spring?

two more days in eternal spring. the legs weren't so happy day one and day two brought better focus on a solo day. sunday the legs just didn't open up. good work anyway. solo in the wind on monday made for a good ride in the weather that i wish we had at home. even suffering in the wind was better than the mind-numbing rollers. today back to ice chipping and shoveling. rollers or maybe a fixt ride.

ahead

pedaling slowly towards the spot i know i need to be. bart wellens said that he likes to do everything slow in the off season. i appreciate that, i ride the single around at the pace of a singlespeed, fast enough to not fall over but not too fast, it's way too icy for that. it feels good to arrive at march in pretty good shape, lots of work yet to get going for road but not too much catching up. life is good.

sleep

it hurt when my eyes opened and i realized that i wasn't going to be sleeping anymore. i have thought for a while i would get used to the hour of wake up. i haven't. four years of pre 5 am ups and i'm no more used to it now than i was before. at least getting out on the bike is motivating, if i oversleep and i have to rush the commute it takes away from the joy and beauty of rolling the bike across the tundra to work. that's never good, a rushed ride is not the way to start off the day. now i'm slowly embracing the day, lucky me, i have a mocha today, that doesn't suck. and for now i have one less bike and one less set of wheels.

odin

more indian food last night than i should have taken in, no, not maize. trying to sleep on a stomach that full made for wierd dreams. i think the curry affects my dreamstate. the squirrels biting at my spokes on the way in weren't really there, the giant donut was a figment of my imagination. i didn't even get to eat a small one. that whole thing is working, donuts with the kid is the only time they are eaten. i was going a bit too far with the free "eat what you want b/c you rode license." it gives me more time at 5 am with my muesli and ebay.

hands

i'm down to one pair of gloves that's worth a snot. the shortened nordic session on monday meant the round file for another pair. yesterday riding thru the slush of northern colorado made me appreciate the beauty of my one pair of good gloves. i can deal with chilly weather but sometimes the hands just don't heat up and then i become a miserable, crying infant. i keep thinking about my stand-up routine that i haven't yet done. i have the jokes in a good order and figure it's probably 5 minutes of material i just need to get off my ass and go somewhere to try it out. hmmmmm, pattern here? lazy ass? try? i feel a breakthrough, my training is moving into other aspects of life aside from the bike. it's about time. i feel good about most of it.

monde

great little ski this morning before anything. it's time for new gloves, i like this whole purging process, everytime i use some old piece of gear (usually a pair of gloves) that sucks i throw it out. anothe one bit it today. good show. the three inches if fresh i skiied thru made for slow skiing but it was pleasant and quiet out there, silent sports.

superstitious

i don't know if it is superstition or just wierdness but sometimes i feel like it's best to stockpile luck. today, i rode in with the mittens on to ward off whatever cold i could but then later on 11 hours it wasn't nearly as cold. i found one lighter neoprene glove in my pack but not the other and then another yoko glove, one was a right, the other left, i didn't want them to form a pair. i thought it would bring me a turn of bad luck at some point in the rest of the day. it hasn't so far. we'll see what happens.

weekend

half way thru blue water today, spooky thoughts on the way to work, cold day for the single on the hill, need a bigger gear to get the heat pump up and running, too short of a ride when i take the short cut. the hill chills me way too much. well at least i rode. photos up from the week later this weekend.

217

blue potato pasta with extra spicy italian sausage. maybe tonight. colder than snot today. too cold to really enjoy the ride aside from the fact that i got to ride single cross. i threw away one pair of gloves this week, but it's not over yet. icy roads now black iced and not as snowpacked, like i-70 to copper the other day with 3 rollovers between frisco and the area. it's getting better, i feel the end of the rope, not too far off. california starts on sunday, ready, steady, go.

216

my eyes hurt today. not from riding yesterday or the dry air at 12,377 feet on top of tucker mtn but the snow coming in this morning. my glasses fogged up so fast i couldn't wear them, so squinty-eyed i descended and rolled across town to work. 5 inches in town, pretty fun on the cross bike. the ghosts are still nagging me, no haunting here, just nagging. get out, get onto a new thing, it's not that hard. pure sweet hell is going to get another viewing today, it was so damn good i can't wait to watch it again. great commentary, unreal footage, but i'm biased, i'm a crosser.

in season

got out on the snowboard today, rode the snowcat to the top of tucker mtn. windswept mostly but the leeward slopes were pretty perfect. off the summit ridge was even better, pockets of great snow not skiied off at all. we got the last cat out of the valley to get up top to the good stuff. it felt great to be on the board, learning to tele has been cool but it felt great to be confident and competent on the snow. nothing crazy but really good high speed runs off the summit ridge between bowls, really fun stuff. on the way home i borrowed pure sweet hell
and got motivated all over again to train. it couldn't be farther from cross season right now but i'm ready for the change in the air, the crisp runs that make me want to puke. the taste of vomit and blood in the throat. the feeling that makes me smile. not too far off is road season, keeping the racing fun until fall, then the work will count and pay off. i hope.

