whatcha gonna do?

Ok, so just a few days left in 2008, does your glass feel half full or half empty?  I will say that mine is half full!

I set out to race bikes in 2008, and did it.  Not well mind you, but did it.  What are you jotting down on your list of todo's for 2009?

Me:

lose 10 lbs.  (my wii will think I'm skinny then)

eat more vegetables - (like with every dinner meal, or as a dinner meal)

ride my bike(s) more with my friends

Yep, its Christmas

Merry Christmas Guys.  Its fun riding with all of you even though I'm always in your dust!

New ride is completed. Titus Racer X Limited with Fox RLC 100 fork. FSA stem and h-bar. King headset. Lizard Skins lock-on grips. Full XTR with XTR discs. The only exception is an XT front derailleur. 180mm front rotor and 160mm rear rotor. XT centerlock hubs with DT 15 ga. spokes and Mavic XC 717 disc rims. Ritchey WCS alloy seatpost and WTB Stealth V (I think...it's the light one?) saddle. Michelin XCR AT 2.2 tires. Eventually some Time pedals. Now we either need some better weather or some worse weather to go ride it?!?!

Merry Christmas

Have a Safe and Great Christmas. O ya, don't drink too many brewski's

First tracks?

Do you guys ride in this stuff?  Dmars and Greg live close enough to make it happen.  I skipped the trainer last night and played Call Of Duty - World at War on the WII.  Pretty good.  I'll log some time this weekend.  

I got up at 5 and pushed the slushy around.  This snow would make a good slurpee!

What to do this weekend...

I have an idea... Give me $10 and watch a "crappy" bowl game on TV while your ride your trainer. You know you want a reason to watch the Eagle Bank Bowl and root for Wake Forest who just barley has 6 wins this season! Bowl season Starts Saturday!

It's easy, click here, and then pick the winner of each bowl game. When you pick the winner, assign a confidence value to that pick. If you picked the correct winner, you get the confidence points that you assigned. The winner of the pot has the most confidence points at the end!

brrrr

-6 @ my house this a.m.  I'm home today, taking care of a sick kid.  Did you know that the avg temp is supposed to be 35 degrees? 

Snow is supposed to be on its way tomorrow - I hear 3 inches.  Plug in the fans boys, as it looks like we won't be outside for a week or so!  Dave, you put on your leg warmers - Jazzercise requires it!

side note:  I think I found out what was wrong with my HRM.  MANBOOBS.  My manboobs have gotten a little bigger and has cause my HRM strap to slide down my chest a little.  I found this out 8 minutes into my ride last night.  Fixed it and you can see in my numbers that it looks right now.

Did you ride on Saturday in the 60 degrees?

too lazy to ride...

I ate popcorn and cheesecake and then the sugar coma put me to sleep. I'll have to test the HRM on Sunday when its supposed to be 4 degrees! Ride outside tomorrow boys - close to 50 degrees!
I swiped this picture from here: You should read it, its a good blog! "HOW TO AVOID THE BUMMER LIFE! from SWOBO"!

This picture depicts exactly what i did at the nursurey entrance during lap 2 of the Tranq Psycowpath Race with Rob from Linclon behind me!

Ok, so I didn't throw my tire but I did bail hard on my FACE!

Broken Heart Rate Monitor?

Does anyone know how to tell if your HRM is on the blink? I think that mine is as it has given me what I think is LOW numbers in Calorie Burn the last two times that I've used it. Check the Trainer Log to see what I mean....

Riders riding similar times and distances should be close in Calorie Burn - wouldn't you think?

I rode for 33 minutes last night, 9.25 miles and my HRM said I only burned 202 calories and that my Avg Hearrate was 105. I looked down at my wrist in the beginning 5 minutes and it was only counting 58 bpm - damn that's close to a resting heart rate.

I tightened the straps last night when I took it off. I'm going to ride at the same intensity level tonight for the same time period and see what happens. Maybe the batteries are dieing?

new trainer??

does this count as trainer time. Since the cold weather has arrived, I am going to start going to the gym regularly again. Can I log this time, or is it cheating?

Monday 36 to start - 42 to end

I ventured out before the storm.  Great temps and conditions.  I again rode all of the singletrack that zorinksy had to offer.  36 degrees felt great!  As for the Storm - the winter weather advisory has been cancelled and now the weather man is only calling for 1" of snow.  They  say that we are going to dodge the big stuff.  Fine by me I guess!
This picture is of the damn.  The city put tires around all of the obsticles in preparation for sledding season.  Didn't the city ban sledding in PUBLIC AREAS a year or two ago?  When the kids get bigger, we'll be here! - ummm, if its still legal!

Saturday Night Special

Andy and I hit up Tranq Saturday night for a little night ride. It was 22 degrees when we started at about 7:20 PM from the upper PL at the ice rink and 18 degrees when we finished. We were able to get in 1.5 laps. My light ran out after a bit more than a lap, so we were relying on Andy's light, which promptly started to dim. We rode back up the hill by the apartments pretty much in the dark, but there was enough ambient light, it wasn't a big deal. The fingertips took it pretty hard the first 1/2 lap until we started generating some heat, then all was well. The frozen ground was great...gobs of traction.

Sorry, no pics...it was too cold to dig out the camera!

Monday 29 degrees, North Wind 12 mph, gusting to 16

....feels like 21 degrees.
(above... proof that it was windy!)

I was concerned that I wasn't dressed for the weather.  I had on a pair of cycling bib tights, cycling shorts, thermal longsleeve base layer, Jersey (see below), cycling socks, insulated cycling socks, shoes, thermal shoe covers, windbreaker, warm cycling gloves, nike cycling hat.  It ended up being just fine.  I rode at Zorinsky.  45 minutes 9.2 miles.     
I got this jersey from a guy at work. Last weekend was the Swiss Watch Faire. The Festina Rep brought in a few of these jerseys. One of them ended up on my desk! Sweet!
I rode all of the zorinksy single track that I could!  A few spots were damp and some even had a little dusting of snow.  All was passable!

No trainer tonight... I'll enjoy a cold one and some MNF!