I'm Useless

How easy is it to flush 2 1/2 weeks of progress down the toilet? Pretty frickin' easy it turns out. I started out the week having lost a very respectable (and totally made up since I didn't weigh myself) four pounds in the last 2-3 weeks which put me on target to hit my goal weight by spring. But then yesterday happened. Approximately 2 1/2 pounds of the best mashed potatoes ever (nice job Marcy!) probably close to a pound of pork tenderloin (again, delish), a hamburger, fries, can of dew (or two)and two drumsticks.and voila! back up clydesdale status. Nice job Rick, nice job.

Thursday, I met up with the gents to do some snowmobile trail riding. It was my first trail ride on snow this winter and my first trail ride with my new pogies. To say that I was riding shitty would be a drastic understatement. I was getting schooled everywhere by everyone. First, since it was my first winter trail ride this year I was diamond in the sphincter apprehensive on all of the icy sections (IE-frozen downhill streams), second, with pogies your only bailout option from the bars is straight back instead of off the side, front, below, back etc. that you're usually allowed. This lead to a couple of funny endoes where I truly thought that I'd end up augured head first into the snow while my hands were still firmly attached to the bars. Good times, good times.

In the end, we put in nearly 3 hrs of ride time and I was completely knackered by the time we got back well after 10pm. Next time I promise to not embarrass myself.

most of the trail was of the packed atv variety. ready to rip.

channing and steve ready for an attitude adjustment.

Off to a Good Start

Things are starting to shape up in these parts recently. The weekend was nice so, even though I didn't get any riding in, I did get a bunch of siding done on the house and we're getting perilously close to having the exterior done. Once that is done it means more saddle time so I'll sacrifice a couple of sunny, 40 degree days for more spring/summer riding. Sure was nice out though.

The weight's coming down slowly but surely as well. I didn't weigh in this morning but from the way I'm feeling, I'm certain that when I weigh in tomorrow that I'll be at least another pound down from the previous week. If not, I may have to throw myself into a wood chipper because everything went pretty smoothly last week. I decreased the amount of beers that I drank for the week, got a couple of good commutes in, did some snowshoe running, got a spin class in and did a couple days of cyclo-core/pilates. I'm still far from being a featherweight (much closer to a clydesdale really) but if I can drop 10 pounds I'll be a bch away from my ultimate race weight, 185 lbs. Holy crap on a cracker! That's pretty huge you say? Well, at 6'-3" with a "muscular" build (muscular is in quotes since I'm only muscular in cycling terms) 185 is about the lowest I can get without looking, and riding, like a sickly anorexic chicken.

On this morning's commute I also came to a realization. I've been rationalizing getting started "training" late this year but this morning I had to hit myself in the head and remind myself that it's still only midway through February. Just because I can see bare ground all over the place doesn't mean that spring is days away. Yay! I still have plenty of time to over prepare for early season and then crumble and crawl my way through the late season!

On a Quest

As I've mentioned before, I'm currently in a quest to get my portly, clydesdale-esque, self back into fighting shape for the upcoming racing season. Like just about everyone else, I go through this every winter but this winter I've got an extra 5-10 lbs to deal with and I'm getting a later start than usual. In the end this may be to my benefit since I'm typically in great shape in the spring/early summer and then totally coasting in the fall since I'm either burned out on training or else I've used all of my kitchen passes for the year. So, maybe by getting a late start I'll be able to keep the motivation going further into the summer. Maybe.

So, in my quest to lose the girth, I'm upping my riding a bit when time allows and refocusing on my early morning routine. The snowshoes and cyclo-core are back out. Oh, and I'm buying lite beer now. Egad, he's serious! Thankfully, this is all working and I was able to drop 3 lbs last week. I'm sure I'll fluctuate some but progress is progress.

self portrait while snowshoe jogging. didn't really work.

the "trail"

whose cubby face is that???

Ahhhh-haaa!

After yesterday's whiny little episode about usb cables I was sure that I'd find the missing cable in the most obvious place and, sure enough, this morning I found it in the pocket of one of my ergon packs. The exact same pack that I searched from top to bottom no less than three times yesterday. Ok, so I'm a dude and can easily overlook things like that time I was desperately searching for something in the fridge and getting supremely frustrated. So I turn around and ask Marcy if she knows where the (I can't remember what I was looking for but lets say Miracle Whip) Miracle Whip was and she looked at me and said "in your hand". Apparently I had moved the miracle whip out of the way trying to find the miracle whip. Nobody ever said that I was the brightest boy in town. So, to make a long story longer, I found the cable and now I have to return the multi-head cable that I purchased yesterday that promised to fit Nikon cameras but, of course, didn't. I don't hate many things but the giant USB cable conglomerate and it's massive Washington lobbying machine is quickly climbing the ladder.

