Weak week.

Howdy all! I thought I'd drop a post on you to ease the separation anxiety.
With racing done for the season, I took a full week off of everything exercise. I still commute to work daily via bike, so I pedaled a bike for a total of about 20min per day, but otherwise I just lazed out. And I still am for the most part, though I'm starting to get a little activity in; just not too regular.  

Christmas eve I went out and rode the gravel roads. It was pretty nice out, about 42* and the sun poked through a few times. This was my first ride in 8 days. I made a conscious effort to go easy. That means overtaking the urge to push harder when the road goes upward and instead easing off, shifting down. It was nice ride, but it was on the loop which features the gnarliest hill in these parts known as the McGowan climb (though I think it's technically on Gilmour ridge Rd, not McGowan Rd.) So I took it easy on every part of the ride except the hill; you can't go easy up a hill like that. Even if you have to get of and walk it (which I didn't!) you're gassed. Anywho, it's normally an 1hr40 or so minute ride and It took me 2hrs. So I went slow. That's a good thing.

The next day, Christmas day, I didn't really plan to ride, but there was rumor of some heavy weather coming in. So I decided to roll over to the local MTB park and see how the trails were. I expected it too be too muddy to be (responsibly) rideable, but it was in really good shape. So I shredded for a bit. It's crazy how rusty my MTB riding is. It's so much different than CX. People assume they're much more closely related than they are. They definitely compliment each other, but they truly are they're own unique skill set(s). Whatever though, I had fun riding the MTB. I mainly stuck to the "new' stuff at the park; the N/W area. There's a lot of new trail there and it's actually pretty good. it's very 'turny' because there's not a lot of real estate, but it's cool. Plus I came across the sick double black super advanced area w/ jumps and skinny elevated bridges. Not usually my thing, but I hit for a while. Kinda fun.    

I also used the week off to get my road bike overhauled/freshened up. New cables, new BB (crank bearings), new chain, new cassette, complete disassembly, all that. So it'll be running clean and smooth when I get it back out...and it will probably get totally thrashed thanks to the aforementioned blizzard.

Sometimes blizzards can be cool. But this one just buried everything. This is pic out of our backdoor. It's relevant because it's where Lindsay's "square foot gardens" are and the boxes for them are built with 2x12's. And they're totally buried. Which means the snow is > 12". Bloomington officially recorded 11.5", which is the most in 5 years. The temps are scheduled to stay low for awhile as well, so this may be sticking around for a stint.       
Lindsay went home to Oklahoma for the Christmas week and she gets home today (Friday). We are going to jaunt up to my parent's house on Sunday for a Christmas get together with our nieces, et. all.
Then it's back to "reality." I'm going to keep the training very loose for the next several weeks. A couple/few rides per week, outside if I can get it, rollers if not, maybe a trainer sesh here/there for some more work than the rollers provide. And some strength stuff to hopefully take care of my long-lingering back/hip issues. I think I'm feeling better in those regions, but it's hard to tell. I'll just keep at it and do what I can.
Happy new year folksies!