i lost yesterday, the snow didn't stop all day and by the time i could have gone out it was too late. a work thing for shaubie in a painful happy hour setting. the only good thing about it was the chance to talk about music, other than that i hate gatherings. the bike sat dormant, i hate that, single today, too much ice on the road to ride the other. the legs are ok, just need a few more long days and i'll feel great. maybe fruita soon, clear out the shit and energize the whole system. at least i had blue water today, not a total loss, good to have some of the better things in life. weak breakfast, i need more food!!!

north sea

i feel weak, not in a lack of strength sort of way, but in a callow weak-willed way. also i'm starting to think of the cross program and perhaps not considering a race until july or august. stage races are supposed to be great for gaining form and getting the legs going really well for later events but what if you lack the prep for the race itself it kind of defeats before it starts. so, i ride because i love the biek and then if i get a chance to skate a cool park or go ride with friends without any plan of racing great! i think all of this is brought on by the consistently cold weather we have been having, cold isn't bad, but consistently wet is, i am so friggin' cold after nearly every ride. cold i'm accustomed to, wet sucks. enough whining. i still get great satisfaction out of riding in the shit, i get home wet and a little chilly and i can't get over how good i feel about it, i know everybody else is out there suffering in it too, but i feel special when i get home, tired and ready for a hot shower. the weather makes me stronger, not worrying about the bike or the snow, i know in november it will matter what i did, it does matter just not now, it's work for down the road. stay warm and dry today.

cold blanket

i guess it's not so much an april surprise as standard fare. yesterday after work i got a good two hours with tim climbing little hills. we stayed warm that way. the bike feels great and the body is responding well after my break. weird weather though, spots of stiff hail/snow and then around the bend, sun. today in my fog as i rolled the road machine out of the house i didn't notice the flat rear tire, bad news, i had to fish the single out of the shed in the dark and change my shoes. but i got some work done on it after getting to work. no more studded front tire and sort of cleaned it up a bit. the cold blanket of snow didn't really change much, it was snowing/raining as we went to bed and the roads were just wet as i took the fast way in after wasting time changing shoes and bikes. snowing pretty steadily now, i wish i went to the gila, i could use the penance.

early

it's that time of year, there's enough light with the help of the moon i don't need lights to see the fox looking for breakfast or to find my way across the still frozen ground, into town and on to work. i wonder what a fox would do if he found a warm plate of scrambled eggs, toast and bacon? are they skeptics? would he think it too good to be true and walk off without eating? or would he sit down and enjoy a fine meal. still cold fingers fight to work the brakelevers and keep the headphones in, they act as miniearmuffs, keeping the wind out of my ears. cold refreshing air helps to keep me awake and adds motivation for the day.

still tired

i'm still fighting the fatigue, i can't shake it, it feels like last august all over again, but that led to a great cross season. maybe this will do the same, rest and mellow rides and then a good summer on the trails/paths. looking at the summer races, maybe the firecracker and the crested butte 100, that's about it. the one in cb is a free race, pretty cool, they give you the course and then send you out with a pat on the ass. check out the title link (click on "still tired") for races to challenge yourself a little more than you should, hell of a lot longer than a cross race.

quick

i scored a 15 minute session at silverthorne before it started to snow again. concrete intimidates me. i need to get over this issue, as if there weren't enough issues to get over already. oddly my ollies are coming around, not over stuff just to skate, it feels good! sitting here enjoying a 90 shilling and thinking about how the first race i care about is 5+ months out, life is good.

rest

aren't you supposed to feel better after a rest week? i still feel blown out. i did get to skate a cool park yesterday, the skills aren't great but skating was still really fun. carving comes slowly when you are slow, i'm slow. shaubie and i rode almost two hours, i was rockin' the fixy, no crashes, that'll come.

tired

I can't believe how tired I am, I hope I'm not getting sick. All the riding today was a short spin around and some work to get home, nothing major, just turning the pedals, energy or not the most glorious activity, plodding along under my own power. I'm trying to be better about tkaing the camera with me on the rides to get photos of cool stuff I see. Today around noon I saw a big fox just walk past the front door of work. weird. trolling for lunch I bet. Finally a pic of singlespeed cross.