Blood boiling.

Ok, so since I found the cord, I was able to upload my photos from Saturday's ride. It was my first real road ride in months. Real meaning on my road bike and longer than my commute. The ride fell together kind of by accident. We were going to a friend's art opening Friday night at the University of Maine and on the way back crashing at Marcy's mother's house. Then, Saturday morning Marcy was going to brunch with a friend and I'd ride the 40-ish miles home. Great plan right up until I woke up Saturday morning and it was -1 out. Below zero is ok when you're riding in the woods and windchill is of minimal importance but minus one is totally different when you're on the road and hitting speeds in excess of 30 mph on the downhills. I hoped that with a bit of time it would warm up so I had breakfast and about 18 cups of coffee and two hours later it was a balmy 4 degrees. Perfect!

Once on the road I knew I was going to be in trouble. The body was cool but fine but the hands and feet immediately started showing signs of bad times to come. About 45 minutes into the ride my feet were blocks of ice so I was extremely when I got to the first of three stores on my route. I had hoped to spend a bit of time in the store to warm up the extremities but some of the good ole' boys' sideways glances got me moving quicker than I wanted. Back on the road my feet were immediately frozen again. I knew of one store down a ways that I suspected would have a wood stove and a place to hang so when the store came into view shortly before the 2hr mark I did a little internal happy dance.

Yay, The Alna Store!

Once inside I immediately lost the shoes and warmed up by the fire.

And then enjoyed a tasty breakfast sandwich and a couple cups of coffee.

After the Alna store, things were smooth sailing. My feet were finally warm and the temps had climbed to 16 degrees. Still not toasty but warm enough to stay warm and before I knew it I was back home.

The end.

Stupid Nikon

Mini rant here. Why is it that with there already being a standard usb cable connector on the market for years some manufacturers (nikon, lg and I'm sure others) decide to come up with their own stupid connection? So instead of having one, convenient, cable handy, I have to have three on hand at any given time and sure enough, the day that I need the stupid f'n nikon cable, I can't find it! I've got stuff to write about a frigid road ride on Saturday, my one good ride in a week and now I can't blog it because it's nothing without pics. Who am I kidding, I'm sure it will be boring even with pics but who doesn't like random roadside pictures from a place they've never been?

Anyway, big doin's planned for this week. I'm meeting up with the Bath clan on Thursday for a night ride and if the rumors are true, the conditions there are better than they are even in the height of summer. A perfect combination of ice and packed snow has made for unbelievable fun trails. Or so I've been told. To celebrate the occasion, I'm going to pull Selma out of her winter slumber, mount up the studs and have a rip roarin good time. It'll be nice to straddle my old girl again, she has been missed.

On the weight front, I was making some good progress initially, dropping 1.5 lbs in the first week but then the weekend happened, the superbowl happened and then we had a meeting at work yesterday that included beer and chips. Woops. This morning I clocked in at 200.6 lbs. It's official, I'm fat and to top it off, Marcy seems to have shrunk my jeans because they are uncomfortably cutting into my stomach as we speak. Damn her!

Whatever Shall I Do?

Usually, this time of year is spent sweating over a new bike build but since I got my sweet ass, all blinga-ding Salsa Selma last year and barely raced on her, I don't have that arduous and totally fun process to look forward to. On top of that, I NEED essentially nothing for this coming race season. Sure I need a set of tires and some nutrition products but nothing else. ARGH! I had been lusting over a new wheel set for the race steed. With my twisted sense of logic, I figured that since I wasn't blowing a bunch of money on a new bike that I SHOULD, instead, get a new set of race wheels. Maybe something like this. When it came down to it though, I realized that dropping a grand on a wheel set might not be the wisest choice right now. Especially since my Hope PII/Stans Arch wheels have been bombproof and show no signs of going toes up any time soon.

