Tuesday, January 31, 2006

outside ride, longish, well, maybe not

I rode outside this am. It was 33* when I left and 34* now. It really didn't feel too cold, except my feet. I had my standard summer sock, under winter socks, under shoes, under shoe covers. This is usually fine, the cold just got through today.
I headed out to do about 40miles. I was doing a ride I've never done before called ther Paragon ride (big portion on Paragon Road). Once I got out about 6 or so miles I felt the fatigue in my quads and glutes (legs and butt). I knew there was turn off that made the ride about 30 instead, and I took it. It is still January, and I don't want to be totally wore down or worse injured. These are all excuses, but whatever. At least I'm getting out. I tried all of the tricks, calling myself a wuss (or worse), telling myself that I'm going to get beaten by people out doing 40 instead of short loops, etc, but again, whatever. My fitness is good.
This is kind of funny in the "I just can' twin" kind of way: the other day i was about taken out by a dude turning w/out a signal. Today I was about taken out by lady signalling w/ out turning. She had left her signal on, so i thought she was turning when she was actually goign straight. Honest mistake, I kept it cool per my new attitude: don't get pisssed.
5- #of outdoor roads rides done this Jan.
11- # of outdoor rides total done this Jan. (including cyclocross)
3- # of outdoor ride done last Jan. (didn't own a cross bike yet)
Seems like I rode road more than 5 times, but the Polar software tells no lies. I did, however, ride outside no less than 2x/week the Jan. Mostly on CX bike, but I'll take it.

Monday, January 30, 2006

Changing the lifts up a little

I changed my lifting for this week. I did all the same lifts, but lowered the weight, did more reps, did them real fast and rested about 1/3 of what I normally do between sets. I normally rest 1:30, but I tried to do about 30 secs. It was tough. I realized about halfway through most of thie lifts that I probably hadn't decreased the weight enough, as I was struggling. This is probably good, but I don' twant to be all fatigued from lifting, nor do I want to gain weight. On the other hand, I didn't want to look like a wuss having to decrease weight mid way through a set, so I toughed it out. Hopefully I'm not sore tomorrow. I took in a little extra protien this am (veggie bacon w/ my egg sandwhich), so we'll see. I want to ride outside tomorrow, but it looks like it may a lttile cold early. If not outside, it's trainer time. Rollers are only on two-a-day nights now. Then it's eight outside or trainer. Time to step it up a little. It looks like I may end lifting a little beofre originally scheduled due to the logistics of the Y memebership. It ends in tow weeks. I'd really like to lift another month, but I odn't really want to pay for a month and use two weeks of it, so I'll likely quit Feb 10, instead of Feb 24. That's why I'm doing this super endurance lifting now. I'll probably do a lighter weight, but not high rep or fast week next week, then no more YMCA for this year. I can still do a few tings @ home, but as for real lifting, it'll be another one in the books.
I broke our vaccuum last night. I was emptying the bin thing and broke the clip off the bottom of it that holds it on. The vaccuum is a Eureka and it works really well and costed only about $60. I have a feeling the replacment bin will be to high to justify. We'll see.
Oh, I got Lindsay's Ipod Nano working w/ out getting frustrated enough to break anything! That's good.

Sunday, January 29, 2006

B-Town CX #4

#4 of 5 in the Bandit CX Series today. It was around the tennins courts and Mellencamp pavillion on campus. That's next to the football stadium. The course went around the border of the practice field. It was very hard due to a few factors: all non-paved parts of the course were either under standing water and/or in deep mud or clay like mud. Add into this parts of the course going into a 30mph headwind and trying to do all this @ race pace and you have a hard day. Great workout, but a hard day. I ended up 6th, which seems to be about my normal for the series. The race itself was (I think) 8 laps and was 59 min duration. It ended up being 12.3 miles w/ just over 600' of climbing. That's pretty flat by all standards, especially B-Town standards, but when you're riding around a football field, it's bound to not be mountainous. My ave HR was 178bpm. That's just below my (figured, not calculated) lactate threshold. It was tough. We went to Ryans bike shop and hosed off the bikes, then I came home and went straight to the shower, as I was head-to-toe mud. I had to put my cloths into a box in the entryway of the apt. and cary them upstairs. Then I made some pancakes and sat around.
That's my day.
Two weks until the next CX race, which is the final. Monroe County Championships. I guess that excludes Matt Batton form the runnings, as he's from cloumbus. 1 down.

