Saturday, January 26, 2008

No car, no problem.

The German Shitbox has been down at Heuberger for over a week now, but that hasn't been a problem. I'm still on track with all those nagging New Years Resolutions. That's right, almost one month in the bag. I've read 1.5 books (Steve Martin's Born Standing Up, and half of Bukowski's Post Office), been on a real health kick, and biked to worked every day. Yeah, even saw -10 last week.
Today was especially nice. Slept in to 11am, went for a 2 hour climbing ride, then did some grocery shopping with my brand new bike trailer I bought from a friend that works at Criterium. The trailer is great. I hauled 2 weeks worth of groceries in it today, including a gallon of o.j. and a gallon of milk. I may not need to drive locally again. Gotta crash, I want to repeat today tomorrow; there's a 1pm group ride I want to go on. Well, bye.

Saturday, January 05, 2008

If someone asked me what I would be up to on Jan. 5th, I certainly would not have guessed that I would spend the day the way I did today. I got up around 8, cooked a big breakfast, then readied my road bike. I couldn't believe how beautiful the weather was considering the time of year. It must have reached almost 60 today. Unfortunately, the unseasonably warm weather was accompanied by some ridiculously strong winds. There were gusts up to about 40mph and dust at that speed feels like your being sandblasted. All-in-all though, it was great to get out. The past couple of months I've been logging my miles in spin class and on treadmills.

Now, regarding my New Years Resolutions: after being a fairly avid cyclist for the past 3 years, I would to see how good I can be when I really apply myself in all aspects of cycling. So this year I am not just going to follow a strict training plan (cycle a shit-load, like I always do), but I will also make dietary and social changes that will benefit my training and lead me in turn to my goal. This, I haven't done before, and at 28, I don't want to potentially pass up on any more of my best years. Other resolutions I made this year were that I would like to read more books (1 a month), and I will also attempt to ride to work every day of 2008. So far that's going pretty good, but it will be fun to see if I can actually do it.

I'll keep updating resolution status throughout the year. Well, its midnight here and supposed to be in the high 40's tomorrow. I'm gonna try to spend some quality time in Palmer Park so I need to crash.

'til next time...

Thursday, January 03, 2008

2007 Recap

OK, to catch up to the present, the biking in 2007 didn't end up as best as I would have hoped. Thunderstorms and a crappy rental bike killed any hopes of competing in the Fall Classic back in Ohio and financial limitations thwarted my attempt at pulling together a team for the 24 Hours in the Sage. Oh well, the rest of the year wound down nicely with regular group rides 2-3 days a week all the way through November (October?). Fitness wise I've spent the last couple of months couped up in the local YMCA. Its a nice facility and all, but I'd much rather be outside. Towards the end of last year I also took up playing tennis with Lee (which has transformed into racquetball in these colder months) and running Tuesday nights with Jack Quinn's running club. That I suppose, you could consider cross-training. That''s all for now. By the way its Jan. 3rd and its in the mid 50's - not bad, the crawl will be fun tonight!
P.S. - I didn't forget about New Years Resolutions, yeah I've got a few, and I'll go into detail on my next post.