Dreamed I was an Eskimo...

We got out today for a good couple few hours worth of snow riding. I think we only received mean laser eyes from a motorist once. I can't imagine how irritated he would have been had we actually impeded his progress or endangered him in some way. We couldn't have been more hated had we been having a gay pride parade in Tulsa. Flipping someone off with lobster mitts on doesn't work so well.

Hey speaking of hate, I can't believe how much of this kind of filth I hear from WORS people in our little blue island. Sad. Another blog in the trash can.

Freakin Magical

Earlier in December when it snowed for a week solid I was pretty pumped about Xmas. Rowan is the perfect age to get into it this year. By the 17th or so I was pretty much over it.

My "spirit" was rekindled however, when Rowan began asking questions to clarify the Santa story. He will be 4 in March, and he already thinks the story doesn't smell right. "Why does he come down the chimney, why doesn't he just knock on the door?" All said it did turn out to be pretty god damned magical. We sat up in bed while listening to Rowan come down the stairs on Xmas morning. He might be a born skeptic, but for now he is enchanted by the magic, or at least enchanted by the idea that he gets a bunch of cool stuff.

Speaking of cool stuff. Sheri decided that I haven't been a complete bastard this year and that I deserved a PowerTap for Xmas. She said something about loving and supporting me, and then mumbled something else about putting minutes on the Goat and no excuses. I am a big fan of numbers. Unfortunately, the day I set it up I was also stricken with an ear infection that knocked me on my ass. So I have a toy I haven't been able to play with yet. I'll be sure to post my numbers here when I have them so that everyone knows how slow I am.

Enough about stuff. I feel like my family, my racing, and my career have all come a long way in 2007. Now that I have Sheri hooked, we have a family of racers itching to take a bite out of 08. It has been good and it will only get better. I hope to see you all out there.(all 3 of you)

Slacker for Hire

I love working for a European company. These people know how to not work. After 3pm tomorrow, Bruker is CLOSED until Jan 2nd. This means I have some time to get all kinds of stuff done that I have been allowing to pile up. Here is some of that stuff, not necessarily in this order:

• Finish up a bunch of girly stuff like hanging curtains and decorating the house.


• True up 8-12 wheels that need it.


• Clean the early November mud from the Kona.


• Ship a BB back to Phil for a rebuild.


• Finish building up the Raleigh as the winter trail bike. Bleed the brakes and dig up a seat post clamp.


• Complete about 15 hours of training.


• Get both cars washed.


• Remember to call the Dish people about the 6 months free HD.


• Drink some beer.


• Install the 105 stuff that came off the cross bike on Sheri's Jamis.


• Strip the cheesy black paint from my White ind crank arms.


• Install new Hydro hose on the Kona.


• Shave the cat.


• 12 other bike maintenance related things that I can't remember.


• Accept Jesus as my lord and savior.


• Watch football.


• Play Santa.


• Drink more beer.


• Finally figure out how to setup zones on my Polar 720, and why the software is all jacked up.


• Sell some crap on Ebay.

If in late February I haven't posted anything new, it is because I bled to death attempting to shave the cat.

Climbing back up to Zero

Being sick for a month pretty much obliterated much of my planned prep work. Saturday's 3hour snow ride and an hour in the trainer last night have me feeling ready to move on since I was able to complete both rides without extended coughing fits. This leaves me with not quite 3 weeks of prep time before Base to attempt 3 different peak periods through the WORS series. Following a Friel type plan last year was working out great for me until injuries kind of derailed my season. Reality of course says that ANY riding, with or without structure would have helped me last year, but I was really doing it to accustom myself to a plan. 2008 however, won't show me the huge % increase that 2007 did without sticking to a plan. So far 08 is looking like this:

Can't see it? Well, that's a shame. Whatever. I believe that over extension provides some heuristic function. I also enjoy plastering colorful things to look at around my work place. The great thing about using Excel for your training plan is that it looks like you are working. Want to geek out on your training? Read the book, and check here for the spreadsheet.

