again

winter doesn't want to leave, supposed to snow again tonight. thankfully i'm not getting ready for anything other than more riding and skating. i rode swan tonight without brakes after a pretty good climb, first time i've ever done that. going thru the last turn at 60k was pretty cool.

think

i wonder what it means when someone asks "what do you think?" do they really want to know what you think, all the weird thoughts running around your head at that instant. what is playing on the 1000 screens in my brain. what it is that i think, not that it's any deep thought, anything earth-shattering or important idea, just a bunch random thoughts. what do you think?

burley

i know i'm pretty far from form, yesterday b and i took the burley most of the way to copper, then the trip back to breck after climbing towards copper was a whole other game, headwinds and burley trailers are a great combo. the legs and the wind fought the whole way. good work. the animal i saw the other morning i think is a sled dog that escaped from the outfitter about 10k from here 3 months ago. 3 months! this dog has been living off the trash and food of the area. i saw him yesterday in the daylight, he has a mouthful of porcupine quills. poor guy, doesn't want to get near anybody but he wants to be helped too. the animal control officers get close but can't seem to catch him. i feel a bit stupid thinking he was a wolf but he sure does have that gate. the way he walks isn't like a regular dog.

wknd

a good weekend of riding, nice roads yesterday and crap saturday. i was so cold riding on saturday that i couldn't steer very well from the shivering, that's cold. normally that only happens mid winter in a storm. sunday was great, a nice two hour ride with shaubie up around horsetooth, good long climbs and little traffic. then we got to go to church, er, whole foods, a new record for us when we got the total, amazing food, 6 really solid meals and fresh fish that we couldn't believe. the weekend ended well, a clear trip up the hill, none of the forecasted snow.

i don't know

at 5.15 am in summit county there is enough daylight to see, not everything but most things. the animal i saw today scared the shit out of me, it wasn't a dog, or maybe it was. i couldn't really make it out, it walked leisurely away from me down the road, not fearing me as much as curious. it looked to be the size of a dog, a big dog. i had to double back and detour around it, quickly. i didn't want to be it's breakfast. it could have been a mountain lion but i don't think so, it was the right color, size, hmmmm. whatever it was we were both surprised to see each other.

i've been up for 90 minutes and at work for about an hour and i'm still wiping sleep from my eyes. the crash and tuesday's work are catching up with me. good sleep last night, enough light to ride in without the cateye. the early dawn light is still the most appealing light of the the day. the bearclaw today didn't even help to wake me.

blue

blue water at almost 11 am. life sometimes has its way of evening things out. i like that. now i can see that maybe the equation isn't skewed to one side. good coffee brought me out of my funk, all is good now.

long time coming

i think the last time i crashed on my road bike while training was in january of 1995. on monday the odds caught up with me. i wasn't even being stupid, i'd ridden through a bunch of snow piles but this one had my name on it, a wooden bridge on the bike path with a bit of snow covering the last 2 meters, my front wheel never had a chance. out from under me and a hard slam to the deck on my right side. the ride home was tough, i still had an hour or so left. tuesday worlds and none of the idiots showed up, it was less of a worlds and more of a like-minded group ride, as soon as the newbies were in line to pull through properly and not ruin the rhythm into a block headwind for 20k we had it going well. today i got up a bit early and did some time before work, a little climbing and a little cruise to get the legs rolled out of the funk from the crash and yesterday. it's snowing right now.

what an asshole

i watched the tour de georgia coverage on oln yesterday. earlier in the week i had read the sports illustrated article on it, where armstrong had called floyd landis a "pain in the ass." i guess you need to stay by the "big man's" side forever if you ride for him and help HIM win. when they summited brasstown bald with armstrong attacking landis just before the finish to come third on the day and armstrong pointing at the clock taunting him with the fact that he lost his lead to danielson i realized how big of a prick he is, it seemed he was as happy for his teammate gaining the lead as much as he was thrilled an ex-teammate lost the lead. the guy is just a bully. f-lance.

trying

the best bike for the last few days was singlespeed cross. it was perfect to get in a little bit of time in the snow while dreaming of a trip to fruita or palm springs or mexico, it's hard right now to train, when you need to nail the weather window before it starts puking again is rough. the bike rocks, no chain slippage yet, even on singletrack in the mud (oops!) or highspeed dirt road stuff. the discos are great with the convert, great system.