transition

if i were ambitious and more into hurting myself long term i would be at pizza ranch in hawarden right now for the start of tranny as jesse calls it. i'm not, i'm here with bronchitis and six inches of fresh snow since yesterday. either way i feel lucky, i have a full season ahead of me, and cross is always better after a good season of racing. not going into it with fewer race days. no word yet on the new single, i hope lester doesn't let me down. if he does it'll be geared rigid all season. i like that too, lining up with the fuels, blurs, epics, spiders and whatever else is newer faster and hotter, see what a good bike with a decent pilot can do?

mucus

riding didn't make the bronchitis worse but it certainly hasn't made riding any easier. no crippling antibiotics, just a good cough med and some other bits to help with breathing. a lingering cloud in my head, from the codeine i guess. not the best way to wake up but it did clear me for sleep. 8 hours, holy shit! the sky still lacks the signs of the octopus, maybe that's a late summer thing. no inky glow that i wake up to see. maybe we are too close to the solstice for the good colors in the sky. maybe i'll do an earlier ride next week, start at 4.30 and see what is out there then. i hope the extra hour is enough to see what i can't see now.

coming around

giant glasses of oj today with an even bigger bearclaw. the furnace is on high these days. i can't get enough, wait am i an athlete again? calories is the goal, a co-worker gained 7 pounds in 3 weeks, jealous? i am. tempo intervals with a cough probably wasn't the best idea, but i got it done and now i feel the work sitting in my chest, well, on my chest. i need to be able to sleep too, that's just not happening. rough when can't get it all done in the day; family, work, train, eat and rest.

426#1

pics later, words now. i slept in a little bit, unintentionally. whatever, it was more sleep. the clock doesn't lie. the cough kept me up and the drugs couldn't take me down. warm enough to ride a bike and not be chilled, maybe high 20s. no word from the big minnie in a few days, maybe today i'll take a few hits.

afternoon

it's almost gone. well, at least i hope it is, 5 days of shit, 5 days of a cough that feels like swallowing razorblades dipped in diesel. it sucks. i rode thru it, for the most part. i don't think that to be a smart move. rest days are good and the season right now has a bit of sabbatical anyway, no good races for a few weeks. reading the east coast blogs makes me jealous of the variety of events, mtn one day and road the next on weekends. the reality is that we have what they throw at us, long drives but good courses, desert style singletrack and lots of miles of highway and then a few good road events thrown in for good measure. oh well, i get to ride out my door and do 10 mtb races, that's not a luxury a lot of people have. enough bitching, life is good. i don't have to drive i-95, ever. this is what my cereal bowl sees right now:

socks

proper day on the bike, just on the sundae side of suffering, steady work but nothing awful, my cold lingers, i feel worse today, good to get in the work and feel better for a while. the body responded well, but i'm sick? wierd. lars made me pay for being lazy and not doing the quality since i got sick, rest today, enjoy yesterday's focus and warmth. we gave it socks for most of the ride, traded punches, i took my hits, i did. bigger bones gave me a few bloodies, i returned them in spades.

effect

a snowball effect of phlegm. cause and effect become an affected exposed nerve, centering not near the legs just in the shoulders. turned a few pedals yesterday to open the system to the air and to get the furnace going, too much maybe for having a cold and a bike. is it possible that they don't mix? whatever the case i feel like mediocre shit today, not full-on rubbish, sewage treatment plant shit, just sort of excrement at its most basic level.

mayo

no mayo in the coffee today, better days on the horizon, i hope. 50-50 is the best i can give it. my throat hurts, maybe the commute wasn't the best call today. oh well, better than the alternative. organic is best, keep trying to get the mix and stats straight. not that it matters at the end but getting there is key.

new day

husker du, new day rising is in my head non stop this week. i hope it brings out a good bit of energy. bob mould never got the credit he deserved. grant hart was the one getting articles written about the band, it was bob's dulcit tones that always made me smile. 1,2,3...ready?

binge and purge

nothing and now something, coffee soon, i'm cold today. maybe i'm getting sick. no, i think i'm tired. speaking of purging, i saw dr. hotplate today. she limps now, i guess you can't weigh about as much as a sack of potatoes and expect to be a functioning bi-ped. coffee is here.

my outlook

bear claw today, great few days with b, the kid rocks. all recovered from the weekend and the work that i did. might skip the race this weekend in favor of training. may is a lean race month this year, why build anything for nothing? the bear claw has given me rot gut that won't quit, i feel oddly nauseous and hungry at the same time. not 12 eggs benedict hungry, but, still hungry. the road bike is feeling so good under me these days that i can't get the idea out of my head that my new position is better than the old, i know it is supposed to be better, but it really is. i feel more powerful and smooth over the pedals. maybe four hours is all you need to go well. i just need more food now. oh, and good coffee too.