lunchtime better

i guess sometimes self-loathing leads to a good lunch. great bst, the house didn't smell like cat shit or pig. good bread and mayo, mayo rules, it makes everything better. a good sandwich is the key to making life complete. at least if you are already having a shitty day.

more

the feet feel the ground benaeth that make the life better and get better and better as the process goes on. how bout getting over yourself, you pay the price for your own shiftlessness in the 90s with a crappy place right now professionally. not too bad the family is what matters and gets me up and in there most mornings. walking thru the place gives me a warm feeling, the solution is there, the process can get better. fuck filters for right now, i still hate those buzz-word management techniques, i;m not smart enough to take those as helpful, i hate hearing all of that shit, the pauses in all the right places and the message hammered over my thick skull like so many suburban bumpers. everything turns gray.

motivation

i feel trapped on only one level. maybe take a sebatical and study for three months and get a job. i think it's doable, beats going to a job that bores me with the sole motivation of staying out of trouble. time for a bit introspection i guess. could be worse, i could have to drive all day. the job really isn't the worst thing, i feel myself getting dumber there, i need to save all the i.q. points i can, there's not a whole lot left! i know that's not bad considering what some people have to go thru in this world. at least i can go home and forget about it. short day tomorrow, ride one way or another, fruita looks good, one day road trip? i feel better about road season, no mtb season for a long time up here, 9 feet of snow takes a while to melt. spicy my thai last night, good stuff. no ring of fire yet. cashew chicken is very good at warming the body after a crappy ski session, my shoulders were not happy. i just need a set of wheels. to get thru the road season, abandoning the sale of the road bike, i'll wait, it's a great bike no need to unload it this season. maybe i'll win some road events and get a freebie next season.

blue sky

yesterday the sky had that color i have only noticed here in colorado. it was the perfect day to do my longest ride in a few years, it was all quality though, 6 hours about 170km. really good work, the kind of work that pays off later on in the season. looking up a few times to see what the cloudless sky looked like was what made the ride better and better. good company the whole way, a few hills and plenty of pace in the middle part of the ride. tom and i caught the group just on the north edge of boulder and rolled with them to the lake of tom's name. fast but manageable. saw a few superstars in the bunch, chatted a bit at 60 km an hour before it got quiet to ramp up the pace, a few turns on the front in the wind and then i exited as i still had a few hours to ride and didn't want to limp the rest of the way back. plenty warm the whole way, overdressed again, good to be warm and a bit sticky, i sure did smell bad when i finished. i can dream the lawyer cheney shot had shot back at him, that would have been great! a dead heart attack man, how great a thought.

i lack discipline on many levels, i should have been in bed at 8.30 last night but again i was stupid and it was 9.30 before sleep. i can only imagine how good it would feel to be trained and rested. the weather right now is like a science project. -20something. it seems odd to go out and instantly realize just how awful it is. i can't wait for mexico, three weeks from tommorow, beers on the beach. waves right off shore. wheels are up on the auction block, buy them. cross bike or road bike up on there in the next week or so.

29+1

the ennui or ague is getting to me today, i think i'll take a day or part of one. i like that. it makes me feel good to have that up my sleeve. i'd like to get some of the rounded edges squared by the end of the weekend. doubtful, at least i can get four hours on sunday.

paid

every pause was just right and every example was perfectly tailored to illustrate the point. wtf? the scam these people have going is brilliant, paid public speakers, they talk at you for 90 minutes and then have you do a neat little excercise to tie together what they just said for them. maybe that's where the examples came from, more bullshit. modern snake oil salesman, remember what george said? "it's not a lie if you believe it. i at least got the errands almost done for the week, finish up today. more bites on the weblistings, nothing too solid right now. maybe the market is flooded? between this and the other i'll take the donut. how hard could it be? at least i got in a little spin on the bike.

motorist vs. courier

this is out of hand. i can see my anger getting me in the same situation as the courier in this case. read the article i think i agree 100% with the courier. big shock there. crazy canucks anyway.