Saturday, January 28, 2006

The Itunes mystery

I got the osundtrack from the NBC movie "The 60's" to rip the song "The Weight" by The Band off of. I clicked to 'import' the track into Itunes, came back later and all of my music was gone. All of it. My Itunes library was empty. I have no idea what I did. I was able to find most of my music by using the 'search' fucnction from the start menu and searching for all .mp3 files. I am in the proccess of refilling the library with all the songs found on my hard drive and CD's that I own, but couldn't find on the hard drive. With the $200 of Itunes gift cards I got for resigning my lease, it's no problem re-getting the songs I purchased. I had to re-buy all of the Abba I had. I can't make an Ipod playlist w/out Abba. Anywho, it's been a pain, but I'm getting ot done.
Lindsay and I went and checked out the Cold Stone Creamery ice cream joint tonight. I had never heard of it, but we've had company the last two weekends and both of the people(s) that were here were all like "oh man, you have a Cold Stone here? you're lucky" or whatever. I decided we'd check it due to all the flare. It's pretty hella good. They take the ice cream and out it on a slab, or a cold stone if you will, then fold the toppings into it. It's good stuff.
B-Town CX tomorrow. Suppossed to rain. Could be good...

Friday, January 27, 2006

The streak is over

I feel tired. Not sleepy, but physically tired. Due to training w/ Matt last weekend I didn't take a day off, which means I've worked out 13 consecutive days and w/ 2-a-days, that's 17 consecutive workout sessions. Tomorrow is a day off and needed. The Sunday it's CX racing in B-Town.
I needed some GU gels for the weeknd, as I have only one left, but the place we (Bikesmiths) order it from doesn't have any until Feb. I went over to Ryan's bike shop and they had 3 packets of a flavor I can handle (plain, they had tri-berry too, but that stuff sucks) so I bought them out of plain. I ordered a box off line, which cost me only a few dollars more than I can get it wholesale. Not bad. Although a couple of bucks is a couple of bucks.
My tax returns are en route to my account. They've been deposited, but not posted. I should say IT, not THEY, my state hasn't gone through yet; damn Daniels. Anyway, it's cool because I have a few bills to pay. I'm going to split my federal between a CC payment and make an extra car payment. I may just eat lunch out w/ what's left over. Being the poor kid who takes his lunch to work evry day sucks. Okay, it's really not that bad, I do get a little sick of eating the same couple of things every day though. I had Fallafels yesterday and maybe I'll hook up some subway of TCB (TaCo Bell) today. Whatever, I'm ghetto rich.

YMCA Music Highlights:
Don't You (Forget About Me)-Simple Minds This is a killer 80's tune, but I've been forever warped toward the orginal version by a cover done by Billy Idol. It's better.
Straight Up-Paula Abdul
Heart and Soul (I think that's the title)-Huey Lewis & The News
There was some Rick Springfield too, Can't remember which song.

Thursday, January 26, 2006

Tough CX

I did a solo cross ride over to and around Cascades Park this am. For those of you who follow, that was the venue of the last B-Town CX race. BAsically, I made a roughly 8 min loop that included some hard packed off road, a killer hard pack/broken limestone climb and road.
The Climb : this is a .2 mile climb that goes up next to a water fall. It is hard packed dirt, but with big broken chunks of limestone and roots on it. It is tough. And, mind you, my easiest gear is a 46x25. It gains 85 feet in the .2 miles, which as my Polar software calculates is 7.5% grade. That's a decent grade regardless, but add in the rock/root obsticals, that it's dirt AND my gearing, it makes for a tough loop. I used to road section to recover before doing it again. I think I did 4 loops. Maybe 5; I went by time, so I'm not 100% sure.
Anywho, it was hella cold (24*) and my bottle froze. I had to screw the lid off and drink that way, which as it turns out is pretty hard while riding and especially when you are trying super hard to not spill on yourself as it will turn to ice as well.
Some big fat dude in a humongiod truck yelled at me for "riding in the middle of the road." I flipped him off and he waved me back, probably thinking I wouldn't come back. I did. (note: he had cut me off to turn right as I was riding on the right side of the road [passenger side of his truck], forcing me to eighter a) stop behind him or b) go around him on the left [driver side], I went around, which is why I was in the "middle of the road." Oh and when he did turn over in front of me, it was, of course w/ no signal) He got out and before he could say anything I spouted "you got turn signals on that thing Boss Hog?" He mumbled through one of his many chins "ye ain't sposed to be ridin in da middle o da street." I said "I'm right where I'm supposed to be, use your turn signals fat ass." I turned and rode off and he was all shaking his fist and yelling like the dumb fat hillbilly he is. Fuck him.
Although, I realize I need to curb my temper on the bike. I'm not so much worried about myself, but when I'm out representing sponsors (which I'm not right now as I can't afford Tortuga winter gear), I need to not have occurances like these.