sky

The animals hid today except for a black cat that crossed my path just before getting to work, bad luck? I never thought that to be a bad thing, is it worse luck if a bigger cat crosses in front? What about a panther? New stuff on the pod kept me awake, falling asleep on the bike would be bad. I wonder if the animals don't always want to be seen, watching me as I go by without me seeing them. The rest week is doing me well, sitting on gumballs doesn't feel too good and it's day 5. I still need to catch up on sleep, getting up at 5 doesn't allow for a whole lot of recovery.

something

something about blue water when you get a string of good days. that rare cup of really good coffee that can change your day from good to better. perfect lunch with just enough food to make the afternoon tolerable. days with an end not the days that drag on, little things that make life better.

It's back

the weather that had the mud frozen yesterday on my little poach of some singletrack turned into full on winter last night. an inch or two of fresh, singlespeed cross got me in easily. I even saw some tracks going off into the field of a rabbit, then a fox. I'd stopped to adjust the pod and looked to see two sets of tracks over the fresh snow, not sure who was first. I'm waiting for the squirrels to start, i wonder if they talk to the octopus that colors the sky early in the day. they may debate over who does more work, the octopus who gives the sky it's early morning inky glow or the squirrel who mocks us as we suffer up the singletrack off the CT. usually i have to be way out there for the mocking to happen, not too happy to have bikes and people rolling thru their neighborhood. i prefer the work of the octopus, never the same color, always working to give the sky a new shade of indigo. today the fresh layer of snow must have chilled even him a bit because the sky was darker than it seemed in a few days, hiding the moon, letting only a few stars shine thru.

sneaking

i scored a spot of singletrack tonight, only one area of mud, no damage. singlespeed cross was perfect. then i hit up the skate park in weather that was more suited for the terrain park up on the hill. a few little traicks to get the bugs out from a winter off the board and only brusied my hand once, little victories.

Another project in the works, selling the road machine in favor of a stiffer one. Maybe I can survive a shrine pass loop on a road bike? Better ride sew-ups that day. Almost 9 hours of sleep last night, the body feels a bit foggy from it. Great ride yesterday with B, we went ot frisco and back, pretty short day over all except for the wind on the way home. Stiff enough to barely make it back in time for lunch for him. We flew down there, downhill tailwind and then paid for it home, good resistance work, kind of like lifting on the bike, anything to stay out of the weight room. All afternoon I was seeing things, shadows looked like spills, hands looked like birds flying too close in my periphery. I wondered if I was just really tired or if my eyes were playing tricks from the wind we rode thru to get home on the ride. If it doesn't snow today I'm going to skate for a while. I need a change of pace for a day or two. Base remember?

no big deal

so armstrong is done after the 2005 tour and tyler is done for two years. any bets on who wins the grand boucle this year?

tempo

I have avoided being really cold for a few days. It's so refreshing to not be chilly on a ride, in winter it feels good to do my work and have that bite in the air, now that it's spring I like to be warm the whole time. I think I'm getting soft. Blue water today. Sore legs from four days of work. I almost hit the rottweiler that chased me a few months back in the vw the other day. I was going into town and he/she jumped out into the street and I had to swerve to miss it. I hate it when people don't take care of their pets. It gave a me a good little scare when it chased me while riding the single.

Friday

What is the greasy film that sits on top of a mocha? Should I be afraid of it? Recovery ride to get over the previous two days. I love accepting that I'm still in base. Longer days without any hard work, just tempo climbing. Looking at my training journal from two years ago was pretty bad, i had 5000k by this point then, not the less than 2000k I have right now. Time to get to work. I'm ok with it, the cross program remember? I flared out so bad in the '03 cross season, not this year. I hope.

blue

blue water two days in a row, like the first few hours on a new set of tires. very nice. rolling along the paths good music just for me. sun warming not much of a worry, taking in the late winter sun and fading snow. the lake is still frozen.

moving up

Longer ride yesterday, for me at least. 80k with a good chunk of climbing, the ride up to Montezuma was great, quiet pace up the hill without any red zone. getting up there it reminded me of the town from Northern Exposure weird kitschy but very grounded...on the surface. They even have a radio station now, the purple house that Joey K used to live in with the sign on the window reading KMZM 96.5 I wonder what music they play. Jalapeno's for dinner last night, dirty bird burrito for me, super tasty! I was a lot warmer today on the trip in, being more rugged up helped. Bearclaw from Daylight, to fill my belly as if the burrito last night wasn't enough to recover from the ride. A former world champ once said "a donut every now and then when you're training isn't a bad thing!" I guess my twice a month treat won't make me slower, I hope.