Then, along comes a flurry of e-mails from our team manager with all of the deals from our team's sponsors for 2010. The major goodies so far are from Salsa but, like I said, I don't need a bike this year. Then, I get an e-mail about our team 2010 helmets. If you remember, I bought a new lid at the end of last season so that I'd have a day helmet and night helmet for the Bradbury 12 so that means that a new helmet also isn't in order even though they're changing the color scheme for aught-10. Damn me and my understanding wife who let me buy a helmet so that I could save two minutes mounting lights during the race!

What's a guy to do??? I've got imaginary money to spend and nothing to spend it on!

Bootleg

As I mentioned on Wednesday, while in Vegas, our Friday ride was a semi bust because of all the snow and mud we encountered so when Kevin and I headed out to Bootleg Canyon on Saturday we weren't sure what was in store for us. Truthfully, if we hadn't already paid for the rental on the bikes we probably would have bagged the ride. Nobody wants to fly 2500 miles to a warmer climate only to find that they have more snow and mud than you do back home. Thankfully, as we approached the venue, our fears were allayed and we were greeted with dry, almost moon like conditions.

The riding at bootleg is unreal. Miles and miles of beautifully designed and built trails. For a right coaster like myself, the speed, length and openness of some of the downhills were truly terrifying but fun as hell and all of the more gradual stuff had great flow and a very high fun factor. Our ride window for the day was pretty short at under two hours but we got to sample close to half of the trails there (I'm guessing). Unfortunately, both Kevin and I forgot our cameras that day so you'll have to make do with a couple of crappy camera phone pics:

You may remember that back on Tuesday I mentioned three things I learned while in Vegas:
I still prefer 29'ers. I hate gears. Specialized's stumpjumper sucks balls.

After two days of riding I didn't hate the 26" format as much as I expected to but I did find myself constantly thinking "my 29'er would roll through this stuff so well" on multiple occasions so I guess I still much prefer 29'ers. I also got a bit of justification for riding single speed while at Bootleg. While I was just riding along (I know all you bike shop types just love to hear this!) my rear derailleur just barely touched a rock. Literally, all I heard was a little tink and all of a sudden my shifting was completely gone and I was in my hardest gear. I expected to see a mangled derailleur when I looked down but everything looked fine except for the completely loose derailleur cable bolt thingy. How in the world does that happen? Spot on shifting for 3 1/2 hours and then all of a sudden the cable has pulled out and the bolt about ready to fall out??? Anyway, after a bit of fiddling I was able to get the bike to sort of shift but it was missing a couple of gears (I'm guessing a slightly tweaked hanger) and it totally messed with the last half hour of my ride. Stupid gears.

Finally, the biggest revelation of the weekend was that Specialized's stumpjumpers should be stump jumped right into a dumpster. What a stupidly crappy bike. The shop set the rear suspension for my weight but no matter what I did the rear suspension wallowed so much that pedaling while in full suspension mode was out of the question. So I ended up doing most of both rides with the rear locked out and only occasionally going full squish. This bike was a 2010 and I guarantee you that my 2001 trek fuel was a shit ton more efficient. One would think that with the improvements in suspension designs and valving etc that this bike would have felt like the xc bike that it is and not some sloppy pathetic excuse for a downhill bike.

Man did I miss my dos niner and selma. What I wouldn't have given for either of those bikes!

Chubby Hubby

Yikes! I knew this day was coming. My day of reconing. Marcy finally got a new battery for our weight/body fat % scale and I stood on it for the first time in months this morning and what I saw was sobering, not entirely unexpected, but sobering none the less. My weight now, after a couple cups of coffee is hoving dangerously close to two bills. 199.6 to be exact. Yikes indeed. My weight has steadily been creeping up from roughly 180 lbs about a year and a half ago. The primary culprit has been the house construction. With less time to ride and much more stress (and stress eating/drinking) it was inevitable.

I think my course to success will be fairly simple and somewhat painless. First, I need to increase my ride time. Uh, duh! But with the race season less than three months away I now have the motivation to kick it up some. This past weekend's ride were a good kickoff. Secondly, I need to cut back on my nightly beer. Another duh moment. Two to three beers a night can really add up. And three, my nightly snack. After three beers I tend to get the munchies so once I cut the beer out, I'll also be able to cut out the snacks. All together that's probably 4-600 calories a night. Not something to be trifled with.

Consider the weight loss process (not a diet) begun.

