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.