Face Forward

I woke up this morning and felt like this:I still have some residual crap in my system, but I can get back on the bike now and start breaking it down for 08'. It wasn't quite the transition period I had planned, but I can say that having a plan to deviate from is a step up from having no plan at all. So for prep it is back to weights and stuff. When I say stuff I mean I actually read one of the Carmichael workouts in the B mag that I liked. The one hour weight loss workout is just what I was looking for to add some intensity to prep and base while also being stationary trainer friendly. I have a goal race weight of around 138-142. If my mitochondria are multiplying supermen by base, I should be able to get there.

Hibernation

It is cute that family members are concerned that my readership(HA!) may drop off if I don't update. It isn't easy to get excited about posting when you have nothing to say but how sick you have been and how fat and slow you feel. This is supposed to be my foundation, and I am wasting it waiting for my lungs to cease spewing forth. It used to be that I could sit, glance down and see my legs involuntarily twitch. Now I look down to see only my feet kicking up the blanket to cover my scooby pants. So I am still 15lbs over race weight, I can't ride since I have below the neck symptoms, but I kind of have a cool new job at work. I am only hoping that December isn't completely wasted.

Nice trails and Viking Cross

November has been slow so far, but not as slow as I have been. I hit blue mound with the Kona the last two weekends and I think it is dialed finally. Big nasty Rampages front and back plus the rigid carbon goodness. All I plan on touching on the bike through next season is the pressure and the ratio. Hit up the Viking Cross race in Stoughton today. They had what they called the Wisconsin single speed cyclocross championship. 14 of us showed up and I rolled in at 9th. I didn't really warm up and popped again but the 38x16 sure felt nice. I still need to learn something about pacing for these CX races. The course was the cats arse. Lots of fast cornering with the rear always threatening to break loose. The new purple and orange Chainsmoker colors felt pretty fast, but again, I have no late season speed to lay down anymore. Afterward we hit up the Scandinavian burritos and drank some nasty sweet beer. I know it is just plain un-American to complain about free beer, but dude, it tasted like fruit.

Scooby Doo!

I think he might be more of a scrappy.

There is singletrack around here somewhere.

I got to spend quite a bit of time in the woods on my bike all alone this weekend. Even though the trails at Blue Mound were almost completely obscured by fallen leaves, it was one of my favorite sessions this year. It's easy to take sweet trail conditions for granted in July, but these days every moment spent in the woods carving turns feels like it could be the last for a while; making them that much sweeter. While it was so fun and fast I caught myself drooling at times, I couldn't help but to think that I should have been jumping over coffins in a diaper. Seemed like a no-brainer to me.

Bill and Ted's Most Excellent Adventure

Not being completely absorbed by all things bike, I've been thinking about other things that have me looking forward to next year. I think about next year's presidential election like an 8 year old thinks about Christmas(oh sorry, the holidays). When I think about it I'm taken over by a wave of 90's nostalgia. The times when the pants were obnoxiously baggy, pop music was quirky and cute in a slovenly way, naughty presidents only got themselves in trouble, and "liberal" wasn't a dirty word.

If the 90's had a baseball card it would be easy to put up ol' Bill as the face of the decade, but as Prez his actions were too guarded(in public anyway) to be as adorable as he is capable of. My pick would have to be Ted Turner.

"Men should be barred from public office for 100 years in every part of the world...The men have had millions of years where we've been running things. We've screwed it up hopelessly. Let's give it to the women"

Ted was a good old fashioned liberal kicker of asses. He is the grampa I would love to have. "Grampa, tell me about how North Korea is a good country because they all ride bikes." Mainstream media has been nutless since he lost control of CNN and allowed Murdoch to set the tone. Just to get a taste again, I feel like wading through all the FIBs just to get myself a Bison steak.