PUT THE FUCK!NG LOTION IN THE BASKET !!!!!

everybody knows how to dress for a few hours out in 0 degree weather, its a no brainer. but one of the most important items you can use is not a warming gel (though i do get a sick discount for being on my bike team), or windstopping device, or foot-warmers ( because they cost more than gold by weight...though they do work well), its... face lotion. the only part of my body exposed is my face and i gotta keep it from getting dried out. my secret to (relatively) great feeling winter rides is lotion.

off day

today is an off day, and though i want to ride my coach says no. though i usually defy him (often by not riding long enough or doing the intervals as long as i should) it was just too friggin cold out. i guess im glad its an off day and my weekend starts tomorrow at 5 pm. anyway, saw this today.... i hate how they torture the animal (though im sure its living a better life than everyone in haiti) but its amazing that the chimp can wrench and ride better than some folks i know.

ok

ok, its been a while. thats because ive been training big time. ive been following my training plan pretty well thus far (hell, i just rode in 17 degree weather with snow and 20 mph winds), a plan which was made by brodie at big bang bikes . im doing a lot of foundation miles/endurance stuff and soon ill be doing more high intensity intervals and very hilly rides. ive been using nuun, and besides for its ability to prevent hangovers, it does a damn good job of keeping my pathetic body feeling a little less pathetic during very hard and long (no real sexual referenced meant there, seriously) workouts. in fact, i love nuun and their sweet lookin water bottles. However, i wish it stayed a lil' fizzier a lil' longer. anyway, racing starts in a few weeks- it better not be below freezing then, but thats another story- and itll get its true test then.

nothing

nothing is happening cept for the fact that i just rode my bike on my rollers harder than i have ever ridden before (or so it felt). anyway, i found a bunch of random photos both new and old- none really need explanation.

this one was taken on a day when it was so muddy that the wheel would not turn. i have a theory that the colder the mud the more likely it is to do this to your bike.




the new topcap which facilitates my fancy ass headset working properly is from interbike 2007- i got it for free today, thats why i like it so much.

todae

today was the day when the stars aligned- i finally had a rim to match my old skool red paul hub. it was not easy finding a decent rim brake rim for under 50 bucks, but i managed with a mavic 519. i wanted a red one but beggars cant be choosers, especially if ebay, the megastore for cheap-o's like myself, doesnt even offer such a rim. anyway, i calculated the spoke length with an app. called spocalc-it can be found on sheldon brown's site and it is very useful. the stars aligned because i couldnt really afford to buy spokes and i was praying that the bike co-op-freeride- would have what i needed. they have a huge selection of boxes of decent donated spokes, and i needed them to have either 263 or 263 mm spokes. they did. i got 32 dt revolution silver spokes and built my wheel in around an hour without instructions. i guess im almost a decent wheelbuilder...prbably not though. anyway, the wheel came out great except my king headset is having troubles staying adjusted properly and the new rim needs to be broken in; the brakes sequel like a pig-eeeeeeeeeeeeee
i also got some sweet new tires- they are like 2000-2003 model tires but theyre light and folding bead and have more traction than my worn out crossmarks. i got all this for 5 bucks which i donated to the co-op. dont think i exploit them too much cause i donate about 8-12 hours of work a week helping them (for the last 3 years, too), but sometimes i take advantage of the phrase "donate what you see fit". hopefully i get to ride my mtb tomorrow in the nice weather (yeah, 40 degrees and overcast is nice), but if the trails are still slushy like they were today i guess itll be more road biking.

next season?

im looking at the 2010 MASS calendar and im thinking about which races i want to do vs which races i can do. my schooling, and collegiate road season, and distances i must travel to get to races (as well as a job and trying to get off work etc. etc.) are all playing into my very tentative pencil-me-in-for-now plans. but dont use a pencil, its too permanent. im thinking about doing the opener at patapsco MD, the fairhill MD race, escape from granogue (3rd place last year, through all the shit colored mud) and hopefully the french creek race the week after (where i had my epic pedal failure riding to my tent from the registration booth). there are other ones id like to do in the MASS, as well as some other non MASS ones which i have not yet found, but know exist. i was thinking about a stage race, but i dont think it is in my budget, as i am just a pathetic college kid who gets even deeper into dept every day (a 50 minute class session costs me roughly 36 bucks, not including books/living etc.), and im about to blow some cash moneys on some new brake pads for my gt and a rim form my IF. bikes suck because they take all my money and life sucks cause i cant buy more time. im going to go drown in the "enduro proteen cheesecake" i cooked up earlier.

happy nuun year!

this nice brown box showed up on my doorstep the other day, and though i hoped it was new bearings for my crappy front coda hub, it was something even better-nuun. i got a few 3 backs and some sweet water bottles (they are specialized water bottles-i think they are the best kind). i havent had nuun in a while, but i used it on a long rollers training ride (it was about 1.5 hours long- i started in a low gear and tried to keep the same cadence while switching to a higher gear every time the songs blasting out of my speakers changed). the kona kola tasted good, as ive never tried that flavor before, and i noticed that i did not feel as depleted after the ride. i cant say for certain yet if it was totally nuun, because i havent done extensive testing or riding in the heat, but it seems pretty good. im happy.

dublin chase

the name sounds hoity toity, and it is... sorta. its the woods down the block from my house, and i have started working on a short technical loop around the township owned woods. its probably illegal, but ill take my chances. driving 20 mins to get to good mtb'ing is kinda crazy. today i cleared out many thorns (the kind with the painfully large barbs). i was bleeding all over my coat/ax/sexy ergon grips. the trail starts with a narrow flat section and then turns to a short but very steep and narrow downhill. you ride along a flat section with some small bumps and twigs for about 200 yards and then hit my pride and joy of todays work. you must ride over about 8 8in diameter logs all piled next to each other- it sounds lame but its kinda technical. then about 12 feet ahead is a nice large log you must hop. i spent a while trimming the log etc so that it wont break too many chainrings. its about 1.5 feet off the ground and about a foot long. i also have a small jump rebuild plan (last year some neighborhood kids messed up my sweet jump i made) and maybe some burms. there will also be a short steep uphill which will lead back to the starting position. thats all i have planned thus far. i want to make it about a mile long so i can practice my mtb skills without getting in a car. the course is hardly started, as frigid temperatures and early sun sets make it hard to work for more than a few hours. by spring i plan on having a sweet local (illegal) place to ride.