Sunday, March 26, 2006

Mission: Accomplished!

what a great weekend of riding and working out on the *cough* road bike (hardtail). with all the crappy weather the training gods have been instigating, i'm sure the racing weather is going to be great this year.

saturday started out great: drive to alex's, suit up and hit the road for a little jaunt through suburbia over to island lake. ~45 minutes into the rather incessant headwind, the snow/rain started. that's when it turned into one of those 'why to hell didn't i hit the dive shop and get those gloves' moments. in hindsight, this turned out to be a blessing as we didn't stop for more than a total of 15 minutes during the ride. good race practice though it was shitty- wet and cold. good to get in the miles motor pacing alex to and fro across 'the o.c.' though. a hot shower and yummy thai finished out the day. thanks again for the hospitality alex!

sunday started out just as good. sky was clear and the temps were climbing nicely, so i hit the dirt roads for a ride to lansing. after about 1-1/2 hours it was basically overcast, well not really, just big dark fluffy clouds that interlocked such that the sun was sparse although there were lots of blue 'holes'. without the sun it got cold quick. yuk. should have taken that wind vest...

so i've been doing some reading (and panic-ing!) about this kokopelli thing and get to thinking: well shit, can i even ride 140 miles right now? here in the flat lowlands of michigan? even combining 2 consecutive days of riding? hmmm... after a 5hr/80 mile sufferfest on saturday, sunday's 4-1/2 hr/69 miles shot me well clear of the 140 goal!

now for a few days of active recovery (and eating!!!) and hopefully get in a good hard training session on wednesday. 7 weeks left of training before weaknesses are evidenced! :)

Monday, March 13, 2006

Yankee Doodle Dandy

ahh, who would have thought that the middle of march would find shorts/jersey temps and yankee springs wfo.

1/2 way around the third loop i came across a rider crumpled up on the trail who was like- 'man, i was going down that hill, something grabbed my front wheel and next thing i know i'm laying on the ground'. yea, with a separated shoulder. not good. his friend, who was ahead of him, returned and we walked the guys stuff to a not so near gravel road. good thing it wasn't overgrown, we would have been walking for quite awhile. a quick ride back to the trailhead and i was done for the day.

Sunday, March 05, 2006

well, although today didn't work out as planned, i still got in 55 miles in 3 hours thanks to the local band of lansing roadies. good thing i didn't ride to the ride, i was shot when we got back to the shop. the ol' fixie was topped out for more than one extended period. 39x17-700c isn't very appropriate to sustain 20+, especially with the moonboots.

Thursday, March 02, 2006

I'm in!

well, as committed as i am to being as non-committal as possible, i've purchased my plane ticket to salt lake city for the kokopelli trail race in may! i'm tingling with delight as i write, it's going to be such an awesome ride! alex and i will be flying out on the wednesday before the race to scout some the night riding sections at the start and make any last minute adjustments. like finding the nearest superbestwallymartycostconglomo and wandering aimlessly looking for that one essential item that got left behind. like a spare drivetrain and some sanity. haha. hmm... too many likes in there methinks. somewhere i'm sure, an old english teacher is crawling her grave.

this is definitely going to be one of those: 'i'll have a hostess display rack and a bottle of hershey's syrup to wash it down' type races. :) i doubt i'll get to have any hot food like this guy did, but he has a good story about riding the trail.