tyred

no comcast yesterday so i couldn't write up the ride from the other day. four hours, 100k+ sunny balmy eternal spring. it's so weird, 10 minutes from the tunnel and you're in a different world, might as well be a different state. sunny and nearly 60 degrees. more this sunday, almost feels like i'm getting it done slowly. i ripped the sidewall on one of my brand new tires, kind of bummed about that, i'll try to boot it before i replace, sucks, less than a week, four rides, two of them on the rollers. they are pretty supple, worth trying to save. riding slowly in the sun was the ticket, bundled up enough to work up a sweat i never saw results from master's worlds but i saw grill and he said that the marketing guy at moots came 10th. holy shit! motivation for a race 11 months away. cariveau is a stud, i need to find a way to save for that trip. maybe. more pressing issues right now, figuring out what i'll do this summer. what i need for equipment, selling the old stuff. the kid is so amazing, he really blows my mind how sharp he is. the perfect combination, i want to be inside his head, see and hear what is going on. watch the tumbler click and have the once abstract concept clarify in his mind's eye.

better

i don't get it, is it really that hard? wtf? at least i get a chance to ride every now and then. i'm working on it. not too far off, that will get it all complete. the pieces fit. i think i found the right puzzle. it all seems a little better now that i know i have the right pieces. four hours goes a long way.

i tried to shoot the thought but the thought sunk

two catepillars are sitting in a tree, first one says to the second one "what are you eating?" #2 replies "hot dogs" first one says "huh, i do need to look into insurance." #2 says "well, carpet cleaner would be nice right now." got outside on the bike today. photos of the new single will be up this week. super burrito, good stuff, mole, no not a mole, as in the rodent-like creature, but mow-LAY burrito, the mexican stewed chicken that has chocolate and molasses baked in. the good shit. pretty impressive quantity of food to shove into my jersey for the last bit of the ride, along with a bottle of coke. the good life, high fructose corn syrup and mole chicken.

2406

today i get the new shoecovers ordered. too cold for nothing over the shoes today. at least i'm not stuck on the bridge it could be a lot worse. weekend projects are getting on my list. setting up the cross bike for singlespeeding and the listing of the road bike. good projects for sure. no ring of fire yet, pad thai last night.

sequence

the bugs wake me early and force me to sleep in late. not too late, just late enough that i do less in the day. the pieces fit and i just need to understand that it's best to stand and shut up. less friction. i try to bite the tongue and let it go. no sense in making things harder. it's already bad enough turning off that independent thought alarm. the fork sold. ship it today. list the road bike and see what's up. more stuff to list, cross bike after that. doing business to d omore business, i like the give and take of small-scale capitalism, supply and demand. keys to success fit in the pocket of the opportunist. even though for me success is a new bike for less than what it should cost and even less whne i liquidate stuff that shouldn't be in the shed in the first place. this is the second day in a row i have worn socks with marilyn monroe on them. random sequence of socks flowing thru my drawer. odd. not as odd as my spongebob socks and underwear on the same day a year or so ago. that was weird. enjoy the day, it could be worse, listen to some good music that doesn't suck. maybe some marcy playground and minor threat.

etoile

about a foot or so last night and then blue water. two times to get it all down, that much is going to make the day easier. still not rested, last night really hurt me. trying so hard to get it all together, shuffling parts and then the trick of getting it listed. stuff i would have done earlier had i thought it would make a difference. nobody wants to buy a bike in december. the brakes on the single feel great, new cables make a bike feel brand new. i forget how big a difference it makes. then build up the cross bike as a single for the rest of winter and wait for the new one to arrive. projects will be finished for the week tonight. little french tonight see how far i can get in all of this. wait for the nordic centers to catch up with the snowfall and hit it tomorrow.

cafe

new day, husker du in my head, new day rising, bob mould's voice is one of those super-distinct defining sounds. that band would have been so much less without it. grant hart no way could have carried the vocal load. had my coffee now i feel a bit better, the key being the scavenged pop tarts chased by second rate coffee fixins' i have enough chemicals running thru my body to embalm an elephant. i would rather not think about what i did to my body today, too much guilt. no donut though. makes me think of billy bob, he eats an organic diet, drinks only the best juices and generally takes great care of himself so that me may smoke marlboro and drink miller with less guilt. jeff had a good post, more philospophical than some of his others but as usual a healthy dose of science thrown in for good measure. think about it.

in it

i had the furnace rolling yesterday, not too far to get tired but plenty far to push the legs. lots of climbing in proportion to how far we rode. eternal spring. had good solo time in the wind, that always makes me feel good. too hot still on the overnight to sleep under the covers, i'm still warm now. the body is responding well to all the different stuff. shaubie and i skinned up monday morning and then we skiied at the nordic center in the pm with b. he rocked the nordic boards. 15 minutes of skiing for the kid, pretty impressive for his first time on skis. pulling him in the sled brought a new level of effort to skating. 10k was all i could do of that, then shaubie learned to skate, the no pole drill hooked her on it. she's going again today. tele, tour, skate and ride, hard to beat this winter for general work. i did it again yesterday, went to denver without my wallet, i really felt dumb and hungry after the ride, i got lucky the mob boys hooked me up with food and much needed supplies. the single is ready and the road bike maybe on the block soon too.