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

am lift

Today was a normal lift. I switched the order aorund because the squat rack was being used, but otherwise, just went through the routine. PM roller spin tonight, and I need to do laundry.
No real music highlights today. I suppose "Material Girl" could be considered one, but that was about the only song I knew, so whatever.

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

MTB @ Wapahani

I took Lindsay to Wap this am to ride MTB. She wanted me to show her around a little and try to do a little technique teaching. It was cold and the ground was frozen for the most part. Although the sun came out and thawed the thin layer of freeze and it became pretty muddy. I basically showed Linds a loop to do and a few pieces of technique, then turned her loose on the front section of trail, while I hit it a little harder on a bigger loop. It felt good to be on the MTB. I've never rode MTB this early in the season before. Postion felt good and I pedalled good. My accute handling skills are a little rusty, but overall I feel pretty good. Cyclocross does wonders! Which reminds me, we race #4 B-Town this weekend...

Monday, January 23, 2006

new week, am lift

I had a hard time getting up today. I kind of dragged through the lift, but I did up the squat weight by 10lbs. I'm going to need to schedule a few days off in the near future. Before March starts. We're resiging our lease today because if you do it (by) today you get to choose a free gift. There are several things to choose, but among them are and Ipod nano or an Itunes gift card. That rules. I think I'll probably get the card since I already have a pod, but Linds may get the nano. I'm not sure how we're going to go about loading it, since the Itunes on this comp has all of "my music" on it. She doens't want a bunch of Slayer and gansta rap on hers, but I don't want a bunch of, uhhh, whatever she likes on mine. I'm thinking maybe I can put Itunes on the PC again, and have one for me, one for her. Not sure if that'd work though.
Y music highlights for today:
"I've Had The Time of My Life"
"Round and Round" Ratt
"Purple Rain" Prince (& The Revolution)
"I Don't Want To Go On With You Like That" Elton John
note: Ratt came on right when I was starting the higher weight squat. That's good and bad; good motivation, but hard to keep your hands on the bar when you're trying to throw up devil horns.

Sunday, January 22, 2006

ride-sick-ride

Matt came to town this weeknd for some B-Town training. We rode about 35 miles Saturday afternoon (I left work early). We rode out hwy 45 to South Shore Dr (Lake Lemon), then in. We didn't ride especially hard, but we rode really steady. I felt fine, actually prett good while riding. I felt like absolute crap when we got done. My stomach started hurting really bad. I hadn't eaten much, but I felt worse than I've felt in along time. We had planned on going to dinner at a Mexican joint off the square (El Nartino), more on that later, and checking out a musical performer called "Pedro" later. We went and ate, but I really wanted to come home afterwards and lie down.
El Nartino is a loca Mexican place downtown. It was really good food, but the service was pretty bad. The waitress didn't speak english, so you just had to point at the menu. That's fine, but it doesn't allow for questions about the selections to be asked. Oh well. I asked for soem 'calente' salsa per the suggestion of a dude fom work and man was it moi calente. First of all, it was green. Like glowing green. It was really hot, but good flavor. I ordered a vegetarian entree and couldn't barely eat it I felt so bad. I knew I needed to eat so I forced as much down as I could, but I probably didn't eat enough. We came home afterward and I went ot bed. I slept terribly too, which sucks when I was in total need of the recovery hours.
I woke up sans stomach ailment, but not feeling recovered. We originally palnned o long day today, but I wasn't up for it. We did a 40 miler and I rode like total shit. I felt weak and rode weak. I called Ryan to go, but he said he didn't feel like it due to a super hard ride yesterday; and given how I rode, I'm glad he didn't go because I would have gotten straight up dropped. Anyway, I plan to up the squat weight tomorrow. I rested some tonight and plan to more. Hopefully I sleep well and am ready to go tomorrow. Since I rode Sat that makes no day off last week and none unitl next Sat. Basically, I raced last Sun, worked out M,T,W,Th, F, Sa, Su and will work out M, T, W, Th,F before a day off. That's 13 days straight. I better ahve a good year in Expert class!
In the low light otday I used the Rudy's w/ the tinted clear lens. It was perfect. These glasses are boss. Super crisp optics. I continue to be impressed.