Back From Vegas

As I mentioned yesterday, we made it back from Vegas safely. We had a great time but I was kind of glad that we only had four days there. By the end of the fourth day, we were ready to vacate and actually spent most of that last day driving around doing sightseeing stuff instead of cruising the strip. Vegas is fun but unless you're into hard core gambling, it can get old quick.

On our itinerary was the aforementioned gambling (which we did little of), some nice dinners, a show or two, some clubbing, a bit of riding for the boys and lots of shopping for the ladies. Mission complete. I'm sure you're all just dying to hear about the two pair of boots that Marcy bought or just how fabulous the show was (pretty darn fabulous) but this blog is about riding and racing so if you want to hear about that stuff you'll need to i-m me and we can kibitz.

My buddy Kevin and I made rough plans before the trip to hit up both Bootleg Canyon and Cottonwood Valley. Originally, we were going to go the guided route but once we found out it was much cheaper to rent the bikes and a car for the whole weekend than it was to do one guided ride we went that route instead. I found a shop on-line that was in Vegas that had rentals. I was happy to see that they had their rentals on-line so I could be sure that our bikes would be ready for pick-up when we got there. WRONG! When we walked into the shop (which was pretty nice) the clerk looked at we sideways when I said that we were in to pick up the two Epic 29'ers. "We only have one 29'er and we just rented it out for the week." WTF? What is the point or reserving the bikes if you don't, I don't know, reserve them for the person? And the fact that the clerk obviously hadn't even known that we were coming in despite the reservations really pissed me off. They offered up two stumpjumper 26'ers instead and since our ride window was slowly closing we took them and headed out for our ride.

Ride number one was to be in Cottonwood. We had a map, a rough route planned out and about 2 1/2 hours of ride time so we were on our merry way. The beginning of the ride was nice but uninspiring (except for the views). It was mostly a slight uphill that would pay dividends later in the ride though.

new englander's legs, white and hairy, and just a peek of white boy pp

After about 40 minutes of riding we came to the begining of our main loop of the day, Dead Horse, and this is where things got interesting. We were soon greeted with snow and muddy trails. Really? We came all the way to the desert in winter to escape snow and mud!!!

WTF?!?!?!

Ever the optimists, we pushed on assuming that since the first part of the trail was so dry that we'd soon be out of the snow and back in bidness. Ahem, wrong again.

Peanut butter.

We spent the next hour, maybe even an hour and a half riding/walking through some pretty nasty conditions but we were too far in to make turning around worth it. To make matters worse, we weren't entirely sure where we were on our map since the trails aren't really well marked. Thankfully I had my gps with us so we were able to find our way and eventually we found what we thought was the trail called "Three Mile Smile". With a name like that it had to be good. After a bit more snow it turned into a bunch of flowey goodness. Eventually, it connected back to our initial trail and we were able to enjoy several miles of slight downhill, no brakes needed, twisty turny good times. Those last two sections saved the day for us. Phew.

Woops, that's it for time today. Bootleg Canyon tomorrow.

Back From Vegas

We made it back from Vegas safely but I can safely tell you one thing. It's not true that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas because sleep deprivation will follow you anywhere. Five nights of 3-4 hours of sleep followed by a red eye with 2.5 hours of fitful sleep leads to one sleepy little boy. I have lots to write about but it'll have to wait one more day.

3 bike related things I did learn: I still prefer 29'ers. I hate gears. Specialized's stumpjumper sucks balls.

My Grips are Packed and I'm Ready to Party!

Last night I did two things to ensure a successful Vegas mini vacation. I reserved two Specialized FSR Epic Comp 29'ers and packed my riding duds pedals AND grips! I'm not sure how many people are as ravenously devoted to their grips as I am but the thought of doing two three hour rides without them had my hands aching and spontaneously forming blisters. Plus, they fit nicely into my riding shoes so no extra space was required in our luggage. Bonus.

I'm totally psyched to ride at both Bootleg Canyon and Cottonwood (one on Friday afternoon and the other Saturday whenever we crawl out of bed). The closest I've ever come to desert type riding was when Marcy and I were in Bend Oregon many years ago. There was lots of sand but it didn't really feel like true desert riding. But, then again, for all I know these two places could be located in Nevada's famous desert rain forest and it'll be so humid it'll feel like I'm wearing yesterday's chamois over my head...

