December

Damn it's cold and snowy! Jeez! After spending Thanksgiving week enthralled by the fact that I actually got in 8+ hours of cycling and realizing that it was easy when you only work 2.5 days, I get dealt the additional set back of unrideable (for me) weather. 

Yes, I know. Mountain bike or cross tires or winter shoes or fenders or heated insoles or a greater level of courage would allow me to ride in the current conditions. But when it takes as long to get ready as it does to ride, and disposable income is at a premium, well, I don't get outside much. However, I have made peace with the trainer. At least for now. And I'm on my way to another 7+ hour week. Maybe I'll finish Durand with the pack after all.

Starting Again

Well, I hate to say it, but I am starting again. I actually got over 7 hours in this week! Wow! Now if I can do that during a week that doesn't involve 2 days off of work, that will be wonderful...

As I think I've mentioned before, I'm just riding right now. Getting some pre-base base in to get my body used to riding consistently again before I up the volume or the intensity much. Starting next week, I'm going to actually plan and structure my training more carefully again, going back to the build-for-three, recover-for-one week schedule that worked so well for me the first year. I'm not strapping on a HRM until January at the earliest, though. Maybe February. Base, base, base. And I know my body well enough to know when I'm at, or above threshold.

I love riding in the cold. Don't know why. It's like a badge of courage, I guess. The edgy feeling that if my mechanical is bad enough and I'm far enough out, I might be in real trouble before someone came to pick me up. And yet, I ride way out into the countryside anyway.

Here's to never walking more than 100 feet in road cleats.

And so it begins, or at least continues

Since my old blog used to be only about cycling and now it's becoming more about everything else in my life and since I like the name of my old blog so well, I've decided to create a new blog for just my cycling reports, training, musings, etc.

This is it.

I'm looking forward to riding this winter. I know, that's bizarre. It's freaking cold in Minnesota in the winter. Upper 20's sounds like a heat wave by the time you get to January. But there's something about riding in sub 30 degree weather than I like. That I've always liked since I started doing it. The sun so far south in the sky that you really can't tell what direction you're riding based on its location. Noon looks like 6:00 at night during the summer, only west and south have switched places.

Still, there's something about it. And braving it makes you strong. Or makes you broken on the black top with your bike corroding out from under you, but you do the best you can.

And yes, I'm riding unattached in 2009. My missed races, bailing, inconsistent schedule, failed commitments are all mine now. Somehow I think I'll make less of them and it will all turn out better. The proof is in the pudding, I guess, but I'm still declaring now: Durand 2009. Here I come!