Saturday, January 21, 2006

Rudy's

I got my order of Rudy Proj glasses the other day. While it hasn't been especially sunny, I have wore them w/ clear lenses and dark ones on my ride to work when the sun is peaking out. I have to say, I'm impressed w/ the optics. Very clear/clean. I honestly didn't expect to be as impressed as I am. I had a pair of Rudy's several years back, but got sucked into the Oakley machine w/ their employee purchase program, so I've wore only Oak for the past, I'd say, 4-5 years. I was wanting new glasses, but didn't have a good enough reason for the investment (glasses w/ all appropriate lenses get's expensive) so Rudy's bro sponsorship gave me an opportunity. And like I said, I'm happy w/ the move. I've only tried on the Rudy helmet and it seems very comfy. It's not a fair comparison from my crusty old Giro Pnuemo, which has about 3 years of sweat, etc. in it, but it feels really nice. It has a little webbing in it to keep bugs out your hair that come throughthe vents, nice.
The temps have dipped, but no ttoo bad. Matt wants to ride looong tomorrow. Like 4-5hrs, which is 80-100miles. I'm not doing that kind of mileage yet and he's doing an Iron MAn in about 10 weeks, so we'll see what we end up doing. If we can keep the pace down, maybe we'll go over Nashville (~70). Hilly!

Friday, January 20, 2006

am lift

I pulled into the Y parking lot and it was the fullest it's ever been. I thought "crap, this isn't going to be an easy workout." In the wieght room though (the free weight room) there were 2 (two) people! And the max it got up to was, like, 4. PRetty awesome. So I got in the whole routine w/ no hang ups what so ever.
Music highlight: Power of love by HL&tN.
Some old Whitney too (I Want to Dance w/ Somebody), but that's not that great.
Being at the Y has allowed me plenty of opps to play one of my favortie personal games: it's called 'what is s/he litening to?' I see people w/ headphones and ask myself "what the hell is s/he listening to?" It can be a task. Like yesterday there was this super old guy w/ an Ipod. First I thought 'how did a dude that old ever figure out how to load/use an Ipod? it was hard for me.' Then I was thinking 'what in the world is a dude that age listening to?' The only thing I could figure is Frank. Although I an totally into Sinatra, it's all I could come up with. It's a fun game, try it next time you see someone in headphones who doesn't fit -a- mold.

Thursday, January 19, 2006

time flys when your sittin still

I really didn't want to ride rollers this morning. I didn't sleep well and it was probably nice enough to get out. It was about 38* when I got up and the sun was starting to show. But, by the time I got up and would have been dressed for outdoor riding, I wouldn't have had much time to ride, so I decided it wasn't worth it. Onto the rollers. I put in just over an hour, but it went by really fast. 3 episodes from BMW season 1. I don't know, I was kind of dreading it, but it went by fast; that's good.
The forecast for the weeknd has declined slightly. High around 38 Sunday now instead of 44. Wind Saturday. MAtt and I may be rescheduling, I'm not sure. I'll likely ride Sunday at least anyway, but I'm not sure if he want's to drive 2hrs for a 38* ride. We'll see.

