is this thing on?

Well, I am tired of looking at the post below this one, as I am sure you have been too for the last two weeks. It hasn't been a lack of time this winter, more a lack of news. Overall not too much to report over here in snowmageddon, besides I have scored the first day of February off with a snow day today. The weather man was actually right as the storm came in around 12 last night, dumped off about 3 inches and got really cold so right when decision time came to close the schools, it was terrible out. Perfect, not as if it is nice out now, it just isn't the day after tomorrow. In Cyclocross News (what else is new), the UCI calendar came out for next year. This is the first year America's Nationals will take place in January FYI (if you have been living on another planet recently) So, the schedule in the U.S. has been moved around a good bit including the classic UCI3 Cincinnati weekend being pushed into the second week of November. Hopefully that means global warming won't takes it toll and push the races to 80°F+ like each of the last three years. My schedule is relatively limited as it is every year especially since this following fall/winter I want to acheive perfect attendance in my junior year of high school. So it is basically the same as last year, with a few more possibilites: the USGP weekend in Louisville and Nationals. The two other races I noted in red are races I'd really love to do, but it would depend on when the State Cyclocross race is, and how the lack of budget is affecting me. Nationals would obviously be the big goal of the year even though they are technically in 2012. This would mean anyone going to Nationals (and considering they are in Madison, everyone IS going) would really like a few local races in the final weeks of 2011 (can you say christmas weekend at Broadview) Just some thoughts.

bad timing

I usually get sick around this time of year. I usually have the option of resting or just keeping doing whatever I'm doing. Two weeks ago, I started to feel the hints of a cold coming on and did this and knocked it out fast.

The correct way to deal with an illness is this.
1. Only eat light foods and don't eat any meat or milk products

2. Throw away your toothbrush and buy a new one. Wash all of your sheets and clothes, no double dipping on the already worn workout clothes.

3. Drink your sports drink of choice non-stop, chase with tea
4. Htfu, pull on your grown up pants, and go out for a hard as nails ride, run, or ski while overdressed to sweat out, cough up, and breath out any bad juju left in you.
5. Don't do anything else.

I felt very good the next week (11hrs of training, and I felt undertrained) But now this time I am sick enough where I don't have enough energy to do anything. I have midterms this week (7am-11am) so I have bacially went to school, came home, rested, and studied for the next day. Tuesday and Wednesday I had a good rides planned considering I had the afternoon to myself but was ill. I hate using the word ill. It makes me feel old. On the brightish side, I get out at 11am Thursday and have off until Monday, hopefully I can get some quality rides in. (My 20 minute power test is planned Feb. 12th and then I began to tack on some intensity into my rides)

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In other crappy news, after constantly calling out cyclists, the plain dealer finally got a winter sport, cross country skiers. Those fifty pound skiers really do the damage compared to those fifty thousand pound golf carts.

i have a dream

That one day, for my sixteenth birthday, I would recieve Sram XX instead of a car. My dream came true.

wordle

Apparently I am like 4 years behind on this site, but hey, I am like 4 years ahead of everyone not spending 7.5 hours on facebook a day. "Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text." The funny part is when I plugged in my blog, the words "work" and "bike" came up largest. The "bike" makes sense considering this is a cycling site but "work" doesn't because I refuse to do that "work" stuff. I really like the way the black backrounds look. Also, I think "mtb" combined with "MTB" would have been my largest cloud had I not known how to use CAPS LOCK.

Anyone care to guess who's this one's below is?

Who talks about cars on their blog anyway?

trainer views

Well I managed two and half weeks of feeling well and actually riding (7.5hrs in half week, 11.5hrs, then 11hrs the last week) a bit before I get sick again. This time seems more real as I have already missed two days of school and had a fever that lasted three days. Now I realize what it feels like to really be sick. The only fault in being sick at this point in the year is being another week behind training for Presque Isle, missing my Conconni Testing, and of course, missing school. I am feeling slightly better now but I am more than likely going to sit tomorrow and sunday out, completing a week full of non-exercise. Now not only did I miss training for Presque Isle, I am losing fitness!

From this setup on the trainer. To this.....

winter blues

I would guess little news is okay in January because I am suffering from that for sure. I've been putting a little bit of work into the bikes, and starting to get a nice riding/core/snowshoe regime going. We are getting dumped with snow after a lull during the Christmas/New Years Week. Probably over 2 inches the past 2 hours. Here are some recent pictures: My road and training bike have been out of commission recently, so I have been solely on the Richard Sachs. Which has actually been great despite the lack of gears.

The magical ratio - 42-18 (girly) free. Woah, what little gadget snuck on there.

I also got something new for my butt. My new saddles are the Bontrager Inform RXL. It runs about 6mm wider at its midpoint vs. my Fi'zi:k Pave Sports (100mm in) which I would think will open up my knees a touch more for a more vertical alignment over my pedal (more power) Also, the weight is a big factor. My old saddle weighed in at 297g while this at 178g. That is 119g which is more than a quarter of a pound lost in the saddle alone on each bike! The Inform RXL may be 40g heavier than an SLR, but with my budget spending an extra $100 on each seat for at six bikes doesn't work to well.

a fresh start

My printer and handwriting both kind of suck, so I'll sum up my season with some more suck. The charty says I started 43 races this year. I did 5 mtb races, 14 road/crits, 4 time trials, and 20 cyclocross races. The MTB season started up with mechanicals but finished up with a "W" at the Knob one night, and a second overall in the JB 6hr duo. Satisfying enough for me to quit mtb racing. The road season went decent up until tour of the valley, where I personally fell apart, quickly following my retirement from road racing, at least for 2010. I then re-did base in mid-July to August with a solid bit of mtbing in other parts of the country. I pieced together some good intervals before the first cross race and was in the best ever shape of my life. Then I got super sick and missed a few weeks of training. I followed this up with a nasty crash resulting in a major back seat to cross, barely riding in September. My fitness sucked but I pushed on and eventually found some form for States' before blowing that, too.

The plan next year is to map it out similarly again to 2010, but do it better. I also want to do good in TT's again, particularly Presque Isle in early May. I will coast off that fitness until school ends where I will ride as a job for the summer.