Déjeuner

Lunchtime cross practice today, not the big work of the a.m. practice in Boulder but it'll have to do to tune the system for the first test of the season. Next week or the week after I'll get down there, good work and better for the legs nad system than I could hope for up here. We still managed a good helping of effort. Saturday will be good, it's gonna hurt like hell! The bike felt great, tracking well and supple over the rough stuff. Ready, steady, go.

Uncooked

I got to sleep last night slower than normal but not the full on ghosts bouncing around my head. I felt like I had the worst case of half-somnia. I'm riding well and feel like I can get the first races out of the way with minimal stress. The one bike is great the other needs a touch of help. We'll see. I don't eat twinkies but I do know they aren't cooked, odd. Is it dairy? I like dairy.

lower

It was warmer today and so was I. Good stuff will do that for you, thanks wah report. I could have gone around the lake if I had the time today. Middle 20s or so. Saturday is close, I can feel it. The legs are ready, one more session tomorrow and that'll be it. Good work to get home last night, one longer block of low LT, solid. Too much snow to get out on the fat tires though, maybe in a few more days wit the temps hitting 60 I have a chance of a couple days of nice stuff before the season is really done.

a.m.

Time to break out the big guns, low 20s today, I think apparently not too cold if you have the right gear as Jared does. I need to dig it out for sure tonight. The fingers are still a bit desiccated three hours after. I'll gather the good gear tonight for tomorrow, get around the lake before work for good measure. I feel better, the bug or whatever ailment Brian served me up is out of the park. The nice hot massaman cleared the field last night. Curry is good for what ails you. Saturday starts it. Ready, set?

Issues

I know this is crazy but I feel like a few things are happening. After being sick on Friday and not riding for a few days I have feeling that my form is being eaten away exponentially the less I am out there. The body will not hang onto a shred of fitness if I don't get out there and train. This is false, I think. I drove to work, now I feel like I lack the dedication to get back all the form I lost from not riding a few days due to the snow (two feet) and the ague. Maybe I can negotiate the body into gaining a few pounds and getting faster by resting a day or two. The trick is always to approach from what can WE gain from this. Not what are we losing and how bad is saturday going to hurt. The first test is then, 5 days away from the first one of the year. Ready, set?

Too early

Over the spot of ague that haunted me thru the end of the week and now I get to avoid the snow for a few days and favor the dry (like) path for a two hour turn. A few patches of snow to run or hydro-ice the bike over made the running feel good. No cross this weekend, Hit the first ones next week. Then a Boulder ride mid week to fire up the engine. Three days off isn't a bad thing if you go all the way, almost three months right? Not a time to worry about missing a few days. As long the time used is worth the time spent. Ready, set?

Haunt

Two straight nights of snow with a day of it in between has the motivation high and the expectations low. I know it'll melt off in a few days. I spent the first three days of the week doing the work but the ghosts still yell "You will be slow, you cannot get off and on the bike smoothly. Drift? Bullshit, you never could and never will." I'll show them, run today, smooth out the pattern and get on the rollers. Better than the rest.

3

The more I manage to get in the less ghosts I have to see. Riding makes the demons avoid me. I'm stronger the weaker I am, the more I ride the better it is. I sleep well and fly through the night.

Rilo

Amazing ride, new rig was great, rolling on good trails and a perfect late afternoon to commute by singletrack. Point and shoot was about all it took to get the bike home. Rilo Kiley on the pod synched perfectly with my ride, tempo matched mood matched effort. Life is good.

Piles

I think an old Talking Heads song that has a line that goes "

I can see my lifetime piling up I can see the days turn into nights I can see the people on the street Open those windows up A hundred floors below me Pilin' those houses up Pilin' them higher, higher, higher I can feel them swayin' back and forth Building it higher, higher - This tower's learning over

Sometimes I feel like that. I like it, the world seems to move at an even pace these days, a bit fast at times but even. New ride tonight, pics to follow.