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Late start lifting

I got alittle of a late start lifting this morning, so I skipped the medicne ball throws to get home and get reay for work in time. No big loss, but I'm a little behind where I like to be right now. The culprit: the prorposed Bloomington Greenway system. Muncie has an awesome rali-trail, but it doens't really go anywhere. It's great for cyclists, but as for general communtiy use, it's kind of a bust. Bloomington has a very short, very out-of-the-way rail trail right now, but that's all about to change. If they get done what they've proposed, this town will be more bike friendly than car friendly. Here's the website for the proposal, if anyone's interested (even though I'm sure nobody's interested). It's ong (like 68 pages, Adobe).
http://www.storrowkinsella.com/projectwebs/0543_MonroeCo_AltTransPlan/index.htm

So I did al my normal lifts, minus medicine ball. I froced myself to really soncentrate on situp form to make up for it. Whatever. I'll do a spin tonight on rollers, then it's done w/ the 2-a-days for this week! Although w/ Matt planning on coming down I may have to shuffle my schedule to accomodate Sat being an on day, when it's usually an off day.
Song on @ the Y today: When Doves Cry
You Give Love a Bad Name (when you're pushing up a squat and you hear 'fanga tips' it really motivates to push)

Rule.

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

rollin, rollin, rollin

Put in a little over an hour on rollers today. Nothing special, 3 episodes of Boy Meets World, season 1. These episodes are pre-Topanga, but feature Minkus, the nerd who about 10 years later appeared as the nerd in One Tree Hill. It probably sucks to be type-cast as a nerd. A pain Lee Norris and Dustin Diamond know all too well. Poor nerds.
Anywho as I mentioned, nothing special, just a roller spin. Matt Stienboner may come down this weekend. A local rider set up a time trail challenge and made a website to paost times on. It starts on a boat ramp out at Lake Monroe and heads back towards town. It is a hair over 4 miles and the only posted time so far is just under 15min. That's an average speed of around 16mph. So either the dude who has a recorded time is dumpster slow, or this TT has a monster climb in it. I'm guessing it's a monster climb. Anyway, if Matt makes it down we may go do that Sat afternoon. It is probably around 10 miles to the starting point, so one can get a decent warm up on the way out, hammer the TT, then spin back in. We'll see what goes down.
Oh man, I heard "Toy Soldiers" by Martika in the Y yesterday. That song rules. They actually play the 80's station a lot in there, so I get some Leppard, Poison, old Madonna (read: early Madonna) and other killer stuff like that. I don't need my Ipod there, as long as they keep it on the 80's channel.

Monday, January 16, 2006

another week

It's week 5 of the regiment. I up'ed my dumbbell bench weight. No real reason, just beause I can. That's 3x10 w/ 35lbs in each hand. I'll probably do that through the week and back it down to 30lbs next week. I don't need to put onmass, just stay toned. I think I'm going to up my squat weight either later this week or next. Kind of a weird scene in the gym today: when I went on there was 1 person in the free weight room and within 4 minutes there were 9. I didn't want to loose my bench while squating, so I mixed up my routine to do squat last, but by the time I was ready to squat there only, like, 3 people. When it rains it pours, I guess. Anywho, I got it all in, just in a different order, which is actually probably good to change things up on my muscle memory.
So I'll do a spin on the rollers tonight and that will be another on in the bag. Rollers last another week, then it's trainer, trainer, trainer. A month of the same plan as now, only harder rides on trainer will replace rollers. Both compu trainer and normal is my plan, but we'll see if I can bring myself to ride the fluid when the compu is sitting there. This goes through the end of Feb, then it's no more lifting and just riding (inside or out). March is road race time, then April is MTB. It doens't seem so bad when it's laid out like that, but I'm sure it will drag on the micro level.

Sunday, January 15, 2006

B-Town CX #3

Today was third in the Bloomington CX series. It was at Cascades PArk and Jay Record laid out the lap. This was a tough lap. Long and with a big climb in it. It was mudy to start with and got muudier as it got ridden. The lap was about 9 minutes and started on a pea-gravel path, then went nto grass for two bareirs. After the barriers youhad to remount fast to go down a little hill and over abridge. After the bridge was the climb. Rocky, rooty and wet. At the top was a total soup mud 'hole', then a left hander and back up climbing. Come out on grass, transfer to pavement, back to grass for another barrier onto the top of a quarry. From the quarry top was a rooty, muddy, rocky decent followed by more grass, a super narrow bridge, road then playgound equipment. It had us going on this huge wood brindge that is part of the new playground equipment at Cascades park; it was slick. Then a barrier, road, another bridge and that's pretty much the lap. How'd I do? Well, I beat Jean-Luc Serriere (pro MTB) Matt Batton (pro MTB), Ryan Shannahan (psuedo pro Tri) and Jay Record (the dude I'm usaully racing against and course desigenr). It may worth a mention that ALL 4 of these dudes dropped out w/ mechanicals. Actually RS flatted and ran a whole lap, sans bike, but in bike shoes. That dude's crazy. I ended up 6th out of about 17 starters. Really hard race, but fun (and free). We had to go to RS's bike shop afterwards and hose off our bikes due to all the mud.
Linds and I went to The Runcible Spoon for b-fast when I got home. Again, this place is off the charts for breakfast. I also watched the end of the Clots game to see if they were going to have a shot at the Superbowl. No dice. The kicker blew it. I can't even fathom the pressure he'd be under when it's 100% in his hands (or foot) to tie up the game, but he cracked. The stats said he'd never missed a kick at home. He has now.

