Not a minute too soon

Okay, my lack of blogging has been lame. Point taken. Martha has been in British Columbia for 6 days now and things have been somewhat out of sorts since day 1. My training has been pretty lame this week (granted it is a rest week) despite the beautiful weather. My beer/gin/wine consumption has gone way up. My diet has been poor; even worse than normal. You get the picture. Martha returns on Monday. Not a minute too soon.

Heading south for the first “real” weekend of racing. Tonight we are meeting at Indy Fab to see the joint, meet some folks, build some bikes, drink some beer and then off to the Channel Café after. It will be cool to meet the people that are making this team happen.

The “racing” part of the weekend will happen at Charge Pond and Marblehead. Marblehead should be interesting. Usually we roll around in circles, chat and then see who can win the bunch kick. This year it seems like the start list looks stronger than normal with the ever famous brothers McCormack and Fiordifruitta, Nerac, 1k2go, Mechanical Services, etc all brining full teams . . . and of course If/Channel Café. It might actually be a race. Time will tell.

No Photos

Got a new bike this weekend from IF. For the last few nights I have been trying to take some pictures to post, but it hasn’t happened. Needless to say, it is rad. I gave Jill the green light for “painter’s choice” when finishing the bike. She hooked me with a crazy paint scheme that is definitely one of a kind. I dig it.

The crazy part is that the bike is a Deluxe. Yah, I know, I don’t ride mountain bikes unless someone makes me. Well, this season I am going to learn how to handle my mountain bike! I will get some photos up soon.

Raced at Wells Ave this past weekend. It went well. I tried to do a bunch of work and get used to riding with new teammates. My timing is not there yet, but I can see glimpses of getting it together. Wells was definitely a bit sketchy as always, but we all survived.

Marblehead is this weekend. Looking forward to it, but it tends to be a pretty boring race. It will be good to get together with the squad and roll around in circles.

The first batch of bikes will be delivered this weekend to Stan, Luke and Tommy. I can’t wait to see them. I will post some photos. Later.

Seriously, the Sun?

Damn, almost a week since my last blog! It has been a pretty hectic week at work. Man do I hate actually having to work for a living! Anyway, good to be busy, but it is never fun. The weather has hit an all time low here in the great north. We have received a dusting of snow every night this week and we haven’t seen temps above the 30s, never mind the sun. Brutal. I have been riding outside and I am not sure my appendages will ever forgive me. I am irish and can only handle so much shrinkage!

Last week’s Charge Pond race seems like a long time ago. It went fine. Sometimes I hurt, other times I felt like a bike racer, etc. etc. Heading to Wells Ave. this Sunday for a workout. Hopefully I will connect with some of the boys and get in some quality miles. The season is fast approaching.

Saturday I am hoping to rally some of the local boys to ride in the arctic temperatures. Joe, Edwin, Jamie you guys want to ride on Saturday?

Charge Pond

I swore back in December and January that I would take a slow and methodical approach to the beginning of the season. I was going to train thru March and most of April building miles with the help of Cycle-Smart and not worry about racingin the early season. The theory was two fold: first, it is too damn cold and snowy where I live to train properly in February. Second, I like to take cross seriously (although you wouldn’t know it since I only had one Top 25 UCI result this season!) and so racing 9 months a year is tough for me.

So all that said, my first race of the season is tomorrow! Ha ha ha. As usual . . . no self-discipline. Granted it is a “training” race, but whatever. I am sure all the local fast guys will be there and I am sure I will be killing myself. Whatever. You knew this was going to happen. It does every season. Charge Pond here I come.

Fucking Snow

Yah that is right, it is dumping out. Yesterday I got in 2 hours outside in the sun. Today it is dumping out. Ridiculous. I bailed on a trip to Fernie, BC with Martha so I could train and race. Now I am wondering what I was thinking:
This is a photo from Fernie last week. It l ooks like they will be enjoying classic BC POW. Fucking Snow.

Sometimes Martha’s job can suck. Much of the time it includes long hours, tons of meetings, resort politics, etc. But, there are perks . . . . especially for me. This weekend was one of those times when I was pretty stoked she is a PR babe. We spent the weekend at the Balsams nordic skiing, eating and drinking and it was outrageously indulgent.

Charlie, Tom and Meg chilling at Mud Pond:

We skate skied 3 hours every day, ate enough calories to last us 2 weeks and drank enough David Bruce that Alberto Tomba would be proud.

Martha and I thinking of the dessert table:

We definitely skied hard and got in some quality training. I rocked a coat and tie both nights and “had” to attend cocktail hour and dinner two nights in a row. It was rough. Back to the bike this week; It is 42 and raining right now. Perfect training weather.

I am weak

Weekend Stats:
Minutes on the rollers: 80
Minutes of Tempo at 200-220 watts: 40
Number of Powder Days I skied: 2
Number of beers consumed: 12
Number of bottles of wine consumed by our table Saturday night: 3
Number of total new snow this weekend: 22”+
Number of times Ward was disgusted with my training (or lack there of):3
Number of times I bashed in the POW: 5
Best POW crash: tie between Rebecca and Ward
Length of time I felt guilty about going to the bar for happy hour last night instead or training: 2.2 seconds.
Hours of sleep last night: 10


We got dumped this weekend. It started snowing on Friday evening and didn’t stop until Sunday afternoon. We got somewhere between 22-26” at the hill. The best part is that is was a localized dumping and not too many people got it. It was sunny and dry at Attitash (25 minutes away!) all weekend. It was an amazing weekend of snow. I was weak, succumb to the snow demons and forgot I wanted to be a bike racer. Whatever, it was good for the moral and to be honest I only missed one workout. I got the “work” part of my workout done in Saturday morning before heading to the hill. Sunday I could have gone Nordic skiing in the afternoon (like the real bike racers of the group did), but I am pretty sure I am a way better ski bum than I am a bike racer. So I skied, had a beer at lunch, etc. You get it. Sweet justice in what has been a weak snow year.