawaii beans) I can choose between a Red McCain cup or a Blue Obama cup......now I can make my own choices depending on how I am thinking on that particular day.

Most importantly I get a cup of coffee and I get to vote....and yes I do realise that it isn't an official vote! How would you vote? Red Cup? Blue Cup? See poll to the side.

Like a Kid in a Candy Store......

Finally we are back in business with the arrival of a new coffee press after Sarah searched the length and breadth of Bowie to find the same model.....a Bodium Brazil (French)Press. Fortunately my new coffee delivery coincided with the new coffee press, so I now have my 2 pound bag of 100% Kona (what else would a triathlete drink!) Nightingale Whole Bean Coffee (courtesy of Coffees of Hawaii) and a new press....what more could a coffee addict want!

With the weather this weekend looking rainy and stormy, it may well be a weekend of bean grinding, coffee drinking and Giro D'Italia watching!

Required: One Coffee Press......

In what turned out to be a pure accident (or so it seems!) my treasured French Coffee Press managed to hit the kitchen floor from a substantial height and smash into a thousand pieces. I hasten to add that I was not in the kitchen at the time and the only other person in the immediate vicinity was Sarah, who as background doesn't drink coffee and highly dislikes the smell (although she is slowly coming around to the smell....12 years and counting!).

Now I ask you...was it an accident or was it made to look like an accident? Either way I am in survival mode and making do with the good ole' Mr Coffee machine until we go shopping at the weekend. That's the kind of shopping I like, it brings about the same enthusiasm as shopping for bike bits....

It's a funny obsession that most triathletes/cyclists seem to have with coffee....in what other sport can you get energy gels with the double espresso flavor and added caffeine! Perhaps it is just expected of cyclists to like coffee, after all the professionals always appear to be sipping their espressos right up until the race start and that has been the habit for as long as pro cycling has been about....at least they have now kicked the Gitane habit!

I know that the first thing I do after getting back from a ride is to start the coffee making process and as Sarah will testify, if the coffee isn't consumed shortly after then grumpy Iain can surface (unless I grab a handful of chocolate covered coffee beans).....the same grumpy Iain that is brought about by workouts being missed!

Behind triathlon and soccer, coffee is certainly my 3rd passion.....now back to the internet to search for the latest and greatest coffee presses :-)