I'm also pretty psyched to be trying out a full suspension 29'er. My Dos is the closest I have to full sus and it's a sweet ride but I do wonder what 90mm (I think that's somewhere between 1 & 6 inches american) will do to the trail. I just hope that I don't fall in love and find myself on gears and suspension next season. I'm not that weak.

This, I could get used to

Placed an order at Bikeman.com yesterday. Nothing too crazy, just stuff I needed like a replacement frame pump since my current one falls apart when I try to use it. It still looks good when it's mounted on the road bike though. I know what you're thinking. Frame pump? How gauche! Well, I'll be hopelessly irrelevant anyday if it means I don't have to remember to pack a mini pump (and 30 minutes to pump up a flat tire) or wasteful CO2 cartridges. We can't all be Lancy-pants you know. I also ordered the much anticipated pogies to make my winter riding more comfy, just in time for 40 degree weather. My timing has already been impeccable. Thirdly (or firstly on the list) is a headlamp for the spud. Apparently she's a vampire because she refuses to play outside during the day but after daylight, she's all about going out in the snow so this will allow her to and will serve as my backup light I'll keep tucked in one of my Ergon packs. And finally, last on the list is an item that I never thought I'd buy again, SPD style cleats. I've been on Time pedals for years now and will never go back (as long as they're in bidness) but, unfortunately, the spin class bikes have only spd pedals or toe straps so I picked up a cheapy pair to put on a pair of old mtn bike shoes.

	Product Quantity Price/Ea Total Princeton Tec Fuel 4 LED Headlamp Black 1 xxx Bar Mitts MTN/Commuter Black OSFA 1 xxx Planet Bike Ozone Roadie Large Frame Pump 1 xxx Wellgo 98A SPD Style Cleats 1 xxx Shipping: In Store Pick-Up $0.00 Sales Tax $3.82 Gift Certificate:BMAN-BUCKS-Bn6v2eow (xxx) Total $5.16

So, to get to the point and stop all the rambling, the total for all of those items came $5.16 with tax. Purty good if you ask me, of course it's mostly due to my mother giving me a gift certificate for x-mas but still, I'll take $5 totals any day since my typical Bikeman bill is hundreds of dollars and they happen far too frequently. I'm quite certain that if I were to total up a years worth of bike expenditures and show Marcy my riding/racing days might be numbered. We've talked about this before and somehow, I was able to distract her with something shiny while I waved my arms around and changed the subject. Come to think of it, she's probably reading this right now! Look, a beautiful trinket! Let's go out for dinner...

It seemed like a good idea at the time

Last week was a bad week for commuting. We got pounded with snow over the previous weekend and then we had off and on snow through the week. Not horrible conditions but bad enough that it wouldn't be smart to ride given the slickness of the roads. I would like to note that I was not at all concerned about me having traction or seeing properly. With my Nokian studded tires mounted up and my Dinotte lights blazing the way I would be fine if I was out there on my own but throw 2 ton rolling death buckets into the mix and things change. If there is any chance that the apathetic owner of said death bucket won't be able to see me or may slide into me because of road conditions than I do the right thing by my family and stay clear. So, during weeks like last week I spend a lot of time checking weather.com and peering out my cubicle window (yeah so what if I work in a cubicle, at least the entire wall I'm on is filled with northern light emitting windows (good move on my part to pick this side of the office so that I get perfect light without any glare)) at the glimpse of rt 27 so see what the road conditions are like. One day last week, the road was blissfully clear all day so I decided to ride home and back in in the morning. Things went peachy right up until it was time to leave when a light snow started. I figured it would be no problem until I was out on the road. My conditions were fine but I began to worry about the car folks, their travel lane was still clear but the snow picked up while I was out there and things started to change. I was on egg shells the whole ride and played things uber cautious and made it fine but next time if the snow starts before my ride, I may opt out.

Doh!

I Dream of Dick

I have a handful of blogs that I visit on a daily basis (at least on days that I check blogs). One of my must reads is Dicky. Marcy is not fond of him because he "seems kind of angry" but I like his blog because he "seems kind of angry" and he often says stuff that he assumes people will take the correct way but sometimes don't. Just like me.