Better

I love how after some good training I can see the improvements in form. Yesterday the legs were there, good tempo around the lake and up to Keystone before climbing Swan. I like waiting a bit longer to put in the time. I never realize until it's too late that I can't hope to keep up with the Front Range racers. Every year I bang my head against the wall, two years ago I did it before B came along but now I'd rather be home with he and shaubie. That spring was great, I did the time and had form through early summer. I'd rather be on the cross program, ride for fun, race without pressure then do the work late summer for the big season! I just enjoy riding so much right now. Elefant and Filter in my ears yesterday, motivated me enough to climb just below the rivet. Life is good. Three great days with B, pool on Monday for almost two hours, rolling through the grocery afterward we both almost fell asleep! Tuesday we had a more mellow day with a lot of work on my glacier in the driveway. He's a slave driver, we could have chipped at it for hours. His words are getting so clear, I can get most of them on the first try. He's so cool!!!

Sunday

The storm that was supposed to dump a few feet up here never really came, six inches max. Just a spring dusting. I love weather forecasters. I keep seeing things out of the corner of my eye that aren't there, my peripheral vision is playing tricks on my brain. Weird. Does that mean anything? Or just crazy? Roubaix was today, no big surprise in the winner. Good show by the Disco team, maybe next year, Georgie only has a few left. He won't win it though, too much work going into Tour prep to help out the leaders.

capricious

Four good days of training and now we get the storm of the century or something like that. Calling for a foot plus tonight and then more tomorrow. They cancelled Sunday's race on Friday. I love the Rockies, no telling what the weather will bring. I'm doing the time, two hours a day, sometimes more. I feel good, a sign that I'm not just pedaling, the work is getting done and I'm feeling the effects of it. Lots of dirt road stuff right now to avoid the sleepy late winter drivers not looking for cyclists. Maybe in a week the paths will be clear enough to ride without getting off or straightlining it through the snow banks.

getting there

Sometimes I wish I didn't enjoy the road stuff as much as I do. It would be so much easier to ride without purpose until late July and then start it up through late summer for cross. The reality is I do enjoy it and want to go well. The last two days have been really good, Wednesday was a good hard day, Thursday a better long day with the boys. I guess the cars are being nice right now because there is less traffic overall in the county. Less volume and more room for people on bikes.

icy

road bikes and icy roads can get along. the 8 inches of snow yesterday then a sunny afternoon cleared and warmed the tarmac enough that today it was select patches of ice instead of a sheet of it. new stuff on the pod and a little extra time gave me a chance to ride a bit to enjoy the chilly morning. good to be out on the bike feeling like a cyclist again.

improve yourself

i feel the drive now. for a few weeks i was lacking motivation, sunday cured that almost 100%. i still feel like i'm lacking power and i think it's called fitness, yeah, i'm lacking that too. the efforts need to come thick and fast and the fitness will follow. i hope.

koppenburg

yesterday was my first road race and the only road race in colorado until late spring. weird how a state with such a history of road racing doesn't have any at all. it was kind of hard, about a 10k lap with a 20% grade short climb on it, nine times up the hill and carnage all over the first few laps as guys fought for position on the course. half dirt with potholes big enough to swallow a wheel. friends and former teammates were pretty bloodied early on, i guess staying upright didn't make me faster. i didn't get lapped and i rode pretty well, though slow.

rolling

single cross was good yesterday but the roads were too icy to really ride, wednesday was better, just snow. i didn't get hit which was a surprise to me. good workout on the rollers last night as the snow restarted. i watched liege-bastogne-liege from 2001, won by the now retired doper oscar camenzind. cruel tricks for april fool's day. 0 degrees and sheets of ice. something about an egg sandwich and a good oj for breakfast. the food made the commute a little easier, warming me from the inside out after getting to work. i'm getting ready for a few warm days and some time outside without all of the layers. today i needed the good jacket, it was too damp and cold for a little shell and wool cycling jacket.