Finally

After way more grief than it should have been, I have an assembled road bike. Got fitted today and got in just over an hour 40 tonight. It's a pretty big adjustment from the cross bike so I have to get some more miles in to know if it needs adjusted. Yes, there's a lot of spacers. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but most of them are pink. Throwin a little support to the ladies via Chris King

Two milestones

1. I rode in today for the first time in '08
2. This is post #200!

And yes, despite what G may try to claim, it was frickin cold this morning. 24 when I left town. I warmed up nice, but sort of wished I had a neck gaiter or high collar or something. Just went with the double-jersey and base since the jacket is always too much when coupled with the backpack. I was surprised to also find out that I only missed last year's start by 2 days. I figured I was off by a lot more considering daylight savings is a couple weeks old now, but apparently not. We'll see if I make it in on 2 again this week.

Oh, and I apologize 200 times for making you read my babble. I'll apologize 200 more in a year or two :)

I just want to race bikes

There are times I regret getting really into biking. My wife jokes that in running it's just shoes and that's simple... days like today she's right. I was going to go into a big effing tirade, but I've been making her suffer through that all afternoon. Suffice it to say that my road bike is still in pieces and is now in the trunk of my car instead of at the shop. The fork is there too. It has no crown race. I'll stop there or I will rant. Before I even got to this bit of fun I was on my ride this morning and I flatted... when running late... twice. I traveled what would have been the final several miles home in a car. Argh. And I can't even hate my bikes and go to the shop and buy a new one... Hey Landry's guy... what you got sitting around in a 67cm frame? Ok, now I'm ranting.

But the packy near home now has Dale's Pale Ale. So there is a silver lining... or silver lined can as it may be.

Blatant Advertising

My dear children (2 at least so far) attend St. Michael's School in Hudson which is trying to do what every other small private/catholic school does... raise money to keep the lights on. Now if you're reading this there's a good chance that you are either a) family or close friend, or b) a bike racer. If it's a, then guilt can be very powerful. If it's b, then you either have well above average discretionary income or are a risk taker (or both). So what's this latest fundraiser you ask? It's one of those good old high price, high odds raffles. $100 a ticket, max of 2500 tickets. First prize is $50k. Second prize is a car or $10k. Prizes down to 20th. C'mon, think of how many 7 pound bikes you can buy with $50k (ok, maybe it's only 2). And how many races do you go to where you get paid for 20th? Besides, it's for the children. Pony up folks... otherwise when I win I'm not sharing :)

Lost days

I hate getting sick. And it's less because getting sick just really blows and more that I lose all or part of a day to do anything productive when I get sick. I rarely get sick. When I get sick enough to say I am, I'm totally down for the count. Today was one of those days. I didn't sleep well and didn't feel right when I woke up. The first couple hours I was up I kept feeling progressively worse. Finally I hit rock bottom and had to go back to bed at like 10 this morning. I think I took 3 different 2 hour "naps" today. I effectively did nothing. I'm 1) too busy, and 2) too type-A to do nothing for a whole day. Crap. I feel kinda better and in the morning I'm going to decide if it's better enough to go riding. There's lot of other stuff that didn't get done today either so I may have to draw straws on what I catch up on. For starters I'd like to feel well enough to eat something. I went today with one sip of coffee, half a plain bagel with butter, and 2 Ritz. Ah well... I'll start over tomorrow and hope for better.

PSA

Courtesy of CTodd. Pay attention out there folks.

Stick a fork in it...

I was going to go with the title of Fork Me, but I figured that was pushing the limits of family reading (and yes, I know there are family members out there... hi guys). So the local master of steel came through for me and I picked this up tonight. Yes, that's a 500mm steerer. Try finding that off the shelf. The real comedy will be how much (little) I cut off of it for the install...

Well that was fun

Got out early today to hit a 4 p.m. appt which took about 15 minutes. Got home and dressed as quickly as possible and it was out the door, two wheel style. It was sunny, bordering on comfortable, and a lot of roads were dry... it was the first outdoor day of the year for the road bike. With all due respect to my beloved cross bike, that thing is so effin fast! I literally have not done an outdoor ride on the road bike since probably August or September. Even so far this later winter it's been 42x12/26 for everything and on a pretty heavy bike. Contrast that to something probably 5 pounds lighter with 53x12/25 with shiny new 180 cranks. I haven't turned a 53xanything except on the trainer in a long time... I didn't put it away today. I'm still computer-less so I just know it felt fast... real damn fast. Maybe it was just relative to the cross bike, but I have a general sense of what gear gives you what and it was pretty damn fast. Fast is good... and good is what we're after. In my little world of biking, today was good.

And now let more snow begin... dammit... will it just be spring already...

License to Ill

Sorry folks, I'll admit I'm a closet Beastie Boys fan so I had to use that title... My license came today so now I'm officially registered to go out and kick some butt or have mine kicked as the case may be. And what better way to celebrate the arrival of said license by going out for the ever popular reservoir loop after work. To make up for yesterday, I got up way too early and was at my desk by about 6:15. I bugged out at 2:45 so I could get home to meet up with some of the guys around 4. Well a comical series of mishaps had 2 of them hooking up and me evidently chasing them on the whole loop around, but never getting close enough to see them. I'm just saying they got 10 or 15 minutes and the massive solo bridge wasn't in the cards today :) I know they had at least 5 minutes so we'll go with that. The loop is crazy hilly and I felt pretty good for March, solo, on a windy day, on a nearly 30 pound bike (cx bike with fenders, lights, beefy wheels, etc). That loop was a nice measure for me last year just before Sturbridge so let's see how the next month and a half goes. Now I'm sleepy, and hungry, and unmotivated... I may just finish my beer and go to bed.

Here's hoping the weather cooperates enough for both days this weekend.

Oh, and Happy 80th to my wife's Gram. Nice party/lunch in the works for tomorrow so that should be fun.

Sonsabitches

Overslept. Lost my time to go to the gym today. Wife has soccer tonight so I'm on monkey herding duty. Dammit.

Oh, and all the runoff from the rain and snow melt was frozen this morning to the point that tomorrow's ride in is in question. Dammit.

I'm training... sort of

Unfortunately I'm only sort of training and I'm more than sort of feeling it. My last several days:

Thursday: Lifted
Friday: Nada unless you count piggybacking a 55 pound kid from the Garden to the Gov't Center garage
Saturday: 90 minutes on the trainer with some 2 or 3 minute interval-type things
Sunday: 2 hours, primarily saddle time, but a couple of short spirited bursts
Monday: Ran 30 minutes
Today: Spin bike - warmup, 6 sets of 2 minute standing climb w/really high resistance, sprint the last 5-7 seconds, 1 minute seated with resistance lowered.

Sunday felt great... probably the best I have outdoors this calendar year. Tomorrow probably has to be an off day due to class. Thursday I'll lift again, Friday looks like it has strong potential to kick off the bike commuting season. I'm signed up for Palmer and there's a more than slight chance I'll do Wells or something prior to that. I suppose I should have noticed that Palmer is 60 frickin miles before I signed up so merrily, but oh well. Sturbridge last year was 49 and the first 48.75 felt great... we won't revisit the rest again.

More homework... why do I do this again?