Saturday, January 14, 2006

Sat. post

I didn't post yesterday, but I did an am lift. The Y was pretty dead, so I was able to get in the whole routine w/ no hangups. I ran into Josh, a dude who works at the Y and I've ridden with. Neither of us was sure if we were each other because we had never seen the other not in cycling gear. Kind of funny. (I think that sentence was confusing and I wrote it) So that was yesterday's workout, then work.
Per normal, no work out today. There's a B-Town CX race tomorrow. It colder, but the sun is scheduled to be out and they're saying about 45*. That's not too bad for CX. If the ground isn't totally soupy muddy, Lindsay and I may go out Wapahani on MTB's so I can show her around some. It may not happen though, as it has rained here for a couple of days. We'll see. I also told Linds I'd take her to breakfast after the race. We're going to go to The Runcible Spoon. We've been there once before for breakfast and it's hands down the best game in town for pancakes and eggs. They also roast there own coffee (only place in b-town [and beyond] that does). The coffee and food is off the charts. Breakfast food, that is. My parents and I went there for lunch one day and I wasn't impressed. It was fine, but not great. Morning food is a different story though.

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Short cross ride

I rode the length of the unpaved Clear Creek trail today. I expected to put in just ovr an hour, but it ended up being about 45min. After turning around at the end and realizing it was goign to be short I decided to do some sprints on the cx bike. It was pretty good. Sprinting on a cx bike on gravel is a little challenging. You have keep your eyes glued in front of you for terrain changes and your rr wheel is jumping up due to bumps and stuff. It was anokay ride, allbeit short.
The other day while riding the cc trail I saw this really cool old Huffy frame on the side. It is a "Breaking Away" frame made in the wake of the movie. It needs a ton of work to be functional (half of the rear triagle is missing), but I want to something w/ it. I may clean it up and make a wood backer for it and use it as decoration. Or I may try to get it working and use it as a townie.
We'll see what I come to over the next few weeks, or months.

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

am lift

I had a pretty good liftind session this morning. I kind of flowed through the excersices with no snags. I had to use a crappy(er) pair of dumbbells for bench because someone was using the good ones, but the weight's the weight. I've been feeling really tired lately. I'm actually pretty busy, overall. I get up early, go work out, come home, eat something, do dishes, go work all day, come home and either work out again, or sit for an hour or so, cook our dinner most nights, do more dushes, shower, sit for while, then bed. Add into that misc crap like cleaning, market, etc and I'm almost always doing something. It seems to catch up w/ me every other month or so for a week or so when I start dragging. Aside from sleep, I'd say get maybe 3-4 hours tops of rest/do nothing time per day. I'm thinking of leaving work early today to come home and chill, then ride for 45 or so. I fell asleep last night from around 8 to around 10, got up and showered, then went back to bed. It seems like I'm doing a lot, but I can't really work less and I don't want to work out less. The answer lies in getting up earlier, which is my plan for when the weather gets nice enough to ride outside consistanly. I get up around 7:30 most days now, I'm gonna push that back an hour in a couple months. We'll see how that works out.

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Cross ride to Wapahani

Rode the cross bike over to Wapahani MTB park via the clear creek trail. It's about 34* and cloudy, but the rain is supposed to hold of till the afternoon, so I went for it. It was a decent ride. I was into the wind on the way back, which was tough, but not terrible. It started spitting rain on me for the last 15min or so, but I didn't get into it too bad. I still have to ride to/from work, so hopefully it doesn't start up too bad at all, or if it does it's while I'm at work.
I watched some Beavis and Butthead whi8le riding last night. The episodes on the DVD don't have them watching music videos in them, so the episodes are about 6min long. Also, the videos were always one of my favorite parts, so it kind of is a rip. I figured it's probaby some copywright stuff, like, if they reproduce the videos on DVD they have to pay the artists. Oh well.