Anyway, the other night whilst I was blissfully slumbering I was having a dream about a mountain bike race. I don't think that it had started yet, maybe it was pre-race festivities. Who knows but there were tons of people there and who do I spy out of the crowd? Dicky of course. In real life Dicky has no clue who I am. In fact, he probably doesn't even know me in blog life but in the dream, we had a moment. Right when our eyes met. I could see in his dreamy eyes that there was a moment of recognition when he say me. Unfortunately, being the mega star that he is everybody was mobbing him for a handshake and greeting but finally, with a bit of work he made it over to me, reached out with his hand and said "you're rick right?" and that was it. One fleeting moment that I will always cherish.

The weird thing about this dream is that while I do read Dicky's blog regularly, my highest level of blog stalking is reserved for ThomP and not once have I dreamed about him or his Tom Selleck chest hair. Although, now that I think about it, maybe Thom has dropped down a notch in my mind now that he's going to be riding geared and Dicky is still fighting the good fight.

Hmmm, maybe it's posts like this that make Marcy concerned about my sexuality.

Snow Day

It's been snowing like a bugger in Maine recently. Over the last couple of weeks we've received roughly 2' of fluffy white stuff. It's made real mountain biking a non starter and has really gotten me pining for a snow bike (more on that below) but the snowshoeing has been great and we all need a bit of variety so I'll take it. Last night's snow means that B is home from school today and I've decided to take the morning shift with her. Who knows what kind of winter shananigans will ensue? More than likely, I'll just get B to help me dig the car out since she seems to enjoy that for some reason.

This afternoon I'm hoping to commute home if the road conditions permit. If visibility is good, I'll be riding, if visibility sucks than I'll drive home with my tail between my legs or else risk end up being someone's hood ornament.

Since moving last year, almost every aspect of our new location is better than where we were before. Our commutes to work are shorter, we're more a part of our local community, in the summer I can commute to work via mostly trail etc etc. Unfortunately, there is one downside. I no longer have easy access to snowmobile trails. While in Damariscotta, I could easily jump into the local snowmobile trail system with just a very short road jaunt. This meant that I could keep riding all winter long. Where we are now, I don't pass a single snowmobile trail on my commute or even know where one exists. It's a total bummer and really has me thinking about a snow bike for next winter so that I can still ride when conditions are like they are now.

The current plan is to get the yet to be released Carver aluminum snow bike. Between my trade in from this year's BB12 frame prize and (if the stars align and I pull it off again) next year's trade in, I'll be well on my way towards supah fat tire bliss.

The other day a former Bikeman.com teammate contacted me about a Pugsley he has for sale. At $1500 for an almost new bike, it's a pretty good price and I would have loved to take him up on it but, sadly, the bike purchase coffers are depleted so I had to pass it up.

Day Late Dollar Short

As is pretty common here in the magical land of Racin Rick where unicorns shit cotton candy and entertainment dreams go to die, I once again failed to follow through on a promise. Shocking, I know. What I promised five days ago was to fill you in on my Vegas Baby! comment. Well, it seems the spousal unit, myself and a couple of friends are heading to vegas for a long weekend at the end of the month. Vegas has never been all that high on my list of places to visit and I figured the only way I'd end up there is if I failed to take a left at Albuquerque. My inner compass being what it is, I've somehow missed that left turn and followed the road of a promised free condo on the weekend of the Miss America pageant.

marcy accuses me of being gay (because of my fondness for lycra and the occasional cross dressing incident) and then takes me to the land of homo erotica (or La Reve)

While I never really planned on going to Vegas, I must admit that I'm pretty psyched especially since The Hangover is still fresh in my head. On top of gambling (I don't think I'll do much) and a show, Kevin and I are planning on hitting up some mountain biking. We're going the tourist route and hiring a guide who will pick us up, schlep us to the trails, provide us with bikes, show us around, and maybe, if we're lucky, pedal our bikes for us as well because who in their right frickin mind is getting up at 8 am for a three hour ride while they're in vegas? It's probably pretty stupid but I can't imagine going all that way and not taking advantage of what the locale has to offer. The question is, Cottonwood or Bootleg?

A Wee Bit Nipply

Today I had grand plans to get out for a slightly longer commute to work but when I woke up this morning and saw that it was a whopping 5 degrees outside my very manly testes immediately hoisted a white flag and the plan changed to a simple, direct route in. Once out this morning it actually wasn't all that bad except on the downhills where windchill temps were approaching -20. Thankfully, I was committed to the shorter route so it gives me time to do an actual post today before clocking in. Lucky you.