Hands

Sometimes I wish I had giant hands to grab whatever I need to from across the room or the path. To be able to get the most done with the least amount of effort. That would make rides like today harder. The first two were cold and if I was the only person with enormous hands how would I find good gloves to keep my ill proportioned lobster hands warm? How much would that suck to have these huge grabbers and routinely get frostbite in them, desiccated flesh that at any size couldn't do a damn thing. Oh well, there goes my dream of big hands, no big gloves to keep them warm, no real way to take advantage of such an asset. Make do. Ready for cross?

Indian Summer

Indian Summer? Not this past weekend. Trying to stay warm and out of the snow or graupel or whatever was falling from the sky made the rides into little jumps through windows of less bleak weather. All the more fun when you get it done without too much moisture, mmmmm moist. Instead of racing or travelling I stayed home and rode in the woods both days. The bike feels great and to stay warm(er) I rode up hill most of sunday's ride, better than suffering in the wind, that'll come when I start motorpacing this week or early next week. Work is coming and so is the most important season. Ready?

Motor

Amen. Nothing like starting out the day with a prayer, I got the sleep I needed and now evwn though it's wet I feel good on the bike, not the bone chilling downpours of early fall but he light rain that makes a good ride good. The bugs and ghosts left me finally lingering until I had no choice but to get under the blanket of sleep, then a longer day to open up the legs and odd, I started to sleep again. I think that means less work and less sleep go together. Good or bad, I'm not sure. With cross coming I know that I need the work, less volume to make it count. Maybe motor pace a bit this weekend and get out the junk, then more sleep, yeah!

Ghosts

I feel like I have a little ball bearing rolling around inside my head. the good rides today didn't put enough sleep into the needed column. I don't remember the last time the ghosts wouldn't let me sleep, a long while back. Not too bad just sucks to be tired and not be able to do anything about it. Feeding the ghosts what they want and not giving the body what it needs. No way to live.

toot

I am too cold, slow and tired to be worth much of anything in the mornings, the rides are barely more than a commute. the scenery has been great, steam or whatever evaporated water hanging over the lake makes the ride better and the cold keeps me sharp. I need to get out there and do a bit of work, today on the trip home perhaps some intervals to open up and get the cross work going. hunger and sleep rule the early fall, not aggression to put in the time at the high levels like I know I need to. It'll come.

Coffee

The patterns used to be in numbers now they are in words, three random occurences of the word/name Coburn. Only one was bike related. I remember racing out there before my move West and with all of the 100 milers going on I thought and read about Harlan's effort at Shenandoah and the Wilderness 101, as well as Gwadzilla's efforts at the races and I was thinking about those, now I feel I need to try and get myself into one next year. I miss the challenge of going into a race with the thought of finishing well, not so focused on what step but what you felt inside after. Well, aside from the nausea involved.

a#

I heard an old song the other day and it through me into a time machine. I thought about all that I thought about at that point in time. Today it happened again, pretty interesting to use my internal wayback machine. I even remembered what clothes I wore. I could recall a few meals I ate too. It was the most focused as I rode the bike thinking about the stuff, the coolest 30 seconds of my day. I didn't want to waste too much time on it because I had other things to think about. It did already happen nothing I could do about things past not like when Proust wrote that self-indulgent trash. I prefer the way other long winded books are written. If I ever a ride that's too long I want Miller's finest on the iPod. That would get the ride done in no time, maybe Iowa next year. If it doesn't rain the way it did this year.

under

the travel has settled into a solid little cold, not enough to keep me off the bike but enough to avoid training. not a bad thing, cross is close and a break right now is a very good thing. lots of fruit and whole grains, low dairy. i miss dairy. hooooray cheese.

there you are

i won't whine, there are far greater problems than my little cold, my own doing because i did a lot of stuff i don't normally do over the weekend's trip. blah, blah, blah up late, blah, blah, blah not too much sleep. you know the stupid stuff you shouldn't do, but you do. it was fun, not a second of regret, absolutely unreal time with new friends and old. one of the highlights was shooting a few flaming arrows into the bonfire at midnight to ignite it. very cool stuff. weddings like this are the best, you feel good to be a part of it and see your friends grow closer. good luck g+d. today i feel it, a few days of travel without much in the way of smart eating and good drinking and i feel like shit. the east is a surreal place, feast or famine, crowds or nothing, very little middleground. too much for me. no matter where you go, there you are.