Monday, January 09, 2006

Busy YMCA

The Y was the busiest I've seen it today. I chalk it up to the new years resloution soccer moms that had to stay home w/ the kids for the last weeks could finally get out. This should taper off. I had to wait for a bench, then wait for the sqaut rack. This only set me back about 3 minutes, overall, which is no big deal, but my rythm got messed up. Again, no big deal, I got everything in and in a timely manner. I'll do a roller ride tonight. I picked up "Beavis and Butthead The Mike Judge Collection" w/ a Best Buy gift card the other day, so I may watch a couple B&B's instead of Boy Meets World tonight. We'll see. We have a B-Town CX race Sunday, so this is a race week. I'm not doing anything different training wise, but I haven't raced for a month or so, so it should be fun. In the 10-day it looks to be okay weather wise, but the 10-day forecast might-as-well come form a crystal ball; it's just too far off.

Sunday, January 08, 2006

Big 'ol Shanny ride

Let's put it this way, I saw speeds that began w/ a 3 more than opnce on the flats. That's waht we called a "Big 'ol Shanny ride" in Muncie. It was crazy windy today. Me Ryan, Tim and Josh went out for 40 or so road miles. Man, it was a killer. We were hauling w. the wind/ rarely less than 25 (except on the climbs), an pushing super hard into it. You know it's super windy when Ryan is pulling into it @ 17mph (Muncie peeps will understand that). It was a rough ride, but it's almost 60* and super sunny down here today. It's an awesome day. I'm very glad to have gotten out. I'm 100% positive I'll have more early season miles living here than I ever did in Muncie. And if I put them in on RS's wheel, I should be an animal before too long.
We went to Siam House last night for Thia. It was good stuff. I got a veggie dish w/ pumkin, zuchinni, mushroom, onion and some other stuff w/ a triple chili sauce. I ordered it @ a 4 hot out of 5. Normally this would be un-eatable, but last itme at Siam I ordered a 3 and it was nothing. 4 is good. It's pretty hot, but do-able. A 4 @ Thia Smile in Muncie would be a flamer, but the scale is a little weaker here, it seems. So 3.5-4 is my new hottness for Siam House. Now, if we try one of the other Thia joints, I may have to start all over and keep notes on what heat to order where. It could get confusing. Maybe we should just stick to Siam House.Lins got the standard issue Pd Thai, because we had not had it from there. I snaked soem and it was awesome. I'm getting next time. AShe got it w/out heat, but I'm gonna have them turn it up a little. I'mlooking forward to our next visit.

Saturday, January 07, 2006

'rest' day

Per usual, SAt is my day off of work out. Still have to ride to work and stuff, but not real work out. I think the ~4 junk miles I get 6 days a week riding to/from work are actually decent. I have a few hills to contend w/ and it gets (keeps?) my les moving in a cycling motion, even though it's not 'training' and I'm wearing jeans, it's still riding.
I thnik we're going to eat Thia food tonight. Thia rules. There are at least two thai joints here I can think of. We've been to one and it's good, but nthing can touch the place in Muncie. Thia Smile in Muncie is the benchmark of Thia food. Bangkok Cuisine, before Thia Smile was the benchmark, but it closed and left Thia Smile as the reigning champ. Seriously, Thia Smile is the best I've ever had. But Siam House here is damn good too.
Tomorrow will be a big-ish ride. It's siupossed to be okay outsdie (~50*), so I'm riding. Last i knew, RS wanted to ride cross bikes. I want to ride road, we'll see. They may go to eat w/ us tonight so we'll get it hammered out.
Later got to go to work.

Friday, January 06, 2006

am lift

Did pretty much my normal lift routine this am. I skipped the medicine ball work because it was really busy and there were people everywhere. I didn't want to loose the ball and kill someone w/ it, so I just skipped it and did an extra set of the ab routine instead. I also up-ed the weight on lunges. I think the lunge is the #1 best cycling lift there is. Think about it: it is multi-joint (works the toe knuckles, ankle, knee and hip) and builds on every muscle in your lower body (feet through lower back). It is a direct weight bearing adapation of riding in a stand up or climbing position. I think it's a great excercise for cycling. Better than sqaut for my money. I'm still doing wussy weight on sqaut (105lbs for 3x6's), but I think the key is to do it real slow. quality of the lift is key.