next

ok, another little break in the action, not that i had a break, the action did. saturday's road race was one i'd like to remember. 110km in the wind, not far but far enough to really empty the legs. it split on the first little rise, a minute into the race. it shattered, it went from a group of 60 to a group of 6 and group of 12, that was it, everybody else was gone. too far back even then to be seen again. a little shake up on the next 18km lap and that was how it stayed. fast, windy and a bit scary. no big deal keeping the chasers away, and we never made a dent into the break. sprinting for 5th and i go down, get 9th. not hurt just bruised.

fried

i can't quite see thru the fog today, the body feels pretty good, another good lake loop yesterday, the work is getting ticked out. coming up the valley after the ride nobody wants to stop, any chance to get another half hour, another turn of the pedals, another few k out of their legs before it snows again or the weather just turns to shit. it's funny, now i feel i can race well before cross. amazing how new faces and attitudes can help the old guys, riding with enthusiasm goes a long way. not that i'm about to blow a paycheck on a power meter and get seriousright now it's about my lack of sleep and rapid recovery for tomorrow, hopefully it's enough. i like being out there, we have a few days of real spring to warm the tundra, the sun is out and the warm ground is melting away my glacier. one more day and i may need to do some yardwork, at the very least a pretty major poop scoop. why can't dog shit melt too?

full?

i wasn't going out thinking that the ride was going to be this epic training session, i didn't believe that i had the legs for anything like that, i don't. fact. what i got was quality pace and some hill efforts that weren't too bad. no easy pace, no effort too much, steady just beyond comfortable at its easiest, and just below too much at the hardest. i'm lucky to get the opportunity to train with fast guys, full moon this morning to carry me in, after the hunger and work of yesterday, i can't seem to fill the sponge, always wanting more. pad thai last night filled me for 10 minutes, then back to being hungry, that was my second dinner too. is this training?

412

holy shit, roubaix tore me up, not as bad as the real one over there in that france but in my roubaix it was still pretty hard. i paid for my shortcomings by being sore for two days and an aching knee until yesterday. oh that and it hurt to pee until sunday morning, nothing like it. the body finally recovered after a few days with varied pace to get thru the junk lingering in the body. today the roads were dry, no black ice to derail me further. arrive at work and gather for the day, organic coffee with a spot of organic 1/2&1/2, wow life is good. love them hippies. added to which i have the first doctor hotplate sighting of the year. does she hibernate? not like she has any stores of energy, don't mammals need that to hibernate? what a trainwreck. i wonder what bearclaw would do to her? probably put her in a sugar shock sort of like the reaction when they shined the light into the guy's eyes guilty of "sloth" in the movie seven. the bike feels really good under me right now, a few tweaks are needed but overall the comfort is there. i like the way it handles rough stuff, stiff and lively.

road #2

not quite sure where i finished but the important thing is that i did. no trouble keeping the front of the bunch especially over the rough stuff, helped reel in the break and then checked out not long after, solo effort the last lap and a half to finish well down on time but i think we had spit out a fair bit of the field already. result is irrelevant, great effort to show the team i can work and the better skills go a long way. the ibke felt good, the new position works, 100k over rough dirt roads and not a trouble other than the fatigue that comes with a 100k over dirt roads. slid the front wheel on a turn at about 50 km/h over cheese grater dirt and somehow held it up, about the most excitement i had all day. good work. not bad for the second race effort of the year.

rest?

the roughest thing is that i can't get rested. sleep comes in pocket size bites, not buffet style blocks. riding in the rain/snow yesterday the legs were still loaded and crappy from the weekend, or was it from lack of good recovery? either way i am still slightly warmer than death. today: pine cones, fresh bits and bites, pillows and fresh.

evolve

cross bike with gears today in the dark, riding by braille, linking the potholes and landmarks like i'm using a sextant. following the right way to get to the lit side of town. i'm pretty good at it, lots of practice. the snow is fading away from the road sides, soon there will be no relfective light, better get the lights ready. wierd how midwinter i can get by without lights but early spring it's all about proper illumination. get the flasher ready for seatpost too, long evening rides that finish too late, like getting stuck picking up your light's pieces in a covered bridge after dark with 30k still to go. dodging roadkill and potholes with nothing but the brief help of the car's headlights passing at 100 km/h on roads with a shoulder as wide as a tire. why didn't we develop better night vision? evolution let us down there.

first one

i survived the first weekend of racing, cross is a long way off, not that it has much to do with a road race in april but it was cross-like northern classic weather. super windy and not so warm, it was a good thing to be ready for the echelons. i did the smart things and kept the main group until the legs gave up. and they gave up-hard. i was caught by a chase group and finished with them in the safety and shelter of smarter riders. after my 3 hour+ day i was ready for a hot shower and a sandwich. not much i could do about the lack of juice in the legs, more about learning to save the matches for when it matters. i think i'm finally recovered, i slept last night, no ghosts waking me when i don't want the company. i need to figure out saturday, another 100k over dirt roads, what bike, what food?