The cold weather of late has got me thinking it's time to up the ante gear wise so that I can really enjoy winter riding. I've got some Bikeman Bucks from Christmas burning a hole in my wallet anyway so I guess it's time to spend some virtual money. The first items that I'll be picking up are a pair of pogies. For those of you not in the know, pogies are essentially sleeping bags for your hands that mount to the handlebars. They create a super warm womb for your hands and allow you to wear summer weight gloves on even the coldest days. They look kind of dorky but they work great so as soon as I figure out which pair I want I'll be putting an order in at Bikeman.com. The other item on my immediately must have list is a new pair of heavy weight shoe covers to fit on my winter riding shoes.


As you can see, my current pair have had a hard life and are ready for retirement. Chewed up sole, check. Duct taped toes, check. Blown out zipper, check.

Also on the agenda, but not slated to happen until late 2010, is a honest to goodness, fo rizzle my schizzle, snow bike. Carver is coming out with a more piggy bank friendly aluminum snow bike frame to go along with their sweet but out of my price range Ti snow bike frame. Every winter I say that I want to get one but every winter I fail to pull the trigger because I always feel guilty about buying yet another bike. Good news for me is that with my Selma still being practically brand spankin new I really don't NEED a new race rig for 2010 so that finally leaves the door open for a snow bike. Plus, if I somehow manage to pull off a 3-fer in this September's Bradbury 12 single speed race, I'll have another frame to trade in towards the whole schebang. Thankfully I have plenty of time to plan and save for the project.

Tomorrow's topic? Vegas Baby!

Wazoo

I'm up my wazoo in stuff so here's a quick little photo blog of me not riding this weekend. Enjoy.

ice fishing, Brynna intently watching while keeping a safe distance for any icky stuff. that's not me by the way.

B yet again keeping a safe distance. again, husband stand in is doing all the work.

here I am finally putting in just enough effort so B will remember who I am.

Heyaa! Mule, heyaa!

I got off track in my last post. It seems that I suffer from what the medical profession likes to call ADD, the pharmaceutical companies like to call CA-CHING! and lazy parents in the US like to call "it's not my fault he's hyperactive and doesn't listen to anything I say. Here honey have another bowl of sugar coated chocolate caffeine bombs." What I like to call it is; I have a shit ton to do all of the time so everything seems to be done half assed. Not on purpose, of course, it's just that I'll start something, remember three other things I need to do and not get back to the first something. Take last night for example, the DamFam had all just gotten home, and we were going about our evening routines. I was picking up and putting away the loads of crap around the house while Marcy was cooking dinner. I noticed that the meager, temporary, counter space that we have in the kitchen was filling up so I offered my help to Marcy, which she accepted. I helped her for roughly 2.8 seconds before I noticed a pair of pants (folded at least) in the dining room that needed to be taken care of so off I went, totally forgetting my initial endeavor until I walked back by the kitchen, saw Marcy glancing at the counter, nodding her head and grunting all in unison. Woops.

So, with that in mind, my post the other day was supposed to be about the fact that a snow storm of all things knocked me out of my rut of lazy-assness. First, it required me to get out and do a bunch of shoveling. Not exactly the best example of how to have a good time but it is a good workout and it got me thinking about snowshoeing which we did and I also got to do a bunch of this:

Pulling your kid around in fluffy snow can be a pretty good workout, especially if any hills are involved. All of that over the weekend helped me get my mojo back and as a result I've finally started getting up to exercise in the mornings again. One jog and three bike commutes later and I think I'm on my way.

Reset

It turns out that it's harder to get your groove back than I originally realized. A few weeks of sloth (and a sweet new first person shooter Wii game) had made it hard for me to drum up the motivation to do anything active. Lucky for me, the Bath gang was heading out for a ride on New Year's Eve just as the weekend's snowstorm was rolling into town. I took the opportunity to get what might be the final single track ride for the next 3-4 months(unless Hill Junkie and I can hook up on the cape this winter). Four of us headed out only a half hour late (or right on schedule if you're going by Channing Time) just as the first flurries were starting. We were greeted with mostly bare trails at the start of the ride and somewhere between 2 & 3 inches of fresh new fluff by rides end. It was a great way to send of the old year.



Then, on Sunday, after I got warmed up by shoveling 16" of fresh snow I was psyched to get out for the year's first snow shoe adventure with the fam. It would be Brynna's first time on her own snowshoes. If you're at all interested, you can read a bit more here.