Thursday, January 05, 2006

am rollers

I put in just over 1 hr on rolles this morning. I was going to go out on cx bike at the stadium, but it's down to 34* and cloudy, so it's a little dark outside when I would have had to leave. Cold and dark is a bad combo for riding, so I just stuck insdie w/ my Boy MEets World and rollers. Nothing special, just the normal hour/3 episode ride.

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

lift/tired

I lifted this morning and for the first time since I've been lifting didn't feel too good. I didn't feel bad, just not real strong. I think I'm not fully recovered from yesterdays Shanahan death march on cross bikes. I just felt like I was somewhat dragging through most lifts. I'll do an easy 40 min roller spin tonight and should be good. That should help loosen things up. Problem is: I'm tired from yesterday/this morning, so tonight will be a chore, but only 2x 2-a-days per week should be doable. Weather is supposed to turn cold and crappy againin the next couple of days. We'll see what that brings. Flurries in the forecast, but that' sno biggy. These 60's were nice, but I knew better than to get used to it.

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Big cross ride

We rode cross bikes today. Me Ryan and Tim. We went out Bottom road, which is the flattest route around here (Bottom road is a low spot, get it, Bottom?) there's only one way out of a low spot, and that's to climb out. What we did was repaets up a ~1.5 mile climb that gains 155 feet. Oh, and it's gravel. Loose gravel. This is a beeeoootch. We did 3x this hill and then came in. Ryan took us on a worng road in, so we ended up riding across, basically, a cow pastuer (sp?) , then on hwy37 to a nice gravel road where we meant to be in the first place. It was a good ride overall and hard. I felt good throughout, even though up the climb was tough. It's supposed to be hard though. We ended up putting in about 35miles and climbed a total of over 1600'. That's pretty good no matter how it's cut. Add in we were on cx bikes and I have a 46t single front ring and 25t rear, and it's killer.

Monday, January 02, 2006

am lift

Got in the normal lifting routine this morning. There were more people @ the gym than usual, but it wasn't a total mess. I need to put in 40 or so on rollers tonight and I'm tired already. I din't sleep well last night, but 40 min after work shouldn't be too bad.
It's 59* right now here (at 10:30am). This is crazy weather. I may get outside tomorrow for riding. It is supposed to be colder, but still around 40. We'll see what it's like. Could be rainy or something. It's supposed to rain/storm today, hopefully not pouring on my ride to/from work though. It would suck to have to wear my rain gear when it's mid 60's, I'll sweat to death even in the two miles it is to/from downtown.

Sunday, January 01, 2006

Another windy one

It was windy again down here, but almost 50*. I did the same ride I did Tues, South Shor Dr via hwy 45. It was nice. I felt really good, overall. I came in a different way, which added on a couple miles, but I still finished the ride about 6 min faster. This was due to the sweet tail wind across SS Dr. I don't think I went under 25mph across SS until I hit the hills @ the end of it. The headwind was nasty on the way out 45, but there's enough three cover to make it bearable.
Something occured to me while my Ipod was on "shuffle songs" mode (my weapon of choice for longer rides): Billy Idol rules. It took only "Cradle of Love" to draw this conclusion, but he rules.
Also, I heard a Zappa song that parodys "Lucy In aThe Sky w/ Diamonds" called "Louisiana Hooker w/ Herpes." I'm sure you can imagine about that one; pretty funny.
So it's 2006? I hadn't noticed, that's what Regis said last night though. We didn't do much. We went to Sahara Mart (the most awesome international/organic market ever [w/ awesome prices]) and I weezed on the free samples of Olives.They have probably 15 different olives in these big ass tubs you can sample before you buy (or sample before you sample more). I got 2 1/4lb bags of some seriuos gourmet coffee. No freeze dried tasters choice, the serious gourmet shit. Should be good, haven't cracked it yet.
Happy 2006.
Oh yeah, that reminds me too of the horror I face Monday @ the YMCA. I've lifted in the winter for the past several years and had to deal w/ the dreaded "New Years Resolutioners." Urg! Oh well, they rarely last more than a week or two, then they're back to thier lazy SUV driving- selves.